001Mhm. >> We're going to reconvene to open session. Yeah, if you're on. Am I on? Yeah. Trustee Kosnick, would you please lead us in the flag salute? Sure. Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You may be seated. Item 4C is adopting our agenda. Uh I would like to propose that uh we change the agenda order by moving up item 8A to immediately following um this item. Do I have a motion to adopt the agenda with moving item 8A to the next order of business. >> So moved. Second. Roll call vote. Mr. Arnold? Yes. Mrs. Ellis-White? >> Yes. Mrs. Koznik? Yes. Mrs. Coonley? Yes. Mrs. President McGrew-Kane?
002I. Mrs. Pierce? Yes. Mrs. Taylor? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And now our great item 8A is our AUSD employee recognition of 2026. Thank you, Madam President. It is very exciting that this evening we are able to recognize these wonderful employees who have been with our organization and have decided to retire and move on and we envy them so much. Uh we are very excited for them. We do have a a few of these wonderful people in our audience tonight in which we would like to celebrate and then at the end I would like to also read the list of those retiring that are not here present, but very much worth um the notion and and the praise for their their time here in our organization. This evening before we begin, I just wanted to
003speak uh for a moment on behalf of our superintendent. He is unable to be here this evening. Uh he will be back with us shortly. He did uh have to take a few days off, but wishes all of our retirees the best of luck and um we appreciate him being able to communicate that message to our public and community this evening. So, without further ado, I would like to start with the Fine Arts Academy and having Mrs. Yvonne Davis, teacher for 24 years, to please join us at the podium. >> [applause] >> We can have our trust trustees come down. We're going to do a photo in just a moment. I'm sorry, I didn't have the red button on there. Mr. Sherba, do you mind coming up, please? And if you have a few words
004for our community regarding Ms. Davis. Thank you. It says push the red button. Normally you're not supposed to do that, but tonight Ms. Davis, I will. So, well, good evening everyone. It is my honor to stand here tonight honoring someone who has impacted the lives of hundreds of children and families over the years. Long before Ms. Davis had her own classroom, she actually started out her journey in our district as an instructional assistant. Those years as a IA showed everyone what we know is true today. Ms. Davis is a person entirely dedicated to her students. She learned our schools from the ground up mastering the art of patience, connection, and how to problem-solve anything that came her way. When Ms. Davis stepped into her own classroom more than 20 years ago, she found her calling
005with fourth and fifth graders. It takes someone truly special to guide students through that exciting and challenging age. And she has done it with endless patience, energy, and heart. Beyond teaching math and reading, she taught her students to believe in themselves and feel ready for middle school and beyond. Ms. Davis's impact reached far beyond the classroom though. As Fine Arts Academy's dance teacher, she has brought energy, creativity, and confidence to our school community. From unforgettable performances to just quick dance breaks before a test, she reminded students that it's okay to adjust, keep moving, and find joy even when things don't go as planned. Yvonne, after more than 20 amazing years, you leave behind a legacy of kindness, creativity, laughter, and countless students whose lives are better because of you. We'll miss you greatly, but we
006are so excited for this next chapter of your life filled with travel, relaxation, and no grading. >> [laughter] >> Please join me in celebrating Yvonne Davis. Thank you for giving the students of the Tascosa Fine Arts Academy your heart, rhythm, and passion. >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you, Ms. Davis. Congratulations. Next, we would love to honor from our technology department, Mr. Bob Irwin, computer technician. >> [applause] [applause] >> He's been a computer technician here in the district 11 years, and on his behalf, I'd like to invite up Morgan Walter, the director of technology. Bob, I want to start by saying I am not an educator, so my speech is not going to be as beautiful as Tristan's. So, I apologize. So, good evening. Tonight, I am here to recognize and celebrate someone truly irreplaceable as
007Bob is officially retiring from the tech department. If you walk through our halls, it's impossible to miss the profound impact Bob has had on our district, especially at our elementary sites. He is the ultimate problem-solver for both staff and students alike. To the kids, he is affectionately known as Mr. Bob, the friendly face who swoops in to swap out a Chromebook or sort out a connectivity issue. And for the teachers, he is an absolute calming force. Whenever a lesson is about to start and the tech acts up, Bob is always there to wrangle charging carts, fix a stubborn projector, and get the classroom back up and running without missing a beat. I've had the personal pleasure of working alongside and getting to know Bob for the last 5 years, and it has been an absolute
008joy. He's incredibly kind, deeply collaborative, and the type of person who never hesitates to step in when a colleague needs a hand. That dedication isn't new, and it's been there since the very beginning. Bob started his journey with us many years ago as a substitute before bringing his talents over to the tech team. You're amazing. Thank you for coming over to the dark side. >> [laughter] [snorts] >> It was no surprise to any of us when he won classified employee of the year last year. It was an amazing honor and a perfect testament to his years of hard work keeping his many sites running smoothly behind the scenes. Bob, you are going to be greatly missed by everyone you've helped and rescued over the years. You have more than earned this next chapter. Congratulations on
009YOUR RETIREMENT. WOO! >> [applause] [applause] >> CONGRATULATIONS, BOB. WE'LL MISS YOU. ENJOY RETIREMENT. Just the safety committee. I know. We will miss you on safety. He was a safety committee member, and he was amazing. We will miss you. We'll call you for a backup. In 6 months. That's right. Thank you, business office. Okay. Last but not least, we have three amazing educators that are going to be joining us shortly. I'll start with asking our counselor at Monterey Road, Joanne Job, to join us for 3 years of service here IN [applause] THE DISTRICT. NEXT, I WOULD LIKE TO INVITE up Terry Hillier, intervention coordinator, 19 years IN THE DISTRICT. >> [applause] >> AND I WOULD LOVE TO INVITE UP kindergarten teacher, 31 years in the district, TRISH COOLEY. >> [applause] [applause] >> PRINCIPAL ISBELL, WERE YOU
010GOING TO COME UP for just a couple moments, please, to celebrate your three retirees from Monterey Road? We actually have a whole team that would like to come Wonderful. Bring them up all, please. This is wonderful. >> whole team here. We're not going to cry. I know. I know. All right, thank you. Tonight, we gather with laughter and pride to honor three Mustangs who've been on this ride. Three women who've gave so much year after year with patience, compassion, and hearts so sincere. They've seen it all in elementary school life, the joy, the chaos, the noise, and the strife. Assemblies that echoed far and louder than planned, and students waving wildly instead of using jazz hands. >> [laughter] >> They've survived picture days, rainy days, recess inside, lost sweatshirts and water bottles piled mountainlessly high.
011Spirit weeks, fire drills, and cafeteria lines, and hearing "Teacher, teacher, teacher." At least 50 times. But through every crazy challenge and unpredictable day, they showed up for kids in the very best way. With kindness and humor and hearts full of care. They made Monterey Road better by just being there. Tonight we celebrate three incredible names, Trish Cooley, Terry Hillier, Joanne Job, as Task and Arrow legends being inducted into our Mustang Hall of Fame. >> [applause] >> First, Trish Cooley, our kindergarten pro, 31 years helping little minds grow. She taught little learners with patience and grace, even when glue sticks rolled all over the place. She zipped up jackets and calmed first day fears, and answered hilarious questions year after year. Do worms have eyebrows? Can I marry my hamster? Why is the moon following our
012car? And of course, the daily classic, "Teacher, is it recess yet?" Teaching kindergarten takes patience and heart, and Trish mastered both right from the start. Through giggles and wiggles and stories each day, she made every child feel loved along the way. For 31 years she helped students believe that school was a place where they could achieve. >> [applause] [applause] >> Then, there's Terry Hillier. Organized, smart, the assessment queen with a very big heart. She handled interventions, schedules, and tests, while somehow keeping everyone calmer and less stressed. Need assessment data? Terry's already prepared. Need student scores sorted? She's got them compared. Need intervention groups changed right away. Terry somehow had it finished earlier that day. She helped struggling students find confidence, too, always believing in what kids could do. Behind every plan, every graph, every chart
013was Terry's genuine, caring, and deeply committed heart. And honestly, let's all just say what's true. Without Terry's guidance, we'd still be testing in June. Or maybe July, too. >> [laughter] [applause] >> And now, Joanne Job, our dear counselor friend, who filled in at Monterey Road from day one to the end. Through your years with us here have not have gone by too fast. The difference you made will truly last, forever last. You helped students navigate feeling each day, from friendship drama to playground dismay. You listened with patience, comp- passion, and grace, helping each child feel safe and secure in their place. You handled the tears and the "He looked at me." fights, [laughter] the worries and fears, and occasional bites. And through each challenge, both funny and tough, you reminded our students that they were
014enough. Your kindness and calm showed up every day in that steady, supportive, quietly powerful way. >> [applause] >> So, here's to our retirees. We honor you tonight for making Monterey Road shine so bright. Thank you for the years, the laughter and care, and for being the steady support always there. Retirement now brings slower mornings and fun. No duty schedules, your alarm clock is done. Sleep in, relax, travel, and play. You've certainly earned it every single way. But don't stay away too long. You know the routine. Monterey Road will always need its dream team. Come back, volunteer, say hello when you're near because our school Oh, this is I'm not a pretty crier. will always hold you close and keep you right here. And no matter where retirement may lead you someday, your Mustang family is
015never ever far away. Oh, jeez. >> [laughter] >> Because once a Mustang, always a Mustang true, and Monterey Road will always have a home for you. Congratulations, Trish, Terry, and Joanne. We love you guys. >> [applause] >> Oh, I did not expect that from you. What's that? >> [applause] >> You know. I didn't step forward to tell you. >> [laughter] >> We don't like each other at all. I know. That was really bad. Congratulations. Thank you. I know. Yeah. It's good to see you. Good job. It's not. Good job. Oh, yeah. >> [laughter] >> Exactly. Exactly. I never I never said Especially when Can we all go? Let's go, [laughter] team. Let's go, team. >> [applause] >> Thank you, trustees. You may return to your seats. I'm going to I That was so beautiful to
016see all those wonderful smiles and tears and and much appreciation to those humans who have been with our little people and big people for so long. I'd like to um read off the names of our other retirees who are not present this evening with us. From our district office, Jenny Lindsey, who was in human resources for 4 years. From Atascadero High School, Alicia Foucault, a secretary and with the district for 4 years. Jody Batten, a LVN, a nurse, with us for 8 years. And Deborah Dawson, a special needs paraeducator educator, excuse me, here in the district for 11 years. From Atascadero Middle School, Deborah Lorden, a cafeteria assistant with the district for 10 years. At San Gabriel, Pamela Smith, a cafeteria assistant two for uh 25 years in the district. Tammy Rangel, special needs paraeducator
017educator, 4 years in the district. Cathy Bonar, instructional aide with the district 26 years. In Santa Margarita, we had a retirement of Teresa Goossen, intervention teacher with the district for 38 years. And at Santa Rosa Academic Academy, Rebecca Sciochetti, intervention teacher, and she has been with the district for 24 years. Thank you all for being a part of our community and celebrating our retirees this evening. Thank you. Can we get one more round of applause? [applause] Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um, our next item is a report of action taken in closed session. We had no action taken in closed session. Uh, next action Our next item is school-related reports. Do we have anybody here from CSCA? Nope. Okay. Uh, any representation from ADTA? Nope. Okay. We're going to move on to oral communication
018from public. Okay, thank you. Um, I'd like to remind everyone that uh, comments must be limited to 3 minutes in length. The limit for any one topic is 20 minutes, and you may speak at any on any item at this time, or you may hold your comments on an agenda item until the board president asks for public comment. Um, we have quite a few number of speakers tonight. Um, CAPS, would you all like to come up as one? Okay. So, first step is CAPS, uh, Ronnie Coster, Nicole Heider, Kerry White, and Felicia Imhoff. Good evening, everyone. My name is Kerry White, and I'm the president of CAPS, the Committee for Atascadero Public Schools. Um, first, I want to sincerely thank everyone who helped make this year a success for CAPS and the district. Because of
019the support our community volunteers, donors, staff, and families provided, CAPS was has continued to provide meaningful support directly to the classrooms and teachers of AUSD. I also want to recognize a few incredible people who make this work happen behind the scenes. Nicole Heider has done an amazing job leading our grant committee and helping review and organize the many creative and impactful grant applications we received from teachers across the district. Felicia Imhoff worked tirelessly executing the grants, handling purchasing, organizing materials, and making sure they the items got directly into the classrooms and into the hands of the two the students and the teachers. And then Ronnie De Castro has managed all of the finances and details that keep CAPS running smoothly and responsibly. We truly could not do this without them. We're also excited to announce
020that our CAPS Auction for Education Ignite the Future officially went live yesterday. This fundraiser plays a huge role in allowing CAPS to continue funding grants and supporting innovative opportunities for students through AUSD. And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Ronnie to tell you a little bit more about our auction. Good evening, trustees. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you tonight about our CAPS Auction for Education 2026. I'm Ronnie De Castro and as Carrie said, our online auction is underway. Um as always, we have the ever-popular high school VIP graduation packages which provide field passes and reserved seating for 12 on the track, a shade canopy if it's not too windy, uh two dozen bottles of water on ice and two premium parking spaces near the stadium entrance. There's one on
021the home side, one on the um visitor side, and they're both on the track. So, you're right there where your student gets their diploma. Um this year we also have a VIP promotion package from AMS that includes reserved front row seating for eight, a cooler with 12 bottles of water on ice, and Pambra Bracing shout-out answered our call for reserved parking and is generously donating two spaces in their lot just a block away from the school. We also have some great auction baskets that were donated by PTAs from AAHS, AMS, Fine Arts, Monterey Road, Paloma Creek, San Benito, San Gabriel, and Santa Rosa. So, thank you to all of those schools for their contributions to the auction. Um so, the auction runs until Monday the 25th at 8:00 p.m. unless we we have popcorn bidding
022enabled, which means that if somebody bids on, let's say, the home side VIP graduation package within 5 minutes of closing, it extends the closing time for 2 minutes. So, it prevents people from coming in and kind of like sniping in at the very last minute. So, it makes the bidding platform just a little bit more fair. Um we have flyers at the back that have the QR code and more information. For folks at home, you can find us at caps-atascadero.betterworld.org. And so, to speak on how we were able to support our public schools this year, here's Felicia. Again, I'm Felicia Imhoff, and um I had the privilege of being able to purchase and deliver numerous grants to um our district this year. And um I'm just going to list out what we were able to
023provide, so you have an idea of what um our resources were able to do. So, Santa Margarita, we received eight in the total value of $1,940. Santa Rosa, five grants, 1,818. Steps, one grant, 175. Monterey Road, six grants, 2,568. Paloma Creek, two grants, 270. San Benito, four grants, 1,596. Atascadero Middle School, 10 grants, 4,715. Carissa Plains, one grant for 175. Creston, one grant for 410. ACE Academy, two grants for 622. Atascadero High School, 10 grants for 6,220. Fine Arts, three grants for 1,730. And San Gabriel, six grants for 2,372. These grants were all divided up based on the population percentage within our school district that each site. And um all schools that had submitted applications received them. All sites did. And so, without um the support of the community and everybody that has been involved,
