001We have quorum and we will be starting with closed session. During close session, we'll be talk having a conference with real property negotiators. Talk about student discipline conference with labor negotiators and public ex public public employee discipline dismissal release complaint. And are there any public comments on close session items? Okay, seeing none, we'll adjourn to close session at 501. Great. Thank you. Okay, good evening everyone. Um, we are reconvening to open session. It is 7:08 p.m. and we have three trustees with us. Um, trustee Shin Vassan, would you like to lead us in the flag salute? Sure. Thank you. And Trusty Boak, would you like to read the district mission statement? >> Yes, of course. Beressa Union School District provides all students the skills to become lifelong learners and successful 21st century global citizens. >>
002Thank you. And I will read the norms for the board of trustees. The Beressa Union School District board of trustees agreed to focus on the best interests of students at all times. Be respectful. Listen openly. Address problems and process not persons. Keep each other informed. Maintain confidentiality. Work toward the f future. Learn from the past. Equal participation from all members. And please stay on task. Disclosure of action taken in close session. No actions were taken. Just discussion. And do I have a motion to adopt the agenda? >> Move to adopt. >> I second. I'm sorry. >> All in favor? I >> I. >> All right. And there were are there any public comments on consent calendar? Doesn't look like it. So, can I get a motion to approve the consent calendar, please? >> Move to
003approve consent. >> Second. All those in favor? >> I approve. Okay. All right. And now we have um three speaker cards on non-aggenda items. And I am going to read the speaker conduct card for all who wish to address the board during public comment periods. Speakers are requested to state your name and affiliation for the record. Each speaker will be given three minutes to address the board, five minutes per organization, and a maximum of 20 minutes per topic. However, in exceptional circumstances, when necessary to ensure full opportunity for a public input, the board president may with board consent adjust the amount of time allowed. Any such adjustment shall be done equitably to show a diversity of viewpoints. The president may also ask members of the public with the same viewpoint to select a few individuals
004to address the board on behalf of that viewpoint. Speakers are reminded to communicate with respect, fairness, and courteousness to each other and to all present. We ask that you not use the name of any district employee in your comments. The board welcomes orderly communication from the public. All right. And first we have um Kim No. >> Hi, I'm Kim. Um good evening board members. Thank you for the time and effort that has gone into last year's consolidation. I recognize that that this change of this scale is complex and dynamic uh especially for Ruskin. However, I want to share growing concerns from our school community and my experience and how the transition has been implemented and how things have been running dayto-day. Over the last past six months, we have seen various issues continue to surface,
005ranging from traffic and safety concerns to changes in enrichment materials and shifting protocols to deeper concerns around trust and transparency. Leadership communication gaps remain ongoing. expectations are unclear and as a result school morale and overall community climate have noticeably dis declined. In my opinion, one of the most concerning aspects is that intentional efforts to bridge the two school communities still have not really taken place and six months into the school year, many family and staff members still feel disconnected and not entirely supported. At this point, there are growing worries not only about the remainder of the school year, but also about how we successfully transition into next year without stronger support. I respectfully ask the board to provide additional oversight, clear guidance, and specific actionable next steps to help stabilize the school. Um, my recommendations
006include um implementing a structured feedback process such as a transparent community survey or facilitated listening sessions to truly understand how students, families, and staff are experiencing this transition. I'm here tonight to urge the board to ask the questions to clarify how success this year will be measured so that the community knows um what what improvement looks like. At the end of the day, we want to know despite the challenges, Ruskin has the support it needs to to be supported um to sorry, Ruskin has the support it needs for the overall well-being and success of its students. Our shared goal is a safe, stable, and supportive school environment. We ask we are asking for expanded partnership, transparency, action plans to help restore trust, build community, and ensure our students and school community can move forward together.
007Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Teresa Co. Teresa. Hello, my name is Teresa Creo. I am a Ruskin parent. You guys know me. I'm here all the time. Um, on February 9th, I sent screenshots of a message I received um to the district and school leadership in regards to discriminating comments received in a PTA Mandarin emerging booster leadership group chat. Part of it reads, "Ruskin is pretty lucky to have MI program kids instead of 300 random kids. Getting mainly 300 Asian students into your school will boost your test scores. No need for teachers to do extra extracurricular activities." Several parents were very insulted and called out this parent for being racist. I am very disappointed to state that I have not received a response from anybody from the district or school leadership.
008Um, I have only received a response and an apology from President Jeriah, which I do appreciate the acknowledgement. Based on title 11, the civil ra the civil rights act, discrimination should be addressed and taken very seriously, not just swept under the rug. Instead of receiving Instead, parents received a message from our school principal asking families to be nice to one another. This should not have been this way. We are adults and we should be talked to as adults. Instead, a message should have been sent that there is a zero tolerance policy for discrimination, harassment or bullying. Then I came to a district meeting and I saw the LCAP data. The focus was on children with disabilities, English learners, black and Hispanic students. the students that get the least attention from our district. Unfortunately, it seems
009in this school district, not all children are treated equally. A lot of students that were on track last year are falling behind this year. And it is the outcome that will shape their lives. I want to highlight something. In San Jose, the number one spoken language at home is Spanish. um other than English with 1.7 million speakers. Chinese speakers is number two with 600,000 and this goes for Mandrin as well as Cantonese. The number three is Tagalic with 260,000 speakers and number four is Vietnamese with 180,000 speakers. So I ask, how do you expect students to thrive when they cannot get the attention they need from their teachers or proper support from the district? How do you expect teachers to give 30 students full attention? Well, you should get a tutor, we're told. But where
010are the resources? How do you plan to fix this problem inside of our classrooms? Because the current state we are in, this is not working. Next year, um, we are going to lose a lot of families as well as great staff, which is a first for Ruskin. The um, these are the years where children's brains are developing and we should be giving them core memories, not anxiety and depression. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is my D. >> Hi. Um, may I pass something out to you guys before my timer starts? Thank you. Good evening um board of directors, district leaders. Um thank you for having me. My name is Mayalanu. I am a parent of two students at Ruskin. And uh I'm not quite prepared for today because I had 48 hours to
011prepare. But I'm going to try to stay calm. Um, on the website, your district website, number one goal, it says to ensure a safe and productive learning environment that promotes wellness and positive school culture for all students. It's interesting that we kind of all have the same topic here. Um but unfortunately on Monday a student went to school, checked into class and asked to go to the restroom after doing some worksheets. The student decided to leave school. He walked straight out of gate 8 at Ruskin. The gate was unlocked and open during school hours. This student did not feel safe and comfortable in class, so he left. At 9:41 there was a knock on my door. It was my son. He was crying in distress, confused and lost, but he made it home to his
012safe zone. I thought school was supposed to be a safe zone. So the email, the print out in front of you is the email communication after the fact. If the timeline is correct in that email, then he was he technically left the classroom at 8:50. So that was 50 minutes before he came home. I called the school to inform the school that he made it home because I did not receive a call from the district or the school. An hour, an hour and a half, maybe. How long does it take to to communicate to a parent that your child is missing from school? If anybody grabbed him, he would be in Sacramento. We just found someone in North Carolina today who was taken from California 5 years ago. This shouldn't happen. So, please help me
013understand what the district is doing to keep our students safe and comfortable. Enough to raise their hand to ask for help in class. Enough to feel that they belong. Enough to even go to the office and say, "Could please call my mom. Instead, he just came home. Please help me understand." He walked two miles. >> So, I asked you this with my last 30 seconds. What are you doing to as a district to ensure that you're not only adhering to your budget guidelines and trying to get yourself out of the $6 million deficit? How are you going to ensure the safety of our students by implementing detailed safety emergency communication guidelines? because I could not find anything on the website, on the district website or the school website, even on California's website. It just says
014in a timely manner. What does that mean? If it was your child, how would you feel? How would you react? Thank you for the time. >> Thank you for voicing your concerns and we'll follow up after the school board meeting. All right. So, next up on our agenda is report 10A, um, January 28, 2026, district professional development presentation. Dr. Mccur, if you'd like to introduce this presentation. Sure. Tonight we have Miss Ortiz. She's going to be um giving us an overview of our professional development day that happened on January 28th. Uh it sounds seems like a long time ago, but it just was right around the corner. So hand it over to Miss Ortiz. >> Thank you very much. Good evening everyone. Welcome and nice to see you. Um again, this is our January 28th
015district PD day. This was for all staff members. It does seem like a long time ago but um great professional development. Um the structure of the day that we had uh the morning was broken into two options. Option one was that all staff this was not just uh teachers but it was uh classified as well. Um all staff was able to pick an all morning session which uh consisted of an 8 to an 11 session. The other option was to choose two 1-hour sessions and 15 well hour and 15 minutes each. Um the afternoon was split as well. Uh the afternoon we had our kinder through 2 grade. They were trained in multitudes. That's our new California mandated reading risk screener. Um that is something that we are giving for the first time this year
016and then giving yearly uh moving forward. Um and then our TK third through 5th they were at school sites collaborating in data talks with their site principles and grade level teams. our sixth through 8th grade teachers uh and staff, they all attended grade specific and content specific depending um sessions that uh centered around collaboration with their peers and teammates. The offerings was very similar to our September uh PD day. Um we offered 25 total morning sessions. This is different from our September day if you remember. I think we offered 38 in September. Um but if you remember when I reported we had some sessions quite a few that had low numbers due to the big amount of offerings. And so what we did is we brought that down to 25 which was uh 12 less.
017Um it allowed for much more full and robust conversations of sessions. Most sessions had about 15 plus attendees and we had 12 sessions that reached capacity almost within the first two days of signing up. Every presenter presented all morning by either hosting an all morning session or they presented twice to cover that 8 to 11 time frame. All presenters also were presenters that presented in September. So we had a lot of return presenters giving some great work. All sessions were extensions or new connected topics or content from that September PD day. Our offering topics we offered um in instruction six sessions, self-care four sessions, special education two sessions, art four, planning and collaboration two, tech five sessions, and then STEM we had two sessions. I'd like to before we move on to what those days
018looked like even more is give a big shout out because uh our Beressa staff essentially presented almost every single one of those sessions. We only brought in um one actual vendor um who presented for our smartboards and then we had raft. Other than that, of the 25 sessions, 22 of them were presented by Beressa's staff with 26 staff members um presenting in total. Some of them did buddy up. Um so that's great. The fact that we're learning from our own peers, our own staff, and them being able to showcase their um talents and their skill sets is amazing. So this is not all of the morning sessions, but of the all morning session. You all heard how exciting and and popular that hike was. So, we increased it to two different hikes. Um, they were
019uh differentiated for beginners and then uh one for a little bit more moderate of a hike for those who uh either hike regularly or attended the first one in September. Um, so we have two pictures there. Dr. McCquiry, he went and um hiked with them, which was really cool. Um, and then the other uh one is two pictures from our raft session. We had a ton of staff members. I believe it was 50 staff members total. They went over to Raft. They went into groups or teams and they created um their own experiments, their own they you know piloted some of their own ideas and then they presented those and then they were given an opportunity to uh shop in raft. After that, for our split sessions, again, this is not all of our split
020split sessions, but for session A, we had things such as yoga, drum circle, drawing, what's new in children's literature, and implementing Tekken centers. And there's a picture from each of those. Although again, those were one of 25 different sessions. We had a big variety. Um, I will say, uh, walking into every one of the sessions, my biggest aha and my biggest, um, I think pat on the back for all of our presenters is that even though it was yoga, even though it was drum circle, even though it might have been drawing, every single presenter brought that back to either anal strategy, um, uh, social emotional, a team building strategy, whether it's making friends, whether it's collaboration amongst teachers, um, but every single one wasn't just though it was a feel-good, it wasn't just a feel-good.
