Regular Board Meeting 4/17/2025

001the Mosquite High School students for being our greeters this evening. Back there working diligently. And I'd like to open the regular meeting and the special concurrent meeting for April 17th. We will start with the pledge of allegiance to the flag led by our student board member Brody. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We'll have a moment of silence. Thank you. We'll start out with item number one, adoption of the agenda. Any changes? No changes. Move on to item two. Uh good things. Anybody have any good things? Mr. Ferris looks like he's got something. Yeah, I do. As a matter of fact, last week I got a through the modern wonders of

002technology, I got a video clip from my daughter's family, and my seven-year-old uh grandson was sharing his observations as he observed the um the chicken coming out of the egg for the first time. And it was an absolutely glorious experience to to hear him and and see him observe that wonder of nature. Life doesn't get any better than that. So, thank you, Mr. Ferris. Anybody else? Mr. Johnson, I guess I'm I'm here on the board again, so that's a good thing. Um, I had a great time visiting the schools this week for open houses and look forward to the rest of them. It's it's kind of it's great being back on the board. Thanks. We'll move on to item three, approval of minutes of the special meeting of March 6, the special and regular meeting

003of March 13th, and the special meeting of March 17, 2025. Any corrections, those minutes will stand. Move on to item four, programs and presentations. Item one, watchd dogs presentation. And looks like uh Mr. Delvick was going to be doing that. What's going on? What's going on with Blue Man? They started on a heater undefeated and help me out here. Help me understand. We'll have to chat after the meeting. What? April 17th, correct? And we are here to talk about a watchdog programs that we have at our um Okay. So, Yeah, perfect. There it is. Um, watchd dogs is about what you would think it is, right? But the acronym is dads of grade students, right? And so we're going to go through and talk about it. Yeah. Oh, in the microphone. Okay, got you. Better.

004Okay. It's all right. Thanks. Um so student sports services Pierce Elementary got together um with members of our community and launched a program called the watchdogs. So Mr. McKenna was in it from the beginning. So do you want to just read this one and take it and we'll go from there? You'd like me to? Sure. Martin McKenna, assistant principal at Pierce. Me just read the slide. Yeah. Um what are the watchd dogs? Parents serve on campus for one day or many each year under the leadership of a program director and the guidance of a school principal or designated administrator. Our program speaks directly to those caregivers and guardians who are statistically statistically less likely to come onto campus to volunteer. So really community outreach to our parents who aren't typically at school. Watchdog program has

005been recognized by the United States Department of Education and the US Department of Health and Human Services and has involved in the US Department of Education's PFIE or partnership for family involvement in education and the department safe school summit. Mod is it on? Well, good evening everyone. I'm Mrs. Vaka, principal at Pierce Elementary. So, we were here tonight to kind of let you know what our Watchdog program is. And so, it's a group of dads that are coming to our campus and they will eat with their students. They're they're in the classroom, they're outside of the classroom, and they play with the kids at lunch and at recess. And when they're around, our um behavioral issues go down, right? So we have that supervision out there and just their presence alone deteriorates that. So just

006to have this positive male influence on our campus has made a difference. As we're going over um suspension rates and things like that, we've noticed them going down. So that was a huge positive impact that they've had. And the reason we're here tonight is to see if we can extend and give these benefits not to just Pierce, but to extend it to other schools, you know, to the community. And just hear that our watchd dogs are back there. I want to thank you guys. Um, so they're right here with our shirts. We always go I think Mr. Delba's going to tell you. So we have a kind of use our things when they're on campus. They greet the kids in the morning. They stay there um show up to the classroom with their student first.

007They eat lunch with them, go to recess and volunteer another classroom and dismiss them at the end of the day when when they're not there. Kids are asking, you know, are they coming today? What do we have? So it's made a really great positive income um for our school culture. So, thank you. Yeah, and it's, you know, not some dad's the acronym. We will take anyone. We have grandfathers that are helping out, uncles, moms, anyone who wants help out. So, it it's going well and the kids feel what we want them to feel. We want them to feel safe during recess, lunch, and all day at school. So, this helps that. And this is something that's great because it's the parents that want to do it, and they're right there. So, thank you guys. So,

008we just kind of wanted to tell you about it. And yeah, there's our watch presentation. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Move on to item five. Uh we don't have any public [Applause] hearings. Move on to item six, reports and communications. Student members report. Brody. from Murray Middle School. We recently wrapped up our final school dance of the year and we are pleased to report it was a great success. Students enjoyed a fun, safe, and memorable and memorable evening. Thank you to all staff and volunteers who helped make the event enjoyable for everyone who attended. Our openhouse event was another highlight this month. We had an excellent turnout from families and community members. Classrooms were buzzing with excitement as students proudly showcased their work and learning progress. We deeply appreciate the support and engagement

009from our school community. Students continue to shine as they focus on academic excellence. With CASP testing scheduled for the end of this month, our teachers and staff are working diligently to ensure students are well prepared. We are confident in their efforts and look forward to strong participation and performance. Our parent group remains actively involved in supporting our school community. They continue to offer math tutoring support for our students, which has been a valuable resource throughout the year. Their dedication and partnership play a critical role in student success. As we prepare our students for the transition to China Lake Junior High School, we recognize the importance of keeping families informed. To support this, we will hold anformational meeting for all parents on April 28th. This session will provide details about the upcoming changes and answer any

010questions families may have. We also just hosted the Monroe sixth graders for an orientation activity and will host the seventh graders later in the month. From Monroe Middle School, the Tigers have been busy since their last since the last board meeting. Tigers celebrated academic and character success during the third quarter awards assembly. The Tiger music department held their annual music in our schools concert which showed the growth for our musicians for the school year. Mr. Wanott and Mrs. Oolinger are truly gifted. Junior Olympics was a huge success thanks to the leadership of our own Mrs. Pendergast. Last week was the week of field trips. Monday, under the guidance of our fabulous eighth grade science teacher, Mrs. Hardy, eighth graders got to explore the California Science Center. Wednesday, and eighth graders were invited to the Burough's

011music program performance on Thursday. Friday, sixth graders attended the web field trip during which they tooured Murray in anticipation of the opening of China Lake Junior High next school year. Finally, testing advisers have been assigned and test prep is well underway. The Tigers are ready for a successful testing season. From Mosquite, 21 graduates and that does not count the batches about to wrap up at the end of this year. Is exciting to see students as they approach the finish. Just before spring break, we did our spring fling to celebrate third quarter graduates with music, nachos, and games. Upon our return, we then recognized all the academic achievement from 95% attendance to honor and merit role. Lastly, students achieving 30 or more in out the door got t-shirts. On the 15th, the hospital did their annual

012presentation for their CNA program to help students explore potential career paths. We are preparing for cast testing at the end of the month and we are excited to see students demonstrate their expertise. Lastly, lastly, we appreciate the opportunity to participate in greeting the board and showing the positive impacts of CKH. Go Dragons. Show them how to soar. And from Burroughs, we're in the home stretch at Burroughs. Just over a month is between the seniors and graduation. It's been busy. Track and field has been getting us some amazing results. Girls finished 4-1 in league and boys ended 3-2. Zion Ortiz broke a 50-year-old school record on Tuesday, getting a 1 minute 54 second in the 8 100 meter. Baseball is currently at 11-8 with a huge 18 and0 win over Serrano before the break and a

01310-1 win against Asperia last week. Softball's victories are always huge like their 18-5 win over Hisperia during the break. boys tennis, golf, and swim have all been bringing great performances during play. If you watch our spring musical, Annie, you might have seen some familiar faces. Mr. Ferris and Mr. Al played parts as members of President Roosevelt's adviserss and even sang with the other actors. We want to thank them and the younger students who played many of the ensemble orphans for their great work. Magic Girls and Concert Choir are also completing festival performances in early and late April with Magical Girls and Symphonic Orchestra having traveled to Northern Arizona for a music tour last week. Orchestra and symphonic orchestra students performed at the eighth grade music invitational concert on the 9th where all district eighth graders

014experienced a concert from the BHS music ensembles helping them make their elective selections for the next year. At the end of April, the orchestra and concert choir choir will be evaluated by guest MENC clinician and adjudicator and they are working hard for that performance and evaluation. We had a lot happened last Friday. We held ASB elections, our autism acceptance spirit day and a burrows game night. Students had a lot of fun at the game night which featured board games, card games, and video games. Some lucky students won prizes. On Tuesday, we recognized military kids by wearing purple. Coming up is the most exciting dance of the year, prom themed Emerald City. Prom will be held at Saratoso on April 26th. Congratulations to Deil Hudson, Alex Gums, PJ Rivas, Estraa Ruiz Zorano, Charlene Munoz, and Hannah

015Lint for making our top six. The Friday before the dance, we'll be having our comfortable for classy spirit day where students dressed comfortably before getting dressed up for prom. Burrows Robotics qualified for world championships recently. They will be traveling to Dallas, Texas the first week in May for competition. We want to congratulate them on this achievement. This week, all juniors are doing the English portion of CASP testing. They will be taking the state math and science test next week. We hope they do well. We look forward to exciting news next month, including all the activities and ceremonies for the seniors. Go Burroughs. Thank you, Brody. We'll move on to item 6.2, reports from members of the board. Mr. first. Sure. Um, couple of things. Uh, first of all, I've been able to make it to,

