Special Board Meeting

001get one good let me ask Pres so you can hand them out to the individual okay we print I I do have it byle I'm good for yeah you were gonna ask me I told for appreciate it trust sorry no problem call me don't call for or we could start it on to maybe I should where's good evening it's November 21st Thursday 2024 it's 5:30 uh p.m. right now we're open up this meeting also this meeting is being recorded uh thank you very much Miss Maribel can I uh you please do roll call today's a special board meeting of November 21st 2024 at 5:30 p.m members of the board can you please do roll call can you hear me trusty Chavez I wasn't hearing the audio you didn't hear it where I now I can

002can you hear me testing Miss Mari Bell can you hear me can you hear me she can't hear what room is she in can you ask her to come in we're having a little bit of technical difficulties one minute please thank you sir h a chance today today's a special board meeting of November 21st 2024 at 5:30 p.m. members of the board in attendance president Linda Chavez present vice president Andres Kinto present clerk M fam present member Andrea Flores Shelton she's not here yet members of administration superintendent hman present marel I'm also here no it's okay I just want to make sure that it's reflected in the minutes that I'm here you need a call member coordinator Al present thank you and uh can we all please stand for the pledge allegiance so um so

0032011 announcement and public comments regarding items to be um president yes um could I ask that we open the agenda so that we can move some stuff around sure we'll open up the agenda uh at this point I'm requesting that we move uh Clos session and item two uh to after item six that way we can hear from the public and they don't have to be waiting here while we're in close session miss Mar did you get that so we have a motion can you repeat the motion uh the motion is to move um item number two which is all the items in close session to uh after item six so between item six and item seven and that was U my second okay so all in favor of moving uh all of close session

004items or adopting the agenda pardon or adopting the agenda amended or adopting the agenda as amended um to moving it before 601 uh please raise your hand board President Chavez I'm sorry I have two items to amend to the agenda as well okay um before on what on the Clos session no okay let me just do this and then okay go ahead I apologize I think you're you're voting on amending the agenda so it is item 5.3 okay it should read ratify contract with Precision communication systems to replace the intercom system at Shepard middle school and also item 6.2 instead of approve it should say say ratify memorandum of understanding thank you all in favor with edits uh please raise your hand hold on I have some comments on the item okay go ahead vice

005president K this brings to light the need to remove items from consent that are for ratification if something already took place and it's being brought to the board to Simply as a formality say yes then in the future and I will be submitting a policy from here is the next board meeting that all items that are for ratification need to be brought into the open into the the regular agenda out of consent so that we can have a discussion as to why it's being ratified and why was it brought at this time and it's maybe it's just needed to because of an emergency um or may have been an oversight but uh it allows us the opportunity to be transparent and clear as to why items are being brought uh for ratification as opposed to

006being brought in advance uh to the board so so let me get this straight this is what I'm understanding we are going to be pulling 5.3 and 6.2 no we're uh amending it to read ratify rather than approve on both of those that means it's already happened we're just simply saying okay okay let the record reflect that uh truste Andreas Flor Shel just came in at 5:36 okay so um Miss Shelton what we're doing is we're amending the agenda and we're going to be doing close session items from 2.1 uh through 2.4 we we'll be looking at them at the end of um of 6.2 we're just changing close session around okay and so what we're doing right now is we're going to be uh Miss um Teresa Desales just changed 5.3 to approve uh

007change it to ratify and the 6.2 instead of approve change it to ratify as well okay so we will now be voting on that all in favor raise your hands so 5 Z motion passes to uh motion to adopt the agenda so moving on to it has been requested to move item 4.1 uh to at this time so that the public doesn't have to stay here all night long uh and uh so that we can all hear you and also on the public comments we thank you for sharing your thoughts during public comment while your time is up we truly value your input and and encourage you to email any additional comments to the Board of Trustees and your voice is important to us and we sincerely appreciate your time and your effort however since

008there's so many speakers and we usually just allow for 20 minutes of speaking time uh since we have so many we're going to allow one minute and the last time instead of 20 we did over an hour and a half and that was plenty of time actually everybody spoke but please concise your message in the time frame if you do need more time please email the board we do we do read everything Believe It or Not uh at least I do um so if you feel the need to express more and thank you for all your sides um please um feel free to email the board thank you so we will be um Mr Carl tripol I don't even know where I can't see you okay can you please uh you like to read can

009you please read the uh public comment uh for them to so they can understand as well the public comit okay that's on item I don't think it's on the agenda it's not yeah it's not uh would like me to um yes pleas the public know that we have interpretation services available for families thank you Comm status good good afternoon everybody we have interpretation Services inh house in Spanish for the families we have headsets on the table that it's in the in the hallway um we can help the public with Spanish translation up at the podium when the when they want to address the uh the board so just let us know when you need a service up at the podium and I'll be glad to um help you out I recommend that you say your

010name uh what school you represent and then speak a little slower and pause thank you Madame President and members of support much Madame President can you repeat how much time they're going to have um each member excuse me each person is going to be allowed one minute speaking time and Mr uh superintendent Z that I'm going to need assistance with the timer we can assist I'm going to ask assistant superintendent of HR Mr too who will assist with that thank no I can I can I can superintendent I can share you don't think so I think so okay okay moving on to the superintendent board discussion and interaction the board may take action on any item in this section unless it is designated for information only so 4.1 school closures and school cons consolidation recommendation

011from the superintendent alternative proposals of school closures and school consolidations from truste minam Mr s would you like to speak yes I I will introduce this one what I'm GNA I'm going to ask uh um uh Mr he's a a superintendent advisor Mr Manny Barbara to come up to the podium so he can go over the consolidation and closure process and then what I will do is then recap my recommendation and share some additional data with the board and the public uh regarding my recommendation of the schools uh that I'll be recommend recommending for closure for consolidation and for uh redesign uh Mr Manny thank you good evening uh board President Chavez members of the board superintendent Serta and members of the cabinet um apologize this you've heard this presentation before but there may be

012some people here this evening that have not heard this so um I'm going to be repeating what what you've heard before and so let me share first of all some history of how we got to this point um our school district was faced with a $20 million deficit and we basically had enough funds to last for this year and then uh next year and then the district was was facing uh bankruptcy basically running out of funds we have been assigned a fiscal crisis and management assistant team that's fmat they um uh they came they met with the cabinet they've done they did some research on the budget they met with the assistant superintendent of business and they present Senate your find the findings at the last meeting in terms of the need to uh confirming

013the situation we're at with the budget he's also been assigned a fiscal expert uh who's here this evening who has been also uh monitoring and Advising us throughout this entire process the Santa Clair County Office of Education also required a plan of how we would balance the budget this was submitted to the um to the county office back in October and approved by the board at that time and the board had approved the need for a process to close as much as nine schools and this was based on um the need again to address this deficit that we were facing but this is how we got to this point we wanted to create a process that uh maintained as much as possible the positive aspects of the district culture understanding that no one wants to

014close schools this there's nothing there's nothing positive about this no one's going to volunteer to have their school recommended for closure it's a very emotional process but we wanted Community input a smoother staff execution plan and then maintaining as much as possible positive community relations so the context is it's important to understand that going through this process and as I mentioned to you last time been through this four times already and it is um a budgetary issue you have to close Fun you have to close the deficit we're not allowed to print money we're not like the federal government districts have to balance budget you approve a budget every June it's also a psychological process it's very emotional it's very intense it upsets everyone in the community no one is not touched uh parents staff

015student students um board everyone Administration um there's no avoiding it it's a very emotional process and it's also a political process in the sense that um you are elected in your positions and it's a very challenging situation I've said many times there's no elected position more difficult than being a member of a Board of Trustees because you're close to the people there's you're not you know if you ever go to a city council meeting it's not like this they're close you're part of the neighborhood it makes it extra difficult for you from the budget the decision to close schools is necessitated by budget concerns no one does this because they want to the Alternatives um are clear and we need to understand this is a zero sum game it's not don't do this it's if

016you don't do this then you're choosing the alternative and the alternative is col cut beloved programs um I don't know if you have even have $10 million uh over the next two years in program Cuts but that is an option that you have you could reduce employee compensation opportunities I'm not saying do this I'm only going through what the options might be uh you could try to raise more Revenue which already this community has been very supportive with the partial tax the other option is to look at insolvency which is when the county takes over the district and appoints a district administrator with the sole authority to balance the budget so the situation that you're faced with is again it's a zero sum game a decision not to do anything will result in um you

017know the the high probability that the county will assign a district administrator um with the authority to balance the budget and they will do that this has happened uh throughout the state when districts um do go bankrupt and uh the board has no longer has any responsibility contracts become null and void and the only thing that matters in that situation is balancing the budget it's psychological because it is a painful emotion experience uh everyone is affected um feelings run hot it's it's it's no one as I mentioned no one wants their schools closed it means something important is ending and so people grieve it they fight for it it's completely understandable it's a very real loss and you can't expect people to react to it in such a way that they're going to um you

018know voluntarily recommend that their school be closed so you're going to hear uh and you will hear and you have heard and will continue to hear a very adverse reaction to having Face closing schools again it's a very political one as I mentioned uh a school district is a educational it's tion it's also political one any anytime you have elected officials it's a political process and that's a very real uh situation your human beings your um you have to face uh the challenges that come from being in this important position that you're at and um it's just the nature of the situation that you find yourselves in these are the assumptions that we went into the process first of all the Board of Trustees makes the final decision so right now we're we're still making

019proposals and making recommendations to you the stakeholder committee makes an informed recommendation to the superintendent who in turn makes the recommendation to the board this is important because the committee needs to be um once once their role is done then their role is completed it's a difficult enough process as it is and it is not fair to uh lay to resp responsibility of the recommendations on the people that participated in the U school consolidation School closure committee the superintendent as I mentioned makes the recommendation and the Assumption of course is that no one uh wants to consolidate schools that just goes without saying the committee was composed of a parent from each school um they must reside within the district boundaries I mentioned this as I mentioned last time one member unfortunately was removed from

020the committee Midway through because it turned out he was not uh living within District bound boundaries this was a very explicit direction from the board when you approved the process we invited Key Community groups neighborhood associations to participate in the process representation from the management team the executive cabinet nonvoting as a resource superintendent participated as a non-voting as the fall back to make the recommendation we also had a marketing consultant who was part of it to help with getting the information out and then uh two facilitators myself and one other person given the size of the group with 31 people um um I've never facilitated a group this large for this complicated a situation so um it was a very large group to try to bring to any kind of an agreement I want to

021acknowledge the committee itself they put in a significant time commitment uh nine meetings very emotional at times um it is uh very difficult to sit there and look at as again to look at what schools you could potentially be closing includ including what may be your own and they were asked to take a look at the interest of the entire District not just their own school and that they themselves had a considerable psychological and emotional toll when they went through it and they think they need to be acknowledged for their work the administration role was to execute the policies of the Board of Trustees um provided facilitation or the case of uh bringing us on in the Marketing Group and providing the necessary information to the committee with the intent that the superintendent will make

022the final recommendation to the Board of Trustees the charge of the committee as you can see there because of the decline in student enrollment and um as you have learned from your own present from prior presentations to the board um the district has been losing students on a significant basis it should be mentioned by the way Alam rock is not the only one we've got neighboring districts closing Five schools another one closing three schools and the other districts within the East Side Alliance already having closed schools so this is something that um is part of what's going on within the district as I've mentioned before when uh I first started Eastside Alliance about eight nine years ago there was a total of 82,000 students with the high East Side High School District and the Seven

023Elementary feeder districts partner districts that number is now down in the low 60s that shows you the the tremendous decline that has happened uh again uh facing a projected budget deficit of $20 million to address this challenge uh the board authorized the school consolidation committee to recommend up to nine schools for closure the committee was charged to provide the recommendation to the superintendent of these nine schools and also mentioned in here and this was made clear by the superintendent the opportunity to reimagine the school district it would be a smaller District a leaner district and the opportunity to start providing increased resources for our students at the last meeting there was some very impassionate pleas about saving visual Performing Arts music programs well this is what this does so um a failure not to close

024schools means that then programs have to be cut so this is the the options that are available to us so I think it's important to mention that um this is being done exactly for that purpose to maintain these valuable programs that you have already to um within the district I mentioned were were the facilitators and uh Michael Seda was my co- facilitator Heather mcgaan was the marketing consultant these were the meetings and um the committee was presented with all the information um possible to help make this recommendation they would be the most most informed members of the committee other than yourselves the first meeting dealt with a establishing some Norms a budget presentation as to why we are in the situation that we're in now given the um uh the $20 million deficit they then

025received demographic enrollment information and saw how in the last I believe 5 years we've lost as much as 5,000 students and we're projected within the next four or five years to go from 7,400 students to I believe was at 5,200 5,300 students so we're still projected to lose an additional 2,000 students keep in mind that charter school take their toll as well on the district there's a considerable number of charter schools that have been approved uh by the county that have taken students away from the um um Regular schools within the district and one of the areas we're hoping is that once we have additional resources that will come from this that the schools can be even more competitive with the charter schools that are within within the district I mentioned to you last time

026I facilitate many many situations not just school closures but issues relative to the math Wars Common Core and so forth this is the most challenging when I've ever been involved in for several reasons number one the size of the committee we're talking about uh 31 people involved when you take into account the number of parent Representatives neighborhood associations um the union associations and administration plus the schools being considered we're looking here almost half of the schools within the district nine schools out of 21 um but even been told that it was impossible to do this is extremely difficult it's not one or two schools three schools we're talking about nine schools and the reason for this is we've run out of Runway um we don't have time I've mentioned this many times that had three

027schools been closed five years ago we would not be in the situation that we're in right now we're having to close as many schools as we have to and finally the timeline um we had to get the work completed um by December and um we started right there at the uh at the end of September and we had to uh bring those those meetings uh to to a um again bring this here again um you can see we went through the various programs um information that they receed we went to prioritization and you can see the um timeline where last on November 14th we had the public hearing and then on the 21st which is today the board information I want to make sure that that dates right Herm mind is it December 2nd is

028the board action correct it's a Monday December 2nd sure that's the final dat so it is December 2nd the process uh first the committee received information as I had mentioned they had opportunity for questions discussion prioritizing and finally attempting to reach um agreement on the schools that they would be recommending to the super attended there's several criteria that were used you can see there there how close they were if there's an asterisk next to it it means that the committee consider them um more important than some of the other criteria so how close they were to a charter was there a neighborhood school to receive the students the capacity of school the maintenance cost I know the superintendent will go through some of these when uh when he presents um will Transportation be needed special

029education facilities I think I should mention because I know this came up last time that does not impact special education programs or IEPs those follow the students so because a special ed program may or may be um impacted by closure that does not affect the students IEPs that follows the students and that's important that everyone understands that any special programs that might be at the school such as U the vapa programs Wellness programs and then uh schools that had Community grants the information to the committee was made available to the community after the meeting all information agendas were posted on parents Square the superintendent also held Town Hall meetings at the school and also districtwide through Zoom um explaining the process that was going on um and also so uh that has continued uh after

030last week's meeting that the superintendent continue to be having those meetings an opportunity for the community to respond to his recommendation and also for the superintendent to provide the reason and rationale for his recommendations so this was the difficult um challenge the committee reached consensus on six schools and they were elementary schools and I I want to address this because this came up at the last meeting could I could not reach consensus on the final can I correct it was seven seven excuse me well Chavez correct I wasn't there um and um the committee could not reach agreement specifically on the middle schools and so we were bringing it back uh two weeks later for our committee and then a subcommittee met on their own came back with a completely different scenario so we reviewed

031that scenario in addition to what already had been agreed with two weeks earlier this became a little challenging because the people who were not involved and could not attend that meeting um felt they were left out of the process we tried to process it as much as possible given the time that we had there was our final meeting we had uh basically two and a half hours to um to go through the majority agreed on a set of recommendations but there was a ible group five five uh my notes show five that were not involved in the process they were not comfortable agreeing with that recommendation so it was left back to the superintendent to review and make sense but the committee did read consensus on the seven schools after the um Community meetings the

032recommendation was made to the superintendent the superintendent needed to either accept the recommendation or modify as I'd mentioned Community meetings were held to allow the community input to the recommendation by the superintendent they were open to the community presenting rationale and allowing for Community input superintendent considered the recommendations with to include the rationale and framing of the recommendation as why it was essential why he decided to do what he did and also how would benefit the entire district and students in the future and this is the critical point no one wants their school closed it's a matter of looking at the entire district and trying to balance and do it in a way that will uh benefit the district and students in the future and going forward having the the available resources to make a

