001I think that's Yes. I was hoping so. Yes. It's not Good evening and welcome to the Alam Board of Trustees. uh July 17th meeting. Uh this is this meeting is being recorded and the time is 5:30 p.m. I'm calling the meeting to order. Miss Patrica, can you please do roll call. >> President Linda Chavez, >> present. >> Vice President Andres Cantero, >> he's coming. >> Clerk Menam, >> present. >> Member Corina Era, >> present. >> Member Minwin, >> present. Superintendent Herban SBA >> present. >> Okay, we have a quorum. Can you please stand for the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisibley and justice for all. Trustee Min, would you like to read
002yours now? >> Yep. Um, I can't attend today's close session in person due to child care and the need to provide care to my child. Uh, legal council has advised that these facts constitute just cause and that I may participate in today's close session meeting via remote participation through the district's closed session Zoom link. uh during close session meeting I'll >> agenda persons who wish to speak on an item on the agenda will have an opportunity to do so when the agenda item is introduced and presented during this meeting there is a two minute for each speaker the board has the right to limit total public comment on the agenda that to no more than 20 minutes persons who wish to speak to the board about any matter within the jurisdiction of the district but
003not on this agenda may have an opportunity to speak during item two so moving on to 1.2 Two, discussion and or modification of the agenda. Uh, do I have a motion to adopt the agenda? >> Motion to adopt the agenda. >> I have a motion, a second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any public comment on the adoption of the agenda? [Laughter] >> Um, no public comment other than Oh. And so we will take any trustee comment. Any trustee comments? No trusty comment. So we will vote. All in favor? Okay. So, it's uh four yes, zero nos, and one absent. And so, uh we will move on to um public, excuse me, public members who wish to address the board on the matters not on the agenda. Requests to address the board provides
004members of a public an opportunity to speak on any matter. I already read that. So, moving on to let's go to 3.1. Uh, I'm going to first take teamsters. Teamsters, is that mine? >> Okay. You want to do public comment? Okay, go ahead. >> I'm not sure you're standing. So, >> just waiting. >> Okay. Uh, hello. My name is Addie Bain and I uh taught uh summer school at Joseph George this year. Prior to June 19th, the contract stated that for every hour of teaching, we would get 15 minutes of pre paid prep. After June 19th, when you guys all agreed on our new CPA, it says that we are supposed to get a half hour of prep for every hour of teaching. We taught for four hours. So, they the district office is refusing
005to pay us that extra hour. they are not following the contract and I don't think you want to start the new school year off with a grievance. Uh yeah, that article is 21.3.1. Thank you. Um any further public comment? Seeing no further public comment, um Okay. >> Yes. >> Addy, are you all right? I see your shake. >> Uh, I had low blood sugar all day today and I had earlier, so it's fine. It happens all the time. >> Okay. Yes. >> Okay. Moving on to 3.1. Teamsters. Um, Teamsters is not in the room. Let's go do 3.2. Um, California School Employees Association, CSEA, are they in the room? Uh, >> pardon? >> She won't be here today. >> Okay, thank you. Uh, 3.3 Alam Rock Educators Association area. Miss Sandra here. Uh, she's not
006here today. Uh, 3.4, Alamrock Administrators Association. I do not see them either. Let's move on to the superintendent comments. 3.5. >> Thank you, Madam President. I'm going to turn my uh my time over to assistant superintendent uh Miss Garcia. >> So, I wanted to um this evening um just let you all know that we completed another um summer um program this uh Tuesday and um we had a very successful summer with all of our learning. I want to thank all of the teachers um for um giving up their time this summer to come and provide a safe and enriching um uh time for our kids um so that they can continue their learning during the summer months. We're able to provide summer programs over four schools, our special ed programming um for the students on
007their IEPs and um we had a combination of academic um intervention programs and also uh enrichment programs. We were able to provide the 9-hour day at the schools um that provided the summer programming. So um all in all, it was a great summer and many students served. over 2,000 students served this summer and um just want to thank Luper Alava for her leadership and all of the work that she um put behind um planning this summer, but also all of the um CMS staff, of course, the teachers, um the pair professionals, our community layers, um district staff, our department, our custodians, everyone that um put time into making sure that our kids had a great program this summer. So, thank you again. >> Uh, any board of trustee comments? Uh, trustee, >> just a couple
008quick updates. First, uh, uh, June 27th, I had the opportunity to drop by the uh, George and Kurt summer school. Got to see the summer jazz band practice. you know, good good to see that our that you know, both George and Kurton had an opportunity for a summer encore. Uh, you know, uh, lots of wonderful things going on in our summer program. So, I'm very thankful for our for our teachers uh, for teaching. You know, job well done to Mr. Po who who was a wonderful summer school principal. Uh you know my you know my hope is you know to uh resolve all outstanding issues before we start the new year then you know which would mark the 90 you know what is it uh this district celebrates its 95th birthday in September. So the
009thing is we're going to be mark starting our 96th year pretty soon. And so I hope that we are able to start that on a uh on a high note. Uh you know, and I also wanted uh to to mention that uh I had a meeting with the East Side Union High School District Superintendent Valen Vandery just right before this meeting. And I want to thank Superintendent Serta and Assistant Superintendent Garcia and uh our VAPA coordinator Emily Mcchristian for being there. You know uh I'm glad to say it looks like we we're getting a you know the East Side Union High School District is willing to support uh an expanded version of our COPA, the Super Copita. We're hoping to, you know, uh, you know, as I've said, uh, leverage our resources with our fellow
