001Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Good evening and welcome to the November 12th uh regular board meeting of the Carpenter Unified School District. If I could everybody please stand for the flag. Oh, you know what? I'm sorry, Rick. Roll call. Sorry, guys. Erin, would you mind doing the roll call for me? >> Um Eric, >> hi. >> Jamie, >> I >> and Janette, >> I >> am I. >> Okay, >> I'm here. >> Now, can everybody please stand for the flag salute? [clears throat] >> Ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United [music] States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, now that we've all stretched our updowns, um we are going to move into public comment for items
002not on this evening's agenda. So, if you'd like to speak on something that is not within this evening's agenda, please step up to the podium now. So, thank you. As an elected employee representative, I'll provide comments this evening on behalf of district employees. In the last few years, CUSD's board has done much to reduce the public's ability to provide public comment on district operations and decision-making. After the arrival of Miss Diamond and Mr. Smith, the board ended the historic practice of allowing members of the public to seed speaking minutes to another speaker. This reduced the possibility of speaking on a single agenda item from up to nine minutes to just three items per or three minutes per speaker. The board pursued this 66% reduction in available public speaker minutes regardless of the importance, scope, or
003impact of the agenda item uh had on district employees and students and families. Then in conflict with 25 years of practice, the school board further reduced public comment on each individual agenda item. Now public speakers are only permitted three minutes per broad agenda category versus three minutes per agenda item. For example, just this evening, this change accounts for a 60% reduction in speaking opportunities on top of the previous 66% reduction in speaking minutes after the board prohibited the seating of speaking minutes. Unfortunately, restrictions on public participation did not end there. Three months ago, the board reduced community input even further, cutting the number of regularly scheduled board meetings in half from just two meetings a month to now only a single regular meeting per month. As a result, just half the opportunities to publicly address
004the board remain in place. And that's after the 60% reduction in agendaized opportunities and 66% reduction in overall speaker minutes. When compared to just three years ago, the board's arbitrary changes to public speaking opportunities leaves just 16% of the total speaking minutes per agenda item available to a member of the public. No wonder board meetings are often so poorly attended. These decisions were not designed to increase transparency, participation, and buyin. And it is correct to predict that they will continue to undermine the quality of the board's decision-making. Unfortunately, when examining the performance of our current district officials, Miss Alcarez excluded, examples of poorly informed decision-making abound. In three years, the decisions of district officials have contributed to the loss of approximately 275 district students, sharp declines in student achievement, and a 7 to eight-fold increase
005in annual legal costs. And that's before the $5 million in 1970s abuse case settlements are even counted. District officials must begin to listen to those who work directly with students and parents as well as listen to the vast majority of families who serve who are served by district employees but do not share the privilege and economic stability enjoyed by our schoolboard members. It is time to remove your fingers from your ears. When you do, elected employee leadership will still be here ready to work with you directly. Thank you. >> Okay. Any further public comment for items not on this evening's agenda? >> Yeah. Oh, uh, this is Jay's, uh, translation in Spanish. [clears throat] [snorts] Miss Diamond Mr. Smith restricts. particip. Missover [clears throat] legal. Uh, SOS All right. So now I would like to
006proceed with my own public comment first uh in Spanish and then in English. Okay. Section Carpenter. Riby seor sha ran. Contra. Brown. Jamie Diamond Deon Orin. All right. uh in English on October 14, 2025, section G, the warrants at the 1 minute and 52 seconds mark when I was pointing out that the district should focus on education, not on lawsuits wasting millions of dollars. I noticed the laughing of superintendent Riby and Cler Schaefer. I had just mentioned that the district should take care of its budget just like uh the city officials take care of its budget and legal fees. I mentioned that the brand act says that when the superintendent is disrespectful, the school board uh intervenes, but Cler Schaefer was involved. the board president in this case uh Jamie uh Diamond should intervene or
007should have intervened. Point number two, regarding the uh uh the local bond uh that depressions, how can I make a public comment when uh I didn't know about the special meeting? Uh Miss uh Alcanas, you voted in favor of that meeting, so you are uh responsible for it. still have time. Yeah, it's not really not even uh uh two minutes. >> I don't know. I changed it to when he start speaking on his own. >> Yeah. >> No, it's No. >> Was that? >> No. No. I t myself. I >> No, you didn't give him you didn't restart it after he finished his Spanish. No comments. >> When he put it when he doing the translation I put three. Then when he said I am going to give my own comments now I change it
008again to three. >> Yeah. And so he did it in Spanish and then he gets another three in English. >> Yes. But >> you mean yeah his own comments. >> So we don't need that. I'm I'm working for you here. How about you just not work against me. I'm trying to help you. Calm down, please. >> Okay. So he now he Yeah. So, uh, please go ahead. >> How many minutes do you want me to give? >> Well, he had about a minute in, so give two to finish his comments. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. Uh, I'm going to start all over again. The second the second point, [clears throat] uh, Miss Agaras, you voted in favor of that municipal bond. You hesitated. I noticed it. You should have bought it.
009No or she you should have abstained. I did it a few times from 2016 20120. Now you are also responsible of that debt. According to the district, that bond will be used to pay for the settlement of the fourth uh man of the sex abuse of the 70s. What is something to be worried about is that uh the district has not paid all of its uh legal obligation meaning money judgments. So uh I hope and the community hopes that that bond is used for the purpose of that settlement with the fourth man and not uh used for current or future uh legal mistakes. Thank you. Okay. Wonderful. Okay. Moving on. Um, we're moving on to the approval of the minutes for uh October 14th and the special meeting of October 28th. Um, I do have
010one uh correction for the October 14th minutes. It mentions in um where is it? C6, I believe it is. C5, C. Nope, C5. Um, it record. Was that C5? >> C6. Sorry, just pulling back up. I lost my spot. C. >> Here we go. Here we go. Under C6, um, approval of agenda and consent agenda, it states, uh, lists the board members who were voting and it accidentally wrote green instead of Alcarez. So, um, C6, uh, when it comes to a motion of approval, I will ask with the amendment of, um, striking green and, uh, adding Alcarez. So, public comment for B3, approval of the minutes A and B. >> Not two public comment opportunities, but one for both meetings. Is that correct? >> Yeah. >> So, just as CUSD's officials intended, there is no
011way to properly cover the breadth of events that took place at the past two board meetings in just three minutes. That said, we'll focus our attention on the October 28th schoolboard meeting where district officials unanimously increased CUSD's ability to take on debt so it could pay off financial obligations imposed by multiple judicial bodies and state courts. Let the minutes show that on Tuesday, October 28th, CUSD held a special board meeting uh but for elected employee leaders and a CUSD lawyer, no members of the public were present. Let the minutes show, in an effort to free up funds to pay legal penalties associated with CUSD's unlawful behavior, district officials unanimously improve CUSD's ability to take on increased debt to pay off other costly legal obligations. Let the minutes show that recently Fitch Ratings New York revised
012its outlook on CUSD's issuer debt or issuer default rating to negative. Let the minutes show. Although district officials said the increased debt will only be used to settle 1970 sexual abuse lawsuits, there would be no need to pursue this debt funding scheme had district officials not squandered over three and a half to 4 million trying to silence employees and their elected employee representatives. Let the minutes show that a significant chunk of the remaining legal debts CUSD must still resolve result from the district from district officials decision to engage in unlawful behaviors against special education families. Miss Riby, let the minutes show that elected employee leadership discouraged district officials from changing board policies to resolve their previous fiscal mismanagement on the backs of local taxpayers. Let the minutes show that but for Miss Alcarez, the very
013same district officials who led CUSD into many of its unlawful actions are the same district officials supporting the October 28th debt funding scheme. Let the minutes show these same district officials provided no asurances that they won't use this new debt relief to pursue the same unlawful behaviors that put them in this position in the first place. and let the minutes show that employees can be proud of one detail. Even though district officials tried behind closed doors to bait employee representatives into supporting their debt funding scheme, we refused, significantly reducing the amount of interest taxpayers will end up paying for CUSD's fiscal mismanagement. >> Mr. Delgado will translate to the union. Thank you. >> Roel res [clears throat] number one. Legalis. Excellences. uh abus. Thank you. >> Okay, we are on going to make a I
014make a motion that we approve the minutes of the regular meeting of October 14th with the amendment striking green and uh adding Alcarz to C6. Um and then also uh approval of the minutes of the special meeting of October 28th. May I get a second? >> Second that. >> Okay. Um all in favor? >> I >> Okay. Uh B4, approval of the agenda and consent agenda. And I do before we get to public comment, I do have a change on that. I will be bringing forward G2A and B um to happen before D public interests and reports and presentations. So G2 A and B oh sorry just A uh G2A will get moved before D. Um so immediately following approval of agenda and consent agenda we will go into G2A. Um and I will allow