033difference um with the students in the school November 14th we had our meeting our public hearing the Board of Trustees are hearing information this evening and then on December 2nd um action I should also mention that after um should you accept the recommendations or modify the proposal that'll be your call that the transition process will begin in Earnest this is a very long and um intense process addressing how students will be um welcomed and initiated into new schools as well as students welcoming new students to their school parent groups need to uh get together and begin to work together on how they would support their new school there's a lot of informed Human Resources with the movement of staff from one school to another There's issues dealing with facilities if some facilities may need some

034modification the movement of instructional materials and then finally at the end an opportunity to uh arrive closure as I mentioned everyone is affected by this there's not a department there's not a stakeholder group no one will be immune from having to go through this process uh moving forward I'll take any questions if you have any at this time do any of the board trustees have any comment uh truste kinaa thank you Manny for that detailed presentation again um and I just want to confirm on the uh there's 31 uh people on the consolidation committee and um I'm going back to that slide for the school's consolidation and I just want to confirm that all of the bargaining units were represented there yes okay yes definitely thank you right any other trusty comment seeing none um

035any thank you Mr Manny very much any public comment uh please step up to the podium I still have my presentation I'm sorry oh one second please sorry we're gonna one second we're gonna please sit down uh and let me finish um I I over I rushed it a little bit um Mr s superintendent SDA has his presentation go ahead Mr SDA yes can you put the presentation up please do you have the clicker as well thank you for your patience thank you I appreciate it yeah I just want to share some more detailed information uh I made a recommendation last week trustees uh that I want to recap but there was also uh thank you uh trusty fam uh came uh and actually shared an alternative proposal uh with the board and with the

036public uh as to uh you know whether uh there were other a combination of of you know recommendations from the committee and he also looked at administrative recommendations that I'm making and he came up with the proposal so thank you for putting in all that time I appreciated uh so I want to give you some more information we met with uh trusty fam uh last week assistant superintendent desels and we costed out his um recommendation the alternative recommendation but I also want to share uh my proposal or recommendation to the Board of Trustees as well as uh his proposal and uh then I'll I'll turn it over to President Chavez so uh with that do you have a clicker thank you this work just click yeah go ahead and click only if you have an

037next copy yes so thank you for your your patience so uh so last week what I recommended based on the recommendations of the uh committee and also the criteria I took um some of the considerations from the committee and made a recommendation to the board last week of which consist which consisted of uh closing seven schools uh and consolidating in two schools uh and redesigning one and the impact on that would be that uh this would be 10 schools uh and a total of 2,815 students that would be approximately impacted uh the immediate savings that I presented last week was $9.7 Million remember that the goal uh that the goal is to get to the $10 million and that's something that uh we need to get to as as far as the savings is concerned

038and each school is approximately $1 million next uh this is a criteria again uh and I just wanted to clarify I'm not going to go over it again uh super uh I keep on calling him interm superintendent but he's more of a facilitator now uh retired um he went over the criteria with you and just I want to point out seven and eight I just added a little bit more clarity there it's it's really there are no special education IEP students with IEP programs that can't be moved and the other one is there are no special programs you know like the Verizon Labs uh that you know can't be moved next uh these are the schools that uh I'm recommending for for closure um and if you look at the green asterisk uh there are

039seven schools I did agree with the committee that those would be the schools that I would be recommending for closure uh and those schools that have the asterisk are uh Meer ctin um Lucha painter um Cesar Chavez uh Joseph George and aptitude Academy and it's a combination of closures and a combination of consolidations and uh Eliza uh Cesar Chavez learning center is the one that I'm recommending as a redesign and the other schools that are recommending for closure thank you very much just leave it there um uh what I want to share with you here is that even though I'm recommending some of these schools for closure and or consolidation uh we will be opening up the intradistrict uh permits and what that means is that any student any family can apply for an in

040District permit so if you're within the district you can apply to any other school and those will be honored because we do have the capacity so I just want to make that very clear we do also take inter district and those are external those are from outside the district and currently we have over 500 interdistrict permits and that's generating millions and millions of dollars from other districts that's keeping us afloat at this moment next these are the number of students it's a breakdown of the schools and the number of schools and the number of students that are being impacted and again like I mentioned is there are 2,850 15 students that will be impacted and we have a total of about 7,300 students and that was a goal is to impact the least amount of

041students even though it's a lot but this is the least amount of students that this proposal would would impact next this is what it would look like in the year 20125 2026 if this uh proposal were to be approved by the Board of Trustees it's not being approved tonight it's just for information as and a recommendation this is something that the board will take action on on December 2nd but this is what it would look like most of our schools are being are are at their operational capacity is under the 50% this would put some of the schools like I'm not going to go over all of them but like Linda Vista would be at 80 plus% utilization of their operational capacity McCollum it puts McCollum almost at 90% rouso 78% Okala 71% uh I

042do want to clarify this one Renaissance Academy at Matson um fiser would have the option to combine those programs there at Matson and right now we have it at 42% but the numbers can actually go higher um but I just wanted to explain that a little bit there next this is the just a brief overview remember that the goal is $10 million okay this plan uh impacts the least amount of students impacts 10 schools closes seven but maintains school campuses throughout alumrock and its four quadrants and the immediate sa savings are $9.7 million next uh I I just wanted to add a little bit more uh we are in a deficit of $20 million the goal with the school closures and consolidation is to get $10 million but what I wanted to add here is

043there are are other reductions that we are making it's impacting the entire District special education staff reductions would equate close to $2 million and this is an estimate at this moment we're being uh conservative correct assistance sou to Sals teacher direct uh reductions we're also being very conservative here because we still have to look at data we're going to have to go through the budget uh development process enrollment Trends where we're at with families where they will be enrolling and currently we're at $1.5 million but that could double uh but I just want to put that out there it's it's we are making some Cuts there district office staff reductions there will be some district office staff reductions in the amount of about 1.8 million the TBD which is based on evaluation of Staffing that

044will equate to about $4.7 million uh so that it could get get us into the $20 million savings next please and uh Mr Barbara mentioned that uh you know and this is what what we LED with what I've been communicating to the families that you know it is a challenge this is hard it's not easy uh nobody wants to close schools but but in order for us to be a leaner and reimagine a more efficient more efficient alumrock Union School District we have to make some cuts it it's the hardest thing anybody's you know can do uh nobody wants to close especially seven schools you have other districts that are closing Five that are neighboring districts some are closing three but nobody wants to close schools but this is an opportunity for us to maximize

045our resources and we can do this next please you know the the vapa programs there are vapa clusters and we talked about programs and um I want to talk a little bit about we have proposition 28 funds and currently the proposition 28 funds that we are uh receiving from the state from prop 98 are being spread throughout 22 schools since you're going to have more stud students at each School site the dollar amount that you will that schools will be getting now in prop 28 funds may be doubling from some of the school sites so you will be able to reduce because right now what we have is we have teachers that are being split across three sites that is not maximizing our resources that's actually costing us more so this is a great opportunity

046for us to also reimagine our visual and Performing Arts programs here in alumrock next please special education uh also this is something that we are also spreading ourselves very very thin and there will be this is an opportunity to to enhance our special education programs remember that the IEP we have to follow the IEP and the students will continue to get their services they will continue to get get their transportation this is going to continue and we are um spreading our staff thin here as well we have speech therapists that are being you know they're going to you know two three different School sites and now we will be able to combine and service more students more efficiently with one speech therapist or two I was over at Okala today for their Turkey Trot and

047I spoke to to one of the speech therapist there it's got 48 but being split in two different sites and so uh this is a good opportunity for us to to reimagine uh our special education services here in alumrock the the other thing excuse me uh superintendent's providing a presentation uh can we maintain order please ma'am ma'am people are human they have to go and use a restroom thank you I provided you the information you needed now can you please proceed superintendent uh thank you uh vice president Kinto uh the other thing that I wanted to point out uh special education we have an overidentification of our special education students we're at 20% that's double the average of most other districts this is the I've been in education for 30 years and I have never

048seen it this high in a school district and so last week the Board of Trustees approved a special education uh study that will be analyzing and identifying root causes so that we can put together an action plan and potentially a task force here in alrock so that we could better support our students so that they are not being overidentified in special education and it cost an additional $1,000 to educate a special education student they require more resources more supports and we want to give them that but we have to do it in a very strategic and and way that's going to support them and so that's something that we're going to be doing uh in the next couple of months or so uh next please trans transportation and and um safe routes and I've mentioned

049this during the town hall meetings that uh we are exploring assistant superintendent uh desels will be working with the uh transportation department to offer some type of shuttle stop uh transportation for our students and that's something we're currently exploring we're evaluating our current transportation system to provide some form of transportation for our students special education again they will be getting their transportation if they have it in their IEP the other thing is I will be meeting and I met with some of the council members I'm meeting with another one also with the mayor and I'm going to be working with them so that we can develop safe routes for our students and and uh a parent yesterday I was at the uh spark meeting last night actually and recommended something to me that I thought

050made a lot of sense says Mr serto why don't you walk the routes I'm gonna walk them I'm gonna walk them and I will walk the routes so that you can experience it I want to experience it because we want to make the best possible decision for our students and I feel that this recommendation is is the one that disrup the most students uh the Verizon Labs you know these have come up and we do have some sites where we are recommending the uh you know that their schools close and um yeah they we're going to be able to relocate those Verizon labs and maximize those resources and move them and and enhance those Verizon Labs at some of the other sites next please uh just want to go over some of the uh trusty

051fam's alternate proposal uh this you know this proposal closes uh seven School sites uh one School site for repurposing Fisher to Madson Adelante one and two to fiser school consolidations two schools are recommended for consolidation three schools are recommended for redesign this this affects 13 uh schools it actually impacts uh 13 School schools and a total of of or approximate 3457 students are impacted and the savings that we calculated last week and over the weekend was $8.7 million and remember the goal is $10 million next please these are the schools that are being recommended by by trusty fam uh again thank you trusty fam and uh he also uh agreed with the seven schools correct uh trusty fam that the commit recommended concurrence yeah and there's and and there's uh you know they have an

052asterisk green asterisk and those are the schools but these are all the schools that would be recommended in that proposal uh these are the number of students broken down by uh School site number of students at each of the school site and also their capacity it would increase the capacity and this is the capacity and also the utilization of their operational capacity for each of their sites this is uh just an overview of of trusty fam's proposal and again the goal is $10 million and the trusty fam's alternate proposal would impact students uh impact 642 more than the one I'm recommending uh also impacts 13 schools as opposed to 10 uh the Fisher facil uh would require and this came up last week but we've confirmed it uh it would cost an additional $6.5 million

053on top of the $1 13.5 million that the school requires uh for uh deferred maintenance uh to convert it to a tk8 uh and it wouldn't be ready in a year it would be ready in the year 2026 uh if Adelante one and two preschools are moved to Fisher campus it will require new licensing we followed up on this the licensing process also takes up to one year and these costs are not uh reflected in the 6.5 million it also leaves the the central section of the district without a traditional Elementary School displaces one school Community Fisher to bring in a new school Community adante one and two and the immediate savings is 8.7 and um what I'll do now um President Chavez I will turn this over to you um and um vice president

054can um Madame President we have our colleague here who put his presentation in his plan I think he would be able to speak to his plan or is that ACC or is there part well parts of it you know and I want to thank you know uh the superintendent Mr ser and Mrs delelis for sitting with me on on uh last Friday right and again you know I think that it you know I want to say that uh you know we we came to we came to an agreement on some of the terminology right and I gained a little better understanding about uh you know uh oh I'm so sorry I'm so sorry you know oh okay I'm um you know understanding of a bit of the uh what is it uh how you say

055the cost of administrative restructuring uh and mind you again uh again uh what is it what is it the old old term I would be czy crazy not to uh not to adjust proposals based upon new information or newly acquired information right so uh you know I I do want to say a few uh I would I would argue that first of all the bulk of the difference is in the movement of children is because the autant are moving to I propose that the AES are moving to a different site and that the middle the middle grades in DEC to8 sites be moved to uh you know traditional Middle School uh and I will say that I you know I propose such even though it is more children moving uh it you know it preserves

056facilities I think it it moves them to better facilities right so for example uh dorsa merging into hubard would give this give the children of dorsa uh access to the Verizon Innovation Lab at uh hubard allows them to you know allows them access to a soccer pitch allows them to uh what is it to move the piano Lab at dorsa intact for example right those were some of the move though there is a move it was a move in order so that the campuses with the best facilities are made available to our kids uh my principal has has been you know it's better to move moving is better than losing uh so you know there you know so I I concur that there is a greater movement of students under my alternative proposal as a

057a as brought up last weekend I mean last week I'm sorry about that it's been a long day um I will quibble uh with the issue of you know $6.5 million in reconstruction cost and only because as having previously sat on the bond committee and uh board President Chavez would remember uh construction costs are separate from unrestricted General funds so uh I I you know I'm not trying to you know not arguing that that the costs that there are certain costs to be made in the you know uh in the redesign of a know a renovation of a middle school but it I I feel that it's highly irrelevant to to commingle uh you know con Bond bond funds with un the unrestricted general fund uh you know secondly and I thank you you know

058for for costing it out uh it gives a greater understanding for the for the public so with that said you know I I did I did learn quite a bit so based upon you know discussions with you and discussions with uh Mrs uh delelis here uh you know I'd like to you know at this time since this is open debate uh introduced them a modified proposal and I want to say uh for the most part I I I've heard from my constituents I should say all our constituents about Renaissance at fiser and uh I agree that I think there's a way you know uh it's a consolidation of Renaissance at you know so I propose instead of a closure it would be a it would be a uh how you say uh consolidation relocation and

059reorganization so uh I would I would in this case you know in so I'm introducing some mod ifications here uh for Renaissance at fiser it would be a uh to consolidate into Renaissance at Matson relocate at Renaissance at Matson uh and reorganize as a United Renaissance Academy and I understand that you know in this though it de I and I I understand the hurt that that goes through it I mean I'm know people who went to fer or Renaissance at fer it's a quality program I want to preserve that program I think we all share that uh we all share that sentiment uh so you know and I and I believe that uh the you know it takes the sting out of the closure and I think that you know even though it you know

060it provides some you know some Savings in that area and which I will unveil in a few minutes here uh I think that that's uh you know that honors the traditions of Renaissance at fiser to consolidate and reorganize what Renaissance at Matson as a unified Renaissance Academy uh at Matson yes at Matson at Matson the second part is uh in my original proposal uh I proposed you know as a as a one-year temporary uh temporary uh con you know condition uh that the TK and K at the combined adalante uh be located at Meyer so I would return to concurrence with the savings at Meyer which uh what you had costed which you had costed out in your proposal as presented last week at 92,3 so I can I concur with moving that back as

061a complete closure but I propose you know my modification would be to uh temporarily locate the tkks of the com of the merged alante at Ryan Elementary which is which remains open under both our prop you know a school that remains open in both our proposals and the third moving part would be that I propose a administrative restructuring at the Linda Vista Elementary it keeps it open but uh it reduces it restructures the school's Administration to reduce uh one assistant principle and this is in line with what you informed me uh Mrs delelis about uh about reduce you know about the C $200,000 cost Savings in redesigning uh the tk8 schools to tk5 schools so at this time I will go ahead and pass down with so with a spreadsheet so oh I've got my

062own copy there Andrea so if you wouldn't mind pass you know passing that down there I think that with those modifications you know uh B you know using the figures provided by the administration uh I'm proposing you know now proposing 9,825 th000 and or 9,825 3030 in upfront saving yes for for now but uh you know if there are comments after public you know after public comment you know I reserved I reserved you know uh the right to comment at that time as well okay so um I guess we have a comment from trusty era Lera and then the next one after her would be uh trusty Andrea Shelton go ahead and board president just to clarify are we going to do our comments first or public comments you're doing public we're going to do

063that first do yours first I I know you're facilitating the meeting so we're gonna do that first okay yes I've just called on you um so I have several questions I mean I had several questions on the proposal before and now I just got introduced a new proposal um I haven't even gotten a chance to look at because I get to be here focused uh addressing what was on my agendas so I mean I don't know I don't know I don't think we have um our attorney here but I mean we haven't even looked at at this proposal um until now and we get to make a decision by December 2nd all that to say I guess I'll go back to some of the questions that would apply um and uh my question is to

