001like to call this meeting to order. Um, and are there any public comments for close session? I have none in person. I see none online. All right. So, closing the open session right now and going to close session session. Um and then at 6:05 p.m. Um let's see. And so first we'll wait do I need to announce public? Oh yes. So uh first I'll explain the public protocol. So members of the public who wish to remotely provide comment during the meeting. You can use the raise hand feature during the agenda item. And then speakers must raise their hand during agenda item 8.1 the public comment portion of the meeting in order to comment on topics not included on the approved agenda. To speak about an item on the agenda in person, please fill out a
002speaker card which is over in that table. Indicate the agenda item and hand the card to Laura at the dice. Uh when we the requested agenda item comes before the board. The speaker will be called forward. Okay. And then with that we'll move to roll call. Trustee Cruz here. Trusty Thompson present. Trustee Gin here. Vice President Co here and President Nory is absent. All right. And then now we'll go to approval of the agenda. Motion to approve. Second. We need a roll call. Okay. Um all in favor? I I Okay, that's a unanimous vote. Um and then we don't have anything to report out on closed session, so we will move to special recognitions. Fabulous. Thank you. So, tonight we have the pleasure of celebrating two remarkable groups that make Woodside High School such a
003vibrant and dynamic community. We would like to shine the spotlight on their fabulous campus aids. Woop dedicated to maintaining a safe and welcoming environment. Um, and then by here we have some sensational student members and advisor of the 199 records label. [Music] A music production club spreading joy through the power of music which we all could use every day to share impact these groups have on their campus. I would like to invite principal Karen Van Putton to the [Music] podium. Good evening, Superintendent Leech and members of the board. We're going to start with our superheroes, our three our trio uh campus aids. With more than 80 years of experience combined, they have watched over a multi-generation of students, specifically Rosie and Kenny, developing relationships, offering support, and at times tough love. Working both hot days
004in August and September and cold night games, late dances, proms, and grad nights. They have been centuries ensuring students, staff, and that the community are all safe. I'm going to pause. I have a little bit more to say, but I'm going to bring them both up or all three up. Eddie, come on over. Eddie Moken, Kevin Bryant, and Rosie, come on forward. I'm going to continue talking about you. So come on forward so that I can um so you guys got some focus. Our campus aids have been identified as trusted adults by many students. Parents who were students at Woodside appreciate that Kenny, Eddie, and Rosie are still here to keep an eye out for their own kids. We literally have children of high school students from two generations now who Rosie and Kenny have
005um supervised. So, they look to them um to keep an eye on them as well. Both Kenny and Rosie currently have their own ninth graders attending Woodside High School right now, and they ensure that our school is as welcoming and safe for their very own children along with 1675 other teenagers. They treat students with respect and dignity, even under the most difficult circumstances when students perhaps have not made the best decisions. Eddie, Kenny, and Rosie are oftentimes the first staff member students see when they arrive at school, sometimes as early as 6:45 a.m., 7:00 a.m., and the last person they see after a school event, waiting for their parent to pick them up after a school dance or a game. And they don't leave until every student has been picked up. And while some stu
006some administrators will say that the school secretary or the custodians know everything that's happening on the school site, our super trio of campus aids are the eyes and the ears and most definitely the heart of Woodside High School. So congratulations. [Applause] Okay. Okay. [Applause] Woodside is not finished. We have another spotlight. So, at our school, when an idea comes up, this is kind of how it goes down. December 7th, 2023, received an email from Raphael Kaufman, staff member. Some students in the music production club approached me with an idea of starting a school-based record label. We've discussed it a fair amount, and while there are plenty of challenges, the first thing we'd need is your approval to represent the school this way. I've always posted to Soundcloud, but this would be distributing original compositions, those
007chosen and approved by students to all the paid platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, etc. If it were to take off, I'd probably bring some of the operations into my classes. The initiators of the idea are sophomores, so I'm more more optimistic about its longevity than if it were seniors. KVP's response. Wow, that is a super cool idea. My vocabulary is so elevated. The 199 Records Club charter states, "We want to express our love for all kinds of music and encourage others to share our passion. We hope to do this by creating opportunities for people to play and create music in the club and for a real audience. The club is low stress and we invite anyone of any musical experience to join in. We focus on putting on live performances, concerts, and producing music this
008year. Uh projected is one of our concerts um on the dock. What do we call that you guys? The loading dock. So it's pretty grungy and super rock and rolling rollish. Um, so board members, it is with great pride and lots of love that I present to the members of our school board and Superintendent Leech our students from 199 Records. With your support in funding additional enro enrichment programs this year, 199 records is a real thing at Woodside High School. To our students, thank you for your creative energy and continued leadership and professionalism in organizing and performing in various school lunchtime concerts along with picking up real gigs at the Portola Valley Palooa Music Festival. We played last year and we're already on their agenda this year. In less than one year, Camille Sonnenberg simple
009idea has grown to a record label. one music video, several original works in progress in the recording studio, and a whole lot of good vibes across the Woodside High School campus. You've demonstrated a high level of engagement, volunteering your time outside of class and sharing the love of music and willing to take risks to spread the joy of music, of making music with our classmates and the staff at Woodside High School. You have definitely represented our celebration of the arts and how important music is in our lives. Tonight we have senior Kosh Hajes on acoustic guitar and freshman Amelia Mordeoy on vocals performing an original song that's in the process of being recorded soon to be released. You get to be the first to listen. [Music] We're going to have all the student members from
010199 Records come forward. Come on back. Come on back. Come on up. I don't know. We actually have about 30 students involved. We about 30 students, but with the musical opening up on Friday night. Um they're at rehearsal. We've got kids involved in in sports. Spring season is the busiest season. So um but this is truly some of our core members. So um Camille, could you raise your hand? That was Camille with the idea. [Applause] All right. Congratulations again. That was so exciting. I think uh is that the first song that we've ever been I I think so. Um we may we may book you a couple more times later this year. That's the song debut at the school board. Maybe my favorite day of convocation. I don't know what to say about that. I
011All right. Now, we're moving on to public comment 8.1. Um, so this is board protocols regarding public comment. So, the board does not act upon any matter that has not been agendaized. Sorry, we might let our guests know if they'd like to leave. They're welcome. Oh, yeah. forgot to mention. I know this is my first time back filling for our president. So, um if you'd like to leave, you can take the opportunity to leave right now and we'll give you a couple seconds there. All right. So, Back to public comment. Okay. The board does not act upon any matter that has not been agendaized except under limited circumstances as permitted by law. It is the policy of the board to refer matters raised in this forum to staff for investigation and or action where appropriate.