015for >> it. No. Okay. Okay. G. >> Okay. Again, G2A will happen before D is what I will be asking to amend the agenda to. Um, and people will have the opportunity to comment on G2A before we vote on it in addition to their time for the rest of G. They'll have that separate. So, there'll be a public comment on G2A and then also public comment on the rest of G later when it's time in the agenda. So, uh, public comment for approval of the agenda and consent agenda at this time. All righty. Thank you. So, in regard to the consent agenda item number five, union leadership again asked why the regular October payroll for 2025 does not discriminate between a the cost of classified site level support staff working directly with kids and b
016the cost of senior district administrators. Why doesn't CUSD separate the costs of bus drivers, food service workers, instructional aids, secretarial staff, and custodians from the cost of superintendent, assistant superintendent, and human resource coordinator whose salaries are five to six times those of classified employees who work directly with students. We asked that question at several the last several board meetings. Not only did district officials fail to answer it at minute 2035, all but Miss Riby alleged that they did not even know what expenditures were included in the data guiding their decisions. Last board meeting, after assuring the public otherwise, Miss Riby stated that administrative salary and benefit costs are not included in the classified totals under consent agenda item number five. At minute 12749, Mr. calf stated that he did not believe that admin were included,
017but said he would check, Mr. Calf, a full month has passed. Have you checked? If so, could you please share what you found once this public comment is over? For those wondering why it matters, elected employee leadership again shares several concerns. By conflating admin costs with classified unit costs, the public cannot compare the cost of administrators with the cost of those who work directly with students. By complating these costs, CUSD can misrepresent the number of dollars it spends on CUS on classified staff working directly with students. For example, CUSD recently suggested at board meetings and in the local paper an average of 22.87 87 students are served by each instructional aid when actually the majority of special or the majority of general education classes are populated with 40 to 70% students designated as special education
018504 and/or non-English-speaking and simultaneously 95% of the instructional aid support has been removed from those classes. Conflating the admin and unit member salaries also makes it easier to hide this unpleasant fact. Over the last five years, CUSD has spent less on its operating less on less of its operating budget on all classified staff than it spent on legal services and related operating expenditures associated with administrative misconduct and mismanagement. Shame on you CSD CUSD for spinning these facts. Your behavior in this area is neither ethical nor professional and it undermines the achievement and education of the vast majority of students in the district. Okay. Um I will move to approve the agenda and consent agenda um with the amendment of moving G2A ahead of D. May I get a second? >> I'll second. Any discussion? Okay.
019Uh, roll call. >> Eric, >> I Janette >> I. >> Jamie, >> I am I. >> Okay. And with that, we are going to move to G2A. Um, gifts, grants, donations. We have a donation from Carpa Education Foundation to Carpa Unified School District, and we are being asked to accept this donation from CF of $20,000 to CUSD for additional enrichment expenses. Thank you so much. Um, do we have any questions on this item for the board? Okay. No. Okay. Um, public comment on G2A. >> Um, did we forget to give Mr. Calf an opportunity to answer that question? >> G2A public comment is what we were on right now. >> I guess we didn't forget. Is that right? Thank you. Okay. So, no public comment on G2A. Uh, may I get a motion to approve?
020>> I'll move to approve with gratitude. >> Second. Thank you very much. >> And all in favor? >> I thank you so much. And I believe we have a check presentation. >> Please come up and join us. >> Please come up and right up here. Thank you so much for coming tonight. Really appreciate it. Thank you. >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you CF and everybody that showed up. Um, thank you to our community that that supports CF and our students. Um, we're incredibly grateful. And I love the shirts. >> Oh, no. Great schools don't just happen. And I can't read from here the sec the next line, but >> Carpenter Education Foundation. Okay. Fabulous. Well, thank you so much. We really appreciate your support. >> Good night. Thank you. [applause] >> Okay. And we
021are now going to move to D. Public interest reports and presentations. We will take public comment on any of the items that fall under D. Please step up to the podium now. All righty. So, here goes our 3minut monthly opportunity to comment on all topics under public interest reports presentations. An average of just 36 seconds per item in this important agenda category. With policies like these, it appears district officials do not really want to hear from the public unless they are being showered with praise. We'll have to forego further well-deserved applause from Miss Garcia. Questions about SB640 or comments on Miss Rigy's annual goals, which are often an exercise in educational platitudes. After nine years of routinely falling short, Miss Rigby's failure to accomplish her annual goals, has yet to have any bearing on the
022superintendent's annual performance evaluations. Instead, we'll use our increasingly restricted speaking time to highlight how the superintendent's report routinely spins the facts rather than provide genuine insight on the business of the district. For example, the report celebrates over $171,000 in gifts from Lentra Summerland, praising their generosity. However, to this date and after several requests for transparency, neither the district nor Lentra Summerland have shared the nature of Lentra's business ventures. The community deserves to know where this money is coming from. In celebrating Lentra Summerland's generosity, Miss Riby avoids discussing the expectations Lentra Summerland has when gifting hundreds of thousands of dollars to CUSD. Miss Riby avoids discussing why our robustly funded basic aid district must rely so heavily on private donations and why CUSD's extraordinary legal expenses and related financial mismanagement now require private donors to fund
023field trips afterchool tutoring clubs assemblies new PE equipment swim lessons math night robotics expansion and the culinary arts program in this section titled progress monitoring CMS CHS achievement you'll hear Miss Riby focus us on three data cells where the percent of students with D's and Fs has declined a total of 7%. However, Miss Rigby's report sidesteps the cells that confirm that 32% increase in D's and Fs in the remaining grades. 32%. No wonder D's and Fs are up even when administration continues to water down economic expectations while claiming that we are in pursuit of content mastery. In an effort to save money, the district has taken a new approach to scheduling classes. Currently, over 50% of general education classes across the district are now populated by students with special needs, 504 students, students with at
024risk and aggressive behaviors or non-English-speaking students. Meanwhile, CUSD has removed approximately 95 of the direct instructional aid support in those very classes. critical support that faculty need to work with these kids that we like working with. Miss Rigby's reports, Miss Rigby reports, principles are working with their departments and teachers to analyze student progress and to make adjustments in instruction, assignments, and learning experiences for failing students. Expectations will be lowered even further. Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. uh Rogado. Uh I'm just going to focus on the uh superintendent report. First of all, I thank you uh our uh student representative for showing up. Could be at home, you know, doing homework, but thank you for your your service. I really hope that uh students uh improve their grades. I would like to see uh better
025academic achievement uh from uh special uh education and Hispanic students. Uh they are the most vulnerable uh students in the district. They need more time to study and they need more attention. uh uh dedicated uh from uh uh teachers to them. Uh I also [clears throat] read the statistics on this and uh if from uh middle school and and high school uh students uh but I didn't read on the subjects that that they need help is it on math? Is it on uh reading? Uh is it on uh writing uh essays? I hope that uh we all can see uh an improvement on every student. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, and we are going to move into our student representative report with Lacy. Please take it away. >> Hi, my name is Lacy Zimmerman
026and I'm happy to report that the final six weeks of the semester are here and it's definitely a busy time at Carperia High School. Um, the seniors are finalizing their college applications, including myself, and FASA for the end of the month deadlines. Support workshops are also available daily and nightly at the college and career center. Both girls and boys cross country teams have qualified for CIF prelims um which is a first in over a decade. The girls placed second and the boys fourth at the CCL finals earning their trip to Mount Sack this Friday. In girls tennis on Monday, November 24th, the CIF sectionals will happen. Doubles will be held at CHS and singles at Kate. In the doubles, Charlotte and Caroline Cooney with alternates Emily Banks and Kayn Gillan and singles Aubrey Alcarez with
027Izzy Scott as the alternate. Winter sports are also coming. This week brings the final preparations before the debut of our winter teams, including new head coaches for boys basketball and girls water polo, plus the return of our veteran soccer and girls basketball coaches. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Lacy. Any questions or comments for Lacy from the board? No. Okay. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. And now we're moving on to our student or sorry, our superintendent report. >> Love to be a student. >> I know. >> Thank you, Lacy. Good luck with your applications. Yeah, we know you'll [clears throat] be working hard on them. Okay. I'd like to begin with appreciation and I'd like to recognize athletic director Pat Cooney, our CHS boosters, coaches, and all of our CHS student athletes
028for a victorious fall season of high school athletics. Girls tennis and boys water polo earned Citrus Coast League championships, while the cross country teams participated in the Citrus Coast League final to qualify for CIFSS prelims at Mount San Antonio College on November 14th. My next item is related to Lentra Summerland Foundation and our students are the beneficiaries of their generosity with $1,700, excuse me, with $171,900 worth of grants for Aliso Canalino Middle School and High School. These funds will support educational enrichment activities that include field trips, afterchool tutoring, clubs, assemblies, new PE equipment, swim lessons, math night, robotics expansion, and culinary arts. We are so grateful for this amazing support for our students and programs. We also are very uh appreciative and grateful for our CF who've generously donated $5,000 to each school site. So
