001Good evening. I'd like to welcome everyone to this meeting on March 14th, our regularly scheduled meeting. Uh >> April. >> Did I say March? Oh, sorry. April. Um would everyone please join us for the flag salute? >> Salute. Pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, I'll report out on a close session. Uh information was exchanged, no action was taken. Um we'll move on to item three. Uh any public comment for items not on this agenda? Uh you're welcome to step up to the podium and uh let your voice be heard. Anything not on this agenda? >> What press? >> Green. Press it. So it's green. >> See the
002green button? want to start over. >> I can start in the minutes. >> Okay. >> There you go. >> Good evening board members. My name is Kelly Ber. >> Kelly, do you mind adjusting the microphone? So, >> thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My intention is to bring attention to the academic needs of our middle school students and to encourage thoughtful solution focused discussions about how we can better support them. I care deeply about our students, our school community, and believe it's necessary to strengthen the learning for all. In case I run short on time, I want to make sure that you know, please um I'm not here to place blame. I'm here to advocate for our students and to invite you again to a conversation and also to um please come observe
003my class at the middle school. Spend time with me over the next remaining eight weeks of the school year. If you only have 30 minutes in your day, come see what we're doing in science any time. Then you can honestly ask yourselves, is the district and our current systems truly supporting academic growth and rigor, or are gaps in the system unintentionally lowering expectations? With such a small school district, are we working intentionally and collaboratively to effectively serve our students? Or is the system functioning as a top- down system resulting in directives rather than collaboration and shared solutions? Now for some reflection and additional context to the last school board meeting. When board members asked clarifying questions about D's and Fs and percentages at the middle school administrators presentation, Miss Rigby stated, "Look at the data.
004You have the numbers. It's the same students in science that are in language arts. The numbers do reflect these are the same students. However, not all of the context is clearly represented." Mr. Schaefer was correct to question the data and transparency of those numbers because in fact the majority of DSNfs are among our sped and e students that are disproportionately grouped among sections and teachers. Also, when DNF data is shared from the district by department and grade level, it does not include any students that are enrolled in plus classes for ELA and math, which would significantly lower the percentages. catch my breath. Um, I'd also like to acknowledge the disparaging comments from the presentation by administrators from the middle school. On average, stating there are approximately only five students per class with high needs like
005e and sped. I wish this was the case, but the average are not the reality in classrooms. In practice, certain classes have large clusters of students with high academic needs, specifically e and sped. In addition, there's a high number of students entering that grade level reading below or far below grade level. So, it was disappointing to see leadership place blame on one teacher, saying they're not engaging the students. This approach is selectively demonizing one person and does not provide a full context and all of the other variables related to student achievement. >> Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Any other public comment for items not on this agenda? After the misrepres misrepresentations made at the March 10th board meeting, the CMS math department is compelled to accurately report on the pushin model at
006CMS. Our administrators did not describe the actual pushin model we are using at CMS. Rather, they described a co-e model which we are not using. Mrs. Pursoon, Haynes, and Rigby claimed that there's a special education teacher in each CMS math class, but they did not share that the special education teacher is only there for 15 minutes three times per week. Special education students receive an average of 240 minutes of general education math each week, but a special education teacher is only present for 45 of those minutes. In other words, a special education student who may have a specific learning disability in math only receives direct special education support for less than 20% of those weekly math minutes. You are also told incorrectly that the special education teachers are even quote able to help general education
007students who might need a little bit of support. This is inaccurate. During the weekly 45 minutes that a special education teacher is in a general education class, that teacher's attention is routinely divided by at least three to five special education students. There's not even enough time to cover the special education students needs, let alone the needs of general ed students. Admin statements that the push-in model reflects the quote best of both worlds are also untrue. Admin statements that the push-in model means all students are getting two teachers in the same environment are also untrue. CUSD has reduced its investment in special education students by replacing 240 minutes of specialized academic math instruction with 45 minutes of special education assistance. Again, a special education teacher shows up for 15 minutes a day, three times a week
008to assist their students for less than 20% of their weekly math minutes. And as a result, for many, their learning continues to decline. and subsequently so has their self-confidence, self-efficacy, and academic resilience. The erosion of the special education math program is not adequately serving our special education students and families. Thank you. >> Join us. Good evening, CUSD board members. My name is Jessica Gala. I teach sixth grade ELA and history. >> I'm Christina Pena. I'm the Spanish department chair and I also teach Spanish along with Spanish language arts for dual enroll dual enrollment students. >> We are here today to represent the CMS CMS language arts department. We wish to share with you and the community the letter which we sent to the board members on March 18th in an effort to encourage encourage continued
009collaboration between us all. The letter reads, "Dear CUSD board members, after the comments made at the previous March board meeting by our colleagues, we feel the need to add our voices to the conversation and share with you all our thoughts and concerns as a department. >> We support Kelly Vigar's comments on the board meeting on March 10th, 2026. And we would like to add that we support her comments here today and all the comments made by our colleagues at CMS. Uh on March 10th, Kelly Vir succinctly shared facts about CMS and why our students are faltering when looking at the numbers of D's and Fs as presented. The absence of support for our most vulnerable populations is an issue that has been ongoing and systemic. Additionally, we feel that a shift in this year's policies
010have incurred a drastic downward trajectory in student progress, including the following. >> Reduced support for students in EL and sped programs. lack of academic intervention embedded effectively throughout the school day. >> Chronic absenteeism, >> degrade minimum expectations for promotion ceremony, >> overall school culture. >> We would also like to note that our afterchool tutoring program is running out of grant funding, which would strip our students who have D's and Fs of additional support. We all wish to make CMS the best place it can be, and we hope we can be collaborative partners together in making this happen. Our department welcomes the opportunity to have a thoughtful discussion about ways we can strengthen our academic supports and better address the student needs, questions, and concerns that are emerging in our classrooms. We invite you to come
011and visit our classrooms and discuss with us in person solutions to the issues that have been addressed. Along with the list of concerns my language arts colleagues have shared, as a Spanish department chair, I'm also compelled to mention the re recently instated practice of exiting students from the dual enrollment program who have received D's or Fs in their dual enrollment courses. These bilingual students received letters in the previous month stating that they would be exited from the program at the end of the school year if they cannot raise their grades to a C or above. This practice undermines previously stated CUSD goals to provide a highquality DLI program for students in grades K through 12, regardless of their linguistic or home background. This elective program serves students whose families have chosen this path for them
012and want to see them succeed in the entire program. This weakens both the bonds that these groups have formed since their classes together in kindergarten and the hard work that all of the CUSD staff has put into making DLI a success. Again, I invite you to come visit us at Kart Middle and work with us on productive solutions to these and other concerns presented by our colleagues. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. Um Chris Master Vito. I'm uh here not um representing uh cause cause secretary, but as a teacher middle school, eighth grade, 7th grade, and middle school. Um as a teacher at the middle school, I thought I would try to shed a little bit more light on this issue regarding grades that was brought up those
013alarming numbers that brought up last time. And I want to try to point out that in the presentation first uh that the data from the progress grades were used to make a point about the disparities between teachers uh with respect to their students grades. And just want to remind everyone here that um those grades are by definition a measure of a grade in progress. They are transient in nature and they do not reflect in themselves the total measure of learning. Uh in most cases they're a snapshot of a moment in time in which students are still catching up uh toward the semester grade. But since we are talking about D's and Fs uh as a key metric and how the students are doing, I'd like to share anecdotally the percentage of students earning D's and
014Fs in my eighth grade classes at semester 1 who are also with IEPs and uh ELA1. And this is what I believe Mr. Schaefer expressed wanting to learn more about after those alarming numbers were presented. And I thank you for asking those important questions. So please allow me to share my observations. And without sharing grades or personal data on any student, I think it's helpful to see this. So of the D's and F marks on semester 1 grades in one period, two out of four of those are from students with special needs. So half in another period, three out of five of the DNF marks on semester 1 were from students with special needs. So 60%. And another period, four out of four students earning DNF marks semester 1, 100% were either students with special
015needs or ELD1. And I share these at the risk of putting myself in the crosshairs of those who would assume that these outcomes are completely preventable, right, by by the classroom teacher if the correct methods are used um correct instruction is applied. And I'm here to tell you that despite all the differentiation, the flexible grouping, the modifications to assignments, the the changes made to the way students receive help at the middle school, it it only goes so far. Um I believe the understanding which was reached by some here was that the disparities in outcomes for the students are not the result of systemic changes but are instead due to inconsistencies between certain teachers. And I think a lot of us felt really kind of dragged through the mud on that one. Um uh but I'd
016like you all to see and acknowledge that that even in departments such as science which were not signaled out as problematic because they have relatively low DNF rates, the students suffering the most are this year are most certainly the students with special needs and language learners. Thank you. Good evening, members of the board, Superintendent Riby. My name is John Fowler. I teach history and habit at the middle school. Uh, last time I spoke to you, January 2025. Uh, I commended our school administrators, Dr. Passoon and Mr. Anderson, uh, for helping to establish a more calm and focused school climate where teachers were supported. uh when our current school year commenced in August, I couldn't but help but hope that uh we would focus on the academic piece, right? Fine-tune better ways, even better ways to
017help support students. Um take a step back for a moment. Middle middle school is a doozy, right? rapid development, neural connections, reorganizing, leaving students hyper sensitive to like bullying, peer pressure, social rejection, right? The need to fit in is far more important than school work, right? If you're if you fit in, then cool, man, focus. But if you're not, it's it's very difficult for students to navigate and thread that needle, right? students questioning who am I? They're dealing with significant changes in their body, their test and boundaries. All this in the face of transitioning from one teacher to multiple teachers, higher workloads, more complex subject matter requiring a real need for the kinds of organiz organizational skills that they're still developing. Uh now our so-called push-in model, it may be helping some students. These things
018are difficult to measure and we kind of go back and forth about the data. I'm not I wasn't trained in reading the data to tell you the truth. I we all seem to be coming with our different arguments about it. It would be great to hear each other out. But uh with that being said, um these things are difficult to measure. We are in the business of planting seeds that take time to wake up, let alone germinate and grow. Um, but from my optic, this model is not serving many students well, right? Whether by grades, engagement, a quick conversation with the student, we are falling short. I hope this conversation could help move things forward. I think I speak on behalf of my colleagues when I say we're not here to battle a bunch of
019adults, but to help students navigate these tough middle years. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. All righty. Thank you. On March 10th, 2026, uh, Principal Pursum provided a PowerPoint presentation on Carpenter Middle School. In a nutshell, the presentation attempted to pass responsibility for CMS's rapidly declining student achievement from the shoulders of those administrators uh, most responsible for the influential pomatic decisions to the teachers struggling to maintain effective learning environments in the chaotic aftermath of those administrative decisions. While principal Pursoon attempted to shame and blame faculty based on an incomplete and often factually incorrect data, the most meaningful and clearly available data was missing. Unfortunately, the district did not agendaize another CMS presentation this evening, even after they recognized the Miss Pursoon's presentation did not clarify the reasons for sustained reductions in academic achievement.
020By failing to re-examine this matter, senior admin and board officials will allow to stand the misinformation contained in both the presentation and the follow-up statements made by Superintendent Riby, sped director Haynes, and Miss Persoon. Worse, failing to re-examine this presentation does little to improve the current situation. Unfortunately, principal Persoon has yet to internalize any of the feedback the board politely offered on March 10th. Instead, she continues to double down on the same behavior and misinterpretations baked into her inaccurate and increasingly relevant presentation, going so far as to continue to suggest publicly and in staff communications that CMS faculty refuse to differentiate their instruction, that the problem can be solved by simply building rapport with students, that admin is now cancelling students detentions because admin alleges such routine behavioral consequences are ineffective methods for reorienting students.