012Board policy ordinarily limits the time to be devoted to any single agenda topic to 10 minutes and individual speakers are ordinarily limited to three minutes. If the board decides to expand the amount of time to be allocated to a particular agenda item because many speakers wish to address that item, the board may reduce the time allocated to individual speakers to two minutes or to one minute as appropriate in order to permit more speakers to comment. The board will announce the amount of time to be allocated to each speaker before public comment on each particular agenda item begins. We ask all speakers to keep within the time limits. Are there any public comments? There are none in person. I I see three hands on Zoom. Okay. So, we'll take those three at three minutes. Yeah. Three
013minutes. Okay. First up, we have iPhone guest 518. Hello. Uh, yeah, this is I believe 518. Is that correct, ma'am? Yes. Go ahead. Hi. Um, good evening board. Uh, my name is uh Danny Moleri. Uh I met with some of you and last time in person. Um I heard your opening speech when you advised everyone everyone in the public more importantly and your staff that you have nothing to report. There is several things with the students and the faculty and more importantly the citizens that are absorbing now close to coming up to $4 million debt. Uh we lost that motion that I told you we were going to lose a couple weeks ago. Um the federal judge has not only now said that goes out the door and that the school district did in fact
014which will provide with the mental ethics and police departments to commit some federal and state offenses against children and have done that and under the power and abuse their authority. That's not correct. And those stu students that were honored I I commend you all. But right now, you still have a district that is unsafe and is in danger as long as you have people that are willing to break the law. So, at what point are you going to draw your line and stop it? Um because now comes in first week of April comes the depositions and part of those depositions which is important which are Leech Beal the superintendent who uh the president who uh retired Chenisa Carl Luc and I'm not going to waste time on the the ones with their names. The most
015important thing that we forgot to tell the citizens is that your officer on duty there now has amnesia and who gave away Shay Codwell's files. We don't know if it's Leech. These are the names we've been given by the firms Leech um Carl Muse Emmy or Scott Kurt. So my question to you guys is you have Mike Maleri who's obviously our client coach Mo sitting at home now coming up on eightmon. We actually dared you asked you to please help us get his interview so we can get more information and have it all laid out so we can start naming more of you guys. Um you still haven't done that and you're paying for salary. And now recently Bo decides that he wants to waste more of our time and send a threatening letter to
016OA Tamali because he's homesick on an injury because you guys decided you want to target him. I'm just letting you know you should maybe watch the new documentary that came out on documentary 8 about how a certain race who has also taken legal action against the Jewish community which I'm glad they are that all lives do matter. It's been said a long time ago by Martin Luther King that your actions have got to stop the run. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have Miss Downey. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thank you. Great. Sorry. Um, first I want to congratulate um Eddie, Kenny, and Rosie, the campus aids from Woodside um for their board recognition today. It's definitely um welld deserved. So, congratulations to them. Um my name is Miss Charlotte Downey, former
017school counselor at Woodside High School. For the past three years, I have begged the board of trustees to investigate my claims of disability discrimination. On April 19th, 2022, I dialed into what I believed was a meeting to discuss workplace accommodations for my anxiety and ADHD requests I had been waiting for over eight months for. Instead, Todd Bill, assistant superintendent of HR, and Rachel Shaw of Shaw HR Consulting, removed me from my position and placed me on the ED code 39-month reemployment list without cause, without consent. I asked for a simple six-w week leave of absence to receive therapy. Instead, I was told that I was too sick to work, even though my doctor never said that. Immediately after my district email was deactivated, I was forced to clear out my work office and turn in
018my keys during the semester, and my health insurance was cut off by April 30th, leaving me without medication or care. For three years, I have sent emails to the board citing board policy 4030, non-discrimination and employment, board policy 4032, reasonable accommodations and the uniform complaint process. No one responded. No one called me. No one gave me a hearing. After 15 years of service, I learned that these policies were not written to protect me, a black school counselor with a disability. I have now been ignored for 35 months, 1,064 days. Since losing my job, my anxiety disorder worsened into panic disorder with agorophobia. Since losing my healthcare, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Since May 2024, my cancer has tripled in size. I have missed two scheduled surgeries because of this ongoing lawsuit. Now I represent
019myself in Downing versus Sequoia Union High School District. I have filed to amend my complaint to personally name Superintendent Crystal Leech, Todd Bill, the Board of Trustees, and Shaw HR Consulting. My amended complaint is a public document. It can be read in full on the Sono County Superior Court website under case number 24 CIV 02971. To make it easier for the public, I've created a bit.ly link. bit.ly/justice4MD Downey. That's Thank you. I'm sorry your time is up. Our last speaker is Jeremy Array. Hello. Yes. Hi. Go ahead. I'm going to speak a little bit off the cuff. Um before I started working for this district, I had a long career about over a decade long transforming businesses and turning around teams providing training for organizations and my degree is an organizational leadership. So I have
020a long background in being in situations where I've turned things around where situations where the organization was failing in certain areas. So when I've come forward at these meetings and I said what needs to be done in terms of leadership, I'm speaking from an expertise and knowledge and having actually done these things myself um at various capacities and now I work for myself as a consultant and I've provided dozens of materials around leadership. And so when we look at these situations and what Dan brought up and Charlotte has brought up, the type of leadership theories that apply to this, these situations are servant leadership theory, transformational leadership theory, ethical, authentic, and adaptive leadership. And all of those theories emphasize accountability, moral courage, transparency, and prioritizing like people instead of the politics and appearances. And so
021what I've seen is if like if it was me and I were Crystal or I were the board, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. Like I've been in situations where like I've really had to defend my employees and stand by them. I wouldn't be able to have people come to board meetings and cry or have new news articles come out and hear all these harms that employees were hospitalized, that some were suicidal, that stu students have lost mentors, that they've lost resources, you know, including scholarships and programs, things like that. and not make it my mission to follow up with them immediately. I would have something to say and I wouldn't do anything through lawyers because all of these situations, the lawsuits that you guys, you know, look at before the board meetings
022almost all year long, none of these really have to go through lawyers. All these lawsuits are preventable and I've been in situations where I've done it myself. So, what that requires is you need to actually engage with people who have come forward. You have to like look at these public comments and you make it your business to follow up and to have meetings and to figure out what's going on. Why is Todd Bill not really investigating? Why is there these weird unethical practices where people are losing access to emails and their evidence? Because the evidence is there to back up all these claims. When people bring these things forward, they're not doing it for fun. They're doing it because they really can prove what they're bringing up. And there are real major issues going on.
023And so another thing about leadership, it's not about just celebrating the wins and the things that would normally occur anyways whether you were here or not. It's about saying when you hear all these things saying, "Hey, we're not doing good enough. We need to do better." It's not pretending that you're already amazing. It's saying, "We're actually not good enough." And holding people to a high standard and being a leader and being able to show them how to get to that standard. And so what I've seen is this board has allowed a low standard through Crystal Leech. She has not led this district. and why is she getting raises and not doing her job? Thank you. That concludes public comments. Thank you. Uh let's see. And then there item number nine. There is no board of
024trustees correspondence this week. And then with next is agenda item 10, board of trustees and superintendent comments and committee reports. Shall we start at the beginning with Trustee Cruz? Do you have any? I will be going to the second annual women's u breakfast this Friday or next Friday, sorry, the 28th um with Assembly Member Diane Papon. second annual women's com uh breakfast. Yeah. So, that'll be next the 28th. Yeah. I just wanted to share out um a couple weekends ago, I was able to attend the perfect pairings event at Healthy City from sponsored by or put on by Healthy Cities Tutoring. Um and it was a really incredible event to be part of the community. And one of my favorite parts was actually when I checked in because it was um Sequoia students who had
025checked me in. Um all the volunteers of the event um were were tutors. They have I think if I recall half of their tutors are high school students and the majority of those high school students are coming right here from our district. Um and they're serving our our our kiddos coming from our feeder schools in Redwood City and St. Carlos. So it's a it was a really incredible organization. And um someone at the table said that it's one of the only really community organizations out there that has all generations of of people being able to support and help one another to bring that community together. Um and I was just really proud to be part of it and connected to it through the good work that so many of our students are doing. Um so
026just wanted to highlight that organization. Really cool. Thank you, Trusty Thompson. So, I'll just share that Amy and I yesterday attended a recognition for the Sequoia Stanford um collaboration. It was a one of four groups recognized at an award ceremony yesterday at the um Stamford Alumni Center or Stanford um faculty club, the Stanford faculty club. And there's four great groups recognized and uh Bonnie Hansen did a great job representing Sequoian High School District along with the person at Stanford who's been part of the program and um it was a nice event to attend and proud to be part of all that that that was about. Yes, it was a it was a great event and it was also exciting to meet Professor D for the first time because I always hear so much about him
