001I'd like to um reconvene to open session. Today is May 29th and it is six o'clock on the dot. Yay for us. Um so we do have some reports from open session from close session and um the board took action on a motion by trustee Melli and seconded by trustee Zeta to approve stack staff recommendation of student readmission from a stipulated expulsion of student number 23- 033. 31 by the following vote. The eyes's were five. There were no nos, no absentees, and no abstensions. We also took um uh uh action on a motion by trustee hirs and seconded by uh trustee Zeta to approve stack recommendation for student readmission from a stipulated expulsion of student number 23-032 by the following vote. The eyes were five. Nose zero absent. Zero abstain. Zero. Um, John, would you
002Mr. Oc, Dr. Oc, would you like to lead us in the pledge? Announcement. Oh, sorry. Wait, I was so focused on the other. Okay, this meeting is recorded for live streaming and archiving on the district YouTube channel. And if you could um if you would lead us in the pledge. Thank you to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. And we come to item number seven, approval of the agenda. Can I have a a motion? I move that we approve the agenda as written. Second. I'll second. All those in favor? I opposed. Thank you. And um our highlight tonight is uh Benia High boys volleyball and Benia High uh wind turbine team principal
003Bannna Klein Schmidt. Welcome up to the podium. Hello everyone. Um I am very lucky to be here today to um highlight a few of our programs at Benanisha High School. We've just had a lot of really exciting stuff going on as we end the year and um I appreciate the opportunity to share some of that with you. The first will be our boys volleyball team who made history this year as they um just won their way through playoffs to the section championships and ended up second in uh in the section um bringing home the banner and and that was setting history for our school. So, we were very excited. Um, and so I'm here on behalf of coach Maynard uh Padisil and Allora Santon who couldn't be here tonight unfortunately due to work. Um, but
004we do have a few of our uh volleyball players or student athletes here with us. So I want to um call up Jacob Santos and Ian Nagata to join me up front and oh good and Duncan made it. Come up Duncan. Sorry I didn't see you sneak in behind me. Um I just want to give them the opportunity if they'd like to share just a little bit about uh their experience this season. They had a ton of fun. They won in three sets. Uh beat Windsor High School. We'd love to beat Windsor High School. Uh and Corey Lane. Um and uh it was it was it was a lot of fun to watch. So with that, I'll turn it over. Hi, I'm Duncan Cely. Uh I played outside hitter for the boys volleyball team. I
005had a really fun year. Uh this is my junior year, third year playing for Benishia High, second year on varsity. Uh I mean, I've learned so much. I have so much fun every time, especially going to way games with these guys, my boy Eden, my setter, Jacob. Wow. All the experience, all the memories I've made playing for the high school. Countless, countless memories, jokes told. So much fun playing against other teams, going to see other schools. I really enjoy that. And I just like to say thank you to everyone who helps give us the opportunity to do that year in year out. Thank you. Uh hello, I'm Nagada. Um I'm also an outsider here for the boys volleyball team and I'm just glad that we can make history for Benisha and I'm just looking forward
006to what we can do in the future. [Applause] Um I'm Jacob Santos. I'm a setter for the boys volleyball team. Um I just want to say how proud I am that uh we've gone so far. you know, I've only been at the school and playing for the varsity team for two years, but watching it before I came to the high school, you know, haven't really gone very far, but uh I'm glad that I was part of the team that did. [Applause] Yes, of course. Thanks for being here. Our Yeah, let's get a picture before you guys disappear. Um our seniors are at senior banquet tonight. So, um, you'll see with both of our highlights, we don't have too many of our seniors here with us because they're at at senior banquet, but One more. Congratulations
007on Congratulations. [Applause] And then um and then we also have um one of our teachers, Andreas Kaiser, and two members of our wind turbine team who recently competed in the Kid Wind World Championships, which is amazing. And uh brought home rookie of the year. And so I'm going to call up Logan Beta and Xavier Irvin and Mr. Kaiser to share with us about that experience. as they come up. I want to make sure to also shout out to Sophia Bogard, Jamil Cet and Russell Spurkin, who are not here tonight, but were part of the team. Um, hi guys. I'd first like to just thank uh Miss Klein Schmidt, Mr. Kaiser, uh my team, and all of the companies that were able to actually fund our trip. We wouldn't have been able to do it without
008them. And because of that, I will just be forever thankful. That's all I really got. Tell them what you guys did. Yeah, I'm Logan. I'm going to tell you what we did. Uh, this is one of blades from the turbine. So, this is made from some three different parts and carbon fiber. But the competition was super interesting. He started us off in the competition in the beginning of the year in like February to go to the regional event, which none of us had any idea we would win. And we ended up doing super well. And we got moved on to the world competition. We were like, whoa, this is this is really big. So, we ended up raising $5,000 from a bunch of different companies around Benia to sponsor the trip. and we flew all
009the way down to Arizona and competed and then we got the Rookie of the Year award. Super cool. It was It was definitely challenging and there was a lot of high power teams from Taiwan and Kansas and stuff I would have never expected but I Taiwan. Yeah, it was the world competition so international so teams from all around. Super interesting. But uh everyone else is moving out. I'm the only junior on the team. So hopefully next year you see next year you're going to see me here again. who knows uh with the intergalactor something, you know, like something bigger than that. Anyway, uh that's the team and Kaiser was super helpful as well, even though he he helped us a lot with the planning and stuff like that as well. Couple quick words. So, um
010really proud of the team. They work super hard and we had it's a whole class of students in my advanced engineering design honors class who worked on this project. It was the first time I've ever done it. It was a collaborative competition with Cal Maritime. So my engineering classes teamed up with Cal Maritime. We did a tour of their facility. It's now Calpaly Cal Maritime. So they're trying to promote it for as an engineering school for more of our students that don't even know it exists. So it was really good for them to go out and see the campus. And at that competition, that's when they won first in the high school division. So that was super exciting um that Benanishia High first time came in and we won. and um happy that they were
