001Happy New Year everyone. It is 6:02. I'm going to bring us back to open session. So from close session um we do um we do have a couple of things to report out and that is uh during close session in regards to item 6A government code 54956-9 D1 um conference with legal council existing mediation for district special education case number 25-26-01 One, the board considered and moved to approve staff's recommendation on the motion by trustee Meli and seconded by >> Yiani Manassie someone's brighteying and I can not read at all. The eyes were the A's were five, nose zero. During closed conference, during closed session in regards to item 6.8, A government code 54956.9D1 conference with legal council existing litigation for OAH case number 20251069 district special education case number 25-26-02. The board considered and
002moved to approve staff's recommendation on a motion by Mr. Melli and seconded by uh >> me. >> Yes. You say that >> by the following vote. Eyes were five zero nos. So thank you. Um, this meeting is being recorded for live streaming and archiving on the district YouTube channel at uh YouTube.comc/beniciaunified school district uh for your convenience. Um, we are uh honored to have the Robert Simple Student Council and Kindness Club with us tonight. Thank you so much. And if you would like to stand and lead us in the pledge, please. >> Ready? >> Ice to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you so much. And our vision statement will be given by
003um Gwen Craig and Brentley Roachcha if you would like to come to the podium. >> Also the vision mission both correct. Um, I think I think the the mission is Nora Nora Drake. >> Nora Drake. Yes. Is that okay? >> Yes. >> Okay. We're gonna do this. We're going to shift. Here we go. I'll vote for you. I'll hold for you. >> Okay. Our vision. We are an inclusive city that cultivates an equitable and responsive environment, empowering all students to develop strong character and academic excellence to well-rounded and engaged global citizens. >> This is >> our mission in partnership with students, families, staff, and the community. We are committed to inclusive community respecting diversity and nurturing a safe and equipable environment empowered students being responsive to students need and voices while fostering the passion for
004learning collaboration and individual expression needed to reach their future and ambitions. And continuing with Britney, >> strong character, promoting social emotion, learning, integrity, mental and physical wellness, and values aligned actions, academic excellence, supporting and retaining a caring and a caring and well-trained staff who promoted critical thinking, cultural, and techn technological literacy by ensuring rigorous and innovative programs. well well-rounded and global citizens off offering relevant learning opportunities to help build a sustainable future. >> Thank you. Well done. And now we come to item seven, approval of the agenda. >> I'll second that. >> All those in favor? >> I Thank you. And I we come to item number eight. Our highlight tonight is um the Robert Simple Student Council and Kindness Club. Principal Moore, you are up. >> I'd like to invite up if possible uh
005Mrs. Macintosh, Miss Bos, and Mr. Arotti who are in charge of the over 70 students who are a part of the Robert Simble um student council and kindness club. I'm not going to speak too much because um this could not be possible without them, but I do want to extend my thanks for this opportunity. We're very proud of our school and our um emerging leaders. So, I'm going to turn it over to them um who are going to get us organized. If you just be patient with us, this is a new space for us and we're going to get them organized and do a little presentation for you. >> Y >> I'll help. >> How do you do you want them to each come up to the We have a lot. >> You know what?
006Whatever you think is best, please do. >> Okay. >> Whatever you think. >> So, let's start over here. Come up here. Number one. Keep going. >> Just like we walked in. >> I don't know where to stand, but I have to hold the mic. I think >> you're fine. So what I can tell you is one of their missions for this year is to spread kindness and we do it in some way differently every month and so the students and student council here tonight are going to let you know all of the ways in which we have done it are doing it and will be doing it. Okay. My name is Nora Drake. Good evening. We are members of the Robert Simpo Student Council Kindness Club. My name My name is Dylan Shaw and we
007are learning leadership skills and spreading acts of kindness in our school and community. My name is Jasmine Deleó. Robert Simple Student Council kindness club has three adviserss. Miss Boss, Mr. Aotti, and Miss Macintosh. My name is Mary Pearl McCoy. This year, 70 kids applied to be SCC aka as student council kindness club and we all made it. We love having a big group of kind students at Robert Simple. >> My name is Mercy Roello and In September, we clean up our campus all month. >> My name is Gwen Craig. In Octo Inctober, we have a canned food drive called Feed the Pumpkin. We fill the pantry at St. Paul's. >> My name is McKenzie and in November, we write letters to veterans and deliver them to the veterans homes in Napa. >> In this in
008December, we have Warm Their Souls, which is a sock drive. In January, we make Dr. Martin Luther King posters to help keep his dream alive. >> My name is Bea Cashman and in February, we focus on friendship and how to be a kind-hearted friend. >> My name is Mile Shaw and in March we have a pet supply drive called St. Patrick's Day. >> In April, we think of PT. We make door post. >> My name is Janna Krosco and may we have a teacher and staff appreciation appreciation. We write thank you notes. >> We have our student council kindness club jobs. Some of us are in charge of making sure all lunch cartwagons are clean. Our fifth grade council members make sure that the hallway is clean. >> Some of us use a litter pickers
009at recess to pick up garbage. Hi, I'm Jaylen. A few of our fifth grade students make sure our kindness closet is organized. We started this closet with donated items when kids spill or need a change of clothes. Our PTG helped purchase clothing. >> If you if you are a playground helper, you collect the equipment at the end of re at the end of each recess, like this ball. >> Some of us wear gloves and clean classroom window seals, and we use products that are safe for kids. Hi. Hi. My name is Gio and some of us stay after we eat lunch and help clean up the cafeteria. We never miss our all of our recess. >> Teachers may sign up for days and times for some of us to help. >> Thank you so much
010for this opportunity. >> Thank you. Can we get a picture of everybody? That shape and face out this way. We can get more people over here. >> [applause] >> I'll post it on You want to keep the dog >> Robert simple kindness club. Thank you so much for your presentation. Kids, you were amazing and what an amazing club. I mean, >> very impressive. Thank you so much. >> It makes the world a better place. [laughter] >> [laughter] >> What a wonderful club. And Wonderful, wonderful presentation. So we have Freda here from >> Liberty High. We are now at 9A student reports. Yes, I apologize if I look tired. I just came from work. But good evening, President Grubs, Superintendent Calibesi, and fellow trustees and cabinet members. Happy New Year to everyone. We have several new
011students that have transferred into our school and we want to welcome them to Liberty High School. We want to wish all of our Liberty students the very best as they begin their community classes next week. It's exciting to see our classmates pursuing classes like auto, graphic design, and so much more. And we're so proud of them as they take this next step into their educational career. We wanted to give you an update on our spinning salmon project. We're partnering with UC Davis and were given an aquarium along with salmon eggs. Over the past two months, we've been watching them closely and tracking their growth. Our tiny eggs have officially hatched and are growing every day. Fingers crossed they keep doing well. We hope to release them into the Sacramento River in March. yesterday including um
012several students went snowboarding including myself at Palisades Tahoe which was an amazing experience and is huge. It was very fun. Um this program is funded by Ski Duck. Ski Duck is an entirely volunteer-based nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of young adults who may not have the opportunity to experience the joys of skiing and snowboarding. We want to plan, we're planning on three more trips and please send positive thoughts for more snow. I also want to say wish uh Aiden a speedy recovery as he fractured his wrists out there. Wishing him a a speedy recovery. Lastly, um in the spring of Martin Luther King Jr. Oh, in the spirit of Martin Lu Martin Lu Luther King Jr. and his call to service. Our leadership class is organizing a blanket and towel drive to support
013the Humane Society of the North Bay. We'll be collecting new or gently used blankets, towels, leashes, and collars. If anyone would like to donate, please contact our main office. On behalf of Liberty High School, thank you. >> Thank you. I have things that I can donate. Um, so I'll contact them. Um, now we come to our superintendent report. >> Yeah, thank you board. Um, so been in and [clears throat] out around the district and so, uh, uh, it's hard to believe that we've been back just a little over a week and a half here and so out of Joe Joe Henderson and this is Mrs. Shield's class on the right hand side and students in fourth grade were learning how to do narratives and they were they were writing and I got to sit with