027and to actually shake his hand. It's like very exciting. Um, and then for myself, uh, the update I have, uh, last week was CSBA's legislative action week, and we had a chance to, a group of us, about 15 school board members from across um, Assembly Member Poppins's jurisdiction um, had a chance to talk with her staffer, Rooney. Um, so for those of you that don't know, all of the assembly members have staff that work with them. And so it's just as important to talk to the staff as it is to talk to the assembly member because the staff is actually doing a lot of the work in terms of research and followup. Um, so just a summary of the talking points that we had. Uh, we took turns basically each schoolboard member took one item
028to talk about. Uh but really there were three budget uh priorities that we were advocating for as schoolboard members. Uh the first one was to protect the Proposition 98 guarantee and reject the $1.6 billion withholding that's currently being talked about in the budgeting process. Uh and then the next was to fully fund the COLA and ensure that student support and professional discretionary block grant is fully discretional. So there's no strings attached, right? Uh and then the third piece was protect LEA sovereigny. So address the impacts of AB28 from 2019. So that's the one um that removes the statutory uh limits for uh lawsuits uh against school districts for uh sexual um what do you call misconduct cases. Uh and then there was specific legislation um that CSBA is supporting. Uh and these are legislations that
029were sponsored by CSBA. And one the first one was AB1021 and AB1381. So those relate to education workforce uh housing legislative packages. Um, and as you know, we we do h I did share as part of that uh advocacy e effort that we do have potentially some property that we could use to develop housing, but it has to be a simple process and there has to be more funding for it. Uh, so I I was the one who spoke about that one. Uh and then AB111 um that ex extends the zero emission school bus purchase mandate to uh an additional additional 10 years out. So it gives gives people more time because in urban areas there may be the infrastructure but in rural areas they really don't have the infrastructure to comply with this. Uh
030and then the third one was AB1224 uh which continues to allow 60-day substitute teachers because currently it's 30 days. Uh and then we had one opposition which was SB494 uh because that usurps local school district and county boards of education authority uh because it has requirements that we have to go through for classified employees. Um, and I really want to appreciate because before meeting with the uh staffer from Assembly Member Papin's office, I kind kind of commandeered the tail end of the budget advisory committee um to get some alignment from both assistant superintendent um Gong and Trusty Gin. And uh appreciate the thought partnership so I wasn't going in there cold. So I checked in with them. what stories do we have that support any of these things? So, uh really appreciate that. And then
031yesterday, uh I had a chance to attend the API school board members association webinar on ethnic studies curricula. So, there was a panel that talked about Korean, Mong, Cambodian, and Vietnamese American studies. Um so they shared best practices um websites where there's all these curricula materials um and they also advertised that there is free training in the coming year uh that's actually broadly applicable to all ethnic studies courses not just the the ones that I mentioned. Um so it was really heartwarming as part of that panel to hear from a high school student. So, it's a a junior uh and she's also a Latina who shared how the KoreanAmerican studies class impacted her. Uh, and she because they do a lot of um having the students learn about their family's journey that it it actually
032helped improve her relationship with her mom. Uh, it increased her connection and empathy with her classmates and then it got her more involved in the local community as well. So, it was really heartwarming. I was close to tears when I was listening to her. And that's my my update. All right. And then, superintendent. So, while our students didn't have school on Monday, your teachers were in classrooms all day with fellow teachers learning um all the best practices. Thank you and the Woodside team for hosting. It was a very busy weekend prior to that where you were hosting robotics national competitions and um and then the site changed over to welcome I don't know close to 86 600 to 800 um staff members which was fabulous. Thank you associate superintendent Bonnie Hansen and her staff and
033all of our teachers. So, we are very fortunate district um to have a full-fledged professional development department and our PD is homegrown. We do bring in speakers sometimes from the outside um but our PD sessions are homegrown by our teachers teaching other teachers. And so it it means something, right? It's actionable. It works within our process, within our culture, and within our organizational structure. We're very fortunate to have that. Um, and the pictures that uh were taken, you'll start to see pop up, but it's a day we have twice a year. Um, it was a success lunch. Um, which is unfortunate, but but uh it's really something. We'll we'll send you guys an invite maybe to the fall one. Maybe you could stop by for some lunchtime activities. we get a little wild. So, but
034um I just want to thank uh Bonnie and her staff and uh to all of the people who um attended and participated. Thank you. Thank you for that update because we get a copy of the agenda for the day. It's like, wow, there's a lot of stuff going on. So, appreciate all the planning and and collaboration that's required. Uh so, next up is agenda item 11, student trustee comments. Can you start out by introducing yourselves? Hi, my name is Rita and I'm a senior from Carlmont High School. Hi, my name is Adia and I'm a sophomore at Carmont High School. And my name is Sweet Creaty and I'm a junior at Carlmont High School. So to start off with some updates about student life and recognition, our entrepreneurship classes started up their own small businesses
035and are looking to present to VCs and showcase their products in booths during school assemblies. Also, just last week and the week before, Carlmont's choir program took a trip to New York City where they got to perform at Carnegie Hall. And this week, um, our ASB is conducting interviews and elections for leadership. Um, in April, our DECA business club is heading to the international competition in Orlando with a record of over 30 qualifiers to represent team California. and they have organized mock conferences, conducted community service through financial literacy workshops and shoe drives, and have fundraised roughly $20,000 this year for financial aid scholarships to get resources to enhance career preparation for all students in the CTE pathway. Our Q club has also been very active in community service, participating every week in the AYSO VIP
036program, a soccer program where kids with disabilities are matched with a high school buddy to play soccer with them. The club has also partnered with the San Carlos Adult Community Center for several events and raised $1,48 for UNICEF and $1,228 for the pediatric trauma program. Throughout the year, Carmine's Genesis Club competed in the Bay Area Regional Science Olympia just last week and placed 10th overall with several student teams from Carmont placing in the top three in their categories. So, now to get into some areas of improvement, starting with vandalism and facility accessibility. As small as it sounds, Carlmont changed their paper towel dispensers in bathrooms, which has resulted in a noticeable decrease in paper related vandalism in comparison to previous years. Um, though other forms are still an issue and something sweet is going to
037expand on. Carlmont has also tightened their policies in relation to attendance, tardiness, and nurse and mental health office visits, which has garnered mixed reactions from students, and many students have fallen into skipping class entirely rather than having to ask teacher permission to visit these facilities. Um, it's also though worth recognizing that this has made an difference in keeping students accountable with managing time during passing periods and with coming to school on time. Carmon's tardy policy was changed this year so that a student would receive a detention for every four tardies they got. However, this policy was not standardized across classes and it was unclear to many students whether it was four total tardies, four for each class or four per quarter. Unfortunately, we've clearly noticed how this policy makes students less incentivized to show up
038to class at all, believing that it is better to skip class without any consequences than be tardy and risk receiving detention when in that situation. Additionally, students now require a pass from their teacher to go to the student wellness center which has resulted in a drop of students attending during class. So now uh going back a little bit just specifically about vandalism in our school restrooms. This has been a pretty big problem and pretty common. Um, usually vandalism occurs on the walls near the mirrors where it's easily accessible and where students will often um, hang out during class, though that behavior has definitely decreased due to tightened attendance and tardy policies. There's also the recurring problem of certain sinks around campus not working and trash bins overflowing with napkins which just results in a less
039hygienic environment considering all of the trash is has usually overflown and then is on the floor. And the last problem relating to this is that the pad and tampon dispensers are often empty or don't work. Um, the school has removed any sort of coin slots, so you don't need to pay or anything to use them, but it's still a bit ineffective considering students can't actually get the products they need because they're simply not stocked or because they don't work. And then something we recently discussed at the student advisory council meeting was the issue of school food. And some main points were that school food portions aren't enough um food for students at lunch and there's not enough food specifically for students with dietary restrictions or dietary preferences being served in our cafeterias. A prime example
040of this are vegetarian options or gluten-free options running out before these students can actually get their lunch due to high demand. meaning that these students aren't able to eat because that was the only option that would accommodate their preferences or allergies. And something specific that we noticed is specific food items such as the salads often contain things like egg or meat such as chicken, which often serve as a staple for students with dietary restrictions such as being vegetarian or vegan. So something we really want to emphasize and work on is just providing more food options and larger portions of food, specifically food that are tailored for students with all allergies or dietary preferences. Oops. Thank you. Do any of the trustees have any questions for have one question. Would would you say that your site
041principal and vice principles know about each and everything that you just shared with us or some of those things that they don't know about? I'd say they know about pretty much everything we talked about. And are uh because I guess it was at the student or superintendent's advisory council. So was the feedback on food um consistent across all the different campuses then? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Um, next up we uh agenda item 12, we have comments from Sequoia District Teachers Association. So, the superintendent stole what I was going to say. Um I I have always said one of the big strengths of this district is that we have a focus on professional development through not just the professional development offered in the um two PD days that really are overwhelming endeavors and very impressive. Um
