Special Board of Education Meeting - February 19, 2026

001Good evening everyone. Tonight's special meeting of the board of education is called to order at 5:00 pm in open session. Roll call, please. >> Miss Armstrong, >> present. >> Miss Stewart, >> present. >> Miss Cron, >> present. >> Mr. Critzfield, >> present. >> Mrs. Garza, >> present. We do not have requests addressing agenda items. Um, at this time, the board will adjourn to close session. Open session will resume at approximately 6:30 going savings. Um so how do we go about developing this list of projects? Um conceptually our our process sort of moves left to right in this graphic. Um these three categories on the left, facility needs, enrollment demographics, and educational adequacy are fundamentally about data. And we're going to uh be collecting data in these three areas. Um I'll get into a little more

002detail later, but for the facilities needs assessment. Uh we're engaging with stakeholders. We're also sending three teams of technical experts onto each of your sites uh to look at roofs, building systems, and uh outdoor and indoor site conditions. Um we are also working with a demographer to produce enrollment projections five years into the future for Bellflower. Um we can take a look at past trends but looking at things like birth rates, transfer rates and development uh allows us to have more confidence in our projections for the future. And then finally I spoke a few moments ago about making sure that our educ our educational facilities are supporting the modes of teaching and learning that we're looking for in in this district. Uh and that's really what these educational adequacy metrics are around. So we're collecting

003this data. Um we're then building it into a centralized database that we then share out uh with the community to get input on the priorities and values. And that's important because if Bellflower is like the vast majority of other school districts in California, uh your total needs will be greater than the amount of funding that's available to to meet those needs. And so understanding what's the most important to the community, what gets the most bang for the buck, if you will, uh that's going to be really important to inform the priorities and values that are are built into your master plan. Once we are completed with this process and you have your your facilities master plan, a roadmap for future investment, uh it opens the door to a number of next steps. Uh those can

004include things like a general obligation bond uh state matching grants from California or potential reconfiguration strategic initiatives or other actions that require a good robust database of validated facility information. So uh we're hoping that the master plan will be as much a start of a new process for you guys as it is uh the end when it's finally delivered. In terms of the steps that we apply to generate this, um, we have, you know, five phases that start with data collection and and move through a fully integrated master plan with community outreach woven through the whole process. And I'm going to take a little bit of time to step through each one of these to explain how this is working. The start of our process is all about collecting data from the folks in the

005district who know the the buildings the best. Um so we're collecting blueprints, data on building systems, different kinds of reports related to maintenance and operations and deferred maintenance. Uh but also bringing in data on the climate and geography that we are have here in Bellflower. Um making sure that all of this is integrated into a unified database which again facilitates decision- making and recommendation into the future. So equipped with all this data, we evaluate that data in the context of the district's mission and vision. Um this chart here is showing historic enrollment. We're we're still in the midst of producing the enrollment projection. So this ends in the in the present. Uh but there's already a story that you can see here. I don't think I need to explain too much that the the context

006is declining enrollment. Um and that's very important from a facility planning standpoint when we think of uh utilization and capacity. In addition to just looking at the data that already exists and things like enrollment projections, uh we also do uh a number of different deep dives to collect additional information. Uh so one of the most important things we do are engage with each principal in the district. We ask them to complete I'll admit it's a fairly detailed questionnaire. It takes each principal we find at least 45 minutes and uh here in this district you guys have been really helpful sharing information. Um, we've also followed up each of those questionnaires with a detailed interview. Um, and so we've spent time speaking with uh I think we actually have we're nearly done with that process. So

007we haven't spoken with every principal yet. We're almost there. Uh, but really have a good understanding of the lived experience at each campus. Uh, we also engage with district leadership. uh and we have focus groups with different folks uh representing edge services uh facilities ma maintenance and operations uh nutrition services everybody who's involved. So uh we we've had another uh sort of stream of data coming from there. Uh and then I mentioned earlier that we are sending three teams out to each site in Bellflower to actually be there and assess each uh building system that's there. So we send one team of engineers that's focused on roofing and what we call building envelope. So that's facads, windows, doors, basically everything that keeps the water out. A second team has been looking at mechanical or excuse

008me, I think these are starting on uh March 2nd if I recall correctly. So I should be using future tense. Uh we will be sending a a team out that looks at mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and technology systems. Um, I should clarify that when we talk about technology from a building system, we're not talking about the devices like the projector or the the Chromebooks that students are using, uh, but techn like low voltage systems that are used to control heat, light, motion detectors, uh, as well as the cabling and infrastructure to support the different technology uh, that's used in the classroom. Uh and then finally the third team that we send out are architects. Um and we are looking at interior finishes uh whether updates are required uh as well as uh whether there's a single

009secure point of entry for every site fencing and exterior site conditions. So we're doing a really thorough look at at each one of your campuses with different disciplines brought to bear. Uh once we have all this rich facility data uh we run through it all and working with the the team here at Bellflower uh develop what we call scopes of work for for future projects. Uh and these projects are packaged in ways that we believe uh are most cost-effective to to Belflower. Uh, a common example I give is that we would not recommend replacing uh, a roof and then the next year coming back and doing a roof mounted HVAC system that punches holes in your brand new roof. So, we're thinking about sequencing packaging projects in ways that are improving educational program suitability, uh,

010safety and security, technology, energy savings, sports, athletics. um the the gentleman who spoke about uh wrestling this would potentially be written up uh in in this phase of the project. Um the other important thing that we do here is work with cost estimators to assign a cost to every potential project in the future. Uh and this is the way that we generate the total summary of need uh for the facilities here in Bellflower. Um but that total number will be perhaps overwhelming and you won't know where to start. And so our integrated master plan, the final deliverable, doesn't just include the cost estimates, but recommendations for project prioritization and an understanding of how the projects are rolling out across the district to make sure that a particular school isn't receiving all of the projects. So

011we're we're trying to think in an integrated fashion and and balance things out and really provide a roadmap for Bellflower as it moves ahead with with what to tackle first and next and so on and so forth. So that's the overview. I want to uh take a minute and give a a recap of um some of what we've heard in the engagement that we've done with stakeout stakeholders here in Bellflower. Um at a real high level some of the things we've done uh we had a wonderful chance to meet with students at Bellflower Mayfair and Somerset. Uh we've had a chance to meet with the PTA council. We also hosted a community meeting just earlier this week. Um so the results of that are not included in this presentation because it's a little too fresh.

012Um but then again the principal and site administrator interviews, the leadership focus groups and we've also conducted an online survey with uh u more than 200 about 250 responses. So um I'll sort of walk through what we've heard. Um I will say that this there's a lot of passionate feeling in this district. So uh we've got a lot of input from this sessions. Um so from the students um we as I mentioned did three sessions uh Mayfair, Bellflower and Somerset. Um this is I believe the one from Mayfair. I'm not totally sure about that but uh this is example data. We heard very uh consistent data across the groups. Um and some of the things that we heard uh were updates to learning environments. Uh there was desire particularly for science classrooms. Um, we heard

013about restrooms a lot, like a lot a lot. Um, that was I think the uh if you look at the scorecard here of how these students rated things. I know it's very small. I'm sorry, but restrooms are the yellow one at the bottom and that was the lowest ranked type of space by students. >> I just want to mention we also talked to Los Flores students too. >> Thank you so much. >> Just wanted to make sure. >> Appreciate that. Um, uh, so yes, we got really great input from from the the students. Um and uh some specific information for each school as well. Uh we had a I think it was in this room that we met with the the PTA council meeting another group of highly engaged and and passionate individuals. Um we

014heard many similar comments from that group to the and the students similar comments on learning environments. uh perhaps even more acute concerns about restrooms a and some very uh strong opinions about equity uh across re for resources across the the district. Um I want to highlight that it's it's a really good sign when we hear similar input from different stakeholder groups. We often talk about triangulation as a means of understanding what the key priorities for a community are and when we hear alignment between parents and teachers and students it's a good indicator that we're we're finding the heart of the matter. So uh we were very encouraged to to hear such uh consistent priorities across different user groups. Um when we spoke with the uh principles and site administrators at each school, uh the information

015was very specific to each school. Um and so a lot of this data will be used by our team as we work through developing again the scopes of work for each school. Uh but to sort of extract some some highlevel takeaways, uh we heard a lot of concerns from principles about the needs for um updating the infrastructure at school sites. Uh we heard needs for outdoor campus improvements. Uh I would say lighting was was something that came up as well as a need for additional shade for students and play structures and gathering areas. And then uh improvements to air conditioning uh was a theme that came up at many sites as well. So um there was more detailed sight specific information that came from these engagements. Uh but these were some themes that that emerged

016strongly uh from these discussions. Um and then we also had a uh a very productive day meeting with I think six different groups of uh uh the leadership um here in Bellflower. Um you can see some of the folks we met with. I'm not going to run through them one by one. Uh but again just if I was going to call out some of those key takeaways we heard from different groups uh restrooms bubbled up again as another priority here. So again talking about triangulation we heard about that from everyone. Um we also heard about a uh the the broad range of programs that are offered here in Bellflower and that there are distinct facility needs for each one. So I think when we look at different campuses we're not going to be recommending a

017one-sizefits-all solution. We're going to be looking at the specific programs at each site uh and making sure that those are being addressed. Um one interesting thing that came up in these meetings was the need for uh cabling and utility updates. Um there are a number of things that folks um asked for in our engagement. Um, I made a note here, you know, key card access, enhanced classroom technology, cameras, and what we heard is that some campuses don't necessarily have the technology or utility infrastructure to support those kinds of improvements. So, to get to those the things that we actually experience that we see, there needs to be some behindthe-scenes uh investment to make sure that the the campuses are ready for those types of improvements. Um, speaking of infrastructure, it was uh highlighted that there

018is a goal and indeed from the state a requirement for bus electrification that's going to require some uh infrastructure updates to your busy yard. Um, and then just the need for science labs uh that sort of bubbled up uh again at the uh Bellflower and Mayfair sites, a need for um adjustments and improvements there. Uh I think Mayfair has a new STEM building. Uh so that's partially addressed, but uh this was a concern that we heard. >> And then going from the the district's leadership to the the general public, um we have also launched a facility master planning website which has been linked to from the main Bellflower site. Uh we've had great support from the team and in pushing out that this to the public that this is available. Um, I'll say if there's

019anybody in the room or following online, you can use the the link or the QR tag to to go check it out right now. Um, that site provides much of the same overview that I'm sharing with you right now. Uh, we'll also be posting the the presentations that we've been given, including this one on that website. And then perhaps most importantly, there's a a link to an online survey uh much shorter than the one we asked the principles for. It doesn't take 45 minutes. It's it's closer to five. Uh but we have some high level questions that we've asked uh members of the public to chime in on. Um and I want to walk through some of these because there there's useful stuff. Um so uh as you can see the the the majority of

