001We are at three minutes on these. So, if you could uh try to follow that, that'd be great. First up is JC Scott. [Applause] Good evening, school board members, district administration, president Sabers, Avooda teachers, retirees, members of the public, and most importantly, my union brothers and sisters of the California School Employees Association, chapter 828. My name is JC Scott, and I have the honor of serving as the elected president of this chapter. First of all, CSA CSEA still strongly supports the call for FICMAT. Tonight, I do not come before you with celebration in my heart, but with a heavy burden of truth and the weight of several classified professionals who feel betrayed, concerned, and disrespected. The May revised cost of living adjustment was recently announced at 2.3%. Let's be clear, this is not enough. Not
002after we spent years watching our grocery bills skyrocket, our rent increase, our insurance premiums devour more and more of our paychecks, now add healthc care to the equation. But what sings even more than the underwhelming cola, which I know you guys don't have anything to do with, is the deep miscommunication and unwillingness to collaborate effectively that we've experienced from the district throughout this process. Let's talk about the recent so-called health and welfare deal. Classified employees were not met with choice. We are met with pressure. We weren't giving certainty. And in the final hours, we weren't offered a fair path forward. We are pushed into a corner. The fully covered blue shield trio is still not a viable alternative to our current plan due to access and availability. Many of our members voted not out of
003confidence, but out of desperation. They voted yes because they fear what would happen if their fam to their families if they didn't. They voted yes because the district created a ticking clock and left us no room for meaningful dialogue. This wasn't bargaining. It was brinkmanship. And this is not how you build trust. The district often came to the table unprepared while gaslighting us, acknowledging our concerns, yet choosing to ignore them. We asked for reassurance in the form of a permanent equity clause as a show of good faith, which they also continually ignored with no good explanation, reason, or intention to hear us out. Time and time again, the district has stood at this forum while at the bargaining table, and they also claimed to care about all employees. But it came clearer and clearer as
004they manipulated timelines, withheld information, and changed the rules of engagement. This is not respect. This is not partnership. This is not leadership. Let me say this clearly so that there's no misunderstanding. Majority of us within CSEA have lost our faith and trust in UA Valley Unified School District. This is not directed at our school board. You may not like hearing this, but you need to hear it because we cannot rebuild collaboration on broken promises. We cannot be one team when classified staff are treated like secondclass employees. We were told negotiations would resume after May revise, but with cola coming in at just 2.3%. Let me warn you now, if the district refuses to stand by its word, if you attempt to bury your obligations between bure beneath bureaucratic spins, then we will return to the
005table. but not to submit to you, not to capitulate or conduct the district's business. We will come armed with every tool in our arsenal, every grievance, every fact, and every voice. This chapter has been patient. We've bent over backward to meet the district halfway. But I promise you this, we will fight hard before we allow you to back us into a corner again. This fight is not just about wages or benefits. It's about respect. It's about honesty. And it's about dignity in the workplace. And if the district cannot offer this willingly, then we will demand it loudly and publicly before this school board. Members of the schoolboard, the district's negotiations place all the blame on you for not giving them clear direction. I urge you to clear up this miscommunication and give them clear direction
006tonight during your close session. Take care of your classified employees because we should not be paying more for our healthcare than other units within the district. Numbers don't lie. We also deserve an increase to our salary. That's fair. We are the lowest paid unit. We simply can't afford these costs anymore. In solidarity, JC, [Applause] thank you, Mr. Scott. Up next is Karen Sabers. [Applause] Good evening, Superintendent Nelson, board members, cabinet, President Scott, bargaining unit members, and audience. My name is Karen Sabers, and I stand before you today as the president of Apple Valley Unified Teachers Association. Back in April, I shared with you where we currently stand in terms of salary compared to the surrounding districts. You've also heard from AU Abuda and its members at these meetings. They've been very clear about how they
007feel regarding our salary schedule and our health and welfare benefits. As I've been out delivering our appreciation gifts to the certificated staff, I've continued to hear the same concerns. Many of our educators feel undervalued. Some have told me morale hasn't been this bad since 2008. Tonight, we're honoring our retirees. Dedicated staff that have pulled poured their hearts into this district. I've continued to hear the same Oh, sorry. A few have shared with me that they were hoping to work a little longer, but they've chosen to leave now because the way things are going in our district. Please take a moment to really look at them. These are the same educators who were here during the years when Apple Valley was seen as one of the best places to work when people actually wanted to come
008here. As you consider the next steps and yes provide direction despite the claim that the board does not do so, I urge you to remember the people behind these numbers. remember who we were as a district and who we could still be if we start making our staff the true priority. While other districts around us are settling contracts and still moving forward, we continue to fall further behind. The gap isn't just financial. It's a growing message to our educators that they don't matter. Let me be clear, our staff does matter. They've earned more than just words. They deserve action. It's long past time to show them that they are valued and that this district is ready to make them a priority again. Finally, Ava stands Avi Ava fully supports the call for Fitmat. It's a
009necessary step. It's time we get a clear, objective understanding of the financial challenges facing ABUSD. Our members in this community deserve nothing less. In solidarity, Karen [Applause] Sabers, thank you, Karen. Up next is Lesie. [Applause] Good evening, members of the board, Superintendent Nelson, cabinet, members of the audience. My name is Lesie McMenley and I'm speaking to you tonight as the bargaining chair of ABUTA. This will be my last talk with you in that capacity. Steve Cobbs, math teacher from Granite Hills, will be taking on that role beginning next year, and I wish him all the best. I come to you tonight with a two-word message. It's time. It's time to stop finding reasons that we can't compete with other districts in salary and benefits. And it's time to do just that. In my speech a
010few months ago, I gave you some figures that showed the large differences between in earnings between our school district and Hisperia, Victor Elementary, and Victor Union school districts. In the 2019 2020 school year, we ranked fourth or fifth out of 14 regional school districts, depending on placement in the salary schedule. We are now 10th or 11th based on some of the latest negotiated settlements in our region. During this time, all districts had to deal with the pandemic. All school districts had to deal with attendance issues. All school districts had to deal with inflation and the same issues that ABUSD had to deal with. How big of a difference are we talking about? A teacher that starts working next year for Apple Valley and works long enough to top out on the salary schedule will make
011over $4,000 less in their first year and over $422,000 less over their career than the same teacher who chooses to work in Hisperia. It's time. It's time to get to the bottom of what has put us in this current fiscal crisis and make sure that this can never happen again. Staff and students are being made to pay the price for choices they never made. In the past few schoolboard meetings, we've heard procedural squabbbling about whether or not to do a FICMAT, but nothing about what is going to actually fix the problem. Strike that one thing that is being done to save money is to raise class sizes in some grade levels. This is something that is a clear violation of our contract and this is not something that will be t tolerated by the bargaining
012unit members of ABUTA. It's time it's time to recognize that there's more to dignity than using it as a slogan. The definition of dignity is the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect. When you tell employees that honoring the language in their contract is optional, that is not respectful. When you tell your employees that people who work the same job a few miles away are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars more, that is not treating them with honor or respect. It's time. It's time to restore Apple Valley to what it once was. A place where people wanted to work, a place where people were proud to work. There is so much that is good here. There are great people that work for this school district and they show up every day ready
013to do their best for their kids. They are not any less deserving of what employees in neighboring districts are. It's time. Time for change. Time for our priorities to be examined and realigned with what is really important. Time to stop making excuses. Kids are our number one focus. But we can't do right by kids if we don't do right by the people who serve those kids. I ask you one last time for your help. Instead of saying, "We'd like to do more, but we can't afford it," please change your mindset to, "we'd like to do more. How can we afford it?" It's time. [Applause] more. Oh, okay. There's no more cards, Kylie, for this. Okay, great. Uh, thank you for your comments. So, with that, uh, we will be going into close session. Um I
014have to read this first here. So we have eight items. Item one, conference on litigation, government code section 54956.9A, current litigation, 10 cases. CIVDS201183. CIV SB 220 0303 231473 23 3 22171 241 2359 231161 CI VVS 2400289 and 2500223 Government Code section 549 54.5 subsection section C and 54956.9 subsection D 2 and E1 anticipated litigation one case 2024/2501 excuse me item two p discipline dismissal release reassignment transfer leave title certificated and classified employees item three public employee appointment resignations retirement reduction title certificated and classified employees item four conference labor negotiator agency Agency negotiator Jeremiah Harrison. B, employee organization Apple Valley Unified Teachers Association. Item five, conference with labor negotiator. A, agency negotiator Christine Dupri. Employee organization California School Employee Association. Item six, conference with labor negotiator, agency negotiator Trenne Nelson. B, employee organization unrepresented. Item
015seven, conference with real property negotiator, government code 54956.8. Eight, negotiation parties, Matthew Schulenberg, Apple Valley Unified School. And finally, A8, Security Matters, Government Code, section 54957, consolation with Apple Valley Unified School District, Chief of Police. Uh, with that, we'll need a motion to adjourn to close session. So moved. We have a motion. Anita, Anita. Okay, I'll second. Second by you canon. So we're going to do something starting tonight a little different. We're going to do roll call votes on every item. So with that, we have a motion by Anita, second by Amanda. Roll call vote. Um Anita Tucker I Long Short. I Yes. I'm sorry. Yes. She says Aquaran. Yes. And Raleigh. Hi. Okay. So that we um have a unanimous vote to go into close session. We'll be back at 7 o'clock sharp uh
016no matter what. [Music] All right, welcome everyone. Welcome. We're going to get started here. It is 700 pm. We're going to call this regular meeting to order. And with that, we're going to uh do a roll call. Um Amanda Buchanan here, Maria Akbara here, Renee Longshore here, Anita Tucker here, and I'm here as well. If everybody could ch uh please rise and join me in the pledge, please. I pledge algiance of the stands nation indivisibley and justice for all. Thank you. Okay. So, we're gonna we have a some presentations tonight. I'm going to take a few things out of order here. So I want to move uh to amend the agenda for this meeting. So recognition presentations item D1 and D2 occur before public sessions items C3 and C4. So I'll need a motion to
017uh to approve that. So moved and a second. Have a second for that. I'll second. Second. Maria and roll call on that. Uh Anita Tucker I. Long short. I yes I and I vote I as well. Okay, with that we are on to D. Recognize James Hopper of the Apple Valley Unified School District Maintenance and Operation Team Excellence and Safety Award. Seems like every year he gets this. So yeah, push a button here. Uh admittedly I I feel out of place being the one to present this but um one of the departments that I that I have the pleasure of working with is our risk management department and pretty much all things safety liability and everything come through that that department. We're part of consortiums of school districts. You'll hear sometimes the acronym JPA or
018joint power authority and we kind of pull together and we look for liability and and things like that. And every I think it's every other year around February, March, April, somewhere in that time frame, we get like a systemwide audit. And this systemwide audit, it walks every property in in our system. Uh the ops yard, every school campus, this property, looking to identify um things that could be deemed as hazardous. And you know, when my ignorant mind goes to that, I'm thinking, okay, you're looking for, you know, broken things. You're looking for cracks. You're looking for things that look like they're going to fall. But they actually go a lot farther than that. They look at, they'll walk in a classroom or they'll look at a portable building and they'll say, "See how those two
019portables you could actually squeeze between. You might lose a kindergartener, you know, around the side of that, around the back of it. You probably want to build something to keep them out." And there's a I want to say a 73 78 districts in our consortium. And when they produce that report in, you know, for basically a big task list, I believe ours was 41 pages of images and things that we need to give attention to, they come back out the following august with that list and they look for compliance. And we were one of I I think only four districts out of 74 that got every single thing on the list repaired uh built uh fixed and and and I asked Matt to join me up here because he should be the one Oh, apparently
020I'm saying a lot of what he planned on saying we didn't plan. But Matt has the joy of working with the team that does 99% of this work. So I'm going to step aside, let you call your folks up and uh Oh, thank you, Mr. Conrad. I appreciate that. You did talk about everything I was going to talk about. So I won't labor bel labor the fact. Um I would like to invite the board please to come up in front of the dis. Mr. Schlloer if you would join them also. And I'd also like to invite three people I see in the back row. Uh Jim Hopper, Kirk H, and Colleen. Would you please join me up here? [Applause] Come on. Um, uh, I would like to recognize I I know the board item says
021Jim Hopper. The certificate says Apple Valley Unified School District. It's a team effort in the maintenance and operations department. Three of the key members um working with I know we have a retirey over here in the front row, Martin, one of our members. Uh Mr. Kaufman, one of our previous members in the M department. Uh this this is u it's a culmination of the um the support the desire of every member of that department to make sure we have the cleanest, safest schools for our kids. I see a couple principles nodding, yeah. Um they deal with in excess of 6,000 work orders a year in addition to that 41page list. Um, they work tirelessly. They respond on weekends. They respond on nights. Um, they respond on holidays to to certain things. I don't know if
022we respond to crying babies, but maybe put that on the list. Um, but um, I would like to personally extend my thanks to Jim, Colleen, and Kirk, and every member of the maintenance and operations crew who works hard for our kids at our schools. So, thank you very much. [Applause] I just needed That's why they along [Applause] All right, on to next employee recognition retirement. I'm talking for the board president. This is horrible. Horrible. Uh, well, let me get this set up here. Kylie's good at that. I'm going to take over the screen. All right. Well, on to our retirees. Um, this uh is quite quite a celebration here tonight. And I know the reason that most of you are here. Um, if you've been here in the past, you you probably heard what I'm
023about to share uh in terms of the apple and the trophy that you're going to get. But I want to try to do things a little different. We have a lot of retirees tonight. a lot of retirees. Uh and and and that that's a beautiful thing. I know Trey ran through the um the list of retirees with her mathematical abilities and came up with uh well over 2000 200 2006 2006 years of service given to the education of students in Apple Valley Unified School District. And for that I just want to give all of you a big round of applause. One thing I'm doing a little different this year because of the number. I'm going to leave streaming in the background. So, I know some of you are flipping your heads back and forth. Uh,
024you know, the slideshow that was put together where there's some humorous things brought, you know, said by some folks, but in addition to that, uh, Zoe is going to go ahead and post this to our website so you could always go back and and look through it. um because that we're going to call people up by schools uh and let them get, you know, there with their colleagues um and celebrate together. Kylie was creative enough down at the end. She brought all those, you know, those funny things you hold up in front of your face in case there's this little groups of you that want to take pictures with the logo backdrop. But before we do that, I I want to give a little time and attention to the trophy that you get. And I
025know um a lot of you throughout your time here, you you get that 25-year apple, the 30-year apple, 35 year Apple, some of you get a 40-year apple. Uh you get these little trophies and and the one that really and I happen to have money bats here in my hand, so if I drop it to Well, this one to me really stands out for for more reasons than just being an apple. This this trophy I I'll call it. Um I always point out first of all the design. the design. If you're from Apple Valley and you've uh you know, I thought it was a new thing, but you talk to our kids in our system now and they think Yucka Bridge has been there forever. Uh for for me, it's a relatively new thing. But
026you'll notice at the entry points of the bridge, there's this apple that looks exactly like this. This apple was actually cut out in our own student welding class over at Apple Valley High School with uh Casey Penfold and the and the um plasma cutting machine that they have fabricated, brought to industry partner for the powder coating. Josh Reese's wood shop class builds the base. Again, an industry partner produces our our our name plates, you know, for them. So, it it really does capture and culminate the work that you all do every day in getting our students prepared for career, college, and something just Oh, you guys are reading back there and looking at Alma's. Uh I don't know what those are called. I can't remember. It's I'm I'm generation beyond what those are, I guess.
