001Everyone, it is my pleasure to call the regularly scheduled board meeting of the ESUSC governing board to order at 6 PM. There we go. We're in order. Uh we will start tonight with a pledge of allegiance led by the fabulous birthday girl, Miss Daim Weaten. [screaming] To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible andice for all. >> We'll spare the public singing of happy birthday but uh it's not agenda so we can't do it anyway. Um, at this time we are in the agenda hearing period, public communications. I have two cards of speakers tonight. If anyone else wishes to speak, please turn in a card right away if you can. And um, all right, let's start with uh, Mr. Croft. Warren Croft,
002a non-aggenda item. Two minutes. >> I'm sorry. Yes, I meant to say three. I'm distracted. One three minute time frame for you, Mr. Croft. Thank you. >> All right. Good evening, President, members of the school board, Superintendent Johnson, fellow teachers, and members of the Elsa Gundo community. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. My name is Warren Croft and I'm a Spanish teacher at Elsagundo Middle School. This is my ninth year working in Elsagundo school district and my 20th year in education. I feel fortunate to have found my teaching home in Elsagundo after moving back to the South Bay in 2016 from Minneapolis, Minnesota after living there for 23 years. In my opinion, Elsa Gundo is the best district in the South Bay. I love teaching our students and celebrating their successes.
003Last weekend, I attended the book launch of two former students at the Elsagundo Public Library. Elsagundo is truly a remarkable community that I'm proud to be a part of. Yet, in spite of that, I'm here to talk to you about three points teachers are negotiating for in our contract. Not because they're outcomes that are good for teachers, but because they're what's best to build an ideal learning environment for students. Firstly, class size. Elsagunda does not have a maximum number in regards to class sizes. Instead, we use a ratio system of students to staff, which means teachers nor parents know for sure what the actual cutoff number is for class sizes. What we're asking for is simple, clear maximum class sizes for grades 4 through 12, so everyone knows the limit. And if a class goes
004over that number, then teachers are compensated. Clear rules help schools plan better and help students get the attention they deserve. By the way, this is also the practice in neighboring school districts like Manhattan and Redondo. Secondly, we're asking for a reduction in the hours of service. This means we want all meetings to end at 3 p.m. The reduction that we're asking is that teachers not be asked to work extra time outside their normal duty day. For example, at Elsagundo Middle School, approximately twice a month on Mondays, teachers are asked to work 30 extra minutes over their normal duty day, sometimes doing tasks that could be covered on inservice no student days. Finally, we're asking for increased compensation and pain benefits. What teachers are asking for is to be compensated equal to what we're worth. For
005teachers like myself that call Elsando home, we pour our heart and soul into our work. For us, teaching is not a job, but a calling, and the school really does feel like a family. I truly want to help our students achieve. I want them to feel challenged while discovering the joy of learning. But when the district lowballs teachers during negotiations over paying benefits, it often feels like we're not appreciated for the job we do. The end result is new teachers look for better paying jobs while burned out lifers wonder why they continue to work so hard. In closing, I'm asking that the district negotiate in good faith with ESTA and think about how insisting on a ratio for class sizes, not reducing the hours of service, and saving a little money not only hurts teachers,
006but students and the entire Elsagundo community. Thank you. Thank you, Prof, for coming in and for your colleagues for being here. And our second speaker this evening is Miss Cheryl Smith. Also a non-aggenda item. Three minutes for her as well. Please come on up, Miss Smith. Hi, my name is Cheryl and I would like to recognize the effort of volunteerism by pointing out that someone is here on their birthday and even though she's a volunteer. So, I'd like to sing that happy birthday song. >> Ready? Begin. >> Happy [groaning] birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. [singing] Happy birthday to you. >> Daima's service epitomizes what it means to be a volunteer and to always be here and put everything like volunteering first and I really appreciate that dedication. So now, >> hi,
007my name is Cheryl. I'm with the PTA council. Um, that was my other thing, but I was going to be here first, but we just happened to have an amazing opportunity for me to brag. So, um, I want you to all know that confidence code was an amazing success. It was so wellreceived. This was the first time that we created a consistent program across all schools except the high school. Um, so the two elementaryaries and the middle school, across parents, teachers, and staff. We really tried to take the message and incorporate it in everybody. We received positive feedback from everybody. We're hoping that this also sticks. So, while we're saying, "Yeah, we received positive feedback," we're kind of holding, you know, to just see how well it actually sticks. So, I'm I'm really hopeful that
008this is what it's going to be and everybody will remember the piece. The piece is the first part is don't get upset and the second one is make a friend. So um I just also want to share a couple stats. Um for the November we had to cancel it for November we had 266 RSVPs for the family game night. That's phenomenal. That's huge. Um not really [clears throat] because for this one we had 450 RSVPs. Um, we had 50 RSVPs come in on the day of the event. That's how much interest, that's how much excitement there is about this. That's how important this message is about self-confidence, resilience, and I I really hope that the district and PTA can continue to partner with this. Um, actual in attendance, we had over 300 people in that
009room last night on a Monday night. Just phenomenal. Um, I also wanted to give a huge shout out to the district, to Jason. Truly, we are so appreciative of the partnership that was here, all the teachers who attended the staff meeting, all the custodian help that made it happen and come together. They turned everything over. The technology team was on it. Whenever we had a question, setting things up, they were there. Jason was in charge of getting the message out. He was, you know, getting the teams. Kim was in charge of I mean really no this spanned everybody. Danny's team, Kim's team. She she helped us with getting the um the the daycare there and the and the people there. It was just amazing. So truly a remarkable partnership and thank you so much. Thank
010you. Thank you for making this happen. We really appreciate it. Thank you. We're having a discussion about these tempting treats that are up here. Also not agendaized, but we're gonna we're going to go ahead and I think we'll leave that there for now and the birthday girl can help share it later afterwards. Such a such a pleasant honor. Also not agendaized. Um uh if we make this meeting fast then you can all enjoy the method. So um so next our agenda special presentations uh in place of Maddie tonight for our student representative report we have Emma. Emma if you would like to turn on your microphone and tell us what's happening. Good evening everyone. My name is Emma Eisenberg, the ASB secretary, filling in for Maddie, who is at her soccer senior night tonight. We've