020respondents have been parents. We've got some teachers which is wonderful classified staff and then you know a handful of students but uh the majority of the input has been from parents. Um, and we asked a question, uh, which programs are are most appealing to the community, uh, and and by extension, would you be interested in supporting with facility improvements? Um, and what bubbled up to the top, uh, steam, CTE, and student support spaces were were the top three. Um, I think you can see from looking at this that even though something like special education or athletics was not ranked as high, there's still tremendous support for those programs. So, uh, interest in broad programs. Uh and then getting beyond the the numbers and you know people voting on it. Uh we also collected open-ended responses

021which were able to uh um assemble by school. Um and so there's some some nice details here. We we heard from a respondent speaking on behalf of Mayfair that it would be nice to have an actual space for for music and choir performances. Um that makes sense. My admit my first exposure to Bellflower was seeing you guys in the Rose Parade two years ago. So I I know the the the the music program is strong. Um, moving from the programs, uh, we also asked what types of facility upgrades, uh, should the district prioritize, and we asked them to say, what's high, medium, and low. Um, I don't think it's a surprise, safety and security bubbled up as the the top priority for respondents to the survey. Uh, indoor air quality also a high one. Um,

022and again, uh, with all the other comments, we we asked for the the ranking in the vote. Uh, but we also asked for open-ended comments. And um we pulled out this one because this was something we heard a few times in in various groups. Uh a color update could make a big impact. The beige has a sad feeling to it. Uh I can't tell you how many folks asked for their schools to be painted with their school colors uh to have some color pop, some energy. Um so I think there might be some very easy takeaways here of a broader range of paint and that might make some folks happy. So uh obviously deeper dive we were going to recommend more investments beyond that but I thought that was an interesting takeaway and oh um

023uh so that brings us to the the next steps. Um we are as I mentioned starting in about a week and a half on facility condition assessments. Uh we really appreciate the the coordination with the team. It's been a a bit of a cat hurting exercise with our engineers and getting the right teams in the right places and on rooftops and stuff and uh the team's been wonderful. We really appreciate that. Excited to get that data. Um we are also working with um uh some specialist demographers and state funding experts to uh get enrollment projections as well as data for what what your eligibility is for state matching grants which can be uh an encouraging uh news when we get back and hear you know which sites are eligible to for state funding. Um we

024will also be working on um not just existing site plans for every campus. One one outcome of this master plan is you'll have a really good robust robust set of consistent site plans. So you can have apples to apples comparisons. If somebody wants to know, you know, how much space is there for arts at this school versus another one, it'll all be very clearly documented. Uh but we will also generate concept plans uh recommendations for the future of each campus that will uh be visual representations of some of those uh scopes of work that we talk about. Uh there's another part of our deliverable which will be educational specifications. Uh you can think of those as design guidelines for buildings that are being renovated uh you know modernized and renovated or potentially new construction. I

025don't think we're going to be recommending a ton of new construction but um as part of this the the specs will provide a set of standards and guidelines for uh the district to follow. Um and that's very helpful for ensuring both equity and high quality spaces across the district. Um, and then fundamentally the the the biggest part of our deliverable will be uh writing up those recommended proposed projects uh and giving you guys what I always think of as the menu of potential projects that you can choose to to pursue with a capital plan when funds are available. Um, so that is sort of the the introduction to to what we've been doing, our process, and some of the preliminary findings. uh and I'd be happy to answer any questions or uh have a discussion

026about anything that we covered or any other questions that come up. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you, Mr. Jackson. Um board members, anyone have uh questions, comments talk? >> Yes, I have a few. Um okay, my first one was the 228 total. Is that the amount of all of the parents students that took the survey? it is. >> I guess I question why we don't do something in class. And I know teachers don't want to get into their instructional time, but if we had the students take it right there in class, we could get 9,000 or Well, that's not true because we have elementary, but we would get a lot more than 228. I just I don't understand. I mean, 228 students of all of ours in the district. I just I think

027that's sad and I think we need to find a different way to do things because that's not enough back feedback. Um second, will there be price tags on these projects when they're listed from you? >> Yes, there will be. And um what we try to provide is we say fully encumbered costs. So it's not just the construction costs, but also soft costs and some escalation to to understand what it'll cost when when it actually comes time to execute that project. >> So if there's a project, let's just say a random, let's say a wrestling room or something that you have not listed, um how would we know those price tags? Our goal would be to include every potential project in the facilities master plan. So, um, we'll use the the the wrestling room. It's not

028the first time we've heard about that. So, I I think it would already be on the list, whether it's a dedicated wrestling room or improvements to the athletic facility with smaller spaces. Um, so our goal would be to include every potential project and the cost for it. I I would say if there are projects that you guys want to pursue that aren't in the master plan, then we've missed something. So our our goal is to include every potential project uh in the future. >> So let's say we want to paint just one particular school, that price will be tagged on that. >> Okay. Um and I guess um two more questions. Is that okay? My next question is we hear a lot from the community about obviously things they want to do. A wrestling room.

029We've heard sand volleyball courts. We've heard we need paint on our schools. When I've been told as a board member when you're listing this on a bond, it needs to be very broad and very general, which I understand. But if you did a lot of small projects, like last time we had one really big one, our steam building, but let's say we wanted to do 10 projects that were 100,000 or do you know what I mean? How would you list those on a bond to get buyin? Because in my mind, if we did a lot of little projects, maybe we get buyin from the wrestling community, from the music community, from all this. But how would you list that on the bond so that people understand that those projects that they want are actually getting

030accomplished rather than a broad do you know what I'm saying? Like I get both angles but for our community sometimes I think broad is they don't buy into it as much. They want to hear their project come up. So how would you answer that? >> Sure. So I I have to give a a word of caution which is that the the the master plan the facilities master plan and a potential general obligation bond are are fundamentally two different things. So the master plan should inform the bond. Uh but at the end of the day, I won't I won't be the consultant recommending the >> Can I go to my staff then to ask like if or not to answer that but to just say you will give us information on how to do that when

031we get to that point if we do. >> Yeah. So that would be a conversation with bond council because there would be the ones writing the language for the bond and anything that the board wants included in that language, it would be appropriate to provide that information to them. >> Okay. And then my last question is I know you have a lot of groups here that you have talked to regarding this. Why was the board not one of the groups or why didn't we get a special survey on what we might like to see? >> Um so I do believe we we have an engagement with the board coming up. It it just it was uh tough to schedule. Um so I think we had a date and it was cancelled and then and then

032we'll be coming back another time. So I'm sorry that this is the the first time you're seeing me. I don't know if you want to >> Okay. No, it's okay. I just I understand. I just wanted to make sure that I know we have some strong opinions on things and we just want to make sure that we have input as well. >> Our board will never be left out of these conversations. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Great questions. >> Anyone else? >> Go ahead. >> Thank you, Madam President. Um, so I know in 2022 the district engaged in a long range facilities plan with ENA. Um, is there a difference between this facility's master plan and what they had done? I know that the execution of that master plan,

033I believe, was subpar based off of a a lot of what I heard. So, I'm glad we're doing this and thank you for the work. Um, but is there a difference between a long range facilities master plan and this one? >> No, they're the slightly different names for the same thing. I I will say that um a couple years ago uh Proposition two was passed by the state which uh enabled a big pool of of matching funds uh set aside for eligible projects. One of the requirements for a district to access those funds was a facilities master plan that has been updated within five years. Um so 2022 it may feel recent but it is coming up uh regardless of the the quality of that document. It is it is approaching the the end of

034its duration. Uh and so you guys would would need to update it or produce a new one anyway. >> Right. No, I do think that the document was deficient in a lot of ways. I think staff felt the same way. Uh but but the long range aspect because I know you mentioned a five-year demographic study. Remember in that one it was a 10-year demographic study. And I will say just reviewing it again real quick, they were way off. Um, are are you guys pretty accurate with your demographic studies? >> You know, I I would say and I I you could call this a long range master plan. Also, we're looking at projects out 10 years. Uh, when it comes to enrollment projections, I wish we had a a crystal ball that we could use to

035look into the future. As you go further into the future, they get less and less accurate. Um, so in my experience, a 10-year master plan, a 10-year enrollment projection is starting to get into to guesswork. Um, there there's so many things changing. So, we generally do five years because that's the where we have confidence. Um, we work with a demographer called School Works that does these um reports for districts up and down the state. Um, and and five years is what they recommend and they have confidence in. Um, you still, I'll be honest, you need to take it with a a grain of salt. um everybody's enrollment projections were wrong in 2020 when co 19 came along. That was so unpredictable. So the enrollment projections are an important input and something we use as a

036guide but it's not you can't be sure. >> Yeah. But statistically are are you guys is the company I work with pretty they have good track record of being >> they have an excellent track record. That's why we work with them. >> Okay. Because the the last one I think they didn't make it one year out without being really off. Um, and I think they said we're supposed to bounce back in 28. Um, but especially as we look at our facilities and what we're going to be doing with them and really planning things out. I think like that's going to be a really important part and that would come at the when the entire report's finished. That's when that would come. >> Yes, that's it'll be part of that deliverable. We'll we'll be sharing a

037draft of that enrollment projection with the the team when it's ready just to to make sure that all of the inputs to the model are correct. So, we need to get loading standards, new development projects. Um, they're pretty good at tracking birth rates and things like that, but um we we'll be working with the team to get it as accurate as possible. Um, but I I'll give the caveat that I've never seen one that's been perfect. >> No, I I get it. I get it. >> Um, and as far as the the facilities, you you're uh looking into all of the district facilities. >> Yes. Including the the district office, sports field, maintenance and operations. If you guys own it, we're looking at it. >> Um, and do we have a because I know there's

038a couple uh buildings that sometimes get left out. Um, the uh the data storage >> building annex. Yeah, >> that's on their list. >> Okay, cool. >> Christian wouldn't let me forget it. >> And I have one more question. uh in identifying projects. This this might be more of a I know you're working very closely with our staff and and Renee, so it may not be for you, but uh identifying projects that are not only um uh just going to cost us money, but some that might save us money. So, I'm guessing there's probably some collaboration as far as like looking at our uh our operational costs for certain things. One that comes to mind is say if we're transporting a team for say sand volleyball and it's costing us this much but to you

039know in facilities it would we'd actually save money if we offered it here. Um there is that collaboration back and forth at looking at our operational costs. >> You know I I I that's a great point. I'm not sure that we are factoring it in your example transportation costs from facilities that are not available. I know it's come up with um aquatics uh because there's you guys have to travel to to use those facilities. Um I I think we can incorporate that. That's um a really great point and and we can absolutely do that. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Oh, I I just wanted to make sure that um um you were done before I jumped in. I think for me the only thing and I'm not sure if this is for you or for

