AUSD Board Meeting 12/16/2025 - Open Session Board Meeting

001We don't have a student. [clears throat] >> We're going to reconvene to open session. Um, let's see. Flag salute. V or new clip. Would you like to lead us in the flag salute? >> Yes, that would be my my honor. Everyone rise, please. >> Ready, begin. >> I pledge algiance 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. [clears throat] Do we have any order of business to address? Nope. Okay. Uh report of action taken in close session. In close session, the board voted to approve a settlement agreement regarding a due process case. The vote was unanimous. More details are available upon request. School related reports. Uh do we have

002any reports from our school related organizations? No. Okay. Oral communication from the public. Yes. I'd like to remind our audience that comments must be limited to three minutes in length. The limit for any one topic is 20 minutes. You may speak on any item at this time or you may hold your comments on an agenda item until the board president asks for public comments. Our first uh speaker tonight is Katrina Bold Baldick. And if you could please um introduce yourself uh your name um before you speak. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Katrina Bulduk. I'm a parent of a TK and first grade student at San Bonito Elementary. And I'm here tonight because for months, families and staff have been raising serious concerns about the safety, staffing, and support. And our concerns have not

003been met adequately. My child has personally been physically assaulted three times on campus. And I know we're not alone. Many other students and staff have been injured. These incidents are documented, reported, and have been told to the school, the district, the superintendent, the principal, escalated to the police department, and child welfare services. These are not rumors or exaggerations. It's lived experience. And I need to be clear, the physical assaults are not the only problem. Children are witnessing assaults, experiencing major dysregulation in their classrooms, and in some cases being told to ignore what is happening so that learning can continue. This creates an environment of harm, especially for our youngest learners whose nervous systems are still developing. Children have been forced to miss school, to move classrooms, and to uproot their routines in an attempt to

004stay safe. Families are making impossible choices just to protect our children. My own family is now seriously considering leaving the district ala altogether. Not because we want to, but we no longer feel that we can trust that the school will keep our children safe. What has been most alarming is not just the harm that's occurred, but it's the continued occurrences despite repeated warnings. San Bonito Elementary has been placed on shelter in place multiple times. They're not isolated incidences. Every child from TK through upper grades has been affected. Parents are not notified. Communication has been poor. And children are repeatedly exposed to fear, disruption, and uncertainty. The ongoing perpetuated trauma is not a single event. Each shelter in place and emergency response means loss of instructional minutes. Time that these children will never get back. Teachers

005are focused on managing crisis after crisis instead of teaching. Students are struggling to regulate, to focus, and to feel safe in their classrooms. As parents, we've gone to the teachers, the principal, the superintendent, the board, law enforcement, and child welfare. Staff have reported unsafe conditions. Families have begged for help. Yet meaningful action was never deployed and efforts of support were insufficient. This is a burden of safety that's placed on the classroom that is already overwhelmed. This is not a failure of children. This is not a failure of families. It's a system failure. And while we realize that there are district-wide issues at all the schools, this is a crisis at San Bonito Elementary. The school is lacking adequate special education staffing, consistent behavioral support, timely access to BCBA services, clear enforcable safety protocols, trauma-informed responses

006for all children and staff affected, and those that are continuing to be harmed and struggled. Inclusion without proper support is not inclusion. Safety plans that exist on paper but are not practiced are not safety plans. Our teachers are managing reported violent incidences without the resources that they desperately need. Children have the right to attend school without fear and staff have the right to work without being injured. When it comes to our children, we will not stand for more people getting hurt. We're exhausted. Staff are burnt out and our trust in the system is deeply fractured. With so many voices and reasons for pe people speaking out tonight is we have tried everything first. We literally have no other options. We're begging. We will not stay quiet. Things that we're asking for is fully funded staff,

007immediate behavior, proactive safety measures, transparency, and timelines that match the urgency of this situation. The district needs to act now, not later. Enough is enough, and we demand action. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Jen Pence Murphy. >> [clears throat] >> My name is Jen Pence Murphy and I'm a graduate of Atascadero High School. I've been teaching at Atascadero Middle School for almost 10 years now. I was department chair of one of the largest departments at AMS for two years and was responsible for the well-being of almost 600 students during that time. But most importantly, I'm the parent of a student who attends San Bonito Elementary. I'd say I definitely bleed orange, sweat, gray, which is why I'm here tonight standing in front of you because I see a severe issue within AUSD and

008it desperately needs action and attention. My son's in first grade. He's six years old. He has been physically harmed over [clears throat] five times this school year alone. He has been intentionally punched in the face. He's been thrown down off the play structure. He has had his head stomped on. He's been hit in the head so hard he had a headache for the rest of the day. He's been punched in the side and he's been punched in other parts of his body. These are all the instances that I know of, of which only two of these were communicated to me by the staff at San Bonito. This is completely unacceptable. At a minimum, school is supposed to be a safe place, but that is not the case at San Bonito Elementary. Where my son is

009concerned, most of these incidents happen at recess and lunch. I volunteer in a first grade classroom every Wednesday and Friday. I've seen how hard the teachers and the staff are currently working. They are spent. They are exhausted. They are hurt, too. They need help, too. I'm here tonight to raise awareness and speak up for all children and all staff at San Bonito. There needs to be an immediate change. You are elected officials and you are the ones capable of making change. We voted for you to take care of our children. And I speak on behalf of a lot of San Bonito parents when I say you are failing. My son is afraid to go to school. Nearly every night and every morning, he's extremely emotional. He's scared. He's learning how the world works. And right

010now, he's being taught that it's okay that he gets hurt. As a mother, I cannot sit by and do nothing while my son is in danger. San Bonito desperately needs help. We the parents of children who are repeatedly getting physically hurt respectfully and urgently request prompt review and intervention by the district to ensure the safety and well-being of children and staff is restored and upheld. One of the first things they teach us in the teacher credential program is Mazo's hierarchy of needs. The base of the pyramid of learning is air, food, water, etc. Then right after that is safety. If a child doesn't feel safe, no learning can take place. I implore you, members of the board, to do the minimum of what you were voted in to do. Keep our children safe. Thank you.

011Um, next speaker is Rachel Dion. Um, hold on. Um, good evening. My name is Rachel Dion. My child is a first grader at San Bonito Elementary School. I'm here tonight because of repeated safety issues at the school and the lack of specialized staff needed to ensure the successful integration of students with special needs into the gened classroom. While I support having the least restrictive learning environment whenever possible and reasonable, there is a time when children who cannot be properly supported in a traditional classroom should not be in a traditional classroom. A child with consistently violent and unpredictable behavior should not be integrated with GenEd students. Students in all grades at San Bedo have been affected by numerous lockdowns, classroom evacuations, and physical assaults, both in the classroom and on the playground, by the same student.

012The majority of the time, these incidents are not disclosed to parents by school administration. The school says that they have a plan to keep our kids safe. Yet, incidents keep occurring and have occurred since last year. Enough is enough. This is not only an issue at San Bonito, but schools throughout Atascadero Unified, San Lospo County, and the state of California. Our children deserve a school environment free of violence and fear, and all students deserve the appropriate support and environment to be successful in school. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] Our last speaker is Gina Planetta. Hi, I'm Gina and I want to talk about the need for qualified and consistent aids for students in the district who need a little extra support. I have four daughters currently enrolled in the district across two schools. None

013of my children have support plans in place. So, you may be wondering why I'm speaking tonight. My six-year-old daughter and all her classmates, emphasis on all, have been put in the unfortunate position of finding out what happens when the district and schools cannot provide appropriate support to students who need it. For months now, my daughter and her classmates have been forced to face the repercussions of adult failures. Because a student hasn't had their needs met, children and staff have been hurt. The children have lost out on learning time. children have needed to switch schools or classrooms mid year and some are now anxious about going to school or acting out at home. To be very explicitly clear, I do not blame these things on another young child who is clearly responding to their insecure environment.

014Nor do I blame their parents. When we drop our children off at school, there is an expectation that they will be kept safe. And as such, I hold the school accountable for their inability to do so. in this case. As I've tried to understand how things got to this point, I've spoken to multiple special needs parents in our district and the overwhelming theme has been the lack of consistency, training, and follow through when it comes to the staff hired to support their children. I've heard stories of not enough support on campus, stories of IEPs not being followed, aids starting work after just one day of shadowing. In my own time on campus, I've seen firsthand aids who are more interested and chatting than working with the students they've been assigned. While I know there are

015great support aids in the district, we are only as strong as our weakest link. Now, I understand there's no magic wand to bring you qualified aids, especially when you're paying less than Panda Express. Literally, I looked. But there needs to be a push towards training, and IEPs need to be followed. It is not fair to allow things to get so bad that a young child in their family become the scapegoat because of the district's failings. It is not fair to expect children and their parents to just accept that what is happening is normal. It is not fair to expect our already overworked teachers to pick up the slack when they have dozens of other children to educate. Tearful phone calls from administration and quick emails about safety protocols cannot repair what has been done or

016help us move forward. The kids who need extra support must have their needs met appropriately or it will be other kids in another classroom over and over again until a change finally happens. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you. Our next item is our superintendence report. >> Thank you very much. Uh before I jump into my report, I just want to be able to say thank you to our parents that came forward. Uh we recognize the needs and the issues that we need to be able to address. I want to assure you that they're extremely important to all of us. We will continue to be able to work to improve things for our students and for um our staff. Um I just want you to know that we hear you. With that, I want to be

017able to talk about uh some things that came up over the last couple of weeks. Some tremendous honors that I want to be able to talk about. St. Louis Episcopal County Office of Education and the Association of California School Administrators or AXA. Um recognize administrators and principles of the year. And Atascadera Unified School District had two which I thought was really quite profound. And before these individuals come up, I I want to be able to give you a little bit of background as to why they're being honored. So Mary Reynolds was our elementary principal of the year through the county office of education in AXA. And so congratulations to Mary Reynolds. [applause] So Mary, why don't you come up and then I'm going to talk a little bit about it and then I'm going to

018introduce our second person and then have that person come up. But Mary Reynolds is currently the principal at St. Gabriel Elementary School. She has 20 she's devoted 20 years of her life to um education. She's taught every grade level from TK through 7th grade, which I think is stunning. It's her fourth year as principal at St. Gabriel Elementary School. She currently has 350 students at St. Gabriel. And under her leadership, St. and Gabriel has flourished into a warm, inclusive campus, making sure every student and family feels valued, safe, and inspired to succeed. Mary is very present when greeting her students when arriving at school and building meaningful connection. She leads with heart, optimism, and high expectations. Strong advocate for equity, inclusion, and early learning. She wants all students to be supported academically, socially, and emotionally.

