CUSD BOARD MEETING 6-18-25

001Good evening. It's 5:00 PM and I call this meeting to order. Have any blue cards been received for close session items? We do not have any blue cards. Thank you. The board will now recess to close session. I'd like to Where am I? Am I there? Hello. Hi. I It's six o'clock and the board is reconvening from close session. During close session, the board took action to appoint Charles threat carlb Charles Carl as assistant principal of Carl'sbad High School effective July 1, 2025 on a motion by trustee verb and a second by trustee Emory by a unanimous vote of 5. Welcome members of the public, board members and staff. Thank you for attending. As noted in board bylaw 9324, this meeting is being video recorded and broadcast via a link on our website. The recording

002and broadcast may capture images and sounds of those attending the meeting. I'd like to remind 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 anyone 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. We'll begin to tonight's meeting with Trustee Emory leading us in the pledge of allegiance. Trustee Verbbeth will read the district vision and Miss Garcia will take the roll call. To the flag of the United States of America

003and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty andice for Our graduates are prepared for success. They confidently move to life beyond high school knowing they have acquired the requisite skills and knowledge. They have a passion for learning and personal growth. They can thrive in a high-tech environment. They are compassionate. Thank you. We will now take role. Trusty Cosiosce here. Trustee Emory here. Trusty Verbath here. Trusty Ward here. Trusty Rawlings here. Thank you. We now move on to part four, approval of the agenda. Trustees, are there any questions? No questions. May have a motion to approve agenda item 4.1, approval and/or reorganization of the June 18th, 2025 meeting agenda. Motion. Second. Trustee Ward with the motion. A second from Trusty Emory. Discussion. Discussion. Miss Garcia, please call for a vote.

004Trustee COC. Yes. Trusty Emory. Yes. Trusty Verbette. Yes. Trusty Ward. Yes. Trusty Rawlings. Yes. Motion passes five to zero. Thank you. We now move on to part five, communications, part one, item 5.1, report from the CUDA president. Thank you. Please come to the podium. You will have five minutes to speak. Good evening, trustees. Dr. Norman, Rachel Marino Watt. I'm the president of the Carlsbad Unified Teachers Association. I would like to take this opportunity to officially welcome Dr. Norman. I'm excited to work with you and for teachers to get to know you. I know there's a whole lot of new as you come into this role, but new also leaves room for opportunity. As a mama whose child just graduated from Sage a few weeks ago, we've been having discussions about embracing new. New creates a

005liinal space, a transitional environment that can facilitate change, growth, and transformation. And I'm looking forward to seeing what comes. I'm here for the ride. Finally, at this last meeting, I would like to take a moment to thank Suzanne Oonnell for her service during this transition and possibly in some capacity going forward. I for one am glad that you failed retirement and I thank you so much wishing you all the best. Dr. Nye, I look forward to working with you in a new capacity. Have a good evening. Thank you. Now move on to item 5.2 report by CUC PTA president. Please come to the podium and you will have five minutes to speak. Good evening. I am Jen Bellnap, legislative liaison for the Carlsbad Unified Council of PTAs. I'm speaking on behalf of our CUC president,

006Jen Leo tonight. This year, our PTAs in CUSD boast a total of 2,441 members combined. Together, we donated an astounding 50,597 volunteer hours for our district schools. Our treasurer is on vacation and couldn't provide me with an exact amount for this evening, but she told me that over $1 million has been donated through our PTAs to benefit our school sites. Additionally, several of our PTA units received grants this year. Magnolia Elementary was a standout for receiving a national grant for its Ready TechGo workshop that focused on teaching elementary students screen readiness and was open to the community. Locally, the 9inth district PTA awarded three of our units with grants which went to Sage Creek High School, Calaver Hills Middle School, and Kelly Elementary. Sage used this grant to create a parent series focused on mental,

007emotional, and physical health. The Carl's Abad High PTA runs parent insight nights where parents learn everything they need to know for their child's upcoming school year, from the number of units you can take off campus to obtaining physicals for participation in sports. Community and PTA board member Trisha Benton has been hard at work helping individual units host compassion days where students learn what it's like to navigate through life with different challenges and abilities. Our high school units have given out thousands of dollars in senior scholarships for students going onto community college, four-year college, military service, and trade schools. We've also given out thousands of dollars in teacher grants at all levels to purchase anything from sports equipment to tech subscriptions and support for campus beautifification projects. Several of our elementary units hosted cultural fairs this

008year as well. At the CUC level, board members attended trainings this spring and summer so that we can better assist our individual units. two particular trainings that we found beneficial were on Robert's rules of order which is something this board has also received training on and the session on planning successful events using AI. It was a busy invigorating year. We plan to continue the hard work and fun as we engage with our school communities this fall in support of a successful school year for all. Thank you. We now move on to item 5.3, report by CEO of the Carl'sb Education Foundation. Please come to the podium. You will have five minutes to speak. Good evening and welcome, Superintendent Norman. I'm looking forward to working with you. Um, a couple of updates for you today. I

009am thrilled to report that our gala raised uh nearly $300,000 this year. Um the event continues to boost visibility in the community and we have seen steady growth in annual giving in addition to the giving at the gala since we launched this event. Uh we have decided to shift the timing for the 2026 gala. For the past four years we have held it in May as everyone in this room knows that is a really busy time for students. It's a busy time for staff and schools and so we are trying something new. We are moving it to March. Uh mark your calendars. It is Saturday March 14th. So, for our math enthusiasts, um it is Pi Day. So, don't forget, everyone should be there on March 14th. Um moving on, looking at summer, we have

010over 400 students at any given time at Kelly Elementary this year for our camps. Between our full day summer adventure and half-day enrichment camps, all of our weeks of our summer adventure camps are full and closed. Um families in need of care are encouraged to join our weight list. And it is it's wonderful to see um so many happy kids and I'm getting great feedback from the camps. That being said, it's also something really important to me that we can meet demand and we certainly are not meeting demand right now. Um so the quality of the camp, the safety of our students of course comes first, but we are working to take more students off the wait list if we can. So families should definitely rate um join the wait list if they need some

011care. Um similar sentiments for fall kids care. We we have more enrollments now than I have ever seen. um at this point in the year, we are going to be closing it. So if students are if families are in need of care, they really need to enroll like today um to guarantee their spot. And then finally, our grants for the 202526 school year are going to be determined next Thursday. Uh we have a meeting actually Friday with the district is a collaborative process between instructional services and the CF board to determine what grants will be awarded. Um and then we have a meeting which Dr. Rocket and Director Fuentes actually join us and um one of the nice things too is they're able to take feedback from administrators and from teachers to make sure that

012our programs are meeting evolving needs and the requests that have come through most of them look very similar year-over-year but there are a handful of changes that are taking into consideration that feedback. So really excited to be able to announce those grants. They will be emailed out to the district um in the next week with formal notifications and um then we will be looking ahead to implement all these programs in the fall. Have a great day. Thank you. We now move on to item 5.4 report by Launa President here. Uh thank you. We now move on to item 5.5, superintendent report. Uh Dr. Andrea Norman, thank you so much. I appreciate the time. Um it's my third day, so it's not a long report. Um I we did have a great first day. I did

013a kickoff here with our staff at the district office. I just shared a little bit about myself and um the priorities that I have and I just want to thank everyone. It has been overwhelming how welcoming everybody is that I interact with and I can tell that people have been here a very long time and this is a very special place and I feel so fortunate to be a part of it. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Uh we now move on to item 5.6, public comment on non-aggenda items. This is the time that members of the public have the opportunity to address the board on any non-aggendaized item that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board. How many blue cards have we received for non-aggenda items? We have a total of

014three blue cards. Thank you. Uh in order to allow speakers to present their comments and ensure we are able to properly attend to the business of the board per board bylaw 9323, public comments will be limited to 20 minutes. This means each speaker will have three minutes. 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. The first speaker is Linda Daniels. Yes, I'm back. I talked to you all last month about the toxic toxicity of tailpipe emissions while u parents drop off their kids and pick their kids up from school. I hope you all got the handouts that I left so you see about all the terrible missions that are out there. Anyway, so I just wanted

015to let you know that I did present all that information also to the city council last night and I'm working with Pria Battel um through emails and talking to her before the the board meeting last night. Um and she's going to be trying to to work with you guys to make a sign. You know, the city of Carlsbad has great signs. They put signs out like this. And so I brought them with me because they do have I'm really excited that we're able to move along. And one of the things I wanted to ask you guys like I asked them was um maybe in on your website or on your newsletter. You could even talk about idolling and why it is so bad for the health of the children and um that you save gas

016by shutting it off and turning it back on. Really, it's less gas that way. Okay. And um we want to think about the health of the kids most importantly. Okay. I have asthma myself. So I know an asthma attack is not fun to have at school. Okay. And then in my other role that I have, I represent the uh clean energy alliance um on the CAC, the council uh advisory uh committee. Okay. So, um, I have some new programs that they have and I just wanted to share with you some of these fantastic new programs because I'm going to take advantage of one of them is that you can get a free battery in your home if you have solar already. Okay? Depending upon your income. If it isn't, then it's maybe it's $50 a

017month. Okay? But we're putting out this program and it is called solar plus connect. or that no that's free solar battery bonus program and uh peak smart savers. So there's two programs one for really really lowincome people and people who are moderately u low income and they think anybody under 92,000 a year as low income. So I'm really happy about that because they told me I qualified. So I'm going to be anyway I'm looking forward to that. So go on the website of theclean energyalliance.org org and check out those new programs that we have and think about what you want to sign. You know, some people say, um, help make Carl's bed more healthy or think about it. No idling while waiting. Keep our air healthier in Carl's bed. Whatever you think of so we

018can work with the city to get the right sign for you guys. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. And Dr. Norman, will you um follow up with that last speaker? Thank you. Um, next speaker is Mary Davis. Hi. Are you ready for Hi. Yes. Mary Davis and I am a government watchdog in Stewart. I'm visiting. I am not a resident of Carl'sbad, but for tonight I choose to identify as one. It's the deepest core of my person. So, please mark me down as a resident. And um I'm here for accountability. Uh both I want you to start recording your special meetings which have not been recorded. I'd like you to start accurately recording your minutes to reflect the actual things that occur um and for votes and for people's positions and for statements. So, more accurate minutes,

019please. And then one last thing is I was here in um I think it was April uh to speak and you gave Miss Brawlings gave me quiet saying I was off topic and she said for me to come back. So here I am back and I did want to let you know as a watchdog I do give out um awards and trophies. So Jim Miller in Coahone Valley actually gets fastest finger in the west because he flipped me off one day at a uh fundraising event uh outside of the venue. But uh with you and your um gavvel, I just wanted to say uh quick gavvel is a sign of weak leadership. So here's the award for fastest gavvel as a school board and I urge you to be more judicious with your gabble. Thank

020you. And next speaker is Q Ghart. I wish I would have brought a prop. I'm Hugh Airheart. I live in Carl's bed. I've had kids go through the system, too. I'm back again for the ballpark and softball maintenance. And as a coach, we all have a word for your athletes messing around. And I'm kind of old school. I use the word shenanigans. No shenanigans. And you'd have to define that for most of the players. And uh I think that's what's going on with your maintenance department, the head of maintenance. It's shenanigans because for 20 years, we're paying nothing for our maintenance for the fields. We're relying on the part-time coaches again, and we're relying on dads and moms and everybody out there helping it. One of the things we have no control over is the

021water. The guy who controls the water does all five fields. We He's been working on it for since 2013 trying to say just let me turn the water off and on on the baseball field. I'm there every day and that's the only way. Anyone who knows how to do a lawn, you got to be on it every day. That's why my lawn looks terrible because I'm not into it. But a baseball coach has to have control of the water. They've tried everything. AD principal to the head back there. Nope. Always denied him. And there he is out there every day that would simply take care of uh one of the big problems with uh field maintenance. Why is a parent paying $8,000 to give us bullpen fences? And when the head of maintenance comes out

022there and finally I meet with him and he gives me two bits of advice. Don't use black fencing the plastic. He goes, "I'd have to repair that." I go, "You mean like the black fencing that's on the back stop that's been there that looks fine now?" Okay. And the other one is the bullpin entrance has to be three feet wide. I go, "That's easy. Why did we have a meeting for this? I mean, this was pretty simple." So then I asked him some more specific questions. Why is there a tractor you use maybe once a year down in the barn at Sage Creek and we can't use it? Why is there no, in fact, where is my golf cart? When I first got there, Chucky was helping me out the whole time and then they

023fired Chucky. He was a night jander. Great guy. and I was just getting enough donations to get new batteries in it. They fired Chucky and they took the golf cart and I was told by one of the other uh guys that was working there going, "Hey, they're going to really trick it out. You'll have that golf cart." That was five years ago. I'm still waiting for that golf cart because he confiscated it and I don't know where it is or what they're doing. And that happens all the time in maintenance. Hey, where's the thing so I can put the light bulbs? Oh, they grab that. you can't use that apparatus and off it goes. Really appreciate it. No shenanigans. All I got to do is meet with the head of maintenance and all I got

024to say this is what we need. It's not that difficult. We don't have to hire a new position. We hire someone who's already in house who probably wants to do it. Thank you very much. Thank you. And Dr. Normal, you also follow up with that individual as well. Thank you. Um we now move on to part six, consent calendar. All matters listed on the consent calendar are considered by the board to be routine and will be enacted by the board in one motion. There will be no discussion on these items prior to the time the board votes on the motion unless there is a board request for one or more specific items to be removed from the consent calendar for discussion. Have any blue cards been received? We do not have any blue cards. Thank

025you. Trustees, are there any items to be pulled for discussion? May I have a motion to approve the consent calendar? Motion. Second. Motion from Trusty Ward. Second from Trusty Verbath. Miss Garcia, please call for a vote. Trusty Cos. Yes. Trustee Emory. Yes. Trusty Verbath. Yes. Trusty Ward. Yes. Trusty Rawlings. Yes. Motion passes five to zero. Thank you. We now move on to part seven, information, discussion, and action items. Item 7.1 discussion action high school ethics studies elective trustees. This is a discussion action item. I will now hand it over to Dr. Knight. Thank you President Rawlings trustees and Dr. Norman. Staff is pleased to introduce this discussion action item for the board this evening. The proposed course outline for a new high school course elective ethnic studies. At the May 21st board meeting, staff provided

026an information presentation outlining the development of the course in alignment with the California State Board of Education's model curriculum. Since that time, staff has made updates to the course outline in response to direction from the board. This evening, Dr. Brockett, director of secondary curriculum and instruction, will provide an overview for those updates and address any remaining questions from the board. I'll turn it over to Dr. Brockett. Uh good evening trustees. Dr. Norman, thank you for having me uh here tonight uh back to talk about the ethnic studies elective course again. Uh we've got three three things that we're going to try to accomplish tonight. One is just a uh review the followup uh that staff made in response to uh board direction following the May 21st uh board meeting. Uh we're going to review feedback

027received from the advisory committee and public uh and then make a recommendation regarding the adoption of the course outline. at the uh just a quick a quick summary. Uh I won't go into great detail here because we uh we spent quite a bit of time talking about this at the May 21st meeting, but just a reminder of what we're talking about is an elective course offering for students that uh that uh choose to take an ethnic studies course. Uh what we are proposing is a uh is a two semester or two trimester or in other words a year-long course in ethnic studies. uh it is aligned closely to the California ethnic studies model curriculum. That was uh the framework that our team set about uh to use in order to develop the course. Um the

028course was offered to grades 9 to 12 and and again I'll just remind trustees that uh as of right now in terms of student interest we would be proposing to run one section uh next year at Sage Creek High School as an elective course. Uh and included here is the course uh overview or course description. I do want to add, and I'll come back to this in a moment, that uh there was a uh an oversight on here where it says Latinx Americans. I'll talk about uh the uh adjustment to that uh in a few minutes. I just want to touch real quickly on some common threads throughout the course just to understand kind of the the uh the themes. Um, one, uh, is that the course, uh, focuses heavily on developing civil discourse, uh,

029in progressively, uh, more complex ways throughout the course, um, to in order to help students develop a empathy and understanding of those around them. Um, the course content is connected specifically to the four core disciplines of ethnic studies, which are outlined uh, up uh, there. That's in line again with the state adopted model curriculum. uh and then the course kind of has dual threads I would say of opportunities for self-reflection and understanding of others and understanding of the community. So uh I've shared previously sort of a windows and mirrors uh model of being able to learn about others as well as to reflect and learn about uh oneself. Uh following the uh presentation on May 21st, uh trustees provided two uh points uh uh followup for staff. Um, one was to add lessons which show

030some individuals and ethnic groups have overcome uh, racism, bias and discrimination to succeed. Uh, I mentioned uh, during the presentation on May 21st that uh, it was the in fact the intent of the working group to ensure that such stories were included. It's also the intent of the uh, of the model curriculum to ensure that such studio such uh, stories are included. Um, and uh, we we did a couple things in followup in working with our working group on this. Um one is an updated uh unit 4 summary. So we uh updated that summary to highlight uh in fact that the the inclusion of such uh of of such stories of uh of overcoming and success um among the groups. In addition to that, um we went back through with our team uh and took

031a look at some of those specific areas uh in units three, four, and actually five as well um that include those. I I provided for trustees and some written feedback that was posted publicly earlier today as well, a more extensive list of where those areas um where those areas are. Um and I'll I'll hit on those in just a moment. Uh also uh we reviewed our sample resources to ensure that we were uh highlighting areas. There was a link there is a link on that uh on that course outline that hits the sample resources. Um things including African-American innovators, the Harlem Renaissance, accomplishments of the civil rights movement, etc. Um and and just to just to touch in a little more detail on that, um there are uh there are some areas that I just

032wanted to make sure that we highlight uh including uh the role from unit 3 the role that media plays in perpetuating empowerment and progress. Also from unit 3 um investigating how counternarratives uh uh begin and evolve in terms of of uh changing the narrative. uh uh examining systems of inequality and how communities resist and challenge stereotypes and injustice. Also from unit 3 um exploring stories of success, community collaboration and solidarity uh along with intellectual growth, intellectual and cultural wealth, unit four um and and again there are more examples there. I won't go into the exhaustive list, but it it was helpful. I appreciate the feedback from trustees for our team to be able to go back and ensure that that intent uh was being uh highlighted and and really that we could pull out those

033specific threads of where those pieces uh lived in the curriculum. The other piece uh that we uh received direction on was exploring potential other alternatives to the term Latinx. Um, we we did take a dive into this question and it's a it's a complex question that I won't go entirely into here. Um, Latinx was a term that was developed uh in part to address the uh the gendered language uh of Spanish um as opposed to as an alternative to Latino or Latina. Um, and there are even variations uh on uh on the um on the gendered approach or the or the inclusive approach. There's in addition to Latinx, there's Latina. Uh there's some other uh there's some other different variations of that. What staff is recommending and what we have gone back and done in

034the course uh outline is to use uh the the the term uh latinox and chox which is in line with uh the use in the model curriculum. Um and we think that that is uh both inclusive uh as well as again uh consistent in alignment with what the model curriculum outlines uh for the use there. Those changes have been made. I I did mention the the course summary that I uh that was on slide four. That was one oversight. So I apologize for that. that that course summary in the course outline that is uploaded as the exhibit A uh does have that modification to it. Um and you should find that consistent usage throughout the course outline. Oh um just a real quick hit on the on the feedback uh that we received. Um, as

035we met on May 1st, the advisory committee uh had just finished uh providing feedback uh and we didn't have enough time to process all of that to to provide it um back out to trustees in its entirety. Um so that feedback uh which closed on May 18th was shared back with the advisory committee so they could see um some of the feedback from their colleagues as well as with with trustees um later that week. Um that feedback was reviewed by staff and considered u as we as we looked back at the course outline and how the uh how the outline uh uh aligned to the adopted uh model curriculum. Um we also have provi have received some uh public feedback uh as trustees are aware trustees have received uh feedback um from the community. uh

036the uh we posted as we shared uh in the May meeting, we did post a link uh as well online and uh and an email address for uh for uh feedback. We received no feedback at that email address, but I but I as you know um folks found uh the email addresses to share their thoughts. Um we did get a variety of feedback uh both uh supportive of and uh and expressing concerns with regard to ethnic studies. Um and uh and again as I shared at the May meeting, the lens through which um we viewed as a team that uh the feedback that we received all throughout was uh was the degree to which we were looking at you know critique or questions about alignment to the model curriculum or were we looking at critique

037and concerns about other uh other components or other areas. Uh again I I'll I will reiterate and can't reiterate enough that that was our intent as a working team uh was to take the state adopted framework and really use that as our basis as we do when we develop um any courses. Um that brings us to next steps. I I I will add we're going to get to questions in a minute. I I uh will add that we did provide uh trustees um and again in a public posting earlier today uh a lengthy response uh responses to quite a number of questions that were received um both uh at the end of May and earlier this week. Um so we we did uh hopefully share uh answers to quite a few of those questions. Um

038happy of course to take questions uh this evening as well. Um, and before I hand back over, uh, we'll we'll of course be requesting, uh, that trustees approve, uh, exhibit A, which is the ethnic studies, uh, elective course outline. Thank you. This is the time for public comment. Have blue cards been received? We have a total of 14 blue cards. Thank you. When I call your 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 one and a half minutes. We will have the timer on the screen and your mic will be muted when your time has expired. The first speaker is Jennifer Zamora. Good evening board members, educators, and community. I'm here to urge

039a yes vote for the ethnic studies elective. In today's polarized environment, people often argue ethnic studies is divisive. It promotes anti-white ideology or claims its academic impact is overstated. Opponents allege the curriculum riddled with critical race principles indoctrinate students. Yet supporters, including students and teachers, emphasize that ethnic studies teaches empathy, context, and critical thinking, not guilt or blame. The goal is honest history, not division. There's concern that it's more activism than academics. In reality, all of these are academically rigorous disciplines grounded in peer-reviewed research. Carl'sb curriculum with structured units and advisory input follows a rigorous model. Ethnic study is not just for students of color. It also improves intercultural understanding among all students. Critics also note California's ethnic studies mandate is currently underfunded and curricula varies widely. Carlsbad, by contrast, has proactively aligned its curriculum

040with the state framework is planning to offer the course at Sage Creek and developed it through an advisory committee to include parents and educators, including myself. As Dr. Rocket mentioned tonight after processing feedback, our district staff has demonstrated local commitment and thoughtful implementation. Ethnic studies isn't about blame. It's about context. It it'll equip students with historical knowledge across communities, develop critical literacy of societal structures, foster civic skills grounded in empathy and dialogue. Thank you. Next speaker is Carol Osborne. Good evening, President Rawlings, board members, and superintendent. My name is Carol Osborne. I do not live in Carlsbad. Um, but I have great interest in this topic. I'm a retired associate superintendent from POW Unified School District. I had the honor and privilege of working collaboratively with teachers, students, and families to bring ethnic studies and

041ethnic literature to the students in Pawa Unified. And tonight you have that same opportunity to change lives for the students in Carlsbad. I understand that some members of the community have expressed fear or uncertainty about this course and I'm here to try to help to ease those concerns. Our schools exist to provide every student with knowledge tools that they need to succeed in an increasingly complex world. As Dr. Martin Luther King once said, the function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character. That is the goal of a true educ of true education. I've had the privilege of visiting ethnic studies and ethnic literature at all five comprehensive high schools in POW Unified. These were among the most intellectually engaged and emotionally resonant learning environments that I've

042ever encountered. Students from all backgrounds were deeply engaged in meaningful reflection, connection, and discovery. They explored their own identities and histories while developing respect and empathy for others. Contrary to some fears, um they do not cause guilt or shame. They are focused on in fact our LGBTQ students have Thank you. Next speaker is Leah Sao. Hi, my name is Leah Tao and I am not from Carlsbad. Actually, my home base is in San Diego Union High School District. Um, my youngest just graduated in 2023. I am also uh a member of the Asian and Pacifica Island Advisory Board for San Die San Diego Union District. Um, so I'm I'm here today because I heard a lot of things about fear. Um, and and I can understand that because um anyway, I only have a minute.