040our cabinet. Um, but first of all, thank you so much. This was incredibly insightful and the way that you presented made sense right off the bat. So, it took a lot of the questions away for me, but um, one is timeline. So, um, are I guess it's a two-part question. Will we be receiving another updated presentation as we did tonight at some point or are we waiting for the final to present and then when would that be? >> That's a great question. So we are we are definitely coming back to present to the board again and I think it's a open point of discussion whether we come back with a draft of the master plan or and and get input and and make changes after the engagement or we bring the the final plan. So

041I think we're open to your direction. We're we're happy to do it uh however bellflower p prefers but we are definitely planning on coming back and um the duration of this project is about six months. We are what, like two months into it? Three months into it. Time flies when you're having fun. Um, so I think you can anticipate in two or three months depending how we set up that that we'll come back to to share what we found in these processes that I've laid out we're are in the midst of right now. >> So that would be the sequence uh board of clerks and try. If there's a desire from the board to right have an additional update just based on new information found right prior to the fire the final document being presented

042to the board then of course the board always has that discretion to ask for that. >> Thank you. At the moment I don't want to jam up anything. So, if we're halfway through the process, um, but I just wanted to make sure that community knows to expect something down the line in the next 3 months. And um I don't know if it's a uh an ask here, but I would love to announce when this facility master plan comes out and make sure that it's we announce it on multiple ways so that we get our community here or that they have it available to them. And we just make it like frontloaded so that they're not like digging or they're not confused on the title. They have to wait on the kind of thing. You understand?

043>> Absolutely. Communication and everything. Yes, I got you. Thank you. I have one more question and I think it might be more for staff but since the pool came up we and I know you guys might be cringing when I talk sometimes but we have always have people talking about the pool and at the last meeting we had YMCA there collaboration on buildings collaboration on programs with our community things that we could both add in money or save money or things like that are all of those things being done as well >> all of those things are being brought up and As a matter of fact, it was a conversation with um with I'm going to Jessica um at Bellflower that led me to um she helped me invite the YMCA to that meeting for

044their input. So there is absolute collaboration amongst community that we're trying to bring to this entire process. >> Okay? Because I think that would be amazing if we could save money partnership and get even more programs out of things. I think that would be awesome. Thank you. >> Okay. So, first I just want to say thank you for this. I know I've heard um I've just heard facilities master plan get thrown around a couple times, but I didn't have a really good idea of what it was. So, thank you for this presentation. It really was clarifying. And another thing that I liked was that there was direct student input. That was actually one of my biggest fears, like they're going to talk to, yes, they're going to talk to the community members, but are the

045students going to be involved? So, I like that there was also that. Um, going back to what um, board member Stewart said about the questionnaires and the results, I was also kind of disappointed that there were only 228 results out of the huge community that we have. And it brought me back to something that a teacher at Mayfair told me at one of our guiding coalition meetings that when it comes to questionnaires like that, there should be deadlines. There should be deadlines set. There should be deadlines set for um community members, staff, students um to get those questionnaires done by them. And I know it sucks like um board member Stewart said that teachers don't want to take their instructional time, but things like this that are going to affect not just their district, not

046just their site, but the entire district, those things have to take importance. And then I have a few questions. One of them is how long is each um assessment team going to be at each site? >> Uh it depends on the size of the school, but but usually for an elementary school it takes about uh half a morning or you know a quarter of a day for each team. So we we try and do three or four elementary schools in a day. A middle school takes half a day. A high school takes a full day. You guys have the combined middle school high school. I'm guessing that uh both Mayfl Mayfair and Bellflower will will each take a full day of assessment for for I think each team will be on site a full day

047for those two sites. >> Okay. And then maybe I just didn't hear this, maybe just like glossed over, but is there any is there a team that's going to be testing like the actual technology like like the projectors or the Chromebooks, things like that? Is there a team that's going to be testing that? >> Not as part of this process. Um folks always ask about technology. That's that's often a pain point. The the challenge is technology changes on such a fast cycle that by the time we finish the facilities master plan, whatever technology we recommend might be obsolete. So that moves on a faster cycle and is generally handled as a as a separate effort. So not part of the facilities master plan. I I believe there are folks in the district working on that

048as a separate initiative. >> Okay. And then I was I looked at the let me see the here >> the principal the slide talking about the principal questionnaire and how that exclusively said detailed questionnaire. >> So that got me to think how detailed were the other questionnaires specifically this specifically the student questionnaire in comparison to the principal questionnaire. >> They're they they have a very different purpose. So I the principal questionnaire if I recall correctly has like 62 questions and goes through um I'll give you is there any areas on your campus where water pools is there any restroom facilities which are deficient and require updates and we run through the lists you know HVAC signage outdoor conditions so it's really getting to specific details of different types of spaces for the public survey the

049one that that students can respond the one that you wish had more responses uh is much more high level. So, you know, what do you feel the priorities are? We're not listing 16 different types of spaces and asking them to rank it. You know, what is your priority? What programs do you feel are are does need the most support? Um, and then there's an open-ended, you know, any other thoughts you'd like to share with the team. I'd say we get a lot of really good input from those open-ended responses and and um it's a fundamentally different type of survey. So the the principles are really we're running them through a checklist. The the public survey is much more open-ended where we we ask them what are your priorities and and here's a box. Tell us

050what you think is important. Um we found that if the that one gets too detailed, if we ask too much, we see people dropping off after about five minutes. So, >> okay. >> And then my final question is when or whenever the final facilities master plan is done, will the public be shown this whole thing? Cuz I know obviously the people um here that attend the board meetings, the staff, the board members themselves, they'll be shown something like this, I assume. But will the public get anything like that? Because I know there's a bunch of people that don't attend these things, so they don't they're not aware. >> I I sure hope so. Um, there was uh your fellow board member brought up bonds before, which is a little outside my lane, but I often

051say that your facilities master plan is is the first step of your bond campaign. Um, and so, not only do I think it would be great to to get it out and share with people, but I actually think it's very important for people to understand, you know, what the district wants to do with these money with the with any money that's received, what the what the goals are, and what the outcomes could be expected. So, uh, I agree with you completely. it it should be uh broadcast and distributed um and we'll try and set it up in such a way that it it and we use the website and other tools to make that happen. So um we're totally in alignment in terms of the goal. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um couple more. Uh

052first I believe like a year ago we talked about a technology master plan. Is that something that we're we're still working on? because that's kind of like separate like to to his point of like they're very separate. >> Yeah, we're we're working on that. We've done a lot of improvements a lot of improvements along the way that you as board have voted on to to improve our technology just as it stands, but we're working on a multi-year plan to look at what we're going to need, how we're going to, you know, accomplish that and how we're going to pay for that. >> Cool. Thank you. Um, and I I know one of the deficiencies because I've heard stories of the last time we had a a a plan done and I believe and and Patrick,

053you might be able to chime in. Uh, but during the uh the site visits, there wasn't really uh I think they just kind of dropped in and kind of just like walked around did but without a lot of input from the site or from district. uh when you're doing these site walkthroughs and you're our our staff is with you and somebody really familiar with the campus specifically. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, we have escorts and I should I I was going quickly. There's another step in the process that we call our our tabletop meetings. And the two teams of engineers, one of them looking at roofing, the other looking at mechanical, electrical, and plumbing, have a 90 minute, 60-minute session with the maintenance and operations team, and we go through site by sight. And that's when

054we tell us where the skeletons are in the closet, what what are we what do we need to really look for when we're on site? What not what might not be visible from a a visible inspection? So, um, frankly, we're we're talking to the the folks that know the campuses best, and that's our starting point. So, there's the tabletop meetings, then we have an escort when we're on site, and then there's the detailed >> more clinical observation. >> Great. Because because that guy knows where all the skeletons are. So, as long as Patrick's involved, I feel much better. So, that's that's great. Uh, and one more question is about that the ADA uh on a lot of our campuses. I I think last time it was it was kind of like uh just kind of

055lumped in with just the priority one uh safety column. Um but there are specific things on our our campuses that need to be improved. Um when you're looking at uh ADA, are you looking at through uh a like a maintenance, you know, replacing things or a compliance aspect of uh really identifying things that are out of comp compliance? I I I'm not totally sure I understand the question. We are definitely flagging things that are out of compliance. >> Yeah, I'm not sure I understand the question makes two of us. Um but uh you know a example off top is like in in the steam building. So like some ADA um uh things that could be improved. You're you're flagging any ADA uh compliance aspects of our facilities? >> Yeah. And and I'll say with the

056caveat, we haven't done the the assessment, but having done a bunch of these in the area, I'd say that the three things I would anticipate to find is we're going to find some deficient ramps. U so you talked about maintenance of like old those old ramps that lead up to to portables. I don't know. We haven't done the assessment. Those are often things that we flag. Um doorways that are too narrow to accommodate uh individuals with limited limited mobility. Um and then uh we we also encounter um ADA compliance issues particularly when we're looking at special education facilities. So that's that's another area. So um and let me I'm going to be blunt that uh when it comes to ADA assessment there's something called a CASP assessment which is an extremely detailed you know you'll

057know to the inch you know these railings are are too narrow or too wide. We're not performing a a CASP assessment. We're not saying exactly what the deficiency is, but our architects will be flagging where issues are and recommending the improvements, but it's just to be very clear, it's not a full CASP assessment, which is a much more detailed type of assessment that would be much more longterm. >> Have we ever done one of those? >> No. >> Those are not really typical. >> You do those when you're getting sued. >> You should do them before you get sued. Sounds like it. Thank you very much. >> Sure. Sorry, I had one more question. Um, so when you're looking at these plans and you're making your recommendations, do you take in particular reports? For instance,

058our SARC reports. I read through all of those. I know our Belfar High School is very poor with interior flooring, things like that. I know Mayfair's fair. So, those are something that we look at on our SARC reports and things like that. Do we consider those in our needs or in relevance of how we do projects or are we thinking about that? we will use all aspects, but that's exactly what they're going to do. They're going to look at each site and try to find fairness between the two the all the sites in the district. So, yes, we will be using those pieces to figure out what's priority one, two, three, and four. And that will be a component if we think one site needs the um the flooring over another site needing the roof.