010feeder districts as well as our, you know, big sister district east side and to, you know, one big event, you know, to meet our families where they are and promote promote our programs and yet, you know, the Spartan East Side Promise as well. So, I'm hoping that uh you know uh we you know the goal is to get a a anou by by the middle of October. So, I'm hopeful that we can cross that finish line and uh you know uh show the entire east side what Alamrock kids are made of. Uh let's see here. On Sunday, I'll be attending the Buddhist Temple fundraiser with East Side Trustee Von Lelay. You know, it's always good to uh you know, make sure that our district has representation. I've always said that Alam Rock is more than
011the sum of its parts. And you know, uh, we are all the richer for, you know, the ethnic diversity in our district, whether it's, uh, Latino, Latina, Vietnamese, uh, AfricanAmerican, Native American. Yes, thank you so much. I, uh, want to start off by, um, thanking everyone who worked in our summer programs. As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I ran into a parent who was really excited and happy um of the work that his daughter was uh doing at school. Um so, thank you to the teachers and um thank you for uh also being a voice um so that we can ask questions. Um so please continue to email us, call us, uh come to our meetings so that we can continue to ask questions and ensure that not just our students are um feeling
012good in our summer programs in our schools, but also those um that are teaching and that are making that happen. Um also I want to uh mention and uh thank some of the staff that I saw here. Uh I was a part we I went to the public hearing um for the East Side Union High School District which is our feeder high school district. um for their public hearing on the redistricting. And so uh as we know redistric the redistricting can shape power um and greater participation or do the opposite of all. And so I will continue to be a voice so that the most so that we all uh those of us um who live here, who uh shop here, who go to school here, who thrive here in the east side community have
013has a voice. um not just here in Alam Rock but also um in our Peter High School district. So, thank you to the staff that were there um and the community leaders that were there as well. And finally, I want to express that I continue to stand in full solidarity with those who stand against the deep harm caused by targeted immigration enforcement, racial discrimination, and the separation of families. In addition um to today's uh rally that I stand with uh the people out in Morgan Hill. Uh I stood along fellow Chuco Latino elected officials across Santa Clara County on June 30th during these times and standing on the side of dignity, unity, and collective power. On the anniversary of the passing of John Lewis, uh this is one of my favorite quotes. Um and it
014couldn't fit any better uh than today's times. Never let anyone, any person, any force dampen, dim, or diminish your light. Together, we will continue to make a difference in our communities. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any further trustee comments? >> Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to um item 4.1, the presentation. All right, Madam President, I would like to invite our new senior executive of bonds and uh for his debut uh Mr. Eric Wassinger. It's all yours. Good evening, trustees. Eric Wasinger. Um thank you for the introduction. Um so want to give you an update of kind of where we've been for the last five, six weeks. I'm new to the Alam Rock. We've done a lot of things and so wanted to share with the board uh kind of where we're at and I
015definitely you're here for questions. So this first slide part of it you've seen in the past the left side which is the 2024 2025 planned bond program right we had a director of bonds we had a budget man bond manager and we had a couple and then we had outside service uh construction managers and project managers and they the district had really budgeted about $100,000 a month. So the budget at that time was 1.6 million to fulfill the needs of our bond program. as we have changed the 2025 like I said I came on June 2nd we now have my position of course the director of bonds Maria who's been here for for quite a while and the board had approved two bond program managers in the past as we move forward right now we
016have one of those positions filled and we're looking to fill the other position want to make some modifications to that position and we'll talk about that the next board meeting but that's kind of the same four people that we planned with that being said the salary would be about $880,000 The savings from the budgeted from 2024 to 25 is 82,000. So by doing it inhouse, it's better for the district and there's so many different ways and I'll go in more detail with that. Um, next slide here. Of course, the 2024 budget, like I said, they budgeted $1.2 million. The actual we spent 443,000 to 6D. JMG G was 82,000. Vanpel we spent 124,000. So, we only spent 650,000 which was actually budgeted. But since I got here in 2000 or since June 2nd, we've spent
017zero money on managing our projects successfully. And so, that's something we're proud of. The 2025 change is on the top right corner with in-house management. Since I started June 2nd, we I've saved $549,000 in the fees, project management fees. Um, move that out of the way. um fall up there. Um anyways, in-house management, we did three sewer projects soon as summer started and you'll see a slide on those three at the end. Um but those are completed successfully. Um and we also managed the 13 paint projects. So we have 13 sites that are currently being done. They're all about 90% right now. walk in the sites, they have to do all the logos and all the um room signs and um some of the markings, but uh we're almost going to have punch lists this
018week, tomorrow, and next week on some of those sites. And you'll see those those contracts go till July 31st. We should be done with all those before that date because I know we have anxious teachers and I've walked with five or six of the principles in the last few days and so everybody's a year to come back, which is great. Um besides that and so that with that savings I saved 549,000 already just in managing the bond program in the last six weeks. Um down the bottom right corner in-house management. There's another project that we have coming for future restroom modernizations. We had a current contract going out for 224,000 for temporary restrooms. Um that's way too much money for that and so I can contract because I can I can get done way cheaper