011able to go. Um unfortunately I could not go. We had um Xavier's father um was gracious enough to to take the the kids on a like a nonschool field trip kind of to go there. So they were able to compete and that was great that um really appreciative to him and to the whole team for doing it. And um as as many of you know this is my last year at Phoenicia High School. So it was a great way going out with the with the Big Bang. I'm very proud of them and I really hope that um these engineering programs continue in the future here at Benisha High School, Benish Unified because I think they're very very valuable for the students. Thank you. Thank you. I I want to say congratulations to the team. That's
012awesome. First year out and you won. I mean that's just wonderful news. Keep up the good work. You'll still be here, right? And to Mr. Kaiser, you are going to be missed so much and I I appreciate the stuff that you have done with the students and I've always followed it and I just you will be missed. I wanted to say that [Applause] I can see behind you. Where are you? Thank you. So we come to um item number nine. Um we have no student reports. So superintendent right. All right. Good evening. Gosh, this school year flew by. I can't believe that we're already in June and approaching the end of the school year. And um I just want to thank the students, staff, and community for an outstanding school year once again. And I'm
013really looking forward to the festivities next week. It's always exciting when we get to see the promotions and the graduation ceremonies. So, um June 6 is our last day of school. I know Benishia High School starts their final exams on Monday. Um just to quickly go over the graduation and promotion schedules. Mary Farmer June 4th at 9:00 a.m. at Farmer. Uh, Matthew Turner's on June 4th at 6 PM at Turner. Uh, Liberty High School's graduation will take place at 6 PM at Marina Pavilion and uh, Robert Simples will be on June 6 at 9:00 a.m. U, Benicia Middle School will be on June 6 at 2 p.m. and Benicia High School will be Saturday, June 7th at 10 a.m. at the stadium. So, we're really looking forward to to those events and watch our students
014move on to the next chapter of their lives. Here are some additional highlights that I want to share. Um, I know Benanishia Middle School and Benicia High School, their band performed at the Memorial Day parade and veteran ceremony parade in Mil Mill Valley. Uh, they did get some media attention. They did a great job and got a lot of great accolades. Proud of them every time that they um they compete because they always do it and they do it well. Um, our we have a junior uh at Benicia High School, Anukica Jade. I got it right. Thank you. She won first place in the 2025 uh Solano County Science and Engineering Fair for the high school environmental science division. Uh she received a congressional uh commendation certificate of recognition from the California Legislative Assembly and
015a certificate of recognition from the California State Senate. So I mean Benicia High School, today is your day. Yeah, fine. In addition, Venanishia uh High School, their athletics, their spring sports, they had an outstanding season. You just heard about how their boys volleyball team did, but our softball team, they advanced to the semifinals. They fell short to Cardinal Newman did had an outstanding season. Our baseball team competed in division one uh fell short in uh quarterfinals to Foothill. And our we have a couple track and field athletes that are still competing. I believe they should be heading to state this time of year. So very proud of our student athletes and um it's been an outstanding year. We have a couple of observances for June. Uh it's Pride Month. Um an opportunity to celebrate the
016LGBTQ plus community uh for the month of June. Uh it's African-American music appreciation month, Filipino Heritage Month, National Immigration Heritage Month, uh Junth, National Autistic Pride Day, and you can't forget Father's Day. So, get out there and get shopping for Father's Day. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Wright. Um, do we have any board reports? I go, you go first, please. Oh, no, please. Me. Oh, gosh. All right, I'll go first. Um, I had a couple a few things going on. Um, I attended a a CAP refinery tour of Valero. So, as part of my board duties, I'm on the community advisory uh panel for Valero. And um I've never, despite growing up in Benish, I've never seen the refinery behind the gates. And so, we took a tour of
017that with other new CAT members. It was very interesting. And it it kind of hit home that um Valero is going to leave a big void in this town if if they do end up closing. Um, I attended the night of the stars with many of us here tonight to honor all of our educators. It was a fantastic night. Um, attended BMS open house. It was um, I hope in the future more people show up. It's a great time to go walk around the campus. My son wanted to visit every room and we did that. So, come on down. Um, I went to Benanishia High School and had an opportunity to sit down with Principal Kleinmidt and meet with some of our CTE teachers and see the programs in action. And that was a great
018day. I felt um, just really inspired. So, thank you for having me. And, um, I wanted to Oh, I also went to the Memorial Day parade um, in Mil Valley. And I wanted to mention that Benanishia High and Benicia Middle School were the only marching bands in the parade. and principal Nelson who used to work in Mil Valley and who was walking with us, he came down. He was getting text messages just saying that we were the highlight of the parade and I I it was so cool. I would love to see that news coverage. I didn't even know that. That's great. Um I was approached by the Soptimists of Benicia. They have put together a new book. It is called supporting your future and it was written by Andre Lewis who's a local author
019um and spearheaded by Kelly Baldwin and um Julia Warner who are two of our seropimists also have kids in our schools at one at Farmer and at um Simple. Uh 10% of the sales of this book will go to the program. It's it's a literacy program and the book focuses on girls and opportunities that you can have as you grow up. um they are donating copies of these books to our schools. So I want to thank the Soptimus for doing that. That's awesome. Um it's a great book. Check it out. And then last but not least, um the city of Benicia at the direction of Mayor Young has established a number of task forces. There's one task force that includes BUSD and that's being spearheaded by Lionel Largaspatada. The idea of the task force is