029that's our $20,000 for additional enrichment activities for students. And please plan to attend their annual gayla on February 7th at the Rencon Beach Club to celebrate 32 years of enhancing educational opportunities for CUSD students. My next item is related to the Williams settlement annual visit summary of 2526. The county office completed William Settlement annual visit at the middle school and high school in October and reported the following. That both schools had sufficient instructional materials. That their overall rating was good and they had accurate school accountability report cards and the uniform complaint procedures were posted in all classrooms. My next item refers to the National School Psychology Week. National School Psychology Week of 2025 was held from November 3rd to the 7th with the theme finding your path. The week is sponsored by the National Association
030of School Psychologists to highlight the work of school psychologists in supporting students mental health and academic success. activities will focus on celebrating their contributions and providing resources for creating a supportive learning environment. We'd like to celebrate and thank our CUSD school psychologists, Rob Santiago at the high school, Megan Fella at the middle school, Katie Lewis at Kennalino and Family School, and Danielle Zhan at Aliso and Summerland. Next week, we will be holding our TK to5 parent conferences. Parent participation in their child's education is critical to academic achievement and we are looking forward to high parent participation in the elementary parent conferences next week. Teachers carefully prepare student progress reports to help parents understand grade level progress as well as to provide home activities to reinforce reading, writing, and math skills. All students should read a
031minimum of 30 minutes per night and practice math facts to increase fluency and automaticity. We expect that elementary students will be reading and mastering math skills at grade level by the end of fifth grade to ensure academic success in middle and high schools. We depend on our parents to make reading and practicing math facts priorities in their homes and we are grateful for their partnership. At CHS, our economics teacher, Julie Shamblin, and her senior economics class are sponsoring the annual CHS Friendsgiving lunchon for the entire CHS campus on Thursday, November 20th. Parents and staff donate the delicious pumpkin pies and administrators serve the turkey lunch prepared by CUSD food services. My next item is related to our annual California healthy kids survey. This survey is annual, anonymous, and an online assessment for students, parents, and
032staff in grades 5, 7, 9, and 11. It is focused on the five most important areas for guiding school and student improvement: student connectedness, school climate, school safety, the physical and mental well-being, and social emotional learning, and student supports. This year's healthy kids survey is available between November 10th and December 19th and we encourage all grades 57911 students, staff and parents to complete the online survey and those links were distributed by way of parent square by your school principles. The next item is the chart of the six-w weekek progress report for first semester comparing this year with last year. CHS students in grades 11 and 12 show a decrease in the percentage of D's and Fs and CMS students show a also show a decrease in D's and Fs in grade seven compared to last
033year. Principles are working with their departments and teachers to analyze student progress and to make adjustments in instruction assignments and learning experiences for all the failing students. My next item refers to the settlements for the AB218 1970 sex abuse claims. On October 22nd, the state allocation board approved CUSD's request to deposit proceeds 4.2 2 million from the sale of surplus real property, that was the Baylor property, into the district's general fund. At a previous CUSD board meeting, the board approved the use of these funds to settle the AB218 1970s sex abuse claims for three plaintiffs. At the October 28th board meeting, a resolution was passed to authorize the issuance of judgment obligation bonds to settle the fourth AB218 1970 sex abuse claim. And then my last item is measure U. And we have good news.
034On October 28th, the DSA officially approved the Eliso TKK building project. Meanwhile, following the request for proposals and qualifications process, McGilly Construction Incorporated was selected to be recommended to the board tonight for approval as the contractor for this project. McGilly Construction is a highly qualified local contractor experienced in major school construction and they have recently completed two major district projects including the Canalino Learning Center and Summerland Elementary School. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any uh clarifying questions from the board for the superintendent's report? Okay, seeing none, we are going to move on to D3. Uh Carpa High School FFA teacher Emily Garcia was honored as Santa Barbara County Office of Education new educator of the year. Um and we have a short video from a salute to our teachers that was played. Um, and un
035the unfortunate thing is the event was the same night as homecoming. And so there was a a number of folks that weren't able to attend the event to support Emily, but um I just want to say congratulations again. Um we've brought this up before leading up to the event, but this was played um at the event um as an introduction for Miss Garcia. So here we go. >> Agriculture teachers are one of a kind. Emily, for example, is here every single day of the year. She is a 247 365 teacher who gives her heart and soul every single day to the students that she teaches. As a new teacher, especially an A teacher, there's a lot of different factors that come into play when it comes to leading a successful program. I'm so pumped for
036you. >> I know. >> The thing that I love the most about being a teacher is to see the students [music] faces light up when they learn something new, when they have the aha moment, knowing that they can go home and they're going to know something that they didn't know prior to this. One of my favorite things about Miss Garcia's class is the environment that she fosters. She brings so much fun to the classroom. Makes me excited to be there. One thing that the students have taught me is that I need to be a flexible teacher for them. Learn the way that they need to learn and allow them to actually feel comfortable and feel safe to where they can ask the questions and they can push their education in the way that they want
037to. >> One of the greatest values of student participating in FFA is the fact that they learn leadership skills. So, Miss Garcia is a perfect example of what a FFA student should be. She graduated from Carpenter High School, went to college, participated in FFA when she was here, and she's active in the agriculture community. So, she's a great role model for our students. >> She has gone through the whole process herself. So, she knows exactly how to help us when we're struggling or feeling unprepared for a competition. >> So, Miss Garcia is the reason that several students come to campus. She sets up an environment not only in her classroom but also in the livestock facilities and the green houses where students want to be there with her. >> The most important thing that I
038teach my students is real life lessons. I'm able to teach them and give them the opportunities to learn outside the classroom which I think hands down is the most important lesson that they can get. >> What truly makes Miss Garcia deserving of this award is the amount of heart that she puts into her career every single day. If an animal gets sick on Christmas, she has to be here, not only working with the animals, but also with the students. >> Through this program, I think a lot of students find the sense of unity and family that they may not get anywhere else is not too much work for me because I know at the end of the day, my students are gaining from it. And to see them gain is probably the best thing that
039I can get [music] for my job. >> A man who works hard sweats hard. So that was the video that was posted um and shared on that uh for that event. Um and just to highlight that just uh that was on homecoming. So that was I believe October 25th I believe. That's amazing. >> Um, and just after that, I believe the week right after, um, she went back east to help celebrate three of our FFA students who got their is it American or all-American all-American certifi certificate certificate. Um, so they fully completed the whole FFA program. Um, and that happens they get that once they've already graduated. um and this is a special honor that they get then and so she went back to help support them as well for that. So um just want
040to highlight all that she does for our our community for our students. Um pretty remarkable rising teacher. So thank you Miss Garcia. We are now going to move on to a presentation a D4 a presentation on the new California Senate Bill 640 and California College Guidance Initiative CCGI. Principal Cornnejo is going to do a presentation for us. Good evening. Um, I'm here to tonight to present to you some exciting news for our students. Uh, the governor signed a bill about a month ago, uh, SB 640. And I'm going to explain to you what that is. And about a year ago, you um went into enter into an MOU with the California College Guidance Initiative. And that is something that both of them, you'll see how they come together to provide a great opportunity for our
041students. First of all, um SB 640 is a program that allows that is called direct admissions. And um I've heard some criticism of folks saying, you know, they're uh watering down the requirements to get students into college and so forth, but colleges are not changing their entrance admissions requirements. It's just a process that students will follow to get into college. That's the only thing that's changing. they still have to meet the A3G requirements. They still have to meet the uh GPA requirements. So, uh it is just streamlining and basically catching up to a lot of things that other states are already doing. So, I'm going to present to you the fact that uh SB 640 is um modeled after similar programs in many states across the country uh from Texas to Utah to Connecticut, Minnesota,
042and Indiana. [music] And um all these states show that the fact that the students are able to go to a state college uh through this process has increased attendance at their colleges. These are students that would normally have not thought of going through the process and I'm going to explain to you how that works in a minute. But the requirements are still the same like I just mentioned A throughG requirements the two minimum 2.5 GPA academic GPA in the 10th and the 11th and 12th grade. We're all familiar what the A3G requirements are and some of them uh require for example foreign language. It says two years but it's actually three years that they actually recommend. uh this is the minimum uh core sequence that students must complete in order to just begin the process