011had a busy start to our second semester and cannot wait for all that is to come. We recently had our winter pep rally. Shout out to Dr. Jay and the middle school ASB leaders who were able to go. Last week, we had teacher appreciation night to honor our lovely staff at basketball. We also had the superintendent advisory meeting last week where we finalized topics to discuss with students and why they were important to us. Last Friday, we had our initial senior biomed presentations in the library. Thank you to Dr. J and Mrs. Beley who were able to attend. We also recently had our political behavior video competition and presentation and thank you so much to those who were able to attend as judges. Looking ahead, we have our annual chess tournament this week and we
012have basketball senior night on Friday. We hope to see you there. And that's all for my report. Thank you. Thank you, Emma, for filling in. Emma, uh you you you don't have to stay since you're not the sworn in person that has to vote and do all that stuff. You're welcome to stay and enjoy and maybe stay for the treats. Um but you you're allowed to go if you have other things to do, just so you know. But but thank you. We appreciate that you've been here to fill in for Maddie. Um okay. Next on the agenda, we have an update from ESTA. If if there is someone to speak officially tonight, Mr. Luth making his way. >> Good evening. Good evening. There we go. [clears throat] Round two. At our most recent bargaining session,
013the district rejected reasonable proposals on class size and workload protections, proposals that fall within the district's current practices. The district refused to establish class- size limits for grades 4 through 12, rejected compensation for oversized classes in TK to 12, and declined to even discuss workload limits or additional compensation for elementary specialists like art and music teachers, some of whom serve approximately 750 students each week. And in the case of art, over,300 students. These decisions matter. Class size and workload are not side issues. They directly impact student learning, educator burnout, and staff retention. When educators are overloaded without limits or compensation, students lose access to the individualized attention they deserve. ESTA has also put forward its initial proposal on compensation because fair pay is essential if this district expects to not only retain qualified educators, which
014connects to the district goals, but also remain competitive. As we return to the table this week, ESTA will continue advocating for reasonable hours of service, manageable workloads, and professional respect for educators at every grade level. Tonight, we're asking the board to pay attention. Bargaining positions reflect district priorities, and right now, those positions are deeply concerning to educators. We urge the board to support a fair, responsible bargaining process that prioritizes students by protecting the educators who serve them every day. Thank you, Mr. Lubs, and colleagues. Uh, do we have a representative from CSA that would like to speak as well tonight? If we have any reports from them tonight? Seeing none, we will move on to our next agenda item. All right. We are now uh here to have the Elseno Middle School student recognition for
015the evening. We'll have Dr. Devantis, come on up and and Miss Sland, would you like to support this special presentation? >> Good evening, President Miller Zarnicki, members of the board, Dr. Johnson and cabinet. I am Dr. Sarah Devontes, proud principal of Elseno Middle School. I want to first call up Mr. Al Luna. >> Mr. Mr. Luna serves as our model UN teacher, instructor, Jedi master. Yeah, maybe. Um I'm proud to recognize tonight um a remarkable group of our Elsa Middle School students um who recently competed at the C model UN um seven conference and earned top honors among a very strong field of student delegates. Uh Model UN challenges students to think critically, collaborate globally, research complex issues, uh communicate persuasively, and demonstrate leadership. all skills that align beautifully with our graduate profile and the
016competencies we strive to develop in our Bulldogs. We're excited to celebrate our students tonight. And I'm going to ask Mr. Luna to help me name those students. That's okay with you. All right. Um but we are incredibly proud of them um for representing our school with professionalism, confidence, and intellectual curiosity. And proud of Mr. Luna and the the leadership that he drives with them with their success. Um showing not only their hard work with their dedication, but also the strength of our academic and enrichment programs and support of the teachers and families. Um a definite shout out and thanks to our educ Elsagundo Educational Foundation for their support of model UN as well. And so Mr. Luna, if you'll help us name names or if you want to add something in as well. >> Okay,
017just real fast. Um these young men and women, my future leaders of the free world, have taken on issues and um tackled challenges that they hadn't done before. One of our students actually uh went into a committee called the crisis committee where it was all high school students and she represented Elsa Gondil Middle School as the only eighth grader there and walked away with an award. I'm extremely proud of her. Um my our crisis team uh three students who took on those committees. We had never done anything like this before. When they asked me what is this? I said I have no idea. You have 24 hours to figure out whether you're going to do this or not. All three of these young ladies rose to the challenge and I'm extremely proud of them and
018extremely proud of all of our also students. Did a remarkable job. They actually did it again at Roondo Beach which was a much tougher competition which was all high school students and we look forward to doing it again in February uh at the next conference. So, thank you very much. >> All right. Uh, first one is Arya Vajin. >> Thank you. >> Uh, Logan Arnold. >> Carson, where you at? There you are. >> I just look for the hair. That's right. >> Uh Sam Goodell, my little Spitfire. Harper Green. >> Where you at? Penfile. Jesse C. The girl who took on a bunch of high school students and walked away with award. Uh, Miss Natalya Torres. And last but not least, John Carpenter, by the way, took a best delegate award, which is like the
019gold medal at this point. So, good job. >> I'm gonna take I'll get out of your way. >> Start. >> Oh, thank you. >> Paris, I'm going to take one and I'll get out of your way. You can move in here, too. >> Uhhuh. >> Okay. Look here, please. >> Okay, parents. Fire away. All right. Thank you all for coming. Proud parents and students. Amazing. We are happy you are here tonight, but thank you for representing us so well out there in the greater world. All right, our next item, Dr. Lince, is not probably as exciting as what we just did, but important work. So, uh, our next item is the, uh, audit report for fiscal year ending June 30th. Uh, Mr. John White House We welcome you to come up tonight um to present
020with us. Dr. Lince, do you want to introduce further? And and let me just make a note. If uh we're showing anything on the screen, if people at home are paying attention to our presentation afterwards, they'll have to click on the link instead of seeing it displayed through our regular broadcast. So, um but it is there for viewing. So, go ahead, Dr. Lince. >> Yes. So, Mr. White House is here from Christy White and Associates. They are our outside external auditor that does our third-party audit for the district finances for fiscal year 2425. And um the attachment that you'll see um is the actual audit report that you can click on and he will walk you through the basic ideas. >> Good evening, governing board. Thank you for having me here. Um we've concluded our
