001yeah I'm ready ready are we going okay I'd like to call this meeting to order please stand for Allegiance ready begin I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all um okay roll call we're all here we did that before there were no um no action was taken in closed session um we're on item number five the consens agenda is there a motion I'll move to a I'll move to approve I'll second any discussion i u wanted to make a comment just a quicky uh just to give a congratulations on the retirement of Alexandra noaker is it 33 years is a really long time to do anything and I just want to recognize that that's just
002amazing and uh and the Shannon Eckland as well I don't know how long she's been there but it's got to be up there so kudos to both of them any other comments roll call vote hi I I I I uh item six monthly items and financial reports the approval of warrants all move approval of warrants second discussion any questions I just want to give a shout out to Mindy she's the one who processes all our payments and she's been so diligent trying to put just the right wording she's pretty Limited in her characters and she's each time I find less and less I have to label so Mindy is doing a great job that helps a lot it is very helpful than youy okay roll call vote i i i i i and the next
003item um Governor's proposed budgets so I just have a brief presentation um usually I keep this one a little shorter so let me just load it so um some of you attended the recent Capital advisor workshop at the county and prior to that up in Sacramento they had the governor's budget Workshop held by school Services which I attended um I'm just going to go over some quick revenue and expense assumption so um the the local control funding is going to be projected around 10.6 million and it's a little bit down because of our lower ada8 and also this year we had a 8% Cola and next year they're projecting a 7% Cola um and we have to make some plans for our prop 28 art and music funds um it's only around uh just over
004a 100,000 that you have to split by three sites um but so that's something we have to think about um going forward and then our Co funds will expire at the end of the fiscal year so we're wrapping up using that um actually we had a little bit of funding left and um we decided we're going to use it we need to renew all of our devices and usually you have a lease going for that can be pretty pricey um and Stephan did a great job Gathering different quotes and he um we decided that we could just purchase the devices outright using the covid funds and then will be covered for several years and it also includes the service which really helps him too because he's usually got about 50 devices out at a time
005that he's mailing out um and they repair them and it's all under warranty so the and the vendor worked with us and they brought the price down quite a bit I know that seems like a lot but if you think it's just a few hundred per device and we get close to just under 900 devices to have enough for everybody so that is a really good way to use the last bit of that funding then we don't have to worry about $100,000 lease payments every year in the future especially with funding being unknown um um and then other revenues they had said they could reduce tital one um special education funding as you know has been my big soap box that it is very underfunded and it needs to be raised they haven't talked about
006anything to uh address that over the last couple years they added you know maybe $10,000 um they haven't said anything about that and then our up which is our unduplicated pupil percentage that's our students who are uh lowincome English Learners Foster youth homeless you um it actually went up quite a bit this year and so that does bring in some more funding for those specific students and programs like our RTI and other supports for those students and then our Extended Learning opportunities program funding is ongoing mainly that's been used for our my club program which has been a great partnership with the community uh and we we're lucky to be able to add it it at the suuma as well as the site we've always had here uh and we're also going to be using
007it for little uh for The tream Meadows Catalina any of the type of overnight field trips um something in the past where um your students were doing more fundraising could have been a hardship it's nice that we have this funding to help support those programs and then home to school transportation uh there's a reimbursement but they do reduce it based on some factors in the calculator so um at first when they roll that out and you'll see in the plan that we go over tonight it seemed like it was going to be a lot of extra funding but then they said oh wait you deduct this and this and this so it it ends up being kind of minimal and then some expense projections this is a slide from a few years ago that Kurt
008has always encouraged for me to have um just saying right out the gate what's something that you have to pay the next year you everybody who goes up in their next step or goes over a column as well as the proposed 2% that we have in the salary schedules for next year um and then stirs and purs which is our retirement um that goes up year to year so right away out the gate um we have over a $200,000 expense but then when you look at the lower Cola and our lower Ada it's a negative amount adjusted to our funding and we've always um in the excess left here this has always been a positive number and it's not and I just thought it was important to show this because you can see that um
009having that lower Cola to go from a 8% Cola to a 7% and then also we have a lower enrollment this year and and our attendances our Ada is coming in lower so it isn't it it doesn't really add up to a lot there's another slide I have where it shows how um it adjusts it adjusts the cola by having a lower Ada so in terms of doing any of those kind of things that are listed down there at the bottom um that that's why we're goingon to have to look at next year you know what we're going to do in terms of vacancies or adjusting things um cutting budgets like expense budgets like supplies or Services because we're really going to have to take a closer look at all that and we haven't had
010to do that in the past so this is I'm not going to read through this whole slide but this was a slide from school Services where they wanted you to show that um at the top there is the current year and then next year by having those projected lower attendance rates i' actually we're not getting a 76% Cola we're getting a negative 1% Cola um so it it isn't like for like when you're applying that with lower attendance and the lower attendance gets lower because we have lower enrollment too when we're down 20 or 30 students you know then that just lowers the average right there and that's just using base Grand amounts not the full uh lcff you can see here our enrollment in Ada history so as long as Randy and I have
011been here which was back to 2017 um you know they had pretty solid numbers and then in the middle there we had a couple years at 890 for our enrollment and our Ada has always tracked about 40 less than our enrollment uh fast forward to now where we have um it was 8113 students the day I checked I think it's 820 today but when I certified the P1 attendance uh that Nicole helped me with um it was 754 the average daily attendance so you figure where um getting funded for 754 students but we have 820 um and that's why there's been a lot of um proponents for different funding formulas using enrollment but nothing has ever it never makes it each year they talk and it doesn't happen but it seems all the dist and
012this isn't just us all the districts across the state are in this boat um even after the pandemic where the attendance rates just never have really come back to what they used to be so the next steps um is that we'll all be working on the the budget and the lcap um you'll see surveys going out and working with our Community Partners the next meeting we'll have a second interim budget update and then the P2 attendance that's what we're mainly funded on that that's due in April so we're hoping for a stronger number than we had at P1 a lot of years it goes down but I'm hoping fingers cross it it goes up a little last year our P2 was 772 and right now we're at 754 so um but again I mentioned that's
