001e e e to call this meeting to order hi everybody it's nice to see all of you um um we have one report from uh closed session and that is a um um in uh settlement agreement approval um in the closed session by a vote of 5 to zero with zero extensions and absence the board took action to approve a settlement agreement in special ed case number 24-25 d01 um the board voted as follows eyes five nose zero absent zero and abstain zero so um this meeting is being recorded for live streaming And archiving and on the district YouTube channel sorry um uh at youtube.com SLC banisha Unified School District for your convenience um and Miss beatson Dr beatson would You' like to lead us in the pledge un I move that we approve the
002agenda as written I'll second all those in favor I I any opposed thank you item number nine um student reports we have um Victoria black Blackman from uh Liberty High School good evening pres no good evening president grubs superintendent Dr Wright and fellow trustees and cabinet members this month's attendance challenge is called we love that you are here besides LLY drawings for all students at achieve an attendance rate of 94% or higher They will receive a box of Valentine's chocolates last month 24% of our students had perfect attendance another 32 had near perfect attendance hopefully we will continue to celebrate success we have several learning through interest field trips planned for next week we have a CTE tour at salano Community College and a visit to California Job Corp in Sacramento today several students went
003mountain biking in and around Golden Gate Park in San Francisco students are learning how to fix and repair bikes we are taking what we are learning and creating our own bike repair shop on campus students have been providing their input on redesigning our student lounge it is indeed a new look we hope to have most of it completed by our WC visi in March thank you you Victoria and Isa hello president grubs and fellow council members before break leadership planned and hosted bhs's first annual clash of the classes it consists ined of a Spirit Week where points were awarded to everyone who dressed up for the spirit days each class nominated a champion to represent them at the lunch activities every day that week which included a math art basketball and trivia competition all leading
004up to the rally at the end of the week points were awarded to the classes of the winners along with some more competitions at the rally itself in the end the Juniors secured the win at the rally in the same week leadership sold and handed out Valentine's roses unified basketball held multiple games garnering a lot of spirit from the student section the Ser Optimus Club hosted a teen Dating Violence awareness event and black student union hosted a movie event to start off Black History Month finally wrestling and basketball senior nights led up to ski week this week in leadership the prom committee is working on finalizing the announcement of the Dan's theme date time and location invitations are being created and will be sent out soon to all Juniors and seniors the panther passport week
005committee is working on our next Panther passport week the week in April where we celebrate different cultures and Heritage each day during that week the kitchen will be making different meals from the individual cultures to hand out to the student body and traditional cultural performances such as dances or games will be out in the quad at lunch student body elections for student leadership are coming up next week an informational meeting will be held next Tuesday providing information on the election process available positions And the benefits of joining leadership the meeting is required for those who want to run for positions in addition Dance 2 and advanced dance are having auditions on Monday audition information is on the BHS website and on the dance Department Instagram account AP exam registration is closing on March 7th finally
006three members of the BHS the BHS debate team are heading to Nationals and state competitions thank you and then we come ladies if you would like to um go on with your evening you're welcome to or you can stay if you like bye [Laughter] and um Dr Wright you're up all right good evening um tonight I want to celebrate Liberty High School um gosh they are officially uh California model continuation high school for California and that's an incredible achievement and they will be celebrated on April 26th down in San Diego uh I believe the celebration is going to take place on the USS Midway um and we're just so proud of the work that they've done um Kim Lewis thank you for all your hard work Liberty staff and students um you continue to make
007us proud and just thank you for your hard work and we're very proud of your accomplishments um today is world day of social justice is an international day that recognizes the importance of promoting social justice that includes um addressing issues such as poverty exclusion gender inequality unemployment human rights and social protection and Dr be is jumping up and down today excited because we officially um finished a federal program monitoring um system we've passed with flying colors we've got notified today and um we're very happy about that it's all I have today thank you wonderful um and board reports I have a board report so um about a week ago I attended My First Community advisory panel meeting the cap meeting at valo and the cap is a forum for updates to educate the public um
008and stakeholders I'm there on as part of my duties for the district uh and it was very informative we basically set up future topics for future meetings um but one thing I did want to bring to everybody's attention is that there is a wealth of information online at bonisha cap.com uh www. banisha app.com and they have information about the refinery information about any incidents that happen one of my questions is how would the public find information when an incident happens I usually hear about it through the school or maybe through you know alerts through the county but um this website will have all that information and and you can link to other monitoring uh sites through that site so I just wanted to let everybody know about that uh but it was a great meeting
009wonderful are there any other okay so now we come to item number 10 comments from members of the public all functions of the board meeting including public comments will take place in person members of the public May address the board at a regular meeting on any item within the board's jurisdiction speaker cards are available at the entrance table please note that any item you wish to speak to and submit a a card to the board secretary the board president will call all to the Open Session General comment section government code section 5495 4.3 during public comment items Co comments for items on the agenda will be called during the specific item comments are limited to No More Than 3 minutes per speaker or the board May limit the total time of to 20 minutes per
010item 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 for placement on future agenda of the governing board please be reminded to keep your comments respectful as students may be watching the board meeting thank you so we our first Speaker tonight is Ellie Petroski hi my name is Ellie I go to Joe Henderson Elementary School and I'm in fourth grade I have heard that this board is cutting steam programs for Budget reasons I am asking you not to cut steam programs steams teaches kids about how our bodies work how computers work and and how cartin work lots of other interesting and important things school would not be fun if all we did was read
011and do math School helps steam helps school be more exciting for all students steam teaches us that we can grow up to be Engineers scientists and mechanics this is why I think we should keep funding for steaming programs thank you thank you Alie our next speaker is Chris grubs uh good evening um sorry I have a loud of voice I apologize um I'm here tonight thank you board members Dr W Dr beatson um I'm here tonight speaking as a physical education teacher I know I'm in my coaching guard but came just from practice um a year ago on February 16th us say bonisha Unified School members got a email from Dr Wright the title of the email was called we move forward with confidence a lot of us were wondering how we were going to
012move forward with so many people taking this retirement incentive 43 that's what is listed in this email we didn't have any say we didn't we kind of questioned it we were sent this email and reassurance that this was going to keep us fiscally solvent and avoid cutting General budget budget items for the next 5 years one year later we are here today cutting General budget item programs we are cutting teachers we are cutting people who are directly in contact with students a very very minute suggested cut to help us become fiscally solvent now is coming from this building it is all coming from outside of this building it makes us feel that we are not a team it makes us feel that we are not together it makes us feel Expendable it makes us feel
013less valuable and like that young lady said School needs to be someplace that they look forward to and it's us as teachers as Librarians as psychologists as mental health clinicians that they are seeing on a daily basis I implore the board to please look at what could be done to make our budget more equally cut from the top down let's take examples from these other districts who are leading by that example and cutting from the district office proportionally as they're cutting from the teachers and the support staff because like I said not even a year ago we were given reassurance for the next 5 years we will be good and here we are today so please I know there is a lot of tough choices that you guys have to make but please do not
014let it come from firstline people that have contact with some of your children on a daily basis thank you so we come to um item 11 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 of items is requested by the board members um I I go ahead oh each other I'd like to um move that the well let's vote on the the consent calendar um I'm it's good I yes I'm like oh are you making a motion want approve making a motion I'm nervous tonight sorry I'm making a motion to approve the consent calendar as written I'll second that thank you m Mar I to do a roll call for this one