019than that. So these are things that I'm working on. Some of the things I pride myself in is saving money, getting the project done, corrected, DSA, PLA, get it all done by the book, everything's done, I the whole thing, but cheaper, right? One of the the things that I've noticed is being PLA, we're not getting a bunch of biders. We're only getting a couple people, right? So, there's a contract we're going to talk about in a few minutes that we're going to reject a bid because we're going to go out to bid because it's too much money. So, here's kind of my vision, the new vision of the bond in the maintenance department. And I've shared this with our team outside. And um I'm working with all the the team um in the bond department
020and also maintenance. But basically, the bond projects will enhance the school sites, restroom, HVAC, play structures, and black tops. Right? We have a big plan on what we want to do. I know we have master plans from 2023. They're updated. We're going to go through those and see what we need now with the 13 sites and see what's the most prevalent working with the principles. I take pride I I usually meet the principles every week to get feedback, right? Fact that I usually oversee the bond and construction and I can usually answer all the questions and I can give them an answer. Right? We waiting one month, two months, four months for work orders to get done is not going to happen. Right? We need what's customer service and the customers are our students, our
021parents and our teachers and our principles, right? And so my team, not just me, will be enforcing a program of better customer service. We have I'll have a plan preventative maintenance projects. So rather maintenance is always a reactive feature. You're always trying to react because you have a roof leak. You're trying to react because of this. The plan is do an audit on everything, find out what we need, and start fixing stuff before it happens. So, I know I've only been here five weeks and I've got a long laundry list from a lot of sites and so it's going to be very fun and creative for a long time. One of the things is create a 5-year deferred maintenance plan, right? Most districts will have a a 5year or 10 year deferred maintenance plan showing
022you that we need a budget. In three years, we're going to need HVAC. In five years we're going to be roofing and and so you do a little bit of everything on the campuses so that we're making continuous improvements on these sites so they last like you said we're almost 95 years old. Well, let's get over 100. Let's get 120. Right. So, we have to have a plan for that. Transportation. We're improving our customer service there with more buses. We have two more buses getting delivered Monday or Tuesday. Right. This would be Monday. But uh and then of course enhance enhanced routed routes because of our general ed that we're trying to bust with our closures and taking care of all the needs. Um we need to show our community that Alam Rock schools are
023the place to be and that you need to enroll here for an exceptional education. Right? It all starts with with the quality of a learning environment. Right? I take that personally that these classrooms, these learning spaces, these playgrounds, they need to be better than they are now. And so that's my focus. You've seen this in the past. The next two slides, this is talking about reorganization proposal to get in-house operation versus the way it used to be, right? Um rather than spending money on other firms, outside sources, keep it in house because if we do it in-house, then I can hold that person accountable in two years when it's not right. Right. If it's a if it's a contract person that ran this project and there's a problem, well, it's a problem and now we
024have to pay more money to fix it. But if we have an in-house person that knows the knowledge of who did it, how they did it, why they did it, now we can reach back out. We know the warranty situation, you know, it may have fallen onto somebody different. So there's a benefits for cost efficiency, enhanced control and oversight. Of course, instit in institutional knowledge, you know, we have one of the blessed things that we have here at Alamrock is people that stay a long time, right? So I talked to some irrigation guys. I talked to some of the people here 25, 30 years. They have knowledge of the campus that I could never find, right? And I I tell a funny story that once I had to find a a junction box and my
025irrigation guy retired and I brought him lunch. I said, "Come show me." So we went to a tree and we walked out 15 places and he dug a hole in the dirt and there was an irrigation box. >> Wow. >> Overgrown. I would never find that. Right. And so having all of these staff that have this knowledge, we're having them share that and document it and write it down so when they retire in a year or two or five, they we have that knowledge which is very important on in institutional knowledge because it's priceless. It really is. Um improvement collaboration of course with the team I I meet often with the principles and my staff every day and the maintenance department every day um working on priorities. We know summertime is 45 days and I
026hope everybody gets to enjoy it. I am busy and it's really not the 45 days of busy. It's the three months before summer. It's planning all appropriately. So those 45 days we can maximize the hours in the day to get stuff done because we know there's only 45 days, right? But you can't start on June 6th when we grab graduation. Oh, what are we going to do tomorrow? That doesn't work. Okay. adaptability, agility, of course, in-house is more effective stakeholder engagement. We know the principles, they get to know our staff, whether it's the bond program manager, you know, um, bond director, whoever it is, we have a relationship. We've worked with them, you know, with through one project after another. So, here's an update on the school paintings. So, we have Rick Marquez in the
027audience here. He's probably got 200 pictures of all of our campuses from day one to day 10 to day 20 of all the campuses. I just chose these three. One, it's all the all the schools listed on the left hand side down below there we have um Ram um on the bottom left corner getting painted. Once the painters are done with the body, with the trim, with all the poles, with all the details, then we power wash all the concrete. Right? So, the idea is clean schools. My program is I want our staff to continue this every year. And I know they've done some in the past, I've heard, but when they come back, the sidewalk should be clean, powerashed, everything, right? Everything should be clean, ready to go. I've been to too many sites
