001at 608 and here we go welcome everybody okay flight salute Mrs Anderson would you want to lead us on the flight please would you lead us in the Flagstone 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 the board met in closed session no action was taken adoption of the agenda do I have a motion to bring the adoption of the agenda to the floor for discussion use your microphone Mrs Anderson turn on your microphone so moved thank you do I have a second I'll second I would like to remove from consent agenda items number three and number 15 for separate consideration are there any other items to be pulled or to be moved which number
002which numbers was that 3 and 15. okay do I have a motion to approve the agenda as amended I'll make that motion do I have a second oh second thank you Mr ballen General consent okay okay organizational reports c-u-t-a Vanessa Mason we missed you last month yes sorry but I'm here this well I'm glad you're feeling better and it looks amazing was it like this last month kind of oh so it's new to everybody all right um I would like to make a couple remarks uh one is about MccLellan High School For the First Time 11 students from MccLellan High School attended prom with CHS students and so the teachers were so excited for those 11 students that were not excluded from participating in a prom that is that is cool and then Oak Hill
003uh went to sixth grade science camp and they used High School seniors as counselors at the science camp so again integrating our schools is amazing overall staff is looking forward to the end of the school year with just a handful of days left and all the events that are upcoming special education staff however is running really low on the the fuel meter they're exhausted as they're working to get testing done for all of the IEPs they seem feel like they have millions left to go I know they're chugging through them all but I want to give special appreciation to all those special ed staff members that we have in our in our school district and know that they're working very hard extra extra hours and I appreciate that special department is compensating them before it
004but that workload is too much and we need more staff and I know we're advertising the best we can and there's no solution for it but it really can't continue on this current workload so special ed teachers need lots of support any questions thank you okay CSEA and Aisha Harris I would whoa sorry I have to get used to that uh nahisha and I spoke and she did not have a report tonight thank you very much presentations and reports Center High School leadership student presentation you look so thrilled we're excited okay well I'm short good evening board trustees and superintendent layer I hope that I'm pronouncing that right this time my name is Kaylee Larson and as I have said previously stated from the previous board meeting we presented at I am a senior and
005I'm also the ASB president at Center High School um currently where am I yeah currently um Rebecca Plummer our vice president she is currently performing at a I believe she's performing at an elderly home so she's dancing and then Anessa she just recently got hired at a new job and so she this is her first full week of work and she didn't want to call out so you get me today as we have reinstated at our last presentation our purpose is to create inclusive activities and events for all students on campus work behind the scenes for rallies and events improve our campus culture and be role models for Spirit while also handling the financial business for clubs organizations Sports and grade level classes currently we have been continuing our goals that we have mentioned from
006our December presentation recently we have had our Breaking Down the Walls to where we had work to Break Down The Invisible walls that people believe that they have between them and other clicks or groups on campus then we had FBLA one of our clubs on campus they did a formal wear drive with North Highlands the antelope library on Alberta no on Antelope um they were collecting formal clothes to help those who may not have been able to spend money on prom dresses then we also had seniors recently hosted a thrift night which was just last night for the community we allowed small businesses to set up tables in order to Showcase and support the student ran businesses on our campus some of those had included jewelry lashes and someone was also making bracelets and keychains
007the leftover donated clothes that we have are going to be donated to a Good Charity to give back to the community we are currently looking at donating a Salvation Army to work on celebrating diversity and groups our dear Asian Youth Club hosted a Lunar New Year Festival in February to celebrate the coming of the year of the rabbit with games and cultural performances currently we had our very first academic recognition for our first semester grades and we made sure to include students that may not be and like our AP classes or maybe in honors classes to where they're having Straight A's but also recognizing students who have shown Improvement I believe it was like a 1.0 average bump up that we were recognizing to where if you had shown improvement from the first semester and
008from second semester from the previous school year and um winter semester this school year we were giving an award for that we have also the relaunching of black student union has become another Campus Club they are hosting their first event as an after-school poetry slam partnering with book club this coming Friday we had also hosted a multicultural night partnering partnering with our elective fair to Showcase some of the cultures on campus we had a Spanish performance that was really beautiful student government is planning a staff versus student tournament to tournament night to play games and compete against each other to hopefully involve our staff further and then in February Student Government made Valentines for all to make sure that all students got a valentine whether they feel welcome on our campus or not to let
009them know that we are thinking of them and then student government has been branching out a little bit more we now have what Miss Bowler likes to call play dates with um zero period Advanced drama so those have been fun so there's a couple photos we have us from our little play dates then um we got a couple photos from the Lunar New Year Festival that um your Asian youth have sent over to us and then those are a couple of photos of the certificates that were handed out for student recognition that Mr Ferguson signed by hand almost like over a thousand of them so Props to Mr Ferguson yeah then this was a few photos from our Breaking Down the Walls the quote the quota was it's hard to hate someone whose story you
010know I personally had really enjoyed this activity game to participate in it because it really felt like I was able to connect with more of the students on campus and realize that even though I may come on campus and feel like no one truly knows me it's nice to know that there are people on our campus that have gone through the same issues that I have and understanding that you never truly are alone no matter how much you may feel like it or feel isolated on campus and so it was a really wonderful event that we had our leader was really cool and we had a lot of fun a lot of Tears were shed but it was a really wonderful experience our next step our next steps are to continue to find ways to
011reach out to the community in groups on campus work on student recognition strengthen the relationship between student groups on campus redefine Traditions to better fit needs of students on our campus host new events bigger big and small around campus any questions practice what I preach I think breaking down the mall is amazing it just sounds like inclusion and that's what we're fighting for yeah that's amazing I know that just today they had with there was student leaders they recently had a meeting at after school today to where they're looking for the next steps and how to improve our campus culture I have a best friend who is one of the leaders and they were telling me that they had a meeting and they're looking to even though we're not hosting the event until later on
012possibly in not this coming school year but the following since they normally do it every other year but we're still looking for ways to keep progressing whether we have that activity going on or not that's important thank you thank you okay sorry about that salinity is the mic I just want to say first of all the the idea of it's hard to hate someone whose story you know I think that's wonderful I just love seeing all the you guys are doing you've done some really good work and I think you have a lot of reason to be proud um and I hope that next year when we have new student government that we keep getting updates because this is a great way for us to be informed about what's going on that we might not
013otherwise realize so thank you very much for doing this I think we all really appreciate it thank you for giving us the time to do this I am glad to be able to see you're informing you because this is definitely something that I haven't heard of some Student Government doing before I've been in student government since freshman year and so it's really amazing getting to talk with you guys and feel a better connection with you and hopefully I believe that we will be continuing with next year's Student Government the ASB leaders will be talking to you still through these meetings thanks Miss Bowler says yes anything else no great job amazing thank you thank you proud of you you did a great job uh committee updates curriculum instruction special education update with Mr Jordan foreign
014good evening as promised last month I'm going to present tonight A exciting new diploma track for our students with IEPs you're going to get a chance to vote on this next month as an action item and not just vote but a chance to show leadership not just countywide but Statewide in implementing something the state has been trying to implement but has not been able to to Really push through so tonight you can look on one of the 800 screens around me it will be the presentation but before we start I want to thank Lauren and Eugene that this is a amazing venue now with all the technology we had a chance to have a meeting in here the other day it really is fantastic so thank you [Applause] all right so this is going to
015be called the stand-a standard diploma Pathway to can you go to the oh well I get it I guess I gotta go to the next slide sorry about that I was going old school So currently I'm going to just give you a brief history currently right now we have three diploma Pathways most districts have one we have three the first is the standard diploma pathway that's open to all students the second is what's called a five-year diploma track that's open to students with an IEP who come into the the high school at three or more grade levels behind in reading so they will take a corrective reading course they'll still go on a five-year track they'll still be able to graduate with the diploma the third one is a 130 credit State minimum diploma we
016put this in four or five years ago the board voted it in they beat the state by about four years the state is now looking to do the same thing for students with an IEP it is also we are the first ones with the student this plan for students with an IEP this is also for foster youth for our homeless youth former juvenile court students children and Military and migrant families so that's what we currently have as a diploma track again the standard diploma is open to all students at Center High School it's 260 credits it can be a through G compliant I say can be because you have to have a grade A C or higher in all those classes in order to be a through G and again a through G allows you
017uh to to apply for and gain admission into a UC or or Cal State system school it doesn't guarantee you admission but it's the minimum requirements and it's it typically takes four years to complete I'm not going to go through this but this is what it would look like credit wise how that breakdown goes so this would include the state minimum graduation requirements which are 130 plus the center Joint Unified requirements that are on top of that D equal a total of 260. whoa went a little too fast uh standard diploma at MccLellan High School is very similar but it is 220 credits these classes are not a through G compliant to be a through G they have to be approved by What's called the portal the UC portal this would take four to five
018years to complete again it's a standard diploma and it would look like this again the state minimum is 130 so this is still a significantly higher than a a state minimum diploma so our five-year track very quickly again that's for Center High School students who have uh who are on an IEP who come in three or more grade levels below in Reading we would start them out in corrective reading instead of English those first two years they could have five years or until they turn 22 because that's federal law they have till they turn 22 and a half in order to graduate again that is a diploma and I keep saying diploma because I'm going to break down what the difference is and what a diploma does for you as opposed to a certificate of
019completion the 130 credit minimum that basically it gets rid of all electives it's three years of English instead of four it's two years of math instead of what we do is three we we have this for students with an IEP I can tell you I'm on a Statewide Consortium we're looking at the new alternative Pathways that the state provided we're the only school the only District excuse me that has this in our board policy so our board policy is up on that uh that website that everyone else is seeing and again you this group show great leadership to bring that in years before the state could get it approved and you're going to have that same opportunity to do to form a pathway too foreign certificate completion is not a diploma it is for a