015sorry president grubs yes trusty Hirsch yes trusty Seda yesi yes Manas yes right and there's also a resolution on this consent count calendar that we'll have a separate roll call if that's okay so it's approval of resolution number 24-25-4 Declaration of Liberty High School obsolete property um can I have a motion we don't need the motion we don't need go under the same motion and so president GBS yes trusty P yes trusty Seda yes trusty Meli yes and trusty manasi yes thank you and we come to the pre our presentations for tonight's um Dr Wright you are up all right good evening so I um I come here tonight uh with a follow-up presentation from the February 6th governing board meeting um where we brought forward a recommendation for consideration um the initial recommendation anyway
016so that our the discussions that we were having about right sizing our district we wanted to make sure that they were happened publicly and we were transparent in our Communications oh okay we got we're going to go back to public comment it's not public it's um uh their comments for um item number 12 they're going to go they're going to go after right before the action item after my present oh thank you sorry so just to clarify what we're discussing so there's some comments to this item so I'm going to do a presentation then we'll do the comments and then we'll go to action item 13 okay before hi good evening correct I apologize yes um I was a little late coming in so they weren't sure where to put it but General comment um
017I appreciate you all for hearing me out today I'm here today to talk about social media access and the lack of monitoring on bud laptops that you touched upon uh the last meeting and hopefully in future meetings uh regarding the line wise so I have fifth and sixth grade daughters in the bisha Unified School District I've been in bisha for 11 years with my family and my husband and I we've always prioritized limiting our children's exposure to the internet social media always been one of our main priorities in our home our children don't have tablets we have YouTube on our main TV password protected for us to turn on for them and they have phones but they have pin wheel software which doesn't allow them any internet or social media activity so my daughter is
018a sixth grader so first time at BMS and at the beginning of the school year I noticed she was always on her laptop what a great student I was so proud of her to I realized I'd walk into her room and she would slam the laptop shut hm that's weird so I asked her what are you doing on that laptop Mom sorry I have to be honest with you I'm watching Tik Tock shorts on YouTube on my laptop what I was flabbergasted I couldn't believe it because of course I work at a hospital and I can't even go on a Google without them telling me no sorry you don't have access so I would have never thought she would have access to YouTube without any you know blockage at home I didn't even know she
019had access to YouTube and I went to all of the BMS welcome to the middle school I read all of the Middle School guidelines and nowhere did it say anywhere about hey this is what your child has access to she of course is required to bring this laptop home so now we've had to create all of these rules about you can't have your laptop in your room so that way we're able to police this laptop so I know line wise it looks great to me I hope you guys enjoyed that presentation last week but there are going to be some budgetary issues so I wanted to bring up some other thoughts I had about how we can help this issue first and foremost you know in the elementary school they were able to leave their
020laptops at school so this wasn't an issue the BMS has a revolving schedule so their six period is their first period so I don't understand why there's not the option of hey I don't need my laptop tonight for homework I'm going to leave it in my sixth period it will be there for me to collect my first period the following day that would help with some of these issues but if you had homework on your laptop you could still bring it home at the very least I would really hope that we can give more information to parents I talk to parents all the time about this issue because we have a lot of sixth grade friends and none of them had any idea that there were games and YouTube available on this laptop and of
021course my understanding is when they bring the laptop home because it's off of that um server from the school now there are a lot less restrictions there's no Gog Guardian when they have it at home I did try to contact the IT department and I never received a call back so I'm not sure if that's accurate but I appreciate you guys letting me speak tonight thank you thank thank you I'm so sorry for uh putting mine in the wrong section um I spoke in December about the importance of some having something like go Guardian on all of our school laptops I'm so appreciative of the time you all took to listen to line wise presentation thank you to Mr Lambert and the IT department for having that I know budget cuts are coming I hope
022you continue to prioritize this as a necessity for our students um I continue to talk with teachers and families at elementary BMS and BHS everyone is wanting this maybe a survey could go out to St maybe even to families to let them know what it would be like with and without this kind of service um and teachers have been really disappointed that Gog Guardian went away um this school year if budget cuts uh are an issue please look out to the following districts to see how they're managing um the majority of places in California and in the Bay Area have something um in place so this is just um I have all of these hyperlink to the location where I found this information so if anyone needs contact information I'm happy to share Antioch unified
023go Guardian Oak Grove goguardian lammersville go Guardian Los Angeles Unified go Guardian Marin County go Guardian Martinez uses custodio Mount Diablo quote maintains an internet filtering software package Napa unified quote implemented software that monitors your student online activity at District accounts and on District owned devices Nomas Gog Guardian Newport Mesa go Guardian Petaluma line wise Pittsburgh go Guardian Saratoga securely classroom Rockland go Guardian reading go Guardian spreckles go Guardian San Francisco go Guardian Walnut Creek line wise valo go Guardian Vacaville go Guardian Fairfield nothing was mentioned um I called and did not receive a call back they say they do digital citizenship and Common Sense Media as a way to notify families bisha nothing like please please help us like I can't believe that kids are just sitting in class watching YouTube and Netflix and
024gaming and we don't do this for our family anymore because of the problem but I just have to know I did everything I could to make sure that students have protection from social media Tik Tok shorts on YouTube it and continue to follow um Surgeon General warnings of how we support our children's mental health this issue is so important to me and I really hope it is to all of you too thank you thank you so now Dr wri okay so thank you good evening um so this tonight I want to just share a a revised proposal uh we had a discussion at the um February 6th governing board meeting in which we shared a proposal for consideration it was our initial proposal so proposal so that we can have the conversation publicly and uh
025have some dialogue amongst our governing board regarding the deficit spending that's occurring and how do we how do we get a handle on it so tonight um I'm going to share our reduce our um our proposal to reduce $715,000 from onetime funding and also approximately two 2 million to 2.5 million from the general fund um to address the deficit spending that's occurring within our district and then we'll also quickly go over the the next steps in our timeline so uh this um slide here should look familiar um this is something that we've brought forward um over the past couple of years these are our one-time these are the programs that are funded by the one-time grants so at covid about since 2020 our district received about $14 million and onetime grants we like to refer
026it refer to it as a CO money or the co funds we're able to fund these programs typically when you get one time time grants you find you fund one-time purchases not ongoing programs however many districts in California we had the opportunity because we had enough funding coming in to uh Implement outstanding programs to support students after the pandemic and many of those programs involved people so if you look at the onetime grant programs you'll see Wellness Center extra support on campuses we're able to fund those we have enough to get us through this year um but we don't have quite enough to offer all of our programs next school year having us we're required to reduce about $700,000 this proposal that was shared on February 6th is the same proposal that we bring forward
027today um we have a 20% math coach that's funded through onetime dollars at bonisha middle school did an outstanding job um um implementing the new um CPM curriculum at bisha Middle School uh over a two-year period of time we feel that our teachers are U have a handle on the CPM curriculum are and are ready to continue to move forward uh we have a teacher on special assignment um that we brought in this year this teacher on special assignment uh implemented the elementary Ela curriculum with our teachers on Fridays professional development and also created some digital lesson planning to help them Implement uh lesson plans to their students uh we have a uh 2.0 um two com no combo teachers at the elementary schools this is something that we put in during the pandemic um
028to support our students and our teachers um with some learning loss and we also have the new teacher coach um quite a few new teachers this year uh we're able to bring forward um a teacher own special assignment to support our new teachers with integrating into the profession and um also just with um giving them model lessons so that they can um hit the ground running and do a great job with their students all outstanding programs but at this time we haven't found a new funding source to continue those programs so under the this proposal if we do not find um a funding source we'll be unable to offer these programs after this year you'll see three additional uh programs listed the library contract now the library contract uh School District are required to have