021audit of the district's funds, capital assets, long-term debt, and compliance with federal and state law for the year ended June 30, 2025. Our audit is comprised of two phases, an interim phase which begins in the spring and a year-end phase in the fall. Um, I want to provide some context about the responsibilities in relation to these audits. Um, the responsibility of management is to uh for the fair presentation of the financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America. While the auditor's responsibilities is to obtain reasonable assurance not absolute about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement whether due to error or fraud and to issue independent auditors reports that includes our opinions. The results of our audit tests are reflected in the independent
022auditor's reports and summary of auditor's results. We opined on the financial statements as a whole. uh the we also uh appined on the state compliance report and the federal compliance report all of which were given unmodified opinions for the fiscal year. Page 81 is a good summary of the auditor's results provides all of our if there's any significant deficiencies material weaknesses um and also provides our opinions um which were all unmodified. Um, so that there's overall there's one finding we I wanted to cover that was for the uh year end of June 30, 2025 and that's on page 84 of the report. So a very very minor compliance finding. Um uh there was some SARS that we tested for Elsa Gundo High School that contained incomplete information in regards to required um sufficiency of instructional
023materials uh in re regarding the reading uh language arts category, mathematics and history and social science. Um, and there was also a resolution date that said it was dated January 2024, which was outside of um, but it was actually outside of that fiscal year, while the actual adoption date was October 8, 2024. Um, so some minor discrepancies there, but it's required uh, we're required to report any inconsistencies for the compliance aspect um, each year. Any questions about the report or findings or anything like that? >> Great. Thank you so much. >> Thank you for being here. >> All right. All right. Next on our agenda, district goals progress update by Dr. Johnson, which maybe after you do this, you can have a cookie. [clears throat] How about that? Does that sound good? Does that sound
024fair? [laughter] Oh, Cheryl Smith and you're baking or or the team and they're baking. >> Good evening, Bo President Miller Zaki, members of the board, Tracy. Tonight, I'm going to be presenting on our district goals uh at our midyear progress. Um, I'm very proud of the work that we've done. I think we've accomplished a lot in a very short period of time. Very grateful to our staff, to our students, uh, and our families for their support and grateful to the board of education for, you know, heading us, leading us in a direction. This is a very snazzy graphic of our district goals. Uh, we have three main areas [snorts] uh, related to excellence, um, community of well-being, and legacy of innovation and stabil sustainability. In summary, our district goals are on track. I'm going to
025get into a little bit of color about what that looks like. Um, and we have areas of strengths and areas that we need to uh continue to grow in. I don't think anything's in danger of being um not uh on progress for our three-year goals. Um, however, there are some areas we feel we need to lean into. This is the strategic plan overview and our approach of communication, coordination and action. On the communication front, you can see all the various areas that we try to get our message of our district goals out. One of which to highlight is the banners across campuses. Uh we have banners that are placed in strategic locations across campuses including the front offices. In the area of coordination, uh we have made some revisions about how we work together via
026the leadership team. Um we just uh you know this is the first goingound for how we approach uh tracking our district goals. Um so there you see some of our edits uh including really trying to hone down like what we expect of the principles in regard to practice um quarter by quarter and then in the area of action which we'll be talking about this evening. Um there you see our approach uh looking at our key results having the principal coordination with them and then implementing through school action. And a lot of the first year is setup. Um um there are you know very specific you know tangible actions taken. Uh but a lot of this is foundational work to build off of. So uh for objectives and key results this is the metric that we
027use and discussed in a prior report. Um uh it's colorcoordinated for simplicity. And what you'll find is the majority of our objectives are either on track and then some of them are at risk. Risk doesn't necessarily mean that we are worried or scared. uh it just means that those need more tender love and care. So um let's dive into those district goals. So this is a breakdown of the three goals in uh pathways to excellence and they have objectives embedded within them. This is just a general overview and I'm going to get into the details starting with the goal of academic excellence which is growing student achievement. Um so there you see uh each objective under um is either in yellow or in green. Again a reminder that uh yellow means that goals progress is
028at risk, green meaning that it's on track. I'm going to highlight uh two areas uh in the area of curriculum. Um just a credit to our uh middle school team. TK8 uh math adoption um has underway. Elementary started that work and then TK sorry 6 through 8 went ahead and adopted imagine learning. So now we have complete alignment uh with our K through8 math adoption and then um the middle school also turned around and did a Spanish adoption aligning the high school and the middle school's curriculum as well also too. So that's a very successful key accomplishment uh in the last six months of work. In the area of essential next steps, I want to turn your attention to intervention. An area that you mean like an objective we view is, you know, at risk
029that we need to, you know, give it some more tender loving care. Um, and what we're looking at is we're finding in in our conversation with the principles and through their PLC process, which the PLC process is focused on RTI for this year, response to intervention. Um, that we are in need of a leveled tier 2 intervention and a resource provided for our teachers. Um many all of our teachers do a great job supporting the learners that are at risk in their classrooms. Um uh and you mean like you know what further resource can we provide them so as that student metriculates grade to grade uh that the intervention that they receive you mean like is the same look it's the same resource and not solely teacher dependent. And there you see our teachers at
030Richmond working hard together. I really like Michelle's face in this. She looks very thoughtful. All right. In the area continuing on the uh the larger goal of pathways to excellence and then this is the goal for athletics and extracurricular excellence and this is continue to increase our student participation on aligning the school pathways. Oh, sorry. I'm going to start with athletics. It's the middle one. Um which is on track. I I want to just give a really big shout out to the principles and the elementary staff. uh our teachers um uh so much were here tonight um who led the first elementary kickball uh competition between Richmond and um Center Street. Uh they are doing a whiffleball competition now. But the thing that I think really needs to be shouted out is that uh they