020student that has an IEP it's determined not by credits but by the IEP team it is not considered a high school diploma that's the other option for students with an IEP what does this mean ding uh oh did I use the wrong tone I can tell you so if you have a certificate of completion it is not considered a high a high school diploma it is like a giant roadblock you cannot get financial aid for college you're not a through G compliant you can go to uh uh Community College but you can't get that two-year free financial aid package the military will not accept it you can't get admittance to that you can't check diploma so you can't get an interview for a job it really is like a certificate of participation it really sets
021up a huge roadblock for kids we want to eliminate that roadblock and get them on the diploma track there it is so you can see up here as I just said accepted by the military diploma yes certificate completion no accepted by colleges diploma yes not a four-year Institution for certificate of completion eligible for federal financial aid diploma yes federal aid certificate completion no Community College their first two years is free that's the greatest thing ever but you wouldn't qualify for that is accepted by employers it's going to be very hard to get an interview when you have to mark that you do not have a diploma because this does not count as a diploma ding can we go back is that okay Lauren there we go perfect thank you that's teamwork right there thank you
022I go the wrong way so standard diploma pathway two here's what that would look like and here's what you're going to have a chance to vote on it's determined by the IEP team so you must have an IEP to go this diploma track and again it leads to a diploma the IEP team will determine this is the best route for this particular student on a case-by-case basis all the courses they take will be aligned with State Standards this isn't a different program in terms of they're going to do a whole different thing it's state standards just like every other diploma track the main difference is our core classes so we're talking science social studies math those may be taught by a student a not a student that'd be interesting a teacher with a special ed
023credential that way we can get smaller class size we can get more individualized support by a person who is trained as a special education teacher this is these these courses are for high school credit they are not a through G uh it is a four-year program but remember students can go until they're age 22 and a half to complete it by federal law this is for the kid who would typically end up going a certificate completion route this gives them an opportunity to get a diploma it's going to open doors for them it is still State Standards it's just some of these Court courses one or more are going to be taught by a teacher that has a a special ed credential so here's what the wording is going to be when you when you
024get a chance to vote on this uh next next month as determined by an IEP meeting a student with a disability May satisfy the requirements for a high school diploma by following the diploma pathway number two this pathway allows students to enroll in one or more core courses taught by a special education credential teacher these courses are aligned with the Common Core State Standards for each subject area these courses will count towards a high school diploma but will not meet a through G admissions requirements the IEP team must determine which graduation option is the most appropriate for the student given the options made available by the Lea which is the school district as determined by the governing board so here's what this means you as the board have the right to come up with an
025alternative means for graduation diploma requirements in this pathway the only difference is it's going to be taught by a special ed credential teacher perfectly legal number of credits still 260 at Center High School we're not cutting back the number of credits still four years of of English three years of math so on and so forth it gives us the opportunity though to get through the roadblocks of a high school diploma for our students with an IEP math science sometimes social studies and by social studies using econ economics not 80 or not and that's part of what the discussion is going to be not a through G compliant correct still high school graduation credit still a diploma what happens when they have Amazon if they excel in one subject and not the other can they have
026special ed for partial and attend regular classes in the other absolutely and that's why you'll see it says one or more core classes so if a kid is fantastic English you're going to go into an eighth is your English A3 a through g science atherg social studies but he really struggles or she really struggles in math okay then we'll put you in the math course that is taught by the special ed teacher smaller class size more supports you're going to have Aid support in there if they just took that one subject that was a special ed course their diploma in the end is going to end up what a diploma a standard just a regular diploma nobody's going to know any different nope by law we cannot differentiate on the diploma a diploma is a
027diploma is a diploma the only difference would be when you if you were to apply to a UC or a CSU or another it would limit you because you don't have the a3g requirements however this would allow you to get into a a community college where with the certificate of completion it it's it's a totally different path so you'd have that option make let's say you do great you know first years at Junior College or Community then you could move on to a CSU or a UC if need be it's a it's a great and Mr Jordan is not passionate about this at all um but but this is an opportunity to help our students by still having a higher standard we're not lowering the standard we're providing supports to help them achieve it and
028it's individualized so the IEP team is a group of teachers parents anyone who helps support that student comes together to create this plan my plan may look different than Steve's plan than Nancy's plan and that's okay because it still gets us to that point and that's that's what's really important is we're removing the barriers to allow our kids to be choosing a path that works for them so in that diploma on an application is another so if they choose to go a career out which nothing that that's wonderful but if certificate inflation it could raise questions or you know what is it so um I think it's a good opportunity that we continue to look through this and you know like Mr Jordan said we'll bring it back where we can approve it and we
029will lead in the state and Mr Jordan sells everyone else as being the Forefront of this it's his work that's bringing us to this point so we need to give him some kudos for for pushing this he also pushed back in covet to get some of those other things worked based on the law so we'll give him a little credit too just a little it's all about the teamwork we have a great team and special ed Teamwork Makes the Dream Work hey oops I'm going the wrong way so why why have this diploma Pathway to that that's going to be the big question why not just have the diploma pathway one you can see over 90 percent of our regular education students earn a diploma at Center High School over 90 percent Statewide for years
030the the diploma rate for kids with an IEP was 62 percent one out of threes not getting a diploma we once we put in and I went back to 2019-20 before covet because that's when we first put in that 130 you can see we were five percentage points higher we're at 73 percent but you're still one out of four without a diploma with a big wall put up when it comes to employment military financial aid everything else Mr Gorbachev tear down that wall that's what I'm going to offer you here tonight uh a diploma opens the doors again for a job interview military federal financial aid oops keep going the wrong direction here we go all right and I just I want to show you you have the authority to do this through the legislation
031California signaled they want to have a diploma pathway for all in fact one of the things you're going to see state law now says that students that take the call that is students with significant intellectual disabilities they have a diploma track for them it's going to be in your board policy next month they can't seem to get it pushed through the department of uh of Ed we're going to bypass that all together we're going to have our own here which is perfectly legal because it the State Education Code gives you that Authority as a board to do so a Statewide community of practice this is what I talk about is was developed and worked towards an alternative pathway for students with intellectual disabilities it was been it's been halted because they ran into a roadblock
032Education Code 51225.3 sets the minimum courses for graduation this code also authorizes all of you on this board to supplement the state minimum standards at the local level the local level excuse me the state requirements 130. this is still a 260 credit diploma track if you read that board that Ed code it's going to say they Inc they want the board to come up with an alternative pathway for a diploma so the um sorry for interrupting so the the one that was halted was that the uh document from California Department of edu code that was written on March 7th to 2023. yeah it actually came in a lot two years ago it's been in going back and forth back and forth huh so the same Education Code again authorizes you to adopt an alternative means
033of of uh peoples to complete the prescribed course of study that's what we're presenting to you tonight and that's what you'll get to vote on uh next next time I'm over my eight minutes sorry Mr Lair a diploma builds confidence and it opens doors for students the certificate completion closes those doors it's going to equal opportunity for kids let's give them opportunity that 25 27 percent that are getting into diploma let's give them a pathway we already LED that you guys already led the change with 130 State the state is trying to enact that exact same thing five years later this board already voted it in let's vote it in again let's show them how it's done foreign what can I do to put you in this car today so I do have one one
034mild concern here um we just heard a short time ago about how the special ed Department can't keep up with the workload currently and this could presumably be adding to that workload this will not add to the workload every every kid has to have an annual IEP that's where this is going to be determined in their IEP so it's not going to add to that what it is going to do it's going to take away right now are our special ed teachers at Center higher teaching a class called study hall which is basically Edgenuity it's a credit recovery course for regular ed students we're going to use those periods to teach these classes that we're talking about so it won't add in in that way either what it is going to do is kids are
035going to be more successful so it's going to cut down on the number of IEPs that parents are calling because their kids are not being successful in an A through G traditional route parents don't and or do kids want to go that certificate completion route because they understand it doesn't lead to opportunity that answers my question thank you Mike in my opinion we have to do absolutely everything possible to make these kids successful and to help them feel that they can have a productive life um so you have my vote way back when when you started that whole thing but especially special ed kids who often don't feel like they're accepted by society and can't go on or can't learn anything so yeah I think we should do this and I think we should do
036it as quickly as we possibly can it's the first time in a long time I feel like we have been we're the leaders pushing out there you know doing it so yeah let's do it excellent that is one yes vote from Nancy Anderson I have a question yes and a concern so okay how do I make can I make it you know okay my fingers tired already um so my question is uh uh from a curriculum perspective I know that Senator Joint Unified is done exceptionally well over the decades that I've been here and I don't see too much of that that I've seen or heard of in other districts and where students graduate and they in terms of achievement uh they really didn't make the grade they were just they were just past so
037my concern here is is there anything in this in this process this program this that you're proposing where a student could circumvent aspects of the curriculum and basically fly by without achieving the the set expectations passing passing the grade if you will no they still have to pass the classes the number of credits still 260. the courses they have to take four of English two of science three of math all exactly the same the difference is we're allowing them to take that in a special ed teacher's classroom so instead of having 34 in a class they're going to have less a through G curriculum is geared for the kid who want it's going to go to Berkeley it's going to go to UCLA it's going to go to a top-tier UC or CSU School these
038courses would not be through a through G so they are still meeting the state standard for a high school diploma but the rigor isn't going to be at a UC level not every kid goes to a UC right out of high school that's just not the way it works we have kids that are on an AP track now taking advanced placement classes that take well over 260 credits have a 4.6 GPA we have kids that get through with a minimum number of classes that have a 2.0 GPA they get the exact same diploma there's no differentiation the differentiation that everyone sees is in the transcript not to diploma but the diploma is what stops kids from getting jobs getting into the military getting financial aid this is going to get them that diploma give them