019Mary approaches each challenge with grace and a solutions focused mindset inspiring confidence in students and staff. Her genuine care for people and unwavering commitment to doing what is best for children make her a deeply respectful leader. And Mary, we are so proud of you and thanks for all you do for a Tascador Unified School District. [applause] So, if you'll hang on because we're fortunate enough to be able to have had two administrators acknowledged. The second one that I would like to be able to acknowledge is Dr. Libby Madding, our alternative [applause] and Dr. Matting is our alternative education administrator of the year through the St. and Louis Abyispo County Office of Education and AXA the Association of California School Administrators. Dr. Libby Matting is serving as our principal at Paloma Creek High School. She also

020serves as a principal of our ACE Academy through the through uh the school district. She has 27 years dedicated to education. She has a background in human development, counseling, and educational leadership. She's been a teacher, a counselor, a professor, and an administrator. She has gained a deep understanding of how to be able to build supportive systems and learning environments where safe, where students feel safe, valued, and capable. Her work has been guided by the belief that every young person deserves the opportunity to succeed regardless of the challenges that they face. Early in her career, she worked with youth facing significant challenges that shaped her leadership and fueled her dedication to alternative education, strong student support systems, and meaningful community partnerships. She focuses on creating structures that help students re-engage, rebuild confidence, and access the resources

021that they need to be able to successfully move forward. pairing compassion with high expectations in everything that they do. And trust me, you don't mess with her because she'll come pick you up. She stands beside teens during times of uncertainty, advocating for them, and supporting their transition into adulthood with dignity, purpose, and hope. And Dr. Mr. Matting, we are so truly grateful that you are a part of our district and for all that you do on behalf of our district for our students. So, thank you and congratulations. [applause] >> We can do that. We have Can you hold >> a great [laughter] >> How did we do? FANTASTIC. [applause] >> Did I share that we had two administrators that took I'm just just making sure that we know. Um the last thing I want to

022be able to say is I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. Thank you. It's in my report. Thank you. Congratulations. Okay, we will move on to our board members report and we're going to start right here and move this way. Oh, that's the second time in a row. Okay. Well, um I'll keep this short. Uh, I volunteered yesterday to go into Miss Sarah's kindergarten class at San Gabriel and I read two books, Christmas books, and they sat very nicely um, listening to the story. So, it was fun. So, I've been invited back. I've been invited back. [clears throat] >> Oh, I have, too. >> Okay. And then also at um our Kowana's uh annual Christmas uh dinner, uh we had uh Carrie Jones and her high school chamber choir came and performed um for

023us. And that was uh lovely, the beautiful voices from those students. And um we also passed the bucket and helped them with their fundraiser to go to Disney um for that studio, music studio thing that they like to do. So that's it. >> That's all you're not even going to mention the conference. >> No, you you all will mention the conference and um happy holidays everyone. >> Well, I know. >> Uh okay. Well, uh I just want to um echo congratulations to um Mary Reynolds and Dr. Libby. Um we are so grateful to have them here in our district. I want to thank the parents for coming um to speak. Um heartfelt thank you. Um and um since you didn't bring it up, we had a um very productive time at the CSBA conference um

024annual education conference and I am really excited about a lot of the things that I think we learned. Looking forward to having more conversations and um implementing some of those ideas. >> Good evening. I have a bit of a long report uh since our last board meeting. Um I participated in the third annual living library program that our um uh ELA teachers at the high school and ACE program put on. Um Miss Chris Bell, Miss Lauren Chambers, Miss Laura Moranta. Um and this is an opportunity for our 9th grade ELA students to interview members of the community including Dr. Bennett and Mrs. Ellis White and um lots of other people. And it was a wonderful um event. I really enjoyed it. Um uh there was also I was able to participate in the walk around

025the lake. I met students student officers of our Ataskar High School Hospitality Club. Um Leah, Sophia, and Emily. I loved their enthusiasm and dedication. Uh and then the support that the hospitality club provides to other groups with their sweet and savory treats. Um they were uh they gave away uh these amazing chocolate crinkle cookies that evening as well as some simmery poperri. Um and then inside the pavilion we had our uh Tesco High School instrumental music program delivered a wonderful performance and concert at the pavilion. Um it was a busy weekend. our marching band had participated in the downtown slow holiday parade the night before and then they kicked off the walk around the lake with a march um with a march and then uh our our students performed um later that evening. Um last

026Friday I participated in the um Monterey Roads Elementary School's annual third annual wax museum. Uh this is our fifth graders who um took on these uh historical figures of US history. I love the multiaceted aspect of the project. These students researched and created a display board. Then they engineered these buttons that you would press to hear their um their script e and they either recited it or they read their script. um and they were able to ask answer questions and there was some very creative costumes as well. It was great to see the whole school participating in this event and uh and sharing the learning. So um lastly uh later later that evening at our winter wonderland event it was great to see all the wonderful students um who've worked so hard um do their

027performances. We had the um uh we had the Atusca High School cheer team, the district choirs, fine arts academy dancers. Um I loved their selection of music. Uh I have to note there were some standout performances from our fine arts academy dancers and the Atascad High School choir and their soloists. So thank you to Mrs. Glimpse and Mrs. Jones for their incredible work and the students for their um wonderful addition to this wonderful community event that we have every year. Um and then lastly, I just want to say that on Saturday um there was a coats for kids drive in Pasel Robels. Uh this was in partnership with the toy bank of greater Pasel Robels and there were a number of um Atascad High School Interact Club members who were there that that morning who

028volunteered to help families pick out warm coats for their uh for the year as well as uh gifts for their family and it really underscored to me the meaning of the season to be part of that event. Um and that concludes my report. I hope everyone knows that they are appreciated for all their hard work this year and I wish everyone a wonderful holiday and a happy new year. Um first of all, thank you to the parents for coming. Um can't comment too much but um we do hear you. So thank you for coming. Um and well I guess Mary and well Mrs. Reynolds and uh Dr. Matty left. So, congratulations to them. San Gabriel, I got to go do their reading in Mrs. Holland's class, too. And >> how you were dressed? >> I

029was dressed with a ugly sweater that my mom made probably 20 years ago with puff paint and applique on it and light up light up Christmas uh Christmas lights. And then I also had a really nice hat and the the teach the kids really liked it. So, um, and then they earned all their marbles to top off the marble jar. So, um, I probably will be invited back, but I do have to say that that was they lined up because they were just finishing up recess. They lined up and walked in quiet, respectful, went down, sat on the rug, and um, so that that >> the one of the most respectful Well, I told them, and I wasn't lying to them. That was probably the most respectful class that I've that I've been in, especially

030for kindergarten. So, that was great. Um, and then also I have our vehicle is being worked on by uh Mr. Renteria's class. So, they're they're doing that. And I just want to say that that's an amazing CTE pathway. Um, and it's been great working with him. And I was glad that we have the opportunity to give them give them some work and that they can that they can learn on. So that's all I got. >> I wanted to say thank you to the San Bonito parents. Appreciate you guys coming out. Safety is a big important um thing to me in particularly and to the district. So your voices are heard and I appreciate you guys coming. Um, and obviously ditto on the congratulations to our two administrators. Um, it's a high quality that we would

031have two. And so congratulations even though they're gone. Um, and then as far as what I've been doing, um, mine just sounds workrelated because we went V didn't mention this, but we went to the you saved it for me. Um, the city and school committee. Um, and that's a you went too. Yes. And that was it's always a good working partnership with them. um we have a great um city u manager and he works well with us and there's a lot of stuff we have in common and can accomplish together. Um and then of course our conference that we went to and I guess we're going to discuss that later but that was great for us to get professional training as newbies. So it's kind of nice um that we got that education. So we'll

032be talking about that later and that's all it got. That was so kind of you too to let her have that >> message that was just >> sharing that. >> Um I too would like to uh thank the San Bonito parents for coming. Uh communication is important and we do hear you and you the parents are your strongest advocate for your children. So thank you very much for coming this evening. Um Dr. Libby and Mary Reynolds. I was going to tell them I when I stand beside them, I feel like I'm towering over them. They're both such petite women, but they are they are towers in their profession and they're very professional, very very organized. And um I had the privilege of knowing Mary when she began her career out in Kesa Plains. she was

033our teacher out there and she's carried on and I'm very proud of her and Dr. Libby every time she gives a presentation her heart just shows through how she feels about her students and that it's so appreciated. I wish all of you a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Enjoy your families. Um eat some wonderful food and embrace this time in this season. Thank you. Uh, I am not quite the verbal waterfall that Cororeine is. So, I'm just going to stick with congratulations to our two administrators. Um, that's a that terrific feat they had and thank you to all our San Bonito parents. Um, I agree with Becca. There's not a lot we can say right now, but uh, we are thinking of you guys. So, and with that, let's move on. >> Thank

034you so much. All right. Uh, item number 14 is minutes. Do I have approval of the minutes from the regular board meeting on November 18th of 2025? Motion for approval. >> I'll make the motion to approve. >> I'll second roll call vote. >> Mr. Arnold, >> yes. >> Mrs. Taylor, >> yes. >> Mrs. Ellis White, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cosmic, >> yes. >> Mrs. Counley, >> yes. >> Mrs. President Mcgru Kaine. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Pierce. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next, we have our consent agenda. Does anybody have anything they would like to pull? >> Seeing none, do I have a motion for approval for consent agenda item 15A through 15e? Do >> I have a second? >> I second. Roll call vote. Mrs. Pierce. >> Yes. >> Mr. Arnold. >>

035Yes. >> Mrs. Counley. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Cosnik. >> Yes. >> Mrs. President McGru Kane. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Taylor. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Ellis White. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Thank you. Moving ahead to item number 19 um which is our memorandum of understanding with the cafeteria leap salary range reclassification. Since Mrs. Argane is not here, will you be taking that Kendall? >> Yes, I will. Thank you, Madam President. Um so through a successful negotiation process, the district has um finalized the rearranging of our cafeteria positions. If you recall earlier this year, we did our cafeteria assistants. Um we are now doing our cafeteria lead people. Um this is to remain competitive with the fast food industry and ensure that we are paying wages that allow these folks to stay with us. This increase

036comes directly from fund 13 which is a separate fund from our general fund um and as such does not impact our general fund deficit spending. The recommendation is that the board of trustees approve the memorandum of understanding entered into and between a Tascadero Unified School District and the California School Employees Association. >> Does anybody have any questions? Seeing none, can I have a motion for approval? >> I'll move to approve. Do >> I have a second? I'll >> second. Roll call vote. Mrs. President Mcruine. Hi, >> Mrs. Ellis White. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Counley. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Pierce. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Taylor. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Cosnik. >> Yes, >> Mr. Arnold. >> Yes. >> Thank you. All right, we're going to move uh down to the floor for our study session topics.

037So, give us like a minute or two to get situated and we'll be right back. Everybody good? >> Okay, moving forward. Our next topic or our first topic for our study session topic is resolution 09-25-26 which is positive certification of our 2526 first interim budget report for the reporting period ending on October 31st of 2025. And Mrs. Darnell, will you be taking us through this lovely packet? >> I will be. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. Um, good evening members of the board, members of the community. Uh thank you for the opportunity to present our first interim report. As uh Madame President shared, it is um a look at our budget, a financial checkup if you will, taking into account all of the information and the data that we've gathered um through October 31st. Um

038first interim serves a few important purposes um for the district and for the public. So first, it's an opportunity to see how our budget is doing. Um we develop our budget in June. Uh based on what we think is going to happen with our revenues and expenditures. By first interim, we know a little bit better about um what our projections are going to look like. We can really narrow our focus. So it's a chance to um check in on our budget. Um second and and perhaps most importantly, it's to ensure that the district is able to pay its bills. Um so the report shows whether or not the district has enough money to meet its financial obligations not only in the current year but in the two subsequent budgeted years. Um it's also an opportunity

039to plan for any changes, fluctuations in enrollment, um difficulties in staffing. Uh the interim reports allow us to make some adjustments. And finally, the first interim report provides transparency for the public and oversight agencies. So this is shared with the school board, the county office of education and the public. It ensures everyone understands the district's financial health and how our taxpayer money is being used. In simple terms, first interim make sure that the district is on track financially. Uh think of it as like a financial progress report. Um at first interim, there are three certifications that a district can receive. A positive certification states that the district is able to meet its financial obligations in the current year and in the two subsequent budgeted years. A qualified certification means the district can meet its financial

040obligations in the current year but may or may not be able to meet its obligations in the two subsequent years. And lastly, a negative certification means the district is not able to meet its obligations in any of the three budgeted years. At first interim, Atascadero is considered positively certified. Again, that means we are able to meet our financial obligations in the current year and our two budgeted out years despite an ongoing structural deficit. And this is of course depending on the actual level of state funding. So the local control funding formula in California is the school funding model that was um enacted in 2013 to create a more equitable distribution of resources across California schools. It provides a base grant per ADA um or average daily attendance and additional supplemental and concentration grant dollars to

041support high needs learners. We call these our unduplicated pupils. You'll also hear that referred to as our UPP count. They include our lowincome, our English language learners, and our foster youth. So, you can think of LCFF um funding as filling a glass to a target level that is established by the state. uh the total funding a district is entitled to under the formula. The glass represents the money needed to educate students in the district. So first the state establishes the glasses the glass target level. The state calculates how much money each district should have based on the number of students their attendance and the um additional needs of certain groups including our lowincome learners, our English language learners and our foster youth. So that is established as our target level. Um, so the first dollars

042to come in and start filling our glass are our property taxes um that are collected within the community um wealthier areas with higher property taxes, their glass fills to the top and perhaps over. They have multiple glasses um while less wealthy areas fill less of their glass with property taxes. So, in the event you are a district where your property tax does not fill your whole glass like a Tascadero, um the state steps in to pour in enough extra water or funding uh state aid to reach the top. Um there are basic aid districts or excess tax districts as I described. Those are the districts where the property taxes fill up more than the glass. Uh we see that in some of our neighboring districts in St. Louis Bispo County, including St. Louis Coastal and