021There was strategies connected to every single one. The second part of that session uh was session B. Again, this is not all of them, but we had AAC for classrooms, which we had one of our SLPs teaching our uh paras as well as staff members how to set up the AAC devices for our um kiddos who need additional support uh for speech and making their job easier by knowing how to pre-plan those. We also had readers theater and how to make a weather station, which was very cool. Um, the weather station was actually um, it was hosted by two teachers, but it was in conjunction with a project that's happening at San Jose State. Our PD feedback, we got great feedback. Um, I don't want to read all of it, but you guys can take
022a look at it. Um, really positive feedback. We got some good ideas for next year. We got um a lot of teachers who in appreciated the fact that they were able to choose during the morning time and then have that time in the afternoon with their actual school site and their teams to collaborate. Um it made it so that they they had the choice in what they wanted to learn and then in the afternoon it was something that was directly related to either their grade level or their uh actual classroom. And that's our 28th January PD. Any questions? Thank you. Are there any questions from the board? >> Well done. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I know it sounds and looks like an awesome PD day. So, thank you so much for the hard
023work. >> Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Our next presentation is 10B, California's Assembly Bill 3216, Phones Free School Action Presentation. Thank you, Dr. Mccur. >> Okay. So, everybody's getting in line over here. I'll introduce everyone. We have our middle school principles and assistant principles who are going to lead us through the phone free school act that will be implemented July 1st, 2026. So from Marill we have Maya Dong and Marissa Mayora. From Sierra Mont, Mr. Chris Mosley. From our newly identified California Distinguished School, Piedmont Middle School, we have Dr. Barnes and Miss Rhonda Jacobs. And so tonight's agenda, we're going to understand a little bit more about the ED code and the specific number of ED. The ED code is 48,91.7. Then I'll hand it over to Maril to give
024their information and Sierra Mont and then Peemont and answer any questions. And just uh FYI, we do have a new policy. We've been talking about it for the last couple years at principal meetings, but on July 1st, 2026, the mandate from um the state is that each district will come up with a policy procedure in order to limit or prohibit um cell phones in our schools and we must update it every 5 years. The the goal of course is to produce evidence-based practices and support people learning and well-being. So we'll also talk about that during the presentation. And uh another big piece of this process is involving our stakeholders um ensure that our community understands why we're doing this and also talking to our students about this. So I'm going to hand it over to
025Miss Dong and Miss Miss Mora. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. So, Muriel, oops, Morel is currently in year two of implementation. Our um basic cell phone policy is during instructional time bellto all cell phones and smartwatches need to be put in their backpacks and turned off. So with the ongoing communication that we provide families, students and um well we we provide first parent um and family communication which trickled down to student communication and we have ongoing efforts as we need to revisit the policy. So as you can see we started with uh June 2025 when we had the incoming sixth grade parent night. Um, we also reintroduced for our new or uh returning families and new families uh communication in parent square. So that was just a memo to families and then our incoming
026sixth graders um in August 2025. We talked about it again during web day and then it's also in our time tracker which every student um during advisory it was reviewed um at the beginning of the year. Um, as we feel needed, if we're having to talk to students, uh, frequently about cell phone usage or it being out, uh, Miss Mayor and I will have an assembly, um, just to follow up with students and remind them what the expectations are. Um, teachers also reminded families, the parents that came and the students that came, uh, what the expectations were during back to school night. Okay. And as far as so we are in year two and so the you know this year students are more accustomed to the policy uh compared to I'm sure when it first
027began and so um the students are pretty well aware even coming in again because with the newer student sixth graders we are providing the information as they are transitioning into our middle school. Um but basically this is the um format that we follow with the policy. Um and as I said our students are pretty you know well aware and it's I think they're used to the no phones now and you know it's pretty consistent with in that way. Um so usually it's more like a first offense. The phone is um confiscated and then placed in the office. We have a designated location for the cell phones when they are confiscated in our office. Um and students are allowed to pick up the device at the end of the school day. So this is if the
028phone is again um if if a student is found using the phone in class, the teacher confiscates a device, sends it to the office, student picks it up at the end of the day. Um for a second offense, um the student um the phone is placed in the office and again student is all is again asked to pick it up from the office at the end of the day. But at the second offense, we do notify the parents that this is, you know, that they had received a first offense warning, had to drop the phone off and uh then we notify parents of the incident and we do document that um for our um record. For a third offense, we follow kind of the same process, but at the third offense, we do look at
029working with the student with um in terms of a behavior contract um to help them with um the habit and you know, just kind of uh helping them with that reminder about the cell phone policy that we have in place at Morell. As we've um gone through year 2 implementation feedback from students and staff and looking at our data is that we see uh less disruptions this year um in terms of classroom disruption increase in instructional time along with uh more student safety. So the first column you see what um it looked like what trends looked like before implementation. Second column is after implementation. So this is including year one and two. For instance, um students were calling their families directly from their cell phones rather than going to the office and using an office
030phone, >> right? And then um with like the day-to-day like the the uh class disruptions um this has really reduced that um since you know the expectation is that students keep the cell phones in the backpacks. It's away from them. they are able to focus on their learning and able to focus on the instructional time. Um, and so that's a change that has been reported. Um, even at the, you know, the lunches and breaks, students are socializing more, they're interacting, they're playing basketball, they're playing volleyball, they're engaging more in social activities rather than, you know, sitting on their phones or just kind of being on their phones on their own. Um, and I think another piece really is the social emotional piece. We're seeing um because they're off of their cell phones and engaging face
031to face with other peers or even going to our chill zone during lunchtime, there is less of um studentto student uh how would you say it? student to student uh >> like the conflict >> the conflict >> conflict between >> conflict the bullying the the um social media and so and when it does happen um because we are working with the students we are telling them what to do coming to adults and you know expressing to us there's a situation rather than quickly getting on their phones and texting back or posting something because we have a cell phone policy where it needs to be put away during structural time >> or then worrying about what people are posting or doing on the phones since they all don't have their phones and they don't have that
032need to be checking and to see what's going on because well nothing's going out there their phones are away. So >> so all in all we do see a positive uh change in the culture um plus also just the increased time in academics and instruction during the school day. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Good evening. So, since Murell started two years ago, this is our first year of our implementation. So, you might hear some similar uh to what uh has went on. So, same cell phone policy. All cell phones are and smart watches are placed in their backpacks uh at the beginning of school and they can't come out to the end of school. Uh so as is bell to bell 7:55 the first bell rings that's when they should be putting
033their uh phones and watches in their bags and then once the 235 or 111 bell rings they can come back and get their phones. Now how implementation hit we started in January of 20 25 uh going over PTSA schoolside council uh it was announced I did a video and uh shared with parents as well uh during uh was that music events anywhere there was a audience of teacher excuse me of parents they received the information on what's upcoming uh the cell phone policy we knew how important and how incredible that the cell phone is to our students. It's like another arm. So, we wanted to make sure they know that arm is going to be cut off. So, um so then we also enter into the time tracker and then also during our uh beginning
034of the school year, our PBIS uh we started as well informing the students. Uh so, first offense is pretty similar. Go to the office. uh if it's taken kid can pick up in the afternoon. Second offense, the phone is also placed in the office. However, guardian must pick it up. Now, the third offense, you place on a 30-day phone contract. And what that states is every time you come to the office, when you come to school, you go straight to the office and drop your phone off. Then, uh at the end of the day, you come back and pick it up. So, that's for 30 days. So, problem solving. I need to contact my guardian. Well, we informed all our students and parents. There are over 45 phones on our campus. So, you're pretty near
035a phone or you can be sent to the office from the teacher if you need to use the phone in private in the office or in the nurse's office. Um, how now? However, office phones use has reduced students calling to be picked up from the rest, excuse me, for safety concerns. One of the things is that the phone, the public phone is right in front of the office. So, you do have access to use a phone. However, you might not ask certain things on that phone because it's right in front of the office. But, we do have uh our front office staff to assist our students in those phone calls because as you do know, and we all have, we don't know anybody's phone number. you don't remember phone numbers anymore. So, you have to
036ask the the clerk, "Excuse me, can you give me my mom's phone number?" Or, "Excuse me, can I have somebody's number?" Or we'll have a student come to the office say, "Hey, I don't know my mom's phone number. Can I dial from my cell phone in front in the office?" Nine times out of 10, we allow that to happen. Um, let me see. I need to contact my students. Guardian can call the office and give a message that will communicate to students in a timely manner. If necessary, students can be brought to the office to call a guardian back. So, another case in point, we do have parents that do call the office and we do have office that we can have a student get picked up from their um classroom, brought to the office
037and call. So, we did a survey. We surveyed all our students, gave a couple questions, see where we're at in this process. So, currently right now, of course, 70% of our students do not agree with the policy. pretty simple. However, 70% of students say the policy is easy to follow. All right. 47% say they engage more with their friends now. And that is absolutely true. Um not we just not only do cell phones, we also do Chromebooks. Chromebooks are not allowed during lunch and break. You cannot open a Chromebook because one, you should be eating your food and talking to people, but two is to help engage the kids. And so like if you come to the lunch during the school day, uh you'll see mostly kids playing cards, Uno, Speed. Um some game I
038can't even explain. Um it's like kind of like 52 card pickup, but I don't know what it is. Palace. That's what it's called. Palace. >> Yeah. Uh you know how to play it? Oh, good. Teach me. All right. Um but it's fun. I mean, they're all in circles. They're all around people going from side to side engaging in Uno. That's my favorite. I sit down and play with them Uno if they don't cheat. Um but it's fun now. People are people are talking. Kids are engaging. Um the basketball courts, the volleyball courts, the football, all that is going on because no one's on their phones or no one's on their Chromebooks. So it helps like she said with our seal, but also just communication all. And then in yellow, as you see, as of this
039report, cuz I knew we shouldn't have put in the report, but as of this report, there would have been no there would have been zero reports of cyber bullying. Zero. Okay. And then the only one incident was a take a photo taken without permission. So we had a kid and and took a picture of a kid. Kid came and told us, "Hey, she was crying. This guy took a picture of my feet." And so we took his phone and that was we went through the process kind of. All right. Now another question. What is something you do differently during break and lunch during the school year? Okay. So I play cards which is very popular. Uh they have a lot of conversation with friends. Not a lot of not a lot of drama. Not a