059I'm going to say roof and then we're going to go and talk about flooring at another site. >> Okay. I'm just wondering because I know those reports, a lot of people read those reports and when you see a school has poor interior, that's maybe a red flag. >> Yeah, the good news is we had our LEO visit this earlier this year and we had all good outputs from the LEO. We had all actually excellent on all four of our reports for four of our schools. So, I think we're headed in the right direction. Of course, anybody can find a little piece here and there and um this is what's going to hit home. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, board members. Um, I do have a couple questions. So, when we're looking at this, um,

060we're in the middle of this process. If there's any big adjustments that need to be made, um, speaking to board member St. John's question, would we be able to see that large update here in public? Like for example, you have this very comprehensive plan that you've presented to us, but say I'm going to say this is on my wish list. It's been on my wish list for a while. Solar panels, >> but I didn't hear you talk about solar panels. So if I put that on my wish list when we go to give our input as board members that's kind of a change on at least I didn't hear it here specifically but would something like that come back to the board at that time and it be presented to us or would it be

061wait do we wait until we hear it to the end? >> No I don't I don't think you need if there are key priorities I would I would recommend you relay those to staff who can then relay them to us. I will say even though I didn't mention solar panels, solar panels has come up particularly in the context of that bus electrification project that I was talking about. Um so we have discussed solar panels, it's come up. But um no, I would say we're trying to avoid major changes or surprises at a late date. So if there is something that anybody on the board thinks is a priority and is critical to include, I would encourage you to communicate that sooner rather than waiting for us to come back. um we're we're trying to avoid

062surprises and big changes um and be very transparent with this whole process. So I would say if there's something that you think is essential to include in the plan, solar panels, whatever, um communicate that sooner rather than later so that we don't have to make a big change later. >> Okay, sounds great. Thank you. And then um another question I had uh was about the um you spoke about looking for matching funds. Can you speak a little bit more about that? Like what what is the process as you go forward with that? >> Sure. Um and this is a topic which has been everybody's been asking about since Prop 2 passed. Um, but essentially the way to think about uh the office of public school construction matching grant program is to think of it like

063a rebate program. So they don't give you the money to go do the project, a particular district will have to generate funds, perform a project, and then if it meets certain eligibility criteria. There's a lot of hoops to jump through to have an eligible project, but it's doable. Districts do it all the time. Um, when you meet those criteria, you complete a project, you submit that project to the Office of Public School Construction, and you are then entered in the queue of that, I call it a rebate program, and that's that 12 billion pool of money from Prop 2. And there's a long line of districts with eligible projects that have been completed over the past seven years or so that are now receiving those those grants as as a rebate for completed projects. So

064you guys will hypothetically have enough funding to pursue some projects. You will perform those projects, submit those projects to OPSC, OPSC, and then you wait and it's probably going to be several years before you get that rebate back. You can then get that money back and you can plow it back into your capital plan for for additional projects. But it is the sort of you do the project, you file the paperwork, and then you wait a long time, then you get the money and you start all over again. So um you are still you Bellflower the district has to put up the initial capital to perform the project and then depending on whether it's modernization which generally has like a 60% uh reimbursement rate or new construction which is a little different. Um you'll get

065the money back at a future date. So it's not fast. I'm I'm sorry to say. Um but if you're thinking long term this is a really important thing to to stretch whatever funding you have as far as it can go. Did that answer the question? >> Yes, absolutely. Thank you. Um, so then are you I'm going to follow up a question to that. Is it's not a 100% rebate then because you did say something about 60%. Am I in >> it's like 40 60. So the um and it depends. There's nuances. We actually use a specific subconsultant that only does this because the nuances are so detailed. But at a high level, for most modernization projects, you can expect a 60%. So if it's a $1 million, you guys pay $1 million for a project,

066you file the documentation, you can expect to get 600,000 back from the state on a modernization project. So it's 6040. >> Okay. It It's more than 50. >> It is. And then there's all kinds of caveats and nuances which I'm glossing over and I they're maybe a little bit beyond my understanding. This is a a whole world of the state matching grant application process and there's specialists that work specific. We we have one on our team which >> if you do have more specific questions we can absolutely uh have them engage with you. >> That was my next question. Do you walk us through that process of staff? Do we have someone on our staff to be able to do that for us or will we need to come back to um Mr. Jackson? The

067actual application process I've done several times at my previous district. So I have an idea, but I will get um I will pro get a consultant so that we make sure that it's done right. So it'll be a combination of my team and a consultant to file the paperwork so that we can >> I even know what the number of the report used to be called the 506. um so that we make sure that we file it appropriately and and he is very correct that that the timeline for receiving those funds back is is is quite some time but um we will file and that's why we use the consultant so that we can know what projects would be appropriate. So now we're going to talk about just I just gave the example roof or

068flooring and now and I said roof and flooring I'm going to make this up. Say the flooring has the 60% but the roof doesn't. Now we could become a priority. If we complete that earlier, we can send that in and produce additional funds. It's a very complex process like he indicated and so there's a lot of pieces. The report will help us through it, but we will be using um you know additional resources to ensure that we can get everything we can. >> Disricts that do this well. You're very lucky to have somebody who's been through this before. districts that do this well stretch the dollars, you know, they use the they use the matching grants to get matching grants. Um and and they're very crafty. It's it's like watching someone play chess. So, um

069we'll do everything we can to help you win that chess game. >> Thank you. Um I believe um do you mind? >> I just wanted to um I've I've expressed my um ideas uh in in the survey and to the staff. Um, however, I'd like to know because I'm listening to my colleagues. How soon will we get a survey? You guys, you guys want the survey? >> I was actually going to ask that question because I know you said we should just tell them our priorities and I'm like, are you wanting us to tell them our projects because you just said you're basically doing every project we can think of. Are you wanting us to give them our priorities for projects? Because I was a little I just wanted to clarify. So, that kind of

070piggybacks off what you were Because like I said, I've already I did I did the survey because you know I have the kids in the district and then um myself I've listened to the community community members or community leaders I should say that had ideas and I expect I expressed those ideas already to you know the staff um in which I've I've heard some of them but we don't if we don't if you don't think we need a survey. My thing is is that for me I would like to look at price tags because if I can do 10 things for a million dollars or one thing for $800 million then I might do it differently. So for me it's really important to have numbers behind the projects. for me particularly. >> So we we

071we won't even get to that until they finish and until they start um you know prioritizing things or showing us you know their results and then we we prioritize things and then you know then that's when the money comes. >> The report itself is going to prioritize things based on all the information we've discussed tonight. So, what we're asking what we're definitely asking from board members and and what we're going to hear back is the projects so that they can get into the report. So, like if solar panel if solar panels hadn't been mentioned before tonight, we're glad that we brought it up. So, that's what we're also going to get from you to put into the report, but the report itself produces the priorities and it produces the dollars associated with them. >> Yes.

072Two different steps to arrive at one conclusion. Okay. Um, so what I'm hearing, just to clarify, is you I know you said you're thinking of every project we can think of, but it sounds to me like as a board member and people I talked to in the community, I need to probably tell you the things that I have heard are things that are in my wish list because I haven't done that. That's what we're planning on having done. We have one scheduled at a already set up committee meeting. So, we have a committee meeting regarding schools and we have two of the board members at that one and we're trying to get the other two set other two meetings to split the other three board members. Does that make sense? >> But do we ever

073get to talk amongst ourselves as an entire board about this? Can you answer that? >> Why am I doing something wrong? Um, so the the issue is if the entire board wanted to discuss what their ideas were or um projects that they'd like to see and gain feedback from their colleagues, it would have to be in an open meeting. So, we can have it under a discussion item at a future meeting. Um, my recommendation would be that each board member be given an individual survey that the consultant then compile those interests from each individual board member and then that be brought before the board an open meeting where it could be discussed and the board could deliberate as to what the priorities might be. >> So then is there by the time they finish the

074report and we get numbers on it, are we going to have time to give you that survey? Because again that's very important for me. I don't know. I would assume some of my colleagues might feel the same is we want to see how much things cost before we decide what a priority would be. If you tell me a pool costs 800 million, I'm not going to say yes. If you tell me it costs 2 million, which I know it doesn't, but do you know what I mean? Like that would heavily weigh, I think, in deciding things. >> So, I think that's where the the survey would come in because they would have to know what project a specific board member was looking for to be able to assign a cost to it. And then after

075that's completed, the board would be able to get together to discuss what priorities they might have. >> But didn't you just say there's going to be a list of price tags on the projects when I asked? >> There will be. Um I I I would it sounds like there needs to be an avenue for some direct input from board members, which I'm happy to set up as soon as possible. We won't we're not going to be getting to cost estimates until several months uh further in this process. Um, so I use a metaphor often for a master plan that it's the menu. Um, and then equipped with a master plan, here's everything you could order, uh, along with the costs and our recommendations of what, you know, appetizers come first, entre, you know, there's a

076sequence that we'll recommend. When it comes time for you to craft your capital plan, which is like ordering your meal, you'll take the guidance that we have. If you want to have dessert first, you're the board. you can decide, you know, it's our recommendation for priority three, but it's the board's priority one. You can do that. That that's your prerogative as the the governing body. So, we'll provide our recommendations based on what we've observed. When you guys have the master plan, there's a subsequent process of figuring out you have to have the money and then how what you actually want to spend your money on. Is that helpful? >> It is helpful. I just hope that we have time if we do go for a bond to do all of that before that process starts.

077That's what I'm saying. I hope that we've started soon enough that we have the time to look at price tags when we're deciding or thinking about what we would like to do, and I'm not sure that's going to happen, but I hope it will. I'm going to be optimistic. Thank you. >> And board member Stewart, just to to add to the point that was made. Um, that's kind of the issue with issuing bonds, uh, listing specific projects within those bonds, um, at this point might be problematic because of the timing issue. And to kind of go back to your original question, um, in order for the consultant to know what projects, you know, specific board members want, they'd have to be able to get that input from you. Uh, so that's where I think individual

078um, communication with board members would be helpful so that you can actually make sure that your project is on that uh, uh, master plan facilities list. But that being said, it can't be in such a way where the board is discussing it outside of an open meeting. So that's why you generally want those surveys first. It gets on there and then you discuss hopefully with enough time to be able to put it on the bond measure if that's what the board chooses to do. Um, but in general terms, that's why they have broad language in the bond measure to allow the board to later discuss what projects, you know, they uh they want to prioritize. >> And I totally understand that. But I learned my lesson on the last time we went for a bond.

079There were things that board members said that they weren't specific enough and they didn't vote for it and it needs four votes. So I I hope this all works out for the best. >> I'm not going to provide recommendations on bonds, but I will say that other districts that we've done master plans for that have then done successful bond campaigns, they do not generally list specific projects. It's it's descriptions of types of projects and it's striking a balance between being specific enough that the public has faith that the money is going to be spent on the things they want, but general enough that the district's hands aren't tied if a surprise like COVID comes along. >> And so we'll have deeper conversations as we work with our bond council and also our agency as well.