039the chance it's not going to guarantee them a perfect future but it's going to give them an equal playing field and an opportunity okay um thank you so much my second question or concern is you mentioned several times that we are uh legally able to do this even though there is some Kickback from Department of Education is that my understanding correct so the kickback from the Department of Education the first one they're trying to get through is for students who are in an independent living skills class these are kids oftentimes with that are non-verbal have significant intellectual disabilities not always but often they have to take What's called the caw it's an alternative assessment there that's where the kickback has come because originally the California Department of Ed wanted those kids to take in our
040case would have been an A through G English a through G integrated to math so they get their third year at a through G economics it's not gonna that's just not gonna happen and that's why they they put a temporary hold not two weeks ago CD came back and said all right we're gonna let the districts decide how they align the curriculum that's their that's their give whatever you want to call it their their negotiation so you're going to see that start coming back up but state law which you're going to see in that board policy state law came in two years ago students would take the car have the opportunity to get a diploma if you want if you wanted and I don't I want to disparage anyone but the kids were talking about
041this diploma path too these are kids that we would typically call like a special day class kid they struggle in some areas they're not they're not uh labeled intellectually disabled or anything like that but they struggle now I'm going to come back and I'm going to suggest that you approve the the one for the the kids that do have intellectual disabilities too and give them a diploma so going back to the same question so if the board approves this because I don't know who the final Authority here is and we at some point at the beginning middle or end of the the first round of of kids that graduate with this particular style type of diploma where we're not going to be told by any governing body that we didn't have the right to do
042this and they're not going to approve it or or whatever the case may be so the state law allows us to do that in fact they encourage us to do it what they're saying is they don't want to take it on put it back to the local level and the Ed code and the law says that we do have the ability what Mr Jordan's done is moved quicker than some the state has a hard time moving on these types of things and so what we're trying to do is is get ahead of that in some of this case but the state can't come back and say we told you well I guess it could come back I shouldn't say that but uh we we told you to use this law to authorize this option and
043then they're going to come back later and say no we can't no um we would be well within the the legal bounds to say no wait a minute we're exercising under this Ed code we're done now if they remove that Ed code then we would have to stop or reevaluate and if you look up the Ed codes and I I cited them in here the title is diploma for all that's the push from CDE and from the state legislature and this came from the state legislature diploma for all word to be honest I'm just tired of waiting for for CDE and the legislator to get together this has been going on for two years now they can't get it together so it developed a way to make this a legal way to do what they're
044trying to do so really quick thank you Mr Jordan no problem um along those lines when he was stressing to us that Ed code gives us that Authority the reason he was stressing that was because they can't come back and later say no you didn't have it because they passed the Ed code which says that we can do this correct any more questions I just I want to give you another month to think about it and we'll come back and we'll vote next time uh and I apologize this I am passionate about this I think it's the right thing to do for kids hey don't become a little overboard at my apologies no worries thank you for the great great presentation next up is my colleague Mr Miranda I took more than eight minutes that's
045okay next time thank you Mr Jordan hi Mr Miranda good evening good evening he took all my time so I'm done right now rightfully so um my PowerPoint was not so thank you for having me here this evening uh I'm Ryan Miranda coordinator of student Family Support Services office and the homeless and Foster liaison for the school district I first want to say thank you to the board both the president and past and to a superintendent layer and my colleagues behind me um for their continued support of the work that we are doing on a daily basis to support our students homeless Foster and every student and family in need I'm often called from other school districts and colleagues saying how are you doing the work you're doing how are you getting the buy-in how
046are you ensuring success I mean I share our best practices and our stories and I can't do it without the district support it means a lot so so thank you for for that all right so student and Family Support Services um doing our best to support our students both in and out of the classroom so uh some of the programs Under My Umbrella are our mckinney-vento homeless education program our foster Youth Services um providing Community and Mental Health Resources and referrals family and Community engagement and workshops and various program support to our school sites for this update in particular I'm going to be focusing on our mckinney-vento homeless education program this evening and we also house here at the district office annex the districts it's not a closet somebody said that Ryan that's not a
047closet that's a room that's like a shopping center whatever school school school supply and clothing room and we also house our food pantry for the district as well all right so um the McKinney eventual program is by law trickle down to the state to ensure rights and protections of students who are identified as experiencing homelessness as identified as mckinney-ventil eligible here you see the definition most of our students in our district and throughout the state are identified as mckinney-ventil eligible because they're doubled up sharing the housing of others be it family or friends due to financial hardship and we've heard the word often Couchsurfing our our students and our families are bouncing around they don't have a permanent fixed residence of their own so the majority of our families are indeed doubled up living with
048others we have a handful of students and families living in hotels motels on the outskirts along 80. they originally reside in our district and then for whatever reason lose their housing again escaping domestic violence and so they go to a hotel or motel and we have had some families who are uh staying in their car I had a family about five years ago when I first started they were in and out of their cars staying at a local park so those are the stories of our families not only in our district but throughout the state all right so what is the law call for so one we have to identify our students we cannot help we cannot provide support if we don't know who they are and so we have an identification process through our
049housing questionnaire um that's our been our best practice for the last uh five years since I've started that's we pushed that housing questionnaire out at the beginning of the school year and then um at the middle of the school year around January or February because we know that experiencing homelessness is fluid it you may be in a permanent situation tonight the next night you may be evicted living in a hotel motel so we do our best to identify so we can provide support immediate enrollment that you're immediately enrolled you also have the right to a class schedule and a class seat you have the right to attend no matter if you have records or or not school stability we want to make sure that once students are identified as we can even so eligible they
050have the right to stay at their school of origin so if they're identified at Dudley Elementary and they move across let's say to Rancho or North Highlands they have the right to remain at Dudley Elementary they have a connection there we want to do whatever we can to support them to make sure that they're staying at their school of origin support for academic success we put them at the priority top of our list to provide support support services so again making sure that they're enrolled immediately technical support to our school sites we're in constant collaboration about which students are identified red flags the student just told me that they're you know sharing the housing of others Ryan are they eligible for Services No actually they're not on my list so let's have a conversation how
051we can get them identified and schedule for support basic needs clothing school supplies hygiene kits You Name It We want to make sure that they have those basic needs to set them up for Success individual student support we have a wonderful mentoring program my staff members who are student and family support assistants serve in a mentoring role and provide one-on-one student support to select students identified and that Community linkage we want to make sure that we're getting families in need of such support whether that's housing resources Mental Health Resources access to food we're getting them that linkage to to our community all right so here's our uh mckinney-vento count uh so these are uh going back to 2021 uh we identified 271 uh 344 students uh 21 22 school year and then uh we are
052currently sitting at 381 students who have been identified as McKinney mental eligible again those are students living with another family um in a hotel motel uh in a shelter in their car and please keep in mind that when we go through our identify identification process yes we look at students who are actually enrolled in our district but the state says you can ask those families what other students or school non-school-aid children are living in their households and we do that so we can tell the federal government um hey we we have this amount of students that are experiencing homelessness it's a serious problem and so let's see if we go back to 21 22 school year uh there were an additional 58 siblings identified so 344 plus 58 students on top of that this school
053year we have 381 enrolled with us that doesn't include the additional 68 I'm sorry 67 siblings not school age that were identified so it's over 400 students residing within our district boundaries who are experiencing some form of homelessness Statewide and we know this number is low to over 224 000 students Statewide have been identified as experiencing homelessness and then here's a breakdown of living situations living types um so as stated earlier most of our families uh are doubled up again living with other family members other friends due to financial hardship eviction domestic violence situations you name it the the situations vary they do unaccompanied youth so again unaccompanied youth are those individuals those students children youth who are not living with their legal guardian and so we have 28 students identified this school year who
054are not currently living with their legal Guardians those students have been either pushed out from their households um their parents have said I can't provide for you you need to go live with Grandma we have a good handful of students um grandparents are raising them they've raised their kids now they're raising their grandkids parents cannot provide so we know that our students they're bringing a lot with them on the daily and again we want to do our best to to see them through and provide that support so Services uh that we've provided um and these are duplicated numbers some students come in more than once so school supplies clothing food assistance if you haven't heard of our uh food distribution events we do it here on the monthly it's two years now our partnership with
055Sac food bank over 2 600 students or families have access food from us from us that's grocery boxes I'm in fresh produce and that's monthly we have two distribution events left Community Resources referrals and then Transportation assistance student support so I talked about mentoring we have 61 students who are receiving mentoring support from my staff members and that number also includes students from the center High School who have access to our after-school peer tutoring program as well 73 percent of of these numbers have that have access our services uh our students experiencing homelessness and so the other 27 percent are non-identified homeless students who have access or our services so while we focus primarily on students experience experiencing homelessness and Foster youth we really serve all when there's a need again we're going to do
056our best to provide support and then last but not least upcoming events uh we have again grocery box and fresh produce distribution events April 26th so that's next week and then May 17th 2 30 to 4. I welcome you to to join us in distributing those food boxes and engaging with our families and then next month it's mental health awareness month and we have events planned we have a parenting series workshop and then a suicide prevention training closing out our school year and then we're already planning to head to July Miss Pope uh back to school resource Fair we're going to call it a back to school bash because it was quite the party last year yeah and we're bringing it back so July 26th mark your calendars four to six pm here at the
057do Annex we're going to be there um you know 100 degree weather or not we're going to be there engaging with our families our students all seven School sites will be there having their tables present to engage with their students our district departments will be there we have a plethora of community agencies that are going to be there as well it's going to be a fun time and that concludes my update thank you all let me know if you need any volunteers we'll do we'll do last year I think you did that last year um we will have the food pantry will be accessible yes um the food pantry holds or houses or our boxes as well so we have leftovers food bank will give us extra and we will have those on hand and