014some students and talk to them about the narratives they were writing. In Miss Laauo's class, the TK students are learning cooperative play. And I know that seems unusual since it's a TK classroom and don't they know how to play, but this is cooperative play, right? This is not an isolation. And so this group here was building a tower with the blocks and I just happened to catch the picture as their tower came tumbling down and they turned and rebuilt it. It was really sweet. >> Uh we did a learning walk out at Benicia High School. I've talked to you about this before where admin and and and now teachers are joining us in these in these walks as we walk our schools and I get to see what's happening at the school sites and our
015goal is to talk about the PLC process. What do we want students to learn? How do we know they've learned it? What do we do when they haven't learned it? What do we do when they have learned it? And so it's really uh a powerful experience for us as we broke up and and went out into Denanishia High School. Uh and there is award-winning principal Steven Slater uh leading us in the discussion at the end there. And so it was fantastic. I was also at Venanisha High School the day before and um I was in a ceramics class and and I was watching what Josiah was doing here and as he was creating they were creating many scenes and so scenes environment. So anywhere whether that was a forest, in this case he was building
016a roadway with some rocks and and um the intricacy of what they were doing and and I was just super super impressed and love the fact that we have uh elective classes like this employees of the year. It's the time of the year where we really get to celebrate our employees of the year. So, this is Bethany Bar, uh, educator of the year for Venicia School District at Mary Farmer Elementary School. And she is our our I want to be clear, she's not only the teacher of the year for Mary Farmer, but also for the district. And so, what I love about this photo the most is that we totally invaded her classroom. There was six of us, I believe. And, uh, she had no idea we were coming. We surprised her and, uh, Rhonda
017was able to let her know that she had won. gave her flowers and in patent the HR team just did a phenomenal job with this. But then she asked her students to get into their pitcher pose positions and they all got in line there and they were ready to go because they are often the attendance winners and so we took a great picture of them. It was just fantastic and just speaks to the systems that she's put in place. Marbel Romero uh is a preschool teacher in our child development department and teaches out at Matthew Turner Elementary School. If you've ever been in Marbel Romero's classroom, um it it almost makes me want to have a preschooler again. Um just what a well-ran classroom and engaging students. And so, um and there she is with
018Stephen taking the picture, but then we lied to her husband who is our head of maintenance and operations. And Alfredo came out and we informed him that his wife had won and brought him into the classroom. So, that sweet, sweet picture there of the two of them. And so I can't say enough about Marbel and the work that she does and and her husband's a pretty good guy, too. And her son is back there. You're right. That's right. We we we employ the whole family. We believe in filling positions in the Venicious School District. So, uh, and then here is Steven Slater, principal of Matthew Turner Elementary School. He is our elementary administrator of the year. He was also completely surprised and shocked by that. And, uh, we're happy to be able to give him
019this acknowledgement. Um, and then you know, can I just say about Stephen, like if you ever have the conversation, he just always is so engaging. Every kid, every parent, every person, it's always, "Hey, how you doing? Hey, what's going on? Hey, you know, let's let's talk about that." And I just love his enthusiasm. The kid could be totally in trouble in his office and Stephen just approaches it with positivity. next and and he's in the house tonight. Our admin secondary administrator of the year, Mark Nelson, principal of Venicia Middle School. And when we asked if you'd like to take a picture outside of the office staff, we'd like to join him. The office staff like just jumped up like they couldn't wait to celebrate Mark. And it just speaks to his ability and that he's
020built a relationship. I love walking Benicia Middle School with Mark. I love he knows his students. He knows his staff so so well. And uh he's like, "Oh, let's go see this. Oh, let's go see this." again positivity builds relationships um has a a program that he's building there to really ensure that our students their social emotional growth right at middle school which is really really challenging right a lot going on um but that academic rigor is happening also and so congratulations to to Mark Nelson welld deserved here's all of our winners for um uh each of our sites in including maintenance and operations and so I want to be sure that you knew who those winners were and all of them uh just tremendous job that they do in the district. I had the
021opportunity to go out to the central kitchen last week and um I did not get to glove up and serve food, but I I apparently was approved and so I will go back to do that and got to spend some time with Tanya and her staff. 26 people work in our central kitchen and our food service team. And here they were preparing teriyak chicken, pesto chicken sandwiches and chicken chili verde. and they serve over 1,300 breakfastes a day on average and and 2,450 lunches. Um just incredible amount. Excuse me, that's not per day. That was uh >> No, that was that was per day. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, um the this is a group that does not like their photo being taken. So, every time that I raised up my my my phone to take
022a picture, uh they all looked down and um but hardworking and you know, I just as an aside, um I've sold produce for years and been in a lot of restaurants and kitchens and normally they're loud, noisy, and chaotic. This is a welloiled machine. People were communicating clearly to one another. There was a level of kindness and respect. There was a joviality. They were happy. They were smiling. It was a smooth operation. There was no clanking of hands. It was no one went running into each other. It was like a welloiled machine. I I was just so incredibly impressed with the work they do and I cannot thank them enough. And I will say that that you know it's more than just uh serving lunch. They serve love in every one of those meals that
023they serve and I appreciate the work they do. I had the opportunity to go out to Miss Fulton's class and read for a holiday reading and so the kids were super sweet to me, wrote me a really nice card and I just want to thank them for uh the fun that I got to have. um before the holidays. I was really sad to find out um that most of the students didn't know who Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was. And so I was glad to be able to read that book as well as some other holiday books. And I don't know if you know this, but January is school board recognition month. And so I just want to recognize you as school board members. And so thank you for what you do. It it is a
024incredibly tough job. People don't realize the amount of reading that goes into this job, the amount of work that goes in the job and and the tough decisions that have to be made and you are the part of the largest group in the United States of elected officials and and that's often not understood in in our in our country or in our state. So, um, thank you and I want to shout out to Georgina for reminding me that it was that January is schoolboard recognition month. So, thank you all for all that you do. >> Thank you. That concludes my report. >> All righty. So, now we come to to board reports. Um, and I I think I'll I'd like to start off. Um, uh, yesterday the BAC met and we continue to explore areas
025that we can save money and decrease our deficit spending. I'd like to um sincerely thank Superintendent Calvaryi for his leadership with this group and um and thank all the members that represent all all the labor groups um all the departments um for participating. It's really a hard task. Um it's it's a hard task. It's it's hard to do. Chris leads with um with with kindness and he listens to what everyone has to say and everybody has a voice. So um I'd like So thank you. Thank you for your leadership. I'd also like to congratulate those staff members that were um elected as our person persons of persons of the of the year. We can't wait to celebrate all of you on May 1st. um at our annual night of stars. And lastly, um I'd like
026to congratulate um our forestry challenge team. Your presentation to the California State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection was absolutely amazing. Congratulations. Well done. And that is it for me. >> I have one. I also attended the Mary Farmer books and blankets event and I was able to read to Miss Baron's first grade class and it was very special for me because Miss Baron is the daughter of my second grade teacher, Mrs. Bargon, who was Miss Rahut at Robert Simple at the time. So, it was very sweet. I had never met her before. Um, and it's great to see the family tradition carrying on. She uh Miss Rahut, Mrs. Baragon was just a favorite favorite teacher of mine and remains that to this day. So, thank you, Miss Baragon, for having me in your class.