043of being eligible to apply. Uh they cannot have any D's in this process. If they have any D's, they are taken out of the process. They have to do uh retake the course and that's where our credit recovery program in the student success uh center comes in. Just to uh give you some background on our A throughg requirement completion rate. Um you can see that Carpentry Unified School District uh has a a fairly high number of students completing A throughG. And one of the reasons is because all of our courses are A throughG courses. The only ones that are not are uh PE. Uh the other thing that we have to keep in mind is the fact that uh the students we need to encourage the students to complete the A throughG. A lot of
044the students sometimes think that they don't have to if especially if they're going directly to a community college which we hope that this will change because students will now have a buy in quick uh quick buy in and seeing what they've put in. Uh the results will be uh awesome when they get into um senior year. The other thing that I would like to mention also is that uh the percentages the gatekeeper of this whole thing is math. If you do not pass math uh and you don't do three years of math, you're not going to complete ag. And that is one of the things that for all the high schools, math is the focus uh of what we need to uh continue to do. And uh in a month from now I'll come and
045give you presentation on our test scores. But at the end of the day is are our students getting a C or better in math. And that's what we have to work every semester with our math teachers supporting our students um moving students around from one class to uh their advisory period so that they can have an additional 90 minutes a week with their teacher. So those are all the things that we do. Uh notice that there is no test scores for um the county. not sorry A throughg scores for the county or the state but there is for our unified school district and that is local data that's our local estimate uh this week I think tomorrow these numbers come up so since this is televised and I don't have any information other than that
046I do not want to give you any more data on that so what is direct admissions it's very similar to when you go and get preapproved for a car loan and you go shopping and you know that you already can get a It's the same thing. These are California State Universities telling a student, "We've got a spot for you. Now, it's your responsibility to follow through the process, the application process to come here." There is no more ambiguity of I have to apply to 30 colleges and see which one lets me in. You will get as a as as a member of the class of 27, that's when it will begin. They will get an email through the platform that you all entered into an MOU, the CCGI. They will get an email saying, "You've
047got a spot now. We hope that you join us." And I can see what's going to happen in the future. The colleges are going to start competing for those students. Uh we just got a couple of weeks ago a uh flyer from Sonoma State. They're basically saying if you come to our school, we will pay you $500 for the first seme for the first two semesters and we'll pay for your textbooks the first year. That's going to happen more often as colleges are now going to be competing because the students know I can go to this one, I can go to that one, I can go to this one. There is no more guessing. It's not going to you don't have to run and get a a email and saying I wonder I got in.
048No, you have the moment that you get the email, you're in. Okay. How will students attain or be informed of their direct admissions? Under the CCGI, the California College Guidance Initiative, our system speaks on a weekly basis with the colleg's databases. So, when our student applies to UCSB or to Cal State uh Northridge, that university already has a copy of our students transcripts. They already know what they've whether they've met the A throughG requirements. They already know their GPA. They already have flagged any questions that the students may need to address in their application. And the the counselors also have access to that information. Uh once that whole process begins, the students then begin the process of applying to that university. Uh once again the courses and the grades are automatically populated for students in
049the application and also the fee wavers will auto automatically be applied to the students [music] based on financial input from when they registered in the school district when we do um free and reduced lunch applications. Do students need to apply? Yes, they'll need to apply. uh they will still have to pay the $70 per college, but now you don't have to apply to five or six colleges. So, you can probably just pay for one and say, "I want to go to this university and you're in." Um, and again, the waiverss are automatically populated in the pro in the process. All this happens, all the application, all the notification, all the um communication between our system and the and the colleges is done through one platform which is the CCGI. Every student in the state of
050California has an account by 2026. By June 2026, all high schools must be part of CCGI. Um, the nice thing about it is the fact that within that platform, and I'll explain to you what it has, [music] it's got a an an a huge amount of information. You don't have to now go to multiple websites. You don't have to go to multiple sources. Everything is in one place. Uh, and I'll show you that in a minute. Once the student gets an application or a a um offer of admissions, the students are being notified that they're in. There are 16 colleges in the process, but I have 15 up here. And the reason is Fresno State has impacted majors, specifically the agriculture majors. Therefore, they're not as open as the rest of the colleges. high demand
051uh campuses will still require the general application and it will still be competitive. Um and there will may be within the 15 campuses there may be specific majors that are are not automatic uh in the uh direct admissions program. These are the campuses that are participating in the direct admissions uh through SB 640. In the other states that have done this in the p have been doing this for a while uh private schools have also [music] uh ventured into the process. They are now participating in those in those states uh being part of the direct admissions and I see that happening in the state of California. Um one of the things that this will uh that this has done is one of the reasons is the fact that attendance is down at the state colleges.
052What's going to happen is the is that students that would normally have thought of going to city college are now going to directly to the UC system to the Cal State system which would then will require the colleges city colleges to work more with the high schools for more dual enrollment opportunities for our students. The campuses that are not participating are those high demand colleges that receive more applications than the number of seats that they have. Those are Calpali, San Los a Bispo, Pomona, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Long Beach, San Diego State University, and San Jose State University. I foresee as the students begin to um learn the fact that they can go to different colleges that they may not apply for these colleges now because they now have a spot. So I think
053in a couple of years these colleges may say we need to get in to this um direct admissions and again this begins with the class of 2027 even though the law goes into effect on January 1st the class of 2026 unfortunately does not um benefit benefit from this. What this does and again is that when you go and get a pre-loan approval is that there is no guesswork anymore. you know what you can afford. You know what the type of car you can get. It's the same thing. You know that you've been admitted to this college. You know you're going to get in and there's a spot for you. So, this is the great thing about this process is that there is no guesswork. There is no uh figuring out do I qualify or not.
054It is the moment you get that email, you're in. If there are students in this process who wish to go to city college, they will be able to uh enter into an agreement with a specific school that has already um admitted them uh for a guaranteed slot in the future, specifically in that major. And I'm going to give you an example. Let's assume that a student got into Cal State Northridge and they want to go into their civil engineering uh major that in 2027 is not impacted, but that student really needs or wants or needs to go to city college for using the promise and so forth and in 200 29 when they want to go to Cal State Northridge if they went in through this uh they've got a spot even though that major
055may be impacted at that time. So uh these uh dual admission transfer programs are now going to be part of city college life. Do you want to enter in a specific college into an agreement with this specific college with a specific major doesn't mean that the student can't reig on it but the college can't the college has a spot for them until the student says I have decided to go somewhere else. Again, this begins with the class of 2027. Like I mentioned, this program or this portal is in one, it's a one fit all. Um, next year we'll be working with the middle school and it will be part of their eighth grade um, uh, college and career exploration, but um, for example, the interest survey can be only given twice. That's how much the
056platform allows us. So we're going to give that to the eighth graders and then give that again to the 10th graders. So there is a scope and sequence of when we're going to do these activities uh for our students. That will be part of our counseling program both here at the at the high school and also at the middle school. Uh financial aid literacy is required in the 11th grade. So that will be part of that. Employment outlook that will be part of our 10th grade uh college major. That will be part of our n our nth grade uh courses. So um there is a specific spot for all these uh opportunities for the student to know more about themselves and what they want to do in the future. I'm going to give you an
057example of what the college and career exploration component does. It provides them with uh career assessments opportunity for them to explore different colleges, different careers, different majors and match the interest to where they want to go to. Um there is an extensive college and major uh search engine that allows the students to narrow down from private to public, from instate to out of state colleges on a specific major. Once you find that major, it gives you a specific outlook of what it's going to look like in the future. What's the average salary? What's the average uh makeup of a college? What's the average cost at that college? So that again is in one place. You don't have to go search finding out how much is it going to cost for me to go to Cal