040lot. I didn't say it wasn't none but not a lot as it used to be. Um reading books. Our library circulation is really full really large at this time. Uh not that much of a difference. Instead of playing with friends online during lunch, we play cards or other physical games instead. Physical games. I have to look at that one. Uh playing games in real life instead of on my phone. I haven't taken pictures of my friends having fun during lunch and break nowadays. Uh we have seen a reduction of cyber bullying that occurs at school because of this. That is correct. And this these are comments from students. All comments from students. All right. Thank you. All right. So, we're from Pedmont Middle. Now, we are one of the schools that has not started the
041cell phone policy as of yet. Um but what we have been doing is that we're taking advice from Sierra Armont and Morell and we're going to follow the same game plan as phones will be off from bell to bell but in February we started talking with our students. We wanted to educate them before we just went ahead and started confiscating phones. So we have explained to them what the phone free school act is about and then of course they get tired of hearing from us. So we wanted to get leadership involved and so the ASB students helped us uh lead lead a campaign on the impact of cell phones. So the ASP leadership class did research on what the impact of cell phones are and then they were able to present it out to their
042peers to let them know what kind of impact cell phones have. Um our plan is the last six weeks of school is to uh implement the cell phone policy. We also wanted to make sure that the messaging went out to our community and so we also educate our community on what the phone free school act was about. We communicated through parent square. We talked at PTSA meetings. We talked at as everyone else has said anytime that we could get parents in the room. We want to make sure that they knew that this was coming down the road. Um and we wanted to make sure that they knew that we were educating our students to make sure that they be prepared when the actually cell phone policy will be enforced. Um, and then we gave them
043a survey also to see how they were feeling about the cell phone policy. And so this was our survey. And so 75% um of the community said they did support it, but then there was a small percentage of 24% that said they did not support the the act. And so we asked for them to give us feedback on why that they felt that way. So some of the community feedback was that uh you know students need to be educated why instead of just enforcing them like I'm going to take your phone away and just confiscate it. The reasoning needs to know why because students will be more in more able to apply it because they actually know why what's the reasoning on why we did that. But some of the concerns was safety of children
044because kids are so used to using their phones to contact their parents if there's an emergency or anything like that. But as been stated, there's phones all over the campus in which students can use to get in contact with their parents. And if the parents need to get in contact with their children, we have excellent front office staff with with office aids that will be able to get any kind of message that they need to their students in a timely manner. The student education campaign was really crucial for us as we were considering rolling this out. So in a few weeks on March 23rd, um all students are going to take an initial preervey. Um the campaign that our ASB students uh have shared that Rhonda mentioned um highlights the six key areas that researchbased
045studies would suggest impact students with regards to cell phone use. And you can see those six here. The survey is linked here for your perusal, but I'd like to take a moment to talk about why we're implementing a researchbased uh short version of the smell or the smell phone, excuse me, the smartphone addiction scale, the SAS SV. SV of course stands for short version. Uh it's a sixpoint liyker scale based on research. You can see the educators uh reference down there. Um, and I just want to take a quick moment to read some of the questions that um, our parents of course will have the option to opt out their child should they not uh, agree with some of the questions in here, but they're all very benign as an example. Um, I have my
046smartphone on my mind even when I am not using it. And then there's six point liker scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Uh, here's another interesting question. I would never give up using my smartphone even if my daily life were greatly affected by it. Uh I consistently check my smartphone as to not miss conversations between others. Um and I use my smartphone longer than I intend. Uh there in series there are about 10 questions. Um and so we're really looking forward to a pre-assessment and then the six week implementation of the actual cell phone policy. So students will have exposure to the impact that smartphones have on all human beings especially adolescence. We're going to do the survey pre and then we'll do the post survey at the end of June post the six
047week implementation. And our hope is that we'll see some statistically significant differences um in how students are reporting whether or not they are um feeling any differently about the cell phone act. Um with respect to our enforcement, we are mimicking exactly what the other two schools are doing. You can see the first, second, and third offenses here. all very much in line with the other middle schools. Um, and then here again is our brief timeline, our pre-est, our education campaign, six week implementation, and then a post survey. And then once the school year ends, Rhonda and I will be um delving into a deep data dive to figure out what, if any, changes we'll make for the following school year. Thank you. >> Okay. All right, thank you everybody for all of your uh hard
048work around this topic and just some next steps. We do have a district-wide policy that will be brought forward for board approval in the next few months. And we also have communication that uh elementary folks want to know like, well, what about us? So, it's very similar to what the middle schools have already done, but we're going to be having some conversations with the elementary principles as well, so that they also follow uh the guidelines that are set forth in um the assembly bill. And with that, we'll open it up for questions. And thank you for all the principles um uh attending tonight and all the hard work that they do at the school sites. >> Thank you so much. Do we have any questions from the board? >> Yes, I have a few questions.
049Uh thank you. Excellent presentation and good uh uh good you know implementation strategy and I I think uh we're a little late uh to to getting around to you know not not just us I'm just saying statewide nationwide to doing this but better late than never. Um the question was uh with the smartphone and the smart watches. Um so some some of us including me we uh use the smart watches for u step tracking. Uh there might be kids that are using the smart watches for step tracking. Uh has there been any um you know push back on that uh especially with athletic athletic teams. >> Hand it over to any principal that wants to address these questions. Mr. Mosley. >> No. >> Thank you. Same with Morel now. >> Okay. >> I will say
050this. The one of the reasons why a lot of them use it is not to tell time. >> It's for other things, right? So, >> yeah, I know that's it's connected to the smartphone and gives notification, but step if if you're into athletics and you know uh want to make sure they have your your uh steps going and things like that, it's a good great way to track your activity level and and so on. So, I was just curious about what what you're hearing on there. um alternative alternative activities uh for students. I think I we saw some of those things. Uh along that those lines, I I have a question. I'm going to try to frame it uh you know the best way I can. Uh it's it's going to be a little challenging
051for me to to explain it. Uh so so I'll say I'll say what what what what's on my mind which is uh let me know if you have any um if I can provide any clarification so um there are several students that are u not very social uh just because of their personality. Uh I was one of those kids who was not um who didn't have too many friends. So a cell phone would be is a great thing for someone like like me who is a loner who wants to sit in a corner and maybe discover new things and you know look at stuff like that. Um there are going to be students in each of your middle schools and as well as elementary schools who do are not comfortable you know making new friends
052or talking to anybody or nobody wants to talk to them or whatever the case is. Um are we you know identifying those kind of uh students and providing them uh some kind of support and make sure that you know they they get to talk to somebody. You cannot you cannot do anything. You eat your your lunch in five minutes and you have 15 minutes of doing nothing. You don't have cell phone. You cannot do anything. uh maybe read a book or something like that or gets encouraged them to do something else because they have been otherwise occupied uh with their cell phones and they don't know they don't have any other idea of what to do with the time because they're not social creatures. They're not, you know, those those kids that would go out
053and play ball or something like that. Is there a plan for students like that? So I think um a handful of the principles already mentioned some of the options but I'll reiterate them and let me know if I'm reiterating them correctly. Uh for example, Merurl has a chill zone. Basically it's an area for students to go who don't want to go outside and interact potentially. uh the school social worker at both uh Merrill and Piedmont have opportunities for kids to come in and sit and relax and talk to the adult in the room. If you ever go to Sierramont, the library is a very vibrant area where the students are and the LMT is just lovely. She has tons of activities. We're talking like um checkers, chess, opportunities for students to do um uh Mr.
054Mos mentioned cards. What I liked was she had yarn and different things where the students were learning how to uh crochet. And so there's tons of different activities at all three middle schools. And um and I have been on all three school campuses over the years and seen a dramatic change in the way our students are interacting. And we did review some of the suspension and expulsion data recently. And I just want to reiterate that also a lot of the suspension issues that we had dealt with in the last 10 years dealt with cell phones and taking pictures and uploading not so nice comments. And so I know for pretty much all the people standing behind me and Dr. Fentes, we have had several hours if not days of just going through cell phones and
055going through all the different things that have been negatively impacting schools. And so with the um plan in place, I've seen a huge dramatic positive change. Even Mr. Mosley mentioned uh the Chromebooks. I had been at uh Sierra Mont maybe a year or so ago and just saw the kids. They weren't playing with their watches or phones, but they all had their Chromebooks out. And I was just kind of like mentioning it to Mr. Mosley, and he's like, "Yeah, well, it's gonna change soon." And boy, has it really changed. >> That's that's good to know. And um I did see some feedback, I mean push back from parents. I saw those comments and I obviously there will be some uh push back, but uh I I think this is for the greater good. I'm sure
056the community will they'll understand that it's it's uh for the best of their students as as well as the community. Um so it'll be good to have like per periodical updates like this for the sake of the community so they know positive things are happening. You know several good things have been happening at at Morel and Smons. So it'll be great to see more of that. Uh my last question would be for the uh uh so Mr. Mostly there about 45 phones are on campus. Uh so some of the um the university campuses they have these blue lights, right? Blue light phones. What are they called? Emergency phones. Um >> Oh yes. >> Right. >> Uh is there is there any possibility of putting something like that? um couple of them >> those are kind
057of like on campus for emergencies and I think it's more for like safety among like college campuses. I'm not sure if we need anything specifically like that at a middle school campus, but >> so I'm trying to see if we can some of the concerns about safety that parents have expressed can alleviate that saying that you know >> and I think the majority of our teachers usually have their doors open. They're very accessible. If somebody were to come to them, they would make sure they get the proper support in my opinion. radios, walkie-talkies, whatever it takes to get the message to the front office so that they can get the support that they need. >> Okay. >> Yeah, fair enough. I just wanted to see how we can alleviate that safety concern because the parent
058might be visualizing that the student at the far end of the campus uh you know has to run all the way to the office to to say you know to share some some you know emergency issue. Um but to get that clarified maybe let the parents let the students know they can pretty much go to any classroom in case of an emergency. So >> good. Okay. >> Thank you. I also have a few questions too. Thank you so much for the wonderful presentation. This is really good for us to know especially as we consider a district-wide policy. But I just had a couple of questions. Um I grew up in the age of cell phone and so I actually went to middle school and everyone had iPhones. So you know I know I know the