027We come to item 10. Members of the public may address the board at a regular meeting of any item within the board's jurisdiction. Speaker cards are available at the entrance table. Please note the item you wish to speak to and submit a card to the board secretary. The board president will call all the open session general comments government code 54954.3 during the public comment item. Comments on items on the agenda will be called for that specific items. Comments are limited to no more than three minutes per speaker. um or the board may limit the total time to 20 minutes per item with the timer displayed on the monitors. By law, no action may be taken on any item raised during the public comment period and matters may be referred to staff for placement on a
028future agenda of the governing board. Please be reminded to keep your comments respectful as students may be watching the board meeting. Thank you. Do we have any comments? No comments. Um we come to item number 11 approval of the consent calendar. So background information of these items is provided to the board prior to the meeting. A common motion takes um a common motion takes action without discussion on roll call votes unless discussion of items is requested by the board members. So, >> the minutes of the um do I have a >> um I'd like to make a motion to um approve the consent calendar as written. >> I'll second. >> This is a roll call vote. So, President Grubs, >> yes. Hirsh, >> yes. >> Sa. >> Yes. And at this point, I'd like to
029thank everyone for um all of your generous donations. We have quite a long list tonight. So, I want to just thank everyone and we will go on to roll call for the resolution at the at the end. Okay. >> Okay. I'm looking for it. Uh I'm looking for it, Georgina, at the end. 2623 is the number right before the presentation. Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. Um, and we need approval of resolution resolution number 25-26-23, declaration of obsolete property for Venicia High School. >> It's just a separate roll call. President Grossy Hirs. >> Yes. Say >> yes. >> And we come to item 12. Um number 12A, Superintendent 100day report. Superintendent Calgary. >> Yeah. So, um I I'm super honored to be able to give this report to you tonight. And so, um thank you, Georgina.
030So we are [laughter] >> Thank you. Appreciate that. Sherry, on August 13th, you interviewed me and in that second round, I handed you a 100 day plan and um and then when I started on September 17th, um I uh updated that plan and made some adjustments to that and then resent that out to the board and board communication. And so tonight, I just want to go over with you um um what what what I found, what I discovered, and what I saw. Let me go back here. So, starting with our vision, and you know what? I I don't know that I need to read this to you tonight because those students did such a fantastic job. But but this vision is what captured me when I was uh interviewing and in researching Benicia and that
031it spoke to my own core values and so and one of the reasons that that drew me here to the Nisha school. I'm sorry I failed uh remote 101 and copying. I just want you to know that. >> Um these were the four goals that I gave you. I want to listen first to board members to students to staff to families site leaders and community partners. to learn deeply through data, direct experience, and school community perspectives. To lead collaboratively, ensuring that decisions are transparent, inclusive, and student centered, and to act with purpose, setting the foundation for long-term goals that reflect our shared values. I knew that when I came here that those first 100 days would not be just solely digging in deep and learning about the the community, that that would be the bulk
032of it, but that there would be decisions that need to be made and that those decisions cannot be made in isolation. Excuse me. These are just some pictures that I've taken o over the the past few months of different events I've gone to, students that I've gotten to see in classrooms and in meeting uh some of our staff. And so um I'm just always always in awe when I go into our classrooms in Benisha School District. This is a document that I gave to you. You have the larger version of it, but what staff and I did is I we asked about what Benicia on a page. And if you just look at this and you get to see kind of quickly um some data points, the fact that we have 45,514 students in the
033school district, 563 employees, and that includes substitute teachers. I included everybody because all the humans that are on our campuses and in and around the district on a daily basis. And a predictor of success is our graduation rate, 95.6%. Uh the percentage of students are planning to attend college, a four-year college, 53.4%. and the number of students that are percent of students that are planning going to a two-year college, 18.1%. Our daily average attendance, 94.5%. And they want to capture those things that that get kids to go to school, right? That encourage students to go to school. 82% or 82 students are in our elementary band program. 100 students are in our band color guard um or drama at at at Benicia Middle School. 300 of our students are in band drama or dance at
034our Benicia High School. and eight students are in our Liberty High School art club. Looking at our other groups that are within the of our students within the Benicia School District, special ed makes up uh or excuse me, our SED students or socioeconomic disadvantaged students make up 37.8%. And and that's a current number, but not a funded number. I just want to be clear about that. Our English learners, 2.7%. Um and special ed 13%. the percentage of students who participate in sports, 26.3% at Benanishia Middle School and 43.8% at VHS. And then our funding, our total funding, 65,660,546. And then what part of that is LCF or LCF is the $51,875,432. So just a little bit of a snapshot. Uh there's about 20 more data points that I want to have on this page, but
035then it would be really really fine print and a lot less pretty. our staff and our students. And so I just want to share these these pieces with you, key data. And so um of that employees, 242 certificated teachers, 274 classified staff members, four confidential employees, certificated management makes up 27 and then classified management 16. And then looking at the enrollment in our district at one uh BHS 1378 students, Liberty 66 that has since grown since I did this. Uh BMS 967, Mary Farmer Elementary School 44, uh Robert Smple Elementary School 455, Joe Henderson Elementary School 530, and Matthew Turner Elementary School at 547. And then our non-public school placements at three. One of the pieces that's really important to me is does our staff demographics match our student dem demographics or how off are
036we as we always look to to diversify our staff? And as you see there, they're they're largely aligned. There's there's a few percentage points that are off. And then our our largest group um that we need to have greater alignment with is is our Hispanic Latino uh staff members to the uh Hispanic and Latino uh students in our district is the is the greatest outlier. Um, but just to, you know, as I dug into this, just to see that our students are seeing staff members that look like them and how incredibly important that is. So, for goal one that I that I had shared with you, it really is um analyzing student achievement in Benanishia and the relationship to curricular programs, infrastructure, and strategies. And the questions, my driving questions were the driving questions from
037the PLC. And you've heard me say this before tonight and and and you'll hear us present this uh throughout the year. And that's what do we want students to learn? How do we know they've learned it? What do we do when they haven't learned it? And what do we do when they have? And these are the documents or the meetings that I held um and to learn that and and to get to know this district in a deeper way. And so part of that was meeting with staff and part of that was was actually digging into those documents to see how we can answer those questions. And then our LCAP goals, which I think our ED services department just does a beautiful job here in in putting these together and getting Oh, I'm sorry. Thank
038you. I told you I failed that part. Um, in in bringing input from staff and from the community. And so I'm not going to read each one of these to you, but you know the highlights of social emotional learning, uh, literacy and humanities, math and steam, and then equity and opportunity. This next one is an indicator of how we're doing as a district. And so that this data here is looking at graduation rates of our students over the past three years. Students meeting UC and CSU requirements over the last three years. Um and then our uh career technical education over the last three years. And then the CCR, which is the college career readiness test, and the percentages there. So these are indicators of how our students are doing. And this is also broke down
039um by our various groups. Continuing with goal one, um some of the data that I learned pretty quickly in the district that that that we brought to the board was um some highlights here in that Oh my Thank you. I appreciate it, Leslie. Uh African-American students grew by 18 points in both ELA and math. That's a significant gain. Hispanic students gained 11 points in ELA and 10 points in math. Our home homeless youth showed remarkable growth increasing by 10 points in ELA and 11 points in math. Um these are significant scores and one of the things I'm very really really proud of is that we have some of the highest test scores in we have the highest test scores in Solano County. Students with disabilities increased by three points in ELA. English learners gave three
040points in in ELA. Thank you. Goal two was to ensure effective district governance through a proactive positive productive Benicia school board and superintendent relationship. And my driving questions to you and questions that I have asked of you over these last few months are what are our needs? What are the board's expectations? What are our priorities as a district? What is essential to the community of Benicia? And so to date, some of the things that we've put in place is establish one-on-one meetings with board members, establish systems of communication, establish a governance calendar through December 2027, and then we have an upcoming board study session February 20th, 2026 that I'm looking forward to. Goal three, establish multiple opportunities for formal informal communication among staff, students, and families, community leaders, and community members across Manisha USD and
041city of Benicia. Um, my driving questions there were what are our strengths as a community? What are our common goals? Where can we partner? And what are the community's questions and concerns? And what was interesting was when I was creating the 100 day report, um, I was making a list of people that I want to meet with. Little did I know that the Benicia community is so woven into the school district that they were lining up at Georgina's door asking to meet with me and setting up appointments. And so that happened uh, fairly quickly and and often. And so that was really refreshing to see and it speaks to this community. These are some of the um the the touch points that I've had and so I'm going to go over this a little bit.