042but also through the work that our instructional coaches do, other um teachers who've been given release time to do work with specific curricular teams. Um our tips teachers who while it's a state requirement to offer the service definitely go above and beyond what is required for the credentiing portion. um and our newly named from par to pack consulting teachers. Um I there is definitely a brand of support available for whatever sort of professional advancement that teachers want to undertake. And over the last several years, the um ed services department and PD have been focused on identifying and listening to feedback on areas that may have been overlooked in the past. When we first started the big uh PD days, it was always frustrating as a Spanish teacher that I had to choose an English lesson
043or an EL lesson and then think of how I could accommodate it. And we gave that feedback and there have been at least one world language specific um sessions in each of the sessions in each of the days and the ones on Monday were fabulous. really impressive and I really enjoyed them. Um, and I only had to go to 40% of the day and I went to the whole thing. So, um, I I appreciate that and I know that our counselors, our librarians, our psychologists, other folks are appreciating the opportunity to get more targeted training and to work on things that they are um that they're focused on, that they want to learn in so that we can continue to give better experiences to to our students. Um we as SDTACTA followed up the day
044with a little uh TGIM to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Um it's not often you can get a group of teachers out on a school night. So that was fun and we appreciated the opportunity to do that. So thank you very much. Thank you. Uh, is there anyone from the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees? No. Okay. Um, then on to the next agenda item is 13. Approval of the consent agenda. Uh, so 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 as worded therein. Only members of the board and the superintendent may remove items from the consent agenda. Members
045of 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. Uh a motion for this approval is to wave the reading of the consent agenda, accept the reports, adopt the rel resolutions, and approve other items. Uh first, are there any public comments? There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hands. I see none online. And can I have a motion to approve? Motion to approve. A second. All right. Can we have a roll call vote? Student trustee Rottnam. Yes. Student trustee Agarwal. Yes. Student Trustee Rouat. Yes. Trustee Cruz. Yes. Trustee Thompson. Yes. Trustee Gin. Yes. Vice President Coup. Yes. Motion carried. 4 Z. one absent. Okay, then moving on. Um the consent
046agenda has been approved. Now it's agenda item 14. Uh the these are information items. So 14.1 is presentation of the Sequoia District Teachers Association initial bargaining proposal to the Sequoia Union High School District for the 2526 school year. Hello again. Um you have our um sunshine proposal which um is necessarily vague as we are still working on um the specifics of our initial program um proposal but we do have the full contract open. So we know there's a lot to do. Among that is the work that we've been doing together um and the uh committee work uh to update our rubrics to reflect the new uh California standards for the teaching profession. Um there's a lot that we can address to clarify contract language and um we look forward to having those conversations. Uh we've
047got four bargaining dates already on the books. So we will be we will come back from spring break and hit the ground running. I look forward to it. Thank you. And then I just realized I neglected to ask about public comment for 14.1. I have no public comments. Okay. Awesome. So then for 14.2 two. Uh the agenda item is presentation of the Sequoia Union High School District Sunshine negotiation reopener proposal to SDTA for the 2526 school year. And do we have any public comments? I have none in person. Are there any online? There are none online. Thank you. All right. Well, good afternoon or good evening. Sorry. Uh this is again going to be our initial proposal uh for the district with SCTA. Uh so pursuant to government code section 3547, Sequoia Union High School
048District presents the following 2025 2026 proposal for negotiations regarding the collective bargaining agreement with Sequoia District Teachers Association. This initial proposal is based upon the district's interest and principles. Uh these interest and principles include maximizing the achievement of all students by providing quality education so that all students are engaged and prepared to excel in global society, compliance with legal mandates, maintaining a fiscal responsible multi-year budget that includes newly legally mandated expenses for increased employer contributions on behalf of employees for stirs and pers retirement systems, employee step and column increases, increased special education costs, and other increased business and program expenses. the continued retention, recruitment of quality teachers and staff and offering comparable total compensation. Uh the articles that we uh are proposing is number one is going to be on wages. So the district wishes
049to maintain a total compensation package while maintaining the fiscal stability of the district. Uh second one is on hours. The district has an interest in reviewing and revising article 4 hours. Uh also the district has an interest in reviewing and revising article 8 uh process for evaluations. Uh the next one is the district has an interest in multi-year agreement term with reopeners on salary and benefits. Uh number seven oh sorry the number five on here is appendex C and provisos. Uh the district has an interest in revising revising appendix C. The district reserves the right to open additional articles during the course of these contract negotiations subject to the appropriate notices notice requirements under the law and policies. Thank you. No questions. Right. Okay. All right. Then moving on to the next agenda item is
05014.3. the 2025 to 26 LCAP development update, draft goals, actions, and metrics. And are there any public comments for this agenda item? There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. There are none online. Okay. Thank you. Good evening, members of the board, superintendent, trustee, and audience. It's a pleasure to be here this evening. If you are a board member who has been here longer than last November, you could probably give this presentation yourself because this is the second year in a three-year cycle of the LCAP. So, a great deal of time was spent over the course of the 2324 school year putting together the three-year plan. And that plan, you can change goals, you can change actions, but it's designed to be a plan that you look at your greatest
051area for areas for growth with a few celebrations um to keep work to keep um keep in motion um because they're working so well. And then you're supposed to show your improvement on those measures over three years. So, I'm going to try and balance the fact that two of you could give this presentation and two of you have not heard it while sitting in that seat before. Um although you both clearly did your homework over your um campaign, so you have some idea for certain. So, um LCAP goals, actions, and metrics are what we are talking about this evening. the LCAP timeline you saw when we presented last on the LCAP in the next month and some and some um before we come back to you on April 23rd. The uh the items that you
052see tonight, the goals, actions, and metrics are going to go out to a whole bunch of different constituents to give their input on them. and then I and the LCAP authors will come back to you at the next board meeting and let you know if as a result of that input we are recommending any changes to the goals, actions and metrics at that time. So stay tuned. You will see this a few more times between now and the June approval. There are some things that are new in the 2526 template even though it is a three-year plan um that began with the current school year. The first thing is that um LEAs are now um provide or we may provide information about our strategic plan, vision, etc. in the general information section. We were already
053doing that. So, it's good to know that now we're allowed to. Last year, we put together a strategic plan and we really wanted to make sure that even though the LCAP is designed to um specifically address our greatest areas for growth, we wanted to make sure that it dovetailed and did not contradict what we were putting into the strategic plan. So you'll see that throughout this report, the learning recovery emergency block grant, if we have not yet used up those COVID recovery funds, then we are required to write about our usage of them between now and the time that we finish using them up. We are using them in goal one in the year to come. So that will be of mention uh in goal one in the student group. ELTELS this year became a
054new dashboard subgroup and we have got three groups that are considered undup duplicated students. One of them are are e students. Alls are eelss but not all eels's ares. Okay. So the ELE group is the bigger group because it's everybody from if you just started learning English to if you were just you're about to be redesated as fully English proficient. So it's a very very big gamut. Um but the LESS are our long-term English learners. They're students who have been um in our schools for seven or more years and um they are our greatest area for growth when it comes to our EL population. That's true across the street the state which is why now they have become a subgroup on the dashboard. We are not required. If you'll remember from last year, those of
055you who were with us, the state said for this go of the LCAP, you need to specifically look at every single subgroup both at your district level and at your site levels. And any groups at your district level or at your site levels who scored in red, you need to have an action that will help to address them and and and offer progress for those groups. We are not required. So, they're holding us accountable for three years for the students who were in red on last year's dashboard results. We um you just got your presentation from Dr. Wilmont in January on this year's dashboard results. We are opting for any groups that came into red on the dashboard in this new LCAP round. We are also adding actions for those groups because we do not
056want to wait until the next LCAP cycle to start addressing our areas for need. We also had several groups that came out of red on the dashboard between last year and this year. The state says that we still need to be tracking their progress and that's probably a really good thing. So lastly, um we are able, as you'll see on the chart on the next page, to fill in our year 1 outcome and the current difference between our baseline and our goal for the end of year three. Please remember that while the strategic plan addresses the district at large, the LCAP is intended to be the strategic plan for the state dashboard in particular. And I'm so glad that the state did this because we as a district tried to throw in everything and the
057kitchen sink into our dashboard and we've gotten better at it over time, but oh my goodness, those first years um and it was it was there was this feeling of but we have to talk about this or people won't know that we do it. The place for that is now the strategic plan and the details under the strategic plan. The LCAP is supposed to say, "It's super awesome that you're doing all these wonderful things and that all of this is available to all your students, but here's where you're falling short and you got to take a good hard look at it and you got to improve and that's the job of the LCAP." So, this was our dashboard results from last year. All of those groups will again be addressed in our actions this year.