016uh, the Murray, Monroe, and the Pierce open houses and, uh, it's always exciting to walk through the classrooms and see all the activity going on and and understand all the instruction and all the many, many different ways we utilize to try and reach kids and provide programs and educational for kids. It's it's f it's amazing. Um, as was mentioned by the burough's uh report, I did have the honor to participate with the uh production of Annie. And again, I have to tell you what, um, there were over a hundred kids involved in that production. Um, and there were kids all across the spectrum of what we have in our district. And the opportunity it gave them to perform, to present themselves before people is an amazing educational opportunity. And I am just I get goosebumps

017thinking about what we offer to kids in this district. It's amazing. Um I also had the opportunity to go to the eighth grade presentation where they made the the band and orchestra and and vocal music program made a presentation to the eighth graders. Again, an amazing production. The kids did a fabulous job. Uh and then later in in the in the week I was able to to I I drove the instruments to the u uh Arizona production uh for uh the uh the choir and orchestra. And again their musical expertise and their musical prod presentation was fantastic. But then I also went to some of the the other um excursions they went to and the educational opportunities again where they visited these pblo and the cliff cliff dwellings and the archaeologists that they spoke with

018and the interaction that was going on. Uh it to me what public education is offering for kids is amazing and and we've got to continue to support it. Which gets me to my my final comment. Um, next weekend, uh, we go to, uh, to Washington DC and our effort is to lobby Congress, uh, to see that the resources that are owed to public education in the states flow through. And I don't care what your politics is and how you make it happen. I think our message is it's critical that it continues to happen. We have significant need. We cannot delay. We cannot stall. We are in a continuum. And if there is a gap, we lose the opportunity for those specific kids. We cannot afford a gap. We experienced a gap through our experience with

019COVID. We don't ever want to do that again. We know what that costs. So, our message, I think, is clear. Um, we have children in need. There is funding that is owed. It needs the flow needs to continue however you figure out to make it continue and I I believe that is a worthy a worthy cause. Uh public education is too critical not to be supported in that way. Thank you, Mr. Paris. Mr. Gamble. Um well, it won't be as extent as that, but um I just it's just amazing the opportunities that our kids are having um in our town and the variety of um the talent our kids have. Um the Sarakoso is the hosting the elementary basketball team and that these have some wonderful talent as as fourth graders and you're just like

020wow they're going to they just have talent that's their go-to. And then the um the musical with all the kids there that was just my mouth I constantly was just amazing. That was awesome. And then of course our open houses um with all the academics and different types of talent of bringing in different academics. So it's just amazing. So I this is an amazing little town and seeing everybody's grandkids and now grandparents are coaching and and doing the volunteer work and so we need that in our town and I appreciate everyone who's doing all that. So absolutely. Yeah. Um I had the opportunity to do a couple things in the last couple weeks. One um was to help out with the U Junior Olympics and uh I want you to know Mr. Washburn, uh Mr.

021Martin and all the coaches, what a wonderful job they do on setting that up. That is a monster event and uh it went really smooth and we had tons of kids that were involved and what a great way to spend a Saturday. Uh it was a beautiful day and uh really enjoyed that and um our track team is doing awesome. Our cross country team did awesome this year. So kudos to them for what they do. And all the elementary teachers that have to go and set up all the events before that. It is a it is a it is a chore to get all through that. I appreciate the work that you all have been doing. I was also able to go to Fowler on Monday and let me tell you um Miss Brown and

022her staff did an awesome job. I I went through every single classroom and I'm telling you, I could not be an elementary teacher. The artistic ability that they have to set up those classrooms. So, those kids, it's it's like a I mean, it's like a great learning experience. And um I just really appreciate what you do and your uh your teachers. It's an awesome job over there. Thank you so much. showcase. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Um I I had the opportunity this week. Um it's nice to be back on the board, but at the same time, it's kind of cool to get back in the classroom and see what's going on. The two years I was off. Um a lot of things have not really much has changed. I mean, great teachers doing great work

023in the classroom. Monday night, I went to Inern was at where' I go to Tuesday. You're at Murray. I was at Murray and then last night I went to Richmond. So, um great fun. It's I'm so excited when I went to Richmond to know that next year Richmond will be in the brand new school and just I I feel sorry for the teachers having to move because that's always not fun moving, but I think the move is going to be awesome for for the staff and for the students and for the whole community to have a brand new school that we can all enjoy. So, thank you. Thank you. I also attended back to school and Elena went to uh Annie the musical. I was kind of disappointed that I didn't realize that you had

024different cast members in different parts on the two different weeks and I kicked myself for not going twice. So, but uh my wife and I really enjoyed the uh the presentation. Had a good time. Uh we'll move on to item 6.3, superintendent report. Dr. Moore, thank you, President Scott. And I just want to thank the team who presented about watchd dogs uh earlier this evening. It was a brief presentation. It's a fantastic program. We have several in the audience wearing yellow shirts to represent. And as I've had the chance to visit Inocern recently, it's really neat to see one of the volunteers out front with ID badge ready and just greeting each person as they're coming on campus and having that extra visibility. Um, appreciate that. And I was talking earlier today with a PTO

025leader from a different elementary school and there's a lot of interest and interest in scaling that up. And I know the Pierce team is willing to share and grow and I see the Gamboas in the audience too and this was their brainchild in bringing it to our district. So um a lot of exciting work being done there. Month seven enrollment is 4,871 which is last year this time was 5,037. So we're down 166. It's fluctuating up and down each month. Um, and we're watching that carefully and our attendance continues to be lower than desired at 88.2% for the most recent completed month. Um, so our schools are actively exploring ways to engage our students to have them in school attending and learning every day. Um, and to reduce chronic absenteeism, which is when a student

026misses 10% or more of the school days in a year. And that really adds up. If they do that each year, they're losing a year of education over the course of time. So just wanting to have students learn. That's why we exist as an organization and partnering with families to see how we can make that happen. Uh since the last board meeting, as has been mentioned, we've welcomed Mr. Tim Johnson on the board earlier this evening. He was sworn in and signed our social contract. And this is something that is facing us because it's how we work together as a governance team and it's part of our modeling of capturing kids hearts. And so welcome, Mr. Johnson. and uh it's glad to glad to have you as part of the team. We're thankful for the

027six community members who applied and interviewed for the position. Four of the five applicants um who were not selected because we only had one position have chosen to join our citizens oversight committee and that list is on the agenda later this evening for confirmation. So, we're excited and I see several of them in the audience this evening. So, thank you for your engagement and passion and support for our district. Um, and I joined the current district superintendents in Sacramento towards the end of last month sharing with our legislators and their staff members the importance of funding for our schools and providing local control for implementation and important initiatives. So had some really good conversations there and and are hopeful of some of the work coming out of that. We also held an LCAP advisory committee

028meeting in which participants helped us prioritize the actions and services based on the data and input we've been gathering over the course of the year. And so as we move into May and June, you'll be seeing the results of the work over the course of this year. But that was um it's one of my favorite meetings of the year. It's the culmination of okay, we've looked, we've studied, we've listened, now what are we going to do about what we're learning and studying? Um, and that was that recent meeting. I'll echo the spring musical was a blast. A lot of fun and and familiar faces on stage. The Walk for Autism took place last Saturday and once again our families and the community came together as a great time of awareness, fun, and exercise, food as

029well. And we saw so many of our educational partners and so just really appreciate all of them. And in particular, Mr. Delbick for his work in coordinating and bringing the team together. I know he didn't do it by himself, but he certainly is an important leader in that work and open house. Again, thank you to everyone who's been and done the t uh put the time in to welcome our families on campus and we have more next week. Uh so we're looking forward to those open houses. For the remainder of this report, I'd like to invite forward Mrs. Kristen Simpson, the coordinator of community schools. and we'd like to share a brief update on the work that's being done in that space. So, Kristen, take it away. Good evening. Okay, there we go. All right.