059struggle of students. Um, I was just curious, what if a student wanted to work on homework during their break and lunchtime? Um, what options do they have if it's like online for example? Like do they have any ways they can do it or they just don't? >> So for Morel, the students are able go able to go to the library um to do homework. We do encourage students to do homework at home because it is something that they should be doing at home. Um, but we do open up the library on a regular basis for students to go in just like the chill zone. Um, >> check out Chromebook and >> they use their Chromebook. But I would say when I've gone in there a lot of the times the students are not on their
060Chromebooks. They're actually playing the game boards um that are provided, the card games or even the activity worksheets that our LMT is um printing out for the students. >> Gotcha. Thank you. And I'm also curious like what other education um is happening at the school sites um on cell phone use. I think it's great that Pedmont you're laying out for students like why it's important um screen time is decreased. You know, it's insane how much people use their phones nowadays. So I'm just curious if there's any other additional supplemental things we're sharing with students about the benefits of not using their phone if or Pedmont you can if you wanted to continue it on or is it just going to be the this year that you're doing it? Um we're I mean we're very excited
061to see if the education campaign has any impact on their um perceptions of cell phone use and whether or not they agree with the policy. Um I think moving forward um we would want to continue with little videos of students who can attest to their cell phone use and the detriment that it may or may not have had on them. because sometimes when they hear from their peers, they're they're more motivated than hearing from Mr. Jacobs or I. >> Thank you. >> And I also just have a question about um you know, if there's emergency situations, you know, I have been approached by parents about still concerns about like school shootings for example. And so I'm just curious like what is the plan if something like that were to happen? Like do teachers use their
062own cell phones? like what like how I'm just curious like what that procedure is kind of looking like or if we've kind of thought about that too. >> Sure. I think when it comes to a schoolwide emergency, um I would probably guess that the adults would say, "Okay, you know, get your phones out, contact your parents." We did have an issue at one of our schools where the electricity went out. I went to all the fourth and fifth grade classrooms and said, "Hey, >> contact your parents. We're going to be dismissed at 10:30." instead of waiting for everybody to dial their number. That actually helped tremendously. Got the word out. We also send outs, you know, information through parent square and all kinds of vehicles at the school site specifically to get information out to
063their parents as soon as we can. >> Right. And what I wanted to add is with the the legislation that was passed around this act, um there is still ed code um accessibility for students to be able to make contact in case of these type of extreme emergencies. So that's why districts have taken different approaches like districts who are actually taking phones physically away from students and putting them in pouches or locked closets, things like that. They are required to have some kind of mechanism for the students to be able to go >> and and fetch their phones in the case of those types of emergencies. So we're not doing that. The students still have their phones on their person. They're just put away. >> Okay, great. Thank you. And my last question, and I
064don't know if you have the answer to this, but I'm just curious on what East Side is doing for their phone policy. Are we keeping it consistent? >> Hey, we had that and Mr. Mosley said he almost for he forgot to share that, but Mr. Mosley is always in contact with East Side, right? >> So, as we were creating our cell phone policy, I talked to Miss Pereira that was the principal of Pedmont Hills High School. And so, actually, incidentally, she just took mine and copied it and >> did the same thing. So we're are we all we're all aligned in that area of the cell phone policy. >> Beautiful. Okay. Awesome. That's all my questions. Thank you all so much for your time in this presentation. >> Thank you again. Thank you to all
065the principles. >> I'm sorry. Uh Trusty Brewer, you also have questions. >> Yes. Okay. Go ahead if that's okay. >> Yeah. No, that's >> um first I just want to say I love the roll out like I I wasn't part of Sierra or or Moral's but just hearing the learnings and then the phased approach I think the awareness building has been really strong as a parent who's very nervous or was very nervous about this hearing it over and over that it's coming is actually like reducing the the anxiety about it. I also wanted to share just a tidbit. My daughter does not have a cell phone. She's in sixth grade. She has a smartwatch. Um, and every friend that eventually gets the phone, she just goes, "Ah, there goes another one." And because that's exactly
066what happens. They just, even if their parents think they've blocked YouTube or whatnot, that is where they're they go, whether they want to share it with their friends or just be in their own world. So, um, the engagement piece is very important. I did not think about the cyber bullying. And I was actually curious when you said you had zero this year. I actually don't know what a typical number is. So I was kind of curious like how successful is that? >> Very high. I'd say >> okay >> on a probably daily basis we were dealing with issues for cyber bullying at least at least once or twice a week if not more. >> Wow. Okay. Yeah. >> And sign. >> So to add to that um we have a program called tip now. Uh,
067I would say we receive less tips now because majority of the tips that we receive dealt with cyber bullying. >> That's great. >> Um, and I I think that um the the approach of having your ASB learn um even if they're not in favor of it, they can still say this sucks, but guess what guys, like this is what we're seeing. Um, give it a go. and maybe some of the commentary that you guys have from your surveys being able to share will be really impactful and I'm looking forward to seeing those those survey results. Um the Chromebook one I also had a question about I I wonder if it's school specific. I don't know if Pedmont Middle is the last one to go. I don't know if I see kids in their Chromebooks a
068lot but I do know they like to that's where all their homework and their assignments are and I know they like to when they're doing group projects they come together. So, is that is the plan there also to put Chromebooks away, but unless they're in the library? >> Um, no pun intended, but we're a little out to lunch on the Chromebook question because the thought would be, okay, let's have a designated space for students to go and open up their Chromebooks. But then we're also encroaching on that teacher's >> if it's our librarian, >> then she is going to have to monitor or Rhonda and I are going to have to swing through and monitor, make sure they're not playing games. So, it's a little bit of a >> unknown for us right now. We're
069not sure where we're going to land on it. Um, I am going to follow in the footsteps of my colleagues to see what their data shows and that'll help inform our our our decision. >> Okay. And I I do appreciate that we are keeping them on their person. I think that helps parents. Um, maybe the only other thing I could think that might help with the awareness building and anxiety reducing because I think at the end of the day it does come down to safety is what parents are most worried about. My kid went off to middle school. First thing we did with my older one, slap a smartwatch on her. I didn't want her to have a phone, but I wanted to know that I could find her if I needed to. Um, I'm
070wondering if maybe we can just reiterate the safety protocols when things like that happen that all parents get a rooc call or that there's a text if we have a situation where we're evacuating or sheltering in place and that not to come but this is what's happening and through email parent square what however but let them know what those are so they know that they can count on that system and I know we do like drills and like tests of those notifications systems and so maybe even before the D-Day um that that happens so they know they can trust that that might be another way to help calm some of the calls that you're going to get from parents but thank you I think the rollout plan is >> probably more robust than I've seen
071in a while so I appreciate it I know there's been a lot of thought to it because you know the resistance is there >> oh I just wanted to add um Dr. McCur and I have started our LCAP student focus groups and we had one middle school that we've done so far. We still have to meet with the the other two but uh the this came up this came up with the students. So it was really interesting to hear you know what they had to say and they certainly shared that initially yeah they didn't like it you know they love their phone and they they love all the things they do with it. Um, but I I think the awareness campaign and educating them as to why this law came to be is really important
072because we took some time to explain to them, you know, this isn't just Baressa. This is a change that's happening statewide and and they knew that because some of them had been talking with their cousins and their cousins schools have already, you know, made transitions or or they shared, "My cousin has a pouch that they need to put their phone in." And I said, "Right." I said, "And there's reasons for that." had and we talked about, you know, um the impact that cell phones have have had on on students and we're trying to prevent, you know, overusage and all of those things. And they kind of all nodded in agreement like, yeah, we do that, right? And and then we also talked about just, you know, I asked them, well, do you now that you
073don't have them out at lunchtime, like do you find yourselves spending your time differently? Like what does that look like for you? and and they did share like yeah you know we're we're talking with our friends where you know um coming up with new things that we can do and and things like that and so it was good to hear that feedback and we did hear from a student also about a question about how do I do my work if I can't have my Chromebook because I like to use that time to study. So we said that's good feedback for us to know as we figure out you know what these options are going to be uh as we move forward you know with this with this new policy. So you know they were pretty
074in alignment with what we've seen in terms of what was shared here with our principles. >> Thank you for that. Any other comments or questions? >> All right. Thank you all so much for the presentation. All right. So up next we have item 10 C, Beressa home to school transportation plan update for fiscal year 2025 2026. Thank you. And this evening we have uh both Mara and Dan who are our director and assistant director of uh maintenance operations and transportation to provide the update. Good evening board. Um so we have our transportation plan and let's see. Um so this is our plan. I believe you guys should all have a copy and if not then um I can forward that over to Kim and she can get you guys a copy. Um so the state
075requires us to adopt and update the plan every year by April 1st. Um so it's important that we um approve this plan. And um one of the things >> just for clarification, this is not an action item. It is a requirement that the plan be brought forward to the board. So that's why it's under reports and presentation and not review and action. Um so we currently have six routes. Um we transport on an average 130 students. Um our priority um is IEP uh transportation needs. That's our highest priority. And um we do have um let me see. Sorry. For McKenna Vento students, we do also have bus passes. Um, and we do get a reimbursement of about $118,000. And, um, to say the least, our buses do stay very busy. Um, and do you guys
076have any questions? All right, thank you for the overview. Any questions from the board? >> Is there any scope of expanding the bus services to I think I've asked that. >> Yeah, correct. And remember, we've discussed in the past that in um it's been quite some time now, but we used to have dedicated transportation funding that came from the state. that's no longer the case, which is why uh bus service um was either completely eliminated in school districts or significantly reduced. And so currently our main um student group that we focus on is our special education students. Uh we do have other supports um for students who are f foster youth or unhoused. um we do work together with those families to provide um uh public transportation. That's the avenue that we have is terms
077of resources. >> Yeah. The reason I ask is because I mean f first and foremost it'll it'll help alleviate all the traffic issues. Mhm. >> Just have, you know, a couple of school buses going and our elected officials always talk about uh what is it called environmental impact and things like that. You know, improve the quality of >> of the uh air around the schools and think and so the easiest thing to do is to should to have not have a thousand cars pass through >> uh our schools. But you know there's there's talk but there's no investment. there is regulation on schools uh to prove that we are not adding to the uh to the pollution but you know the easiest solution would be to >> to have um you know common transport so
078all all kids can take can ride the school bus >> um you know instead of sending our money to uh the bullet train to nowhere we could just send that money to the school districts and get them >> get them you know get the school transportation back and you save the environment today instead of from instead of 50 years from from now. That so that part doesn't make sense and it's frustrating but uh it'll be great you know hopefully some we'll have some common sense uh legislator in the near future who would uh who would think about improving uh student safety and quality of uh air around the around the school campuses. So >> Mhm. >> I can hope I'll hope for the keep hoping and you know keep praying and keep dreaming but we