027But, uh it's quite a trophy and and it's something to be proud of. Now, because my hands are involved with producing these, I'm going to just say it now. I'm apologizing for the typos and the mistakes. Some of you and the very first person I'm going to call up, the number of years is wrong. So, we're ordering a new name plate. I promise to get it. And it's always these unique things we find out like when you when you're messing with retirees. Some of them entered our system before we went to these these things we use called computers. And so, like their hire dates are in these files that you got to go like pull out and look. But then in 97 we became electronic. And now we look back, it's like, well, you've been
028here since 97, but no, I've been here since 90, you know, like get do your math right. And so there's mistakes and I apologize. I mean no disrespect by it. I own it and u we'll get better at that. So with that being said, I'm going to start with the very first trophy that uh has a mistake on it. Um and and this is Apple Valley High School. So I'm going to call up those uh represent retiring from Apple Valley High School, Luis Harington. Uh, teacher SAI, come on [Applause] up. Uh, after Louise, I have Sue [Applause] Cauldron. Sue Caulron, did did Sue Caulron not here? Uh, Lori O'Hare, PAR educator, are you here? Dr. Lindsay Peterson. Come on up. Lindsay Peterson. He's getting Can you guess what he might have thought? Congratulations. All right.
029Congratulations. Uh Kendall Pontier, are you here? Well, random fun fact, uh, Kendall, I think next year, might it be the first year Apple Valley High School will exist without a ponteer teaching? Yes, I thought so. Congratulations. Yeah, Trevor. Congratulations. Uh, also Apple Valley High School, Celia Santi. There she is. [Applause] And that's Apple Valley High School. So if we want to gather for a picture [Applause] All right. Sorry. My fault. Thank you. The next school that we will celebrate the lone retiree from, our newest school retiring their principal, Michelle Pon, first retiring principal of Apple Valley Virtual Academy. So she I guess you take with you a lot of bragging rights like you were the the only principal, the longest running principal, the next up out of business services, Debbie Reynolds. [Applause] She spends a
030lot of money, I'll tell you that much. All right, coming out of Desert Nles, teacher Karen Morse. There she is. And teacher Robbie Parker. [Applause] Oh, Robbie's in the process of becoming a grandparent, daughter in labor, so not here with us. He made the right choice. All right, student services. Uh, coming out of the student services department here, education services here at the district office, teacher on assignment, Bonnie Bats. [Applause] uh teacher on assignment home hospital. Uh Shelley Callaway. Always happy, always running. Congratulations. You thought I was going to miss you? Oh, no. I'm gonna miss you. Every time I'm down, I look for people like you. You You know how to lift up people. Also out of student services, Marcy Wells. [Applause] On to Granite Hills High School. Granite Hills High School retirees. First
031up, Lisa Clayson. There she is. Congratulations, Lisa. You survived me. Everything else Susan Hasso also from Granite Hills, Kathy Lame. [Applause] Jonelle Larson, are you here? How about your your lighthouse uh attendance clerk, Dana Lewitch and Dana Morrison. There she is. We got one. Granite Hills High School. On to High Desert Premier Academy. First up, our registar Lisa [Applause] Alcantar, teacher Janet [Applause] Ambi, and PAR educator Carol Suzanne [Applause] Stratton. out of the IT department, Bruce Allen. [Applause] Congratulations. All right, on to maintenance operations. Jose Aguo and I know you saw him once already ready to make his entrance. Martine Sandival of Mary Anna Academy. Sylvia [Applause] Felix, you're the only one. You're the only one leaving Mariana. Congratulations. All right, our nutrition services folks. First up, food service supervisor, Mary Lou Asavdo. [Applause] one
032of the lucky few remaining that opened Granite Hills High School. Yeah. Um Joanne McDaniel also nutrition services. Leading the troop in nutrition services, retiring Rose Stark, [Applause] director. And last out of nutrition services, Rhonda Viz. Viz. I was I said you said Viz. [Applause] Sorry. All right. On to Phoenix Academy. Melissa Clark, teacher, Missy. Sorry, Missy. Melissa. I It's the database. I I I read before I think. [Applause] brought your own fan club. Congratulations, Irma Coronado Aldaz. I'm sorry, Irma, you're [Applause] here. Next up, Fenus Academy teacher Kevin Dodge. [Applause] teacher preschool. Janette Hand, [Applause] PE teacher Vicky McDaniel. [Applause] Speech and language. Theres [Applause] Moore, teacher. Robin Potter, school office assistant Mary [Applause] Smart, and teacher Margaret Wilson. Phoenix [Applause] Academy. Retiring out of our police department, dispatcher Sue [Applause] Derek. Right on to
033Rancho Verdie Elementary teacher Tracy [Applause] Lowenhorse. Congratulations, teacher Carol [Applause] Olen. Congratulations. Teacher Linda [Applause] Shelton, para educator. Alma Go forth. Take your time. Take your time. Congratulations. All right. On to Rio Vista. Principal Kelly Poff. [Applause] and teacher Roger [Applause] Stefan onto Sandia Mary Kaufman. [Applause] Christine Rom. No. Wendy's shaking her head. No. Teacher Mary Vastine. We got [Laughter] one. Congratulations and teacher Steven Wulmarmac. [Applause] All right. Uh we have little rearranging up here. Um Sitting Bull Academy. I actually technically assigned to student services but working on that property more than anywhere else. Uh music teacher Andrew [Applause] [Music] Karubius also shared actually between Rio Vista and Sitting Bull working out of student services. I decided to put three days a week at sitting bowl. uh speech and language pathologist assistant um Diane Self
034preschool associate teacher Virginia Chica's Cacao [Applause] Cheryl Clark, school office secretary, teacher. Susan Cooper. Congratulations. Uh, para educator Elizabeth Fiser. [Applause] teacher Alan Gruber. There he [Music] is. Teacher Marilyn Laqu. heard a funny story about your Mickey hands flagging traffic and stuff. Teacher Marla [Applause] Peterson and teacher Karen Rampley. [Applause] Okay, on to Sycamore Rocks. Uh, teacher Lorie Merig. I lost my parent educator Susan [Applause] Clay. Oh man. pair educator Sue Goens. I even I have to be honest. I even highlighted asked how to say it. I had it here until two minutes ago. Congratulations. Thank you. and Proctor Crossing guard Diane McClean. [Applause] All right. Out of the transportation department, retiring bus driver Melinda [Applause] Coburn. School bus driver trainer. Nina Miji. [Applause] I don't know what we're gonna do. Uh, transfer a mechanic
035Michael [Applause] Shriner and dispatcher router Sharon Waters. [Applause] All right, Vanguard [Applause] Prep. Yeah, we'll skip that one. Jodyie Carter, teacher. Jody Carter says, "3 38 years." Wow. Uh, teacher Tracy Cox. [Applause] Student information specialist Kathy [Applause] Dam, elementary teacher Julie Daw, teacher Ron Franco, off. Confused me for a second. He almost got teacher Cheryl Glover. There she is. [Applause] [Music] Teacher Don [Applause] Ho teacher Chris Cauldron [Applause] and teacher relinquishing her spot as the most senior certificated person in the district. Lesie McNeely [Applause] [Music] there. 39 years. It shows you 39 years. Congratulations. And I've already I've already had Wendy, I think Wendy Chambers go, "Am I the new number one? Am I the new number one se?" Like, it is a coveted spot to be the most senior person in the system. And
036finally on to it's and I'll say last but not least they they do have to work with Marcos Clark so I feel for him that way but Yuck Elementary School first teacher Kelly Felts teacher Denise Jackson. [Applause] Valerie Kimmel. Oliva. Congratulations. [Applause] Congratulations. All right. School office coordinator Maya. Maya. Maya. You know who you are. Where's Maya? She's not here. Maya Malin Crotch. I'm sorry. Senior custodian Jodie Payne. Last but certainly not least, the last retiree, uh, Bridget Williams, teacher. [Applause] I just want to once again thank everybody recognize the literal centuries of dedication that culminated amongst these these folks. And I know many weren't here tonight. Um and we'll make sure they get their opportunity to get their their presentation and hopefully their teams, their departments, their schools are having their moments of celebration
037with them probably where it matters most. So appreciate you all. I thank you and I thank the board for standing through this presentation. So, thanks. Can we take a five minute break? Yep. I just want to make sure we're live. Look at this little kid trying to jump up to the the basketball. Okay. All right, everyone. If you're going to remain, we can get started again. Thank you. Use your clap, boy. as they use your teacher. Just wait for everybody to take their seats, please. That's a lovely dress. I love the pants. My so Thank you. This is cool. You're watching me. Okay, we're going to start go back on the record here and we are going to go to item C in public session which is uh board member comments and we start at
038the left two with Anita. You're up. Good evening. Tonight we come together to recognize and celebrate the dedication and hard work of our retirees. after doing the math and I have different math than than um Dustin and he's a math teacher so I don't know what that says but I found that among our 83 retirees we have a combined total of 2009 years of service in education and that's over two millennia dedicated to supporting students and families in our community and that's an extraordinary legacy I tried to figure out how many students lives are retirees have touched. That was too much math, but suffice it to say, it numbers in the thousands. We are deeply grateful for the impact each of you has had in shaping young lives. Your service has enriched our schools in
039countless ways. Thank you for your years of commitment and care. You will be deeply missed and we wish you all the best as you begin this exciting new chapter. This week we also celebrate classified school employee week from May 19th to May 23rd. I be began my own journey in education as a classified employee working as a clerk typist, a vice principal secretary and later a principal secretary. I know firsthand the dedication, skill, and heart it takes to fulfill these roles. Our classified staff are the backbone of our schools, providing critical support to students, families, and colleagues every single day. We see you. We value you. And we thank you sincerely for all you do. Last week, I had the privilege of attending the Apple Valley High School Senior Awards Night where we honored the
040hard work and achievements of our graduating students. And I also had the pleasure of attending the Granite Hills High School Spring Showcase, a vibrant and inspiring display of student talent and creativity. My heartfelt thanks goes out go out to the teachers and staff who made these events possible. It's because of your dedication that our students continue to thrive. I was also really honored to attend the SAI senior lunchon at Apple Valley High School, a beautiful event celebrating the accomplishments of our senior students. Thank you to Miss Shannon Spiny and her incredible team for organizing such a meaningful celebration. Another highlight this month was the certificated employee of the year celebration where we recognized outstanding educators including teachers, counselors, speech p speech pathologists and coaches who go above and beyond every day for our students. It
041was a true privilege to celebrate alongside them. I also want to thank Karen Sabers for inviting me to join her in recognizing our certificated staff this week. I had the opportunity to visit Granite Hills High School, Apple Valley High School, Vanguard Preparatory, and Sycamore Rocks. It was wonderful to personally thank so many of our staff for their continued dedication and the meaningful meaningful impact they have on our school communities. I'd also like to thank Mrs. Nelson and Mr. Schulenberg for inviting me to attend the school services May Revision Workshop. I truly appreciate the opportunity to learn alongside you and our association presidents and to stay informed on the important financial matters affecting our district. This morning I had the opportunity to visit Desert Nulls Elementary where I witnessed the outstanding work Mrs. Hobbs is doing
042as a reading specialist and her team. Her her dedication to supporting students was really inspiring. Thank you to Mrs. Nelson for arranging this visit and to Mrs. Smith for taking the time to share all the great things happening on the campus. There's more. Looking ahead, I'm excited for the upcoming graduations and promotion ceremonies next week. Commencement is a significant milestone marking both an ending and a beginning. We look forward to celebrating with our students and their families as they embark on the next chapter of their journey filled with hope and opportunity. Finally, as the year draws to a close, I want to wish all of our students, staff, and families a safe, restful, and welldeserved summer break. May it be a time of renewal and reflection as we look forward to another successful year ahead.
043Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Anita. Uh, next up is Renee Law. Um, yes, good evening and congratulations to all our of our retirees. just it was amazing to be able to be a part of that and to shake your hand because it truly was an honor for me all the years and all the effort you've poured into our children in this district. Um I also enjoyed being part of celebrating our staff at the certificated employee of the year awards. Um thank you for the many hours you too dedicated and supporting and educating. Um, bravo to the Apple Valley High School um, arts festival. The staff and students who cultivated the arts, ceramics, and stage presentations that filled that room. My heart was truly touched by all of the talent. I also had the opportunity to
044attend the fourth annual mental health fair at Granite Hills High School. Many thanks to Miss Rencon and Peer Helpers for making a space where others can be seen and heard, where mental health is encouraged and supported. A big thanks to our community partners who hosted a booth, a better way um works with domestic violence, the family assistance program, Calhelp, San Bernardino County's behavioral health, and um NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. I am looking forward to seeing the development of a student support group on campus. Many thanks to the staff at Rancho Verde who welcomed me to their 35th annual arts attack. I was looking forward to it. Um and I was not disappointed. is where students had two fun-filled days getting creative with watered colors, clay, markers, and glitter. I personally made my
045very own beaded bracelet alongside some of our amazing TK students and educators. Um, I was also able to stop by the lunchon, though I didn't stay as long, where Mrs. Spinny and his and staff celebrated their students accomplishments and celebrated their strengths. It was a pleasure also to meet Apple Valley High School's very own parent volunteer, Miss Pipa. That was a pleasure. Thank you all for pouring so fully into our youth. And last, but certainly not least, I had the opportunity to listen to the Granite Hills High School chamber singers as the Great Academy presented Oh, the Places You'll Go under the direction of Mr. Churchill and Miss Hinosa. I was so pleased to hear the beautiful voices of the Granite Hills High School's Bravo Men's Chorus who took first place and Serenade Ensemble second
046place respectfully this year at the Knottberry Farm. And many congrats to the Encore Show choir for their wellp polished presentation of dance and song. It was wonderful watching your confident presentation of musical talent on stage. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank each one of you for showing up and letting your voices be heard. It takes great courage to speak. Know that we as your board are listening. We are striving to understand, be informed, and make decisions in the best interest of the district and the community we serve. We will not hesitate to continue asking questions um regarding the use, distribution, or redistribution of funds. This is our job. At the end of the day, as the public, we answer to you. [Applause] Thank you, Renee. And up next, Maria Okara. Um,
047good evening and thank you so much for giving us your your evening. So I'm going to start a little differently um by uh congratulating all the my colleagues uh that have reached the end of the road and have decided to turn in their pencil and paper and their desks and to say goodbye but not we will not not they're not going to ever show up. Um I appreciate each one of you. Some of you started with me. Um, and so you would see it from how long I had to hug them. Um, because it all it almost felt like, you know, these are the people I grew up with. Um, sometimes when we sit here, uh, it is hard to imagine that there are still people who grew up with you, who are still in
048the field. And today was one of those where I found those people that I grew up with. And I am really grateful that they never they never gave up. Um we went to longevity awards and um because language English is really not my first language. Um even though I I tend to use it very almost like it's smooth. Sometimes I say it and it doesn't quite come out the way it should. Um there were some of the people that I recognized at longevity and I said they were my old old old friends and what that means these are the people who accepted me as a friend when I was nobody and I didn't want to forget that. I wanted them to know that I still remember that appreciation that openness and the willingness to want
049to know who I am. So, I thank all of you who who made that decision to welcome me into your space and I will not hesitate to thank you publicly about that welcome. So, I had the opportunity to go to uh Vanguard for the longevity award. My goodness, I was so impressed because all the teachers who did not get the longevity were there also to applaud their peers who had made it up there. High Desert Premier was special to me because one of the people there um was one of my office managers. Um so I really wanted to be there even though I had no idea she was retiring. So that was one of those um exciting moments. Uh Apple Valley uh virtual academy. um another impressive experience to be able to have the longevity
050for people who um who meet our children virtually and they have actually provided uh a service that most people only can think about but they don't implement but we have an outstanding virtual academy we have the opportunity to go read to those kids virtually and I never had that experience because I'm from the old school I like chalk and pencil and so to be able to read to somebody virtually was a little a little challenging. Um during the read across America, I went to uh Granny Hills High School and and was um selected to um to give an award to a senior who is graduating from Granite Hill High School. I have to say that even though I I am a recipient of an award from uh DVL, I went so that the students will
051see that even though we have received these awards, we are still here to hold them up. I am of the feeling that if you cannot climb uh um uh the the to the roof, hold the ladder for somebody else to get there and hold on to that ladder so that if they should look back, they can see you still there waiting for them and making sure that they get there. So that was one of those espec especially um impressive experience that I had at Granite Hills. Then um uh the the at the last board meeting I was just I was teasing the principal from Yakaloma to say I never see anything that you're doing um you know so can you tell me and he says well we have Lion King at 9:45 and I said
0529:45 that is that is too early for me I'm retired so 9:45 means I have to get up early but will you believe it those children did not disappoint I showed up there those children knew their lines. They made me sit in I sat in the back and I was singing along. It was the best experience. Anybody that knows me knows that I come alive when I'm in front of children. And so I was worse than the children. You know, the music is still going and I'm just singing away and they couldn't control me. Um then I went to uh the arts attack at Rancho Verdie. I have to say it was an experience. Um the history of their artwork is all over that campus. You can see when it started. You can see all
053of those that has been going on. And in the past when I've gone to that school, I make a point of taking photographs of some of those uh murals to share out to show what the kids are doing. Um I came to the certificated employee of the year award. Ex. Excellent. Excellent. Um we should do this more often. Um, and I just I just felt that, you know, this is one time that they felt that somebody saw them. Um, hopefully we'll spread it to get even more people to to to to participate. Um, I went to the the most fascinating experience I had, I went to the EKG award uh at the adult education. Um, Mrs. Nelson is giggling because it was an experience for me. Um, I was so ready. I sat down ready
054for the EKG award and uh, somebody hugged me and and I'm a hugger. Everybody knows that. I love to hug and I'll hug and shake you so that you know that I'm all in. Um, but this one didn't turn out so well. um because I ended up leaving and I ended up going to emergency room. So, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I will still do it again. You know, that was yesterday. The EKG was yesterday. So, I'm so happy to be here because, you know, tomorrow is not guaranteed. This is one of those tomorrow is not guaranteed events and and I will do it again. I will not I won't I won't go away from it. Um I attended the May revi CSBA award um uh presentation. There was the first one
055that was done virtually and another one that was done yesterday and uh it's it's eyeopening about what's coming down the pike and we are paying close attention to how does it affect us as a district. They can give us this picture that is huge but we want to know how does it affect Apple Valley school district because I am here to service Apple Valley School District. I really don't care what happens out there. It's Apple Valley School District. That's my focus. Um, but as we go off for the uh summer break, my prayer and and I fervently pray that you all come back rested and healthy and no emergencies. And please understand, we absolutely adore the work you do and we respect the work that you do. And never take it for granted. I always
056tell retirees, never forget what it feels like to be a teacher because that is what will get you going every single day. Thank you so much for your time. [Applause] Thank you, Maria. Amanda, you can. All right. Wow. Like we are in the home stretch, you guys. Um, I was packing up part of my classroom today and I'm like, I can't believe it's May already. Although I'm ready for it. I'm sure you all are as well. Um, so it feels like we were just here together like last night, but it was two weeks ago. Um, and when I looked over the list much like they had, um, there are so many events in May. There are so many. Um, I found a funny meme that said something like May is just December but with flip-flops.
057I was like pretty accurate. Like those are the two months that we are the busiest. Um, so first I wanted to congratulate all of the certificated staff that we honored um as 2025 employees of the year. And like pretty much everybody up here has has mentioned that, you know, they're just it's phenomenal how many overachievers we have. Um, but really I think that qualifies for just about everybody. Um, I truly hope that many of those that were honored back in two weeks ago, a week ago, uh, we'll consider applying for the county awards this fall so that we can send some of them forward. Um cuz you definitely deserve like wider recognition than just here. Like this was awesome. But um would love to see that branch out. To those that we're honoring tonight as
058you begin your retirement, congratulations. You earned it and then some. And while we will miss you deeply, we're also excited for what lies ahead of you. Maybe a little jealous as well. Um, but thank you to for all that you've given to our students and schools. As mentioned previously, there's been so many incredible events the past couple of weeks that it's impossible to make it to everything. Um, and I apologize I don't usually make it to the morning stuff because I'm working, but um, I do love hearing about it from those of you that can share and attend. So, I had the pleasure of visiting Apple Valley High School, Granite Hills, Phoenix, Vanguard, Sitting Bull, and Sycamore Rocks, and I tried to attend Yakaloma, but I did not realize it was a drive-thru event. So,
059like first I went to the wrong gate, and I'm like, "How do you get in?" And then I went to the other one. I'm like, "Why are these people doing parent pickup at this hour?" Then I like So, then I saw and I like made a U-turn and I was going to try to figure it out and I'm like, "Oh, wait. Everybody has balloons and cute decor. Like, never mind. I'm going to go home. So, I tried, but I'll be ready next year. Um, so let's see. Okay. I visited Apple Valley High School on two nights to attend both the MAS Awards and the Camp Academy Awards. And I have to say, I don't know where there you are. Whoever decorates your gym for these events, like they could be a professional party planner. It
060was beautiful. Um, and it kind of looked like Christmas with all the kids uh, accepting their awards. Um, Granite Hills hosted their CTE completers award and I was amazed um, to hear that they have 16 different career pathways. There's so many CTE options available um, at Granite which is really neat. Um, I'm going to skip that. the Sitting Bolt Art Show. Um, it was gorgeous. It was everywhere. It was outdoors, indoors, choir, band. Um, but I did recognize a couple of the pieces I think that were like on the wall back here for our last meeting and I was like, "Hey, there's Costco. I remember that one." Um, and then last night, Sycamore Rocks for band and choir. Um, and they did Wicked, a bunch of songs. I was in heaven. It was fantastic. Um,
061yeah. So, next week we're going to be celebrating our high school graduations, and I absolutely love those. Um, and just being able to cheer on the seniors as they cross the stage. Let's see. So, I do want to wish everybody a safe and restful Memorial Day weekend. Um, please be careful if you're driving or boating or whatever. I know um last Memorial Day weekend, Anita and I both lost a good friend and her son. Um so just be careful whatever you're doing. Be safe and come back to us. So have a great Thank you, Amanda. Just want to give a a thanks for the retirees. I was reading the um as they were coming up here, I was reading a lot on the screen that was put together by them and some of the very
062impressive careers and have some really nice goals when they do retire. I want to give a shout out to Lesie though because over the six years I got to know her. Uh it's always been about a Unified School District business, but that's good. Uh but I want to thank her. Uh 37 years is such a long career. I was succincting here. Some of your students have got to be in their 50s now that she started with and uh good to point that out. She's barely 50. Well, um that's a long time. So, uh and she's always been so professional and it's good because you never know who you run into in the grocery store, right, Leslie? So, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. So, congratulations to everyone. It's you're almost in Dennis Bender territory for
06337 years. So, so thank you. With that, I'll I'll hand it over to Triny. Okay. Tonight, I was fortunate obviously to be here to um honor our retirees. They've impacted countless lives and contri contributions to our community is immeasurable. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you and wish you all the best life has to offer as you begin this retirement journey. And I know some of them, you know, over the years have just committed like Leslie. I mean, I think of her girls who weren't even in school, you know, and um they're graduating from college this week and all of the things that each of those people have contributed to our community beyond just teaching. Um their families become part of um our system and what we value. Um next week, as mentioned,
064will be filled with student promotions and graduations. um looking forward to all of our scholars and their families enjoying the milestones and thank you to all the staff who supported them to this day because um without the staff that graduation doesn't happen each year. So I'm going to switch gears. You've heard about FFA for a few times and I'm going to finish it tonight because I have to put a hat on. Um each year the three high school districts with FFA programs, Apple Valley Unified, um Snowline Unified, and um Lassern Valley Unified, um do a an animal showing in the fair. Because of some of the closures and things, this will be our fourth year to do it. Nice, Dustin. Nice Matt. Um I probably should put mine on as well, and I will in
065a minute. Um, what we do in a millisecond is that's how it feels to us is what our students dedicate their time, energy, and heart to all year long and in multiple years in some cases. A couple of years ago, Superintendent Ryan Holman um with the Snow Unified School District added to the competition when he suggested that whoever lost the competition had to wear the other school district's colors. Sorry. So, I I want to just say that while the first time this happened, it was in 2023 because we took a break last year, the Snowline Unified School District Executive Cabinet, who showed animals and weren't very good at it the year before, had to wear Apple Valley Unified School District shirts at a board meeting. They took a picture and sent it to us. a
066little different than being streamed and videotaped like we are tonight. So, um I think this is purposeful. Mr. Dr. Holman, um a dear friend of mine since I began in education um in the high desert 20 some odd years ago. Um but he chose hats for us to wear this year and I am the only female that has to put a hat on. But I'm also the only female that chose an animal as part of the executive cabinet. And while I haven't won first place, I do have the honor of keeping Mr. Schul or Mr. Schlloer's first place ribbon from one year. Do you have your ribbon as well? Yeah, we have more than one. I did personally take a fourth place. Um, and I'm very proud of it. See the size difference? We never
067get to know what animal we're going to show. We have shown um sheep. We have shown um um pigs. Oh, pigs are scary. Um, and we have shown um cows. Um, but this year we already know what it is. Usually it's a it's a guess, but they've told us we're going to show sheep again. So maybe they threw that out there as a spoiler and then we're going to get there and they're going to give us something else. I'm not really sure, but um it is an honor for us to go and do this. It looks ridiculous. It's a comedic skit and I'm just hoping that this year I've tried a bling shirt. I've tried boots that have stuff all over them. This year I bought a really standard pair of Ariot boots and I
068think it's going to be the win. I'm going for it. So watch out Lern Valley and Snowline Joint Unified on May 30th without Mr. Schlloer this year and I'm a little bothered by that because Mr. Conrad and Mr. Schulenberg are no better than I am. We're looking for a ringer out there. So if any of the administration would like to go show an animal on um Did I say that publicly? We're looking for somebody. Mr. Raleigh, you might want to come. When is it? May 30th. May 30th at 1:30 at the fair. It's this this week or it's next week. Next weekend. Yes. Yes. Anyway, we will wear these the rest of the board meeting in honor of our loss. Yes. I committed to the rest of the board meeting. Thank you. All right. So,
069how long they have to wear the hat? The whole meeting. We're We're wearing all meeting. Okay. Good. get it done fast. We can get it done. I'll I'll try. All right. So, that makes leads us to uh get their hands. More reports. So, up first is JC Scott or do I have cards? I'm sorry. Is there cards for their Oh, no. They don't need cards. JC, come on up. I'm sorry. Yeah, I got confused. You spoke public earlier. I will say that my children who attend Srano High School will appreciate you guys are wearing those. Um, speaking of which, um, I will say I would like to before I start my speech honor two of the retirees tonight who um, my daughter who is graduating on June 5th um, had the honor of being in
070their classrooms, Miss Clark from Phoenix Academy and Miss Olen from Ranchover. um you are a part of her graduating with honors at Sarno High School. So, thank you for your um support in her educational process. I really appreciate you guys if you guys are still here or watching live. So, thank you very much. All right. So, good evening once again, school board members, district administration, President Sabers, Avooda teachers, retirees, members of the public, and most importantly, my union brothers and sisters of the California School Employees Association, chapter 828. My name is JC Scott, and I am the president of this amazing chapter. Before close session, I stood before you with passion and conviction because my members, your classified employees are hurting and the truth needed to be said. Now I come to you not with