013offset by the lower enrollment and then in uh May they'll have the governor's revise some years it's completely different than what was rolled out in January um some years it's gone way up um hopefully it doesn't go down anymore some of the workshops we've been at they said maybe it'll be closer to 1% Cola but even with that lower Ada we probably won't won't have that um and um every year it seems like I'm saying the same sort of thing and then you know then they're like oh wait there's this extra Revenue that comes in this is all data we get from the state and we just share what we know at the time not making it thank you terara do you guys have any questions thank you Tera thank you okay um item seven
014hearing a person's wishing to address the board I didn't receive anys we received an email from a concerned citizen earlier today okay um that I would like to read into the record this is in regards to trusty Ronda Clark I've been a resident of the o area for 30 years and in all my time I have never come across someone like Mrs clar she constantly listens and helps people caring about the community blah blah blah I was like oh my God what did I do she actually you can't comment she actually tries to make a difference and sometimes especially on Valentine's Day parent that would be times not times Mrs Clark has decided to meet with you all instead instead of having a romantic dinner at fancy restaurants with me oh it's just another instance
015of Mrs Clark putting her bored needs in front of important days like Valentine's Day Happy Valentine's Day thank you for listening to my concerns and have a wonderful evening with your notes and all that important stuff Happy Valentine's Day bored at home Mr [Applause] Club scared went from having a heart attack to being very any what did I do now he didn't get you anything Brown that was it okay all right brownie points yeah sorry we can't comment okay number eight uh action items um comprehensive school safety plans is there a motion to um approve this individually or possibly all three together I think it move that we do all three together is there a second I'll second okay any discussion I have a few questions yeah when they when they said they're comprehensive I
016looked 160 pages of comprehensive only 60 something um I have a couple questions it said that we had to hold public meetings for these and I didn't know how that process worked the uh School site council at each of the three sides served as the committee okay and those are certainly public meetings and and we also have parents involved on the state Council okay gotcha um and then each school's plan had objectives there was a grid with lots of objectives and then how the funding was going to be who's in charge of that and I was just wondering if there's any kind of a timeline for implementation of those objectives I will turn that over to our two principls who were here tonight because they created the pl we were actually dinner um our our
017thoughts were that after they're approved and we know that we can move forward with these PL then we would need to get together withot with different departments with terara and figure out prioritizing what are our most important um steps to take and then how can we go through all of those okay so it's kind of where we are so you guys approving is the first step thank you all right very good um yeah I want to talk about page 9 it's board policy 5141 P point4 Child Abuse Prevention and I did talk to Mr seals about this but I wanted to point out that it says here and I'll just read it the Board of Trustees recognizes the district's responsibility to educate students about the dangers of child abuse so that they will acquire the
018skills and techniques needed to identify unsafe situations and to react appropriately and promptly the superintendent or design shall seek to incorporate Community Resources into the district's Child Abuse Prevention programs to the extent feasible the superintendent or design me shall use these Community Resources to provide parents and Guardians with instruction in par parenting skills and Child Abuse Prevention so I see that there's nothing actually in place to my understanding speaking to Mr seals but I wanted to see if we could work on U collaborating perhaps with the Mad County Child Abuse Prevention Council so I've talked to some other people who are social workers and a gal from care portal and I'm unfortunately there are there's educational materials and resources for for those um working as adults on this topic but for children to equip them
019and so that they have an understanding situations of child abuse there doesn't appear to be resources but I would like to see what we can do in that regard yeah after our discussion I too looked at the what was available here in Mad County and I looked at the calendar of events that the uh child abuse Council prevention Council has on their website and it is geared toward more of the community at large um and so we'll be reaching out to see if there's anything that we as public schools um even if it's offering our facilities for some of those events [Music] um but I I remain unaware of anything that's specifically created for children other than elements of our seal curriculum that addresses you know personal space and and those types of elements so
020that that's that's probably where we're going to find any material it's just educating as to the importance of that individual space and priv there's also the project protect which I I looked into that at the end of last year and they there's grants for that and they were really excited about that and they wanted to do training like right away in like the end of April May and I thought I don't know if our staff is like going to be able to do that at that moment in time so I've reached out to them again to see what we can get going for to get trained so we can Implement next year and we've utilized them before yeah some of us some of you have gone through that training yeah I know it was unsettling
021um this project protective was really focused on the human traffic traffing aspect um and we were the first district in Madera County to actually have our staff fully trained in project but we have had some turnover so the time the time is now to to refresh I really loved a lot of components about that training because it's very age appropriate it's very empowering and recognizing personal boundaries in space like you right um said earlier you know just taking care of your own stuff and um I think one that that is one of the strengths I think of the program is that it's um very specific to certain grades and very appropriate for those um age ranges and um as the program um moves into the older or higher grades out of our district but into
022the high school district it becomes much more um focused on grooming and things like that and that way we're not scaring kids we're teaching them to be empowered and to their voice yeah and I also like that they encourage to train classifications outside of just teachers like bus drivers and yard supervision because sometimes they can see things can be trained to see certain behaviors and stuff that might be give you you know they might go W right for important to did you have any other comments uh no how about you Stephen any comments oh I I have just just made me think of an article I read earlier today about um some parents in the I think it was in the North Bay Area uh for Christmas they gave their uh 15year old boy a
023a handgun to protect himself four days later he took it to school and shot a bunch of people and the parents got arrested and they're really looking into it you know that's a aspect of safety we don't want to have parents given their kids guns to protect themselves in school who knows what what that was all about but parents are being completely held responsible for the whole thing so any I think all of our campuses are weapon-free zones there's posts I don't know signs I don't know what happened over there okay um I have a comment I just wanted to uh thank all the principles for their time and efforts uh that was required for our comprehensive school safety plans I know the meetings and the writing and the documentation and organizing all of it
024you guys could do it in your sleep and you probably do because that's the only time you have but um it's I I just want to say I appreciate your effort okay so um we have a motion and a second roll call vote are we we're doing all three at the same time yes that was the motion all three yes I I I I I all three in one motion y okay and moving on to um a the single plan for student achievement reports the Sip says this again is an opportunity for us to approve all three if you deem it so and state in your motion I make a motion to approve all three SAS all second any discussion I have a couple one thing really um just seeing the test scores and all