029a uh credential librarian um we do not have somebody with that credential so we contract with the bonisha city library for this service it's a $225,000 contract this is something that's ongoing um so we have to figure out a funding source through the general fund to continue to offer this service because this is the law uh we also offer some support through our band and also Liberty High School for Art um we're able to move that over to prop 28 to continue those those two programs by making these shifts this proposal uh will give us an estimated Savings of about $715,000 and what that will do is that will enable us to offer the other programs that are listed on this uh slide for one more school year um however I do want to caution
030you that at the end of next school year if we do not identify a funding source for these programs um will'll not be able to offer these programs after next school year we also uh we talked about at our last meeting we talked about and first interim we talked about deficit spending we're currently deficit spending projected about $3 million this year next school year we're projected to deficit spend about $2 million um so in looking through our programs we wanted to identify areas in which we could um reduce our expenditures first thing we wanted to do is try to figure out how can we offer a great service to students and not impact people so we took a look at um our uh listings um positions that we have listed that were currently unfilled and
031we're able to identify some that we have budgeted um the college career uh Tech at the high school um and there's three you will see um special education age listed there some of those positions have been unfilled since 2022 and one of those positions has been filled unfilled since 2023 so if we look at those unfilled positions that's the cost Savings of an estimate of estimated cost Savings of about $190,000 um we did the same and looking at our certificate certificated uh listings we identified 3.2 FTE between bonisha middle school bonisha high school and that would give us an estimated Savings of about $480,000 when 92% of the your unrestricted budget is allocated towards staff um and you have to reduce $2 million unfortunately it's going to impact people on some level and we're doing
032our best to minimize that um we have a was coordinator wasque is accreditation uh that visits our schools every few years to make sure they're doing what they're set out to do we have a visit this year we're actually in two weeks we're anticipating an outstanding visit um and that visit requires prior to that visit we usually give a a a release period to a a staff member to do the focus groups and write the lengthy report that's required for that visit those reports are over a 100 Pages um so we will not we would not be required to have offer that particular position next year um so we can reduce that FTE by 02 independent studies at Liberty High School we currently have someone in a 60% position um low enroll in our independent
033study program we feel that we could uh absorb some of that work amongst our staff um and then through um just attrition decline in enrollment we feel that at bonisha high school bonisha middle school and the elementary school reduced FTE based upon the declining enrollment that we're projecting um also um we have a Elementary um prep steam teacher and an elementary prep PE teacher um prior to this year those are relatively new positions that we put in place this year um to provide our elementary teachers additional prep time we can consider um reverting back to our previous practice adapted physical education um the space on um case load um that's an IEP driven position and based upon our numbers we feel that we can reduce the Adaptive PE position by 20% sections for athletic d
034ctor in stiens at bisha high school um we are um considering taking a vice principal position and combining it with an athletic director position to provide the service of that athletic director and give some more support in the evening time um and in doing so that would reduce the release period for the athletic director at 40% plus the stien giving us some cost savings there we also have a special ed special uh atossa which is is a teacher on special assignment that works in our uh Educational Services Department um this individual provides um online um um curriculum and data support for for our teachers which would give us a cost Savings of $150,000 so looking at the certificated savings it's a projected just over $1.5 million we looked at management as well um we added
035a position in our business office um I think it was two years ago um we feel that we could take some of that work and distribute it amongst um existing staff members um we have a school psychologist mental health intern coordinator at 50% um this position uh 50% of of the position um supervises for interns throughout the year to provide counseling services to um our students at usually the secondary school I think the middle school and the high school um we feel that we could take a look at this position and maybe reallocate some responsibilities occupational therapist again is IEP driven based upon need and case load and we have a district safety coordinator which we talked about last meeting as well that was held by one of our administrators last year those that position
036those the responsibilities within that position has already been reallocated to our um director of student services and the Liberty High School principal um and Adult Ed so our adult education program currently resides with our uh CDU Department Child and Development unit um we would move we would move the um Adult Ed responsibilities over to the alternative school and have our alternative school principal assume those duties and that funding would fund 20% of that position and that would give us a cost Savings of about $325,000 for management um we had some proposed considerations for um um so looking at all of these um areas it's about $2.5 million combined cost savings um and as I talked about the impact to people and the impact to staff we did our best to minimize that um however um
037right now we're projecting probably about maybe five to six staff members that may potentially be impacted by um the projective layoff and um I do want to um reiterate that it's March um by law we're required to notice staff members by March 15 for any um for any reduction um and um between March 15 and May 15 what we would do is we would look at our enrollment because we're start we're currently getting inter District transfer agreements right now 15% of our population come from outside of our boundaries we're still getting those applications in we're still monitoring our enrollment and um and if our enrollment increases or ALS also um things happen naturally sometimes teachers move away staff members move away through attrition we may be able to bring some staff members back that were
038that were unable to find a funding source for this evening but by March 15th we're required to notice provide notice so between March 15th and May 15 we're going to be doing our due diligence to see how we can how we can resend some of those this evening thank you Dr right um so now we come to those who wanted to speak to uh item number 12a um Amber Kelly you are up first uh so my name is Amber Kelly and I am here on behalf of the public library we are for those of you who don't know the public library in bonisha is the library of record for the Unified School District um so there two three things two of them are happy um I just want people to know and I'm saying this
039publicly so everybody knows um when every student who is enrolled in B USD automatically gets something in this uh Public Library called a one card which means all the students automatically have access to the bonisha public library through their student ID I don't know if I can give handouts but I have handouts um with that one card we have many databases you get the students get access to everything one of the databases that I want to highlight is called brain sorry I feel I feel weird not talking this um is called brain fuse um brain fuse is a database uh that is um one-on-one help it is not AI it is not um chat GPT and it's good for K through 12 so a sixth grader can type into uh brain fuse through our Public
040Library type into brain fuse and say I'm in sixth grade and I need help understanding how to make the area of a square and then a real person will interact they don't have to download an app they don't have to have special equipment a real person will help them so here are some more handouts um the reason why this maybe will help some things is because brainfuse also now helps one-on-one with FASA fa fasta um so I know I believe that one of the requirements to graduate is you have to fill this out and so they can make an appointment they can have a one-on-one person they can do it with their parents they can do without their parents and these people will help you fill out this form and so these this information has
041all been sent to the high school thank you um lastly um I am requesting that the uh to restore the sites books budgets for the 2025 school year I don't want to speak out of pocket here but is my understanding that all the school sites except for Matthew Turner have had their library book budgets removed between November and January traditionally the library text wait until the spring to order their books allowing them to know what the hot reads are seeing what needs to be replaced um they have time to do an inventory to make sure their collections are the best they can be our school sites will not say that Pluto is a planet despite what other people think um over the F past five to seven years each elementary school has each Elementary School
042library has been given about $3,000 BMS has been given five and BHS has been given seven Dr be has been very clear of that this is one time money there was no question about that the only thing has happened is this year it got pulled without them knowing so they came back from the holiday and they did not have money that they had planned to spend um it is wonderful and correct that the Tex job text jobs are not on that list anymore um I can send you hundreds of studies that show that strong public schools have libraries okay I have other things to say thank you all very much [Applause] Marisol chra hi good evening my name is Maris Sal chifa and I have been dis serving this have been serving the district as