080I think this is just the beginning to help inform that. But we will have deeper discussions with bond council and how to word and do that. >> These are great questions by the way. You guys are getting right to the heart of the matter. >> Any other questions, colleagues? >> Thank you for your questions and thank you for your time, Mr. Jackson. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay. Um Dr. Simon, we have um multi-year projections next. >> Yes. So, moving next. Thank you. Uh board president Garza, we have multi-year projections presented by our own CBO, Mrs. Renee Arcus. >> Good evening, uh board members, staff, and our community that's here tonight. I am here for yet another riveting topic about budget and our multi-year projection. I was actually really excited about the fact that

081we had an opportunity for a workshop where I could talk about the multi-year projection because I think it's a very important topic that um people utilize to look and to see how our to plan for our future. So I have um I chose this picture and I realized kids were running away from the topic and I was a little concerned about it. So I make up for it at the end. So here's some messages from the field and um I found these just by by looking and looking up critical areas regarding um multi-year. Uh the multi-year projection is one of the most critical working documents the school business office produces and that came from frontline education and I do highly believe that it's one of the most important documents and that's why I wanted to

082highlight it tonight. The fiscal message is clear. Budgeting in California is no longer about steadystate projections but about anticipating volatility. So that is a great article that I found by Dr. Helio Brazil. And he also had another quote that said, "Dists must build budgets that extend beyond a single year using conservative assumptions about revenue and enrollment." And um again, these are all things that that help kind of guide the way for why the multi-year is so important. So I want to give a big picture about why do we project and talk a little bit about um what the multi-year does. So a school budget is a living document. We don't just plan for today. We actually plan for three years at a time. So remember that three years at a time. The legal reason we

083do that is because the law requires school districts to do this. The county office of education needs to make sure that we're fiscally solvent for the next three years. What we do when we look at a three-year projection is that we comb over the California information that we have from economic forecasts, but we have to look at what Bellflower does. So, we do a little combination of what's going on in California, how um what we think will impact us, and we create a reliable and thoughtful three-year roadmap for our district. So, what's the goal of a multi-year projection? It's to ensure that every student has the resources they need, not just this fiscal year, but until they graduate. If we see a pothole appearing in our future, we need to start steering now so that

084we the ride stays smooth for our students. That's why the multi-year is so important. So, to get some activity tonight, and this does this includes everybody. I'm going to have some trivia questions tonight, and I'm going to have some friends joining to answer these questions. So, how many years does a multi-year projection document show? I see my BTA friends and back. Ah. All right. So, let's find out if the answer is right from Laura. >> If you said three, you are right. The state of California requires the projections be shown for the current and next two years. Here at Belfflower, we often project an additional year internally so that we can have more resources for our decision-making process. Yay, Laura. That is Laura from my fiscal department. I did not bribe any of these people,

085but I appreciate the IT department and their support. So, where is the multi-year? So, what I'm showing you, and I'm not expecting you to see the document because it's gets really small in this. I'm going to zoom in on it a little later is it's we have a large document. This document alone is over 125 pages I think. So I want to direct everyone in the room where they can find the my included in a our first interim that comes in December, the second interim that comes in March or the estimated actual/budget that comes in June. So, I'm gonna delve a little deeper, but I have guess what? Another trivia question. Can anyone in the audience name one of the three documents where you will see an my John? >> John has saved me twice.

086Thank you, John. Let's see if you're right. What happened? John broke it. >> If you said the first interim, second interim, or estimated actuals, you are correct. This is an opportunity for the board, community, and staff to see updates to our three-year projections. So, that is Stephanie from my accounts payable department. She's been in the department four weeks and um she said no and then she said, "You know what? I'll do it." And so it was exciting to have her join us for this. There we go. So I promised you that I would break it down a little further. So I'm going to talk it's broken into two pieces. the um multi-year and the one and it's one that I talk about a lot is the unrestricted revenue. It's the unrestricted side. It's the side

087where we have um less restrictions on how we can spend the money. So above along the top I have the four different areas of which we receive unrestricted revenue. Our local control funding formula is based on student attendance and population. our other state revenue such as lottery funds, transportation funds, mandate cost funds, those are also on the unrestricted side. From local, we use uh we get our interest, some use of facilities, and there's any other miscellaneous kind of money that we might get that's in small pockets, we also put on the unrestricted side. contributions to um for restricted programs such as our special ed and our routine restricted maintenance requirement also show up on this section of the my circled for you that we're looking at the first interim my arrow is going to show

088you that there's three different columns that are showing the three years out this is the top portion that talks about revenue and other funding sources and there at the bottom is the total revenue that we had at our first interim. So, if you can use this little presentation as a guideline for how you would look at our multi-year, I broken down all the pieces for you. We also have an unrestricted expenditure expenditure section and this section talks about different areas that we can spend unrestricted funds. There's a few areas that that we go over and that includes certificated salaries, classified salaries, employee benefits, employee benefits, books and supplies, services and other operating capital outlay and other outgo to give some idea. The salaries for certificated are like your classroom teachers or your certificated instructional staff.

089Classified salaries are instructional aids. Some examples, custodians, fiscal, human resources staff. In the employee benefits section, that's where we pay for all of our staff members, health and welfare costs, employee retirement, social security, unemployment insurance, workers compensation um for employees for all the employees employed above. So books and supplies, we have textbooks, software supplies, computers and more. Services, vendor contracts, our utilities, our conferences, insurance premiums. And we have some capital outlay like our construction project that's going on right now would appear in the capital outlay for any costs of construction, equipment purchases, or site improvements. And finally, we have indirect costs, which I know we've talked before about here, where restricted programs that we support help support us back by providing some indirect costs for the lights and the cost of producing payroll and human

090resources. So again, I'll show you on this document, the arrow points to the three years. We've got our expenditures laid out, and down at the bottom for first interim, we have our first interim expenditures in total by fiscal year. But it's time for another trivia question. What expenditure section would include employee retirement costs? UN it is in the unrestricted and I'll get further on in the benefits section. So, in the benefits section, we have the employees um cost. >> If you said employee benefits, ding ding ding, you are correct. This section of the MYP shows the cost of employees beyond just salaries. It includes employee retirement benefits, health and welfare, workers compensation, and unemployment insurance to name a few. >> And that's K from payroll. If any of you have talked to Kay, you know

091K. So the last portion of the my for the unrestricted talks about our ending fund balance. So you hear me talk about this in a lot of the um when I'm going over first interum, second interum, where are we landing in our unrestricted ending balance. So again it covers the same three years. What we have at the bottom is the net increase or decrease in fund balance. So I showed you how much revenue we have. I showed you how much expenditure we have. And that line item there shows you how much revenue minus expenditure is. What we have coming forward is an original fund balance. So that would come forward from the year before and then you would take the original fund balance less or more or plus the difference in the increase and you'd

092end up with your ending fund balance. So if you look at the second arrow on the screen for first interim, you're going to see all three arrows that talk about our ending fund balance. all three areas that talk about our ending fund balance. And then our ending fund balance is broken down a little more. We have unspendable ending fund balance, which means I've already bought inventory that I put out in the warehouse that schools can order from. So I've already purchased it, but I haven't given it to the schools. And so I need to lock up some of that money so that when the schools start to pull the inventory, we replace the inventory and we still have it. So some of that money is locked up in unspendable. And then some of it is

093locked up in commitments. So each time we've come to the budget, we've taken the board and they've had commitments for that balance. And at the very bottom, you'll see that we have a reserve that's required by the state of California for about for 3%. And then we have the final balance which is unrestricted or undesated. So, you're going to think that I'm repeating, but I'm just going to tell you there's a whole restricted side to the general fund budget. And the biggest difference here is the funding and the source and where it comes from. So, on the restricted side, there are very specific things that we get funded for. Some local control funding formulas also over there, but we have federal programs. Listen carefully. We have federal programs such as title one, title 2, title

094three, title four, some special education, CTE. Those are our federal programs. In our state revenues, we have afterchool education. We have educator effectiveness. We have restricted lottery. So there's a lot of different things that we get from federal and state governments that are restricted for very specific purposes. Our other local revenues that we restrict here because we think it's very important is if we get a local grant from a local donor. If we get a donation, when that donation comes to us, they want it for a very specific site or a very specific purpose at a site and we restrict that money. And then we get the contributions from the other side to help support our special ed and our routine restricted maintenance programs. So that looks very familiar. I'm just going over it again.

095It's the revenues for the restricted side, all three rows, and then our total for the restricted side. And here's our trivia question. Please name one federal program you can find as part of restricted revenue. Yay. Thank you. Who was that? Thank you. If you said title one, two, three, or four, special education or Cal Perkins CTE, you are correct. Currently, the general fund receives three and a half% or 7.8 million of its funding from the federal government. >> Thank you, Janie. That's Janie from our AP department. So restricted expenditures I am not going to spend a lot of time on because they're the exact same labels. They're the same people, the salaries and the and the and the benefits, the books and supplies. What this section tells you is these are only things that can

096be spent in those very particular ways by those very particular programs such as federal revenues, state revenues, and such. So again laid out the same way with the same expenditures broken down and at the end we have a total of the expenditures in our restricted programs. So finally on the restricted side it's even a little simpler because you do have the exact same layout. You have the three years you have the net increase in fund balance based on the restricted. You have a beginning balance. You have an ending balance. But guess what? There's no other categories for it to go into except restricted. Why? Because it's been restricted by a federal, local, or state government for that particular purpose. So all of our funds on the general fund restricted side that remain must be restricted

097and used for those purposes. So here's some examples again um just laid out a little more of the federal and state resources that you'll find. Um because restricted resources are earmarked for specific purposes, the general fund is categories categorized into unrestricted and restricted components to ensure clear tracking and compliance. One of the big programs that we operate here at BUSD is the expanded learning opportunity program which is a state resource and it allows for students to be served outside of the school day. So, ELOP allows for students to be served only before and after school. The expanded learning opportunity program or ELOP funding is to be used during the school day or outside of the school day. Outside the school day. I heard it. So for our last guest, you >> said that yellow P

098funding can be used anytime outside of the school day. You're right. B USD currently offers a variety of programs to students for before and after school free to parents by utilizing these funds. >> Thank you, Chris. Chris is in our accounting department as well and does a fabulous job. Those were my five guests and I see a lot of children running towards my presentation now. So I'm happy to take any questions. Thank you. I don't have a question, I have a comment. That was awesome. Um, and then I've said it before and I'll say it again. Um, especially, uh, being, you know, continuously being part of the community that doesn't really understand what restricted unders like I was the one asking the most questions and true like true transparency. I was like, what does this