058And we are, as I said before, including any new groups that are in red on our state dashboard for the coming year. So I am going to try and hit a a middle pace on these next slides and rely on you asking questions if you have them when I'm done. So the first goal is about improving chronic absenteeism and about improving our suspension rates. our African-American and Pacific Islander students came out of red on the dashboard this year were elated about that. Great job, Liz and team. Um, and there was a lot of work that went into making that happen. And you can see below for each goal how it aligns with the strategic plan. And then of course we've got after that the actions we're taking to make that happen and then how we
059will know if it's working. Metrics, the state's gotten the state has gotten smarter on their LCAP every time it's come out. I'm both happy and unhappy to say and they have told us no for this kind of a goal you have to use this kind of a metrics and you have to include them off of this list. So it's lengthy um but they're ones that the state says you should really include these if you want to do a good job and we do. Goal two is about improving academic performance of groups that SC scored very low in ELA and math as indicated on the California dashboard. Um, while we are deeply committed to improving academic performance, we do wish that there was another indicator besides a test that a student takes one time in their
060junior year into which they have no stakes for doing well. But it is what it is and it is at least somewhat telling even if it's not the indicator I wish that it could be. Um, we had a happy couple of years during STAR testing when we let families know that we were going to put STAR results on student transcripts and our scores went up a lot. I was not I was I was I was at a school site at the time. I didn't do it, but they they dropped when the state said, "No, you can't do that." Um, and I I can see both sides of that. Again, you see the alignment with the strategic plan under that of what we're doing for all kids in that area. We want all of our kids
061to have an amazing have amazing academic results, the actions and the metrics to measure those. Goal three, including improving the student group scoring. This is my favorite dashboard indicator. I mean that next. Yeah, it no, it is. It is unequivocally my favorite dashboard indicator. It's the most complicated indicator because there are all kinds of ways that you can meet it. But when I look at this chart, if a kid can do any one of these categories when they leave us, they have got opportunities that will allow them to um live above the poverty line and um support a family or travel the world. Goal three, actions and metrics. Goal four is about retaining a highly qualified, recruiting and retaining a highly qualified staff that reflects our student demographics. Goal five. This is the one where
062[Music] um I don't know why eligibles cross out there, but I will when I come back. But I will when I come back to you. Sorry about that. I I think that's an error, but I'm not sure. I'll know when I come back to you in April. Um this one was actually this is an area where we are doing really really well. And so this was a goal that we developed where we want to keep up the good work. And then goal six is actually one that we had to have because Redwood was in uh CSI. They have come out of CSI which is so awesome which means that we could say farewell to goal six. But we do think it's a great goal and we are receiving funds that are attached to the goal.
063And if you're receiving funds attached to the goal, you have to keep it again. Again, they're getting smarter. So there are the actions and the metrics. And that is all I have for you unless you have questions for me. And I and the authors look forward to seeing you after hearing from our constituents for your input in April. I just had one question. the um the chart for the college career alert. I that's family facing if I recall or if I read that and and I just was curious about how um we're like monitoring or how how that's getting to the families and like or in what mode. So what do you mean by family or or it's it's not an in like internal document that we're using like cuz it's are you prepared for
064college? I'm assuming the U is the student so that they are looking at this document, right? And I was just curious in what way is that getting to students? It's not. Got it. The information is, but we should be sharing this chart. Got it. We got this. It's a great idea. We got this. We stole this chart from San Diego who does a lot of fabulous things and they've just said it so much more clearly than anyone before them shown this. We do it in bits and pieces. Like families learn about all of these areas, but we really should share this chart with an explanation. We're in the process of um preparing uh individual student plans for graduation and UCG eligibility, how well you are in your progress towards those. We're getting ready to send
065out an individual um letter to families letting them know where and students letting them know where they are in that process. We are not at this point including the college and career because it is so hard to explain to families and if yeah and if you meet the A3G you're good anyways. So um but yes we yeah we should I assumed it was already facing you know families but also in in the language of Spanish I think it should you know I'm sure you'll okay cool yeah that was it but beautiful I love that road map I love the visual thank you any other questions okay well thank you associate superintendent Hansen Okay. Uh and then now to our next agenda item is 15.1 first reading of revised board policies and administrative regulations uh miscellaneous
066series student services department. Uh are there any public comments? There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. I see none online. Okay. Thank you. Good evening. um student trustees, members of the board, Superintendent Leech, cabinet, and Edith and KBP and to our students. So, hello everyone. Um so, I bring these board policies and administr administrative regulations which are updated quarterly by CSBA forward in chunks. We weren't going to bring anything this time um because there weren't large updates, but something happened with Title Nine, which I'm going to explain, which is why I'm coming forward again at this board meeting with some board policy updates. So, first I'll start with ones that are not Title 9 related. This one was just visitors and outsiders. We hadn't updated in a little while.
067And because we do have visitors coming to our campus, we want to make sure that we are up to date with CSBA language on that. Essentially major changes in here um are just that visitors shall conduct themselves in an orderly manner and if they do not the principal shall request that they leave. Um it also is asking visitors to register immediately upon entering any school ground. Thank you for your email trusty coup that said you know it's not always real clear where the front offices are. So, I now have my safety team, Andres Gavara along with Jared Douly. They're going to work with facilities on getting more signage out there um so that people do know where to check in. Adults on campus are aware um that if they see anyone wandering around without a
068badge, they need to direct them to check in at the front office. Um but it would help if everyone coming to campus knows where the front office is. So, we will work on signage. Um and then if anyone does become unruly, a principal may issue a stayaway letter. Those are the major changes. All the red lining is provided in detail in the document attached to board docs. The next is chronic absenteeis chronic absence and truency. This one has been they've been updating quite frequently um and we are up to date with what we're doing with our absence policy um with SART and SARB and everything that you all saw in the attendance presentation at just the last board meeting. But here's some of the updated language. Um students who are identified as chronically absent or
069truent um need to receive appropriate support services and interventions as early as possible. They do lift up trauma-informed practices and what some of these other interventions might be. As Mr. Douly talked about when he was here last time with what we do in our own attendance process, it gives a district the ability to implement an attendance recovery program. It goes into this at length in the administrative regulation. I kind of went back and forth with that because I thought I don't know if we would use this, but why not just include it in the board policy if that is ever a direction that we wanted to go? It's not something that we currently utilize um but it is an option through CSBA now and so and through ED code and so the language is in
070the board policy and it also removes some punitive measures for lack of attendance that are no longer in our jurisdiction to enforce that could be it mentions in in old code and old policy the ability to arrest a student um and things like that and so that has now been Tay I know I see the student trustee faces that is now gone and it talks more about mental health supports and so you can see again the details and the nitty-gritty of that language in that board policy and administrative regulation. Our next is independent study. This one is fairly complicated. There were shifts to independent study largely during COVID when then everyone on went online and then on top of that many students weren't very comfortable coming back to school immediately and so more students were
071engaging in independent study programs. So we haven't updated this board policy and administrative regulation since 2019 which is precoid. There's been new language since that time. And additionally, we moved our independent study program which previously sat under educational services and is now under the director leadership director of student services leadership. Alvareo Calderon oversees the independent studies. He is online. So if there are specific independent study questions related to this, he's happy to answer those tonight as well. But if not, he's happy to not answer. So if you did have questions though um essentially with independent study the lang a lot has changed as I said uh it now gives evaluation criteria for students to remain in independent study essentially if they're not meeting that criteria you can do a uh re-engagement strategies if they're not
072meeting that then they exit independent study and go back to their to the on-site. It allows for short-term and long-term placements, full-time or part-time study in conjun in conjunction with classrooms. So, it's more now it can be more of an amalgamation program which adds some complexity um to to the program. It includes charter schools for independent study opportunities. So, we can place students independent studying charter although we don't have any of those agreements currently. something that is now part of an independent study package. Um, we cannot place students nonvoluntarily in independent study. So, should something happen, we can't say, well, you just need to go to independent study. It's always a student and family decision if they're going to join that program. Uh, participants can't be credited for with more than one day of attendance