043the occupational therapist since 2001 um I previously sent a letter um outlining my concerns in detail and tonight I want to summarize my case and stress the importance of maintaining full-time OT in our district when I first started in the district there were three occupational therapists um supporting students today there's only one just me yet the number of students that um need OT Services has grown significantly the district has added Four Rise classrooms two intensive academics classrooms two Empower classrooms to support students with autism ADHD sensory integration disorder anxiety and other challenges these students need OT now more than ever to develop the skills necessary to succeed in school and in Life currently I support 33 students in The Rise program alone 16 in the Empower program and my total case load spans every school
044in the district I not only Rec students who have IEPs but also support students who are not yet identified consult with teachers and conduct assessments for preschoolers non-public school students and also um Pro provide critical interventions for students to help them write regulate emotions focus and participate in their education I love being in OT because the positive the positive changes I see every single day you know when the child finally holds a pencil correctly when they can zip up up their coat or just sit through a lesson um without feeling overwhelmed these moments may seem small but to that child and to their family they mean everything every skill a child gains through OT brings them closer to Independence and with that Independence come confidence success and a better quality of life not just for
045the student but for their entire family Ot Ot services are not optional they are legally required under the individuals with disabilities Education Act to help students with disabilities access their education cutting OT Services could put the district out of compliance leading to Legal challenges and costly compensatory Services reducing OT Services doesn't just impact students it places an additional burden on teachers and special education staff who already um have so many things to do without adequate OT support St students will struggle teachers will be overwhelmed and District risk both immediate educational setbacks on long-term Financial consequences I understand budget cuts are difficult but cutting OT Services is not the answer the growing needs of our students require more support not less reducing my hours will not only limit access to essential services but could also lead
046to costly contracted services in the future an expense that may far exceed the cost of maintaining one full-time OT thank [Applause] you he approves Samantha Reese okay okay hi um thank you um my son actually knows Ogre from the school so I can also advocate for that kind of thing um so my name is mat the I am a parent of four um two seniors a kindergartner and ass soon to be transitional kindergartner we have been in the school district for over 10 years since we moved to bisha in 2015 with enrollment of our children spanning five of your seven bisha schools um until this time I haven't felt a need to Advocate directly for a specific stream of funding as we've been very fortunate to have had the needs of our children met in
047fact exceeded within the school system at bisha um however I was called to action um including creating a petition signed by over 340 bans over the past week when I heard of the potential risk to cuts to special education and the associated programs and services my family has experienced firsthand how valuable these services are when we first went through the IEP process for my then four-year-old son um a couple of years ago we received prompt comprehensive support from buusd psychologists and evaluators in response to our evaluation request we were really happy with the speed um dedication um the effort Dynamic pace and timely completion of all the requirements to secure the IEP ahead of his start in kindergarten we're so thankful for the help that we received um and uh Testament to to teachers like
048um my previous speaker um he he's been able to thrive um in the past four months um and the dedication of the programs resources that he has is is something I've never seen before um I'm advocating not only for my family but also the growing needs of Children and Families in the community um we know that conditions who require access to these Services autism ADHD sensory integration disorder anxiety depression trauma all of these issues are you know in growing in prevalence in our teens teenagers um middle schoolers and obviously uh when people first access school we want it to be a really warm loving experience which fortunately we've been able to to get I just want this to be able to continue I really appreciate the fact that the whole budget process here has been
049very transparent I also really appreciate the fact that um there have been very clear explanations and and priorities over the cuts um it does seem like um there is a pathway to listening to the public and making sure the right priorities are allocated um in the future and I just want to make sure that special education and the associated programs um are continued to be funded um and address any deficits that we see continuously um so that we can all benefit as a community from the increasing need and make sure that other children and families have the same experiences that we did so thank [Applause] you and Cardwell good evening school board members my name is Anne Cardwell and I'm a parent of three sons all of whom have attended bonisha schools and one of
050which is currently at the high school and my oldest Teddy is autistic and while he is now an adult I still vividly recall the ups and downs of navigating special ed services IEPs Etc um and while I definitely can appreciate how challenging it is to make cuts to our schools um like the prior speaker I was dismayed to see specialist um amongst the proposed reductions and particularly as it relates to OT Services um especially for kids on the autism spectrum OT is so critical to helping a student get through a day that is often overwhelming from a sensory perspective um when this type of therapy is not available as Marisol was talking about not only does the students suffer but the teachers and the AIDS the family at home there's all these increased behaviors and
051it definitely um you know has a snow ball effect um Additionally the voice of OT is so important in the IEP setting as it informs the services provided by the other members on the IEP team um further when I saw the estimated Savings of cutting the service by the 20% it appeared to me that the likely long-term cost of such a reduction would far exceed immediate savings I urge the board members to closely reconsider this reduction in particular as well as further scrutinize other proposed cuts to special education or services like the wellness center um you heard Olga bark a little bit earlier she's a big fan of your wellness centers um and they they do great work so um thank you very [Applause] much Andrew Potter [Music] uh good evening board members my name
052is Dr Andrew Potter and I have the privilege of serving as the clinical supervisor of our District's mental health intern program uh this role is truly my dream job and I have poured everything into building a program that provides essential mental health support to our students given the difficult decisions you must make I wouldn't feel right staying silent about what this program means for our schools the four interns provide 12 days a week of direct Counseling Services supporting 80 to 100 students at any given time if this program is cut it's not equivalent to cutting one position it's more like cutting four positions these interns don't just provide therapy they conduct risk assessments help prevent crises and intervene in suicidal ideation cases that might otherwise go unnoticed without this program there is no realistic way
053for existing mental health personnel to absorb these student St leaving many without any support at all in the way of mental health this program is unique it is the only tier 2 mental health intervention available districtwide including the elementary schools six days a week it plays a crucial role in preventing the escalation of student needs alleviating pressure on psychologists administrators and teachers by reducing referrals for higher level services like special education assessments its absence would create a ripple effect increasing Demand on already strained staff beyond the direct impact on students this program has positioned our district as a leader in mental health training we've built strong Partnerships with top universities in the Bay Area and um increasing Regional awareness of our district as a place where student mental health is taken seriously these relationships took
054years to cultivate and it would be difficult to rebuild the program If lost I deeply respect the challenges you face in balancing these Cuts but I urge you to consider the long-term impact the cost of this position is minimal compared to the number of students served and the critical role the program plays in both Crisis Prevention and the district standing in the greater Mental Health Community eliminating it would leave a void that no existing resource can fill um thanks for your time and for considering this program's vital role in keeping our students safe thank you [Applause] and Julia Han you're up next superintendent board it's lovely to see everybody tonight my name is Julia Han I have two children one is in the district and one will be shortly um so the thing I would
055like to talk about tonight is where is Bish's education fund because quite frankly Walnut Creek's education fund their proposed fundraising for this year is $1.6 million I realize we're not Walnut Creek but we could get a fraction of that money and that would help towards the budget I we wouldn't be having this conversation about OT which is quite frankly very necessary and I'm not saying we should I'm saying where is it I'd like to volunteer so let's get some money in The District in other ways let's think about outside the box not just these tiny little things that you have let's go globally let's let's think about things now as for OT if you cut an OT position to part-time the likelihood of that employee staying come on it's nil mental health like kids are
