001Good evening everybody. We're going to go ahead and start. I know we like our meetings, but thank you everyone for being here today for this one. It's 6 o'clock p.m. and I call this meeting to order. Welcome members of the public, board members, and staff. Thank you for attending. As as noted in board bylaws 9324, this meeting is being video recorded and broadcast via link on our website. The recording and broadcast may capture images and sounds of those attending the meeting. I'd like to remind the audience members and speakers that it is not unusual for students and young children to be in attendance at our meetings or to watch the recorded broadcast. I invite you to model civility and decorum as we go about the business of the board this evening. While I cannot prohibit
002anyone from using unprofessional language, please think about the students and adults who are watching our proceedings. We invite you to show support for a speaker by waving your fingers. Rather than clapping or cheering, I will lead us in the pledge of allegiance and Miss Garcia will take role. Please stand. Ready, begin. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] Okay, Miss Garcia. Thank you. We will now take role. Trusty COC here. Trusty Verbat here. Trusty Emory here. Trusty Ward here. And for the record, we'll note that Trusty Rawlings is not here this evening. Thank you. We now move on to part two, approval of the agenda. Trustees, are there any questions? [Music] All right. May
003I have a motion to approve agenda 2 point item 2.1 approval and or reorganization of the June 25, 2025 meeting agenda? So moved. Second. Trustee Verbath made the motion and trustee Emmery made the second. Is there any discussion? Miss Gar Miss Garcia, please call for a vote. Trusty COC. Yes. Trustee Emory. Oh, I'm sorry. Trusty Verbat, yes. Trusty Emory, yes. Trusty Ward, yes. Motion passes four to zero. Okay. Thank you. We now move on to part three, communications. Item 3.1, public comments. This as this is a special meeting, we will take public comment on agenda items only. Public comment on non-aggenda items will be heard at our next regular meeting in August. Um I will be using the gavvel if you do speak to non-aggenda items. I just want to um remind everybody to speak
004to agenda items tonight. Um have any have any blue cards been received? We have a total of eight blue cards. Okay. Um, per education code 35145.5 and government code 54954.3, members of the public have the opportunity to provide public comment and close session items. We invite you to show support for the speaker by waving your fingers rather than clapping or cheering. We have received a total of nine blue nine you said right? Oh, I'm sorry. Eight blue cards for a close session items or actually for these items. When I call your name, please come to the podium, state your name, and indicate whether or not you live within the boundaries of the school district. You will have 2 and 1/2 minutes. Um 2 and 1/2 minutes. We will have the timer on the screen and
005your mic will be muted when your time has expired. The first speaker is Shauna Hurst Carl's bad resident, frequent flyer at these meetings. And um I missed all of the fun last week, but I did watch it. And I just wanted to say thank you to the four trustees here tonight for not passing the budget last week. As you know, I attend many meetings and I did not feel that um board policies were followed to get to that and I thankful for this for for your votes. And I would vote for you to adopt the revised budget tonight. And I'm also disappointed in President Rawlings and not being here tonight and her demeanor in the meeting last night. I mean last week especially um she talked repeatedly at the end of the meeting on another
006item about performing your board duties that you're elected to and she did not do that on the budget for you guys as the board president and as the um longest standing trustee. She should have given you guys the board policy that would have put you here in a more easily manner for you. she should have given you the parliamentary procedures to get here tonight. And it's just very unfortunate that her um that she didn't guide you through this budget process in a very a way that um conforms with all the budget laws and or not codes, but I know you guys know there's a zillion codes. There's your board codes. And I just appreciate the fact that you saw last week that the budget that was on the docket did not conform to the bo