042So um I I'll go over the overall in a minute here, but community members. So, 15 meetings with community members, and that's meeting with the mayor, meeting with uh key community members throughout the the community, uh nonprofit leaders, um our city manager, um other nonprofit organizations, um or city council members, uh folks like that. And so, that was really, really, really important for us to do. That's also my coffees with the superintendent and um and so able to connect with the community. site visits. I've done 29 site visits in the time that I've been here and visited 200 classrooms. I did stretch this. I want to be honest with you. I think I was at 197 and then at day 110 I uh went went after the holiday break went some more classrooms and so
043200 was such a nice round number. So um and I think now it's up to about 210. But uh I love going into our classrooms and I cannot say this enough. You know what you saw tonight from the students from Robert Sample is what I see all the time when I go into classrooms. Kids are kind. They're respectful. Um they're engaged. Um they want to learn and I'm just super impressed with the the the um the engagement of our students and um and the support from the community, from families, from parents, um and our staff. I love watching our teachers teach. I love watching our aids interact with students and our campus supervisors. It's just super impressive. Uh nine meetings with our union partners and then this 303030 was just an anomaly that happened. I
044don't want you to think that was one meeting 30 times with all the same people, okay? It just happened to the way it laid out in our calendar. And so cabinet meetings, so I not only meet one-on-one with our cabinet members, but we also meet every Monday. Directors in our district and coordinators, I've met with each of them individually totaling 30 times. Um, and then principles in our district, I've met with them totaling 30 times. And then district events, whether that was uh going to Viking night or uh Joella um and and just various events throughout the district, um was able to attend 14 of those different types of events, whether that was on campus during the school day or after school or on the weekend. And then community communication, whether that was a my
045letter that sent out or newsletters, that was three. So the touch points totals 360 touch points of interacting with the students, staff and and community. Uh upcoming events or or dates that I want to share with you um to hold me accountable to that are important to me and that is um our families enrolled on an Allen bill. So those are our families or those are our staff members that are that work here in the district that have a transfer to the district and so ensuring that they understand their rights and in that process. And so I'll be meeting with them February 9th and February 25th. Um student voice so going out to Benicia High School. Um I'll be talking to students on February 19th and April 9th. And what I've asked for is for
046a group of students, 10 students to to speak with. I have a series of questions that I'll be asking them. I'll ask our central kitchen to provide me with some pizza. It's always smart to feed kids if you want to get answers from them and um and just hear their viewpoint and and hear their voice. Um it's something that I've done in my career over the years and it's probably one of the most rewarding things I ever get to do is just hearing from them. And I don't what I say to our principles is don't give me all your leadership kids. Like I love to talk to a few of them, but give me that student that's had some attendance issues. Give me that student that's gotten in trouble. Give me that kid that that
047may not have the 2.0 0 GPA. And so, and I I would tell you that that was me. And so, in I used to I lived by the motto C's get degrees when I was in high school. And so, um and and and as long as I had a 2.0 for wrestling season, I was okay. Um and so, who would have thought that 16-year-old Chris Calibri would be a superintendent today. So, uh student voice at Liberty. And so, I'm meeting with those students on February 11th and April 29th. And then student voice at, uh Benicia Middle School March 3rd and April 7th. And then we've set up three more dates for coffee with the superintendent. And one of the things I heard from the community was, could you do some of those during the day,
048some of those in the morning, some of those in the evening? And so we've set that up to to do that. Goal four, analyze organizational effectiveness and and efficiency across the district. My driving questions are what are the areas that work well sources of pride for the district? What are the areas that systems struggle or ineffective? And to date, we've established some systems of gathering feedback from site leaders and district leadership. So those are the meetings that I've held. Review key district documents, board policy, CBA safety plans, and organizational structure, and just looking at how those things mesh together. Are they communicated out? Are people aware of them? And then reviewed site and leadership goals and progress on those goals. Goal five, analyze the district budget in relationship to program goals, understanding both short-term and
049long-term financial strategies are in place to support student success. And our driving questions are what are the forces that impact the BSD budget both short-term and long-term. And so in steps to date, met with the board, our CBO, cabinet, union partners, established a budget advisory committee and developed some long-term and short-term solutions. And then something that I announced yesterday at the budget advisory committees, and I'm starting a grant committee. And so I'm I don't have a fancy name, and I put my own title in it. So maybe that's my ego, superintendent's grant committee. But we can come up with a better name. Um, and so the point of that is that oftentimes you have school sites working in isolation about grants to fund something. And what I want to do is funnel that through my
050office and be able to establish we have that key data that you need to write every grant. Right? And then we look at those grants and say, okay, do we fit that? Is that a need for us? Does that align with our mission and vision? Does it take us away from our mission and vision? And then most most importantly is, is that money going to offset our general fund and deficit spending? And so really really looking at that. We have a unique opportunity in Benicia right now with the Bay Area Quality Management District grant. And so that will be our first task is really looking at that and and how we can uh um win some of those monies over to us and be able to offset some of our costs. Not only the taken
051away from the general budget, but also other programs that we may not been able to do. And as you all know, been on the board for a while, it's always feast and famine when it comes to monies in the state of California and funding mechanisms. So being able to address that, um, you know, I have to hand it to our CBO that I love this uh chart because it really explains clearly the LCFF and um and and where our monies are going as is we have that 51,875,432 and where it lays out. And so I just want to that's an important piece for me to learn and understand. and then historical data as it pertains to enrollment data and um how we were declining enrollment and then and then flat for many years and then
052and then or for a few years and then declined again and then we saw a little bit of an uptick this year and so where will we be and so looking at this data and then projections for future years and I just want to include that here. Goal six is analyze the district's equity plan and non-discrimination practices. Um are my driving questions are are staff and families aware of our equity plan and how is it implemented? Is there evidence of its implementation? Um this is actually a link to uh our diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging dashboard. It's an extensive document and so I thought it was important to link that here. Meet with district and site leaders as well as community members. Reviewed evidence of social emotional learning and other means of correction. Analyze discipline
053data policies and practices within our district. Then goal seven, refine the short and long-term goal setting process that will guide the work of Benicia Unified. Uh and that's in place. And so my driving questions was what is the goal setting process system look like in BSD? What community partners are involved and how are they involved in BSD and parents, board, staff, students, etc. And then steps to date met with our DAC, our LCAP committee, employee partners, PTA, PTGS, PTO meetings, and and nonprofits. So what did I learn about the Venetia school district? Our students are respectful. They're engaged. They have voice. They're actively learning and growing. Our teachers put students first. Relationship is the foundation of learning. They cultivate relationships daily. I witness this all the time. Site leaders are visible and responsive. They are
054committed to student success and actively work to add supports to student growth. District leadership brings a strong background of experience and historical knowledge of the district. The ensuring systems and operations for environment of growth. The community is deeply connected. Community is connected to our schools and one another. and Benanishia is right for partnerships. Um, our board is committed to governing together as a team and providing oversight and planning for a better B USD. And you will notice that I kept the farming theme throughout the what I have learned. And so in that growth and that supports and cultivation and that's what I see that that the ground is is prepared in Venicia and ready to to foster new growth and uh new shoots of learning. And so I'm honored to be here and I'm honored
055to present this 100 day um um or present presentation of my 100 day plan and what I have found over the last 100 days. >> Thank you. Any questions? on the 100 day plan itself. >> Okay, >> that's on the um that's on Leslie's presentation. >> Okay, [laughter] >> thank you. >> Absolutely. >> And that was a good segue. Did anybody have any questions for >> for Chris? >> No questions. Just a very big thank you. >> Yes. >> Well done. >> Thank you. >> Well done. >> Very happy to have you here. >> So, Dr. Beatson. >> Good. Oh, good evening board. Um, Superintendent Calabrace, cabinet members and Benicia community, I am really pleased to be here tonight to present the results of our California dashboard performance. Um, I will uh again, I have