025that is just super concerning and I know we've already started conversations about intervention but I'm going to continue to say that I think it's a huge emergency in our district I think um our kids failing and then we have chronic absenteeism and we have a lack of success which probably leads to more absenteeism and then leads to less success and so we're kind of in a spiral and so I'm really hoping with this money that we have and creating plans for Success that we can turn this ship around thank you for that anyone else I don't remember which side it was but I see that one of the goals is to increase the time for reading intervention so I wanted to find out how much time is actually currently allotted I think it depends does
026it depend on the site and the grade level probably too yeah do you remember which one it was it might have been oci I think it was oci actually they said they had 120 minutes I believe of tier 2 intervention I did read that they have 80 minutes for Math and Ela and then 120 Minutes of tier 2 intervention I believe that's what I read for oci I don't think it was actually broken out in each in the other two schools sites okay so yes I see the goal is to increase time for reading Mr MRE had put that down I think that's extremely you had a good plan I'm putting you on the spot sure okay okay yeah okay any more discussion Rollo hi hi hi actually I did have another is that okay
027really quick it is I'm to delete delete delete so I see that on all three I believe it was um part of the goal is to um increase survey participation with parents and such I wanted to find out what kind of participation you're already receiving it's pretty low I think it actually it's in the lcap um report also but it was it was pretty abysmal the survey the lcap survey participation so the the thought is to try and um encourage incentivize um maybe add a question on the lcab of um what School site and maybe even which like grade level if it's a parent that's doing it or even a teacher and maybe incentivize some sort of class reward or schoolwide reward for like the highest participation of um we'll see and then I know
028there have also been strategies if there are events at the school like a talent show for example that happens kind of around the same time as the l cap surve are going out to maybe gather folks that are there and a setting like this and maybe have some Chromebooks out that already have the survey up and say Hey you know before you leave can you spend some time at one of these Chromebooks and and and do the survey and and kind of explain the importance of that so those are a couple ideas to try and boost the participation so if you have others I kind of like that fun with the class because kids can be pretty persistent with their parents cool and there's a competition between the schools they want how long is have
029idea in so our our site idea like when you go to the doctor's office you always get hands of the clipboard right you take a few minutes and fill this up and so um they were batting around the idea that before first quarter conferences you always have parents that are waiting right so have a brief three to four questions three to five question survey on a clipboard I'm just going to be a couple of minutes could you fill this out for me because they're going to be waiting anyway um but then the concern was wanting them to be able to turn it in with a feeling of anonymity um and so how do we handle that right a yeah just drop it in there yeah it's also hard with like the class or the teacher
030because a lot of families have maybe like two or three kids at a school site so we wouldn't necessarily want them to fill out three separate surveys but then like which kid or what class gets the point right right so I'm you know in the subconscious right here it's like okay how do we make this there's a solution right just trying to find it right now or like doing a parent night or something where you you know provide pizza or something like that and you set out Chromebooks and you just invite them to like drop by and put in their survey and grab grab dinner something like that I don't know yeah I mean we we haven't tried those things so it wouldn't hurt to try them and we're either going to see it works
031or it doesn't work great IDE any other questions comments concerns [Music] statements roll call vote I again again I I okay okay uh the next item is approve the tentative agreement between the district and the Bass Lake Teachers Association is there a motion I'll make a motion we approve tenative agreement between the district and blta a second any discussion roll call vote I would like to oh Jackie nef who served as the negotiation chair for for blta sent in an email the for this afternoon to hello all happy Valentine's Day and happy board meeting please accept my apologies for my absence at the school board meeting this evening the night that the TA is on the agenda for approval she then shares that she has some professional responsibilities tonight I that have P her away
032uh but she finishes please don't advance and let the board members know how thankful we all are for the raise and the positive bargaining this year cheers Jack okay okay I I I I I I okay thank you motion carries good next item is d uh to approve the updated certificated salary schedule for 23 24 school year I make a motion we approve the updated certificated salary schedules for the 2023 2024 school year PA second any discussion I want to point out that the uh proposed certificated teacher salary schedule reflects the changes that were just approved in the Ten of agreement which includes the uh elimination of the what was the 75 unit column and what was the 100 unit column is now the 75 unit column so our certificated teachers are able to uh
033reach the the far right of the salary schedule with 7 the completion of 75 units now there were a number of of folks who were able to move over and then once that was done there's for the 23 24 school year um it reflects a 4% across the board raise um and then we'll we'll take up the matter of the 2425 here shortly there this is an odd year um and we've stated all Bel to our labor Partners at the table as well as U all of the board and our updates as the year has gone on that um our past practice for the last several years has been whatever one group gets they all get um and you can do flat raises like that uh up to a point until we reach a point
034where we need to do a reset uh based on comparison studies with other districts comparable districts and we certainly look at our neighbors here with Y USD and Shian and also posa um as comparable districts but then also those districts that were were um identified as comparable districts in our recently completed cak study looking at our classified positions and uh what we found is there are positions and this is not the the teachers playing stretch because those comparisons we we continue to maintain uh rather competitive pretty favorable we have been through the years but there are other positions that require additional education or credentialing where we have fallen behind drastically and so we reach a point where it's a reset year uh the change I mentioned about the teacher salary schedule a moment ago with
035the change from 100 units to 75 to max out uh and those those number of teachers who Moved there's no way to replicate that in any other salary schedule for any of our other groups and certainly not on the classified side and I must mention that uh we have not completed negotiations with our classified Partners yet um but we will be using the results of the CX study that I mentioned um knowing that there's some some positions that we're looking uh seriously at having to reclassify as a result of that um this is one of those years also for certificated and we see that with um the principal's salary schedule as well as the um certificated support with our school psychologists um in looking at those those comparisons we were horribly below and U in