007board code with having 5% in reserves. And I'm grateful that we're here tonight and look forward to tonight's discussion. Thank you. Okay. The next person is Richard Wallace. Good evening, Richard Wallace. I'm a resident of Carl'sbad and thank you for the opportunity to address you tonight. I appreciate your service, the long hours, the late night meetings, and uh frequently when people come to address address you, they're maybe not happiest as as possible. But I want to speak briefly about uh an item I feel is very important that is the duty that the board owes as fiduciaries, as trustees for the school. There are three basic duties that the trustees owe to the school. Duty of obedience to the laws and regulations and its own internal policies. A duty of care in making decisions. And lastly,
008a duty of loyalty and that is to put the interests of the board ahead of any interests held personally and to disclose and to be transparent about any conflicts of interest. I believe in passing a school board budget and other duties that this duty of loyalty and care is paramount. I'd also like to encourage the board to always behave in a civil and respectful manner toward each member of the board so that full discussion and dialogue can be had. Thank you very much for your time and good luck with tonight's meeting. Mary Davis. Hi, good evening. Mary Davis, government watchdog and accountability partner. Again, I do not live in Carl's bad, but maybe tonight I just identify as living here. Um, I I bring that out tongue and cheek because uh again, we need to
009be grounded in reality. And one of the things I see when I go to different meetings, uh, a a watchdog throughout the county and budget is at first and foremost, we know that there is going to be, um, a shortage coming down at the state and the federal level. There's a lot of uncertainty. The county just spoke about it. And knowing that, why would we destabilize your budget? So, I do commend the um trustees for having moved forward and being accountable and doing the right thing in the fiduciary and to your constituents. They are counting on you, but more importantly, the students are counting on you. So, thank you for bringing stability. I appreciate this special meeting. I know you had to give up time with your families to be here again tonight. Um touching
010on real quickly the gavl, I do hope you are more judicious with it. And um I do have issues with Miss Rawlings, her past behavior, both her um founded FPPC violations, as well as how she's treated parents, the public, and her fellow board members. It's time for a change, and I'm hope you'll consider that in the future. Thank you. Scott Davidson. Uh no script tonight. I'm just going to talk to you guys. Um, there's a reason we're here and you guys know the the main reason we're here, which is you had to call a special meeting. It shouldn't have had to happen, right? Like if you know parliamentary procedure, you could have made an amendment to a motion and just we would have been done last week, right? Um, you know, as an as an
011attorney and has gone in through Brown Act training, um, what they tell every board when you go through Brown Act training is you will violate the Brown Act at least once at every meeting, right? So the point is you have to be trying to do your best, right? You're not always going to be perfect, but you have to be trying. That means you have to be able to work together, right? As a board, you guys obviously can figure out how to work together. But there's one person who isn't here tonight that doesn't want to work with you or with us or with anybody. She has her own agenda. She has her own way of going about things. And if she doesn't win, then she does it anyway, right? And so the question you guys have
012to ask is is that the person you want leading your board? Somebody that's not going to I'm sorry. Are you talking about the budget or Yes. Yeah. So I'm getting to the budget, which is the reason we're here tonight, right? Is to is to approve the budget that you tried to approve last week, right? And so that's the point is you could have approved the budget last week with a simple amendment. If you had looked at the little Robert's rules sheet that Trusty Rollins had, it didn't provide for anything that she said. You could have easily amended it and fixed it. So, that's the question you have tonight is I'm I'm very thankful that you guys had had the courage to have this special meeting and come here and fix the budget and take out