020to kind of um determine what do we need to do to move forward on if Valero does in fact um cease operations. And so Lionel will be spearheading this event. I know that he's already talked to Dr. Beatson and the goal is to not be splintered in our approach, but to try to have a cohesive approach um to help fund uh the schools along with nonprofits, sports teams, um restaurants and hotels. That's kind of our task force number two. So, we'll hear more on that soon. Thank you. So, I also attended the night of stars, which is such a fantastic um evening to honor all the employees of Benishia Unified. Um it was a great night, well attended. Uh the food was was good and there was actually a bartender this time and it was
021really everybody was so happy and all um and this afternoon I I I had the great pleasure of attending the senior walk um at Matthew Turner and for me it's very personal because those are some of my my students and um it's it kind of brings a makes me a little tearary because They're so grown up. Sometimes it's hard to recognize them because they're just they have changed and and it's always such a wonderful experience. So, I'm just so happy that we as a district honor our seniors and bring them to our elementary schools so that um our elementary students can really see what what they can become. It's very inspiring. And that's all I have. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. So, now we come to [Music] um comments from members of the public and
022members of the public may address the board at regular meetings on any item within the board's jurisdiction. Speaker cards are available at the entrance table. Please note the item you wish to speak about and submit a card to the board secretary. The board president will call all the open session general comments government code section 54954.3 during the public item comment item. Comments on items on the agenda will be called during that specific item. Comments are limited to no more than three minutes per speaker or the board may limit the total time to 20 minutes per item with the timer displayed on the monitors. By law, no action can be taken on any item raised during the public comment periods and matters may be referred to staff or placement on future agenda on future agendas. Please
023be reminded to keep your comments respectful as students may be watching the board meeting. Thank you. Do we have any comments? We will move on. We are over to approval of the consent calendar. Background information on these items is provided to the board prior to the meeting. A common motion takes action without discussion on roll call vote unless discussion items is requested by the board members. So we have 11A. Oh, so we have approval of the minutes, acceptance of gifts to the district, which were unbelievably generous. So, Opus One Winery um and we want to we want to thank all those that uh that gifted the district. Opus One Winery um designated uh donated to the Joey Douglas Memorial Scholarship to Benia High School student scholarship fund in the amount of $500 and we thank
024them. Brian Douglas to Benicia High School student scholarship fund in the amount of $500 and we thank the Douglas family. Um, Valero in support of the Benicia High School girls softball program received a one-time check in the amount of $1,000 and we certainly appreciate that from Valero and donors choose.org a smartboard with an estimated value of $3,000 to the Meumi Sakamoto for the purpose of instruction special ed at Benicha High School. Thank you so much. We so appreciate all those wonderful gifts. Um, thank you so much. And now we come to I got to approve the Oh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry. We have to approve it. Sorry. I move that we approve the consent calendars written. I'll second grabs. Yes. Trusty Hirs. Yes. Trusty Seda. Yes. Melli. Yes. Trusty Manoski. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And
025then we have resolutions that will need to be recalled separately. Okay. Um approval of resolution number 24-25-32, declaration of obsolete books from Matthew Turner. I move that we approve resolution 24-25-32. That's going to be on the same motion. So it'll be um first by misella, second by first. Okay. And then we'll do the roll call vote. So, I'm going to do um Trusty Seda, yes. Trusty Miselli, yes. Trustee Manassi, yes. Trustee I mean President Grebs, yes. And Trusty Hirs, yes. Thank you. And approval of resolution number 24-25-37, declaration of obsolete property from Mary Farmer Elementary. Okay, those are the same motions. So, we go. President Grubs, yes. Trusty Manosi, yes. Trusty Hirs, yes. Trusty Miselli, yes. And Trusty Seda, yes. Thank you. And approval of resolution number 24-25-38, declaration of obsolete property from Mary Farmer
026Elementary. Again, the same motion. So, Trusty Manoski, yes. Trust um President Gross, yes. Trusty Zeta, yes. Trusty Hersh, yes. Trusty Miselli, yes. Thank you. Okay. So, now we come to item number 12, presentation and communications. Um, uh, 2025 to 2026 enrollment update. That will be Dr. Jennings and Dr. Oick. Um, yes. Uh, President Grubs, before we um start our presentation, I want to use this opportunity since the personal action was approved to um recognize someone that's in the audience that was recently approved as the athletic director, vice principal for Benishia High School. So, I am pleased to introduce Katie Cadero as the new um athletic director, vice principal for Benishia High School. Uh Katie Cadero comes to Benicia High School with over 15 years of classroom teaching experience. As a high school three sport athlete
027at Clayton Valley High School, Miss Cado was inducted into their athletic hall of fame both as an individual and as part of the 1998 North Coast Sectional Champions women's basketball team. Um she has continued her passion for athletics through coaching basketball, volleyball, and golf at the middle and high school levels. She has maintained her status as an LPGA uh teaching instructor since 2008 um giving both private and group lessons. And actually a Yelp reviewer Yelp reviewer stated that Katie is an amazing coach for players of all ages and all skill levels. Um, in her current position as a ninth grade physical education teacher, Katie is the PBI PBI PBIS team facilitator and serves as substit as a substitute administrator when needed. Katie brings with her desire to foster positive inclusive relationships through inter uh extracurricular
028activities. She gives credit to her experience as a youth participating um on numerous athletic teams um and to her ability as an adult to adapt to change, develop positive relationships and keep a winning attitude. We are very excited to welcome her to the um Benisha High Panther family. So I don't know if you want to say a few words. Sure. Uh yeah, I'm just I'm really excited to uh join the family, join the pride. Um, every interaction I've had with this district and everybody and the personnel, it's been really lovely. It's been very positive and it like matches my energy. So, I'm like really excited. Also, like the campus tour that I got to take with the students was so fun seeing the facilities and the kids like so proud of everything that they're doing.