043Um but what I started I never joined a board meeting in my life until what happened at San Diego two year three years ago with Dr. Ward and that set me on a trajectory to come and speak about my experience because it is not about fear teaching ethnic studies is about teaching US history. Our stories are part of US history. It is not something that is meant to be divisive or blaming anybody. It's just simply our stories. We're part of the fabric of this nation and its history. And you tell the good, the bad, and ugly. It doesn't matter. They all matter. You would not want to watch a movie and only hear the good part of it. A good movie, a good story, a good narrative starts with something that is difficult and challenging

044and it overcomes. And I've heard that argument, too, that Asian-Americans do well. Hey, you've overcome your hardships. Doesn't matter what happened. That's totally false. Um, I had some points to make here, but I guess thank you much. Next speaker is uh Julian Loach. Hi, my name is Julian. I live in the boundaries of Carl'sbad Unified and I have a child in the district. In the last week, we've witnessed brutality and dehumanization against black and brown people. Countless families broken up, humble working people rounded up while performing jobs most of us would rather starve than do, US citizens detained and deported, and a total breakdown of rule of law and due process. We have innocent people chained inside gulags in third world countries and vigilantes pretending to be ICE agents hunting down brown people. We've seen

045US military turned against fellow Americans and American communities. This is happening because we have given legitimacy to white supremacist narratives. We've allowed a space for an for a narrative that white people and white history are being erased. As a white person, I'm devastated and sickened. If there was ever any question that white supremacy and racism are alive and well in the United States, there's no denying it now. And enough is enough. The absolute minimum I can do is show up here today and ask that a little elective ethnic studies course for a handful of students in Carl'sbad be approved. Although I honestly feel that it is too little and too late. The only way I can see forward is through education. We need it. Thank you. Next speaker is AJ Grover. Good evening. My name

046is AJ Grover. Reside within the district. I uh went to uh Cala Hills in first grade and through Carlsbad High School in 12th grade. recently graduated in December and helping out with my special needs sister at home back living in the district. Um I come here to tell you guys that this is really really important as the last four years when I was in college I was opened up to a perspective that I never had growing up here in Carlsbad for the last 12 years. uh my senior year English teacher uh span for AP lit fantastic teacher discussed about having different hats at which we could approach problems and approach different you know topics at hand and the default hat which has been the default hat for the history of this country is a white

047euroentric framework. It is very important that we look at other hats and that we could wear those to look at other the same questions at hand with a different perspective and that perspective of many many Americans across this country and such a curriculum will enable those Americans to be heard and for their viewpoint and their stories to be shared as well because they are just as important as the default setting which has been done. So I urge us that an ethnic studies curriculum is not something that you know stops inclusivity or stops division. It's something that if we don't have promotes the status quo. It mutes questions about authority and power. Ethnic studies teaches students to be leaders who analyze the systems at hand and change them for the better. Thank you. Next speaker is

048Mary Davis. Hi, Mary Davis. Uh, thank you. Yes, I am adamantly opposed to ethnic studies electives as the way it's being done by the state of California. For one thing, it's absolutely exclusive. When I looked at the four disciplines, it did not even include Jewish and it did not include manina, which is the upandcoming term for Middle Eastern North Africa. So, by default, it is exclusive when you are leaving certain groups out. Uh, second of all, it does put a hierarchy. This has nothing to do with fear, phobia, bigot, anything like that. What it does have to do is the hierarchy of oppressor and victim. And the example I'll give you is I was recently at the city of Oceanside where a lesbian was talking about back in the day starting to march for pride

049and they put the line in the sand about letting Nambble, the North American Manboy Love Association. And the councilman stopped the um meeting and he read an um a statement about bigotry and saying and I was shocked because if the lesbians who put up a line did not want to match with w march with pediphals the lesbians aren't the problem and yet somehow they fell into an oppressor role when it was an inconvenient hierarchy. So lastly, I'd like to let you know again with Anything with the State of California, I found a book, What the State of California Knows About Raising Your Child, a comprehensive guide to why politicians and bureaucrats know better than you. And there's a copy for each board member. I encourage Thank you. Next speaker is Brenda Haray. Good evening. My

050name is Brenda Harai. I am a resident of Carlsbad in the school district. My two children attended the Carlsbad school district from kindergarten through graduation and I currently reside in Carlsbad. I am a fourth generation Japanese American and my uncle fought in World War II in the 442nd Battalion. I'm also a member of the San Diego Japanese American Citizens League. I feel it's important for our students to learn about the history of ethnic groups and how they contributed to our country. However, I also feel that it is it's important not to gloss over the hardships placed upon these groups because of their ethnicities. I worry that gains in civil rights are eroding and hope that by teaching the past, this course will help our future citizens create a better community. Thank you. Next speaker is

051Katrina Wlick. Hello Katrina Widleck, parent, resident, and teacher in the district. Good afternoon trustees and welcome, Superintendent Norman. I'm here to speak in support of the work of the educators, parents, staff, and community members who collaborated on developing the proposed ethnic studies curriculum. However, I also want to address the concern and fears that a few in the community have brought up at this meeting in previous meetings. I have heard that some are afraid that teachers will indoctrinate students into becoming activists, hating themselves, or developing a victim mentality. While I appreciate the vote of confidence in the ability of teachers to control the thoughts and feelings of students, I must confess that many of us do not possess that power. If I were given the opportunity to indoctrinate students, I would brainwash them to wear a

052buckled helmet while riding an ebike and put away their cell phone and to read a book every day. Oh, and to do their homework, too. But shockingly, teacher teenagers bristle at anyone trying to control their ability to think and speak freely and are looking for any opportunity to challenge the status quo and adults in the room. So, let's provide them a curriculum that challenges the traditional narrative that raises questions instead of telling them a romanticized stories of history. Teaching how white supremacy has shaped our country and individuals will not make students hate themselves, hate their families, or hate their country. Instead, it will show them how we individuals and collectively have the power to either obey a system or to try to change it. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker is Sasha Miller. My name

053is Sasha and I do not live in Carlsbad. I'm a public health official with the California Department of Public Health and a lecturer at CalState San Marco's Graduate School of Public Health. I'm also a mother. Empathy. We've collectively lost our empathy. Now, when someone is hurt, we take out our phones instead of offering aid. People here live their lives carefree while children in Gaza starve. What an incredible opportunity. opportunity to teach our our youth about empathy and to teach our youth about the different systems and bias media contributing to the racism, violence, and white supremacy in this country. I strongly support and encourage the adoption of this ethnic studies course to enrich and expands the minds of our youth. I also want to advocate for all ethnic groups to be included including meta and Jewish

054communities and to not cherrypick based on personal preference. Lastly, I want to say ignorance breeds fear and fear breeds hate and violence. Thank you. Next speaker is Jillian Capto. Hi, my name is Jillian and I'm a scientist at a biotech company in Carlsbad and a resident of Carlsbad. I'm here to advocate in favor of ethnic studies as an elective for high school students. I am a biracial Filipino, daughter of an immigrant, and like most Filipino Americans, a product of the military-industrial complex. Growing up in a predominantly white area of Southern California in the early 2000s, I was never really accepted into a friend group and was bullied for the food I ate, among other things, which led to a deterioration of my mental health. This was incredibly isolating and it is critical that ethnic studies

055is offered to our students as it lays the foundation for balanced perspective so that our youth will have a better understanding of the historical and material analysis of people with different backgrounds. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker is Carmen Nasser Nicholas. Hello, I'm Carmen Nasser Nichols. I want to say thank you for this opportunity. I also want to say welcome, Superintendent Norman. Um, I'm happy that I have an opportunity to get up here and talk to you about the importance of ethnic studies. I'm a Palestinian American, first generation born here and I have experienced endless um prejudice, racism. Um I have been not included. I have been misunderstood. I had my eighth grade history teacher say all Palestinians are terrorists in front of my class. um the most recent incident that happened that really struck

056a nerve um to the point where I just I couldn't I just I can't understand how this is happening. My son's friend who is a student in San Marcos. Um someone claimed that he said he was going to bomb the school. He said no such thing. He was called into the principal's office. Um he was held. His parents weren't even called for over an hour. um it was proven that he did not say that but these type of things are continuously happening. Another incident is what my daughter had to endure as a student at Calabra Hills Middle School um saying that uh Palestinians were responsible for the Holocaust which they were not anyways. Ethnic studies is going to help raise awareness and thank you. Next speaker is um Nikki Ruden. Good evening. Welcome Dr. Norman.

057Um my name is Nikki Redden. I am a CDC alumni, parent, teacher, and resident in CUSD. We believe student voice matters at every age. and we are discussing one optional ethnic studies course at Sage Creek High School. An optional course that creates space to explore identity, history, and justice through the lens of historically marginalized communities. Yet the fear that surfaced in response to this offering was deeply concerning. Ethnic study uplifts uplifts voices that have been ignored, misrepresented, silenced for too long. Even our youngest students understand the importance of inclusion, truthtelling, and honoring diverse lived experiences. I'd like to share some words from my own child who is a student at Buenav Vista. He is nine years old and I want to thank Matise for allowing me to share your words here tonight. We've had discussions

058about this and this is what he had to say. I think we are going to learn about these things sooner or later. Maybe some people don't want to hear about it because they're scared or parents are afraid that it might be hard for their kids to hear some of the history of our country. But that's our history. We should know about it. Our own family story is our land being taken, war, and probably lots of sadness. The good thing, some survived and culture got our that culture got passed down to people like us. The good thing is they didn't kill all the indigenous tribes. I spoke last meeting about our own family history. He also said that it's important that we learn about backgrounds of people um so that students and kids are more knowledgeable

059so they're not hurting. Thank you. Next speaker is Ara Lee. Hi, my name is Ara Lee and I'm a current student at Georgia Tech, but I was a high school student three years ago at the San Marcos Unified School District. Um, I just wanted to mention how a lot of people have others said as well that ethnic studies is never about placing blame. It's about telling the truth. And the discomfort some may feel is a reflection of how deeply rooted and long ignored these histories have been. Um, avoiding terms or topics that have accurately described systems of oppression only serves to preserve ignorance and insens insensitivity and not promote unity. If we want our students to be critical thinkers, empathetic citizens, and leaders in a diverse world, we have to provide them with a curriculum

060that is honest, provides civil discourse, and is inclusive and reflective of all histories, not just the most comfortable ones. Ethnic students or ethnic studies empowers all students by promoting understanding, not division or hierarchy or any of the sorts. um as someone who is involved with directly working with inclusive education and um started the San Marcos Unified School District Equity Coalition um and also a current staff and member of the Georgia Tech Asian Student um association. I've never once met an educator who was who were against the implementation of ethnic studies and I hope that one day I can contribute to that as well. So, thank you for listening. Thank you. Next speaker is Cynthia Michael. My name is Cynthia Michael. Um, I live in the district already know. Um, good evening. I want to thank

061the board and the district leadership for transparency and inclusiveness in the process and the proposed ethnic studies curriculum. Your commitment to community input and educational excellence is truly appreciated. Um that said, I urge you to vote against adopting the curriculum in its current form. While it may seem balanced, it's built on the California ethnic studies model curriculum. It remains deeply flawed, it's rooted in the liberated ethnic studies movement and a framework of the oppressor and the oppressed. Carl's proposed course reflects this ideology. It emphasizes identity, system, power, activism of individual agency and critical inquiry. By framing the history with a single perspective of oppressed and oppressed, it risks a narrow students understanding versus expanding it. Um, I appreciate ethnic studies and I want it to move forward in a different format. Um, so I urge

062the board to develop a more balanced curriculum and not mirror the California ethnic studies model. Thank you. Thank you. That was our last speaker. Um trustees, do you have any new questions that are not included in exhibit C? I have some trusty verb. Okay, we did get an exhibit C late late in late in the early afternoon. Hard to get to um before this meeting. So, um I just wanted to clarify from staff. Um can you just say no, we are not required to offer ethnic studies in the fall. No, we are not required to offer ethnic studies in the fall. This is for an elective only course. Other questions? I did you have a question? Um you know correction it we we actually uh the the law requires that we have to have an

063offering of ethnic studies. I apologize. Um it can be an elective only course and the requirement for all ethnic studies students uh if that re becomes a requirement is for the next uh year. So I misspoke. You do have to offer some type of course in ethnic studies next year per the law. Follow that is if it's funded, correct? Yeah, that as I explained in the in the question uh document there, there is a trigger clause. We talked about this last in May as well. Um as of uh as of the time of writing of that uh I don't believe that there is still an adopted uh budget by the legislature. So we don't know. Uh as I shared um in May, it remains a legislative priority. The the governor has said that it's not

064one of his top priorities at this time. Um, and as we've shared previously, uh, staff has continued to work as though, you know, uh, as though we would assume that that is in place because it currently sits in ED code as a requirement. And so, uh, we felt like it would be prudent to continue down that course. Followup, Trusty Boy, thank you for that and thank you for your presentation, Dr. Rocket, tonight. Um I asked this question earlier uh on a phone call and I don't see it within the um additional item. So I just wanted to make sure that we hear this the funding for the implementation for this particular elective course at Sage Creek. Uh we do we have money for the for the creation of this course and my understanding from our

065conversation is that there are no further costs in terms of having it as an elective and being part of our master scheduling. Is that correct? That's correct. We we did, as I've shared previously, we received uh about just under $100,000 uh in uh ethnic studies grant funding from the state that was provided to districts to help uh with the development of courses. Um as far as as far as offering a section of a an elective course, there is no specific cost associated with that. I have another followup to that, Jesse. What? And that money has to be used with the intention for that um ethnic studies course or can we use it for other things? No, that's correct. It's restricted dollars specifically for ethnic studies course development. Thank you very much. Other questions? Is this

066a new one? Question. Okay. Very good. Thank you. So to follow up on trustee Ward's um questions. So assigning a teacher is within those funds, those those dollars that were used to create the course or is that a different um fund? That's a good question. Assigning a teacher is within the allocation to the school site. So the school site gets an allocation based on the ratio uh you know the ratio and their total number of students and um and how those sections then or teacher sections within that get allocated is driven by uh student demand and master schedule needs etc. So um you know students that take one elective over another just like they would in any in any normal year. uh a section may be allocated here or there but it's the same number

067of se no new section is being created in order to accommodate ethnic studies at sage creek trusty one and uh this was part of our conversation earlier too Dr. and I don't see it in the notes. Um, and there was demand for the course, correct? And it it my recollection is you had over 50 students that wanted the class or around I believe it was 45 originally. And as I shared Yeah, as I shared last month, uh, the staff uh, at Chage Creek shared they needed to pair that down as happens with any class. And so, um, they they were able to pair that down. I think there's 36 currently um, uh, slated uh, for that class. um should it be a go? Okay. And that's because you only have one course available. Understood. Thank

068you. And I have a followup to that. Um for those students, as we discussed in May, were they referred to at least uh Mar Costa potentially dual enrollment? Yeah, we we have not uh followed up on that question in terms of working with those students. Uh I can certainly work with uh staff and Dr. Wei is uh here with us this evening. Um, so we can work with uh with the counselors to uh reach out to those students that might have gotten bumped. Again, I I believe in my conversation with staff at Sage Creek, the intent was to uh pull uh uh ninth graders out of that course uh who would presumably have an opportunity in the future uh should they choose to take that as an elected in the future. Other questions? Just AB

069101 has no definition for ethnic studies, so there's no legal requirement. correct that we teach anything in the um ethnic studies model curriculum since it's all optional. Is that correct? So as I I referred to uh in the document there there is discussion of of ethnic studies uh definition if you will and content in both the history social science frameworks for California um as well as the ethnic studies model curriculum. part of AB or or or in unison with AB 101 um came the development of the model curriculum um which gives us guidance and and as I've shared previously um it is the starting point for staff uh when working on developing new courses are the frameworks and standards that are adopted by the state of California. Are there other questions? I have a question.

070Go ahead. Um on slide four, I'll go back to it because I wasn't real clear on the answers. So, I understand that um the the terminology has been corrected in the summary and the course um overview, but I'm not seeing that it has been corrected in the description. So, will that be corrected? If if you squint uh you can actually see it in the uh in the screen grab there. Oh, but that's the overview and then So, is the overview different than the course description? Sorry. No, it's it's the same. And and yes, I apologize. a student is looking to see what am I signing up for and they're showing their parents, they're going to see the overview piece. That That's correct. And and you bring up a good point. I do, now that you

071mentioned that, we'll need to work with the sites as well, just to double check. I think I shared previously the course descriptions that were in the course cataloges. Um, but we will go back and ensure that there's alignment with those course descriptions, too. Not sure if they specifically call out um the the different uh disciplines of ethnic studies, but we'll ensure that they're aligned if need be. Thank you. Thank you for being responsive to the request. Other questions, Trusty Rebecc? Um it's a question. Is it in exhibit Z? Is it in exhibit C? I don't know. Okay. Um there's no board policy or ed code, right, which allows the district to offer course without obtaining approval of all the instructional materials prior to the course. I'm going to call the question out of order. Um

072we've already had it in exhibit C. Could you could you just answer the question, please? Um I've called it out of order. Um are there other questions? Yep. I have more. Okay. And it's not in exhibit C. Correct. Thank you. You stated that the course does not teach critical race theory or liberated ethnic studies, but you also I'm going to call that one out of order as well. That's Kathy. I'm going to speak and you need to speak. You've been called out of order. You've been called out of order. I'm not going to stop talking. You are called out of order. You are called out of order. I'm out of order. And I will ask my question. I can ask whatever question I want. The chair has called you out of order. Are there other

073questions? You stated that the course does not teach critical race theory or liberated out of order, but you also couldn't give me a definition for either. So, how this is a new question. Thank you. So, how can you That's CRT. How can you state called out of order? I will not be interrupted. But you are called out of order. And that's what Robert This is a new question. Here's Robert. This is a new question. Why are you Because I can read your question in exhibit C. No, it's the same question. How can you How can the staff state that CRT and ELEES, liberated ethnic studies, are not taught if you do not have the definitions? That is a new question, Kathy. Thank you very much. It's in exhibit C. Staff, please do not answer that

074question. She's been called out of order. If you have a a question that is not exhibit question that is not I I can read you the answer. You cannot stop me. We want to hear the answer and the public has a right to it's in exhibit C is the answer. I will read the answer to you then. Thank you. Appreciate it. And if you want the answer If you have a new if anyone has a new question please ask the question how can you state tell me the question is there how can you state that CRT and liberated ethnic studies are not taught if you don't have the definitions that's a new question Kathy it's in here I saw it well read it to us I will if you have another question that's new um

075please go ahead and I will find it to for you. I promise. Are there any other new questions? I have exhibit C. At our May meeting, you said that the course doesn't promote activism, but unit 4 is titled access and activism and assigns students to engage in a mock town hall. Can you explain why you don't believe this lesson, which is promoting activism, does not promote activism? Could you repeat that one more time? I apologize. At our May meeting, you said that the course doesn't promote activism, but unit four is titled access and activism and assign students to engage in mock town halls. Can you explain why you don't believe this lesson, which is promoting activism, does not promote activism. I I don't recall uh I don't recall saying at the May meeting that that

076we weren't that that the course doesn't promote activism. Obviously, the the the lesson that you're the unit that you're referencing was in the was in the course outline at that time as well. Um I think that uh I I do recall some conversation whether it was at the meeting or in follow-up questions with trustees with regard to um students and the various points of access that they might have to exploring the ways in which um they can be um agents and and participants within their community. Um and so for from that standpoint, uh the the intent of that unit isn't to uh isn't to um it's to understand various activist and civil rights movements. Um, it is also to get students to think about the tools that they might uh employ to uh to uh

077uh speak out to uh to promote change uh to come to a board meeting and and speak their uh their opinions on on various topics that are relevant to them. Um I I the the intent is not to uh send students out per se into the community as activists, but rather to help them to understand the tools for civic engagement uh and the ways in which change can be brought about. And as I as I think I shared in in response to one of the questions and also critique those those types of movements for change, what what uh strategies uh may be effective, what what may not be um as they think about ways to be active participants in in their communities. Question six is a six-part question and the answer was neither the working

078group nor IS staff have invested time in developing or identifying a definition of critical race theory. Staff believes that the two documents mentioned above from AXA and CSB are useful resources for addressing questions about critical race theory as it relates to K12 education and the teaching of ethnic studies. As has been shared, the district team focused on developing a course that is aligned to the state adopted curriculum. It is the recommendation of staff that any new or existing course be aligned to the state adopted standards and curriculum framework for the subject as is required by board policy 6141. The district's curriculum shall be aligned with the district's vision and goals for student learning. Board policies, academic content, standards, state curriculum frameworks, state and district assessments, graduation requirements, school and district improvement plans and when necessary

079related legal requirements. This is the approach that has that was used with the development of the ethnic studies course currently under consideration. Thank you that that didn't answer my question. Then so state how can you state that CRT and liberated ethnic studies are not taught if you don't have definitions? I don't see the answer listed. Kathy at Trusty Rawlings. I I don't believe at this time we have anything to add beyond the what was shared in question six there and what trustee Rawlings just read in terms of the alignment to the state adopted curriculum. Other questions? Okay, let's move on to discussion. Oh, I'm sorry. I apologize. May I have a motion to approve the course description for ethnic studies exhibit A? Motion. Second. I have a motion from Trusty Ward, second from Trustee Emory.

