Special Board Meeting

001thank you carlos maribel if you can help us with the roll call today is a special board meeting of september 21st 2021 at 6 00 p.m members of the boarding attendant president coordinator president vice president andres quintero [Music] members of administration superintendent dr bauer president thank you mariwin you can all join me in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the united thank states and today i'd like to open up the meeting in honor of all the immigrants and those of us that support the immigrant community to get citizenship and be here in the united states in a quote-unquote legal way being the daughter of uh being a proud daughter of immigrants and also representing many immigrants in our community as the president of the school board is important for me to publicly state

002that so i just want to open up in honor of that today moving on to the next item 201 provide further direction on process for contracting for legal services to provide additional legal support for the review of various contracts dr bauer thank you madam president i'm going to turn it over to mr cheng so that he can provide context to the board and to the audience thank you dr bauer and good evening madam board president and members of the board um today we wanted to give you an update um on where we're at with the um rfp that we issued for the legal services to review contracts we did issue um the rp about three weeks ago with a deadline of september 15 to for firms to submit we did send it out to five

003firms that we consider are reputable and are also commonly used by other school districts um in this county unfortunately we're not we did not receive any proposals so at this point we're seeking um the board uh for some further direction in terms of how we move forward with this and some of the options that the board could consider is to reissue the rp and expand the list and the second one is to allow um me and also council ruth ruiz roheli ruiz to call the firms directly to seek to see if they have any interest and explaining the further or clearly uh what the scope of work would be so that we can see if there are any any interest um in in in those firms submitting proposals to us um thank you thank you

004mr chang um at this point uh i do see trusted chavez's hand so we'll go ahead and uh go to the questions and comments from the trustees i'd like to make a motion to reissue and expand the list of the uh the rp thank you do i hear any seconds okay hearing none um i do see trustee vegeta's hand up yes uh just before i make a second i'm wondering um about public comment are we going to take any and if so i'm sorry people have public comments do you you want to hear them first before making your comments mean i i always kind of prefer that just to kind of get a sense of that community sentiment before i second a motion or propose something so obviously up to you but um i was

005just curious when that would be happening okay um i didn't see too many uh public members in them in the meeting so i was hoping that we'd get more while we asked our questions but you know we have a couple more now so and it you know it is a part of our meeting and we did say we were going to start at 6. so with that i'll go ahead and open it up now then to the public comments questions or comments from the public two-minute comments uh mr chavez do we have any members of the public wishing to address support on this item no matter president at this time we have none okay we'll wait a couple seconds to give our public an opportunity to raise their hand on this item if you have

006any questions comments but comments on this item to the board please raise your hand do we now still now okay and then for the for the purposes of discussion i'll second the motion that's on the floor still do you have any questions comments so go ahead uh thank you can you hear me i'm wondering if you could slow but we can hear you okay um so i just i have a question i'm wondering i mean i heard mr mr chain say that we sent it out to a select number of um firms and so i'm just wondering um is that how we've been doing it or is there a reason why we wouldn't just kind of cast a wide net or is there kind of specific i think i heard you allude to that their

007specific expertise or experience that these particular firms have with school districts and that's why we sent it um to a limited number but i'm just curious as to what the thought is behind that approach and i think you might have already said it but i just wanted to confirm that yes so the reason why we um limited the number of firms is um because the scope of work was was kind of limited to review of contracts um not you know as general counsels uh as we did in the past so um in that process i did uh survey all the cbo's um in this county to see what firm they were using and how satisfied they were um and we identified five of the top candidates to be able to select uh to submit those

008or to issue the rfp too okay thank you for that um so can we just clarify again and i want to make sure that the motion that's on the floor um do you want to repeat that please sure reissue and expand the list um for the search of the rp and i do have a question it's um i know you said that there was only five that you reached out to but i still feel that um you didn't reach out to enough uh because there's other counties in the district that you know that do the the bond work so that's that's it that's my comment so was there another um mr chang when you gave us our option or some options um you mentioned reissuing and potentially expanding i think but also the board providing

009um the ability for for staff to directly contact the firms that we sent them to is that correct yes and and the the ask here is to be able to um connect with those firms and further clarify what the scope of work is because sometimes rp's when they go out it's pretty general and broad and so if they understand the scope of work that we're looking for uh we believe that that could uh generate some some some more interest instead it did by just sending out the rp itself president thank you so then i'm wondering um trustee if trustee chavez would be willing to um accept an amendment to her motion that would say that we because mr chang explained the rationale behind why they selected this group and kind of spoke with the other