036an effort to keep all positions in the district competitive um this was a year that we knew that some would get more than others and including some within the bargaining unit with blta we knew that those affected by the unit change were going to get more uh but what we have tried to do each and every year including this year is that the result of negotiations is such that every everybody is going to benefit in one way or another this happens to be a year where uh some folks increase by 4% others within the unit maybe we at 6% others within the unit were at 10% U and there's no way to do just a flat rate and maintain our competitive status for all positions in the district and so any discrepancies that you see
037will reflect in that U that's that's where we we have it I'm happy to answer any other questions any questions no roll call a vote i i i i i motion carries okay next item is e approve the updated certificated salary schedule for 2425 school year so the attachments that you sorry I make a motion we approve the updated ceric TR 2024 2025 school year I'll second okay Mr SE superintendent seals yes thank you um the salary schedules before you um for the 2425 school year reflect a 2% across the board race as you saw from my presentation it's looking kind of Bleak but we were really happy to meet with our negotiation partners and have a two-year agreement and I think they feel um the same way so that we know that we have
038that going forward any questions roll call vote i i i i i motion carries um f approve the public disclosure CBA form so this form is required oh oh you have to do it is there a motion I'll make the motion to approve do I need to State the public disclosure cbaa form first certificated oh second any discussion so this form is required by the county we have to um send this to the county 10 days before the board meeting for them to review it is one of my favorite things to work on it's a really fun spreadsheet and then I never don't I don't even understand how it works it's a mystery but every year we get it figured out and it's just basically saying the district can afford the raises that we're doing
039they want to check that at the county level um and then um we get that approved here and um then we're good to go for certificated and then we'll bring it back again when we get to classified but so it just breaks down what the cost of the raise is and then it goes over what we're doing exactly and it shows multi-year projections as well as meeting our reserves but keeping in mind where you may see any extra amounts or anything this only is certificated um and when I plug in numbers you know for everybody um it's probably going to be tight with the reserve for that um but to be able to meet it we um have talked openly with everybody about moving some things around um because it as well deserve everybody's hard
040work you know being able to do this and we always say we wish we could do more if we could but just showing that the district is being fiscally responsible and that we can meet our obligations in doing this agreement thank thank you so much for playing that shell and just moving things until it makes sense I appreciate that any other comments roll call vote i i i i i motion carries letter G approval of the resolution wait yep approval of the resolution of intention to terminate certificated employees is there a motion I'll move approval I'll second any discussion roll call vote i i i i i motion carries um H approval of resolution reducing laying off classified Employee Services approval of resolution reducing laying off classified Employee Services I'll second any [Music] discussion roll
041call vote i i i i i motion carries I um approve of the annual update of the transportation services plan so motion I move to approve the annual update of the transportation services plan I'll second any discussion we [Music] need okay roll call vote i i i i i motion carries J consideration and Adoption of board policies and regulations all of approval second any discussion no we talked about these last good we're good um hearing the discussion roll call vote no discussion wow I know we did last I think we reviewed these before anyway I I I I I motion carries okay um first reading and possible action to approve administrative regulation and board policy 4148 point3 preschool and early childhood education is there a motion I motion to approve with I'd just like to
042hear more about about it that's what the discussion parts for okay okay you need discussion yeah you got questions you made the motion but you can still not well you can always withdraw your motion you can amend your motion too I'll keep the motion but I just wanted to see if you had any further comments on it thank but I think the explanation I gave in the background information was very straightforward as to why you did not see this one in the batch with the rest of them um as I was going through initially I removed any of the board policies that spoke about High School uh but I also removed this one because this deals with preschool and the district got out of the preschool business several years ago um but after the meeting
043jeie and I were talking and she reminded me that the last time an update to this one came up um I chose to bring it forward to the board and the board approved it because at that time they were considering the mandatory uh TK and so um at that time we left it in in case the state decided to lower the age and require districts to offer preschool again um and that way if that happened our board policies would already be updated we wouldn't have you know Superintendent at that time would not have to dive in and and not reinvent the will but figure out what we were missing what we were lacking so after having that discussion I decided to bring it back back to you and you can either do it as a
044first reading with adoption next month or as i' set it up with possible um approval tonight and all this does is updates our our board policy 51 48.3 and our regulation 51 48.3 that it's centered solely on preschool and early childhood education we don't currently offer right but who's to say that the next governor of California won't make this the the project and that's the direction we're going now with mandatory um pre which for us we we offer TK but they could mandate the the preit I see it starts as early as three years old correct whether some are still wearing diapers so the idea would be they do the prek as three-year-olds TK four-year-olds and then 5-year-old would be Mur kindergarten so in approval tonight is just updating our own policy manual but it's
045a policy that we currently don't use because we don't off preschool it's just keeping our our policy it's a pre policy St there's a motion in a second is there any more discussion that was our discussion that's that's why I said more no more I'd like to abstain a vote I'm all for limited government and for not having children that young mandated if that ever happens said I believe in limited government this would make more she's going to abstain she wants to abstain she beli I think children that's too young especially to be mandated like to obain roll call vote um I I I I I I motion carries all right moving on to information items um enrollment and attendance percentage reports okay information only yes in this one I didn't include the attendance pursue
046images sorry about that um but we do have the latest enrollment there and you could see the previous meeting um it was 8:21 now we're at 8:20 so not many changes you do see some fluctuation at the sites but usually it's a few more at Bliss or then the numbers go down at Bliss and then there's more at the side so it's just kind of bouncing back between those two staying steady at 8:20 inter District transfer report there were none item c local control and accountability plan midyear monitoring report for the 2023 2024 lcap so this is just a report that we have to do in the middle of the year for the lcap so I just went ahead and um filled in the column that says midyear outcome data um some of the cells
047I couldn't populate because we didn't have the data and I think you saw somewhere on there with the surveys like I don't have the percentage of the survey completion because the survey hasn't gone out yet so there are some things that I was not able to populate but mostly it's there can I make a comment of course um Michelle I liked your robust goals for academic achievement I did I did I thought CU I felt like necessary sometimes they're a little low what we're shooting for so I felt like you're really reaching and I think that's what we need to be doing so thank you for that yeah it's important any other comments and I think we're capable I know we're capable okay um item D academic achievement differentiated assistance so that um that's just