056a lot of slides on here. My plan is not to take you through every single one of the data slides, but to give you the summary and then answer questions if you have uh further questions on the data. Um just as uh Superintendent Calibi said, I'm not going to read the vision and mission, but it does ground all the work that we do. Um along with our equity statement and if you remember um several years ago, our equity team wrote this statement and it was approved by you and we now have it in our boardroom and it is a call to action for us. We have four LCAP goals uh social emotional learning, literacy, humanities, math and steam, and equity and opportunity. And all of them you will see um references to equity. So it's
057about closing achievement gaps for our um traditionally marginalized or underperforming student groups that we need to really take a deep look at. And I think as we go through this data, you're going to see the work we're doing is really making a difference. So the purpose of the California dashboard, there is a link in here. It is a public-f facing document um for open to the public to show how we are performing in key indicator areas that the state has identified. So our academic performance on the CASP test, how are our English learners, our multi- language learners doing? Are they progressing? How are we doing with chronic absenteeism, graduation rate, suspension rate, and college and career readiness? So those are our accountabilities. Those also have to be reported in the LCAP as well. the performance
058levels. This is the one that has the color coding and it is both how did we do. So that's our status. So how did we do la and this is all last year data. How did we do last year and then did we increase or did we decrease from the year before. So it's always done on something called status and change. And it depends on the amount of points you increased or decreased and then you move up and down through the color coding. The great thing about it is that it's based on uh not on achievement but also on growth. So you might not be performing really well but you made growth and you get benefit for that if that makes sense. And so they don't expect you to go from really poor performing to
059really high performing. They're giving you credit for go moving in the right direction. Um and then on here is just some data. when the student group gets really small, they don't uh report that data for us. That's your answer. Yes. Right there. And so this is just a sample of what um the it's called the 5 by5. And basically it's how are you doing on the left? How did you do last year? And then did you grow or decline from the year before across the top. Okay. So, as I always say, blue is best and um they give you a color for each of these areas. And we have a lot of areas that met the blue category this year. And so, um I'm not going to read through all of them, but uh we
060were really really pleased to see how many of our overall and then how many student groups fell into the blue categories. And if you go back to here, you can see blue is all up in that right top corner. and green is good. So again, most of our student groups, most of our performance is in that blue and green category. Okay, red is not so good. Red is where we really need to focus. We have to call out any student groups in red in our LCAP and we have to make sure that we have actions and services addressing them. We have five uh groups in red across the district and so those are called out here and you're going to see that same theme um as we go through the rest of the data. You've
061heard me talk about it when we talked about the CASP test. So our students with disabilities were really paying attention to. We're working with a group from the state to really look at how do we support students with disabilities um and our socioeconomically disadvantaged students again in a couple of areas suspension and chronic absenteeism. Orange is sort of that area of we need to watch it. We have to call those out on the LCAP as well. Um and so we have quite a few groups in orange. So we want to pay attention to them. We want to continue to move them up to through yellow and then to green and then to blue. Um again, many of the students uh many of the groups here you're going to see the same groups again, students with
062disabilities. So they're not in red. We've moved them in uh from last year. Many of them have moved from red into orange. So we're heading in the right direction, but we are really paying close attention. I ask all the principles as they write their single plans for school achievement to pay attention to the orange group as well because we want them to continue to move in that direction. Um this next slide called needs assessment is because it's another uh requirement that came from the state. So um and it has to be included in the LCAP and it has to be presented to you as we present this dashboard data because it's all linked back to the dashboard. So way back uh when COVID grant dollars came out, we got a grant called the learning recovery
063emergency block grant, the LREBG. They told us how much money we were going to get and then they held some of it back. So now we're going to be getting the remaining of those funds, but we had to do a needs assessment. It was a very complicated needs assessment based on the status column of the dashboard. So the achievement part, not did you grow or did you not grow. And um the county helped all of us do that uh needs assessment and there are possible usage uh and we have to use our LCAP committee to determine how do we want to use this funding. Okay. And this is just showing you what the money can be used for. Um [music] and then we will work with our LCAP team to talk about what those student
064groups are. I'll show you that in a minute. Um and then how do we want to spend that that funding? So no surprise, these are the same student groups that came out from this needs assessment as previous ones really focusing on academics and attendance. Those were the two biggest areas and it was our students with disabilities, our long-term and our English learners. So long-term English learners, just as a reminder, our students who uh so our English learners have to take an assessment every year called the LPAC. Um not the LCAP, called the LPAC. and they have to pass every section with a four, which is the highest score you can get. If they don't do that in seven years with us, they become a long-term English learner. Okay? So, that's typically our high school students
065when they get to high school because if we've had them all that time. So, we have to look at at how do we support those students better and then our students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged. There were other groups that came up in red, but one of the things that we could do with this needs assessment is if those groups were making progress, we didn't have to count them in that. So these are the groups that we said we really need to focus on. So we will bring this back to the LCAP team to talk about how do we want to spend that funding to support these groups. Another accountability piece um that we had to do needs assessment for were state and federal accountability. So differentiated assistance formerly known as program improvement happens through the
066state. Um, we have been in program improvement. We were in last year for our students with disabilities for academics and college and career readiness. Um, we do not have any new designations this year. We just get support from the county for two years for this group. So, we will stay working with the county to support that student group, same student group, but we did not have any uh groups that met differentiated assistance for this year, which is great. On the right side of this screen, lots of words. Um it is the federal accountability system and so that one is CSI, TSI and ATSI. So it's targeted assistance and same types of things. How many student groups where are they falling over multiple years? Which priorities are they not doing well in? We were uh we
067had several schools in ATSI last year for particular student groups. We did not have any uh schools in this year. So That is great. That the way they um do accountability for that is they come and do a Williams walk. I think I reported that this year. We have to do that walk three years anyway when once you're in, but we don't have any school. All of our schools got out. So that's awesome. Um [clears throat] this is just more information. Oops. Sorry, I forgot. See, now look, I'm not doing the right slide. Um this is just more information on that same thing I just talked about. So all of that, lots of schools in blue and green. We have some targeted uh groups that we're looking at. What are we doing? What are we
068going to continue to do? So one of the things I I just mentioned was we have a partnership with a statewide program called supporting innovative practices. It used to be called supporting um inclusive practices and they really look at how do we uh provide support for our in for including students with disabilities but for all students. And so we're really working with them to focus on universal divine design for learning strategies, which means how do we have access points for all students. So, uh, we're working with them. They're doing some work, uh, with our elementary schools, um, on this upcoming professional development day. They've met with our administrators and, um, our equity team a couple of times this year. We have done some core curriculum and training for our special education classes and so that
069all students have access to our core curriculum and how do we just scaffold from there versus starting with something that is totally different. Um we have uh we're looking at how do we really support students who are chronically absent and how do we help them lead to a sense of belonging because we really believe there's a a connection there. Um, so we're having those conversations about how do we reach out? So, we're having students do some letter writing to their classmates that um and and teachers to kids that have been absent a lot. So, they take little piece of a staff meeting, they write a little postcard that our students have designed to say, "We really miss you in class. We can't wait for you to come back." So, trying some different kinds of things.