031have now multiple teams that are currently at site and those teams will play each other in a tournament and then like the winner of the tournament goes on and has the competition with uh Richmond and Center Street. I was with the superintendent advisory council um on Monday and uh just a great conversation about supporting our students um uh at elementary. There was a desire. They wanted to see it. They saw it on the survey. They wanted to see more athletics at elementary school. So, I'm just really appreciative that um our team is stepping up and providing that opportunity for them. And then I draw your attention to the area of aligning the school pathways. um an area that we would need some more love to uh we have a a program interest survey um that
032we've built out and we're trying to time these surveys so we're not just like bombarding kids with them. Um so we've held back [clears throat] on administering that survey which is soon to go out in February um for students and garnering feedback about further programs they'd like to see. All right, continuing on to pathways to excellence. Uh and this is in graduate excellence um in the area of a key accomplishment on the graduate prof portfolio. Uh our design team uh does a really really good job um and trying to plan and articulate uh the graduate profile. Um that's that's very heavy lifting work um and also trying to work with our staff to reflect that in their practice alongside all the various standards that they have to teach. Um so the design team is working
033on a commitment to um provide graduate profile implementation mean like across all the grade levels. So every student would have an opportunity per grade level to have some sort of grad profile capstone experience. Um obviously very different depending on the grade. And then in the area of career pathways um our essential next step is we we are uh working hard and leaning into to increase business participation. So, we're taking a more targeted approach um as of late. Um but this is definitely an area where we're not making the progress we'd like to see. So, we're we're leaning in on that um and getting more students involved in job um job exposure experiences versus just straight internships. All right. Now, we're going to move on to the area of community of well-being. This is a snapshot
034of all the various goals and then objectives that go with it. And we're going to hone in first on goal number one, community partnerships. Um, we've made a lot of progress in this area. Uh, I I want to highlight that our our social media presence um went from uh about 200 followers on our EUD Instagram account to we actually had to reset our measure because we said we our goal was 500 this year. And so now we've changed the goal to a thousand because we long surpassed that. >> [sighs and gasps] >> Um and then on the um the the other thing is I I just recently I shared this in a board update uh that um we won an award uh through Calspra which is school communications um for our uh soft bay best
035campaign um which I'm really grateful to our team you mean like for making sure that people vote for us as the best but we did a good job sharing that with our community uh and thank you Daily Breeze. And then in the area of engaging parents, um I you know it was already talked about about the confidence code and the attendance which is the largest parent education event I've ever been a part of. Um so I just I can't say enough kudos to PTA for putting that on and being a true partner in the area of parent education. This goes to show you that district goals don't don't have to be just solely staff initiatives. Um you know like we've really uh partnered closely with Chelsea Model and Cheryl. Um so thank you to them.
036Uh next year we're looking to establish like more concrete goals. I this year we've done a great like experimentation of of of what is possible. And so um uh we're looking forward to coming together and having like okay here are the specific areas that we want to make sure we tackle. Um and one of which which you know has gotten a lot of a lot of positive feedback is you know in the regard to students being upstanders or resilience for students in relation to trying to work on you know like I you know how do I respond to a bullying behavior on campus or mistreatment. There's this is one of our one of our awardwinning um poster campaigns posted around campus to get people to follow us on Instagram. All right. uh in the area
037of social emotional wellness uh a lot of progress made here um so just uh thank you team I think there's been um great staff additions um including the BCBA uh supporting behavior needs across the district and then our director of nutrition we're looking forward to bringing a presentation to the board in the next month or so um so on the mental health side very um a key accomplishment is we brought elementary counseling into the school district um this was a a a goal of the board of our you know team and surveyed well. Uh so that position was hired and currently working with our um students. And then um area where we want to have an essential next step. Um there is a great sensory space at Richmond Elementary. Um that staff has worked very
038hard to implement that space and we wanted to make sure that we had an equivalent space at Center Street. Um and recognizing that space is an issue. We're working on building an outdoor sensory space um at Sensory at uh Center Street. There's a lot of there's a lot more um logistics involved in that because it's not just a room. Um so uh that is a project that we hope to really have off the ground uh by the summer. Continuing on with community well-being. Um two areas uh uh uh that we definitely need to to continue to work on. I'm going to start with area of wellness. Um and this is about this well-being of our employees. Uh this is offscript for our goals, but I do think you have to, you know, crawl before you
039walk. And so we had a payroll uh services issue. You mean like uh we've [clears throat] had communication with the staff. We've heard communication from the staff. We've taken substantial steps in order to correct that issue. I do believe in January that we've made substantial progress. Um but this goes to show you sometimes you got to take a step back uh in order to go forward. Um so with respect to you know all our various goals and we're continuing to implement our our wellness days and such for our staff and we just had the holiday party. Um but uh this was something a basic foundation that we needed to correct and we're continuing to work on that. And then on the area of team for the professional learning communities, I I I have to give
040a shout out to the elementary schools. Like this is an initiative they led locally and then the district followed that initiative. Um and our middle school and high school teams um are participating in trainings for professional learning communities. And we'll see where that goes. Not one size doesn't fit all when it comes to professional learning communities. That's why it's a very attractive um program because it it really does train teachers to work with teachers which is the greatest efficacy when it comes to student achievement. So um I'm I'm I'm looking forward to to the work of uh particularly Dr. Davalantes in the middle school and sort of how that's going to fit with their their program and they're doing training. Is it the spring? Spring or summer? >> The fall. That's what it is. Okay.