024this couldn't have been possible. So, we thank everybody for that. Hi, I'm Nicole Hyder. I'm the grant chair for CAPS. And um I'm pleased to present the board this year with our giant check um showing the total uh amount of $24,640 that we have granted the district this year. Um CAPS has been supporting teachers and students in the schools since 2007. Our current committee is comprised solely of the four of us. We would love to grow our numbers. Our goal is to hold a raffle um as part of a fall event to supplement the funds that we raise with this online auction that's currently happening. Um if we are unable to gather more volunteers, sadly the 2026-27 school year may be the last time we'll be able to offer grants. So, if any of you
025returning teachers are looking for something to do, >> [laughter] >> we'd love you to join our team. We also welcome any parents and community members to come aboard to continue our mission of supporting Atascadero teachers and their students. You can contact us and get more information about our auction or our organization in general at atascaderocaps.com. Thanks a lot. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Um our next speaker is Zara Wiley. Oh, I have to push the button. Hi, good evening. Thanks for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Zara Wiley. I'm the program manager for Learning Among the Oaks, a youth and family nature education program, and we're part of the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County. So, at the end of last week, I was dismayed to receive an email from district staff
026telling me that next school year the district would no longer be supporting our program for Atascadero Unified School District students. I wanted to share a little bit more about what this means for you and your community. Learning Among the Oaks started at in 20, I'm sorry, 2005 at Santa Margarita Elementary School. A teacher there had this dream of actually educating students out on Santa Margarita Ranch and she made it happen. So, we have continuously been educating students at Santa Margarita Elementary School for the last 20 years. We've also in that time been able to expand our program into almost all of the other elementary school elementary schools in your district. We've also expanded into four other school districts here in San Luis Obispo County. I was additionally dismayed to receive this email because the school
027district had this last school year funded less than 7% of our program costs. We have professional educators. Our program is bilingual. We teach in English and Spanish. We work with youth leaders that we train to help us lead all of our hikes. We have a very dedicated volunteer core and we provide additional services especially at Santa Margarita Elementary School which is our home school. Now, you're probably wondering about the other 93% of the funds that it takes to have this NGSS aligned program with all of these wonderful benefits. That adds up to about $60,000 for this last school year and that's money that our program has brought to you. I spend time working with local foundations. We do a lot with community donations. We also apply for a lot of grants to ensure that this
028program can continue to live here in Atascadero Unified which was the origination of this very unique education program. >> [snorts] >> I came here tonight just to open the conversation about what this potential change might mean for your students. This last year we we saw 1,100 elementary school students here in your district and we'd really like to continue to do this for another 20 years. Um I know that there's a lot of challenges with funding for education and special programs, but I have to tell you that all of the dollars that get put into these outdoor education programs come back to you in spades. Um, I have a little bit more time and I want to really quickly read um, a quote. Um, we have fifth grade students at Santa Margarita Elementary School. We train
029them for a whole year to be junior naturalists and lead hikes for other students and we just finished last year. This one said, "I learned how to lift a log. When I was doing uh, SBAC science testing, I already knew all the questions about science and how plants grow because Lido taught me. Thank you." Thank you. >> [applause] >> The next speaker is Jen Lannon. I think it's already on. Uh, thank you. Um, my name is Jen Lannon. Um, I come to you tonight not only as the program coordinator for Learning Among the Oaks, but as the parent of two oak ambassadors from Santa Margarita Elementary. Um, from the moment I chaperoned my daughter's first Lido field trip as a kindergartner, I knew this was a special program. I was amazed and delighted as the
030fifth grade oak ambassadors led and taught 30-plus five-year-olds about the various oak, uh, the various oak woodland habitats found just outside their school's gates. This program is life-changing for so many who are privileged to be able to experience it. For me, what started as being a chaperone turned to being a hike volunteer and ultimately a career change. For my youngest daughter, I witnessed a quiet, shy girl become a confident, um, and overzealous leader. For my eldest daughter, she fell in love with teaching elementary age students. Uh, she is currently in in the childhood development career pathway at AHS, um, with plans to become a local elementary school teacher. And just this past Friday, I also read in the AHS newsletter, um, about an oak ambassador from 2017 at Santa Margarita Elementary School who spoke at
031this year's pathway ceremony. She has gone on to open an independent preschool in our local community. Numerous oak ambassadors have gone on to study conservation, biology, and other earth sciences. For many children, learning among the oaks is simply their first time out on a nature trail, sparking curiosity about our natural world, and helping them understand why we need to protect it. It is a small price to to invest for such a large impact. We are hoping to create create the next generation of leaders, conservationists, and educators. I urge you to reconsider the district's funding position and to continue support this unique program that has been a part of AUSD for over 20 years. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Our next speaker is Victoria Carranza. Kirk Nordby. Thank you. Good evening, members of the
032board. My name is Kirk Nordby, and I am a special needs paraeducator at Santa Rosa Academic Academy. For my student, I work as a one-on-one paraeducator, for my student the classroom can sometimes feel overwhelming, and the need for sensory breaks is frequent. For us, the One Cool Earth School Garden is not just an outdoor science lab, it is a vital sanctuary. When my student needs a calm break, going out to water the plants or work on tasks with Mr. Apple brings a visible, immediate sense of peace and grounded joy. It is an environment where my student can regulate, find success, and return to the classroom ready to learn. If you defund this program, you aren't just cutting a line item on a budget spreadsheet, you're taking away a crucial therapeutic refuge for students who rely
033on it for their emotional and academic well-being. Furthermore, leaving this to individual site funding creates a massive gap in equity for schools that need it the most. >> [crying] >> I hear you. I understand that you are facing incredibly difficult financial choices, but I urge you to look at the human cost of this decision. Please prioritize district-wide funding for One Cool Earth and protect this essential space for all of our students. Thanks. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Victoria Carranza Someone told me my name was spoken, so Iris is here. We were hanging on to chat with you all. Um, thank you for having um the opportunity for us to speak on behalf of school gardens and school gardens for all. Um, my name is Victoria Carranza. I have worked as a garden educator for uh
034most of my adult career. Um, I have a few children now and I'm an Atascadero citizen as well as a former planning commissioner on the Atascadero City Council, um the planning commission, I mean. And um it has been wildly surprising that this is on the chopping block. I will say um now I'm on the uh the board actually for the nonprofit and I've had a lot more of a distance as far as being on the ground. I'm not here to convince you about school gardens and why they're important. I'm here to remind you. I uh before having kids um about 10 years ago was with the school board digging through the garbage all over the public schools and you guys were at a waste audit and you were seeing firsthand the natural resource management that
035the students had access to doing something about. They not only are in the school gardens and as the former person who just spoke said, there's a sense of calm and there's this environment in which provides curb appeal to the schools. You know, they do so much. And at at a different level, I come from a city planning background myself. I see that these students have a real opportunity to do something that takes science to another level, and they can apply it, and they can get to know their ecology, they understand their belonging in the community beyond human relationships, but just where their place is in the world. And they can look at the real data, they can measure it, and they can say, "What do about this problem? All this stuff's going in the landfill.
036All this stuff's, you know, so I was out there trooping around, and the last time I met every single board member, you all were out there with me digging in it. And that's that's where we want our students. That's where we want our teachers to take that science and make it real. And um like I said, I'm not here to convince you, but I'm here I'm just here to remind you. So, [crying] thank you for considering sustaining the school garden programs and >> [crying] >> our our partnership our partnership would be more than a year lost if you take [crying] it off. So, thank you. Thank [applause] you. Um Steve Steve Wrightson? Or Brooklyn Neighbor? Who was the first name you said? Steve Wrightson. Uh Brooklyn is right here. Oh, okay. Yeah, she can go
037first. >> [crying] >> Want to see if they can hear you? Do you want me to read it for you? Yes. All right. Can I stand with you? Yeah. Okay, I'm going to try to do this without being emotional. This says, "Hi, my name is Brooklyn. Please don't shut down the garden program. >> [gasps] >> I go there every day to regulate because I have a hard time at school. If you do cancel the garden, I will struggle with my behavior in every class. I need an outdoor space with plants >> [crying] >> to calm down and feel safe and find courage to face the rest of my day. It helps me be able to return to class. Going to the garden helps me to not hurt myself. >> [snorts] >> The lizards that live
038in the garden are also important >> [snorts] >> because when I find my calm, they let me touch them and that makes me happy which helps me to not want to leave school. >> [snorts] >> Mr. Apple is also very important because he teaches me about plants and lets me touch the dirt. I remember before the school had a garden I was angry a lot wanting [snorts] to hit everything and I never wanted to be at school. Since the garden program started, it has made me want to come to school >> [snorts] >> and helps me stay the whole day without hitting. Do you want to add anything? Okay. Um yeah, ever since she's got wind that this may or may not be canceled, she's talked about it every single day. This garden is fundamental
039to her success at school. And you know, I get it's about money, too. I don't have any experience in schools or managing anything like this like you guys do. So I guess we'd ask if there is no other way to figure out a way to keep the garden if we could find some happy medium where kids, special [snorts] needs or not, it's important to everybody to have outside access and a place to calm down because being in a school like that is is stressful. It's hard for anybody. >> [sighs] >> So if there's some way to have some kind of outdoor access that they could have, Brooklyn and all the other kids at that school would really appreciate that. Good. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Okay. Steve writes in. Uh good evening.
040Do I have to push a button or you can hear me? Okay. All right. Again, my name's Steve writes in. I'm a a Atascadero resident and grandfather of two Atascadero Unified School children. Uh I'm here to speak in support of the One Cool Earth gardening and and nutrition program. Uh I have two main points that I'd like to make and uh the first one relates to me. I was not a good student myself in my younger years. I started out uh not connecting too well with the classroom. Um I did uh recover at some point and went on and became an engineer and got a professional engineering degree. But uh first of all, I strongly believe that alternatives to classroom learning are vitally important, not just a nice-to-have component of our education system. Children connect
041with school and education in different ways. Hands-on, learn-by-doing education is an effective way to connect children that they may otherwise struggle in a repetitive classroom setting. This connection can allow children to excel in different in a in a different way, thereby enhancing their chances of success, rather than sustaining a purely conventional classroom struggle. Secondly, the citizens of our country are facing an overwhelming obesity crisis. And the United States is population is the greatest user of weight loss drugs. Teaching about and exposing children to nutritious and healthy eating practices at a young age is an essential tool for combating obesity. I believe this is a responsibility of our education system and is best done at a young age so that healthy habits can be developed early. So, I strongly support the One Cool Earth gardening program
042and very much hope that it can be sustained. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Next, we have Catherine. Hi everyone. Uh my name's Catherine Rontree Krieg. I'm the executive director of One Cool Earth. I appreciate uh the opportunity to be here and share a public comment. Um as you've heard tonight, our program is is valued by the AUSD community. We've been in partnership with AUSD since 2014 providing garden-based education on a weekly basis for all seven elementary schools and two middle schools. Um and the impact expands beyond academics. As you've heard tonight, uh the social emotional piece is I think something that's um you know, not always seen when we look at garden beds, right? We see garden beds on a school campus and think, "Oh, flowers, fruits, vegetables, those are nice things." Uh
043but these are really essential learning spaces within the school community. We are taking science education and giving kids Earth and life when they're learning about the Earth and life sciences. How can we learn about those topics without that in in our students' hands? And these spaces create community belonging in ways that are increasingly important to to students. We're getting kids outside, learning by doing, and off screens in a really meaningful way. This work has been deeply valued by the broader Atascadero community. This past year, we were recipients of the Kiwanis Club Winemakers Dinner, which raised $55,000 to support Atascadero programs. They had belief that the district was going to continue this partnership, that we had a strong relationship there, which I believe we do. But I'd like to see that, you know, continue. And I
044recognize the financial challenges. As the leader of an organization, I know how hard it is to make these difficult decisions, and I don't envy being in your shoes with making difficult choices. However, it's important to recognize that the district funding for One Cool Earth is highly leveraged. More than half of the cost of our program is supplemented by One Cool Earth fundraising. So we're receiving grants and donations to support our program, and we brought in around $90,000 a year for the last 12 years to your school district. If the district no longer provides funding to One Cool Earth, it's being asked that school principals and PTAs work together to identify that funding. We've heard from principals that they are unable to come up with school site funds to support our program. And uh so that
045puts it on PTAs. Maybe one, maybe two PTAs in the district would be able to identify funds for continuing the program, which would mean that there'd be an uneven uh distribution of our programming across [music] the district. Thank you. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Um >> [applause] >> next Next is Natalie Perez. Is Natalie Perez here? All right, it's already read. So hello, I'm Natalie Perez. I'm the director of school programs, also for One Cool Earth. I'm here to share a few testimonials of individuals who were unable to make it today. Though we've already heard a lot, so I won't take too much time. Um from a teacher at San Benito Elementary School, Nicole Dale, third grade. "My students and I love our gardens and One Cool Earth instruction. San Benito does not attend
046a science camp like many other California elementary schools. Our garden lessons are these kids' greatest opportunity to access hands-on environmental education. Opportunities like these are what make kids want to go come to school." Um Jess Niles, a teacher at Santa Rosa Academic Academy. "Our students love attending the garden with One Cool Earth. It is an amazing opportunity for students to learn outdoors, hands-on, and to interact with the environment. It is also a plus that the lessons follow the Next Generation Science Standards and allow students to learn science from someone other than their classroom teacher." And lastly, from Megan Camarena, a parent of a student at Santa Margarita Elementary School. "One Cool Earth has been an amazing program. My kids love it, and they come home talking about it all of the time, commenting that it's
047one of their favorite things to learn about. Learning about our Earth and ecosystem is so important. I always thought it was so great that Atascadero Unified School District included this in the curriculum. As kids need to grow up learning about these topics in depth from an early age. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Uh next is I think it's Rory and Emerson. Good evening. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening to the school board members. My name is Rory and my name is Emerson. And we are fourth graders at Santa Rosa Academic Academy. We are here tonight we are because we recently learned that the garden program may may lose funding and we want to share why it is so important to students. The school garden is more than just a place for plants grow.