099mean? Um, so I've learned a lot since we started the workshops and your presentations and by far this is the best one. I love trivia. Like I'm a nerd. I love trivia. So I just want to say thank you. Your efforts, especially the way that you're presenting the information is incredibly simplified, even though it is not simple. So um, I just wanted to make sure I said that out loud. So thank you. >> Thank you very much, Clerk Centron. I appreciate it. I was looking for more answers from up there. I think you were letting the audience answer, but I I was looking for more answers because I have prizes. >> I was like I wanted to shout them out. >> I just couldn't get up during my during my presentation, but people will be

100fed. >> Board member Stewart, >> thank you. Um I love that we're educating our community. I think that's the best part of this presentation. So, I thank you for that. I have one question. You might not know the answer, but if you could get it back to me. I know you talked about our two separate reserve funds, the 3% that we have, and we have another additional. Can you tell me our percentage of reserve that we have at this moment? >> total reserve at this moment. The Okay, I'll I'll get back to you with that exact percentage, please. >> Thank you. That was my only question. Thank you, >> Bor Critchfield. >> Thank you, Madam President. Thank you for the presentation. Uh truly appreciate it. Um and I I know we get a lot of

101questions on this. The fact that we're doing this in open I think is really important. So again, thank you. I do have one question. the the crossover between uh our unrestricted and how much unrestricted money goes into our restricted. That is uh uh primarily for our special education. Correct. >> That is correct. We are incredibly underfunded. We're not different than any other um actually any other K through2 entity in the state. were underfunded and so that is the contribution for where how little they fund us for special education. >> And about how much money is that that we're underfunded? I know they don't like the word uh what's that word? >> Don't say it. >> I'm not going to say it. Dr. Simon said it. >> Uh but what what what does that look like?

102And as far as the impact on our budget every year, >> on our budget, um there's there's a couple components in there. So part of it and I and thank you for giving me the opportunity is routine restricted maintenance gets about $7 million and that's required by law and we all want that. We just saw a facilities plan. So when we start getting these these we've done a lot with that money already and we're going to continue to do it. That maintains our maintenance department and make sure our stuff's you know in order and that's about seven 7 to8 million. And so the remaining amount of the 39 million is mostly um there's a couple other small programs but mostly special education underfunding. >> So about 39 or is that 31? >> 31. >> Okay.

103Uh and what percentage is that that we uh that we do spend on SP? Like what percentage are we funded for special education? >> I think is it how much? >> I was going to say a little higher. So we're between 8 and 12% that the the state of state of California and federal government actually fund us for what the needs are and that's statewide. So we might have a a a slightly different number but when those go out but I will say but the promise >> is supposed to be 40%. That's why it's such a huge contribution to the general fund. >> Right. And so districts that have a higher population of special education uh end up uh putting more in, right? >> They can absolutely be more impacted depending on the percentage of

104your population. >> Okay. No, thank you uh for that because I know I have been asked the question of like why we transfer money over from one side of that ledger to the the other. So, thank you. >> I'm glad I got the opportunity. Thank you. Um to piggyback off of uh board member uh questions is I know um we said that we reserve 3%. >> Right. It's it's it's a mandate. >> It's a mandate by the state of California for our size of a district. >> Okay. Um do we save I mean do we reserve more than the mandate? >> So we have committed more. the board has voted to commit more for future um needs, but um for that line item, we have a 3% commitment. And to give you an idea, a

1053% commitment um is gez, of course, I had it in my head. Um it falls short of one payroll. So when the state asks us to commit 3% that percentage that we're holding on to falls short of being able to pay one payroll in our district. Does that make sense? >> Yes. >> So it's a very important aspect of the requirement. >> And this is not a number I expect you to know right off the bat. But what is the I aside from the commitment that we've or no including the commitment that we've made, >> what is our percentage as a district that we have? >> I think that's the same number that board members just wanted. >> So I'm going to make sure I do it. So to give you an idea, the reserves

106required is about 7.3 million and a payroll is around here is about 9 million. So, the state of California requires us to hold out 7.3 million, but just one payroll in our cycle is about 9 or 10 million. >> Okay. >> But yes, I will that will be in my Friday memo. Yeah, >> the percentages that we have over the next three years, and that's why it's important. I'm also coming back in March. So, we will have changes to this. I will give you the percentages here and I'll also bring them to the second interim presentation because unfortunately uh the state of California has released numbers and our cola has gone down. Um so we we are going to experience some loss in some revenue over 2627 and beyond based on the change in the

107state's cola. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. And I want to thank you. I the reserves. It's so so much with me is just that we've talked about it when we first came on the board, some of us, that we had very high reserves and there's some other districts that have very high reserves. And it it doesn't scare me so much with us. I just want to make sure that we are spending money on our students that we have now. We're using our funding correctly. And it is a number that people ask all the time. And when I hear people talk bad about other districts, they throw that number out there, too. So, I don't want to be that district where, oh, well, they're at 57% reserves. So, that's really the reason I'm asking. It's

108not a aha, it's not a gotcha. I think you're doing an amazing job. I just that's the number that a lot of people ask for and it's kind of something that they just talk about a lot. So, that's why I'm clarifying. >> Oh, I'm happy to provide it. I think it's very important. I am. >> Any other questions, comments? Board members, student board member. Okay, thank you, Miss Arcus. That was a phenomenal presentation. >> All right, board president Garza. Um, and last but not least, we have the advancement via individual determination, better known as AVID presentation conducted by Well, I'll have Mrs. Carter introduce our presenters for tonight. Excuse me. Okay. So, tonight we are pleased to share updates to our current AVID uh implementation here at our elementary sites and our elective offerings in

109secondary. Joining us tonight to share the updates are Gil Castanetta, a director of secondary education, Dr. Dear Jereas, director of elementary education, Jessica Cummings, principal of Belfflower Middle School, along with Michael Rooks, assistant principal. They'll discuss their experience with providing these opportunities for Bellflower since uh 2021. Patricia Diaz Aoyo, principal of Washington Elementary, will also present insights on the implementation from the elementary perspective. And and let's forward one more slide. There we go. At the core of AVID's mission is a powerful commitment to close the opportunity gap. Theo importance of building trusting relationships is at the heart of the AVID framework. You'll notice that relational capacity surrounds the needs of students and the actions of educators in this framework as neither will work effectively without positive and trusting relationships to support student success. This year

110we began implementing capturing kids hearts districtwide which provides a structure for engaging with each other in a positive and intentional way through excelling or engaging exploring communicating empowering and launching students positively through affirmations and celebrations of success. At Belfflower Middle and High School, the Capturing Kids Hearts Excel model guides our intentional focus on building strong relationships and a positive school culture. Through launch, daily good things, staff rockstar recognitions, and student team building activities. We foster community, celebrate achievements, and showcase special talents. Clear, consistent, and inclusive communication strengthens connections among students, staff, and families, while intentionally assigned roles empower students with ownership, leadership, and collaboration. Together, these practices create a welcoming environment that sets a positive tone for the week and supports engagement, belonging, and success. At Washington, we are excelling by helping students form meaningful

111connections with peers and teachers from the moment they enter the classroom. It's all about starting the day on a positive note and maintaining that energy throughout. Teachers have created something good signs and explore more about their students at they as they share positive moments of their day. This practice not only spreads positivity but also strengthens our community bonds. Affirmations are becoming a cornerstone of our approach. Staff members consistently acknowledge student efforts and achievements both academically and behaviorally. This recognition helps students feel valued and seen and motivates them to keep growing. Students are also empowered to take an active role in creating classroom agreements which foster a sense of belonging in our inclusive school community. To help students leave school or class feeling encouraged and connected, teachers created lunch jars filled with prompts and reflections to

112end the day on a high note, reinforcing that students are valued members of our community. Great leaders serve with passion, purpose, and a plan. Incorporating Capturing Kids Hearts Excel model into our culture provides a foundation for supporting students to believe that they will be successful and take ownership of their learning by engaging in rigorous academic work and learning how to navigate college admissions, financial aid, and career pathways at our AVID journey in BUSD. In 2021, Belfflower Middle and High School engaged teachers in training and launched the AVID elective in seventh and eighth grades. In 2023, AVID expanded into elementary with our first three sites, Williams, Ramona, and Woodruff. They attended the Avid Summer Institute and returned ready to implement with consistency and purpose. Next, Washington and Mayfair engaged in training and launched AVID on their

113campuses. Mayfair joined by offering the AVID elective in grades seven and eight. Belfflar Middle and High School reached a key milestone in 2025 when they celebrated the first AVID graduating cohort. And today, Belfflar Middleland High School offers 12 AVID sections across grades 7 through 12, increasing access for students. In 2025, our six remaining elementary sites attended the summer institute with their teams and began implementation in August of that year. All elementary and both comprehensive high schools are investing in AVID professional development supported by district and site leadership. This timeline reflects our district commitment to AVID implementation ensuring that every student leaves BUSD college and career ready. Effective AVID implementation takes a team. Each school has an AVID site team, teachers, administrators, and counselors led by an AVID site coordinator who supports the principal. At AVID

114Summer Institute, teams set goals and action steps and collaborate with other sites. Throughout the year, site teams drive implementation by monitoring progress, refining strategies, and analyzing student outcomes. District AVID meetings brings all the schools together to share successes and best practices, strengthening belonging, consistency, and coherence across the district. This team approach sustains our work and helps ensure all students are college and career ready. Washington Elementary, sorry, is proud to share their journey on the road to becoming an AVID showcase school. We attribute this to our team approach and determination to vertically align and build a coherent program for our students. AVID is the bridge that ensures rigor and support exist together and not in isolation. It provides the structures that both balance I mean that both unlock student potential and ensure every learner has the

115tools to succeed. The question that drives our professional learning site team goals, coaching conversations and oops, sorry there you go and coaching conversations and instructional focus is how do we continue moving towards top growth trajectory. Ultimate ultimately our goal our aim is to reach and sustain high levels of implementation so that avid practices are embedded into daily instruction, school culture and student experiences. This ensures that we will um have long-term impact rather than just isolated success. AVID strategies are used across four grade levels at this time, including special education. Wicker, which stands for writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization, and reading, enhances instruction and student engagement. PLC collaborations help teachers design rigorous student centered lessons and daily instructional practices in in our classrooms include scaffolding, structured collaboration and student discourse with meth methods like philosophical chairs, fostering