058we also get donations from community members non-perishable items so we also have that in the food pantry yeah we know that food insecurity is is a real deal and so we want to make sure that we can provide that um I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you very much for the services you're providing um some people question why a school district is providing such services but the reality is students that are dealing with this stuff are going to have a hard time focusing and learning and pursuing the diplomas that we just heard such a passionate present presentation about Um this can make a big difference and you know you're thanking us for our support I thank you for everything you guys are doing it's amazing yeah yeah yeah I mean we
059talk about the Maslow hierarchy of needs right basic needs you if you're hungry you're tired um you can't come to school and learn right and so yeah it's it's our part to to provide that so thank you uh that is Thursday May 11th from 5 30 to 6 45 um because of the topic uh the the content um that is going to uh be limited space uh available uh We've adopted a suicide prevention training model model called question persuade to refer and this is the first time that we've ever ever rolled this out we know that mental health is continues to to be an issue for so many and so we want to equip our community members or our parents with the tools and strategies to provide a sense of of Hope to individuals they
060come across and so uh yeah May 11th uh be on the lookout for registration information yeah you're welcome yeah yeah anything else well I'd like to ask add to uh member Bruno and Anderson uh thank you very much for what you do and I've uh heard of what you have been doing since I've come on board uh to the board and um you're doing outstanding work it's very much appreciated I was somewhat a little surprised during um one of my school tours I was speaking with superintendent Lair and learned of our unaccompanied students um and you're saying the count right now is 28 and to me the 28 is 28 too many and um so my uh you know I feel very deeply that you know no no child should be left to their own
061way without support so I as a board member and I think any any other board member here if there's anything that you think that we can do I would like to hear about it I to assist these these young people thank you I I appreciate that yeah I mean the old adage right it takes a village and and it truly does um yeah uh thank you for for acknowledging that uh and and we know that those temporary caregivers they're doing their best as well again times they've already raised their kiddos and they're not expecting um or anticipating to raise their grandchildren um and we get phone calls I don't know what to do I'm at my Wit's End and this is you know it's all above my head and I've done this um and so
062it really does take a partnership to provide support to that student and also the caregiver as well um so again thank you for that I appreciate your time and again your support of what we do thank you Mr Miranda thank you very much facility you again Ryan that was very uplifting well uplifting information not that it was uplifting you know good evening board uh as you can tell a little little something new each time you come in we try to you know keep it on the excuse storage room that's right um CTE project behind us is moving along you've seen now what the color scheme is if you've taken a peek out there and looked at the buildings the framework for the covered portion in the back of what will be the construction and technology
063for the actual um construction building you'll see that canopy the framework has gone up they're doing some more site work concrete is soon to come on that shifting gears over to Rex Fortune we today poured the last pad for the last building um one of the buildings is already completely framed out so by end of next week the other building the exterior will be completely framed out so we are still anticipating those buildings to be done August for those last two buildings that we came up with and then we're getting ready for the big push for our HVAC projects coming up at North Country and Center High School the 500 building at Center and about 90 percent of the campus at North Country so met with the Contracting team today so we kind of have
064our ground rules and they're ready to hit the ground running on Tuesday the 30th of May and that's about all that we have right now Will the AC be ready and up and running by next school year you're welcome thank you Mr Putnam okay moving along comments from the audience regarding items not on the agenda and we do have a comment card by Mr David Barker if you would like to come up to the podium please um thank you again for the opportunity to come up for you first I want to apologize to the board for last time I was here because I didn't understand the process and you kindly gave me Mr grimes's um information and he got in touch with me and he let me know that um the decisions that were made
065were based on recommendations you guys got you know so I was like okay and the I guess the main thing was is that um I'm still kind of not a not understanding how the process worked but that's okay that's something else um the only thing I have to say is this um some incidents occurred while I was at Sutter okay I was in the military for a long time and my all my computers and everything are scrutinized because I signed several ndas when I left the military um because I did quite a few things and someone here at Center said I said things that I didn't say and now I'm under investigation as all my stuff is getting flagged because of statements that were said that I said and I didn't say it and so
066I just want to apologize to the board for anything that might happen later like there might be an IG investigation I don't know they've already contacted me and I've contacted them and said no that's not what happened I didn't say that and but I'm just letting you guys know that this might be coming down the way you know you might be getting phone calls from the Department of Justice Department of Defense I don't know but nothing really happened you know it was just somebody thought I said something I didn't say that and it got reported I did say it and then everything broke loose okay so I just want to take this time to say thank you for letting me know what was going on thank you for everything that you've already went through with
067me and thank you for giving Mr Grimes his information okay um because the uh yeah it was just the individuals gave you information those individuals in then I went on and said it was you guys that did it I'm like okay so that's why I was kind of upset with you so thank you very much and thank you for having me here tonight thank you thank you and thank you for the update and clarification yes Mrs Hunt is there any online no okay thank you moving on to consent agenda do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended removing items 3 and 15. so moved thank you and I'll second it thank you very much uh General consent hi thank you thank you in regards to uh Miss Pope can I interrupt
068you because we did just do two things that I want to be to mention so I want to acknowledge that the board just approved the appointment of Mr Chris barassi as our next director of personnel and student services so welcome Mr barassi and also uh we would like to acknowledge that the board just approved Miss Tracy sievert as the next principal of North Country Elementary there she is I was gonna have her take a bow you know but but anyway but I just want to acknowledge that and appreciate that the board's trust in us and I know they'll do both do fantastic job so thank you and welcome to your new roles congratulations okay moving on to consent agenda number three approved board stipend increased do I have a motion to bring it to the
069floor for a discussion so moved do I have a second so good thank you I asked for this item to be brought forward to increase the board stipend by five percent which is uh Allowed by the board bylaw 9250 and Ed code 35120. this would increase the monthly amount from 263.94 to 277.14 and would be retroactive to July 1st 2022. this is in line with the increase received by other all other District employees and to my knowledge as I spoke to Mr Lair there we don't think there's ever been a board stipend increase so this would be the first one there was a reinstatement in 2016 but no actual increase um is there any I'm going to ask um is there any public comment I don't have any online thank you um is there any
070board discussion on this okay do I have a motion to approve consent agenda item number three so moved thank you Mr Bruno you have a second second thank you Mr Bowen General consent awesome moving along to consent agenda number 15 approve resolution number 2022 that slash 2022-23 resolution to authorize the Assurance of services request for proposal do I have a motion to bring this to the floor for a discussion so moved do I have a second thank you Mr Bowen back when we were in the design phase of facts Rex Fortune This same resolution came to the board so I had a question on why is it coming to the board once again since we've already done this so if Mr layer or even Mr Putnam because he's in in the room as well if
071you could briefly give a breakdown on what lease leaseback is as opposed to design method of construction and then also you know just uh reiterate why we brought this back so I thought it was important yeah if you want to make your way up I'll I'll lead I'll lead into you I'll do the intro and then you can fill in the gaps so there's there's multiple ways uh public school districts can uh fund and and build uh buildings such as Rex Fortune such as the CTE project uh the method we've utilized from for in my recent years all the way back I know to um Wilson Rouse was at least leased back essentially it allows for competitive bidding we end up leasing the property to or the the the facility to a construction company after
072an RFP has been out it allows us to not take with a design a regular build project a direct build you actually have to take the low bid this actually allows us to see multiple bids and look at reputation and the the work performance of that this we have as other people have too sometimes we take the low bid it runs into problems so this method allows us to do that we current currently have the CTE buildings that is actually a a design design build design build and so it's just a it's a different facility mechanism to to trigger how we can get the best product we fluctuated now each product that we each uh facility that we build we have to have a resolution for that so we're coming back to kick off that
073with in the packet it allows us to do that model this is actually going to be for the North Country modernization project and it allows us the first step to say we want to enter into a lease lease back attached is the RFP and then we release the RFP get bidders for that project come back with the to the board with that contract we end up it it there's a lot of benefits and we could dig deep into the weeds but that's kind of the general overview unless Mr um Putnam has something additional no you born do you have me on and Lauren is turning you off she said that she doesn't like no I'm just kidding uh yes that is correct so it gives us because there's even a third option which hardly anybody
074ever does and that's called a piggyback so there's all different ways to build or modernize schools and we pick and choose which is the best method for us time wise money wise and quality wise and so that's why we have the different and each project you will look at what is the scope when it's usually a smaller scope like the CTE buildings it's more cost effective to do a design build than when you have the larger projects like doing a whole new School site or a very complex modernization then you do a lease lease back and in that we are pre-qualifying bidders I signed 27 uh contractor forms today for people who have uh become pre-qualified with the district so we've looked through all their financials we know that these are sound companies and then
075we go through with other processes for being able to choose when we're who we're going to use on that kind of project awesome yeah and on that why we're choosing the least lease back model on modernization I think why because as you'll see next month we'll come back with a plan it's a very complicated move because it's not one we're going to get done modernization in just the summer so we're going to have to do some movement of students within the site and so we're working on a plan with scpm of how we'll bring that back and actually hopefully get some extra facilities on the site with that so we'll come back with the plan but this is the first step in that process to get that moving forward perfect Union HVAC systems how do
076you separate those or do you it comes down to really what where the scope is and what we have so with our HVAC program that was basically just a straight here's the bids we open it up low bid got the contract because it's a very limited scope when you're getting into a modernization you're going to deal with anything from site work new structural work uh there's a whole lot of layouts so there's about 10 different layers in a modernization to where like with our HVAC project that's going to be coming up this summer it's one single item it's just replacing the HVAC systems so that's what helps dictate when we need to activate the lever of this is a straight bid or this is going to be a lease lease back that gives us better