048It is a place where students can can learn in a hands-on way. We plant seeds, care for them, and watch them grow over time. The garden teaches us responsibility, teamwork, patience, and problem-solving. It also helps make learning fun and exciting because we get to experience science in real life instead of reading about it in books. In the garden we learn how food or where come food comes from, how plants grow, and how insects and nature work together. These are lessons to remember because we actually get to see them and do them ourselves. The garden also helps students emotionally. Sometimes schools can feel stressful and the garden is a calm and peaceful place where students can take a breath, focus, and feel connected to nature. Not every student learns the best sitting at a desk all
049day. Some students learn better by moving, exploring, and working with their hands. The garden gives those students a time to shine. If the garden program goes away, future students will lose opportunities that are really special. They may never get to play with and plant vegetables, care for flowers, and experience outdoor learning with their classmates. For many students, the garden is one way for one of their favorite plant parts of school. They make excite It makes It It makes students excited to learn and excited to come to school. We understand the funding decisions can be difficult, but we hope we will continue supporting the garden program because it helps students grow up in so many important ways. The garden doesn't The garden does The garden does not just grow plants. It grows confidence, responsibility, friendship, and
050love, and a love for learn of learning. Thank you for listening to us and support students at Santa Rosa Academic Academy. >> [applause] >> Trish Cooley Okay, that's a tough act to follow. They did an awesome job. My name's Trish Cooley, and I've been a teacher in Atascadero Unified School District for 31 years, and before that, I worked as a classroom aide. I've worked and volunteered at many schools in our district, including Santa Rosa, San Gabriel, San Benito, and Monterey Road. I have even worked at Creston Plains Elementary. As a parent volunteer and staff member of San Gabriel, I helped to build the school garden. I was part of the driving force to help build that school garden so that our students could have outdoor learning experiences. School gardens allow students the opportunity to be
051in an outdoor learning space, experience growing and eating fresh fruits from our school garden, and learning about our environment. I was thrilled when we started having garden educators join our school team and teach our students in the gardens. Being at different sites, um I have worked with some different garden educators from One Cool Earth, and they have all been wonderful and taught me and my students many things about gardening and our environment. One Cool Earth is an invaluable program. Our students need to be outdoors learning about this world and where we live. Without One Cool Earth and our garden educators, I'm concerned that all of the work, time, and funding we have invested in these outdoor learning environments will turn to places that are in disrepair and become dilapidated and become an eyesore of our
052campuses. Currently, our gardens bring a lot of peace and joy to our students and to me. It is a wonderful It is wonderful to watch the excitement that the students have when they transplant a plant or even just plant a few seeds. This year we planted a bean seed. The students were so excited when their seedlings began sprouting. The pots did not have student names on them, so of course when the first seedling sprouted, all students were pretty sure that was their plant. As this plant grew and grew and others started growing as well, they just were so excited to watch the process and to take these plants home to their parents. Mrs. Wagner, my kindergarten colleague, and I purchased ladybug larva and caterpillars. The students have observed these insects as they changed and went
053through their life cycle. I was pleased and felt happy that we were able to release the butterflies and ladybugs into our food forest garden area. I would be sad to see this functional and beautiful part of our school campus fall into disrepair. Did you know that Mr. Apple, our garden educator, is a person who organizes and supervises our garden work days. Who will coordinate this in the future if we are no longer able to support this program in our schools? Please think of the children and the joy that being outdoors brings them and the amazing opportunities they have in our school gardens. Please support One Cool Earth and what they do for our schools and our students. Thank you for your time and for supporting these learning areas of our schools. >> [applause] >> Uh
054next we have Shelly Saitesma. Don't have to touch this? Okay. Um change the topic topic. Um my name is Shelly Saitesma and I come to you from the high school. I am representing um something that's really amazing happening on our campuses, especially the secondary schools right now. So often you guys are told about the challenges of students within the realm realm of special education. There are challenges with teachers, students not receiving support, funding. Well, Unified PE clubs and sports are moving in to be a bright spot on our in our district. Three years ago someone said yes to Jade Robinson, our adapted PE teacher, when she wanted to start Unified PE at the high school. When I was brought in 2 years ago, I was honored to take on this class when I was hired
055there. Unified, simply put, is just normal PE, but it's so much more. Unified PE is a unique opportunity for students of varying abilities and ability levels and backgrounds to come together on equal terms. It was born through watching students with disabilities severely struggle to make their way in the gen ed or neurotypical world. In a typical PE class, the one or two students with disabilities, they are ignored, forgotten about, and set to the side. We all know that inclusion and universal design is the goal, right? We know that the research supports having all students in their least restrictive environment. On paper, the Gen Ed PE class is this. However, practically, it doesn't look so pretty. When I was at the middle school, my exceptional students found themselves disheartened and alone despite my best efforts. They
056would walk or sit with their aides. They were on the outside looking in. Unified PE intelligently flips the script on this all-too-common scene. Unified PE is a push by Special Olympics to not separate students with disability, but to include. What we do now is allow students to choose to take a course that is intentionally inclusive. Half the class of 40 is Gen Ed neurotypical, and half the class is students with disabilities or students who historically have just not done well in a typical PE class. They do not have to require adapted PE services to be in this class. It's not adapted PE, it's just unified. I cannot express what a difference this makes when Gen Ed students make the choice to be in the class. They are there for the cooperative, not for themselves. Another
057key difference is that most of our students with disabilities are in there together in the same class. They have each other and their friends, and that that level of trust already exists then. And the Gen Ed peer buddies just add to their circle of friends. It's not charity, it's just friendship found through academics and and sport. So, what's next? This year at the high school and the middle school, our team established Unified Clubs. AMS is adopting Unified PE with Kenneth King and myself in this upcoming year. Our next endeavor is to become a Special Olympics Unified Champion School, which is a school that uses sport to engage um I feel like this is going to really work well with our Leader in Me programming and developing more leaders on our campuses. I thank you for
058your time. Thank you. >> [applause] >> OUR last speaker is Elise Villanueva. >> [clears throat] >> Um as you all know, um my name is Elise Villanueva. I have four kids in this district. I have a student at the high school, one at the junior high, one in kindergarten, and one in third grade in the ILC class. I want to call attention to the lack of support in the district, the lack of communication and staffing issues. Parents are left in the dark and attempts to pacify us with cell phone surveys. The merry-go-round of staff is abhorrent. How many of our team leaders are staying in the SISS department next year? We don't know. Is SISS being restructured? We don't know. We as parents have no information except the game of telephone we've all become victims
059of. Why are kindergarten classes >> [sighs and gasps] >> still overstaffed? Why are students being failed to be supported in the district? If you want this district to be great, you need to support your teachers, train support staff so they're confident in their ability, listen to parents and community members who are here every month begging for you to do better than bare minimum. I want to know where our community is. Where are the parent meetings? Where is the small town we're so consistently proud of? Because from where I'm standing, it feels like some voices carry more weight than others. And maybe if I worked in the cattle industry instead of volunteering my time sitting through others' IEP meetings week after week fighting for kids, I'd finally have the kind of influence this district listens to.
060My 10-year-old has been in this district for 5 years, had four special education directors, two superintendents, three principals, countless support staff, one being the crossing guard at our school, and even our school custodian has stepped in as my daughter's one-to-one. >> [snorts] >> When will we stop asking, "Why is this happening?" and start actually actively listening? We are here begging for collaboration. We want to support our district. We want all kids to thrive. Instead of spending $600 a day on consultants, why not try getting us all in a meeting? Buy us some coffee and give us an opportunity to collaborate for the greater good of the district. We are an untapped wealth of knowledge due to living life every day versus one visit to the classroom. Which brings me to the special education report. While
061acting as interim sped director, Mary Ellen Ness collected over 70,000, 7 0, thousand dollars from this district. She came to school sites, Monterey Road, Santa Rosa, one time that I'm aware of, and then [snorts] wrote a whole report on the whole of special education. As a parent to a child with special needs, I can guarantee there is no way to understand special education in one visit, and her contract dates ranged from August to February. I would love to know what work she was doing to better our district during that time because from the outside looking in, I see no meaningful changes as of date. In her two-page report, she mentioned all educational staff including teachers, BCBA's, EBS's, SN P's, and extensive knowledge of ongoing support to meet the needs of these very challenging students. I
062still see no improvement. Our staff has minimal training totaling 16 hours only days before school starts and are expected to have the knowledge of a teacher, the skills of a behavioral therapist, and the patience of a saint, all while getting paid less than an employee at a fast food restaurant. $70,000 could fund one cool earth for the entire district for the full year, giving students dirty hands, healthier habits, and a chance to grow something besides test scores. That's gardens, fresh food, curiosity, confidence, community, and a whole lot of literal and metaphorical growth. Maybe we all need to go touch some grass and reconnect to our values. THANK YOU. >> [applause] >> THANK YOU. OKAY, OUR NEXT ITEM IS OUR BOARD MEMBERS REPORT. I think I'll start first cuz I'm going to be short and sweet.
063Uh I wanted to thank everyone who came tonight to speak. Um CAPS, thank you for your amazing work in helping to support our schools. Um, Learning Among the Oaks, thank you guys for coming. Um, I want to say a special thank you to Brooklyn and to Rory and Emerson. Um, thank you so much for coming to speak. It really really meant a lot to hear from you. So, thank you. And you did a great job. Um, congratulations to our retirees and thank you for your years and years and years of service and we wish you the best in your retirement. Um, and that is all I'm going to say and I'll pass it on to Tracy. Um, uh, yes, again, thanks CAPS for, um, showing up. Um, ladies, uh, we can do this. Come on.