041High school's going in summer. All right. Ah, look at that. There was a staff holiday party. Um, lots of fun, goofy, uh, uh, and I really appreciate all the staff that had the opportunity to attend. Um, fun prizes, decent jokes. All right. Um, now finally on the area of legacy of innovation and sustainability, there is an overview of the goals and the various objectives. Let's take a dive in. So in the area of innovative learning um uh progress this is like this is I would argue like for the goals the most ambitious goal that we have and it's the most forwardlooking. So I I I this is actually I will use the analogy again crawl before you walk where right now a lot of foundational work is taking place including sort of understanding where we
042are at as a school team across the district. So uh AI has been a strength for us. It continues to be a strength for us. Um, and so I, you know, we, we've heard a lot about AI at the board, so I won't belabor it. Other than say essential next step is is that we're piloting, uh, an online course. And our goal is to open up uh, two different experiences at the high school in the fall. One being a standalone AI course, another would be an embedded module through the engineering pathway um, supporting AI. And so some pilots are happening during the course of the spring. Say again. >> That's the program that's the program that we're piloting. Yeah. And then in the area of environmental learning, um we a key accomplishment um for both
043environmental and for finances, we've collected a lot of survey data about what are we doing currently right now. Um, and I think it really is grade and sight dependent about you mean like how much we hit the um environmental standards and literacy we're b sorry financial literacy we're baseline uh that um it's it's not something that it seems by survey that we really tackle as a school district and so that's great because that means there's a lot of room for growth uh and we do feel as a school community you mean like that our community feels that you mean like bringing financial lit Y to our students is a value. It's important. Um Oh, and there's there's good old Brandon Kim uh and his partner there, Aisham, uh uh giving their AI presentation. This was
044the student aiden conference. Um and just it's been awesome seeing students really flourish uh under Dr. Us leadership. All right. Uh sustainable facilities. Uh so there you see we're we're making great progress. Kudos uh Kim. A hero that's got to be shouted out though is Marne Harmon, our M director. Uh and so uh in the area of maintenance um so we do track it. So our work order average has decreased about a week turnaround. Now I know there's probably outliers out there and someone could hear this and say like wait what about it's the average. Um so and we do take uh data on that for every work order that's put in. Um so just kudos. It took a it took a while for us to get there as well too. So it's just been
045a lot of work and I just I really credit um the CBO and the M team as well. Um and then in the area of master plan um uh thank you because the board approved we have an architect selected uh to conduct our FMP um and now the next big step is facilitating uh community meetings which we encourage the community and school sites to participate and those will start in the spring. Great. All right. Moving on to um our area of state sustainable facilities um that we are have made great progress. Oh that sorry that should say safety um in the area of safety we have um on our emergency side uh we uh are now about to implement our run height fight drills. So that's coming um um we'll run one run height fight
046drill during the course of semester 2 at each of the sites. Uh and the what those drules look like will be dependent on the grade level. Um so age appropriate and then in the area of budget um the site and the department budgets uh have been fully implemented. A lot of work uh from the uh finance office but already and in the budget workshop you'll see that a lot of savings have been garnered um or putting this year's dollars on this year's kids uh from implementing tight budgets. And then there's uh just a major compliment to ESPD who has been just absolutely outstanding about working on safety procedures with us. Um uh including navigating, you know, we've had a false alarm. Um we've done trainings on the campus that took place on a Saturday. They've
047just done a fantastic job from beginning to end. So I I just cannot say enough positive things. We are in very good hands here in our in our community with ESPD. All right. What is next? Uh so our budget workshop um is on February 2nd, next Monday. Looking forward to engaging with the board over at um Elsagundo Middle School. And then on March 30th, we have a governance workshop where we'll work to sort of calibrate our goals and our progress um looking forward to 2627, which would be the second year of our three-year goals. And then finally, a final annual um uh goal progress will be presented to the board in July. Thank you. Any questions? Yeah. Um, so, uh, first was sort of establishing like what do we do and what do we don't
048do. And I would say that we we do not have a systematic approach to teaching financial literacy outside of um, a very well-taught economics course at 12th grade. And part of the feedback from our our students and some student survey uh, actually encompass about economics and how valuable that course was. But oh what a shame that we only get it as 12th graders. So >> [gasps] >> um the the other aspect is just how how financial literacy is viewed. So I think it's common among educators to view financial literacy as as part of a math math component. Um but if if you really think about it and you I've shared this at a PTA meeting that um uh financial lit literacy is not really a math question. Um, I'm pretty sure that, you know, most
049people know that if you add dollars together, you mean like, you know, like if you save $100 a month, you know, after two months you'll have $200. It's not really a math question. It's it's a social science question. Um, math uh or sorry, financial literacy is is is a social endeavor. Um, and it's a lifestyle question as well too. Um, so I, you know, I think that most of our advanced math students in, uh, starting in sixth grade could probably calculate compound interest. Um, but living the lifestyle where you save and benefit from compound interest is a different question. Um, and I also don't think that that starts like that education is a one can be a oneanddone. Um, so we we can't necessarily say like, "Oh, well, we teach a high school course, so
050uh, which we will add there is financial literacy coming that's statemandated. We teach a high school course, so great. We've we've checked that box. They know what they need to know because I think the equivalent would be saying that we teach in high school, so like we we we educate them before they go." No, like learning is something that has to take place through a continuum um, in order to build that habit of mind, right? or that habit of thinking. Um so I do think that there is a very necessary space where financial literacy is taught you mean like on a you know grade by grade continuum that's developmentally appropriate and circular. Now there's a question of you know time how could we implement that with all the state standards that we need to teach.