021that many faculty don't want sped 504 elelll students in their classrooms and that grade manipulation will resolve our learning problems. Miss Pursuit alleges that all are to blame for in for significant reductions in student achievement, not admin's arbitr arbitrary and unilateral programmatic decisions relating to the push-in model. In response to the feedback Miss Pursoon received on March 10th, she instead chose to continue her myth mythbuilding exercise blaming faculty and support staff for the impact of CMS and CUSD's poverty of leadership. Elected employee leadership wants to thank the many CMS faculty who have sacrificed time to provide the community and yourselves more accurate data this evening. Throughout March and early April, CMS faculty have been sharing relevant data with district admin and our board officials to include emails, face-to-face conversations, letters to the board, and these
022public comments shared this evening. Thank you. >> And thank you all. >> Mr. Delgado will translate into Spanish. Thank you. >> Translation. administrator. Director. clarific. analysis. assist. uh commentarios estat. Now I would like to uh proceed with my own uh public uh comment. the the middle school has the resources as the dual language immersion program well established yet during the last two years academic achievement is down on sixth grade 7th and eighth grade. Let me read you let me read you the uh this and defs and fs provided by the to the community on March 10. And here they are the results. This and FS first semester sixth grade this and FS 2025 26 26% 7th grade 21% eighth grade 24 uh%. Second semester six rate 24%. 24 and 20 this is for 24 and
023and and 25 the ones that I read 25 and 26 current ones 2024 2025 six rates 24% seven of F this and Fs 7th grade 21% eighth grade 18%. Common sense. Common sense tells you that teachers are support and support staff and are not to blame. Who is responsible? The administration that set sets up the programs when they're wrong. Teachers just follow the instruction. Diana Riby is a face of the district. presume it's a principle special education students and English learners are in regular classes now sometimes up to 50% of a class not three as officially said I applaud teachers for their effort and and sacrifice and uh uh so what's behind that these and Fs. This could be the simple the system implemented by administration teachers they are following uh instructions. So I I
024think that uh as a former board member, as a former teacher, I think that uh we all have to be involved in improving these results. You as board members, you as a superintendent, teachers who are here today. I myself representing the community, I think that we should all work together. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, seeing no more of a public comment. Um, move on to item four, the approval of the minutes of our last meeting. Uh, can I get a motion? I'll move to approve. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? Any public comment on uh minutes of our last meeting? Okay, so let's try to clean the damage from the last meeting. Let the minutes of March 10th clarify that the administrators most responsible for the poorly vetted and hastily implemented pushin project or
025pushin program, I should say, used the CMS presentation at minute 3550 to blame teachers for the second year of declining academic achievement under principal pursuit. Let the record show employees and their elected representatives appreciate the engagement and discussion of our board members who received a variety of inaccurate and misleading responses from the administrators present on March 10th. At hour 101, Mr. Bridgeford asked if sped teachers are supporting all classes. Miss Riby said only math and language arts, but failed to share. Sped teachers are only provide support for 15 minutes per class three times a week, less than 20% of the support these students got last year. At hour 12440, Mr. Smith asked whether sped students are expected to do only 50% of the coursework in all their classes. Miss Pursoon responded shockingly yes, which is
026not true. There is no universal expectation that sped students only complete 50% of their coursework. At hour 11815, Miss Diamond stated it was not appropriate for Miss Persoon to call out teachers in her presentation, which is especially true when considering the data persoon included. What was at best grossly incomplete, highly manipulated, and intended to professionally threaten teachers brave enough to record the D's and Fs their students earn. At hour 106, Mr. Schaefer asked which students are earning the lion's share of D's and Fs. Admin failed to share that many of the same students are receiving D's and Fs across all content areas. The highest percentage being SPE sped students pushed into general ed classrooms. That said, let the minutes show that D's and Fs are not adequate do not adequately explain why student achievement is
027declining. D's and Fs are highly susceptible to administrative manipulation. They neither explain what is and isn't working with the push-in model, nor do they clarify the value of the co-e model or at the value of last year's specialized academic support classes. Let the minutes show that D's and Fs correlate more with the concentration of atrisisk students assigned to a given teacher than a teacher's performance. For example, where admin stated that an average that there is an average of three sped or ELLL students in a class, some classes have 55 to 65% sped and EL students while others have may have none. Let the record show that Mr. Schaefer is correct to question CMS's warped view of equity. We we uh do students a disservice when we remove resources and lower expectations in the name of
028equity simply because some come to us with less resources and capacity. Instead, shouldn't we strategically support those who need the most support while encouraging all students to use every available resource they have to pursue academic excellence and their highest possible achievement. Let the minutes show that throughout the discussions pertaining to declining achievement, none of you asked >> to meet with these people. None of you and you still haven't. >> Thank you. >> Translation of President comments. Okay. LDSO. classes. Smith. statistic. Okay. Uh, I have a second and a motion. All in favor of approving the minutes? >> I I >> All right. move on to the approval of the agenda and consent agenda. Uh any public comment on the agenda and consent agenda? All righty. Thank you. So, elected union leadership asked the board to
029support the following items contained in this evening's consent agenda. Items 1 3 4 6 7 and 9. Beyond those items, elected employee leadership is compelled to remind the district that the Brown Act is designed to prevent the advancement of public business without transparency. This evening, we discourage the district from approving consent agenda item number five, which is associated with the contract with Cox Business Services. Please correct us if we're wrong, but uh we don't believe this item was ever brought before the board in the community for previous consideration. Although item five contains a comparatively small monetary investment, that alone does not justify the district's decision to engage to engage in yet another Brown Act violation. The practice of ramming through items that have not been properly presented to the public to be approved with a
030single up or down vote obscures debate and prevents dissenting viewpoints and concerns from being placed on the public record. And make no mistake, CUSD's consent agendas often contain items of significant cost, the financial impact of which have greatly impacted available monies for district students and programs. The continued misuse of the consent agenda serves to grease the wheels for occasions like those when the consent agenda contains items district officials would prefer to ram through without public oversight. Therefore, it's important that all consent agenda items receive the full measure of scrutiny entitled, not only because it's legally required, but because consistent practices prevent costly errors. Interestingly, elected employee leadership couldn't help but notice that the district again dismissed our request for increased transparency as it pertains to employee payroll costs. On March 10th, we asked that CSD
031not only share payroll costs for certificated and classified employees, which has been the routine on the consent agenda, but to additionally share specific payroll costs associated with district administrative payroll. This month, dis the district not only rejected that request, but went so far as to conceal all employee payroll costs. Union leadership asked why the regular March payroll of 2026 was not included on this consent agenda at all. We hope you do, too. and why the district is so reluctant to draw attention to the inorate expenses associated with CUSD's administrative payroll costs, which have ballooned under Superintendent Riby. All the while, costs associated with employees working directly with students have continued to become an increasingly smaller portion of CUSD's budget. A detail exposed in the district's most recent audit, which confirmed that CUSD violated ED code
032yet again by underinvesting the required portion of our budget in teacher and support staff salaries. The district was approximately $3.5 million short in 2324 and $2.5 million short in 2425. Both of those clear ED code violations. Surprise. There was no similar violation, however, in underinvestment or shortages when it came to CUSD's administrative costs, which you continue to hide. Thank you. >> Okay. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda and consent agenda? >> I'll motion to approve. >> I'll second. >> All right. Any discussion? It's a roll call. Janette >> I >> Andy >> I >> Aaron >> I >> and I am I >> All right. Thank you. Alrighty. We will now move on to a very exciting presentation. Um we >> What's that? >> Public comment. >> Oh, public comment. Oh, I'm
033sorry. I'm sorry. Public comment on item E. Any public comment on item E? family. >> Good evening. Um, I'm here to speak on behalf of union leadership and union members that are compelled to um notice in the presentation coming um we were surprised to notice uh that the pushin model is not going to be mentioned in the PowerPoint. Um this is the special education program presentation item E4. The pushin model which represents the single greatest change to the way CUSD assigns and supports sped students in years is not included in the presentation. Not even a single data point specifically tied to pushin. no pros and cons of Pushin or any mention of the impact Pushin has had on our most struggling students or CUSD mission. Please ask yourself why admin chose not to provide any
034of the damning data and feedback it's receiving about the hastily implemented push-in model. Why did admin instead choose to add this blurb on page four, which reads, "State requirement 70% or more of students with IEPs to spend 80% or more of their day in general education settings. Note and consider the state does not require 100% of students with IEPs or 90% or 80% or even 75% of students. It requires 70% of students with IEPs to be in general ed classes. And of that 70%, these students are not required to spend 100% of their day in general ed classes. They're permitted to spend 20% in SAI or other support classes. Please notice there are no slides that clarify either the percentage of sped students being serviced under the current pushin model or the percentage of the
035school day that those students are receiving support under the push-in model in general education classes. When comparing the state's requirement to current student assignments, it's clear the pushin model is being overprescribed in CUSD. Although the district has provided no data which it could be could have easily produced, direct observation suggests that well over the state requirement 70% of our students or SPED students are in general education classes with no additional support in at least half of those classes. And in the classes where sped teachers pop in for 15 minutes three times a week, this represents less than 20% of the support they used to receive. Please note also and ask when comparing the state's requirement to current student assignments, it's clear the push and models being overprescribed or used in the CUSD. >> Thank you.