077flexibility to get the best contractor for doing the work and you'll you'll see that Nancy when we get the show you the plans for the modernization it's very it's not just oh we're going to fix some air conditioners it's it's hard work it's or it's it's hard concrete work it's facilities inside it's a lot more involved than just not just because I couldn't do it but but putting air conditioners on a building it's much more complicated little voltage and things will be along there right but contractors would have a chance then each time to come in and put in their stuff or is it just a one-time thing no no it's we when we have any of these kind of projects we make announcements out there through the different Builders exchanges and everything else so
078we advertise for when these happen and part of this with us knowing that we're going into a lot of these different ones that's where we also let them know it is time to get pre-qualified again with the district so you can bid on these Public Works projects that we're offering thank you any other questions from Mr Putnam thank you sir thank you appreciate it do I have a motion to approve consent agenda number 15. thank you Carol there is no public I'll move is there a second all second thank you General consent thank you thank you again Carol uh moving on to business item business items business item a logo concept update and discussion Mr Lair oh do you want to bring it to the floor for discussion first I'll make that motion thank you
079give me a second second thank you now Mr Larry would you give an introduction sure so as the board is aware and we've been talking uh one of the things we took on this year as we've began to grow into a new region of our district is looking at some rebranding of our our district and one of the the ways we're doing that is addressing website um we're looking at different mechanisms as we go to uh recruitment fairs and different things we're trying to make sure we have the brand what kept coming up is our our district logo which happens to be on the screen right there is is outdated and one of the things we looked at was how do we modernize it when we started this process we were able to get with
080a graphic designer look at it with some ideas of how can we keep the rich history that we have because I think a lot of us are proud of where we've come from but we want to continue to move forward and so when we went met with a graphic designer we talked through the whole process and said there's a few elements that we would just have to keep with our our our logo one would be the Bell you know if if you have any time with this District you realize the Bell is a big portion of our district and we still have the bell and you'll see it on graduation if you want to come to graduation um and the Sea trying to to incorporate the sea within that and then establishing the uh the
081date at which we established as a district and so we've narrowed it down to four different options and Lauren is going to just kind of put them up so one of the things I wanted the board to discuss is if one of these fours u4 sitting here saying that's it we want that one great my work would be done if not I would suggest that we possibly put it out to our community and see which one resonates with with the community and then we can bring it back in May for for a final um you know consideration by the board what I will tell you is at first look at these it's funny you kind of go oh I want to be knocked out of my chair but then I looked at our current one
082and that doesn't knock me out of my chair either and so as I started looking at each of these and gotten feedback from different individuals we have come up with the four that are in front of you two of them are very similar colors are are what they are color we can adjust those one of the things I think we should probably stick with would be that Center Blue I don't know if it's cobalt blue or royal blue I I'll ask Mike Jordan on the colors Mike Michael tell me the colors um but so really I see his three kind of models at the end of this we'll have a nice package of vector files for each of these for clothing once these are established we'll move on to the school sites where we'll end
083up having them have a similar look we're not going to take away from what's established you know the Oak Hill otters are still going to be the local otters they're still going to be green Center High School will still be Columbia Blue and Gold uh still going to have the cougar but we want to try to get a theme so when someone sees the school sites logo they're recognizing wow that's that's part of Center so that's where we are so I would look for some direction from the board and like I said if you're like Scott we like number three done deal don't bother me again my life will be easy if not I I would suggest that we put it out to the community because it is hard just like at my house I
084do not pick paint colors I just paint the paint colors because I'll just leave it at that I'm in agreement where you keep these Center District color blue the Cobalt is what I'll call it and stay away from I'm going to say Center High School gold because that's Center high school so we want to be separate from Center but yet I do like the outline of some sort of yellow slash gold not necessarily yellow so more of a I'm going to impress you all with my poppy copy and the other thing is the the the the screen does I know distort some of the colors the colors will get refined and then we'll actually end the product we'll get exactly what those colors are I guess there's color codes specific numbers so that will also
085be part of it there'll be Vector files but then also reverse files so any of these can go on any shirt or any logo that would be done I agree with what Dale said but I like the one that was just up there on the that one on the bottom right and I'm sorry let me clarify so these are kind of a set there'd be a couple other ones that would follow the same model so we we would have access to all these like the top the bottom left in this idea would be possibly on our website um you know Miss hunt and I were talking about which one would we put on our low our letterheads so we would have access to all these to kind of do it but it's kind of a
086a package a package yeah and there are other ones that would go with it but these are kind of the gist of it I'm with Nancy I like and the first one is is my thought well just to add my two cents um I actually strongly disagree with both of you on number three um Mr Bruno that's the wrong answer sorry um I just feel that the contrast between the yellow and the white around the Bell just is insufficient and it I I prefer the contrast of the other designs um of the others I'd say the number four is my least favorite um numbers one and two look like the only difference is what shade of blue so that's accurate yeah I like one and two personally but yeah that's just my opinion so my
087twos my my two cents is um Bruno Bruno said um the in none of these the Bell is gold and or Poppy and I've seen the Bell before I forgot what it looks like now it's been so long but it is made out of brass is it not yeah it's like a bronze so painting that is a gold ish color so none of these represent the bell in a goldish color so I I would like to see something like that myself but that's just me and I do like superintendent Larry's suggestion I think that's awesome I think we should I think we should put it out to the community and to the schools and to the students and the parents and let them be a part of making history for the district especially since we
088clear we don't have a consensus on this I I would agree that that's probably the best move and one of the things it is I mean there's just four of you and you're I wouldn't say disagreeing but you're not agreeing on one so what we can do is we can put these out with a voting mechanism I'm I'm not going to solicit uh like uh input necessarily other than which one would you pick type of thing and then I can bring that data because otherwise I mean even in our office with 10 people we were all over the board and so what we'll all work with is um probably um someone to get a survey put out we'll put it out for a couple weeks so then when I can bring back in May what
089the results are with the idea of we gotta we gotta pick one because we are we are waiting and I know um it's holding up like Rex Fortune Elementary when we want to kind of have it envisioned similar as far as the pattern so that's Mr Farrell's probably staring at me right now saying get him to vote right now uh but we we would I think that would be good and I think to Mr Bowen trustee balance point it would be nice to hear you know we may get a lot of people to vote we may not but at least we're putting it out and hearing what people think and then when the school ones come around we can also do the same if that's that's the model that we want to do so these
090are the only four we have options of these are the ones that we've whittled down to it's getting to the point where we I think we just need to pick color wise we can mess with those um but so no gold bail then huh I can always ask it doesn't hurt to ask unless you know we can agree right now of one that we choose but you want to go dollars I don't know if they could adjust the colors or not because even you were saying that you like the other blue than what was on there I like the blue I just want to make sure it was the the cobalt blue like number one is cobalt blue I believe so see I like the Columbia Blue but but we're not we're not because Colombia
091is very similar it would be so close to Center high school and I don't want to overlap on there so that blue but a little bit darker kind of like the sign in the brand new sign in front of the district um that color so what I can do is ask them to to not do yeah not do the ones with the other colors leave actually leave number that one off number two and just put the three out to the community okay and Howard what I was referring to is if we put that out to the public for designs and consensus on which one my um history that I remember from doing that is that it turns into one huge fight it just asks for problems so the direction I'm hearing unless I was going
092to say since numbers one and two are so similar and we're seeming to lean more towards the color scheme of number one would it be possible to try to find an alternate for number two that has a gold Bell and so we're still putting four designs out there I'll ask for sure I'll ask okey dokey we got Direction and how long are you going to keep the survey out there a week I got a well it has to be made I won't say I'll make it but uh yeah at least we'll get it out and I'll try to time it around our our email that we send out to all the families too and then we can have people vote on a Google doc to Google survey or form thank you Mr Lair business Item
093B celebrations and recognition of staff and student at board meetings do I have a motion to bring it to the floor for discussion I'll move thank you do I have a second thank you very much Mr ballen trustee ballen you brought this forward you want to give us a little introduction trying to get used to holding down this button um so it in my travels since I began the quest of being on the school board um it came to my attention that um some districts set aside a certain amount of time during their board meetings to recognize students their achievements and um some of the things that that they have done or are doing or planning on doing in other words engaging the students at the board meetings um we're here as a board as
094a governing body a business body if you will but it's it's for the kids for the students in our district and what some districts have adopted is well we need to recognize that it's just not all business we need to recognize our students and what they're doing what they're achieving and recognizing that so my my thoughts were what can we do how can we do it I know that students uh come in and different groups of students come in and give presentations such as earlier this evening and I think that's awesome because that's that's what I like to hear I like to know what's going on in our schools and I think uh as this is a public forum and probably the biggest public forum for this District that we should engage our students as
095to what they're doing and what they're achieving and so I'm proposing that we develop something that our students can bring to this board and and present to this board into the into the district and into the community of what they're doing or what they're trying to achieve or what they've accomplished May do we have any public comment I have none online Okay um then board discussion go ahead Mrs Anderson we used to Mr Bell and we used to have a second meeting of the month that was entirely for recognition of community members and school students and staff so I think it would be wonderful to go forward with that but we may need to add some time either to our regular meeting or a second meeting uh depending on how involved you want to get
096we did run into some issues with it and I think Scott would probably be able to Enlighten us a little more than my old memory but um it's something that I think that we we should do more of than what we do and and more recognition of our teachers that was something that we didn't do a whole lot of but I think we should they deserve to be recognized for the jobs that they do over and above their everyday jobs my thoughts on this it's it's kind of come out of other meetings that I work for a different school district and they devote time in pretty much every board meeting to honoring people but then their board meetings will frequently go past midnight if we were in such a situation I would view that as
097problematic however we're in a situation where we're often done early um and I think that there's a lot of Merit to recognizing the accomplishments of students and staff in fact I'd go beyond just the teachers that trustee Anderson mentioned and you know just staff in general because sometimes it's good to acknowledge that you know technology had this breakthrough or stopped the Cyber attack or something or you know counselors making a difference in students lives all staff of this District at some point or another are doing something that's just amazing in their job um and I also think that you know ultimately we're here because of the students and so when we hear about things like students from McClellan going to the prom or hearing about the student government acknowledging academic growth in students I think