028where I see the kids just sitting along the walls and I see there's gum there and there's trash there and it's like that's gone. We should not have that, right? I don't want my kids to go to school like that. My kids are older now. in college. But I don't, you know, that's my I always look at these campuses as my kids, right? These kids are my kids. So now I just inherited 7,500 more kids. I love it. Right. So that's kind of it's a big role. However, the middle is um Hubard, the main office there at Hubard. And then of course over to the right we have McCollum um picture of of a portable there. So everything is planned to be scheduled and done by July 31st. We will be done before that, but
029that's their contract date. So, we are doing punch walks uh starting tomorrow. So, next update, parking lot ADA upgrades. So, this is the AALA parking lot out front. And so, one of Rick's first projects that we got here, we got here is I I need another summer. I need time to get these things done. But we told the contractors, you have 10 days. We need a bid. You're going to do the project in four days, right? because I've got 17 days till we're done. Right? And so this is what this is example of what we plan on doing everywhere. Right? So I want new parking lots that need to be ADA compliant. The bus zone in the middle there. And then over on the right hand side, this is a new walkway going out to
030the garden on the back of Okala. And uh so this was done same time frame. Now we have compliance so we can take a wheelchair out to the garden. You know, there are certain things that we need to have to be compliant. And so these are some of the little things that we did this summer in the last 28 days. Who's counting? So this is something else that's very exciting is of course safety. So this is a drop off zone there. Student and staff safety is priority number one across the board. And so um this walkway across this area was non-compliant before. Um, and this we actually had added truncated domes, which is the yellow little yellow dots, which is required by code. Um, which we didn't have. So now they're there. And this picture
031was taken the day before they installed them. So they're there now. I just didn't I didn't like the way the other photo turned out. But we are making some major improvements because we have to, right? And fortunately with my experience as an inspector, I can point out a lot of details and that's going to come up next. So, here's a playground update. Got a couple different things. So, top right corner, the Cassell uh playground design that was approved. And at DSA, we are now going to rotate that over to the Ryan site. So, I'm going to work with the principal at Ryan making sure it's the right size, the right color, the right location. They have one at Ryan that's outdated and we need to just see if we're going to replace it or if
032we're going to add a second one. So, those are conversations we still haven't had, but ideally that campus is blossoming right now because the new paint, the new design. I've walked with the principal there and we have a lot of ideas and so we're trying to make it the wow factor, right? One of the things I pride myself in is the wow factor and I know we have competitive schools around us and those are our kids, right? So, we want them back. One of the things that my former district, we were told we were declining enrollment, but yet we picked up a 100 kids every year because people wanted to go there. There's a lot of other things I'm doing besides this, but I'll share a little more. >> Eric, >> sir, >> what's DSA
033mean? >> DSA is a division of state architect, right? So, it's the governing body for the state, >> right? For all projects for schools, right? So the cities do houses and commercial and then DSA division state architect. There's four offices. All of our stuff goes to Oakland office for this area. Right. >> So good question. >> I'm glad to see the Linda one up there. So it's also going to be on the agenda. So I'll wait. Yeah. >> But is that going to be one or two playgrounds that it's going to go into Lindale? >> So we're looking at two playgrounds. >> Okay. Good. >> Yeah. Yeah. And so yeah. So the Cassel the Cassell is the first one. The next one's Lucha. This is one that the board already approved the pro the project.
034DSA already stamped and approved it. We went out to bid and the bidder said, "Oh, I'll do it for $550,000." This is the dirt work. This isn't putting in the play structure. This is just the dirt work. That is not going to happen. I'm not going to spend that much money on dirt work. We We're going out to rebid for this. It should be about a buck 25. There's no way we're paying somebody five. There's only one bidder. And they said, "Oh, put a five in front of it." Right? So, these are things that I'm seeing contractors and people take advantage of Elro >> and it's not going to happen anymore. I actually walked in a room and somebody's there like, "Oh, Eric's here." It's like, "Oh, hi." Right. So, things are changing for the
035better. We're going to save a lot of money and we're going to do things right at the right price. So, that's something I I I'm very dear to. Yes, Lindale. So, we prepared the DSA quality um the DSA original drawings and we shared them with a special ed teacher, Tony. He's actually out of town right now, but we gathered the information. We wanted some more input on the redesign and now they're all ready to go back to DSA again. Right. So, that pro those projects are moving forward and uh so we'll give you more updates as they as they go. >> Yep. >> Okay. Here's something that's near and dear to my heart which nobody cares about, right? Sewer upgrades. So, good news. Ben Painter, Okala, and Caesar Chavez, all the sewer problems that we
036had there are fixed. So, it was a nice busy, you know, four or five week project. Um, they're actually finishing the tile tomorrow and the bathroom. So, the the top middle picture that's a that's a new we had to change the direction of the sewer and and uh it's no, we all need it. It's the underground that's no fun, but it is required. And good news, all of our campuses are 65 years old and they all need upgrades. So, there's a lot of this needed. >> That's good news. >> Doesn't sound good to me. >> I just want to see who's all listening, Madam President. >> I do have a question on Ben Painter, though. >> Yes. >> Right there where they always do the donuts on the corner of Rough and Ready. >> Mhm.