048kind of been a standing agenda item now for information either we'll discuss academic achievement or differentiated Assistance or both just kind of depending so I did add an attachment for um differentiated [Music] assistance why is this not coming up me so the first um attachment well I'm going to talk about the um the grid the graph first with the attendance rate do you guys have that one up I've got so you know that we I clicked on the first attachment but I open that either I tried to download it and then it oh it didn't come up and there's nothing in it yeah so it's only coming up for me because it's my computer and open it up in Pages you on the attachments it shows interesting well the other one comes up because the
049attachment in the packet it seems to come blank oh well shoot so if you could save it as a PDF and then reattach it then they'll be able to yes yeah I could do that for the pencil on the item okay hold on email to oh can you do that Stephan that might be quicker okay sorry about that okay I figured you were going to be talking about it so we' the information looked it up at home okay well while I'm doing this the good news is is it looks better so that's good um trust her so um I've been tracking this with um Jim Sergeant down at the county and we looked at our attendance rates for these months last year compared to now and we're trending up so that's good because we're in
050differentiated assistance for chronic absenteeism so we've put some things in place and some of the sites and some other things that we're going to try for the remainder of the school year to continue to make that better but right now we are we're doing better did you get it stepan yeah okay so there it is there so we did it by school site and so you can see um the blue was last year and the Orange is this year so I saw that before pretty significant yeah so that's good what's the OES one I'm sorry can go down there go so I mean that's normal in November and December and probably even like January February like cold season right and sometimes people are taking like extended vacation around the holidays so sometimes we see that
051dip but so it dipped but it's still higher than than the previous year so that's good so where's wasuma it's there oh there we go yeah yeah yeah good job keep in mind the attendance rate is not going to necessarily change the chronic absente rate right because the chronic absente rate is the the percentage of students who have 10 or more absences right we're all students here is just our daily attendance rate so it's good it's great news but don't assume that there's going to be a automatic positive correlation to a lower chronic absente it's we're trending in the right direction yeah for sure yeah so that's good um and we're going to continue to do things for that because we continue to be in differentiated assistance for that so we'll continue to work on
052that and then the other document that I think you're able to pull up okay I cool so that um shows that we are going to be in differentiated assistance for some other areas as well for the upcoming year and um now we're going to have to pay attention to those areas and make sure that we have that addressed in our lcap so a couple lcap meetings ago I was given this piece of paper with a lot of red on it so that's okay it it's you know growth areas so um but that's a new situation now where we're going to have to make sure that we're addressing um The Chronic absenteeism in the suspension rate and then um an Ela for academic achievement for students with disabilities so yeah that's that's the big that's the
053latest information on differentiated assistance where we are as a district does everybody know what all these abbreviations mean what do you swd students with this but I don't know what s is socially economically disadvantaged oh disadvantage got it [Music] so so information yeah on differentiated assistance and where we are and you'll see language about this in the in the El our goals and actions does this mean is this to show that we qualify for different funding things or something or what is that' be cool what is it actually just actually that wouldn't be cool right because then like that's not a good setup yeah so it just means that we will get assistance from the County Office of Education to assist us in creating an action plan on and and like there's accountability right we
054have meetings and we have to have a plan we have to discuss it and create data for it so create actions and decide what met we're going to use to evaluate its Effectiveness yeah I'm I'm under the impression that this is probably similar for most of the schools in Madera County yes oh like all of them for chronic absenteeism yes yeah yeah where's everyone going when they're not yeah yeah that's definitely like Statewide not only countywide and then um suspension rate is also up for most folks because of the social emotional stuff going on and just some of the issues that were dealing with that we weren't dealing with maybe four five six years ago um this this issue has exploded post pandemic and some of the Lessons [Music] Learned coming out of the pandemic
055was if you had a spple you were supposed to stay home but now when students stay home they still have access to all of their assignments all of their curriculum because they have their Chromebook at home with them so it's easy to tell Mom or Dad I don't need to go to school because I can do all of my work here at home they don't do it so and and the governor and the state legislature recognize this situation is affecting all of California because in the governor's budget proposal and in discussions right now in the legislature they're coming up with chronic absente mitigation plans and they're talking about allowing all schools in California offer Saturday school as a way to make up absences they're also talking about giving districts and schools the flexibility to offer
056different forms of distant learning that were affected during the pandemic for reaching kids that weren't coming to school but at least this way we can still have a shot at providing the education and certainly I would expect that there would be some form of daily interaction between a certificated staff member and a student um but they're working on all that right now what's important to note is that they recognize the issue that we're all facing because the argument as Tera brought a while ago talking about the governor's budget the the impact that chronic absente ism is having on on education Community the clamor coming from education last year for enrollment based funding was louder than it had ever been and it got further along in legislature than it ever has before and so the legislature
057is trying to avoid going that route because it would increase the cost of Education um so they're trying to come up with alternative Solutions and that that alone if we had the flexibility to do that then we could create some some some programs that that will offset our our absence rate which we see the Improvement on kids com to school but as I mentioned it may not have an impact on chronic absen rates and if we know at each site we have we have students who are well beyond 10 absences on the year and if they're at home and they're doing to work but then they don't get credit for we don't get credit for the attendance you know so then what's the point of them doing it you know I mean they're not behind
058they could be doing the work but they're still absent unless they had some kind of hybrid how come those don't go on stud I mean just it's just sporadic just a day here or a day there or I'm tired today kind of a thing it's not necessarily three or five days in a row okay I I think it might be fair to say that there are kids who go on independent study who also don't complete the work yes yes very much so right so it's offered but they don't always come back with it done was a certain amount of days you had to be gone yeah it's not just on for a day for shortterm shortterm yeah so when it's just a day here or a day there they wouldn't qualif it's got to be