056not emotionally equipped to deal with adult things that they are dealing with right now they need these Services we need to talk about quite frankly what administ student positions can be cut not just what directs student positions so like taking a look at a real look at these positions and I understand that you have done your due diligence but quite frankly taking another look and really being careful about this because what you were doing is quite frankly opening up yourself for lawsuits because you do not have the legally required services for IEPs if you do not have an OT if if you do not have an OT available you are opening yourself up to lawsuit which is quite frankly more than what $40,000 that you're going to save so please be careful with these Cuts
057because they really do affect not just right now it's not this year's budget thank you and Mark love good evening members of the board my name is Mark La I'm a resident here of bonisha and I can say that while I do not currently have children enrolled at bonisha unified that is one of the primary reasons we decided as a family to move up to bisha um I've consistently heard about the great educational programs that banisha unified offers including for special Services I work in city government so I understand right now that uh cuts and cutting services is one of the hardest decisions that you have to make um with that said I would ask you to closely scrutinize the proposed cuts to special education services such as occupational therapy they say that an ounce
058of prevention is worth a pound of cure and I feel that may apply here where it seems likely that cuts to services to help our special ed students to learn and better function in our community will result in a need far more costly in the future thank you so now we come to our action items um 13A consideration and approval of resolution number 24- 25-25 to decrease particular kinds of Services of certificated employees Dr Jen um good evening president grabs board trustees and Dr Wright and the benisha Unified School District Community the item before you is a resolution for a reduction in the particular kinds of Services of certificated employees the public comment for these items get 13 a after after she speaks after yes um Dr Wright provided information regarding the totality of the
059budget reductions being recommended this resolution lists the number of certificated positions that may result in layoffs included in the resolution are exhibits detailing seniority list uh tiebreaking and skipping criteria um we are recommending the adoption of this resolution do I have um a motion oh I excuse me I'm sorry sorry sorry um discussion Barbara gves hello my name is Barbara derazi and I'm the president of the Kyle Highland foundation for teen support the KF is a nonprofit that was established as a legacy for my son Kyle who I lost to suicide in 2014 and for the past nine year the khf has run a teain center here in town I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of the children that will be impacted by the proposed cuts to mental health and special ed services as
060a parent of two children that had learning disabilities that went through the district I can personally speak to the importance of special ed services Kyle had ADHD suffered from both depression and anxiety at the time of his death the district had very few School psychologists and only three counselors at the high school and while we can't know if Kyle's fate would have been changed by a school fully staffed with counselors and school psychologists I do believe that Kyle's death could be a cautionary tale regarding the cuts proposed today my other child has dyslexia and thanks to early detection and intervention for her disability she graduated out of special Leed in third grade and is now thriving in graduate school at UCLA she is a success story for the district at the last board meeting the
061proposal included laying off two school counselors and I'm very relieved to see that that reduction has been dropped from the plan I am however concerned about the decrease in mental health services from the elimination of the mental health student intern program that will leave many students without the vital Services they need this will likely be exacerbated further by the for the removal of special ed supports and at the state of the district meeting last month Dr Wright spoke of the deficit and potential cuts that would be required as a result and he also appealed to the community organizations to partner with the district to help support our students and the khf is here tonight to offer to partner with the district to provide a mental health clinician to provide therapy at during school hours as
062well as Staffing for wellness centers at the secondary level we propos to use funding um we are receiving from the state of California for these Services as we have done for the valo City Unified School District for the past year in bleo we employ two pentor that support students in the wellness centers and one mental health clinician that provides free therapy at valo and Jesse bethl high schools over the past three years the KF has approached the district with an offer to partner multiple times but we have unfortunately not been able to reach an agree we are hoping that given the very clear and urgent need that the district will find a way to partner with us as that is what our students truly deserve and while I'm pleased to support students in bleo I
063would truly love to be able to offer these same services for bisha students this is the first time that I brought this offer um to the benisha Unified School Board of Trustees and I'm hereby requesting that the khf be invited back for a formal presentation of her proposal at a future board member board meeting thank you for your [Applause] time so do we have any discussion from the board on um uh 13A I had a question so 13A um the mental health intern coordinator my question is if this reduction is made does that mean that we don't have any more interns or is the supervision potentially able to be spread out yeah it we're just proposing the FTE and then we would have to figure out how do we keep the program and how can
064we re reallocate some of the responsibilities to make sure that we can continue it it just may look a little different regarding the oats what were you're talking about uh uh mental health intern and the um as a orator are we is that something we have to be responsible for is that something we absolutely positively need do we are we a district that doesn't have to do that stuff well I will say it's not something that's mandated that we're required to do but it's certainly um a great program within our districts and our students are benefiting from it and it's something that we certainly do not want to lose um but faced with some of the tough decisions that we are facing um it's something that we feel that maybe we can reallocate and figure
065out how do we do it differently um The Proposal on the table is about FTE it's not necessarily about losing an entire an entire program it's about looking at the FTE and how do we re reallocate some of those responsibilities and continue the great work that's taken place any other comments discussion sure I do um so I first want to say you know thank you to all the individuals who have reached out by email coming to for public comment um it's really helpful especially for me my first time sitting um on the board so thank you um you know as I know we're all here for the students and we're all here to ensure that our students get um the proper education you know I can't help but think about about our conversation about low
066enrollment and how our numbers are declining and yet we're thinking about taking away Personnel from our from our students and how we're also thinking about increasing class sizes and all of these things that can happen with with our budget cuts so um I just I think that this is just a holistic conversation I think it's also really hard for me because there's a lot of things that are just sort of like well this might happen or this might not happen and it's really hard to digest that um I think it's also um I don't I feel like we're we're putting ourselves against a timeline where I know we need to talk about it but making so many hard decisions today I think I just I don't I am not ready for that yet I feel
067like I need to hear what are we going to replace with for instance you know the mental health and the the counselor and the interns so we're thinking about getting removing a 05 ft from FTE but thinking about where it could be reallocated I would like to know where that would be reallocated before I make a decision of I want to remove this 05 from an FTE um I just want to um jump in and say uh that we have to notify staff by a certain date March 15th March 15th and they were going to send letters out tomorrow I think no not tomorrow that's what I read somewhere anyway they're going to be sending letters out soon to those employees that may be impacted that's right by March 15 that's our deadline okay um
068because I've talked I have asked because I was even a little bit curious as to why we brought this up at the last meeting because I felt it was too soon but then it was like March 15th we need to start talking about it and I agree I think this is good that we're having this conversation and we're transparently talking about it because it is important um so I um I'm going to read a couple things that I wrote uh just because I think it's it's important um while I realize this is unattainable because of laws what I would really like to see is a freeze on job postings for the 25 26 school year that are from the general fund until we have a better sense of budget and understanding of what our employees
069are planning for the upcoming school year um these recommendations will be clear from our from our general fund which our general fund is currently allocating almost 92% to Personnel to note on average 80 to 85% of General budget should be going to Personnel I think that's something that that we need to just also note um I wonder um I talked about enrollment you know with the news of the school in Vallejo does that is there a possibility of that affecting our school district and thinking about what that's going to happen to our numbers um this can go for the next item but I um I just wanted to just put that out there that I think that I would I would like to see what the proposal is to cover these positions and programs and
070what we're saying we're going to move around before I'm saying I want to cut Personnel or I want to cut time from people can I clarify um we're not actively recruiting for next school year there's nothing posted that's recruiting staff for next year um I don't know that we officially said there's a hiring freeze but we don't have any openings to post so there's nothing posted for next year now if you look you will see um athletic coaches which we post after every season because we're required to it's a stien position um you'll see I think there's a Behavior's position we currently have a contractor there that must be posted because we do not have District Personnel so we don't have anything posted act actively recruiting for staff for next year I just wanted to