058State uh Fresno. It's going to tell you a specific how much it's going to cost for you to be able to um make that choice. It also allows us to create a 4-year uh academic plan and track the progress. Um, tomorrow all the parents at Carpentry High School will be receiving an email explaining to them what CCGI is and the process for them to create a parent account so that they can go in and see the progress of their student. Uh, it will also show you what still needs to be done in A throughG. Obviously, right now, if you log in as a nth grade parent, you will see nothing because the student has not completed a semester. Uh, and I'm going to show you what a typical uh report looks like when a parent
059or student logs in to this. The application and financial aid component. Uh, it's a one place for you to launch all the applications for the UC, the Cal State system, and the California community colleges. Uh, you don't have to go to different websites to do this. You do it once and it's done. Uh it's the same place for one place to launch for the FAFSA application in the dream act. It is one place for our colleges our colleges to for our counselors to track student progress. A lot of times students will tell us well I've already set up an account and I've already submitted but they forgot to click on the submit button. So sometime that will allow us for our counselors right now to be able to log in and see the progress that
060the student has done in all of these three components. Before I show you what CCGI looks like, I want to give you some data regarding our students. The first one is the class of 2023. [music] And every student, every time that we have a students that graduate Carpenter High School, we give them a survey about what do they intend to do after high school. that data is not necessarily the same data that the state is going to get. All this data is self-reporting, meaning the students provide this data when they apply to a UC system or they apply to a Cal State system or when they go to City College. So when we get the new data and it's always two years behind, we will replace our local data with the state data so that
061we only have one set of numbers to work with. So the numbers that we're working with the class of 2023 are the following. We had 159 graduates. Of those 159 graduates, uh we had 22% did not give us a response. Those students could be uh they didn't want to take the survey or did not want to provide information at the time of registration at a community college or a Cal State system. When they ask them what school did you go to, they may say I don't want to share that information. uh 3% are uh private or out of state. Uh 11% of our students in the class of 2023 are in the Cal State system. 6% at the UC and 57% of our students ended up at city college specifically due to the promise where
062they pay for all the uh tuition and fees and materials for the first two years. So if we do all that about 78% of our students are attending a two or four-year college of the class of 2023. Since the data is more robust after two years, this is what we have from the state of California regarding uh local co local high schools, local school districts. If you notice uh based on the class of 2023, Carpentria Unified School District has the highest um percentage of students attending a two or four-year college. Uh there are many reasons why a student or a community district may not be able to offer or have high percentage of students. It could be because some students cannot get into a A throughg C class. They may not be able to retake
063the class. So um the student success center has allowed us to do a lot of those things where students um are able to retake certain classes to be able to validate their A throughG uh courses. the class of 2024. This is where it's still not official data because this is data based on not just the the surveys that our students gave us when they left. Uh we had 154 graduates. Of those, roughly 80% of them said that they were going to go to a college, a two-year or four-year college. Uh sometimes in the no response, students may um if they're going to a um tech school or um they're going to go to work and then they change their mind. We do not know that information until the students go to the community college, go
064to the Cal State system or the UC system and they actually share that information uh with them. This is all self-reporting. the class of 2025, which is last year's class, um we had 140 graduates. Of those 140 graduates, um we had less percent of students not responding um and 81.4% of our students based on the local data that we have, based on the survey we have uh said to us that uh they were going to go to a two or four-year college. Again, this data will be replaced once the state data is updated, which is two years behind. Um, so whatever data we had from 2023, [music] we've removed that and we only use what is on the CDE uh website. Now, let me show you the California um college guidance initiative. It's actually California.edu.
065So everybody at Carpentry High School uh right now the seniors are using this platform to apply for financial aid and for their college applications. I can I and the counselors can go in run reports figure out how many of our students have already submitted an application. How many of them are have created an account? How many of students are in the process of applying? So that information we never had. So we were able to call in students from our in our college and career center or our academic counselors and ask the student do you need help? what is still missing? What can we do? What can we help you with? That's something that is very important. So, um, our students are able to log in using their district email. By the time they graduate, they
066will be asked to provide a private email and they will have access to this database after they graduate high school, I believe, for an additional six years. And one of the great things about this and I um that this also has a uh opportunity for students to create a portfolio so that they can upload letters of recommendations, resumes, all that that they can then use wherever they go. Any student that comes to Carpentry High School from a state school uh high school in the state has an account already. Uh so they when they come in, we will be able to go in and take a look at their transcripts. Before we had to wait for the trans transcripts to be sent from the old high school. Now all they have to do is just log
067in and we will be able to see it. Uh the other great thing is the fact that when they move from um our district, this account will follow them uh wherever high school they go to. So again, the students can discover their interests, their values, find careers, uh learn how to pay for college, and also they can also monitor their progress in one place. For parents, they will be able to keep an eye on their academic progress because, and I'm going to show you what it looks like here in a minute, they can also navigate the process of applying for college and and financial aid. And they can also take a look at there are certain um modules that parents can complete on how to figure out how to pay for college, which colleges offer
068which majors, all that parents will have access and I will be sending that information to our current high school parents uh tomorrow. So again, it's a one-stop portal. In this portal, there's an academic plan. There's a list of A3G requirements. You can do applications, financial aid, uh, applications and also do a career exploration. And it's not necessarily just letting students or moving students to colleges. It also does apprenticeships. So, you can click on the apprenticeship uh link uh and it will send you to a database. You type in California or Santa Barbara and it'll give you the list of all the apprenticeships that are available in that area and where what are the requirements to apply. Today you uh entered into an agreement with the county office of education for us to be able to
069pay some of our students to local donations for being part of an apprenticeship. That will be something that uh if I have my wish I all high school students would have a paid internship uh by the time they graduate high school. This is what it looks like. So, when a student logs in, they uh are able to see their GPA. If you notice right here, it gives them their GPA for that specific system. Um, it also gives them so right here it says in this system, that's their GPA for the Cal State University. I'm just giving you an example of what a Cal State University uh report looks like. It also gives you the list of courses that the student has already completed. Those [music] are green. So if you look at the top, you
070have the circles. And notice that it says letter A has already been checked off. That means that the student has met that requirement of A through G. Uh and again, this is supposed to be for seniors. There may be some questions. For example, if you look at the one that I first circled for English, it says you have not completed this. Well, since we cannot add dual enrollment courses into our uh A throughG list of courses, that is a manual thing that the the counselor is going to have to do to fix that. But we can now see it. Before we weren't able to see that u if a student comes from another high school and that high school names their course a little different, we're able to go in and manually manually say this
071class meets this requirement. [music] Again, the UC system and the Cal State system are reviewing this information on a weekly basis. So, this is where this the Cal State University is going to the data that they're going to use to send those acceptance letters to our students in the class of 2027. When the counselor logs in, they can see the progress. So in this case it's as you know the student has is in progress of applying for the Cal State um Chico but they've already completed the UN uh application for Northeastern University of Oakland uh and they have created an account but have not selected a campus to apply for the Cal State for the UC system. This is something that our counselors can see on a daily basis when they're when they're working with
072their students. They can say I can see you haven't completed this. They can also do it for financial aid. So I'm going to give you an example. Here's the financial aid. It tells them what it has completed. This is the financial aid lessons. So there are multiple lessons um that uh that the students can complete and we're going to go into different classes from get focus get focused a focus to English to social studies depending on the grade level that a specific activity is appropriate but all of this should be done by the time that students begin to apply for year for a 4-year uh college. Again, this is currently live for our seniors. Um, we will be getting more information um in the month of February regarding how this is all going to work.