098it's good for us to hear that because it reminds us that this is what we're here for and so I think that this finding a way to work this in reasonably will be a very beneficial thing I'm agreement with all of you um I like the staff idea to to include that um I also like the idea that I'm not like the idea but agree with the comment you made about extending the board meetings because everybody works here and I really don't want anybody here past eight if we can help it um in the past we used to do a May wasn't it may uh recognition day and it would be at Center High School theater and I think Mr Lair has been working on that once the theater is complete maybe this is what
099we could do is that correct so one of the things since we haven't done it since since coven one of the things I've been rolling around since broadblast time was how could we do a little bit each each meeting and one of the things might be a standing uh portion of the meeting just like we have reports presentations work with the schools and the other thing we've done in the past we I think the hard part is we took a pause a lot of this because of the the coven but you know we've even acknowledged some of our parents who have been big contributors uh and once we awarded you know them a certificate they ended up getting on the board so you got to watch out if we give you an honor um but
100but it it highlights and and celebrates and so I think we can do I think this is a good kind of refresh of how can we do that and so what I would walk away from is acknowledging we don't want meetings to go along but if we ever get to that point and we could always look at do we need a second meeting there there's going to be a time where our district will need a second meeting in each month but I think we could we could I don't want to say squeeze in but we can acknowledge our community better at each meeting and probably not go till midnight next month one of the adaptions that we're doing is we would always honor our retirees at that special May meeting we'll be bringing our retirees
101that want to be honored they'll be at this meeting in May and so there's always things like when as we've talked through this I think after trustee ballen brought it up like our FBLA students you know I don't know if they get recognition at the school side or not I'm sure I know we get kudos but it would be nice for us to recognize the students who accomplish something and honor the staff that gives up there you know they're going to be down there three days with them you know you just approved so I think there's a lot we can do to honor and celebrate that goes above and beyond what the school sites are already honoring and celebrating and I know I could probably talk to each of our our administrators and there's there's
102tons of things so we would have no problem honoring it and it is a good thing it's it's bragging about our district you know and not just uh in a this forum but on our social media you know we're looking at with our teacher and classifieds a year how are we going to routinely recognize the contributions not just okay one day but how do we we keep doing that so with with the comments and conversations I'm hearing today I'm happy to go back put something on and see how we can do May's already covered for me because I can bring our retirees and then we can look at each of the meetings June and going forward uh June's hard because people aren't at work and bringing them back but maybe we get a cycle of
103just having a placeholder and if we do have something great for some reason we don't there's no reason we couldn't remove it off the agenda yeah now that we don't have the antelope news we need to get in the habit of submitting to the neighbors section of the Sacramento Bee because we need to get our is there a neighbor section anymore yeah I'm wrong I haven't seen the newspaper in quite a while but one of the things I think I agree with you one of the things and we're working hard is even with that social media present the website thing just getting things out there and we have some additional help that we're tapping into that we'll we'll start to get that out uh agree we've never been good at patting ourself on the back
104and we deserve to be heard out there and seen out there because we do so much for these kids that nobody knows about so superintendent said uh took took many of my words out of my mouth on but the one one word he said was routine we meet uh 11 times a year right basically uh and in my conversations with people from other districts and as well as uh looking what I saw online um the 15-minute Mark seems to be the the magic number uh setting aside 15 minutes at each meeting for this I think is the least that we can do Mr Bruno so um along those lines I think if we were doing a 15-minute thing that we could accommodate that with our current agenda length um so I I think that would
105be good another thing is um it would be another way to encourage people to show up for meetings you know if they or their family members are being honored and that might get someone to engage with the board more and we might start getting more feedback which you know I love getting feedback um and one other little tid that I'd like to say on this though is I would personally prefer putting it near the top of the agenda because especially if we had an agenda that runs longer and students that have to be at school the next day or something it's nice to give them the opportunity to leave if they need to agreed yeah and Mr Bruno my thought would be is right after the adoption of the agenda even before org reports that
106we would honor celebrate if they want people want to stay great but that way we're not moving it to the very end and holding people captive to get their acknowledgment so to be clear it's to recognize not to perform right we don't want performance we just want recognition of staff and students to celebrate successes throughout I agree to clarify we are going to go forward each month and recognize individuals until the Center High School theater is finished and then we will continue with the May recognition day I would suggest if we do the 12 I our problem with the the May recognition when we all went there it was it we started we were giving folks awards for things they had already received at their school sites and so at this point I would try
107to do one for every meeting and then see if we want to go that route and have a special one we could um but it might satisfy what we're trying to get at I mean fair enough fair enough okay any other discussion one last point on this the other thing is we can try it and if it's not working we can always change it later correct okay moving on to business item C naming of new Career Technical education CTE facility do I have a motion to bring it to the floor for discussion all motion thank you second thank you Mr ballen since uh we talked in length last month about this topic I don't think there's going to be much discussion but Mr balance since you brought it forward you want to speak a little
108bit on it forgot to hold it down um did is that is the that line uh superintendent layer is that language that was developed is that in our packet okay the yeah there was backup material submitted as to why individuals are being recommended or an individual is being recommended so um I'll leave it up to the rest of the board do we uh this was prepared by um member Anderson do we do we want to read this or no what was read last month Outlaw did we want to read it again oh what might be be helpful is if if there's an idea of what what wants what we want to name or what the board wants to name start with that and then I know the backup material supports an individual that you would
109want it to be named after or are proposing so I know trustee ballon you and I've talked a little bit about what you envisioned with this so it might start with that as the discussion I think if the individual which I know is the same individual that was discussed last time you might be able to have that and then in the in the backup material supports why you would be making that recommendation again so that might be the first step is what what are we thinking and then have that direction so in reference to the conversation that I had that superintendent Lair just mentioned um he made a superintendent Lair did a suggestion that I think is is perfect um and since we already brought up uh the name we're speaking about Mr Ray Bender
110a long time board member who served this community for I believe well over 20 years um and in my discussion with superintendent Larry rather than naming a building because he was about vocation about things that that students can learn that could take them somewhere after after school should they choose not to go to college or were unable to and so um the two buildings represent two types of CTE areas I I guess you would call them one more one more technical one more uh hand Hands-On type of um dealing with with wood and mechanics in section alike um so in my discussion with superintendent Lair he made the suggestion well why don't we call this a center because there is a space for there's plan my understanding a potential plan for a third building and
111there is actually room in the area for more for another building or two or or maybe more so the the idea was to call this a center uh the ray Bender Career Technical Education Center and that which that would Encompass the area and the buildings of which it resides in and that a plaque would be placed in the there's my understanding there's going to be a walkway that will be going into the center and we can place that plaque uh in some manner at the entrance to this area uh acknowledging Mr bender and and all he has done for this district and years past online thank you Karen is there any more discussion trustee Anderson uh it's I'd like to read this out loud if there isn't any other comment you read it last month
112but no this is different oh is it the same okay is it anybody else okay it is being proposed with new information and Technologies building be named in honored pass board member Raymond Bender for the following reasons he dedicated his life to Center and we will not forget all that he did for the students of Center and the children of antelope Mr raybender served the center school district and the community of antelope for over 20 years as a trustee for Center Joint Unified School District he provided leadership for staff and students in many ways during that time he served four successful terms as president he was an inspiration to many in our community from the very beginning Mr Bender made technology one of his main interests as a board member he served as the board
113member who kept close tabs on technology and schools and made sure that Center was ready for its students to be prepared for the world they would face upon graduation he not only championed its use in the classroom by teachers but he also emphasized the staff learn how to use it he knew that in order to compete our entire District would have to be on board with this technology Mr Bender always fought hard for vocational education he knew not every child could or would pursue a colleague college career regardless of their educational status they must be prepared for their future whatever that future may hold for them he helped establish a partnership program spot for reading coaches the NCAA Academy Cisco and many more he felt very strongly that every child should be reading at grade
114level by third grade he strongly supported programs that supported student health and wellness he devoted significant amounts of time toward the continuing development achievements of Center Joint Unified School District Mr Bender was committed to the long-term Financial well-being of Center joint Union School District he worked hard to get Bond funding approved and optimized the use of voter approved Bond funding he insisted we keep a six percent savings account for emergency use it was that practice that saved us from huge cutbacks during the budget crisis when other districts were cutting back teachers and support staff carefully weighing many factors when making difficult budgetary decisions and supporting efforts to wisely use human and financial resources of Center joint Union School District Mr Bender oversaw the opening of three new schools the establishment of two charter schools Mr
115Bender represented Senator joint Union School District in meetings with members of Placer County and Sacramento County Supervisors County school board members State organizations and U.S Congressional members to protect the district interest and acquire new resources Mr Bender Faithfully ran our snack bar for many years making such needed funds for all school student Sports programs he not only worked it during game time but spent much of his free time shopping stocking and cleaning the snack bar for all these reasons and many more we wish to honor the memory of Mr bender and never forget the contribution he made to the staff students and community of Center Joint Unified School District Mr Bruno do you have any discussion well my my stance on this um kind of remains constant I generally speaking don't like the practice of
116naming things after people because that can lead to complications down the line that's nothing against Mr Bender it's just my general principle and I do notice that we kind of keep falling back into that pattern so I'm going to ask that moving forward we try to find other options when we need to name things but um you know unfortunately for for me I didn't get a chance to know Mr Bender but I can see an argument for naming this afternoon okay so is there a motion to approve business item C so moved what is the motion second what's we need emotion Howard why don't you state the name that you brought forward earlier all right so the motion that the name be the ray Bender Career Technical Education Center is there a second I'll second