070Um, really working with uh staff on um procedures for student behavior and other means of correction. So, what else can we do besides suspending students? You know, sometimes we have to, but how else can we help them be in school? And then, um, uh, as, uh, um, Superintendent Calabesi talked about, we're really focusing on professional learning communities and really on those four questions and all the work that we do and that collaboration and continuing learning walks and best first instructional practices. Um what I can say is with the growth that you've seen that we've experienced, I think the focus on equity, belonging, um doing the best first instruction. So each school site identifies a practice that they're going to really focus on when we do our learning walks. We look for that. So today we
071were at Robert Simple and um they're really working on student goal setting and um learning targets. So do so I can so students can say I can um uh add twodigit numbers together, you know, so they know what it is that they're learning, not just what they're doing. I'm not just doing this math page, but what am I learning about? Um and um and we're doing it with intention. And I think that that is my kind of word of the year is intentionality versus and and really focusing on that. And I think that's making a big difference for us. Um, and we have our students groups that we're going to continue to monitor and work with. So that's the end of sort of the summary data. I went through it really fast and I just
072want to show you two slides um in the many data slides I have coming up. One you saw. So the um I we take all of the dashboard data. So these are all the dashboard indicators and I put them in here for the last three years for our district and then for every school site so that they can see where are those growth points. Okay? So that you can read that. So there's the uh district one is two slides long. So this has um half of the indicators and then the next slide has the other half of the indicators and that's what the state holds us accountable for. And then the other I'm going to skip way down to and it's really Not a pretty slide. I'm not proud of it. But um I want
073to just show you this. So this is the summary of the 5x5 color dashboard. Okay? And really I wanted to see it side by side. This one is the district student group. And really if you just take a bird's eye view of 2023, the 2022 23 school year, and you look at that red and orange, and that's that peachy color is the best orange I could get. And then you look over at the right side, the 24 25 and the amount of less amount of red and orange. And so I just I just wanted to show you that and how that growth has happened over time. >> Um just in the visual how much more green and blue there is now. And I really go back to I think it's the work of our staff
074and our admin around the intentionality around those practices. And so there's a slide like this for every school site. So you can just kind of compare over the years. Okay, any questions? That was a lot. You know me, I love data. But >> yeah, >> it's the right stuff. And now what we have to do is figure out how do we keep going with the budget that we're in? >> How much money are we expecting to get >> from the low the grant? I think it's about $119,000. about 100. It's not a ton and it's [music] one time about $119,000. >> Okay. Thank Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Thanks. >> Yeah, it's very impressive. >> Thanks. Takes a team. We've got a great team here. >> So then we go on to uh
075C for our LCAP midyear update. Dr. B. >> Absolutely. And this one will be uh very fast. So, this is one of the requirements of the LCAP is that I bring to you um this year's LCAP and how are we doing with implementation this year and it has to be brought to you by February 1st. And so um really what I want to say is we have sent out our surveys to our uh student, staff, and parents. We are analyzing that data now. We're also analyzing all of the dashboard data um that I just shared with you. I still have to meet with our SULPA and um and send drafts to SCO because they give us feedback and we consult with them as well. We have implemented most of our actions and services and I'll
076share that with you in just one minute. Um I'm [music] bringing you the midyear update. We monitor not only the big data that I just shared with you, but the other thing that we did with the LCAP team was identify for all the actions and services how how effective are they? Because we can look at the um collective and see the growth over the big data points but [music] how effective are the the small actions and services that are in the LCAP. So we monitor that as well. And then Oh, thank you. See, it's catchy. [laughter] >> And and how are we doing um uh expending the budget that we had planned for? Okay. So, as you know, we have four LCAP goals. This is the same the same goals, different slide. Um here are
077all the actions and services that we have in our LCAP and they are denoted with a star by the ones that are really targeted to increase and improve services. Uh they're using our supplemental funding and that is for our um students who are uh socioeconomically disadvantaged, our English learners and our um foster and homeless youth. It doesn't mean that those services don't help everybody else, but we're really paying attention to those student groups. And then with the little um amperand the uh um those are the actions and services paid with onetime dollars that at our last board meeting we unfortunately had to um eliminate. And then the next three slides I'm not going to spend a lot of time on here but um this is how we track the effectiveness of um the actions and
078services in the LCAP. So, for instance, uh the first thing up there is we had um the ability to hire an extra mental health clinician with the one-time dollars. Um and the progress monitoring metric was how many students are they able to serve? And so that person is serving 18 students across the district. And then so you can see the different ways that the LCAP team had decided that they wanted to monitor the different actions and services here. And so that goes on for um all these different slides here with all the different actions and services. Some of them are links and this is not an interactive if you want to really click on these. These are all um presentations I've given you before about the uh CASP data and so forth, but I can
079share the live link. This is just a picture of those slides. Does that make sense? >> Any questions about these? I'm not going I wasn't planning on going over all the data for all of them, but I'm happy to answer any questions. >> So, we have that and then um the the rest of the implementation that I want to report, we partially implemented wellness centers. And I say partially because we had a few vacancies that came up over the course of the year and we made a conscious decision because they were one-time funding and we knew they were going to be laid off this year to not fill them and sort of restructure how we were serving students there. So I would say that was a partially implemented and then um using our data and
080assessments to drive instruction. We're in that PLC learning process and so I wouldn't say it's ever there there fully implemented. We're learning how to do that process together. Um what we didn't implement uh really fully at all was professional conferences. That was listed as one strategy um because we didn't have the funding to really go go for that. So we made that decision there. And then um we haven't implemented any parent workshops at this point. We do have some planned coming up in the spring around technology and tech safety. Um everything else is being fully implemented because we really monitor when we write that uh plan. And then we are on track for all budgeted items. Um and then again, this is just uh kind of the next steps here. We have more uh educational
081partners to engage. We're in the process of analyzing all of our feedback. Um in the next month, I'll start drafting the LCAP. Um and then it comes back to you for a public hearing in June, adoption in June, and then it goes off to the county and the state. That is my midyear update. Absolutely. >> Okay. So, we come to um our action items number 13. So, um Miss Bington, you are up >> tonight. Spencer Bland from the James Marta and Company is here to give you the oral report um so that you can accept our 2024 2025 audit reports in September. You received the report based on the unodudited actuals. Um Spencer and his team came in, they've audited them and now he has the report for you. So he'll first do the district
082and then second he'll it'll look very similar. He'll do the bonds. >> Good evening members of the board and superintendent Calabrace. I will be walking you through first the district audit. So going over the agenda of this presentation. So when we issue the audit report, there's a series of a couple deliverables that come with that. So our communication with those charge of governance letter is basically our letter as the auditor to you as members of the board. Let you know how the audit went. um if we encountered any um thing that you should be aware of and also we'll let you know any estimates or new accounting policies that are have been implemented or are on the way over the next couple of years. Then I will be going into the actual audit report itself
083which is going to be on this um big document. It's pages one through three and we'll wrap up by talking about the um IND internal control letter and the state and federal compliance letters as well. So um just a highlight slide um basically with the district audit the report was unmodified or a clean opinion. This means that there were no material misstatements that we found in the financials and everything was in the line [music] with the appropriate accounting principles and US GAP. So a clean report that's good there. And the biggest um use of specialist that you'll see is uh surrounding the net pension and net oped liabilities. Those are going to be the biggest estimates in the financials. So other than that, everything else is pretty straightforward. And we came out twice. So the
084first time that we come out is in the spring. That's where we're doing our control and our compliance testing. We're also visiting school sites as well. And we come back out in the fall time after the unauctions have gone to the state. So I kind of talked briefly about that here. And we worked so we worked with the management team. So, we worked with uh Miss Trudy Bington and Abby Hilliard over the course of both the spring and the fall visits. We received everything that we were supposed to from management. So, we had no issues um and it was a smooth process as it always is. In terms of internal control testing, we had no um we we did not identify any material weaknesses. So, strong controls in the business office there. And um we