029Volleyball team. I I brought um the first boys volleyball team to the last high school I was at. So, I'm like, "Yay, boys volleyball." Like, that makes me really excited. So yeah, I'm stoked to be wearing blue and uh to join the Benanishia Panthers. So thank you. Thank you so much, Miss Gado. [Applause] Okay, now on to the presentation of um on enrollment. So good evening, President Grubs, um board trustees, uh superintendent Wright, and the Benanisha Unified community. Tonight with the support of uh Dr. Dr. Don Ovik um the director of student services will present on the policies and timelines for um of enrollment specifically on inter and inter and intra district transfers. Thank you. Next slide. Um we will cover sort of our presentation flow. We'll cover board policy sort of the application of
030policy. We'll also look at the enrollment timeline, sort of how we operate um through spec specifically through the spring and then sort of some next steps as we think about next year and any modifications or revisions that we might want to do to the process. So this language is pulled straight from our board policy. It's specifically around intra district transfers, which is also known as open enrollment. Um, just as a reminder, this window opens March 1st to March 31st where families that reside in Benicia, particularly at obviously at our elementary sites because we have one middle school and one high school, um, have the ability to apply to attend a school that's not within their boundaries. There is uh board policy language that specifically says that a student within that residency area cannot be displaced
031by a student who does not live in that those boundaries. So that is part of our board policy and I just really wanted to make sure to call that out. And then here are the um expect or the guidelines regarding uh what circumstances that someone can request a transfer. The next uh in uh enrollment that we wanted to look at or type of enrollment is interdist transfers. Those are students who live outside of the Benicia um Benicia city and wish to come to Benicia schools. And this application window opens in January. It actually starts January 10th um of each year and continues on. There's not necessarily an end point. We tend to have that open, but um I'll show you in the timeline kind of where we actually sort to make some decisions. And again,
032I I called out that language that no student currently residing within the school district boundaries will be displaced um because of a student who's attending from outside the attendance area. And these are the eligible reasons that someone can give uh to attend a school in Benicia. So whether it's child care, transportation, if they have spec um special um some kind of special uh mental or physical health needs, this language is taken from ED code. So these are the reasons in ed code that allow a student from another district to apply for an interd district transfer. And so the district that they're coming from, there's a process that they have and they have criteria. They have board policy in terms of what allows a student to leave their district to come here. They have their own
033process that they use and that they apply. So families have to first go through that process in that district before we receive the application and and review it. Dr. Jennings, can I ask you a question? Sure. Absolutely. Um I noticed on the two priority the eligible reasons for the intra and the interd district transfers those are both based on statute the priorities. Yes. Okay. And and so we can't really because they don't match up the priorities like there are different priorities for um intra allows an employee of a school to have a priority but that's not the case for inter exactly that's okay and I think it goes back to the priority is given and we'll we'll go through I have another slide that we'll the priority is given for residents of Venicia so okay
034that's always going to be the higher priority okay so Good question. Um the next just as an important note um when students request to attend um on an interd district agreement or an IDA that we have we make sure that they have good attendance they have to submit their attendance records. They have to submit any discipline records that they have um and their grades. So we have that information so that we can ensure that they meet the requirements in terms of average grades and good attendance. And in order to remain on an interd district agreement, they have to maintain those. And students are um if they do not, they're typically given a warning notice of some kind. And then in those um instances where the students attendance is poor, it's usually typically attendance. Then in
035those cases, we unfortunately have to revoke the interd district transfer if that's becomes an issue. Um also we um sometimes have uh times when there's not space in that grade level or that school or that program um where we cannot accept an interd district transfer. So we look at that as well. It's it can be a really complex sort of puzzle that uh Dr. O Dr. Dr. Oick and I have spent quite a few hours going through and making sure that we have appropriate space where we need to have space. And so just to recap a little a bit. So students living in Benicia school residents have first priority over wherever they live whichever boundary they have first priority. Second are students um I'm sorry students living in the Venicia school's residency boundary. So if
036you are a student at Robert Simple, if you live in Robert simple's boundaries, you have priority at that site. Second comes students living anywhere in Benicia. Um we do have there's some guidelines if there's a sibling that's attending a school that you're requesting to attend or if there's a parent or guardian working at the school that they also get priority if they live in Benicia. Like that's the if they live in Benicia. So that is the second priority and then third those are students on interd district transfers and then there's a process that we go through for that and we prioritize first our students currently enrolled in the school. So we have particularly at TK. So we have students who apply for interd district transfers at transitional kindergarten. They come in so they then will
037do a renewal. So they get priority over students who are newly enrolling as on an interd district or trying to uh who are applying for um as a kindergartener who have not been in our school yet. So then or if they have siblings at the school site. So if you are applying you have siblings at the school site you might get priority over someone else who does not have siblings already attending that school and then um the other uh any all others it's based on just is there space at that grade level at that school and in that program and sometimes the answer is no there's not space at that grade level but there's space here so we'll offer another site um or if there's not place space in the program students are placed on
038a wait Another question. Is there ever the is it ever the case where um if you have too many people in a in a geographic area assigned to a school like say I mean if I'm living in the Matthew Turner district which is where I am could it be the case that the school is full and my kids couldn't go there? That I that has happened on occasion. I imagine over the course of the years, I mean, I remember when my own children attended Venanishia schools, that might happen, especially if they're enrolling later in the later in the year, that that could possibly be happen. We do have to abide by our collective bargaining agreement with our teachers union in terms of the class size limitations that we have. We're not going to put someone
039over and have, you know, we would have to have the kid, even just for that school year, attend somewhere else. But we do work to staff it so that we have adequate space at that site for the students who live in that attendance boundary. Yeah. And it's never happened since I've been here that I know of, but I'm just curious. Has happened to Oh, it has happened. Okay. I know Joe Henderson. um especially if we have space in another school in another district and um you know unfortunately students don't come in nice neat class size packages because we would really love that but oft there might be 15 kids in one class at one site and and so we can't add just another class at another school site for three kids over so we have