030Good evening, guys. Um, so community schools has been a work of heart. Always is. Um, and this is kind of like our year of review. Um, so buckle in. Uh, so when we talk about a community school, just for get every on the same page. We're talking not only about a physical place um where our schools reside, but also our set of partnerships that we have um with local businesses, government agencies, and the nonprofit sector. Um because we really are trying to wrap around and have a whole child approach. Um and to support them in under four distinct ways. um through expanded and enriched learning time, through collaborative leadership and practices, which really just means that we're getting everybody's voice at the table who needs to be in the room um to find out what

031is the support that we actually need um for our students um and to integrate um student supports. That could be anything and everything um that is outside of your school day that is going to impact your education. So, we're talking mental health, physical health, um all of those types of things. And then last but not least, active family community engagement because we know that without the partners of home and school, it makes it really tough to to educate a kid fully. Um, so we kind of leaned in to those last two pillars with active family community engagement as well as integrated student supports as the starting place for our community schools. Um, and as you can see, we started that with sports physicals clinic. We partnered with Richest Regional and this year we were able

032to serve 36 um students in that mobile unit specifically to get their sports physicals for u ready for their season. Um in addition maybe there it goes um in January we opened our family resource center which is kind of the the one place that families can go and access any time they like um to get assistance um with all of those things that you see on on the screen there. Um the clothing closet seems to be pretty popular as well as assistance with laundry and transportation. Um we also launched our parent learning series. It was a 10-week um effort um combining a lot of uh community partners in in our city um trying to bring in those that have the expert knowledge for all of these particular topics because no one person is expert on

033everything. And with that we saw 56 families and actually at last count I think we had a few more in the last round that I did not include. So it's probably more closer to um 60 of families that actually attended and those are unique families by the way. Um and then our mobile health services we were able to partner up with Big Smiles which is a mobile dentistry and bring it to school campuses. And through that effort, we were able to serve 52 students that got routine care with cleanings and even some minor care of fillings and and things like that. Anything else that was larger than that needed to be referred out to something that would not be done in a mobile clinic. Same thing with vision to learn some mobile optometry. We had

034gave 44 students eye exams and 41 of those 40 41 students um needed glasses and actually those glasses are going to be delivered to students on Monday. Um and then of course we did some community event participations. Um the picture is left but that's okay. Um we partnered with Bridge Regional at their health fair and we got out there and just to let people know about the resource center and the things that we have and through that effort we were able to connect with 30 families um as well as at the scholarship fair connecting with students and their families um in collaboration with the Rotary and Chamber of Commerce. And at that event we saw 80 students. And then our last and probably largest project of the year was um our snacks and packs effort

035trying to lessen the impact of food insecurity in our community. Um over that spring break time ordinarily our students get breakfast and lunch with us. But when we're not here they're not getting that. So, we combined um with our community, we local businesses donated food as well as monetary funds for us to go and purchase that um in conjunction with leadership richest. Um, and then 32 volunteers in our community showed up and showed out um, at the California Welcome Center to help us pack all 225 bags and then get those out to students on the Friday before spring break so that they had non-p perishable breakfast and lunch um, while we were not in session. And of course, all of that could not be done without the help of all of these folks that you

036see on the screen. Um and we are excited to continue this work in coming years and excited to grow it um and even bring in more partners. So thank you. [Applause] Thank you. We'll move on to item 64. Report to the board of trustees by the Desert Air Teachers Association. Miss P. Uh, good evening, President, President Scott, Superintendent, Dr. Moore, board members, colleagues, community. Uh, okay. You all talked about Annie, but I'm going to talk about it again. Um, it was completely fabulous. And there are two things I want to point out. And one is what you sort of touched on is that um having like we have terrific kids in this district and I think it's really awesome that we're able to see them outside the classroom, right? Still within school because not everybody,

037you know, is always at their best in the classroom. So to be able to see these kids and give them the chance to um to do something different and also to get that bridge right where now we're going to have the the Vapus School and and that we were able to bring so many of them up to Burroughs and you know keep them going, keep that drama department strong and just that whole idea of culture and that exposure new ideas. Um so that's fun. The students are awesome. The other thing that I want to talk about is a collaboration because this this happened because when I wanted to do a musical I two years ago how I don't know when we did Cinderella I emailed Mrs. Peterson said I want to do a musical. I

038know nothing about music and she came in and so we work together and we have true collaboration, right? We're both professionals. We both know our stuff and we know how to work together. And what I want to point out about this in the larger picture is that students get to see teachers working together because sometimes they think we don't talk and they're not always 100% honest. They're they're cute. So that they know, right, that teachers are working together and that they've got that continuity. But I also want to point out we like we all understand as teachers that collaboration is important, right? But collaboration doesn't always look like the way I think sometimes we imagine. So those Wednesday collaboration, we we love them at Burroughs. The English department really loves them. Um but that alone

039isn't enough, right? And so this idea of collaborating and working together outside of school hours and meeting when we can and then bringing this play together for example. I just want to point out that when you trust your teachers, right, the people you hired, the people that have the credentials to do their job and you let us do it, then you get this stuff like really great plays. And there are other examples, right? But I don't teach math or science, so I can't give those to you. But what when you let people who are good at what they do do what they do, you know, you get something phenomenal. So I just want to point that out because it's important and because they'll let me talk about the play a little bit more. Um, okay.

040Then I wanted to um say so it's open house week and it's another reason I'm with you on not teaching elementary. Um, so I've had a number because I go to the sites every day. I'm at a different site and I've had a number of teachers tell me, "Hey, schoolboard members are there." And and I just want to let you know that it matters when and I I don't know if you realize that, but when you show up at the schools, we pay attention and we see it and we we like it. So, I just want to let you know, keep going because it lets us know that you're seeing what we do. um testing. I think Burroughs is the first to do CASP and then it's uh middle schools and then elementary. Um so

041it went really well and after COVID it's really nice to see it go um smoothly. So uh I don't know I wrote that down but it was a lot of stress getting the test done today just in the sense that it's stressful. Um, okay. Also, uh, we have a a tenative agreement. So, that's pretty cool. We'll be, um, next week Data will be meeting. Uh, we'll tell them about it and then we'll have a meeting just so everyone can talk and we can, um, get the voting going. So, we should be able to get that all sewed up. So, it's always really nice when I can get up here and say, "Hey, we got to agreement." That that looks pretty good. Um, I want to also say please keep communicating with us. One of the

042things that I have found just as president of data is that I get a lot of um emails and conversations with Dr. Moore, she's very open to that, which I really really appreciate because even if you're disagreeing, right, when you're both open and talking, it just makes it better. So, I really appreciate that. Um from teachers perspective there's probably still probably always want more communication but um I want to say let's let's keep striving towards having a lot more uh with the reorg there's so much going on and sometimes it's just really helpful when someone says I know you know all this stuff but here I am to tell you again just having that person stand in front of you so I just want to you know encourage let's keep the communication open. Um I

043try to keep it open on my end. Um and thenum also I want to um say I I actually enjoy coming to board meetings. I don't know if it's a sickness. Um but my I mean a healthy a really healthy trait. Um but my um my three and a halfyear-old grandson is at my house and we're going to go tent camping in the backyard. backyard camping. Um, so I'm probably not gonna stay for the whole meeting because he he needs his nana. So, um, anyway, thank you for listening. And woo, an extra we get the whole week off, right? Nod your head if that's accurate. Thank you. Move on to item 6.5. Report to the board of trustees by the California School Employees Association. Sylvia I'm exhausted. Just letting you know. It's been a week.

044Just wrapped up my book fair. So, I'm I'm ready for my three-day weekend. Um, just to piggyback off of Eileen and the communication. We were able to meet with Dr. Moore, the three presidents. Um, we had a lunch and having that open communication is great. Um, there's still a lot of questions going on with the reorg and being displaced and you know whatever. So having those questions answered by Dr. Moore because she probably knows more than me or anyone else really what's going on. Um and being able to re relay that to my people is really good. I like that open communication um and having those meetings um as often as we can. So that was awesome. Um, we did have a a meeting this week and um, one of the things that has been

045brought to my attention before the meeting and then several times during the meeting was the fact that Lone Pine has um, uh, advertised for jobs down here. And I've had probably about 10 or so of my members. And then not just my members, but people that know that I work for the school district and I'm the president. Um, you know, do you think that this is useful for you? You know, in negotiations and whatnot. They know that I'm in negotiations. Um, just looking at it, one of the things that was brought up at our meeting was the fact that none of those jobs for classific for classified staff start off at minimum wage and we have quite a few of our jobs that start off at minimum wage and just how can we move away

046from that? Um, a lot of districts do not start off people with minimum wage. Um, and their turnover rate isn't as high as ours. Um, and uh, that's all I have for today. I'm exhausted. I hope you guys have a great Easter. You, too. Thank you. Move on to item 6.6, communications from the public. The board will provide time during the discussion of each agenda item for members of the public to comment. At this time, members of the public may address the board on an item not on the agenda. Comments should relate to items of public interest within the board's jurisdiction. The law prohibits the board from taking from taking action on items not on the agenda. If appropriate, your comments will be referred to staff for response. When addressing the board, please state your

047name and limit your remarks to three minutes. In accordance with the board bylaws, the board will limit the total time for public input to 30 minutes. Those wishing to to address the board beyond the 30-minut time limit may do so at the end of the scheduled meeting agenda. I'll open up public comment at 6:39. Sorry, I jumped the gun earlier. Good evening. My name is Elsa Hennings. I represent Realms Charter School. Uh, and I I'm gonna have trouble talking. Anyway, um, to the board members, earlier today, I sent you an email regarding the concern that I have. Um, uh, the concern is regarding the Proposition 39 reply, uh, from the school district. Um the uh offer for next fiscal year is the use of the Monroe uh campus uh sharing that with the Spectrum non-public