043Caucas. Um so like I shared in Atascadero uh we are a state aid funded district. District revenues are not actually based on enrollment. They're based on actual attendance. Um so this infographic shows a historical perspective of the students enrolled which is captured in the blue bar. our annual ADA which is captured in the yellow and the funded ADA which is the the orange dot that follows each year. Districts across the state are working hard to recover attendance rates post pandemic. Uh and at Tascadero we are not seeing student attendance rates rebound as originally projected. As of census day uh the first Wednesday in October we had 4,275 students enrolled. We experienced a dip in enrollment over the prior year of approximately 83 students. This is largely attributed to the low kindergarten enrollment um that we

044discussed earlier this year. That is really not aligned with district trends. We did see an increase in our TK enrollment which is a bright spot for our early learners. However, it'll be really important for the district to continue to monitor these patterns as student attendance is the primary um driver of our funding, not only through our um state aid entitlements, but through our um state and uh federal grant programs as well. Attendance continues to be a priority for the district. The district will need to increase student attendance in order to maintain necessary levels of funding. Go ahead. >> Um, do you know what the approximate um since we're based off of ADA and um what our enrollment is, do you know that that gap like how much we're missing out on like the students? You

045said we've got like a 94%. >> I just thought of this, so I'm not trying to throw you off guard, but >> um do you know what I'm asking? The um difference between full capacity and that you know 6% um that we're not getting. >> Yes. So, um I'll have to give you an estimate just based on what I recall. I didn't bring this figure with me. Um so, we're actually funded on P2, which closes April 15th. So, last year's number, last year's funded ADA was approximately um 4,036. We had over 4,300 students enrolled. So, it's a loss of about 300. Um and those are approximations. I guess my question was >> attendance monetary attendance attendance and enrollment that that gap. Sorry. >> So every every percent um is about $500,000. >> Okay. Uh I'm

046sorry I misunderstood that question. >> No, I wasn't clear. So >> um there are three options for ADA and how the state will provide funding. It is the current year ADA, the prior year ADA, or the average of three years um whichever is highest. Um this helps smooth out funding if uh enrollment dips suddenly. Um so as you can see um captured by the orange dot, our funded ADA has continued to decline year-over-year. Most of the district's general fund revenue is is um captured through this local control funding formula taking into account um the variables that we discussed. So you can see that in the lighter blue. That's our LCFF base. We also receive a small amount of supplemental funds from the state to support our unduplicated pupils. Um this accounts for approximately 7% of

047our revenues. As of census day, our unduplicated pupil percentage is 47.28%. This represents a decline over the prior year and is not aligned with historical growth from the prior three years. As a result, our supplemental funding captured through the LCAP is projected to decline. We receive small amounts of funding from various restricted grants both at the federal and local level. Restricted revenues for school districts are funds that come with specific rules about how they can be spent. Uh these funds are provided by the government grants or other sources and must be used for particular programs like special education, school lunch programs, facility improvements. And most recently, we saw the California voters approved Prop 28, which is for supplemental arts funding. The district cannot use that money for anything outside of those designated areas, even if

048other parts of the budget are in need. It is. Yes. Finally, the state lottery contributes about 1.7% of the district's revenue. This infographic looks at historical data for lottery revenues for the district. Lottery dollars come in both restricted um shown here in the orange and unrestricted shown here in blue. Awards. Unrestricted lottery awards are um distributed to our school sites for use at their discretion. Restricted lottery dollars must be used um on instructional materials and at Tascadero, our restricted lottery revenues contribute to the purchase of curricular materials including textbooks and online learning platforms. Um similar with our other revenue sources, lottery money is allocated on ADA and not on enrollment. This slide shows the comparison of where we thought we would be with general fund revenues at revised budget to where we are with revenues

049now with the data and information we've collected since our last reporting period. We do see a small increase in revenues overall. In our unrestricted column, we have a small increase in our interest earnings and we have some increases in federal grant revenues. This means again that there are those specific spending objectives attached to them. Um, next we'll spend some time taking a look at our expenditures. In a Tascadero, a majority of our expenditures, as with all districts, are tied to people and salary and benefits. And that's captured here in the lighter blue, in the orange, and in the gray. Our second largest expenditure is um captured in what is called services and operating. This includes contracted services, licensing fees, utilities, etc. We have seen this category grow in recent years mainly due to the need

050to contract teachers and staff in special education and an increase in attorney fees. Um, also captured here are books and supplies. Um, and other budgeted expenses including our outgoes and transfers, which uh is the the moving of funds from one account to another. You can see here that historically this has been the spending pattern for the district. Captured again in the orange, yellow, and gray are the investments in our people through salaries and benefits. Year-over-year. Staffing expenses continue to increase. This is due to an increased number of FTE, increased salaries, and also an increase in the amount of contribution a district pays in employee benefits like stirs and purses are tracked by a data point known as FTE or full-time equivalent. So FTE is the amount of time or the ratio a a person spends

051um in relation to a full-time position. So for example, if a full-time day is eight hours and an employee works two hours, they are considered a 0.25. As people are our primary expenditure, it is really important that we track our positions and the associated FTE. This allows us to ensure that our programs are appropriately staffed and that our students receive the support they need. It takes people to teach students. Employee salaries are divided into four separate line items. Certificated, classified, confidential special services, and administrative. It is important that as a district experiences changes in enrollment patterns that we examine this information with some historical perspective. Um, this is a new slide to this presentation. Here we capture a 10-year view of our enrollment and our staffing. And this is staffing as a whole. While enrollment

052has decreased by over 400 students in the past 10 years, staffing has actually increased by over 70 FTE. In 2024, the district engaged in a demographic analysis uh with King Consulting to study the projected enrollment throughout the district. This is a comprehensive study that is conducted by an outside agency. They provide a low, moderate, and high enrollment projection based on their analysis. At this time, AUSD enrollment is below their projected low enrollment. It would be of benefit to the district to consider a new study engaging in a new demographic study based on more recent data. This will support fiscal planning for staffing and facilities. Should we hold our questions to the end? >> No, feel free to jump in. >> Okay. So, in just the last two years, it's great to have the 10-year snapshot

053here, >> but in just the last two years, uh, we're down close to 100 students, >> but yet we've grown by 27 classified staff. explanation for that is it those were missing positions and we've now added them but I mean they if they've been missing they've been missing for a very long time um so just trying to understand where those positions came from what are they doing are they still necessary with declining enrollment all the things >> yeah know that's a great question and it's actually something that we've been monitoring through last year um the growth in our classified positions are tied directly to our special needs parent educators Um so we see between um budget adoption and now we have added 24 special needs par educator FTE. Um so that is the biggest driver

054of our classified growth. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Um which leads uh very well into our special education slide. Um, so special education program costs exceed special education revenues requiring the district to fund the shortfall using the general fund. This is a challenge that is not unique to a Tascadero as school district across the state are facing funding challenges and staffing challenges to support our students with disabilities. Due to staffing shortages, districts are um compelled to um use contracted services to meet the needs of our learners. The district is proud of the special education support provided to our students, but we are also fa faced with mounting increases um in the difference between federal and state government's funding and the mandated costs for these vital services. This infographic shows the funding as compared to

055mandatory expenditures of special education program. Our funding received for special education is shown here in the lighter peach color while our expenses are shown in the darker orange. While uh need increases year-over-year, funding is not keeping pace. This year, the district will contribute 12.8 million to special education from the general fund. This equates to approximately 76% of the special education operating budget and approximately 24% of our unrestricted general fund revenues. >> What's the federal funding? um revenues and I mean I know it's really really tiny but >> for special education specifically I'll have to look up to get that number for you but in your budget book you can see our federal fund revenues >> that was my question what percentage of funding is federal state >> and I can get those specific totals for

056you >> that's okay no you're fine I have a question sorry go ahead just a quick question on this slide. Can you explain why the revenue um is decreasing over the years even though our expenditures and needs seem to be growing? >> Yeah, that is actually a fantastic question. Um these revenues are also based on ADA and not the ADA of our special um our special education population but the ADA as a whole. So as we see district revenues decline because of um declining ADA, it's going to impact these numbers as well. I'm just writing down that question. >> Yeah, >> go ahead. Going back to um this slide >> and now this one. >> Um so our 281 FTE, right? >> That's not including anything we were contracting because I know we had a

057huge shortage. So we were contracting out of a lot of positions. Is that correct? This will capture the number of positions. So these are the the bodies serving our students. When we calculate um and we're looking at our multi-year projections for example and we look at like costs of salaries, we don't double count them. So in cont they'll be counted and contracted. But in this perspective, we're looking at the the people supporting our children. >> So this is this is contracted and employers. >> Yeah. So it's positions. >> Perfect. >> That's a great question. >> Okay. [clears throat] Last one more question on that then. Go ahead. [laughter] >> Um, we are filling a lot of those positions internally now. Yes. >> As of the time this was written, we have uh 24.9 special needs

058pair educators that are contracted. >> And that's like >> Yes. And we have um eight learning center teachers who are contracted. Uh 1.4 four speech and language pathologists and one BCBA who's contracted. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Um so this slide uh we compare where we thought we would be with our expenditures at revised budget to where we are at first interim with all of that information and data that we have gathered. Uh this chart reflects an increase in projected spending of 2.7 million. This increase is tied directly to an increase in contracted staffing and special education and an increase in our attorney fees for the district. As a result, we see an increase in deficit spending for the district. This slide shows a summary of the general fund and highlights the change in

059the ending fund balance if all of our projected spending occurs. At revised budget, we had a planned deficit of 3.6 million. At first interim, we have a projected deficit of 5.3 million. This is an increase of 1.7 million. This does not represent a sustainable trajectory for the district. >> I'm sorry. >> Go ahead. >> You mentioned attorney fees. >> Yes, ma'am. >> What did you put that? that's captured in our um services. Let me see what it's >> so it's not on this general fund balance summary. >> It's not on this page. >> No, it is in your budget book and we can take a look at that as well. And that was provided for the public too. Um and I have those changes if you like written down if you need to know them.

060Let me just write that down. I'll change that slide for the future too so that we can see it specifically >> and just um a pull out of that line. Yeah. Okay. [clears throat] So, this chart reflects the district's net change in the ending fund balance. Um the ending fund balance changing either positive negative it positive or negative is something that should be examined. Um outyear revenues expenditures and in this case deficit spending are based on our current trends and projections and may change as we know more. At our current trajectory we are poised to continue a trend of deficit spending through all projected years and by extension this means we continue to spend down our available reserves. This is similar to spending money from your home savings account to cover your checking account expenditures.

061Eventually, one cannot sustain the other. >> 2028 as far as you went. >> Yes. >> I'm hearing so much about the deficit spending at the state level and how alarming that is. >> Correct. >> And I was telling Mrs. Taylor that I read that San Louis Coastal San Louis Coastal is at a deficit. They have to cut $5 million from their budget. >> Yeah. >> Next year. So, that should be really an eyeopening awareness for us. >> Moving forward because it's it's it really um it's very uncomfortable when you start making those cuts. >> It is. >> Yeah. >> Um on that same note, sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. No, finish. No, and I was going to say I I appreciate you bringing up that point as well because um these are projections based on

062what they've told us about the state level of funding and and we know that can change because the state is experiencing some vulnerabilities in their own budget. >> Well, in San Louis Coastal, we're always >> Well, yeah, they're basic aid their basic aid, >> but they are um accustomed to getting approximately $10 million a year >> through Diablo. Mhm. >> And now they're going, "Uhoh, >> we don't they don't know." >> So they're >> it's pretty >> they have some tough times. >> Correct. >> Um I'm going to dance around this a little bit. Um what what is the messaging that we are putting out as a district to staff employees with discretionary spending? I know everyone kind of gets a bucket of money like just wondering like have we started to change the tune

063a little bit about like let's be a little bit frugal on our purchases you know do we really need that sit to stand desk you know like things like that. Um is that something that we do? I mean, I also don't want to have the message out there that's like, "Oh, we're broke and like you should be worried." But I also think everyone everyone has responsibility for this, right? Like this is this is everyone's responsibility to make sure we're Yeah. making responsible decisions financially. >> Yeah. And that's absolutely something that we do. So, we engage in that conversation um with all of our different team members. What's interesting about some of those um expenses is we work really hard with our leaders to find these um categorical or these restricted funds to help pay for