064People out there, we really do need the, uh, need your help, your support. Um, as long as I've been this in this district, uh, CAPS has always been there for, um, for teachers. Um, so, let's do it one more time. We can calling out. Uh, and then to all of our speakers, um, thank you for coming and expressing your, um, your concerns and why we need outdoor education. Um, also, the unified PE class. I think I'm going to make a visit. Uh, I don't know if it's in the next 2 weeks, but definitely it'll be on my agenda for next year. I'd like to see that. Okay. Um, because that would be, I like that idea of, um, sped ed and then gen ed volunteering to be in the class. And then, um, uh, oh,
065I was, oh, and then where I was, I've been all over the place. So, I'm just going to go with the one thing that I do like is the [snorts] Kiwanis breakfast. We have one more. I was up today at 5:30. Um we were at fine arts and um the one thing I like about um breakfast serving breakfast is the thank yous, yes please. Um we really appreciate this. All of the the nice positive words you hear in the morning and they go off and have a great breakfast um and start their day. So, yeah. One more we have one more at Santa Rosa next Tuesday. Um looking forward to that and the team. Um and that's it for me. Thank you. All right. Um thank you for everybody that came out to speak. Um
066acknowledge all the great work CAPS is doing. Um it's great to hear how passionate you guys are about all these outdoor programs that includes the PE program. Um I'd say I'd I really enjoyed everybody that spoke tonight. Um also say congratulations to our retirees and I'm going to finish with uh last week we had quite a few of our FFA students attending the Salinas Valley Fair up in King City and I was just going to there was a lot of success. I was going to give a shout out to uh some of the champions. We had a lot of class winners and a lot of people that did some really good things, but I'll uh keep it short. Um we had Jamie Conlan won best of breed with her rabbit. Um our livestock judging team
067uh won the whole competition and I know both dads and kids were on that team. Lacy Conlan won showmanship with her sheep and then also was the round robin champion and for those of you that don't know what that is, when you win uh showmanship you go back in and show every single animal that these students have shown, which is extremely difficult. So, if you're very good at she's obviously a great sheep show her. She went in and showed rabbits, steers, heifers, goats, pigs and came out the overall champion with that. So, very impressive. We had Cara Stadsen was the reserve market lamb champion and then in the beef barns, they swept it. Laney Arnold was the champion heifer and Autumn Treater was the champion market steer. So, congratulations to Kyle and his FFA program
068there. Still kicking. Okay. Thank you. Um, thank you all of you for coming in and and offering your thoughts and your experience in working with our students and supporting our students. That's what we're here for. And I hope that there is a way that we can embrace everyone. I don't know to what extent because of the state budget cuts that are coming. And and you were all aware of that. Thank you. I appreciate your candor for that. Uh, but let's let's work. I hope we can all work as a team together. Uh, Uh, the education under the oaks, I can remember when that was first established in Santa Margarita. And it became so popular and the students love it. And especially now and I and I know with my children they were able to go
069to a camp, Camp Keep. And from what I understand, that has been taken back a little bit as many students we haven't been able to send as many students and that was their experience of experiencing the outdoor plants and whatnot. And so, this is so beneficial to have it at the school sites. And uh, so, let's uh, let's keep our heads up and let's be positive and try to work on behalf of these students and thank you for your attention to that tonight bringing this to us. CAPS you've supported this school district and there's got to be a way because it has been so helpful. Every school every school in this district has benefited from all of your hard work with your donations. So thank you very much for that and hopefully I don't know
070we can maybe trace chicken barbecue at some fundraiser. >> [laughter] >> Well, you can get your Kiwanis. Anyway uh that that too is teamwork and and thank you very much for bringing that to us tonight. And to our retirees, holy cow, it did get a little emotional this afternoon. But with good reason. I mean we've we've we are gosh, we have the best of the best in teachers and uh our students benefit from those warm-hearted people that are teaching our children. So thank you for being here and and uh I and letting us recognize you in your retirements. Thank you. Well, >> [clears throat] >> I wanted to say thank you too to the speakers. Um Learning Among the Oaks was one of my kids' favorites. They were at Santa Margarita Elementary a long time
071ago, but you guys were there then and they loved it. So I appreciate you guys coming out. Um the gardens, that's a big deal too. I completely agree that we need to have, you know, a healthy society and to learn how to grow our own food and and I appreciate um all of you that came out and especially the kids. Um Brooklyn, what what you had written and had presented um was very impactful. So I appreciate that. Appreciate you coming out. Um the Unified PE, I don't know much about it, but it sounded like a great program. Rebecca, you're familiar with it, and I'm so happy that you guys came out and told us about that. Um CAPS, that was a lot of money that you guys had contributed to the schools. That's very nice
072of you and very important, and I hope it continues. So, I appreciate that. And congratulations to all the retired teachers. Um Uh we have a great district, and sorry to see them go, but excited for them to get to enjoy their retirement. And as far as my committee commitments this uh between meetings was the LCAP steering com- committee, and we are going to get to hear from EJ tonight um about that. It's kind of a a recap of what's going well, what we're looking forward to, and how um how we've been doing with that. So, that's the end of my report. Um yes, thank you for all the speakers coming coming out. And yes, Brooklyn, you were the highlight, so um I just want to speak a little bit on um I know we're not
073supposed to make a whole lot of comments, but that Unified PE has been um a a highlight to my student's day. I mean, literally, PE is her favorite her favorite thing, and Shelley actually gets her to run on on the track, actually run. So, Shelley's working it working it out. She asked me like the first year, she goes, "Well, how do I motivate Ella?" And I was like, "Well, if you can figure out how, please let us know." And she she's has somehow figured it out. So, I appreciate that. And then just a shout-out to the GenEd students that are in there, cuz that's a passion. Um and they volunteered to do that. And then they also went down to the 805 games uh the beginning of the month. so um yes, I I'm all
074the One Cool Earth stuff, I completely agree with what everybody else has said, too, so I don't want to rehash that. But, we went to the CSEA uh retirement dinner and recognition or um not dinner, but recognition this afternoon, and boy, there were so many people there, and then there was a lot of people that weren't able to make it, but the room was com- the cafeteria at the middle school is completely packed, so that's always kind of one of the highlights of the year is getting to see all all of the the employees. I was out of town for the um the ADTA barbecue, so I'm glad that I made this one. Um and we yesterday, a few of us were at the TIPS graduation, and I always like seeing those because those are
075you know, the newer teachers and kind of at the beginning of their career, so we got the beginning of the careers yesterday and the end of some of the careers today, which um I'm happy for [clears throat] those teachers and also sad for the district, cuz that's a lot of experience leaving and a lot of knowledge and um so it's all good. All right. Uh try to make this go quick, but thank you to our all our speakers for sharing their insights tonight. Uh we will take it very under very careful consideration. Um on May 8th 6th, I attended the San Benito open house and STEM night. Uh they had many community partners participating. It was a well-attended and well-run. I liked that several classrooms had comment cards for visitors to fill out. I heard
076that the students loved reading them the next day. Student projects showcased a lot of science and engineering projects, and I was surprised to see that each student has had a science and engineering binder that they kept uh over the years. In Miss O's class in Miss O's fourth-grade class, I learned about Rube Goldberg machines, which are chain reaction contraptions, and I got to drop marbles and see how each of these unique machines worked. Um the next day I attended the Educator of the Year event uh recognizing our retirees and honorees from each school site. I loved that each table was decorated to celebrate them. Um congratulations again to Julie Davis from AMS for being Atascadero's Educator of the Year. And in case anyone is keeping count, this is a three-peat for AMS uh with Miss
077Mrs. Davis being the third teacher of the year from the Atascadero Middle School over the last 3 years. Um I also want to congratulate Mrs. Heidi Cooper for being awarded ADTA's Who Award um the it's their We Honor Our Own um uh and then today we attended attended the CSCA Classified Employee of the Year event um which honored Laney Harp Hopper as our Classified Employee of the district uh for her years and years of service. Um I'm glad that we have these annual events to celebrate our amazing educators and classified employees. Um on May 8th I attended the AHS and AMS Choir Concert at ABC Church. Uh there were wonderful performances by each group and solos from our uh by our graduating seniors. Uh kudos to the seniors, some of who participated one or four
078years uh in this uh choir program. And I'm for mentioning such composure in delivering heartfelt solo performances. Um my trustees were all in a treat when we see these group of seniors perform at graduation. Uh so thank you to Mrs. Carrie Jones who does such an amazing job with these students. Um on May 9th there was a track meet at the a middle school track meet at the high school. My son and I got to work in the snack bar with other volunteers as a fundraiser for the PTO. I was really impressed by all the athletes who attended and represented their schools, as well as many of the teachers who were there to help with the event. Uh it was true dedication and we are grateful to showcase AUSD to our friends and neighbors. Uh
079this past weekend uh AMS Drama produced uh Too Many Detectives at the Murder Mansion at the AHS Black Box Theater. The play is described as a hilarious mystery full of twists, turns, and too many detectives to count. It was such a wonderful show with incredible acting, humor, and a very clever story. It had me guessing to the very end. Kudos to student director Brooke Gray and assistant director R.J. Geiger and the entire cast and crew. Uh also, thank you to Ms. uh Holden, Mrs. Pratt, and the AHS Drama students for their hard work and support of this production. Um and then on Saturday, uh we had the A-Town Throwdown Robotics Tournament for elementary and middle school students hosted and run by our own team 973 Greybots. The Greybots did a great job setting up the
080event, running the matches, and doing a play-by-play commentary. It was a long day from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. as Mrs. Darnell can attest. Uh she was there with her family. Um the demonstration of the Greybots' um Dustbowl was a fun break and activity for the students. Um I want to highlight that San Benito Elementary students won the team award and Carissa Plains students received an award for being there early and being resilient. Uh congratulations to our Fine Arts Monarchs for taking top honors at the tournament. Um and then lastly, the Teacher Induction Program Colloquium. Um Uh we had 13 teachers graduate from the program. This is a 2-year program um where new teachers are matched with a a mentor and um I love seeing how both these um mentors and mentees find the support
081and relationship beneficial. Uh this is a program that sets a good example for continued sharing and collaboration. Thank you to Ms. Colleen Matson for being our tip coordinator and doing such an excellent job um attaining our official program accreditation last week. Um and that concludes my report. Thank you, everybody. Our next item is our minutes. What? Oh, yes. We would love that. >> Okay. Okay, item 10 is our minutes. So, do I have a motion to approve the minutes from our last board meeting of May 5th? I move to approve the minutes from May 5th. Second. Roll call vote. Mrs. Coonley? Yes. Mr. Arnold? Yes. Mrs. Taylor? Yes. Mrs. President McGrew Cain? Abstain. Mrs. Coonley? Did I say that? Yes. >> You did. Mrs. Ellis-White? Yes. Mrs. Pierce? Yes. Whoops, yes. Thank you. You didn't
082get me. Ms. Kolzanek? Yes. Thank you. All right, next is our consent agenda. Does anybody have anything to pull? Uh I'd like to pull G just to um acknowledge the acceptance of the donation from an anonymous donor of $4,475 to Atascadero School District. That's pretty awesome. Thank you, anonymous donor. Yes. >> All right, do I have a motion for approval for the consent agenda items 11A through 11G? Second. Roll call vote. Mrs. Taylor? Yes. Mrs. Pierce? Yes. Mrs. President McGrew Cain? Aye. Mrs. Coonley? Yes. Mrs. Koznek? Yes. Mrs. Ellis-White? >> Yes. Thank you. Mr. Arnold? Yes. Thank you. Okay, our next item is item 12A, which is resolution 19-25-26, ordering the governing board members election. Mrs. Darnell? Uh thank you, Madam President. Um this evening, we're bringing forward a resolution, um like you stated, ordering
083ordering the governing board member elections. There are four at-large seats in Atascadero Unified School District Board of Education that are scheduled for election on November 3rd, 2026. These seats are currently held by Trustee Ellis-White, Trustee Koznek, Trustee McGrew-Kane, and Trustee Pierce. The new four-year term for these seats will expire in 2030. The recommendation of the district is that the Board of Trustees adopt resolution 19-25-26, ordering governing board member elections. Do I have a motion for approval? So moved. Second. Roll call vote. Mrs. Pierce? Yes. Mrs. Taylor? Yes. Mr. Arnold? >> Yes. Mrs. Ellis-White? Yes. Mrs. Koznek? Yes. Mrs. Coonley? Yes. Mrs. President, McGrew-Kane? Aye. Thank you. Okay, our next item is our public hearing for the collective bargaining agreement between Atascadero Unified School District and the California School Employees Association, at Atascadero Atascadero Chapter 124.
084Boy, woo. Okay. The board will open a public hearing and take public input regarding the public hearing {slash} collective bargaining agreement between AUSD and the California School Employees Association at Atascadero Chapter 124. I'm going to go ahead and open our public hearing. As board president, I hereby open the public hearing. We will now hear from the public. After we have heard from the public, the hearing will be closed. Has the board received any requests for comment during the public hearing? No. Okay. Uh is there anybody who'd like to speak? No? Okay. I'm going to close the public hearing. Uh is there any discussion on this item that the board would like to have? No. No? Okay. I'm looking for a motion. I have a motion for approval. I motion. Second approval. I second. Roll call
085vote. Mrs. Cooley? Yes. Mrs. President McGrew Cain? I. Mrs. Pierce? Yes. Mr. Arnold? Yes. Mrs. Ellis White? >> Yes. Mrs. Koznek? >> Yes. Mrs. Taylor? Yes. Thank you. All right, our next item is item 14A, which is our English Learner Master Plan. Mr. Rossi, you're up. Thank you, Madam President. Actually, for items 14A, B, and C, these were each before the board brought before the board at our last meeting for our first reading. Each of the three items have been available for public review. We've received none and these items are each being brought back to you for consideration for approval tonight and I'm happy to answer any additional questions before that. Does anybody have any questions regarding the English Learner Master Plan? May I have a motion for approval? I'll move to approve the English
086Learner Master Plan. Second. I'll second. Roll call vote. Mrs. Ellis White? Yes. Mrs. Conley? Yes. Mrs. Pierce? Yes. Mr. Arnold? Yes. Mrs. Taylor? Yes. Mrs. President McGrew Cain? I. Mrs. Koznek? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions regarding the science adoption, Savvas California Elevate Science? No? Do I have a motion for approval? I move to approve the science adoption. Do I have a second? I'll second. Thank you. Roll call vote. Mrs. Koznek? Yes. Mrs. Conley? Yes. Mrs. Taylor? Yes. Mrs. Pierce? Yes. Mrs. President McGrew Cain? I. Mrs. Ellis White? Yes. Mr. Arnold? Yes. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions or concerns, comments about AP Human Geography adoption? No? Do I have a motion for approval? >> I move to approve the AP Human Geography adoption. Second. Second. Roll call vote. Mrs.