048school. This facility has reached the end of its useful life according to your long range facilities plan which is why it was recommended for closure at the end of the current school year. It's also not currently configured as an elementary school site. So this offer clearly fails to meet the proposition 39 requirement of accommodations in conditions reasonably equivalent to those in which CR sand students are accommodated. Furthermore, some information was missing from the documentation provided. Excuse me. And when we requested that information, we were told it would hopefully be made available to us sooner than April 30th, which is the day before we're required to give our uh response to the offer. We're we're frustrated and from Dr. Moore's response, I'm sure Sierra Sans is also frustrated uh with that the primary method that the

049state has established for charter schools to obtain facilities is for us to request them from school districts. Who has extra school sites? Nobody. Uh we understand the districts are struggling to keep up with their own facility demands without the added pressure of charter schools. Our families are part of the community that recently approved your $42 million bond so that much needed work can begin within the district facilities. But unfortunately this method of facility funding is not available to charter schools. So Realms feels that an inloo of proposition 39 agreement would be far more beneficial to both Sierra Sands as well as Realms. This process which was established in 2006 involves a district covering part of the lease cost of Realm's portable classrooms instead of having to divide one of the existing elementary school campuses to

050house us. This process is much less expensive and less complicated. Although we're frustrated with the Proposition 39 process, it is what it is. We must still do the best we can to provide suitable facilities for our students, just as you did with measure AA. And for that reason, we are prepared to pursue litigation regarding this matter, but would much prefer to negotiate a reasonable compromise so that we can all go back to our primary role of educating our students. Um, I would offer please feel free to contact me or the school if you'd like to work together to address this. That's all I have. Thanks. Thank you. Hello, I am Melinda Murray. I am a parent in this school district. I have a student at Murray Middle School. Uh education is a partnership between the

051district, the families, and our community. And at last month's board meeting, former board member Rockwell when discussing chronic as absenteeism asked for parents who are listening to do something different. My student isn't chronically absent, but in the interest of doing something different, I'm here today to ask that the board keep an open mind and own your contribution to this partnership. There are a number of scholarly research articles about chronic absenteeism. Based on that research, I have two asks. One is for the board. Please ask questions and be curious. Identify why these chronic absences are occurring. ensure that the district's approach is tailored to that data. I'd really caution you not to assume that parents can make this change alone. Please take time to understand how this district's major issues with bus transportation, staffing shortages, and

052campus culture are impacting attendance. They're intertwined. They're not standalone. For the administration, I ask that you please improve the school climate at sites that do have chronic absenteeism. Research indicates this is a viable method for schools to make an improvement in attendance without substantial financial con um investment, which is great. We don't all have the money for everything. School climate includes safety, academic equity, school satisfaction, school connection, and interpersonal connections between students and the staff, which we know is currently impacted by the teacher and substitution shortages that we're experiencing right now. If you want a real case example, you can look to our northern Kern County neighbors in Delano School District. They're being uh studied by several Ivy Leagues right now on their approach in attend and improving attendance and test scores. And spoiler alert,

053it's tied to school climate, not to the parents, you know, making changes to bring the kids in. In closing, I understand that funding is tied to attendance and I fully support promoting attendance. I also understand that logically it's profoundly hard to get students and their families on board with the importance of education when it doesn't feel like there's been a priority this year in hiring and retaining credentialed teachers. There are issues in our school district, as I said, that are inter intertwined with this absenteeism. You have students in this community that are spending class periods in the cafeteria because they don't have a substitute. They've gone months not dressing out for PE. They have entire class periods every day where they're told to play on their computers or phones because there isn't a lesson plan

054in this school district. They've suffered entire academic quarters without a permanent credentialed math teacher. I'm out of time. Can I finish my last two sentences? If you got just a couple of sentences. Do I blame those students for not wanting to go to school for feeling like they aren't a priority? No, I don't. And the solution is not as simple as asking families to do something different. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing no other takers, we'll go ahead close public comment at 6. Oh, forgive me. Last minute. Hi, my name is Mike Meyers and I work with Realms and it uh came to my attention today uh what seemed to be a real Shanghai job uh for us or on us uh wanting to move our campus to at the behest I guess of the uh

055superintendent of Sierra Sands to a all but yellow tagged uh school building for the the tidy sum 350 or 61,000 a year I believe. And that's uh sounds like slum lord uh kind of mentality. And uh I mean we're all colleagues regardless of what school we're in. Our job is to bring up children and teach them not just academics but open their hearts and minds. And we have to treat them as though they are our kids or grandchildren at times like a psychologist at times. That sense of compassion does not come uh uh easily. It is a rare group of people that does that. I have never worked in my life and I'm 64 years old and I started working full-time at 17 in a place with more love and compassion between the children, the

056administration, the teachers, and the parents as a school that I am in now. And to think that we would be 86 because of whatever budgeting concern, thoughts, competition. I'm not sure what it is. My mind is replete with u disturbing thoughts about this whole situation. And frankly, uh leave us alone. We've gone through hell in a hand basket to keep this school going, to move it forward, and we have succeeded. And to be slapped in the face like this is a insult at best. So, forgive my forward opinions, but that's where I'm at. Thank you. Thank [Applause] you. Seeing no other takers, I'll go ahead and close public comment at 648. Move on to item seven, policy review committee. Item 7.1, approval of updated board policies and administrative regulations. Dr. Moore. Yes. Thank you. The

057board policy review committee met recently and reviewed a number of policies and administrative regulations which you see on the agenda. I'll draw your attention to the minutes of that meeting which are exhibit X which shows the extensive discussion and review that was made. Uh based on some recent conversations, I would like to pull um policy and regulation 5121 grades evaluation of student achievement. I anticipate bringing that forward next month, but we've had several questions and comments from staff uh that just came up recently and we'd like to make sure we have ample time for that discussion with those that hadn't been in the initial conversations with staff and committees that helped to develop that. So with that one uh removal, I'd be open to conversation discussion and of course we have our two board members

058who were part of those initial conversations that are available to share. Mr. First, I'd just like to first of all thank the committee. uh a lot of policies here. A lot of work was done to review and recommend to us and I really appreciate the hard work. As I look through them, I just couldn't help but be astounded by how many different ways we attempt to meet the needs of the variety of students that we have in our charge. Um I I think many people on the street have no understanding at all of just how far we go to try and find the ways to meet the needs of all the students that we we have because they all have so many different backgrounds and so many different needs. Um it it's a lot more

059complicated than I think the the general individual understands and I really appreciate the work that goes into this and the efforts of our staff and our teachers and our administrators and our parents to uh to meet this this obligation. uh understanding what responsibility we have. It's and uh so I'm in significant support of what I see and read before me based on those concerns. Any further questions or comments? I mean board for two years. I I really appreciate doing it this way with committee instead of us trying to review all these because I think the due diligence of most of us didn't have the time to truly get involved and get the data we needed to vote on these. So, thanks you two for having a committee and bringing a consolidated list of things to

060look at and make it easier for the board and for the community to have the correct data with with good attention by everybody. So, thanks. We have a motion. I move recommended action. We have a motion. Is your motion to My motion to approve as amended? Okay. And we have a second. Any further questions or comments from the board, staff or community will have a preferential vote? I board all in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Yeah. And I I stopped by the district and I think you guys were standing out front. You guys look exhausted that day. I heard you guys have marathon session in there. Move on to item Yeah. Item eight, educational administration 8.1, approval of Frog Street adoption for transitional kindergarten instructional material recommendations. Lisa. Yes.

061Good evening, President Scott. Members of the board, Superintendent Dr. Moore, community that Oh, there you go. That's much better. All right. The first one. In 2013, we started educating our transitional kindergarten students with a program called Frog Street. And recently in 2020, they revised their instructional materials to better address the unique needs of actual preschoolers. And so we had our district instructional materials review committee take a look at the upgrades, compared it to the original version, and they unanimously voted that yes, it's time to update since it's been so many years. And so we would like to recommend that we um move to the 2020 version. And the actual proposal for the cost is 72,000 and it will be funded with one-time restricted funding sources. We we have a motion in two seconds. Any questions

062or comments from the board, staff or community? Brody will have a preferential vote. I board all in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. It looks like you got number two as well. approval of benchmark advance 2022 adoption for K6 and extension of instructional material recommendation. Very similar. You're going to notice a theme tonight. In 2017, we started using a program called Benchmark Advance for our kindergarten through fifth grade English language arts um program. And the language adoption cycle has kind of been stalled right now. And so we are being proactive in again updating our materials to a new version which was done in 2022. And the same district committee met and they unanimously recommended that we do update. And there's also one addition. We are adding sixth grade because they

063are now going to be at the elementary level. So this will be K through six with the same um material. And so, uh, the financial implication is a, and this is a five-year extension. Don't have a heart attack. It's $769,000 and will be funded with one-time restricted funding sources. So, we recommend the approval of the updated 2020 version of benchmark advance. I like the 8.1 better. Move to recommend action. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments from the board, staff, or community? Brody, your preferential vote. I board all in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? It's unanimous. Thanks, Lisa. Move on to item 8.3. Approval of my perspective extension of seventh and eighth English learning English language arts instructional materials. Dr. Safco. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening,