064that so that our students learning experience isn't impacted as gravely. Um the difficult reality in in a school district is that people are you know between 80 and 90% of your expenses. So, um, reducing some of the materials and supplies, while it helps, um, isn't going to make as big of an impact, um, as having to experience what St. Louis Coastal is. So, it's really our goal to protect our people and avoid that kind of, um, cut. >> I 100% agree with that. I also believe in being good stewards of the money and making sure that we're not being wasteful. >> Yeah. Um so this the next slide is our AUSD reserves. So the state requires that the district maintains a 3% reserve. Um this slide demonstrates our ability to meet our required reserves in

065the current year and in the outy years. In addition, we have approximately 4% in in a committed fund we call budget stabilization. Um because we're able to meet our reserve minimum at Tascadero is considered positively certified. And again, that means that we're able to meet our financial obligations this year and in the two out years. Um, it is important to note that this is dependent on, like I said, the actual level of state funding. Already the legislative analyst has come out to project a decrease in the um, COLA for 2627 of approximately 5%. Um, that will result in a loss of revenue for the district of approximately $250,000. So based on the current information that we have regarding state funding levels, our patterns of projected expenditures, we develop our multi-year um budget projections. When looking

066at our unrestricted and restricted budgets together, we see that we continue to have deficit spending in all projected years. Again, these projections are based on current patterns and current district realities. A concentrated effort by the district to increase student expenditures and reduce I'm sorry increase student attendance and reduce expenditures is needed to reverse this trend. Um we will be updating our multi-year projections again at second interim in March. Additional questions. If there are no additional questions, it is the recommendation that the board of trustees adopt resolution 092526 and issue a positive certification that the district will be able to meet its financial obligations for the remainder of the 2526 fiscal year based on current projections. The district will also be able to maintain its required minimum reserve level in 2526 in fiscal years as well

0672627 and 2728. >> Thank you. Do I have a motion for approval? >> Have a second. >> Second. >> Got it. Roll call vote. >> Mr. Arnold. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Taylor, >> yes. >> Mrs. Pierce. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Ellis White. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Cosnik. >> Yes. >> Mrs. President Mcgru Kane. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Counley. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. Our next item is the California School Dashboard and Accountability. And Mr. Rossy, you're up. >> Thank you, Madam President. Tonight's um there's quite a bit of information to go over. Uh this is a a long slide deck and so I'm going to keep things um at a kind of a higher level. Um we'll be talking about this information was released recently and we want to present it to the board,

068talk about accountability, but we'll have a deeper report in February when we do our LCAP midyear um update where we cover more uh information about the progress in our district. As we [clears throat] go through the information tonight, you'll see information on our subgroups. Um, as identified through the LCAP and our schools, um, we wanted to show both of those as we plan for our actions and services for our subgroups. That information is represented in our LCAP. Our schools look at the same information um, when they're creating their SIPs, their single plans for student achievement, and then we make sure there's alignment between those plans. So we'll be showing um both of those briefly tonight um focusing on a key few key subgroups um where we're seeing improvements and needs and a few key indicators.

069So as we go through if you have questions um please feel free to ask as we go. Uh again I'll lot to go over so I'll be focusing on a few key subgroups and areas. We'll [clears throat] start with um the state accountability and support and how that process works. So the state has eight state priorities that they've established. We write to these within our LCAP. They are measured in multiple ways. As we look at those eight state priorities listed there on the left, the state indicators uh where information is provided from schools directly to the state are listed in the middle. These are areas that we'll be speaking to tonight where they do have indicators and dashboards. So, we'll be focusing on state priorities four, five, six, and eight, looking at our academic, student

070achievement, student engagement, climate, and other student outcomes. And so, I'll discuss each of those as we go through. Um, our local indicators are self-reflective, and those are reported out through our LCAP, and we'll go over those in the spring. Um looking at our next slide, I wanted to um identify our subgroups um so that we could see I think it's important that we look at the percentage each subgroup makes up within our district and the end the number of students in those groups. Um as we go through we'll talk tonight differently about a few different subgroups. Um and just as a a an example and we'll talk about how different measuring um indicators have different numbers of students within them. So if you look on this slide at our socioeconomically disadvantaged group um you've seen

071that as SED. Uh the state loves their acronyms and uses different ones through the dashboard. They use a low income. So if you see an LI it's what we are are used to seeing as SED. Um it makes up 48% of our students. So that's 2,093 students um in comparison to our foster youth. Um so you'll see subgroups of our foster youth that are identified. That's 0.7%. So 31 of our students across the entire district. Uh there might be other groups that are not represented. Um if there is a student group that has fewer than stu 30 students in it, they won't show up as an indicator. And so that's where at different indicators as we go through you might see foster youth show up in one not in another because based on that group

072that is measured um it would have had less than 30 potentially. And so we'll point those out as we go through but like to include this so that as we talk about those needs and how we're addressing them we can see the the size of the group we're working to address. Um looking at the different levels of support. Um on the next slide uh the level one every district um qualifies for and this is um that you are doing work you do not have indicators or subgroups that have um scored in the red. The county provides support to each of the school districts that they um serve. So this level of general support um is happens across the state by county offices to the districts that they serve. Level two is differentiated assistance. Um districts

073qualify for differentiated assistance if they have a subgroup that has a red indicator in two or more of the state priorities. And so I'll um identify that where when it comes up. Uh AUSD does qualify for differentiated assistance. We'll address on the next slide. Um at differentiated assistance again that support is still provided by the county office of education. And so through partnership with county office they come in work to support school districts looking again at their subgroups. How um can they support districts in identifying root causes needs? Can they provide professional development other resources and materials that districts can use to supplement the work they're doing through their LCAP and their actions and services to help those subgroups. Level three is intensive intervention that would be provided by a state superintendent. So if a

074district is at uh the differentiated assistance level for multiple years with the same subgroups and the same areas of red um the county office level of support isn't enough then the um state uh steps in and provides more intensive intervention. >> Which level are we at? >> We are going to talk about that we are in differentiated assistance. So looking at the next slide um there's differentiated assistance that we'll talk about. um that is the district level um that you could qualify for support. There are three levels of support specific to schools. So schools can have comprehensive school improvement, targeted TSI, targeted support and improvement or additional targeted support and improvement. The CSI, TSI, and ATSI are federal levels of support. Um those that information is announced later in February. Um we do know for

075differentiated assistance and I'll be more specific on the next slide um on how that is qualified for. Um this infographic shows the different priorities uh that we're talking about. Um again priority four is our pupil achievement, six student climate, five pupil engagement, and um eight the broad course uh the college career indicators. So, as we look at this, um, we've I've listed where as a district we have red indicators for subgroups. And so, you can see those, um, as they're listed in that grid. And then we also listed any school that has a red indicator. So, it is good to note that, um, we have three schools that had no red indicators. So, Crestston, Santa Margarita, and Fine Arts Academy had no indicators on the California school dashboard that were red. [snorts] as a district.

076Um you can see two of our areas of need. As you go down those areas, um in the middle school climate for our suspension rate, um we have multiple dem um subgroups that have been in the red as a district and in schools. And then in priority six in the green, chronic absenteeism. Um we'll see again multiple areas of red as a district and our schools. And so we'll be talking about those two areas tonight as we go through specifically for differentiated assistant. Um at Tascadero qualified for three of our subgroups. So the red arrows indicate where our English learners um have read in pupil achievement priority four for their scores on the um CASP aspect for English language arts and math. They have read in priority six for suspension and a red in priority

077five for chronic absenteeism. Um, additionally, our homeless youth have read in two indicators, priority six for um, suspension rate and priority eight for chronic um, our college career indicators. And then finally, our students with disabilities um, have read in suspensions, chronic absenteeism, and college career indicators. So, as we hit those slides tonight and we discuss those um I'll be able to point those out. Those are the three areas um or three subgroups that qualified uh for differentiated assistance. I do want to point out um this information for the dashboards is at the end of the 202425 school year. So, this information is the difference from the end of 2324 to the end of 2425. So, as we look at this and we identify um suspensions and chronic absenteeism as two of our major areas, as

078we look um a year-to-date change, we're already seeing improvements. So, if we look at the um absenteeism, chronic absenteeism for last school year from the first day of school till 1st of December compared to this year, um last year we were at 16.2% chronic absenteeism. We're down 4.4 percentage points to 11.8. Um so that itself that difference is a 27% decrease which is good. And then in suspensions last year um at by the 1 of December we had 131 students who were suspended. This year it's down 24.4% to 99. So we've been doing a lot of work um with leader and me our positive behavior or PBIS positive behavior um systems at our schools putting in tiered supports for students and we're starting to see those improvements happening already this year. So, while we knew

079these were areas we've been working on them, we're already starting to see improvements year-to date this year compared to the same date last year. >> I have a question. If you're going to get to this later, then just tell me to wait. >> Um, can you explain what kind of support we get for differentiated assistance? >> Yes, I'll I'll do it here before we start going to the dashboard. So, um, >> if it's coming later, just tell me. >> No, this is a good time. perfect time. >> So, um, our county office is great. They've been very supportive. Um, we've already started working with them. Um, Dr. Bennett and I will meet tomorrow with two representatives from county office education. They come out. And so, it's a very collaborative process. So, they'll come out, look

080at the work we're doing, look at what our needs are, and then how can they support. And so um we'll be working on our MTSS system, our multi-tered system of support across academics, social emotional support and behavior and attendance. And I talked that's some of the work that's been happening that we're seeing the results of for behavior and attendance. So we'll want to maintain the work we're doing in um social emotional behavior and attendance and really start to prioritize our work around our tiered supports for academic. So then we can work with the county and we can bring in their resources, their expertise to help us in identifying um systems that will support um working with our teams. So and that's the work the county's actually been doing this same type of work in our

081PBIS work. And so they come out, they work with our sites teams, they work with us to um go in the direction of the that how those teams are being supported. So, it really is a collaborative process and we're seeing um the impact of that work already in our suspensions and attendance. We'll do that same work on the academic side. >> So, have we've we've been in this category or this level of support before >> um in different areas. So, our LESs were read before, now there's none that are. And one of the things that I'll talk about tonight as we go through, we've seen um progress and improvement with our LTELs, our long-term English learners, and our students with disabilities. Our students with disabilities used to be read in academics and now they're no

082longer. So we are seeing improvement in in areas and one of the things we'll talk about as we go into dashboards is that's a common theme amongst our subgroups is the progress we're seeing. >> So this is quite common for them to kind of eb and flow in and out of where where we currently need need some extra help. >> Yes. >> Okay. And are we at any >> are we close >> close to states? No. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Great question. Any other questions about accountability before we start on the dashboards? >> Perfect. >> Yes, ma'am. >> 131 students suspended at what time? >> Last year between first day of school in 2024 and December 1st of 2024. And so this year, first day of school 2025 to December 1st of 2025, 99.