040to have them go to a different school. Okay, the next slide. This is the enrollment decision timelines or just sort of give you sort of an overview of the process. As I mentioned earlier, we the interd district applications start or open on January 10th. And so we have families who are you live outside the district who are interested in coming to Benicia. You know, they apply, they can apply in January and February. And as we go through the timeline, you'll see that they may not hear until June. It's a long timeline for for that process. And part of it is is that our district enrollment opens in February. So students who reside in in Benicia, they start registering for the next school year in February. And then after that starts, then in March is when
041open enrollment happens. So families that live in Benicia can then request to go to a different school. So that happens in March from March 1st to the 31st. It closes on the 31st. So that's when we start making decisions around based on where our current enrollment to the best of our knowledge is where the students who are what what open enrollment spaces we have or if we have any open enrollment spaces. So then that decision has to be made. Then we look so those are the the interd district the open enrollment. So we look at the inter districts and then we notify families here either weight list you're being placed here um or we you know we aren't able to accommodate your request and then we start looking at interd district transfers and that typically
042doesn't happen until or until early May and then we first start with renewals. So we look at the students who are already in our schools they're transitioning from 5th to 6th or 8th to 9th and they're renewing their inter district transfer. So then we look at those, go through the process, evaluate grades, attendance to see who is approved um for the next room, next grade and who we have space, how many students we have space for. And then we notify um the out of district renewal applicants. So then that's done. Then we start with the new applicants, people who are newly requesting to attend a school in Benicia that live outside the Benicia area. We go through that same evaluate is there space in that grade? that's that that site, that grade or that program.
043And then we are just now um working on finishing um or almost finished, not quite finishing the notifications to those families. Um and our hope is to finish it by mid mid June so that people go into the summer having some certainty about where they're attending school. And so you can see as I go through the timeline and where where we're making decisions, there's some things that we might want to do a little differently as we think about next year. There are some things that are part of board policy. Open enrollment is in part of board policy. That's something that we might look at as we think about uh that window of when it opens because that we h we pause everything else until we can ensure that where families have who have requested to
044attend a different school in in Benicia um where the openings are. So if you want to go to the next slide. Thank you. So, uh, one of the things that we're doing sort of to make sure that one, our staffing is accurate and that we have the space that we need is that we are going to schedule some time during July. Normally July is sort of a a quiet period here, but and the sites are all closed, but allow have some time where families could come to the district office to finish their enrollment process so that we don't wait until the office staff returns in August to take any new enrollments. So then if we need to make any adjustments, we can make them um and be proactive about it. So we're not making them
045days before school starts. Um and then we're going to monitor our enrollment over the summer. And then if we have the opportunity to approve any inter districts or um or if there's any intra district or open enrollments that weren't approved, but now there's space, we can make those adjustments. We'll monitor that over the summer. And then we're going to continue to communicate with families. the families that are on the wait list. They're, you know, going to be finding out in the next few weeks, you know, if they're if they have a place or they've been placed on a wait list. And then we're looking at revising the enrollment timeline for next school year and and doing just a couple little tweaks of when our enrollment opens as a district and then when the open enrollment
046period opens as a district. So, those are some things that we're looking at to refine the process. And then I didn't know if Dr. Oc. We're good. Okay. He's done a phenomenal job of of organizing, maintaining, communicating with families. I I I just want to appreciate your going through this step by step. Um it it really clarifies and the the other thing is I I love your forward thinking. You know, I think that that you've um you and Dr. Oette may have um listened to the community and and and so I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Thank you for asking. I just want to say maybe ask a question. So, thank you. This is super helpful. I really appreciate that. I know that, you know, our Valo um families are really sort of questioning
047and wondering what's happening and um what what the next steps are for them. Um and I just want to put this out there just in terms to support um those families. Is is it fair to say that those families really need to be communicating with the Vallejo City School District and you know establish that communication line there? I I appreciate the question. Absolutely. I think that um because they have to start the process there and um I know that there's been changes in some of our neighboring districts in terms of their process for uh interd district transfers and so they h that's that's going to be the source of information for them for them um because we're not aware of if they have any sort of change in practice or ch we're not always made
048aware of that. So we work hard not to advise them about what to do because we don't know what exactly what their process is. They have updated like Valleon uh specifically has updated their website. It has it's a wealth of knowledge in terms of the process and what families need to do. And I would just encourage them to check the website. There's con you know people to contact there if they have questions because the process starts there. And I do know that as we've gone through this this spring, you know, obvious, you know, there's going we're going to have less and less like space available. Just because we staff to a certain amount and then it's it might be a challenge. And even if they are released from um from a neighboring district doesn't mean
049that we would have space of that school, that grade, or that program. that that confuses me a little bit because we're in declining enrollment and we do depend on our uh inner district transfers. Yes. And we also want to make sure that we have adequate staffing. So we have staffed based on our projections and you know obviously that has some inclusion of of students who are on inter transfers. Our challenge is that's the challenge that's going to be there in the coming years is as um our neighboring districts have are tightening their process and requiring students to enroll or to to reapply every year that that's become a new policy for them. So it's going to create a lot of fluctuation in terms of us knowing how many students. So for us to have some
050sense of like we know that we can accommodate X number within our you know what we our enrollment projections then that will allow us to adequately staff. It's complex. It is really complex and obviously we don't want to if we have the space we will we'll take them but we also don't want to be in a position where we're hiring in August or September for a teacher because we we've taken more than we actually have staffing for. Oh sorry go ahead. Um is it it's true I believe that if we have a staff member teacher or st you know classified certificated that if they work at a specific school and possibly have a student in the district and they have an incoming TKER and we don't have space for them. How do we handle that?