036I'm going to complete that um last comment. Okay. So, given the state's requirements, CUSD has lots of room to reassign our lowest performing sped students. Nothing prevents CUSD from reassigning sped students from general ed classes into the SPE into specialized academic instructional classes they once thrived in. But that would cost money. And CUSD's real goal is to cut sped costs, not serve students. CUSD has cut costs by lowering its overall sped student population this year. The practice of slowing the process for qualifying new sped students is memorialized on page 10 of the PowerPoint. The district's own data confirms that CSD has reduced the total number of initial assessments by approximately 31% from 85 in 2425 to just 59 this year. CUSD also cuts sped costs by removing current students from special education. This is done
037by either placing them on 504s, alleging they no longer have a sufficient disability, or by simply denying them services altogether. Take a look at page seven, where in the last year alone, CUSD reduced student participation in the sped program by 14% in an era where sped numbers are climbing across the state and across the country. Interestingly, page nine confirms that although sped student numbers have decreased at almost all other schools, 19 less at CMS and 13 less at Cantalino and 11 less at Aliso, the school with the greatest increase in sped students is currently would any of you like to guess? Summerland. Yes, Summerland. Uh, fascinating. Which has not lost any sped students but has increased. Could this have anything to do with the uniquely affluent parent population at Summerland and their ability to demand
038the rights that other families in the district are unaware of or are incapable of securing due to language barriers or immigr immigration status or educational levels or the variety of other skills possessed by the more fluent of our community but not the majority of the families we serve. And speaking of financial savings pursued on the backs of our most vulnerable and at risk students, page 16 confirms that the district has reduced sped staffing by approximately 15% in the last year. Although a significant savings for the district, the reduction in sped teachers and aids has left sped students struggling across the district, especially at the secondary level where the push-in model has been the most overprescribed. Lastly, did any of our board members notice there is not even one slide itemizing the number and extraordinary legal
039costs associated with the variety of sped related lawsuits filed under Miss Rigby and Miss Haynes's watch. Wouldn't it be insightful data? In fact, just this evening, another $70,000 in sped related legal fees is contained in the district warrant. And just a few weeks ago, Superior Court Judge Anderlay issued his order on sped lawsuit case number 25, Charlie Victor04752, ordering COSD to pay $125,000 as a result of Miss Pursoon and Miss Rigby's unlawful efforts to remove sped students. >> Your time is up. >> Against the Disabilities Act. Thank you. Okay, now we would like to move on to a very exciting um presentation and we have uh Natalie Yanes from S Southern California Edison here to present a very exciting award. >> Yes. Could we get could we get the the Esavl family to come up
040as well? >> Yes, absolutely. Good evening, uh, superintendent, board members. Thank you for having me tonight. My name is Natalie Jiannis. I'm a government relations manager with Southern California Edison. I have the privilege of serving this region. Um, and tonight is a special recognition. Uh, we had the opportunity to do this at the school site with uh, Principal Corno and the whole team and, uh, board chair Schaefer as well. Uh, and surprising David with this recognition. David has uh been selected of one of as one of 30 high school seniors across Southern California Edison's territory to uh be one of our Edison scholars. It is a uh unique uh exclusive club we like to call it. Um and uh again, David is part part of the 2026 cohort. With that, David is awarded a $50,000
041STEM scholarship. And in conversations with David this evening, he is looking at three different school options right now. Uh but two of them somewhat local. And um so again, thank you for having us here tonight. It is such an honor. I do want to hand it over to David to say a couple of words. >> Hello guys. So yeah, um as she was saying, um I'm looking at three colleges right now so far. Uh my first option right now, um is USC and uh following USC I have Kalpali Slow at number two and UCLA at number three. Yeah. Um, right now I'm considering USC the most because uh they offered me the best package and you know I'll be using this to good use and um I'm extremely grateful too because this eliminates that financial
042barrier that comes with going to college and especially coming from like a low-inccome family like this is going to help out tremendously. And you know um my parents have always told me that to work hard and you know good things come from like working hard and you know doing good in school and you know they never really had like that college fund for me. So, you know, I just made sure to lock in and uh my four years in co I mean college just high school, I you know, try my best to get involved in my community and you know do good in classes, take the hardest classes, all the AP classes and um you know apply to as many scholarships as possible and then this is what I got from it. Yeah. So, thank
043you You know, we're very proud of all of our students. Uh David is just one of many students. We have when he said four years of college at at high school, he is probably right. If you take the amount of uh dual enrollment classes and AP classes, most of our students have taken almost 15 of those courses at Carpentry High School. But one of the things that I always remind students is to always thank those individuals that have helped them along the way. Their parents, their friends, their family, their teachers, and their counselors. Uh no one achieves anything without support. And that's something that David I know understands very well and all of our students understand that. Uh we have a great support system at Carpenter High School. We have counselors. We have MESA program
044from uh UCSB. We have Calope and I'm sure you used all of them to support you along with our mission scholars. Uh so again we're very proud of you. Congratulations They don't want to say anything. Thank you very much. >> Yeah. Well, we just like to thank really appreciate you, David. I mean, this is we're also very proud. Um, this is, you know, the whole reason that all of us are on the school board is to is to see o see students get opportunities and make their lives better and and and we know you're going to you're going to accomplish great things in life and and this is really going to and no matter which school you decide, you those are all three very good choices. Um, so we're we're super excited and hope you
045come back and share your experiences with with the school, with the community. Um, and and let us keep us posted on your success. >> I'll just say this is the second Edison Scholar from Carpenteria High. So very exciting. Um, and it may be unconventional, but would you mind if I get a group photo of David, his parents, Principal Corno, and maybe I can snag myself in there, too? You want to in front of maybe the >> D. One second. Okay, we'll move on now to the student representative report and Lacy. Um, I just wanted to start off by saying congrats again to David because just from my personal experience being classes with him and everything, I know how dedicated he is and I just think he deserves everything that's coming his way. So, Um, our
046school has hosted back to school night yesterday and a lot of students and families showed up. There were clubs and sports teams that were trying to get people to join for next year. And classrooms were open to too so parents could meet teachers and get an idea of what school is going to be like next year and just for the rest of the school year. Seniors are also getting close to finalizing their college decisions with most deadlines coming up on May 1st. There's also going to be a list of colleges seniors got accepted into shared at the next board meeting. This Saturday, our school is hosting an the 106th Russell Cup, which is the oldest track meet in California. There is going to be over 39 schools that are coming to compete, so it should
047be a very big event. A lot of our athletes are also trying to qualify for CIF, so be sure to come out and support. >> Thank you. >> Great. Thanks, Lucy. Okay, we'll move on to the superintendent's report. >> So, tonight I'd like to begin with some appreciation. I'd like to recognize Principal Carneo, Coach Laam, athletic director Cooney, and our assistant athletic director Bryant, all the CHS student athletes, and all the community volunteers for organizing the 106th Russell Cup track and field meet. As Lacy said, this Saturday, April 18th, you won't want to miss it. Now, I begin with congratulations. I'd like to start with Isaac a six uh excuse me, seventh grader at CMS. He won second place in the Santa Barbara County Spelling Bee, and he'll compete in the junior high division of
048the California State Spelling Bee in Manteka on April 25th. I have three more students, our high school seniors, Crystal Esa, Edwin Hernandez, and Valerie Pledo. They've all been selected as finalists for this year's Junior Carpentryan of the Year for their achievements in academics, leadership, and community service. So this Saturday, April 18th, the Junior Carpentrian of the Year will be announced at the Carpa Community Awards Banquet. More congratulations. Trisha Humbles, our Canalino counselor, and the Canolino kindergarten and first grade students who are planet protectors. They won this year's environmental stewardship award from Explore Ecology. They will be celebrated at the annual award ceremony at the Cababrio Pavilion in Santa Barbara on Thursday, April 16th. And then our very own Monica Thomas, our executive assistant to superintendent, was awarded the Carpentria Rotary Club's Vocational Service Award for
049outstanding achievement and excellence in service to the community professionally and personally. Congratulations, Monica. We also have teacher awards and congratulations. Marissa Santiso, a special ed teacher at CMS, and Matt McFersonson, our Aliso special ed teacher. They were all selected as recipients for the 7th annual Selpa Braation Award for their leadership, teamwork, collaboration, and overall positive spirit in working with students in special education. They will be celebrated at the Glen Annani Golf Course Frog Bar and Grail in Galita on Thursday, May 14th. And then Kristen Newman, our CHS assistant principal. She'll be honored at the AHA Sing It Out celebration on Sunday, April 18th at the Libero Theater. She will receive an Angel Award for dedication to the well-being of CHS students, parents, and staff. Congratulations to all. My next item is regarding the paraprofessional appreciation
050day which was April 1st. Paraprofessional appreciation day is celebrated annually to honor classroom assistants, teacher aids and other paraprofessionals in recognition of their critical role in supporting students and teachers particularly in special education. CUSD employs 89 instructional assistants or approximately one instructional assistant for every 20 students. We also have National School Librarians Day which was April 4th. National School Librarian Day is celebrated annually on April 4th to recognize the essential role school librarians play in fostering a love for reading, teaching digital literacy, and supporting academic success. We appreciate CUSD library media texts, Caitlyn Damron at Aliso and Summerland, Julie Sodto at Canalino and Family School, Pacanero at the middle school, and Abigail Garcia at the high school. April 6th through the 10th was National Assistance Principles Week. And this week is in celebration of the
051unsung heroes in our school district. These dedicated folks work tirelessly to inspire teachers, motivate students, support their principal, create a positive learning community, and face many unpredictable challenges during the day. Please join me in thanking CUSD assistant principles, James Anderson at the middle school, Kirsten Newman, and Jeremiah Sabennis at the high school. Next, I want to remind everyone about our CUSD open houses. you heard about last night at Carpondria High School. Canolino and Family Schools open house will be this Thursday at 4:30. Summerland will be Friday at 2:30. The middle school is next week on the 23rd at 5 and preceding that will be Eliso School's open house April 23rd at 4:00. Earth Day celebrations. Elementary students are celebrating and honoring Earth Day during the month of April. All district third graders attend Katie Roberts
052Bluffs Day and appreciation and advocacy for preservation of our natural lands. The Citizens for the Bluffs volunteer volunteers facilitate this annual event that includes rotating small group activities at our beautiful bluffs. There's an activity called the Eyes in the Sky, a rescue organization for red tail hawks and owls, a chum mash tradition of creating your own clamshell. waterc coloring of the bluffs landscape and learning how the chum mash utilize native plants for resources. Third graders also do walking field trips to Tommo Park, a Rotary Club investment to learn more about the Chumash land and traditions and the respect and reverence for our natural resources in Carperia. Carpenter Family School students participate in walking field trips to the state beach during low tide to study the living creatures in the tide pools as well as shorebirds
053and human impact on the delicate ecosystem. Elementary students also participate in walking field trips to Carpenter Salt Marsh to learn about the crucial importance of our salt marsh as a nursery for marine life as well as plant life that is part of the food chain and habitat. In May, fourth grade students will be taking a boat trip in celebration of Earth Day during April. I mean, excuse me, taking a boat trip to Santa Cruz Island, where the focus is on human impact on the island ecosystem as well as the ocean. The students learn about the flora and fauna on the island and sometimes see dolphins and whales when crossing the channel. Also during April, the fifth grade students take a 3-day, twoight trip to Catalina Catalina Island Marine Institute, CEI, and learn a lot about
054the delicate ecosystems, how to min minimize human impact on those systems, and an appreciation for the national environment. Finally, at all our sites, we are working hard to teach our students to separate their waste into trash, recycle, and compost during breakfast and lunch, and to utilize reusable containers. My next item is about poetry month at the middle school. Uh, April is poetry month and CMS staff and students will celebrate poetry month by creating pocket poems and display them in the CMS hallway for all to enjoy. And our last item is related to measure you at Aliso. During excavation for the building pad, excessive groundwater was discovered at a depth of 4 and 1/2 ft below the existing grade. This halted the excavation process and the geotechnical and project engineers required dewatering services and soil stabil
055stabilization in this affected area to meet the compacted fill requirements of the soils report. These cost and time impacts have initiated a change order with a time extension to the project schedule. Thanks. >> All right. Thank you. And now we will move on to a special education uh program presentation with Carolyn Haynes. Hi everybody. Um thanks for having me here tonight. Uh yeah, I wanted to start with um so interesting. So it messes my pres presentation just a little bit. That's okay. Um I wanted to start with a couple um definitions right at the start just so that we're all speaking the same language. I know the school board has um heard some of this information before, but I wanted to make sure um that the public has access to some um some of the
056sped terms that are are used a lot. Um the first thing I wanted to talk about is IDEIDA. It's the individuals with disabilities and education act and it's a federal law that guarantees um students with disabilities access to a free and appropriate public education. Along with that is free and appropriate public ed education or FAPE. Um, FAPE is a a very specific legal term that ensures that students with disabilities have a right to receive specialized instruction and services that are tailored to their individual needs um and that there is no cost for those for um parents. Another term that's really important is uh least restrictive environment. least restrictive environment is a um challenging principle within um free and public public education and under the IDEIDA act and it requires that students with disabilities be educated
057alongside their non-disabled peers to the maximum extent possible. Um what it requires is that we are always striving to have kids with disabilities in regular classrooms is the language from the law. Um, when we are taking a student out of their general education classroom to provide them services, we're only doing so when absolutely necessary. Um, and then at the very bottom of the slide is information about um, state indicator 5A. And what it it includes two percentages, which would makes it a little bit confusing, but what it's looking to do is ensure that most students who have IEPs spend most of their time in general education settings. that we're only pulling them out when absolutely necessary. And the 70% is a rising indicator that's changed over time. It's an increasing goal. So, it's something that