080Is there any discussion? Yes. Yes. Trusty Ward, go ahead. So, I um will be voting I am voting yes for this and I just want you to bear with me because we received a lot of emails regarding this topic and a lot of those emails were from students from graduates of Carlsbad Unified School District. So if you are um an administrator in the room or a teacher, you should be very proud. Um they shared some great research, peer-reviewed research resources. Uh they did a really great job. So I just want to encapsulate um some of the things that they shared in my response to my my yes vote. So tonight, I am voting yes in support of ethnic studies because I believe our students deserve an education that equips them with the tools to think

081critically, engage empathetically, and understand the diverse histories that shape our society. Ethnic studies is not about blame. It is about historical literacy, about understanding how systems, even without malicious intent, have often failed to adequately support all people. Acknowledging that certain groups have historically held disproportionate power is not an accusation but a recognition of context. When we teach students about these dynamics, we help them see how exclusion can operate and consciously and how to be more inclusive in the future. Not opinion pieces, but actual peer-reviewed research has shown the benefits of ethnic studies and similar courses, especially for those student populations that face more challenges in school. History can be uncomfortable. When we are honest about both the struggles and the resilience that define our shared history, we create the conditions for real progress and human

082connection. This course is about understanding, not guilt. It's about developing compassion, not division. And it's about preparing students to navigate diverse and complex world and a complex world with insight, empathy, and courage. And for those reasons, I will be supporting this um elective for ethnic studies. And I just want to share that those are words from the students and their emails. Thank you. Thank you. Other discussion trusty. Thank you, Dr. Brockett and your team. U the work group and the advisory committee which I also was on for all the hard work that has been done. This is hard work. Um, we have had meetings. We have discussed. We've listened. We've gone back and forth. We've received a ton of emails. Um, bear with me as I read. This is not mandated. This is not funded.

083We do not know if it will ever be funded. Teaching this elective is not required. So, I just want to say that first. We have very little interest from our incoming ninth graders. only one from Carlsbad and about 40 45 from Sage. The Film Academy ethnic studies course was a flop. Several students dropped it. Not enough interest was provided to offer it a second time. Allocating limited resources to an unfunded mandate jeopardizes core academic programs and essential student services. Across California, districts are embroiled in litigation over the uh implementation of ethnic studies. Def defending these lawsuits uh could divert hundreds of thousand of dollars from classrooms and extracurricular activities. Um the academic benefit claims are un unsubstantiated. The research cited to support ethnic studies has faced rigorous critique and has many flaws and unreliable conclusions.

084We need to demand highquality peer-reviewed evidence of genuine academic impact. We have a divided community on ethnic studies. No one is saying we don't want to have multi-ultural historical discussions. No one is saying we want to shelter our children from knowing what happened in history around the world and in our own country. No one is saying we don't want to press pause to have open discussions about difficult events like the Holocaust, Japanese internment camp, slavery, even the challenges between Israel and Palestine. No one is saying that our students are not capable of critical thinking. Teachers are to teach both sides of a conversation and let the students have open discussions without feeling like like they cannot express themselves. Teachers are to teach how to think, not what to think. Full transparency on lessons and content

085being used by teachers is always the best avenue to help schools partner with parents in education. Just because this is a public education doesn't mean that parents don't have their right to be the parent first. Parents want to join in these conversations and want to be part of these conversations in their homes with their children, especially with brand new students to high school. If parents don't know the content in the supplemental material because the staff says the district does not have to provide it, then how are parents supposed to be able to know what is being covered in the class even if the district claims that it must meet educational standards? What is there to hide? Why should a teacher feel threatened if they share the supplemental material? If there is no instructional material like

086a textbook, then the supplemental material is technically the instructional material. We need to stop playing the game of semantics and hide behind hiding behind ED code. If staff claims they don't have a definition of liberated ethnic studies, then how do you know if you're teaching it? If it it takes a short minute to figure out what the definition of liberated ethnic studies is and it takes another short minute to see that elements of liberated ethnic studies are still within the California ES curriculum. There is a legal proven alternative rather than creating a controversial costly elective course which is not mandated nor funded and takes up a full year rather than a semester which is valuable time our students need for essential learning. Our board can focus on ensuring compliance with the fair act by auditing

087and enhancing already existing English and social studies classes offered at our high schools. This promotes inclusivity, unbiased instruction with additional expenses or exposure to litigation. It serves all our students within our current budget. I cannot vote for the ethnic studies elective as it stands. My vote is no. Thank you. Other discussion. Trusty Cos. I very much appreciated the public comments of Katrina Widick at the May 21st board meeting. She spoke about preparing her students for the AP language and composition test by sharing them an article about the marginalized indigenous people of New Zealand, the Mauy. And at last week's board meeting, Rachel Marino A, our teachers union president, shared her experiences teaching Hamlet in AP literature, explaining that she begins with presenting a foundational outline of Catholicism as a framework for understanding how Hamlet's religious

088beliefs impact how he thinks and acts. These are both examples of what almost anyone would agree are excellent opportunities to challenge students to look beyond their Carl'sbad bubble and gain greater understanding and empathy for others with different backgrounds or perspectives. And I might add, I think I would enjoy both of those classes very much. Um, expressing concerns that the public has shared with me is not the same thing as not supporting ethnic studies. I do not advocate a whitewashed view of history to be taught in our schools, nor would I seek to downplay the generational trauma endured by groups who have suffered injustice. I may be white, but my family is not. Ethnic studies should not be limited to a study of US history. The full picture is a global one, a human study of

089how hate, fear, and greed fuel division that allows people to draw lines and differentiate one from another instead of seeing each other as equals. All people have biases and perspectives formed by my raid experiences, including certain high school teachers who have consistently attacked me. Once they labeled me, they stopped seeing me as an individual. And me pointing that out is not white fragility. I'm just pointing out that's what the hate that we say there is no place for here in Carlsbad. My husband and myself are both first generation United States citizens. All four of my children's grandparents came here from across the globe. While many Carl'sbad kids have vacationed in Maui or Cancun, mine have not. They have however been to the Tamaki Maui village in the native Tawa forest of Rooua, New Zealand. Ethnic

090studies has always been important to me in my family. My children know why their grandparents worked so hard to gain citizenship in this country and they understand the rights and responsibilities that they have as its citizens. Dr. Brockett did give a very clear cohesive statement regarding the goals that ethnic studies has here in his presentation and he very clearly stated that ethnic studies should be building a sense of community and understanding of one another and foster mutual respect and he stated that we're going to be asking our teachers to attend to that but I think that the current proposed curriculum is not ready the staff is not ready. I would love to see these concepts included in English language arts as some of you are already doing in social studies classes. I would love to

091see us continue to develop a future ethnic studies curriculum. I just don't feel that the program that we're currently presented with is ready and there are too many voices that are pleading with us not to move forward. So, I have to vote no. Thank you. Are there any other discussion? Um I do. Um I want to say I do want to say thank you to the staff. I know that um we've uh you've been getting input and uh listening to folks for quite a long time on this topic. And um I I want to say that um AG Grover um really represented what I believe is important in uh with ethnic studies is our first and foremost is we need to be preparing our students for life after high school. And in almost every college

092that I looked at, ethnic studies is a requirement. And 50% of our students go to Mira Costa or Palomar. And there is a required ethnic studies course just like there is when uh there's algebra 2 is required. We we have students take algebra 2 in high school and then they are required to take similar or accelerated math courses in college as well. So what we're doing by this course is preparing these students that you know will be going to these colleges uh in order to take this class and be successful not only in college but in life. And because it's an elective, I think the the nice thing that I I do believe is there is that we have the opportunity to um to make tweaks and to make um uh all you know alterations

093as you said trustee as far as you know if we see things are working or not working or there's problems that I do think that um we have an opportunity as we move forward and potentially depending upon what the state does expand the program as a requirement. So I think it's an advantage to our district. I think it's an advantage to our students that are that have volunteered that want to take this course and um I at least what I know I had to sign off on my son's um uh course uh requests um all through high school. So I'm assuming parents will have knowledge of what you know what they're signing for. So, I will be voting yes and I do believe that um that our students will benefit and I think that that's

094our first and foremost role. And uh Trusty Seos, I do share your um I've been receiving lots of uh hateful emails as well and hateful comments uh towards me as well. So, I I share your concern about that and I hope we can bring the temperature down for all of us. So, thank you. and Trusty Ward, I just want to say uh Trustee COC, I really appreciate what you shared tonight. And um that brings a lot of meaning to what we're doing here. And so, thank you for making yourself vulnerable and sharing about your family. I really do appreciate that a lot. Um, and I know that we are hearing from a lot of people and it's because, you know, our community cares. They really do care about our students and they care about what's

095going on and and I know you hear that because that was one of your last statements that you wanted to um, you know, that you are voting no because of all that you were hearing. I I'm wondering though what what is you're saying that we're not ready. Um and the course is not ready. Um we have excellent teachers here in Carlsbad Unifi. They're very good at what they do and um I I I have two incredible kids that actually went through um our school system here and are very successful. And that is because um I would like to take all of the credit, but I can't because it really is because of the teachers and staff and the administration here in this awesome district. And I believe that they they will work very hard to

096ensure that um our students get what they need with this with this course. And I believe that and I know you believe that because you have students in this district as well. So and have I think you have graduates as well, right? Well, so I guess my question is not so much dependent upon your view of no because of the emails that are coming in, but you mentioned that we're not ready. What is it that we are not ready? What what is it about the course that's not ready? What what is it about the teachers not being ready that is concerning you? Thank you. try to keep track of mental notes there. I have you beat I have three graduates from Carlsbad. Um, and they're great kids, too. So, yes, fully. I wouldn't be in

097this seat if I didn't think this district was amazing and we have amazing teachers and that's why we all want our kids to be here. That's not the question. I have shared some experiences specifically with teachers who have taken issue with me personally bringing to the board questions that have been brought to us all of us as trustees. We all receive the same emails largely largely and so and I'm bringing these questions and I was attacked uh for bringing these questions. I was um ridiculed and um we don't need to go into that here but those reactions were um not ones of open-minded wanting to hear different perspectives kind of things. So to me like yeah the fact that so many people came at me and saying I don't want to hear the hard stories.

098You have no context for that. You don't that's not at all who I am. I want to tell the hard stories. I've gone to great lengths to teach my children the hard stories and I've taken them to places in the world where our families, many of our families have left to come here. I want to make sure that this is not a dialogue about just the United States. These issues are all intersecting globally over generations and generations and generations. So I think maybe we're missing things when we focus too much on the US and and so we've kind of grazed the surface of some of these conversations. I just think there's more that's needed there and I understand it is a uh elective at this point. My concern having had a child that did already

099the pilot with the film studies course, whatever we establish is going to be the foundation when we do make it a required course. And so it it behooves us to put a lot of thought into making sure that we're doing it and and not be minimizing voices and just saying that we don't want to talk about things that make us uncomfortable. That is so condescending to say when you have no idea what my family has endured, what I've endured. Many, many of our families have endured a lot. Of course, and and I'm sorry if you felt attacked or were attacked. I I don't think that was I don't think that's the intention of teachers uh with this course to attack any one particular person. I really do believe that they are going to do a

100fabulous job of making sure that everybody in the course, taking the course is going to feel safe and and um learn a lot and learn well about um the people in their class, the people around this community and this world. And I honestly believe that will happen. And I believe that because I trust them. and if I didn't trust them, my kids wouldn't have went to school here from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade. So, um I I think what you're asking, trustee COC, I honestly believe that will that will happen and I I appreciate that that is what is truly in your heart because I think um what you're saying is something that we will see in this elective course. And I wish you would change your mind and vote yes because I

101think it will be um a positive um experience for students moving forward. And and it will also help us as you said build a really strong foundation when when this is um mandatory by the state of California. Trusty Casa, did you have something to say? I just wanted to respond to that that I wish the dialogue regarding this coursework had been this tone this entire time because there has been so much anger and betrol and hatred which is completely undermining what we are trying to accomplish with ethnic studies and we need to do better and be better just to kind of pick it back on to that that point there and I will be quoting this for this studies program. I think you made some really valid points that this is a tough topic. Um

102you know this is not um as a teacher I don't think anyone would continue on with a lesson or with a curriculum that's not you know we're constantly adjusting um our teachers are constantly modifying um and you're right there is so much more to cover the is the first step. I think we're here at that first step um and taking uh an action and you know nothing's perfect. Never any lesson is ever perfect but what's most important is that first step and having that opportunity to move forward. So I hope that we hear you. I hope that we also hear from our chairs and everything moving forward. You know what else we can do to refine um because I don't think it should be a stagnant. I think it does need to be um outline

103and continue. Thank you. Any other discussion? Miss Garcia, please call for a vote. Trusty Ciosce. Regret Pine. No. Trusty Emory. Yes. Trusty Verbette. No. Trusty Ward, yes. Trusty Rawlings, yes. Motion passes three to two. Thank you. We now we now move on to let's not clap please. Um I will be doing that. Uh thank you. And we now move on to my favorite uh agenda item of the year. Uh 7.2 uh 2425 goals and success indicators summary of progress. Sorry. and trustees. This is a information discussion item. I will now hand it over to Dr. N. Thank you, President Rawlings. Trustees, uh staff's pleased to present our annual summary of progress presentation. This is an information discussion item. As you mentioned, we're happy to be joined by our fantastic principles along with members from the

104instructional services team and we are going to highlight some of the accomplishments of the year. Um, just as a point of reference for tonight, we're going to be reporting on the 2024 25 success indicators. We're going to highlight student outcomes that represent progress for the year. And then you're going to hear from again our principles which will talk a lot about stories from the field, things that they've accomplished this year and milestone achievements as well as discuss plans for moving forward into next year. Just to give you a quick update on a running scorecard of all our all of our goals and success indicators in goal area number one, we've currently met four out of the six targets with seven of those targets still to be determined. As you know, we're still waiting on uh

105CAST scores. Those are the state testing scores that we don't have information on. As well as some information regarding AG, we we don't have that yet with our graduates. In the area goal number two, we're pleased to uh report that we've met five out of the five targets there and five out of the six targets in goal area number three. So, uh, we have three overarching goals in our district and it's part of our continuous improvement cycle. Uh, inside or embedded in those goals are what we call our success indicators and those are criteria on whether or not we're meeting those goals annually. I've listed those out here. Uh, as I mentioned before, there are six in this particular area, but there are multiple measures in each one of these um that we measure success

106for. Not going to go through them just to say that these are overarching success indicators. In regards to what we've met and what we haven't met, you'll see on the far right that'll indicate whether or not we've met a particular target or not. Uh we met our targets as they relate to our universal screener. Uh that's our proficiency levels for English language arts math as well as our math uh MDTP targets. We did not meet our higher typical growth car targets in um ELA or math on the universal screen or however we grew. We just didn't meet the uh targeted percentage that was set out by the board. And then you'll see there that we've al also been able to capture our graduates having taken at least one honors community college or AP course. And

107for the last year's graduating class, we were at 84%. So, we met that goal as well. But in this goal area, you'll see that many are TBD and we'll be reporting in September all of our unreported data as part of our continuous improvement cycle. But, um, the data that we're looking at right now is really good, the preliminary ESPback data. Uh I've shown this slide many times but we have um our star renaissance screener which is our universal screener that we give to all students basically in grades two through eight and then uh ELA at the high school and then we switch to the MDTP uh for math. Uh we give that assessment three times a year and um you'll see that we traditionally do a fall and a winter and a spring session. There's

108two different type of reports that we get out of those assessments. One is a proficiency assessment. So that I've given the analogy before that every student, if you're a high jumper, every student has to jump over that bar of seven feet. That's an example of a proficiency that every student would have to meet. Um our state testing are exactly like that. So they're proficiency levels that students have to meet at grade three, grade four. um so their proficiency and their cut scores. We also measure that student growth percentile. This is another report that we get um from STAR and that typically uh rates whether or not we have high growth, typical growth or low growth throughout the course of the year. And principles are looking at both of those things as we give those screeners

109throughout the year to measure and and figure out where we have gaps and where students need intervention. So really quickly, this is a proficiency rate at elementary, middle school, and high school. You'll see there as a district in ELA, we grew 2.7% and you'll see it broken down by grades span. Similarly, in math, you'll see uh that we grew 2.6% um broken down by grades span. You'll notice that high school is not on there because we shifted uh this last year to the MDTP and all of our high school classes. I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Brockett who'll talk a little bit about uh the MDTP implementation at the high school level and what we're presenting here today. Uh good evening. So, uh on the MDTP data, obviously this slide looks a little

110different because we're capturing uh different data in a different way. Um I I do want to highlight uh the fact and we shared this uh in part at our uh our midyear uh progress report. We saw growth in all of those courses and I shared at that time some of the feedback from uh our teachers regarding really the value that they saw and this is is part of why we moved to the MDTP and really giving them that course specific data that helped them to grow. So when we took the fall baseline to the winter uh administration, we saw growth in all of these uh all of these content areas. The the third component uh of the MDTP is the readiness for the next level course. Um that information we we've as we've talked through

111how to really capture this data in a meaningful way. One, like I said, it's it's meaningful for the teachers because they can apply this in their classroom. We also want to be able to share that information in a meaningful way. And what we'd like to see over time, and we don't have that obviously now, is is are students more prepared for those next levels as they move forward. So that's really more of a longitudinal question. I think that's the conversation we've had at this point about how to really best capture that third assessment. So, as opposed to the star where we capture the fall uh spring, here we're capturing what we call fall and then winter spring uh depending on whether they're uh which high school they're at. Uh because that that that that second

112assessment may take place at a different point in time to look at the growth within the content area. And then we'll in the future come back and and find a a meaningful way to capture the data with regard to that readiness as well. Um when we look at our subgroup performance now moving back to star um we saw growth uh in in most but not all areas um we saw our socioeconomically disadvantaged students with their proficiency rate uh that Dr. Nye referred to actually drop off a little bit. So we'll need to uh to get at that and and uh find out where we're seeing a disconnect in that piece. Uh further in the in the math uh we saw a similar trend uh interestingly. So we saw growth in uh English learners, we saw

113growth in our students with disabilities and we saw a slight uh drop off with our socioeconomically disadvantaged students. As we moved into uh ethnic breakdowns uh among groups, we saw growth uh across uh our ethnic groups that we uh monitor here uh both in the ELA uh and then uh with one exception uh in the uh in the uh math performance as well. Um this is a a small our American Indian Alaskan native subgroup is a small uh subgroup. Uh I believe if my math is correct that rep that drop represents one student. Um so that's a that's a pro that's getting at an issue with like digging deep with one student and finding out um what that shift was uh over time. So that's something we can certainly uh we can capture and move

114forward with. But we saw growth uh with our other subgroups across the board. All right, at this time we're going to turn over to our principles. And I think kicking us off is Principal Geritch from Hope Elementary School. Good evening board members, uh, Dr. Norman and cabinet. Uh, I'm Andrew Gurgich. I'm the proud principal at Hope Elementary. Uh, tonight I'm pleased to share an update at Hope Elementary's progress towards school 1A, uh, which was, uh, increasing students meeting or exceeding grade level standards in math and ELA as measured by the district star assessment, which was a 2% increase from fall to spring. Um, Hope Elementary was able to hit these targets. Um how we did it this year uh we launched the school year with two non two instructional non-negotiables to ensure deeper focus on

115student learning. The first was 75 minutes daily of math instruction and the other was uh at least 50 minutes of uh daily small groupoup reading instruction. Our dedicated staff embraced this focus and aligned their schedules across grade levels. This alignment allowed our learning center students to access needed supports without missing core instruction, creating a more inclusive and equitable learning environment. We extended math instructional time to provide space for students to engage, explore, and persevere through math concepts they are learning. To support stronger instruction, our professional learning emphasized vertical learning and math talks, allowing students to share thinking through collaborations on white through collaboration through collaboration on whiteboards, windows, doors, or any writable surface. This helped shift the role of the teacher from deliverer to facilitator, increasing student agency and ownership of their learning. These practices