073per calendar day because the attendance of independent study is a little bit different. you're meeting with teachers less frequently throughout the week. Um, but it's just to make sure that you're not getting a ton of attendance credit for in the calendar year. And assignments can't be extended beyond the termination date specified in the written agreement. Every independent study student enters with a master agreement and that's that's written in here. And so, you know, you've seen board policy language around the in progress grade and around incompletes and how that can be given to independent study students pending when their their written agreement date is, which may go beyond the terms of the semester or school year. Uh, the content in independent study needs to align to grade level standards, which we do hold. Um, students have
074the opportunity for weekly synchronous instruction. We have teachers actually physically on our campuses, a couple at Woodside, a couple over at Middle College so that students can go meet with them for instruction. There's, as I mentioned earlier, re-engagement if they're not meeting the criteria. Um, students in medical or inpatient treatment are exempt from the live interaction. They do not need to go in and meet with the teacher if that is their situation. So, it can be very case by case. um in this in this small program. It outlines the criteria of the master agreement which I mentioned earlier and reviews how to keep records in the cases of audits which for independent study come quite frequently. And then it provides reasons that students may take independent study which I know um trustee Cruz I believe
075asked questions earlier today about who who goes to this and so I kind of gave a generic response but then I know Aloto called kind of gave more specifics about what sort of situations we do see students enter independent studies for that is independent those are the the changes and updates in broad sweepingly but you can see it's it's a few pages of updates online. So I am going to get into title N or rather board policies and ARS that are connected to Title N. But before I do that, I want to talk a little bit about Title N because it may be confusing is why am I standing up here again talking about board Title N changes and board policies and administrative regulations, which I've been doing a lot lately. Um, so before I
076go into this, I'm going to give a bit of historical current context um, to hopefully alleviate the confusion of why we're looking at these policies again this in the same school year. So, Title 9 law, just as baseline, no person on the basis of sex shall be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of or subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. Prohibition on sex discrimination and sexual harassment, which includes discrimination and harassment based on gender identity or sexual orientation. It's a contractual obligation and should it be violated, a district may not receive federal assistance. So, you may be starting to connect some dots if you haven't already why why this could be changing and shifting and maybe changing and shifting again. It's a federal um law
077that comes from our department of educ department of education. Um so over the years it has evolved. It was passed in 1972. It was enacted to prevent discrimination originally against women in the educational system that included both for employment for sports activities and then over the past many years it's expanded their protections and it protects anyone against discrimination in our schools. In May of 2020, the law codified for the first time aspects of Title 9, including when and how a district must respond to a Title 9 sexual harassment complaint. Prior to 2020, it was a little um it it was more loose. I'll say implementation was only on, you know, the the dear colleague letters OCR guides. And so 2020 really put it into this is what Title 9 is and this is how you
078shall respond to Title 9. Um, and that's what we've been working off of. So, as many of you recall, I did an extens extensive presentation um on all the changes that happened because on April 19th of last about a year ago, 11 months ago, after a lengthy notice and comment process, the US Department of Education finalized significant changes in Title 9 regulations that were to be implemented August 1st, 2024. So just this past August, um the changes it it broadened the scope of what was covered under title n um it it started to include gender identity as a basis for sex-based discrimination. The term sexual harassment, they replaced it with sexbased harassment. Uh implementers title nine no longer had to be different people. So right now we have in in our just in our student
079services department you our AVPs are typically the title N investigators. Jared Douly um is our title N coordinator. I am our title N decision maker. All the roles have to be split up. With 2024 doesn't have to or didn't have to be that way. Um so that was one thing that had changed. Um in 2024 a written formal complaint was no longer required. So if somebody just said something that triggered you to think, oh that's title n, you had, you know, would you like to file title 9 or shall I file title n on your behalf? It even if it wasn't a written complaint. Um uh specific disclosure of evidence were removed. So typically in title in 2020 title 9, you know, when you get all the evidence together, you have to share between the
080parties and they need time to review and 10 days to respond and see if they want to enter any more of their own evidence. Some of that shifted for 2024 where that wasn't a requirement anymore. Uh and then the LEA's response time changed impromptly and effectively. I think probably a little more vague. They used to in 2020 gave pretty specific timelines. Um so CSBA took all of that what came forth on April 19th. They said you must go forth and start implementing this by August 1st. We we trained all of our administrators at camp. Um, we came to board meetings in September and October because we had to revamp all of our policies to meet these 2024 regulations. And you all were so gracious to listen to those presentations because now on January 9th, 2025,
081the US District Court for Eastern Division of Kentucky issued a ruling that struck down the 2024 regulations. Um, again, those are the ones that started August 1st that we saw presentations on in September and October. Tennessee versus Cardona. The court found that the US Department of Exit, Department of Education exceeded its regulatory powers by defining discrimination on the basis of sex, kind of that specific term to include discrimination based on gender identity. So, the court determined Title N only prohibits discrimination based on person's sex, male or female, not on their gender identity. And as a result, 2024 Title 9 are no longer enforceable at any educational institution receiving federal funding nationwide. So, they're they're asking that districts repeal this and and take this back. So, we're working on that. We were then kind of thinking
082we you know and we checked in with our legal and we said okay so so what do we do with this? Um and they said well just just wait you know CSBA will come up with some new language. In the meantime though, things happened at our schools. And so we were getting caught between, well, we can no longer enact 2024 Title 9 regulations because that's been repealed, I guess I'll say. And um we need to go back to 2020 language, but we have no updated language from CSBA. and CSBA is saying, well, we have no updated language because we have to wait federally for that to come to us. But as we are learning day by day, federally that may not happen. So, we're in a little bit of an odd place right now and
083just thought, well, we don't want to wait to update all of our board policies um because we can't enforce we can't legally enforce this right now. So we are going to revert back to 2020 language to a large extent to make sure that what we're doing is in line with what is being asked federally as well as in line with what's being asked by the state. So brings us to our next slide. Um California ed code does have a few requirements um that are beyond federal and not title n related just edere related. um about our obligations. So, first, California schools have an affirmative obligation to combat racism, sexism, other forms of bias. Um, per ED code 210.7, gender means sex and includes a person's gender identity and gender expression. Um, so again, if we
084look back at that Title 9, it's saying male female in California, they're saying yes, and we do include gender expression and and chosen gender identity. And then no person shall be subjected to discrimination on b basis of dis disability, gender, gender expression, nationality. So although not title nine which is the fed federally federal process, um California still has some protections. So we are in the space of yes, we still protect our students based on California ed code while federally following title 9. So what that means for us, we must revert back to enforcing Title 9 2020 regs. California law continues to protect students and employees from gender-based discrimination and harassment. Um, including what's based on gender identity. It's just not Title 9. And we are reverting our policies back to 2020 regulations. we are um
085if if if you all approve this, it we don't have updated language from CSBA. If we did that, we'd still be waiting on 20 we'd still have 2024 Title 9. Um so here are the ones we I this evening am proposing um that we update or rather by update I mean move back to 2020. It's the sex discrimination and sex based harassment. So, and there will be an opportunity for questions. I asked Crystal how confusing I should make this. And she said, you know, just tell them what's going on. It is a confusing thing. So, prior to September 11th, 2024, our last district adoption of board policy and administrative regulations was March 17, 2019. So because of the January 9th, 2025 ruling, we've rescended the 2024 language adopted for the board policy and the administrative
086regulation. And we are now proposing the adoption of the updated CSBA language that was updated as of October 2020 because that includes 2020 Title 9, which is what the feds are saying is back in place. So what are the major changes throughout the document? The term sex discrimination and sexbased harassment are are used. This is the federally rescended language. So we're going back to using the term sexual harassment. You'll see that in there throughout the document where we have editing access. So this is where it gets a little wonky with CSBA not updating their information. So because of the California doesn't have the updates from the federal government and so CSBA doesn't have updates for us, we can't change the title in gamut. We we can't change the title of the board policy. So the
087board policy itself still says sex discrimination, sex based harassment, but everything in the policy talks about sexual harassment, not sex based harassment. We can't change the title until CSBA changes the title. So right now that's remaining the same. Otherwise the major changes there we're back to enforcing it if it is severe pervasive and objectively offensive not or objectively offensive and it shifts back to things that happen on campus or that have a very close nexus to something that is impacted on campus. Whereas in 2024 they were saying it's it's anything. If it happens off campus, if it happens online, it's all title n. not the case with 2020. So that that's a shift back. The next one that we need to update is BPN 5145.3. That's the non-discrimination harassment language. So here we go again.