079shall see but no thank you for their presentation. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments or questions? >> How many students are we talking about here? >> 130 on an >> 130. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Just whatever. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you so much for the overview. I actually had a quick question for you. Sorry, you already back. But um I really um do appreciate the bus program. I actually volunteered um one year to you know ride along on the bus and it was a really eye openening experience. It really helps students you know get to school to and from. Um the question that I had a little unrelated but I was just curious since uh Trusty Shinasan brought up environmentalism if our bus fleet um has been
080electrified and if not if we're looking into potentially grants if that's something that we're open to in the future. I'm just curious about that side. >> No, but we're constantly looking for grants. >> Okay. Gotcha. Awesome. All right. >> And we have the we have installed the technology to charge buses if buses if that comes down the line. >> Okay. >> So, we're getting there. >> Thank you so much. All right. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, next up is item 10, Measure U, Independent Citizens Bond Oversight Committee. >> President Hog, sorry. Was there a motion to approve? >> No, as I mentioned, this was just an information. >> So, it just says because >> that's in it's an error. >> Okay, good. Just wanted to clarify. Thanks. >> Sorry. >> Oh, is Frank
081in the Oh, >> okay. So, maybe you want to go to the next one perhaps? We'll go back. >> Yeah, we'll do um the next item 10E measure U construction bond program update with Dan. >> All right. Good evening everybody. So for the month of March, I have the bond update um presentation and little change this time. It's kind of an updated spread presentation that uh soon as get it up there. All right. So again, this is March 11th um 2026. Thank you. And just to go through uh the the measure you overview, we have a project updates and project program schedule. So kind of that wasn't broken out to what was incorporated in each of those bullet points. So I kind of went through and and laid out the the what kind of goes
082with what. So project updates, you got school renovations, infrastructure improvements, technology upgrades, and safety uh and security enhancements. And then on the schedule, that's basically that those crazy uh colored lines. And we'll get to a great slide that I incorporated as well to kind of demonstrate that a little bit better. Uh project project updates. So, currently in design, uh we have the school kitchen assessments. Uh we're working with our director of of um food service to kind of let us know what the needs are of the of the middle schools right now. and then and work our way through the elementary schools. Um this summer we're hoping to move uh two portables located over at Majestic Way. Um that's in design with DSA. Fire alarms at Sierramont and Ruskin. Those are happening this summer. They're
083also in with DSA. Exterior window replacement at Northwood. That's happening this summer. Um, and we're going to re be replacing the roofs at Ruskin and K1 and K2. The those have been just a a hodgepodge of of of leaks at those those two specific classrooms for some reason. So, we're re- roofing them and hopefully be done with that those issues. Um, and also in design, we're looking at library tables for all of our sites. And again um happening this summer are comprehensive in infrastructure renewal and utility assessment. The mechanical upgrades replacements at Majestic Way in Somerdale that's happening. Uh so we have three projects out to bid currently. We have the TK playground fencing at Somerdale, which I believe I showed you the kind of the drawing, the sketch of what it's going to look
084like last board meeting. Um, we're also out to bid. We're doing storage shelves at all of our portables at the elementary schools. So, recently at the sister schools, we did some shelving inside the common area and they're about four foot wide and five foot open shelving. there'll be that type of of um shelving that goes into the portables. And then the last one is the sister school opening or the sister school classroom opening reconfigurations. Um just like we did at Majestic Way, it's uh to prevent kids from be able to look into other classrooms. Um and it's a big help with the noise um because they're kind of open in that that area. So, it's going to really help out the noise situation. Um, and then the other one that we already bid was the
085exterior painting at uh three at classrooms or at portable classrooms at three schools. So, we bid this out. Um, and what the bullet points basically say is that we received 12 bids. We took the lowest bidder. the lowest bidder um decided to take their bid away and so um in the consent calendar we reapproved the second lowest bid. So it was going to it's satellite painting and then that will happen over the break um o April break. Other projects in progress, we have the warehouse. And I have a bunch of pictures I'm excited to show you about the demo of the warehouse. It's finally happened. Um the Northwood fire alarm, Pedmont Asphalt, that's in progress. It was supposed to start over the last break, but the weather didn't help, so we kind of got rained
086out. Um and progress in progress other excuse me Bincy Park the doors and window progress uh replacement that's happening um and hopefully it is going to happen this summer. I may have misspoke and said the Northwood, but that's a that's actually in progress. This one is I'm sorry that one's I'm going to go back to that slide because I know I messed that up. That's still in design. The Northwood exterior windows is in design, not progress. And I may have said that that supposed to happen this summer. It's actually the Vincy Park windows. Um and solar uh pretty much all done. We're just waiting on Pug Genie. Uh projects in progress. The last couple of them, uh, PA replacement at Siermont, security replacement at the remaining, uh, six sites, Noble, Cherrywood, Lane View, Vincy Park,
087Sierramont, and Ruskin. And they're working on Ruskin as well. I mean, excuse me, they're working on the replacement, security replacement at Siermont as well as the PA at the same time. That's happening now. And then the landscape rehab at Somerdale. We're going to have that site looking good for the 75 uh anniversary, I believe it is, or 50th. So, that's in progress. And then the last slide here is the completed projects. So, we were able to uh finish the warehouse fiber installation. If you remember, that was a kind of a a hold back on on the or gave us kind of a delay on the on the demo of the warehouse building. So, that is now done. The Noble PA system is been completed as well as the fire alarm raceway at Vincy Park. We
088were having some issues with the new fire alarm. They ended up using an old conduit with some old wires and we were getting a ground fault because there was some underground water that was getting into the line. So, we ended up replacing and running two new conduits and re replacing all that wire. And I have pictures of the conduit as well. So, here's the new key. Um, kind of color coordinated. And then the next three slides are the schedule. And these kind of tell you when it when the the project's starting, the design basically whatever phase they're in. These next three and then the following slides are pictures. This is the Vincy Park Raceway that went out to the portables. Um, and doing so, I'm excited to say that there was a huge tripping hazard
089um, right by the storm drain that's located right there. Um, and and we were able to repair that as well um, at the same time as doing this raceway. So, we knocked two birds with one stone there. And then here's the warehouse demo. Um, the building is completely down now. This was the excavator that got to do all the fun stuff and knock the building down. Kind of just different pictures to to see different sites what was there. These pillars were all underneath the foundation. Um, believe it or not, that was actually a portable building and it was, for you guys that don't know, for everybody that doesn't know, that was one of the original uh boardrooms and the superintendent's office. Um, just pictures of of what it looks like from the street. Piles of
090rubble. More piles of rubble. And then that's pretty much the last pile of rubble, the last of it. Any questions? >> Thank you so much for the wonderful presentation. Is there any questions or comments from the board? >> A very quick question about the Majestic Way portables. Is a portables P1 and P2 relocation >> at Majestic. Is it an internal moment or moving out? >> I'm sorry. >> Is it an internal movement to uh at Majestic? That's >> Yeah. So, there's two existing portables that we acquired from the county. We paid a whole dollar a piece for these guys. And uh they're kind of oddly placed. >> So, we're going to kind of make it the design of put them all in a line like u like the Brookry portables. >> Okay. Okay. Good. Good.
091Thank you. >> Good. This is good. >> I really appreciate the new layout of the presentation. It's so much easier to understand and remember and organize our thoughts. So appreciate that. Thank you for >> Thank you. >> putting I know that takes a lot of work to make complex simple. So appreciate the effort. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. I'm a I like doing graphic design, so I actually was really admiring all the all the new upgrades you did. That was really fun. I have a couple of questions for you. Um I've recently visited Summerdale and I'm happy that you mentioned the storage for the portables. Um the teacher showed me their classroom and I was like, "Oh yeah, it's kind of a lot in here." And I'm I'm just curious. Um I was trying to
092look through the um timelines, but I wasn't sure if you had a timeline kind of set for um that project specifically. I know it's out to bid right now, but do you have like an estimate? >> If we're out to bid now, our goal is probably to be by the beginning of next school year. >> Beginning of next school year. Okay, sounds good. And also the um construction was also really cool to Thank you for the photos. That was really, really fun to see. >> All right, any other questions or comments? All right, thank you always for the great presentation. All right, so we're going to go back to um 10D, Measure U, Independent Citizens Bond Oversight Committee annual report from Frank. >> Good evening, Madame President and Board of Trustees, Dr. apprenticees and staff
093and a citizen of Beressa. My name is Franken Sulla. I'm the current chair. I know this a little bit different but I'm I have a little bit Oh, thank you. Just going to do a little introduction so that uh for the people that might not know. Uh again, my name is Frank Canel. I'm the current chair of the citizen bond of oversight committee for the measure U. And tonight, today I have the pleasure to present to you the 2024 2025 annual report of the Measure U Citizen Bond Oversight Committee covering the period of July 1st, 2024 through June 30th, 2025. The annual report is submitted to the Bereasa Ununa school district board of education and local district residents by the Beressa Ununa school district measure use citizen bond oversight committee in fulfillment of its role
094as specified by law. Primary duties of our committees are review bond expenditure to ensure that proceeds have been expended to the purpose of outline in measure U. inform the public concerning the district expenditures of bond proceeds. Pres present to the district governing board and annual report of the committee pro proceeding and activities of the previous year provide a statement indicating whether the district complies with the bond requirement. The annual report includes highlights and statutes updates of projects that will prolong the district facility life and improve of its students learning experience. The committee relies on the annual performance and financial audit conducted by Niger and Niger which discloses no instances of non-compliance with the terms of proposition 39 or measure U. The committee is pleased to report that the to the best of its acknowledge the
095Bargasa Una School District is in full compliance with responsibility described on in article 13A section 1 B3 of the California State Constitution. As you can see, our committee is there's six people in our committee. We have two open seats. We need a parent or PTA representative or someone that is a taxpayer organizer representative. So if you guys know anyone a parent that would like to volunteer or someone is there that's a taxpayer we need one more per you know one more person to join our team to continue to do what we need to do. And also as you can see we meet on a quarterly basis. Those are the days that we met in 2024 and 2025. We have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow that we'll have here uh tomorrow. And so this CBC as
096you again meets quarterly since its inception in 2015. I can't believe it's been that long. The primary presentation and discussion topic have been the detail construction completion plan and financial budget compliance. The district management has cooperated with the CBO CBOC in all respect and identify issues resolved or issue that need to be resolved. The assistant superintendent and B director or their representative have actively participated in our meetings. Thank you. Bond authorization $98 million. Total budget expenditure at the moment 38,836 and $637 bond and fund remaining at the moment when we did this audit 59,36163. I guess I should put my glasses to read easier, huh? >> Or I can look at the at the screen. I can see the numbers a little bit better. 59,63,363. Mission you bond expenditure by school type of June 2025.