051I think that's a very fair question, but I think it comes back to a why. Um, is teaching financial literacy to our students valuable. Um, and I think that like teaching uh social emotional learning, you mean like in habits of mind there, I think the answer is yes. I mean like I will give you an example. Um, so the education system um, you know, is built towards uh, bringing our students to a 4-year university. Um and that system um you know not always but many times requires families uh and the student to take out a loan um in order to further their education and that loan you mean like is taken when the child is either 17 or 18. I know not always but in many cases I mean the system is built for that.
052So [snorts] our students are immediately confronted with one of the largest financial decisions they'll ever make in a lifetime. And the reason they're doing it is because of the education system. So I do think as educators we have a responsibility to make sure that our students have financial literacy understanding. Um and like I think it was said once that you know social emotional learning is just the responsibility of home. Um I I don't I don't think that educators think that now. I think in the same vein too that financial literacy can we do not solely rely you mean like on the home to support our students with financial literacy? I I I I think you mean like that would be you know not fully educating our students and what is one of the most important
053skills to know. Um so approach would be there's a lot of different ways. So we've looked at um first like uh ed services office has done a great job actually analyzing just recently the math standards and seeing like okay like what you know what actually falls within standards and then what is grade level appropriate as well also too but based off of where we're at at a baseline I do think that we have to provide our staff a with more time in order to process how we would go about this and hear their feedback and two I think that we have to provide a resource or curriculum that would support that. That is is at least for the time being very built out. Um and there are resources out there that we've looked at. Um
054but I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. I think that that really needs to be done with the school teams and slowly uh would be the the best way to do it right. And I don't think we're going to get it right the first time either. I think that it'll be a learning process. Learn by doing. into real money. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Yes, we agree. We're we're working on questions. >> Any other comments, questions? >> I appreciate the update. I appreciate every level of our district that's trying to make these things happen. >> And I know that they can't all happen at once, but we appreciate updates like this to see where we're going and how we can continue to support it up here is why we're here. So, thank you. >>
055Thank you. Oh, [laughter] >> that was the agreement. >> Actually, the cookie was the agreement. >> Uh, let's move into the consent agenda. If I might have a motion for approvals. >> I move to approve consent agenda items 5A through L. >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion on any of these items? Hearing none. All board members in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Those opposed. Motion carries. 5 Z. Action items. If you are finished with your brownie, would you like to uh talk to us? Oh, well, do you want to introduce us and then Miss Beley will? >> No, it's all Miss Beley. >> Well, then uh I see we have approval of resolution number 08, 2025 designating February 2026 as career and technical education month.
056Ms. Beley, would you like to speak to this? >> So, I would like to um present this this on behalf of SoCal Rock since I am the representative from this board on the SoCal board. I just happen to be president. So, I we did I um asked all of the JPAs uh which we are part of. So, Rodondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Torrance, Pey, Englewood, um what am I missing? Who I did? Rodondo. Um they're all doing this as well. Um and so you can see it on the there's a bunch of whereas, but um February is designated as career and technical education month. And so I would like our board to pass this resolution um making it so and maybe promoting a little bit about um career and technical education for the month of February.
057>> Thank you for the introduction. Do I have a motion to approve? >> I move to approve approve action item 6A. Second. Right. any discussion on this item? I I'll just personally say the more options we share with our students, the better and and SoCal Rock is an amazing partner to do so many great life paths and skills that I'm glad that you serve in the capacity you do and that you bring this to us today. So, thank you. Uh with no other comments, all board members in favor, please say I. >> I. Those opposed. >> Motion carries 5-0. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Thank you, SoCal Rock. All right, our next items, we move into the business services section, but we start with the acceptance of gifts. Clerk Southerntherland, in accordance with board
058with board of education policy number 3290, the board of education may accept gifts as long as there is no conflict with the education code or other public laws. The school district has received generous donations as detailed below. These donations do not conflict with any education code or public laws regarding acceptance of gifts. Um, Kuana's Club of Elsagundo Foundation, $15,000 to Center Street Elementary School. The Blackbod Giving Fund, $81 Elsagundo High School. CSA Foundation, $2,400. Center Street Elementary School, JW Photography, $1,700. Richmond Street Elementary School, Bright Funds, $250. Elsa Gunno Middle School. I say I move to approve. Do I >> You can move acceptance if you wish. >> Do I just say I move acceptance? >> You can. >> I move acceptance. >> Second. >> Great. Motion in a second. Any comments on these lovely
059gifts [clears throat] >> besides Thank you. I mean, thank you and I >> look forward to uh what the Kowanas Club Elsagundo Foundation is >> donating a very large amount. >> It's uh I believe the big check that we saw last time. So, >> fantastic. >> There you go. >> Oh, that was the remainder of the the check was Okay, great. Thank you. >> All right, with that all in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> Those opposed. Motion carries. 5-0. [cough] >> Thank you. All right. Item 7B. Dr. Lince, would you like to introduce? >> Yes. This is an agreement with Yoda Painting for the painting project at uh El at Eagles Nest Arena High School and District Office. We received seven bids and Yoda was the lowest responsible bid. I recommend approval.