058um in the past we were looking at for 60% of those students um 62% 65%. This year it's 70%, next year it'll be 72%. So, it's a a an indicator that's been rising over time and it's something we've been working hard on for a number of years. The other um core tenant of the idea is something called childf find. And childf find is a federal mandate that requires school districts, public school districts to proactively identify and evaluate children with disabilities. Um and what I want to say about that is it means all children, not just those who are enrolled in the public school district. So we um we serve students who are parentally placed at private schools. We serve preschoolers who are still at home with their parents. Um, and we serve eligible students um
059through their 22nd birthday, even once they have finished um a high school program that has not yielded a diploma. I included this slide just as a little bit of background information um regarding how we determine when students are eligible for services. Uh what typically happens is we get a referral that can be from a teacher, it can be from um a physician, it can be from the parent, uh it could be from Tri County's regional center doing a handoff of um early childhood students. So kiddos who've had services sometime between birth and age three who are um exiting eligibility under their services, they'll let us know. Um once we receive the referral, the district has 15 days to look at the um expected areas of disability and send a plan in order for us to
060do an assessment. We have 60 days to complete that assessment and then we hold an IEP meeting to review those results and um develop an IEP if that's appropriate. Let's talk a little bit about our students. Um I included the change from 2425 last year. I presented to you um something very similar to this slide and um we have seen a decrease in our student population but it's pretty commensurate with the decline in student enrollment. So there's nothing nothing super shocking here. Um students with um areas where we've seen less students um are across most of our areas. areas where we've had a little bit of an increase. Multiple disabilities is sort of a complicated category. And it's not that we have more students with multiple disabilities. It's likely they're coming from a different category
061like intellectual disability uh or another or autism is sometimes a category that they're coming from. We also saw a a tiny increase in orthopedic impairment. And those are kids generally who have mobility or or something with their skeletal muscular system that requires um services and/or equipment to actually move around the school um campus. And then we had one student who became eligible um under traumatic brain injury this year, which we did not have last year. And then this is just a a a quick pie chart of all that information. Um I I'm a visual person and I like to see it presented this way. You can see that um specific learning disability is the largest piece of that pie. Speech or language impairment. Most often um students who have speech or language impairment as our
062eligibility category are our youngest learners. Um and interestingly, autism um used to be our fourth highest category and now it's overtaken other health impairment which was just an interesting data point. And then um our population by school system. So um over the last year we we were uh as the time that I prepared these slides 308 students in the district had IEPs. Those include preschool age students, um eligible post-secary students, and students who are um served outside the district but still eligible within our boundaries. And that is a decline of about 42 students from the previous year. Uh let's see some of the some of the population changes. Summerland has uh has seen an increase and that's um mostly because it's a very small population. So any change of a single student, it looks like
063it's a big big change within the district. Um the other thing is the decline in in students at CMS. Um a lot of those students moved over for as eighth graders last year or 9th graders this year. There's a big cohort there. Um this is all pretty pretty standard. Uh what I did want to note is um we currently are at 17% which is um actually a little bit down. Um the state of California and the national numbers are about 15%. So, we've been working hard to um better align our eligibility identification with the state numbers. We are looking really hard and doing a lot of training with our um our school psychology and our assessment team, our school psychologists and assessment teams to make sure that we're applying the um criteria appropriately and that
064we're working with schools and with families to best support students. >> Could I ask you a question in regard to that? So, um, does does that mean we're we're we're we were over evaluating before or or we're how does how did I don't quite understand >> Yes. >> how you're changing that. >> Yes, that's exactly what that means. So, um, wi when we are out of alignment with the state and the county and the nation, it usually means we were overqualifying students. Um, in particular, I believe we were overqualifying students in the category of specific learning disability. Um, specific learning disabilities is a really broad generic term and it includes um, reading difficulties, math difficulties, writing difficulties and there are a couple different models that that are used to identify students with specific learning disability.
065County of Santa Barbara uses something called a pattern of strengths and weaknesses and it requires a lot of skill in interpreting that model. Um we have a amazing team of psychologists who are doing a wonderful job working with school teams to apply those criteria and ensure that supports are in place for kiddos who don't meet eligibility in that category. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So we're we're doing a better job. That's what that's what you're seeing here. >> Great. >> Um and and to that we we are doing less initial evaluations. um partially because we have a smaller student population as a whole and partially because we are um working better earlier in the process to support students with general education support. So um the special education team I I see it really is our
066our mission to support all students and support staff so that to work with our counselors, work with our general education teachers to make sure that supports are in place early on. um our special education teachers consult with their general education colleagues um on on how to support kiddos who who have needs in their classroom who may or may not have disabilities. It's um as as a as a whole as a speaking as a mild moderate teacher um myself I one of the one of the greatest um benefits to having a robust special education program is that teachers can work together and learn from each other and give each other ideas and and that's what's happening. We have a very high performing special education team and that's why we're seeing a little bit of the the
067um changes within these numbers. Um talking about the uh IEP cycle. Um so once we've got the referral, we've done an assessment, we've identified a kiddo with an IEP, we start the beginning of a three-year cycle. So that first year is considered the initial IEP. The second year we do an annual review. So, we don't do a big comprehensive assessment, but we do um localized assessment. So, we're looking at student progress on their goals. We're looking at their grades. We're looking at their teacher feedback. We might do some informal assessment and we update that IEP. We do that two years in a row. And at the end of the third year, we do another really big assessment and we reconsider um whether or not the student still requires services. The state really wants us to
068be looking critically and the goal is not to take kids out of general education settings. um and to make sure that students who are being taken out of settings for services really require those. I wanted to highlight some of our programs and some of the language we use in special education. Um resource is a term we used to have something a credential called a resource specialist credential and that's sort of gone away. Um, special education teachers now generally have one of three different credentials. Either a mild moderate support needs credential, an extensive support needs credential, or an early childhood credential. Um, they don't it the state makes changes to their credentials over time and sort of an idea of a resource qualification has gone away and it's sort of fallen into this mild moderate support
069needs model. um within our district and within across the county, a resource program is a special education classroom that generally serves students with mild to moderate um support needs. And those teachers serve kiddos sometimes in their own classroom. So, taking them away from their gened classroom because they need a a quiet distraction-free environment to do something like a phonics lesson or intensive math instruction. But oftentimes, our teachers are serving students in their general education classroom. So this is a picture of Matt McFersonson in his room 2 classroom at Aliso, this absolutely gorgeous classroom. And he spends part of his day in here working with students and he spends part of his day in a whole bunch of other classrooms at Aliso working with students in their general education classrooms. that is considered um the gold
070standard of um mild moderate education is to be able to work alongside our colleagues and have students be in their classrooms with their peers with their gened teachers learning the same things. Um a special education teacher in that setting is really supporting the learning of the student and customizing it so that they're able to have that maximum access to instruction. We have a resource program AC in our elementary sites, our middle school sites and our our high school sites. Special day classes are meant for students who have extensive support needs um especially um extensive academic needs. These students tend to um have disabilities such as intellectual disabilities, autism, orthopedic impairment, multiple disabilities, and they require a higher level of um support and specialized instruction in order to access general education in general. A lot of
071our special day class students spend somewhere between um 50 and 75% of their time in a special day class setting. So most of their day with a special education teacher, but some of their day in general education settings. All of our students um in special day classes do have um recess and nutrition and lunch with their uh with their peers. So that's a a high priority within our program is that they have access to general education peers. Um a lot of their instruction is happening in a specialized classroom. Within the special ed world, related services refer to specialized things that are not just instruction. So, they might be speech therapy, um they might be counseling services, behavior support services, and they're provided by a whole team of um specialists who work with them. So, this
072is a picture of Mackenzie Thornton. She's our occupational therapist. She's phenomenal. um she is actually guiding an entire in this picture a um TK whole class um group of rotations. So she's in there working alongside Angela White and uh the instructional assistants who are always in that classroom supporting kiddos. Um some of the kids are doing a cutting activity, some of the kids are doing like a a drawing activity. Um, one of my first slides had her leading this like obstacle course where they're jumping across um little um bumpy things that are on the carpet so that they're they're working on their um balance and their gross motor skills. Um she's she's amazing. She works at every side in our district with the whole range of students. Um and she's an absolute um amazing ambassador
073for this group of of specialized professionals. Um, and lastly, we have aids and supports. And those include things like instructional assistance. Uh, they can be specialized equipment. Um, transportation. We we provide transportation to about 40 kids within the district as part of their IEP. Um, what you're seeing in this picture is uh Laura Freilley working with two students who she routinely supports. Um, one of those students is using an adaptive swing that we added on the Calino campus last year. Uh we add that added that to support our kiddos who need it. And what we found is more kiddos than just those who have it on their IEP really benefit from a swing that has straps and that they um have a little more support when swinging. Uh it was quite a hit. Um uh
074Mr. Cano and I talk often about um how how we best have equipment like that at Canolino um to benefit all students. uh and our special education staff. So, you know, as our our enrollment declines, so is our need for staff. Um sometimes we are losing staff um because we uh we need fewer staff and sometimes they're hard to find. Um we went from five psychologists last year to four and it's um it is something we're managing. our our psychologists work really hard and they work together very collectively and I'm really um proud of the work that they do. We have uh 14 special education teachers this year which is is down a little bit from last year. We have five speech therapists, one adapted PE teacher. Uh 52 of our instructional assistants specifically work
075with students with disabilities. Um almost all of our instru instructional assistants spend at least part of their day working with students with disabilities um in a variety of of ways. It's just a a tiny bit down from last year. We continue to have one occupational therapist. We are using fewer behavior technicians. Those are outside um specialists who we bring in to work with kids with um significant behavioral challenges that need a specialist. And we have one um BCBA or behavioral analyst And then some of the the professional learning that we've done with our certificated staff this year. This is a partial list. Um mental health is a is a huge area where we're providing a lot of support. Having a fantastic BCBA has helped us really hone in on strategies that our certificated staff can
076use to better support um students and to better support their general education colleagues and students in general education settings. Um, we do crisis prevention intervention training. That's the CPI card. It's sometimes called the blue card and it's used to make sure that students who are having a behavioral crisis or emergencies um have supports and that they are kept safe and that their peers are kept safe. Um, we also do significant professional learning for our classified staff. We typically do this on Wednesdays once a month. Um I I lead these and I have a whole host of um other specialists who come support me like our behavior analysts, our occupational therapists, speech therapists and we work on all kinds of things. Uh they also do um crisis prevention intervention training um prevent professionalism, confidentiality, we talk
077about behavior plans, we collect data, we work on emergency procedures, um and a lot of a lot of talk about positive behavioral supports for all students across our sites. And I think that's the end of my slides. >> Great. >> Thanks. Thanks, Carolyn. >> Yeah. >> Anybody have any questions? >> Yeah. Yeah. Great. >> Um, when you Sorry. When you have the slides about staff development, is that specifically the special education staff or are those all of the staff of all the teachers throughout the district? >> This is specifically special education staff. >> Okay. >> Um, yes. Can can you tell me I know and and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but typically special ed staff members are more generalized. They're not math teachers, they're not science teachers, but for our teachers that
078are in the classrooms, um what exact training are they getting in order to support the, you know, having these kids be in general ed? So like what would a like m Miss Fear get or Miss Foster get in terms of support for knowing how to handle specific IEP cases? >> Uh that's a that's a really good question. So, if we're talking about a specific student in a specific case, um a couple ways that that gets handled at at the like most basic level, the special education teacher and the general education teacher typically work together and they look at an IEP together. If we have a student who has a behavior plan, they would go over the behavior plan or provide specific information to the teacher or teachers that most generally work with that student. Um,
079also principles provide training during their monthly staff meetings and I know um principles have brought in um our behavior analysts to help provide specific um supports. I I know that both Brett and Louise have had our BCBA in recently to work with teachers on um specific strategies to support general education students. So not not necessarily focusing on students with IEPs, but focusing on supporting all students and all behavior in classrooms. Um I know I I I am happy to support teachers and I sometimes get invited um to collaborate with general education teachers. They have a question. Um very recently there's a couple teachers particularly um Alisa is um has reached out and asked for support from our behavior analyst to work on um helping them set up some structures in their class to support students.