051I'm not put I'm not trying to put you on the spot. So, I just want to make sure I'm clear on what the question is. So, if we currently have a staff member who's has a child that's attending our school or their child, where wherever and they have an incoming space, as long as we have their they've applied early enough that we should not have a a there should not be a problem. And then I mean I mean we we we are adjusting at I mean on daily in terms of making sure that we are not overstaffed where we have more staff than we have students because that would be a big hit to our budget and then at the same time making sure that the staff we have are are um we have enrollment
052to match that. And also remember that some sites get impacted where other sites are not impacted. So the sites that are impacted, yes, we can still accept that transfer, but it just may be at another school site. So in the district for one year, but maybe not at that school site because there's just not room at this time. Um sometimes things change over the summer. Sometimes people move. There's some shifting and when that happens and we'll make adjustments accordingly. But um we do accept IDAs just may not be at the school site that you want because there just may not be space at that particular time. Okay. I appreciate the input explanation. Thank you. And I just you know and again we we do prioritize this the families that reside in that area. So, and
053there we do have some sites that are highly impacted at specific grade levels where without adding a whole another class, which means that you need to make sure that you have 24 to 28 students to fill that it becomes problematic. Yes. Although, if we do and then we don't have kids, it more lost money. I mean either way, like it's like it is there's a little bit of a um you know, we do our best to make sure that our projections are as close to what we believe we're going to show up and and be present on that first that first week of school. So, we do our best. Thank you so much for the update. One more question. If um families now that our schools our school year is ending, if they do want
054to come in July and come here to the district office, who who do they call? What? We will we will update the website and and so when you go to the enrollment information, it'll it'll have contact information and then we'll have like one day a week where there will be someone here that they can bring in a button at the top that makes it easy for them. Fantastic. Great. Great. Thank you all. Wonderful. Thank you. So now we come to uh our action items and Miss Egan you are up. Good evening. I am pleased to bring the recommendations to the board for consideration and possible appointment of two new members to the citizens bond oversight committee. The recommendations are to appoint Dr. Gusede Moss to the CBOC in the capacity of retirees, senior citizens organization
055and secondly, Kelly Houston to the CBOC in the capacity of a parent or guardian of a child enrolled in the school district. The applicants appointments to the CBOC committee are in keeping with the major C bylaws and the recommendation is to appoint the two applicants to the committee. Questions? I have I have a question. I was wondering if you could give some more background on the process. I know that we went back out and advertised and thank you so much for doing that. I know um you know it's it's a lot more of your time. I appreciate it and I'm curious to know, you know, how many people applied and how decisions were whittleled down. Recommendation. Sure. Um, we had six total applicants. Of them, one was an applicant to the retiree position. The there
056were four that were applicants to the parent of a BUSD student um category. And then there was one that is an applicant that is eligible both as a parent and also as a business um member for the district. That particular applicant we had some questions on. Um we are considering them for the business role, but we need to work through a couple questions before we're going to bring recommendations to you. Um on the remaining four that applied for the position as a parent, one of them was ineligible because they are um contracted to the district. So under the CVOC bylaws, they're not eligible. One of them was um less desirable just because their student only has one more year in high school and so their eligibility will only be present for one year and then
057it came down to two remaining. We chose one based on activities involved and things like that. So that was kind of um our process and how we went through it. Is that a Hi Roxan. Is that a typical amount of people that normally apply? It's actually a good amount that is a good amount. Yeah, that was a very good amount and we can certainly Yeah, I it we're grateful to have people willing to serve on it. We need their input and help and so um we do the best we can to try to get people participate. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. On that note, and it so it would be the these two individuals plus Mark, Diane, and Mark. Marks. Yes, that is correct. Um and then we have two more positions to fill. We
058have two more positions that are open. Yes. Um it would be a position in the business member and a tax um person who's involved in a tax accountant. We at a minimum we need enough to have a quorum which is four. And we are not mandated to have all seven full. We do need at least four and then to go through our process and do the best we can. When does the when would the application go out for the remaining two? Um we can reissue the request. The other one I'm not sure the business one has to be reissued. There's just some clarifications that need we can reissue the ones for the tax person in the tax association. Um, I would visualize I mean a lot of people leave over the summer and stuff so
059I would think maybe this fall might be a good target but if you want me to go sooner I can. That would be my thought. Yeah, I think it would be great if there's opportunity from within those applications if there was somebody that was eligible. Yeah. Um I I think you know diversity of thought is important particularly as we're you know managing tens of millions of dollars um and taxpayers money. So really wanting to make sure that we have good representation um of that I think is is important. Absolutely. Um and another possible consideration I I saw in the bylaws that it's just a minimum of seven. We could appoint I know you mentioned there was one other parent applicant who you had to decide between. You know this is somebody who's willing to help
060out. I I'm so grateful that people applied. You know I hate to almost hate to turn somebody away. Um, is that possible to like appoint another atlarge member? Completely at the board's discretion if you want to appoint additional people at large. That's something that is new. There were a couple of tweaks between the major C bylaws that um were enacted and I I think that they just are handed down from the state when that goes through and there were some tweaks to the major C and this particular item is a is a minor addition from what it was under major S, but that is definitely an option. I just would need to check if we are appointing the additional people as an atlarge member if that means I need to readvertise. So because at large
061wasn't advertised because those positions weren't open. So I don't know if you can just since based on the applications received direct that or if we need to re advertise it to in case anybody at large wants to apply. So I could check on that though for you if you'd like and get clarification. That would be great just so that we know the rules and if we need to do a new policy to kind of maybe we add two more community atlarge members so that we don't have you know a gazillion and then which I know won't happen but you never know. No, I think it's good to have it be an amazing thing but yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So what's the next step then if we wanted to do more applications of that?