083>> Thank you. So for the dashboards um this the California uh school dashboards is a public um dashboard where people can go and see the how schools are doing. They start with um gauges where you can earn a red, orange, yellow, green or blue level of um meeting their criteria. The gauges are okay. I really prefer the 5x5 grids. And so we'll be spending time tonight on the 5x5 grids because as we look at the 5x5 grids, there could be five different levels of green or five different levels of orange. And so really the the grids start to show us are we seeing progress in what we're doing and what is our level of proficiency. So as we go through and look at our dashboards tonight, um I'll be talking about the prog the proficiency

084like how what was our score and how we did and the progress what was our change from one year to the next. and then you'll see an N on there. So you will see the number of students that are in that subgroup because again I think that's an important piece. So as we go through um each of the dashboards and the 5x5 grids, you'll get to we'll talk about those areas as we talk about those 5x5 grids, we want to um one of the best ways to look at them and and we look at our student groups this way also is in quadrants um for all those overall coverlars. So if we break the grid into four se four quadrants that quadrant one is if we're seeing low proficiency and low progress. So if we're

085scoring in there in that area we're not performing at a high level and we aren't making growth. Quadrant two we might not have increased our proficiency our overall score but we are making progress and that's what we always want to see. Quadrant two you're making progress. You want to keep you really want to that means the things you're doing are working. You want to keep working on those things and and improve them slightly. Quadrant three is high proficiency but low progress. Sometimes we see high proficiency and we're like, "Oh, we're doing great." But if we're not making progress, we want to know that also. And what adjustments can we make to in improve our progress even though we're prof we're we're scoring well. And then quadrant four, high proficiency, high progress. We're doing well and

086we're continuing to improve. So quadrants two and four showing that progress really are good places to be. So diving in this is where um the fund starts to to happen and I use fun lightly. Um the states um does some interesting ways on how they they score things. Um so when we look at our next two academic dashboards for um English language arts and math they in the past a lot of the information that is shared um at the state level is the percent proficient how many what percent of your students met or exceeded standard. So that would be if we were just looking at proficiency for dashboards because they show proficiency and progress and they want to be able to compare students across grades and schools across schools to put all together for district

087scores. They needed a common way to measure that. So at each grade level, this is based on your ESPback scores for English language arts and math. But the score, the numerical scores increase with each year because our students should be learning more. So if I scored a 2500 in third grade and I scored a 2500 in third or fourth grade, that's not as high because that range increases. So the way the state compensates for this is every grades span has four categories and level three is where you are at standard. So after level three you've met or exceeded and so the state calculates your difference from standard. So in this diagram here you can see that there are the six different students and their difference from standard is where they were how far away they

088were from that baseline score of what if they had met. So if we look at those six students the first students was 12 points below 18 points above 10 above. You can see how that pattern goes. The way they calculate a score for a subgroup, for a grade, a school, for a district, is they put all of those differences together and then divide it by the number of students. So this when it comes to our ESPback scores, this is the way, this is pretty much the only way you would be able to have comparative information between subgroups, between schools, between districts. So when we see the scores as we look at our next two um indicators for ELA and math, they'll be shown as that difference from three. So collectively, where were we in our

089difference from from standard? So looking at our um first group, um this is looking at our schools and how they were performing. Um you'll see the district logo that shows where we are as a district. So in that green square that would be in quadrant two. That means that we are progressing. We are at that medium proficiency level but we are increasing. Um our proficiency is shown on the left. We were seven points above that difference from standard and that was a progress of 11.1 points. So that was a good increase. Um, one more thing about the slides. You'll notice on this slide in the columns for proficiency and progress, it just has the titles. Very low, low, medium, high, very high, decline significantly, decline, maintain, increase, increase significantly. In other slides, you'll get to

090see the breakdown of the numerical qualifiers for each of those. There are some like ELA and math where it differs by grade. So grade spans 3 through eight will have one set of qualifiers um and then different for 9 through 12. So in order to put the schools on a one slide, we needed to eliminate those um delineations. But as we go into our subgroups, they'll be back because they're they'll be universal. So just some differences between the slides before we get into the details. But looking at um our English language arts scores again, as a district, there were 2,134 students. Again, we know we have more students in that, but that's because only grades three through eight and 11 take this test. And so that represents just over 2,000 of our students. They progressed

091by 11.1 points. Again, you see four of our schools that are in that quadrant 2 that are making progress and some of it quite a lot. You can see the high school had 32 point um growth. That's a that's a good increase uh for one year. and [snorts] then Monroey Road and Fine Arts, Santa Margarita, who are in that upper end of quadrants three and four that they are um showing high proficiency. Um and then Santa Rosa and ACE are in that area where we do want to dive in and see what's happening at those schools. So again, thinking about those quadrants, it's a good way to break down how our schools in this case are performing. >> Yeah. Can you explain this grid a little bit more? Like the axis proficiency equals 7. What

092does that mean? >> So, as a district where our logo is, we I'm going to jump to the next one because it's easier when you have the words. >> Okay. >> So, looking now at our subgroups, our our district logo is in the same cell. >> So, we our proficiency is we were 0.7 points above standard. So, you can see for medium that means this anybody who scores medium were either five points below or 9.9 points above standard. So that's the range. You can't do that for schools because like I said, it's different by grades span. So it's not universal. For subgroups district-wide, it is. So this one's a little bit cleaner to show. And then our progress of 11.1 puts us in the increase column because for increase it's anybody who increased prior year

093by three to 14.9 points would be in that column. So where those two intersect, that's the cell we land in. And then for some of the other schools, um there's a plus like TMR plus 12.1 plus 10.7. Why? What are those? >> So the that represents um each of their individuals. So if we look at San Gabriel, that's in that same box. They were 8.9. Their proficiency was 8.9 above standard. That's the score they landed on. They grew their their progress was they grew by 5.4. >> Okay? And there were 163 students that tested. Again, not every student because it's only grades three through five. >> Okay? >> And so we wanted to represent those for each of our schools. And then again, as we go into subgroups, you'll see that same pattern. What was

094their proficiency, then their progress, and how many students are in that group. >> Is that the same for ACE? >> Yes. >> ACE like significantly dropped. and there's 49 students. Um, ACE was um sometimes we see that difference of how many students are in um a group and that could that could have a high percentage change on that also. So some of our smaller groups which is why they have a minimum number to be able to qualify for an indicator that smaller number a change of one two three five kids could have a big impact. Um, so sometimes you'll see our smaller schools having bigger swings um in where they were from one year to the next. >> And what might not be known is that if a student opts not to take this test,

095we still get scored but we get a zero score on that student and that factors brings down the average >> for the whole for the whole site. Yes. >> For the whole site. So that's an an you know unknown quantity in this the scores. >> Is there a way to back out that data? Like do we have that data of how many students cuz like if you have a small school like let's say like ACE who only had 49 and you had five kids who didn't take and now you scored zero is there a way for us to know that information so we could then reverse engineer what the real number was? >> Uh we could yes um for this particular piece of information we wanted to represent what was publicly on their dashboard. Yes,

096each of our school sites um the district or the state threshold that um you're to be targeted for is 95% and um as a district we hit 95%. But we can calculate that number out because we um do have every parent who wishes to opt out we have a process for that. They meet with the principal, they discuss the assessment. Um we do have a written um note after that meeting if the parent still chooses to opt out. So we usually know those numbers even going into the test. Do you know how many kids we had opt out during this testing period? >> Not off the top of my head by school. I know as a district it was less than 5%. >> What's the penalty a fun? So the penalty doesn't really happen for

097the first kid that's out. It's at a certain range. >> Um after the 95% um there's a difference that is hit um where they score the lowest percent and that's applied to your lowest score and that's applied to your school. >> So it's not every kid that's >> oh gets a zero. >> Oh. So if we only have like let's say 1% of kids who don't take the test, we're not necessarily getting we're not penalized at that point >> overall on the overall for that school. Yes. Or district. >> Okay. >> Because there's valid reasons why parents and students might want to opt out of taking the test, you know, for their well-being or whatever. So >> but just to be clear, we're not getting hurt on every single kid that doesn't come. It's after

098a certain point that the state then looks at it and says that's above expectation, then we do. >> Thank you for the clarification. >> Yes. Thank you. >> So then looking at our subgroups, um this is where we see for English language arts, um each of our subgroups had pro made progress. Um all of our subgroups are in that quadrants two or four, even our English learners, while they're in the middle on that line, they had a a growth of 1.8 points um from standard. So we're seeing improvement in our subgroups um as we go through. If you look again, I talked about our um ELTELS, our long-term English learners, and our SWD, our students with disabilities. While they're at that lowest level of proficiency, that that's good growth. They had 18.9% or 18.9 points

099increase and 17 point increase. And these are our students who have our highest needs u um specifically when it comes to the development of the English language. And so that was good for us to see. We we appreciated that. And that's a pattern we'll see as we go through with our subgroups. Are LES and students with disabilities um continue to make progress uh as we look at our different indicators >> is HL homeless? >> Uh yes. Thank you. >> Shifting to math we'll follow the same pattern. So as a district um the again for math because of the grades span difference we won't see the um details till we get to the subgroups. But um as a for math we were below the standard by 35.6 points. It was pro we did make progress of

1008.5 points increase. Um looking at our schools um the high school and middle school both had significant growth um increase or increase significantly which was great. Um looking at those that maintained in that column in the middle um just slight decrease. And then looking at um Monterey Road and um fine arts, San Gabriel, Santa Margarita falling into that quadrant three where their their proficiency there is at a higher to medium level but not making that progress that we want to see everyone making progress. And then again ACE um needing to improve in that area um one of our lower performing in this um category. Subgroups. We find a similar pattern with math where each of our subgroups are in that quadrant 2 where they're making progress. Um again, our ELTEL students with disabilities 10.9 points

101and 12.4 points of improvement. um our English learners again maintaining just a slight growth and as we go through that's a common piece we'll see is our our English learners is a group that um where we we we know we wanted to point um our most work into it and that's part of that transition as we're looking to maintaining our work for MTSS and social emotional behavior academic and increasing our work in the academic side of that going to our next um indicator Science is um a newer indicator um for the dashboard. Science test was introduced just a few years back. Um but you needed to have multiple years of an assessment to be able to show proficiency and progress. Um I talked about the fund that we have in how the state um identifies

102um growth. So they did a very similar um approach for science that they did with English language arts and math where you're looking at that difference from standard and then they I I will say somehow calculated instead of being four points below standard or five points below standard they turned it into a science point because they wanted a 0 to 100 range. there's it it's just now a science point. And so they did the calculation the same where you get a science point, we'll divide it out, you get your average. Um the science assessment is not this year an indicator that is being used to identify schools or districts for assistance. Um but it will be in the future. As we look at our schools, um we see many of our schools in quadrants uh

103two and three and four uh where we're having um as a district our proficiency was 55.9 um science points which is a at a high level we did increase uh 2.6 six points and again that's 928. Slightly different from English language arts and math because in science it's only grades 58 and 11 and so um there's more students who test for English language arts but science is just 58 and 11. So that N is smaller but again our we're seeing many of our schools who are in quadrants 2, four and three um that are are scoring um high or and also making improvements. Looking at our subgroups, again, another similar pattern where we're seeing our subgroups with uh improvement. Um, specifically our ELTELS and students with disability at that highest level of increase. Um, and

104then our English learners showing increase and at a higher point, a higher proficiency in the orange than they were in English language arts and math. Moving on to the next indicator for um this is English learner progress indicator. Uh loving our acronyms. They call it the LP. Um this is based on how our English learners score on their LPAC. So the ELPAC is the English language proficiency assessment for California. So any students who are second language learners take the ELPAC on an annual basis. um if they are new to us, they take there's an initial ELPAC and then there's always an annual ELPAC. So this is based on the annual LPAC, the scores are the test that these students take every year and then to show progress in your English language development. It's if you

105there are four levels that you can score on your LPAC. If you improved a level, then you you qualify as making progress. or if you were already at the highest level four and you stayed at that level, you qualify as making progress. So they look at students um English learners who were either improved or at that highest level divided by the total number of improve uh English learners and that gives you your LP, your English language proficiency um indicator. So looking at this, we only see three schools because again, if you have fewer than 30 students, you won't have an indicator. So, um, our English learners are spread out across our district. Um, there's only three schools that have enough students, um, in their school to have an indicator. So, middle school, high school, and

106Santa Rosa. Um, as we look at those quadrants, um, as a district, we were at the low level of 40% of our students um, making either making growth or remaining at that highest level. And it was a a slight decrease of 0.6%. and this was 270 of our students. Um, high school was in that quadrant four. Uh, middle school and Santa Rosa would be in quadrant one. There's multiple indicators when it comes to this. Also, if we have English learners who through the year um, redesate. So, now they are English language proficient. They wouldn't go in this. So, we can have we've seen our English our redesated students increase, but they wouldn't be represented in this number. So, as we talk with our sites, we look at both of those data points. The state um

107um puts out information about those students who remain English learners and um the growth that they've seen on their ELPAC. >> Once a student redesignates, they wouldn't show up as unduplicated anymore. Is that correct? >> Correct. We they do stay on a watch list and so we continue to watch and support them for the next three years. Um but they aren't in that English learner subgroup anymore. and the tests that they're taking for science, math, and English, uh, language arts, that's been given in English. >> I just find it interesting that they're making such good progress and they're doing scoring so well here, but yet we're not on here. How do you explain that? >> This I I'll brag about the middle school um because I think it's a good example. they've seen um the

108most growth actually and um they actually had a question about why they showed that they declined significantly and I think because they had so many kids who did redesate and wouldn't be in here. Middle school for the last two years has gotten together with their um English learner students and showed them, hey, this is the importance of the test. Here's how you scored last year. Here's what's on the test. Let's set a goal um for what you can do on this test and and what it takes to get to that next level. and when you get redesated, you don't have to take this test anymore. So for that school, they really emphasized the importance of the test, talked about it with their students, did some practice work on that, showed the elements that were in