116not only elevated math achievement, but also transferred was transferred into reading and writing by the teachers and having them use vertical learning that as well and collaboration in small groupoup reading instruction. It was driven by students needs with a focus on comprehension, decoding, and critical thinking. A key driver to this work was our MTSS teacher who partnered with staff by modeling lessons, supporting data analysis, and helping plan differentiating instruction. To make the collaboration possible, we aligned our special schedules to provide each grade level three hours of common planning time weekly to include two 45minute blocks and one 90minute session. This time was used for data-driven planning and targeted dis discussions on instruction and student needs. To ensure our instruction was responsive, we utilized regularly regularly updated data sheets drawing from STAR, Achieve 3000, Benchmark, Go

117Math, and more. These tools allowed us to identify students in need of classroombased interventions or additional supports, monitor progress of students, and launch a formal intervention program uh beginning in January. The K12 inter K5 intervention program uh we ran at our school site ran three days per week from January through April providing 45 minute targeted sessions in either ELA or math per grade level. Students progress was monitored on a three-week cycle and each grade level developed a watch list to guide ongoing MTSS conversations. We held monthly MTSS meetings for every grade level with participation from our MTSS teacher, school psychologist, learning center teachers, counselor and myself. These meetings were followed by deeper team discussions to review student data and provide further support. Additionally, each grade level was given an opportunity to visit another school to

118observe effective practices ranging from UDL implementation to small groupoup instruction, writing instruction, and full day kindergarten models. These visits inspired reflective planning sessions and will continue next year as part of our professional growth cycle. As a result of this comp comprehensive and collaborative work, our ELA proficiency increased by 12%. Our math proficiency increased by 4% and achieved data for college and career ready moved from 36 36.3% to 75.3%. This growth represents only the beginning and not the end of our work. Our team remains committed to continuous learning, monitoring, and collaboration to ensure a greater student success next year. Thank you so much for your time and continued support. Thank you. And next up, Dr. Wei from Sage Creek High School. Good evening. I'm uh Josh Wei, the proud principal of Sage Creek High School. Uh

119thank you to the trustees for supporting our students this year. And Dr. Norman, welcome to CUSD. I look forward uh to working with you tonight. Uh I'm going to present on success indicator 1.6, which is increasing the percentage of high school students enrolled in at least one advanced course uh by one percentage point from the prior year. I'm going to focus on one of our schoolwide goals, which is increasing the percentage of students who enrolled in at least one AP class. Now, there's two foundational beliefs that that supported by research that guide us on this work. Number one is that high performing systems proactively support students to have access to accelerated and advanced learning experiences. Um and while we've traditionally done that historically uh we know that not all students have been represented uh in

120these accelerated offerings nationwide there's a disproportionate repres representation of various students groups um including race language and soio economic living circumstances just to name a few so that was a goal of ours um representation given these two elements we set out on multiple initiatives uh to increase the percentage of students enrolled in AP courses and to foster a more proportional representation of traditionally underrepresented student groups including at Sage Creek are black students Hispanic and soio economically disadvantaged. Uh the first strategy was to seek a better understanding of the student perspective in enrolling in AP. In the spring of uh 2024, one of our staff members hosted a focus group for senior students and their parents who took their first AP class as seniors AP government. And what we wanted to know was what prompted them

121uh to take an AP class for the first time at this point in their career and why hadn't they previously taken one. And uh there were a lot of different reasons, some of which the top three are up there on the slide, but but at the end of the day, what we learned is it was that teacher student relationship. Um they actually the number one reason was they actually had a teacher or a staff member recommend, hey, you should take an AP course. You're ready to do that. You should give that a try. So that was a big aha for our staff. Uh the second strategy was we incorporated a summer bridge program for firsttime AP test or AP class takers. Uh it's a oneweek summer course led by a teacher. They learn important study

122skills. They build community. to get to know the teachers and the procedures of the class, the expectations. This really began with our AVID program and our students who are taking AP psychology for the first time. And now we've expanded to include our AP world history in 10th grade, which is the first year that students can take an AP course at Sage Creek. Um, and the results are in. Uh, this past year we we uh we saw a 7% increase and students in the percentage of students taking at least one AP course in 20 2024 and 2025. um next year looking ahead at 2526 we already have a a 2% increase in students enrolled in AP courses for next year um that's partly because we're offering we're offering AP seminar to our 10th grade um as

123well. So in regards to in regards to proportional representation um uh in 2025 the percentage of black students and social economic disadvantaged students enrolled in AP courses at Sage Creek was proportional to their enrollment in our school. So for example, our black students represent 3% of our population and they also represent 3% of students enrolled in AP. Uh and and same with soio economic disadvantage. Uh however, it's disproportionate for our Hispanic students where they represented 17% of students in AP and 20% of the overall population. So again, still work to do. Uh an area of growth for us was the gap in students who complete the AP course but do not take the AP test. This was an aha for us. Um this past year in 2025, we had approximately 40 students who finished the

124course but didn't take the test. Um and that definitely had an impact on our the the demographic representation of students who actually took the test. And so we want to look into why didn't they take the test? What are some of the barriers that exist that we can uh that we can look to address. So uh we're excited for those outcomes and excited to see those programs continue to grow. So thank you again for your support. Thank you. Next up, Principal Rosider from Cali Elementary. Good evening, board. Uh, Dr. Norman, cabinet. I'm Ashley Rossier, the current principal at Kelly Elementary. I will be reporting on goal one, specifically discussing our MTSS practices at Kelly. Our team this year worked throughout the year to refine and strengthen our MTSS process, really focusing on making it more

125proactive and systematic. A shift this year was not just focusing on students with learning gaps, but really investing in tier one instruction to ensure our core practices are strong and equitable. To accomplish this, we created opportunities for staff to observe successful MTSS implementation and strong tier one practices elsewhere, bringing back actionable ideas to strengthen our own work. As a team, we met regularly with with teachers to review data, celebrate student growth, and design next steps based on real time student needs. Our improved MTSS system allowed us to quickly flag students who needed additional support and tailor interventions more effectively. Additionally, our MTSS teacher modeled small groupoup strategies, helping classroom teachers feel confident using them in their classrooms, reinforcing strong tier one instruction as a daily practice and keeping kids in the classroom. Of note, our

126MTSS teacher worked with second grade to model and support the use of the Sundai system for struggling readers in small group instruction, and she will also be modeling this in other grade levels next year. These practices helped our students identified for intervention make incredible growth. Notably, 78% of our students identified on the intervention watch list increase star reading scores from fall to spring. Of those, 16% move from level one in fall to level three in spring and 33% move from level one in fall to level two in spring. This shows that while they did not meet the grade level expectations, they did make growth and progress. In Star Math, 92% of our intervention students increase scores from fall to spring. And of these students, 11% move from level one in fall to level four in

127spring. 11% move from level one in fall to level three in spring. And 56% move from level one in fall to level two in spring. In achieve, our students on the intervention watch list made great growth, averaging 208 points of Lexile growth in second grade, 97 points of growth in third grade, 73 points of growth in fourth grade, and 410 points of growth in fifth grade. Additionally, uh we're very proud that we had nine multilingual learners reclassify this year, four of which were fifth graders. We are very proud of the work that we've done over the course of the year to systematically improve our tier one instruction and our MTSS processes. And we thank the board for recognizing the importance of this work and for funding these teachers for an additional year. All right, next

128up, Principal Cobb from Jefferson Elementary. Good evening, trustees, and welcome, Dr. Norman. I'm excited to work with you as well, and I will not miss an opportunity to also call myself a proud principal um but at Jefferson. Um, so this evening I'm going to talk about goal one and we're going to talk specifically about our multilingual learner subgroup. So as part of our ongoing work to increase student achievement, our teams of teachers, our MTSS teacher and our IB coordinator continued to place focus on improving our tier one instruction. As part of this work, we monitored our subgroup data to ensure we were making progress in closing that achievement gap. Our multilingual learners were at the forefront of our plan for student achievement. This year, we introduced a new strategy to support our multilingual learners. Our

129student-led multilingual learner goal setting conferences were a key strategy to elevate student agency, self- advocacy, and teacher responsiveness with the support of their teachers. These one-on-one conferences empowered students to create personal goals in oral language, reading, and writing while also identifying the types of support that they needed from their teachers. Our goal was to move beyond compliance-driven interventions and into a student- centered model where learners are not just the recipients of support but drivers of their own learning journey. At the same time, we reinforced a foundational belief that tier one instruction is the gateway to equity and our multilingual learners deserve full access to rigorous and responsive classroom instruction every day. This initiative also emphasized teacher agency, helping educators see data not as a mandate but as a tool for reflection and action. By centering

130student voice and teacher insight, we are creating a culture of shared responsibility and responsive instruction. We are proud of the growth our multilingual learners showed on the star reading and achieve 3000 scores which you can see in the slide. And we're also pleased with our increased reclassification rate this year. Um, the four students named on this slide are just a small sample of how goal setting and taking ownership of learning can improve student achievement. Our community is cultivating a mindset that being a multil multilingual learner is a superpower. We share with them these words. Every language you speak opens doors to new ideas, perspectives, and connections. Together, we're unlocking the power of your voice, honoring your journey, and building skills that amplify your strengths. Thank you for your continued support. All right, next up, Principal

131Gardani from Buav Vista Elementary. Good evening. Um, I'm Margie Gerardani, proud principal at Buav Vista Elementary and honored to be here truly. Um, I'm excited to share the incredible progress and innovation in science at Buenav Vista this year. First, uh, Buav Vista truly rocked science. We continued implementing Carolina's building blocks of science. Uh for year two, giving all students hands-on inquirybased instruction aligned to the next generation science standards. Students explored course concepts through investigations and interactive activities that brought science to life in the classroom. A major support to our teachers was our science toa Ashley Crawford. Miss Crawford modeled best practices with demonstration lessons. These lessons emphasize the three-dimensional learning and student centered inquiry, helping both teachers and students dive deeper into the science content. We extended science beyond the textbook with our hands-on science

132day where students rotated through exciting grade level aligned activities designed to spark curiosity and engagement. To deepen real world connections, students participated in steam lab experiences. although our steam lab won't be installed until fall of next year. Um, from coding and robotics to engineering challenges that stretch their creativity and problem solving skills. Field trips tied to life, earth, and physical sciences, enriching learning further, reinforcing concepts in memorable ways. These enhancements were made possible thanks to the generous support from the Carl'sbed Foundation and also our dedicated BVPTA. Throughout the year, we focused on fostering curiosity, critical thinking, and collaboration. Students were encouraged to ask big questions, test ideas, and use the engineering design process to develop creative solutions, skills that are essential beyond the science classroom. In short, science at BV this year has been dynamic,

133engaging, and deeply meaningful. Our students not only gained knowledge, they built confidence, creativity, and a true love for learning. Thank you for your continued support. All right, next up, Principal Redfield, Carl'sbad High. Thank you. And I am the proudest principal of Carl'sbad High School. And thank you and uh welcome and thank you trustees and Dr. Norman. Welcome. I'm looking forward to working alongside with you. Super excited. Um tonight I'm presenting on the success indicator 1.5 college and career readiness and A throughG completion. Uh this year at Carlsbad High School, we focused in three key areas. Professional development, college and career readiness and interventions. We uh focused there to help our students better prepare for high school success and life after high school. Um even though this is preliminary, A throughG is a big thing at

134the high school. We want to make sure they're college ready and A throughG prepared. And according to our um readiness dashboard in Aries, I'm happy to report that the class of 2025 is projected to meet the A throughG rate at 87%. So super stoked about that. Um this year in regards to professional development, um we participated in PD uh throughout the entire school year. Before the school started, we did some mini workshops at Carl'sbad High and then we continued that work uh throughout the year. Uh during the PD we implemented UDL strategies so that students were given the opportunity to learn in an inclusive environment. We pushed out god amen activities which are uh growth mindset activities at every department meeting. We also continued the work for no place for hate where student leaders uh

135developed advisory lessons and they presented to our staff um which was really cool to hear that student voice. Uh we also had some AI training with our staff and then we continued with the MTSS training conducted instructional rounds throughout the school year. Now, next year I am encouraging um my teachers to be intentional with instructional rounds. Uh use some of their time or I will pay them to take some time out of class to go and do their own instructional rounds, observe colleagues and really get to see the best practices and all the great things that people are doing in the classrooms with UDL. Um in regards to college and career readiness, we do so much here. We um have college and career fair. The counselors present at every grade level on a lot of

136different topics of just getting the pre uh students educated at the ninth grade level what they need to do and then beyond and prepare those seniors for post-secary. We do financial aid night, the ASVAB assessment, aptitude test, career pathways, CTE advisory lessons, webinars, and we do PSAs on CHS TV just to really get that out there to um prepare our students for not just a four-year, it can be a CTE, it can be vocational, it can be military, it could be the workplace. So, what kind of skills are we giving them and preparing them for life after high school? And then lastly, our interventions. Um, this is something that we always need to incorporate at high school level because we want our students to be able to remediate their classes, get the support and the

137resources so they can be successful, feel successful, and have that confidence. Um, one of the uh interventions that we do besides the MTSS, the the PD, the best practices, instructional strategies for our students, we offer a couple different options. One of them is a math lab. It's every morning and it's an open walk-in math lab. It's for an hour. It's by a math teacher and it can be at any level. And the students go in, they get the help, they prepare for a test, they study or they just ask questions on their homework. This year, um, of the students that actually filled out the survey on the Google form of 116 students with a scale of one through five, we had a success of 63.79% that they thought it was a five. So, very beneficial.

138and all of 116 of them thought a three or better. So, they all benefited from that math lab. So, I'm happy to say we're going to continue that. Um, peer tutoring, not so well received, but also not a lot of kids actually completed my survey, but the ones that did complete the survey, this is peer tutoring. This year, we incorporated it after school and in the morning. I think because high school and our kids are so busy, they don't have time to go after school. So, we're going to revamp it and we're going to do peer tutoring in the morning again. Um, and then of the 35 students that participated in my survey, they were all way above and 77% was success of five. So, they did see an improvement. We did have some frequent

139flyers that would go every day. And so, I think this 35 was probably maybe 20 because one student kept doing the same survey. But, it doesn't matter. It's still there. And uh but we're going to definitely continue pertuning, but we're going to revamp some things there. And then for our third year in a row, we have the algebra 1 and algebra 2 reteach for mastery. This has been a huge success for three years. We're going to continue this. This is a class uh or an intervention that is offered in the morning for algebra 1, algebra 2. The students can go they get referred from their their general ed class teacher if they weren't successful on assessment. They go to zero period. They get the information retaught for two weeks. They retake the test and it

140replaces their unit grade. This isn't for a final. It's for a unit exam. And of that we have about a 778% my math teachers gave me that percentage. 77 78% average of success that they found to retake and got to improve their grade. So that was awesome. And then we also took this year advantage of our UDL coordinator that has come to the district and done all of our PDs. Um she came to our site a couple times and she worked specifically with my geometry teachers and we're going to continue this work. but they really dove in and looked at what they're doing in the classroom and how they can improve their strategies and meet the needs of all their students because we've got all different levels of kids in a geometry class and algebra

141class and so that we're going to continue that even though we don't have her per se, but I do have experts at my school and in our district that we're going to continue that team within geometry. So, I'm excited about that. And then lastly, sorry, are you a timer over here? And lastly, okay, good. Um, in the second semester, we partnered with a boys to mentoring uh group who worked with a young group of men that I were identified by any of our faculty, staff, counselors, and administrators. And the program is designed to create safe spaces for our young men who need a role model who need who are overcoming a challenge or something that's preventing them to achieve at their highest potential. And it was amazing. The kids thrived. The ones that continued with

142it um they really got a lot out of it. So I'm happy to say we are going to continue this. But a couple they did a survey that was on not I am a survey person but this was not my survey. But this survey is some of their questions that they confidentially reported is the quotes they got on their last meeting is if other people can do it so can you prioritize prioritize yourself tap into your passion passions. Parents aren't perfect. Never give up and live inside out not inside in. So due to the reflection and the the talking to these students who are all 9 through 11, so they're all going to continue on into next year, I'm happy to say that we're going to continue the mentoring group. So I'm excited about that.

143Thank you for your continued support. I look forward to your visit at school. All right. Thank you very much. And presenting on behalf of Principal Hines is Director Kim Fuentes. On behalf of Principal Hines, Oaks Elementary School. I am excited to share that we saw the impact of their work aligned to strengthening their implementation of MTSS this year. Their MTSS teacher and intervention team worked collaboratively with the classroom teachers to deliver targeted academic supports to students using data from our universal screeners and other progress monitoring tools. The team was able to identify struggling students early on, tailor interventions to a specific skill gap, and then um provide consistent support through pushin and pull out models. In addition to supporting the small group instruction, the team modeled tier one lessons with UDL strategies, presented at staff

144meetings and grade level meetings, and engaged families to support student progress. They implemented safety net meetings monthly to ensure that students remained on track. You can see the impact with regard to the MTSS focus group. So in star reading, 89% of students receiving intervention showed growth with 50% of those students moving from a level one or two to a three or four. And then in STAR math, 99% of students demonstrated growth with 55% moving from a level one or two to meet standards in spring. Um and then 38% of the most at risk students advanced a band moving from a level one to a level two which is also great progress through um these breakthroughs show the power of that coordinated approach and sustained collaboration between the intervention teachers and the classroom teachers. All right.

145And so we also like to take the time to um focus on a little bit what what we're looking at and looking ahead for for next year. So in each of the goal areas, the instructional services staff along with principles uh are reflecting not only on this year, but we're also reflecting on how we can improve moving forward. So Dr. Brockett's going to talk a little bit about goal area number one and just highlight a few of the items. Um it's not meant to be a complete comprehensive list, but we wanted to just point out a few things that are focuses for us as we go into the next school year. Uh to stay on theme, I just want to say how proud I am of our principles and our site teams for the work

146that they've been doing. I I you know I I tried to pull out a couple of things here that I wanted to highlight uh with uh with trustees and with our our audience tonight and and our principles already hit all of these things which is uh such a great sign about the work that they're doing. Um I do want to highlight uh under number one our continued work around the MTSS and specifically around uh that first tier of the multi-ter systems of support which is our UDL focus our universal design for learning. We asked a lot out of our principles and our MTSS teachers this year to be in here um with us one one full day a month um really building that lead instructional leadership capacity around universal design for learning and how we

147uh shift to a mindset of removing barriers for students to learning. Um they've done a great job and and really as you heard uh are taking that forward as uh as was intended to be instructional leaders at their sites um and continue to uh work to support students. And so we're really excited about continuing that into next year. Um we were here on Friday with uh with the teams, the MTSS teachers and the principles to develop professional development plans going into next year that continue to integrate that UDL framework into their learning. Um I also wanted to highlight our work around our master plan for multilingual and English learner students which was referenced by several of our principles. Um, we continue, our ELD team did an amazing job this year both in working and impacting

148our our students right now as well as to really building structures for the future as we really try to make sure that we're helping our students over time uh and helping them grow and develop uh and reclassify as we heard from some of our principles here as fluent English proficient students that we're supporting them to be able to access the curriculum to be able to develop those language skills to be able develop multilingual skills to really benefit them in their lives. And and lastly, the the on the bottom there, I did want to highlight and I was excited to hear uh Principal Giri mention our science toa Ashley Crawford. She works across the grades spans tirelessly and if you know her with great passion about great science instruction. Um, and we've uh adopted new science

149programs over the past couple of years in elementary and middle school. And she's continuing to work with our high school uh teams uh through the summer right now uh to refine uh curriculum at the uh at the high school level to make it more engaging and meaningful for students. and we're super excited to continue that work moving forward and to see great things happening in our science classes at the high school levels. All right, moving into goal area number two. I'm gonna introduce Dr. Eer who's going to walk us through this goal. I do want to thank Dr. Ear for his leadership and support. He has been an amazing uh addition to our instructional team and he's provided so much leadership to our principles but also our teacher leaders at all of our school sites.