013the $3 million and put it back into the reserves where it belongs. And I encourage you to work together as a board and think about ways that the board can work better together. If you want to know the history of that stabilization arrangement, where that $3 million came from, go back to December when Kathy Rawlings made that request. Her first request was to change a rule that she had voted against in 2016 and she was the only one who voted against it. She wanted to take the reserve money out in 2016. And here we are nine years later and she tried to do it again. And when she didn't get her way, she tried to do it without your permission. So think about that in terms of who you want leading your board and who's
014going to help you figure things out like this budget because we can do better. We all are here tonight to encourage you and to thank you and to work better on things like this budget and hope that you guys can do better, but it requires new leadership. So thanks Tamara Dixon. Hello Tamara and I uh reside in Carl's dad. Okay. Thank you for calling this special meeting today. Um, in addition to uh finalizing the budget excluding the $3 million that Kathy Rings illegally transferred, I strongly urge you for to you for um to take this opportunity to um remove Kathy from the board. If the vote ends in a two two tie, it will be clear to parents and taxpayers. I'm sorry. You're gonna speak to the budget, right? Yes. Okay. Absolutely. This has everything
015to do with the budget. Okay. Um let's see, where was I? where each of you stands, either with Kathy, the teachers union, and the radical pro-crt agenda, or those demanding transparency, integrity, and accountability. It's time to remove divisive and disruptive bullying of rallings and place someone in her rightful position. And Michelle, I would be okay to see you do um be the president as long as you could work with all the other trustees on everything as well as the budget. I'd like to see that happen tonight. Um but otherwise I would really suggest Trusty Verbbeth Verbbeth um take her rightful position as the president and um I just urge you all to do the right thing. Let Kathy do her own thing and you guys do what's right and do the budget tonight. And we'd
016like to see everything rectified tonight. Thank you. Jean Walker. [Music] Hi, I'm Gene Walker and I'm a Carl'sb resident. I wanted to come tonight to address the budget issues in these emergency meetings. This is the second emergency school board meeting in the last few months. These occurred because the school board president authorized things beyond her elective capacity and the schoolboard attorneys had to rectify the issue. First, no one has time to oversee what is happening at the school board. We elect you as our neighbors and appreciate your work to oversee issues and we expect you to do a good job. If one school board member is reading leading you down the wrong road, it's incumbent upon each of you to speak up about it. You wouldn't let your own kids be led astray by someone
017who wasn't looking out for their best interest. Why are you letting someone else do that to you? Second, misappropriation of public funds is a really big deal. People get criminally prosecuted for it. Just ask the Sweetwater Union High School District Board of Trustees, several of whom were prosecuted a few years ago when all they needed to do was say no to someone they knew was leading down the wrong path. Third, to the school board attorney. It's not worth jeopardizing your state bar lensure to defend someone you know is doing the wrong thing. Trustees, it's not right for you to put the attorney in the position to risk his state bar lensure for this. Trustee Emory, last week you asked as part of the budget process to inappropriately have Carlsbad Unified School District reimburse Salana Beach
018Unified School District where you are a teacher for 20 days worth of absences you would incur due to your duties on the school board. You came to my door. I live in your district and we had a really nice conversation. Just make sure that you're focused on the agenda item. This is part of the budget. This this 20 days of reimbursement, right? No, we're talking about the line item that's on there agenda. If you had told me that that was going to happen, it would have impacted how I decided to vote. Is being elected to the school board really worth damaging your integrity? Is it worth it to model underhanded behavior to your own kids and students? We have programming in schools to empower our kids with leadership and backbone. Demonstrate those qualities for yourself.