010cbo's embedded group that we first tried to reach out directly to them to to be more specific about the scope of work and see if we get interest in that way and if there's not sufficient interest then we expand and reissue so i'm wondering if issue would be open to um adding that piece in the beginning where we provide authority to reach out directly if that's unsuccessful then expanding the issue okay so i would actually like it in reverse expand the search and then in addition uh the district reaches out to um to the to the list that they have to reach out to but that would um because if you get five no's you you're already wasting time so i would like the the search to just go out there and in addition um

011start making the calls so i i would be happy to amend it expand the search and also do the follow-up calls to the five that you did reach out to and also to the ones that uh pose any interest on the search so i have a list i have a question and or comments because i'm i'm trying to think of both right obviously at the end of the day we want the best firm to represent our district um and in this case so we put out the rfp nobody applied there's five on there um obviously we need to go to more because you know they received something and they didn't apply for whatever reason um so i'm wondering i'm hearing both and trustee chavez you know in dire in if we can expand it and

012direct the staff to you know maybe go to the five maybe they've missed it and all their emails are you know um requests to apply um go to the five and then i think what you're i'm in agreement chavez and like even casting a wider right um net and and maybe speaking to additional firms and then at the end of their long discussions or short discussions that they come back with a recommendation to the board whether it's you know the top three or we end up getting you know two just two firms um and maybe just one you know out of what they the discussion they had and the white wire net and then at that point then we would then choose because i'm also thinking by the time we set another rfp process if

013we do that we open that up you know and then those interviews i know that um you know that's just time that keeps accruing so i don't know can we amend it to maybe just direct staff trustee vicarano i actually i think i like um the amendment as trustee chavez posed it where we do both simultaneously we expand and reissue but also reach out to those that we have but if i could ask mr chang um or anyone on staff i guess um would that be efficient is there a better way that you kind of hearing what we're wanting we're wanting to we want everything we want to reach out to the ones we already reached out to we want to reach out to more and we want you to come back to us with

014um some recommendations based on that it sounds like so based on what i guess our comments have been so far do you have any thought mr chang is what would be most expedient for for the staff yes so um typically when we issue rfp staff don't usually make connections or um have any conversation with potential um interested firms um just because it's probably best practice not to do so um and so if you are to issue an rp um then we would have to wait until the deadline for us to have any conversation with the firm itself just because it gives a really bad look in terms of favoritism if we were to make connections um you know before we receive the reposal itself so you're saying that we can't really do but it wouldn't

015be the best idea to do both because those five that already got it potentially have a an opportunity or some advantage over those who would still be theoretically responding to the new rfp yes that's typically not not our practice um when we issue our p we would normally wait until they submit proposals and then we would have those conversation in terms of um you know setting up interviews and stuff like that so just to clarify as he tries to talk with your hand and quintero one second so just to clarify with uh trustee with another question in your answer we're either going to open up an rfp is what you're saying is best or direct staff to go and find the best firm to come back with that is that correct change where is that

016what you're saying one or the other yes at the same time yes i would recommend one one of the other thank you trustee chavez um okay as far as the five goes i don't believe it was an oversight um the fact that you reached out to those five and they didn't respond that's a response in itself i think it would be better and uh to just cast the the bigger search um so that we can get a better range of people who are willing to work with alan rock just because you they didn't respond doesn't mean that they were willing i think that we should open it up to firms that will be willing thank you trustee quintero yeah i would suggest that we go ahead and take the advice from staff because they're the

017ones who are doing the work we do need uh council to go ahead and start moving forward on some some seriously deferred maintenance uh that we've had because of the issues with the bonds and all that stuff so rather than holding off and going through a new process i want to encourage my colleagues to go ahead and move forward with uh the the the the recommendation from our cbo who's recommending that we go with uh with the strategy of reaching out to the five firms the five firms that were selected i'm a seminar who's well-known well-regarded uh they're they have their their unknown entity and so it'd just be a matter of them reaching out and um and lay out what it is that we're looking for the fact of the matter is that alum