150He's a a great resource and we really appreciate all all his hard work this year. That was very nice. Thank you. I'll take it. Okay, moving on to goal two. Uh for goal two, uh conditions of student learning. Uh our success indicators focused on the relevance of our professional development. Uh something as you heard we're very proud of. uh the implementation of our forward together plan and the feedback feedback from our students and the cleanliness of our schools. Uh so we're proud to report that we met each of our goal to success indicators for the 2425 school year. Uh including 98% relevance rating from staff for our professional development efforts. Um, I think that's a pretty amazing number knowing uh I think everybody's in been in this room been in professional development that you wouldn't

151call relevant. So that's something we're really proud of. Um, accomplishing 95% of our forward together action items. Uh, maintaining high favorable ratings related to safety, connectedness, climate, socio emotional, and mental health amongst our students. Something obviously we're very proud of. Uh, and the and high cleaning standards in all of our schools. So, uh, this year, instructional services partnered with our administrators and MTSS teachers, as you heard from Dr. Brockett, to increase our instructional efficacy through a year-long connected effort to improve core classroom instruction through universal design for learning supported in part by a grant-f funded partnership with PLA with the PL Plaster County Office of Education. Uh, additionally, we continue to support teachers in the implementation of district-wide academic programs and the use of technology and instructional design. Year two of our forward together plan

152provided us with 22 action items with 21 completed as as we close out the year. These include continuing district-wide collaboration through our district forward together committee, student-led site efforts through our each site's no place for hate committees, evaluating teacher practices to increase voice and choice for students in the classroom, and as we've heard, continuing our efforts in MT MTSS implementation at each of our school sites. Uh the one that we leave for next year involves student and teacher panels to discuss academic policies and practices. Uh this year has been focused on developing norms to supporting student belonging, responding to harassment and bullying and improving our ability to meet the needs of all of our students in all of our schools. I'm quite proud of this year's work. Our action items are displayed on our district

153website uh if you ever want to check up on how we're doing in our progress dashboard. So the role of our CUSD forward together committee comprised of parents, staff and students is to provide recommendations each year to the CUSD board of trustees as they did last year. Our forward together committee met three times. First to review progress uh secondly to take feedback directly from students and staff during our midyear panel that this year we held again at Sage Creek High School and deliver the recommendations for you to review. This year, our forward together committee coalesed around procedures and effective responses for addressing harassment and bullying on our school sites. This was a key focus for students and staff on our panel and finding ways to bring unity to our community. The image on the right

154uh was developed through collaboration with site administrators. Uh I'd like to specifically call out um her help, Dr. uh Principal Flowers. Jeez, I just nominated you. could gave you a doctorate there. Um, Principal Flowers, who was very helpful and and willing to meet with me as we put this together. Uh, and the point of this is to help communicate and share our protocols for responding to harassment and bullying on our campuses hopefully, you know, proactively and and if that does occur, we've gotten to see our new uh a few previews today of our new uh data visualization tool. I think if you'll notice uh on some of these uh slides that's from a tool called educ educ. It's a renaissance product. Uh so this year through board action we invested in MTSS teachers for every

155elementary and middle school campus. These teachers as you've heard have been instrumental in developing sustainable systems to identify and address student needs. Key to this was building organized support systems that prioritized effective tier one learning environments for all students. To measure the impact of our MTSS efforts, we established an MTSS focus group. The group primarily consists of students who did not meet standards on either the ESPback last spring or the STAR screener this fall. With significant numbers of students uh displaying academic progress and are out about a 30% growth in meeting standards in math and in reading, our MTSS teachers were clearly highly effective with students in this focus group, far outpacing the growth of students at large in reaching proficiency by year's end. Beyond overall meets and exceed percentages, we also wanted to highlight

156how growth in specific reading and math subsklls and how being datari has helped us in our efforts. Subscale data shows progress within the domains individual domains that contribute to the students total reading or math scores. So the top graph uh illustrates growth in vocabulary acquisition. This skill is crucial for reading development and strongly correlates with reaching English proficiency for our multilingual learners. Similarly, number sense is a critical math skill that students must develop before tackling more complex high school math courses. By better understanding the needs of specific students, we can help students gain skills and confidence in moving towards mastery. Data should prompt us to ask questions and rethink our instructional design to better support student learning. Such inquiry is fundamental to fostering a culture of continuous learning at each school site. Our MTSS teachers

157have worked to standardize reflection on instructional choices individually with grade level or department teams and with students and parents. This ongoing reflection helps us notice unnecessary barriers to learning. recognize effective strategies that enhance in instructional effectiveness and help us see both areas to address and importantly student strengths that could be aligned to future opportunities. Looking ahead, MTSS teachers have been vital in planning next year's professional development. They are also providing greater clarity to the MTSS process at each site by establishing clear entrance and exit criteria for tier 2 interventions and ensuring sitewide oversight of a comprehensive and understandable support system. I'm very proud to present some great progress with our multilingual learners. By the end of the year, 80 students met the criteria to reclassify and were designated as English proficient, representing 16.8 of our

158multilingual learner population overall. And that's up from 15.3% the previous year. Of those 80 students, 17 of them reclassified before metriculating to a new grade span. So, fifth grade and eighth grade, which is significant as early reclassification reduces the risk of long-term academic and language um achievement gaps and increases the access to a broader range of course offerings and learning opportunities. Additionally, 17 students who were classified were identified as long-term English learners or ELTELS. You'll hear that a lot. um an achievement that reflects both the students perseverance towards that reclassification criteria but also the dedication of staff who provided that consistent support and accountability. Another highlight is the impact of our targeted instruction and the expansion of supplemental EL materials. Ongoing professional development around designated and integrated EL strategies has equipped teachers in delivering core

159language instruction to meet student needs. This graphic shows the growth of Lexia use um which Lexia is one of those um supplemental materials and you can see the shift in students as um newcomers at the newcomer and emerging levels advancing to those expanding and bridging proficiency over the year. Additionally, staff um engagement within the Lexia platform to monitor progress, but also to access lessons that they could um implement in in small groups doubled from last year. We worked to create systemwide changes that are making a difference in our multilingual learner outcomes and we'll continue to build on this work in the coming year and the next slide expands a bit about that work. So, at the elementary level, we've focused on building teacher capacity through training um on instructional materials, evidence-based practices, and as principal

160Cobb shared earlier, the development of an assetbased mindset when working with our multilingual learners. We are also preparing for the launch of our summer language academy, which begins on Monday. And we had teachers in this week um doing some professional development. This marks the inaugural year of the program made possible through our ELOP funding and offered in partnership with the Carl'sb Educational Foundation who will provide enrichment activities um after the summer school day and field trips to enhance the overall experience. Our goal is to create a safe and engaging environment where students can work on their oral language skills and grow in their confidence as learners. And at the secondary level, teachers across content areas, including English, math, science, and social studies, participated in integrated EL training facilitated by the county's MEGA team, and sessions

161held in August and March provided teachers with strategies to increase academic discourse and foster languagerich learning environments. Equipping content area teachers to embed these ELD strategies into their instruction serves to ensure our multilingual learners can access rigorous um academic content while continuing their English proficiency. So, as we go into our stories from the principal, I do want to just thank as well director Fuentes. That summer language academy that was completely her idea and um was a fuition of her really trying to look at how we can meet the needs of our multilingual learners. And we're really excited about that program. I'd encourage you if you have the opportunity to stop by there. It's going to be a really exciting program for our students. We're really excited about that and thank you for that implementation. So,

162moving on with uh our stories from principles, uh, Principal Flowers from Valley Middle School. Good evening, President Rawlings, trustees, and Dr. Norman. Uh, I am Rose Flowers, the appreciative and honored principal of Valley Middle School. I'm so appreciative of uh my staff um at Valley and honored to serve the students and families of our Valley Middle School community. At Valley Middle School, our professional development over the past two years has been delivered through our professional learning communities or PLC's, a structure that honors the expertise of our teachers and provides a collaborative space to grow professionally. This year, our focus has been on universal design for learning or UDL with a particular emphasis on increasing student access to academic language. By using PLC's as the vehicle for our work, teachers have been able to engage deeply

163with UDL while tailoring strategies to their content area and students needs. PLC's have allowed us to build on what teachers already know while providing a platform for them to share their learning, reflect on outcomes, and refine instruction together. Teachers frequently engage in partner walkthroughs, observing one another with a focus on their shared PLC goals. These peer visits sparked powerful conversations and helped build a shared vision of best practice. We are proud that 96% of our staff reported that professional development delivered through PLC's is relevant to their work. A clear indicator that this model is meeting teachers needs where they are. Excuse me, meeting teachers where they are and supporting real growth across the school. uh teams implemented UDL strategies to support academic language using sentence frames, visual scaffolds, and structured routines to give all students

164access to rigorous content. This was especially impactful in content areas where language development is key to mastering the material. We also built time into staff meetings for teams to highlight strategies, share challenges, and showcase student work. This has fostered a strong culture of collaboration and created greater instructional coherence across departments. The results are visible, more student talk, increased confidence with academic vocabulary, and deeper engagement in uh during walkthroughs. We look ahead. Our next steps uh include incorporating student voice and expanding UDL practices into assessment design, ensuring that every learner has both access to and ownership of their learning. And since everybody else went off script, um I want to include something that isn't on this slide because it was a late data piece. Um our wig number two for Valley Middle School um was to

165increase um our students feeling of safety on campus. Specifically, the question asked in the survey is, "I feel safe at school." Uh, last year at this time, we were at 83% overall, which might say, "Oh, that's okay. That's a B minus." Um, and then you look at it and you say, "Yeah, but that's means 17% of our students didn't feel safe and that was an area we wanted to work on." And so, we set our goal for 85% and um, the data came in and we made 95%. No, wait. The chills keep coming because our focus student group was our black students who were in the 70s this time last year and they went to 100% of our students feeling safe at school. So many thanks to our staff, our MTSS teacher, our assistant principal

166Lindseay Gordon by embracing the systems to support our students. And if you didn't already know it, Valley Middle School is the place to be. All right, next up, Principal Leech from Magnolia Elementary. Good evening, members of the board. Um, welcome to CUSD, Dr. Norman. Um, my name is Craig Leech. I am extremely elated to be the principal of Magnolia Elementary. I really had pride down proud before. Tonight I'm sharing our progress uh on indicator goal 2.3 which focuses on on improving school safety, connectedness, climate and social emotional health as measured by our student Kel Kelvin survey. The district target is an 82% overall favorable rating and I'm thrilled to report that Magnolia exceeded the goal across the board. For school safety, we came in at 97%, school connectedness at 93%, social emotional well-being at 93%,

167school climate at 84%, and overall favorability at 93%. So, how did we get there? We focused on empowering student voice and leadership. Our fourth and fifth grade kindness club helped plan and present at our school assemblies. Spirit dressup days were created by our fifth grade uh students, giving students a say in our school culture. and our no place for hate committee made up of student leaders taught anti-bullying lessons and created a video series on how to be an upstander. Our award-winning MAG TV student broadcast team creates monthly newscasts to share positive messages and build community on campus. This year, our students were even featured on NPR's All Things Considered after one of our fifth graders produced a podcast interviewing his firefighter father during the LA wildfires. Each month, we hold a schoolwide assembly focused on

168one of our core pride values, preparation, respect, integrity, determination, and empathy, which continue to guide our students growth as learners and as people. We also listen to our families. Um, at one of our schools site council meetings, after hearing parent concerns about screen time and digital wellness, we partnered with our PTA and earned a national PTA ready tech go grant. This allowed us to host a family workshop that I led on strategies for tech balance at home and school. Our school counselor played a key role in in bringing student well-being, delivering student monthly SEAL lessons, and running small groupoup lunch sessions focused on emotional regulation, conflict resolution, and social skills. Finally, we prior prioritized school safety through regular emergency drills and staff training. Families were informed before and after each drill, and we provided age

169appropriate resources to help guide conversations at home. I'm deeply grateful for our dedicated staff, incredible students, supported family, and district partners who make this work possible. Together, we'll build we're building a school community where every student feels safe, connected, and empowered to thrive. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Next up, Principal Kesco from Pointedia, the proud Poinsettia Panther principal. Um, thank you members of the board and welcome Dr. Norman. Um, so we chose goal number two. Um, and specifically for um the the reason specifically we chose this goal is over nine out of 10 out of our of our students feel safe and happy and connected on campus. So we wanted to focus on that and in order to gain academic progress my philosophy is we need to focus on the well-being of

170our children and our staff. So how do we do that? We measure and act on our feedback. How can we improve as a site? We celebrate the successes and milestones of our students and staff. On top of monthly awards, we recognize students throughout the year through attendance, their Lexia awards, their improved behavior. We do a monthly staff award. And we even had uh staff members nominated for our Nixie uh award of excellence awards. Um we make our physical environment welcoming. We almost have all of our buildings containing a mural. Um student arts displayed throughout the campus. We enhance our family engagement by creating opportunities for volunteering. Um creating weekend and night events, adding a musical theater program and our first ever multicultural fair this year. We help to strengthen peer relationships, making sure that each

171class is participating in the buddy program where upper grades mentor lower grades. We have our counselor who drives SEAL lessons monthly in classes and when teachers need her. Um, our staff is very present on the playground and we foster student voice and leadership by implementing our first ever student council this year and we're hoping to double our amount of students. uh with uh next year we have our no place for hate committee and we strengthen student and teacher relationships by implementing daily and weekly check-ins. So I'm probably the least talkative of the bunch. Last up from the group, Principal Stapleton from Cal Hills and I can use my big voice. And welcome Dr. Norman. Um, I am the very proud principal of Calaver Hills Middle School. Um, I'm really pleased to share with you an

172update on the progress we've made this year at CHMS uh toward fostering a safe, inclusive, and connected school environment. At the beginning of the year, we took a close look at the results of of our Kelvin Pulse survey, and the data gave us a clear view of both our strengths and areas for urgent attention. While 64% of our students reported that their peers are generally kind to one another, which is great for middle school. Uh the survey also revealed that 24% of our students have experienced harassment or bullying based on race, ethnicity, or national origin. Additionally, 15% reported experiencing similar treatment based on religion uh and 13% based on gender, gender identity or sexual orientation. This is a serious concern and it's one that we are committed to addressing head on. We knew that tackling

173these issues effectively would require collaborative and student centered approach. In response, we brought together key studentled organizations on our campus such as web, safe schools ambassadors, No Place for Hate, Black Student Union, Inclusion Club, and Kids for Peace. These groups united to form a new coalition called Champions for Kindness with a shared mission to promote inclusivity, respect, and kindness throughout our school. Our first Champions for Kindness meeting was held on November 5th, and it featured a guest speaker from USC who engaged students, staff, and community members in a meaningful dialogue about equity and school culture. Each group presented their mission and brainstorm ways to align their efforts to support schoolwide initiatives. Following this, we began to anchor our culture building work around the no place for hate framework using it as a guide to shape

174future efforts and provide consistency across those activities. So in December, so about a month later, um myself and assistant principal Leang facilitated student focus group to deepen our understanding of student experiences. The insights from that session were shared with our staff um with our parent groups and subsequently all students were addressed during PE sessions. These presentations helped us share survey results transparently and engage students and staff directly in the conversation around school connectedness and safety. Looking ahead, we plan to set specific growth goals during future student meetings and presentations to ensure we are continually improving in the areas of school safety and connectedness. It's important to acknowledge the positive trends as well. Our eighth grade students have shown steady growth in school connectedness thanks to support such as advisory, access to our school counseling team,

175academic interventions, and meaningful engagement activities. I would also like to uh highlight the impacts that we've seen over this year. We've increased avenues for parent involvement, strengthening our school community partnership. We've developed improved systems for tracking and responding to hate motivated incidents. strengthened student voice by creating spaces for honest dialogue and leadership. We earned the support of our teachers who are now collaborating on integrated lessons. For example, a no place for hate activity co-developed by students and staff delivered across all English classes. On top of all of this, our um our SEAL wig this year was um re regarding school connectedness as measured by star scores and Kelvin scores for our students who are enrolled in intervention classes. So the the goal was to show a 3% growth in school connectedness. Um and we not

176only met that goal, but we exceeded it with 7% improvement in school connectedness. So, we're proud of our progress, but we remain committed to the work ahead. By continuing to build strong partnerships with students, staff, and families, we believe we can create a school environment where every student feels safe, valued, and connected. So, thank you for your ongoing support in that. All right. And uh Dr. Eer is just going to highlight uh some of the things in goal area number two as far as look aheads for this goal area. Thank you, Dr. NY. There's just a couple areas I'd like to uh point out. The first is uh we had mentioned our UDL training with Plaster County. That was a grant that was a one-year grant that uh has now ended. And now we're sitting

177here with the with the work uh that we've done after a year really elevating our the efficacy of our principles and our MTSS teachers. Uh and this work now goes to each site. So we've been I mentioned earlier we partner with our MTSS teachers, our principles. That was our final meeting of the year to develop a a professional development plan that is public amongst all of our principles so that we could see the work that are happening you know here at the district at site faculty meetings but also in grade level meetings uh in department meetings so that we have this continuous learning through UDL. Uh the second thing I wanted to point out um is that we are entering into the third year a pretty critical year of our forward together plan. uh the

178mindset that uh I have that I just want to kind of share what's in what's in my head is that in the first year was about understanding listening to students in the second year was about practices our our uh panel shifted from a student only panel to a student and admin panel as we talk about you know how what do we do when to respond to student voice when students are speaking up what does that look like and next year the focus is about sustainable practices uh and the last thing I want to point out um is is the summer language academy. Uh just to remind everyone, we started off the year with a fairly simple movie uh where we interviewed bless you. We we interviewed uh student our students uh multilingual learners who shared

179with us their experience and a staff member who made a like a profound positive impact on their lives. And then we interviewed that staff member, some of which have retired. Uh, and that video was just an inspiring way to start the year that that highlights the power of our teachers, the talent in Carl'sbad Unified to meet the needs of our English learners. Um, and then next step, we see our MTSS teachers becoming leaders in our district around the ELPAC, uh, administering the ELPAC, which I for years and in many districts is something that somebody else does that feels disconnected from the classroom. uh and having classroom teachers play a role in the administration of the ELPAC opens your eyes to the needs. You start realizing how important student talk time is in the classroom if

180we're going to help students reclassify. Uh and then I know that Dr. Knight said it already, but I just want to specifically give a shout out to uh Miss Guillian, our TK5 TOSA, uh Mr. Brown, our TOSSA of English learner, our English learner TOSSA and director Fuentes for our first ever summer language academy that builds on all this work and makes me really really excited obviously for for the academy but for what we're going to be able to continue to do to be able to serve multi- lingual learners in Carl'sb Unifi. All right, goal three focuses on increasing engagement through four key areas. Um, first ensuring the relevance and participation in our parent university offerings, expanding student involvement in work-based learning aligned with our career exploration continuum, increasing the number of students demonstrating graduate profile

181attributes, and reducing the percentage of students who are chronically absent. We met three out of our four goal three targets for the 2425 school year. parent university offerings exceeded our expectations with over 1400 participants and a 93% relevance rating. Work-based learning opportunities also increased. We had 100% of K through eight students participating in at least one career exploration activity and high school participation increased by the two percentage points. We also saw a slight increase in the percentage of students demonstrating graduate profile attributes rising to 90.1% overall. We did not meet the target of the 2 percentage plan, but we are on the rise. We did however meet the goal for reducing chronic absenteeism with district-wide rates improving from the um prior year. And these areas will remain a priority as we continue strengthening student engagement

182and postgrad readiness. This slide presents a closer look at two of the student engagement success indicators. You can see the breakout of each graduate profile attribute comparing spring of 2024 to spring of the 25 school year. You can see that we either increased or maintained in each area. In terms of our attendance, we've made progress at the elementary and middle school levels. The high school chronic absenteeism rate increased ever so slightly. Um, but we have made progress in this area. Overall, we're still higher than prepandemic absentee rates and know that outcomes are improved when students are present for instruction. So, we'll continue to identify those barriers and provide targeted supports in this area. To expand upon work-based learning and post-graduation development, our TK12 approach to career readiness begins with helping students develop a sense of

183self and understand their interests and strengths. Then progresses to career exposure, um, exploration, and ultimately preparation and training. At the elementary level, students participated in science days and engaged with a variety of guest speakers, including engineers, biotech professionals, first responders, and artists. Elementary counselors also supported career readiness by facilitating strength-based exploration and organizing career day events that introduced students to a wide range of possibilities. Middle schools also hosted their own career days and science day events, building on that early exposure and helping students begin to connect their academic learning to real world pathways. At the high school level, career pathways um work expands to include employability workshops, college readiness activities, and a variety of work-based learning experiences such as CTE pathway field trips, industry speakers, competitions, and career chats. These activities are designed to help

184students explore careers that align with their ever evolving interests and strengths. All this work is anchored by the CUSD career exploration continuum, ensuring that every student, regardless of their grade level, has meaningful developmentally appropriate exposure exposure to career possibilities. All right, now stories from our principles. Uh, first up, Principal Espinosa from CVA and CSA. Yes. Uh, I will just say that I am the luckiest principal in this district because I am the principal of the Carl'sbad Village Academy and the Carl'sbad Seaside Academy and I've always been proud of that. Um, so good evening everyone. Uh, I am proud to present our results for this year and tonight I want to highlight how Carl'sbad Village Academy and Seaside Academy are advancing in goal three success indicator 3.2 to which focus on increasing student participation in work-based

185learning experiences aligned with the CUSD career exploration continuum. We are proud to report that 32 students in total from both schools were enrolled this year in our graphic design CTE pathway, a course that is now articulated with the Mira Costa College through their course MAT 110, which is allowing students earn college credit while still in high school. And this year, 16 students successfully completed their portfolio, which has allowed them to articulate this class. And they're demonstrating both their academic and technical skills and development in this course. Over the course of the school year, we logged 24 work-based learning experiences, many of which focus on career awareness, skill development, and direct preparation for life after high school. What we like to call their what's next. One of the most impactful moments of this year came from

186when we had uh Deus de la Cruz, a marketing specialist and graphic designer who's part of Funko Pop. He visited our graphic design class and Deeus was really able to share his career journey and what was really great about it is like his background really resonated with my students background and they you know they were able to see that themselves in him and he uh he connected deep with our students emphasizing the importance of networking developing soft skills honing technical expertise and his visit helped make career success feel attainable for many of my students. In total, we hosted over 11 guest speakers, including professionals from the Marine Corps, Navy, the Fire Department, local media, higher education partners like TCI, Mira Costa, and the Electricians Union, and Palmar College. These guests brought diverse perspectives and inspired

187our students to think critically about their futures. Additionally, every senior at my at the schools had the opportunity to visit the our local colleges, including Palomar, Mira Costa, and TCI, helping them begin to define their post-secary plans. And I will say that 90% of my students are enrolled in community college when you know leaving leaving uh CBA and Seaside and that was something I'm very proud of. Um we also have a continued interest in military careers with actually three students. I just found out today one of my students will be swearing in on uh Friday and uh so three students will be uh joining the military leaving uh leaving our school this year and uh it is such a great experience watching them a year later when they come back after boot camp and after