064truste fam who did you involve in creating both proposals um yeah who was a part I heard the staff on Friday um and you outline them who else other than them you know uh professionally it would just be I sat down with the superintendent and the assistant superintendent for business services and using the data provided by you know provided in last week's board book as well as you know uh information that uh was clarified to me at the last Friday's meeting again with superintendent s and assistant super tend to sell us did you involve any bargaining units any conversations with our bargaining units uh Madam I mean uh to Madam president uh you know as a board member I do take calls from uh constituents and uh calls from uh the the elected representatives the

065bargain units although there were no negotiations conducted with any bargaining units or constituents uh you know as elected representatives uh you know I listen I read my constituent emails I read the summary of a super you know the superintendent summary of uh uh you know proceedings but all you know all I say is uh I crafted you know I sat down and crunched the numbers on my own here with you know uh you know and I will say I used to be a legislative Aid so you know I had some ability to do that uh so again I crunched these numbers on my own I did I did take calls from constituents and concern uh members in this community but I in no way shape or form bargained uh with with anyone on this proposal

066and that's wait a second um I'm going to interrupt uh that's the president's prerogative uh this is not Inquisition this is uh something that he has come up with and as a matter of fact for 18 months when I went to all of the bond meetings the ones who did all of the stats and everything uh pertaining to all the uh numbers was Mr minam so as far as him being questioned right now um I don't I don't see uh that as appropriate right now uh because of the fact fact that he has always done this for this and so please be please be respectful or you will be removed thank you very much so this is why we have security here today so in the board president I'll stop asking him at this time

067I have further comments though yes go um so if you're gonna keep your I'm stop asking him questions you're going to keep your comments respectful and if you have any inquiries like that please uh let's do this uh not on the Das uh thank you okay with all due respect for President we all got elected the same way um and so with that uh the fact that I earned my seat here and my voice here you need to direct the questions to the chair thank you very much I'm going to the fact that I earned my seat here and my voice here on behalf of the people I want to make sure that I the comments that I make today reflect reflect that I am a union member myself I am a second generation and

068for me it's important that our union members have a voice here as well and so it had nothing to do with any of the things that were mentioned which now I'm questioning as to why some of those things were even brought up but um for me it's important that union members have a voice in what is being presented so um I won't ask board um trustee fam any more questions it is pretty clear that uh what's happening um and so I'm just going to ask uh our superintendent a question uh superintendent um this new proposal when was when did you see this well this one this one I have not seen um the one that we do have that we worked on is attached to the uh actual agenda and it was uploaded but so

069this one that was just now with this one change that or couple of changes that he made so just now correct okay thank you for me it's important that Personal Privilege go ahead m fact you know Madam president I want to clarify that uh you know in normal parliamentary procedure and in normal legislative practice uh you know it is accepted that uh elected legislators have the right to introduce modified proposals on the floor or introduce proposals directly on the floor there so again it did you know uh I don't have a as a part-time trust and I say this is a fulltime job listening to constituents visiting our schools but uh I have a full-time job as and just like the rest of the board does and I have you know work on this after

070hours you know when I have you know come home from working with students at C State East Bay I you know sit at my desk and pour over the board books and pour over the information presented and you know as I've said using using my you know uh experience with the district you know I you know work on a proposal uh again uh you know the fact that I you know again I said this these are Works in progress I you know I want to say that you know I you know the superintendent can confirm and the assistant superintendent of Business Services can confirm I sat with them on Friday afternoon and no other board member was in that room no other Community member was in that room board president I had the word and

071I keep getting um interrupted and I'm not sure why you you stated one more question I thought that that was your no I had comments that was one question but I had comments finish and then I'll go back to you and then I will go to truste Andrea of personal privilege there so I wanted to clarify that you know do we all get privilege any time we want uh when the board when the chair recognizes you go ahead you know so I want to say that again this I want to say this you know my previous proposal is one in motion I heard new information I'm willing to make modifications to my proposal and again it's these are just that proposals until the board takes action and if you know I'm always welcome to New

072you know new ideas I will you know uh if the president of area wants to have an appointment with me she knows that you know she's available uh I've met with parents from attitude at GS I've met just met today with parents from adalante uh one and two uh if you'd like an appointment you know please send me an email I will do my best to meet with you but I do want I do want I do want to you know correct for director that uh again elected legis Lors uh always you know in have the right to introduce proposals on the floor and modify proposals as new information comes in thank you madam president thank you thank you doing my best here to to contain my composure uh because we are the first examples

073to our constituents especially our children and our youth that are sitting and our audience which I'm really I'm glad are here and are just sitting patiently on behalf of the so with with that um I I just want to say that yes you know we're able to bring proposals and we were able to do all that yes we all uh were elected to be here and are able to do these things uh but with that for me it's important that we take our um recommendations from not just the committee that met as we heard um so many times 31 members that took the time to come up with this recommend recation that then went to our superintendent um which I was a part of hiring with and trust him to do the job to come

074back with a recommendation that makes more sense for our uh our district now is it perfect and is there maybe other areas where um it can grow it's not perfect U you know I mean we wouldn't be here if we had that option um but what I do hope is that each and every one of us works with our Administration to bring back something that collectively we can work together and right now it just feels very you know um a piece here a piece there you know kind of more uh against versus working together and so I look forward um and maybe we don't have it by December 2nd but in other decisions that we get to make that we work with our Administration that we've hired and we trust to do their job um

075and so with that I'll go ahead and pause that this time trusty Andrea Flor Shelton thank you um I want to thank superintendent Serta for um bringing back a next iteration of the plan that really does respond to a lot of the concerns the board brought up uh vapa um special ed Transportation Verizon Labs um I really appreciate that just a more clarity that we needed um obviously the comparison to the proposal that we received uh last Thursday just very helpful I had um I had concerns about sort of apples and oranges and so it's I I appreciate tonight seeing last week's alternative plan one just being able to compare that um so I do want to just uh dive a little bit deeper into the special ed um piece of it you talk about

076streamlining resource allocation so in my own conversations with constituents and um as well as my own interest and my own knowledge of special education um you know it is obviously critically important and again I have a deep interest and personal experience being a specialed um parent of a student that you know we have the resources available for them um we also know that kids come to special ed from they have diagnoses right whether it's medical or the psychological all of the sorts of diagnoses but I also know that there's this other box that can be checked and there's this big influx in special ed that I'm concerned behavior management issues are being transferred to special education and what I would like to um I hear you're going to do a study and I hear you

077could be looking at things in a few months I think this is something that needs to be done very quickly and I would ask that tonight um when there is a motion I would like to see if we can direct the superintendent to have a higher level um member of Staff whether at the director level or at the cabinet level approve all intakes when they have been identified as other because I think we have to get some compliance and control issues and ensure that the special ed funding that we have is going exactly to those that qualify right and if you're talking about cutting special ed services when we have um we have students that absolutely need it and then we have a gray area that I think needs special attention and it needs a

078higher level of approvals so that um we can get the the resources in in line so I want to throw that out there because um for me this has been sort of a hidden headline for almost the two years that I've spent on this board and um when I'm seeing that we're still need not even getting to the $20 million right I'm very concerned um so I I want to throw that out for the board's um consideration and direction to the superintendent tonight because again I don't think we have time to wait for a special study um and for you all to decide in five months um and U trusty sorry to interrupt you we do have Tony our special education director um that can answer or or I I don't think I have I

079what I want you all to do is yes maybe to come back and to and and you know I I I don't know if every single person every single student that's coming in and getting an IEP you know what it so maybe you need to look at like how many are other right how many actually we need a behavioral intervention and not a special education intervention maybe it's both but I I think we need to start reallocating these things um and we know classroom management is challenging but we need to like drill down and put things in the right buckets and go ahead that's one of the things that we're looking at as we make some modifications to our special ed programming and how how do we do that across the schools that M beginning

080next year and how do we effectively um support the students that need to be supported in the way that they need to be supported so I guess the question is what FASTT tracking can happen so that the that that the intake process isn't just you know it that we're we're widening the net when we shouldn't be widening the net no I I look forward for to the direction that the board is is gives me okay um and just a couple other things um I would um this goes back to the the English right the English and and all you know that comes up with closing these schools um you know you're trying to save Lindale by closing dorsa that's what's on the table and the dorsa community doesn't know that and what I would I

081would I would say that George I'm sorry I have the floor one second let her finish and then I'll let you address that thank you thank you president I am you know we all struggle like when you see these first proposals you know my family has a deep deep connection to citan and George they're on the table so what am I going to do say save them and then throw some other school Under I mean it's just so I deeply believ in the in the commun uh the committee process I deeply believe in the administration's um uh analysis of this because it's based on the criteria that we set forth and nothing is perfect right nothing is going to be perfect but this will pull on every heartstring we will want to save every school

082right and we will we can so that's why I'm really really struggling um with an alternative when again what we're doing is you're setting now another school on fire to say hey wait I didn't think we're on the list and now dorsa as of tonight is being proposed to be cut so I won't um I'll just say it right now I won't be supporting um fam's alternative proposals as it stands given the The increased number of kids The increased uh dollar amount whether it comes out of the general fund or whether it comes out of the capital budget the capital budget needs to be save or the bond money needs to be saved for um the schools to be as again reimagining um the new school so um again I thank you again for the

083new information 500 students right are coming into arusd through um through our our special programs right inter District inter District transfers right and we need to create capacity for those programs to grow because again imagine if we didn't have those students coming in here we'd have a $23 million deficit so okay Madam president I want to first of all you know I think that we you know trusty Flores Shelton and I are not quibbling about uh the need to make certain Cuts uh that's not an issue now I I want to say one thing and I want to what is it Lindale elementary school has been the Cornerstone of special education in this district for 60 years when I when I went to Lindale school that's where I met deaf children you you know I

084as I said last week I'm an adapted PE student you know God gave me a you know difficulties and uh dexterity and motor skills you know uh the special education staff whether it's de children or artistic children at Lendale school or topnotch and those are topnotch facilities uh it's the only School in the district with five classrooms with bathrooms it's the only School in the district with a designated room for adaptive PE I you know as I said in this in the superintendent proposal and as I said I concur more you know I concur a lot with the superintendent and the committee but I do differ because as a former special education student uh you can't afford to take risks when then autistic student needs to use the restroom you can't afford to take risks

085when you know uh adaptive PE student is balancing on the beam and I take you know and I take umage at uh trusty Flores Shelton's uh accusation that there you know I get it there's you know uh but this is about protecting the most vulnerable of our students our special ed students are not only in the in the dawn of their lives they're also in the shadows of Life uh privilege what accusation did I make what accuse you of oh I would you know you you said that you know because you need to use your words wisely what did I accuse you of well you you're you you said that I'm didn't then I will draw that portion but let me finish but the uh you know but I will say to take you know

086to take away restrooms from autistic children to take away facilities for special ed you know trusty Flores shame on you pick on pick on someone else you have used words like violent you have in past meetings and now I'm getting shamed for saying my opinion as a trustee I am being very transparent with the community where I stand and if I'm being shamed and accused of being opinionated about where I stand so that everybody knows that where I support folks when we are um literally a week out from voting on this because Thanksgiving week is a and again I am I am disappointed that new schools are being put on the table that and you you are trying to get at what you want to get at and you have every right to do that

087and I have every right to State my opinion so I don't want to be shamed and I don't want to be accused of doing my job thank you thank you very much I think what I'm going to do is let uh Vice will speak now thank you um unfortunately this is to be expected very very um emotions are going to fly high amongst the community as well as in this board now these are not easy decisions I would ask us to as board members restrain ourselves U choose your words wisely was used against Me by another member of the board not you and I don't appreciate that and so if we can all and I get it there was a lot of back and forth so if we can Madame President if we can direct

088and you can direct everybody to you that's the way this board this board meeting is supposed to be conducted comments are not to be going between board members supposed to be go from from the board member to you and uh and that's the way in which it's supposed to be connect so we can avoid that back and forth yes that links to to these so um I I'm I I'm appreciative of uh the proposal and the work that went into uh the Alternatives I think we got uh an option that's provided by the superintendent our colleagues spent a significant amount of time it looks like and it required a significant amount of effort meeting with staff and putting and crunching the numbers and so I I'm I'm very grateful for that I I would like

089to see different options uh and I'm appreciative of the fact that they're here and uh looking forward to reviewing them more in depth uh this is a venue where we as board members have the opportunity to engage you don't have the luxury of speaking to a majority of the board anywhere else other than at a meeting and so it might seem awkward and strange that's the way in which the law of California allows us to conduct ourselves to speak at these meetings um and so it's it and so I'm appreciative of the fact that it's been presented here so that we can't uh so that nobody would say oh you know you showed it to somebody or you did this wrong inappropriate um I just want to make sure we C we're we're absolutely clear

090under the superintendent plan Renaissance disappears correct Madam president cor correct that's that's where I read it it no it ceases to exist plan the superintendent's plan so okay it's so that's plan has been presented by superintendent I just want to make sure because PE I don't want people out there getting the wrong messages I wasn't sure so we are on we're clear um and so for my colleague for example is very supportive that plan and it and that would mean that the the the site is no longer there it's gone um we turn it into something else and I'm concerned about that it is a one of the largest single sites uh that the district has in terms of land uh Alan brck uh in it in it wisdom uh and being very collaborative with

091the city chose to invest land so that a library could be built for the children of mrock who went to Fisher and so that that that's a concern that I have and that uh really uh gives me pause with the with the superintendent plan um I'm concerned because of the heavy investment that went in uh I understand some of the other uh issues that have been uh pointed out but uh it weighs on me that it's a it's a it's a very large site uh would be open for other folks I I'm not sure what we would do with that site I'm sure people are already salivating at the MTH like trying to get their a their hands on that land um and I want to make sure that uh they don't have that opportunity

092um I'm G to go ahead and introduce this poem that was given to me by a child at Renaissance at Fisher our voices are schooled our voices are schooled they say our school must close its doors that Renaissance has outlived its course but we the students have something to say this school is where we grow when we stay the administration tells us we can speak we have the right our voices are sleep but what of that right to be truly heard to listen to our hearts Our Truth our word you speak of Maintenance of issues to fix but the walls stand strong they don't need a quick fix the murals the memories The Pride we have here made by families by teachers by students so dear you say it's a cost to maintain uh too

093much to maintain but is that the truth or just part of the game we know this place we built it together it's more than bricks it's our Legacy forever we are the community the life blood the soul this school was created to help make us whole it's where we find strength where we learn and we grow where dreams take root and Futures glow so why close the doors what is it for when Renaissance stands as a place to explore we deserve more than just empty words we deserve a future where we're truly heard for our communion our voice our fight we ask ask you please don't take away our light our school is ours not just a space but a home a heart and a safe and strong place thank you to the children that

094put that together I think it shows that the passion the the pain that's being felt by everyone and uh I would hope that this poem helps us as board members be able to conduct ourselves in a way that allows us to carry out our work uh obviously speak freely about the issues about the concerns but in a manner that uh is not um overshadowed by accusation or things of that sort we have a right to present our options and uh I would encourage any board member who has an idea to do so and bring it forward so that we can have a full transparent uh uh way to review it uh to analyze it and then make our decisions come December 2nd so thank you for the opportunity uh mam president thank you uh so

095now I'm going to say something um thank you trusty fam for coming up with u all of these figures and the reason I say that is because I know where his heart was his heart was to keep the vapa cluster together right to keep the special ed the best the the school that that does the best job that they come from everywhere for the special programs that they have there and the people there are amazing the people in the vapa programs are amazing trusty fam what he's trying to do is save a lot of stuff for the kids so this is what people don't realize his intent his heart is to provide more for the children and in putting this plan out there he puts himself at risk for some ridicule but for me he

096puts out a plan that maybe we could tweak it a little bit we agreed on what seven we agreed on those so why are we cling over two if we can come up with something better for the majority of the kids for the kids of the future for the kids now why aren't we all willing to work together for this is we're all Alan Rock let's stop arguing and fighting over things that don't matter what matters is the education of the children and more importantly if we start working together on the big things all these little things they won't be so significant what matters is if we can bring and keep that track at Okala for all those middle school kids if we can provide the busing or different ways to come up with it

097or maybe fast track a lease so that to bring in more money so that the kids could get a better education so that we can provide better things for the kids that's what it comes down to there's kids here that are just looking towards us to get along to make it better for them that's what I'm here in the spirit of that is to unify Alan Rock too many years we've been not unifying alen Rock let's work together together we're not all going to be happy it's not going to be a win-win for everybody but let's put it this way we need to make it a win-win for all the students as much as we can and tell ourselves did I do the most for all the children some may not have been happy with