071a fire but with a heavy heart. The truth is as I stated in the past morale across the district isn't at an all-time low. Just like President Sabers stated as well. Our members the backbone of Apal unified are tired. Tired of feeling invisible. Tired of fighting to be heard. tired of being treated as disposable when we've given years, even decades of our lives in service to this district. You say we're essential, but the way we've been treated tells a very different story. We were backed into a corner on health and welfare. We were told this was the best we could do. We were met with pressure and misinformation. And even now, after the vote, our members gave in out of fear and desperation. We've seen no real commitment to build trust, no genuine outreach, no
072follow-up, just silence. And that silence is louder than any words. Our members have been clear. They feel unsupported, disrespected, and completely abandoned by those who are supposed to lead. Further, when it comes to issues around the school campuses, calls for help are often ignored. We've reported issues. We try to work collaboratively. But the response from the administration, if it comes at all, is delayed, dismissive, or deflective. We're not just numbers on a spreadsheet. We're human beings with families, with bills, with dignity. Let me be clear. This is not just about compensation. This is about being seen. It's about knowing that our value is recognized not just in words but in actions. Instead, we're seeing the opposites. Members leaving. We just had a member quit today. Burnout is spreading. Fear replacing hope. Division creeping. And where
073unity once lived. This isn't just a union issue. It's district-wide crisis. To our community, to our board, and to district leadership, we urge you to take a hard look at what's happening here. Because if you continue to ignore these warning signs, you won't just lose good employees, you lose the very heart of this district. CSEA is still here, and I know my Avuda colleagues are still here. We're still willing to work hard for you, but we can't carry this weight alone any longer. It's time for leadership to lead. Not from behind a desk, but from a place of empathy, honesty, and respect. Remember where you guys once came from and where you started. Humble yourselves once again or dignity, community, authenticity, and service means absolutely nothing. In solidarity, JC Scott [Applause] Thank you for your
074comments, Mr. Scott. Up next from Mavuda is Karen [Applause] Sapers. Good evening, Superintendent Nelson, board members, cabinet, President Scott, and audience. My name is Karen Sabers and I stand before you today as the president of the Apple Valley Unified Teachers Association. Ava would like to congratulate all the retirees and wish them the best in the new chapter of this book of life. You will truly be missed and I can't help to think about all the history of our district leaving with you. You all have been a true blessing to our district and our students. I would also like to give a shout out to Raven's Donuts. They have been making and decorating some amazing donuts for our Voodoo members. They go in at 2:00 a.m. just to decorate them. So, please stop by and tell
075them thank you. As always, it's such a pleasure to go out to the schools and be able to celebrate our certificated staff. I appreciate Miss Longshore and Miss Tucker for joining me on Monday doing just that. The members really appreciated seeing you and having you help hand out the gifts to them. I also want to thank the students in Miss Corrin's class for putting everything together in the cups. That helped so much and I'm glad they really enjoyed that. I want to address something from the last board meeting. I asked a question during speaking time and it was said that staff should give advanced notice and ask ahead of time rather than putting someone on the spot. While I understand this perspective, I believe the question was fair and important and I didn't expect to
076receive an answer at that time. After receiving the response, it was brought to my attention I became concerned about the accuracy of the information that was shared, specifically regarding the AB1200 report and the insurance figures. We were told that only members receiving the insurance package were counted as a $20,000 level for projections for the upcoming year. What needs to be clear is this. The additional 2,300 that went toward each member's benefits came from Avuda funds, specifically the dental reserve, not from the district. The way the report was presented implied otherwise. Those savings were made on our side, not the district's side. And it's important that this distinction is accurately understood and communicated as we wrap up. another school year. I want to take a moment to personally thank each and every one of you, our
077certificated staff, for your incredible dedication, hard work, and unwavering support. This year has not been without its challenges. We've navigated uncertainty, increased demands, and the continued frustration of feeling undervalued. And yet through it all, you showed up for your students, for each other, and for this community. I know how tired many of you are. I also know how fiercely committed you remain to your students in your profession. This isn't easy, always an easy role. There are moments when challenges are feeling overwhelming. When I visit schools, when I talk to the members, I'm reminded why we fight. Not just for fair compensation and benefits, but for respect, recognition, and the kind of working conditions that allow you to thrive, not just survive. Your strength, your unity, and your passion for what you do bring everything back
078into focus. As Leslie stated earlier, we have great things happening in this district. We have great certificated staff in this district who make those great things happen. Thank you for standing together. Thank you for standing strong. We are Ava and together we move forward. Thank you CSEA and President Scott for helping to build the relationship between AVDA and CSEA. We appreciate you and all the certificated staff as well. Have a great summer. Rest, relax, and get some quality family time together. And in solidarity, [Applause] Karen, thank you for your comments, Karen. Okay, we're moving on to item six is close session reports. Clerk will read out any action taken in close session. Amanda. All right. For item B1, conference on litigation. On a motion by Rick Raleigh and seconded by Amanda Buchanan, the board voted
079unanimously to authorize the director of risk management to approve the proposed settlement agreement regarding case number CIVS-2111303. Also, item B1, conference on litigation. On a motion by Renee Longshore, seconded by Anita Tucker, the board voted unanimously to authorize the director of risk management to approve the proposed settlement agreement regarding case number CIVDs 2011183. That's it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] Okay. Item seven, adoption of the agenda. The board may approve the agenda as is or add and we'll pull items from consent calendar for discussion or action. So, we'll need a motion to approve adoption of the agenda. So moved. I'm sorry. Who? Anita. Yes. Okay. All right. Do I have a second? Oh, second. Second. Buchanan. Roll call. Uh, Anita. Yes. Tucker. I. Longshore I para yes I Raleigh I Okay, motion passes unanimously.
080Moving on to item E discussion information. Uh first up item one local control plan LCAP presentation from Patrick Slasher. Thank you. And I'll do this presentation from here and just kind of talk you through some of the items that have have been provided for you as we kind of go through this draft LCAP process. And um the slides are printed there, but they are two per page and they turned out kind of small, but you'll be able to see them. What you have is a binder and we'll go through that in a in just a moment. Um just kind of gives you the entire LCAP printed long before the public hearing June 5th. So you'll have opportunity to read through it. And so what we have um is a document that reflects the work of
081our community. It is the second year of a three-year plan cycle. So there is no new goals. There are some adjustments to actions and we'll go over those. Um but these are updates and so you'll see those that and you actually see two years worth of data now because we have the original baseline year and then now the data from last year that we've reported. So you get to see change over time. Um, the LCAP process really is circular. It's kind of an ongoing evaluation and a kind of a cycle of inquiry, evaluation, gathering data, speaking with the community, making adjustments, and then bringing it to you. Once it goes to you, it then does go to the county for review. I've had the uh ability to give drafts to our county and actually just
082received feedback. So, I'll be making some very minor changes prior to the June 5 board on just language updates. They look carefully at things that um make it so that the LCAP will fit through um scrutiny that might come from outside groups. So, it's typically um word choice um the way certain um action items are reviewed, but none of the nothing of of expenditures will be changed without um me pointing that out to you on June 5th. And so, since last time we talked about this, we've met with our student advisories. They're wonderful. We get a chance to meet with each um of our three high school student groups and um the elementary student group right here in this room. Um it's about a hundred students and we get to meet with them three times
083over the year and they actually go through parts of this document and the student survey results and give us their feedback. Um the district advisory committees happened in January, March and April. Um all leadership gets a chance to give input. We did share survey results with um state of the district with everyone but also we looked deeply into them at different levels and then also the local indicators feedback process is happening now and that has to do with um curriculum uh alignment and also whether or not it we have to do some mandatory reports straight from the CDE about teacher credentiing and then of course school site councils have input here especially for equity multiplier schools and so the plan components that are in that binder there's First, a budget overview for parents. This is
084based on an estimate from the business office as of um really about three or four days ago. Um there's a section of summary, what we've kind of done thus far and some updates on uh the overall data. And then goals, remember goals one, two, and three, which we'll go over in a moment. Those are our condensed goals that we condensed last year. And so there's uh updates to all the metrics, updates to the action items, both telling us telling you the expenditures last our estimated actual expenditures for this year and our um budget for next year. Goals four and five are equity multiplier goals. They are sight specific and oddly they must be included in the district LCAP. And so we'll see those. There's a section called increased or improved services that's required to show
085how these funds that are generated by our English learners, foster youth and students uh who are socioeconomically disadvantaged how these um services are being um utilized for their benefit. And then of course the final t section before the all the instructions is um all the expenditure tables condensed. And so you'll have a chance to look at those. Um remember I kind of talked about the principally directed actions. We must be sure that the um funds that are de generated by these students are utilized for these students. You can do things that are schoolwide or districtwide but you must have justification to do so. So goal one safe and nurturing learning environment. It aligns with the board goal. That's the change we made last year. Um we'll maintain these actions counseling support, healthc care support, school
086climate supports and so on. You can see the list there. We did call out the high school English EL counselors separately. That was by request of our um DAC. Um they didn't want them merged with the other counselors. These were they have a specific task of keeping the English learner students at the high school level um graduating at a appropriate rate and they're doing an amazing job. And then the metrics listed there. Goal two is a little bit longer. Goal two has some changes. So the goal action one of goal two is an instructional coaches supports. Um there you'll see no funding in that goal. Um there's there's uh that's one of the places where we've made some adjustments and um we're going to live without those positions next year in order to make it
087so that we can kind of stabilize fiscally because that those positions although they were in the LCAP um it was one of those as we went through the process this year in order to maintain all the positions for people who were staying. professional learning. We will not be funding professional learning out of the general fund. We will continue professional learning in a limited scope in order to save those dollars, too. And we'll be using the extended learning opportunity dollars, title one, title two, and title three. No other changes to the listed goals there as you see in the report as you read through it. Um, the EL goal must remain same same with some of the others. Goal seven, um there's almost no general fund district dollars going to extended learning or before and after
088school as well as summer school. That is almost entirely now funded by ELOP because the ELOP program does allow for um once a program is um operating completely at the TK6 level for those funds to then be expended at the 7 through 12. And so we will be um reducing that expenditure in the general fund to nearly zero to save money. And then I'll just mention that goal nine has increased a bit because we as we talked about with our community are expanding the definition of our base program to rightfully include any of those pair educators in programs where we have extra staff in the room as part of our extra staffing that counts in the cap as kind of above base program. And then finally, goal three, you know all about the family centers.
089You participate in the food pantry and so we'll be maintaining those services as well. And then a quick look at goal four and five. High desert premier academy and Apple Valley virtual maint make up all of Gulf 4. They are our alternative sites with very high non-stability rates. And so because of that and because they're um over the threshold for um students of poverty, they earn equity multiplier dollars and probably always will as long as that funding source exists at the state level. And so we put them together because they did very similar things with their dollars, adding a counselor, increasing access to field trips, those kinds of things. Goal five this year is new for Yuck. Phoenix Academy had that funding last year. Yuck Elementary did not. they did qualify this year, but just
090at within a couple of points. We know this funding for Phoenix and Yuck could come and go at any time if they don't hit that 25% non-stability rate. And I think, you know, they're they're both within a point or two. And so we do have schools just under and it's um it's a really tough thing because there schools that really would benefit from this funding and then we have schools that are just over and that changes each year. um those schools and their plans are taken uh up at the site level and so you'll see the description of those plans in the full document in the binder. Um and then just some metrics our community through the district advisory committee things they asked us to make it focus on and that's one thing is the
091English learners um the DAC is um we used to have a dedicated English learner goal but you saw that instead the actions now have been distributed to other goals to align with the board goals but the the DAC and the ELACs have asked us to maintain and focused on English learners and of course we do that. Um the state has added a new student group for us to m pay attention to and that is long-term English learners who have been designated as such for six years or longer. Foster youth, low-income students, um and then our African-American subgroup because the outcomes are so disparate and we are in differentiated assistance at the county level because of our suspension rate for African-American students um is double what it is, more than double for our regular population. And
092so that is a sanction that we must pay attention to. And then finally, we are required to have focus on any student group in the lowest category on the dashboard for the district and every single school site. So you're going to see long lists for some places because even if it's in one metric, we must list that group. So some of the time you're going to see and you're see lots of abbreviations. If at any point there's an abbreviation that doesn't make sense, please just let me know. I um didn't include a glossery this year, but I certainly can get one to you. And so the document's kind of a lot. What the next step um I did submit on May 16th to the county. She just responded to me. So I have my feedback
093and so I'll be making minor adjustments. I mentioned that it'll come back for a public hearing June 5. And at that point we can answer questions look at um you know hear from the public if there's interest and then after that hearing that making any other changes then we can go to adoption on June 12th and then I submit that within 5 days to the county for them to do their final review and once reviewed and approved they approve our budget um and Mr. Schulenberg's office can get going with the process of operating school. So that's kind of the next steps and what I know so far. Okay, this thank you um Pat this isformational only but I will open it up if uh any of the board members have any questions for uh for
094Mr. Sloer this I don't have a question but thank you very much that was very informative I'll be spending a lot of time thank you okay great all right thank you okay item two this isformational presentation on governor's may revision for 202526 state budget and that'll be Matthew Schulenberg thank you as I am connecting to the screen I'd like to call the board's attention to a couple of items you you have at your station. It's a one-page color document produced by school services. It's they call it the pocket budget. It's just kind of a quick summary of some of the uh some of the main points uh from the May revise and excuse me and then you do have a copy of the slides I will be presenting this evening. Um my disclaimer, um these
095are all slides as produced and presented by school services yesterday during their May revision workshop. I've taken their 120 slide presentation and truncated it down a little bit. I plan on spending a little less than three hours going over it this evening um as they did yesterday. So first off um we'll go right to this one. Uh kind of some themes identified by school services. you'll see in the top left there. Um they they mentioned significant financial and economic uncertainty at both the national and the state level. Um one of the most concerning things that school services focus focused on is the bottom left first seen in the governor's uh proposal in January was the plan to underappropriate the current year Prop 98 minimum guarantee. Um it was originally 1.6 billion. Um he's 300 million
096to our favor. So, it's now only 1.3 billion um but it's still a another um kind of maneuver number two um as the governor attempts to manipulate Prop 98 and the minimum guarantee for schools. Top right may revision projects lower revenues and increase costs of health care in the current year and near-term. Um the health care this particular point refers to is the medical program. Um few years back they really opened up the roles for the medical. They've enrolled many more people and it's uh several billion dollars over budget on the nonprop 98 side in the state budget. Uh the economy uh you'll see the big three in the top left. The big three are the three main sources of tax revenue at the state level. Personal income tax, corporation, and sales and use tax.