064President Scott, members of the board, superintendent Dr. more staff and community. Um, this proposal is for my perspectives, which is a seventh and eighth grade English language arts adoption. It's a five-year extension uh to be proactive in the stall at the state level for instructional material cycles. The my perspectives 5-year extension is approximately $111,000 and it'll be funded with one-time restricted resources. And it's recommended the board approve the my perspectives extension for seventh and eighth grades. Recommended action. Second. We have a motion in a second. Any questions or comments from the board, staff or community? I just have one quick question. Mr. Johnson, on all these new adoptions or not extensions, are these the latest versions of the soft the systems they have out there? because it seems like weird like something like like 2020

065they haven't done anything to upgrade your stuff in five years these companies. Yes. So I'm going to go to Frog Street which is what we presented first which is comprehensive. It's like English language arts, math, science, history. So yes, there are updated versions. Um it's common now to have many digital components and so that's um a benefit to districts that adopt uh material with digital components because those are able to be modified in real time. Let's say you notice a glitch or a problem in that material, then the publishers with very little cost and their software development folks can update it. So that would be a yes to Frog Street, a yes to benchmark advance. Phenomenal changes in benchmark and advance, but in my perspective, it's the same the same year, but the digital piece

066is updated. Okay. Thank you. Any further questions or comments from staff, public board? Brody, how about your preferential vote? I move on the board. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? It's unanimous. Move on to item four, approval of ethnic studies course. Dr. SACO. As you may be aware, Assembly Bill 101, pupil instruction, high school graduation requirements, ethnic studies in 2021 mandates a minimum of a one semester course of ethnic studies as a graduation requirement for pupils graduating as of the 2930 school year. So the purpose of this recommendation of a one semester American literature ethnic studies course is to meet the requirements set forth by Assembly Bill 101. And as you also may be aware we had a special board workshop in February where we had an extensive discussion about

067the the state context and then also meeting our local context and are reflective of what our community um values and our priorities. So ultimately the course was developed by Burough's high school staff and borrowing from Eileen P's comment um the collaboration between experts and doing good work. This would be an example of that. So the course will complement students junior year study for this first go at implementation. It's it's a companion to American literature in keeping with California state standards. Um it will be A throughG approved. Um and it was uh again discussed um there aren't many financial implications because it is an American literature uh focus of ethnic studies with literature we already have adopted our anthologies and novels. And so if there happens to be a cost we can either use some one-time

068ethnic studies funding or uh Prop 20 lottery money uh for the purchase of instructional materials. So, it is recommended that the board approve ethnic studies American literature as presented. Recommended action. We have a motion in a second. Any questions or comments from the board? Um, oh, go ahead, Mr. Broy. Sorry, he was quicker than you. Sorry. Go for it. Um, so just make sure I'm reading this right as a clarification. So, it says it's required for uh 2029 2030 uh graduates. So that'd be next year's uh freshman over at Burroughs. It's not a requirement for the current freshman and sophomores. Will they still have the option for this class? Like if they want to take it or is it implemented later? Great, great question. So we're choosing to implement it next year so we can

069see the impact and what the need is. Um so typically if it's an 11th grade course at Burroughs, it's not open to freshman and sophomores. However, with our credit recovery model or like let's say somebody wanted to take a similar course at Sarakoso, there may be some equivalency. Short answer to your question, no. Freshman and sophomores won't be able to take the course next year. I meant when they got there, but we would start it next year in juniors. So, it won't be required for graduation per se from the state, but we are planning to start it. Yeah. And so yes, when they get it too, but also the juniors who wouldn't naturally be on that path will be getting it started next year. Well, I would say have the opportunity. Was it Mr. Campbell?

070It was I I had a couple um not really questions, but um I just wanted to say when when I first saw this a couple years ago, I I got some kickback from some people that said, "Hey, I don't know, man. I don't know about this. This looks pretty crazy." Yeah. And um I got to tell you um I went through all this curriculum. Um, I talked to um, Susie Burgess earlier on about this and you know, I I tell you what, I think it's could be an exciting historical class where our our students could really learn where their their family came from and some of the, you know, hardships that the different cultures have. And and I think I think if this is taught right, this is going to be an awesome class. Um

071I do hope that there will be some you know there's obviously a lot of negative things that have happened to people before as we came into America and you know the Native Americans and so forth and uh and all the different people that had to have had their struggles. But I do think, you know, there's a lot of positive things that we've done in this world to help um immigrants that have come across our country into our country that want to come to America. And so I think if we really look at this class, you know, the way I first looked at I go, whoa. And now I look at it as something that I think could really be something that could really help our students um really see what's really going on in our

072uh in our world in the past and hopefully in the present. So I'm looking forward to it. I'd kind of like to take the class but probably a little old. Thank you. Appreciate it. Any further questions or comments from the board? Mr. I think one one comment I would make similar to what uh Robert was saying is I think this came up in our discussion when we had our work session to me this has a a great deal of benefit to develop understanding and I think all we can do to help people develop understanding of one another will go far for all of us as we build our communities in the future develop understanding and our community the teachers that developed this curriculum took into account our community's um values which was very important which

073you know it's not the stigma of whatever's out there right now but so this is nice it's on the positive any further questions or comments from board staff or community I just Thank you for putting together that workshop that we did back in February. It was very enlightening and I mean we spent a lot of time and effort to get to the point where we're at. So, all right, we'll go to Brody with his preferential vote. I we'll go to the board. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? It's unanimous. Move on to item 85, approval of eenuity. There you go. for alternative education, instructional materials and course adoption recommendation. This is an exciting um board header. It's more curriculum which of course is near and dear to my heart. Um but

074this is the frui this is the fruition of the work. Um as you are aware the board prioritized choice for our students and we have high desert school coming into existence and we needed um a rigorous curriculum that could be accessed online and so egeneuity uh fills that need. Um it will be our alternative education curriculum um that mosquets some mosquite students may be using not all but some high desert school from 7th to 12th grade and even our credit recovery. So it kind of synchronizes um and ensures a rigorous access to appropriate materials. So the egenuity quote of $54,400 again is going to support alternative education programs expenditures will be multifunded through restricted and unrestricted general fund and it's recommended the board approve the adoption of egeneuity and courses as alternative education instructional materials.

075Move recommended action. Second. We have a motion in a second. Any questions or comments from the board? Just Mr. just one fairly simple comment. I as I read through all the options in that presentation, boy, anything one would want to learn about is in there. So, the the breadth of opportunity that we're offering kids is just phenomenal. Just phenomenal. So, I don't know how you can get any any more options than that and be able to cover it, right? It's pretty impressive. Pretty. And my my first question, wait, is all of this available to our students? And the answer is yes. Yes. So astounding. Astounding. And and I'll tell you, I I think that's what we, you know, when I was in education, I ran into a couple roadblocks where kids couldn't do certain things.

076Yes. Because of Ed Code. And I'm so glad that we've come to this where our kids can get the choice to um to go the way they want because Everybody's made a little bit different and I'm glad that we're giving them more choices. So I agree. Any further questions from board, staff or community? Brody, how's your vote here? I. We'll move on to the board. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? It's unanimous. We'll move on to 8.6. approval of meet the master supplemental art programs and supplies through Pierce Academy of the Arts. Miss Decker. All right, this one's really exciting for me. We did our VAPA advisory seems like eons ago, but part of that was to offer expanded learning after school and so Mrs. Baka, the principal at Pierce,

077met with her VAPA leadership team and they came across a program called Meet the Masters and they would like to use this for the first year of implementation as we scale up our VAPA ecosystem. And so these are specifically tailored to elementary school and they are based on the VAPA standards. So the kids will be learning about visual and performing arts as they go and they're easily taught by anybody. It doesn't have to be a certificated teacher. And so there are five art units and six supply packages included. So they would get everything they need to do the the lessons and it's um 16,000 about uh $16,700. And we are going to be using title 4 funds. So it's recommended the board authorize Pierce Academy of the Arts to purchase the artist lessons and supplies

078to assist with the launch of the academy next fall. Second. We have a motion in a second. Any questions or comments from the board, staff or community? Just want to echo the exciting. Yeah, that it is. Any further comments or questions? Brody, what's your preferential vote? I. Thanks, sir. Move on to the board. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? It's unanimous. Move on to 7. Oh, there you go. Approval of supplementary instructional materials for TK8 STEM project lead the way. Dr. Safa, more excitement truly. So, this is another come to fruition moment. Uh, piggy backing off of uh Mrs. Decker and the VAPA Academy. This is um a recommendation for supplementary materials called Project Lead the Way for our STEM Academy. So you may be familiar with project lead the

079way because we currently implement some of the units in the gateway not gateway school but that's the portion that's sixth through 8th grade at Murray and then we also have some project lead the way classes at Burough's high school. So this is an extraordinary opportunity to finally have that elementary to high school articulation. So in project lead the way they have the launch curriculum which is TK through five and then of course sixth through 8th grade is called gateway. Um we did uh in the in the STEM academy we did research potential programs and we did deploy several members to a project lead the way conference and they came back with this recommendation because it makes sense for our districts and district and it's nationally known and um very well respected in the STEM community.