188going to their A school and they're walking a lot taller and you know looking a lot bigger and uh I will say it's such a gratifying experience and I actually get to uh often go to uh the Marine Corps recruit depot when my students actually graduate boot camp and you know it just brings back all of those uh memories of me actually graduating from boot camp 35 years ago and uh so you know I stand a little taller and uh I'm really proud of these kids. Um we're really proud of creating a culture where students aren't just earning credits. They're developing a vision for their future. They're building on skills and making real world connections and that will serve them in life later on. And it's always a great experience, too, when kids actually will

189come back, you know, and uh text me and like, "Hey, SBI, I'm actually going to college this fall." So, uh I I love hearing that. You know, sometimes it takes them a little longer to to uh to to line up for this, but they do like to come back and tell me that they're actually going to school. So, thank you very much for your support, and I enjoy working with us today. All right. Uh next up, I believe it's Principal Tubs from Pacific Rim Elementary. So, he's going to jump up here real fast. Uh, my daughter challenged me to break the fourth wall. So, if you'll permit me, we have a challenge right here. And we'll see when she watches the video later who went on that. Thank you very much. I'd like to say

190always that consider that I have the best job in the world and that's working with students here in this district. As you see on the slide here, when we look at college and career readiness at the elementary level, everything's age appropriate. And so, a lot of it begins with our kindergarten and now with our TK. And it's going to usually revolve around some of those presentations that you see. And that slide isn't just reflective of Pacific Rim. I actually grabbed some uh programs that our elementary schools use from uh the year. And then also I think it's worth highlighting that these programs come from right here in our own backyard or North County or San Diego. So you don't have to go very far to look at this talent pool. And as Jorge mentioned with

191a lot of those presentations, parents are eager to come in. And of course then the students of those parents are just thrilled to have them present. And it reflects a very diverse. It's not just focusing on the sciences or um the uh science day will incorporate a lot of parents in but a lot of other activities. One worth mentioning I I believe um I think it was at Jefferson School. I forgot now but um they actually had NASCAR show up and they talked about the engineering design and how cool to have that race car there and it really catches everyone's excitement. And then you'll also see with a lot of these uh field trips that uh we tend to think of them uh along those sciences, but when you have the conversations then back in

192the classroom and reinforce that with the students and look at these different career paths that that they can have. Uh we also have several of our schools have a college and career week. So there's an event every single day. So that's something that we can continue to celebrate. And then just about 10 years ago, a lot of our elementary schools on Tuesday, we would have staff wear a college t-shirt and so they could have conversations and reinforce that. So many of us still uh highlight that. In fact, we have one teacher, she's uh graduated from USC and Miss Smith, everyone knows, loves her USC. Her her chair is USC and decorations are all USC. But what's very cool is the students who come back and add their own college pendant on her wall. So you

193walk in there to this day and there are uh probably over 30 of those different colleges represent. So that means that's evidence of her having those conversations with the students and uh I think that's just a very cool reflection of of the impact uh for that. You'll also see some uh links there. So those are some videos that we won't have time to show tonight, but if you're kind of a digital consumer, you can see some of those highlights from from those areas. And of course uh we love that CF supports all of these programs. It's amazing. I think Biztown, every fifth grader across our district just says that was the best day and it really is. So, it's it's a phenomenal activity. And then, uh, weather school, I had no idea that that would

194be so easy to invite a weatherman to do presentations. Then, they film the students. So, they actually get to see the behind the thing, the the scenes there, and then it'll actually air later on that night. So, it's super fun for them to understand weather and and how it's uh shaped right here in our own coastal community. And then, who would have known that for another career, if you want to have Marines present on what it means for a career, uh they actually show up in their own helicopters on your campus. So, that was definitely a highlight. I think Suzanne Okonnell got to join us for for that event. And uh so, I just think one of that that those greatest things is that all those resources are right here in our own community. So

195we can be very proud and celebrate that this community continues to just invest and give back to our schools across the district in such a meaningful and powerful way. So thank you for letting me to continue this job in such a fun environment where we get to celebrate our students and promote their college and career mindfulness. All right, thank you very much from Aviera Oaks Middle School. Principal Johnston. Thank you. Good evening. Uh nice to meet you, Dr. Normick. Excited to get to work with you. Uh President Rawlings, trustees. Uh this is actually, and you might not believe this, but one of our fun parts of the evening um in the year to be able to brag about our schools, but also to share the work that we're working on all year long. Um and

196most importantly for for our su uh excuse me success indicator this evening um we're really highlighting the students and the students growth in the areas of ethical and responsible citizens as well as effective communicator and I'm very pleased you've heard a lot of data points tonight and focal areas of growth um and for us uh you can see our high favorable ratings um within the Kelvin survey in these two partic particular areas. Um, their questions that are geared around these two particular topics within the survey have to do with how students speak with one another, whether or not they care about other students feelings, um, whether they uh can communicate effectively um, and consider perspectives, which is a very timely topic given all the different um, conversation throughout the evening. And so, we're really happy

197with what we're seeing across campus. Uh, middle school is a hard time. I'm wondering how many people have really fond memories of middle school. Um, I absolutely love it. Um, you we heard a lot of um giggles and things about being proud. Um, I think pride comes from excitement comes from when we see students thrive and feel happy and welcome and and a sense of belonging. and the ways in which we're creating this place where students are building skills because in middle school just like in elementary and even still into high school that needs to be modeled, taught and very explicit. And so you'll notice that some of the things that we're doing to really amplify that and give kids these uh explicit uh instruction is really around that social emotional learning component but also

198embedded in the work that we do. So, something that um we've been doing this year that's new is we uh participated in a grant um with the use of something called give thanks. Um these are castle align lessons uh that are focused on gratitude practices uh but also we they're nationally normed and we our counselors have really tailored them to what's coming up in surfacing for students. So we service survey students regularly in addition to our Kelvin district survey to get a sense of what's happening on campus and really give that student voice to what it is that we focus our lessons on or if we're seeing trends around campus of particular issues because believe it or not there are issues when middle schoolers get together um socially. And so we've been able to take

199some of these lessons and then incorporate it. But the nice exciting part of give thanks is the practice of gratitude. um that is tons of research behind how that is helpful for our own personal mental health. Um and so we're teaching students skills that are good for all people um and adults. And so staff to staff, studentto student um and next year we're excited to go into the next level where we're going to be continuing this work and including parents in that component. Um, we're also having our teachers are participating in their advisory lessons and giving those, but also our counselors going in and so there have been lessons around empathy, which we've heard about tonight. Um, as well as we have our safe school ambassadors who have really been centered around being upstanders and

200creating lessons and giving input. Again, we have family groups that are outcomes. I have my own family group. There's other um leaders around campus, teachers, we have campus safety um assistants who have family groups and through that feedback they make suggestions for what we should do. So you'll see an image of a one of our students painting a rock. Well, every single student, so almost a thousand have painted a positive message on a rock where we've created a positive rock garden. Um where we have a symbol that represents what we're focusing and working towards. Um we're going to continue with safe school ambassadors next year. Um like you heard tonight, we're pleased we met our goal of student connectedness um in our Kelvin survey for our week this year. And so we want to get

201um continue that but go a little bit deeper. Um we did invite uh parent community into this process as well through a showing of the upstanders which had centered around not just um the difficulties around cyber bullying but how we can partner on being upstanders as well which you know even as an adult can be difficult. So we're really proud of this work and I was on the fence about wanting to share just because they're sent to me but I think a testament to this is hearing a student comment. So, you can imagine, put yourself back in middle school. Um, how frequently were you really um expressing yourself well, communicating effectively um to your teacher, let alone to your principal? I'm excited because I usually as a principal, we don't get feedback from students. We

202don't necessarily get to hear. And so, I did want to share just one or two notes that I received through give thanks. Um not just because it feels good, but just the specificity in the language and what they're seeing around our campus. One student wrote, "Thank you for keeping us safe. When you enforce new ideas for the school to keep students safe, I feel better. This meant a lot to me because school is meant to be a safe place." Another student said, "Thank you, Miss Johnston, for helping everywhere you can. When you help people, they felt good. This meant a lot to me because happy people make a happy environment." And lastly, uh, and again, there were I I received well over 50 this year, and normally I would never ever have an opportunity to

203do that, but you can see that the kids increase their language in what they share with specifics. Thank you, Miss Johnston, for being such a compassionate leader. When you say hi every morning, it makes me feel a sense of belonging. This meant a lot to me because I feel acknowledged on campus because of you with gratitude. So teachers receive this, students receive these from one another, and we will continue to do that and invite parents in and looking forward to these next steps. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you very much. And uh I believe our last but not least uh principal to present this evening is Mr. Nelson. Thank you very much uh trustees uh Dr. Norman. It's my pleasure to be with you here tonight. And I want to give a special

204oh well I should say I am proud to be the disruptive principal of Calaver Hills Elementary. And I want to give a special thanks to Dr. Nye because as a fun fact I was not scheduled to speak on goal number three. I was actually supposed to speak about goal number one. Um which I could well have done. uh we we experienced a lot of growth in academics this year and it would be easy to talk about those things but I really felt strongly that I wanted to speak about the thing that I was most proud of um and and so thank you to Dr. Na who gave me that opportunity. Um one of the things that I tell our staff um and I repeat it often is that if we don't get culture right, we

205don't get anything right. And uh when I came to Cala, one of the things that stood out to me in looking at our data and getting a feel was uh the fact that on our Kelvin survey, the area that was the lowest for us in terms of our favorability was school climate. And so that was something that was a huge focus for us right off the bat. Um because I believe that any kind of meaningful growth that we're going to make academically has to start with setting the right conditions for that. You know, when we have our students coming, you know, they have a a hierarchy of needs. We know Maslo's hierarchy of needs. If they don't feel safe and comfortable, if they don't see themselves and they don't feel seen and recognized as individuals

206by the people around them, it's going to be really difficult for them to be engaged and motivated to do the work that we have. Um, a big part of that has been the support we've had from our our counseling this year. Um, and we were able to uh add to that investment from the district and and actually have full-time counseling this year, which was huge for us. Um, it I focused on the slide here on those kind of success uh indicators or the the pieces that connect to our our graduate profile. But if we were to look at the entire bank of of Kelvin scores, uh we saw growth in in every area with the exception of lifelong learners and uh college and career ready which were flat um but already uh one of our

207highest scores. Um and and I think that that really is something that that we want to be proud of. It's something we want to build upon um because our our kids enjoy coming to school and if they enjoy coming to school, what I always say is, you know, if our kids leave with nothing else, I want them to leave with two things. Positive perception of themselves, positive perception of school. And if they can leave with those two things when they're done with us, their trajectory for success is much greater than any academic gains that they've made while they're with us. And by the way, they make more academic gains when they feel comfortable and safe at school. So, how do we do that? Well, it's it's little things and it's big things. The little things

208like we start every morning, you know, at the front gate playing loud music, apologies to our neighbors. Um, but but we want to set the tone when kids are coming in. We're giving high fives. We're greeting kids by name. We're building those relationships, myself and our counselor. Um, we're looking for opportunities for kids to learn about who they are and what motivates and drives them and what they're passionate about. opportunities to connect with the people around them. So, we do morning meetings in all of our classes every day. We do restorative circles. We look for leadership opportunities not just with our older kids, but with some of our younger kids as well. Had some really great opportunities to leverage the relationship we have with the middle school being so close to do cross-aged groupings. We

209have cross- tutoring, but we also have done kind of fun math activities and things like that where kids get the opportunity to work with others and and kind of see themselves and their future, what's possible for them. Uh, you know, Dr. Ecker uh talks a lot about how closed off students, especially our students of color, can be to what is possible for them, what they see of themselves. And so the more we can kind of create opportunity and exposure for them at the elementary level, uh, we see huge success. And so I'm really proud of the fact that we increased by 14% in terms of our our favorability for school climate. Something that, um, you know, I think is a testament to our teachers and our counselor and our staff and their their willingness to

210build the relationships that really drive the work that that we do at our school. So, thank you so much. All right. Thank you. And uh Director Fuentes is going to uh give us a look ahead for goal area number three. Looking ahead, we will continue our parent university offerings based on family interest and need. Our social emotional learning will expand through mentorship programs, many of which you've heard this evening. Um also student leadership opportunities and additional counselors. We will implement vertical teaming with our counselors TK through 12 for a clear throughine of social emotional wellness and college and career readiness. Our focus into the next school year will remain the consistent implementation of MTSS and UDL to strengthen student access and engagement. Thank you. Right. And just really quickly, last slide, I promise, uh, is

211that we have three other strategic plans that we also have that sit outside of our overall goals and success indicators. Just highlighting those three here tonight and just showing you where we're at in each of those three plans. I believe Dr. Eer had mentioned that we're in the last year of the three-year plan for our forward together plan and then the other two are in year two. And with that, we're happy to turn it back over to uh President Rawlings. And Thank you. Uh you all never disappoint, I have to tell you. Um our It is now time for public comment. Have any blue cards been received? We do not have any blue cards. Thank you. Trustees, do you have any questions that are not part of exhibit B? I do have one since uh

212I have the floor um for um AOM and poinsettia. Um very impressive numbers. Um I just wanted to know if you're aware of the growth that happened from last year to this year if you and again I don't want to put you on the spot but I just wrote that down. I mean the numbers were very impressive but I mean if you went from because I know valley had said that they were they went from like 70 to 100. I mean that's, you know, incredible and that that just means the programs that we're implementing are working. So I don't know if you have that off top of your head. If not, it's not a problem. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. If that's any other question, so I I forgot what slide it was, but you

213mentioned some um changes with the credit recovery remediation, and I was just curious what are alternatives, I think is what it was listed. Can you share with me what um you're looking at for that? Yeah, we're taking a look at you. We've been using the Apex credit recovery program um and we're exploring a couple of fronts. So Apex gets used in a couple of ways. It's used for credit recovery during the school year um in a class where students will come in uh and work with a teacher in the classroom on on you know some sort of credit recovery um as well as in summer school. And one of the things that we've had some conversation about is going back to a a more of a direct instruction in-person and it summer schools in person

214now, but really a more of a direct instruction model. Um that that really focuses then on on going a little deeper with some of the skills rather than just the the the basic mastery of of the course, which allows our teachers to kind of get in there and work with students hopefully to set them up for future success. We've taken a look at the numbers as it relates to um as it relates to uh success after the apex course and and I don't have a lot of I don't have the specifics in front of me but but anecdotally I can say that we've had sort of mixed results and and so it's hard to say to what degree that's the curriculum or this or you know the circumstances with the student. Um, the other piece

215is that, you know, when we talk about credit recovery during the school year, it's the same conversation about really uh how are we getting at developing those skills to to really give students the the skills for future success as opposed to an online option. So, we want to be cognizant of of the the benefits and the flexibility that uh a program like uh an online credit recovery system uh affords students a and and it gives them an opportunity sometimes to really, you know, uh whether it's meet that A throughG or meet that grad requirement. Um but also to be cognizant of the the skill development that we want to continue to to push with our students um beyond, you know, what they might do in that in that online setting. So, we're we're continuing to

216work with our high school teams on what that looks like exactly, and I don't have a lot of specifics, but I'm sure there will be uh more information to come on that front. I would just add, I know you heard from Principal Redfield about a specific uh intervention that they do that's immediate, right? And so, when we look at our interventions specifically at the high school, what we want to do is more of that immediate on the spot interventions where we're remediating that and putting that student back into that class to talking about the zero period. Yeah. So, that's an great example of immediate intervention rather than after the fact. The student failed the class, they're then going back to recuperate those credits. So, the more things that we can do that are focused around

217that, I think the better success we're going to have for all of our students. So, it's a a focus of both uh comprehensive high school principles that we're looking at that. And a followup. Yes. But before I say my followup, I just want to say thank you because I should have said that first. So, thank you so much for your presentations today. They're, as I said before. Um, you guys are awesome and your teachers, you thank you for everything that you're doing. So, excellent work. Um, yes. So, I just wanted to say, you know, thank you for the because I know that I've mentioned about concerns around Apex and the success of students moving forward. So I appreciate that and thank you for also mentioning the zero period. Um is that also available in um

218that intervention type course for the um different math courses at Sage? Is that also being available to them as well to be provided for the intervention courses? Sage Sage doesn't do the exact same model. Uh their intervention model actually is sort of a a preemptive uh intervention model where they give uh students uh that may need it a trimester because of the trimester system allows for some flexibility. Students can have sort of a leadin trimester to and I I'm forgetting exactly what you call it, Dr. Way. Intro. Okay, there we go. That that Thank you. That makes sense. Uh so so they get an intro trimester before they jump into the course itself. So it's a it's it's a a similar concept in terms of wanting to you know build that foundation with students just

219a different way of getting at it that the schedule for I understand so that intervention is being available to Sage Creek as well. Correct. Okay. Other questions? Trusty for on slide 31. Um I'm assuming this is a combined um representation of elementary and middle school. Is that correct or am I incorrect? So you're you're correct that um on the right hand side of the slide the 97% the jump that the the 31% uh you know meets and and exceeds and then the same on the right and that right hand side for math uh is a combined uh elementary and middle school. Um and it's to some degree true on the left hand side too. So I just would note that the that uh the number and operations in base 10 is a domain specific to

220to elementary school. So that and I thought it was reason I brought it up is because I was looking to showcase how important it is that we address some of those gaps before we move on to the secondary math courses. Yes. Follow up. So thank you. Can you talk about the value of the MTSS teachers at the middle school level or would the principles like to I think either of us could could talk to the value of them. I think you you heard from the uh I believe each of them uh talk about the role of the MTSS teachers uh at the you know at the middle school level you're you're still you know have that component of grade level collaboration around students so that the like that role of those grade level meetings a

221little bit more complex because now you're also working about what that looks like at the department level uh in working with those teams to how do we how do we notice when students are needing support and how do we respond to those needs. needs. Um, at the, uh, middle school level, we have actually like a more in place tier 2 setting. We call it's math 180 and and and read 180 is our tier 2 at the for uh, math and reading skills. Uh, but it only meets uh, a small subset of students. And there are really tough choices at the middle school level about deciding to be in that course in a sixth period day or being in an elective course. uh giving up band or orchestra or choir uh for read 180 or math

222180 is a really difficult choice and it we know from looking at the data it's not sufficient in meeting the student needs um both students that aren't able to access those math 180 room 180 courses but even when students leave those courses having gotten close back to mastery we need those tier 2 skills and the way that you get after that is doing a lot of what our teachers have done in TK through eight and that is getting into classrooms, partnering with teachers, talking about instructional design, noticing and reflecting on what we're doing and how it's impacting student learning and the ability for those teachers to allow something that I think is just an issue in the design of education is we don't build in time for reflection and to be able to get out

223of your classroom and observe your colleagues doing the the same types of work that you're trying to do in your classroom. Uh, so I I'd say it's still critical at the middle school level to do that. And I think the data plays it out. I I could talk a little bit about some of those data jumps at the specific uh uh schools and grade level spans and and what we're seeing there as well. Follow. So to follow up on that, um, is it possible for us to see the data for you have um different you have two different domains up there. Is it possible for you to send that maybe in a Friday report the other domains um with the same type of graphic so we can see the trusty board that would be out

224of order right now but if you want to in discussion if you want to see if there's three trustees that would like to do that okay sure other question okay you're trusty the MDTP test Um I'm slightly familiar with that, but would that be applicable for the middle school level too? Because I know right now we're it looks like we're using STAR for middle school. Yeah, it's it's possible. Uh we we've had some discussion about whether uh potentially that would be beneficial at the middle school level as well. Um what we wanted to do really was was look at our high school uh move to MDTP as as sort of a pilot opportunity to capture um data to really capture perceptions and really to see what that impact was. Um so it'll be a continuing

225conversation moving into the future I believe about what we feel like best meets the needs in terms of of that uh tool. Um and and they do a little bit different things both of those assessments. Um, so we're gonna kind of wait and really kind of capture what we've got from MDTP now and see if that meets a wider need as well. Other questions? One more. Just what? Okay, sorry. Last one. Um, and this is for Miss Fuentes. You mentioned vertical alignment and what what is that? Is that through um are you looking at vertical alignment within each school site like per grade level? Are you looking from elementary all the way up to secondary? Um are you create what kind of teams are you creating is I guess what I'm asking. We're looking for

226a little more collaboration between our secondary counselors and our elementary counselors. Um we've had you know our independent meetings to discuss um the role that we play on campuses which is very different at the elementary level versus the high school level. But there are a lot of areas where we can expand, you know, elementary providing some foundational learning and how we build upon that, especially um with the career exploration um and the social emotional lessons and and how that's being applied and and what topics are um being shared. So this year we started to um incorporate and have um our counselors meet together. Um my elementary counselors met with the secondary counselors at their meeting. Um and so next year we want to bring more intentionality to that um and have some specific topics and

227areas that we want to build upon to really create a cohesive um and comprehensive plan TK12. Other questions discussion? Um, I just wanted to say that, um, again, like I said, you know, you never disappoint and every time I see this presentation, it just makes me more proud to be part of CUSD. And I think that the work that we do here at the board level sets that sets that tone with the LCAP. And then um that gives the the direction and then obviously our principles just take off and and uh make it their own and all the uniqueness at each one of our schools to to meet the goals that we've set and I recognize we set a very high bar for our principles. Um and I think that you know again you you

228know you completely um outdo yourselves every year. So thank you very much. The only thing I will say I miss the videos. I would love to see some of our some of our students with the videos. Oh, no. I don't I just I do, you know, even if there's a couple of them, but seeing the students actually doing the doing what we've been talking about is, you know, it it just fills my heart. I mean, it still fills my heart every time. But, you know, I did miss the videos. So, I will take a look at those after. Um, any other discussion? Uh trusty uh again just thank you each for being here for sticking with us and providing such like a snapshot into your school all the successes you know it's hard to see