037>> So, I noticed that the sidewalk go straight into the resial. >> That's the next slide. >> Okay. Go ahead. So, this is one of the little things about the district that is illegal, right? And so, I've been working with the city. So, I've I've teamed up with the city of San Jose, the Department of Transportation. There's a transportation specialist and a a young lady who does the rock and walk and roll program. We're creating a partnership that evaluated all of our sites. We had a conversation. So, we had I walked it with uh so we had Zoom call first. We had Joseph, principal, and Doug, principal, had a Zoom call. We talked to the city about wants and needs. Uh, Rough and Ready is a racetrack. >> Yes. >> Right. I wanted pylons right
038down the middle, so you can't do U-turns. So, we talked about options. I walked the the team down to this corner and I I asked them about these. So, they they told me they're they're replacing four crosswalks already, >> one in the back of the property and then some on Pat Road, this and that. So I I walked them to this site because the the crosswalk that's in the bottom left bottom corner. The right side goes to a curb which is not a sloped area and the left side goes to a driveway which means the two cars that park there back into the school zone or into the walkway every day. So it's absolutely legal. The city said we will not repaint that because then we agree that it's okay. I said I totally agree
039as an inspector. I know it's not legal, but that's a city street and somebody from your department painted that 40 years ago, 50 years ago, right? The fact is you can't repaint it. You got to grind it off and it's going to be gone. So then we looked at where we're going to put it. Well, the fact that it goes into a curb this direction is illegal. It doesn't have a slope. Then we looked across the street, the north side of this picture, >> that one's compliant. That's okay. But you can't get across the streets. And we talked about going about 20 ft, 30 ft up and going to the left. Well, we'd have to put in a new slope both sides, but then you have a stop sign that's hidden by that tree. And
040the stop sign is actually 20 ft from the white line. So, it's not even compliant either. And when you have cars that stop at that stop sign and you have two cars, now you're in the school, now you're in the crosswalk. So, the two folks that were with me, we're going to have their entire engineering department analyze this because they don't know what to do, which I think is great, right? Let's come up with a plan. They are going to restripe all of our curbs. We walked them all. There's some green stripes there which are legal. And so, we're changing some stuff, all the new signage. One of our concerns is staff parking. One of my suggestions was parking across the street on Rough and Ready. The fact is people drive fast when the road's
041this wide. When you narrow the lane, you drive slower. So if I parked cars on that whole right side, it would narrow the lane, it would slow down traffic. I've done this before in another district, right? Most lanes are 14 ft or 12. If you get to a 10ft lane, you drive really slow because then you're afraid to hit things, right? So we've analyzed all that. They're doing analysis on this site and then we're going to the other 12 sites, right? So we're going to do analysis on all of our sites. working on safety from the street first coming in. I have banners coming. We have a lot of different things, but signs is very important. Knowing how traffic patterns are. Um, working with Doug, he was excited about creating a sign to pass out
042to everybody like you have to drive this way for drop off, right? Fact is people work that direction. So, they're going to drop off and turn around, right? So, there's things that we can control and things we can't control. The reason the other side of the street we cannot park and that we talked about it is crossing the street, right? People want to cross the street students. We don't want anybody to get hit. Bikes, that kind of stuff. Um, and the signs that are on there now say you can't park anytime because we don't want the homeless parking there, right? And so there's no RVs and stuff like that parking there. Um, so we are going to paint the rest of the field from the second parking lot down white so staff can park there
043at all times. Um, and so we have some ideas, but there's a there was a lot of input in this for a couple hours and I gave a lot of feedback and the person with the city was so excited. She's like, Alam Rock has been really quiet for about 20 years and she was like, I'm so excited to work with somebody that is going to elevate everything. And so, uh, great partnership with San Jose and looking forward to it. >> I'm glad you're that she said that. Um, so this last week I went um to a meeting and it was not the meeting that I was expecting. It was kind of a complaint session, but I actually went to go see uh Senator Cortisa to ask for like what they did in Los Angeles. What
044they did in that district was they put 15 mile per hour signs in front of all the schools and that has really slowed everybody down, but just during those hours, right? >> So that actually that corner right there, that's where they do all the donuts and It's rough and ready. It was called that for a reason, >> right? >> But um you know how they have the little uh things, >> the little wooden things that stick up like this? That also slows everybody down. It makes it look like it's more tunnled. Correct. >> It's the same amount of but it just looks like it's >> one of my suggestions as well. >> Yeah. And it's for me it's cheaper. And so I try to get undulation signs because I went to the >> they had
045this other thing last year, the blue zone thing. So I went to every single meeting to ass or the undilation and and everybody's like well undulation you know you have to call it undilation because I called it speed humps I called it you know the other humps but you know you have to say those words so they'll correct you but anyways >> the thing is if we can do it in and I asked them if we can do it where one of our students got run over and killed >> which was a painter and at Okala if we could just start out doing a couple of them and then later on do all of them >> but that would help with the safety for the kids >> and those topics that we talked about having