098this decision or that decision but keep in mind we're doing this for all the students and for the special ed students it's harder for them and you know it you know it other kids can go and have an okay time and get over it not the special ed students that's why they call them special but those kids are so special that they're not the ones that are going to complain but we have to make sure that we get those things to them because they can't speak for themselves the other kids if we work hard just as hard for them but in a different manner we can provide those things for them but please don't be divided on everything please come to together for the kids yes but please listen seven of us SE excuse me

099seven sites we agreed on the other two we didn't we need to tweak it a little bit be respectful not take it personal because this is not personal other than all of our hearts we're they're all in the same place we we want the best for the kids let's unite on that you know we have staff that's worked really hard and diligently so have parents and are the parents going to need help yes are the teachers going to need help yes so let's start working together not inner fighting a lot of the times the media is just here just seeing the circus and they and they talk down about us why we have such great programs here we need to build on those successes we need to build on the student education and we all

100need to do it together and you know cut the groaning and increase the enthusiasm the mindfulness the caringness that I know that all of you possess thank you so now I'm gonna take public on uh first one step up to the podium want to that one first yeah okay thanks all right we uh we got the timer ready or the timer ready it's ready all right uh please uh share your name and and begin when when you see the timer my name is Rafael Nez and I'm here on behalf of aptitude atos and first I would like to say thank you to Min famam for providing a solution a actual plan that is different than the plan that was provided by the superintendent um it's very very important to our community that you took your

101time to actually come up with something that makes sense um there was a school obviously aptitude that's on the list which to me didn't make sense we have a large campus with available capacity still we have an established um special ed um program we have H the First Wellness Center that was in the district which made a huge impact um not only for the special ed but for children that were struggling with other issues bowling and I would like to remind Corina era you mentioned yourself that the people voted you back please take that into account because the Community Capital voted for you next speaker please thank you hello everyone uh my name is conin I'm a parent of a student at aptitude um I just want to picky back what uh president trusty Linda

102is saying so I just want to give a quick definition of subjective and objective okay subjective is based on personal opinion feelings or beliefs influenced by individual experience and bias objective based on facts evidence and measurable data not influenced by personal feelings or opinions I see a lot of subjective individual in this room tonight do the right thing because this is affecting the kids the children and the communities I was here last year and I fought an aptitude is still here this year and for those that are subjective I think you know who you are you know this is affecting the kids and the communities there's no reason based on my data that aptitude should be on this list look at my data thank you for your comments next speaker please good evening my name

103is Kristen Müller and I've been at Lindell Elementary for since 1997 when I was at the last board meeting I brought up some points from a logistics perspective regarding our campus's proximity to Neighborhood chartering School charter school so I won't repeat them but I did bring my trusty trifold poster back just in case you needed a reference we have an extremely successful preschool autism program on campus no way can you just recreate that at some other venue and simply cutting a few holes and walls for bathroom access won't cut it I know that the district has mentioned a reimaging special ed program where all the special ed kids are on one campus so instead of the special ed students seeing and being seen on a general Ed campus like they are now integrated they'll be

104isolated the interactions at Lindale are significant not only for our special ed students but for our general ed students I think the one stop approach One-Stop shop approach please reassess it um as far as getting to Russo mcy School you mentioned walking the path I had a student a couple of years ago who was in a fatal car accident right in front of James Lake High School her younger sister was in my class that year thank you for please consider thank next speaker please good evening my name is Veronica Talton I'm a performing arts teacher at George middle and Lindell Elementary I'm going to share some facts about prop 28 prop 28 was passed by voters to provide additional funding for Arts Ed in all K through2 Public Schools funds are required to be used

105primarily to hire new Arts staff 80% staff 20% instructional materials and supplies there's strict oversight and it requires schools to certify that these funds were spent in addition to existing funding for Arts education programs the vapa teachers are all similar with their certification single subject but we have our preferences we have those things that we prefer to do that must be considered when you're moving vapa teachers from one site to another so you can move a piano lab there but if the teacher doesn't teach piano lab it will not be done effectively for the students please consider that and I call to action the boards look at creat ca.org for details thank you thank you hello yeah okay my name is Yari I'm a teacher uh we know what you're suggesting but let's do the

106math A1 and A2 produce about 3.5 billion a year in revenue from out of County students due to the program's popularity based off current enrollment numbers moving to fiser only allows for an approximate expansion of 300 students thus not maximizing potential local and outof county or District enrollment and profit Revenue additionally there is a $9 million investment to retrofit and update General facilities if you subtract 19 million from the $40 million facilities Bond you are left with 21 million looking at the review of the facility score chart 21 million would not be enough to e to update even half of the remaining schools considered to stay open at this point we are asking for an increase in debt and putting up the district for higher deficit this decision leaves us vulnerable to County takeover because

107we are not fixing we are moving the deficit please consider the future Financial repercussions of your decisions thank you hello my name is Lisa dhb TK teacher at painter school I honestly cannot believe that you would choose to close a school that and destroy a fast growing program one that could save our district and bring in money you're planning on keeping a large school open with a capacity of 686 but moving everyone out to have a deserted campus with probably under a 100 students why why when we could be there why can't we consolidate both campuses Shepherd and painter into a prek through eight school with your plan you will drive away the people when we need them more than ever they will go back to their own districts and we will lose them never

108getting them back I still respectfully disagree painter is one program that can't be moved without destroying it we have a really good thing going here and you're going to destroy it with this plan this is a poor choice we need to do better and make a different Choice please thank you good evening uh Myas adante Academy this this letter is specifically for trustee fan but I believe it resonates with all of you also on behalf of the e8th grade dual language classroom I want to extend my deepest gratitude for taking the time to visit trusty your presence had a profound impact on our students who were excited to Showcase their learning and share their unique perspectives with you they have also Express their appreciation through their letters a project aligned with our writing standards through

109this activity they practice both their literacy skills and their civic engagement we are aware the district must make some critical decisions regarding school closures our students have expressed concerns about how these changes could impact their sense of belonging the quality of education and support they receive from from their teachers we ask the board considered s student centered Solutions board ugly is ugly remember that when you speak to the your audience the exact people that put you in office so that you could reap all the benefits you have besides just being here in front of us thank you good evening Board of trust superintendent staff my name is Eric and I do planning and data analysis for several high-tech companies I want to highlight that the alternate proposal has some issues primarily if elmrock was to

110merge the two other schools you will accelerate the need to do additional consolidation AS stand on schools they can each grow to 550 students and it's not shown in in in The Proposal there it's shown as flat but the reality is Atlanta 2 can actually Atlanta 1 Atlant 2 can add an additional 80 to 100 students next year bringing in an additional $1.5 million without moving them the 40 uh to 42 classes at Fisher are not enough to the classes that we are currently using furthermore alant 2 has four classes so they can add an additional track of canra 1 2 and third without so it can get to 550 this additional new revenue is two times what alrock gets from all his current leases and will be key to helping Al alrock to avoid

111closing three elementary schools and one um in two to three years other they're different thank you next speaker please Linda Beltran adante 2 good evening I am here tonight to express the Deep frustration and disappointment many of our community feel towards how we are being treated Linda Chavez as a board member you were chosen by the people to represent us with Integrity fairness and most importantly respect unfortunately that respect often feels absent our community should feel empowered to speak out during public hearing without fear of dismissal or disrespect yet there is a growing sense of e the role of an elected official is to listen to Advocate and to stand for the people not silence or demean them it is dis disheartening to see the decisions and actions that appear driven by personal agendas and

112vindictiveness rather than the genuine needs of those that you were elected to serve leadership is not is not an ego it's about humility and commitment as a collective good we are commun we the community expect and demand better and urge you to to readjust your tone with those that who plac their trust in you please let us move forward in a spirit of respect collaboration service and great and good what you give me hope hi my name is De I'm here from alante I'm here to say to leave alante as is do not merge no offense with alante too adant one has existed for 21 years and the program was so good that it created an adant 2 keep the number growing and we can hit capacity but creating a school of over 900 is

113not what we signed up for and it's not what many of the parents signed up for and at and for many even at 500 we're too big and after that where's the growth there is no growth with Pros pan by trusty F and as parents I ask all of you we need to keep watching this sport this is just phase one after December 2nd is phase two especially when we have these special meetings this meeting has been on the books so we knew about it but when they have meetings on a Friday night at 7 p.m. the day after school end and we never have meetings at 7 well why at 7 you have to watch for those special meetings because then we don't know what's really going on just because it's legal does not

114mean it is ethical thank you good evening Borman members my name is Anna Padia Lopez I am a part of alen Rock School District a proud Renaissance School site council president as well as the Dak representative for the school first of all I did email each and every one of you I've got response from two people from the whole board in regards to my disregard as my school is is facing closing Renaissance is the only School in Allen Rock School District as a middle school which place number one within your guys's district and you guys want to take that away that is unacceptable our Renaissance model needs to stay throughout all of our schools why not propose to close down hubard and move those students to Renaissance they have a they have four cohorts that

115they can move to Renaissance as well as Matson and okola we're the only school that has a library where it's a safe space for our youth our kids are not safe Crossing Okala and cap they're not safe Crossing King and story it is the East Side you guys are a product of the East Side you guys live the east side and you guys know the dangers it is for our youth especially young Latinos thank you very much next speaker hi my name is Mir lamb and I'm an eighth grade student at Renaissance Academy at fiser I wrote this speech with my classmate Janet law what the district is doing is not the best for us for the community all they want is to save money they care more about money than the well-being of their

116students our education won't be better if we or our parents can't even afford SA transportation to school Renaissance Academy at fer has one of the safest neighborhoods around it with the library next to it you're making kids go to Okala instead have you seen the streets near Okala there are so many cars rushing by you're telling children they have to walk in unsafe Road just to go to school every day you need to take into account whether students will be safe on and off campus parents would you still send your kids to school if their school is way too far away and it's not safe for them to be there thank you good evening my name is solidad Vega proud teacher at San Antonio for 26 years do not consolidate our schools Lucha and San

117Antonio deserve to be one whole school we are a beautiful campus everyone Des desires to be there but we need to be one school please make Lucha into one school one heart at San Antonio thank you sorry I wasn't expecting to be up so soon um good evening my name is Steve Navaro I'm a parent at atan1 I don't have prepared comments so I'm just going to speak off the cuff um I want to thank the board for the the work and the effort that they've put into this so far um I know it's not a great um thing to do there's no perfect or right answer nobody is happy in any of the actions you guys are going to take one thing I do advise is that you work carefully compassionately and you know

118try to um balance what you're working through to get at least as close as possible to the right answers because we're counting on you you know I know emotions are running High people are upset angry there's a lot of passion for the schools that that people are fighting for I challenge you to to try to direct and channel that energy to helping solve the problems that we have I also challenge our parents to you know balance the passion for what you feel with what's right for the district we got to work together to to solve these problems it's not all going to be done by Justice board thank you thank you my name is Jasmine um I'm representing Lindo um I want to talk specifically because I have a four-year-old in special ed and I

119think that moving them to San Antonio would be a really bad idea based on the fact that kids with autism tend to elope and I think San Antonio is a really dangerous spot being on the streets that they're that the school is on um and we have all the gates at lindel that San Antonio doesn't have also the same thing with the um the classrooms with the restrooms I think that's also um something else that needs to be considered as a parent of a kid with autism um um we worry a lot that when they're not in our care they'll and just thinking the r the dangers that he might run at San Antonio is really scary and I really hope that you guys reconsider the closure of Lindo thank you hi Caitlyn sento teacher

120at Renaissance at Fisher Academy um and also a product of the elmrock school district I want to start by thanking um some of our board members for actually responding to our messages and making the time to hear us out and to the superintendent for coming and visiting our school on Tuesday our community is here tonight again um tired um and I'm happy to just say that it this feels like a different board than we saw a week ago um which is hopeful and scary how quickly things can change um specifically in tone specifically and attitude specifically and how the community is being addressed um I do want to say that I appreciate that you hear us about possibly consolidating the two Renaissance cies I'm not saying that that's something impossible but a Renaissance at Fisher

121really is something special our team is here and we're ready to stay together um and we hope that you come and visit us and see the amazing things that we come and do thank you we will give two minutes for to allow for translation num SCH hello I am Aurora Ramos and a family um a mother of a family with a child at lindel and I am here not only so you can hear my voice but that you can hear my son's voice it's very sad how you uh see our kids as a number as a money number only in in each of the meeting that we have have you are confirming that and it isn't like that please demonstrate that the students the families and the community the Latino Community is important to you

122our students uh have value uh the students and special education have value too and do not represent less money for your for your pockets please keep Lindell open my name is Jackie saparo I'm a teacher at Fischer um I also want to thank the the board members who have taken the time to listen to our voices um I don't think that the right solution has been proposed yet um Renaissance at Fischer like uh trusty Cano mentioned does have a lot of amenities but under fam's plan to give those away to arguably sorry Monte more privileged families that's a social justice issue and if you think that our families are going to sit down and roll over on that you're out of your minds we will not let that happen if you think that our families

123are going to let you give our school away to a school that doesn't even want to be there you're crazy we have three parents that passed out 900 flyers in the past four days we will petition for a recall please do not do that thank you at Ben painter Elementary School the vietamese Dual language does not Thrive without our English duel and our English duel does not Thrive with it with without our viames dual program together we make together we make a whole and together we make a community for our students speaking on behalf of our strong vienamese Community as of right now we have parents in the vietamese program who are unsure if they want to continue and have addressed that they may be better off in the baresa district as a small program

124trying to thrive every number counts if this consolidation goes through our program will fall apart to our superintendent and the rest of the board members respectfully I strongly strongly ask you to reconsider this as we will lose the students in the program and the work our staff members have worked so hard on we need both the Vietnamese dual language and English dual in order to make us a whole and keep us running please do not separate us and keep us together so we can Thrive and be proud to be a part of the Alan Rock new School District thank you good evening my name is Lisa to Hill I have a parent I'm a parent of a child at Linda Vista so thank you very much for saying you want to revamp that whole system

125which needs to be done um but I'm here to support Renaissance at Fischer because it is a different program and thank you very much for hearing your community I really appreciate that you were able to do that because as a parent on the committee we do not feel heard and I was very disappointed again in our town hall meeting because what was represented back to us in the parent Square was not what we said was not what happened so I don't know what you guys have heard or what has happened but I don't feel like you guys have been been given the exact data the exact feelings that we have about why we want to keep Renaissance of Fisher it is a different program we it's safe there my the library again I wasn't prepared

126so sorry but thank you very much for heing us Victor Vasquez um so I'm not here to say what school should be closed but rather our mandate is to make sure you hear that we would like to see schools and mayfer open that's what we're here for to protect that we already received Cuts in the previous round element C Chavis Elementary Lee mats and middle school and we're still receiving changes in Mayfair once again why is it that this area continues to be a Target do people think that it's easy to like talk about our families in a certain way and I want to address some messages that were made last week or last time calling our neighborhoods gang infested criminals that is borderline racist and I I want to make sure that that hateful

127message does not continue because our families are not that think about what you're saying when you could say neighborhood but it has people in it it has families in it and students I don't believe that our teachers are not preparing our students for the test course I believe that our students need more resources and that's the bottom line so I just want to urge all of us that we take this energy as parents teachers and board and actually go and Lobby City County and the state for more resources instead of fighting each other but we're here to do that thank you my name is Karen McDonnell I had no intention of speaking here today and I'm not going to plug my school I am a a gened teacher I teach kindergarten and I have a

128new student who's been mainstreamed from a special day class program fits in perfectly little behavior that I need to train up in but I want to thank you board and I want to thank you um President Chavez because the the words that you said about uniting were really important and that's what our team at our I'm not going to say the school but we were talking about this on Friday about renaming our school uh bringing in a new you know set of teachers and students we were welcoming we want to build a new we want to work together thank you you're taking up somebody else's time so I'm going to stop you right there your clock is going to start right now please start the clock you horrible you got five seconds your time is

129up next speaker please uh please remove yourself from the chalkboard who please step away from the chalkboard security thank you thank you very much uh please continue now uh Miss Olivia thank good even I'm Miss Olivia I'm a parent at reneson at Matson and I have been living in mayfer community for 18 years and For the Love of my community I'm here today to ask you guys to think about closing our schools at Mayfair will be be a huge impact since we have taken closures in the past like someone mentioned earlier sister Chavis was closed couple years ago and mat was closed a couple years ago the same kids are going to re and Matson right now we're part of the close the the closer school at Chavez so having our kids go through a