060>> Second. All right. Any discussion on this item other than is it going to be green? Yoda painting makes me think it's going to be green. >> I'm gonna say I just love the name. >> Just kidding. Um, any any discussion? >> All right. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Those opposed. Motion carries. 5-0. Dr. Lint. Next on the list, item C. >> This is the acceptance of the audit report from Christy White that Mr. White House presented on earlier. I recommend approval. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Board members in favor, please say I. >> I. Those opposed. Motion carries. 5-0. All right. Next item 7D. >> This is a renewal of the license agreement with element 13. They are a lency at the 210 pen um facility. I recommend approval. It
061is a 3% increase to the monthly license amount. Recommend approval. >> So moved. >> Second. Any discussion? We're members in favor please say I. >> I. >> Those opposed. The motion carries 5. And lastly in your section item E. >> Yes. As part of the learning recovery emergency block grant, the district received an additional approximately $56,000 per year for this and the next two years. We have elected to allocate those funds to our ELD program. I recommend approval. >> I move to approve action item 70. >> Second. >> Any discussion on this item? Board members in favor, please say I. >> I. Those opposed? Motion carries. 5 Z. Thank you, Dr. Lince. Moving into educational services. Uh Dr. Yang, would you like to introduce this item? >> Sure. This is an agreement to support the
062expansion of the AVID program from the high school to the middle school beginning next year. And expanding the program to the middle school level allows the district to build a stronger mo more coherent college and career readiness pipeline. I recommend approval. I move approval of action item uh 8A. >> Second. >> So just a quick question. Um will it just be for eighth grade or will it be >> we are actually going to start in the seventh grade next? >> It's going to start cycle to seventh and eighth after. >> Okay. >> Great. >> I had no idea that this program was available to students this young. So this to me it was like oh this [laughter] is a thing. Exciting. >> There's even an elementary program. We're not there. Okay. All right. Any other
063discussion or questions? All right. Word members in favor, please say I. >> I. Those opposed. Motion carries. 5-0. [clears throat] We are now into the information pending action section of our agenda. Uh Dr. Johnson, do you want to introduce this or speak to this? >> Yes. at our uh um the upcoming meeting. Uh we will uh provide a recommendation for board policy updates in regard to um board uh I call them board policies uh and then also superintendent governance. Uh the range is from um contract practices uh to um updating our language to be consistent with the laws uh including things such as like close session and procedural uh you know the devil's in the details. I I have nothing specifically to highlight uh and there's there's not a lot of remarkable most of it
064is updates to the laws. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Those will be posted for anyone and everyone to read and comment on before we vote in the future. So, next we've got theformational calendar which we can see chalk full of meetings and fun things. Um, we do have some days off in February that I don't see on there, but everybody knows when those are. I believe they probably have them firmly marked in advance. So, check your calendars, parents. Make sure you got those Mondays on your calendar. Um, next then after the calendar, we've got the cash receipts that are posted for transparency. Again, they are an attachment on the agenda that are viewable on the website. All right, with that we are going to move into board member reports starting at the end with
065Mr. Glenn. >> All right, so um I believe democratic process. I'm only gonna talk about one thing that I went to. So, >> wow. >> Plenty of ammo for the rest of so um on January 15th along with President Miller and member I had the pleasure of attending Mr. political behavior congress final presentations with superintendent Johnson, assistant superintendent Yan, principal Gart, and vice principal Macan. We assisted in judging five videos, each approximately 10 minutes long, prepared by his senior classes on selected topics related to current government affairs. Each presentation laid out the case for proposing legislation to change the constitution. The topics were timely and the arguments for consideration were well presented. We also had time to ask each group of students about their proposals and the research that went into them. At the time
066in which our democracy is being tested in ways that have never been seen before, it was reassuring to hear the thoughtful and measured proposals intended to move the needle in order to form a more perfect. Mr. Gas is honoring the winning class with home prepared with a home prepared taco bar >> extending the special bond he creates with student fortunate enough to be in this class. >> Okay. Well, there you go. And check that off. Um since last my first one was about um Mr. Gast's class. Uh just a real quick um it was just I was so impressed by the level of the presentations and even more impressed by the ability for them to answer questions on the spot was incredible. So kudos to all. Um and I heard the nacho bar was >>
067it was wonderful. I went up but they'd already cleaned it up. So um I was equally impressed by the many students some of the same students actually uh presented their biomed mission 2 posters uh which I went and um looked at last Friday. Uh actually Dr. Jay was with me again. The presentation skills were incredible and their ability to to answer questions. I I very I had a nice little chat with the kids after talking about one of the things I really appreciated was their thought process of this is what I would do differently. And that's what a good scientist does. They learned from the mistakes that didn't happen or the things that didn't work and said I should have changed this. And they also got a chance to go look at the other eight
068posters and ask questions and say, "Oh, you could have done this or offer um help." Which was an incredibly great um uh process. I sat in for Frank who was out of town for the uh Center Street PTA meeting uh where we heard from food service which was interesting. and she talked about some of the things going on in the surveys and um the improvements that they're working on. Um Dr. Jay also gave a presentation. Um I did a quick PTA um meeting for the high school and thank you Daima for jumping in. We needed a quorum that we didn't have at the previous meeting. So, we were able to get some bills paid and get a nominating committee and and a few other things which is really important for PTA. Um, my SoCal Rock
069board meeting was last week. Uh, the big news of the meeting was that we are continuing to grow both programs and in student enrollment. Um, we have doubled enrollment in the three years that I have been there. So we were just a little over 300 when I started in December of 22 and this last semester we were over 700 which is phenomenal and it shows you the um importance of career technical education um for these for these students. So I'm very proud of that. I'm also very excited that um we were invited to present um the actually the same program. Uh somebody saw it at CSBA and asked SoCal Rock to come and present at the CTE conference which I am very happy to be on that panel as well. Um and I will be