117okay uh let's do roll call vote trustee Bruno although I trustee Anderson aye trustee ballon aye chair votes eye congratulations okay business item D yeah the moment everybody's been waiting for governing board vacancy candidate interviews and resolution number 21 22-23 appointment of provisional board member do I have a motion to bring this to the floor for discussion so moved do I have a second second thank you is there any public comment on this item I have none online and is there any individuals here that I okay see none first of all I'd like to introduce the candidates they are here um Miss Adriana Simons would you like to stand up thank you [Applause] and Miss Kelly Kelly who isn't back [Applause] we will proceed with the interviewing portion of the meeting right now but please
118note that the candidate interview must be conducted in prop public during our regular business meeting a majority of the vote will be used to appoint the candidate at the end of tonight's proceedings during the interview each candidate will be asked a total of nine questions to ensure fairness the order of the questions that are asked will be rotated as well as the board member who asks the questions so right now we will start the interview process okay so I will start with the questions and we'll start with Miss Salmons and one little while you're getting your paperwork what I might suggest is I see Miss Kelly stand in the Salmons and then what will happen is they're going to take turns asking questions so if you guys want to be in the front row you
119can kind of take take turns so I think Miss Salmons is up first who's up first Miss salmon okay so you're up for sorry yeah you're and then and and Kelly you're you're right there on Deck so okay thank you hi so miss Sammons please tell us about yourself so again my name is Adriana Sammons and I have lived in Antelope um with my husband Ainsley for 12 years now um I am a mom I have five beautiful children two bio boys and three bonus children all ranging from ages 22 all the way down to seven I also am a caregiver for my two siblings and I took that on after my mother passed away in 2013 so I do care for them as well so just my nurturing side is just 100 there I
120love caring for people and just seeing the best outcome so in a very bubbly thank you very much why do you believe you should be selected to serve on this governing board and what do you believe May differentiate you from other candidates seeking the appointments um well first and foremost I'm very passionate about anything that I put my mind to and my background is early childhood education I am still continuing to go I started going to school again my husband graduated recently went back to college and really encouraged me to go back and finish my degree but even with me stepping away from school to raise my family and care for my siblings my passion has never stopped I'm very active within my community even outside of the kids with at the school um I
121I just love seeing people succeed especially our children I know that our children are our future and I know that we have to support them and encourage them and help them thrive in any Avenue that they take and that takes us as a village to really support them and I wholeheartedly believe that um so I am active wherever I can and so that's why sometimes I am probably at Oak Hill Elementary School more than I was I'm home and I'm okay with that and I really look forward to making a difference in not only Oak Hill but olive Center um and being and getting to know the different faculty at the other sites as well um something that I think differentiates me um and this is not to upset anyone at all but our if
122you guys look at Center Unified as a whole we are a big Melting Pot okay of everyone different backgrounds different different ethnicities age everything different Lifestyles and upbringing in history so when we look at our board I think our students we want them to be more involved feel more welcome I think that our board should represent a Melting Pot and so right now I don't know if the students would all feel that they are seeing someone that maybe represents them in just feeling welcome seeing the Melting Pot that our district is so I think that that would be something that does set aside that maybe I have different life experiences or different things that I might be able to bring um to the table that might be a different viewpoint thank you very much you're
123welcome thank you Miss Kelly perfect to follow I will ask you the same question please tell us about yourself okay I am Kelly Kelly and um I also have lived in this community for a very long time I I don't know Jamie was graduated in 2010 and she started in fifth grade so however many years that is a long time 20 some years um and I've been on the board for about 12 12 years for eight ten years excuse me um and I gosh she took all my words passion I mean I have a lot of passion for education for Equity I my day job is is at the Department of Public Health and our office is completely focused on Equitable outcomes addressing disparities related to health we do have you know the schools committee
124that I I often sit in on that focuses on Health in the schools and so I bring an interesting perspective from that but but but also I just really care about this job I mean I this the first time I've ever really been nervous about you know whether or not I win or or anything and I think it's because I'm completely vested I love this District I love being able to contribute it's something that I am good at you know being able to review the materials maybe I don't remember people's names and faces very well but what I do excel at is really absorbing different people's opinions and perspectives and just taking a very objective view to things so um that's who I am thank you Mom Mom yep I'm a mom and how do
125you believe you should be select well who why I excuse me let me start over why do you believe you should be selected to serve in on this governing board and what do you believe May differentiate you from other candidates seeking the appointment so I I did already kind of touch on some of this I've been on the board for 10 years which I know there's a lot of conversation about you know shorter terms in government in general however I think that in school districts that that institutional knowledge that's carried through is really important understanding where we've been the things that we've addressed in the past and where we're going so I think that gives me a really good perspective on the business of the board in addition to that I've worked in the school
126district for 11 years I worked in both the in in three different areas I worked in the maintenance and operations I have a really good perspective on facilities I do know what a design build is I do know what a design bid build is and a lease lease back I've worked with all of those and you know deferred maintenance and all of that stuff I worked in the accounting office and so again a really interesting perspective on the budget on how things are are managed in a school district and then my third placement was with the student services so I had the privilege of working with students who were struggling with either attendance issues or home health or expulsions a lot of a lot of interesting laws and regulations and things that had to be
127followed and so I have that perspective as well and then of course the years that I spent on the board have really trained me well on a lot of the facility building and the and the bond stuff and things like that that I needed bonds for dummies when we first started took that and uh and and now I do have a better understanding so I mean I think that my experience speaks for itself I did serve as president during 2021 which we all know was a lovely year for this board and for this district and for this world so um I I managed to to get through that without completely getting everyone to hate me so I think that was a success um okay thank you Miss Kelly next up would be Mr ballen I
128think you'll stay there Miss Kelly it's going to rotate so it's yeah I'm so sorry so if you see me looking down I'm not ignoring you I'm taking notes so um thank you Kelly for being here this evening so my question is what do you feel is the best way to address differences of opinion on the board or between the board and the administration that's a great question um and I've been through a lot of training with the School Board Association the governance sessions and it's very clear that we are here to represent different aspects of the community we're here to express different opinions we're here to listen to the community and use our judgment and that is done in a respectful manner we are one of a we're 20 percent of a deciding body
129and once a decision is made We Stand by that decision as a whole we should never be 5-0 on every vote that that just shouldn't be the way that it is because we're all here to represent different parts of the community but we should also never be disparaging our other fellow board members for their opinions great okay thank you very much uh next up um is Salmons and thank you for being here this night tonight so uh the question is what do you feel is the best way to address differences of opinion on the board or between the board and the administration okay let's we have to listen but I think there's a difference between listening hearing and active listening so whenever there's going to be difference of opinions we have to actively listen and
130then respectfully respond and so I think with this is we have to understand that there's going to be things that we just don't agree on and that could be like Kelly Kelly said everyone could disagree everybody's going to have different opinions um but how do we realize and have an open mind that we are always going to have to have some sort of compromise but I think if we're always having our hearts and our minds in the best um looking for the best outcome for the students the families faculty and everyone then I think we will trust each other as a board to communicate that well and then come up with the best decision so as long as we keep actively listening and respectively responding and trusting our board members as a team that we
131will always be able to come up with a best outcome thank you very much oh I forgot sorry maybe round three I'll get this I apologize I didn't realize I'm reading question three um as a trustee what do you see as your primary purpose or primary role how would you fulfill that role purpose and primary role is um making the best decisions that we can for our District as a whole keeping every single person in mind but I think our job here is bringing Community I think it is holding us all together um reminding us why we're here reminding us why what we're doing what the students need so I think every time that we show up here if I'm elected on the board or even in the audience is that my job as whether
132it be a Community member or on the board a family member a parent is that we are holding Center together as a family as a unit as a strong community so any decisions that are made we're going with moving forward with our best foot forward in those decisions hold on okay Miss Kelly same question to you as a trustee what do you see as your primary purpose or primary role how would you fulfill that role so um as a board trustee we are a deciding body um for policies procedures we are not the managers of the district we don't go in and manage the school sites we don't go in and interfere in any sort of personnel issues or anything going on at the site level being aware of those and hearing you know being
133being observant of those things is good but as a board member we're really here to look at policy we're here to look at policy and procedures and set a pathway for the rest of the district we also have one employee that is the superintendent and as a board we supervise him together so our role is really just to talk about policies and making sure that you know we're fiscally sound making sure that our lcap is done well that you know all of the things that the sites are doing we are reviewing those and just you know celebrating them but also ensuring that we we are in going in the right direction in the direction that the community wants us to go it's still your turn for the next question guys Mrs Anderson so nerve-wracking it's
134possible as a board member do you believe all graduating students should go to college upon graduation why or why not no um no that's a simple answer um I think anyone who wants to go to college and is eligible to go to college and has a pathway to go to college should definitely we should be supporting that we should be encouraging their a to G completion and making sure that they're they're signed up for Success right they're aligned with a successful pathway but we all know that not everybody wants to or needs to go to college um maybe they're going to go to a Career Tech school or maybe they're going to become a A store owner or take over the family business or do any number of a million other things and so I've
135from the beginning that's been really one of my big passions is supporting Career Tech we have amazing career track tech programs here and I'm always listening for more for Pathways currently I'm pushing it at work that we need to create Pathways for people that want to go into public health now that is a college pathway probably eventually but but just you know keeping your eyes and ears open for opportunities where we can bring in some Career Tech is is definitely a passion of mine and I've been doing that since before I started so I think probably my first exposure to this school board was when my daughter was was in elementary school and there was a budget oops a budget oops and so you know I got up and I spoke and I was like