130second closure schools in their life of of Education I don't know if that dist want to go that way in history um also every kid Des serves their school not to be closed but that doesn't give people reason to put some schools better or important the other schools all schools are important every single school is important because they have kids and I also I'm asking people to be really careful with the message they're putting out there because it's very dangerous for our kids when they listen that their Community it's G infesta when there's violence when there's gangs there's drugs kids hear that and it's really sad that our community next speaker please those mess out thank you hello my name is Raquel hmel I've been teaching here in alrock for 10 years I just want

131to say thank you for listening to all of us I speak for my school but I speak for the parents of all the schools I love this place I speak for them the families I've met with parent teacher conference last two weeks they shared their hearts with me I am willing to fight for them to stand up for them and I just want to say thank you for the support and I know this is a very difficult decision I also come from the school has been such an amazing experience I love working with Dr manuco Miss Mai Miss Hannah my team I have never in the 10 years I've worked at alen Rock felt respected felt cared for we sing together we do Multicultural assemblies together we dance and we celebrate it is the most

132unified global-minded uh how would I say we the people walk the walk and they talk the talk thank you [Laughter] um good evening everyone this I apologize apologize if I said I'm not a public speaker but my name is John balazar I represent oala and my peers they're here today um I'm a member of the closure committee and the committee was formed not to only represent the schools but the community um we've seen superintendent sera's proposal we've seen trustey F's proposal what I ask for the board is to see our proposal The Proposal that we presented to um superintendent Serta um I can guarantee you that it's just as strong if not stronger than the ones that we've seen today so far we believe it's stronger and you know it represents the district the community

133and the schools and um we'll be happy to send it to you guys if you guys would like to see it and if you guys would like to meet to discuss why we presented these schools as a committee we're happy to do that do that as well am I correct guys so thank you for your time and consideration my name is Cassandra Perez and I go to Renaissance off Fisher I have attended other schools before Renaissance and of all of them Fisher has not has been not only the best academically but provided me with the best experience that I could ever have the adults Fisher clearly care about us and want us and want to see us succeed and Excel providing us with the needed resources and help Renaissance Fisher has not only a safe

134but also convenient Community with a library next door and a neighboring High School Fisher has made an incredible impact in my life that future students should have Al should also have the right to experience everybody I know who goes or went to fer I'll have stories to tell Fisher is not just a school but it's an experience with all that being said why everybody everybody wants to know why you're closing rft why did you why did you lie and make up false numbers about our school even if those numbers were true what difference would it make to close rap and move the other LS there thank you hello board members superintendent uh I'm a teacher from aptitude Goss I've only been in this district for um nine years but I'm really as a teacher we

135have to like really look at the positive in people and the positive in things and this is the first time I've really seen this board really focused on problem solving really educating themselves really trying to get to the root of you know Solutions and you're in a rough spot and the parents too and we're rooting for all the parents we're rooting for all the schools and you know we know that there's going to be some hard stuff coming up and I really hope that you guys can be strong and stay together all these parents who've gotten involved who've educated themselves all the kids that are involved because you guys are going to be the ones who are going to heal this District afterwards and so I really appreciate that thank you good evening members of

136the board my name is D gonalez I am a per two students and an advocate in the community I am here today because it will be wrong once again to close another school in mayfer if we do close another school in mayfer and we leave that quadrant alone it's again replicated red lining oppressive and it's something that it has to stop the other part is that we shouldn't be be dividing each other we shouldn't be talking negative about each other in front of our kids or in front of even us we already going through a lot in that District in a political environment we should not be divided by United I'm urged to this board to stop fighting between each other this was ridiculous today in front of our students in front of parents let's

137work together let's go to the state let's find funders you have a whole Community willing to back you up willing to go out for our kids let's do this together not alone or dividing each other thank you hi good good night my name is Victoria partia um I am a parent at Adelante 2 and today I want to talk I want to urge you not to combin um adalante one and two as doing so would limit the potential growth I strong strongly believe that once the consolidation is complete or if the Consol once we get through this we stay stay separate we can work with CIO and his marketing team to actively recruit students who have left us I chose to stay in this District because I believe in Alam Rock I want my son

138to learn Spanish and he is learning very well at adante too the newly available funds will enable us to enhance Sports programs and offer enrich extracurricular courses that will draw students back to our schools these improvements will create an environment so Dynamic and engaging the families will be eager to return back to our district thank you hello everyone I am Angel and alumni at Renaissance at Fisher and I urge you guys to reconsider this because as a kid in this generation social media has easily influenced all of us but because of raph's community they have all United us all together and proven to me and all my classmates from last year that I Overfelt we should be proud of what we're doing what we are and not what the world is doing they have shown

139me my pride and me to be proud first generation and because of raph's incredible system I've had teachers who have taught me subjects in which I had never even heard of but because of learning these things I have came out to be able to be a strong person and be able to have a teacher like Miss that has taught me how to learn more about myself in my community hello my name is louia Solis my student on Hill peer pressured me into speaking um I would I am a hubard kid I went to Renaissance at fiser I am now I returned I we talk a lot about leaving like I always hear kids say I'm going to make it out the trenes I'm going to leave the hood I hate that I'm like no we

140got to go back to the hood and like fix it it better it's beautiful already I hate that people are talking crap about the Mayfair Community it's a beauti beautiful Community I've worked there as a teacher I've worked there as um when I work for the city of San Jose but I need you all to realize that people are pitting against each other because we don't have transparency the numbers that are being presented to us I'm looking at them and I'm a smart person right I don't understand them where is the raw data because I've looked for it and I'm like watching 5 hours the video on 2% speed and it's a lot um we're a great school Renaissance at Matson and Renaissance at Fischer are different so don't just say oh well it's fine

141they'll continue it there I'll send an email thank you wait a minute before you start thank you okay go ahead my name is Lyn Tran I have two kids at Bed painter in the vdi program we are an interdistrict transfer family we first transferred to Franklin mck for their venom dual ersion program then this year transferred to alen rock I'm asking the board to please reconsider the current proposal for BP to split the student population where the regular English structure students are moved out of BP only the vdi students will remain at the current location along with shepher middle what prompted us to transfer to Alan Rock was the strong School culture and parent Community for us above and beyond the academics we want our children to have a balanced Elementary School experience isolating the

142vdi students here themselves does not promote access and Equity it's been noted that the vdi program is one that is bringing in students from other districts generating critical Ada for the district if the district moves forward with splitting up the school then you are removing half of the children on the Playard you'll be making our children's School less diverse and diminishing that El School experience for all vdi students remaining this would directly jeopardize the quality of the program and risk both losing families and making more difficult to attract families negatively impacting this tremendously valuable program's ability to grow the district is underresourced as it is and I don't have confidence that this current proposal will result in a worthwhile School experience for my family and that of others in the program after speaking with other

143families in the program I can share that others including myself are hello my name hello my name is Aus and I am a parent at fiser like we told Mr s that we understand that schools need to close yet Renaissance at fiser should not be one of them we have talked about the test scores that they have at the school they are not the same as the Madson Renaissance Academy and they yet they are the same Academy um the Renaissance model matters and we should take that in consideration with the offer that you guys have it will take that model away and many of those students are successful with that model model one of them being my daughter um the children succeed in the core method they have also so many resers in that Community

144like the high school that is in in close proximity right next door where they can walk and see what it is having a life at a high school the library that doesn't only help with homework but also helps those children that are not bilingual in English or in other language such as Vietnamese and Chinese there is no big street to walk through there's no con construction that they have to cross and the transportation is still a discussion that you guys are still deciding how would my child get to school if she does not have transportation only if she's a special needs child [Music] cap um Gra I'm going to try to say what she said um yes I'm a a parent at aptitude and I I wanted to say to Mr sna that you are

145a new person in this district and in reality you do not know what our school is like and to miss Corina um I want to ask you how many times you have visited our our school and I wanted to let you know that capital and gos Community we have supported your reelection I have a child who in the past thought about getting about suiciding and due to the bullying that she was experiencing and now after the therapist she got well but now knowing that the school is going to be close she has felt the anxiety coming back to her just to know know that that's happening in her school thank you thank you hello my name is MAA we chose to transfer our sons out of s the unified and I can say I am

146the proudest mom of a founding student of the first graduating class of adalanta 2 and now a second current second grader with the passion of the parents of Adan 2 we have tried our very best to make it a place we call home however now that we have learned of the district plan to collapse Atlanta 1 and Atlanta 2 into one campus we are heartbroken the school that our family and Community had worked tirelessly to create for more than 10 years will be lost the home we created along with family staff and students will also be lost my oldest son looked forward to going back home after graduating from high school with the rest of the first graduating class to remember all the memories they made on campus my youngest son looked forward to crossing

147the same they older brother did I urge you to reconsider and leave atanta too where it is please let us keep our home and by the way all of our times are in the other room thank [Music] youen for [Music] make a summary um I'm a a mother at Linda and I have eight children some of my children have gone to the school and they al already have graduated from high school and um I have been very um I have been always supported at the school by the teachers and so that's why I would like to have Linda stay open thank you I don't have anything rich my name is Rebeca and um I just wanted to speak on behalf of Special Ed I have a little boy and he's in fifth grade he's going

148to be going to middle school and he has Down syndrome he can't join General Ed um I really invite you all to go into the classrooms for special ed so that you can see the ones that have severe the ones that are moderate General Ed I know like someone said they can go and they can play and they will be resilient they're going to adapt our special needs kids they don't adapt taking away their teachers cutting special ed any kind of monetary anything from special it is not good they deserve so much better and they deserve the support from the board from the district I try as much as I can to be involved with him but I implore you please do not make special ed a second thought make them priority make them feel

149like they're a part of this community and a part of their school he goes to Cassel not g to I'm not going to talk about Cassel because I know they've been on the chopping block for many years for many years because we didn't have a playground for them to play on and I just ask you guys to think about their difficulties in having to deal with life it's not your fault they were born they the way they were but they deserve a lot and they deserve the best education that you guys can give them because you guys are the ones that are in charge of that and I ask you please go visit them see their difficulties but then see how Happ they are right now with all the teachers and the Paras that they

150have and cutting that will be detrimental to them please think about it my name is Mariah Tapia and I'm speaking as a rra staff member and adalante family member before it was adalante actually when it was alria and Mount Pleasant School District um and the proud teacher of students who organize their own walk out today do to the actions of the district and the school board and I want to start off actually by reading a quote from our president Linda Chavez from 2018 says here um so I decided I'm going to run and why because they were hurting the children referring to the district they had just finished passing all this gay stuff and this is one of the first districts that did it and I looked around and said this is going to go

151this way not on my watch so I mean as someone who really wants to make sure that all my students will supported I think that families deserve to know the motivations behind you know everyone on this board um and transparency into the groups that elected your school board members and help support their um election to this board and their true motivations for being here in addition as adanta family member I know it is true that while 51% of AD one students are on free and reduced lunch over 80% of mine are at Renaissance at Fisher fames deserve the opportunity to inquire into how these schools have become so politically connected and whether this district has been researching all schs equally also I'm hesitant to trust this District on its constru construction numbers when it couldn't

152be trusted and managed construction contracts just a few years ago but yeah I think it's really sad to be pitting schools against each other um instead of questioning like how are you in a $20 million deficit this fast and you haven't closed any schools until now thank you next speaker please hello again my name is cace Douglas I've been at many of these meetings Renaissance Fisher has the highest score in middle school that being said I brought my first child and future son not caring about driving them 40 minutes round trip twice a day for their safety not knowing the Renaissance Fisher family takes pride in their students are willing to put the hard work and into the futures of their students education blocking in the students knowledge for their future I'm proud of Renaissance

153Fisher students today for sticking up for their incredible amazing principal teachers and staff us and US parents will stand by our children and their future to fight for Renaissance Academy Fisher children need need and want this school then now and forever this school is the safest worthy and high quality to keep children having their con confidence in their education from this for them to succeed their future keep Ron's fist open guaranteed I have never helped fight for something so hard passed out flyers door too going to closure meetings speaking in crowds I can say I love this SCH and it has me doing things I would never imagine doing take Renaissance Fisher off your proposal keep it here for our children hi my name is Kayla Martinez um I am a I'm a student Al

154at renaissant Fisher um I am severe dyslectic I have a problem with reading and writing um I've been going here for a couple months and I have grad off the roof and I hope the school can stay open for me to keep on learning thank you I'm Cindy McDonald and all of you pretty much know who I am the weather foxes and the lessons in humanity need to come back it is it's at the Panter with the vdli and the El glasses multiculturalism that's how we're going to save the world okay it looks like we're now done with public comment moving on to 4 two 4.1 two uh 4.2 don't we have time for a trusty comments on 4.01 uh I think we took it but sure let's take it okay um so truste fam

155and then me Fam and then trustee um Andrea Flor Shelton uh thank you madam president you know first a couple questions and then I will you know make a comment here uh you know question just on the process uh you know at the last board meeting uh you know Mr freus uh mentioned a a quote from finny Architects for you know so being on the bond committee uh previously my my question uh question to the administration uh before we were even engage finishing up the uh School consolidation process uh by which authority did the administration have to uh seek a quote uh from finny Architects regarding the Renaissance at fiser site sorry uh trusty F you're asking for the quote well I'm asking the pro so on what Authority did the did the administration seek

156a quote uh regarding the rebuilding of the uh you know the potential cost of renovating fish from you know uh any Architects correct so when we got your uh I'm GNA ask Mark frees to Chief interim Chief can you please uh take the podium when we got your proposal that morning uh I asked uh Mark freaked us to um get a cost estimate on the actual cost of the actual uh what it would cost to convert the TK Kinder booms can you talk about the process after that when I asked you to uh contact the architect please so uh good evening trustees um thank you superintendent Serta um in terms of the process we reached out to an architectural firm that has done work for the district uh for many years and because of the

157complexity of converting uh a middle school into a a TK through 8 we needed their help to give us the accuracy in terms terms of what's required by the state of California's division of State architect in terms of classrooms in terms of restrooms in terms of play structure and infrastructure that is necessary in order to accommodate that type of student grades that we would be integrating into there so we were validating numbers and costs as well as what is necessary components in order to imp Implement that process Jesse Fam I'm sorry we also have the architect here if you would um we can ask him to go to the podium and yes but but I'm not asking about the I you know not not the estimate itself but the process you know so supplemental question

158to the administration you know on something this complex you know would it not have been good practice to at least solicit a at least the second quote I mean you know uh just uh a home example uh you know my father and I recently uh redid a sink in vanity there and we sought you know we we shopped around four contractors took estimates from three and then made a decision and it just feels like you know bada bing bada boom you know the board is presented with an estimate of $6.5 million so what you know so I also am curious um uh uh where you know to the administration uh why was it you know wouldn't it not at least been prudent to uh shop around for a second quote so in in terms of

159being able to I identify itemize and quantify The Proposal that you had submitted prior to the meeting that that short time frame that we've been working with uh we reached out to to one service provider that we use the reason we're not required under the C cupka guidelines to have to get multiple bids for um quotes under 114,000 or Services Under 114,000 if we had a little more time we could have certainly gone out and solicited more but we were trying to meet those Targets in terms of having that information readily available in order for the meetings to to have that ready and and it's also um it would cost us more but at the direction of the board if you would like me to get additional uh quotes we can that would be most

160appreciated uh H hang on I still have the floor uh trusty Flor Shelton us you know okay uh you know another question uh at the last at last week's board meeting uh what is it I may not be a construction concern but uh you know Mr fedish you you you quoted to to the board in regards of the renovation of restrooms at Lucha suitable for autistic students that you know refresh my memory was the time frame about what uh ready for uh the upcoming 25 26 school year yes that's correct and and what it was is they weren't ready but they required minimal improvements in terms of some of the other school facilities that we are dealing with so because of the proximity of the restrooms to the classrooms the existing TK the existing Kinder

161who which already have those restrooms in place the the other additional uh rooms for the students that would be merging into there um would be minimal improvements so that's where we're getting can you give examples of what minimal means mark mean means for example the classrooms we've identified um the restroom is is adjacent has an adjacent wall to it and so would only require putting in a doorway and closing off the exterior door and so and then some minimal changing of um of of the Stalls right so we're not bringing in new water lines electrical sanitation lines we're not re Reinventing the wheel necessarily like many other um restrooms going for example from a middle school we'd have to replace the the sink height lower the sink Heights change the stall Dimensions changing the toilets