087Taylor? Yes. Mrs. Pierce? Yes. Mrs. President Magro Cain? I. Mr. Arnold? Yes. Mrs. Ellis White? >> Yes. Mrs. Koznick? >> Yes. Mrs. Conley? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Rossi, our next item is 2026-2027 school plans for student achievement, and this is our information first reading. Yes, thank you. As you said, this is a first reading of our SIPSA's. Um each of our SIPSA's are a plan of how our schools are doing and what their goals are in working towards the next year. Each of our SIPSA's um follow the state template and are in direct alignment with our LCAP uh for our district. Each SIPSA includes site goals that support the attainment of our larger school district goals. Each of our SIPSA's are developed, approved, and reviewed by each school school site council prior to
088being presented to the board. Our SIPSA's are then reviewed by our directors of curriculum and instruction, and are presented tonight for the first reading. Our SIPSA's will be available via the public link in the agenda or available here at the district office between now and June 2nd when they will come back to the board um for consideration of approval. Thank you. Right. Does anybody have any questions? Comments? We'll bring them back to you next time. >> a comment. I just I haven't finished reading through all of them. I really love reading through all these SIPSA's because it really talks about what has been achieved and what the plan is for um improvement in the following year. And I just wanted to say thank you to all the school site council members for their diligent work
089on this um plan on these plans. Um so, thank you. Thank you. It's a lot of pages to go through here. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. Okay, great. Our next item will be our item 16 which is our board policies our first reading. Does anybody have any comments, questions, concerns regarding our first reading of our board policies and board bylaws? No? Okay, well that is information only. So, we will move on to our next topic which is our study session topics. Yay, LCAP! Mr. Rossi. >> [laughter] >> Yes. Thank you for your excitement. Um I better get that for budget, too. >> [laughter] >> So, we've had uh multiple LCAP updates throughout the year. We we really try to keep the board informed along the way. You've had information shared about our data as we've received
090it from the state. We had a mid-year LCAP update in March. And as we approach our June meetings when the LCAP will come before you for uh first reading and approval, wanted to give one more update. Um just checking in on where we are and what we've received. Um and so you'll see what's coming next. So again, as a reminder, our LCAP is a three-year LCAP going from 2024 through 2027. So, it's a three-year plan. Um this year you will see as we you get the document, um there'll be an analysis of our current year. You saw a preview of that in our mid-year update. And then um you'll see the plan going for next year, year three for 26-27. Um the LCAP has eight components. Um this again has a three-year plan. These are
091based on our original needs as identified in 23-24 for the 24-25 school year, the first year of the plan. Um as we go through um those eight areas will be covered in the LCAP. Uh some of those uh the original plan summary um was based on that first year of the three-year plan. The key areas will be the annual updates because it talks about how we did this year. Each of the goals will have an annual update and then looking ahead at the plan for the the upcoming year. On the right-hand side, I I did want to show some of the projections that we have for our current year 25-26, we had 49.19% of our students were unduplicate or counted for our unduplicated pupil groups. Um for our qualifiers, which brought just over $4.6 million.
092We have very little change as we go into next school year. Um usually we like that. So, we're looking at very light uh small change and our reduction in our percentage of qualifying students uh for funding and then our funding goes up by about $25,000. So, in the current budget states that that's usually good. Like, it's great we're getting the same amount of funding. Uh but one of those key pieces is in within our LCAP 93% of our LCAP is based on staffing. And each year we have increased costs with our staffing. Um people moving up a step, moving over a column. We have longevity for classified staff. Uh if we have salary increases or insurance costs, so that $25,000 um might make up about 10% of what those costs are for the increases in
093staffing. So, while we have we are anticipating pretty much a flat budget, um we'll still have to make some adjustments because of some of those increased costs. So, tonight I'll talk about what some of those adjustments are that we're looking towards. Uh one piece that we're still looking forward to uh final determination on the there is an uh funding source, an additional funding source represented in our LCAP other than our supplemental funding, and that is our LREBG. Um that potentially is expiring. We do have a deadline to send uh spend that down. Um there might be there's some conversations at the state about increasing some of that funding, but we don't have those numbers yet. Um one of the things that's nice is that this is a fluid plan. As those if those dollars do
094appear, we will be able to make adjustments throughout the year and then they'd be brought back to the board as long as they would be in alignment with our current LCAP and brought back to the board in the mid-year up-year update next year. So, as we look at going from one year to the next, we really want to try and maintain as many of our actions and services as we can. Um, if we have changes uh for the positive, they would probably be between the LREBG funding. And so, as we look at our adjustments, we really tried to take advantage of natural attrition. If we had staffing um staffing that left us, staffing retirements, um and some of our adjustments to maintain services are going to some centralized services. And so, where we might have
095a staff member at every site, we might go to a centralized service where we share some staff between sites to try and keep some of those same services. So, I'll I'll talk about that tonight, but overall, those are some of the changes that we might see as we're projecting as we're wrapping up our LCAP. Could you um tell me what LREBG's what acronym that's acronym? >> Yes, it is our learning recovery emergency block grant. Grant. Okay. This was uh funds originally that came out just after COVID. Um, the state has funded to uh for that learning recovery, but there is an expiration date um of what we have now, but there discussions that there might be some potential changes. So, we're hopeful. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. I'll turn this off now. So, as we
096looked at potential adjustments uh within our plan, we've seen the impact of our actions and we and I'll I'll talk about some of those later. We're seeing some improvements uh but we do know that there are some budget reductions coming across the state uh and as we talked about increased costs with flat funding. So, this year as we were gathering information from our student ambassadors, which are we have 6th through 12th grade students across our four sites that we go out and engage with. We've talked with our district leadership teams and our site administrators and our L cap steering committee, really wanting to find out what are those things that engage our students. If the actions and services we have in place were making incremental growth, what are those things that really are engaging our
097kids so we can make sure we do our best to try and maintain those um amidst the the changing fiscal um landscape in front of us or adjust as needed. So, these were examples of questions that we asked um each of those groups. We had about 10 questions, but I tried to pick some across those main themes that were just asking about engagement. What What is it that drives you? What do you What gets you here at school? What engage What are you proud of that you do? What are those things that make you want to be here? And so, when we looked at the responses for the students, um this was kind of a culminating themes that we found. Our our students stated and our adults uh confirmed and verified, our kids love when
098they're they have hands-on activities, when they're able to create, build, design, multiple references to our CTE classes where they're able to actually have a product that they end up with. But even within an English class and they talk about essays that they have the flexibility and freedom to create and they have a uh story that was the their story instead of an assigned response. So, that ownership of being able to create things was came across from our students. Um lots of students and adults talked about the engagement that we find of our students in our VAPAs, our visual performing arts. So, band, choir, music um PE was a great one. I put it in there because in that same category as as I we as we hear with answers and responses, we try and um
099tether out the why behind it. And they the kids were great. They were I've been like, "PE? Like, PE engages you. And they said, "Yeah, we have to do challenging stuff. And then when we are successful, like we love it." Um they talked about the different things that they're exposed to other than maybe traditional sports and they're doing javelin in middle school, which is scary to think about. Um but how that challenge and then overcoming the challenge. Even the kids who aren't participating in theater, uh students saying, "I got to make costumes and I saw the costume I made up on stage." And so just that that challenging item that they found success in uh and in those different areas, that tied right into many of our advanced courses where kids loved that challenge piece.
100Our dual enrollment, um anything that had uh again I I'll say that later, but as we talked about that, I was thinking, "Well, that's great for those high-end classes." And in my head and as students continued, they started to say and talk and it was great to hear the kids talk with each other. Cuz they'll say, "Oh, and I want to add on to this." And to piggyback with this student said. And they would go on to say, "Even in my classes that I might not be in the highest level math class, but [clears throat] it's challenging and I like it. And then I get support in my support class and I go back and I'm able to be successful in my regular class." To hear the kids talk about the importance of that was
101and and how that keeps them um wanting to succeed was great to hear. Uh kids and adults both appreciate classes that require teamwork, not just work where they're working next to each other, but together they're working on items and having products. And anything that required communication. Um we had some teachers that were in the room when students were saying this or heard about it afterwards or or in our D-Lac meeting, uh one of our English teachers was sharing that it's not something you would think kids would say because when you're teaching kids, they don't always want to speak up during that lesson. But our kids [snorts] really were reflective to say, "I I know how that's helping me. I know it's helping me now. I know it's how it's going to help me when I
102get out of school to be able to communicate to my peers and to adults. And so all of those classes that require communication, they felt like those were uh in really wanted them to continue to do better. And then opportunities for choice and ownership. So this was really good information for us to have, especially as we're going into the third year of our plan where we're maintaining many of our pro- programs, looking for opportunities to expand if additional fundings come in, but really as we're going into the strategic planning the district is doing next year, too, this was great information to hear from our students, our leaders, and our um advisory groups. Specific to the goals, we have four goals in our LCAP. Again, these goals were originally created in in 23-24 based on those
103results for our 24-25 school years and beyond. Um our three goal our four goals are around academic achievement, cultural climate, professional development, and then we have one specific goal because of equity multiplier funding for Caruthers Plains. So we'll go through each of these goals briefly tonight. Um what those pictures will show in the next is the the rectangles that are in blue are the unduplicated pupil groups that um have had red indicators in those state priorities. The yellow are the actions and services that we provide through these goals, and then green are the metrics of how we measure. So as we go through those color patterns will stay the same. So our goal one, um are the two state priorities that were our highest needs were around our academic assessments, uh ASBAC our ASBAC results,
104and um our EL assessment results, and then around our college career indicators. So most of our actions and services are in those areas. Um again, as we said, we've seen some improvements in those areas, uh just going from our prior year data to our most recent data, our college career indicator [snorts] improved by 3.9%. Looking at our percentages of met or exceeded for ELA, math, and science, they each improved by 3.7%, 3.6%, or 2.8%. So, we we shared that data it's been since October, but just a reminder we're seeing those um incremental growth. We want to keep our actions and services going to maintain that. So, as we look at the actions and services in goal one, when we look at things we want to try and improve, we want to really fine-tune our assessments.
105We've talked uh with the board about how some of our local assessments are at that foundational skills level, and we're wanting to look at assessments that are more rigorous, that match the level of rigor from our state testing that we're we're measured by and held accountable to. So, looking at and we started this year um utilizing the IABs and the FIABs, so those are interim assessment blocks or focused interim assessment blocks that are from the SBAC and align to the state standards you're teaching. So, we want to continue improving in our use of those. And then as we looked at data, uh really wanting to get that student data in the hands of our teachers. We do a great job getting to our principals and our intervention teachers, but how do we get it into
106the teacher of the classroom so they can use that with their kids? So, these are not additional costs, but again improvements we want to make within the services that we're providing. Some of our adjustments that I I talked about is would be with our intervention teachers. We've had some um intervention teachers who have retired. Um Mrs. Hillier was one of our amazing intervention teachers. Uh we've had some temporary intervention teachers whose contracts has expired, and so in utilizing uh taking advantage of some of those uh attrition, we'll look to centralize those services. And so, instead of having one at every elementary site, we're going to share them between so we can maintain those services um and and take advantage of some of those uh attrition to offset those budget costs where we have our increased
107staffing but flat funding. Um this is one area this is the only goal where I put potential ads because our LREBG funding falls mostly in it's in goal one. If it's learning recovery, our goal one is on academic achievement. So if we're able to make adjustments, this is where we could consider some things in our LREBG. And so that's where some of that input could help us. So again, that information and that will probably come after the LCAP's approved, after the budget's approved, but it's a fluid document we would be able to look at as a district in the fall and and make needed adjustments to that still align with our plan. I have a question about the LREBG and if we had more we'd add on hands-on opportunities. Like we heard tonight about, you
108know, the One Cool Earth and Learning Among the Oaks. Is that something that might be added or supported with LREBG funds if we had? That's a great question. Um >> [snorts] >> I can give you the lawyer answer, it depends. Uh it's nothing I would or the board would commit to tonight, but one of the big difference I'm actually really glad you asked this because I don't get to talk about this answer publicly probably enough. Um one of the things specific to the LCAP is the LCAP is intended to utilize data to identify student needs. Specifically student needs of our unduplicated pupils. Once you have identified those needs, then you have to match research evidenced solutions to match those needs. And then you can utilize the funds for those research-based solutions for the need. So
109in an example where um any program might qualify like well this is a great program, can we use some of these supplemental fundings for it? In the past, prior to LCAP and supplemental funding, you could match funds and needs that way. In this case, if we had a group of students and we found that in our unduplicated pupils for their test to help improve their test results on local or state tests, we needed in science, we needed more hands-on science pieces. You would have to have that need first and then identify the resource that or action or service that meets the need. So, it does become pretty difficult within the LCAP to add solutions, I'll say, without having a specific targeted need towards an unduplicated pupil group that that service is principally directed towards. So,
110it's it's it's a very difficult conversation because when that happens, we'll get I get questions a lot and Mrs. Darnell as well, like, "Oh, can we use LCAP for this? Can we use supplemental? Can we use LREBG?" We have to have an identified need with a unduplicated pupil group where the service and action is principally directed here and it might be able to use it across the district, but um this type of funding isn't as easy to say there's a funding source and a and a program or an action or service that we could apply it to. This one goes need, research-based solution instead of the other way. So, I'm glad you asked that question. Thank you for clarifying that. Yeah, I can see that there needs to be a process. Like, you have to
111come Yeah, you have to start put the cart Don't put the cart before the horse. Yes. And other funding sources have more flexibility. Hey, here's this funding source, you can use it for our our Prop 28 is broad in how you can use it towards increasing your arts and music. Um this one's So, they're saying, "Here's money for arts and music. Go find arts and music to put into your schools." That's That and something like that would work. LCAP starts need, research-based solution, action service principally directed towards, expand out. Thank you for asking that. Thank you. So, EJ, when you say add, uh what do you what is that a a wish list or is that a What are you saying add, but yet we can't because we don't have We have to identify the
112sub the the the subgroup has to show a need in order for us to spend that money, but yet I don't Why do we have Why do you have add then and what more of A B C D E? >> now when we're asking our kids about student engagement and some of our goals are around having them engage for attendance, for discipline, how are we keeping our kids active while they're in school? Some of those responses that they act that they gave when we asked those questions are the things that bring them to school, why they come to school, what keeps them engaged. So there would be the ability to try and if we have this need and our attendance is a key area or suspensions, we might be able to match those up. The
113only reason it would be an add is because we it would be more funds than we have now. So right now our funding is flat, our actions and services are staying flat. So if there were additional funding, we could look to see what are our continued needs and are there services that we can add to match those needs. But if you're if you don't ask the right question, you don't find out about the need because for outdoor education, some of that was about emotional and social social peace of mind, a mindset. So is that a question that's asked so that you can show that these subgroups show that this is a need, they need to have tranquility, they need a quiet space, they need hand I you know, whatever to show that it's outdoor it's
114out outdoor education could meet that or the or the you know, the One Cool Earth, the garden or under the oaks meets that. I mean, it it's a question that you have to ask them, right? Or how do you identify that need to So we asked broad questions. We made sure that each of our student ambassador groups represented the same percentage of demographics of our unduplicated pupil groups. So if we had a group of 10 kids and certain percentage of our students are English learners or each of our groups were in that population. And then we asked broad questions. What makes you What have you What's something you've done or accomplished that's been that you're proud of? And we said it could be a class, it could be a program, it could be an activity.