080>> Okay. Thank you. Is is there a difference between um the credential education credential at the elementary level versus secondary level? >> Uh for special education teachers? No. So uh >> so so they're so they're not they're not like a a subject specific credential. >> No. So there's an early childhood credential that covers um our very youngest students basically um 3 years old through kindergarten age. Uh the mild moderate credential covers students TK through 22 years old. Um and then extensive support needs also covers students TK through 22 years old. >> Okay. >> Um and education specialist credentials are um by nature they're generalists. So, if you are a mild moderate teacher and that's your your training is that credential program, you have um one or two classes on reading instruction, one or two classes
081on math instruction, and one class on content, meaning like history and social studies. Um but your your specialty is really on intervention, so early reading instruction and intensive math instruction. for our extensive support needs teachers. Theirs is on working with students with significant cognitive disabilities. How do how do we stimulate um learning in students who that doesn't come very easy for them? Um our our extensive support needs teachers also have additional training on um working with students who have things like visual impairments and orthopedic impairments. Um all of our uh credentialed teachers now have training on um traumatic brain injury and working with students with autism. >> Okay. So so at the sec but the but part of the IDAA IDEIDA is is that those at the secondary level those students need subject specific instruction.
082Is that is that part of what the act? >> No. So, so special ed teachers are really the the whole goal of specialized academic instruction, which is the service that special ed teachers provide, >> is to help students meet their IEP goals. Um, when we talk about developing an IEP, the first the first thing that an IEP team would look at are what are the students current what's their current functioning? What are their present levels of performance? From there, the IEP team would design goals for that student. So, a student might have a goal um to be able to decode CVC words. So, C A T is a CVC word. Um that goal would mean when the student is working with the special ed teacher, their goal is to be working on developing that skill,
083that decoding CVC words goal. Generally speaking, special ed teachers aren't um most of the time responsible for teaching all of the required standards for a particular grade. >> No, I understand that that was that was I think I think my must I probably didn't pose the question well enough. I'm just curious. So, so part of the act the the spe the the idea act is that those student at the secondary level students get subject specific instruction and that is and I'm trying to understand the push-in model and and so if if 70% of our special ed students and I'm assuming this is just mild moderate. >> No, it means all of them. >> It means all of them. Okay. means all of them age 3 through 22. >> Okay. So, so 70% of our special
084ed students >> and that is a is a climbing ladder, right? It means it's going to be higher each and each successive year. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, 70% of our special ed students um need to spend 80% of their time >> or more. So, minimum of 80% of their time and a minimum of 70% of our students >> Yes. need to spend 80% or more of their time in a general education classroom. >> Correct. >> With subjectspecific instruction with a credentialed >> with a general education teacher. Yes. Or in a general education environment >> general. But it h but I mean at the secondary level is doesn't that mean they have to have a sub I mean the teachers are subject specific? I mean, they're they're credentialed in a math or English or >>
085or science, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. All right. Um, so I'm I'm just trying I'm trying to I'm just trying to get my m mind around how this works. You know, we had the presentation at our last meeting >> and it was, you know, I I had some questions there and I'm just trying to get understand it. >> Sure. um because it it and and how it's changed from say two or three years or four years ago say how how is how has the model changed? >> Uh so strictly speaking for special education there's not a specialized academic instruction is specialized academic instruction. So, one of the things that we differentiate on an IEP is the location where services will be provided. And the big biggest differentiation is is it a general education setting, meaning
086happening in a regular classroom, or is it happening outside of that? So, uh, if if I were a a teacher writing an IEP, I might say that the student will have 120 minutes for a second grader working on early literacy skills, 120 minutes of specialized academic instruction each week outside of general education, meaning they're going to come to a special education resource room and work in a small group or individually with a teacher on those skills specifically. That means that 120 minutes a week they are not in their regular classroom. What happens and and why it feels like a big shift um is when our fifth graders are leaving the elementary setting. That's a a pretty standard amount of specialized academic academic instruction for a student with a learning disability to have when they leave
087our elementary setting with that level of service. In the past, they were going to the middle school and having one or two or three periods a day in a special education setting. So, it was a a big change. Um, what we're what we're looking at right now at the middle school is is continuing on um the same similar amount of service for those students. And every IEP is different. So, um, what we're starting to see as this year's middle school IEPs are coming around is IEP teams, which are made up of a parent, a gened teacher, a special ed teacher, an administrator, um, and then any of those providers um, for the related services. They're looking at, is this model serving the kit? Is this what we currently have on the IEP, is it working?
088Are the is the student making progress in their general education classes? Are they passing those classes? Are they doing well? are they learning what they're supposed to be learning and are they making progress on those goals? And if they're not, we're looking at do we need to be doing something different? >> Okay. And in those stu in those classes, the standard is the same or or are we are we >> Yes, the standard is the same. >> The standard is the same. >> So it unless the student >> even the student with the learning disabil like a like a cognitive learning disability. >> That's a So that's a great question. Um when we look at students, most students who have uh who are considered mild to moderate support needs, um most of our students with
089learning disabilities in particular, um they are expected to master all the same standards as their as their typically developing peers. They are held accountable by the state for all of the same standards as their peers. When we have a student who has an intellectual disability, they may be eligible for a reduced number of standards, but it takes them off of a traditional diploma pathway. >> Yeah. >> And those those are generally students in our special special day class settings. So always are students in uh have been expected to meet the same learning standards as their typically developing peers unless they are one of those extensive support need students who has a cognitive disability and requires a reduced number of standards or modifications to their academic program. >> So those standards really haven't changed. >> Correct.
090>> Okay. So so it it just we're implementing them differently. >> So the way that we're servicing students is different. Okay. >> Can I ask something about that? So, I'm just curious your thoughts on I mean, I think about a classroom where there's one or two students in the corner getting in in general ed classroom separate aid, separate care, separate instruction, and then the teacher teaching the regular class and how that works in terms of I mean, I have a niece who's special needs and I know she has attention deficit like that would not serve her, right? and it probably wouldn't serve the rest of the class either to have like this distraction. So, how do we manage that? Like, what are the I mean, is that I mean, I don't know if that's something
091that that the teachers are concerned about, but how are we managing that environment? I mean, it would be hard for me as an adult to have somebody sitting right there giving different instruction. >> Yeah. and and and it's not usually the I I can't speak to exactly how it works in every classroom at our middle school, but in general, when a special education teacher is working in in a general education classroom, they're working in collaboration with that gened teacher. So maximizing when that time is very often um what what I imagine should be happening um is the special ed teacher is working in that classroom when the students are working on something like an essay and the both teachers are circulating and working with students perhaps the small the special ed teacher is working in
092a small group in the back or is taking a small group outside the classroom so they have a little less distraction. Okay. Um and then I guess my other question is can you define what the other health I know that was about 15% of our students. So what does that look like? >> Yeah. Um and this is something I end up saying a lot of times in IEP meetings. Um um other health impairment is a very broad category and it includes um things like a student who has um uh kidney failure and because of their kidney failure they have um uh different um needs in order to access the general education environment. It could be someone who has um a genetic disorder that means that their genes are expressing in a particular way and they
093have lower muscle tone. Um but what it most often means is students who have problems with attention. They may or may not have a diagnosis of ADHD. Um but oftentimes other health impairment is the largest population of students in that category. It's for problems with attention. >> Um sorry I have so many questions. So, say I'm a student with a specific learning disability. I'm, you know, in eighth grade and I'm not hitting all of my goal markers or all of my, you know, that are set up in my IEP. Um, do I go on to nth grade? I mean, if I'm reading at a third grade level, if I'm, you know, maybe I'm at 50% conservatively of my goals, do I move to nth grade >> generally? Yes. Yes. >> And now I'm haven't learned
094eth grade curriculum and I'm learning nth grade curriculum technically, right? >> Yes. Just curious. It's very interesting. I mean, that just feels like an uphill battle for right. I mean, for everybody, >> I just had one on the uh special education staff. Um I know in the past we've hired a lot of contract folks, right? So out of the out of these numbers, is there a percentage that are contract versus >> um this year we have no contract special education teachers? Um what we're seeing is a big trend in our related service providers. Um I I don't have it at the top of my head, but I can get you the exact breakdown of that. I know we have um three of our speech pathologists are through an agency. our occupational therapist um our behavior
095um our BCBA or behavior analyst is through an agency. Um we would love to hire them directly. >> We would love to >> the unicorns, right? Um so the instructional assistants are primarily contract or employee >> instructional assistants are always direct hired by the district. >> Direct employees. Okay. Okay. Thank you. I mean other our neighboring districts like Santa Barbara, they hire a lot through agencies and we're fortunate that we have have not needed to do that. >> Great. Okay. Thank you. So are this um the model that we're implementing at the middle school, are we utilizing the similar model at the high school? >> No. >> How how is it how is it implemented there? So I mean always what what classes a student gets placed into what services a student is placed into
096or as an IEP team decision. So it's not not a single person is making that decision. Um, at the high school currently, our students are served either in general education classes, and then they have um they might have a a study skills class with a special ed teacher, they might have advisory with a special ed teacher, they may get consultation service with a special ed teacher, um, or or they may have a special like a section of English or a section of math with a special ed teacher. But there's still there's are but we're still um we're still complying with the 7080 model. >> That makes it harder. But yes, >> we are though. >> Yeah. I mean Yes. Yes. >> Okay. So, um I I'm some I'm just I'm trying to understand the the
097the reticence or the resistance to at the middle school and and the differentiated instruction seems to be an issue and the integration of special ed students in the gened classrooms um along with I guess uh EL students and I I'm I'm just I'm trying to understand um how we could do it differently and still be in compliance with with the the rules. >> Is that a loaded question? >> Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. I mean, >> yeah. >> I mean, I don't think that's a question for Carolyn. >> No, I know it's I know I'm I'm actually just asking myself question for Dr. Pursoon, her special ed staff, and her regular ed staff and Carolyn at the site. I I think the difference I I will point out um the difference you you look at
098uh a system that's K12 and so um when you're at elementary and in special ed the special ed teams and the parents want their students in the regular classroom as much as possible and the difference between the regular ed student performance and special ed performance is not a huge gap but as you go up in the years of Of course, the gap gets a little bit bigger. >> In middle school, the gap is not so big as it would as it is in high school. >> So, as we move up in fourth and fifth grade, the parents still want their students in regular ed as much as possible. >> And then we move to the middle school and the students and the parents want the students as much as possible in the regular ed classroom.