162um these things wouldn't need to be uh at at Lucha we wouldn't have to do that extensive uh modification and uh question supplemental question to the administration so is this based on a contractor you know timeline of sorts you know uh I mean I'm not trying to you know but uh you know this you've given the board a timeline of ready by Fall 20 25 is this backed up by an act you know actual contractor's quote or estimate or something like that it's backed up by our professional architect and so that was part of the services that they looked into for us um so our architect is is available here to answer your questions of how that was derived if if needed you know just you know because it's sort of like you know six

163six months for rest with pluming but to you know and again I'm you know we're on 8.01 so you know you know but so thank you very much so uh question to the administration directly but uh trusty fam I would like to just started to interrupt you if you'd like we can get you a quote from the architect and it would cost money we can I understand that you know it's just good being on the bond committee it's just good business practice to have you know a a written quote uh you know uh also you know thank you for the thorough thorough presentation uh slides there so uh you know last week in your in the administration provided a costing of you know 9.68 million uh this week uh the immediate savings is now 9.75

164million could the admin Administration explain you know how did how did we find approximately 70 you know some you know 7 approximately an additional $70,000 in savings can you uh can you speak to that one please the N hello yeah yeah you got it not okay the the 9.75 millions came from our initial estimates um the revised estimate is the 9.68 five million it has to do with the re with the reduction of the savings at Chavez uh since we will still need a part-time custodian there so that's approximately what those that the reduction in the cost savings is okay uh let's see here well you know so you know at this time I'd like to make you know my my comments you know and so thank you very much for the information so you

165know uh I you know first of all I would like you know thank you for the comments that's what we're here for right to listen to the people of alam Rock listening to the administration and I thank them for for their work as well and I you know again you know there's a there's a concurrence right we're not quibbling over the need to make reductions but we're quibbling over where to make the reductions uh I want to you know and yes uh things did get heated and I and I certainly hope that going forward you know when we're advocating for our schools we hi you know I ask that we highlight the positive things in Alam Rock uh something that I have tried to do uh since I've been on this board I you know

166few board members have logged more steps in this District than I have and I have had the pleasure of visiting every school in this District I mean uh you all mean more to me than just numbers on a paper and I want to say that uh you know I understand your frustrations and anger in fact this is perhaps the most humiliating thing I've had to do in my life and trust me December 2nd will go down for the rest of my life is probably the most humiliating day of my life you know I bring this proposal forward and again I I want to say I you know hear all the frustrations in some ways I'm trying to you know in consolidating Renaissance Fisher and the Renaissance mson I'm hoping to preserve something of Renaissance Fisher

167meanwhile you know I will say uh I disagree with the administration on the future use of the uh Ren Fisher site and I concur with my colleague uh board vice president Quintero is that without someone occupying it it's going to be a gaping hole and the hope is to at the very least try to keep it occupied with an active arusd school and you know it could be that but you know I ALS you know in my proposal I also extended uh that that the amenities you know should be made available for use by other arusd schools on a reservation basis because those have always been District assets and in you know and in all the schools the whole point is you know and I think board President Chavez for summing it up to preserve

168as much of the district's Furniture to the extent possible we you know in the medium term we're unlikely to build a a new middle school that's why I'm you know my proposal preserves you know labs and music rooms and the last true science classroom in the district uh so that so that our kids you know and our wider Community still have have access to them uh you know in the administration's proposal I mean even though we are you know the administration is proposing to spread out vapa everywhere I'm hoping to at least maintain you know in all fairness the rested District at least two campuses in the vaa program I'm hoping to preserve the best possible special education facilities not because I doubt the you know doubt the administration's estimates but as a special education

169student myself I know that uh delays matter and those are the kids who are unable uh who are ill you know who are ill you know we you know that can be a danger to them and I you know I take um when you know uh I as you know uh when somebody messes with special ed students you know that's where I stand up because I've all you know I am a special ed student you know in a in a former life I you know thank you I thank aptitude for pro providing their data as well and the thing is you know it preserves a wellness center and as well as you know as I can see here uh thousands upon thousands of private donations from a donor who's willing to step up and help

170improve aptitude uh you know where students are being moved I understand that there are more students being moved under my proposal but it but at the very least I hope that they have they are being moved to the places with the best possible facilities in this District to to give them something that they don't have in this District at this time uh you know setting this you know the hope is to again I want to set Mr sort of up for success I want to set his cabinet up for Success uh you know this is about every part of the district pitching in just a bit so that we come out of this in one piece and I you know uh I thinkk the Ben painter for coming out here tonight and my proposal you

171know preserves a bit more of Ben painter uh you you know so that it is in a position to grow you know these are tough choices I you know again I wish I didn't have to make him I wish Mr Serta didn't have to come into you know this is not the situation you know I imagine of you know if if the cola did not shrink from 5 and a qu% to 1.07 1.07% we probably would not be in this situation but the co State Cola was cut and as a state funded District that's our life flood and we we are paying the price for it you know because of our property you know property values relative to more affluent areas in the community however you know again though we may quibble you know and

172again I I based upon Baseline figures from Pro you know provided to me by Administration I'm hoping you know to Pro provide both the slightly greater upfront savings uh than that of the administration and I want to incorporate the best parts of Mr serta's proposals right he talked about transportation and you know there's documentation here and I'm hoping that that will alleviate some of the concerns at you know post consolidation but at the end of the day my plan has always been about preserving as much of this District intact as possible preserving amenities that we're not able to replace in the medium term keeping as many schools in the district as possible and yes keeping and I want to say is a you member of the Union a union and you know someone who who

173has always carried the area endorsement in his elections to protect as many AR USD teachers and staff to any extent possible so you know it was in that spirit that you know uh again I'm just the part-time truste here who had some legislative experience and you know uh I've met with constituents I've met with the administration I've read your emails uh I've gone to school events and I've tried to meet as many parents in person I've you know I'm going to be you know finish the last leg of my annual tour of alam Rock uh tomorrow and it's in that spirit that you know I propose what I propose and again I believe that you know it's more it's more upfront Savings in the you know in the immediate term preserves as many facilities as

174possible many amenities as possible and as much of the Alam Rock family that you know I Poss possibly can and so with that you know thank you madam present for allowing me to take this time to speak directly to all Alam rockers and you know uh I you the rest of my time thank you thank you TR and thank you uh three comments so um first off I do want to see if this board um I guess it's about the process between here and December um December 2nd December 2nd is going to be like decision making time so I'd like to um see if there's um appetite for moving a few um emotion related to some other Solutions um related to seeing if this board um is ready to um give direction to the superintendent

175to start convening with other school districts most likely with the um Eide alliances leadership on figuring out what the long-term advocacy Solutions will be about um Equity funding because we know so that we're you're all not back at this in two years in three years it's that root cause conversation that we had last week um and I know you're all as interested I just feel it gets lost sort of in the this this horrible decision making that you're all going through um so I would like to move um to move that plus um directing the superintendent to um look into more immediate short-term Solutions around special ed as I described earlier um and I just want to really underscore um listening to our community as it relates to special education whether you're at Lindale or

176Cassel or any of the schools unnamed um from a mother's heart from any parent from the teachers and the Paras and the special ed staff we we know how much um how much we love these kids right and how much we want to go above and beyond this applies to all of our kids but when it comes to our special ed kids um there's something extraordinary that we all want to do um when I have been listening to the proposal about how we can do more more for our special ed students at all of our schools to me from a long-term perspective that is compelling that we would have the facilities at all of our schools that we would be able to where we need um special day class where we need and yes I

177have been to um uh Lindale and I have seen um the classrooms for this of year um for the children that are experiencing severe issues um I've seen the facilities at Lindale and we should be doing way better we should be doing way better and if Lindale is our special ed Jewel I I I'm that concerns me so I've this is why it's so hard because it's so complex and it's so nuanced but um these are you know these again are the challenges in terms of trying to I am sold by sort of the longer term vision of what we can do for all of our specialed kids at every single school and again at the severe level and if we have an ability to mainstream them with more classroom availability that is compelling to

178me um in the short term I would like to to see how we can um you know again cap our resources or focus our resources I should say on those um who need it the most um and then the last thing is just again sort of from here to December 2nd so we have two proposals in front of us and I'm going to apologize to you all for losing my pool earlier um but I also will will defend myself when necessary I see that there's two proposals in front of us um in transparency I do you know I heard a lot of interesting ideas um I don't want to ask those questions you know tomorrow and then you know pop up December 2nd say h you know maybe that this and that is something we

179should consider so I'm going to just ask my question now based on what I've heard tonight and then you all can tell us like so what would come back December 2nd are we going to be looking at two proposals plus anything else that we ask of you like could there be five proposals on December 2nd so well what I need from the board is direct Direction and so what other information do you need do you want to combine because really it's going to be your final decision and so do you need us to because I still need to I just got this proposal with uh some of the changes that trusty fam has made and so we need to cost that out as well need to run then I put something else that I'd like

180you to cost out and this is not my proposal it's just a like I just want to know you know if you were to move um and this again from the standpoint of putting new schools and creating you know chaos and fear that is not my that is not my hope that is not my but I just need to ask if you were to um move hubard and take the k5s from hubard and move them to dorsa and then move the middle schoolers to fiser what would that what would that cost and and and then I would I would just be interested in seeing that so that I mean that's the kind of like I'm trying to figure out how we do this publicly but also not create you know Chaos on the the second

181so that's what I'm saying like I'm just so you you would come back with that on December 2D if that's what what the board wants me to absolutely we can get or do we all individual individual I'll take I'll take trust um vice president G first and then uh uh Corina trusta second on I don't appreciate that um Madame President yes I think that from the dis saying give me this give me that would be uh a lot of uh confusion yeah and it's going to set up a situation where we're going to wind up getting mixed signals the superintendent's going to come back with I'm not sure what's going on and we're not going to get what we're asking for I think that the example that we got from our colleague uh uh board

182clerk fam of submitting and writing so we know exactly what we're asking for yes is probably the best approach and I would suggest that we we uh we we move forward that direction um with regard to the idea of know there's nothing easy here it's always very difficult but to leave that that section of our district with no presence of alam Rock and with two Charter Schools it's a recipe for saying adios to that entire to that section and so um Additionally the Tropicana neighborhood is the most densely my prop no I'm not going to go we KN go back how is my question not one second it has to be board approved I guess um if before something like that happens so if it's just a request of one uh trustee saying it uh

183do we vote on it uh better to to have that understanding or do we do it hold on uh or do we do it as proposed right now by vice president GTO um I I think we just it's true we shouldn't have so many proposals on the table that's just please that's just just that's just confusing things more so um I think we need to think about that go ahead Madam president my Approach was that everybody submits something in writing and then she submits it as a as a plan and then yeah we've been through the redistricting process or like 10,000 plans well that's that's what it is they put out a plan and the one that ultimately gets the votes is the one that moves forward yeah because I had something but I didn't

184want to confuse um the board as well or or the administration so I was holding back and trusty Kera go ahead this is going to be tough December 2nd is you know yeah definitely not a favorite date in my book um I think absolutely we should each present something if we think it's best that's our job if we think that it's the best idea for our district um and if we haven't yet you know I appreciate uh you know trusty fam um you know bringing these things but if we haven't yet I encourage us to have our one-on ones with our superintendant and really sit down and hash out and you know I appreciate how trusty fam you know invited staff to talk about money um so we're not on December 2nd getting new proposals

185um or new ideas or personal opinions um that we that maybe our superintendent hasn't heard before or our staff who are really trying to do their best job with what they have and the direction they have and then you know I don't feel it's fair for us to give them a new Direction at every board meeting uh but but I agree I think each and every one of us you know have earned our time to present what we think is best for our district in order to One affect the least amount of students right we've we know I mean we're um I'm a parent right like my daughter's life is important any child's life they're are most sacred so the least children that can be impacted number one two yes you know we're doing this

186because we got to save money and unfortunately you know uh some of us we're scared to make decisions way back when when we had you know first proposals and we wouldn't be here with seven schools maybe we would only be here with three schools or maybe none if we would have back then had a backbone to make these tough decisions that's we're here to make those tough decisions and so um moving forward what I'm hoping is again maybe tonight I go to sleep and I'm like I found the you know solution and that I you know whatever it is call hman and honor his time and say let's sit down and you know let's talk and that he doesn't hear it for the first time in the next board meeting so I just encourage each

187and every one of us to take that time with our staff um and honor their time and honor our community's time and um I I I'm also going to apologize um because I am too human and you know I I I do get charged emotionally when I hear things when I see things um and so I'm going to continue to do my best to hold it together take deep breaths you know before I speak um and I'm glad that we moved this item first so I know that our board president and our superintendent get to make our our um agendas and I just encourage us to maybe move close session back at the end uh so that we don't have to like you know wonder if this is going to happen at at the beginning

188um so you know asking for that I don't know if we need to again make a decision as a board or not but at least putting it forward that's what I would like to see um and lastly on uh the second I will not be here in person but I will be present so I will be virtually present um and I hope to have the same voice as I would in person um and that's just what I'm asking from my board here I don't know how it's going to work if I'm going be able to raise my hand or what but um please look out for that and I'll work with um there's already a board policy that you can look it up later no that's what I'm saying but I hope I have the

189same amount of we're gonna well I appreciate that President so um so then um Mr Serta um I guess going forward here maybe you should speak and then I'll speak after you go ahead no go ahead okay uh superintendent s go ahead so I I just want to remind the board we have first interim that we're working on as well and so uh my staff is working on the budget stabilization plan as well that we need to cost out and so I just want to put that out there um I also have uh our uh fisal adviser here D zimmering who can also speak to the actual uh process um if you sure I I would like for for him to just go over the timeline just so that uh because we do have to

190submit on December 16th the uh budget stabilization plan so I just want to make sure we're clear on that Madam president members of the board and like everyone else I really wish none of us were having to do any of this this is this is not easy I I I ask you to to consider a couple of boards to consider and one is extraordinary and when I was first drafted by Dr dwan to come back back up here for you and she said that you needed to close nearly 40% of your schools and you had a timeline of barely four months I used a different word other than extraordinary it's it's unprecedented so what you're attempting right now is probably never been done in in this state and and I congratulate you on how far

191you've gotten and I think everybody here needs to know that that this didn't happen because you you guys were were relaxed in saying that the brutal truth is you don't have a lot of time the brutal truth is if you had this had started a year and a half ago then we could be listening to lots of different proposals and having more time but you are on some very very hard timelines uh so your your board's meeting on December 2nd must present a decision so your staff can ad accurately prepare a budget to the county absent that the county has two options to either desertify your budget and make it qualified and or go negative if your budget were to go negative and at the extreme amount of deficit spending you are in right now

192would be very very likelihood for that uh that point the county has the obligation to assign a fiscal adviser who then would have the stay and recent Authority that uh board board trustee kinta has seen before where you lose the authority to make decisions on expenditures other than things covered by your collective bargaining agreement absent that the next step after that would be if you became insolvent and the state has to come in and provide you a loan in which case the board event essentially is powerless and the state brings in their own trustee to run the district until it is fiscally solvent I know none of you intend for that to happen uh you didn't create the problem in and of itself you inherited it and all the people here who are frustrated need

193to understand that you're paid virtually nothing to be here and you do this because of your love for kids and your your commitment to this community and that hard decision has to be applauded and and whatever decision you make I think everyone here should appreciate what it takes for you to make that decision thank you very much uh wait a second so I think we've taken enough comment but if it's really urgent and you're going to add something new then I guess we can take one more from you okay I didn't know we had a time limit um so yeah I this is the first that I'm hearing the suggestion that we all submit proposals in writing um but we didn't we if we if that were true we should have had a deadline for

194ourselves while back and that should have been oh we all were going to bring proposals last week or whatever that is um so that's why I said if you know if there's so I don't support between this meeting and the December 2nd new propo new proposals coming out that's why I was transparently asking tonight you know a question that um could be provided in writing and it could be so I'm not saying it's a new proposal but it's it's basically a new way it's like a modification of his proposal right so that's I mean process is important right so I don't want to walk away from this meeting unclear nobody should be unclear on what to expect on December 2nd so I don't I do not support anybody submitting more proposals unless or questions unless