116critical thinking and active engagement. The data shown here reflects increased consistency in the use of wicker strategies across classrooms. Teachers are moving beyond awareness to intentional implementation, ensuring students regularly experience avid aligned instructional practices that support academic success. College pennants and banners are displayed in classrooms and public spaces across campuses across campus. These visual cues reinforce daily conversations about college careers and future goals. Building a collegegoing culture begins with making pathways visible, familiar, and attainable for all students. The goal is to intentionally implement AVID practices in TK through 2 grade next year, focusing on building habits, language, and routines rather than formal structures. Um, we took an inventory of what our teachers are doing already that match Avid strategies. And what they found is that they're drawing, labeling, and using simple sentence stems, encouraging curiosity

117with I wonder prompts, practicing think pair share with visual supports, you utilizing visual schedules and color-coded systems, enhancing fluency and confidence through shared and coral reading. This approach aims to establish a strong foundation for AVID in early education. In second and third grade, AVID focuses on building student independence. Writing moves to structured summaries and graphic organizers. Students begin asking purposeful questions through wonder walls and level one and two questioning. Collaboration becomes more accountable and with assigned roles while organization shifts to planners and labeled materials. Reading strategies like interactive notebooks and non-fiction annotation support active engagement and comprehension. In fourth and fifth grade, AVID practices deepen to support critical thinking and student ownership. Students write using evidence and strategies like race. Engage in higher level inquiry through coas levels of thinking and participate in studentled discussions

118such as literature circles and Socratic seminars. Organization and goal setting build independence while close reading strategies strengthen text analysis in preparation for middle school rigor. Finally, in sixth grade, AVID focuses on capstone skills that prepare students for secondary success. Students engage in argumentative writing using claim, evidence, and reasoning, lead inquiry through Socratic seminars and inquiry based projects, collaborate through project-based learning, and manage long-term planners. Reading and organization strategies emphasize analyzing author's purpose, building independence, and preparing students for the expectations of middle school and AVID electives. As we move forward, our focus is clear and intentional. First, we will self assess using uh the CCI rubric through Abbott to identify strength and growth areas. Next, we will select one instructional shift to immediately raise rigor and impact classroom practice. Finally, we will implement grade level specific

119wicker strategies to ensure consistency, coherence, and sustained growth across classrooms. This work empowers educators and unlocks every student's potential. Incorporating AVID strategies and building a strong community and relationships by utilizing the Excel model in every interaction provides Washington students with a foundation to be successful in middle school and beyond. Thank you. At Belfflower High School, AVID is a key driver of our college and career readiness work. Since 2021, AVID has grown from a small program into a schoolwide system supporting academic skills, student agency, and access to rigorous coursework. Tonight, I'll briefly share how AVID is implemented at Bellflower and the impact it's having on student success. Our growth started with intentional staff training. Currently, 61.8% 8% of our staff is trained in AVID methodology. There is a slight decrease from last year reflecting the retirements

120and the hiring of 14 new staff members. All new staff members are scheduled for AVID training by fall of 2026, ensuring our continued growth and fidelity of implementation. Last year, we celebrated our first graduating class. 87% of our AVID seniors completed A throughG requirements compared to 46% of Belfier seniors, 42.3% across BUSD and 53.6% statewide. This demonstrates AVID AVID's impact on student outcomes. A key metric is enrollment in a ri a course of rigor. Courses of rigor include AP, dual enrollment, or CTE courses. Currently, 77% of all Bellflower students are enrolled in at least one course of rigor, compared to 71% of all AVID students and 75% of AVID seniors, reflecting a strong culture of academic challenge across our campus. In 2024 2025, the average GPA for Belfflower students was 2.68 compared to 3.15 for

121our AVID students. This data shows that when rigor is paired with uh with intentional support, student achievement improves. Each year, our AVID site team completes a coaching and certification tool for the AVID elective. At the summer institute, we set our annual goals. This year our focus are on systems and culture specifically improving datadriven placement and strengthening college awareness, financial literacy and student agency. To operationalize our data, AVID students in grades 10 and 11 took the PSAT and eighth grade students completed a practice PSAT exam. Counselors and AVID teachers reviewed the AP potential reports with students to guide course registration, increasing their access to AP coursework. Our second goal is creating a visible collegegoing culture. All AVID seniors are expected to apply to at least one four-year university. Students receive class presentations. College corners are present

122in every AVID classroom and college vis visuals are displayed around campus to build awareness of post-secary options. We also emphasize student agency and service. AVID students complete AVID uh annual service requirements by supporting campus events and participate in college learning experience. As a part of our curriculum, students volunteer at v various BMHs events throughout the school year to earn these service hours. This year, students visited a variety of local colleges, including Cal State Long Beach, Cal State LA, UCLA, USC, ISUsa Pacific, Concordia, Cal State Fullerton, and Whittier College. These field learning opportunities help make post-secary education tangible, accessible, and achievable. We also provide students with the opportunities to visit various colleges outside the local area. Visiting colleges outside the local area broadens students perspectives, raises aspirations, and reinforces a collegegoing culture by showing students that

123higher education opportunities extend beyond their immediate community. The cornerstone of the AVID elective is inquirybased tutorials. These are student-led academic support sessions that build inquiry, collaboration, and critical thinking. Each class is supported by four AVID trained college tutors who facilitate tutorials, monitor grades bi-weekly, and support organization through binder and planner checks. Looking at our strategic timeline, we have administered our PSATs in the fall and supported early college exploration. Currently, we are using AP potential data during course registration. AVID applications are open and we are hosting AVID family night next week on February 25th. In the spring, staff will visit AVID showcases, conduct wicker rocks, and submit certification evidence in May. We will also attend the summer institute in August to help plan for the 2627 school year. Our AVID site team meets monthly to collect

124evidence and monitor our AVID implement implementation. This team includes AVID elective teachers, our AVID coordinator, core content teachers, one counselor, one administrator, and AVID tutors. Our benchmark outcomes remain strong. 67% of our AVID students have been accepted to a 4-year university. 93% of our AVID seniors have completed three years of maths with a C or higher, and 57% are enrolled in at least one AP course. 33% of our of our AVID students plan to attend a 4-year university compared to 21% schoolwide and 100% of AVID graduates plan to pursue higher education. Since 2021, AVID at Velflower has increased academic rigor and student success while closing opportunity gaps. 100% of AVID high school students are enrolled in an A throughG course sequence. 81% of upper grade AVID students are taking rigorous coursework and students benefit from

125a 7 to1 studenttot ratio. Avid at bellflower demonstrates that rigor with support works and it works for all students. As we look ahead at our AVID next steps, our focus is sustainability, coherence, and impact. First, we're excited to expand AVID to the primary grades, laying a strong foundation early in a student's education journey. At the secondary level, we will continue to implement AVID strategy schoolwide. This broad implementation is crucial for consistency and success across all schools. We will keep up the momentum with regular AVID district director check-ins. These check-ins will ensure that our AVID implementation remains on track and effective. We believe that collaboration is key to coherent implementation and therefore will continue to support AVID district leadership collaboration days. This effort involves principles and AVID coordinators working together to maintain a rigorous and supportive

126academic environment. This work reinforces our commitment to rigor with support ensuring AVID practices are embedded schoolwide and not isolated to individual classrooms. Finally, we'll schedule AVID walkthroughs with our implementation strategist, which will help us validate and refine our practices. These walkthroughs are a vital part of our continuous improvement process. This ensures AVID remains a trajectory changing framework that advances college and career readiness for every student. Tonight, you have heard where we are at currently. This slide shares our goals and plan for scaling the AVID framework over the next few years. This year, our focus is on the initial stages of showcasing Washington Elementary and Belfflower Middle and High School. We aim to earn showcase school status for both uh Washington and Belfflower High School. Uh this will be a significant milestone demonstrating the effectiveness of

127our efforts. As we move into 2026 to 2027, we are committed to focusing on wicker strategies for all grades from preK through 12th grade to ensure that every student benefits from these proven instructional methods. Then from 2027 to 2029, we plan to increase AVID elective offerings at Mayfair Middle and High School and continue to develop AVID schoolwide strategies at BMHS. This will further our goal of achieving showcase school status and scaling our framework to support additional schools. By maintaining our focus and supporting these initiatives, we will scale and support additional showcase school achievements, creating a robust and inclusive educational environment for all students. Thank you for your commitment and dedication to making a success across our district. >> Thank you for your presentation. It was wonderful. Um, board members, >> I have some questions, of

128course. Um, my first question, I guess, would be for Renee. How much does our AVID program cost the district each year? >> I can help Renee out with that. Um, as far as the required membership costs, um, it's about 5,300 for secondary sites and 3,600 for elementary. um new membership is higher the first year but that's the membership to be in AVID and then obviously we would be paying for professional development and going to summer institutes and those sorts of things. >> Do we have a total on that? >> I can tell you last year's summer institute there was about 129 participants across 12 different sites and it was around $400,000. >> So that was for summer institute but is that also for membership for everything? Can I get a total cost? >> Membership for

129the last three years would be around $121,000. >> I I get it. But a total cost for everything we pay for AVID in one year. Can I get that number? >> We can do our best. I mean, we can do our best. Those numbers, you just want it for one year. So, of the 25 26 school year. >> I just want to know about how much we pay for AVID in a year. >> Yeah. And if you want to give me an exact number, you can send on the Friday memo. But I did ask this question a few days ago, and I just want to have an idea about how much we spent on AVID. >> If you're adding those together, you've got $427 plus the 61, so you're at about $500,000. And um adding

130in a couple of the other trainings, I would say roundabout $600,000. >> Okay. Um I had a question on the field trips. I know that um it said that we had 20 26 field trips scheduled. Do you know what those field trips are or where they would be the learning experiences? >> Yes, we have 35 different field trips happening and they are across a variety of different campuses and school sites heading out. So I have a list of them. There are ones like Concordia, Pepperdine, um USC, Isuza, UCLA, Cal State Long Beach, uh CSU Fullerton, Long Beach City College, Cerritos, um name all of them. I just when I looked at this and it said the scheduled trips, I thought that this was all of them. So there's more because I even my next question

131was why not local like Long Beach, Fullerton, Cal State. Okay, so this isn't all of them. >> Yeah, that slide is just for Belfflower High. >> Got it. Okay. Um, one more question I had was, um, obviously as a teacher, I know that when you start putting more on teachers, you know, there's that whole question and we're adding quite a bit of, you know, different strategies to that. How are we going to ensure that we're not putting too much on teachers plate or do we plan to remove things or because we just started cap capturing kids hearts, we're doing, you know, different things and I know Avid is coming to some of the sites. What are we doing to ensure or basically make our teachers feel like we're not going to add a whole bunch