046sleeve bumps on rock rough and ready. So, and and and one of the conversations was like, well, we actually have more accidents on Pat than we do Rough and Ready, but we understand Rough and Ready is a racetrack because it's so far so wide and people just ranks. So, >> and so there's a church with a huge parking lot and we've been talking to them. There's one on the corner and plus a little bit uh next to it is Emanuel, the other church. So, have we talked to >> I have not yet, but I will reach out to him. >> Okay. >> It's been a busy 25 days. I know. >> We'll get there. >> I I'll get you the numbers. >> That'd be great. I love it. >> Next thing, bottle fillers. All the
047board members have a new orange bottle fill bottle on your table because we have a new bottle filler right outside this door for you to partake in fresh water. Okay. Um we are working with Valley Water Grants and we've had a lot of conversations and we are applying for grants for each school. So the the deal is they'll give us a bottle filling station for each campus, right? They give to us for free. Well, they actually pay us. They give us money to buy it uh half of it up front, then we install it, then they give us the other half. It's more than the the bottle filler, right? That actually pays to have it installed. It pays for extra filters. And so my goal, and I've had Rick, my associate, go out take pictures
048of all the spots of all the drink fountains because we're going to place one more each side. I know there's some in the cafeterias. And uh today I walked the cafeterias gracefully all of them with the staff um learning all the needs and wants right um and some of those don't work that have been placed before right and so the fact is we're going to install new ones fix the ones we have but the idea is to put bottle fillers um one of the things I did in my last district I put 80 of them in the first few months and it's a huge impact for students right they love it >> and I share with the with the superintendent that these students and these teachers, they didn't want to move schools. We had to,
049right? So, the least we can do is paint them a new school, give them a nice classroom, and give them fresh water, right? And so, that's kind of my thing is saying, "Hey, thank you teachers. Thank you students for being here. Let's make it better." Because most of the students are going to go to these schools in August 13th saying, "My school wasn't painted. I didn't have a bottle filler, right? And so if I can make a little bit of wow factor the first week, it's better, right? And so working with Valley Water Grants, it's one of my plans. Um, Maria's doing all the work of course to get all these grants, but it's all happening and so things are great. We got a good relationship thanks to Tara with our district who gave me
050the contact. Um, but I've been working with them before on installing them everywhere. So that's my plan. the rest of our models and a lot of other stuff, but I didn't put slides for that questions. Okay, thanks. >> More of a comment. Thank you so much. And I love that you ended on the water because water is life and you know, the more hydrated our kids are, you know, the the better they'll be and attentive in school, less soda, less juices, less sugar. Um, so yeah, I look forward to uh coming by and and looking. I know um we have an upcoming meeting and maybe that day we can maybe check out one of the other schools. Um, but I look forward to seeing I I live around the Okala so I've been able to
051see that one. But um the pictures look great and uh I know that already um I already feel the difference. I already you know feel the refreshed vibe. So um I know that we're going to start on a good note. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, I'll start with a question. I'll move to a couple. All right, Eric. Uh, out of curiosity, uh, you know, when when when do you expect to submit to DSA, uh, the Lindale >> playground plan because that's that's been something Lindale's been asking for it for a long time. >> Yeah. So, so the drawings are ready to submit and so we should be able to submit probably this next month, I think. So, yeah. getting confirmation from Maria because she's been involved in that project for a lot longer than
052I have. But yeah, that's the plan is one thing that I and >> one of the things that as a former DSA work, right, involvement um November of 24 was a huge year because there's 200 bonds that passed in the state of California. Okay, what that means is DSA is going to get slammed, but not for six months, right? So, right now, the fact that we already have drawings ready, we're going to get in front of them, okay? But I have talked to other architects and I like to get stuff in now, right? And some of the things that I pride myself on is is Prop 2. You may have heard of Prop 2 and you may not have, but the state got a 10 billion dollar bond, which is kind of a lot of
053money. K8s, okay, K12's 1.5 goes to junior colleges, okay? The fact is that's that's money that we can split. Okay, on any of our projects that we're doing modernization. So, as we do modernization projects, we write up a little article, we submit it to OPSC funding, and it may cost us a million dollars for this project. Well, in about six years, they're going to cut us a check for half, >> right? >> Because the state has $8.5 billion. Well, there's people in line already and we're we need the money here at Alam Rock, but we need to apply for it, right? And I did this historically in other districts and I applied for $9 million of stuff. And about six, seven years in, I got $7 million back. That's pretty nice to go back to