109it because as we see, they're doing they're showing proficiency in those other areas. um the ELPAC as we've talked with many of our students what didn't have that same level of importance >> and then through those conversation and individual goal setting with students middle school saw great improvement and their number of redesated students is is one of our highest across our schools so I think um as we've been talking to students over the last year the LPAC wasn't as important as the level of importance that we all put on the ESPback tests so we're working to now take that across the rest of our What do you show your students when they're going over their test scores? [snorts] You don't show >> just their own individual. So um through our student information systems through one

110of them, Edge of Climber, we can um have a report that will show each of their own scores. So little EJ Rossy's scores on ESPback on ELPAC for the last three years, four years. We share that information with parents also three times a year. So parents get um something emailed to them at each trimester or three times throughout the year that will have that information also. And so the middle school took that information and then created a form that they met with kids and said, "Hey, here's here's your individual score over the last three years. Look how you're doing in English language arts. What's going on with our ELPAC? Let's let's work on that." And then they work on some goals and strategies um for that language development. >> So that's where you had stated

111before that it's almost like when you can show them that. [clears throat] >> Show them that they're individual. >> They do individualized goal setting with them. Heidi Cooper and Cara Ferrell do great work to to work with those kids and they've seen great improvement. >> So, looking at subgroups, um because this is language dependent, there would only be two subgroups, our English learners and our long-term English learners. It was great to see that our ELELS um actually outperformed our EELs because to be a long-term English learner, you're an English learner for six or more years. So, these are students who really have our highest needs um who outperformed which was great. Uh and so you think about it are to be an LT till you're in those older grades, middle school, high school, and that's

112some of the results that we're seeing. Chronic absenteeism um is an indicator that the state looks at as part of student engagement. Um this is um this is an indicator that is only used for grades K through eight. And so we look at chronic absenteeism districtwide. So we we have all of our schools looking at a high school included. Um students are chronically absent if they miss 10% or more of a school year. And um it is only used as a state indicator for grades K through eight. So when we look at our schools, you won't see high school, Paloma Creek or ACE um because for to >> why do they use the high school >> to measure the so chronic absenteeism is used under the category of um student engagement at the high school

113level. They look at graduation rate as that engagement. Um so they measure that part differently. As we look at our schools, you'll see um again as a district we were we were towards that quadrant 2. Um we have fine arts in Santa Margarita who are in that quadrant 2 who are making improvement. Um again as a district as a whole this is where we're already seeing improvement um from first day of school to December comparing this year to last year. Um this is one of the few areas where you'll see Crestston because this is their entire school. And so Crestston usually has two indicators, attendance and um suspensions because those are the only two indicators that incorporate their whole school. Once they go to specific grades, their N becomes less than 30. Um looking at

114our subgroups, this one's interesting because this um is one of the few areas for um absenteeism and then suspensions where we don't see the same patterns where all of our subgroups were making that progress. Um there's more subgroups included because this incorporates um all grades uh K through eight instead of just those who tested. So here you'll see um Asian or Filipino where we might not see those subgroups in other areas. Again, it it incorporates all of the students in K through 8 um compared to just those who were tested. So looking at our Filipino group, that's they just had the a number big enough at 32. So that's why you don't see that subgroup in English language arts and math because when you go to just grades three through eight, that that n gets

115too small. Um, again, our ELTELS seen improvement. Homeless saw improvement. When it comes to chronic absenteeism and suspensions, you'll notice that your proficiency on the left changes. So, at the for academics, very high was at the top. For chronic absenteeism, very high is at the bottom. So, if you think about it, you don't want a high percentage of your students who aren't here. You want that to be low percentage. So, as you go now, very low percentage is is what we want to see. As a district, we were at 19% last year, um, which was an improvement of 0.4%. As I said, um, at the beginning, we're already seeing an improvement in our chronic absenteeism districtwide. Um, that we should see that same um, have that same impact by the time we get to the

116reports, the end of the year reporting out. Also, >> can I just make a quick comment? One of the things that you might want to be able to do just because of the complexity of all the grids is even to be able to add up, >> you know, the number of blues, for example, and [clears throat] greens and yellows and oranges [snorts] and reds. I think it's another way of being able to kind of frame, you know, how are we doing as it relates to the the rating scale. It's another way of being able to understand because I think there there is some complexity with the the 5 by5 Um, and I think color is another way to kind of get a quick sense of of >> that's a great point specific to this slide.

117Um, chronic absenteeism has the fewest blues u compared to all the others. So if to have a blue and chronic absenteeism, there's only four cells that actually qualify for that. Um, so this slide in particular was a great point to bring that up. Thank you, uh, Dr. Bennett. Um, pushing through looking at our suspension rate. So to calculate suspension rate um the state looks at any student who has been suspended one time and um as the the state system is directly connected with our ARIES student information system and CalPAD. So it is a direct report suspension um is one full day and it could be in school suspension or traditional at home suspension. And so any any suspension um that occurs to a student one time and they would be part of the group that

118is then divided by your cumulative enrollment. Um as we look at our schools um as a district uh we were at 5.3% which was an increase of 0.6. Again this is where you don't want to have that increase. Uh we did have schools that were in quadrant 2 with fine arts. Paloma Creek Sanonito high school was on that line. Um, ACE had zero suspensions. Again, that is our independent um program. Um, they're at home to get suspended. >> Yeah. Where you got to stay in your room. Um, but so they they traditionally are in the blue and and have zero suspensions. Um, and then looking at our stu our our school sites in that quadrant one are the areas that we really want to work on. Um, and again, this is another one where the

119indicators for proficiency where low is good. Uh, looking at our subgroups, again, this is district-wide, so you'll see more subgroups than on our academics. Um [snorts] and then this is one that does again doesn't follow that same pattern where we saw the achievement in our academic areas of our subgroups with a very similar pattern with our students with disabilities and ELTELS um having high pro um uh progress. Um here we we don't see that same pattern. I we again we know as a district um we're already seeing that improvement um and and we're excited to maintain and continue that work that we're doing there. That's so interesting. >> Doesn't make sense, but it's really interesting. >> Um, looking at our our last two indicators, um, having to do specific, this one's specific to do with

120high schools and DOSs schools. Um, comprehensive high school is is our task high. Uh, that's what we think of when we think of most of our high schools. a DOSS school um is a uh oh I wrote I want to make sure I got it right. Uh dashboard alternative school status. So the dashboard alternative school status is what is used for a continuation or an alternative education school. So that would be um when we look at our results you'll see for high school ACE and Paloma because ACE and Paloma would be considered DOSS schools. They're not a comprehensive traditional school. Um but both types of schools are represented um in our growth and our proficiency. Um as a district we're at a high level of 94 or 91.5%. Uh it was a decrease of 1.1%.

121Um Tasker High shares that same cell with us. They make up the highest number and percentage of our graduates. So usually where that school falls, our district falls because when you look at ACE and Paloma Creek, um they're at 62 and 59 um of our graduates. So that that highest majority of 266 is from Atascador High School. Um looking at our subgroups, [snorts] um we see again this is the one area where our LESS did go down. um they are in quadrant 1. We're in our other academic areas. They were in quadrant 2. Um and again, this is just our seniors, just our graduates. So for ELTELS, there's 17 of them. When it gets to this category, they lower that number of students to be in a group from 30 to 15. So we we

122will see some bigger swings because of the smaller numbers um because they lower that group down to 15 um for graduation rate. Uh similarly, you'll see homeless there, there was 19. they wouldn't have normally been an N, but they they lower that from 30 to 15. Um, our students with disabilities, we did see an increase. Uh, and then again, our uh low-income, white, and homeless are in those um quadrants two and four showing um good progress. And then our last indicator is our college career indicators. Um the calculation for this part is easy. They just look at the number of students who of our graduates again just our seniors who are exiting who were prepared and you divide it by the total number of graduates you have. That's the easiest part of the calculation. Um

123after that it it begins to get more difficult because um on the next slide it shows the all the different indicators that a student can meet. So, an individual student um can meet one of these indicators by the number of advanced placement courses they took or advanced placement AP tests that they exams that they passed. If a student what met that UCCCSU A3G requirements, if you were a path CTE pathway completer, if you took one or more or two or more dual enrollment classes, leadership military science pre-apprentices, your ESPback scores on English language arts and math um or you you receive the state seal of biiteracy. Um, for our district, our highest percentage of students that are um have met this do it through either either AP courses or PL exams, A throughG, CTE, pathway

124completion, dual enrollment, or your ESPback scores. Where it starts to get confusing is to be considered um prepared. Um, on the right, you're either prepared, approaching prepared, or not prepared. It is a a plethora of of um combinations. So, I could have scored high enough on my ESPback scores and um been a CTE completer and then I'm prepared. Or I took college dual enrollment courses and enough AP courses and exams and I would be prepared. Or I took um I met my A throughG and my ELA scores and math scores were high enough. So, it's a combination of these different indicators that allow you to be prepared. [snorts] So, we really look at for these the ones that specific to our high school, we want to look at our students who are taking the AP

125courses or exams that A through G um meeting those requirements. Uh looking at our CTE pathways, how many students are taking dual enrollment and what those ESPback scores are. Those are the program alignment that we offer the most at the high school. Um, so those are the areas we really look at. >> So they don't necessarily per the state need to be proficient. As long as they took the CTE class or they they the pathway as long as they completed some other things, you could still be prepared but not be proficient. >> Yes, you prepared is that level of proficient and so that's why they pair it up. So you can you can finish your Oh, you mean proficient in English language arts? >> Yes. >> Okay. So >> is that not what this is

126talking about? >> Yes. So, if I uh as an 11th grader did not score a three, met or above on my English language arts, >> but I met all my A throughG requirements and I was a CTE pathway completer, I would be considered college career ready. >> Okay. >> So, it it balances that out to take all of the pressure away from one exam or one score. Good question. So looking at those um indicators for our school as a district, we were right in the middle um of medium [snorts] proficiency of 42.2%. We maintained with a slight decrease of uh 1.4%. looking at our high school um ACE and Paloma um ACE and Paloma if you think about those indicators will always struggle to have students who are college career um prepared because they don't

127offer all of those areas. They don't offer all the A throughG requirements or AP courses or dual enrollment courses. So those two schools, those DOSs schools will always have a lower percentage. They just don't offer those same types of programs. Um there are we continue to work with our tech department um because in the high school of how we code courses, how the courses work together to make sure that we are um trying to maximize and make sure we have the right information in our student information system um so that this is accurate um because the the systems pull from each other and so if we have a course that is coded incorrectly, a student might not get the college career indicator credit through the state. So, we're always looking at and refining those to

128make sure that it's most accurate to support our students. >> Now, our some of our a students do come to the high school for classes. They could take CTE if they if they chose to. >> Um but Paloma cannot engage in those course offerings. >> Um usually they don't. We've had some times where they do. >> Um many times they aren't able to. they're either don't have the time or ability because of the credits they're trying to make up um to be able to graduate um desire the students often don't want to um Dr. Madden has really worked to try and get CTE courses at Paloma Creek um that qualify um but yes it is much harder a students do have a more opportunity for that with their schedule. >> Okay. Um looking at our

129subgroups, uh this is one again where um our homeless students um qualified as one of those red indicators and and it's difficult as 19 students. Um so that change could be one or two students uh where we're seeing a change in that decline. Uh so that swing year to year might might be big because of that number. Um similarly with our ELTS, they did see an improvement. um they their proficiency was 6.7, their improvement was 6.7 because there were no LESs the year before who met this qualification. Um so we're happy to see that they they did in that area. Um and again for our students with disabilities difficult um sometimes our students with disabilities might not be accessing those AP courses or those those dual enrollment courses. Um so that's a difficult group to

130sometimes reach that proficiency in some of those traditional ways. So, as we come back and bring it back full circle, looking at the different indicators again, um our district, we're qualifying for differentiated assistance with our English learners, our homeless youth, and our students with disabilities in those categories. Um primarily around um suspension rate, chronic absenteeism. Uh we've been working with the county and on some of those processes to support our tiered interventions on this MTSS side for social emotional and behavior and attendance. We're already seeing improvements in those areas. We want to continue and maintain the work that our schools are doing there. And then um again as we partner with differentiated assisted with the county we'll be working to um do some additional work in the academic side of our MTSS system in those

131areas. Also our next steps um is specific to the LCAP talking about those subgroups. Uh we'll complete a full midyear analysis and present those findings to the board in February to our LCAP steering committee as well. We'll continue to review progress and implementation and impact and potential adjustments uh mid year for that. We'll continue to work to gather input from our sites, from our LCAP steering committee, and then um determine what additional needs or adjustments might need to be made to our actions and services for our LCAP to be brought back to the board in June. And then through differentiated assistance, as I as I shared, we're going to focus on that multi-tered system of supports um on all three areas, academics, social emotional behavior, and attendance, and really work to increase and improve our