085did have you'll see also in the communication letter that there's some adjustments that are communicated. These adjustments are just normal adjustments that come with um with preparing the financials and converting them. So nothing major there that is a concern. So now that we've covered the first deliverable, we're now moving on to the actual um audit report packet. So pages one through three, you'll find our independent audits report. Um, as I mentioned, a an unmodified or clean opinion, and that is followed by the management's discussion and analysis. This you'll find on pages four through nine. This is a great resource if anybody wants a highlevel summary of what did happen financially at the district over the current year. And now looking at that, so in terms of the statement of net position, I'm total assets went
086down from the prior year. Leading what's leading this is really a couple of items. So we did we did spend down um some cash there. Um this is usually just the timing of receipts and like accounts receivable, accounts payable. Also fixed asset depreciations cause that number to go down. Your deferred outflows and inflows, this is really just the change in the actuary reports will cause those that go up or down over the from year to year. And really same with liabilities that coupled with paying down the bond amortization is what's causing liabilities to go down from the prior year as well. And net position is up about 15.5 million from the prior year. Looking at summary statement of activities. So um revenue is actually pretty comparable from the prior year. Expenses though you will see
087a big drop there. So a lot of this has to do with last year we did issue a new bond series bond measure C had a series issuance. So some of that is what happened in the prior year leading to expenses being down this year. Also things such as us having like the one-time spending last year with stimulus funding the last of the COVID and things like that is what's happened last year but we didn't see much of that this year. That's also causing expenses to go down as well. And now looking at the general fund, um, as we saw in the last couple of presentations, um, LCFF continues to be the biggest driver of the general fund revenues, um, followed by state revenue there. And federal, you will see, is down because that COVID
088era is gone with the stimulus funding. Looking at expenses, the general fund expenses continue to be majority made up by certificated and classified salaries and benefits. um you and you will also see that the next biggest piece of the pie is the ser is the service cost there. So now that we've covered the financials um there's two sections in the back. So there's required supplementary information but this you'll find in the supplementary information in the wayback. This gives you a multi-year trend of what is hap what has happened at the district and what is projected to happen in the next fiscal year. Um I wanted to highlight a couple of key points. So we did have a reserves of 3.1% which is perfect considering that as we mentioned with the clawback with that learning recovery
089block grant. We always want to have an amount prepared in case worst case we lose a funding we can still pay bills as they come due. Long-term debt has gone up a lot over the last couple of years but this is due to bond issuances and changes in the net pension net op liabilities and ADA is up um about 77 over the last couple of years which is great. We are seeing that rise after the dip during the COVID era. And I just highlight that ADA graph there. And wrapping up um all we noted no issues across our internal control and compliance testing. And this is really a testament to the strength of the control over the public dollars both from a control perspective and a state and federal compliance perspective. And and this is
090huge because a lot of state and federal compliance findings, they carry fiscal impact. So strong controls um means that we don't have to give any money back to the state or federal government there. Um I'd like to conclude this presentation by thanking Miss Trudy Bington and her team. Um they helped us out a lot over our spring and fall visits and even up to the very end. They were always available to answer all of our questions. So my many thanks there. And with that, I would like to open the floor to any questions. Oh, yes. Yep. [laughter] If you saw if you saw our um our portals, our online secure portals, there's about 100 to 120 requests both at the spring and in the fall. And so Miss Bington can attest that there's a there's
091a lot that comes into these. We're testing a lot of areas. Oh, yes. >> Well, thank you so much. >> Yep. You're welcome. And then I'm curious, is the district one going to be approved first before the bond or do I just present both at the first? >> So, might as well. You're here. >> Oh, yeah. [laughter] >> Yes. We don't want Yes, please. >> I think we can take >> a board. >> I'll move that we approve the B USD independent auditors report. >> I'll second that. All >> those in favor? I And now we come to um item 13B Miss Bington. >> So similarly um the bonds have to be um audited separate also. So he's going to provide a very similar report um but only focused on measures S and C. >>
092So just like the district audit um there's the there's a very similar deliverable. So you also get a communication with those charge of governance letter and also a audit report for each bond measure. And I wanted to highlight on the govern the governance letter that we for so this is for both measure S and measure Z bonds. Um we issued an unmodified opinion which is a clean report on both of those. So no issues noted there. We worked closely with Trudy and her team for those audits as well. We actually do these concurrently to the district audit. So the same dates that were out here on site doing the district audit, we're also doing the bond audit as well and we received everything that we needed to to issue those reports as well. So those
093were a smooth process as well. Um unlike the district audit, you really won't find much significant estimates in these financials. It's pretty much you have the bond issuance and then from there it's getting spent down as we work on the projects. here. So, moving forward to the audit report, as I mentioned, unmodified opinion for both. And looking at that, that what you'll see is that measure S is slowly going down as we spend that out. But measure C is the the last year is when we had that issuance. And so, you'll see cash is a big amount there, but that's going to continue going towards the bond projects there. And I also post the income statement as well to kind of show you the breakdown of expenses there. So with the bond audit in in
094addition to internal control audit we do a special type of audit what's called performance audit this means that we take a sample of the bond expenditures which is at minimum 80% of the total expenditures in the year for the bond and we're going to see if they're in line with the ballot measure that the community voted in and we had no issues with that. So expenditures for both bond measures are being in spent in accordance with what the community had voted in for both bond measures and that's all to say that there's a strong oversight at the district office over those public dollars. So great there and I would like to thank Miss Trudy Bington and her team for their assistance on both of these audits as well. With that, any questions? Thank you so
095much. >> Measure. >> I'll second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Thank you so much and happy belated new year. >> You too. You as well. >> Good night. And now we come to um 13C which is consideration and approval of the updated middle school logo and uh colors. So Principal Nelson uh thank you so much uh board for having me tonight. Superintendent Calibi, trustees, members of the community. Um so [clears throat] you got to go back to my Ted Lasso slide. >> Are you driving? Oh, so you can't start a presentation without a side from Ted Lasso. It's the greatest television show ever. Ted Lasso is a hero of mine. This slide is on the beginning of all of our staff meetings. So, every time we start a staff meeting, I always
096say smells like potential. You know, I do love a good staff meeting. It smells like potential. So, I figured why not do it for the logo update. I shouldn't say new, I should say update. So um so just I want to briefly review the history of our logo, provide a rationale for our new logo, talk about the process that we um went through and then highlight the branding document that um I should say Mikey has created. If you're watching Mikey, I hope you're feeling better. Um this is our current logo. It's behind you. It's been around for about four or five years, I want to say. uh principal Lindseay Dolski and uh the assistant principal at the time, Connie Huntington, I think they created that logo. I'm not sure if Connie herself had the artwork
097done or how it was done, but nevertheless, they they had it done about four or five years ago. It changed from the if you if you if you're when you're on our site, you will see logos everywhere. There's different types of logos dating back to the start of the school. The one before that, there was a helmet with two really long horns going out. So, that that changed to that. um for a number of reasons. I'm not quite sure why. I hear the horns were too violent to it was too boring to whatever. So, they have that logo. So, why the new one? Um we wanted to ensure that it lined up with all the other logos, specifically the name around with the the circle around the logo. It's not our colors. Our colors are
098royal blue and white, and that logo is black. So, we wanted to make sure we had that. Uh, we also wanted to maintain the image of the Viking ship. In talking with staff, they actually really like the Viking ship. So, we wanted to maintain that image, but simplify it a bit so we could just brand our merchandise better. Um, our PE uniforms, our logos on our marquee. Um, when we put Vivie up, it's there. Our our documents, just make something simple and unify it as best we can. Um, so that is why the process. So, I first started throwing around the idea. I heard from some folks from parents and students about potentially can we make some updates to it. So I started kicking around some ideas with the staff. Um and so they were
099just basically like why don't you select a few designs of ships? And so I worked with Mikey Share um and a graphic artist in town on looking at some different designs of what a potential Viking ship might look like. The nude logo designs were shared with the the community students, staff, and parents. Um, based on all of that feedback, we then SSC voted to approve. So, this has gone through SSC. So, they've looked at it and they approved it. Our PTO looked at it as well. Um, it's now submitted to you guys for approval and then pending approval. We will work on the the whole roll out and what that will look like. Um, [clears throat] so these were there were six options. So, this was the new the the new ship that we we