070presenting um for SoCal Rock um in March um which is I'm very honored that um to be a member of this team but also that one. And then last night just really quickly the the confidence code. Just thanks to the parents and the students who attended to the PTA council for making it all happen. Um, it was an enlightening event and it was it was very uh Frank was there, Tracy was there, Dr. Jay was there. Um, it was just a really when you said that that that's the most parents I've ever seen at an event like that. It was incredible. So, and that's it for me. >> Okay. Mine is very short and sweet. I'm very excited to be the new representative of our board for the middle school PTA meetings and I look
071forward to all of those in the future. That is it. >> I have two words for this evening. The first one is unity. And I want to take a moment to thank our dedicated teachers who came out tonight for the ones who spoke and the others who came in support of the speakers. My second word this evening is gratitude. Totally thrown off guard. Did not know Cheryl would be here with all the goodies. May have caught a tear. You may not. But um totally a surprise and I am forever grateful for that moment, but also to have the ability to serve with such an amazing team and to be able to spend my birthday with real leaders who dedicate their time and their heart and their professional talents to a school district who believes in
072supporting our students. That's it for me this evening. Thank you. >> All right. Um, I'll go back to the January 15th Mach Congress presentations that we saw. I I am so impressed with the students that that even research to the level they did and put together those videos. again like for as much as I am let's say distraught with our democracy in this moment I have faith in the future because of these students. So if we can survive right now we will have good people leading us going forward. So thank you to the students for your thoughtful study and and forward thinking. We appreciate that you share it with us and go forth and do great things. Um, I will mention that we had a uh facility advisory committee meeting um last week. It was
073actually a tour and we got to see even more progress at Eagles Nest and the district office and arena and all that stuff. I mean, there's like flooring and paint and things happening. Not to say there's not a lot of other things that still have to be done, but it's looking like actual buildings that people can actually be in doing their work and their schooling and all the things. So, we we are not announcing any dates or anything, but we know it's moving forward and it's getting close because finishing touches are coming. Super cool. Um, I'll just offer one more bit of gratitude for the uh confidence code event last night. Chelsea Modal pulled off an amazing event which I know had many levels in classes, you know, on sites during the day with staff
074as well. Uh students and staff during the day and then the event last night which um yeah, there were a lot of zooies that had to be gotten out by students at that hour. But they were still paying attention. There was there was focus in between all the fun. So I will say the takeaways of that event which I hope we can share or PTA can share um the presentation with folks who couldn't attend last night but yes by far in my I don't mean how many years I've been at the district if my kid is in grade 16. So yeah like 16 17 years I've been around that was by far the biggest parent education family education I have ever seen. So, and you've been at multiple districts, you saw saw the same amazing
075that just shows to me how invested our our families are in our students, our community being together and being a success. So, I I appreciate that effort from PTA and jointly with our district making that happen. And again, to all the families that took the time and energy to come and be with us. Um, I look forward to another district environmental committee meeting tomorrow. talk about how some of the yellow things can go blue and keep moving forward. Um, but I I appreciate the thoughts in that room. Very um positive thinking, forward thinking folks together. So, I thank them for that time and energy. I look forward to also spending time at Center Street next week with the PTA Reflections Awards event and uh World Readaloud Day. So, I'm going to get some quality time
076at Center Street. Not that I don't like to visit all our campuses, but next week seems to be Center Street heavy this week and next, so I'm glad for that. Um, and that concludes my report for tonight. >> Thank you, President Tamzy. Uh, on the, uh, ED side, um, I have continued on with my onetoone meetings I've had with exec board members. I've almost at this point met with every single exec board member in Ed Foundation. It's been, uh, an awesome um, uh, opportunity to get to talk one-on-one. Uh, sometimes two two to one um, as well too. So, it's been great. And just recently I had coffee with Michelle Rogers and Lily Craig. Um it was great. Enjoyed the coffee. Talked about uh growing up in the South Bay. So really enjoyed that share
077time and I'm appreciative to all of them that have have given it over. Uh on the staff side, this is uh report card time. It's finals time. It's mclass time. And so just a big thank you to the staff. It's a lot of time um and a lot of work goes on behind the scenes on the scene. Uh, and just really um really really grateful for that work. It's a busy time of year. Uh, I want to give a shout out to a staff member that just um does her job very very well and is humble pie. Uh, Lena at the high school. Um, she's the administrative assistant at the front office. She just like gets it done. You mean like uh always positive, always super kind. Um, and I think whe noticed often because
078she just does her job and does it great and is very very kind. Um, so I just want to give a shout out um to her and Steve, if you're watching, make sure you pass that on. I always try to say something nice to her when I see her, but still. On the student side, I got an opportunity to watch our girls varsity soccer team on a Friday afternoon. I just really, uh, take it to North Torrance. Um, so, uh, kudos. And I got to see our president, Maddie, uh, playing the game as well, also too. So, that was it was super fun. Uh, on the kids side, I just want to say a shout out to the kids that attended. Um it was a it was a it was a long late night. So
079I mean we wrapped maybe like 7:30 7:45ish. It was just a long night. Um and it was uh for some of them it was the assembly that they they had heard during the day. So just kudos to the kids who were there. You mean like and uh really it's it's work to try to make our schools a better place. So appreciative of them. And then on the event side, it's been said I just want to keep on repugging it because I I think it's so important to attend. the real deal day on Thursday at 5:30. A lot of work has gone on to uh into this on the staff and on the PTA side. Uh and then also the students as well too. Um so uh I I just think it's going to be a
080great night um uh for information. And then just a credit to the board uh we're meeting for the budget workshop um next Monday. Uh that's a lot of deep work. Um it's dry work um but it's important work. So, uh, thank you for being caretakers of our our budget and, um, put in the necessary time to understand, uh, our very uncertain future. Um, and that concludes my superintendent report. >> Okay, with that, we're in the closing item section. Uh, we do not need to recess to close session. [snorts] So, I will adjourn us this evening at 7:11 p.m. Thank you and good night.