115Yeah, they were broad with those were samples. So we asked broad questions, expanded it to it could be a class, a program, an activity. And they mentioned some programs. So there were programs where robotics was mentioned. So we we gave it that broad ability for kids to be able to answer openly and made sure that the student groups matched the same percentage. So if we're looking at that, we would have a a broad representation. Again, if it's something where funding comes in and they want it and the state and the the district wants to re-look at that, absolutely something we could do. It will be interesting to see what your percentage was in each of those groups and what and their responses. I mean, you you basically have given [clears throat] us a a lump
116sum. categories But yet, we can't use our money unless that subgroup has need has been identified. What will What I would anticipate would happen if we received any additional funding, we would go back and look at each of the needs across our LCAP and say which are those highest priorities. And there might be a higher priority to say we need to put this intervention in place. So it would I don't anticipate a large amount of L R E B G money coming in to be able to hit a broad range. So, it would be the district's responsibility to prioritize what our highest needs are. We'll have new information that comes in. We'll be able to look at more current test results. So, it would be a re-analysis of each of those areas prior to make
117a decision and say which of where did we see growth? We anticipated this and now how are we utilizing funds priorities? The additional piece with L R E B G's L R E B G has a specific um list of uh acceptable uses. Mhm. >> I don't know that it would be able to be used for an outside program. We'd have to review those. Those um requirements within L R E B G align with L cap. So, that's why we have to put it within there, but it's specific to teacher education, um staffing around interventions and teaching. So, it's there are limitations to what L R E B G can be used for. So, it might be able to be used to bring back a class that teaches those things, but it might not be
118able to use for a program that's supplemental and outside of the classroom. So, we would have to compare it against those L R E G B funding requirements. There's there's very strict limitations on what it could be used for. Okay. Well, maybe we could get that so we could Well, piggybacking piggybacking on what Tracy is saying for that L R E I got to put my glasses on. L R E B G >> [clears throat] >> could that hands-on be classified as a science program? A science class that we to I'm I'm looking for the funding of that. I We would have to go back and again, is there a specific targeted need for our students that this that they're when what is the research-based approach? L R E B G is going to be
119very specific and and I I I don't know those again off the of my head. We have to review those and go through those and this is Darnell and I work on those together. But they are specific very often to staffing for such as like certificated teachers, professional development, assessments. Those same state priorities that are within the LCAP are very much those same state priorities that are required for the learning recovery emergency block grant. Um So I don't want to put a hope out there that it would be able to be used for a program like One Cool Earth, um Ledo robotics. We would have a hard time showing how those are directly connected to the state pri- eight state priorities and those funding sources. Um But again, we'd have assuming funds come in, we'd
120have to go back and review those pieces. But but I was just thinking making that as part of our curriculum of science. Putting it under that title of in our curriculum. Yeah, it'd >> our our teachers It'd be an additional piece that we'd be adding into what our teachers are already teaching during their limited time. It It'd be a tough pull to to include that into that class time. That'd be tight. Um Yeah. Well Be nice to look at that and see what possibilities we might have with that. Cuz that just It just serves a need. Incorporated under our science curriculum. That possible thing. >> our science scores actually went up a lot or went up this year. Some of our highest scores were in science. And tying that into the curriculum we'd have to
121really look at how that funding would even Yeah, it'd be difficult to to come back and review that. Just say there's a chance. There's a chance. So you're saying there's a chance? >> [laughter] >> And if I can and and I'm I'm sorry to interrupt um if I can interrupt for just a moment and um apologies to EJ. So, he alluded to that there is potential for additional LREBG dollars. Um for those of you had the opportunity to attend the CSBA um budget breakdown. Um they haven't attached a per ADA funding amount to that. So, we don't know what that additional funding will look like. Um there's also an expiration date on those funds of June 30th of 2028. Um so, we'd also be curious to see if there is a an extension to that
122deadline cuz that does change things. Um that being said, there are some kind of strict requirements um within there. Um the uh and I've had a lot of conversations with with One Cool Earth as we've been working through this. This is a conversation that we've been having actually for quite some time. Um and and I know I shared a little bit with that of that with you guys. And I encourage them like if if we we can evaluate this through a programmatic lens, but when we butt up all of our priorities up against each other, you know, we have to make choices um based on uh an ongoing structural deficit. We're in a We're in a difficult place and the district has prioritized um its staff and its people and ensuring that we um maintain
123uh as much as we can, um but we do need to be cognizant that we we continue to be in this um challenging fiscal front. Um and it's it is unfortunately incumbent upon us to make difficult decisions. Um but that being said, um I have I spoke with them as as late as today and said and connected them with um incoming uh folks and said we're we're happy to explore this from a programmatic lens and look at how we can wrap this into the curriculum as as potentially part of our future. So, we have not shut the door on that relationship, um but we do need to be cognizant of some of the challenges we're facing. Um it was grant-funded this year, um and at the end of this year we won't have enough dollars.
124>> I don't know, uh this isn't an actual agenda item. Thank you for the input though, but I just don't want to go too far down that that hole. Thanks. [laughter] Yes, it in some ways we were just starting to get off track into a different conversation, so I just wanted to just make sure we're staying on agenda. Goal two. Um so goal two go goal two is around climate and culture. Uh it's another one of our broad goals. The two state priorities where we had the most identified need was around improving suspensions and chronic absenteeism. Uh again, we've seen improvements. Uh looking at our mid-year to mid-year comparison at the end of March, uh and I I think I had shared this in one of our earlier presentations, our comparisons of suspensions have reduced
125by 15% uh in a March-to-March comparison. Uh last year we had 179 suspensions at the end of March, this year 151. Our chronic absenteeism also has gone down from 16.9% as measured locally to 13%. And so we're seeing again continued incremental growth. So as we're looking at improvements, we want to continue to implement our Leader in Me and PBIS leadership roles across our schools and grades. We want to um really one of the things we identified when we were um looking through our suspensions and chronic absenteeism was how are we engaging our parents and our families in this. And so we want to really improve our parental support regarding attendance earlier in the process. So how are we having SSTs, student study teams, earlier in the process, SARB earlier in the process to engage parents,
126and then again with suspensions, uh we've we've begun using alternative suspension more. We are seeing fewer students who are being suspended multiple times, and so we want to continue to improve our use of alternative suspensions when it's applicable. Um any adjustments, uh again, some of that uh idea of centralizing services and balancing our counseling across our elementary and middle schools, um as we've taken advantage of again some nutrition there. As we look at goal three, goal three is a maintenance goal. Uh this goal is specific to the professional development uh that we provide throughout the district. Um our P we do pad satisfaction surveys at the end of our professional development sessions with our teachers. Our um scores from last year to this year have improved on a one to five scale. Last year we
127were 4.17. Um as far as our satisfaction and use in their classroom after the session, this year we're up to 4.53. So we're continuing to see incremental improvements there. As we look at improvements moving from our current year into next year, we want to start to work to align our professional development with some of the strategic planning outcomes. We're really looking in those four areas of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and academic climate, and so aligning our professional development there. Uh increasing our professional development on English language development and our special education needs and our common core state standards. As we look at adjustments to this, uh one of our uh expenses in um goal three and action services is the stipends for instructional leadership teams, our teacher leaders on stamp on campus who get stipends, and
128um going back to that same idea of looking at our needs, this is where we are really working with our school sites for them to review and analyze their needs and how they're utilizing those stipends. So, we're seeing some adjustments there. Going back to some of that centralized support of how we're providing professional development instead of um individually at each school site. Our last goal, uh goal four, is an equity multiplier goal. Uh this is a goal um this is a focus goal because it's specific to one school. We've had this goal for Cuesta Plains and um previously for Paloma Creek when Paloma Creek qualified. So, you qualify for receiving equity multiplier fund when you have mobility over 25% of your school population and poverty over 75%. Mobility isn't immigra- like immigrants where there's specific
129immigrant funding, it's just students could be moving in or out. So, when your school population is approximately 20 or less, hitting 25% mobility isn't that hard. You could have one family leave and another family move in and you would have hit that um mobility component. And so, by qualifying um the school receives approximately $50,000 that needs to be utilized towards an identified need. The school has used that to provide staff to um provide intervention services uh targeted to English language arts and math. Uh the improvements as we look, we're seeing improvements at that site in their local indicators or their local assessments and we want to continue to adjust um their targeted interventions to be more rigorous in their small groups to be at that level of um expectation from our state assessments. So, our
130next steps, uh again, not a lot of changes. We're going into our year three of our LCAP. We're we're seeing those incremental adjustments or of improvements. We're making slight adjustments based on staffing where we can, centralizing our services. So, our next steps are to finalize the budget components. Mrs. Darnell and I will continue to work on that. We'll incorporate the final adjustments that we were talked about tonight and then present the finalized LCAP before the board and to the public on June 2nd with approval on June 9th. That is our updates for the LCAP. Any other questions? Thank you, AJ. Mhm. Thank you. And you're up again for a topic I'm very excited about. So, tonight we're going to really set the stage. I love this first infographic not because anyone can read it because
131it is a picture of we're setting the foundation. We're we're kind of just going over where we are. Where are we as a district? What is our It's an update and an overview really setting the stage for what's to come because we're at a very exciting place in our district for what's coming next. So, to be able to talk about that in CTE is a fun topic. And so, as we think about the history of where we've been, if we go back to between 1982 and 2014, our district operated as a member of the Santa Lucia ROP. And so, it was a JPA. It was multiple districts who came together and provided ROP courses where students could move between schools and take courses. There wasn't as much moving. We had a lot of the same
132courses, but it was a way to provide those hands-on courses for our our students to prepare them for careers after high school. In 2015, the state funding model changed and the state started having specific funding for CTE, career technical education. And so, at that time, we the JPA voted to disband, have individual districts start CTE programs so that they could take advantage of the state funding and build pathways, many of which were the same, and we were able to expand beyond what we were offering. So, in this uh diagram on the left are the five funding sources that we currently use uh for our career technical education programs. Um these five funding sources are grant-based. We We write grants for them every year. We report our data and how we're doing and making improvements. Our
133teachers have input on how those funds are used, and they fund our industry sectors, uh which are represented on the other side. So, this funding model shift allowed us to expand what we're offering and really take a little bit more control of it as a district. When we look at what we offer as a district, we have a three-phase plan, uh really looking at the difference between elementary, middle school, and high school, where at the elementary we're building awareness. We want students to start to explore that in our middle school, and then specialize it in our high school. Uh tonight we're going to be talking a lot about where we are, and then ending with um possibilities in front of us, but wanting to maintain that awareness, exploration, and specialization. For our elementary, uh when
134it comes to bringing awareness, uh this year we partnered with the San Luis Obispo or San Luis Coastal Education Foundation, uh who started uh the K-12 Regional Skills Lab. This has been a great program for our kids. Um each month the foundation delivers a box to every teacher in our district, K through 5. Uh the box has lessons and activities and videos, question prompts, hands-on activities for the kids to build and do around each of these up-and-coming industries. Um the industries that they uh are listed there are the five that they focus on. Uh again, we're trying to bring awareness to our kids of what those potential um um industries will be. And those were chosen because those are the current and up-and-coming industries within San Luis Obispo County. Um I have to say I
135will personally confess I was a little hesitant uh worried that this might be one more thing for our teachers. Our teachers have loved it. Um our kids love it. And as when we talk to um those in the Educational Foundation from San Luis Coastal, the at after each um month, the teachers complete a survey and they the foundation raves about our Tasked to Learn teachers and how they have just taken this on and built this into their classrooms. So, this has been a great opportunity for all of our elementary kids um at each of our um schools and classrooms to get early awareness about those career technical industries in our communities. Shifting to our middle schools where we want to begin that exploration for our students. Um uh one the first one on top that
136all of our students get is we utilize a program called Zello where students get to research each of the 15 state um industries and pathways, build portfolios, and learn about those industry basics. We have courses in design and construction, intro to theater, and digital media arts, both of which or each of those that feed into our high school programs. And so, trying to get that opportunity for our kids to start to explore. Uh we also have some electives that um and and programs that kids can choose that we try and build into that. So, building that exploration at our middle school level. And then at our high school level, really um allowing kids to specialize. And so, this visual really just shows and highlights the fact that our programs are CTE programs have an introduction
137course that gives that broad information about the course and the industry and the pathway. They next take a class that's a concentration level where they start to build those technical skills and then finish with a capstone that has real-world application mastery and certification. Really looking to build from here opportunities for kids to have internships as well. So, that three-phase three-course pathway is the same for almost all CTE pathways. There are some that have been built into just two. And so, there's some are able to go from an introductory it's a high enough level that they can get to a capstone and will have a two-course pathway for some of our students to become CTE completers. Looking specifically at the nine pathways that Atascadero offers, they're listed on this slide with each with a number of
138students this year that were in each level as an introductory or a concentration or capstone. So, we have about a thousand students seats about a thousand seats being taken by students in our CTE pathways. Floral design is a newer pathway to our high school and patient care is a new and developing pathway that we're building out that concentration and capstone and will continue to grow. Again, really looking at where we are and then wanting to look at a comparison of if this is where Atascadero is and we're having conversations about our county and county industries, what are the other schools in our county offering when it comes to CTE? So, we went together we went and pulled together information from each of the high school's websites about the CTE offerings that they have. As we
139look, we see some areas that are very common. Um, I think in the ag and natural arts media, health science, and transportation, we see across almost every school in the county is offering. The education and child development is only offered at Atascadero High and two others in Nipomo and San Luis. And we're seeing great things come from that where kids are able to go through our education and child development and come out because of the dual enrollment with Cuesta with the certifications that they can use to go into employment. The opportunities that require ECE coursework. So, the other when I one other thing that I found that was interesting is Atascadero High again we have nine pathways in our high school. When we look at high schools that are even bigger than us, Arroyo Grande,
140Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, each of them offering nine as well. Um so, I I think it is nice for our district that we're able to offer that many for a school that is our size. Adrian, I have a question. >> Mhm. When I'm looking at this on AHS, I only see six check marks. Yes. But you keep saying there's nine, which I get the slide before is more, but why is there a difference? >> Arts and media, this industry sector arts and media has three pathways within it and then ag and natural resources has two. Okay, got you. So, we're more concentrated in certain sectors, but we have [clears throat] more pathways we have more path Okay. >> Yes, so the industry sector is broad and they'll have pathways within them. Okay. Great question.