062Can we pause to to these or what we would recommend and ask is that you go ahead and approve these so we have enough to do our needed immediate business and then we can continue and open it for more after this. But we we kind of need these guys there. I'm going to add in that um we've had our interim audit already and right now we're completely out of compliance because one we don't have a an appropriate committee. We need to have a quorum and we're supposed to have at least one meeting. So we have the month of June to be comp compliant or we have um an audit finding. So the audit finding is more severe if you don't have a committee or a meeting, less severe if you have a committee but no
063meeting or we can avoid the audit finding if we have a committee and a meeting in June. Let's do that please. I'd like to make a motion that we approve the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee appointments to fill open vacancies. I second that. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And we come to 13B. Uh consideration and approval of the adoption of curriculum for world languages, Chinese and Mandarin for the high school. Hello, Mrs. Rice. Good evening, board. Good evening, cabinet. I'm Stephanie Rice, director of education services, and it is my pleasure to bring forth uh the recommendation for hopeful approval of Go Far with Chinese by Chang and Sue Company. And this recommendation comes from our um newly hired Miss Leang who will be our Chinese Mandarin instructor at
064Benishia High School. Um thank you, Mr. Klein Schmidt, for connecting us. um and she was willing to get on board with uh digging into the curriculum with me. Um she has experience with this company a different uh textbook and so she was really excited to see this one. Uh she prefers uh Goar with Chinese for our level one Chinese Mandarin course. Um she was really impressed with the curriculum as I was impressed with her reflections. She followed our adoption protocol as I've shared with you. that's very hefty and reflective. Um, some of the highlights are that it it aligns with the American Council for Teaching Foreign Language Standards, which we always make sure for our world languages. Uh, the lessons address uh contextual grammar, vocabulary, real real world communication and language practice. And uh, a
065big highlight is it's written for teens. So they follow the path of um high school uh Chinese students. Uh they're having discussion about things that apply to uh high school students and they learn about the culture through the lens of um other high school students. It's engaging. It's both digital and print. Uh they get to practice their fluency by by hearing the language and then responding back. Uh they read stories in comic book format. So that's not just engaging, but it also um brings the the the affect down of entering into another language and having just a lot of text. So it's engaging and it allows kids to enter in at different levels. Um the structure is really organized, she highlighted for both teacher and students, really clear to follow and then it builds upon
066itself in spirals. And then lastly, she highlighted that it states explicitly in the curriculum, if there is anything you don't understand, let your teacher know. And she said, of course, I'm going to explain that to my students. But it spoke a lot to her that it it's stated right there, and she wants her student to ask when they don't know. So, that's the overview of the Go Far with Chinese curriculum. Any questions? I I just want to congratulate the district for having this new class. It's very exciting. And to the students that are going to take it, they not only have to learn the language, but they also have to learn the alphabet and put that together. And I I would love to see some of their work, you know, as they get move on
067in the in the year. But I think it's amazing. So, thank you for the uh putting that together. How many students do we have signed up? Believe it's three sections. Yeah. Yeah. It's awesome. That's great. Thank you. And to add on, Missa, what you were just talking about, I was at Matthew Turner um handing out awards for our home language recognition and for students that uh passed the ELPAC. And I had several students there that were practicing their home language and it was Mandarin. and it was very exciting to share that we have a new course and we got to share about the syllabi literacy options. So they were really excited to hear that they're off this strong path uh for high school and one of them was a first grader. So so make a
068motion that we approve the adoption of the curriculum for the world language Chinese Mandarin for high school. I'll second. All those in favor? I opposed. Thank you. And still one more. All right. So, I'm also here for your consideration and hopeful approval of the adoption of curriculum for our Pearl. That's a program for emotional regulation and learning and our IA or intensive academics um ELA programs for high school and our intensive academics program for our middle school. and I'm bringing forth study sync uh from McGra Hill which you have um already adopted for our Liberty High School. And um I worked with our um special education teachers to really look at how to have our students be presented with age appropriate um high school relevant material, but also that provides scaffolds and access for our
069students. And um hands down, StudySync was the winner. Um it has so many different text options. Um so the way it's taught is through the close reading model and uh the piece that's really engaging is before they jump into the text they have a video blast. So it's kind of like a movie trailer that um engages the students and then they also watch teaching videos by high school students. So they model how to uh think out loud. they model how to go back and site evidence from the text or annotate. And so the teachers really appreciated that it's studentled teaching videos that they can then teach into as a model. Um the teachers also said that the students are doing the work. Um it is engaging. It's definitely a step in the right direction. Um
070the scaffolds that are built in for our students um are really fantastic. the teacher gets to decide um according to what the students needs are um that they can assign different scaffolds to different students. For example, for writing um a student may they they get the same prompt and a student may uh uh re reply in paragraph form. Um another student may have the topic sentence there for them so that they can then engage after that. Another student may have topic sentence and then supporting details where they're plugging in keywords so that depending on where they are, what their level is, they're still all getting to access that age appropriate high school uh rich literature. So, um again bringing this forward for the teachers. Um, also then, um, after our high school trained and dug
071into this, they were communicating with our middle school, um, intensive academic teacher, uh, Bonnie Ramirez, and she, uh, dug into this and wants to be able to align our intensive academics program at the middle school, um, with our high school program because this is available for 6th through 12th grade. So that's why I am bringing forth the recommendation for it to be adopted for our Pearl and IA programs at the high school level and our IIA program at the middle school level. I'll make a motion. All right. To approve the adoption of curriculum for the Pearl and for intensive academics um ELA for high school. I'll second that. All those in favor. Any Thank you. and Dr. Jennings, we are up to 13E. Uh, good evening again. Yes, this predict 13D, excuse me. Um, yes.