018rock was in some some some uh went through some serious issues the last couple of years so it's no surprise that we're gonna have to go ahead and uh you know walk people through what it is that we're looking for and then let them know that there's been some change a significant change for the better uh and so with that said i will not be supporting the motion as it is and i would encourage us to simply take the recommendation from staff let them move forward to reach out to the five if they absolutely refuse we can go ahead and revisit this but i highly doubt that that's the case thank you trust your fam and then trust it and then trust each other you know so uh i concur with board vice president um

019you know at this point you know i i understand and i have a feeling that you know some firms may be a little reticent i you know i know that ellen you know alan rock has faced its challenges and we've gone through them but also you know this is an opportunity for us to go out and also explain to to willing partners that uh you know alan rock has changed and that this is a you know that this is an opportunity to move things forward in new direction and while also maintaining uh transparency so you know i'd like to i'll go ahead and i'll motion uh how motion to was it move forward so we do have a motion on the table uh trusty fam okay so do we have to so we have to

020vote on that motion first or yep yes right okay and if it doesn't uh go through then come back to the conversation then why don't we go down or move to call the vote move but let me let me get uh mr reese's answer i believe trustee fam can make the motion someone can make a second but uh trustee chavez's motion will be voted on first yes right okay thank you so we'll call for the um vote um i do see trustee because i don't know trustee chavez's hand up so maybe they're willing to even uh amend the motion no i have questions though about this vote yep go ahead okay so um i didn't i don't think that i necessarily heard a recommendation from staff i think staff gave us a couple of options

021that we could kind of discuss and see which one we think would work um so i don't i don't know that there's a recommendation necessarily that we have to go with unless i may have missed something in that in that presentation um and i obviously also agree that time is of the essence we you know we have a whole bunch of stuff that we want to get moving in the district and we're ready to go and we've got all this kind of wind in our sails and we do have some momentum regardless of what others may think or say we we're moving but we and so we want to get going and it's for that reason that i'm kind of hesitant about what's being proposed potentially as a new motion because there is no i

022i like to think that um trustee um quintero what he said is that he highly doubts that if people are talking to that they um that they won't come along that i hope for that too and i think there's a pretty good chance of that but my worry is that if that's not the case if those five say you know if we take a week or however long it may take to reach out to these people and then discuss with them and they all still say no we're not interested we just lost some time there because now we're going to have to reissue again anyway so that's why i'm just kind of leaning more towards just reissuing those five can still um you know ideally they would apply but if not you know then we're

023still in the because if we reach out to them they say no then we have to reissue and we're in one place if we don't reach out to them and we reissue then and if nobody responds we're kind of still in the same place we're going to be stuck still so i don't know i'm not too strongly supportive of what's being proposed here most recently because of timing so maybe i don't know if my fellow trustees or even staff can um [Music] you know help me with my worries about a president i see trustee chavez's hand up dr bauer i think is responding to your question so dr bauer can you please uh respond thank you i think that i don't know if this is going to help but if the board allows us to

024call all the firms available and figuring out it is just the permission to follow this process as opposed to the process that you requested before so basically the board is that we'll be able to allow us to call as many firms as needed until we find the one that matches the need for alum rock and that is i think that that's a a good way of addressing trustee chavez trustee vegeta's concerns about you know these firms were not you know responsive at first but maybe they will but if we limit them to the five i understand that the worry about you know then what we have to come back so if the board pleases and allows and gives us direction to expand the search not only to the five but to any other firm that

025will be needed you have um mr reese and mr chang doing those phone calls trying to find the best possible this is to analyze contracts and i just want to make sure that everybody knows this is not general counsel rogelio still is going to be helping us vetting someone you know the contract that we engage so whatever it is that we bring to the board and the goal was to be able to bring this to the board in october um so that we remember you guys approved a program manager that is still waiting for a contract since july so this has taken a long long time so if the board pleases if they if you allow us to say just find the firm right then that gives us enough breath to be able to bring

026to the board potentially something that makes sense for everybody by october thank you okay thank you trustee chavez uh right this is what so this is what i'm hearing from the other trustees so you're advocating to talk a firm into taking the job those five that doesn't make for a good combination uh first of all i don't believe that we want a company that might have uh not seen it that it was just an oversight i think we should do this search pass the wider net and just move forward us and so we we deserve to get a good firm who's willing to work with us if you do that if you if it would have been done from the get-go we probably would have had more than just the five that you reached out