195it's here tonight okay um if there is there a second let me get his and then we'll see if we get a second okay is that all right sure okay what I was suggesting is that it be submitted in writing so make your question but submit it and writing so that the superintendent knows exactly what you want and we don't have a situation where the superintendent comes back and says well I thought that you wanted this or I believed you wanted that that way it's very clear as to what you're asking for that's what that's the only suggestion I've have and I would suggest that we proce proceed with if board member fram's uh uh proposal has been submitted and writing we're clear as to what he wants I would suggest that anybody who wants

196anything and if voice it right now but follow up with an actual written proposal that reflects what you asked for here in the public meeting and I just couldn't be I don't think I was I could be any less clear is if hubard were to move their TK to dorsa and the five and the Middle School to fiser just that that's it and I can put that in writing but I just want everyone to be clear that's all I'm asking as a as a question back to him or to the superintendent again I I'm not here with a lot of I think this is the best or I think it's um I think it's back to um we've just got to be clear about what we're considering um next week and looking at some capacity

197numbers as people are talking I'm just just like I think it's a question I think it's a fair question to ask and I but I don't think it's great that you know we're doing it tonight right I so I guess I'm frustrated that like we would I just want us to be clear we're not having new new proposals on December 2nd right this is what we're going to be seeing correct no you think there might be new proposals pardon we as have been we've been reminded all night long that we duly elected eled um that you have the right to submit your thoughts and your ideas to your colleagues in written form and uh I I'm gonna move Beyond this and I want to finish my comments um Mr ziming uh I want to make

198be very clear that I intend to have a decision on December 2nd a decision that clearly is not going to make anybody happy but unfortunately it's very much necessary I've stated this to former superintendent danan uh that we took action back in May I believe and uh we committed to nine sites and I am intending to move forward with that um and that is my commitment to the people of Al Rock to ensure that it is their uh folks that they chose that they elected that are going to make decisions on them for them not an appointed individual that comes in to have to clean up the district um ju to to be clear the the the decisions that we made in the past were collectively done by the entire board are folks here whove

199been here for six years already on this board and had the opportunity to present proposals to shut down schools they should have done that if they felt they had the opportunity and the political will to do that clearly the political will wasn't there we moved forward with Rogers to consolidate Atlant and it was difficult it was politically very difficult people were angry we Consolidated the the the the the Renaissance schools in on their various sites and it was incredibly difficult process we faced uh a pandemic shutdown that brought in artificially this money that kept us going it was probably in hindsight not a good thing because of the fact that it allowed us to artificially continue to believe that we can we can write the ship just as I believed when uh when I got

200onto the sport I'm gonna push back and we're going to turn this around we can't and we now are at the position where we have to make these very tough decisions um I am very proud of the fact that Alan Rock has maintained its commitment in program and services at the highest levels even in comparison to our neighboring districts who have chosen to turn away from music who chosen to uh scale Down Sports we have not and where I if I and I know Mr ziming is probably not going to agree with this if I had the opportunity to go back and change it I would not because the kids deserve exactly what they've been receiving a quality and dignified education that we've been able to provide to the best of our abilities here alrock

201I'll continue to do that once we scale down and we're able to focus those resources on the schools that are left and so um I am committing to everybody here to everybody listening in uh wherever you're at that uh a decision at least for my part I'm ready to make it um what what that is we will see once we continue to engage in dialogue I'm going to continue to reach out to folks get more input from the various folks I've already had uh various meetings and that's part of the process of going out there and engaging and so I am fully committed to coming to a decision on the second that as I stated before probably will not make anybody happy but it will keep us afloat and Keep Us Alive and allow us

202to right siiz the district to give to continue to give our kids a quality and dignified education thank you um Mr zimmering I've said it before I I have my decisions already made too um I did want to ask one question and because I didn't think of one uh of asking them I've heard their voices but I'm going to make real simple the painter shepher 18 months ago I proposed merum but I guess what I was really not knowing is the figures the savings how much would we save if we left those English students there is it worth just combining the two making it a tk8 which is what my original plan was but if I could see if the savings aren't there then the savings aren't there but can I get that costed out

203as well if it's going to cost a 100,000 more and make all those uh all that work then uh maybe we can look at maybe just taking out another position somewhere else uh to keep that school intact uh the way they have stated tonight because believe it or not it just because we're looking at you and we're not looking at you that doesn't mean we're not listening we're listening and I've been trying to decipher what that says for the last hour but I will ask her later um but we are listening and we hope that you stay with Alan Rock uh you respect the decisions um you also support the ones that are there's still going to be a lot of unhappy people there's going to be some that are going to just take it

204with the grain of salt and there's the kids most importantly hopefully they don't get affected so bad and they're still cared for by all these caring people and loving and they still trust them and eventually they could trust the administration and the board again but thank you Mr Sera for coming here and um and we appreciate you here during this time and Mr ziming I know you're only doing your job but you're also here to um make sure that the Ship Sails right and I believe she was next or you were next you guys I'd like to move that the board direct the superintendent to um immediately put in um controls into the special ed um intake process as I discussed earlier and to um come January um the superintendent would engage with um either

205either just at the state level or with the Eide Alliance on doing um funding reform for a long-term Solution that's my motion a second um all in favor of that of her okay we'll we'll take a comment and then go ahead um I I agree with the motion but I think it's outside of the scope of what's been uh what's been agendized and I would suggest that we direct Administration to put it on the agenda for the next meeting so that we can take action properly then just so that we can um not get I take a second I agree either way I think special ed is in the presentation and then because it's about funding I mean I think it I think it's legit but either way it's thank you for that I was

206just thinking December 2's a lot okay so like you said January uh is that when you said to bring it back no it it's either we vote on that tonight or you said December 2nd I think December 2nd already has a lot on the agenda so there's a December 19th December 2nd I think the only thing we have on the agenda is the consolidation the recommendation for well yeah it is a lot yeah how about December 19 I'm just I'm thinking items agenda items um okay uh just but yes it was not agendized um I think I would give them more time it's Germain to the it's Germaine to the issue it was addressed okay so go ahead and then if you wanted to say something Gina after I don't see it being too controversial

207it's just if we bring it back on some second it looks like there's full support here it's just but anything can happen the directive whatever directive board gives me we I will follow it so I know there was a motion in a second I I'm okay with them bringing it second as long as we look at it and address it um if you're okay I know you made the motion I res sended my second I seconded I got third it pass are you okay with that so fine I I don't I yeah I mean as long as it comes back and look at it come back I I'm go back to my comments I haven't had a chance to okay all right so um you know I'm really looking forward to coming to solution-based all

208the things you know that unite us as a board that you know we're going to face if this is tough then we're going to have to figure out what we're going to do with the sites I mean it's going to be tough like um we've gone through some tough times that was nothing compared to what we're going through and based on some of the like comments that I'm hearing today and like just microaggressions I don't appreciate um especially you know when I was probably you know um you know going back to when I was pushing and saying we couldn't Kick the Can anymore and then I was reprimanded by the same board and taken down from board presidency and the reason behind that was because I wanted to close schools and this was in June

209so I just don't want any more microaggressions I'm calling you know um with a peaceful heart to say let's come together we're going to have to really bring Solutions forward and D I heard you and all the other community members um I uh make myself available to sit down and work together on behalf of our children and our families to go and talk to City to go and talk to County to go and talk to State and if we need to have the first meeting at aptitude because I think that's the only school I haven't been able to make it to this school year let's have our first meeting there you know um I I I'm I'm committed you know we we can't be placed against one another we got to come together on behalf

210of our children and future Generations that are counting on us I also commit myself to make that tough decision that some will hate me for the rest of their lives um I get to make it you know like like you've heard before I was elected and I and that's part of my job um and also prevent our district from going into um bankruptcy right so that we can can have an alamro so we can continue to have these conversations and that we can continue to come together and hopefully then also find solutions to bring money and hopefully come you know back and flourish our communities and you know continue to love all of our children from point A to point B one side of the district to the other side you know we all bring

211value to this district and um nobody's better than anybody else and um stick with us if you have Solutions come to us if we have Partnerships uh if you have you know money and somebody that's willing to you know give if you haven't thought of that person or that you know let us know um here to listen and I've done my best to respond to every email that I've gotten as hard as that may be and you might have gotten some responses at 2 in the morning I've done my best and I apologize if I missed yours but your time is valuable just like ours so thank you keep sending them I will read them and you know let's move forward together thank you um any more trusty comments uh any super intendent com in

212no I'm I'm ready to go okay uh so moving on to she um 4.2 4.2 uh approv Terra realy advisor contract for November 15 uh June 30th 2025 the cost is 59,500 so I need to recuse myself from this item due to my employer being the city of San Jose and this scope of work has to do with potentially working for the city of San Jose so I'm going to recuse myself okay so did you did you motion no she just recused her no I'm asking oh was there Mo was there no not not yet uh she just uh beat okay move to approve okay for purposes of discussion uh seeing no second substitute motion okay what's the motion direct staff to go out for an RP and come back with three bits for the

213board's consideration okay we have another motion on the table uh did all the trustees hear that okay um I do I have a second okay there's a first and a second um Miss marel uh could you hear that one yes I want to make sure that the uh executive secretary is getting this um Miss marel uh did you hear on 4.2 that there's a second motion for RFP yes okay okay I'll give you a second we're just making sure that that's heard so that that way it could be documented um in the meantime um public comment and then I will take uh the superintendent's uh after the public comment any public comment seeing none uh superintendent uh s that could you please speak uh yes I'm I'm I guess I'm confused around a request for

214an RFP uh since it's under the $4,000 threshold um we did interview uh a couple and I added this to the board informational item where we interviewed other uh proposals and so I'm I'm just a little confused around the request so did you get yeah I got it okay I just can't speak because there's something wrong with the the speakers here okay uh so you want to speak on that um I think it's a appropriate uh process to ensure thatting thank you uh I think it's a a good uh policy to ensure that the district's getting the best bang for the buck and that it's being very transparent I think that uh everybody here would agree that uh transparency is the key here and that uh we go out there put it out let folks

215come back with their uh proposals and uh we get the best options that that we can based upon that very open and transparent process uh that's the reason for my uh motion okay so we have a first and a second um all in favor for this SEC for the motion raise your hand okay uh opposed okay so it's a three to one vote and one absent because she has to step up because she um uh because of conflict of interest okay so motion passes uh for a an RFP another bit uh moving on to uh yes can you please call truste back please um actually I think I'm going to move uh item uh okay let's move on to 4.3 consideration discussion exhibit 9250 first reading renumeration reimbursement and other benefits do I have a

216motion this this is a first reading oh excuse me reading President Chavez this is the um board bylaw uh 9250 that you requested to add to the agenda okay so I recommend adopting exhibit 9250 renumeration reimbursement and other benefits this CS this csba recommended policy ensures that all trustees absences are approved by the Board of Trustees promoting accountability and consistency so that was just for the first reading thank you moving on to uh public comment any public comment on that item seeing none any trusty comment seeing none uh let's move on to the next one uh so 5.1 Business board discussion andaction the board may take action on any item in this section unless is it is designated for information only approve resolution 22425 regulate move to delegation of authority to approve bids and award

217contracts for facilities improvements in the event of any unforeseen urgent need uh districtwide I have a motion from truste Corina era loera and a second from uh trustee Andrea Flor Shelton um any public comment on this item 5.1 seeing none any trustee comment on item 5.1 really brief yes um Having learned this lesson the hard way um this requires a super majority of the board I believe four four board members so um and just to make sure that we're all aware and we all remember that uh this is temporary and you got to come back and uh have the board okay anything you do um given the fact that Alam Rock experienced some issues around this a long time ago yeah we don't want to revisit that ever again so those are my comments so

218um uh truste Andrea thank you um so unforeseen urgent need is different than an emergency question mark yes okay okay so and what is what's the difference the go ahead resolution says emergency itself so so then so then it's really for emergency yeah and so they can't just start you know running up the test okay thank you so um any further trusty comments seeing none uh I will ask for the vote all in favor of approving 5.1 uh five I can't see you 5 Z motion passes unanimously okay moving on to 52 architectural Consulting Services vny Architects are they here there where like go away at me guy okay so um um do you want to say anything Mr or Mr frees can you introduce the item please good evening Madam board president trustees um

219this is a Consulting uh agreement for up to 30,000 we don't anticipate utilizing nearly any of that uh amount but this is for cons in services to advise us on uh design processes that are necessary and costing of modifications to our schools okay so do I hear any trusty comments move to approve okay I have a motion on the floor second I have a motion in a second um okay uh I guess let's vote call open uh any public comment is she standing up because she's gonna comment or just leaving okay there we go hey that's that's nice fighting um you know uh I'm kind of confused because you know we know that this is the architect that's looking behind joining adante one to Fisher I don't know what this proposal entitles exactly um because

220it's like the first time we're hearing about this so um for at least for us if it has to do with merging adante one and two to Fisher we prefer it to not be included because we don't want to be merged thank you so if it doesn't include that do we need the second speaker uh just more comment go ahead so um we were talking a little bit about this because we were reading through the materials and the only thing I I wanted to mention was no matter what happens whether adalante 1 and two go to fiser or not if the intent is to repurpose the campus wait a second this is you're not speaking on the item so I'm I'm not being rude I'm just letting you know you have to speak on the

221item that we're talking about right um okay but it since it doesn't have any anything to do with his work so I'm GNA ask you to stop right there oh okay thank you all right I appreciate you coming up to the board but it it has to be specific to what we're we have on the agenda and and and it doesn't have to do with mergin out no no no that's not what I'm referring to so the the the purpose of the contract is for work to re to um to modify Fisher is isn't that correct am I am I mistaken you're mistaken oh okay that's why I stopped you oh okay oh I AP it no problem thank you for a comment okay so seeing any any trusty comments uh uh just to clarify

222superintendent Mr frus this design work could be for any of any redesigns at any of our schools post decisions on the second corre yes that's correct thank you thank you okay so we have a motion and a second and no more public comment except for one more uh vice president uh kto uh in line with my previous uh motion uh 4.2 I'd be interested in having an RFP uh that way we can get out there and put it out publicly the questions could be uh Pro possibly answered for our our public who's come out here and said that they weren't aware uh and um it's for that reason I'm not going to be supporting it okay um any further comments I I just want to add make a comment uh trusty that we are moving

223fast after December 2nd and so um we will need to contract a an architect and so I I just want to make sure I just want to manage expectations that we are uh moving you know after December 2nd we will be mov moving forward with your decision um and we don't know which schools yet but I I I just want to put this out there for you regard we already asked for public comment I'm sorry okay any further but you can direct a question to the administration writing in writing [Laughter] sorry so I call for the question all in favor of approving uh the architectural consulting firm now please raise your hand so the vote is to uh motion doesn't pass so moving on to Five I'll make I'll make a substitute motion to ask

224Administration immediately move forward with bringing forward an RFP for these Services uh I have a motion on the floor uh second um by uh trusty minam uh any public comment there you go that was going to be actually my my question was if we did approve this would it be earmarked only for this contractor or or architect or would we have the ability to do some Price shopping like men suggested whether it's repurposing or re you know remodeling your bathroom so maybe to continue but also get some other bids that would be just my suggestion or was my question if the board did approve the money so it's thank you thank you uh okay okay regarding this I'm just afraid that we are refering the staff to do all this RFB and they're wasting time

225we have we we we don't have enough time we have a emergency a crisis of school closures and it just worries me that you guys are just having them to do all this work when there's a lot more other work to do just just putting that out there I know that you know that our but think about also their capacity and the needs that we have at the end of the day it's our kids are thank you good evening um I'm GNA Echo Olivia in the previous Pier words we are in a crash time we you just hire um super Cerna believing that he can do his job I understand that we have a p of people taking advantage of um accountability but I also believe and believing that people that we employed and that

226are doing their work adding more work and adding more things into their plates I feel it's it's a lot even for our own families and even me sitting down there as an employee I would love to have that trust of my Administration and that people are supervising me to let me do my job and so I lose that that that that trust right um I also understand that there's contracts over 100,000 that needs to come to you and that needs to be overseen this is not an over $100,000 contract if I'm not mistaken and maybe I'm looking wrong right and lastly just cutting off when our staff or our people are speaking to give my word or to and I'm talking to you um president Linda because you just cut off un superet like two

227times while he was giving his speak I would love to hear what he has to say because it's relevant to that work it's relevant to my schools and it's relevant to my students so please let everybody finish their sentences before we start interrupting each other it's not well seen this is why we have so bad so much bad reputation so let's just work together and let's let let us let them do their work that you hire them and you trust them for thank you I want to thank you for saying that because I didn't see that I cut him off but if I did I apologize and um I would like you to speak now on if I if I did uh and you and I cut you off mid-sentence I didn't feel that I