019Like I said, I don't have time to attend these meetings or get involved in these issues. I appreciate that each of you is willing to run for office. And Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. refuses to show. Teresa Wallace, you're up next. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak tonight in regards to fiscal responsibility. You know, it's been more and more disconcerting to me as I've observed the past month. They've come to all the schoolboard meetings um to see the lack of civility, the lack of transparency, and especially the lack of fiscal accountability, which is what we're talking about tonight. Um the citizens of Carlsbad have have elected our board to represent us, to improve our schools, to be fiscally responsible, and to do this honestly, civily, and as united
020as possible. And I know there's going to be disagreements, and that's okay. but your examples to our community and especially to our students. Several weeks ago, dozens and dozens and dozens of community members um sent emails in calling for greater transparency and civility. But since then, the tone on the board has not improved. This is the beginning of a new superintendent's tenure. Community members welcome you. We're excited to have you, Superintendent Norman. Um, and we look forward to working with you to improve the schools in Carl'sbad. However, I think this progress is going to be considerably slowed down unless the dynamic on this board changes. I mean, we're in an extra meeting tonight because of some dynamics on the board. I don't like to call out people publicly, but I've seen that what I've seen
021in the last month just can't continue. And I believe that the only way to change this dynamic is to have a new board president and to act fiscally responsible tonight. This would go a long way to restoring confidence in the board, increase transparency and improve civility and also lower the temperature in the community a little bit. Uh I believe trans uh trustee Rawlings tenure traditionally should have been up last January as board president and so we want to ask her to do the right thing and step aside. It's time for a new start. We have you. It's time for a new start and new leadership. So thank you and thank you for all you do. I know this is a thankless job and we appreciate it. Thanks so much. Thank you. We now move on
022to part four. Open session item 4.1 adoption of the 202526 annual budget. Trustees, this is a discussion action item. I will now hand it over to Mrs. Suzanne Okonnell. Thank you, Vice President Ward. The district has developed its proposed annual budget for 2526. The California legislature and the governor have yet to agree upon the final state budget, but they are very close. As a result, the district's proposed budget has been developed using the revenue assumptions provided in the governor's me May revise as noted in exhibit A. On June 11th, the board of trustees conducted public hearings on the district's 2526 proposed annual budget and the LCAP. The expenditure plan for fiscal year 2526 Prop 30 EPA act was also incorporated into the budget. On June 18th, staff presented the general fund budget with no changes
023for adoption. The motion to adopt the district's 202526 proposed annual budget failed to pass 4:1. Staff subsequently received consensus from the board to make the following change to the ending fund balance. Return the stabilization arrangement to its original commitment of $3.124 million and eliminate board LCAP priorities under other commitments. In order to give the public an opportunity to review the changes and in the spirit of transparency, the decision was made to bring the revised budget back to the board at a special meeting prior to June 30th. And here we are tonight. So with that, I open it up and return it back to you. Thank you. Trustees, do you have any questions? Trusty Verbth. Okay. First of all, thank you, Miss Okonnell, for stepping in and being our interim. Um, the district is really appreciative
024of your time and thank you very much. Um, I want to make clear up front that I know you were operating on guidance um or instructions that were provided to you. We've had a couple discussions and so I appreciate the time that we've had. Um, I believe that uh the cabinet, Mr. Dill or Trusty Rawlings had provided some of this instruction or guidance to you since you had stepped in to to help out. So, I just wanted to recognize that upfront. Um, but I do have a question. Were you told that the December vote by the board was an approval of a recate recategorization of the stabilization fund and a reduction of the reserves for economic uncertainty from 5% to 3% or just a request to have a discussion about approving the recateorization at a
025future meeting? The information that was provided to me when I started in late January, early February was that there were two items that received consensus to bring back for information discussion. And those two items were number one to reduce the reserve from the 5% which was in our board policy to 3% and the other and then as a part of that was to take the funds from the difference between five and 3% add them to the stabilization arrangement funds and rename it as board LCAP priorities. Thank you. Any other questions? No. Okay. May I have a motion to adopt the 2526 annual budget exhibit A? So moved. Sec. May I have a second? Second. Okay. Now is the time for discussion and I would like to begin that discussion by sharing the reason for my