059three consecutives and then we have students who go into L fulltime who don't complete the work they're going to wind up being chronic absence because it's based on the work that they turn in right so it's it doesn't allow us flexibility and even if somebody is ill and they you know they're ill 10 times throughout the year that's considered Chron even if they got doctor corre absence is an absence unless they have like a chronically ill verification form on file but you know there's a small percentage of okay any other comments I'm sorry I one more comment about the suspension rate just because if you need to suspend a student who need to suspend them so why is this is it just because of you know thinking that it's slightly racist or what is that
060I know that they made the law about it I'll speak to it and I'll turn it over to you but um there are alternatives before you get to suspension okay and the state wants to make make sure that we are doing everything in our power because we know that there are offenses that say you shall suspend okay at that point they're suspended right uh but it's for those things uh that don't fall under that shell suspend category are we suspending for those offenses and that's what they want to make sure of and so that involves training of our principles and our staff on how to handle it I mean even training of our our teaching staff instructional staff what are we doing in the classroom first and if we could show that hey we have
061a stepbystep process and they're still getting suspension they' earned it so that's why sh you yeah no that's and you know the the push is like we want kids in school right and so whatever we can do to to mitigate that and make sure that kids aren't just continually being sent home of course there are offenses that it just has to happen and suspension counts as an unexcused abs but we know where they are but it's still an absence but if they're suspended for the offenses that are suspendable offenses then why would we get deed for that because they're considered unexcused absences by it okay they're suspended for the shell suspend they're suspended for the safety of the school at that time and op per um so that's why we shall suspend but we also
062take a ding when it comes to Ada okay as a result all right so the suspensions affect the chronic Adis as well correct think about which is why a student who is suspended 10 times in a given school year is then expellable yeah I wonder if there was a number for that yes we have follow through and it's the same at elementary school and high school this number okay um well I am happy that we hold standards and that we are um demonstrating that there's expected Behavior at school and offenses won't be tolerated and I also love that there are um supports from the classroom to um before suspension that um where kids are given chances and that they have the opportunity to correct their behavior so it doesn't feel like it's a swift hand
063and but I'm glad that it's still there and we have that um ability to do that because it's not fair to the teachers and staff to spend all of their energy mitigating um students that are misbehaving when the rest of the class goes um and waits and not is not getting instruction because everybody's attention is diverted and the other thing to remember is by having this data [Music] available we we need to analyze what the offenses are because if we see a trend of suspensions ands for shall suspend offenses then that also says something about the culture of the school and we're going to want to mitigate that um because naturally want everybody to school every day um but if we see the trend of of dangerous Behavior or or dangerous choices then we need
064to do what we can to turn that around y AG okay um item 10 accomplishments from and other reasons to celebrate from throughout the district ois elementary school every time I have it all ready and then like I press button when I walk up there we go okay good evening Happy Valentine's daytin um we have many things to celebrate at OES um first of all before I start with uh the shoutouts for this month I didn't get a chance to review the shoutouts for January I know you all read them but I just wanted to give public acknowledgement to Kanas for the grants that they awarded us for so we are very very thankful for um the many grants that they awarded us um so uh in towards the end of January end of February
065uh CHP donated 15 helmets uh to my club so that the O the the OAS and oci kids could begin uh riding their bikes and skateboards and skates and scooters um the the helmet Supply was not so not not so good so they donated 15 helmets and kids are happily uh Wheeling away um in also in January Don Smith was promoted from Lieutenant captain and so she um it was a big a big accomplishment we were very excited and so we were able to celebrate her for that on January 25th uh the end of January we celebrated all of our um academic achievement students and we also decided this year that we would award Improvement if they didn't necessarily meet all of the academic criteria but they worked really hard and made big improvements we
066awarded them for that and so we showed Super Mario Brothers movie and kids wore pajamas and PTC sered cereal and popcorn and we had a great time um also at OES our librarian and the fourth and fifth grade teachers have launched an information literacy program uh for grade students in grades four through five this program is teaching students how to research information identif high quality sources take notes from research sources paraphrasing without plagiarizing using direct quotes and citing sources and so I know that U Middle School teachers are definitely going to be very appreciative of this because it is a skill that our students badly need and so um I'm I'm really excited to see like Kelly our librarian helping our with that um we celebrated the 100th day of school at the beginning of
067February um we actually at OES celebrated the 101st day of school 100 plus one so that we could tie in a bunch of extra fun things on on Friday um and so the kids had a great time we we participated K5 which was you know the it used to be traditional K2 for a while and then with Co kids missed out and didn't get to do that so we went back to doing K5 and so they they enjoyed that everybody made projects and new tour and yeah it was great fun I included some really cool um steam projects that U Mrs Burton did in her class with 100 Legos and I hope you saw our our old man picture cute yeah super cute we had this little firsty that just dressed up as this old
068man this darling um so lots of fun we had a lot of fun on H's day um our uh cross country team is off and going the OES wining Eagles currently have 51 participants now might actually even be 52 uh so Kiren Corte and Robin Ward are heading that off and they're practicing with kids and coordinating with homework club and Esports and so um there will be three meets the cow patty run at the foro rodeo grounds the wasuma cross country meet and the cross country meet at so we're excited to see how they do thank you thank [Applause] you elementary school I will not be joining our cross team get that out right away okay um all right tell Joseph have a good night uh so we have a show your pause grid on
069our cafeteria wall uh it's where kids are kids are recognized for going above and beyond um so we have 150 student Deeds that exceeded our PA expectations they've been cataloged and praised and every student who has an Accolade on the board earns an ice cream party after February break kids uh were excited to see their names go up on the board during lunch I'm getting ready to start the whole process over again so um things that kids were recognized for one student in particular uh we had a new student who started one day and he was in the cafeteria didn't know where to sit and one of the little fourth graders grabbed his lunch jumped up and he was like here sit here and he went and found a different place to sit so it's
070just things that we're noticing that kids are more cognizant of one another and above and beyond so we're trying to reward them a little bit uh our garden program we are inside for the month of February these last lessons have focused on the importance of native bees how plants use transpiration to absorb water and some taste testing I love it when kids taste test and then they realize they've eaten a vegetable and they liked it and then they're nervous um we all know how valuable our volunteers are at the schools but this Garden Club crew is is the most dedicated group that I've ever seen one of the most amazing things about them is that they have zero absolutely no familial connections to Wasa students they have been there year after year after year month