088So prior to October 2024 when I stood here and presented presented those policies, our last district adoption was in October of 2020. So, because of the January 9th ruling, we've taken out the 2024 language adopted for both the BP and the AR last October, and we're now proposing the updated language from October 2023 and the AR that was updated in 2021. So, they they updated those post 2020, but it still is 2020 specific. So, big changes here or big changes from 2020 but back from 2024. Um it moves inter information about the interex, non-binary, transgender, gender non-conforming. It moves that all back to the administrative regulation. Um with most of the language actually intact. What it did before was it took that and it put moved it from the AR to the BP. Now it's
089back in the AR. That's where it was in um 2020. and it no longer requires that suspended students engage in culturally sensitive racial justice programs as part of title n. Um I know that um Trusty Cruz asked earlier about our LCAP presentation and our LCAP goals. We still we still do this work. It's just not a part of our Title N investigations and Title N follow-ups per se. And then the follow one the the following one the last one um that was impacted from 2024 reverting back is with our married pregnant parenting students um prior to September 11th of 2024. Our last district adoption for this board policy was March 27th of 2019. Because of the 2025 ruling, we've rescended the 2024 language adopted last September. And we propose adoption of our prior board policy
090and administrative regulation. That's the most recent that CSBA has. They haven't done anything um since even prior to 2019, it looks like when we updated this. Um and again some of the changes are that it it's up to eight weeks of paternity or paternal leave paternity or maternity leave not beyond. Um with a new title N they were saying it it can extend indefinitely. You just you know you work with the student now it gives a more firm it's eight weeks and it doesn't incorporate the lactation all the pregnancy related um medical needs as part of title 9. Again, I gave that presentation in was it October? In September, um where I talked about the changes for pregnant students. Um again, just because it's not Title N doesn't mean we're not taking action case by
091case and working with our students to provide the best education and opportunity that we can for them in this time um for them, but it's just no longer a Title N compliance issue. Those are the major reversions. Um, and that's where it is right now. Um, my proposal is just, um, to look at these and revert back to the language so that we're not getting families and students caught in the middle of thinking that we're doing Title N one way when federally we are not and and should not do it under the 24 guidance. Do any of the trustees have questions? Oh, I don't have a question. I think I appreciate that trying to remove ambiguity and align with the current rules and you obviously put a lot of thought into it and gave us
092a a very clear or pretty clear explanation of everything that's going on and I support it. only have one question because I know there are a couple of ones where like uh language from BPs and ARs were swapping locations and so what what should the intent of the BP be versus AR and why are some of these languages moving around? You know, it's a good question. I always took BP to be the bigger umbrella and AR is when you get a little more into the nitty-gritty detail. I don't know why they're just taking whole chunks of language and flip-flopping them between BP and AR. I can look into that and see if people know or if anyone I'll just guess some of it is the board approves the BPS, but I don't think the board
093approves the ARs. That's right. And and our board does, but maybe it's the case that not all boards. I don't know whether it could have something to do with approval levels. I'm not that's somewhat of a guess. Okay. Yeah. All right. Yeah, I appreciate all your work on this. Um, because it was a lot of work to put it in place the first time and now revert it all back. So, but u and I just want to give fair warning. I may be back up again sooner rather than later. And I really apologize. I just I don't know when CSBA is going to update it and when they do we're going to bring the updated language. Um, needs to give clarity on the Department of Education too. That'd be great. Yeah, because I don't know
094what happens if the DOE never gives language. I I don't either. I I believe the MA Chronicles is writing an article about We've never been in this. Well, what happens is I won't come back up and give Thank you. Thank you for that clarity. I Yeah, I want Oh, sorry. No, sorry. No, I just No, just thank you for the clarity. It It makes sense to me. I'm like, yes, I get it and I get why we're flip-flopping and we all know where we are nationwide right now, right, with Department of Ed or whatever it's called, right? Thank you. Yeah, echoing my my fellow trustees in in the gratitude. Um, you made it very clear in ter It wasn't confusing. Well, it was I mean it's confusing topic, but it you made it very clear.
095Um, I think regardless of where just speaking personally and locally like where I stand and where my personal values are, one of the things that I most appreciate about it is the fact that you mentioned whether like this is the Title N part, but it doesn't exclude the part that we still take care of our our students. Um, and I think that's really important and I just want to like bring that up that the the specific language is changing of where it goes, but our but we're still making clear that we want to take care of our students. Um, I just want to stamp that. So, thank you. Thank you. So, just a point of clarification, this is okay to come back on consent next month. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Right. And then
096now we're on to action items. So agenda item 16.1 is the approval of the 202425 second interim report. Um and are there any public comments on this agenda item? I have none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. There are none online. Okay. All right. Let's let's begin. So, good evening. Tonight's presentation is an overview of the 2425 second interim report, which covers the period from July 1st to January 31st and must be submitted to the county office of ed by March 17th. So between Venita and I, we will review the district's financial position, key changes since first interim report and the outlook for the two out years. This is a reminder of a bud budget cycle. Um this illustrates the budget cycle timeline showing key activities and timelines. The budget cycle
097is a continuous process of planning, implementation, monitoring and adjustment. So this slide um shows the detailed planning factors that we use for second interim and for 2526 and 2627. Um, as you can see, the factors include enrollment, the funded ADA, the COLA, which is the cost of living adjustment, the stirs and PERS employer rates, uh, unrestricted and restricted lottery, the mandated block rate, block grant rates, um, our property tax assumptions, and the certificated and classified step um, increase uh, health and welfare increase and the consumer price index. So I am going to focus on the items that are in red which um has changed since for interim and one of them is the funded uh ADA for EPA. This has changed because um we're using the P1 data that was certified by CDA CDE just
098recently. Um this means that due to the declining ADA EPA state funding including the inloo property tax transfer has decreased from $4.2 million which was reflected in first interim to 3.9 million at second interim. So that what that means to the general fund would we would need to provide additional support to balance their budget which is about $300,000. That's for second in for the cost of living adjustment. The governor has committed to fund the cola at 2.43% which you can see is lower than um what was projected at uh first interim. Uh the revenues that will be impacted by this cola is mandated costs, any special ed state funding, the child nutrition reimbursement rate and EPA state funding. Next is the PERS rate. We see a decrease in 2526 and 2627. Um even though the
099rates are lower than first interim assumptions, they're higher than the current year rate and the state has not addressed the funding to adding funding to stirs and pers. So the general fund will need to absorb the increase which is roughly about $140,000 for 2526 and $182,000 for 2627. Um Venita will go through the next few slides on our property tax assumptions. Thank you Christine. Good evening. The next slide shows the property taxes. At second interim, property tax has remained flat. Next update we'll get on property tax from the county controllers's office in April and we will incorporate that in the estimated actuals. Secured RO taxes are projected to increase by 5% in the subsequent out years. This slide shows charter and ll transfers at second interim charter inlue transfer reduced by 1.6 million. This is
100due to the declining enrollment at our charter schools. For the two out years the charter inl transfer is increasing by 2% and 4% and that is due to the cola increases. Um I wanted to make a comment about Everest. Um we finalized second interim budget on March 3rd. The announcement of the Everest closure was came to the district. We were informed about the closure on March 5th. So we didn't have enough time to modify the charter and Lu um transfers for the multi-year projection. So we will incorporate that um as part of estimated actuals. This site shows property taxes received by the district net of charter and low transfer. At second interim the local property taxes for the district increased by 1.6 6 million and that is because of the there's charter in L transfer
101that we had. Now I'll pass it on to Christine. So this is a summary of our revenue and expenditures at second interim. The overall ending fund balance increased by $1.2 million and that is mostly from an increase of re revenue of 4.2 2 million and our expenditures increasing by $3 million. Uh on the revenue side the 4.2 million I find an error the outflow of property tax to the charters decrease therefore the net property um collection has increased. So, this slide should say that our property tax has increased by $1.5 million instead of a decrease. Uh, federal funds, we received $163,000. Uh, additional $1.8 million from state entitlement and that is mostly from the Golden State Pathway Grant that we recently received and $730,000 increase in donation. That's mostly from the site facility rentals and