132services to meet the needs of our subgroups. I'd be happy to answer any additional questions uh tonight as well. And then, as I said, uh we'll be going over some more and more detailed information with our midyear report to our LCAP in February. Did the state tell us what priorities were looking at? >> Uh the eight state priorities um were identified by the state um when the LCAP was [snorts] introduced. So those eight state priorities have been there. Uh which ones we focus on are dependent on the um results of our student subgroups. >> So we decide after the the priorities I mean we have priorities four, six, five, and eight. Were those determined ahead of time? >> Um, so if we go back, stop. It's not working. Go back to one of the um

133page that has those eight priorities. It's actually like the the first real slide. Um, oh, thank you, Vincent. Um, those eight state priorities, um, on the left were created by the state. So they said that for >> Okay. So that's so the state picked them for us and then we shuffled but the kids shuffled themselves in there >> with the test results. >> Yes. So for every LEA school and district, those eight state priorities apply. Then you look at your subgroups and how they perform in those areas and based on their performance um address your your needs, actions, and services to support students in those areas. >> Um I have a I guess I I'm just really concerned about the math our math results. Um and at the CSBA conference, one of the workshops I

134attended was about a district who they focused their focus they um was on improving their math scores and it was a three or five year plan that they worked out and it was like everyone got on board to focus on that and I feel like we have you know we're doing things here we're doing things there but I don't know >> it's not it's not nor is it a longterm >> it's not a long-term plan to improve our standing um with >> right with ELA I remember when we did the thinking maps and that was because our scores in ELA were so low and I think that that set gave our students a lot of good strategies to how to think out their ideas and then um you know map out how they would write

135their essays and and uh so forth but I don't feel that we done that with math in a really substantial way. Um, so I don't know if you can address that or maybe this is something that we have another discussion about, but I'm really concerned about the math um results and um and then you know Monterey Road looks like they're doing well. What can we glean from other school sites that are, you know, are in these green areas or blue areas that we can maybe use at our other sites to improve our students? >> It just seems like we're playing catch-up. We've been playing catch-up for a long time and these students, we have these students for such a small amount of time in in their lives. And I don't know, seems like we're we

136need to do more. >> I don't think we're catching up. I think we're just behind >> pacing pacing behind. >> And I think too, if I and I'm trying to remember off the top of my head when we looked at the ESPback data and we had some countywide comparisons, math across the state is always lower specific to English language arts. >> And and one of the things we talked about in that is not to look at just the comparison, but it's what you're talking about. no matter where we were scoring, are we okay with where we are? And and we're not either. And so that's why as we're talking about that work, we want to maintain the things we've been doing around social emotional and behavior and attendance, but our major focus from now forward

137is going to be on the academic side of our MTSS system. And so through that, looking at are we teaching to the standards? Do we have the right curriculum that supports it? Are we having the best unified approach and common instructional practices, common accommodations and how are we approaching this from a district so that we don't have specific things happening to different schools where universally we need to work on those. So, so we agree and this is definitely a high priority area for us as a district >> because we've tried different [clears throat] things. We have Zern. We have um you know Common Core with Walk to Learn. We've used uh Fastbridge to try to get kids the this support that they need and so that they don't fall behind. But like have we looked

138overall at how those pieces work? And I agree with you because when I look at like MTSS, I think of like the majority of our students are doing well and we have this multi-tered support system to pull out and give additional to support to those who need it. But when 65% of our kids aren't proficient, >> I think fundamentally something is wrong. I don't think it's just MTSS, my uneducated opinion. But I think as as we look at that and you and it's a good description that MTSS hits different levels of student support um it starts with that tier one and this is what we'll be talking about the most because tier one is for all students. So what are we doing for all students is our first priority will be within MTSS tier one.

139We won't stop tier 2 supports that are happening but we'll be diving in and looking at what is happening at tier one and how are we maximizing and using the best most research proven strategies instructional practices common pieces. Do we need to look at our schedule? If we look at how we're supporting English language arts and math it's very different. And so we'll be looking specifically within the MTSS MTSS pyramid at that tier one level. >> Great. I appreciate that because the MTSS makes me think of the pull out supports, but I always forget about level one because everybody gets >> most important. Yes, the most important. >> Great questions. >> Any other questions? >> Nope. >> Thank you, EJ. Appreciate it. >> You had like a firing squad coming at you. [laughter] >> Okay,

140now on to my favorite subject, CTE. All right, let's go. >> Well, thank you. Um, first of all, thanks EJ. Uh, I also want to be able to say that at CSBA, um, several of you had conversations because I I believe you ended up going to some, um, various sessions related to career and technical education. And so there was conversation that I had with many of you, but given the Brown Act, we wanted to ensure that we brought it here for conversation and processing. And that's really why this is on there as well as the next one. Um, and so related to career and technical education, I know there was some conversation about possibly creating a subgroup when in reality I think what needs to happen is we need to be able to bring you

141back a report. I mean, so the question then is what is it that you would like to know about as it relates to our career and technical education program? Where we want to be able to go? What are some of the issues and questions and thoughts that you have? And so what I'm asking for is I'm asking from you. What are your desires? What is it that you want to know about? And we can bring the detailed information, facts, figures, whatever it is that you need as it relates to CTE for conversation. And so that will, I think, help you. Remember, your job is to be able to point direction and then ours is about how to be able to get it done. And so how do we help you to be able to make

142some of those decisions? Okay. and we can discuss it as a group. >> Okay. Well, first thing would be >> my mic on. >> Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. >> Um my my thing is um biggest thing is are we picking CTE pathways in our school just because we have teachers for it. I want to explore um what is some industries, some CTE industries that are local that we can uh train our kids up so they can maybe stay in the area, get those head of household jobs. Um and I had one more but I can't can't think of it. So those are the those are the thing. Oh. Um, and then also how popular they are because I think what we have nine career pathways. We need to figure out which ones are being

143used and maybe if we need to update the list of, you know, that kind of falls into things I was saying >> earlier. >> Okay. Well, mine is is about planning. What's the what's the three-year plan, fiveyear plan, and then the 10-year plan? the goal for AUSD and the kids when they graduate, you know, starting in fourth grade. Um, you know, they are the ones that are going to benefit from our plan, our long-term planning. And where do we see ourselves go due to industry growth in our area? Um and the and I would say the the radius of industry growth would be you know uh anywhere from 50 miles to 200 miles where we are and say this is what you know hopefully we'd like to keep our kids here. But if they have

144to go so far and then can drive you know drive back and see mom and dad d that would be great. Um but I I just I I don't think Yeah. >> [clears throat] >> Um, if you're going to bring us back the information, I'd like a real broad brush, the nine pathways and when it starts, if we're starting, like you're saying, in elementary school or middle school, high school, just the overall view of exactly what we have now, and like Tracy said, who's at the helm of it as well, because we had talked about some people that we thought were good resources for it um that we have in district. So, I just like that real generic what we have now and then we can go to, you know, how to expand it. But

145just the educational part if you're going to present it. I like that. Would you like us to share some [clears throat] of the stuff that we, you know, when we went to presentations, we came across a couple of um I know Joey and I went I was like, "Oh my god." I mean, are there things that you would like us to just shoot your, you know, so you can your the team can at least read to understand, okay, this is where what they're thinking because this is what we saw. And then you can balance that out and say, uh, you know, guys, we're, you know, that's a we're we're not there, okay? And to get there would take a long, you know, this is what we'd have to put in in our pathway. What I'm

146thinking is that it would be nice to be able to give our team an opportunity to be able to bring back a report as to what it is that we're currently doing, you know. And so I think if we started there, here's what we have. These are the pieces that we have in place. Here's the plan. This is what we know about our local region. Here's how our programs became, you know, came into place. Um, I think that would start the discussion, which I think is really what we're looking for is let's start the conversation about where we're at right now and then where it is that we need to be able to go. It's not that we're I think it would be very helpful for us to have that. However, I think it'd be

147nice to be able to start with here's where we're at. This is what our plan is and then let's have you push back against it and say, "Well, what about this and what are thoughts about that?" And understand that I mean certainly we're going to have the people who understand this most. So EJ will pull together a team of people related to CTE to be able to help develop this. How did it emerge and what did it look like? and then um we'll bring it to one of these upcoming meetings. We'll talk about what the time frame looks like and uh that will start our conversation and then we can engage in dialogue about here's where we are, where do we need to go. >> Okay. So, you're saying all my homework that I brought

148[laughter] is not for tonight. So you if you have specific things that you would like for us to be able to look at. >> Well, if we're just going to do the um this is where we're at, then this probably is not applicable. Um these were um I maybe misunderstood our conversation about talking about I thought we were going to be talking about um all of us coming together to talk about um giving direction of the the things that we want the cabinet to look into. I I was thinking of it as what's your direction in terms of what kind of a report you would like for us to be able to bring back. And so the things that we've been talking about have been very specific about what it is the board wants to

149learn about. What do you want us to be able to bring back and that serves as a foundation for conversation. But I I think for us to be able to go from what we currently have to ideas about what it would look like would be very difficult for us. >> This is not ideas about what I want it to look like. Um, this would be like datainformed strategy to strengthen, reimagine. This is actually a lot of this is probably under what you're talking about with maybe a different pillar with like college and career readiness. Um, not just CTE. Um, but um, you know, having a goal to ensure that all students graduate with a meaningful exposure to high wage, high demand career pathways aligned to regional workforce needs supported by strong community partnerships, things like

150that. Um, so not necessarily saying this is what I want the prone to look like, just more d like. So I thought we were talking more about that tonight, but I can save this for later. I personally speaking, I think that would be really helpful. And the reason why is that what I would what I would appreciate most from this board is direction on what it is that we can bring to you to engage in discussion about where we're at or what how our program was built, thoughts about where we're trying to be able to go and then to be able to have the board based on the information that you had all received be able to weigh in on what we're currently doing and what kinds of offerings you would like to be able

151to see us do and for what reasons which it sounds like what what you have there is we're looking for industry that meet these types of criteria. >> So, so I did a little Google search because I forgot that we have Google, but there's so there's 15 um industry uh sectors, but there's so with nine, we hit a lot of them, right? But they also have like um like marketing and sales and then um business and finance you know that [clears throat] as Tracy was saying three, five and 10 year goals. It'd be nice to be able to kind of look [cough and clears throat] at that and then you know pick a couple more so we could start incorporating more. You know I do we have hospitality? >> Yes. >> So yeah because they

152have this one hospitality, tourism and recreation. Here's the thing is that I don't want to be willy-nilly and picking CTA. I want it to be datain informed decisions. I agree with that. Like not just like who has the teacher? Oh, we'll teach this. Like you look, you go to these, you know, professional development and these these sessions at the at at the seminars or at the conference and these these wonderful programs that these other districts have put in place did not happen by accident. They were thoroughly thought out. They were put into place and they are being extremely successful. And I would like to do I don't care if we we're not want to follow somebody else, but I want it to be on purpose with data in mind to make sure that our students

153are having the best opportunities once they leave our care >> and I feel very passionate about that. [laughter] >> I'm not I'm not disagreeing with you. I just it you know if we can >> incorporate >> and I think there's a lot of community partnerships out there that we can like reach and and and I think this is more than just a very simple conversation. So do I. And the other element is that I think this is really going to fall in best as we engage in conversation around a strategic plan because from my perspective that is really what's going to be driving us for the next five plus years. And so >> because we can look at what >> we we follow our some of our students right on like kind of what >>

154through college and maybe this is a thing that I don't know if we want to survey the students on on what their interests are and see if we can incorporate that along with >> you know local agencies and stuff. >> I I think it would be interesting to see what we have as Dr. Bennett suggested [clears throat and cough] and then look uh this morning I was listening to the jobs market and and that was inclusive of the AI programs that would be implemented in different areas but the two top tier job markets were medical and construction >> and that's what I thought in our community how could we implement that here to help these kids because that's going to be huge and I know with RO we used to have our medical uh our