229that um you know looking at all the numbers but you made it come alive and I'm just thrilled with the progress you're making and how you're each tailoring it to unique site and to those needs and it's just such meaningful work and I appreciate everyone and please communicate that to your staff as Any other discussion? Okay, thank you so much. And then I'm going to ask for a break. I'm going to do a seven minute break. Thank you. Um, thank you. We now move on to 7.3, adoption of the annual budget. Trustees, this is a discussion action item. I will now hand it over to Miss Suzanne Okonnell. Thank you, President Rawlings. As you know, on June 11th, 2025, the board of trustees conducted a public hearing on the district's 202526 proposed annual budget and

230the LCAP. The expenditure plan for fisc year 2526 Prop 30 Education Protection Act is also incorporated into this budget. Additionally, as part of the hearings, available district reserves and their respective classifications were also discussed. Specifically, a name change of the board's committed stabilization arrangement to board LCAP priorities was included in this information discussion item for your consideration. As I shared during last week's board meeting, this required a shift of funds from the fixed stabilization arrangement to an other commitment line item. Still a committed fund limited to specific expenditures. Um, moving forward, the way the budget in order to bring this item forward, we made that I made that change in the proposed budget last week as a discussion information item. Tonight, the budget returns to you as a um action item. And in order to

231move forward with this, it would require you adopting the budget as indicated. Typically, we don't have a presentation for this portion of the budget since it was presented last week, but I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you. This is the time for public comment. Have any blue cards been received? We do not have any blue cards. Thank you. Trustees, do you have any questions? Trusty for Beth. If staff was directed to add LCAP priority fund into the budget based on the board vote in December, why wasn't it added to the second interim budget report that the board approved in the March 12th meeting? That's a good question. as an adopted budget for 2425. That budget was adopted this time a year ago with the fund balances committed at that time. So, uh the

232the process for adding new items at that point in time would be at this budget adoption stage in this cycle. So this was the first opportunity when we brought the proposed budget back to add it for the 2526 year follow. Uh so can you explain to the board why it was added to last week's budget? So I was not present for either the December or January meeting when I arrived um after Mr. Mr. Dill's departure um based on conversations with Mr. Dill at the time the transition period as well as reviewing the minutes from the December meeting um during the first interim presentation. The conversation arose regarding um not only a change to the language of the line item, but also a change from the 5% mandatory reserve back to the 3% reserve that the

233state requires. Um and the recommendation was made at the time um that that 2% reduction be added to the line item of the stabilization arrangement and renamed to board LCAP priorities. That was a there was a consensus from the board at that point to bring that back in the future. Subsequently in January at the board meeting, staff brought back the board policy that identifies the 5% as a requirement um for first reading and cited the fact that you could do second reading at the same time and adoption that that failed to pass. There was since there was no mention at that time of the name change, I felt like it was um cabinet had the discussion and we felt that moving forward that was kind of an unfinished piece. So and and I received the

234question after second interim why it was not changed at second interim and I indicated that the time to bring that forward would be at the proposed budget in June. So that's why I added it for discussion purposes, information purposes at last week's meeting. Other questions? I do. Um Dr. Norman, um what what would happen if the board did not pass the current budget that has been presented to me? If we don't pass the current budget and there's any change to the budget, even if it's just the name change, we have to have a special meeting before the end of the month. And if we did not, would would there be problems with payroll? I'd have to talk to the county about that. um they would step in and they'd want to have a conversation with

235us about how we're going to meet our obligations, but we we would need they would come in and let us know that we need to have a meeting to pass a budget. It had changed in 2023 before you could roll in and you could use the previous year's budget. Now, we have to make sure that our LCAP is aligning with our current budget that we're bringing forward. Miss Okonnell, is that you're right. You were nodding your head. Is that your 23 that changed? So there would be problems with pay like meeting payroll if we didn't pass a budget by um June 30th. Yes. Are there other questions? Trust you. Um so could there be there could be a line item change? Of course. Okay. So there could be a line item change um and still

236pass the budget this evening. Not this evening. That would that would be a violation of the Brown Act. What we'd want to do because that hasn't been put forward is if there was a change that was proposed during discussion, it would have to come back in a in another meeting before the end of the month. Okay. Are there other questions? Okay. Trusty, is the line item for stabilization funds restricted in the same way that the LCAP priorities fund is restricted? Yes, trusty. You've provided a lot of great information last few meetings and everything about the importance and with the current situation changing. Um I fully understand that with um not passing the budget that has some things. What are um some options with that? Um that change that would be afforded to us going forward

237with the adoption of that to move or continue to keep that um money either in either one of those categories. Would it have to everything be decided for this year at the current moment? Um, or would it call for another meeting as you're saying? If you were to remove if you want to make a change to what we're currently seeing as a listed commitment, um, we would have to then vote on it in a future meeting. If you kept it all as is, then we could vote on it tonight. Yeah. I have a question. Um because last week was a proposed budget and would it be possible to make a motion to approve the budget with the return of the line item back to the way it existed prior? I asked I asked council that

238exact same question just to make sure that we uh were all transparent to everything. Okay. And um because the public hasn't had a chance to view the change, um even though it's being amended now prior to a vote, it still is best that we have another meeting at a later date so the public has time to see what's being proposed. And follow up real quick. Um when you say later date, that's by June 30th. Absolutely. Okay. Just to be clear. Okay. Trusty, is that your question? No, that that answers I have another question. I have more but I'm thinking about it. Um, uh, Miss Okonnell, um, so when we're looking at the differences between a stabilization fund and a a board LCAP priorities um, could the funds be used in the same manner as a

239stabilization? Um, as far as and let me give you an example. So let's say there's some uncertainty with um and you know in reading some of the questions let's say there's some uncertainty around charters and the um and part of the LCAP is to maintain elementary counselors. Couldn't those funds be used to stabilize and keep elementary counselors because it's an LCAP priority. Let me read to you what the original language said. So when the basic aid assigned reserve was formed um it said in order it was as a basic aid district. So back in 201011 was when we first entered into a basic aid says as a basic aid district fluctuations in property values as well as the potential for cuts or other legislative action can change the district's revenue outlook affecting basic aid revenue.

240In order to offset any such reduction or fluctuations in revenue, the district shall maintain a basic aid reserve within the general fund in addition to any other reserve funds. Basic aid reserve shall be separate from all other funds and shall only be used to fund expenses related to change in enrollment, offsets to decreases in property tax revenue, nonrecurring expenses, and ongoing expenses in deficit years. The basic a reser reserve shall not be a special reserve fund but rather shall be a component of the ending fund balance. So my question is is that um in using the funds like you know if it we require cuts because of the property taxes um couldn't those funds still be used to offset you know on a temporary basis um some of the potential cuts that could come about

241because of that since the LCAP and the and you know we we're always hearing that the LCAP and the budget are you know it's not like an we're not an extra money right so it's all the So I I would say in terms of um lower property taxes, yes. But if your property taxes were continuing to go up, then that would not be an appropriate rationale because your property taxes are now growing. So that was meant to be. So, for instance, when it says enrollment, um, let's say the district was at 10,000, that means your pot of money you're getting for property taxes is divided by 10,000 students. If you had a sudden enrollment growth of an additional 500 students, now that pot of money is being divided between 10,500 students. And so in order

242to keep services at the same level for those students even though you're getting a lower dollar amount per pupil, these funds could be used in that particular year for that case. And but that's what I'm saying is is that um calling them LCAP board LCAP priorities allows you to continue services in the same manner if that were to happen. Correct. if your taxes were to decrease or your enrollment were to grow um not reoccurring in other words you wouldn't want ongoing because it's technically one-time dollars. So having it again having it in in board LCAP priorities or LCFF stabilization fund you under the under the um board LCAP priorities you can you could still use it to stabilize under the under the terms that you just um so it's actually you have a broader use

243of those funds and and not as restrictive of those funds but you could still use them for the same purpose as you did if it was in the stabilization fund. Correct. As long as you used it as for the same purpose, you're changing name only. Got it. If you used it for a broader purpose, then you're changing the intent of the reserve and not just the title. Right. And and the board has that is is the per is the entity that would make that decision. Either staff would make a recommendation to spend those dollars on certain things or the board could ask that those dollars be spent in a certain way. Correct. if it fit within the parameters. And I think what you noted, both of you have noted, is that yes, it could help

244us get through, but it wouldn't be something that would be our long-term plan. It would be to make sure we can successfully get through the budget cycle because then you would want to either reduce staff hopefully naturally without layoffs or make other large expenditure changes, right? Yeah. But in either pot there, that would be the same. Yes, that would. Yeah. Okay, that was my point. Justine um thank you for answering my my questions earlier on the um document that you respond back on in question two after you read from there as well. Um you state that my concern is that the name change implies a broader use of funds changing the original intent of the reserve. When you say it is not my recommendation to make this change particularly at this time, are you saying

245the name change or can you can you um explain that a little bit further? I think um prior to learning from what the attorney had indicated to you um I felt like um if we amended the motion to approve the budget absent um any change in the name that it because it still exists currently as the way it was. Um, but that that would be something we could do and I would recommend the the times right now are so very similar to 2011 1011 in the you're they're talking about fluctuations in state revenue, federal revenue, and those kinds of things. I would not not saying that never you would do something like that because certainly if you get deeper into basic aid that may be something that you would consider. Um what I would what

246prompted me to say not at this time is because we are facing very similar times and also along the lines that to me board LCAP priorities as you mentioned gives you a broader um to me a broader use of the funds than the restrictions that were implied when we first formed it. Um because certainly I could see if your board LCAP priorities for instance was to continue counselors um that's a whole different conversation than using this stabilization fund to fund those counselors. I mean you could make the decision that we include it in the budget and it becomes part of the ongoing budget. it doesn't necessarily have to come out of that stabilization fund. And so what I would want to make sure that wasn't didn't become the practice is when the board determined priorities

247in LCAP that that be the source of funding for those things. So I'm sorry I had a follow. Did you have a followup to that? Just a clarification on that. So when you said um it's not my recommendation to make the ch this change particularly at this time that is now a new point in essence. Okay, just what so I guess you're kind of just so just for clarification to be clear I I think she kind of answered it but I just want for my brain at 9:00 at night. Um and Andy I think it might be for you just because of the information that you received but it's follow up on what just happened. Um, I I'm struggling with the LCAP priorities budget line and I would like I would like it to go

248back to where it was just because of the federal funding situation as well as um how that's going to be allocated within state charter schools. But what I'm hearing you say is that in order to do that then we wouldn't be able to vote on it this evening. Is that correct? So it that's so that is not a good thing. Correct. Like I mean if we held off until before June 30th that would not would it be better if we did it before June 30th we'd be fine. Okay. But otherwise we just need to move it forward. It just has to be in by June 30th. Correct. So that would mean another meeting though before that time and it could be a really short meeting just for that. It could be as short as you

249make it. Okay. Just curious. All right. Thank you. Other questions? Trusty. Um we received a letter from our legal council in January which indicated the board's vote in December to move the stabilization funds was just a request to place that item on a future agenda. um it was placed on the agenda in January and the board vote the board voted against it. Was staff aware of that? Yes. So the item that was brought forward in January made no mention of a name change. It was strictly a first reading of a board policy, a revised board policy that struck out the three 5% and put 3% Other questions? Okay, same time. I'd like to make a motion to adopt the 2526 annual budget exhibit A. Got a second? If we don't have a second then okay

250there the motion fails for a um fails for a second. So I would I would like to make a motion to change um revert back to the old um budget line. Pardon? We can't make a motion to do that because we can't vote on it. Okay. Can I make a motion to approve? There's not a motion on the floor. Oh, so I can't. No. Oh, I can't. There's no Well, there's no motion on the floor. The The motion uh failed for a second. I can try it again. Uh I'd like to make a motion to adopt the 2526 annual budget exhibit A. for a point of order. What would um point of information? Okay. Uh you can do a you can do a second for um discussion if you choose. Motion for discussion. You want

251to make a second for discuss? You can make a discuss. You can make a second for discussion. Can I say something Kathy at this time or does she and then during discussion um you can give the board direction? Yes. To make a change. So we have a motion on the floor. There's a second in discussion right now. Yes, we are in discussion. This is discussion. All right. It's all confusing, but we're getting it. We're getting there. Okay. So I would like to direct staff or make a motion. No, right now I'm making right direction. Okay. Giving direction, just so we're clear, it's a handbook uh section eight and nine. Thank you for referencing it. If you'd like to take a look at the handbook. Okay. Give me a second to pull it up as discussion.

252Um, yes, we're in discuss. In discussion, um, I'm wondering if any of my fellow board members would be available to doing a another meeting before. If it's before the 26th, yes. Yes. I'm not available. So that's a quorum, correct? Four is enough. Yeah. We're still in discussion. Can I make a motion? It's not a motion. You have to direct staff. She's telling us to I I I'm not gonna I'm not going to do it for you. you know, I mean, there there's the handbook. It's it's very clear. We had this we've had multiple discussions about how to do this. So, um, so go ahead. Ann, can you grab the handbook for us? Is that possible? The the board handbook. It's okay. I'll pardon. Oh, that would be great. Thank you. Thank you. I app I

253appreciate it. Trusty Rawlings, I have a question for you. Yes. As our board president and our fearless leader of our board, would you please guide us through this process? Sure. Thank you. If you read uh I don't have the link. So, pardon me. I don't have the link pulled up. So, could you do you It's on the It's on the district website. Thank you. It's under board policy. If you look under board and it says policies, handbook, agendas, handbook there, you can click on it there. Go to section eight and nine and it talks about motions. It talks about um you know how to do a motion and um what board direction is. We had lengthy conversations about that that and the difference between a roll call vote and a and giving board direction and

254uh getting consensus. We as you stated we had a letter from our attorney that told us uh the difference between the two and so um did it was under policy it would be under it was in that same section. So you go to board and then and then you go and it's under policy. It says govern governance handbook. I'd like to see if I have um enough. Okay. I would like to see if I have enough consensus against uh with my fellow trustees to bring this back for a future agenda item on another meeting. And what would you like on the agenda? I would like on the agenda to um revert back to the original uh form of the budget. the new added line item um and instead to bring it back to the stabilization

255fund as it was previously. Do I have consensus? I guess no, we don't do thumbs anymore. We're not allowed to do thumbs. Um are is there any objection? Is there any objection? Can you repeat it again? Do I was wondering if I have any strong objections against uh making uh from any of the fellow trustees to um bring this back at a future meeting before June 30th through 26 in order to um revisit the budget and bring it back to a um the original line item with the stabilization fund instead of the LCAP priorities. I have a strong affirmation. I I have an objection and we don't have to say strong anymore. We decided we're not going to have to say strong. It's just so I object. I don't object. Okay. So, it looks like

256you have unless there's anyone. Okay. So, it looks like you do have a consensus and so um so then you give then then staff understand the direction. Yes. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. I don't do for others what they can do for themselves is my philosophy. Um is there any other um discussion so um so there is a motion on the floor. It is was for discussion. We have direction so we still have to vote on it and I'm assuming it would fail. So um so Miss Garcia well and is this for your motion that we're voting on? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Just clarify the only motion on the floor. Got it. It's the only motion on the floor. So again, you'll have to vote how you choose to vote. Um would you

257restate your motion, please? Uh the motion is to adopt the 2526 annual budget exhibit A. Um and uh Okay. Um, Miss Garcia, please call for a vote. Trusty COC, no. Trusty Emory, no. Trusty Burbath, no. Trusty Ward, no. Trusty Rawlings, yes. Motion fails one to four. Thank you. We now move on to item 7.4, approval 2526, local control accountability plan and report on local indicators. Trustees, this is a discussion action item, and I will now hand it over to Dr. Nine. Uh, thank you again. In alignment with the requirements set forth by the local control funding formula, school districts must annually develop and update the LCAP plan to address both state and local priorities. The LCAP is a three-year plan organized around three key areas: conditions of learning, people outcomes, and engagement. It outlines the

258district goals, actions, and services, and expenditures aimed at improving student outcomes. Uh the California dashboard complements the process by providing a set of performance indicators based on LCFF priorities including both state and local indicators. for local indicators where statewide data is not collected. The state board of education requires that LEAs or school districts that they annually uh measure progress, report findings publicly, and utilize the state board of education adopted self-reflection tools. Staff is pleased to report that all five local indicators have been met as indicated in exhibit B. Uh following the public hearing held on June 11th, 2025 and reviewed by our educational partners and stakeholders, uh CUSD's 202526 LCAP has been updated and is presented as exhibit A. The results of the required self-reflection on local indicators to reported by the school dashboard are

259also presented as exhibit B. So staff recommends that the board of trustees approve both the updated 202526 LCAP and the local indicators attached. And we're happy to turn it back to President Rawlings. Thank you. This is the time for public comment. Have any blue cards been received? We do not have any blue cards. Thank you. Uh trustees, do you have any questions? Do we need to extend the meeting? I was just going to do that after question. So, but um since you mentioned it, why don't you make a motion? I would like to um move to extend the meeting. Okay. Have a motion by Trusty Emory. Uh second by Trusty Ward. Uh any discussion? Miss Garcia, please call for vote. Trusty COC. Yes. Trusty Emory, yes. Trustee, yes. Trusty Ward, yes. Trusty Rawlings, yes. Motion

260passes five to zero. Thank you. So, um I was just going to do that. So, thank you. Um, and are there any questions? Just trusty forth. All right. Uh, Dr. Nye, um, last week I asked about the goal and success indicator page. So, I mentioned that in on March 26, there was a sheet that was provided that in had success indicator 1.4 four that listed decrease the percentage of students scoring the standard not met and the staff's recommendation um on the SBACK by three percentage points. staff's recommendation was to remove that, but we had a discussion and then I I thought in that discussion that we left it and we added and so last week apparently there we didn't have the correct goal and success indicator page and I don't see it as an attachment.

261So, the last one that I see was revised on April 15th and it was used also in the May 21st meeting. Is that the one that is current? Yeah. the and we're looking at a totally different exhibit, but what is captured on page 33 of the entire LCAP plan uh under metric 1.13 addresses I think what you're asking and that says ESBAC increase the percentage of students in grades four through eight match cohort who either move up at least one performance level or maintain a status of proficient or higher on the SBACcast. So that was the uh revised language, modified language that was adopted. Can you guide me to that location again? I'm looking. Sure. In exhibit A, and I can cast it if you want. In exhibit A, I got it. Uh page 33,

262uh metric 1.13 captures the language that you were referring to. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. I may have a motion to approve the 2526 local control accountability plan exhibit A and approve the results of the local indicators for the state dashboard exhibit B. Motion second. Motion by Trusty Ward, second by Trusty Emmery. Discussion. Thank you for the information. Any other discussion? Yes, thank you for the information and I am not going to be voting yes because I really believe that we need to have that success indicator 1.4 with the standard not met band and um so I I believe that that measures something different and I feel we need to leave it in there as a goal and success indicator. Any other discussion? Okay, Miss Garcia, please call for a vote. Trusty Ciosci,

263yes. Trusty Emory, yes. Trusty Rebecca, no. Trusty Ward, yes. Trusty Rawlings, yes. Motion passes 4 to1. Thank you. We now move on to 7.5 adoption 2026 2027 school year or school calendar. Trustees, this is a discussion action item. I will now hand it over to Miss Megan Aras. Thank you. Um the district calendar committee met to collaboratively develop a draft 2627 uh school calendar to recommend for board approval. Uh the calendar committee was comprised of representatives from CUDA Luna um elementary, middle, and high school principles, a parent and the director of classified. Um the proposed 2627 calendar has um three proposed items that I wanted to point out to you. Um the first one is the district has two district PD days that are usually held um before the school year starts. Um one of

264those days would have fallen on August 19th. Instead, we want to move one of those days to after school starts, which would be on October 5th, where you'll see it on the calendar. Um, this really allows an opportunity for professional development to take place after the school year has begun, which gives teachers an opportunity to get to know their students, look at their data, analyze areas of need, and really get to apply that professional learning in a focused way. Um, a lot of times at the beginning of the year, teachers are anxious to get their class list, set up their classrooms, and sometimes um, you know, the focus isn't fully on that PD. So, it's an opportunity to do that later. So that October 5th would be a non- studentent day, but teachers would be

265um paid to come to work for the professional development. The second item uh that's being proposed is to move the start of the school one week later um than when the start date was this year and has been for the past few years. Um so the start date would be September 25th um instead of September 18th, which is where it would be if it Oh, I'm so sorry. I don't know why I wrote that. What? That's a great Not that late. A great school year. We want a really long summer. I want to go back. Oh, why I wrote September. Thank you. Uh it's late. Um and so it' be August 25th and instead of August 18th and that's actually consistent with where the start date was prior to COVID. We always started then and

266then after um CO it got moved. um that when we do that, it makes us ending a week later. So, we'd be ending school on June 10th. Um if we would have kept it similar to this, so this year, our last day was June 4th, if you recall. Um if we kept it that same amount of time, we'd be ending um the 26 27 year on June 3. Um the issue that starts to happen is that with our classified staff that only work during the school year. So a lot of our instructional aids, our campus monitors, our nutrition, um they are negatively impacted in the way that there's only a few work days. Um and when they only have a few work days, that's what they're getting paid for. Um but their benefits cost more

267than that. So we, you know, we always take money from benefits out of their paycheck. So they end up not having enough on the paycheck to cover the benefits. So then they owe us money back and we have to go and recoup that money. So as the year has gotten a little bit earlier and earlier, we're seeing that um there's been this impact right now that we felt this would be a good time to kind of reset that calendar started again a week later. This lets them have at least two weeks of um of paid days in June, which is which is more helpful for them. It's also been a request that's come up the past couple of years um that we just haven't made the change. Um it also ended up working out well