054your bond program to help build more stuff, right? And so, one of the things that I'm looking at besides the maintenance, the deferred maintenance is the bond, right? We have so much money now, but we can make it last because we can apply for more money, right? So, as we do bathroom modernizations, as we do projects, we need to submit, we meaning me needs to submit um to OPSC funding to get qualified and get in line. And so, those are things that I'm working on else besides that. But we have drawings for that already. We're going to submit that and get in front of the world as they go to DSA. DSA Oakland's one of the busiest. often we'll get stuff sent down to San Diego DSA and they'll approve it there which is great
055for it doesn't matter >> we could do that >> so we have San Diego DSA Sacramento DSA yeah so and I know people in those in those buildings which kind of helps >> right so a high school that I used to work at we did four big buildings and that went to San Diego because it was much faster than going to Oakland >> so so I do want to commend you on the pace of change there is there's been a a lot of deferred maintenance and a lot of things that were in, you know, stuck in line, right? So, >> uh, what was it? You said 25 days in this district. So, I do want to commend you on the the the pace of progress uh in in the repainting as well as the the
056renovations. Uh, I know the the painter parents are going to be very uh happy with repaired because I took the brunt of a lot of complaints about restrooms that can't paint, right? And also one thing that I I noticed early on in my I was going to say I actually know >> two members of the water board and their director of governmental relations. So it's sort of like if you if you guys ever need a kind of like somebody to push from a different angle with the water district, please let me know. >> Fantastic. That's wonderful. >> So, I do have a question. Um, they probably, the kids probably don't know you now, but later on they're going to be looking at you like Santa because you're, you know, like when I first came this
057last week to the district, look at look at look at what Eric did. It's like, look what Eric did. We got a waterfront. I'm like, wow. And I'm like, what else is Eric gonna do? Now I'm looking at you like Santa. Anyways, um I I'm glad that you came today to let us know how it's going because um I see that you're knowledgeable not only in business and how to get the contracts, but you're a go-getter. And so, um to do this much in this short of time, it's um really good work you're doing. >> Well, I have to be I have to be clear. Maria Martinez did most of the prep work, >> okay, >> for all the painting and all the projects. I walked in on day one when they were opening bids,
058>> okay? >> And I was very concerned because I was told, "Here's our budget and I thought, well, there's no way we're paying for that." And then we opened all the bids and I'm like, "Okay, this is good, right?" I was very pleased where the bids came in. Which was great start, but that was my day one was opening bids. So, Maria did all the work. >> So, I when I went to that meeting that I was talking about earlier, it was kind of like a complaint session, but you know, to see the pictures because I knew what was happening was everything was being sprayed and painted. So some of the things that were coming out of that meeting um wasn't true. So I would like to ask are you doing like the before and
059after pictures so that you can let them know and show them look this is what Alan Mark is looking like. This is what all the schools have you know um >> no absolutely and and I and I agree with you. my historical data is when I when I start somewhere like today or like this month, last month I and then and I have maintenance people and I have lawn people and I have they're like, "Well, this is what happens and this is how it happens and this is why it happens." I said, "Okay, here's a line. We draw the line." That was yesterday. Okay, today we're moving forward. It's going to be better. So I don't have drawings or pictures of history but I have pictures from Ford. >> Okay. And we will move forward
060with the offices with classrooms with all the projects. You know today I walked all these kitchens with where they're at and I express my thanks because they're better than I thought they were going to be, right? Which is not very often. So, the kitchens were better than I thought they were going to be, and there's some work to do, but that's okay, right? Um, a lot of them, they have their refrigerators and stuff in front of the window. So, I'm like, move them to the wall so you have this natural light come in. Put your work tables under the natural light, you know, make it make create the experience for your staff and the kids and everybody else. Right? So, the way they're laid out, we need to change them a little bit. We need
061to update the furniture, right? The drinking fountains aren't that old, but the furniture is, right? the equipment is. So there are things we need to make make forward, right? But I explained to the maintenance department, I know what you did two years ago and five years ago and 10 years. That's great. It's done, right? Today we have a new goal and a new plan to excel and that's it. And every day we're going to talk about it. And I have an open door policy for for board members, for my staff, for everybody. They know they can come talk to me. Working with the union and team service, we meet every week and talk about every little project, right? So everybody's open, right? First week I was there, first day I was there, they had a
062big thing in the room and there was these mailboxes and I'm like, "Well, you need a whiteboard because I write on the whiteboard." And so we have everything written out so everybody can see it, right? It's called transparency. And so the the union guys out there, we meet in the mornings and they see what we have to do, right? So that's just one of my ways to manage. It's probably the military and me, but it works. >> But you know what the good thing is is that you're not looking You're only looking forward, right? And you're not wasting time looking back. >> I don't have time. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> No wonder you've gone so much time. >> Uh any other um dismissed? >> Thank you. >> Okay. So 4 point. Uh oh.