102any of the donations that they receive. On the expenditure side, the $3 million increase is mostly from salaries and benefits and the additional um money to support EPA to balance their budget. This is just a visual of our uh revenue and expenditure. Um, as you can see, 83% of our revenue is from our property tax. Eight uh, sorry, 8% from our state tax revenue, 7% is from local revenue, and 2% is from our federal uh, funds. Our total federal funds we receive is about $3 million. And we there is uncertainty to if districts will continue receiving these funds. So we will need to monitor closely as we get closer to um uh working on next year's budget. On the expenditure side, the largest portion of our uh budget is salaries and benefits which represents 80%
103of our budget and 12% is um operating expense and that includes utility any contracted services um any legal and insurance costs. So this is the um components of ending fund balance at second interim. The total ending fund balance is $44 million and as you can see it's broken out by unrestricted and restricted dollars. within the restrict unrestricted category category we have um does set aside some uh funds um in different categories. So we have assigned about $4 million for fation liability because that's an obligation that we would have to pay out. uh potential potential basic aid uncertainty related to the Janentex settlement um economic and inflation uncertainty and any potential legal settlements that we may have. We have also maintained a reserve for economic uncertainties. Our reserve meets the board policy requirement of 8% and
104that's amounting to $22 million. For the restricted funds, these are designated for specific purpose and cannot be used for anything else. Uh the funds is 16 million and consist of state, federal, local and routine restricted maintenance funds. The balance has increased by $1.7 million compared to first interim and that is because of the Golden State pathway funds that we just received and we expect to use those funds in 2526. So this is our multi-year projection. Um, it's important to note that these projections do not include any salary increases. The multi-year projection shows our projected financial position for the current year and the next two years. So for 2526 and 2627, we continue to deficit spend as as you know see in the highlighted blue, but not at the rate of the current year. And that
105is because we're spending down our one-time dollars and we have projected an increase in our property tax for uh the two outears for 25 26 and 2627. Our reserve still meets the board policy requirement of 8%. This is the summary of all other funds other than the general fund. Other funds are projected to have positive ending fund balance at year end. I wanted to bring attention to charter fund. It is showing an ending balance on of $187,000 which are mainly from remaining one-time fund. [Music] While our current financial um picture is stable, however, we must have we need to address some of the budgetary challenges that we have that is upcoming. As you saw in the um inloo property tax slide for indep independent charters such as kipest and Oxford and summit um the reduced
106enrollment translates to additional revenue for the general fund. However, the situation is different for EPA because of their declining enrollment. the inloop property tax uh decreases and their state funding decreases which means that the general fund will have to um provide additional support to balance their budget. Um one-time grants will expire with the within the next three years. We will need to continue discussion on how we can sustain the programs and initiatives supported by these dollars. Uh, Prop 30 expires in 2030. The governor has not addressed if he will continue or extend these taxes. So, if he doesn't extend these taxes, um, the question is, will he have enough money in the state budget to backfill those dollars? For us, that represents about $1.5 million. Increased tariffs can drive up costs of goods and services
107from supplies to construction materials. Um these increased costs put additional pressure on our budget and also in construction. So as the bids come in and we see how much cost of um the projects is Ryan and I will have to reook at the um the budget for the bond funds. Federal funds for us are title two, title three, and the national school lunch program. Uh we are not certain uh if there's going to be ongoing dollars for that. So we will have to monitor this very closely as we come closer to budget season. Um this is what we're working on for the next few months. uh April we should get the P2 certified uh data from the county assessor office. So we will be updating the tax projections for our estimated actuals. May revise we
108will hear more from the governor on where um how he will be funding 2526 and then in June we will bring forth the 2526 uh adopted budget the proposed budget questions from the board comments Does Richy? Well, that's a little different this time because Amy and I uh met with Christine last week and went through this presentation and we had a great discussion and many of the things that came up have been completely addressed in what was presented tonight. So, I don't have any questions because everything was answered. So, um I thought we had a really productive budget committee meeting and um appreciate the presentation and highlighting in particular uh the last slide there she highlighted kind of the things to watch out for. That was stuff we talked about a lot. Those areas um
109a few things that can really affect our budget that are completely outside our control but we'll have to deal with the impacts of you guys have questions. I got a couple. Okay. I wasn't in the meeting. Um, so I should know the answer to this and I don't in the charter in Lou. Why do we include charters that are not in our district? Just out of curiosity. We have students attending those schools. Got it. So even though they're out of our district, district our district students get that. Makes total sense. Um, and then my other question's a little bit I'm trying to figure out where it all goes. Basically, when we think about this is going to be specifically around EPA. Um, we know that they if their ADA is dropping and they're not meeting
110it, we're as of right now it's 300,000 if I heard you say that. Um, and we think about the No, it's not. Total is 1.3 million. I thought the adjustment for second interim is additional 300,000. Oh, is the Okay. So more um how are we thinking about that in regards to our projections and and particularly how that's affecting that um that 8% reserve and is when we think about that is that getting put into that as like an ongo like this is sorry I sorry I'm sorry do you want me to help you out? Well, yes. Okay. You're inside my head. You know where I'm going. I think so. So, just to clarify, you're asking, okay, so this year it's 1.3. Have we included the transfer um in the multi-year projections in the outy years
111potentially with also an escalating factor if they were to continue to lose enrollment? Yes. Yes, we have. Okay, that was good. Thank you. Been doing it for a while. Got it. That was that was that was that was that. Thank you. I would like to note um I'm trying to think like I mean I've been in the county for a while now and I have had on my list of assignments the Janentech settlement forever and they finally we finally have work but of course we still don't have the number yet. Um, however, they did reach a settlement, so we will have that liability come to fruition soon. Yes. Wow. Because that was one of the questions I asked was like, so support for us having that as an assigned dollar knowing that it's actually going
112to come to fruition. So hopefully it's not too much more than what we have reserved. All right. Thank you. No other questions. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We have to vote to approve the second in I move to the second interim report. Seconded. All right. So, is this just a roll call then or or Yeah. Okay. No, no, just Okay. Uh, all in favor? I I. All right, that is a unanimous vote. And so the second interim report is approved. And now we're on to number 17, future agenda items. Anyone have any to bring up? I want to talk about one thing which is a very future agenda item, but something that came up in our discussion just the other day, Amy, something I brought up before. um after the the CSBA conference that was the joint
113um the the joint agreement of different school districts that come together to meet CTE requirements and that came up in our discussion uh yesterday at Stanford or was it two days ago at Stanford? And also just um thinking broadly about the reality that our current approach to a lot of the systems is like college readiness, but the actual percentage of students who six years after leaving us have graduated from college is not that high. Maybe it's half or less than half. So just thinking about does that whole thing make sense and what do you do about that? If we're designing a system kind of focused on college, but less than half of the students are doing it, should we look at that and do something about it? And that was something that the professor at
114Stanford talked with us about as an area that he was interested in exploring. I don't have anything specific about it, but just I'd share that that came up in the discussion. Chris and I have talked about that at some of our check-ins over the years. just it's an interesting observation that we put all this focus on college but in reality not everyone does it and so just looking at that so it's not I'm not asking for an agenda item in the next month or two but just I wanted the rest of the board to know that that's a an area of possible inquiry at some point yeah I would I would love to see the numbers like you know what the numbers are for students who actually go to yeah like you said go to
115college you said half or what was the number or do you have an idea I don't I don't I don't know specific data for specifically our district. But okay, the numbers that he said were less than half end up with a four-year degree. I've heard like roughly a third of people in the United States have a college degree. I don't know how that's changed. And like if you just look at students who graduated five or six years ago, I don't know who has that exact data. This would be um a good topic we could discuss at our June retreat. That would be great for intro. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, because I I think the state is doing a lot uh on CTE. So, okay. All right. That's a good suggestion for the board retreat. Anything
116else? All right. I don't have anything to add. And so now we're on to adjournment. Anyone want to move to adjourn? Move to adjourn. Second. All in favor? I. I. So therefore at 8:01 p.m. record time. No. No. I think we had one even faster than this.