097They're projected to be about 4.8 billion over the three-year budget window compared to the governor's January proposal. And the three-year budget window is actually very interesting. It's not the same as our three-year budget window. When we're building our budget for next year, we have to do next year and then two out years. We're actually going all the way to um what is that? 20 June of 28 in our multi-year projection in the state budget's three-year window. They look back a year. So, they're looking at 2324 uh looking at the revenues that have come in for 2324. They're looking at the current year 2425 and looking at the revenues that have come in so far. And then they're looking at the next year. That's the three-year cycle they're referring to in the governor's budget proposal. They
098mentioned the tariffs. Don't know what the actual effect of those tariffs might be on California. Um but you can you can read those points. Uh a couple other things. The cost of living adjustment. Uh as we sat here a year ago, the cost of living adjustment for next year was around 3.3%. That was the planning cola. So we would have used that in our multi-year projections in the previous budget cycle in the previous mys and interim reportings. Um it is now 2.3 for next year. So that's of course that's u significantly lower as the cola in the current year was 1% 1.07 for this year which at a uh at a point early on in the budget process it was projected to be closer to four. Um there were some significant increases to the ELAW
099program and UTK the universal transitional kindergarten. So there's come some concern that those would survive and that the commitments the governor has proposed will survive as they continue to negotiate with the legislature. And of course the volatility in the stock market really does affect the capital gains both short-term and long-term uh personal income tax at the state level because that's a u that's a major portion of the personal income tax that the state of California collects. uh the state budget in the economy. They're looking at uh projected increased unemployment in the state of California. Um wildfire displacement and construction delays. Of course, they're negatively impacting um employment growth. The GDP is expected to continue continue trending down. Now, the first quarter GDP, that's a national economic measure, the gross domestic product. So, the first quarter
100GDP this year was actually a negative. And anytime the GDP at the national level is negative two quarters in a row, that's the definition of a recession. Um, but the economists that I've heard speak are just are projecting a positive GDP for the second quarter. That's the quarter we're currently in, but not a significantly positive uh gross domestic product. Um, you see they mention inflation. It's actually coming down to the Fed's target of closer to 2% but it is projected to rise uh in the next two years. State revenues do remain strong in the current year. Um that that really drives the concern of the underappropriation that the governor has proposed in this year but they are projected to slow down in the next. uh domestic migration um the the out migration has slowed. Not
101as many people are leaving California. Um they are projecting the statewide population to increase slightly over the next couple years. However, the Department of Finance is still projecting uh significant school age population declines uh continuing. This is a quick look at what's called PIT. is personal income tax over the three-year cycle. You'll see first they look back at 2324. In January, the governor projected there'd be about 113.4 billion in personal income tax collected uh last year because it doesn't always come right away. Um he's revised his estimate to 115.2 which matches with the LAO, the Legislative Analyst Office. The LAO again is a nonpartisan group that advises the legislature. They do not work for the governor. The governor's team is the department of finance and they're the ones that come up with the numbers in
102blue. Um so the May revision again that's the department of finance coming up with the revision the revised numbers based in May and the revenues they received. Last year you'll see didn't change um didn't change from the LAO did change from the January budget proposal. This year also changed up. Um, next year, however, you'll see they the governor originally put the personal income tax next year at a little under 134 billion. Now, it's a little over 126. That's a significant decline in uh personal income tax revenue at the state level. This is a slide that combines the big three. Uh the blue at the bottom is the personal income tax. Then on top of that, you have the um the corporation tax and the sales and use tax. And you'll see again next year that's
103the net effect of uh reduction in the pit, a slight um slight reduction in the corporation tax and again a slight reduction in the sales and use tax from the governor's budget to his May revision. Some risks uh unemployment is projected to increase in the budget year. the stock market volatility really does affect the capital gains and the tax the income tax revenue. Um, and you'll see the comment there at the bottom. The big three revenues are projected to be lower by about 4.8 billion over the three-year budget window. As I mentioned before, Prop 98, again, Prop 98 is statutory and it sets the minimum education. It's called often called the minimum guarantee. The dark blue section is the Prop 98 minimum guarantee. The light blue is total state revenues. The dashed green is ADA.
104We all know what happened around 2122. Um you'll see ADA has slightly um increased since then with Prop 98 still staying relatively um flat over that time span if you look to 2122 all the way to 2025 26. And unfortunately um from this year to next it's projected to go down um it's at four a little over four billion dollars. And again that 118937 is the minimum guarantee. That is not the governor's proposed u aortionment. He's proposing to aortion less than the minimum guarantee in the current year. This is a slide that just shows a little bit about what the education protection account is. originally voted in Prop 55 in 2016, extended by Prop 30. Um, this this is a tax on the uh what I call the uber wealthy. It's an additional income tax.
105Um, I know CTA is beginning to lobby hard to extend these taxes past their expiration in 2030. It's a priority. Um, now what this does is the EPA fills in a part of the Prop 98 minimum guarantee. It does not increase or decrease it. It just is a source of revenue to fund the Prop 98 minimum guarantee. And it's that little blue section up on top, general fund, local property taxes, then you'll see the EPA or the education protection account. If the taxes that are currently approved by Prop 30 expire after the 2030 fiscal year, that does not diminish or reduce the Prop 98 minimum guarantee. The state would then be required to find other sources of revenue to fill that gap to fund the minimum guarantee. So you'll see in next year that's projected
106to be a little under 12 billion. Um I don't think the state has an extra 12 billion sitting around. So this is something I know CTA has made it a priority to continue that EPA to make sure the state has that additional tax revenue to fund Prop 98. This slide shows a little bit what the governor is pro projecting or not projecting proposing for the current year. Uh the left hand side there you'll see that he's calling it the settle up and this has to do with his proposal to underappropriate Prop 98 in the current year. In the budget proposal in January you'll see it was about 1.6 billion there on the left. The guarantee was 119 billion. Now over on the right the guarantee is recal to 118.9 billion. He's proposing to underappropriate it
107by 1.3, but he promises he'll settle that up with schools over time. On to Prop 28. Um, the state has now identified uh as of the May revision, the state is appropriating $1.05 billion for Prop 28, arts and music funding for next school year. And you'll just see there's some requirements on the right hand side um and things that we have to do to make sure we fulfill and um receive that money and don't have to send it back to the state. Um risks. Um this is a school services slide. We do not use a magic eightball in our business office. Um that was supposed to be funny. I'm sorry. Um I'm going to take you down to that bottom bullet point. problems on the other side of the state budget could make suspending Prop
10898 an enticing budget solution for the state. And the problems on the other side of the budget, medical being one of the biggest and and state programs and uh state employees and um and the reduction in state revenue will impact the nonprop 98 side much more than the Prop 98 side. So if they decide the legislature votes to suspend Prop 98 and not fund education at the minimum, that's one way that they can take funding dedicated for schools and move it to the nonprop 98 side of the budget. So local impacts. Um this is a quick slide illustrates the LCFF and how it's calculated. You'll see the different grade spans, the different base grants up top, 10,25 in TK through3 all the way up to 12,144. You add the COLA, you get the 2526 base
109grant per ADA. You get the gradespan adjustments which are added uh to TK through 3 and 9 through 12, which gets you the adjusted base grant per ADA. Those adjusted base grants are in the LCFF calculation, and those are what every school district across the state gets. Those are consistent. Where the LCFF gets very different for each school district are the 20% supplemental grant and the 65% concentration grant and of course the TK add-on because if you're a school district that doesn't offer TK, you don't get the TK add-on. So that's just a quick uh quick look at the structure of the LCFF. You may remember the governor proposed a discretionary block grant in January at the two to the tune of 1.8 billion. um that did remain in the May revision. However, it was
110reduced to 1.7 billion. Funds are fully flexible. They are one-time funds, and you'll see the uh available for expenditure through June 30th of 2029. The current proposed allocation method is an an equal per ADA basis across school districts. And the the bullets there that are identified as appropriate expenditures are merely suggestions as the governor has proposed these funds are fully flexible for local control. Transitional kindergarten. Uh back in January, the governor proposed to increase the TK add-on to almost uh just actually a little over $6,400. He proposed to uh pretty much double it. He still has proposed to increase that but not to the same tune. So it's a 5545 per pupil at the TK. Um the concern here is that the legislative analyst office has come out publicly and mentioned they believe um their
111calculations believe and they have communicated to the legislature that they think this is too much money uh to implement the expansion of TK and the reduced um class sizes. uh you'll see the ratios go from 12 to one to 10 to one. We are currently planning next year to serve our TK students at a 20 to two. So we'll have two two staff in the classroom with a maximum of 20 kids. Um and as you know, we are building additional TK classrooms at three of our school sites to handle the increased enrollment we're expecting and we hope show up in the fall. expanding learning opportunities program. I mentioned earlier there's some money proposed to expand this and how it's proposed to expand it. He did not propose to increase the rates rate one or rate
112two but he is proposing to lower the threshold for school districts for them to qualify for rate one. Um we qualify for rate one because our up is currently greater than or equal to 75%. He's proposing that threshold be lowered to 55% which would allow more districts to qualify for that rate rate one and they estimate that'd be about a 500 million ongoing cost. You'll see the total funding he's proposing goes from four to four and a.5 billion um for the ELOP expanded learning opportunities program learning recovery emergency block grant. This is um um I think the original L rebg that was uh sent out to school districts. It was about $7 billion across the state. Um the then they took some back, then they took some more back, then they gave some back to
113the schools, then they gave a little more back. Well, they still owe us a little bit to get to the original proposed funding level. So, he has proposed to fund that. Um and of course, now it comes with some more strings. Um to utilize these funds, eleas must conduct a new student needs assessment. Expenditures and actions must be included in the LCAP and they have identified training on mathematics and ELA frameworks are new allowable uses for these particular funds. Uh you will not see the LREBG funds currently in our LCAP. We we are allowed to add those funds and those goals in at the midyear update. I I I believe there are some other local school districts that are doing that same because we're still unsure if this is going to happen. It's still a
114proposal and our LCAP of course needs to go through the approval process here in the very near future before the state actually enacts the budget which this would be a part of if this proposal survives. deferrals. Um, great news. They canled one small deferral. They came back with one much bigger deferral. Um, you'll see the first line there. He proposes a TK12 deferral. That of course is us of 1.8 billion. Thankfully, that's not all us 1.8 billion, but we of course will be impacted by that. The state is using this as a budget and a cash deferral. The state is pushing an expense from June, the expense of funding schools. They're pushing it from June to July. So they show a reduction in their 20 2526 budget because they're pushing it to their 2627 budget.
115It's also a cash deferral for them because they um they keep the cash a little bit longer, meaning we don't get the cash. Um that's about 25% of our June 2026 aortionment if you look back at the last couple Junes that ratio. So what happens if the all the cash doesn't flow? We will we will do a cash flow um analysis. As we get to this um you'll see at the bottom right it says the burden of borrowing lies with the LEA to ensure adequate cash for operations. This goes right to the tax revenue anticipation note that we spoke of a couple board meetings ago and that we um we propose that resolution. The board did approve that resolution to uh be a part of a TR pool if need be. This is exactly what
116causes us to be a part of a pool if in fact our cash um is low at that point in June as we work through the year. I just wanted to show this slide to show you the impact of the projected declines in school age populations. You'll see Los Angeles is the biggest at minus 18.7%. Los Angeles County, they're projecting significant school age declines. Uh you'll see Placer County um growing. I'm sorry I can't tell you exactly where Plaster County is. I know it's up north. Um but um um guess it's a great place to go. One of the things I did want to point out because we are experiencing this um property liability and workers compensation insurance rates. Ours ours our property and liability went up about 25% from last year to this year.