080We took that recommendation to the district instructional materials review committee. They also uh unanimous unanimously uh approved the recommendation as well. So the cost for startup for next year for the launch program is about $29,000. The gateway uh portion is more expensive. It's about $63,000. Um there are some minor costs through Amazon and other vendors for $415. Um, we plan, if you approve this, um, to multifund this. So, we can use some expanded learning opportunity program funding. We can use arts, music, and instructional materials block grant funding. And, of course, we can also pay for part of it through Proposition 20 lottery aortionment funds. So, it is recommended that the board approve project lead the way as supplementary instruction materials and the estimated costs for TK8 STEM. We would recommend action. Second. We have a

081motion and a second. Any questions or comments from the board, staff or community? You know, the only question I had and it's not really a question. Um I was the material that we could see it looked like there's a lot more handson and I don't know is it is that what we got a lot of hands-on stuff? Yes. So one of the challenges in presenting project lead the way courses to the board is that their material is very proprietary and so they'll give you an overview um and you're not privy to like the order list. So the best you can see is that extensive order list. So you can see that yes it's it's experiential. You're working on real world world problems through those units and so yes very hands-on. Okay. Thank you Mr. Ferris.

082I think besides the exciting that we're we keep talking about, I think the other thing that I want to acknowledge here is that all all of this transition that we're going through requires a lot of extra work and effort and a lot of folks are working diligently to make this transition as smoothly as possible. I think we as a board need to make sure we call that out to the community because folks are are really cranking it out and I know there's some there's some there's a lot of inspiration and excitement that that keeps that going but you know that only will go so far. So I think it's important that we recognize exactly what kind of effort this is taking and uh and then along with that ask for a little grace as we

083begin to open the doors next year and say okay now it's really happening where where do we need to address to to grease the skids if you will it it's a significant work it is and that adrenaline adrenaline does stop at some point in time. Any further questions, comments? Brody, your preferential vote. I board all in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? It's unanimous. Move on to item 8.8 approval of recommendation for the adoption of multitudes at the as the K2 risk of reading difficulty screener. You know, if we get you ladies to stay back here, we the district would have a little extra money left over, I think. But this is all good stuff for our kids. I know. I know. This is actually a new requirement. There is a Senate bill

084that is requiring that all kindergarten through 2 grade students must be screened for reading difficulties starting next year. And so the state has four approved screeners that are advisory. We've been doing a lot of advisories. This is another one. We got a group of people together and they looked at all four and they recommended that we adopt a program called Multitudes which actually comes from the University of California, San Francisco. And so we will be using this screener starting next year to screen all of our kiddos. And the nice part about this screener is it's free. So I didn't spend any more money. The state did give us like onetime money, but that's supposed to go to professional development to train the people to actually administer it. So that's the only cost there and they

085they gave us the money to do that. So it is recommended that the board approve multitudes as the kindergarten through 2 grade screener for the district. Move to recommend action. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments from the board, staff or community? Brody, how about your preferential vote here? I uh board all in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? It's unanimous. Move on to item 8.9 approval for contract with mindset safety management. President Scott, Dr. Moore, Superintendent, members of our board, and members of our community. Not easy coming up here. Not easy tonight following Dr. Safco and m Miss Decker but I will try. We I have a tough um this is approval for a contract with mindset safety management. Mindset safety management focus on managing challenging behavior

086by embracing a more productive proactive relationship ccentric approach. Its training curriculum emphasizes clear principles, effective communication strategies for preventing aggressive behavior and specific crisis management skills. Mindset safety management mission is to enhance individuals emotional and physical well-being by providing professional development and consultation services to organizations committed to fostering safety through a culture of prevention. They do so by providing training programs with an efficient and empathetic approach towards helping individuals in needs. This proc approach promotes safety and growth which in turns creates positive outcomes for the um staff and individuals served. Financial implications. The cost of the district for this program for the 2526 school year will be approximately $14,000 plus the cost of paying our employees for the training four days for training. This will be paid out of the sirand cell fun annual dispute

087resolution grant award funds. It's recommended that the board approve the contract with mindset safety management as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments from the board staff or community? Mr. affairs. I think to me this is another one of those examples of how hard we try to educate all students and it's not just in the academic area it's in in whole life instruction. So any further questions or comments Brody about your preferential loan? I the board all in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? It's unanimous and 10 approval of contract with Hannes family of programs. Yep. Okay. The term free and appropriate public education means speciala education and related services. A have been provided at public expense under public supervision and direction and without charge. B

088meet the standard of state educational agency. C include appropriate preschool, elementary school or secondary school education in the state involved and provide in conformity with the individuals uh individual education program required under section uh 614D. Under the requirements implementing the IEP, each public agency must ensure that a continuum of alternative placements is available to meet the needs of students with disabilities for special education and related services. The regulations implemented the IDA also include provisions related to students placed in residential treatment u facilities. Specifically, the regulations provide that if a placement in a public or private residential program is needed to provide special education and related services to a child with a disability, the programs including non-medical care room and board must be at no cost to the parents child's parents. On March 26th, 2025, IEP

089team held an amendment and at that amendment was recommended that the student have a more restrictive environment, specifically a residential treatment center for the student. The IEP team agreed and the district pursued placement for the student at a residential treatment center. The student was accepted into Hannes Family Programs in Love Vern and we'll start there next week. Um, the contract for April 24th, 2025 to June 30th, 2025 is not to exceed the amount of $72,64427, which is funded through the special education budget. The above noted figure reflects the total tuition cost, education services with a 101 aid, room and board and related mental health services and the estimate cost of the parents travel which is which provide student with a free and appropriate publication public education as described above and at present. It's recommended the

090board approve the contract with the Hannes family of programs as presented. Recommended action. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments from the board? I just have one. Why does a contract run past the end of the school year? Uh that's when our fiscal year end. So we go to the end of June and then we look at another contract and that's how it's um we do it through the state agency. It's a state contract that goes from July 1 to June 30th of the following school year. Thanks. And those rates are usually adjusted annually. So we don't necessarily have that yet. Thank you. Any further questions or comments from the board, Stanford community? Brody, how about your preferential vote? I board. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any

091opposed? That's unanimous. Move on. Thank you, Mr. Delic. Move on to item nine, personal administration. Mr. Al 9.1. Report to the board. Quarterly report of Williams uniform complaints. President Scott, members of the board, Superintendent, Dr. Moore, staff, and community. The Williams lawsuit settlement legislation requires the district's designate to submit a quarterly report to the governing board and the county superintendent of schools summarizing the nature and resolution of complaints addressing insufficient textbooks and in uh instructional materials. At this time there have been no complaints filed. So there are no financial in uh implications and this is presented asformational per forformational purposes only and does not require board action. Anyone have any questions or comments? Move on to item Thank you, Mr. Move on to item 9.2, approval of school psychologist salary schedule. So, as we um

092compete with other school districts to try to recruit highly qualified school psychologists, we we'd seen a trend um where school psychologists had been in some districts placed on the management team salary schedule. You might recall on September 19th, 2024 at the regular board meeting, uh you voted to approve anou with DEGA that released the position of school psychologist from their association. Uh the school psychologist salary schedule is included in the board packet for your review. The salary schedule derives from theou with da where all new school psychologists start on year 11 which is now the new step one and then the salary incrementally increases by 2.5% each year. Financial implications are difficult to determine because it depends on each candidates's years of experience. Um however uh in the the most recent times well actually right

093now we have several that we employ. So uh that that is good but um we've had to contract out and and so the cost while it would be more than the previous salary schedule would be less than what the contracted cost has been. It's recommended that the board approve the school psychologist salary schedule as presented. Move to recommend action. Second. We have a motion in a second. Any questions or comments from staff? I mean, from board, staff, or community. Brody, we're going to leave you out of this one. We'll go on to the board. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. On to item three, adoption of resolution 27 2425, teacher appreciation, weekend day of the future. M. It's hard to believe that we're almost to May. Um,

094certificated employees throughout California are recognized for their service to students and the educational community in the first week of of May annually. So, resolution number 27 declares the week of May 5th through the 9th, 2025 as teacher appreciation week in the Sierra Sands Unified School District. also designates May 6th as n national teacher day and May 14th as California day of the teacher. Adoption of this resolution designates a time when administrators, staff, parents, students, and the community have an opportunity to recognize and salute district teachers and their for their many contributions to our students success. Copy of resolution 27 uh will be displayed at all district schools and sites. There are no financial implications. It is recommended or yeah, it's recommended that the board adopt resolution number 27 as presented and approve May 5th through

0959th as teacher appreciation week, May 6th as National Teacher Day, and May 14th as California Day of the Teacher. Who would recommend that? Second. We have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments from the board, staff, and community? Brody, your preferential vote. I board. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Move on to item four, adoption of resolution number 282425, classified school employees week. Also in May, but a couple weeks later, uh we recognize our classified employees. Resolution number 28 declares the week of May 18th through the 24th as classified school employee week in the Sierra Sands Unified School District. Adoption of this resolution provides an opportunity for administrators, staff, parents, students, and community to recognize the many accomplishments and contributions of our classified staff. A copy