073Uh, more specific um and then we will be able to provide information uh on how the additional um steps that the students will need to take for direct admissions. This is our this is exciting news for our students. Um for those of you have had students apply for Cal State or any universities, um this is a very easy unstressful process of applying for Cal State system. Any questions? >> Um I had a couple >> Yep. Go ahead. >> Um I had I think two questions. I'm not sure if you know yet. Will this portal have the city college transcript information as well? Because I know our students take a lot of City College classes. So, I'm not sure if that's also in this portal. >> It is not. But the students are able to upload
074the transcript. Okay. >> They can upload. >> Yep. >> Um and then my other question was related to um you you kind of mix uh Cal State and UC a little bit. Is it more exclusively for Cal State? The direct admissions is for the Cal State. >> Okay, perfect. >> But, you know, it's it's just like when um you have a dealership or you have a restaurant or you have a business that everybody's now going to and you were that exclusive business that is now losing customers. They're going to start looking and saying, "Oh, we need to be part of this, too." Uh declining enrollments throughout the state. Just like the school districts are experiencing decline enrollment, the Cal State system is is seeing it. the UC system is seeing it. The community colleges are
075seeing it. [music] So, everyone's out for the same number of graduates in California. So, they're going to have to provide the best option for those students. Um, and and this is a reason why one of the reasons that the the state is doing this because they need to have students in those colleges. >> Good. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. >> Um, question kind of off of that. So the direct admissions is for CSUs but is this portal able to do you? >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Just >> so within the portal clarifying that >> within the portal >> it's the UC the Cal State and City College >> within that portal in order to be able to get the uh offer of admissions from the Cal State system you must be part of
076using that portal. >> Yeah. Um, and then, uh, so the seniors are using this right now. Um, the portal. Um, you mentioned that you were going to have the 10th graders take the, um, >> the interest survey. The Are they doing that this year? >> They're doing it in the in the spring. >> They're going to do it the this school year. >> We did not want to pilot this with such a busy schedule for our seniors. >> Yeah. Once that process is over, which is ends end of November, and the financial aid ends late um January, that in the month of March and April, we'll be able to focus on the other three grade levels, including eighth grade. >> Eth grade. >> Fabulous. Okay, thank you so much. Any further questions? No. Okay. Thank
077you so much. >> Thank you. Okay, we are moving on to agenda item five. Uh the 2526 superintendent annual goals second reading. The board has asked to approve and adopt the second reading of the 2025 2026 superintendent annual goals. The 2526 LCAP was approved in June 2025. These are the annual goals developed with the approved LCAP. First reading was presented at the October 14th regular board meeting. Any questions from the board? No. Okay. May I get a motion to approve? >> I'll move to approve. >> All second. >> Okay. Any discussion? All in favor? I >> I. >> Okay. We're moving on to Eboard policies. If you would like to make public comment for E1 or two, please step up to the podium at this time. Okay. Seeing none. Uh E1 board policy and administrative
078regulation 3515.4 recovery for property loss or damage updated second reading. The board has asked to approve the second reading and adopt BPA 3515.4 recovery for property loss or damage. The governing board desires to create a safe and secure learning environment and to minimize acts of vandalism and damage to school property. When district property is damaged due to the willful misconduct of a student or other person, the superintendent or design shall seek reimbursement of damages within the limitations specified in law from the parent, guardian of a minor child or from any other responsible individual. Questions from the board? Okay. May [snorts] I get a motion to approve BP and AR 3515.4? >> Motion. >> Okay. >> Approve. >> Uh oh, sorry. Approve and adopt. All motion to approve and adopt. Thank you. >> I'll second. >>
079Okay. Discussion. >> All in favor? I >> I >> Okay. E2 board policy and administrative regulation 5141.4 child abuse prevention and reporting updated second reading. We are being asked to approve the second reading and adopt updated BPAR 5141.4 child abuse prevention and reporting. The governing board is committed to supporting the safety and well-being of district students and desires to facilitate the prevention of and response to child abuse and neglect. The superintendent or design shall develop and implement strategies for preventing, recognizing, and promptly reporting known or suspected child abuse and neglect. Any questions from the board? Okay. Make it a motion to approve and adopt updated BPN 5141.4. >> I'll motion to approve and adopt. I'll second. >> Okay. And just um a little bit of background. Um this comes out of uh a legislation that
080the governor put through over the summer um that steps up the uh mandated reporting requirements for um all school staff and people in sensitive areas like that. Um, and uh, I'll get to it kind of later when I speak to um, meetings that I went to for other stuff, but um, it was mentioned that a lot of districts are already behind the ball on this and uh, I was at a at the schoolboard association meeting and um, there was concern that some may not be able to get this moved through in time um, which the deadline is July. We're definitely ahead of the ahead of the game on this. So, I really appreciate the proactive engagement um on getting this updated and getting um everything set in place for us to move forward. So, thank
081you. Uh all in favor? I >> I >> Okay. F educational services. If you'd like to make public comment on F, please step up to the podium now. >> Okay. Not seeing any public comment. F1 2526 expanded learning opportunities program plan guide. The board has asked to review and approve the expanded learning opportunities program plan guide. The ELOP guide is aligned with AC's afterchool education and safety guide with the addition of TK and KG grades offering TK through8 expanded learning before school, after school, during inner sessions or summer. Learning programs focus on development of academic, social, emotional, and physical needs and interests of pupils through hands-on engaging learning. The ELOP requires a 9-hour instructional day is offered to all unduplicated pupils in grade TK through 8. Additionally, the program requires the ELOP plan to be
082board approved uh every 3 years. The funding for the 2526 fiscal year is $1,99,000 $99,65. This program will be funded annually through aortionment. Um any questions from the board? May I get a motion to approve the ELOP plan guide? >> I'll move to approve the ELOP plan guide. >> I'll second. >> Okay. In discussion, um I'd just like to point out uh we have a really great program for our students. Um and it is robust and engaging. And I want to point out that this is offered free to all of our students. Um, at the same meeting I mentioned earlier, um, I learned that there are numerous other districts in the county that charge for these after school programs on a scale on a needs-based scale. But, um, I it's something for us to be
083proud of that we get this funded and covered for all of our students to have access to this quality programming. So, pointing that out. All in favor? >> I. >> Great. >> Moving on to G, business operations and facilities. If you'd like to make public comment on uh any of the items under G business operations and facilities, please step to the podium at this time. Uh thank you Roelo Delo Carri uh recent on the warrants. Uh this is what I noticed. Three uh settlements uh for the uh for three men of the uh uh sex uh abuse uh case of the 70s. What caught my attention was that two of them settled for a,250,000 and one for a million and a half. So I was wondering why that difference. I thought that uh they were
084all getting the same amount except for uh this man getting 1.5 instead of 1,250,000. So that's one of my questions. Uh [clears throat] also uh I also known as a legal cost of uh for $15,940 uh dollars from uh the same uh sex abuse. So uh [clears throat] this is what I'm this is what I wonder uh you you had been uh fighting uh this case for some time actually we didn't know anything about it until last year that that San Francisco newspaper uh brought uh this up. Then the following week the coastal view follow up. But uh all of this uh was being uh talk about discussed uh legally without the community knowing and that's I mean that's not right. So um so far you have spent like a a million dollar fees on
085on legal fees. So the question I have is that why didn't you why didn't the district settle this a long time ago. I mean this was a loose loose situation. Everybody knew it. But you you could have uh approved a [snorts] a municipal bond back then for all of this amount. Why did you wait all of this? This is more money involved on legal fees. Also, what caught my attention was that uh there was a a fee for pizza. Uh and that >> Thank you. >> All right. All right. So, just to clarify, we've we've been discussing these 1970s sex abuse cases for over three years now. Um, it's been talked about, it's been in the warrants, listed as the 1970s sex abuse cases this whole time. Um, the superintendent reports have been brought up.