097Elementary schools 14,9739,252. Middle schools 8,253,456. Districtwide 15,843 929. Bond total expenditure 38,836,633 $637. Our annual responsibility and financial audit. California Proposition 39 requires annual performance and financial audit on this on the use of general obligation bond proceeds. The fiscal year ending June 30, 2025 was was audited by an independent certified public account firm in in accordance with the general accepted auditing standards and government governal auditing standard issued by the controller general of the United States. The audit was conducted by and The CBOC reviews the annual external financial audit and one of the quarterly one of our quarterly meeting the audit scope includes financial finan finance bidding procedures and invoices payment in integrity. The CBOC was pleased to see that 53% of the year invoices were audit and project sites were visited to ensure that the
098district received what he paid for. The results of the audit is that the district expended the general obligation parties by the requirement of proposition 39. The significant project that were completed in the year for HVAC projects were completed at Brookree Morell and Noble School. Fire alarm replacement. The replacement was a majestic way in Vincy Park. PA public address system was where it will replace a book tree, Majestic Way, Northwood, Ruskin, Somerdale, and Vincy Park. The alarm replacement and Noble, Summerdale, and Toyan. Puma exterior windows replacement, they were all replaced. Concrete school monument signs, new pre-cast concrete signs for installed at all sites. And with that concludes my report. Thank you for the wonderful report. Are there any comments or questions from the board? >> Thank you for your service, Mel. I appreciate it. >> Thank
099you always for the presentation. Always good to see you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um next up is the superintendence report. Dr. Bontes, >> thank you. We have uh quite a few um recognitions that I would like to acknowledge this evening. Um, first of course, uh, as we, um, heard from our middle schools tonight, um, we have lots of, uh, congratulations and gratitude to our Piedmont community, uh, for the staff, you know, the students, the families, the administration, uh, for earning the 2026 California Distinguished School Award. So, really proud of those efforts. Um, I do like to emphasize how schools earn those recognitions. Um, there's a v variety of criteria and Piedmont Middle School um is recognized for being achievement gap closers which means um the student progress that's being made in different subgroup
100populations and the advancement that they're showing in their standardized state testing in English language arts and math. But the other thing that I always remind the students, it's not just about doing well on a test, but it's also about that commitment of showing up to school every day, of taking that responsibility for their schoolwork, um having strong character, not getting suspended from school because um as you know, our dashboard, our California dashboard also looks at chronic absenteeism, suspension rates, and all of those things count. If a school is not showing positive results in those indicators, they would not be eligible for this award. So, it really is everything in totality. So, really um really a great um accomplishment uh for Pedmont Middle and we look forward to continuing to celebrate them. There will be a
101statewide um award celebration at the end of April in Southern California. So we look forward to that. In addition, uh just this week on Monday, our very own trustee uh Streivy Vasan was recognized um at the Beressa Citizens Advisory Council as this year's citizen of the year. So that's also phenomenal um recognition. You know, there's always lots of good people doing wonderful community service work around um our Beriesa neighborhood and it's always a a challenge to figure out who's that one person that rises to the occasion and this year the BCAC board acknowledged uh trustee Strini Vasan and not just for you know the um incredible leadership and support he has here as a trustee but a lot of other hats he plays in volunteering um in the city of San Jose as well as
102across our community to make sure we have a safe place for students um and a a good neighborhood for all of our families. Um he sits on the um Measure T, am I getting the letter right? Measure T uh oversight committee for the city of San Jose. He also was just recently uh appointed to the San Jose State Family Advisory Board. So lots of good places that his voice is making positive contribution for our our beriesa community. So thank you and congratulations. And then uh the congratulations continue with our trustee down at the end there with Thelma Boak who is going to be recognized next week on Monday in Sacramento assembly member Lee's congressional woman of the year. So, we are really looking forward to traveling up to our state capital to see uh Trustee
103Boak get that recognition. As you know, she has years of incredible leadership service. Again, not just as a trustee for our school district, but for all of the good work and mentorship that she does um across our community. um and also as a former um uh high school principal, the continued mentorship she's done uh at with a variety of administrators. I can't even I lose count of the number of administrators she has supported over the years in that mentoring and coaching capacity. So, you know, again, um you know, our trustees have many talents and wear many hats and so we thank you for that and look forward to um those celebrations. Uh you got to hear a lot tonight from our middle schools about, you know, their cell phone policy and how they're working with
104their students and educating them. This is a really busy time at the middle schools and they've got their career days coming up. So this week, actually on Thursday, we have both Piedmont Middle School and Sierramont Middle School will be hosting their career day events. And then next week on uh Thursday, March 19th, Morell Middle School will be hosting theirs. So, uh, I know our counselors at the middle schools take the lead in coordinating all of the wonderful speakers that come to, um, talk about career options with our students. And I just want to also, you know, I want to thank them and all the school staff that support the activities because it's a lot of coordination of presentations as well as, you know, lunchons and all the special touches that they add to that day.
105Um, and I want to thank all of our community members and parents who volunteer to be um to be those uh those uh keynote speakers in the classroom for the children. I know as I've talked with uh presenters over the years, they've commented that they've not experienced this for their own children in their own school districts. So, you know, it's it's kind of a unique and uh special um event that's happened here in Beressa consistently, you know, across our three middle schools. So, just a a really nice community gathering opportunity. So, please be sure to um uh stop by and visit these events. And then finally, uh we do have our upcoming spring break is around the corner. That'll be April 3rd through the 10th. So, just before our next uh board meeting in April.
106Thank you. >> Thank you for the report. And are there any comments and announcements from the board? All righty. And seeing nothing on review and discussion, public hearings, and moving on to review and action. We have item 15A1, resolution 2515. It is recommended the board adopt resolution 2515, order of election, specifications of the election order and consolidation request. So, this is getting everything ready for our November ballot for the seats that we'll have available for our um our board of uh trustees. >> I have a motion. >> Yeah. Move to adopt resolution 25-15. >> Second. All right. And this is a resolution. Um, roll call vote. Um, Miss Gomez. >> Yes. President H. I. >> Trusty Shrinost. >> I. >> Trusty Brewer. >> I. >> Trusty Boak. >> I. All right. That resolution passes. Um,
107next up is Santa Clara County Committee on School District Organization 2026 election. It is recommended the board elect members of the Santa Clara County Committee on School District Organization for uh supervisorial districts 2, three, and five. Um you have several candidates below. You're asked to select one for each district area. District 1 did have an opening, but unfortunately no candidates at this time. District two, there's a choice where you're going to have to make there between Lana Dominguez and Michael Gallagher. District three, we have one option which is our very own trustee Vasan. And then uh for district five, one option, Denise Rammon Herrera. >> Any thoughts on any district two candidates? And then a motion. Uh, yes. I'd like to um I'd like to recommend Michael Gallagher for district two. I know I know
108him very well. We worked together at Independence High School for years and and he'd be a great candidate. >> Great. >> Yeah, I agree with that assessment. Not a big fan of the guy in district three, but what can >> I have to debate you on that one? >> Yep. So then, so the motion would be to um to vote for uh Michael Gallagher for district two, uh myself for district three, and Denise Ramona for district five. >> I second. >> All right. All those in favor? >> I. >> All right. Great. Next item is the Santa Clara County School Boards Association liaison. It is recommended the board select a BUSD board of trustee member to serve as district liaison for the Santa Clair County School Boards Association. So just uh for your information, you
109know, the Santa Clair County School Boards Association meets monthly. They have kind of a monthly lunch and learn. Sometimes they're in person, sometimes they're virtual. Uh so you would be our district representative participating in those meetings. And then of course they have a number of events throughout the school year uh that you would have opportunity to help support and facilitate um like their uh leadership uh nights, their legislative brunch, those sorts of events. The Hoffman Awards, that's a big one. Is anyone interested in being a liaison? Anybody? I'm on I'm at their meeting all the time. I I attend all their meetings anyway. So if either of neither of you is interested maybe I I can put my name there. What more can I citizen? >> But I mean I am in of those I
110attend those meetings. all the time anyway. So, yeah, I can I can >> awesome. >> Thank you. I think that is because you're already there anyway. >> Yeah, sounds good. >> All right. Is there a motion and a >> I move a second? Okay. All those in favor? >> I All right. Thank you, Jay. Trusty Fina, for that. Um, next up is board bylaw 9320, meetings and notices. It is recommended the board review and approve board bylaw 9320 meetings and notices uh for a first reading. This is just updating language based on new law specifications uh on what's appropriate for public agenda and close session agenda. >> I move for approval. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> All right. It's approved. And the next one is the new board bylaw 9320.1.
111It is recommended the board approve uh review and approve new board bylaw 9320.1 remote meetings and attendance for a first reading. Um so this is uh as mentioned this is a new policy that's being added to our existing policies. Um there was recently uh legislation that outlined what criteria can be used for remote attendance and just cause for a trustee during a board meeting. >> I move for approval. >> Second that. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> All right. It's been approved. Next up is board bylaw 9322. Agenda meeting materials. It is recommended the board review and approve board bylaw 9322 agenda meeting materials for a first reading. And again uh this is also just um updating um updating uh various language requirements for public comment for uh what needs to be made
112available to the public and in what order and time. all of those logistical features. I move for approval. >> Second it. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> All right. So, next up is um business services B1 second interim report for fiscal year 2526 certification of fiscal solveny. Thank you. And I'd like to invite uh Josh, our assistant superintendent of business services for his presentation. And after presentation, it is recommended the board approve the 2025 2026 second interim report and the district's positive certification of fiscal solveny. All right, so good evening everybody. I know there's been a lot of uh presentations. I promise there's only a couple more. Um but right now we'll get into the financials. Um so currently we're in March. We're completing the second interim. Um, we're pretty much done with
113this phase of the budget cycle. Um, so next things that are coming up is we'll be looking for the main revision. So the May revision will tell us what's going to go on for the 2627 school year. Um, and then creating the 2627 budget in LCAP and then bringing that back to the board to have it approved in June. Um, so this is just a kind of refresher. So, I know that we went over this um back in was it December um during the first interim, but just want to keep in mind that districts are funded off of two basic models, right? So, we have our community funded, which is basically um school districts receive whatever is collected by the property taxes. Um there is a certain LCFF calculation that gives us a baseline of
114what districts should receive. If we collect more or if the district surrounding areas collect more than that baseline, they get to keep all the remaining dollars. So that is pretty much what a basic aid district funded is. So you can kind of see that the LCF funding is that little bucket. Property taxes is pouring in, but anything that goes above and beyond that little bucket, the local district gets to keep. LCFF funded is funded a little differently. um the property taxes that we receive from the surrounding areas. While we all know that it's super expensive to live here, um we don't collect enough to fill that baseline, right? And so basically the property taxes come in, they fill up what they can of that little bucket and then the state then comes in and then
115makes us whole, right? So you can see that the orange is the property taxes and the green is what's coming in that comes from the state. So that's basically a state aid. Um so this is the analysis of the enrollment. Not much has changed um from the first interim to the second interim. Um but you can see that we're still in declining enrollment and we are still projecting a decline in the 26 27 and the 2728 school years. So some of the budget assumptions that we have in this budget. Um, so basically you can see the uh enrollment the projected enrollment. So this year is about 5,718 students. Next year we're projecting a loss of about 5,581 and the following year is 5352. Also what is important is to notice ADA or average daily attendance.