117Um you'll see um the top right bullet point AB218 has created a lot of exposure for school districts and liability insurance. I think um you'll read about that often um here in the years to come and that does affect the insurance pool that we belong to um payouts um so of course they raise premiums um for the entire pool and on the bottom workers compensation um you'll see their claim severity continuing claims and medical inflation are driving workers compensation costs costs and we are experiencing those premium increases also as we uh get that information from our insurers. This is the dart board. You'll see the probably the most important line that everybody looks at is the doof planning cola. That's the department of finance planning cost of living adjustment. So that's the group that works
118for the governor. Um you'll see this year was a 1.07. That's not even planning anymore. That's true. The 2.3 is next year and the 26 27 27 28 and 2829 planning colas are exactly that they are planning colas. We will use those in our LCFF calculator in our multi-year projection but those are of course subject to change just as I mentioned earlier. The 2526 cola was originally um about a percent higher than it ended up and the 2425 cola at 1.07% at one point was a planning cola close to four. Uh so those do have significant effects on our LCFF revenue because that's the COLA is applied to the base grants in the LCFF calculation. Uh this is really the only slide that I think I include on the federal and I just want to
119point the school services advice is on the top right in the dark red. Assume current federal funding levels will continue and that's what we are doing um in our budget year for next year. Will that change? Maybe, but we're assuming steady federal funding at this point. Uh, next steps in the budget development, you'll see there's a few of the points I've talked about. The two 2.3% COLA, school services advice is yes, go ahead. There's very little risk to that. That's the calculated statutory COLA. The governor has pledged to fund that and the legislature has also pretty much agreed to fund that that particular COLA. The LEBG additional funding, school services advice is no. We currently do not have that in our budget as I mentioned earlier, but when that hashes out in maybe August and
120September, you may see that in the first interim. Um, but most likely in the second interim after the LCAP midyear update, the TK ratio LCFF add-on that I mentioned earlier, the governor had originally proposed about 6,400 per TK. It's down to 55. You'll see school services is advising not to include that in the budget. It's a high risk level because the amount has already been decreased. We currently are assuming the 5500 may revision amount in our LCFF calculation for that TK add-on. The discretionary block grant school services has advised against including that in your budget because the amount was decreased. The allocation method allowable uses and amount may change again before the budget is enacted. We are currently including the proposal as proposed at the May revision for the discretionary block grant teacher preparation and
121professional development. That's that's um that's I I think that was about a hundred million across the entire state. So that's not large dollars. They it's already been reduced and repurposed. We haven't included that because we don't exactly know that how that's going to flow to districts yet. And the universal ELOP 55% threshold school services advice is no. The risk level is low, but we already qualify for the rate one at the 75% threshold and we believe we're going to maintain that up at the 75%. So we have included the uh the ELOP funding at rate one in our budget. um the road ahead. This just again identifies uh a couple couple points that 1.3 billion underappropriation. Are we going to get that back as part of Prop 98 in unrestricted funding or is it going
122to come with strings or are they going to suspend it? The 1.7 billion professional uh development discretionary block grant. Is it going to come like that how we have currently assumed in our budget for next year or is it going to come as a categorical with strings attached or a different a different uh uh distribution methodology the 1.2 2 billion for lower TK and the 515 million for ELOP. Um we've included both of those in our budget for next year again. But the questions are um as you'll see there, school services is very concerned that the legislature is going to look at those ongoing commitments and find other places to spend that money. So I just put this one um road ahead. This presentation is over and that's all I've got. Thank you. [Applause] Thank
123you, Matt. Like I said, thisformational only. There's no action on this. Is there any questions, comments uh from board to uh I have one question. Go ahead. Um, and I'm sorry when you were talking about the next steps for 202526 budget development and you talked about the discretionary block grant, did you say we were including that or we were not including that in our budget? We are including the discretionary block grant in our budget development for next year as proposed in the May revision. Okay. Thank you. I have a question. Uh, I actually have several questions. Uh, maybe you can give me some clarification. I'm not clear on that. Uh the TK add-on, uh is that an ongoing add-on or is it just a one-time shot? Uh it it is a ongoing add-on. It's part
124of the LCFF calculation. It's currently at that right around 3,200 per ADA. The governor has proposed uh right around 5,500 per ADA beginning next year. And it is subject to the cost of living adjustment as it goes in as it's ongoing. So yes, it is ongoing and subject to the COLA and it has restrictions attached to it, right? No, it actually flows as part of our LCFF funding, but it is it is designated to support the additional staff facilities um and needs for the lower class sizes in transitional kindergarten, but it flows under LCFF. And remember, our LCFF revenue is all unrestricted revenue. A large portion of it of course is supplemental and concentration which then does have local local requirements for spending. Uh but it all flows unrestricted. Uh you did mention about the
125class size because there was a class size of 10 to one or 11 to whatever it is. I'm sorry Maria I couldn't hear you. The class size for TK. Yes. Okay. And you mentioned that they will, you know, you're looking at 22 to one or 22 to two. 20 to two. 20-2. Yes. Uh and the question that I'm asking is that two teachers or is that one teacher and an aid? It's a teacher and a pareducator. Okay. Got that. All right. Thank you. Um, is it possible to contact School Services of California uh to give us um uh I'm going to go back to this. There's a graph about district financial conditions declining enrollment by county. I think it's kind of interesting that they failed to add the largest county in California in this in
126this breakdown. So, could they give give us one that includes San Bernardino County so that we can have a better picture? We're looking at all of these other counties. They're not as large as San San Bernardino County, but for some reason they failed to add San Bernardino County. Can they add San Bernardino County or give us one for San Bernardino County? So, we'll have a visual for ours too. I I can ask for that data. Yes. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Anything else, Maria? No. Okay. All right. Thank you again, Matt. Appreciate it. Thank you. We'll move on to public comments. Do we have any cards? We have three. Just remind the speakers that we're limited to three minutes. If you could try to squeeze that in. First up is Javier Alejandra. I just want
127to say just first, you know, as a product of snowline, I like your hats. Um, but I I love ABUSD. Uh, dear board members and esteemed cabinet, I come before you tonight to celebrate some student success and stand in solidarity with CSEA and AVUDA members. Our students recently performed Sideno. It's a regional Hispanic musical style at the grid, a major CTEM event for Southern California sponsored by Apple, Amazon, Spotify, and Netflix among others. Not only were our students that featured performers, but the great academy also ran the open mic portion of the event. We received high praise from Lori Gaffagan and Allison Frenzel, the CTE CTA CTE consultant for the California Department of Education. In addition, our students provided sound uh performers and DJ support for the international children's festival, the sped dance at Granite,
128and the Cinco de Mayo uh celebration at Vanguard. Thank you, Miss Opara for attending and supporting these events. I also want to raise awareness uh of a very special opportunity that we hosted and I want to say thank you to Mr. Powell um for your support. Uh we welcomed Drien. He is an inner scope signed artist and his full production and management team for a private performance and workshop with our CTM students. Though not yet public due to an upcoming documentary, I can share that our students shared the stage with Drien and were invited to perform with him on tour. This once in a-lifetime opportunity, a direct connection between our students in the highest levels in the music industry. And yet, despite these accomplishments, I I want must voice a deep concern as we enter
129year three of AMS funding, I just again want to draw attention that I'm here to serve to offer up my expertise working with directly with the office that manages um AMS funds and Peter Ga and Allison Frenzel who I work with at the California Department of Ed. Even though I have been repeatedly been to um board meetings, I still have not had any meaningful discussions at the site or district level. So, as the senior instrumental director in the district, this exclusion is not only disheartening, it's a missed opportunity for our students. As thankfully many of you pointed out, the arts matter. They humanize education. They uplift and heal. They teach empathy, identity, and self-exression. So I ask that we can work together and I we can utilize that expertise that obviously I just demonstrated for
130you uh for the benefit of ABUSD. Thank you for your time and thank you to all the retirees and their incredible service. I hope to emulate that as well. Good night. Thank you Javier. Thank you for your comments and waiting around and you got here really early. I saw you at five o'clock. up next is Violet Carter. [Applause] Thank you. Um, uh, Violet Carter, 25-y year teacher. Today I want to speak to you about a pressing issue in our education system. The failure to uphold the high standards for all students which is leaving many of them unprepared for the challenges of the future. In our schools, we see students with behavior issues being allowed to walk out of the classrooms and roam the school grounds unsupervised for extended periods. This lack of accountability sends troubling
131messages. Are we telling these students that their behaviors doesn't matter? Are we accepting that because some come from low social economic backgrounds or belong to minority groups, they deserve lower standards, this is not a message that we should be sending. The consequences of these leniencies are evidenced in the way that some students express their frustrations. It is not uncommon to hear vulgar language or threats, behaviors that have no place in a productive society. If we continue to tolerate these actions without holding students accountable, we are setting them up for failure. How long will they last on a job site if they can't manage their anger? How long will they maintain a healthy relationship or contribute positively to society? Our educational system is not just about impairing knowledge. It's about shaping responsible resist uh resilient individuals.
132When we allow students to bypass rules and avoid consequences, we are telling them that they are not capable of leading productive lives. This is a disservice to them and to society as a whole. Parents are unaware of what happens during the school day when their children get in trouble. Instead of facing meaningful con meaningful consequences, they might be sent to the office to spend a day on YouTube. This lack of proper supervision and support means that students are not learning how to manage their behavior or make positive choices. Parents deserve better. Our students deserve better. and society deserves better. We must demand more from our educational institutions. Scu schools should implement consistent and fair disciplinary measures that hold all students accountable regardless of their background. We need to foster environments where high expectations are the
133norm. In conclusion, our current approach is failing our students. By not maintaining high standards and allowing unsupervised behavior, we are hindering their growth and future success. When we become numb to a seven-year-old telling us to shut the f up or a 10-year-old threatening to kill us, what are we thinking? Are we excusing their behavior because of their home lives? believing that is simply how they are being raised or assuming they don't know any better or can't do any better. Shame on us. We must commit to creating a school system that upholds excellence, supports all students, and prepares them to be responsible, successful members of society. This means holding every student to high expectations, providing consistent supervision, and addressing behavioral issues with the seriousness they deserve. Our ch children deserve an environment that challenges them, nurtures
134their potential, and equips them with the skills of re reliance needed for the future. We need to stand together to demand better for our schools, our students, and our community. Our children, your children, deserve nothing less. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you for your comments. Very well said. Uh number three is I believe is that Len Len, I'm sorry. Day and this is the topic of special education. Hello. I'm a special education non-reelect candidate. I love my class. Oh, sure. Okay. Can you hear me now? Yeah. Okay. Sorry. You have to bend over a little bit. Okay. I love my class and I've spent the past year and a half building up my students reading, writing, math, self-confidence, communication, and social emotional skills. and invested my money and time. I spend more time with my students
135than my own three-year-old. I was heartbroken when I received the letter, heartbroken to leave my students, but also confused because I had positive observations and evaluations. My students have gone up one to three grade levels in reading. Many people offered to write me letters of recommendation and told me how impressed they were by the work I was doing with my group of students. I've loved working with the people at Apple Valley and I'm very appreciative of the district and all the training I have received. It was a tough year. I had some violent students in the classroom and this was my first year dealing with severe behaviors. A student's behavior started escalating and he almost broke AID's nose. I asked about CPI training for myself and my classroom staff since no one in my class
136had received it, not even that student's one-on-one. I was told there were no trainings available and that it was mostly for deescalation strategies anyway. As if that weren't important, that's exactly what we needed. The student kept escalating and we had a day with four violent episodes. We called the office for extra support but received none. AIDS and a student were hurt that day and I was blocked I was blocking punches throughout the day to keep others safe even after we evacuated the classroom. I asked again for CPI or any deescalation training and was again told no. I also communicated that an aid was stressed out by the level of violence in our cast classroom. I was told that we could just replace her if she doesn't want the job anymore. I was startled. The aid
137does incredible and I mean incredible work. She could be a teacher herself. To hear how interchangeable and discardable we all are to our admin was disheartening. We as teachers and paras are on the front lines keeping these kids safe and learning and impacting the lives and mental health of these students. We also had a student moved into our class from gened. This student had extreme behaviors and was only working about a grade level below, but he was stripped of his one-on-one and put into my SDC full-time. Suffice it to say, my entire class, which until then had been organized and excited to learn, went completely upside down. Instead of support for a new teacher dealing with extreme behavior, we received recriminations. He was triggered by a pair's voice. It was my classroom management. He was
138treated unfairly because we rewarded other students for doing their work. He was rewarded as well. I was confused. My paraff was hard, but we were trying our best to use positive behavior strategies to help this student. My mentor came and observed and said he loved my classroom in the way I ran it, but that a student exhibiting those behaviors would be sent to the office at his school, not disrupting the class all day. Then came the behavior text. A few highlights from their many to my class. Apara was told she could not go to her already late lunch because a student had asked for a break with her. The whole class was showered in candy, ending with days of candy wrappers all over the floor. A student would threaten others and yell at the teacher,
139but be gifted a fidget that cost $30 on Amazon for 60 minutes of decent behavior at the end of the day. This triggered the rest of my students for months, understandably. And a student was rewarded for sleeping most of the day because if he was sleeping, he wasn't disrupting. I could not believe this is what the district intended with this program. None of the behavior text oh sorry most of the behavior texts set up extreme expectations of gifts, candy, and rewards the teachers cannot afford to keep up with once they leave. They also established an atmosphere where students were unhappy and jealous of the toys given to certain students and started escalating themselves. Multiple students told me that if he gets toys for acting like that in this class, then I'll do it too. I
140can say definitely that their visits increased this student's behavior. We had to systematically wean him off the candy and toys and he would eventually get back into the swing of our class rules and expectations more or less about two weeks after they left every time. These are things we tried to quietly deal with in our classroom. As an intern, I did not want to sorry I did not want to step out of line or rock the boat, so I tried to keep it all inhouse. Well, that didn't save my job. So, that's why I'm speaking out now. I know that there are many other teachers and interns in a similar position as I am, and I wanted you to know what it's like on the ground, particularly in special education. I am disheartened that I
141cannot complete my internship anywhere in Apple Valley just because of what boils down to a personality conflict. I love my job. I love my class. I love my support staff. And I'm sad to be leaving Apple and all the positive relationships I've built here. Thank you so much for your time. [Applause] Thank you. All right, move on again to board member comments. I know Amanda, you had a second comments you wanted to make. Anybody else down there? Anita, do you have any more comments? I just wanted to say thank you very much for those of you who shared. We hear you. Renee, um, yes. I just clarification. And did we catch the school site she w she was employed at? I did not. I don't believe she she mentioned it in her comments. Okay. Okay.
142Maria. Well, um once again, um you all know that, you know, special ed is very near and dear to my heart. Um but I don't want to comment on special ed. Uh, but I would like the district uh to come back the next time to tell us how many special ed teachers have been trained in CPI. Come next board. Amanda. All right. So, for the second year in a row, I got to spend my birthday up in Sacramento at delegate assembly um in all day meetings for the entire weekend. So much fun. But I did want to bring back some of the information to the board. Um I'm not going to do all of this, but there was because there was so much legislation right now that's going on. So SB374 is the Prop 28
143reporting now requires a single streamline report for arts funding. So if and if we find any um state required reports that are especially redundant, we're going to pass those on to CSBA and they'll work on those. Um there was a little bit of discussion about AB 1021 and AB 1381 uh for the educational workforce housing and um also providing low or no interest rate loans to districts that are pursuing that. Um AB1224 which would increase our long-term subs from 30 to 60 days. AB640. Right now, CSBA is working to revise the language. They don't support it right now, but they want to support it, but that will address governance team training requirements and make something like required for board members when they first come on to be trained. Um, similar to like MIG, I believe.