071to to clarify that and and you know in terms of having a polished um rationale as to how we're going to address um there's a lot of moving Parts um I mean we're talking about these reduction impact people is based on seniority people are going to get bumped and if this person gets bumped they could potentially move to this site or to this level there's so many moving Parts where it would be pretty it would be extremely difficult for us to come back prior to March 15th with a Polish plan on how we're going to address some of these um changes this is something that would have to happen if board were to take action and we knew what we were working with it would be a plan that we will be be putting in
072place between now and we and the end of the school year as folks are getting their assignment for next school year it takes and and it's not that we can't do it it's just that um I just don't want to send an expectation that we can come back with the Polish plan and still get notification out by March 15 but then we would have an idea of how many uh interdistrict uh transfers there are if that's gone up that's going to increase the amount of students that we we we'll have a better idea by May 15 right um that gives us some more time now the interdistrict transfers are coming in and we are monitoring those weekly um we don't quite have a handle on what our enrollment we just have our best projection of
073today and that can change significantly between now and May 15th and really that's our hope right we hope that we get an influx and enrollment where we could send some of these notifications and bring some of our staff members back I have a question on that point and and I just this is uh probably a technical question so for any staff members that get a notice and say we do need to bring people back do people we've G given notice get um like a priority or any kind of first dibs Dr Jennings um yes they do there's a as part of our collective bargaining agre agreements with both CA and BTA there's a process for what how people would be re-employed and um offer jobs back and then kind of a followup with all the
074timing I mean I know that it's it this is this is people's livelihood so this is not anything to take lightly and I definitely don't I'm I'm curious with the timing we have to issue a notice by March 15th I think we can assume that most people will if they get a notice they'll go get try to look for another job I would do that if we do want to bring somebody back about when would we be able to tell them as soon as we have confirmed enrollment numbers I think in terms of the certificated staff there are no classified staff in The Proposal that would be coming back because the positions are currently vacant right right but for but for certificated staff and then um we send them the final notice by by May
07514th they have to receive the final notice that they are actually being you know laid off okay so the March 15th is like a possibility like you're on notice you can go look for a new job but we'll let you know for sure by May 14th okay and then when do districts hire people like if I'm if I'm a teacher and I'm going to go look for a new job could I get a job in a couple of weeks or is there like a hiring season there's a hiring season the hiring season goes pretty much from March until school starts it just really depends and just given the current climate in California with many many districts doing layoffs I I imagine it might be a little bit of a hard um you know market right
076now um so it's but we have to wait and see what it's going to look like and also add other part on that too is that teachers certificated Personnel have till June 30th to let the district know if they're going to come back so really you don't know for sure I mean ideally that's why you s these District Two early retirement inste of hey if you let us know by January you know we'll give you an extra ,000 but you have legally till June 30th after June 30th if you and I've seen this numerous times in my years let's say July 10th you get that dream job you wanted as a teacher in a different District your District could refuse to release you so districts want to know as quickly as they can who's leaving
077and who's going but realistically you don't have a really good you know you don't for sure until June 30th because after June 30th you are not required to let anyone out of their contract that brings up a good point too because uh in terms of resending some of the notification can come through natural natural attrition as well um we don't get a lot of um staff members that move on to other districts but occasionally we'll get a few a year so if that's the case this year anyone who receives a notice on March 15th we could potentially immediately bring back as people are making life decisions for for their families I wish we had a crystal ball that that we would be able to tell I wish staff would be able to share earlier um
078to the district office if that were a plan because that would help us quite a bit if we knew the numbers um well we do send what's called an intent to return Le form to all our certificated staff and we did that in January and we we've received all but one back which is really remarkable so we do have a pretty good idea I mean it's not a guarantee that no one's leaving but we do know people who have that we've had someone who was retiring we have someone that's leaving the area so we we are aware of those and and we work to factor that into to the actual uh uh positions that are listed here is there any other discussion I have a question with the talk um of changes in federal funding
079and particularly with the potential of closing of the Department of Education how does that affect buusd so we receive very limited Federal funding we receive Ida which is special ed funding which the closure of the Department of Education would not affect and we receive some limited title one as of right now it will not affect that um not 100% guarantee but all of those items come through the state and then we do receive a federal reimbursement for our Child Nutrition program but we're not a district receiving massive amounts of federal dollars thank you and the ones we do are are publicly been said they're still flowing through so could we talk through then for me if that's okay um this active physical education teacher are these people that are are these roles that have been
080vacant I know we had talked about that which particular position yeah because this is what's next right to what we're voting on the Adaptive PE teacher AP right AP that there's that position is not currently vacant okay that is correct although we did receive some intent to return information that helps us to know that and what about like the physical education I know you had said that there could be five to six staff that will be affected in when you gave your presentation and I'm curious to know who are these five to the the five to six staff are these vacant you're following me the last slide yeah okay so this is the last slide so these are people who are currently in roles what we're voting on right now these are folks that are
081who can currently be impacted by this reduction in force okay meaning that um the other positions that I went through they're bumping people and people are moving and when we're done looking at that process these are the folks who can potentially be impacted and could receive a layoff notice be mindful that these are only in the certificated management and the teachers this is where this one lies there's Al also a different one so just to clarify okay so that that's that's a helpful clarification so so there are other reductions that like the tosa positions for example the people who are in the tosa positions have seniority rights and then will be able to go back into the classroom right and the but the positions on this slide are the ones who you've already gone through
082all of that analysis and this is the slide that shows us who's actually which positions are actually impacted from certificated management I for I didn't put that position on that slide I had to be honest I had to do some revisions to it at the final hour and I I failed to put the management but there's a management position on there as well management positions would be impacted right but that's on that's on the next item action item that's certificated I mean that's classified I'm jumping ahead I'm sorry that's than I'm glad it's not just me so go ahead I'm sorry oh no please so the the positions that are unfilled do those not need to go through us to say we don't need to fill those again Dr Jennings you could as Dr right
083you could answer that too but um you're it yeah um they they do not like if they're unfilled um for uh certificated positions we can simply just remove them from the budget put an in date for them and then they're no longer factored into the budget for classified positions we uh typically work with our uh labor Partners CCA and their leadership and we kind of uh talk through the ones that are vacant and then come to an agreement and then were able to um end those as well got it so then um essentially what we're doing tonight some of these things that you have proposed like the positions that have been unfilled those will just be removed okay correct so what you need from us as the school board is to vote for the positions
084that people are in correct the PKS is the particular kinds of services so if you look at that attachment that's what um that's the proposal that's the official proposal that you're voting on okay and so are one of these the stem teacher okay that's the next action item the stem teacher is um because it would be consider she would be getting a you know a reassignment that position would be get getting reassigned the where that shows up is in the the reduction in the multiple subject credential area that's why you see those on there so she will that person will be reassigned is that what you're saying yes and now we're talking about positions and not people um it and it goes by senority if as long as that person has senority then they would