096of resolution 28 will be displayed at all district schools and sites. There are no financial implications and the recommendation is to adopt resolution number 28 as presented and approve May 18th through 24th as classified school employee week in the Sierra Sands Unified School District. Recommended action second. We have a motion in a second. Any questions or comments from the board, staff or community? Mr. Brody, what's your preferential vote? I board. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Move on to item five, approval of practicum fieldwork agreement with Concordia University. So the district periodically enters into an agreement with university to provide teaching experience through practicum fieldwork to students enrolled in school counselor in a school counselor program or school psychology program. Um, a practicum fieldwork agreement with Concordia University

097uh is being submitted for approval. There's no financial implications. It's recommended that the board approve the student teaching agreement with Concordia University as presented. Second. We have a motion, a second. Any questions or comments from the board, staff, or community? Brody preferential vote. I board. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any oppose? It's unanimous. Move on to item six. Approval of student teaching clinical experience agreement with the California State University, Sacramento. Mr. Same background information. It's just a different university and specifically in this case, it's for um teachers that are doing student teaching. Second. We have a motion in a second. Any questions or comments from the board, staff, or community? Brody, your preferential vote. I board all in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? It's unanimous. Move on to

098item seven, declaration of need for fully qualified teachers for the 2526 school year. Mr. So, the laws governing credential waiverss and emergency permits uh have authorized the commission on teacher credentiing to approve requests to wave laws or regulations governing educa educator preparation and licensing. Submission of a declaration of need for fully qualified educators by the employing agency is a prerequisite to the issuance of any emergency permit for that agency. There are no financial implications. It is recommended that the board adopt the declaration of need for fully qualified educators for the 2526 school year as presented. Adoption of this declaration again is a prerequisite to the issuance of any emergency permit in a specific area of need for next year's uh school year. Move to recommend action. We have a motion and a second. Any questions

099or comments from the board, staff or community? Brody preferential vote I board all in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed and unanimous thanks Brian move on to item 10 general administration 10.1 adoption of the board meeting calendar for the 2526 school year and Dr. for more. Thank you. We uh do this at this time each year for the new academic year and hopefully you've had a chance to take a look at those dates. Uh generally it's the third Thursday of the month with a couple of exceptions such as March um and June or we try to move it a little bit earlier in both of those months for a couple of reasons. And in addition to these, we know we will have special meetings or additional meetings in those months as needed.

100I've given you a preview of some of those in September, December, and May due to regulatory requirements that don't necessarily align with these meetings. Um, but we try to keep that regularity of the third Thursday in general when possible. Um, and sometimes this is hitting other deadlines. So, um, in general, one meeting a month, but sometimes we have multiple. happy to uh answer any questions or entertain discussion. I didn't know we had multiple meetings. Do you, Mr. Scott? We promised Tim We promised him we wouldn't have multiple meetings, right? I think we lied. Do we have a motion? Make a motion. I'll make a motion. Do we have a second? We have a motion in second. Any questions or comments regarding the uh board calendar on the board's staff or community? Preferential vote. Brody. I.

101The board. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? It's unanimous. We'll go with those dates. Item two, ethics and governance training. And Dr. Morgan. Yes. So, this is something that we've been following as a board. We know with the recent changes in legislation, it's been um clarified and newly required that the board school boards participate in this training as other um elected officials have had to. And it's a every two-year requirement that goes into effect um for this group that was in office as of January um and will continue. You know, we has this has to happen before January 1st of 2026. So, we've got a little bit of time. We've provided a number of training options. There are many more. These were some of the local or um generally conducted

102ones and happy to discuss. There is no expectation or requirement to do this as a group, but that's an opportunity. I know some have shared an interest in perhaps doing this together as a governance team. Um, some of you have already done this as uh in pilot groups and otherwise. So this is just open for discussion and interest and there is possible action if we would like to make a decision or or simply have a consensus is fine. Um I noticed here it says school legal we can go on April 24th in Bakersfield and it's because it's free which is nice supposedly. So I mean I I'm available that day if anyone else wants to go April 24th next I think it's next Thursday. It's probably the only day I am available. So Did they

103works for me? If anyone else wants to go, I I just like to add to the conversation. I I think in general it is very helpful when we do have the opportunity to do training together. I think for one thing, we all hear the exact same thing. Uh we can share among ourselves what we've learned. Uh and it gives that opportunity to to build our own relationships so that when we get to difficult discussions, we can have difficult discussions and respect each other and understand how that goes. Having said that, um I have already taken this class this year. I was in the pilot group for CSBAs. So, uh as much as I love taking those classes together, I don't want to do it twice. So, um for this particular goound, I would sit out

104whatever just decided by the group. And Robert, let me check my schedule because I might be free. I just need to get an answer tomorrow or something to see whether my weeks. Um, so I mean I just brought it out as something that if if everybody was available, we could knock it out and get it done. Um, but yeah, I know it is pretty soon. It's next week. Next week. So, but hey, it's local. I mean, Bakersfield is Yeah, the mountain we're there and back in one day. We don't mess with it. Let's chat. Because do we need a consensus or do we just need a if we're picking a free one, we don't need any action. Our our board policy requires if there's a cost for board members, we usually approve it in a

105board action, but this is a free one, so there wouldn't be any required action. Would we have to approve the travel? We can get you a district van or if you would like mileage, that would be the cost that we would want to Is this the one that they offered in Zoom? I'm sorry. Is this the one that they offered in Zoom to eliminate travel? So, they're they're suggesting going to Bakersfield in person. There are several um that are available and some of those Zoom ones have costs that aren't travel costs, but they are registration costs. So, it depends on um and then there are some that are simply online. You take it whenever is convenient for you. But if we have a a motion, if if uh leave those options whether somebody attended via

106Zoom or in person, it would cover those bases. If somebody made a motion to maybe approve all these options to either cover travel or registration, does somebody want to make a motion for that? April 27th, 24th. I think Mary's checking her account. What are you doing next Thursday, Mary? I mean, we're not obligated, but So, what you're wanting is a I think I think I'll make a motion that you're asking for. So, I would move that we approve whatever option is selected and encourage as many as possible to go to the uh Bakersfield 24th. We have a motion and a second for board members to pick one of these training classes and try and go with the free ones if possible. Um, any questions or comments from the board Stanford community? Brody, your preference vote.

107I board. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? It's unanimous. Move on to item three, approval of amended citizen oversight committee membership. Uh, Dr. Morgan. Yes. Thank you. So, we have originally approved this when we were doing the bond certification of the vote and since that time it's changed in a good way. It's grown and we did have to remove Mr. Johnson now that he has been appointed to the board. He is not allowed to be on that as a second separate entity that doesn't have staff or board members on it as a citizens oversight committee. So with those adjustments we have attached an updated list um for your approval and with this board action um the anticipation well we have later agenda item on approving the bond um issuance and

108so these meetings will be starting in the near future um led by government financial services. Move approval. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments from board staff or community? I I just have one. Um Mr. John, thanks in advance. I sat on this committee as a chair during measure A and the nice thing is you get you get to see the inner workings of how money is being spent, make sure it's appropriately being spent and provides transparency for the community to that we know that measure a money is being spent appropriately. So, I think it's Thank you all in advance that are that have volunteered to do this and um the board appreciates it. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Any further questions or comments? Uh Brody, your preferential vote. I board.

109All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Unanimous. Move on to item 11, construction administration. 11.1 report to the board of construction activities and issues. Mr. Moore, sir. Good to see you. President Scott, Superintendent, Dr. Moore, members of the board, faculty, and members of the community. This is our update for construction. Most of the construction we have going on in the district is at Richmond, and so we'll focus there still. I'll bring you up to speed on what's happening there. I showed you this quad area last month, but there was something drastically missing. It's our flag pole, and it's up where we'll have our 5x8 American flag beautifully a focal point in the middle of that quad area from the campus every morning at 8:00 a.m. You can hear very clearly the national

110anthem playing through the nearby naval speakers. Old Glory will wave to all the students if we ever get any wind here in Richest. There are a thousand little things that are all happening at the same time. I was out there at the site this morning and this afternoon. And you see right here, this is our our front entryway. Beautiful. It's not good enough. It didn't meet our standards. They have dug it out and they're relaying the concrete there for us. This is going to be worthy of the students that are going to be attending. All that's happening now and probably will be dry by Tuesday. Uh so that's all happening. That's just one example of we're not settling for. If this is going to be the jewel of Kern County, well then by golly, the

111kids are going to get what they deserve. The Richmond Kitchen will serve as a central prep area for food services around our district, and the state-of-the-art is necessary for all of that. I was excited about this when I thought we'd be the first school in Kern County to have its own still. As it turns out, that's just those are just is this on record? Those are just steam pots. And so if we need to serve rice up for five or six hundred kids at one time, we will be equipped and ready to do that. Uh it'll be a marquee school like we promised. These are some pictures from from this morning as well. The furnishing company has begun assembly of the classroom furniture. These movable desks look very simple, but they'll give the teachers an