026vote to approve the budget. Um I will be voting to move this forward because I have serious concerns about about the 4.5 billion in cuts to education by our federal government. I'm also mindful of how the state of California will manage future budget allocations for education. the implications of our status as basic aid district and the financial impact of charter schools on our district resources. I would also like to see how we will do financially moving forward as a basic aid district. Um my vote is not about any one trustee or any false claims about someone tried to steal $3 million or any amount of money because that simply is not true. This vote is about ensuring that we have a sound budget that supports all of our students, especially those facing academic and social
027challenges. I hope that as we all share our votes here today, we're doing so with clarity about why we are on this board with students at the center of our decision. Go ahead. Yes. I would also just like to share um one of the things that is important as a board is to make decisions with the information you have. Um and unfortunately in these times information is constantly shifting. Um I remember the the meeting in December when we discussed and uh we had talked about that basic aid was possibly likely. We needed to wait and see a few years and a few fast forward a few months later and it looks like our projections are pretty good. Um same with our housing and whatnot. And so, you know, we're only making our decisions based on
028those facts and the information that's provided at that at this time. Um, I do want to still clarify that any decision that I make in regards to my position here is for the students and I do think it is important to continually um put the the funds back to the students. We can provide the best education possible. So, you know, with the changing climate and circumstance, I believe that this is the best move given the new information we have. However, I'm hoping that in the near future, we can continue to um use some of our funds as we move into basic aid and hopefully grow our reserve as well to put those back into the classroom where they really belong. Thank you. Thank you, Trusty Ward and Trustee Emory for your comments and um I
029appreciate those. I will be supporting the amended budget tonight as well and I want to thank my fellow trustees for being willing to hold this special meeting to approve the amended budget. I also want to make clear that the entire reason we are here is because we apparently have a board president who does not respect the board or our rules that are before us or legal counsel who clearly told us that the request made by Trustee Rawlings in December was only a request not an approved action and that it was rejected by the board in January. Instead, Trusty Rawlings abused her authority as president and unilaterally usurped the will of the board to improperly transfer $3.1 million out of the stabilization fund, hoping we wouldn't notice. This behavior has to end, and it is up
030to all four of us to take a stand, and I hope that will happen soon. Thank you to the staff who worked hard on this budget, and I'm glad that we can have this final vote prior to the end of June. Happy summer to all of you. Thank you. Anyone else? Any comments? Okay, Miss Garcia, please call for a vote. Trusty COC, yes. Trusty Emmer, I'm sorry, Trusty Verbath. Yes. Trusty Emory, yes. Trusty Warren, yes. Motion passes. Board to zero. Thank you. We now move on to item 4.2, to the 2025 school board meeting schedule. Trustees, this is a discussion action item. I will now hand it over to Superintendent Dr. Norman. Thank you. Good evening, trustees. At the December 18th, 2024 meeting, the board of trustees, the 2025 school board meeting schedule was approved.
031As there is currently no meeting scheduled in the month of July, staff would like to request that the August 20th, 2025 meeting be moved to August 13, 2025 to allow for the timely hiring of personnel before the start of school. Thank you. It is respectfully recommended that the board of trustees approve the changes to the August meeting date as presented in exhibit A. Trustees, do you have any questions? Whoa, that's loud. No. Okay. May May I have a motion to approve the changes to the August meeting date as presented in exhibit A? So moved. Second. Now is the time for discussion. Any discussion? No. Thank you. Great. Appreciate. Miss Garcia, please call for a vote. Trustee COC. Yes. Trusty Verbath. Yes. Trustee Emory. Yes. Trusty Ward. Yes. Motion passes four to zero. Thank you. We
032now move on to part five, communications. Item 5.1, governance team reports. This is a time for trustees to provide a brief report if they've attended committee meetings where the where they represent the district. Are there any governance team reports? Thank you. We now move on to item 5.2. Trustee requests for information from staff. Trustees. These are Trustees, are there any requests for information from staff that have already been discussed with the superintendent and have been recommended to bring to the board? Okay. Okay. Um, as a reminder, um, Okay, never mind. We don't have any. Thank you. We move on to item 5.3, trustees request for future agenda items. Trustees, are there any requests for future agenda items that have already been discussed with the superintendent and have been recommended to bring to the board? Okay.
033All right. Okay. Part six, dormant. Um, so it is 6:30 and the special meeting is now adjourned. Oh, I get to do this. Yay. Our regular meeting will take place on August 13, 2025 at 6 PM at the Carlsb Unified School District office. Thanks everybody.