099So, we provide that special ed service in the classroom. I think what's confusing right now is we are receiving uh different information um from you're hearing from the site tell you information I have different information from uh Dr. Pursoon and Carolyn about the time and how much time uh sped is spending supporting but um we have the data that our sped in students aren't making the kind of progress that we need to so this is a question for Dr. Pursoon and James to go back to the site and Carolyn and to work and to take a look at that and figure out um how we can support staff >> because there are staff that are have um success with special ed and EL students in their class. >> I realize that. Yeah. >> So you
100look at th those teachers who have those strategies and are being successful and then you um replicate that across the departments and then ac across the school. So, it definitely is a conversation at the school site, but it it makes sense progression-wise that as you're moving up in a system that you're going to if the gap is getting bigger between what the classroom general classroom is performing and the special ed that you are going to have to pull and pull out students and have a very discreet English class. Yeah. >> The English class at high school for special ed students is very different than the general ed English class. >> Understand? >> Right. >> Yeah. So, we're we're trying to uh work with a with a whole system as the students uh progress to each
101grade. >> Well, I I guess I would um >> let's keep some comments. Uh if you're going to go outside and and uh we're having a meeting. This is our meeting contrary to what some people think. This is the board's meeting, not the public meeting. >> I was just going to add it. Um I think it was an important point you made that it is an iterative process with with a parent a general ed teacher the sped teachers with these students right so it's um yeah it's it's a moving target there are lots of people involved in the decisions with these students so that's that's really good to hear too right it's not a we're following some rules and then just putting kids in classrooms we're constantly re-evaluating way in the situation is what I
102heard you say tonight. >> Yes. >> With with input from >> Well, it's a team effort, right? I mean, it's an IEP team. It's it's not it's not a it's not a >> I mean, that's that's what I the way I understand IEP process is is is the goal of an IEP team, >> not a top down. >> Yeah. It's consensus. So, we want everybody there to be in agreement that the decisions made by that IEP team are in the best interest of the student. And that's why they um are comprised of a pretty diverse team that includes the parents and a gened teacher and a special ed teacher and an administrator. And um at the high school level, it often includes the student who's also involved in that decision-making process to determine how to
103best get them where we all want them to go, which is, you know, a high school diploma and beyond into into the world into success. So um it it is and and to your point um you know my slide earlier showed we have a an a initial or trienal meeting an annual meeting and an annual meeting implying over three years we've had three meetings and that may be the case for many of our students but there are students where we've had five meetings this year because we're needing to make small changes and and um um address different things that come up throughout the year um to meet the needs of the student. because they're kids and they're complex and things happen. So, yeah. >> Great. Okay, you guys. Anything else? Janette? >> Um, I just
104think my last question was about I know when we did the school site visits, we noticed um and correct me if the term is wrong, but there were like a bit of mid-severe students that required um like almost like nursing help and care. are those at all extracted from um being in that 70% number because teachers aren't nurses and that would be a very difficult situation or they're lumped in anyways and the state doesn't really care. >> Yeah. So, um when when we're looking at that 70% number, it's of all students with IEPs within the district. >> Okay. Thank you. >> That's what I was afraid the answer was, but >> yeah. >> Okay. Thanks, Carol. >> Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. Okay. Uh we will move on to Fboard Board policies. Any public
105comment on board policies? >> All righty. No. One moment. Thank you. So, I just want to note that there is a lot of imagining going on in that last presentation. It was fascinating. Um, this evening's updated policies contain commitments to protect children, report harassment, protect our immigrant families, and serve our most atrisisk students. If our board officials were to hold our most infamous administrators accountable to the very policies being updated this evening, the board would be be required to discipline, if not even remove, the superintendent and the CMS principal immediately considering just board policy 4119.24 for a moment. How many of the provisions contained in this policy were violated by the behavior of Miss Riby and Miss Pursoon as it pertains to superior court case 25 Charlie Victor 04752. Court documents state that Superintendent Riby
106and principal Pursoon engaged in a campaign of harassment and intimidation against the district family, including trespassing on their private property, interrogating their landlord and employer, and demanding written confirmations under threat of immigration consequences. How does the school board reconcile the behavior of these notorious administrators with the policies it is approving this evening? Feel free to answer. Thank you. Setting aside the extraordinary cost to taxpayers and district resources, you will dismiss or will you dismiss facts uh confirming these board policy violations simply because a settlement was reached? Does a settlement somehow make Superior Court Judge Anderlay's decision meaningless? Do you support or will you dismiss the basis for his order requiring CUSD to pay $125,000 as a result of pursuing Rigby's unlawful efforts to quote remove three sped students entitled to services under the individuals with
107disabilities and education act. Thank you. In regard to BP and AR0450 comprehensive safety plan, it is about time the board memorializes some of these expectations. Of course, the question remains, will they actually be practiced? It adds child neglect to the required reporting procedures. It authorizes, if not even requires a principal to notify a parent, guardian if quote, a sexual offense occurs on campus. Here the question is really more what took you so long and why wasn't that already in place. It also expands the definition of violent crime. It would be good to know how our board officials understand the value of the new definition. We asked last month and we were met with silence. Are any of you better prepared to clarify today? At any moment feel free to cut me off. Thank you. In
108January, when Superintendent Riby announced changes pertaining to BP's 41924 and24, maintaining appropriate adult student interaction. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Well, another day. Thank you. >> Okay. We're being asked to approve the uh uh following board policy and administrative regulation 0450 comprehensive safety plan. Board is being asked to approve the second reading and adopt the updated BP and AR0450 comprehensive safety plan regulation updated to reflect new law SB848 and uh from 2025 which expands the list of persons who may cooperate in the review of the comprehensive school safety plan to include the district's public entity risk pool joint powers authority or insurance provider as childs neglect the reporting procedures are required to be included in the CSSP. P requires when the CSSP is next reviewed and address the supervision and protection of children from child
109abuse or neglect or sexual offenses. Adds a sex offense that has occurred on campus to acts the principles authorized to notify parents and guardians. Expands the definition of violent crime. And it will uh additionally regulation updated to reflect new law SB98 from 2025 and new law AB962. Can I get a motion to approve? >> I'll motion to approve board policy 0450. >> Get a second. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. uh board policy in exhibit 4119.21 and 4219.21 and 4319.21 professional standards. Um can I get a motion to approve? >> Sorry. I'll motion to approve agenda item two, board policy and professional standards. >> I'll second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I I >> Okay. board policy um 419.24 4219.24 and 4319.24 maintaining appropriate adult student interaction
110second reading. Can I get a motion? >> I will motion to approve board policy for maintaining appropriate adult student interactions. >> A second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I I >> Okay. Okay. Board policy and administrative regulation 5125, student record, second reading. Can I get a motion? >> I'll motion to approve board policy and regulation 5125 for student records. >> I'll second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. All right. And then the fifth one, board policy and administr administrative regulation and exhibit 5125.1, release of directory information. Second reading. Can I get a motion? >> I'll motion to approve board policy, administrative regulation, and exhibit 5125.1. >> I'll second that. >> All in favor? I >> I. >> All right. Move on to item G, educational services. Any public comment on item G, educational
111services? There's no public comment. We will move on to >> We'll save our public comment. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Um, we are being asked to approve the uh one-year renewal of the Lexia Learning System Core 5. Board is being asked to approve this renewal. This software provides struggling students with an individual systemic systematic and structured approach to funological awareness, phonics, structural analysis, automacity, vocabulary, and comprehension. and Lexia core 5 reading has been used in the elementary schools for struggling readers in the primary grades during summer school as well as after school program. The cost of this one-year renewal is $10,660 and will be paid for from the general fund curriculum budget. I get a motion to approve. >> I'll move to approve the Lexia renewal. >> I get a second. >> I'll
112second. >> Any discussion on that? We're happy. Our students are making good progress at the elementary level. >> Great. Yeah. >> All right. I I've heard good things about it. >> All in favor? I >> I >> Okay. Item H, business operations facility. Uh, do we have any public comment on item H, business operations facility? All righty. Thank you. Uh this evening's warrants confirmed that CSD spent another $170,000 on legal fees. Uh $100,000 towards trying to still continue to defend the absolute loser of an attack on union leadership. Um and then another $70,000 uh due to special education uh legal action. Um I didn't hear any of you I don't think any of us heard any of you ask our special education director for the truly meaningful information. Everything she shared uh was stuff you
113could have looked up in a book. Uh nobody asked about legal fees, the $70,000. Nobody asked about a variety of we're not addressing her presentation, but we're talking about money right now. Thank you. So none of you asked about her presentation. >> And it would be wise to ask about the money, Mr. I you don't have any comments on this. after spending approximately $600,000 in February, >> uh, which was the exact number you budgeted for an entire year worth of legal fees. Um, in just the last month, CUSD has spent $850,000 on legal fees. That's more than a $250,000 overrun uh in a three-month period for a period that's supposed to last a year. Anybody asking questions about that? And remember, this calculation does not even contain the million plus in legal fees spent between
114August and December of 2025, which should also be applied to the legal budget overrun. You ask any questions about that? So, moving on to the proposed budget draft. We'll start with page six. The side is a bit misleading. The majority of our six-hour employees are not receiving district health care. On the comparatively low wages, they learn most cannot afford to pay the difference to cover the rest of the plan premium. Uh since the arrival of Superintendent Rigby, CD has strategically positioned to increase the number of classified part-time employees and minimize the number of classified full-time employees, thus removing health care from many of our colleagues. It is not a coincidence that CUSD budgets and shares that classroom aids cost the district $19,000 plus dollars for health and welfare costs, which most don't receive. The practice
115allows CUSD to apply dollars it knows it is not spending, which lowers the district's reserves and yearouts and suggests that there are insufficient funds when it comes time to negotiate salary increases. If you look at page nine, you will find verification upon the very pattern cited in these comments uh where the majority of our six-hour employees are not receiving district healthcare. Page 9 clarifies that only 48% of our six-hour employees are receiving health care and only 40% of those who are working less. >> On page seven here again, the district's projections underestimate revenues while overestimating expenditures. When will you all be having a budget study session next? >> This is it. >> Oh, this is it. >> We're studying the budget. >> All of this. So, the conversation will be the budget study session. Is
116that right? >> The robust conversation. We look forward to hearing. Thank you. reading the warrants, I noticed uh two uh special uh education invoices, same same attorney, Andrea Marcus. Last year, I talk about all of these uh losses by Andrea Marcus. Uh I've lost track of how many uh special uh education students has she represented. How many? Five? Seven. Those are his her. What about the amount that that that used to have spain on has been uh has paid on settlements lost track of that. Who's responsible? the district they represent personnel, teachers, employees. This means that the most vulnerable students, special education students are not regarded as special students by the district, by administration. That's sad and disappointing. What steps are being taken to avoid these lawsuits because they seem not to have an ending
117for years generally I've been reading lawsuits lawsuits lawsuits losses. Imagine if you had not had all of these legal invoices by all of the attorneys, you can have right now 30% on reserves and they shouldn't be worried about uh worrying about how much a district will be getting on property taxes. So once again, what are you doing to correct this? Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to warrants. We're being asked to approve the warrants from March 6th through uh April 9th in the amount of 1,492,192.83. Can I get a motion to approve? I'll move to approve the warrants. I'll second. >> Any discussion on the warrants? All in favor? I >> Okay. Gift, grants, and donations. Uh, first donation is from the California Avocado Festival for the FFA program in the amount of $500. Um,
118I'm going to just I'm actually going to read through all of these and we can make one motion. Um, and then the second donation is a donation from the Rotary Charitable Foundation to the uh school district, the high school Muses Club in the amount of $3,000. And the third is a donation from the Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation to the Muses Club in the amount of $700. The fourth is a donation from the CMS parent group to the school district middle school student store in the amount of $1,500. And then the the last one is a donation from Paul Cordderero to the middle school after school swimming program in the amount of $200. Thank you, Paul. May I get a motion to approve all of those? >> I'll move to approve with gratitude these donations and
119gifts. >> Second. >> Great. I want to thank everyone who's who's con continually stepping up and helping all all of our um extracurricular programs at the at this at all of our schools. Uh all in favor? >> I >> Okay, we'll move on to uh item three um presentation of our proposed draft budget um for the 2627 school year. and Jason Caff will present. >> Okay. Well, um let me start off by first of all thanking the board for allowing me to do this presentation. I find that there it's always u beneficial for myself and also for the board and the community to have a better idea as to how the budget works and how it is generated for the next couple years. So with that, I'll go ahead and get started. On the first
120slide here, um, entitled district goals, we just have some of the district's goals, which I'll just kind of read relatively quickly, um, which includes increase student learning, promote safe and respectful schools, develop budgets to support educational programs while maintaining sustainability, uh, increasing efficiency and effectiveness of district operations, and to build community support and engagement. The next slide is entitled core budgeting principles which you can see there the first three bullets uh which also includes a reference to BP3100 uh which includes the board's uh minimum fund balance for reserve purposes. On the next slide which is entitled budget timelines and major milestones uh you'll notice here that um we're in April. We're in the we're on the April 15th slide. Uh then we'll have another meeting in May which we can go over the budget. Uh