144And that's kind of the problem is right now it's wide open and it could like be any training. So they want to bring that down. SB98 uh would require notification to the the site, the school, the community um of any immigration enforcement activity on school campuses. And so some of the important dates that we have coming up or they have coming up actually. So May 23rd is the last day for fiscal committees to hear and report to the floor bills introduced in their house. So by tomorrow they have to make it out of uh fiscal June 6 is the last day for each house to pass the bills that have been introduced in that house and then by June 15th the budget bill must be passed by midnight and then we'll have like a little
145more accuracy on on what is coming. Um, I'm going to skip that. They did say, and I I know you mentioned ELOP, but TK, also universal meals will remain fully funded as of right now. Um, there was talk about movement of various things. And they mentioned Title One, which I'm not 100% sure how, but being moved to the block grant that they're then going to discre decrease. But then they can say there were no cuts to title one funding. So it's little move around. Um CSBA is piloting a new suite of policy resources to help boards better evaluate and develop local policy. And I did volunteer to be part of the pilot this fall. So we would get those documents kind of ahead and we could look them over and provide feedback before it gets
146published. AI policies are also continuing to grow. There's a new and it actually is really cool. I looked around a little bit, but it's an AI roadmap facilitation guide um on the CSBA website as well as they were looking at updates to several policies uh board policy 044 0441 and 4040. Within the delegate assembly, there was a lot of discussion about representation for small and rural school districts. Currently, 60 out of the 245 delegates come from these districts. Um, just make sure I don't miss Oh, good news for Kylie. This one's for you. coming in um January they are going to be piloting electronic ballots for delegate assembly. So it wouldn't be the paper I guess in the this first time you you can do both. Um but yeah, so it's going to the simply
147voting application and so it'll you can do it electronically um which will actually make it a lot easier for them to do for the whole state. But that seemed like it would be good for you. Um the policy platform saw some language updates but no major changes. And then I know we know already but the annual education conference is scheduled for December 3rd through the 5th. they are moving it up a day so it won't go onto a Saturday anymore. And then I had a really informational session which I just showed her um Maria one of the slides um Mike Vine from Fikmat um and he had a a big presentation um about an hour on declining enrollment trends as well as the financial implications. So, I have that full slideshow available if anybody'd like
148a copy and it includes data visualizations of our county and the decline which I showed. Um, and that's it. So, that was delegate assembly. All right. Thank you, Superintendent. You okay? Okay. We have no public hearings, no special meetings. We have discussion session. has recommended the board of trustees discuss take action on the following items. First up, discuss the requested amendments to the April 10th, 2025 board meeting and approve one of the following attachments. Original draft of the minutes of the April 10th, 2025 board meeting or amend the draft minutes of the April 10th, 2025 board meeting. So, I'm not going to rely on staff to give this presentation as the president of the board. I um looked into this. I I watched the tapes and I provide I'm going to provide the uh trustees
149here the rest with a verbatim documentation. Um it's very detailed. It was done with AI and by by hand as well. So it it picks up all of the comments and it puts them all in order here. What was said at the meeting? Yeah, I'm sorry. I pass all that down. So that's for five of them. So, um, while you're looking over that, it's I I know that, uh, Trustee Longshore made a comment that she wanted to amend the minutes that she um abstained from going into close session. So, what we can do because it does it's not clear at all, Renee, that you said anything um at all other than agreed to go into close session. We can amend the minutes that you believe that you made uh a comment that um you abstained
150from it. So, we can make a put that in the record if that's suffices for uh your concern. Yes. So, I just want to clarify. I didn't verbally say I abstained. I just abstained. I remained silent. Okay. That's why we went to roll call vote on everything now because it's confusing uh for everybody that So, yes, because it it shows in the doc, you can read this at another time, but it shows in there that you did not abstain from it. So you want to make we can amend it that you believe that you abstained or you thought you abstained. Is that clarify? I'm not going to change the minutes for the record because that would be a violation because it show the proof is there that what was said by Maria that she opposed
151going into close session so on. Um I guess my question to you is is that sufficient that we can amend the minutes that you uh abstained by not speaking? Oh yes, that's fine. Um that we can redo that. So um we will be taking the original draft 2025-4-10 board meeting minutes and on page one under public comments or sorry on page one under close session it will go from on a motion by Mrs. Amanda Buchanan seconded by Mrs. Anita Tucker vote 41. Amanda Buchanan I. Anita Tucker I. Maria Aquara. No. Renee Longshore. I Rick Raleigh I. To page one close session on a motion by Mrs. Amanda Buchanan. Seconded by Mrs. Anita Tucker. Vote 31. Amanda Buchanan I. Anita Tucker I. Maria Okara. No. Renee Longshore. No verbal indication. Um, how do like how do
152you want me to word that right there and then I can have Rick Raleigh I before we go much further? Did we have a motion to begin the discussion? Um, it's just to discuss it. I it it has to be then we can open it up for discussion but uh Renee brought this forward so it's really the ball is in her court because she believes she wanted to amend it. So, we we will have to take a vote, okay, on this with a second and a motion as well. So, but I wanted to defer to her on on this. So, I think what um what we're I'm going to propose and then get a motion to and then approve we'll vote on it is what Kylie just said that we are going to not amend
153the original minutes, but we're going to add an amendment that trustee Renee Longshore believes that she abstained by not speaking. We have to have a motion before we I'm just I'm just right. She's just taking notes. I'm going to I'm going to ask for a motion that we approve the wording that Can you read it back that what I said there Kylie so we're not confused on that? Yeah. So, um what that what you're um proposing in your discussion is that on page one close session everything would remain as is. There would be notation that would be underneath the original voting as um it sits in a draft form that would um indicate trustee Longshore believes she abstained by not speaking. Okay. So um I'll ask for a motion to approve uh that amendment to
154the to the minutes. Approve it. Well, we need a motion to approve. Um did you motion it? I'm sorry. Okay. Do we have a second? Second. All right. Um, roll call will be Tucker I. Longshore I. Opara I. Ukanon I. Raleigh. I vote I as well. We're good. We got through that one. I'm waiting. Is there any clarification that you need? I do not believe so. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay. And on item two, approve the course study adoption of ethnic studies integrated course English ethnic studies thematic course ethnic studies. And that will be Thank you so much, Mr. That's me. All right. And so, thank you. Thank you for those of you who hung in there. This is the good stuff. I promise. We're super excited to bring forward these courses that have been
155developed um by our um teachers in the system. I wanted to give a brief background because I know the board has changed a little bit since we started this journey. In the fall of 2023, the board requested and I remember Mrs. Buchanan making the uh clear request like let's do a process using um the county toolkit and like making sure that this was systematic. So Para as well you know was uh adamant that we make this process transparent and communitywide. And so we began that and then in October had a board workshop in conference room A. Tracy Chambers, Serena Straka, Lauren Wild came and presented to us and then we did a contract for services for them to do that facilitation work with us and do those community meetings. But the board took action on
156December 7th. Meanwhile, we scheduled our first community meeting for December 6th. Then Mrs. Nelson and I um accomp board members were there in the audience. presented our first meeting actually at the Granite Hills High School Performing Arts Center and um had a pretty goodsized group of folks who came, church members, community members, parents, staff, and kind of went through the information that we had been provided in that same workshop in October. And so we presented this information, we got lots of really um heated questions and in lots of interest. We went through this timeline to remind people of the background and why we were even having that discussion and what AB required. I feel silly talking to you with this hat on. I'm just going to say that. Go ahead. I feel mildly unprofessional, but
157just because it's not me, but I I earned it, I guess. Um, and so, uh, when we saw this timeline at that time, like 25 26 seemed like a ways out, and we thought, "Oh, man. Okay, well, we can probably get that done by then." And here we are. And notice in in the parentheses, it says we had to select between four options. And I'm going to go over that in a moment. And so we looked at this toolkit steps. They had six discreet things for us to do. We broke it in half, one through three last year, four through six this year. And so last year's process, um, we got busy right away. January, February, March, and April. Community meetings widely attended. We had board members at everyone and the committee meets were excellent.
158We got to define the terms, gather input, read through the framework, really understand deeply what those four options were as we developed our district lens and kind of worked ourselves toward consensus knowing that our task was to bring back to the board a recommendation of what we were going to do that second year in course development. And so um we did that. The committee recommendations to the board were brought on June 6th um just about a year ago now. And of the four options, the committee really recommended option four, which was a blend. It's really it's it allowed us to blend two. They wanted students to have two pathways to satisfy the requirement. Either an integrated course or and or a thematic course. We left option one out. It was the least popular and that
159was the kind of what they call in the framework a standalone course. And so, um, also on the way out of that meeting, we gave people one last time to give feedback, kind of an exit ticket. I read through every one of those this week kind of put myself back in that frame of reference where we asked them not only about, you know, their preferences, but if for the integrated course, which subject matter did they feel they wanted to integrated into? And it was overwhelmingly um, positive for 10th grade English, which was not what we went in thinking. I promise you that we thought for sure this landed in the social studies classroom. But after we had a deep discussion in the room several of those nights about one, how do we make sure every
160student gets a chance to participate? Because once you go to US history in 11th grade, some students go to AP, some students go to the college course, and so they wouldn't even have a chance to see the content and thus would not be able to graduate without taking another course. So, we realized quickly that 10th grade English was really probably the right way in 10th grade history, world history. It doesn't fit. It's just it's just too broad a scope. Anyway, I'm getting this is exciting. So, um feedback was overwhelming support. We took that to the board. The board took that recommendation. We were so thankful to have that support. And then the next day, board meeting was on a Thursday. That Friday, we asked teachers to come join us. And if you're still here, are
161you? Yes. Mr. Hulkf, Mr. Murphy, they hung in there. So, if they'll join me here at the podium, they're going to kind of help represent this. Um, we got them to come uh come stand with me. because I feel weird with the hat. Um, this group gathered as long as well as all the high school principles that day and they got a chance to kind of review and hear about where we had come as a community because they hadn't all been. Now, Mr. Hulk, I think had been at many of the community sessions as well, but that whole team hadn't been. They needed to hear the background. And so, they kind of started over was great for me to rehear our whole journey from the year before. and they were given lots of materials and
162sent home for the summer with when we get back we're going to get started developing the course. And so that's what we did. Um we continued with engaging with Lauren Wild. She is fantastic. I hope they share my sentiment. She was a wonderful facilitator. She really helped us dive into the framework. They worked in two teams. The English language arts group was all folks who either taught 10th grade, currently teaching 10th grade, or will be teaching 10th grade. And so they do dove into that framework and the language arts um standards. And then the thematic course group was almost all social science teachers I think from all our high schools. and they also took a look at the framework and built a course that will it's not a social science course directly because as you
163know the ethnic studies course doesn't land in a single subject really and the state's given us zero direction as far as what credential but in our minds it's a social science course the thematic course and it lands there really well and so we met five for five full days um I didn't stay for each of the sessions for the whole time I would come in frequently and see all kinds of great work going on on the boards and then they started sharing folders and documents and samples and um the information that was provided was exhaustive. They did an incredible amount of reading and then they went unit by unit. This is a course that as a as a first year English teacher I could take and teach because it's really well built out. I would
164say better than any other high school English course we currently have outside of ERWC which is also really well built. The kind of thing we should do to every course with that level of detail just about week by week. So our thoughts bringing this to you for approval. This is a discussion action item and I'm doing all the talking. I'll stop in a moment. But this we want to take this forward even though we understand that it's not in the governor's budget and it's not funded. And so the 2526 requirement as such isn't looming as hard as it was it was when this was first passed. However, our community met with us all those nights and they said to us, do this work. So we did the work and we built a course we believe
165in. We would like to go forward and at least pilot these um language arts units, begin the process to refine them, bring to you supplementals as we've, you know, kind of get a chance to make sure they'll fit well so that the class of 2030, should this be funded ever, has the graduation requirement met. But we believe the course is good and going to serve students well. They'll be set up not only for um what they need to do to be citizens of the world, but they're going to be well on the way to the state seal of civic engagement even from this language arts course. And so I just want to let um briefly Tim talk a little bit about what some of the students have uh he's had a chance to pilot some
166of the units and what some of the students have said to him as they've kind of had a chance to engage in some of this content. Thank you, Mr. Slashler. Um, I had a unique opportunity to work with all my colleagues and I just want to thank everyone on our team that contributed to this this course and I had so much fun uh working with everybody. Um, so I chose to um pilot this course at HTPA as a as a study skills course. So that's what will show up as uh transcripts as an elective. And using my unique uh body of students and my flexibility on the site, I said just go ahead and just throw in some of this hard work we've been doing on and see how the students like it. So that
167way I could develop the individual lessons and build towards our our units. And I have two anecdotes to share with you on just the level of uh impact this the positive impact this had for students. And uh um I'm a little hesitant to say because uh some some of our students could be pretty vulgar, but um one was from a Hispanic student. Love him. And he said uh he just found out in my course that what it means to be Hispanic. He had no idea what that meant. And like, did you know that Hispanic means you have indigenous heritage? And he said, "I had no idea." I was like, "Really? What did you think Hispanic came from?" Like the skin tone, everything. And he said, "I don't know, Mr. Hulk grief. I thought we were
168just little beaners." And I had to like really take a pause back like this is where did this kid get taught this type of uh label, you know, with with kids in social media and stuff like that. they just get all these stereotypes about their own identities and who they are. And uh with adolescence, a lot of our young students are just struggling to have an identity. Like they're a lot of them are just trying on a different personality every week, you know, trying to find an identity. They just want to fit in society. And so what this course that I've been going through is shown students that they can actually learn more about who they are and have pride in who they are and have an identity that's not defined by the environment. And
169I got one more anecdote to show share with you. And uh this one almost brought me to tears. I had a African-American female student who said we were doing an activity. It was uh we were doing like a a restorative practice where um we were talk about our names and it was a it was the same kind of activity we did in the actual um uh yeah the sessions and uh and I I use this in my classroom and we talk about our names. Do you know where your name comes from? Do you like your name? Who named you? What does your name mean? And she told me she didn't like her name at all. I was like really you have a beautiful name. Why don't you like your name? I don't like my name