228did but go ahead yeah I don't know what I was I don't I don't think you and you don't think so maybe I didn't I don't know but um I'm I uh I'm human if I do it wasn't intentional but um so we're going to now vote uh sure let's do trusty comments um I know she had her hand up a long time but I didn't see okay okay okay go ahead so so um you know just the same thing uh I was gonna everything that said but I'm gonna Echo as a trustee we've hired our superintendent because we trust him and we've gone through a lot but we don't you know we don't have we're not there you know anymore um you know when I was a parent and I was organizing walkouts and

229I was sitting there you know because the board at the time and the you know lack of transparency but we're better thank God we moved forward and so um with that um you know we're going to vote on this and it's like I don't even know if to vote Yes or no I don't agree you know that we're making our staff do more work in addition to the last item with another RFP process um and then taking their attention away from what's important on our district um this is important and yes you know um it's it's true uh there are certain contracts that should come to us and that I expect are you know come to us but then there's some that we trust and when I heard you know superintendent Sera say in the

230previous item that he had already had many contracts come to him he reviewed them and out of those he thought that one was the best you know and I don't understand why we don't trust him on this one either um so I mean for purposes of moving this this work forward because yes we're in a crunch time and yes we need this work to be done you know I'm going to be supporting this if this is the only thing the majority will support to move our district forward but I don't agree with this control and power over our staff and not trusting them thank you uh truste thank you um in addition I think when we're talking about um trying to retain the the staff I I don't think that the business office um needs

231needs another thing I also don't I would also imagine it might cost us $330,000 to RFP a $30,000 contract I mean we're it's starting to like can we're cannibalizing ourselves in many ways um the last thing is this summer we had a study session on our Contracting processes and so we could I'll be very clear about what the thresholds were what we're delegating authority to what is in our purview and if somebody needed to change something um it would have been good to like we were trying I was trying hopefully to have that steady session so if we needed to change something we did it before we got into like crunch time where we needed to just roll out contracts and like you know delegate power and delegate Authority where um we all felt comfortable

232so um I am concerned that this is distracting and I won't be supporting uh the motion the new motion okay so I do want to support the superintendent and the administration I do not want to give them extra work however um I still feel that we do need an RFP for because this Consulting this Architects as well as any other that we do employ we have to make sure we get it right the first time um before it was just not a not enough eyes and attention and time on it so I I know we're we're rust but I still feel that we need the RFP so if there's any more trusty comments let me know um if not I'll take the vote yeah go ahead I would like to ask um what Mr Zimmer

233I always I'm sorry I'm terrible at your name and I don't mean to put you on the hot seat but I'm going to put you on the hot seat um just to terms of what our fmat report said last time um just last week our fmat report sort of indicates these are issues I I was actually going to ask if if anyone had been able to take the time to go through the pmat report on the analysis simple statement and I'm just looking at the arithmetic of days ma'am in other cases and and and trusty Cana I I feel what you feel you know that I lived through that past with with all the problems with the contracts you don't have a luxury of time right now if you go to an RFP process you

234will lose three months think about we are coming to Thanksgiving you have to get your stabilization plan done staff cannot complete this for you for December 2nd that's just a physical impossibility you don't have it by December 2nd you're going to be pushed into January you're going to go through an RFP process requires you to review that's going to take you to February or March before anything can start your staff has gotten this trying to get this fast-tracked because that's what you said you needed done to do anything to delay that now basically blows up their ability to do exactly what you want them to do so I would encourage you to let your staff do what they need to do to deliver on what you decide on December 2nd thank you uh vice president

235kto seems like a formal RFP is uh we we're um is um is not something that um seems like it's taking too long uh I would ask then if the second would be amenable to to it that we go for an RFQ bring back three proposals and then uh and it wouldn't require going out there and doing all kinds of stuff it would uh just get getting to to others and uh and then letting the board take a look and make a decision I concur with that um okay so we have a first a motion new motion and a second and I uh superintendent s can you please comment uh yes I do want to comment and I also want assistant superintendent desels to uh speak on on this item as well we um we

236interviewed put it out there for three um companies to to interview for um you know certain contracts um this one here I I'll just leave it at that thank you s superintendent um the RFQ is also a process and will take time so that again will eat up into the time that we need um if you want us to evaluate multiple proposals which I have to tell you I am not anywhere near being done with with first interim and that has to be done and that is fine but I am having my staff work long into the evenings and both Saturday and Sunday okay we can do that to get that done but I am pushing them really hard okay next weekend is Thanksgiving and I'm going to have to ask them to work during

237Thanksgiving weekend in order to meet your December 2nd deadline so I'm sorry I'm very emotional because that's going to be very hard when my staff has been working weekends and evenings to on these proposals and first interum okay so that's fine I can work long hours I can get you multiple proposals but I need all of you to remember it's not just the numbers this is for our students and when we move and do these modifications it is also about getting the classrooms ready okay trusty fam your proposal means that we're going to have 11 TK Kinder classrooms at the Meer site and two preschools we need to cost that out that is a lot Madam president of additional cost it's not just working on the numbers and and so that's going to take us

238time now getting back to the RFQ and the RFP process the RFQ is a process and it is very similar to the RFP process so I'm not entirely sure what kind of time we save just by going to the RFQ and then all we're doing is asking for the request for qualifications and then we have to evaluate the proposals as well thank you U vice president thank you for that that very um uh clear and very passionate response I it's very rare that we see it from from uh the cabinet level staff like this and so it's for that reason that I'm you've already gone through three proposal is correct you just said it right now and so please bring them back at the next board meeting and you've already evaluated them correct and so

239the board will go ahead take a look at them and make a decision based upon those three proposals you've already received you've already evaluated and uh it's at the next meeting would to require you any extra work uh so that the staff is not overwhelmed and uh and and so I I think that's a if if if they have already received three and uh they can just bring it back and have the board take a look at and make a okay so I finish my thought let me just add to that okay so then it'll be you and it'll be men got it okay so so I didn't finish my comment the the the comment I was going to make uh vice president um kto was that we did this for the previous one the

240tarot we did look at three one of them dropped out and so uh all we had to do was interview and I shared those documents in the previous one and so here this one is more pressing and it did take take us more time with the other three because we had to work around their schedules and that was the example I was going to give you uh and so but I wanted her to speak on uh the time because uh I've been working with my team she's new to her position since September and so we want to make sure we do things right and so uh this is where we're at and um but anyway that that's what I was going to say in my previous comment thank you so men and then yes and

241I just wanted to make a point uh you know uh again I guess you were you know in you know uh just to correct the record in you know in my most recent proposal tonight you know I concurred with for the record I concurred with the administration and not doing anything with the Meer you know I I I had in you know in in my written written you know in the written version of my proposal I said to you know uh like them uh collocate them at Ryan Elementary School which is a operating school in both proposals so I just wanted to make it clear that there's no work to be done on Meer I apologize trusty fam I meant Ryan because you now are moving the TK Kinders from utante 1 and two to

242the Ryan site and you also moved um one of the other school sites to Meer so that would be a total of 11 TK Kinder classrooms at my I'm sorry I keep s meire at Ryan and we would have to move the two preschools from adalante 1 and adalante 2 to some site because your plan is to close both of those sites but I just wanted to for for for public record I said R you know in Ryan not it is it is Ryan not Meer I apologize good u v pres CTO um yeah my I a lot A lot has been said I want to get us into the habit of bringing forward multiple proposals I think that winds up giving us security we see that a lot of folks are involved a lot

243of folks who really aren't um are are are now being really brought into this issue fact of the matter is that if if we continue down this path of like you get a contract you get a contract that is not a healthy situation that sets up a situation like SEO County Community College District which now is going through H because there was a lot of power if we go back into this opportunity where you put out options you don't know who's going to wind up getting what uh that's a that's a Sit that's a scenario where nobody has ultimate Authority not the board not Administration and you go based on whatever it is that's uh whatever the board ultimately decides uh based upon whatever information they've been given um and so I want us to

244get away from this habit of like here it is and do what I say um it's not about taking power away from the administration it's about setting up checks and balances that allow the district to get the best bank for its buck that allow the district to ensure that nobody's out there and has a direct authority to just say here you go you get a project and I I want to avoid that in the future I'm not saying superintendent's only been here two months so I'm not saying there's been any problems I want to avoid getting into that pattern where somebody already knows that all they have to do is go to someone and they're going to get a contract we we just can avoid that by having a a situation where hey you know

245what here's the top three that we are recommending and uh the board ultimately conf figure out what it is it wants how it wants to move forward that's the reasoning behind my uh my motions UST and I want to first start by saying I support competition right I support competition um I would suggest though that the board changes its policy then versus um like one by one by one but I also think that um I mean you would need to do that first um but I also think that and I've said this before and I I'm out of here in like a month so I think what vice president ketto is doing is making the situation worse because it politicizes something that if you have competition and you have um an Administration that's overseeing this

246whether it's you're looking for the lowest bidder or you're looking for the quality program or we took so long that all the three like two of the three people dropped out so we're stuck with what we have but the luxur what you what is being proposed by vice president Kinto is a luxury that this District can't afford and I also think it's it's undermining exactly what an Administration is for and you all know you've sh shared your legislative background I come from an administrative background um they're subject matter expertise that this board doesn't have and um that's why we pay these people big bucks let them do their job and short circuit this um short circuiting this and bringing it to the board I think is a really bad idea so I don't suggest I

247think you need to follow the policies first um and on this one this board should follow the policy which is Grant Grant it for all the reasons that were said I would move to move approval of the contract again like I would I would try it again because what has been shared is very persuasive it's very persuasive and I hope that this board would take another stab at it to approve this contract tonight because our board policy states that it should be his call not our call it should be his call okay um thank you wait wait wait he's uh vice president G wait wait there I'll I'll go ahead and um R uh retract my motion make a substitute motion to approve uh the recommendation um and um I'll have some comments on okay

248oh wait a minute I want a second this one so I'm not gonna take your two this this one I want a second okay thank you and um state law doesn't require you to follow this board policy of of you do we have the right as a board to request rfps uh it's written in state law you have the authorization to go uh and and simply go off of what under 114,000 but it still gives the authority to the to the board to go out there and ask for rfps if that's what it so chooses to do uh given the information that we've been provided uh I intend to support uh the recommendation however I'll be introducing a motion so that we begin the policy of bringing forward three competitive bits uh for all that

249are coming forward um going forward okay so we have a motion from truste kto uh and a second from President Chavez so uh is there any public I already took public comments so all in favor of the motion please raise your hand it's it's just on the item on the agenda yes so this is for approval of the item of the agenda do you want me to read it again for you uh approve architectural Consulting Services finny architects uh for the amount of $30,000 all in favor please raise your hand did you raise your hand oh okay 5 Z it passes unanimously thank you board uh 503 approv delegation of authority to approve a contract to Precision Communication System replace the intercom system oh wait a minute this was ratified so let me uh say

250that again ratify allegation of authority to approve an award contract to Precision communication system to replace the intercom system at Shepard Middle School do I have a motion in a second move to ratify move to ratify from uh trusty Corina loera do I have a second okay okay so there's a first and a second uh vice president GTO second it is there any uh public comment seeing none is there any trustee comment uh vice president then is next I have a question how did the contract uh get moved forward and we've been having a lot of board meetings lately so can you really walk me through the process of how why are we need to why are we needing to ratify this contract as opposed to have been brought it up at one of the

251multiple meetings that we've had uh in the last couple months assistant superintendent doel this was actually a true emergency the intercom system at Shepard middle school went down and um our director of MOT maintenance operations and transportation um solicited a bid to fix the intercom system which of course is a um a matter of school safety so we went out and did the work and that's why it we would hope that you ratify this contract for us thank you that's exactly what I was looking for seems like that's exactly what these things are intended for so appreciate the explan okay so we have a board president oh did you want to talk I'm sorry you said him and then me go ahead okay thank you for reminding me yeah thank you uh having been at

252Shephard twice this past month you know and uh seeing that it wasn't working um I also are there any other schools where the interim uh the intercom is not working and are we looking yes so my my understanding is that Lindale is operating currently we put in a power supply um please let me know if that is not the case but I think it is back up and working so we were able to get a power supply for Lindale which cost less than $ thousand dollar so that that did not need a contract okay thank you yeah I definitely the safety of our children is the most important so thank you okay Vice pres the Joseph George folks brought up those complaints have that has uh has that been looked into they said that they

253were at risk because they didn't have access to a PA system yeah um I my understanding is that the George PA system is working but I will look into it tomorrow morning is not look into it tomorrow morning okay thank you so much okay so we'll follow pardon no we'll follow up okay any further trusty comments seeing none uh all in favor to approve or ratify please raise your hand uh 5 Z motion passes 503 unanimously okay so moving on to a 6.1 approve acceptance of donations it's consent calendar the consent calendar2 okay so let's do this um let's just do the consent calendar individually uh so let's do uh just 6.1 okay so I have a motion to approve by Christina and a second from um uh truste Min famam so do I have

254any public comment on 6.1 seeing none any trustee comment seeing none uh all in favor for uh 6.1 approval please raise your hand uh it is approved by 5 Z passes unanimously so I believe 6.2 is ratification of the M the ratification of the 6.2 approv memorandum of understanding that's a rication correct that's y That's not a to ratify okay so I have a motion from there's question there's a question no I could explain it if you need me to please can you explain okay so um Dr jenez and I were asked to be participate in um a committee uh at the SC CCO sco um on um um monitoring lcap progress and at the time I didn't realize there was going to be anou attached to it but because they are going to pay

255us a stipend at the end not a personal stipend but a stipend to our District budget um it requires anou and so that's why it came late thank you thank you so I have a motion second and a second so uh any any comment on 6.2 uh seeing no public comment any trusty comment on 6.02 okay uh all in favor of approving 6.2 memorandum of understanding please raise your hand by 5.0 motion passes unanimously okay so oh Madam president if I may ask that we could take uh before clo going into close session if we could take a 10minute break for you know restroom needs I'll even give you two minutes more so at 9:40 we will meet in close session so is there any U is there any uh here's the announcement of the

256uh post session items uh Public Announcement and and public comments regarding items to be to be discussed in close session government code section 54 95 7.7 uh is there any public comment seeing none thank you uh so we will go to uh recess first and close session will start at approximately 9:40 thank you sorry yeah let me I sense that way nobody e yeah did you uh the the audio and video Fe died I can can you can you make it a panelist or make make where about panelist oh on you want me to go over there no no no we had a bunch of technical problem that's what we had last time we came were across street I'm gonna go over there I'm just going to go over there you can't no I know

257but I can go into another the conference room fore spee fore oh e e e Sandra can you hear me Sandra Sandra can't hear me [Music] Sandra Sandra no she can't hear me yep just make sure speak you know what I'm gonna do after we're done I'm gonna shut down that computer because it keeps on telling me that it needs some some update you think that's the problem uh probably not but um t want to I just want to make sure her microphone was working uh testing one two testing one two can you hear me Louise testing e e e light e T test test test test no there no e e e no never I'm not tting like I'm hey L can you hear me no testing one two no we still can't hear

258youo said you can or you can't hear me Hey where's this family [Music] from my husband from have you been there I hey Louise can you hear me can you hear me no cannot testing one two it's been a hey yelling out your name turn around I didn't hear you maybe you're trying to avoid conversations no if it was when I got here I had um headset the my Bluetooth in from the car so I couldn't hear you because I was trying to listen to the board meeting Best Thing One Two Best Thing One Two know what that is true I get over it and what do okay than part [Music] we can get you one okay somebody go was that Brett I was like yeah she was like no that wasn't BR I was

259like no I swear to God that was Brett she was like that wasn't Brett I said but Brad's here and she goes but that wasn't bre make me just was it me no but he was out the door so I just saw I saw and I thought it was is to meet you talks about her kids and her grand she last time she she didn't tell me told me exactly well I tell you all about mine and then y all they tell about your Li hey but e e e he's the one with are my dress up Sho being with so so we're back at Mr can you please out please thank you madam president item 2.3 on motion from board President Chavez seconded by trustee fam the board unanimously denied the appeal of findings

260in the investigative report there are no more items to report from Clos session okay and so I am going to adjourn the meeting but before I do I want to say that December 2nd is the next board meeting and it's 1052 good night folks