268with the Sage Creek trimester system doing that. Their try two ends up beginning right after Thanksgiving break. Um and then their try three starts uh three weeks before spring break. So they get a good chunk of instruction before having a week off. So it kind of fell nicely with their trimester system um as well. And that's been consistent now with how our surrounding districts um they all ended like the second week of June. Um several of the ones around here, San Marcos and Oceanside. And um the third uh change being proposed is moving the semester break day. So that impacts doesn't impact Sage impacts CHS elementary and middle schools. um moving that semester break day to December 18th, which is the last school day before winter break. Therefore, semester 1 would be ending ending right

269before semester break. Um the semester break day again is a non- studentent day um as well. Um so this request comes up many times in the years and so we we really had a big discussion about it. Principal Redfield was really talking a lot to her staff because students always want to have like just end it where they don't have a two-eek break and then they come back to finals. Um and and the teachers felt that that adjustment could be made. It does make the two semesters uneven. It makes it about 75 days and 105 days. But when they really dug into it, um there is usually which is about three week difference. Um, but in semester 2, there's usually about two weeks that get carved up with state testing for the ESPback, district assessments

270for our STAR, ELA reading, our district common writing assessment, end of year projects, and just other activities where when they really looked at it, it kind of evensed out a little bit more um because of all that heavy testing that's done near the end of the year. So they felt like that would would not be too bad of an adjustment. Also, there's only about two to three semester courses that CHS has and they felt like they could make the adjustments um in those classes. The rest are year-long classes, so they're just adjusting their curriculum and assessment dates, which they felt would be good. And elementary and middle did not see any negative impacts with that. Um they do have wheel classes, but they can adjust those dates when they rotate at any time. It's not

271dependent on this semester. Um, so those are the three main changes and so it's respectfully recommended that the board of trustees adopt the proposed district calendar for the 2627 school year exhibit A. Thank you. And this is the time for public comment. Have any blue cards been received? We do not have any blue cards. Thank you. Trustees, do you have any questions? I did um uh when you were looking at the calendar, did you also take into account uh Veterans Day? Yes. Um, you know, in the past we did use one of those August PD days when I think Veterans Day landed on like a Tuesday or something and we plugged it in on the Monday because we were anticipating a lot of students wouldn't come and use as a longer week. This time it

272it kind of ended right in the middle of the week. So, we didn't think it would people would take off a long weekend. Um, so we were also kind of we also took into consideration the classified staff because it will be a non-paid day for them. So we really look at how many non-paid days do they have each month and we tried to select a month that wouldn't negatively impact their paycheck again. So we're really trying to make sure we take that into consideration when we decide days. Thank you. Any other questions? No questions. May I have a motion to adopt the proposed uh district calendar for the 2627 school year? So moved. Second. Motion by Trustee Seos, second by Trusty PF. Discussion. Well, I have to say I'm thrilled and um I I do

273think that um at least parents that I know really appreciate that extra couple weeks that they can enjoy our beautiful town without a bunch of tourists. And so when you were saying that other districts are starting earlier, it's like that means we get our little town to ourselves. So um so I'm thrilled that we're going back to this and you know I I liked when you were talking September because um you know I I I still would like to see us go past Labor Day, but I I'm not sure I'll see that. So um unless we want to make that happen. Um if we want to have a special meeting for that, we could do that, too. Um so uh um so anyway, any other discussion? Miss Garcia, please call for a vote. Trusty COC,

274yes. Trusty Emory, yes. Trusty Burbad, yes. Trusty Ward, yes. Trusty Rawlings, yes. Motion passes 5 to zero. Thank you. Uh, next item is 7.6 approval contract amendment for unrepresented employee assistant superintendent personnel services employment contract trustees. This is a discussion action item. I will now hand it over to Dr. Andrea Norman. Thank you. Good evening. The assistant superintendents have individual employment contracts that set forth the terms and conditions of their employment with the district. Among other things, the assistant superintendent contracts establish that compensation will be increased or reduced by the same percentage applied to all certificated management employees. Any costs associated with contract amendments for the district's unrepresented employees, including the assistant superintendent, have been included in the 2526 adopted budget. It is respectfully recommended that the board of trustees approve a contract extension through

275June 30th, 2028 to the assistant superintendent personnel services employment contract. Thank you. This is time for public comment. Have any blue cards been received? We do not have any blue cards. Thank you. Trustees, do you have any questions? No questions. I may have a motion to approve a contract extension through June 30th, 2028 to the assistant superintendent personal services employment contract. Second. Moved by Trusty Emory, second by Trusty Verbth. Is there any discussion? No discussion. Miss Garcia, please call for a vote. Trusty Coi, yes. Trusty Emory, yes. Trusty Burbette, yes. Trusty Ward, yes. Trusty Rawlings. Yes. Motion passes 5 to zero. Thank you. We now move on to item 7.7 approval assistant superintendent business services employment contract. Trustees, this is a discussion action item. I will now hand it over to Dr. Andrew Norman. Thank

276you, President Rawlings. Trustees, assistant superintendent Dill resigned from his position effective January 31st, 2025 to pursue employment with Powe Unified School District. In accordance with the personnel commission rules, the position was posted and selected candidates were invited to interview and a selection was made. Dr. Rob Nye was selected to fill the vacant position pending approval of an employment contract effective July 1, 2025 as outlined in exhibit A. Thank you. And uh this is time for public comment. Have any blue cards been received? We do not have any blue cards. Thank you trustes. Are there any questions? May I have a motion to approve the employment contract exhibit A for the new assistant superintendent of business services effective July 1, 2025. So moved. Second. Motion by Trustee COC, second by Trusty Verbbeth. Uh discussion. I will

277be voting no on uh the contract. I um I do have concerns about um having such a new cabinet. Um and I um I want to be consistent with my vote from close session as well. So I will be voting no on that contract. Any other discussion? Other discussion? Miss Garcia, please call for a vote. Trusty COC? Yes. Trusty Emory? Yes. Trusty Verbath? Yes. Trusty Ward? Yes. Trusty Rawlings? No. Motion passes four to one. Thank you. We now move on to item 7.8, reading difficulties, risk screener instructional materials adoption. Trustees, this is a discussion action item. I will now hand it over to Dr. Knight. Thank you again. This item was first presented to the board on May 21st, 2025 following a comprehensive evaluation process by a pilot team representing all elementary sites. The team

278recommended adopting amplify McLass with Dibbles 8th edition due to its ability to identify reading skill gaps, provide timely data, and support intervention planning. The materials have been available and on display since that board meeting on May 21st here at the district office. And tonight we're bringing this item forward for board action to begin the implementation in the 20 2526 school year. With that, I'll turn it back over to President Rawlings. Thank you. This is the time for public comment. Have any blue cards been received? We do not have any blue cards. Thank you. Trustees, do you have any questions? May I have a motion to adopt the recommended screening tool amplify MC class with Dibbles Dibbles? motion I need to finish please. Um like get out of here eighth edition for implementation in the 2025

2792026 school year. What time is it? Motion second. Motion by Trusty Ward, second by Trustee Emory. Uh discussion discussion. Miss Garcia, please call for a vote. Trustee Coi. Yes. Trustee Emory. Yes. Yes. Trusty Verbat. Yes. Trusty Ward. Yes. Trusty Rawlings. Yes. Motion passes five to zero. Thank you. We now move on to item 7.9, resignation of board clerk and election of new clerk to the board. Trustees, this is a discussion action item. I will now hand it over to Dr. Norman. Thank you, President Rawlings, trustees. Trustee Gretchen Verbett, who currently serves as clerk to the board, has formally submitted her resignation as the clerk of the board effective immediately. This voluntary resignation creates a vacancy in the officer position that now requires board action to appoint a new clerk from among its current members consistent

280with ED code 35039 to ensure continuity in execution of board responsibilities and compliance with education code and board policy. The board must formally acknowledge the resignation of the current clerk and proceed with the nomination and election of a new clerk to serve for the remainder of the 2425 term. It is recommended that the board formally acknowledge and accept the resignation of trustee Gresian Verbbeck from the position of clerk to the board and nominate and elect a new clerk from among the current board members to serve for the remainder of the 2425 board term. President Rawlings, I now hand it back over to you. Thank you. Thank you. This is the time for public comment. Have any blue cards been received? We do not have any blue cards. Thank you. Trustees, do you have any questions

281of staff? I have one way. Thank you. Um, so I just want to um ask for clarification. Um, for education code um states that the board may request a resignation or um or may dismiss, but they don't the board doesn't have to dismiss. Is that correct? Correct. The board did not request the resignation. Okay. Correct. So, it was a formal resignation that was brought forth by trustee Bobth. Correct. Okay. By choice. Correct. Carol. Any other questions? May I have a motion to accept the resignation of trustee Gretchen Verbbeth from the position of clerk to the board and nominate and elect from among the current board members to serve for the remainder of the 25 board term. Motion second motion by trustee Ward second by trustee coc discussion trusty bab. So, I just want to clarify

282for the record that what I stated last week at our meeting was that I would not be willing to sign off on the minutes um of the May 21st meeting because I believe they were an error and they did not reflect uh the bo the vote that the board took and per ED code 3509 39. Um, I am not resigning but but refusing to perform my duties as the clerk, which then provides for the board to replace me as clerk and notify the superintendent of schools for the county of its action. A resignation would fall under EDC 35038. Um, so yes, uh, a letter was sent. Um, but I'm just bringing clarification to that I am refusing to perform my duties. And so it's just a little bit of a nuance there, but it's clear

283that the board can replace me as clerk. Um, I also want to say that the confusion regarding the LCA cap priorities fund earlier this evening is the direct result of the inaccuracy of our minutes since the December minutes state that the board voted to take action and our attorney later reinterpreted that action as a request which was later rejected. None of that is reflected in the minutes, which means not only does the public have no idea what our board is doing at our meetings, even our own staff does not know. I fully expect that we will always we will not always agree and vote the same way on issues before our board. But it is beyond me that we cannot even agree on what we're voting on and later change our minds in order to

284avoid legal liability. Other discussion you want? Yeah, you go ahead, Trusty. Um, I'm I'm just going to say that um I do disagree with you, Trusty Burbell, that I do feel like your request for the minutes um was inaccurate. I I believe that you know after looking at video that we what was captured in the minutes was accurate. But what I what I don't think is accurate is a lot of the emails that we have been receiving have spoken to how you are being forced off of um that role as clerk. And um what I heard was that it was posted on one of your socials and when I went and took a look at it, it is stated by you that it has been that you were forced um to be not to be

285clerk and that's inaccurate and I am just sharing that you know that's really disappointing. I think it's not effective for the board. Um, you know, we we had an a an agreement and created that board handbook even though it's hard for me to find, but we had it and also that we would be one voice and um so um I will be voting yes for this. Trusty, I'd like to reply to that. No, in in no way did I ever use the word forced. if you'd like to show that to me, I'd love to see it. But I never use that word. I explain myself exactly as I explained myself this evening. So, I did not receive any emails from anybody in the community. Um, maybe you want to forward those to me because I

286did not use the word forced. Um, I do have some discussion. Um, I mean, it doesn't surprise me that you would abdicate your statutory obligation. Um, and because ultimately your statuto obligation is to the board. It's not your personal opinion or your um what you what you think the minutes were to say it. You're you're signing it on behalf of the board. So you can you know just like I you know you know I got outvoted four to one. I'm not you know I'm not going to run around and say oh you know I got forced out of or or whatever. You know the ed code says I have to step down or anything. What I'm saying is is that when the board takes action as the clerk, you're supposed to sign on behalf of

287the board even if you disagree and but that's your statutory obligation. The one thing the one question I do have for you is when you said that you had to step down. I that's the part I don't understand is you know why do you think you had to s to step down? I I am not going to sign minutes that do not reflect the vote or what happens in our meetings. I'm not going to put my name on that. And so, yes, you can say that the whole board's voting on that, but I gave everybody an option last week to modify the minutes so that they reflected exactly what we did. And we even have a letter from our attorney saying what we were voting on was not what the discussion was about. There's confusion

288and we need to have this all be clarified and the public needs to know because what the attorney said is what we voted on was for a certificated employee within CUSD, not a certificated employee within Salana Beach. And so we voted on a policy that would give a certificated employee within CUSD to receive those that compensation. It's completely different and that's what the attorney weighed in on. But the attorney did not say that you you could not sign these um because that would be illegal to sign them. And so but this is my choice. I'm deciding not to do it anymore. But again, but that's what I'm suggesting is is that is that you're saying it's your choice, but then you also said that you had to do it. You didn't have to do that.

289You could have said um and we're going to be talking about it in a minute as far as that you could wave it for one meeting and continue on. But you you've again you've decided to abdicate your your statutory obligation and um and again I'm not very surprised that you would do such a thing but um well I'm not surprised Kathy that you threw a coup because you wanted to remain president and the whole reason a clerk is in this position is to then move up to VP and then move up to president. And so there's no reason I should be here. And you're demonstrating exactly why I didn't vote for you for president. Of course, and that I wouldn't want you in agenda planning because you think about yourself and not what best. I

290think about discussions. No, I won't be cut off. I think about our entire community. I was elected by our community and I represent our students and I do and I am part of the board but I am not going to sign things that do not reflect what happens in our meetings and that's why I take this stand and it's not that I had to know it's your statutory obligation to do so and so and again if you're not willing to abide by your statutory obligation then you can call it whatever you want thing that you are president because then there would be lots of things that and I never will be as long as you're on the board. Trusty. Yes. Um just to clarify um I'm sorry I did misspeak. I did look it up.

291It says you are being removed and um that is what it what it states. However, that that does imply and then we did receive emails. I think we all received the emails because they went to the entire board about I'm sorry. there's somebody that took that as an implication of being forced off. So um and you know it is implied when you're saying that you are being removed um rather than stating that you have um yourself had made the deci decision to resign and I think that's what should be stated so it's clear for our community and and that's you know being transparent being honest. I believe I was honest. Trusty C. My understanding in reading Gretchen uh Trusty Verbbeth's uh post was that she felt a moral obligation to step down. She felt it

292was in keeping with her principles to step down. It's really unfortunate that that's being twisted, Kathy, to make it like she is lacking in moral character for standing for that. I think the most important role we have as board members is to be representatives of the community that we all serve. She is attempting to do that to the best of her ability. So, I I completely disagree with the way that you put a spin on that. And what I'm saying is is that when you accept a nomination for a position and you take you accept the position, there's statutory legal obligations that you are required to do. And again, there we've all got those comments about you, right? Of course. And as we talked in the beginning, you know, you don't like hateful things said

293about you. I don't like hateful things said about me. There's a little bit of a difference between things that you've done in board meetings and calling somebody racial slurers. Okay, it's very different. I'm not going to get into that. That's not what we're here to discuss and it's off topic. So anyway, other discussion. I'm just following what the ED code is and that's what I commented on because I am not going to I'm refusing to sign. It is my choice to refuse to sign because I do not believe that those minutes represent what happened in our meeting and I have that right to do that, Kathy. And if if I never sit in this seat again as clerk, so be it. And this is my moral obligation to stand on this. Thank you. I have

294one last one last thing to say. Um and I trust COC, I I agree with you. We do support our community. Um but what we do even do even much more than that and what's bigger than that is that we are on this board to support the students in our school district and to do the work on this board means that we are doing the work for our students and if we are following um you know what's required of us regardless of our differences I think it's really important that we are focused focused on what's important for kids and, you know, be able to move forward from things that, you know, aren't necessarily the way they go, the way we want them to go. Um, so I just those are my last thoughts. Trusty C,

295when I comment on the community that we serve, that's the students are exactly what I'm talking about. We are here for public school students. That is the community that we serve and and I think Gretchen is attempting to do that. The hostility that's been involved in this board is how we got here. We need to find ways to move forward. I I don't think further attacks on any individual trustees are helpful with that. And also with regard to serving Beth. Hi. Go ahead. Thank you, President Rawlings. Um, when we serve students, we are modeling for students. So, what I'm doing is I'm modeling honesty and integrity. I'm not modeling hostility. I'm not modeling that I'm being a poor sport, that I didn't win a vote. I'm modeling honesty and integrity. And that's what I'm modeling

296to the community. Trusty Henry It was my motion. I just want to say, you know, that's exactly what I was trying to discuss and we found out after the fact that it doesn't change at the meeting. Um, and it was never my intention to so much controversy around that. You know, I know that as well going forward because I think just a little clarification um with that would have been helpful. Um I think that's so my to put anyone into a tricky situation. Um I really just wanted to myself as much as possible, which I don't foresee. Hopefully I know that is um your choice and I will respect it if it is your choice and I appreciate your intention. I think what I am doing is I'm taking a stand because I believe that

297this has been an ongoing issue. It's this is not the first time that this has happened and it's a it's a call to all of us to do our job. You know, what are we voting on? and does staff are they advising us accurately and are we doing our own homework and are we voting on what we think we're voting on and that's that's what this is about. This isn't just about May 21st. This is about an ongoing pattern and we need to stop. And just to be clear, the December 18th uh minutes do say staff to take a stabilization arrangement and put what is equal to 2% over the state requirement and collapse that into one object code that states board LCAP priorities fund consensus by show of thumbs 32. So that and you

298signed those minutes. Shocker. Anyway, any other discussion? Then uh Miss Garcia, please call for vote. Trusty COC, can we clarify what it is that we are voting on? Can you restate what the question is when we have this long of discussion in between? May I have a motion to accept the resignation or the motion is accept the resignation of trustee Gretchen Verbbeth from the position of clerk to the board and nominate and elect from among the current board members to serve for the remainder of the 25 the 2025 board term. What's your vote? Yes. Thank you. Trusty Emmery, yes. Trusty Burbette, yes. Trusty Warden, yes. Trusty Rollings, yes. Motion passes 5 to zero. Thank you. The floor is now open for nominations for clerk of the board. Are there any um are there any nominations?

299I would like to nominate um Allison Emory. Thank you. Are there any further nominations? No nominations. Um, Trusty Emmery has been nominated for the position of clerk of the board of the board of trustees. May I have a motion to approve Trusty Emmy? Motion. I'll second. Um, and that's that. Trusty Ward and Trustee Rawlings. Uh, any discussion? No discussion. Miss Garcia, please call for a vote. Trusty COC, yes. Trusty Emory, yes. Trusty Verbat, yes. Trusty Ward, yes. Trusty Rollings, yes. Motion passes 5 to zero. Thank you. Please let the record show that Trustee Emory has been elected as clerk of the board of trustees for the remainder of the 2025 school year. Thank you. We now move on to item 7.10, 10 waiver of board bylaw 9324 approval and signing of meeting minutes from May

30021, 2025 and June 11th, 2025. Trustees, this is a discussion action item. I will now hand it over to Dr. Thank you, President Rawlings. Trustees, board bylaw 9324 requires that the minutes of each regular or special meeting be approved by the board and signed by the clerk as an accurate record. Typically, this approval and signing occur at the subsequent regular board meeting. However, due to trustee Gretchen Burve stepping down from the position of board clerk, the standard procedure has been delayed or rendered impractical for the meeting minutes of May 21st, 2025 and June 11, 2025. To ensure timely and accurate documentation of board meetings, the board is being asked to consider a one-time waiver of bylaw 9324 to allow for an alternate signing process for the May 21 and June 11, 2025 meeting minutes. This

301waiver would apply only to those these two meetings and is not intended as a permanent change to the policy. If approved, the board president will be temporarily assigned to sign the May 21st and June 11th minutes on behalf of the clerk, ensuring the official records are completed in a timely and transparent manner. It is recommended that the board approve a one-time waiver of board bylaw 9324 to allow the board president to sign the May 21st and June 11, 2025 meeting minutes in place of the clerk due to the transition in that role. Thank you. This is the time for public comment. Have any blue cards been received? We do not have any blue cards. Thank you. Trustees, do you have any questions? No. May I have a motion to approve a one-time waiver of board

302bylaw 9324 to allow the board president to sign the May 821 and June 11, 2025 meeting minutes in place of the clerk. Motion. Second. It's a motion from Trusty Ward, second from Trustee Emory. Uh any discussion? Miss Garcia, please call for a vote. Trusty COC. I'm completely clear on who I am. I'm just not completely clear on what I how I want. The motion is approve a one-time waiver of board bylaw 9324 to allow the board president to sign the May 21st and the June 11th, 2025 meeting minutes in place of the cleric. I'm going to say no. Trusty Emmery, yes. Trusty Burbbeth, no. Trusty Ward, yes. Trusty Rawlings, yes. Motion passes three to two. Thank you. Uh we're now at item 8.1, governance team reports. This is the time for trustees to provide a

303brief report if they've attended committee meetings where they represent the district. Are there any governance team reports? Okay. Uh thank you. We move on to item 8.2. Trustee request for information from staff. 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? Um, this just came up earlier during our discussion about the um domains being available. So, I wanted to make that request. Go ahead. Okay. I would like to make a request for just math um to be provided for the MTSS groups. the math domains please and provided. Um, so are you looking for consensus from the board? Oh yes, I'm looking for consensus from the board. Are there any objections? I hear any objections? Staff clear on the

304request? Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Any other information? Okay. Uh, thank you. Move on to item 8.3. Trustee requests 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? [Music] It is 10:36 7 10:37 and the regular meeting is now adjourned. Our next regular meeting will take place on August 20th, 2025 at 6 p.m. at the Carlsb Unified School District office. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. It's not adjourned. It's not adjourned. Um a point of personal privilege. Um, I want to thank Suzanne Oonnell for uh stepping in and uh helping us and uh being um uh being part of our team again. And I think I put in your card that uh um we'll we're

305going to keep your name plate just in case. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. So now So now we're journed.