141So, this slide isn't really showing us because all the other schools could also have multiple pathways in each of And that part was harder to find from within their websites. This we were able to get a straight comparison. It it hard to get each of those individuals. There was two that were very easy. The others were kind of hard to scour that information. Okay, thanks. And for building and construction, they do some of that, but they it's not a full They they just touch on it in in um some of the classes. It's not a full It's more specific to the ag mechanics component in that pathway where it hits the three levels of the pathway requirement. For the building and construction, it's more specific where we go into the electrical components or you can
142go into like there to have that three-course pathway, it's more specific. Ours incorporates those, but it's under the ag mechanics component rather than the the building. Okay. So, I think as we talk about what we have as a high school and middle school and elementaries, where we are as a district, as we're looking ahead, some of the pieces of information that we really need to start to look at is what is What are the industries in our areas telling us? So, this is what we have. We are well suited to as we go into strategic planning, Dr. Shackel coming in with great experience. Uh we're gathering lots of great information. There are wonderful opportunities ahead of us. So, what is our What is our um community telling us where those needs are? So, if we
143look at the current labor gaps and workforce demands, this is sourced from Lightcast Labor Markets. They're a labor market uh research firm. This is what they do. So, when you look at for San Luis Obispo County, these are the specific workforce gaps that they have identified. I think uh each of us can relate to these top three. Uh if you've tried to find a doctor or get an appointment lately, um those are those are big workforce gaps in our area. Um looking at our automotive, again, heavy truck drivers and cosmetology. Um those top three while we are just building our patient care pathway, we we had identified that we do need to start working in that direction at least. And then our automotive service technicians, we have the automotive pathway. Another piece, um when we
144are looking at your labor force gaps and workforce demands, as what are those job postings that are out? So, Lightcast looks at that. And the top unique job postings for our county are listed there. And again, as you would guess, most of those align to those gaps in the workforce um outside of sales associates. Um but again, those three blues are in that um medical area. So, those are some of the labor gaps and workforce demands that our our community is and our county is finding. When we start to align and try to bridge that gap and align our school outputs to local needs, there is some alignment. It's we are trying to prepare students to meet some of those needs. So, when we look at our as I stated, our healthcare our patient care
145pathway, our systems diagnostics for auto, ag mechanics, and agriscience, and hospitality matching up to some of those needs uh when it came to the again medical assistants, automotive service technicians, our ag industry, and then um food services in our tourism sector. So, each of these are major industries in our area where there are local jobs. Um interesting piece as I look through um and and even consider this next slide, I feel like this is very similar to this is where we are as a district. This is where our county is currently. And so, when we're looking at those biggest economic engines within our county and within 200 miles, these are the big five. These are the top five industries. So, this is information that was put together through San Luis Obispo County and the REACH
146Initiative where they did this same research. And so, these five areas are our biggest economic engines within our area, top local industries. Again, we see some alignment with our pathways around the ag tech and wine, health care, tourism, hospitality, building design, as you mentioned we touch on, and then education we begin to touch on as well. And again, this is our current. One of the pieces that I think is important as we look ahead is what are those emerging and specialized industries. And as we through that same initiative, our county looked at our area and within 200 miles, these are the top emerging and specialized industries that are growing around us. So, that aerospace and defense um just thinking about Space Force and Vandenberg, and hopefully you're like us and you get to I know
147from our house we watch the rocket launches all the time. Um just that technology and innovation, we see that changing around us all the time, and we're actually seeing that growing in our area. Clean tech and renewable energy, precision manufacturing, there's quite a few precision manufacturing um industries in our area, Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, and then government services. The piece that I really love is if I were to click back about seven slides, these are the five areas that we're bringing the awareness to for our elementary kids. Um and so, I love that it's matching awareness of what's coming, cuz those kids are what's coming. Um and so, I really really do appreciate that. So, putting that all together, again tonight was really a desire to talk about where we how we got to
148where we are and what's look what's ahead. So, our short-term looking at where we are, we do want to continue to we we've done a great job with dual enrollment in our CTE pathways and Cuesta and aligning those. So, our students are having the opportunity to take dual enrollment, um get college credit for those courses to be able to continue on either for a full degree in those areas or even just specific certifications that you can get through Cuesta through their certificate programs. Um we want to continue to grow our patient care um program out and our floral design that we're started. As we look at things we want to continue to do ongoing, we want to look at as much as we can aligning our course articulation with Cuesta, expanding through early college program
149courses that kids have the opportunity to take, and then refine our existing pathways against that shifting labor data for what's currently happening. As we look ahead, that's where it gets really exciting as we start our strategic planning, how do we start to really make sure that we're positioning ourselves for that future, for those up-and-coming industries and the awareness that we're bringing to our kids, how do we start to utilize that strategic planning and where our district is going to match those up, so our kids that are coming up with that awareness are able to come into programs that are matching their emerging industries in our community. And so I I look forward to the work that the district will do utilizing this information, um the information that's gleaned through our strategic planning, through Dr. Shackelford's
150experience and knowledge to really continue to work um to set uh our our district CTE vision for the future. I have questions. Mhm. >> [laughter] >> Of course. Um Okay, thank first of all, thank you for putting this is a wonderful presentation. Um I love all the graphics and it all makes sense. Um Okay, so a couple questions is help me understand floral design. What was the data behind making that a new pathway? Um what kind of jobs are in floral design? I'm just want to make sure like Just tell me more about it. Um so most of those decisions come through our high school and through our secondary curriculum director. They work together utilizing expertise of staff, availability in the master schedule, and the needs in our area because of the high um hospitality
151um industry in our area, there's actually a great need for that. Um we are a hub for wedding venues and weddings in our area, and that um is a very high-value um industry. Um speaking for I think I'm still We're still paying for our daughter's flowers from 2 years ago. >> [laughter] >> I love it. Um well, thank you for that. I wasn't even thinking about all the weddings around here and all that stuff. Um so on the patient care, uh I think it's great because yes, you're right. Getting in to see I haven't even I I would wait 8 months in. I've not even seen my doctor. I've seen the nurse practitioner cuz I can't get in to see the doctor. But anyways, um so one of the things with doing CTE is I
152love when we have programs where like the with the welding program. Like they can leave with something in hand, a certificate or something that they can then go build to move on in their career or their next steps of education. So like in patient care, um is there a way Do we have any kind of certificated kind of offerings like you're a CNA, you know, that you can move further down to be able to get a job potentially after graduating in that field. The That pathway looks at a few different components. And so there's There's different pieces that at the high school level we can prepare kids for. Some of it is just the office work and the insurance work that goes with working in a medical office. So there's a pathway that you could
153look at that brings about those skills and certifications that would allow someone to walk into that entry-level position in an office medical office. When it comes to the actual care patient care, we do work with getting certifications when it comes to CPR first aid. We the high schools already began building partnerships with our local um physical therapy I like I think it's PT offices where our students are They're coming in and working with our students and our students are able to do that. So those are areas that we're just initially developing and as we're looking forward will be places to explore to identify which of those areas. I would love to say that we would be able to build a program that would feed into Cuesta's nursing program, but it's so impacted. The best thing
154that we would try to do is to align with our dual enrollment and the early college program courses that they would be able to take to prepare them to be steps ahead of somebody coming in without having those opportunities. So in an area like patient care, it might be hard to get them to leave high school without opportunity, but how do we get them to leave high school three steps ahead of every other student who's graduating high school? Okay, so now here comes the tough question. I actually have two more questions. So this is you talked a lot about like strategic planning. So this presentation's great, but now what's the next step? Cuz you know I'm going to keep pushing on this. Yes. What is the next piece of this to put together a strategic
155plan you were talking about here's what's great is that our elementary school students are seeing these up and coming fields. And so they're going to be in high school in 10 years. And so how do we strategically plan to make sure that we are keeping up and we're staying ahead of it and not being reactive? >> [clears throat] >> Do you know what I mean? Like, how what are the pieces that we need to put into place as a district to make sure that we are continuing our CTE offerings and making sure we're offering things that are relevant in today's world. >> Right. So, that would be what would come from the strategic planning process that Dr. Bennett's been discussing and will be walking the district through. So, through that analyzing local data and evidence
156around student and student achievement, student engagement, industry, and community needs, and then as we start to look at all those needs and put them up against each other, how do we identify which are those that are most important? And so, it'd be through that process that that would come. And if it were to come out that yes, this is a high area of need, this is this is how we're doing it, then once you identify those needs, similar to the LCAP, how do you align and um and determine revenues and resources to meet those needs. So, that would come through that process. Um and that's why we I keep saying and and many of us keep saying we're in such a good spot because we're able to maintain the third year of the LCAP next
157year. We're maintaining as many services and actions um that we can while we're developing that so that next year as we develop a strategic plan that sets the direction of how to meet those needs, we'll be developing an LCAP to support it. Um many of these uh needs can be met by multiple sources. So, it'd be through that process and we're really So, tonight's purpose was to say, here's where we are across our different levels, here's what our um industries are telling us, what our current needs are, what they're saying are their up-and-coming and emerging needs. So, now as we go into that, we can say, "Okay, now we know this. How are how are they going together?" Thank you so much. Um I actually asked kind of both my questions in the same question,
158but can I just make a comment here that this on your one of your first slides, the work-based learning with the internships and job shadowing and mentorship programs and industry certifications, that's my favorite part of all of this. So, if we could put that in our strategic plan, that'd be great. >> [laughter] >> I'll make sure to bring that up again during that. Okay, somebody else now. I I would just like to make a comment that I I think this is fulfilling a goal that the ROP had. You know, we we had we were taught we talked about putting a flowchart and starting. We didn't even mention elementary though, EJ. It was it's middle school. We wanted to incorporate the middle school with the with this type of program, but the CT the CTE it's
159just I'm sitting here going, "Wow, you this is this is making it real." Because it was talked about in every district in this county. When we would meet, this was a goal for that. And so, I'm encouraged and I'm very excited that you're going this is set up to start fueling passions in our elementary kids and giving them a a visual of where they could possibly go and be interested and follow through and then and then to attach it to the middle school and and then through our high school, which just it's I'm very excited about this and very proud of all of this. Yeah. Um I think we're really really on a good path for our students. And I I thank you. I feel heart and soul in this. And I >> I'm excited,
160too. I know you and I in particular, we've been in this conversation for 20 years. Um and to I think some of the the things that are really exciting again, I I'm excited for the strategic planning. I'm excited to be able to build this into the next 3-year L cap. I think some of the other things that we don't often put together what those opportunities are is bringing an early college program approval at the same time. One of the things that that does limit CTE pathways. It's one of the biggest limiters is um the ability to find qualified staff. Um to to have an engineering pathway in a high school, you need an engineer. And and if if you compare a teacher salary and an engineer salary, it's hard to find an engineer who's going
161to say, "Yeah, I'm going to I'm going to stop being an engineer and I'm going to come teach in a high school." To create a three-course pathway that you can sustain beyond that one person, so it's not individual dependent. So, looking at early college program and the fact that it allows you to take courses beyond what your high school teachers can teach, starts to broad open the doors even for the pathways. So, thinking about a health care pathway where through our staffing and through dual enrollment, there's pieces we can offer. But then that student who wants to say, "Man, I really I know I want to go in this area or this specific piece, I can take that through early college program where it's allowable through my high school, but it's a course that I
162wouldn't have before had I have had access to." That's where it gets even more exciting because then we can start to show those pathways that go through Cuesta that go beyond the walls of our high school. Yeah. Uh it's it gets really exciting. It's formed a wonderful partnership there. Mhm. Yes, when we started talking about early college at the beginning of this year, it was I I couldn't be more excited because of what that will allow our kids to do. Yeah. I love this. Thank you for explaining it. You're welcome. I have one one question. Um so, [clears throat] I'm curious to see to know what sort of partnerships are we doing with other local school districts cuz it seems like before we were working together with, you know, the previous configuration. Now that we're
163individually funded, it seems like we're all individually developing CTE programs and but it almost seems like are we in competition with each other or are we cooperating with each other to try to meet the needs in our region and make our programs the best they can be. And I'm like with our limited funds for facilities and I'm looking at all these you know, programs and what the what the spaces and equipment that they need to be really um you know, at the cutting edge of training our students to be in these fields, um you know, we're at a disadvantage um compared to our neighbors. I great great comment and question um with an a poor answer. Um not not in how it's explained, but it's not a good answer. Um and that was one of
164the goals of ROP. So, when we had ROP, the goal was to be able to set those up and it was why it was a JPA joint power agreement so that we would have those agreements where kids could leave Atascadero High School and go to Templeton High and take a course. The struggle that continues to happen is scheduling. Bell schedules don't ever match, the number of periods in a day, when courses are offered, specifically now that there's a three course pathway requirement. You're not going to take three courses across multiple years at another school site, the travel time, so it becomes difficult. Um so it it it became a barrier to be able to do that. And that was one of the things we found when we had that exact conversation with ROP. Like we're
165all here we were all here representing different districts with that that intent and we couldn't make it happen. Um you bring up a great point about um it's I don't see it as a competition and our other districts when we talk about it don't. When they create um Paso just created a cosmetology and what they had to put into that building and those facilities was was a lot. Um we wouldn't be able to to support students participating cross um school in that. Um but it would have to be an identified if it were such a large identified need that we wanted to replicate that, it would be something we would have to consider. One of the things that I do appreciate through and I'll I'll keep coming back to early college program is Cuesta's offering.