132more to their plate and they're going to be frustrated and freaking out? >> I think the goal for us always is to see how things marry together. Um, so capturing kids hearts and AVID together, they they build. So, uh, similar to how Miss Aoyo spoke earlier where they did a sort of an inventory of the strategies that they're already using and how does that connect with Avid. So looking at what they're doing and then building on top of that. So they'll they'll try to refine what they're doing to meet the the AVID strategy. Um but that's always our goal is to try to refine what we're doing, not add too much on. >> Okay. And I I know I've done AVID for about five years at my school, maybe more. I think it's a great

133program. The last question that I have is that if we if we had a discussion or in the future we thought about removing block schedule, how would we be able to increase electives for Mayfair? I know that was one of the goals is to increase electives for Mayfair Middle School and high school. How could we do that if we removed a block schedule or what would that look like? >> And I I think what we're looking at is right now our schedule includes eight periods. So, I'll talk about it in periods because I think what we're talking about is moving if we moved from eight to six possibly or less periods. Um, we could still increase the electives, but they would be in competition with other things. So, there's a possibility for it still to

134increase. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Cool. Um, what? So, I don't know. My colleagues know a lot more about this AVID stuff than I do, but I did go I was able to shadow Dr. Morgan over at Mayfair High School and pop into a couple of the classrooms. I was really impressed. Um, I do have a question on on the the classes have smaller ratios or is that just the electives? >> No, I don't believe they have smaller ratios. You can come up if you'd like to, Dr. I already gave you the doctor title cast. Um but no, it's not a smaller ratio. There are tutors in the class and so that's what decreases the ratio. >> Yeah. >> Oh, >> so it's still at at the regular ratio as every other section at

135the high school. So I mean 29 to 40 within that range. Um and so as uh Bonnie just mentioned the AVIT tutor to student ratio does bring it down to 7 to1. So they do tutorials, you know, two times a week. Um, and so that allows them like today we were able to walk through at Belfflower High School with the AVID implementation strategist. Uh, and they were in four different groups and so there were about four to five students in each group with the tutor. Uh, and then the teacher was able to pop in and facilitate to each of the groups. >> Okay, nice. Yeah, I thought I saw somewhere like it had like a 12 ratio, but >> we should have these numbered. Um, >> got it. Thank you, doctor. Uh the uh so

136to get in the program because it sounds like the the success metrics are there. Um so why not just have everybody do it? Is there there's a admission a uh eligibility um what is that like how does a how do we select get because one thing with like the like if those kids are already like testing higher than say other kids then it kind of skews how great that is. So like I'm just curious like the opportunity. >> It's a good question. Um actually there is um a criteria for what defines an AVID student. the student in the middle in the academic middle and it's usually your students who are averaging C's and D's but have the potential and crave that uh um you know the ability to pursue higher education or be college and

137career ready. And so uh there's an there is an application process because one of the cornerstones of AVID is that the student needs to be willing uh in the program. And so just for example at Balfflower when we started in the seventh and ninth grade, we had students who applied that were in the sixth grade uh to go into the seventh grade cohort and then we had eighth grade students who applied to go into the nth grade. And so those students fill out their application. Then there's an interview process and so then we talk to them about you know why they want to be part of this program. Are they ready to commit? And then uh they get accepted. Uh and then there's uh usually a waiting list for students who want to participate and

138if there's room usually students that move out or things like that that maybe it's not a good fit for them and they decide that they um you know don't want to pursue which is very minimal and usually there's a process to you know for them to exit. It's not something that they can just drop because we want to make sure we check in on them uh you know because ultimately they made a commitment initially. So um but the criteria for a student in the academic middle uh C's and D's usually that maybe uh again they struggle in like English and math but need additional support and then that's where like that extra facilitated um tutorial support and additional adult to student ratio helps. >> Oh, I see. So it's it's not uh like the A's

139and B's that are going Okay. >> No. and and the goal is for them to eventually u be those students and expose them and have them take an advanced coursework. So, uh, what Michael was, uh, referring to, uh, with students taking AP and dual enrollment, for a lot of them, the first time they would have probably not have taken AP or dual enrollment or CTE for that because AVID considers CTE as a course of rigor um, uh, throughout their school experience. And so, AVID really has given them that foundation to be able to jump into that higher level. And so that actually has attributed to a higher number of students in AP um and advanced placement and dual enrollment at uh the school. And we we will see that eventually at Mayfair as the cohort

140starts growing over the years as well. >> Awesome. I did notice on one side it said uh 90% of students expect the student to uh apply to a four-year but it sounds like it's college and career rate. So how much of it's uh driven towards college and you know >> it's it's both. Um AVID has done a lot of work to now open it and be more college and career readiness. uh because of the fact that a lot of uh higher education institutions two years and four years have expressed that students even those that are at the highest level um our advanced students sometimes are lacking that career awareness and career exploration because they're focusing on those classes getting those a's and B's getting to USC or Berkeley or wherever but they're not really thinking

141about what major or what program or what career they want to go into and so AVID has done a lot of work to shift now to college career readiness. So, there's a lot of career readiness units and activities and lessons that are embedded in the elective. >> Awesome. Uh, >> can I explain to you real fast one thing? So, just kind of how it works. You have your AVID classes, but then you might have like school initiatives that the whole school focuses on. Like for instance, we do planner checks even in PE. We all have college boards or there might be room environment requirements. So, it's not just the classes, it's the initiatives that your site decides to work on and then everyone works on those. If that makes sense. >> It does. >> I

142just wanted to tell you. Thank you. Uh one more question on the the it kind of goes back to the cost. So like uh the tutors uh in the class who pays for the tutors >> the site using their site funds. So at Bellflower and the tutors are usually u right now they're at Bellflower. I know Mayfair is trying to get some tutors as well but it's a site cost. >> So So those those tutor costs kind of work into kind of what board member Stewart was saying like what the annual cost of a program like this is to run. That way we can look at what it would cost to expand if we know all those other costs. >> We can look at that. Yes. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Okay. And I was just

143going to add to what um you know, board member Stewart uh was mentioning. So, one of the other things and why we're trying to scale uh schoolwide the importance is because these AVID students are in other English, math, science, history courses. And so one of the things that we've worked really hard at Belflower and Mayfair is launching that right now and then obviously all of our elementary schools are embarking on that is the common language. And so really talking about that way those common strategies, common language is being utilized across the board at least at the high school because like today for example when we went our on our walk uh you can tell that the students were able to pull their focus notes that they took in math and they were written similarly to

144how they've been shown in AVID. And so that is helpful because then you know usually what happens is every teacher or every department has their own system or their own way. And so this is really a framework for us to be able to have consistency across the board. >> Nice. And last uh comment I know last year I was part of conversations about and I had to learn a lot about the differences between the two but there was a program called Gear Up. I forgot who was in that meeting but it was Lisa uh former superintendent Asa was in the meeting. I was in the meeting and it was with partnership with Long Beach City College. And from what I understand, like that type of grant uh program would actually help with what we're doing

145with AVID as far as like those wraparound services and helping with that cost so we could do more with it if it's something we could look into. I know last year it was a timing thing. We kind of came in right at the the end of that grant that just too fast. But have there been any conversations since then? Do you know of or does anybody know anything about Gear Up? >> So just a brief one. when Cerritos reached out at the end of last year, but it was also something it was timing on their end there where the deadline was like June 30th, I believe, and I think they reached out to us like mid June. So, it was at by the time we reached out and said, they said it was too late

146to submit an application. But, uh, ideally, if we do have the opportunity to um partner with for a Gearup grant, that would actually be great because then it supplements. And so, uh, the one thing with Gear Up is that it is focused with one specific cohort and it follows them. Uh, but it would be great for that one cohort to just have those supplemental resources. >> Well, I think that's what makes us such a great candidate, right? Because it they typically they have to work with a middle school and a high school, but with us, we're unique in the way where we could use our structure as a as a uh, you know, it definitely makes us more appealing to work with. So, I think it'd be I think it'd be great. Absolutely. >> Thank

147you, Doc. >> I just have one question about the because you mentioned that the criteria for AVID or what they're looking for is more of the academic middle and then to piggyback off what um Vice President Chris Field said, what about the those A's and B students? Like what do they is that just a flatout rejection from AVID if they would ever apply or is there other programs for them? Good question. So, no, it's not a flat out. Um, I think it's more about that's the reason why um there's an application process and there's an interview because sometimes there are students that maybe it's it grades don't tell the full story. Um, and that goes for any case. And so, that's the reason why they end up doing interviews. So, potentially there may be some

148students who are A and B students. They're really hard workers, but they struggle in some subjects and need uh specific support. And so that's where uh the AVID coordinator and the AVID teachers who are interviewing the students really dig into the their data to see how how they can be supported and how they can benefit from AVID. Um but both schools really have other programs that also benefit those students. You know, at Bellflower, they have Apex uh for students who maybe are high achievers and want to pursue that route. And so they take obviously the advanced level coursework. Um, Mayfair has a similar pro program called MAP, the Mayfair academic program. And so, uh, similarly, that's for those high achieving students who want to take that extra level. Uh, and then both schools now, uh,

149have the offer the, uh, early college academy. And so, uh, students, uh, there's a new cohort that joins. I was just at Mayfair two nights ago for their kickoff for their information night. And so, there was a large turnout for that. And so students have the ability to take those dual enrollment courses embedded during the day. Uh which is really nice due to our schedule. And so they can complete 43 and a half units by the time they graduate. So there's multiple opportunities. I think with AVID, it just provides that additional support for those students in the academic middle who uh you know yearn to to do something uh after high school but need that support. >> Thank you. I just want to say um I can attest to the effectiveness of AVID. Um my

150kid went through it and you guys really did give her the support that she needed. And it's it's tough. I mean even when you know she she thought she was failing she got that extra support because you know she was that high achiever. I mean they, you know, children that are high achieving don't think that they that they don't struggle. They struggle, too. And so, um, I just again, thank you. Thank you all for the support that you gave her. And you, you guys know where she is. So, so yeah, continue to. And I'm excited that you guys are have brought it down to the uh TK level. I'm like, what can I do, you know? Yeah. So anyway, I'm excited especially if you can have a kid in in this program to see where

151they end up that you know like that legacy starting at Ernie Pal and ending at you know Belfower. This is going to be exciting. This is going to be exciting. So thank you for your hard work and your support. Before we end tonight, I just wanted to thank the team that came tonight. I appreciate the time that you spent um sharing your journeys with um our board. I think it's important for you to see a showcase of our schools that highlights what all of our schools are on the path to do. So, I just wanted to publicly thank you guys for coming and sharing your experiences. Thank you so much for those presentations. They were wonderful. Um any other questions for members? Thank you. So um now that we've are done with all those presentations,

152um if there is no objection, this meeting is adjourned at 8:47 p.m. until the regular board meeting to be held on Thursday, February 26. Have a nice evening.