027to it it needs to be done as soon as possible yes but we also need to get the right firm and not just be stuck with five who didn't respond in the first place who needed to be coached into taking the job that's it thank you i would be very careful putting words in any one of our mouths uh but i didn't say that but um vice president quintero and then trustee family i said this is what i believe yes so just waiting for the last speaker to finish um i i understand uh a board member of harano's comments or concerns and so i would suggest given the fact that you're the seconder that we go allow them to move on the five and if they don't accept none of those firms large reputable firms

028except then go ahead and authorize an rfp i'm assuming that's the way which would be able to move that's not what you want okay i'm glad i'm glad that's just that's what i understood before that it seemed like you guys wanted to open up a whole rfp that's going to go ahead and take up a month and that was my concerns yeah if that's not the case then i would suggest we move forward with dr bauer's recommendation of just having them go out there and look but from the motion that travis put forward it doesn't seem like that was the case so uh so at this point i would suggest we vote on the motion and then let it let it go however it will and then we can go ahead and bring back the

029authorization to go out there and find us a firm yeah are you okay mr mama i know you called the vote for the vote can we just vote on this and then move forward uh sure i was but the thing is i think i was basing on what uh rogelio said i'm in i could make a motion that we have right not yet we gotta vote on this first so everybody's just gonna say the question of call the vote for the vote now can we hear the question we'd have to vote on the actual calling of the question so let's just vote on it rather than calling the question are we okay to vote yeah are we all okay i was just gonna say i wanted to just thank dr bauer for her comments because

030that really helped clear up for me and and you know and like that's it i'll say for now awesome thank you okay so i'll call you as i see you on my screen uh trusty fab no trustee but no rusty chavez hi vice president quintero no and myself no okay so let's open it up trusty pam okay mo motion to adopt recommendation from the administration it would be more specific yeah motion to uh was it uh re uh motion to expand authorize the expansion of the search as uh as recommended by uh administration i have uh is that how um uh superintendent bower can you uh please repeat the request that you just uh requested from us so that we can put it in the order to allow staff to find a firm including the

031five but if they're not then extend the search for any other firm that matches the needs of the district as vetted by our general counsel and cbo okay so motion to approve you know what to expand the search to recall the five and to uh con and staff to contact other firms as mentioned by the superintendent just can we confirm with dr bauer that that motion accurately reflects what you're saying okay second okay all right so now i'm gonna hop for the vote on this one uh trustee pam hi uh trustee with gerano hi rusty chavez hi vice president quintero hi and myself i've had passes unanimously um okay thank you and next item approve resolution 10-21-22 outdoor equity grants program grant fund dr bauer thank you this is a very exciting um request we

032are asked by the outdoor education grant program from the state um to have more um the resolution approved by the board so that we can submit a grant application that will provide one of our sites and this in this particular case will be russo macanty with opportunities for students to have access to environmental education and to field trips to match this environmental education during the summer miss tano coley reached out to me with a request from the staff in russo mackint and they as a staff requested from the principal to be supported to be as an environmental education school so you know we wanted to make sure that we provide the adequate support for the staff and aligned with that we had the company that you have already approved that is helping us write grants

033brought to my attention this particular grant that will provide up to seven hundred thousand dollars in four years to support the program so the resolution before you is so that the board is aware that we want to apply for this grant it is a requirement for the grant application the grant is the october 4th and it's before the regularly scheduled board meeting so i'm respectfully asking the board to approve this resolution as presented to you to support the school motion to support uh what dr bauer just said again okay motion by trustee chavez second by vice president quintero i'm going to go ahead and open it up for uh any comments from the public wishing to address the board mr chavez if you can help us identify any members of the public wishing to address

034support on this item uh yes ma'am because at this time we have no public comment okay i'll wait a couple seconds and allow folks to press the button in case they were hoping to do we now still none okay seeing no members of the public wishing to address the board we'll come back to the trustees any questions comments or concerns on this item i think we need a second we have a second vice president give that a second okay i didn't hear thank you uh-huh any um other questions comments concerns from the board okay cnn we'll go ahead and take a vote trustee pam aye trustee chavez hi vice president quintero and myself i passed unanimously adjourning the meeting at 6 32 p.m thank you good night good night good night