112opportunity to shake things up from morning to afternoon if they want to and allow them to customize the classroom layout to better suit whatever the students are doing at the time. If you can see in the back right hand the the whiteboard with the notes on there, those aren't just notes. Those are plat maps showing where the rest of the furnishings are going in which classroom. like the stools that we have that that look like little stumps from trees, movable teaching stations, learning stations, and media centers, what I used to call libraries when I was a child. But we're in the second quarter of the 21st century. So, we adapt. I'm especially proud of the special education, adaptive learning, physical therapy, medically fragile, and life skills components that are going in. We're equipping our staff

113to better be prepared than ever to service all of our students regardless. As you were mentioning before, all of the students, regardless of their needs, we're going to be open on schedule. Over the summer, we'll be moving educators and their tools around the district campus site, strategically positioning them to tend to the students needs where they attend. And that's my April 2025 construction update. Thank you, President Scott, Superintendent Dr. Moore, members of the board, faculty, and community. And a special welcome back, Mr. Johnson. Anyone have any questions? Well, we'll hang tight. We're going to move into the uh special concurrent meeting item number one, adoption of agenda. Oh. Oh, I I'm sorry. I thought I thought Mr. Moore was doing My apologies. Yes. Adoption of the agenda. Any changes? No changes. No changes. Item two,

114construction administration. Uh 2.1 approval of Santa Clarita concrete change order number SEC-024 for cost associated with the sidewalk from Pierce Elementary School campus to the new Richmond Elementary School campus. Um Jeffer, sorry. Good evening, President Scott, members of the board, Superintendent Dr. Moore, staff and community. As we've just seen, uh, we have a beautiful jewel of a school and it is right next door to Pierce Elementary School. It does serve currently the students that live in that surrounding neighborhood for Pierce. However, the new Richmond Elementary School is being built on federal land within walking distance of the Pierce Elementary School campus. Since the students who live in the Pierce neighborhood will be zoned for Richmond Elementary next school year, the students need a sidewalk from the Pierce campus to the Richmond campus so they can

115safely walk to school. The concrete sidewalk is included in the scope of work for New Richmond. Um, however, we do need to have um a change order SEC-024 approved to uh increase the amount of cost toward that sidewalk. And the total cost is $300,478.89. It is a 5.7% increase over the original agreement which was $5,262,000 with Santa Clarita contract and it was approved by the board July 9th 2023. that the cost will include uh a 10% bond and it will be funded by an 8020 split between the Department of Defense Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation which is the OLDCC grant and Sierra Sand Unified School District's fund 40 special reserve fund for capital outlay projects respectively. The total cost of those the actual split is $240,383 and60,96. So um the recommen it is recommended

116that the board approve Santa Clarita concrete change order SEC024 for costs associated with the sidewalk from Pierce Elementary School campus to the new Richmond Elementary School campus as presented. Move recommended action. Second. We have a motion in a second. Any questions or comments from the board? I I just had one. The original comment you said it was part of the original scope. Yes, it is included in the scope of work that we presented to the OOLDCC and but created concrete didn't appropriately for that scope of work. It wasn't included exactly. It wasn't included on that package. So this is something that we had included as site work with our grant and now it is coming up um that we're going to be doing the project and so it's all concrete. So the concrete contractor will

117be performing that work. So the general contractor missed it in their flow down of requirements of the subcontractor. Is that what happened? I'm sorry you didn't hear that. The question is why wasn't it originally in the bid and that's probably what it was because it was in the original plans and it just didn't get bid as far as who was going to do it in that original package. So the prime doesn't have any responsibility to pay part of this since they missed it in their scope of work. I'm just trying it's a lot of money for a change order this late in the game on some that's a that's a huge scope creep on a $5 million concrete bid. We've had a lot of changeover, including Jeff, Jennifer, and me since all that happened. So,

118we can research that for you. We just maybe don't have an answer. We've hired a a construction manager to run the the project. And that's that's their responsibility to make sure stuff like this don't doesn't happen. Now, we're down to the 12th hour and they're coming with a change order for a sidewalk, which should have been obvious that they had to provide that in the original scope of work. So, I'm late in the game personally been watching so far, but it's just interesting that these things pop up last second and that's $300,000. That's a lot of money for, you know, but it's a long that's like a half a mile of concrete. That's a long sidewalk. It is a big sidewalk. And thank God we're only responsible for 20% of it. Oh, I know. Yeah.

119I mean, I'm But it's still taxpayers money. Yeah. Whether it's 20% of ours or, you know, 80% of the federal government, it's still, you know, $300,000 of taxpayers money that's being spent on something that should have been included in the original bid. And it sounds like it was and the sub the prime didn't float it down to the subcontractor for their bid. So that you know it is what it is today. But I it'd be nice to see what the what the prime says. You know as a construction manager is their responsibility to make sure stuff like this doesn't happen. That's all I have. Thanks. Any further questions or comments from the board? Any questions or comments from Stanford community? We have a preferential vote. I board all in favor signify by saying I. I.

120I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. We will adjourn the special concurrent meeting. Go back into the regular meeting. Uh item 12, business administration 12.1, adoption of resolution number 24, correction 292425, authorizing the issuance of bonds. Jennifer, thank you. Measure AA was approved by our voters within the district at the November 2024 election authorizing $42 million in general obligation bonds to help fund various facility projects. The board is being asked to consider the adoption of a resolution authorizing the sale of the first series of measure AA bond general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $21 million. In addition to the resolution in the package, it includes um authorization the sale to an underwriter to be selected using a competitive selection process. It sets forth a good faith estimate of the costs of the financing in

121exhibit A. It approves the main financing documents in draft form and authorizes certain district officials to execute the final versions of the documents with the information from the sale. There is no impact on the general fund. The bonds are repaid by taxpayers who own property within the district. The cost of the issuance of the bonds will be paid from proceeds of the bonds and no such cost will be paid from the general fund. A good faith estimate of the costs of the financing is included in the resolution in exhibit A. It is recommended that the board adopt resolution 292425 to authorize the issuance of the bonds. Recommended action. Second. We have a motion in a second. Any questions or comments from the board, staff or community veral? I uh board all in favor signify by

122saying I. I. I. Any opposed? It's unanimous. We will temporary journ the regular meeting and we will move into in your current school finance and authority board of directors meeting on to item number one adoption of the agenda. Any changes? No changes. Approval of minutes of the regular meeting of March 13, 2025. Any corrections? Minister will stand. and items three approval for use of Inyouarn schools financing authority funds. Jennifer, thank you. In 1990, Sierra Sands Unified School District and Lone Pine Unified School District formed the Inyoc Kern Schools Financing Authority, also known as IXva. As a result of that agreement, Lone Pine Unified School District agreed to make annual lease payments on the property leased from the authority by the Lone Pine Unified School District. The funds held at the Kern County Treasury Tax Collector

123are used for facility related costs. At this time, the district requests authorization to transfer $2 million from the IXA fund to fund 40 special reserve capital outlay for ongoing and future facility projects. It is recommended that the board of directors approve the request to use inocern schools authority dollars to transfer related funds. Recommended action. Second. We have a motion in a second. Any questions or comments from the board, staff or community? Brody. Preferential vote. Brody doesn't. I'm sorry, Brody. My bad. You're excited. Yes. Yeah. Sat goes. No, I don't I'm not supposed to I'm not in this forward. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? I know. My my bad. Um item four, adjournment. We'll adjourn the current school financing authority meeting. We'll go back into the regular meeting to item

12414 consent calendar. Consent calendar. We have Bill was planning to abstain from 14.2. You were just going to take one piece of a report off. I I thought we were taking whatever whatever you want. Okay. I can take the entire Yeah, just 14.2. I think if we do all of the extent consent calendar um with with the absence of 14.2 perhaps is the amended motion. You want to amend your motion? We'll take two off there. We have a motion for the entire consent calendar except for two. Yes. Second. We have a motion and second. Uh all in favor signify. Brody, I'm sorry. Brody, you're see I'm getting it backwards now. Preferential vote. I Thank you, sir. The board. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? It's unanimous. Now we'll move on to

125item 14.2, certificate of personnel. 14.2. Second. We have a motion and a second. Uh, roy preferential. I'd just like to comment. I am abstaining because I have a relative on the personal order. I board all in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Okay, that's uh passed uh four with one abstain. One one abstain. Move on to item 15, future agenda. Any future agenda items? Then we'll move on to item 16, launch. I found a little quote by Thomas Edison. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. adjournment. The next regular meeting of the board of education will be on May 15, 2025. Uh happy uh Good Friday tomorrow. Happy Easter this weekend. Uh Paul, before you take off, did you get a

126Did Dave Oash reach out to you this evening? No. I'll need to speak to you for a second before you take off. Are we going back to close session? Yes. Uh the board will be going back into close session. Uh no no action will be taken in close session. Get it.