086It's been reported out from closed sessions, what's able to be reported out. So, it's more than just last year. We've been talking about it for at least three years now. And uh furthermore, the settlements are are are just that settlements and it takes time to come to a settlement. Um we worked really hard over the course of those years to come to that agreement um and to get them to settle instead of going to trial. Um, and the so I believe we did everything we could to minimize and and and mitigate the the direct costs to today's students while making sure that this the people who were wronged, they they should get justice and and um and there's no way to truly make them whole for what was done to them. But these are these
087are settlements and you we couldn't have forced them to take a settlement when they first filed. So to suggest otherwise is absolutely wild. Um and yes, there are attorneys fees associated with it because there are attorneys fees for the services that have to get done to file the cases, to settle the cases, to file the the bonds, um all of the different pieces that have to happen. And this is what we had been discussing is that this is going to cost the district money and it has cost the district significant amount of money. Um, and this is why I had been engaging with uh Senator Leone's office for the last three years with Senator with uh Assembly Member Hart's office for the last three years. I've even brought it to uh Congressman Carbajal's office um
088to say listen this is this is a problem and because our district does not have the insurance the insurance company that existed back then is gone um we are a unique situation as opposed to many of the other districts where there is insurance to fall back on. And so, um, our what we did was try to keep these cases and the cost of these cases as far away from today's students as possible. Um, I am proud of the the many many hours and days, weeks that have been put of effort um that have been put in to get these cases settled at the um at the levels they were settled. Um, and we are incredibly lucky that uh that we did not have to go to trial over this um because it it would have
089been catastrophic looking at at the trial uh the the trial settlements that have come out of that. So, um I uh I I just need that to be well known and we've discussed this multiple times, but this is not new from one year ago. We've discussed this for three years. Um it was brought up when the when the law first passed and and the first cases came up. Um and uh to say otherwise is um is just wrong. Um so so that's all I have that's all I have to say about that. Um and excuse me please stop. >> They're individual settlements. and they have their own lawyers and this is like I'm not I don't understand what the problem is. Um but okay, next speaker. >> So under the board's most recent restrictions to
090public comment, the public has permitted just 20 seconds of public comment per item in this agenda item agenda item category. So, we'll have to ignore the over $5 million in warrants and other se and other several other items so as to focus on the most overlooked matter in the agenda item G. Although district employees and their representatives truly appreciate those who provide grants and gifts without unethical and unprofessional strings attached, we're compelled to share concerns when gifts, grants, and donations appear less than transparent. In the last year, Lentra Summerland has donated over $330,000 to CUSD. Yet there has been no public discussion or inquiry about CUSD's relationship with the donor. Have our board members inquired upon the intentions of Lentra Summerland? Have they inquired upon the way Lentra Summerland makes its money? Are district officials
091again looking the other way on issues COD has a moral and legal obligation to address so as to gain financial contributions? Is this another version of Miss Riby's 2019 when district officials worked the lo worked with the local cannabis producers who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars? Then at the very time Miss Riby, Mr. Schaefer, and board members were ignoring state and federal boundary issues associated with growing marijuana next to public school sites. The last time we learned that district officials engaged in such an unethical relationship with a donor, CSD's high school was surrounded by marijuana cultivation offging jeopardized the health of students, employees, and community members. And the Santa Barbara grand jury opened an investigation into matters that included CUSD's business practices. So, forgive this bystander if we're suspicious of a private organization that
092is providing CUSD hundreds of thousands of dollars. While our efforts to figure out either where the money comes from or what their mission is are met with silence, earlier in this meeting, Miss Riby shared special appreciation for Lentra Summerland in her superintendence report. In celebrating Lentra Summerland's generosity, Miss Riby avoided, as did the board, not inquiring the expect the expectations Lentra Summerland has when gifting hundreds of thousands of dollars to our district. Our district officials did not discuss why our robustly funded basic aid district must now rely on these heavy private donations. Although we're aware of CUSD's extraordinary legal expenses and related financial mismanagement over the last few years, they did not discuss why private donors are needed to carry the district at this time. This evening, the district officials have a good opportunity to
093clear that up at this very agenda item. So, please share with the community more details about this unique relationship where Lentra Summerland gives CUSD over $300,000 with apparently no strings attached and CUSD gives this private donor nothing but appreciation and gratitude. It is somewhat unbelievable, but maybe you have um some explanation for what's happening here. Thank you. >> Or not. Okay. Um, so uh G1 warrants. The board has asked to approve the warrants for the period of uh October 10th, 2025 through November 6th, 2025 in the amount of 5,199,94355. Warrants are issued once a week on Thursdays. The report format shows check number, check date, payee, brief account description, payment comment, and check amount. Any questions from the board on the warrants? Okay. May I get a motion to approve? >> I'll move to approve
094the warrants. >> I'll second. >> Okay. Any discussion? All in favor? I >> I >> G2. Um, this is going to be G2B through E. Um G2B donation from Lentra Summerland Foundation through Carpa Education Foundation to CUSD. The board has asked to accept this donation uh from Lentra Summerland through Carpenter Education Foundation of $171,900 to CUSD to support different programs and activities outlined within the attachments. um to see a donation from JW Photography to Carpa Middle School. The board has asked to accept the donation from JW Photography of $610 to CUSD CMS to be used towards libraries reading rewards program. Uh 2D, donation from the Lions Club to the CHS cheerleaders. Board is asked to accept this donation from Lions Club of Carpentry of $500 to the CHS cheerleaders for the festival of trees. and
0952E donation from Karp High School booster club to CHS football team. We're being asked to accept this donation from Karp Booster Karp High School booster club of $6,996.93 to the CHS football team for home game uniforms. Um, any questions from the board? Okay. May I get a motion to approve 2B through E? May I get a motion to approve 2B through E? >> I'll move to approve and I will second. >> Any discussion about any of these items? >> Oh, I thought you said you had something. No. Okay. Um Okay. Uh all in favor? >> I. G3. Approval of Watkins Fence Company and McCall and Eminem for high school softball field repairs. The board has asked to approve Watkins Fence Company and McCall and Eminem for CHS softball repairs. The high school varsity softball dugout
096has a chain link fence is 18 uh the high school varsity softball dugout has a chain link fence that is 8 ft tall. A couple of years ago, the chain link was cut which you caused it to pull apart. Maintenance repaired this by placing a chain link section over the area that was damaged, but the district would like to install new fencing around the dugout. Additionally, bottom section of the junior varsity softball back stop needs to be repaired. The bottom section is composed of wood [music] and it is estimated that the wood is approximately 20 years old. As a result of its age and being exposed to the elements, the wood has deteriorated to the point where it should be replaced. The district contacted four vendors for proposals for the two projects, but only one
097of the following two vendors responded with estimates. Um, sorry, only the following two vendors responded with estimates. Watkins Fence Company project one a high school dugout fencing for $3,177. Project two replacing the back stop for the wood um for $10,967 a total of $14,144. And then McCall and Eminem project one dugout fencing for $4,188. Project 2 replacing the back stop wood $10,561 for a total of $14749. Um it looks like we selected uh Watkins fence for project number one, the high school dugout fencing, and then McCall and Eminem for project two, replacing the back stop wood. The total amount for the selected projects is $13,738 and will be paid with routine restricted maintenance funds. Any questions from the board? Okay. May I get a motion to approve? >> I'll motion to approve. I'll second >>
098discussion. Okay. All in favor? I >> I. >> Okay. And four, resolution number 25942 of the governing board of Carpenter Unified School District D district regarding annual developer fee report for fiscal year 2425. The board has asked to approve resolution number 25942, the annual report of developer fees. As required by government code sections 660001 and 660006, the district is required to deposit all developer fees collected in a separate capital facilities fund fund 25 and report on all revenues received and expenses made from that fund. Questions from the board? >> Jason has more information for you or questions. >> Thank you. Um, with regard to our current developer fee rates, uh, we've checked with our current facility consultant and unfortunately we don't have enough projects to warrant increasing our developer fees at this time. Uh, however,
099once we complete our measure projects, uh, we can do another master facility plan and at that time we can reassess whether or not uh, we can increase our developer fee rates. >> Okay. And that was something I believe uh board member Schaefer hit or maybe it was actually no sorry it was uh yeah board member Smith Aaron um had asked about raising that. Do you have any questions or anything to >> No, it it seems clear we have to get through measure U before we can revisit that when we have some more projects >> lined up. But hopefully we get through measure U before all these buildings start popping up. >> I think we will. Okay. Um Okay. Any further questions from the board? No. Okay. Uh may I get a motion to approve resolution
100number 25942? >> I'll move to approve. >> I'll second. >> And uh roll call on resolutions. Yes. >> Uh Eric >> I. >> Janette >> I. >> Jamie >> I. >> And I'm I. >> Okay. Moving on to H measure U. If you'd like to make public comment on H1, [clears throat] please step up to the podium at this time. Okay, seeing none, H1, approval of McGillivary Construction, Inc. as lease leaseback contractor for the Aliso Elementary TK kindergarten project. The board has asked to approve McGillivary Construction, Inc. as the lease leaseback contractor for the Aliso Elementary TK kindergarten project. The district solicited requests uh for qualifications and proposals for construction services for the Aliso Elementary School TK kindergarten classroom project. This RFQP notice was published on October 2 of 2025 and October 9 of 2025
101in the Coastal View News. The scope of work for this project includes collaborating with district staff and architects in the construction of new TKK four classrooms uh four classroom building and associated site work, grading, paving, site utilities, storm drainage, landscaping, irrigation, and electrical work including communications and fire alarm. The deadline to submit a response was October 28, 2025 by 3 p.m. The only response the district received was from McGillary Construction, Inc. After board approval, McGillary will determine the GMP guaranteed maximum price for this project and this matter will be brought back to the board in December for approval. There are no fiscal impacts implications at this time. Um, any questions from the board? >> So, only one company said they will bid on it. Is that what's happening? So, we're tonight we're approving them to