166It allows students to take Cuesta courses during the school day online or on campus. Um or utilize enrichment courses outside of the school day also. And so Cuesta offers um we have hosted Cuesta classes in our welding shops in the past or we've hosted sign language classes in our campuses that were put on by Cuesta. That happens sporadically throughout the campus, but with North with Cuesta's North campus, there's lots of opportunities. So early college program expands those offerings to our kids. So it would most likely occur more through early college program than it would through neighboring schools. Um the other disadvantage that we found we ran into that has not changed was um just the distance between schools. Um you know, it in in more urban areas if you were in LA, there is a
167a high school on every corner it seems like. Um but here they're a bit further apart. And so you know, we offer seven periods a day, Paso Robles six, mixed block in Templeton, you know, to be able to find that scheduling opportunity for kids to get to those courses. Um was a huge barrier. So, I think it's a great question. Uh one that's probably not answered through school-to-school partnerships, but most likely probably through that partnership with Cuesta. Thank you. Any other questions, comments, concerns? Thank you very much, AJ. That was a great presentation. Appreciate your work. Okay, our next topic is our strategic planning. Uh where is Mr. Bennett? >> [laughter] >> Dr. Bennett >> He's probably sleeping. I know. If you're out there, I'm going to try not to screw this up. All right.
168>> [laughter] [gasps] >> Okay. Uh all right, our strategic planning. So, um we worked on this the last couple meetings, and I think Dr. Bennett took our feedback and has tried to make it very clear of what he changed. I think there's still a few options that we needed to decide on. Um so, looking at this first page, um was there any comments or questions or changes or input from anybody on this first page that you wanted to see? So, I think his uh edit was to change that one um uh heading to character to self-leadership, which I think addresses my concerns about it being um just knowledgeable or yeah, at first glance. So, I yeah, that looks great. >> good with page one? Okay, great. Moving on to page two, uh he underlined his
169changes. I don't know I I read through this before. Um I'm sure everybody else did, too. The I think the um Um the area that's under the mission statement, there's a couple different options here. Um I think four in particular of different ways to read it because uh there was just some wording things. Um I personally am not a fan of any of them. Um and my suggestion actually is I actually like the first one the most, but I can see the concern with it. Um and so my suggestion, maybe this I wasn't here for the last meeting, but if we were to put in partnership with families in our community, we educate, inspire, and prepare every student for success in in career and or college and life. I don't know. I know it doesn't
170flow as well, but I feel like career, college, and life Is that what we had last time? Oh. It does because I feel like career, college, and life makes it seem like it's one or the other when it could be both, it could be one, you know. But a comma a comma leads to choices. Yeah, I know. >> when you do an or, you have it's a it's a pick. Well, usually it's comma like if you got like I know you're you're going to say no, but I feel like comma is like for three different options. >> do. You have career, college >> and life, not or. That's where the confusion is. Because it's two options and life. Right. Which makes it seem like they're pitted against each other. Well, at the end of when
171you list at the end, you put a comma and I'm just saying how it looks. >> V, >> [laughter] >> V, comma >> an Oxford comma? Yeah. It'd be V, Denise, and Tracy. That's I mean, when you're listing something like that. I I I I get it. Um I didn't like I didn't like I didn't like uh because he did did the same thing in number two and future opportunities. And so it shows you that and is your Don't forget we have one more thing. Right. I just to me I feel like in each of these it feels like career and college are pitted against each other. It's one or the other and I feel like it could be both, it could be one or the other. And it just doesn't seem clear. That's why
172I like option three out of the four. Okay. Um, it says the changes success in life and future pathways. So it kind of leaves it broad but not as broad as life and beyond. I think that's too broad. [laughter] To infinity. Yes. Yeah. So I think three was for me the the good yeah, middle ground. Future pathways. I don't know if I like future future pathways and I don't like beyond either and I don't like beyond. But I do want the you know Um, and as a reminder to the trustees, so Dr. Bennett's guidance was that our goal is that we move forward and and we're 95% of the way there um, because you guys will continue to have an opportunity to review and refine this as we go through the strategic planning process. Um,
173so don't feel like it has to be perfect yet. Um, so I'm just as a reminder. And this is setting you wanted it to be 95% so that it sets the stage for everyone in the strategic plan. So that when that committee comes together they know this is the direction the board's going in. So 95% is good, finish through the rest of it enough to get the team going. Okay. Okay, so does that mean we're moving on since we're not getting to a solution here? Or do we want to keep talking about this? >> want us I mean Here are our options for consideration. I mean Does he want us to pick two out of the four and then massage the two out of the four instead of leaving all four? Oopsie Daisy. Instead of
174leaving all four out there out there? I I don't know. Yeah, I mean I think if if that's the if if there's two that the trustees are gravitating towards like any way to begin just narrowing it down and Well, then and continue on. >> one and number three then are the two options. >> just say that one and three. >> One and three. There you go. All right. Cool. All right, let me see. Okay, under our vision statement does anyone have >> No, mission. Vision Oh, yeah, sorry. Sorry. Didn't turn the page. >> read. >> [laughter] >> I just didn't get there. Uh does anyone have any input on the options one or two on the vision statement? Well, again you're pitting college or career and in life. Yeah, you got college or career and
175then you got life and future pathways. But I think he was saying whatever we decide to do in the first option we should be parallel in the second one. So So we don't have an answer on this one. >> [laughter] >> So so that Okay, so maybe once once we eliminate two and four it'll automatically [music] >> then look at um which one it option one or two under the vision statement kind of meets the need of one and three. Well, it seems like option one and two here parallel option one and three on the other one. So I think Okay, so we want whatever we end up going with we just want this to parallel like >> Yes. Okay. Um let's see. Is there any other I would just Again with the or, I
176I it is going back to that vision statement. Try to stay away from or because or is a is a pit. It's a choice. >> No, I know. Pick this one or pick that one. I did something called I took the or out. It Yeah. And I would just since we're just talking about that, I would just um So. Maybe it's just all how we see it. I'm not going to die on this sword. That was just my uh my opinion. Take it for what it's worth. Um So okay, so then going cuz I think those were our only real homework. I think everything else was So just I'm sorry, just to clarify, so between the two draft vision statements, we feel good about the other things included in there and the bit that we'd
177continue to refine is going to be um the the or, the comma So and the life and future pathways. The other language is Yes, I believe so. >> Yes. Yes. Uh okay, well So let me just get like a census. Corrine, you were saying you like the comma, the first option one with the comma. Yeah, cuz it's not deciding for. Okay. Joey, what are your thoughts? >> [laughter] >> Great. He's fine with whatever. Jody, do you have any thoughts on either one that you prefer? Well, I prefer option three. Okay. With its generality and um I like Sorry, do I need my mic on for that? Okay, I prefer option three and then if option one, I like the or because it's identifying that it's different pathways. Yeah. So. Great. Rebecca? Uh I don't have
178any strong feelings either way for once. Wow. Okay. V? Um I'm like I'm okay with the comma in option one rather than or but yeah. I think we're close. No, option one option three was my preference reason being kind of broader but if we went with option one that's fine and I would be fine with the comma college comma career comma and in life. Yeah. >> [snorts] >> See career citizenship. That's how you list things. Fine. Okay. What's your preference? >> take you back to sixth grade. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. No, I like either one or or three. I I I think um that [snorts] future pathways I you know, I can It's too vague. No, I don't know if I like pathways. Future? I don't know. But that's okay. I'm not going to again
179if that's where we are then that I can live with that. And then I don't like or. I don't like or either. My preference is one but I can definitely live with option three. So there we go. Does that help you? So what I'm hearing is that the board is comfortable with option three which would then lead us to option two on the vision. Um you heard wrong. >> [laughter] >> We want one or three. One or three. >> One or three. I think nobody's willing to die on that sword. Um we don't like or. We don't like or. We all agree on we don't like or. I [laughter] wrote it down. >> [gasps] >> The majority. The majority. Okay. Okay, was there So then whatever we decide to go we'll go with the vision
180that matches that. Was there anything else that we needed to make a decision on in here? No, I don't think so. Well, let's let's get out of here early then. Okay, just a a couple more things. So >> [laughter] >> There there was the addition of the stewardship core value that was added as being responsible stewards of our resources including our financial human and material resources. That we maintain with care, transparency, and purpose. And so we have an opportunity and to review that and we like that. Good. And then just a quick opportunity to talk through the strategic planning task force. So Dr. Bennett has spent a fair amount of time chatting about this as the next step. So The task force will function as a steward of community voice and district vision. And their
181goal is to [snorts] synthesize community input and serve in an advisory capacity to the superintendent and board of trustees. There will be a number of committee members including two governing board representatives. So we'd like to solicit some interest in that. Other members will include district level administration, school site administration, teachers and certificated staff, classified staff, parent and guardian representatives, students and community and civic partners. The strategic plan strategic planning process will take place over approximately four to eight months and will include six to 10 meetings. Um so that's kind of a a broad overview. I can definitely dive into that more if you'd like, um but we would like to solicit some interest from the trustees on who might like to participate in that process. Are the meetings in the evening or what when would
182the meetings be held? >> Yeah. You know, it is it's not uh specified. I think if if I were to venture to guess, um Dr. Bennett would look at who his participants are and then try to find a time that worked, um considering we want to invite um community partners and in respect out of respect for uh the positions they may hold in different capacities. Um that'll be a factor, um but that has not been specifically identified. Yeah. And you said eight months? Four to eight months. Yes, ma'am. You don't want to It just seems like such an It was Yeah, it was we went for I was part of it, too. We went for um it was more than just two months. >> [snorts] >> Well, I I I I I think he's just
183giving you a range. If we if [snorts] the the committee or the group is done in four months or three months, then we're done. Um it all depends on, you know, people's calendars. Sometimes um when we met, we didn't I I'm just saying it could get done sooner, but [snorts] um it's calendars. Busy schedules. Okay, so Tracy, you said you went on this thing? If nobody else does, yeah. I I've done it before. Um why not do it again? You want to do it? You want to beat myself up. Not you, Rebecca. Rebecca? Well, Tracy wants Tracy would like me to be on there. Oh, yes. Please be with me. >> [laughter] >> I mean, I'll do it for Tracy. Yes, I'll even pick you up, okay? You're not that strong. >> [laughter] >> You
184guys are not to to debate about four. >> [laughter] >> Okay, there you go. You're the two board members. Have fun with that. >> done it. If somebody else wants to do it, go you know, be my guest. I've already done it once as a teacher. Yeah, I without knowing the schedule and all that, I don't I can't commit. And just as a reminder, although there'll be two representatives, everything will come before the board and and the board will have an opportunity to continue to participate as a whole board. Um so, please don't feel like you'll be cut out of that process in any way. Um and with that I would like to see if part of this task force could include we said you said students, but I would like to see if we
185could include like recent graduates or you know, alumni as part of I think that'd be informative to know, you know, now that they've left our district, what would they think would be a beneficial. Good input, B. Okay, that concludes our well, almost concludes our meeting. We have an announcement that our next meeting will be Tuesday, June 2nd, the day before graduation, I believe, at 5:30 p.m. is our closed session and 7:00 p.m. is our regular meeting and we are adjourned.