121but what I really want to highlight is in June. Um in June we have two meetings. We have one on June 9th. At that meeting at the June 9th meeting the board will hear the public hearing on the budget and also the public hearing on the LCAP. And then the next meeting will be held June 16th. And on that meeting, uh, we'll bring back the budget for the board for adoption as well as the LCAP for adop adoption because the the budget and the LCAP have to go to the public hearings and to the budget adoptions together because they're they're linked. Uh, the next slide here is entitled the 2627 governor's January proposal. Um you'll notice at the top of the slide we have uh the projected LCFF cola and then next to that we
122have our property tax projections for the three out years. Uh since we are a basic a district uh for us the most applicable one is the property tax projections and for the three years out being 26 27 27 28 and uh we are projecting 4% increases. Right in the middle there of that slide, you'll notice um a chart entitled pension rates. And what we're just trying to show here is just the pension rates for somebody who is on PERS. And somebody who's on PERS is if they're classified, that's that's that person pays into PERS. Uh on the other side is if that if somebody is certificated, they pay into STRS. So if we look at at like the middle of that chart for 2627, we see the rate of 26.4% for PERS. So the district
123has to pay into PERS 26.4% of a classified person's salary. Uh for STRS, right below that, the rate is 19.1%. So for a certificated person's salary, the district has to pay in 19% of that person's salary um into Stirs. Now the reason I bring this up because this is kind of a hidden cost that some people may not see but on the district side we see it because because it is a significant cost uh to the district both for pers and stirs. So I just kind of wanted to highlight that and below there for the third chart you'll see below that that includes the total statutory benefits for salaries. So that includes stirs and pers and the related OASDI Medicare unemployment workers comp etc. So if we look for example in the 2627 column for
124somebody who's classified uh the district has to contribute 38.21% of that person's pay to the respective um benefits. Um uh similarly for somebody who is certificated uh the district has to contribute 22.34% of certificated uh people's um salaries. We have to take that percentage and apply that to the respective benefits that go along with uh somebody's salary. So once again I just wanted to highlight those percentages because those are costs to the district which once again people don't normally see but they are significant. On the next slide here entitled sample cost to district four positions. Uh we just have three positions and I'll just kind of go over two of them. For example, in the middle there we'll notice a custodian position. Uh that's a 12, you know, 12-month position. Um so for next year,
125for example, uh the salary for that position is about 50,000. But once again, like I just mentioned from the prior slide, there are various statutory benefits that go along with that position's pay. So the salary is about 50,000. The statutory benefits that the district must pay with regards to that position is about 18,000. And for next year for a full-time position, that person will most likely take uh health insurance, which is the health and welfare contribution. And for next year, it'll be about 26,000. So when we add up the person's salary, statutory benefits and health and welfare, the the cost of that position to the district is about 95,000. Similarly, right below that, we have a sample uh sample cost for a teacher. So if a teacher earns for next year about $75,000 um with
126with that pay goes along statutory benefits, that's an additional $16,000 the district has to pay. Once again, that's a full-time position. So that teacher will most likely take health insurance at a cost to about 26,000. So once again, once we add up salary, statutory benefits, and the health and welfare, the cost for that teaching position is about $118,000 to the district. On this next slide entitled history of property tax revenues, we have a history going back to basically 1920 through 2728. But as you can see, we're in the last three lines of this chart. Right now, we're in 2526. Um, just last week in early April, we received from the county office our P2, which is our our kind of revised property tax projections for 2526. Um, fortunately, they came in a little bit higher
127than we were than they were estimating at P1. Uh, it came in about $73,000 higher than what it was at P1. So that increase has been reflected here in what we're looking at tonight in 2526. But um for 2627 and 2728 like I mentioned before we are projecting 4% property tax projections uh for the outy years. Um once again those are just projections. Nobody really knows what those are going to be but this is kind of the best information that we have after talking with the county assessor's office. >> When you say we you mean it's in in consult with the county? >> Correct. Yes. Correct. >> Thank you. >> It's not a number that that we as a district are pulling out of the air. >> No, no, it's not. >> Okay. >> So,
128just just to kind of go off that. So, the way this works is that for 2526, I'm taking our 2526 estimated property tax projections and basically applying 4%. And so, that's why you're seeing 4% for 2627 and 2728 because we're projecting 4% increase. So those those projections have been have been included. The next slide here is entitled history of cost of living increases which basically is a history of the salary increases. Um because you can see the chart goes back to 2122 and it's going out to 2627. Um obviously we're in 2526 and so 2526 is settled. So that why that's why you'll see 5% in that section there for certificated and classified. But you'll notice in 2627 um there's a star with with a TBD which is you know to be determined uh for
129the reason being that we have not uh finished negotiations for 2627. And just kind of as a for a frame of reference for a 1% increase for the union that equates to about $200,000 per 1% increase. So 1% is approximately 200,000. If it's 2%, we're looking at about 400,000. Just to kind of give the board a percentage to dollar amount um generalization. On this next slide here, we have it's entitled history of health and welfare increases going back from 2122 through 2627. Uh we have received next year's health and welfare increases. So that's what you're seeing in that far right hand column there. As you'll notice and would be expected, there's a a progression of increasing costs throughout the year. So if we look at 2526, for example, the Anthem AD cost for a full-time
130person is about $24,313. For next year, that same plan will cost the district about $26,41. So, what that means districtwide and what I see on my side is that this cost increase um equates to about $433,000 uh for the district from this year to next year. For basically the same plans, the district's going to have to pay about another $430,000 more for these respective plans, >> which could could be equated to a 2% cola. >> Correct. Thank you. Yes. Oops. On the next slide here, it's entitled five-year financial history with current year total general fund. So, we're looking at the entire general fund, which is the unrestricted and restricted combined. And you once again, it starts back in 2122, but for purposes of this slide, if I'm just kind of looking at the very far
131right, which is entitled estimated actuals 2526. So what we're projecting here is our in this column is the starting fund balance is about $4.9 million. Then for this year we have our revenues and expenditures. So we are projecting an increase to the fund balance of about $626,000. Uh bringing our ending fund balance to about 5.6 million which equates to about a 7.71 reserve. Um something in this last column I do want to highlight is that you'll notice when we compare 2425 um revenues to the 2526 revenues, you'll see how they basically go from 41.8 million to 47.9 million. That fairly large increase is due to a couple unusual factors. Um one of those being that uh the 218 claims and how we sold the Baylor property and that money was used to finance the AB218
132claims. And that's kind of why you're seeing the big difference between the two years with regards to the revenues and expenditures. On the next slide here, it's entitled the five-year financial history uh with current year, but this one is specifically for special education. Once again, you'll notice that it goes back to 2122, but where we're kind of focusing for tonight's purposes are on the far right hand side. Um so this is just for special education. So we are projecting revenues of special education of about $2.3 million. Uh however the expenses related to special education are projected at about $7.9 million. So as you'll notice that the expenditures greatly exceed the revenue the revenue that we receive for special education. So what the district has to do is it has to do a contribution from the
133general from the unrestricted side of the general fund to special education to make up that difference. So in that far right hand column, what you're seeing is we're projecting that we're going to have to contribute about $5.6 million from the unrestricted side of the general fund to special education just to kind of fill that gap between from the revenues and the expenditures. On this next slide here, it's entitled the 2627 budget assumptions. Um, on this slide here, we're just looking at the unrestricted revenue budget assumptions. So, what we start off with is the 2526 estimated actual revenue for this year. So, we're estimating revenue at about 28.4 million. Uh then we're adding in the property the property tax increases EPA of about $1.3 million. So for the unrestricted revenue, we're expecting to see an increase
134by about $1.3 million. So at the bottom right hand side of that slide, you'll notice that for 2627, we're projecting our unrestricted reserves to come in at about $29.7 million. The next slide is entitled 2627 budget assumptions, but on here we're basically focusing on the unrestricted expenditure budget drivers. Basically, we're focusing on cost increases. So, you'll notice on the right hand side there are the respective amounts, but I'll just kind of go ahead and read down the the various categories on the left hand side. So, we've included step and column increases of about $146,000, health and welfare benefit increases of about $433,000, stirs and pers and other benefit increases of about $195,000. Um, a new one which we have now and will have for the next, you know, 10 years essentially is the judgment obligation
135bonds debt service. So, we've included that. So, for the first year, it's about $182,000. Um, services and other operating expenses, $129,000. And right below that, you you'll see an item for 2627 salary increases. But once again, there's no dollar amount associated with that because that still has yet to be determined. But for the ones that we can project, um, we're looking at our cost increases are going to be a little bit more than a million dollars for the 2627 um, budget. on the following slide um also entitled budget assumptions. This one we're focusing on the 2627 unrestricted budget reductions. So basically what we're seeing here are expenses that we had this year paid from the unrestricted budget that we should not have in 2627 and so that's why we are deducting them. Um so the
136first one that we all are aware of are in 2627 um we're backing out the AB218 claims that we had this year but will not have next year. So we're reducing that and we have this additional one-time legal services expense of $550,000 that we had this year but should not have next year. So we're backing those out of the 2627 budget to the tune of about $4.5 million. And the next slide um which is titled unrestricted expenditure budget assumptions basically kind of pulls together the last couple slides. So with regards to expenditures. So we're starting off with our this year's 2526 second interim expenditures of about 31 million. Uh we are including next year's uh budget drivers i.e. cost increases of about a million dollars. But we are reducing those one-time significant um unrestricted costs
137that we just went over, i.e. the the legal claim, the AB218 claims and the related some other legal fees. And we're seeing a total change in expenditures of about $3.4 million reduction. So next year, our unrestricted general fund expenditures should be reduced by about $3.4 million, which would bring us in at about $27.6 6 million on the unrestricted side of the general budget. On this slide here, this one's entitled projected unrestricted fund balance and reserves. So this slide here kind of pulls together the last four or five slides that we looked at. So we're starting off with the at the top right the 2526 estimated actuals ending balance. So, we're projecting on the unrestricted side of the budget that we're projecting an ending fund balance of about 3.6 million. And then right below there, you'll
138see the different there's a 2627 revenue. Then we have our 2627 expenditures. and then those two net out. And so we're expecting an increase to the unrestricted fund balance of about $2.1 million, which equates to a budget reserve of about 13.7%. For 2627 and the last slide here is the multi-year projection, which is an extremely um important um exercise that we must do. Uh once again it makes us project our revenues out and also project our expenditures so we can see where the district is heading financially with the best information we have at the time. I.e. we know nobody can predict the future. So so these numbers will change but nonetheless um it's important exercise that all school districts must do to see where they are headed financially. So um the first column there is
139the estimated actuals at for 2526. At the bottom of that that column there, you'll notice that we're projecting reserve at about 7.7%. Um for 2627, we are projecting reserve of about 13.7%. Uh 2728 19.19%. And 2829 about 21.78%. In these projections, I've included uh property tax increases of 4% for each year. I've also included step and column increases. Um other relative increases due to cola and and the related health insurance costs of about $433,000 for each year since for the past year our increases have been in that range. So I've incorporated uh the costs that we can you know kind of increase with some sort of relative certainty and also the expenditures as well to so we can try and get the best read the best projections possible. And so with that um as you
140can see we're we're we're way above um the 3% required for reserves. However, I do want to mention to the board, as I have in the past, that in a recent school services um notice they sent out, they said for 2425, the average fund balance of all school districts, so they're picking out both basic aid and LCFF, the average school the average school district balance came in at about 22%. So for this year uh for example for 2526 if we end the year with 7.71 that is still well above the the 3% required but still once again for comparison purposes the average school district's um reserve percentage for all unifi for all districts is about 22%. So that kind of gives you a gauge as to where we are in relation to the average school
141district. And last but not least, I do want to highlight that, you know, as you can notice, these numbers in from 26, 27 through 28, 29 are growing. But once again, those numbers do not include any salary increases once that happens. Um, these numbers will change um due to the fact that our cost will increase and most likely that will be reflected with a you know reduced reserve percentage. So with that, that concludes my presentation. So, I'd like to ask the board if you have any questions. >> Um, do you do any analysis in terms of I mean, in my business, we obviously run like a scenario where you have like worst case, likely case, best case. So, you're all these numbers kind of assume a 4% increase. >> Correct. >> Um, economy is not
142super great, right? We're looking like things could be backsliding a little bit. Is there scenario planning where you look at a 1% increase? and what that does to us% >> from the district side. I I do different variations of what the respective increases will do to our reserve percentage. But to kind of answer your point, what districts most likely do is when they're doing this planning, they're always watching their ending fund balance, their reserve percentage, because kind of that's their savings account that they can use if something happens that's significant that's unanticipated, which is the reason why most districts have a reserve percentage of about 22%. Because that gives them a significant cushion to deal with uncertainties, i.e., you know, the economy or one significant um cost event. What's our um what's our 3% number?