085be reassigned okay so on Steam since that's kind of part of this one well we are because um the position is one of the multiple subjects it would maybe I can help with the the item that the board is taking action on is the what Dr Wright references the particular kinds of service so that you have the board takes action on the item that results in a layoff of a of a position the board doesn't have to take action on if there's a reassignment or something like that it's the lay it's the the action on the layoff of a of a position the FTE that's what the board is taking so so it's not just the 5.4 uh uh people it is it is that is what that what's in the resolution is what the
086board is taking action on maybe I can clarify because I think we're talking about the steam right the FTE with the remaining FTE if we looked at our remaining FTE and we as a district said you know what I think we have the ability to offer this steam program with the our remaining FTE we can still do it so what we're doing is we're reducing the amount of FTE in our district and with the remaining FTE we can offer whatever program we want to offer with that remaining program essentially yeah because um like steam all of our kids love Steam and I have to wonder you know I know we we put art in um the prop 20 28 fund there's an A in Steam that stands for art yes okay so anything that's in
087the general fund what we call the unrestricted you can't simply put it into prop 28 there's all kinds of law around that now if you have an item that's been in onetime funding like the covid funding and that onetime funding ends you can move it that in to a different funding source but our what we are calling the Steam for this purpose is a unrestricted general fund program at this time if it was gone for a year that's a different conversation but we can't just this year say next year we'll fund it different okay um can't it is not allowable under the audit when they come in they say show us how you spent your money last year and then they look at how you're spending it this year and if they can tie it
088that last year you did it this way and you simply moved it in here because it worked it gets disallowed and you owe the money back so but we've had ban forever right and it's on the proposed planned for consideration one-time grants banned is now being funded by prop 28 not banned the specific it says banned well it's banned it's it's money to support the Bann program so it pays for uniform cleaning it pays for some of the the supplies and instrument repair and things like that for the band program it doesn't pay for the whole program itself and we've paid for that with one-time funding for many years so it's not paying for the people that run the band program it's paying for uh some Instrument Repair they may use it to go on
089some baned competition field trips they may use it for in uh uniform cleaning it'll have to be a one toone thing so what was done in one time can move to prop 28 it can't be something that was currently done in the unrestricted budget now is in it's it's the it's the one one to one for what was done in the prior year that it's tested against the prob 28 and since that was onetime funded it can if if not available then the band would have to find a different source to cover the instrument repair and the uniform cleaning what did they do in the past what's past practice that I we've used um some old one-time dollars that we had from Governor Brown years ago to do that and I'm not sure how they
090did it prior to that thank you okay um the reason I bring up steam is because um I you know we've been talking a lot about An Education Foundation Public comment tonight was precient um it's on our minds I think that that is something that uh might be a great way to fund steam in the future I know that at least two years ago or so it was funded by um a a company in town uh right oh that's different that was a steam wheel oh that was a steam wheel what yes that's they're different so steam came in last year as an extra prep yes I get that but the steam wheel has been going on as a matter of fact Dr beatson brought it to the elementaries yes is that still going on
091that's different that's paid with a grant from Valero yeah and that is uh the five-week rotation of the different classes for third through fifth grade they get a semester of that yes so currently this year that is going on because we received the grant for that the steam elective if you will it's not called an elective at the elementary school but the steam program is one of the uh extra not extracurricular extra programs at the elementary school and we've actually had that uh for a while as one of the prep Okay so we've had two steams going on yes one is the steam wheel and one was steam and that one um uh incorporates a science and and technology and and art and okay so okay they just have the same names different I was
092confused on that okay but still I think getting an Education Foundation up and running would be amazing and we do need volunteers and we did have one and we had a volunteer um but that you know I gave her name to Damon okay good um and I think that we used to have an ed foundation and I think it it maybe was a covid casual or slightly before right before yeah so and they used to do the run for Education usually popular um I think that that we should you know put that on a future back future agenda Madam president future agenda so okay um wait one second so steam is located in the multiple subject cred uh credential teacher and we're talking about removing three people from that section is seem just one of
093those um yes it it could be one of those yes it could there's that's hard it's it is it can be a little confusing because you have sort of what the reductions propos reductions are and sort of the impact of those reductions and we have some attrition that we are accounting for um so that's part of it so that is why it's not as many we also have reduced um looking at reduced projections for enrollment so that also reduces the number of multiple subject credential teachers that we would need as well what is the projection next we currently have 80 uh elementary teachers and we're looking at uh 76 Elementary is TK through five TK through five I don't know if you have this right off the top of your head but and you weren't
094even here do you might know preco what was our element you might know what was our elementary yeah vetan I'm just I'm curious because I know our our number fluctuate and and maybe we were a little higher during covid I don't know is 76 have we been I do have the numbers preco um in the 1920 school year we had 75 elementary teachers and that's when we had a much more significant enrollment and we um have gone as high as 81 and that does not include our teachers on special assignment or any of the prep teachers that is just classroom elementary teachers okay remind me what's the district safety coordinator District safety coordinator um we had a vice principal last year that assumed that role helped put together the safety plans best practices to keep
095our campuses safe um disaster drills active shooter drills um that individual no longer works in a district so that particular those duties are now assumed through our director of student services John OIC um and that funding did not go with them he's not getting extra funding to do those duties so got it unfilled essentially okay are there any other comments um with yenny's request as she sees that she's not ready to make this decision this evening what are our options to come back to the table with these we would have to vote on it um in on the March the March 8th meeting it be March 6th March 6 because they're they're under a timeline we are under a timeline of March 15th right and how does that affect what the district needs to do
096it shortens the timeline significantly in which we can notify individuals and hand deliver the notices then is it doable I think anything is I mean we would have to make anything doable um again I'd ask a question um what additional information would you want staff to acquire in order for you to feel comfortable or ready to make this decision well I I would like so I will say if there's um an opportunity to like amend like I can make an emotion to amend something I would be comfortable with having that conversation and doing that I think the mental health intern coordinator I think that I I I believe that that is vital I mean I think that we are serving you know that gives us 12 days a week um of serving students and I
097think that that um um with the wellness centers with so many um mental health services to our students I think that we do a detriment I also think thinking about these college students that we're helping prepare these this real life um experience that we're giving college students is important too um perhaps that's something to to think about and work with the psychologist in terms of like can you re arrange something among the group um but for me that's that's um the district State Fe coordinator nobody's there fine um you know if there's people that are not in these roles in the teaching roles I would vote to to make that past but when I'm thinking about people who are in these roles I'm having um not people I should I should reframe that but when
098I'm thinking about these roles like Steam and putting the subjects to the teachers that's where I'm I I still feel like we are going to be doing a disservice to our students would you like to make a an an amended motion um well could okay let me just try this let me try it out and see what what it um if if I make an amended motion to um provide more information on on this reduction for instance what are the multiple subjects and what is vacant I I want more details on on here no to make an amendment you're you're just making Amendment on that document so the board can take action tonight that's why you would make the am or what's the other alternative to pull it or you vote on it either one
099or we and then you know I give my vote I don't I don't know how the other four of you feel so well I mean I I think none of us are okay with any of it so that's why I think we're all kind of like oh gosh um with the mental health intern coordinator um I I understand the importance of that I don't want to lose the internship program I think that's a valuable program both for our students and for um our students who might even want to go to college and be become part of those programs and the students within those programs but I do think that um paying an extra amount for somebody to manage the interns I I feel like it's fair to see if we can reallocate that um so