072So, uh, this item is uh comes to the board annually. um in the instance where we might have a teacher that's not fully credentialed or fully qualified under um the California teach commission on teacher credentiing, we're required to make this declaration of need and it's an annual declaration that comes before the board in order for us to apply for a waiver on behalf of the teacher um who may be missing you know one component of a teacher credential. Do we have any um students that sorry any teachers in that position? Currently this year I think we have about three. So that we approve the declaration of need for the 2526 year for fully qualified education. I'll second. All those in favor? I. Any oppose? And uh Dr. Jennings, you are still up. Um memorandum of
073understanding with Venicia Teachers Association. Um yes, this memorandum um outlines that our collective bargaining agreement has a point4 release time that the district supports for uh the whoever is the Benishia teachers association president. the uh BTA had applied for a grant with the California teachers association association that uh it will match the point4. So we are able to then for next school year allow for the BTA president to be released from teaching for8 next year and the grant is focused on building leadership um capacity within the the teachers union. So, I think it's such a a good use of the time because we all know that a strong union makes for a strong district. So, we want to make sure that we maintain that and and build the the teachers union. I think that people
074need to remember too that's not going to cost the district any money. It doesn't come out. It's paid for by CTA, not the district. Thank you for clarifying. I'll make a motion um to approve the memorandum of understanding with the Venicia Teachers Association for BTA president release time. Second in favor I I Okay. And we come to 13F um consideration and approval of the school resource officer. All right. Good evening. Um staff recommends that we approve the contract um before you. Um we value we really value the relationship with the Benicia Police Department. I got to tell you, they show up. Um historically they show up and um I will say that they're also very willing to come to the table and and talk about some things that we want improvement on. And through this
075negotiation process, they were very open. Um, I know the last couple of years they've had staffing issues and we had to go from one SR two SRO's to one SRO and we talked about time on campus. So, through this negotiation process, um, the police chief is very committed to keeping, we've got a new resource officer who's excited to do the role. It's been hard to recruit one. And this new resource officer, the expectation is that they're at BHS and BMS. That's where they're stationed. and if there's any calls or any emergencies, then there's a there's a conversation and some communication. So, I'm very happy where this is going and um we recommend that we move forward with it and continue this relationship and and if any issues come up, he said pick up the phone
076and call me. Uh we value this partnership and we're looking forward to move forward. I just want to say thank you BPD for your absolutely your quick action and your partnership especially with this week. My good my goodness. Really appreciate it. Um I'd like to make a motion um to approve the school resource officers contract for 25 through 27 2025 through 2027. I can't believe it's that many years into this. I will second that. All those in favor? I oppose. Now we come to 13G and the board and I are pleased to welcome Janice Adams as our interim superintendent. She began as a special education teacher in Arizona and later taught elementary students at the International School in Japan. In 1990, she joined the Venicia Unified School District in California where she served as um
077in various roles including resource teacher, assistant principal, principal of Robert Simple Elementary School. In 2006, Mrs. Adams was appointed interim superintendent of Unified School District and became the permanent superintendent in 2007, a position she held until her retirement in 2015. During her tenure, she led the district through significant financial challenges, improved teacher morale, and oversaw the passage of a $49 million facilities improvement bond. Her leadership was recognized when she was named region 4 superintendent of the year in 2012. We appreciate you coming on board, Janice, while we search for a permanent superintendent. We plan to hire a search company in the next coming days. Would you like to say a few words? [Laughter] Well, thank you for the opportunity for asking me and having confidence. Um I when I came in this evening, I was
078like, I know things have changed. It's been a while and I and I so many wonderful things have happened to Venanishia since I'm left and my goal is to keep the progress under Dr. rights leadership with this great team and board and just keep it moving forward until you're able to get a permanent uh superintendent. I have to say I looking around I'm thinking one one strength I have is I know talent. I hired both of those two and I think I hired that one over there twice. Once once in Fairfield and once in um in Benish and you promoted this one. Yes. And this one too. Oh my gosh. So they're I I guess they're something I'm proud of, but thank you. I'm going to do my very best to keep things moving forward
079and look forward to working with all of you. Thank you. Thank you. I move that we approve the appointment in the capacity of intern superintendent for the Benish Unified School District effective July 1st, 2025. I'll second. All those in favor? I I any opposed you and now we come to uh 13H consideration and approval of the interim superintendent employment agreement. Mrs. Adams contract as interim superintendent provides for a flexible work schedule 3 to five days per week. She will perform all standard responsibilities expected of a superintendent to ensure the effective operation and administration of the district. Compensation will be provided on a per day basis. This agreement will remain in effect until permanent superintendent is hired at which point the contract will be terminated. We sincerely look forward to her leadership and thank her for
080thank you for accepting the position. Is there a motion? I'll move that we approve the interim superintendent appointment employment agreement. I'll second. All those in favor? I I oppose. Excellent. And we come to the end of our meeting. Um, our next meeting will be June 12th. And thank you so much. Oh, and we're going to have a little reception.