143Like what's our bottom? >> So 3% press is about 1.2 million. >> Okay. Just curious. Thank you. >> Yes. >> You guys any any questions, comments? So, I guess the big the biggie is we'll just we'll wait to start negotiating and and that's going to that's the big driver here for >> correct >> for um you know any balances moving forward. But it looks it looks like things um you know I think the reduction in in uh enrollment has helped us reduce staff which has helped us with our bottom line is I mean that's the that's the underlying theme here is is that um because t tax revenues have not really all changed much from from what we were projecting. >> Yeah. I mean, I think at the beginning of the year, we were projecting
1445%. But then after hearing some information, talking with the county office and also the tax assessor that um that's when we brought 26 27 27 28 down from five to 4%. >> And that that drop per year is about 300,000. >> Yeah. >> But once again, those are projections. Um if it goes up, fantastic. We can easily, you know, change that number to reflect uh better information. >> Yeah. And and I think as Janette was a asking um you know worst case scenario, you know, the economy crashes, people start selling their houses for a lot less than their current assessed value and um the revenue projections are are completely skewed. Um and that and that is a good argument for having a healthy reserve. >> Correct. Yes, it is. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um, thanks.
145Thanks, Jason. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we will move to um where am I here? >> I'm an I measure U. So, um any comment on measure U? Public comment. No public comment on measure U. Um, we are being asked to approve change order number one um for the Aliso Elementary TKK classroom. Um, and it's the result of elevated groundwater encountered during primary preliminary excavation. Um the the initial change order amount was uh projected to be $485,000 and change. It looks like it's been reduced to 436,000 uh $771.94. Um can I get a motion here? I'll move to approve the change order. I'll second. >> Okay. So, I uh a little background. Do you mind if I a little background? Okay. >> Yeah, it's fine. So, so um the you know we had this discussion
146early on with with um our designer and um apparently the the borings were taken early than uh this they were taken last year I think in the summer. Um and then with the heavy rains in this in the fall this year um recharge the groundwater groundwater rised up. So I think the options here were you know unfortunately we the contract was issued. Um one of the considerations that I put forth with Diana was that we maybe just delay the project and let the groundwater subside. But that's a big gamble. Um, I think this is more in line with the original estimate um, prior to the architect um, negotiating a a revised um, uh, foundation design. So, this is more in line with that ground modification estimate that he came up with verse as opposed to
147the um, uh, the matte slab foundation that we settled on. Um it's, you know, not it's not the way you want to start a project for sure. But but um I think in talking with Steve McGilly, he's done everything he can to try to mitigate the costs and um the, you know, the sanitation district worked with us and allowed us to discharge the water that was getting pumped out of the uh um out of these deatering wells into their system, which which uh you know is potentially a huge savings for us because we didn't have to worry about um you know permits and discharge and water quality and all that. So um it's good the community was you know other agencies were willing to work with us but anyhow that's the background on it. Um
148I don't know if anybody not that I'm the expert but >> do we have fun I mean it says for measure use so there's a buffer >> there's contingency cost. >> Yeah. Yeah there's there's contingency. >> Okay. Um, all in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Move on to item J, personnel. Any public comment on item J, personnel? Okay. So, six items under personnel, three 30 seconds per item. In item J1, we're going to focus on the employee side of this. Um, there is one new classified hire. Um, any surprise that she was hired for 62 of an FTE, a new classified hire hired part-time? If she does not buy into the district's health and welfare plan, will the district continue to misrepresent its costs for this part-time employee by suggesting that she's paying $19,800 U
149like the 52% of her other colleagues that are also not paying that money. Uh, there is also one retirement, Anna Martinez. Uh I've had the pleasure of working with Anna for many years and she has been assigned to different as she's been assigned to different school sites. Uh Anna is a wonderful presence in the workplace and her extended service to students and their families and her peers is noteworthy. Uh may the board or superintendent please explain when I'm done with the comment. Um why do we not celebrate the retirement of classified employees as we do with certificated or administrators? Elected employee leadership was surprised to learn recently that the district has no intention of honoring the classified employees who retire. Many of those who have given the majority if not all of their professional life
150to CUSD in the community of Carperia. Is that not sufficient for a token rose bush from Miss Riby and the board? Of course, it isn't the rose bush. It is the respect that these employees have earned many times over. Have you forgotten who kept showing up when COVID hit? And we didn't know whether CO was more like a terrible flu or more like the bubanic plague. Have you forgotten who we called essential quote essential workers whose positions were so important they could not work from home and avoid the increased health risk and who kept showing up. Have you forgotten where you were when so many classified workers reported for duty? Masked, scared and uncertain, but determined to do the right thing by our students and our families. Finally, we have two resignations, two part-time IAS,
151it's appropriate to wonder if these resignations would be occurring. If CUSD valued its classified employees a bit more, not just offering them special recognition when they provide many years of service to the district, but assisting them in their need to cobble together full-time employment with the district to gain consist consistent access to employee healthcare. It's it is unbelievable how many people we lose on that one detail right there. So, two more sped aids resigning. We all wonder, will this add two more sped employees to the district uh that the district has managed to encourage out? During Miss Haynes's imagination exercise, she started her response with, "I'd like to imagine." Mr. Schaefer followed with some of the same sentiment. For our part, union leadership would like to imagine a day when CUSD takes such good care
152of its employees. We are not seeing IAS resigning in the middle of the school year, but rather a professional culture where employees feel a significant degree of loyalty to the district based on the very loyalty and good faith the district shows its employees. Want to imagine that with me, Mr. Schaefer? >> Use that imagination. >> So much anger. So much anger. It's time to sit down. >> Uh asked to be approved the uh personnel summary. Uh can I get a motion to approve? I'll motion to approve the personnel summary. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Uh item two is a public hearing on the Carbon Unified School District's initial proposal to cause certificated local 2216 for the 2627 school year. I will open up the hearing for any
153public comment. Seeing as none, I will close the hearing. Move on to item three. Um, we're being asked to adopt the district's initial proposal to cause certificated local 2216. Can I get a motion to approve? >> I'll move to approve. I'll second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Okay. Move on to item four, uh, public hearing on the, uh, district's initial proposal to to cause, uh, classified local 2216. I will open the meeting hearing uh public comment. None. Close the hearing. Move on to item five. Adopt the We're being asked to adopt the uh district's initial proposal to cause uh classified local 2216. Can I get a motion? >> I'll move to approve. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Move on to item six. uh the
1542020 uh school year declaration of need for fully qualified educators, a CL500 form. Board is being asked to approve the the uh declaration of need for the 2627 school year for qualified educators which is required by the California Commission on Teaching teacher credentiing department. This annual declaration of need form allows the district to anticipate employing teachers for vacant positions who are not fully credentialed provided they meet state requirements. There is no fiscal impact and the district is not creating new positions but filling existing vacancies. Can I get a motion to approve? >> I'll move to approve. >> I'll second. Any discussion? >> Um I guess I'm just curious how many of those type of employees do we typically have to hire? >> Um not very many. a handful. >> Okay. >> Yeah. But we we
155need to be prepared. >> Sure. >> But um for example, right now we still have an opening for elementary instrumental music teacher. >> So that might be a situation where um a prospective candidate would have the state requirements but not may be fully credentialed by September. >> Got it. Or August. >> Thank you. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I I >> Okay. Uh future agenda items. Uh, no, nothing new. Uh, board calendar. Monica, >> are you public comments on future agenda? >> No, I'm not. >> I just want to >> there there are you now no more public comments on future agenda items, Mr. Chambers? >> No. >> Are you overriding the Brown Act now? >> No. Uh, >> regarding your question, I just want to remind the board that there's going to be
156uh school board visits on April 24th. >> Okay. Thank you, Monica. Any board announcements? >> Nothing. All right. Russell Cups this weekend. >> Yes. Don't miss it. >> Let me try tip. >> Uh, Mr. Schaer, I think you forgot future agenda items, Mr. Schaefer. >> Did you forget future agenda items, Mr. Schaer? >> Thank you. >> Yeah. All right. Thank you. >> Such a better way to end the meeting.