116So this is basically how many times a student is actually attending school, right? So um an ADA ADA of one would be a student came to school every single day. If they come 90% of the time they would be an ADA of 0.9 and so on and so forth. Um stepping column which is increases along our salary schedule um is projected about 1.5%. Um Stir's employment rate which is the district's contribution to Stir's employees. So these are our certificated employees. So that's our teachers um principles um anyone who requires a certificate um the district contributes about 19.1% of their salary and to stir Kalpers is all other um employees. So that's more of our classified employees. So I'm a classified employee. Our IAS librarians um accountants um they have their own um retirement system um
117which is Kalpers. We do contribute to that as well. Um so you can see that it is slightly decreasing over um the next year and then staying pretty much flat in the 2728 year. The biggest change from the first interim to the second interim had to deal with cola. So you can see in 2627 and 2728 you see a little stars um or asterisks. Um in 2627 the new projected cola is 2.41% 41% which is down from I believe it's 3.01% that was initially projected in the first interim and then in 2728 um it's at 3.06 um it was initially projected at 3.42%. Right? So COLA is a cost of living adjustment. So, these are increases to the district's revenue possibly um based on a calculation um that the state does that's in statute. Um
118this is just kind of to also as a reminder. So, um lucky enough we were able to lease out um two of our properties. Um, Kadeno is at our old Toyon property and Children's Health Council is at our Lane View property. Um, we have started receiving um, uh, revenue or lease revenue from the Children's Health Network as of January. Uh, Kandango started at the beginning of this year. This pretty much offsets what we have lost from Militus Christian School. So, Militus Christian Schools and I mean they their current term was for 2526 and beyond. Um they are no longer with us. They were at our Birchwood property. Um they still owe us pretty much $550,000 from the 2425 school year and we did lose out on $713,000 for this current school year. And the other
119one had to do with our 1376 Pemont Road property, um, which was supposed to be leased out. That lease actually fell through. So, we actually lost revenue about $21,000 in our first year. All right. So, the fun stuff, I guess. So, the general fund revenue is projected um at the second interim at about $96.9 million. That's a change of about $844,000 from the first interim. That's about a 087% change. Um the majority of the changes or the increases in revenue come from our local site donations. So to kind of give you an idea, we have about $118,000 of site donations that we recognized from the first interim to the second interim. So that was from October 31st of 2025 to January 31st of 2026. Right? So we received about an additional $118,000. The other section
120is for fundraisers. Um that's about $174,000. The fundraisers went specifically to um field trips which is science camp. So once again from that time frame we increased revenue by by $174,000. So that makes up the majority of the increase. Uh this just gives you the breakdown of our general fund revenue. You can see the majority of our revenue come from LCFF revenue which is the state allocation model. receive about 73% within that 73% um going back to the different allocation models community funded versus state aid funded I mean um uh LCF funded um you can see that we receive about 37 I mean sorry 50% is state aid and about 50% is local property taxes um the actual numbers in there is 37% of the total um but within the LCFF is about 5050 So,
121as far as the general fund expenditures, um, as of the second interim for 2526, it's about $98 million. Um, this is a change about 008% um or $800,000. The biggest change comes from increases in salaries and our certificate and classified salaries. The reason for that is because we're currently in negotiations. We have made proposals to our bargain units of increasing salary schedules by 2%. So that actually has been included in this budget so that we can plan for it going forward. This is just a general breakdown of the general fund expenditures. So you can see that certificated salaries, classified salaries, and our employee benefits make up about $85 million um of the total expenditures expenditures of the $98 million. So that's about 87% of our total expenditures goes towards salary and benefits. This further breaks
122down um the salaries into individual categories. Um so you have 67% of our total expenses related to salaries and benefits. So this does include benefits um for our certificated non-management. So once again those are our teachers um any classification that requires a certificate that is not a management level position. Then we have our classified non-management which makes about 24%. Um these are um our instructional aids or pair of educators, accountants, um secretaries and staff. So all of those non-management positions make about 24% and management as a whole makes about 9%. So total salaries and benefits $81 million taking out something called the stirs on behalf. So, this is that um I don't want to call it a phantom accounting entry, but it's the district's recognition of what the state puts in to Calsters. And so,
123it's like our portion of their um contribution, and we there's a calculation, but there's no actual revenue coming in or coming out or expenses going out um for the uh stirs on behalf. So since that's actually not real dollars, we take that out to see that um the total expenses that we're actually paying for um salaries and benefits is $81 million. Like I said before, it's about 87% of our total expenditures. Um average districts range anywhere between 80 to 85%. Um we prior to I think last year we were about at 90%. So that amount has decreased, but we're still above average um with our percentage in expenses related to um salary and benefits. So in January, the governor um came out with his proposed budget for 2627. Um so these are some of the
124key highlights um that were embedded into his budget. So the the governor is funding the COLA at 2.41%. Um the COLA is the calculation within statute. The governor doesn't always fund all of COLA. Um it's only happened a couple times, but this year he's able to the revenues are going to increase enough at the state level in order for him to fund the full 2.41%. Um there is a proposal called the student support and professional development block grant that could be approximately $500 per average daily attendance. um that he's offering. So, this is one-time money. Um the next slide I'll kind of show you how that breaks down for Beressa, but this is more at the state level. Um educational special education equaliza base rates. Um so that's going to increase to about $999. It
125currently is about $917 I think it is. Um so this is just the state's funding towards special education. Keep in mind that special education is still well underfunded. This increase isn't going to make a dent, but it is some it is uh something that will help in the future. Um so we do have the expanded learning opportunities grant which is our ELO program. They are proposing to stabilize the tier one two tier two rate at $1,800 per unduplicated account. So currently the way that ELOP is funded is um there's tier one districts. So let's say the governor proposes to fund ELOP at a million dollars or whatever it may be. Um the tier one districts get basically the up to a certain cap amount and then whatever is left over gets allocated to the tier
1262 districts. And so basically what the governor is trying to do is stabilize that rate so that us going forward being the tier 2 districts know how to budget for the ELO program. And then student nutrition. Um he's going to continue to fund the universal meal program. And Josh, if you can hold right there, I just want to emphasize something with the board because th this is what the governor proposed in January, right, with his initial um budget, but there's already conversation happening in the legislature because this is all negotiated there. And in May, we'll get the May revise where we'll get a better sense of if these numbers stay true or if they change. Um, as schoolboard members, you may have already been receiving advocacy letters around these talking points because there's already recommendations
127to change these things. Um, the LAO has put out their recommendation and so for uh, tier 2, for example, they feel $1,800 is too much. They actually have recommended a lower amount, which we definitely disagree, right? We as a tier 2 district, we very much disagree with that. I think their amount is at $1,500 per student. Um, you know, and and they also had uh different thoughts around the one-time money and uh special education. In addition, um I think the other uh important point of advocacy is the second bullet, the student support and professional development block grant. What we want to see is as much flexibility in usage of those dollars as possible. The legislature has different opinions about that. One of the things that we keep hearing is they want to see more accountability
128from school districts on how these dollars are used. Uh they feel that over the years um there's been multiple um opportunities of one-time dollars given and they want to see evidence of how have those dollars made an impact for students. And so my concern about that is we are still having lots of expenses that we need to be able to meet. And when I hear, you know, um not that uh I'm in disagreement about us being accountable about how we use our funds, absolutely. But, uh, when I start hearing that language, I worry that some of these dollars are going to become restrictive and they're going to be identified for very specific purposes that may not be in alignment with what our district needs. And so, that's where I think we need to keep advocating
129and letting our official elected officials know that we need uh those block grant funds to be sustained, number one. um but then also to have uh to make them be very broad so we can utilize them um to the best of our ability uh within our district. So a lot of things to keep in mind because all of those conversations are being held right now. >> All right. And so going back to this or from that first slide to this slide you can see what does that actually mean for BUD as far as dollars is concerned. Right. So, increasing the LCFF rates by 2.41%. Great. But this Beressa doesn't really receive 2.41% in the increase in actual revenue um because of declining enrollment and they're only increasing rates, right? So, it's rates based off of
130TK through third grade rates based off of fourth through fifth and so on and so forth. Um our actual increase based on this col of 2.41% is probably closer to 1.06. 06%. So that's about $700,000 um that our LCFF revenue will increase. Um as far as the student support and professional development block grant, it's estimated for us bars about $2.7 million. Um but we don't know what can happen with this money. Um there has been times in the past where the governor has allocated a certain dollar amount during the January budget and has actually decreased that during the May revised and then even in the final budget that gets um approved in June July time frame has even be even been decreased further. We have been hearing talks also about the allocation model for this
131student support professional development block grant. So right now it's based off of ADA, right? So average daily attendance um but it could be it could be based off of our unduplicated account and our unduplicated account is a lot lower and so if that happens then this 2.7 million actually decreases even further right so um it's to be prudent we haven't put this directly into our multi-year projections because we don't know where the actual governor is going to go with this um uh block grant um the special education equalization it accounts for about $458,000. Like I said, this is welcome funding. Um but keep in mind that um the general fund usually does a contribution anywhere between 12 to$13 million. So that's into special education. So $458,000 is is is helpful, but it's not really going
132to fund um special education fully. Um expanded learning opportunities block grant is more for budgeting purposes. So we have an idea of actually how to um budget for having a stabilized rate um and then no changes to the student nutrition. >> I have a quick question on this slide too. So everything on this slide except for special education um self base rates is for the general fund and then is the special education one restricted just >> uh yes so that would go into the restricted side. Correct. >> Thank you. And and to be realistic, um the student support professional development block grants, we have received that in prior years. Uh I think it was this year being 25 26. That's actually on the restricted side. Um it's proposed to be used for specific items, but
133it's kind of discretionary, but we account for it on the restricted side of of the ledger. Um so as far as the multi-year projections go um our revenue is going to decrease um over the next few years but our expenditures are also going to follow suit and decrease um as well. Um so the net results in 2627 and 2728 um we'll have pretty much a balanced budget. In 2017 we're actually increasing um in our ending balance. Um this is for the full general fund. So, this is both restricted and unrestricted dollars. Um, this doesn't account for some of the items here, um, like the $2.7 million professional block grant, the special education, because we still don't have an idea if the governor may change it. Um, the 2.41% is pretty much going to be in
134statute, so we can pretty much count on that, but like I said, it's only an increase of about 1.06% specifically for Beressa. Um, so as far as our unrestricted side, so our unrestricted side is how we actually calculate our reserve levels. So us the size of our district, we need to be at 3% 3% of our total expenses in that specific year. So um, current year we're projected to have a um deficit of about $46,000. Um, the following year $110,000 and then 2728 then increasing and having a surplus of $874,000. Um we do have beginning balances. So um 2526 we have about $600,000. Um which would then decrease in 2627 to $193,000. Um and then even decreasing even further in 2728. But that's when we have that upswing, right? So that's when we hope to
135start building our actual um ending balance. um we do meet our 3% reserves specifically because we have fund 17 um which um is allowed for our district to use as part of the reserves. So our reserves um for the next uh three years are anywhere between like 2.7 to $2.9 million um that we have to keep as a reserve cap. Um and so we do meet that requirement. Um, so with that being said, because we meet that requirement, because we're able to meet our financial obligations in the current year as well as the two subsequent sub following years, um, we will be in positive status. Um, so we recommend that you approve the second annual budgets. >> Thank you so much for the presentation. Are there questions, comments from the board? >> Thank you. No.
136>> Can Can you remind us what fund 17 is, >> what it's for? It >> it could be used for any purposes. Um, if we were to take fund 17 and move it back into fund 01, which is our general fund, we would still have to keep about 2.7 to$2.8 million in that ending balance. Right? So, um, that money was moved long time ago prior to a lot of us being here. um I don't know what specific reason it was moved there, but now that's what we are specifically um relying on in order for us to hit that 3% reserve. >> If you recall um in previous presentations and in years ago, we had larger reserve balance and so it went into fund 17 for emergency purposes, whatever that whatever the district need may be.