100I'm you know with this I am inclined to uh I think you know we've had discussions on this the district has provided us with a lot of information um about our enrollment and the um the con what how many students should be in a class and the impact on our budget when we don't run you know when we don't run full classes so I mean I you know I I wish we didn't have to do this at all um believe me we all do um but I do think I feel comfortable um at this point with the amount of information that I've been provided that I feel that I can vote tonight um I you know the public doesn't know but we ask tons of questions and we ask them out here too um but
101we've been you know this has been an ongoing discussion for a long time realistically nothing's going to change I mean we've gotten all the information we could possibly get and I mean these are none of these are easy I'm listening to the Kyle Highland Foundation wanting to partner with us that could help out in this situation too but I think that we'd be doing everybody a disservice if we put this off because I realistically don't see anything changing nothing if we come back in two weeks there's not going to be anything different about information wise we're not going to know enrollment we're not going to know anything new and everything changes in August so yeah I move uh that we approve this uh let me get the right number that uh we approve resolution 24-
10225-25 I'll second okay this is a resolution so it'll be a roll call vote pres grubs yes trusty H yes trusty s yes trusty Meli yes no now we'll get to come to um 13B and we have a couple of speakers um consideration and approval of resolution number 2420 d25 d26 to decrease the number of classified employees due to a lack of work and or a lack of funds um Cindy crane good evening I am Cindy crane the president of local 1096 I just wanted to acknowledge that you heard our voices and began the hard work and out of the boox thinking to eliminate vacant positions instead of field positions we want to say thank you to that I also want to thank Pat Jennings for the level of value and respect given to csca
103through timely Communications and regular meetings your willingness to partner is appreciated thank you thank you for your time thank you and Julia Han so I just have a couple comments you heard my stance on the OT it it's a bad idea please don't do it um the other thing to note is for par educators quite frankly the reason why you have so many unfulfilled is because it is a not good paying job for a very difficult job and so the fact that you don't have those positions filled doesn't actually mean that those positions don't need to be filled because quite frankly there is a short of short of par Educators in every single District every single district is short PA Educators it is a problem all over the place and just because it's not filled
104doesn't mean it's not important um I understand the priority is always going to be employees and I fully respect that but please don't short change the parent Educators in this whole entire conversation secondly I do actually agree that you guys need a better plan I understand that things are moving you know but do you want to keep a program how are you going to be able to keep it you guys have been talking about this stuff for months so having a plan of who's going to who's going to take on these responsibilities are you going to keep these responsibilities is it something that you can keep should be something that you do know at this point so I I would like to also see that plan thank you thank you thank you do we have
105any discussion um on 13B I do so I I feel that um that our um occupational therapist I I think that the job is much bigger than is presented it is a huge job we have one person we have 4,300 kids um students in our schools we have um The Rise program we have the empower program and I um would like to amend I I'd like to make a motion with the amendment that the occupational therapist stays at um full-time a full-time employee I think that um it's needed our students need it so I would agree with you I think that an amendment passing resolution 24- 25-26 taking out the occupational therapist I could be comfortable with that you need to clarify if that's a first and a second and take action on that before
106any more discussion yeah I would second if that's what if that's what uh president grubs was saying I would second that yes so I I made a I did make a motion to amend but are you making a motion to approve with that Amendment approve the rest of it or no well I'm looking for a discussion but but that's my feeling but I just want to just be clear there was a first and a second and I think we have to take action on that first in a second before we move forward which is make the amendment or either make the amendment or to continue discussion but we have to settle that second what do you mean settle the second second oh yes yes yes so okay so can I'd like to resend my motion
107for the moment and open it up for discussion does anyone have any comments I'm with you I'm with you on that I agree I think the occupational therapist should be saved out of this list I want all of them because I know these jobs are important to to them to our students to our teachers and to their families that that take this job it's it's income for their them um as well I don't I hate the fact that we are touching people's lives that have a secondary you know they have families or their own self to support in this day of rising costs for everything so but I I will say that occupational therapist I I really want that to stay to keep going well and for me listening to the discussions um it's one
108thing to say there's a case load of 11 but to hear that you know and do an adap to pee myself I work with a lot more kids than are on my case load and the fact that she works with so many kids and being the only person I think the savings is minimal I think that we'd be uh better served by keeping her in that position full time I also think with the the rise in the number of kids who do need Services we can expect or we should plan that we will need that point too next year yeah okay can I discuss a little can I ask some questions of course um so to go through these the special education assistant purpose Aid and education assistant to are these vacant those positions or
109unfilled I should say that's the verbiage we used on the presentation yeah those positions are currently unfilled and vacant and some of them have been vacant as Dr Wright mentioned earlier since uh 2022 right okay um and I and just to add like these are positions that um maybe the student aged out um there was a change in programming in an aid that had been assigned to a program the program is no longer there things like that so it's not that they are positions that we had actively been seeking people for and and not found anyone so we are continuing to fill our our vacancies that are that are needed based on our case load so just to confirm then as we get enrollment numbers as we get and understand what's happening in the coming
110months positions could open up or do these totally drop from par Educators is IEP driven so it depends if there's a need and if there's a need regardless of enrollment we're going to be required to bring them back but those positions as Dr Jennings um stated we weren't actively looking to fill those positions they've been vacant for some time they just weren't removed from the books great okay well I agree with you on the occupational therapist too so so so I'd like to make a motion to take take the occupational therapist out of the the um the PKS thank you out of the PKS keep that person um a as a full-time employee and I'm and that's my Amendment and um is there a second second the point two not to reduce the point two
111thank you but but we're approving the rest of the resolution yes I I will second that the amendment V yes make sure president grebs yes trusty h yesy s yes trusty melli yes and trusty Manos yes um good evening again uh president grubs board Tres and Dr Wright the item before you is a contract for um if needed with the office of administrative hearings if we indeed um end up moving forward with all of the the layoffs that you have approved we would need to contract with the office of administrative hearings for the hearings that are required to be done um in the case of a certificated or classified layoff are there any comments discussion on this I just want to clarify that this annual fee is this an annual fee no it's a one-time
112fee if we are needing to if we end up using that much time for the office of administrative hearings so it's like up two up two okay great thank you any other discussion you know I I'm I think that um I understand it's a um 43 or whatever uh contract and it's up to so every little thing you do has a charge up to 47 or 43 whatever it was $48,000 um in this time in our past in what's our past practice in ter in terms with this contract yes I don't think we had to use it in quite some time but by law we're required U to provide this service for any employees who may be impacted by a layoff they have the right to um classify I'm sorry just classified they have the
113just so it's it's classified so it wouldn't have no it's it no it's it's for certificated and classified they have because they have equal um they have parity in terms of their layoff rights and so they we that is the agency that you contract with to to do the hearings and so you're required to do that and sometimes what will happen is if you work when you work with your labor Partners they'll wave the right to a hearing and you can work on a solution without doing this but we do need to have the contract in place so that we can even schedule a date for any potential hearings that we might have does that does that help to answer your question yes I just don't know what we've done in the past and are
114there other companies that serve this purpose have we gone have we gone out for like looking to see if there's another company that does this this a government enti it's just sorry I yeah it's government there there's not another agency that does these type of hearings so they answer the question what we've done in the past was this because we had to have it in place if there was a layoff of some sort okay all right I move that we approve the uh contract with the office of administrative hearings I'll second all those in favor I I [Music] any and our next uh regular board meeting is Thursday March 6 2025 thank you everybody for being here and another congratulations to Liberty yes yay Miss Lewis