071after month and they just keep coming back with more creative things to do so our we could not do this without them they are amazing um our students in grades 4 through eight are excited to have their school after school Garden Club back again Mrs ton and Mrs Peterson have conveniently started teaching kids about how to collect rainwater they've had plenty of opportunities to rework their homemade designs and then you'll see one day it was raining and they were working on some murals uh with seeds they were learning about the different sizes shapes and and the uh product of those seeds uh teachers have been celebrating second quarter student academic successes from honor rooll to kindergarten alphabet Masters to AR Superstars and we had 16 pause character Award winners who were recognized by their teachers
072for their attributes ranging from sportsmanship positive attitudes kindness and the whole range of ideas there we've got some kindergarten through first graders up on the staves there so you can see them you can see the P grid behind them behind each of the names on the P grid is the actual ACC Accolade that the teacher wrote on so we send a a copy of that help of the adults too start that over here in a minute uh our eighth graders spent a day touring yed high school learning about clubs classes and Badger mentality before registering for their nth grade classes that's kind of a breathtaking moment for some parents uh we noticed that more students were showing an interest in the robotics based science classes that were offered at yhs so we like to give
073a shout out to Mrs Barnes and Mr Corgan for doing such a great job sparking interest through our elective programs uh Mrs Amad and Mrs Springer's academic pentathlon students took a literature and Essay practice test uh they were supposed to do it last week we had a snow day so they had their official test that happened this morning the super quiz portion will take place on March 9th at ranches Middle School this year's topic is all about artificial intelligence which has sparked some very interesting conversations they all now think Ray Bradberry was a prophet um our Littles also celebrated the 100th day of school with a variety of projects activities and crafts we were going to be treated to our kindergartner annual Chinese New Year parade through campus on Friday but uh the snow destroyed
074the dragon these things happen the kids were plenty noisy though they worked it out uh I believe Mr seals might have provided you all with a copy of the maraposa cazette where uh Kelly did an amazing article about our librarian Mrs cander she is finishing her 38th year at wasuma she's amazing uh and so if you haven't had a chance to read that article that link will take you there but that was amazing uh winteral you'll see the pictures there they went inside for a battle ship tournament and they are working on cornhole next they're so funny our primary team is absolutely loving the science of reading training that we're going through we are having incredible conversations and we are already talking about making changes for the rest of this year carrying over into next
075year and what it's going to mean for our kids and their growth uh a special shout out to our district nursing staff these two are amazing uh we have students who are now directly benefiting from the Leo's eyeglass program thank you for spearheading that Jordan and our health aid Gloria is absolutely incredible she'll be going on the Montery field trip tomorrow to uh assist a student and she didn't even hesitate we got to be there at what time 6:45 done not a question these two are quite the team so I appreciate whoever found them whoever had the forite to hire them they're incredible and then finally uh congratulations to our seventh grader Sergeant meter for their most recent Cadet cor honors they won the Brigade level competition for individual major awards for our local Cadet
076cor and then they comp competed against about 100 other Cadets in the non-commissioned officer group at camp San Louis abiso the last weekend of January this was a state level competition so up until that point Sergeant Meer had only competed against her other uh members at oci and then she moved to a state level competition they had to give a two to three minute oral presentation on an important person who has made an impact on the world there was an interview it was a little bit scary a test a drill and a uniform inspection kudos to Terry and Ronda Baker and Jennifer bod for all of their hard work with the cadet cor program our students are participating we are seeing amazing things with them and this sergeant meder she's she's rocking it it's been
077a game changer for her so I'm just really proud of them it's a great program thank you thank [Applause] you O Creek Intermediate for those who are unaware Mr McGrew is actually traveling this evening heading over or heading up to the loai area for a training that participated in the morning on Universal Design learning which is the the model that we are going to we actually already begun training our oci staff for inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream classes moving forward starting in the fall um but I I want to touch on a couple of things in his report because they're pretty phenomenal too just as you've heard from o anduma you see some pictures there Mr mcre report oh and I must also point out and I'll make Tim watched the recording of
078this uh noticed the format of his report this month he's actually got slides pictures he's trying he's trying to keep up he's been sh comp want to be sh up anymore so he has included some some information pictures from the one their 100th day theep rally organized by the leadership student Mrs Hatfield and Mrs lancor for those actually Stephen I think you asked about the masca uniform previously there's there's a look at it right there um their pep rally included great level competitions and prizes which obviously included powdered sugar donuts hanging from a string I get invited yeah I didn't get the invite on that one either um okay and then he gives some some props for awards like Mrs Archer just talked about with Cadet core you see pictures of them over in San
079liso participating a really cool picture of some projects that students creates in seventh grade uh in Mrs long course class that represent the classic books that they had finished reading clearly the first picture is aliceon Wonderland the next one is where the mountain meets the moon uh very creative outstanding work being done there um a picture of our leadership class at oci with Mrs Hatfield when they come over to OES each week and read with the littles really cool program and he says the leadership class is now selling candy grams for Valentine's Day I'm sure they wrap that up raped in the money I'm sure today was nice and quiet on campus Valentine's at Junior High or in this case intermediate and high school is pretty L 8th grade students also signed up for their
080yhs classes like our wasuma Wildcats did and when they partic and they also participated in FBI day over at the high school future Badger induction day so great things happening at throughout the district uh next we have our superintendent report I'll keep it brief in the interest of time and that Ronda needs to get home because um but it's important to mention and it came up in in some of the photos of the three reports that we just had um as well as um other other elements of this evening's meeting but a huge shout out to all of our Community Partners um we'll start with law enforcement the the relationship that we have with Madera County Sheriff's department and also CHP are phenomenal to begin with but depy lots who's the staff resource officer assigned
081to the high school he's actually been assigned to any call that comes in for any of the area schools um he is always very quick to respond and um we just value that relationship greatly as well as his sergeant Sergeant Joseph Wilder um but we've also got a great relationship with our CHP office and uh a couple of the CHP officers have children who attend schools here in the district and they have been instrumental uh particularly over here at oci with if you're ever around somewhat in the morning during student drop off but definitely in the afternoon when it's time pick up and our buses are trying to get in and it is congested traffic has backed up in both directions on evening Springs um it's it's rough and CHP has spearheaded a move with