063Was that I guess that was one and two. >> I think he did both. >> Okay. You see time management. There you go. 5.1 uh resignations. That's information only. Now 6.1 education protection accounts spending. >> Public comment on items 41 4.1. >> Um no but uh is there any public comment on 4.1? >> Okay. >> Good evening, Veronica Talton, uh employee and constituent. Um just want to thank Eric. I don't know your last name. Um, but I've been in the district since losing since 2019. And I want to thank you um for the BA bathroom modernization. I'm hoping we will have hot water in the sinks um because that's very important for hygiene. Um, but I also wanted to um just inform you that students when they were using the water fountains previously, especially at
064Lindell Elementary, the flow of the water was so low students would have to put their mouth very very close to that's not hygienic either. And so I'm hoping that with the insulation of the new um water system that those will be removed. I I don't recall if you said that or not. And the last and final thing is that because you are new um at Lindell, the special education department, the prek SDC has gone for a couple of years, more than that actually, without a playground structure. And so, uh board president mentioned that um but there was a grant that was to assist with that. So, I'm hoping that with the release of the funds and all that you're doing, that the students at Lindell who have gone without anything, especially this bed department, will
065have something this school year with all the changes and everything else that has happened that will allow them to play and do so in a safe manner. So, thank you for all your work. >> Thank you. Any public comment on 4.2? Okay, seeing no public comment then uh 5.1 we were through that that's information only on the resignations. Now going to 6.1 that's business services. Uh the board may take action on any of these items in this section unless it is designated for information only. So do I have a motion for 6.1? >> Motion to approve. >> I have a motion. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Oh sorry. >> Second for from uh I didn't see Uh trusting >> I was quiet. >> Speaker. Um any public comment on 6.1? >> Seeing
066no public comment. Any trustee comment on 6.1 presentation from business services first. >> Yeah. >> No presentation. >> There's no presentation. >> So seeing none, let's go for the vote. All in favor 6.1, please raise your hand. Uh motion passes. It's four. Yay. Uh, zero nos and one absent. Moving on to 6.2. This is the resolution. Uh, so I have a motion. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> So I have a do I have any public comment on 6.2 on the resolution? Uh, seeing none. >> Any trustee comments? Seeing none, all in favor, please raise your hand. Uh, the motion passes. Four zero uh, nos and one absent. 6.3 piggyback adoption of the piggyback contract for items such as equipment, materials, supplies, services, non- construction service. Do I have a motion? >> Move
067to approve. >> Second. >> Okay. Do I have any public comment on 6.3? No public comment. Any trusty comment on 6.3? No. Just a quick one. I'm glad that this is on uh you know sometimes the difficulty in procurement is managing the procurement process for so many different items. So uh This presents a a simplified way for the district to manage procurement for number of everyday items in the district. So I'm happy to support this item. >> All in favor, please raise your hand for 6.3. Motion passes. 401 absent. Um item contracts over $100,000 7.1 approve the Renaissance learning contract for $148,458. Do I have a motion? >> Move to approve. Second. >> Okay. So we have a motion and a second. Is there any public comment on 7.1? Seeing no public comment, any trustee
068comment on 7.1. Seeing none, let's vote. All in favor, raise your hand. Four yays, zero nos, and one absent. 7.2. to approve the learning center services contract for 2025 2026. The contract will provide an individual instruction and behavioral services. >> Motion to approve. >> Okay, I have a motion and a second. Is there any public comment on 7.2? >> No, I see. Yes. >> So, no public comment. Uh, any trusty comment? No trusty comment. All in favor for 7.2, please raise your hand. Motion passes. 4 01 absent. So consent calendar items. Um >> madam president motion to approve to balance the consent calendar items 8.1 through 8.9 8.9. >> Okay. >> Second. >> Do I see? Okay. I have a motion to second. Any public comment on 8 on the consent calendar the entirety? Uh
069seeing none. Any trusty comment on the consent calendar? Seeing none, please raise your hand for the items. Uh 8.1 through 8.9. Motion passes unanimously. Four uh yays, zero nays, and one absent. [Music] >> Stick around. >> Yeah, I can stick around. >> Okay. So, I I was supposed to read this, but maybe I won't read it. Okay, let's go. >> Okay, I lost my page. I got suicided. >> Okay, so um we are now going to go to close session. Uh right now it's 6:27. I'm going to give everybody a five minute break. >> One minute so we can sign documents. >> Just one, like I said, >> Oh, you are going to stick around? >> Yeah, that's what I said. Okay, so I'm going to give everybody six minutes. You got one minute to
070sign documents. So it is 6:28 and we will see over there at the board library uh in 6 minutes. So that is 6:34. Okay. Thank you. I think I'm for the record what time you came in. So >> it was 6:45. >> Okay, we're back from close session. And for the record, uh, Vice President Ginttero came into close session at 6:45. And, uh, we I think >> Yeah. Uh, Mr. Torico has something >> and and also Mr. Lurice has something. We'll take Mr. Torico first. >> Thank you, board president. Item 9.7, an a motion by Vice President Kintterero, seconded by President Chavez, the board by unanimous vote approved the appointment of Kristen Bert as our new director of social emotional learning. [Applause] [Laughter] and it was unanimous >> and close session item 9.5. Uh the
071board took an action to unanimously approve uh the superintendent's midyear evaluation. There are no further actions to report. >> So uh I will adjourn this meeting at 8:25. Good night.