170cuz it sounds ghetto. So I was like, "Wow. Um, you have a homework assignment. I want you to go home, find out who named you. Why did they name you? What does your name mean?" And when I met with her the next day, she was really happy, really excited. Mr. Hulk, if I know what my name means. I was like, "What is it?" She's like, "Well, my parents couldn't decide what to name me." One, my mom wanted to name me from after someone from my mom's side. my dad wanted to name me after someone from my dad's side and they brought the two names together and combined it and that's my name and she felt just wonderful about herself and her name and what it meant for her. So, um I think that's really the
171true magic of this course and what can do for students. So, thank you. Thank you for listening. This is an exciting time for us as we move forward. So you'll understand that as we do this approval, we still have UC submission to do. We have steps to take, but it lets us really dig into the piloting and refining process, and I'll leave it in your hands. Okay. Thank you. Well, we'll open up for this. Go ahead. Thank you, gentlemen, for your uh volunteering and uh stepping up to the plate. So, it's good. So, we can open it up for any discussions. Um, anybody have anything? I I do. Okay. Um, as a as a history, social studies teacher, I was really sad that this was in English, but I did some research. I read some
172of the books that were on the list. Some of them I already knew. Um, I spoke at length with Miss Wild, who I've worked with before, and I came away feeling really positive about this. And hopefully having this early start to implement and pilot, it can. It's not a given. We can make changes and adoption. So, um, I kind of did like a little bit of a 180, you know, even though I'm like English really, but, um, I I feel really confident about it now. So, thank you for sharing and for piloting already, uh, bits and pieces and I have high promise and hope. Great. Anybody else? Yeah, I am just so I think Renee, you getting your mic? Well, yes. I was just going to thank the all the staff that put so much
173into this and developing this curriculum. So important. Uh the study of ethnicity and finding identity and having understanding for each other. Um I just want to um extend my gratitude for you guys developing that and bringing it to our district. Well, I'm coming from a different angle uh because um when this was brought forward um Trusty Buchanan um went out and got this spreadsheet and PowerPoint and shared with us, but I was looking at it uh as a as a person whose history has never been taught the right way. uh and so it was very important to me uh to actually hear how history or our stories will be told. Um so that was why when trustee Buchanan selected um another trustee who is no longer with us and and I to uh participate, it
174was so that we can see through the lens of our history. Um, and I wanted people to um take the time to know um that everybody has a story and we can no longer be satisfied with the single story. Uh, so um and going to these meetings uh after work and finding the interest from the community was exceptional. Um, in most in most instances, we just sat back and let them do all the talking. And you walk out of there and you go, "Wow." Um, they are really interested. Everybody has their own little agenda that they're bringing to the table. But at the end, they all had an agreement. Uh, the only question I I had at the time was I wanted to make sure that the text that will be used will be written
175by the people who represent that race. um and not a text written by somebody who did not represent that race. And I've always maintained that the storyteller is good if he is the lion that did the conquering and we have never taken the time to ask the question of the conquered. Um how did you see the story? Um so uh Mr. Tim, I'm always in touch with him. He's always checking with me about books that I have run into and I pass it on to him. uh and I think our students are going to be absolutely uh truly blessed to have this little door open for them and maybe they will have better um better ways of looking at themselves. So before I step away, I need to truly thank this the cabinet for even
176agreeing uh to bring the um county to come and do our training um and to find the right county staff to come in and do that training because not everybody can train the way they did. They made us all feel welcomed when they were training us. and and I I also have to thank Trusty Buchanan for having the uh foresight to go and do some additional research so quickly to have it ready for us to get started and for that I say thank you Mr. Schllo I really appreciate it. Thank you Maria Amanda thought you had your hand up. Yeah. So I'm just I'm so excited to see it come full circle and be ready to be piloted. Um, and I know I I did come to that meeting with the packet and I just
177I knew that if we involved our community and our professionals that we have here, the the teachers and the expertise of your office, um, that we could create something unique to Apple Valley and what our community needed rather than um, I I didn't want to fall down a rabbit hole of like one person or group saying this is what you're doing. Um, and I I'm just I'm so pleased with how it all came together and how everybody worked together to create something that is just for us Apple Valley that that represents our students. So, and those anecdotes were great. Okay, with that we can uh move forward with a vote. So, you need a motion to approve. Can I make the motion to approve? Do you have you have a second? I do. Uh, Maria.
178All right, I'll do roll call. Uh, Tucker I. Longore I. Aquara. Yes, of course. Buchanan I. And I vote I as well. So the vote is 5-0. That passes. So we'll move this forward. Thank you everyone for the hard work. Item three, review consideration for fiscal crisis management assistance team FITMAP study agreement for managing assistance fiscal health risk analysis FH. I'm going to defer this over to the superintendent. Did you have any Matt? Well, I'm I'm gonna turn it over to Matt if there's any questions, but um basically it was what was requested and we brought the contract forward. Yeah, I think probably the questions. Matt, well, do do you have something you want to add or you just want questions? No, I don't have anything to add. Okay. Okay. So, I guess the basic
179is um would be Anita, you brought this forward. You want to start? Uh this was your agenda item. Yes. Thank you. Um I appreciate uh Mr. Schillingberg bringing uh the quote so quickly and putting this on the agenda. Um, I'm hopeful that uh we can vote on this tonight. Okay. So, um, just real quick, Matt, what's the cost and what does it cover? If you can give us that in a Well, as listed in the proposal, um, the cost is listed as not to exceed 23,000. That depends on the actual staffing that Fikmat is able to assign to the project. Okay, great. Okay. Is there any other discussion or I have a motion to approve? Um, there was discussion at our I think it was the last meeting about what exactly would be included in
180this. Um, I just am curious like what is this going to show us? Because I know we were told also that it wouldn't there was things it wasn't going to not going to do forensic forensic. It's not a it's not a forensic audit. It's not a forensic. It's just fiscal health. This particular item as requested the fiscal health risk analysis is just that. It's analysis. So you'll see on page one of the proposal under scope of work a scope and objectives. Number one, prepare an analysis using the 20 factors in fixmats fiscal health risk analysis and identify the district's specific risk rating for fiscal insolveny. Um I don't have that list of 20 factors. Those are available on the FickMat website. Um but that's essentially the focus of this particular project. They will ask for
181documents. They will visit the district. They will most likely interview Cindy and myself. Um, and I don't know the exact scope of work um, until we sign the agreement and then we will work with Thickbat to schedule the appropriate uh, um, document shares and uh, site visit. So when you say it's not to exceed 23,000, if they they come in and they give us a scope and we just want a portion of it, the cost will be less for the less amount of work that they put into it. Well, actually Rick, you know, the the scope is not going to change. Um what will change is um when when FikMat goes into districts, they have people that are actually FIMMAT employees and then they have consultants that are um professionals typically working in school districts
182who are independent contractors that um will work f will work for FICMAT on some of these studies. If if it's typically a fiscal health risk analysis I believe is two individuals and there will be one person from Fikmat at a minimum. If it's two Fikmat people that's actually cheaper. Um if it's a FickMat and a outside consultant that's more expensive because they bill for actual expenditures. So the 23,000 is assuming one Fickmat individual and one consultant because that is the most expensive option. If it if it comes in as two FICMAT employees then it will be less but the scope will not change. Oh okay that clarifies it. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. It's a pleasure of the board at this point. Can I make a motion to approve as submitted? Okay. We have a
183motion by Tucker. Does anybody want to second it? I'll second it. Second by Longshore. Okay, we'll do a roll call vote. Tucker I. Longshore I. Opara I. Buchanan I. I'll vote I as well. Okay, we moved that one forward. Thank you. Thank you. uh um Matt for the information and uh Tren for bringing it forward, putting it all together. Okay. Consent agenda has recommended the board of trustees approved the number of agenda items on the consent list. So we have 1 through 31 tonight. So um we seem we haven't been able to get through the consent agenda without pulling anything. So I'm going to ask right now who wants to pull what? away. Go ahead, Paul. I don't If there's none, we can ask for a motion to approve one through 31. I'll make the
184motion we approve 1 through 31. Um, can I pull an item? Yeah. You got to speak up quick. Okay. Yes. What do you want to pull? Um, I'd like to pull item number one. Number one. Okay. Anything else? Okay. So, I'm going to amend my motion to approve 2 through 31 and second. Amanda. Yeah, I seconded the first. Okay, I'm going to amend that that motion then. So, you want to second my amended motion? Sure. Okay, you can. Okay. 2 through31. Tucker. Roll call. Did we do a motion? Yeah, we have a motion. A second. We're pulling one, but we're two through 31. Okay. I Okay. Longshore I Okbara I Ukuchanan I and I vote I as well. Okay. So we got that cleared. So go ahead and uh we pulled one. So what's your
185question on one Renee? Um I guess it's more of a um I guess clarification and um concern um in thinking about moving forward with Gamut. um in their service agreement um number seven data and records um which is page two out of six uh quote unquote they state CSBA has no responsibility or liability for the accuracy of documents, files, data or information uploaded to the service or provided by subscriber or subscribers users. So the subs subscriber acknowledges that documents, data and information uploaded to the service are not an official record and acknowledges its responsibility to create an archive of such materials when subscriber desires them to serve as official subscriber records. Subscriber agrees not to hold CSBA liable for any damage to any deletion of or any failure to store subscriber information. CSBA is not
186the custodian of subscriber records for any purpose and will direct any third party's request for subscribers information or records to subscriber. So I would like to make a motion to continue utilizing board docs for the 2526 school year. This will give us time to navigate the process of FICMAT without any data movement or upheaval. Just for background, it wouldn't be a motion to go back. It's a would be a motion to deny the contract is what you're asking, right? Um, yes, it's not a mo. Yeah, I I do have a question uh to add to add to that. Can I can I respond to the data issue? Yes, let's that's current with our diligent service as well. It's just that they won't be responsible for what we say is true. That's correct. So it's the
187same process that we currently use with diligent, same information and um same expectations that we are held accountable for our own data. They do not take responsibility for that. We've had um Jason Buchanan involved in the discussion because of it and making sure that we're not crossing any lines and that this meets all the criteria. Okay. So next question is it's not a question. I was just adding to it to ask you know uh so that we don't waste time on joining gamut. Um can our IT people just collect that data and keep it in a suppository so that we can move on? No, it would be how we access our board docs. It's how we get our packet. Diligent is changing. Diligent will no longer look like it currently does with board docs and
188it the cost of it changed. And so in the process in searching for um going back to what we've already done which was originally done back in 2018 when we went to a digital platform both of the companies were looked at um when Diligent took over board docs and some of the changes occurred we had multiple districts that um gave input and um in in have already transitioned and so Kylie has spent exhaustive hours online with groups um reviewing having conversations and making sure that it meets all the requirements. Okay. So, we will meet that's all. I just needed I just need to know if there's a a go around, but if there is none, we just go with what you've given us, right? Similar to what we have. See, this is it. Even a
189as board docs currently exists, we would not have the same like you would not be able to go back the same way you currently do. you would have to PDF it is what they're telling us and go through the motion. So, okay. Yeah, Kylie Kylie has something to add. Um, just so everyone understands, board docs is going away. It will be no longer it it is no longer um a system. It is migrating. It will be called community. Um, I also have worked with numerous districts that were in the same position as um, we are that currently utilize board docks that were weighing the options. Um, and I can tell you that there are other districts in the high desert that are also going to be moving over to Gamut meetings, um, which is a
190California schoolboard association platform. Um, because of the same same concerns that everyone is facing with the new platform. Okay. The same can we get training on this when it starts? Okay. As soon as we have it all migrated. That's why we're bringing it to this board meeting so that they can work the month of June getting things migrated and ready so that by August we're ready to get you guys online. All right, I'm gonna make a motion. Can I ask another question? I'm sorry. Just to confirm, if we wanted to go back and look at something from last year that's in board docs, we would be able to do that. would it be through our own program going back through the how how would we access something from past years? So no matter um no
191matter what you do um so for example if you stay with Diligent which is now the um owner of Horde docs which is going to be called community that's the new name of that platform um they will give you a file a data file of whatever your historical record is and whatever you maintained in there it is a PDF large file document and the only reason I know that is because one of our local neighboring ing districts that was unaware. Um they recently just found out that that's what they would have is one large PDF. Um they started their migration earlier than anybody else had to look at it because it is based off of your um date of renewal and luckily we are a renewal that is within summer um and is giving us
192a little bit more flexibility where it didn't impact board meetings. So I I still don't understand how would we access something regardless of which program we go to. How would I access something from last year or two years ago if I chose to do it? We would have to search through one PDF file that board docs is going to give us. So regardless of what we do, we're going to be searching through PDF file. Yes. And our our hope and what they have told us is that PDF file can be um housed wherever. So if we decide to take that file, I know we have links to past board meetings um and things of that nature, we can have, you know, the link there. Uh we can also take that link and we can add
193links into our CSBA gamut meetings platform um under their documents tab from 2018 when we started with them. I believe it was September 8th of 2018. I could be a little off, but I know it was September of 2018 for our first meeting where we were actually digital. Um, so we will have that historic data that data poll um has been requested um for from Board Docs either way just because when their system when board docs goes away, I wanted to make sure we had it whether we were with them or not. So I have submitted for that. Um Jason has been involved and actually will be the one that gets the data from them directly. Okay. Thank you very much. All right. I'm going to make a motion that we approve the agreement of
194Gamut uh as written on the consent agenda item one. We have a second. I'll second. Okay. I'm going to do a roll call vote. We have a first and a second. Tucker I. Longshore. Nay Okara I Buchanan I I vote I as well. So the vote was 41 to approve with Longshore voting no. All right. Thank you everyone. Okay. That brings us to closing items. So, we don't have any future anything to go back into close session. Future items. Any billboard members have any item future agenda items they want to bring forward tonight? Yes, I do. Okay. Maria, I already mentioned it. I would like to uh know how many of our special education teachers have current licensing or current certification for CPI. Okay, you guys get that? Okay. Anybody else? Okay. That brings us
195to adjournment. So we have a motion to adjurnn. I do. Second. I'll second it. Tucker second. I Longore I. Okara I. Ukan I. I vote I as well. All right. The time is 10:09 p.m. Thank you.