082Madera County Public Works and Madera County Roads and with Mr McGrew about finding Solutions um that intersection is too small for a roundabout but a roundabout would solve most of those issues um but there are people who do this kind of work who have their eyes on it and I'm hoping to report it sooner rather than later that we do have some solutions to make that um much easier last thing we want to see is we also in addition to the cars and the buses we have a lot of students who walk home and at that time we also have students from the high school who are walking up Indian Spring so we don't want to see anybody get hurt and uh but I just appreciate the Partnerships that we have with them other Partnerships
083C mentioned the Kanas and the kuas have been so generous Through The Years with our schools with their with their grants and our other service clubs as well um had I mentioned the Leo's Club the glasses we certainly thank our Lions Club for that um the master garders at wuma Holy Cow what what a impactful program um the the relationship that wuma has with our animal shelter there in aani when the kids go over and read to the to the animals I mean it's just um it it's a h it says an awful lot about our community and the district's willingness to partner um and the on that's having biggest impact on a daily basis is is our relationship with my club that after school programming there is some really really cool programming being offered
084kids are taking advantage of it and that that's a part of Education that we weren't able to provide until These funds became available with the encouragement to partner with with somebody in the community so it's it's allowed what was boys and girls club now my club to keep the doors open um increased Staffing exponentially um and just a lot of great things and I just I want to say thank you to all our Community Partners can't do it without Board number comments Steve I attempted I I had a whole speech prepared about something that happened this week but I'm not sure it's appropriate for this crowd um it was after church and uh this lady came up to me and she says I hear you're a board member on the school district here and I
085go yes yes ma'am and she says well it's corrupt and you need to resign and just get out of there which you know surprised me and and I said well excuse me but I'm not corrupt I don't know anyone on my staff that's corrupt or on the board that's corrupt and I certainly don't know any teachers or principles that are corrupt we're all doing the best we can and I'm a volunteer back off and then she goes well you know you should just quit all together and just leave the state and I said well you're part of the problem in this whole thing is because you know it's people with your opinion that that they're not voting they're not participating and that you should be praying for me praying for our board you should be
086praying for the teachers you know because you're a Christian prayer Warrior for heav sake that's what she was claiming to be and so you know we had this argument and this got heated and she said well on top of that I don't even believe in voting and I said well well then you're just just missing it everywhere because the only places you can actually uh uh engage with our government is by voting jury duty or being in office and if if you're not voting you're just spouting off you're not participating you're you're almost being cowardly and her husband was there and I'm looking at him like I'm about to get punched but it really is it's a it's a cowardly thing to do to not participate and hide it behind your faith or whatever I
087said no your faith is the reason in the um and and I've heard this said by different parties but it's just a amazing concept that if that if the decent people people with a moral foundation in this country would just actually vote instead of doing what their pastors tell them like don't participate you know your kingdom isn't here you're going to go to heaven and and just check out you know don't participate don't get involved in the rift rra and I I heard that from the pulpits and uh and pastors and In Articles and it's just absolutely wrong it's just you know the this whole country was built on the idea that the the the moral people in this country it's their duty to vote it's not a right they they had to do it
088to make it work and and it's that Collective opinion that made the representatives so that they could make the kind of decisions that did represent the whole people I mean it was just sad when I read uh I heard it actually that no I did read it that it has nothing to do with Joe Biden but but in the Democratic um voting back in South Carolina he he be he became the the Democratic lead guy there in the primary with only 130,000 votes for the entire state that was the turnout it was pretty much it and I'm thinking well where are the other 4 million of them or however many they are what are they doing you know why aren't they participating and it's just a frustration for me and I'm not taking it out
089on anyone here I'm just saying there it was just a surprise to hear someone like that cuz they're the ones that are that are encouraging people to to to to move out get your kids out of school you know don't let them in there because of you know who knows what's going on you know and I don't think it's going on in our district maybe it's in that school in Oakland that you read in the newspaper but it's it's not here you know and and if it was we would all know about it like probably within minutes and we'd be all over it and so I said unless you got something specific or some actual proof of this um allegation you know we're just going to have to park up I can't take it anymore
090anyway so I was just an interesting position to find that I'm a Schoolboard member and I'm having to defend you know being a Schoolboard member even the public school you know but I thought well why not that's that's I signed up for it and uh and I offended the woman offended her husband but were the whole crowd never intimidated me a whole lot so I just I just laid it out there and pretty much half agreed and half didn't basically normal situation and uh I just just wanted to share that but that affects our Ada it's it's a I thought about it wow This Woman's actually encouraging people to get their kids out of school get out of here don't vote calling herself prayer Warrior at the same time I just found it disturbing and
091and you know because it's not what I expected to hear at all about five minutes after a church service you know so anyway that's my comment and I'm fighting for our school district out there in in the trenches so thank you um I really don't have a report I just want to say Happy Valentine's Day and um we should celebrate and show love every day not just on Valentine's Day oh sweet um I got the opportunity I got an invitation from oci to go see their elected program one morning so I went and did that and that was really cool to see the kids in different set settings I got tour of all the different classes and what the kids were doing and everyone was engaged everyone was you know learning so that was really
092cool and um I was supposed to go to OES and then turned out to be a snow day so anyway figure that out at a later time but um always great to get get to see the schools and what's happening out there so thank you for the opportunities and invitations so keep coming all right thanks and I got to go to the O oci uh award ceremony so they had one ceremony for each grade six seven and eight and it was just wonderful to see so many kids that did so well and not only academically but also with their character and citizenship so that was really impressive and I got to see the mascot and he was having a ball there so oh and also Mr Peterson was giving out the golden I thing it's
093called the Golden tennis shoe or something award golden sneaker that's right I'm glad I didn't say the golden athletes foot [Music] okay uh yeah I don't have uh any comments tonight happy Valentine's Day um future agenda items Larch agenda to also be I will give you I will give you a heads up I will not be Pres now I'm scheduled to be out of state for the March meeting okay but Tera and Michelle will be here and we'll have the second interum and then the art plan we'll have some good stuff revise plan yeah back and probably the next batch of board policies and yay okay our next meeting is March 133 uh 5:30 is closed session 6:00 p.m is open session and we're done this meeting is a jury okay