137Um but over the course of the years we're now to where that is all that we have is our 3% reserve requirement there. >> Any other questions, comments? I I actually had a question on the multi-year projection. So you we saw about 400k deficit this year, 110k deficit next year, and then 874,000 surplus in 2728. But you I just want to clarify this is this does not include what is in the governor's budget, right? Because we're unsure what's happening in May. >> It correct. Um it the only thing that it does include is a 2.41% cola. That is pretty much um we can pretty much rely on that being funded um for the actual budget itself, the state budget. >> Sounds good. And also just to give a reminder to the public too, um we
138closed schools to close this budget or this deficit. So it's no longer the 6 million deficit. It um the multi- Yeah. Right here um here. >> So this is the unrestricted side of things. So >> Yeah. So just a reminder for the public um us closing schools has is helping us get back into this upswing. So, we're still um deficit spending and you know, it's still up to what happens at the state level um how funding will go moving forward. So, I just want to lift that up for folks to remember and understand um what happened. >> And the LCF I forgot to mention that the 2627 and the 2728 does reflect the updated projections for colas in those years as well. >> Good. >> Any other comments, questions? All right. Thank you so much
139for the presentation. >> Thank you. >> All righty. Next up. Oh, I apologize. Yes, we need a motion and a second to approve the presentation. >> Move to approve the second intro. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Great. Moved and approved. >> All right. Next up is um B2 resol resolution 2516. It is recommended the board adopt resolution 2516. authorizing the issuance of Barrya Union School District 2026 general obligation refunding bonds. Um, prior to your vote, I do want to introduce Chris Hyatt with Keegent to provide you with a brief presentation on this recommendation. >> Good evening. Thank you for having me tonight. >> There we go. And good evening. Thank you for having me tonight. I'm excited to be here tonight to talk about a potential refinancing opportunity to refinance
140some of your Measure U bonds for taxpayer savings. And great news, this is only three pages, so we'll keep it keep it quick. >> Oh dear. And if I can click it >> down. Okay, that makes sense. All right. So, the bonds we're looking to potentially refinance are from Measure U, the series Bonds. Um, and we're currently estimating savings of about 1.3 million for taxpayers. Uh, the way the refinancing would work is kind of similar to refinancing a home mortgage where you take old bonds at a higher interest rate and replace them with new bonds at a lower interest rate uh without extending the term of the bond. So, we would have the same final maturity. Um, the savings would come in the form of lower property tax bills for taxpayers in future years over
141the life of the bond. uh that estimated savings figure is net of all costs and all of the costs except for the credit rating are contingent on the sale. Uh so as long as we uh if interest rates, you know, were to go up and we had to cancel the sale, there would be no cost to the district as long as we haven't received that credit rating yet. Um we also recommend including the series A bonds which were already partially refinanced back in 2024. The the part that was not refinanced is still outstanding. um currently not producing enough savings to include in the estimates tonight, but since we're already potentially going to be authorizing refinancing, we might as well throw it in. There's no additional costs, and if interest rates were to go down, we
142can include them. We're looking at refinancing these bonds on a taxexempt basis, which is the way they were originally sold, on either a current delivery basis or a forward delivery basis. And the difference between those is merely a timing differential. If we sell the bonds anytime between now and October, that would be considered a forward delivery because the earliest we can close this refinancing would be November. If we close it, if we price the bonds in October, that would be considered a current delivery. We would base that decision based on interest rates um and ultimately work with the district to determine what the best timing would be. But these documents before you tonight authorize either option uh to to maximize savings for taxpayers. So this is our summary of the potential savings from the refinancing
143totaling that 1.3 almost $1.4 million number. I mentioned earlier that you did do a refinancing back in 2024 for the series A bonds and we achieved savings of 1.3 million on those. So very very similar savings estimate for you tonight. Uh one other item I wanted to highlight on here is that present value savings percentage number. Uh we always recommend refinancings when that savings figure is over 3%. And as you can see, this is at 7% right now. So, we're well above the threshold for our school district to consider refinancing bonds. In order to proceed with the refinancing, before you tonight are a slew of legal documents, most important of which is the resolution that would authorize the refinancing. There's also a preliminary official statement, which is like the prospectus that investors would receive in
144order to make their decision on whether they want to purchase your refinancing. Um, from there, if we have your approval, we would move forward with a rating update uh with standard and pores to get an updated credit rating. Um, and from there, we would determine the ultimate timing of the bonds. Whether it's in the next couple months or if we wait a few more months, really depends on what's going on in the economy, um, and where interest rates are at. But ultimately, once those bonds are sold, we would recommend, you know, sharing this news with your community. We would provide you a press release and really get the information out that you're putting your best foot forward to save taxpayer dollars. Um, and then the refinancing would close no earlier than November of 2026. I'm
145happy to take any questions. >> Thank you so much for your presentation. Are there any questions or comments from the board? >> I just had a quick question. I think in 2021, I want to say we we refinanced a maybe it was a prior bond. We we I think the reason I brought that brought that up is that 2021 the interest rates were very very favorable extremely favorable even lower than what what we have uh today. So it might have been the prior bond u measure that um that was uh refinanced. So but uh the the thing that that threw me off a little bit that the technical term for it is called re refunding bonds. >> That's right. So I was I got excited for a bit. Then I'll see tax credits in my
146property build statements. I have negative tax, you know, but then I I started reading up on it. It's it's actually a refinance. So it's basically moving forward the amount of money bond uh money that that we contribute is going to be lower uh overall because of these things. Is is that is that >> exactly right? Yes. So that what the what the tax bill would have been it's now going to come in at a lower rate. lower >> there would not be a refund issued back to >> that's that was the thing because the technical term is uh refunding bonds and so that that kind of threw me off a bit so I just c just wanted to make sure that we clarify that for the for the general community that you know this is
147this is savings regardless uh so it is it is a good thing for them so I think we should reiterate and thank you for the for the efforts to uh get this going for us we appreciate it appreciate your patience Ultimately, >> thank you. >> Any other comments or questions? No. All right. Well, thank you so much for the presentation and for the savings. It's great. All right. And this is a resolution and I'm looking for a motion. Second. >> Um move to adopt resolution 25-16. >> A second. All right. And this is a roll call vote. >> President H. I. >> Trust. I >> trusty Brewer. >> I, >> Trusty Boak, >> I. >> Great. The resolution passes. Thank you so much. And next up is board policy 3515.4. >> It is recommended the
148board review and approve board policy 3515.4, recovery for property loss or damage, for a first reading. And so this um is also updated based on a new assembly bill um that will put uh it reflects current limits on what parents and guardians can be liable for in terms of any property damage done by students. And it also um prohibits us to collect um damages from any current or former student that might be unhoused or be in the foster care system. It's I'll make a motion. I did have a comment though. Um I'll make a motion to to review and approve the board policy. If I have a second, I can share my comment. >> Okay. >> I'll second. She >> So this this did come up once uh at the uh at the uh when
149I was part of the music boosters. Um so we have we have a large inventory of um of musical instruments that students are take home and there was a question about what happens if uh if it gets broken >> and there was a contract that was um you know like unofficial contract between the student and the and the and the school side that was that said you know you're liable for this and you're in case of any damage you're >> but we could not enforce it >> right we cannot So we are we are incurring loss because there's >> so so does this reaffirm that if the if the student breaks it so we cannot just we cannot go after them basically we cannot say that we we cannot no longer have that contract saying
150that we we we expect you to reimburse us for the >> depending on their circumstances and I know this is in our business services division so I think it also depends on the situation. Many I think this is more applicable to largecale damage when we're looking at property damage because we've had that happen in the past as well uh with um the kitchen cafeteria doors right being damaged because of uh students and things of that nature. So, but you can clarify. Uh, >> so yes, we we can still have them signed contracts. Um, um, it's not 100% enforceable. Um, but we do still make them sign the contracts. Um, we also do it for um, Chromebooks as well. Um, so that they're aware of, you know, if any damages, they can be held liable. It's
151just like if they were to damage a textbook, we would still request if they, you know, um fix or repair or not um payback that that >> it's part of the school materials. Yeah. So that yeah, that falls under like their instructional materials um >> requirements. This is more like I said larger scale >> property damage. >> Okay, good. Thank you. Just wanted to get that clarification. So, >> all those in favor? I >> I All right. And the board policy passes. Um, next up is the new board policy 3530. It is recommended the board review and approve new board policy 3530 risk management um insurance for a first reading. And so this one is also updating language regarding um timelines for reporting to the board any riskmanagement activities. Um it's recom it's recommending that
152it now be done twice a year periodically to provide the board an update on where we stand as a district in terms of of risk and our insurance liability updates. Okay. Okay. Move to review and approve board policy 3530. >> A second. >> All those in favor? I >> I All right. Great. And next up is board policy 3580. >> It is recommended the board review and approve board policy 3580 district records for a first reading. Um, this one also updates language to include um actions uh related to cyber security breaches. >> I'll move uh move to review and approve board policy 3580. >> Is there a second? >> Second. All those in favor? >> I. >> All right. Great. That policy passes as well. Next up is C1, board policy 5020. It is recommended
153the board review and approve board policy 50/20, parent rights and responsibilities for a first reading. Um, this policy also is updated based on the new court decision for Mohamad versus Taylor. So, uh, making sure that we've noticed parents of their opt out, um, options, which has already been updated and done in our annual notification for parents. >> I move for approval. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> All right. Next up is board policy 6020, parent involvement. It is recommended the board review and approve board policy 6020 parent involvement for a first reading. Um, this one has also updated language um that uh requires um school districts to uh have uh parent advisory committees where applicable, English learner parent advisory committees when applicable. Um but also reiterates um the new federal administration
154emphasis about uh parent uh education choice and uh the work for school districts to turn around um schools uh underperforming schools so that uh parents have access to um strong academic programs. >> I move for approval. Second that. >> All those in favor? >> I Any opposed? No. Okay. All right. Um, next up is board policy 6143. Thank you. It is recommended the board review and approve board policy 6143, course of study for a first reading. And again, this also adds um the new language uh based on uh SB137 as well as the court decision Muhammad versus Taylor and parents um opt out rights um in certain course of study areas. Move for approval. >> Second that. >> All those in favor? I >> I oppose concessions. Sorry, that one passes. >> And is there
155any reconvene for session? >> Yes. Okay. Before all of these, we're going to reconvene to close session. We have a couple items to discuss at 9:28 p.m. I'm just gonna All righty. It's 11:18. We'll reconvene to open session. Um, are there any requests for staff followup or items for future agenda? Seeing none, is there a motion to adjourn? >> I move for adjournment. >> Second. >> Oh, okay. We'll adjourn at 11:19. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank forgot we don't vote on that.