102bid. We're not accepting their bid. >> No, we're approving them as lease [music] lease back. So, we are approving them. >> We are approving them as the contractor, >> but we don't know how much they're gonna charge yet. >> No, not [music] yet. But they know what the they know what the budget is. They know what's been um allocated in measure U. >> Okay. And what if >> does that mean that they does that mean they'll just go to the max of the budget >> usually? Well, well, the budget was um determined years ago. So, >> but does that mean they'll take the whole budget because they can? >> No. No. Okay. The budget number was identified five years ago. Prices have gone way up. So, they're going to come in over the budget number,
103but they know what we're eliminating. Okay. >> Yeah. So, that they're going to be >> they're going to be reasonable. >> But the deadline for anybody else to Yes. is passed. >> Yes. It was October 28th. >> And all we did was put it in the newspaper. Yes. >> You didn't like actively call people to see if they would do it for cheaper or >> What do you mean do for cheaper? >> Well, when you only have one bid, you only have one bid. >> It's but it's a lease lease back project. So, what we're agreeing to is lease lease it to McGilly and they'll lease it back to us. So, what that means is then then you have your GMP developed after you choose the contract after the contract bids on the lease lease
104back. So, I guess that my speculation is that there are um contractors out there that didn't want the lease lease back process. >> Not only that, not >> Please keep the comments in the back of the room silent. It's been going on all night. One more time and you're out. >> It's just unfortunate that we don't have two bids to >> Yeah. >> to compare, you know, you only get one. I mean, if we only have one, we only have one, but it would be nice to have two or more people bidding and, you know, being able to see what the competition is versus just the one rate. >> But if that's if we've done everything we can, then we've done everything we can. >> Um, did we >> Not only that, I I would
105say that McGelry is >> No, they're great. I know. >> They've built all of our buildings. We know them really well. They've worked really closely with with our team and their subcontractors have been really really uh good quality. >> So I I don't think we're going to get any better than McGilly. >> No, it would just be nice to see other people interested. >> It's not a question of the quality of the firm. >> It's not not about them. It's >> I think it's in line with comments we've made on other projects of wanting multiple options. Um and >> it didn't surprise us that there was only one. >> Yeah. They do most of the projects around here. >> They've done all the projects in our school district. They've done all the projects in Santa
106Barbara school district. >> They did the Lynen project in Carpria. So, it's not unusual that we only got one contractor. >> Okay. Just checking. >> And there are a number of contractors that do not want the process of lease lease back because they don't want the guaranteed maximum price. Once we agree on that price, that that that's that's what it's going to be. So that's the process that some contractors don't want to engage in. >> Understood. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Um [sighs] Okay, then we're being asked to approve McGillivary Construction as the lease lease back um for the Aliso TKK project. Um is there a motion to approve? >> I'll move to approve. >> I'll second. >> Okay. and discussion. >> Think we had it. >> Okay. All right. Um, all in favor? >>
107I >> Okay. I personnel personnel summary. Uh, let's see here. We have I have per public comment on I1. Okay. So, this evening's personnel report confirms the retirement of Eric Queller, custodian, musician, and Renaissance man. Although there are several, Eric is perhaps the most undervalued district employee I've had the pleasure of working with. For many years, Eric has quietly and consistently provided service far above and beyond contractual expectations. Even after being overlooked for a supervisory position he was obviously qualified to perform, Mr. Queller continued to show up, do the job with respect and dignity, and give well beyond the expectations established by either the contract or labor law. Eric will be missed. And like usual, we predict the COSD will not realize just how significant was Eric's contribution until he's gone. And CMS admin are
108trying to figure out how the absence of one seemingly inconsequential custodian could have such a significant impact on how things function at the middle school. The union is proud that as a result of our diligence and oversight, the district clearly understood its obligation to rehire a previously laidoff custodian who had fallen victim to the impact of the district's grand legal spending spree in the last few years. As the money began to run out, the CSD could not find a way to prioritize the same level of hygiene and cleanliness it once knew, and Mr. Trujill was laid off. But as a result of the 39-month rehire rights that union leadership at the local and state level so diligently defend, Mr. Trillo will be returning to the district and joining his colleagues once again. Union leadership also
109recognizes that CUSD has something to be proud of with this personnel report. The district has gone a full an entire second month without a single employee resigning from the district due to concerns related to workplace culture and administrative malfeasants. Some may say that it has only been two months and yes, there have been early retirements, but every success story has to start somewhere. And although we are a long way from declaring success, let this be the start of something better. Thank you. Okay. I personnel summary. The board has asked to approve the following recommended personnel items. Retirement one personnel, reinstated assignments, one personnel, coaching assignments, 15 personnel. Any questions from the board? Okay. May I get a motion to approve? >> I'll move to approve. >> I'll second. >> Discussion. Um, I just want to
110say that uh I I appreciate all of our co custodians. um my kids and I know a lot of other kids get to know them over their time um at each school site and so [music] um any insinuation otherwise is wild but um yeah just thank you Eric um really appreciate your time here at the middle school. Um, [snorts] okay. All in favor? >> I. >> Moving on to J. Future agenda items, public comment, please step up to the podium at this time. Okay. So, elected employee elected employee leadership again asked that a more transparent accounting of employee labor costs on future board agendas be um added. Please separate the portion of classified payroll costs that pertain to district administrators, for example, the superintendent or the assistant superintendent from the payroll costs of classified unit
111members who work directly with students, for example, transportation workers, instructional aids, custodians, grounds workers, secretarial and food service workers. This slight shift in how CUSD presents payroll information would go a long distance to accurately representing the costs incurred by the primary labor group serving the community, the certificated unit, the classified unit, and administrative employees. After well over a year encouraging this future agenda item, the district still refuses to honor this simple request. But for Miss Rigby, who first told the community that admin costs were included in the classified payroll costs, only to emphatically tell the community at the last board meeting that they are not, several other district officials have even gone so far as to suggest that they are not aware of the composition of the payroll figures provided in the consent agenda. Regardless,
112all the confusion could be resolved with one simple adjustment to the future board agendas. simply break out certificated unit employees from classified unit employees and administrative employees. And this would ensure the community and apparently even our district officials can better examine CUSD's payroll data before making decisions. Mr. Cap, it's not too late to share this information, but we do understand why you would not want to expose that Miss Riby was once again lying to the public on October 14th. We again request an examination of our dramatically declining enrollment be placed on the future agenda. In September, we confirmed COD had lost 103 students. Over half of those left Liso, Canalino, and Family School, the very schools most impacted by the gross programmatic and resource inequities created by the implementation of the DLI program. Miss Riby
113attempted to minimize the extraordinary rate of declining enrollment by sharing that quote over 30 students were intentionally removed from the district. We're unsure if that is a metric to celebrate, but if true, the actual decline in enrollment is still 70 students in 2526 and approximately 275 students in the last 3 years alone. Why haven't district officials demanded serious research into CUSD's declining enrollment? Why do so many families in our community, which has more school-aged children than ever, and they pay their tax dollars to CUSD, not consider the district a viable option for the education of their children? Why is that? Don't you care about that? Are you not interested? Are you not interested? You're allowed to talk. I think you all know that. And if you're not interested, why wouldn't you be interested? Mr. Calf,
114one last chance to clear the air, make sure we have the proper information. We figure >> Thank you. Your time is up. >> Okay. Future agenda items. We have uh the single school plan for achievement, single school site plan for student achievement, uh special education report, the first interim budget, and an annual audit report coming up. Um are there any agenda items that board members would like to add? Okay. Okay. None at this time. Okay. Um the board calendar, Monica, is there anything we need to be aware of? >> Just the November 18 special board meeting close session only. >> Okay. And then on December >> 5th, we have our school site visits on December 5th. Great. Thank you. Um and moving on to board announcements. Um, board members are welcome to give any announcements
115or report outs of any activities that they've been to or will be going to or of interest to the community. >> Well, we have the SIP Splash Swim tomorrow, is it? Or or not swim. What's the event tomorrow for the pool foundation? >> The Warrior Pool Foundation. >> Warrior Pool Foundation. >> Yeah. >> Sip Swim Support, I believe, is what it is. Tomorrow at 5:00 PM. I believe the location changed though, so I'd have to >> Is that Compass? >> Okay. It's at Compass, >> corner of London and Carpath. Uh 5 5 to 7 to support the um pool Foundation. I know that's happening tomorrow. >> Yep. Anything else? >> Okay. I have a few things, so I'm just letting you guys go. Okay. Um so, Warrior Pool Foundation event tomorrow evening. Our school site
116visits. Really excited for those. Um it's uh it's great to get into the different school sites, all of them, especially ones that your kids aren't at, just so you can see what's going on where and what it looks like. Um and get into different classrooms. Um Canalino's holiday trolley is on December 6th. Uh tickets go on sale, I think, tomorrow or next week. Um I attended college night at the high school a couple weeks ago. Um there's presentations available in English and Spanish. That was for sophomore parents. They did have a freshman parent event a few weeks prior I believe but um college night for for 10th graders uh the presentation is available in English and Spanish and if it hasn't already it will be going out in parent square um and uh they the
117um school counselors did a great job of doing an overview of what's coming down the pipe for for our students. Um winter athletics are kicking off. Um, really excited for that. And, um, let's see. I felt like there was one more, but >> oh, um, Muses is coming up in the beginning towards the beginning of December, I believe. First week of December, Muses. Um, and so that'll be really great for those of you that are able to get tickets and attend. Okay. And with that, we are adjourned. >> Thank you. Heat. [music] Hey. >> [music] [music]