155students would go to Twin Cities and um and construction. It's huge the growth that's going on right now and and nationally. And so I would just like to see what we have and how we could incorporate that to help our students. I >> I only went to one CTE and and really I didn't gain much information, but one of the schools was over in I believe it was Fresno >> Clovis. It was clo >> Did we go to the same one? >> I don't know. >> I think we went to a different one. Okay. >> But anyways, I mean they had obviously this would be dreaming big, but they had a huge warehouse and they were building multiple tiny homes. obviously a much larger school than what we are, but um it was I mean

156they were putting out a really amazing product just by you know what the pictures were and that would be >> that that would be something that should be expanded on here. field trip. >> Well, we could do a field trip, too. But >> um one of the things I would like to know is how we are getting input from our students about what their interests are at the middle school level or high school level and post-graduates um to inform us on how we're doing and how we can improve. >> That's one of the data points that I'd be interested in. >> Yeah. And I think in incorporating kind of what we're doing already um but incorporating some of this stuff at the elementary school level to kind of get them thinking a little bit about

157that and you know the kids that maybe aren't interested in college and stuff if we can help them. >> Well, I think kids nowadays want to see like the practicality of what they're learning. you know, it it motivates them more when they're engaged in knowing, oh, if I'm, you know, I'm gonna apply this knowledge to something that's tangible, whereas they don't feel like the knowledge that they're with things they're learning is is going to benefit them. Um so um one of the workshops I attended um featured students from graduates from G Unified School District and their CTE programs and they talked about how their high school students are getting certifications >> and being able to work, >> you know, right after graduation and getting the apprentice >> well that early childhood development. They they come

158out with a certificate that they're they're not, you know, quite at the bottom. are up upper rung and they can actually get a job right out of high school. >> Oh, there's a school that has um a grow your own initiative and so they're they're growing their own from teachers to staff to they have pre pre-apprenticeship programs. There is a program that is open source through any community college where um it's for teaching and I think they get two years and it helps them get their credentials and it's a paid internship. I mean they I came away with a lot of really cool ideas to to explore not that we're going to do them but just to to explore um some great opportunities for our kids. Um one of the things I think I would

159like to know is um current funding sources. Um, where do we currently what are we taking advantage of as far as our current funding sources? Because I also wrote down I'm sure I'm sure Kendall's already all over it. Um, but I did write down probably at least 10 um different grants and funding sources that other schools are taking advantage of. >> Good. >> I think these will be great conversations. >> So again, I would come back to my recommendation would be let us bring forward answers to a lot of these questions. start the conversation. Here's what we're doing. Here's how we've constructed it and then what are some of the pieces that we're missing? What are some of the pieces that you would like to be able to have us consider? And I think we

160can we can, you know, bring those back to having some conversation and then bring some examples of how we would go forward. I think that would be a a really good conversation. I think the information that you brought up here tonight has really been helpful as well because I mean you're right, there's an awful lot that we can do and and I'll tell you, I know our faculty and staff are genuinely interested in it. Um I had a conversation last night uh before going home with some of our teachers from our middle school and CTE was brought up and they are interested in being able to get it into the middle school. So, you know, I know there's genuine interest in being able to have an impact, you know, through CTE. I want to make

161sure that we take advantage of what we're currently doing and then let's let's identify how we want to be able to build from what we what we currently have. >> Also, um it would be nice to have a list of trade schools so our students if they do find a path in one of those directions, they would have a list of a trade school. We have a fantastic trade school in San Los a Bispo. I don't know the name of it, but I guess it's out towards the airport. And my gosh, those our RO students that went out there were just doing fantastic. So, it's just something that they could if they uh find where they're what they're interested in and then letting them through us find out the trade schools that they could aim

162to whether it be locally, state, nationally. One of one of the things that one of the work that we went to was also the partnership with their community college. Um the district worked with the community college. Joey and I were saying we need her at Qua >> to be our to be our um go-to person. it because I mean they found money on you know from the community college side to help with the apprentice and paying for um they couldn't uh you know she couldn't do the thing that they wanted but she found money to then have them like be um they were paid to I don't want to say volunteer but they were their services were then um to for the district they were able to come back down to the I think the

163middle school or the high school to help the teacher. So they were like the ma they were the master, you know. Yeah. But they were getting, you know, um minimum wage for an after school elop, I think. um we could you know uh they were come they came down to help but they had a certificate that made them you know they can't be in the classroom with the kids but they could be the you know >> yes and you you know they call them you know I don't they had a name for them but I'm like oh did you see that >> excited I was like my mind was spinning no >> who was getting excited >> really [laughter] But I had him right there. I'm going Joey, do you see this, Tim? Do you

164see this? Look at what we can do. Oh my god. Um, but yeah. No, and but yeah, qu I have to Well, when we get to the next topic, I'll we'll I'll tell you. >> All right. I think Rebecca or maybe it was Tracy, one of you guys brought up um but another thing I'd be interested in knowing about is what are we currently doing at elementary and middle school to prepare them to give them exposure to different pathways um or different careers. Doesn't have to necessarily be CTE, but um so that way once they get into high school, they have a really good idea of which pathway they would like to take. So that way we get more pathway completers because they already have a pretty good idea rather than starting a pathway and

165then going, "Yeah, I don't really like this." And then now you don't have a pathway completer. Um, and they had another point going along with that. Oh god, I lost it. >> What was it? Go ahead. Fill in. Fill in for me. >> I can say that in sixth grade you go through a career cruising where that's like the start. you you pick three careers and you do the research about, you know, what it takes to pursue that career. So, there's it's that's already starting, but the hands-on learning of like, okay, what does that mean to engage in these careers? I think that's something that maybe we can improve on. >> Yeah, I think having and what they're what the data is showing is having consistent exposure to a variety of things. Um because what

166was the statistic that by 11 years old, you already have developed like what passions? Like if you're going to be Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So, um so so they already know what they're into, right? Like if they're into robotics or if they're into math or, you know, they know that by then. And so, um and then that brings me to my other um thing that I had lost. Um ELOP. I know this might be going off of a tangent, but it does tie in. Um, this is probably totally too far off, but uh there was some in the trade floor. Um, there was um I know we have great partnership with champions. I don't know if they do STEM activities with our kids. Um, but there there are some partnerships um that do afterchool and summer

167programs that are very much focused on STEM and that provides more opportunities for our kids at a young age to be able to explore different um opportunities and what what they have passion about. I never went to your booth. I never went to your I came home with a whole baggie of stuff I'm never going to use. [laughter] then I will definitely bring you my stress balls because I'm probably never going to use those. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, if that's the case, we have your information. I know we're all around taking notes, so we will we'll pull together. a team each and I will work together about pulling together a team addressing these issues bringing the experts in as part of the presentation because I think they would be a valuable part of

168the conversation and uh and then we'll talk about next steps and timing for all of that. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So with that um if I can jump to D which is the report of the CSBA annual conference. Um the purpose of this being put on here is to decide how do we want to process it. So given Brown Act, you know, uh, regulations, we wanted to ensure that we were able to, you know, process this appropriately. I know all of us have information. We all went to different pieces. I think it'd be really help uh, healthy for us to engage in a conversation about it. Um, but the question is, how do you want to be able to do that? One of the options is that we could have it as part of

169one of these study sessions and we could engage in conversations there. If you want to send me all of the information that you have, you know, that you've collected or things that you've you've downloaded, you can send to me. We could put it all into a folder online. Um or another option was being able to create a a um a special board meeting to be able to engage in that conversation. But I'm just, you know, curious, how do you want to process all of the information in a way that's consistent with Brown? >> Okay. Um folder. Um I [clears throat] already [laughter] downloaded um a lot of the the handouts and then I created the folders to put them in. So they've already um you know governance CTE any you know the whole kitten koodles

170are there. >> So I can share that with Veronica and then she can be the o you know the owner and editor and um but everything's just about everything's in there. Uh um I can check one more time if anybody uploaded um stuff. >> Perfect. or if you want to share that with me and we can make sure that it gets put into the folder. >> Um I am good with whatever method that we use to share. Um I do feel strongly that we need to share and we need to um see if there's any way any if any ideas that would help improve our district that that we could look I don't believe in recreating the wheel. If another district's doing a great and they had success, hey, we're on the same problem. Let's

171take a look at that. Um, what I don't want to happen is to have invested our resources into going up to this conference and then having no action taken because to me that was just a waste, right? It was great, we got it, we got we went away for three days and and we did nothing with the information. So that to me is not an option. Uh, so however we want to do it, I'm good with it, >> which is why we're having this conversation. So if the things are divided or they broke the their um conference into six categories, >> right? >> We could look at the six categories and decide, you know, the governance is is governance um something that's um a driving force that we want to take a look at. Well,

172maybe we take that folder and share out that folder so we can have a conversation whether it's down here or you know when you're ready to do the CTE maybe the next time out is to send out that CTE folder um so that your presentation and then whatever we collected or was downloaded or you know I don't know I would you know I think doing it all at once I I think we would be hitting and missing uh um topics. And I I think they did a very good job of breaking down their uh convention into six categories and take a look at the categories and say, "Hey, do you want to do this one this this time?" So one of the recommendations then as a result of that might be if you want to

173contact me as to what are the pieces that you felt were valuable to be able to bring forward and to be able to share. If you collected any information then that would help me to be able to identify what are those categories is it best in one meeting or two or multiple or do we sprinkle it in or whatever the case may be. Um, again, I think what we're trying to be able to do is to ensure that the information that we learned that we provide an opportunity to be able to engage in dialogue and discussion about how it might impact our district. What are the things that you learned that you think would be valuable for us to discuss and to be able to talk about where we go as a board? And so,

174you know, the desire here is just for that. But if there are specific things that you learned that you want to be able to bring forward, if you would, my recommendation is if you would please contact me or Veronica and say these are the things that I think would be valuable to be able to bring up. If each one of us had a report of sorts, I could then see what those elements are that you want to report on and then we could file them or bring them together because they are consistent types of topics. >> It's already on. Um, one thing I was wondering about all of you is that I found that there were certain speakers that I really admired and had gone back to because of that. Molly McGee, I'll never forget

175her. She was a great great speaker and uh did school governance and um but there were other uh seminars that I disagreed with. >> Sure. And I think that should be something that maybe another school district is doing something and maybe is that a pro or a con for us, you know, in our circumstances. And then also just how it affected all of you being there. Uh I mentioned this when I came to the office the other day. I felt that going to the CSBA conference, be it San Diego, San Francisco, and you guys went to San Sacramento, the camaraderie that that forges, you know, because you're in a different setting. You're not here. You're not in the district, you're away, and you're hearing other people and whatnot. And it just opened up an opportunity

176to have really, really good talks with each other. And it wasn't bragging the Brown Act. It was just an opinion or whatnot. You know, it wasn't it wasn't a a business in the school district. It was just >> Building relationships. Yeah. And and I think that's really important. >> But >> I I um I like the idea of us submitting our individual stuff, the stuff that we glean, just like you're saying, out of it to you and then you can sort through it. But I also think we're going to apply a lot of the knowledge organically to the meetings because we did learn a lot. you know, we've communicated a lot. So, I'm I'm for both, but just acknowledge that we'll use it anyways. I like the folders because I um there were several workshops

177that I wanted to attend that kind of conflicted and so if any anyone else attended them and were able to get the information, I'd love to to see that. Um >> with the slides on all of those because there was one that since um I ended up leaving on Friday, there were there was one um I won't be specific on what it was, but I I ended up downloading the slides. So, >> great. >> It was something that I had heard earlier in the week and then >> um so it's something that I'd like to pursue. So, I'll get that information to you. >> And I think that's perfect. The other thing to note is that for those of you that downloaded the app, if you use the app and you go to the site,

178you a lot of the information is there in the the session that you can then download. And so, if there are specific things you want to refer back to, a lot of their presentations are actually online. you can download and then you can provide. But that would help for you to be able to review that to say, "Oh, this is what I want to be able to bring forward. I'd like to discuss or I'd like for us to consider to be able to move us forward." I think that would be very helpful. And so if if that's the desire of the board, then what we can do is if you will contact me about whatever information, whatever sessions that you went to, you'd like to discuss CTE or whatever the cases may be, then provide

179me with those talking points. I'll then you know uh bring them together to create some chunks of discussions and conversations around topics and then we can engage in that meaningful conversation and then depending upon how much is there we'll decide whether we sprinkle them in into a study session or whether we do it you know separately whatever the will of the board is. >> Is that good? >> Sounds good. Thank you. >> Okay. And that concludes our meeting. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, January 20th, at 5:30 will be close session. A regular session will be at 700 p.m. And we are journed