100came up with with the help of a graphic artist in town. So that was design option one with the black. We had the uh the white background was design option two. Uh the silver design option three. But then we also wanted to a lot of feedback from the students was coming in was they really liked our current logo. So we kept the uh the ship. Mikey did a great job of pulling the actual ship out of the where it says Vikings and providing that design that option. And finally we just went with the old school Do you do do we even need to change? So where does everybody stand on this? So all of those options were then sent to the staff, to the students, and to the community. And do you think that the
101staff and the students and the parents agreed on the same one? Of course they didn't. So [clears throat] >> uh the students actually really like the the first one, but a close second was um the the one that the parents actually liked the best. So, the students, they really they like the the logo that we have. Our staff, you can see, overwhelmingly liked the new logo with the different Viking ship. And then the parents liked the um the the old ship, but with the the circle, the the circle enclosed in the circle. When you look, I know it's I'm geeking out here like an aggregate score on a logo. How much time do you have on your hands? [clears throat] Um that's right. So, 381. So you look design five actually when you weigh it
102uh the design number five was the one that actually had the most votes and the highest score. So that is what the final selection uh was. And I actually really like this one because it pulls the image out and it keeps our colors and we added a hint of silver um with it which is which is really cool. And then we added this to a branding document um if you've seen the high school. So the high school has that panther in the circle, but they also have a paw and different ways to spell to have panthers. So we added the a Viking helmet um and how to spell Benicia Vikings. So this is on a branding document and it has our colors, the exact type of color scheme that you have to have, the exact
103type of font that you need to have. Um, and that branding document would then go out to all of our coaches, our PTO's, um, any for Spiritware, so we can have some consistency on what our stuff looks like. Um, so that's our final uh, selection questions. >> But I I just I'm wondering what really initiated this change and where the funds are coming from to make the changes. the funds. Um I mean right now I I mean I haven't thought specifically about fund funding. Um the the I don't know how much it would I haven't looked into how much it would cost. I mean we to change a few things here and there. Um >> I mean >> but a lot of this is digital designs that would go on our on our paper. So
104like for example our letter head instead of having the the old logo up there that would just be replaced. We can replace it on the marquee. Um, [music] anything else that pops up, we can get creative. The PTO has if like if there's anything that we're going to like, for example, this one, there's one in the top down. I don't know how much that would cost. I know that I have some PTO dollars every year that I get. I can I could access that. Um, [clears throat] any of the Spiritware stuff that they don't I don't think that costs anything other than they need just the branding document. And when they create the um the new stuff that they just that's the image that they use. So the funding would be minimal as far as
105as far as I know. >> Okay. So So what happens to the stuff that's already got the branding on it with the current? >> It would just we would phase it out. >> Phase it out. Okay. I because I don't want to see a loss, >> you I would like to see no loss um in having to reduce stationary um right away just because we're financially in a >> for sure and we'd be very mindful of things like that and so anytime it wouldn't so when if you have no we have notepads that we use if that were to get you know we would continue to use those and once it was time to reload hey here's the new image for it >> so not I don't want to dump everything that we have. No,
106it's just like a phase out. >> Okay. No, I like it. It's very nice. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> No, >> I was just going to say thank you for the process that you used in getting community policy students and everything, but the way you did it and and so and yeah, I thought that was outstanding work. So, thank you for doing that. >> So, this is an action item. I'll second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Thank you guys. Thank you very much. Have a wonderful evening. >> Go watch some reruns of Ted Lasso, buddy. >> I've never seen that show. >> What's it on? >> I don't know. Okay. So, um up we come to item two. Item D, consideration approval of the amended board of education regular board
107meeting calendars. And this is uh Superintendent Cal Gracie. >> Yes. So, uh we're bringing back our govern board governing board calendar to you. This is 2526. And so we did an amendment here and added the uh board study session on February uh 28th uh 2026. Originally we had it 7th. And so we made that change. And then also we added the uh June 16th date which is a week after um uh we would be meeting on June 11th and that is necessary for budget and LCAP. Do we have do we have a motion to approve? >> I have a question >> on the um calendar. Um, in December we have our organizational annual organizational meeting and I know it was moved up because Yanni had asked for that to to move the date further down
108rather, right? It was at one date and then we changed it to another date to move it. >> That was on the second calendar. >> Oh, the second calendar >> on uh Yeah. On >> you're referring for 247. >> Yeah. Okay. So, >> that's on >> it's our next calendar to be voted on. >> I'm looking at February. Dang it. Okay. We'll talk about it later. >> Um I'll second the motion. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> And calendar number two. >> So, calendar number two, we made some adjustments. We had a wrong date in September. It's September 3rd, 2026, not September 4th. And then um the December 9th is what Sherry's referring to. That was due to the election that we moved that. And then um June 17th was added 2027. Same
109reason as adding the date uh seven days later so that the LCAP process and the budget. >> Any questions? >> Yes. >> Sorry you guys. Um um so on this calendar where there's an organizational meeting on December 17th >> we we moved it so it didn't interfere with the election. The election is at the beginning of the month right the fourth >> the election is in November and and >> November. >> Yes. So it has to be per code has to be some days afterwards that we hold the uh next board meeting. >> Okay. >> Bring in our new our new board members and officers. >> Okay. um if there's any way to change that. Um I don't I mean I remember when I went through the process I don't remember how long it took
110for us to find out that we were in you know we were the next board members. Um I would like to see it change to like the 14th if it's at all possible. Um, so are you saying you'd like the um >> the annual organization meeting to move to >> to is yes to another date >> to the so our we have one meeting in December that is it >> and that's so so I'm let me look at the It's not on a it's it's not on a regularly regularly scheduled meeting and I think that the the organization meeting has to be during a regularly scheduled meeting. >> What's your concern? I'm just wondering >> I be well a good question. Um, that's our final day where the new people take over. And it also
111for personal reasons, I was hoping to get it moved. >> Yes. >> Or else I have to figure out something else. >> Well, what about um December 10th? We'd have to look at we'd have to look at the calendar for um um forgive me schoolboard association uh in that conference >> and Georgina is making eye contact with me because in an election year you have to wait till after the second Friday. So 2026 is your election year. >> That's why the 2026 date would need to be after December 11th. Did I get that right? 2027 you can have it earlier but 2026 you have to wait till after December 11th per the law >> before you install and have organizational meetings >> after the 11th and I don't have a calendar >> 11th is a
112Friday and then the following Monday would be the 14th and we can't change it to a different date even though it's this It's the first week of December. If it doesn't work out, it's okay. I mean, I just wanted to ask because I knew we were voting on it. Um, so by law we can't we we can't have a organizational meeting until after >> the 11th which puts us on a Monday which is not a regularly scheduled meeting. >> Can't you meet the first Thursday? >> Okay. >> So >> Okay. >> So we can't do that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> No, I'm just No. Yes. I I understand. >> I'll move that we approve the 2627 um governing board meeting calendar as amended. >> All those in favor? Okay. And so we come to
113um I item E and Dr. I mean I'm excuse me superintendent Calcy. >> Well, thank you for the honorary degree. Uh so this are bringing back to you our board policies and for your approval um that uh we have reviewed and and brought to you at the Monday excuse me November 3rd meeting and we did make the adjustment uh per trustee man's request of having two trained personnel on every site for the ads which is already a practice. We have more than that at all of our sites. We just have one site with Liberty that we need to I have to do that. >> Is there are there any questions? Is there a motion? >> I'll move that we approve the recommended CSBA board policy updates for September 2025. >> I'll second. All those in
114favor? >> I. >> And we come to item F. And Dr. Jennings, you are on. >> Well, good evening, President Grubs, um, board of trustees, and superintendent Calcy. The item before you is a resolution for a reduction in particular kinds of service of certificated employees. This resolution lists three teachers on special assignment positions that are up for elimination due to one-time funds expiring. Uh, we are recommending the adoption of this resolution. >> Are there any questions? Is there a motion on the floor? >> I move that we approve the resolution number 25-26-26 to decrease particular kinds of services of certificated employees. >> I'll second. >> This is a resolution. So, we'll do a roll call. President Gross. >> Yes. >> Trusty Hirs. >> Yes. >> SA. Yes. >> All righty. So, we come to the
115end of our meeting. Our next board meeting will be Thursday, February 5th. Um, happy new year to everyone and we are adjourned at 7:43.