136please don't take away the passion for what people come to school for you know people are not necessarily passionate about writing essays or learning about the Civil War but they might be passionate about um you know geometry or construction and geometry and construction or they might be passionate about the pharmac sessions or they might be passionate about any number of the different programs that we offer MCA so music dance art drama all of that stuff that's what brings kids to school because that's where their passion is and if they have that passion they're going to carry that over into their curricular education as well yes as a board member do you believe all graduating students should go to college upon graduation why or why not no um so college is a great absolutely is it
137for everyone no um and the reason I say that is because myself you know I did start going to college my path did change you know I did have to make some adjustments and then I stepped into entrepreneurship did I have any schooling in that originally no but has it helped me take care of my family am I passionate about it am I fulfilled in it in my teaching my son who is now eight years old how to run a business he's had a business since he was six he's almost nine and he loves it so I think when we are as a whole teaching our children about furthering their education that education doesn't just come from a book it can come from experience and a lot of times our best people when we put
138them in positions are from their life experiences are from their passions so I think yes like we believe if there are students that are like I can't wait I'm gonna apply at you know this college then I'm gonna go we encourage them we push them we give them all the tools that they need our counselors are there but I think we also need to be prepared to ask those students and listen to the other students that say I don't know if I want to go to college I'm terrified I don't want to go you know or I want to be a mechanic or I want to do this now how do we step in and support them and make them feel just as prepared when they leave school so I think we just need to
139continue to remember that every student is different every student is unique and we just need to open up the doors of success for them give them the different paths and talk to them encourage them that it's okay to have a different view then maybe you know your family's gone to college for the past 15 years you know excuse me 15 you know or all these different Generations so how do we prepare them to say it's okay to have a different path but I think when we say you only have to go to college we are now setting them up for failure because we're not supporting them and what they really might want to do or helping them and encouraging them to find what they're passionate about thank you thank you you can stay there oh
140okay so I'm I'm next yes so please explain what your budget priorities would be if you were on the board um so budgeting is very important um no absolutely so this is an area that I am open and willing to 100 continue to learn about um but there was something that and please correct me if this if I'm not answering it correctly but something that did come up at the last meeting was then talked about again today and something that I was very concerned about was the special education department um as I stated I have two siblings who are now adults they are special in these adults um and it breaks my heart that they went through the same amount of schooling that I did um and worked really hard my brother never missed a
141day of school and he actually got an award for not missing one day in all 12 years um and he had to get a certificate of completion and so now me being his caregiver him asking me can I go get a job maybe please forgive me if I get emotional he's older than me he's my older brother and I have to help him do applications over and over and he can't get a call back so it breaks my heart that he is so passionate and he's like well I was a janitor you know in school and that was beautiful that the school did that for him but I want to see that the students have the support you know the budget to have these AIDS that they need to be able to create the pathways
142that we need and to be able to make sure that they are ready um to the best of their abilities when they leave so I think I'm very passionate about the special education budget to make sure we are not pushing aside the services that our special education department needs thank you very much yes you can sit down Miss Kelly same question ma'am please explain what your budget priorities would be if you were on the board so I mean first and foremost we have to say stay fiscally solvent if we don't stay fiscally solvent we don't have a district the state will take over and we lose all of our deciding making power in addition to that sorry my mind just went blank because I'm nervous um flew out of my brain um in addition to
143that transparency is extremely important having been in a district where things were not always as transparent as they should have been and having and and other experiences through CSEA uh not through CSEA yeah through CSEA which is the uh classified school employees union um I've heard about districts who will purposely put items in to line items to hide the money so that they don't have to pay their employees what they deserve there's a fine line between storing money for the future and and being you know prudent about having money and then not um hiding money or being untransparent one of the things that um that I know is maybe not my maybe not popular with everybody but I feel like the people who pay taxes today are paying taxes to support the education of the
144students of today they're not paying to educate the students 12 years down the road when necessarily those people are not approving tax bonds or you know paying as much taxes so there's a fine line between using the funds for what it's intended now for the people who are here and planning for the future this is why there's triggers in the state regulations this is why there's limits on how much we can hold and so just keeping a really good eye on that and the transparency there are a number of things that happen during the year budget related we have the budget revise we have the budget proposed budget in January we have the budget Revision in may we have you know our our own budget aligning it with the lcap is important and then we
145have the the budget actuals that happen on a quarterly not quarterly but trimester basis and then we have the unaudited actuals and then we have the audited actuals um and each and every one of those phases is important to review the documents and make sure that things look right you might not understand every single detail of it but as you start studying it more you start to recognize things that don't quite look right or that you have questions about so with the budget there's always you're always learning you're always asking questions luckily we have Lisa who's like a genius when it comes to this money um but yeah it's always a learning experience so for me for Budget stay solvent be transparent continue to learn review all of the documents and then for funding how
146it should be spent that is something that is decided in the lcat but for me personally I've seen buildings go from bad to worse not necessarily in this District but go am I is my time up time up they're fading me out they're musicing me out off the stage I'm sorry um what did I say so um fiscally solvent transparent reviewing all of the budgets and then for me personally I'm passionate about facilities I don't want to see hvacs that are 10 years past their their expected lifespan not maybe one or two but hundreds of them I don't want to see roofs that haven't gotten repaired when we're maybe adding extra programs and stuff but the building's going to collapse so we're really good about that Richard does a great job but it's definitely a
147passion of mine that we not let the buildings fall apart while we're trying to get fancy on other stuff right there's got to be a balance that's it do I need to stay is there more questions um yes and state Mr ballen the question is if a parent guardian or Community member cornered you in a grocery store and asked for your support on a particular hot issue how would you respond we talk about this it's definitely a difficult situation you don't want to appear rude or distant but at the same time you can't commit to anything so just reminding them that I'm you know one of five people on the board I will definitely take their their information into consideration and it will be part of my decision making as my you know for one
148vote but that I am not allowed to really discuss or commit to anything outside of a public meeting that's it okay thank you that that you can now it's uh there's Salmon's turn same question if a parent guardian or Community member cornered you in the grocery store and asked for your support on a particular hot issue how would you respond um so I would briefly but also respectfully hear them out for a moment um now depending on what the issue is if it's something that needs to that is being discussed at the board level um then again I would make sure they um just get involved but also come to the meetings we have open discussion um voice their opinions if it is a board level now if it is school level or teacher things
149like that I always encourage and even now I do it with my friends that come to me and they're like hey I know you're really active in the school I have this issue and you know I'm gonna go to Scott and I say well hold on did you give the teacher you know so just reminding the parent of the channels that they need to take first keeping an open door policy with the teacher expressing their concerns and if it's not met there then now there are School administration the principals giving them the opportunity to correct whatever that issue is first and then if that does not work then there are the next channels of maybe reaching out to Scott at that point moving up but giving our teachers and our staff the benefit of the
150doubt and opening those lines of communication so we can try to work through whatever issues as parents we are having because sometimes the teachers don't realize or they're so overwhelmed or the schools so let's start where we can first and then encourage them to move up is [Music] Steve's turn Mr Bruno's okay identify a recent board decision that you felt strongly about and describe how you would balance Community concerns student needs staff considerations and your personal values and beliefs to determine how to vote on the issue so can I go back to the um because if you guys are all here you heard me last time um it is it is special education that lasts you know with the budget cut um I feel very strongly about it and it was just very worrisome because
151I don't like the feeling of kids not having AIDS because I believe if the number was correct there was somewhere in the 37 38 AIDs that were you know outsourced but were let go so my concern was very strongly how do we make sure those third if I don't know if it's 38 or if some of these AIDS were helping more than you know one student but how were we making sure those students aren't missing out on a thing um and I'm sorry I feel like I'm losing the question can you tell me one more time so I can go right back sure identify a recent board decision that you felt strongly about and describe how you would balance Community concerns student needs staff considerations and your personal values and beliefs to determine how to
152vote on the issue okay yes that is a fool so I taking just not just mine out my opinions but thinking about how is it affecting these students as a whole how what can we do at a school level to try and alleviate some of that loss in this particular issue um and so sorry it's the first question but also just keeping in mind what the community you know these students are our community and I think my decision would just I'm a type of person and it's outside the board but I pray on everything I take all the facts I take everything I keep everybody's how the decision is going to affect everybody and I just take that information and try to make the best decision possible but our students are our first priority so
153I would listen to everything that comes in whether it be from students parents Community but I think our whatever is going to bring the best outcome for our students is what decision I would have to make I hope that answered thank you same question to you identify a recent board decision that you felt strongly about and describe how you would balance Community concerns student needs staff considerations and your personal values and beliefs to determine how to vote on the issue so um this one might not be real recent but we did recently put into place an equity policy we realized that we did not have an equity policy in place and um given that that's what I do during the day it was very important to me on a personal level that we get one
154into place we also were having a lot of community input a lot of discussion at the board level and just in the community in general that you know we needed to have a policy we quickly put one into place it became contentious in the fact that we threw it together pretty quickly but we also knew when we put it together that um it was a starting point right it's a starting point and it can be at it can be modified as we go along so the way that I did and would make those decisions is to listen to what's happening in the community and in the society as a whole and really just consider what's going to serve well I hate to repeat what she said but what's going to serve our students the best
155and we definitely did have some concerns that we were not serving all of our students well by not having an equity policy in place and so my initial you know my response to that was we need to get one in place immediately and so we took the best ones that we could find and we modified them for what we needed in this community we took into consideration what students and and families and Community were saying and we did what we could to get the best policy in place as quickly as we could knowing that it could it can always be improved so I don't know if that answered the question but it was an example could you support a board decision you did not vote in favor of and why or why not so we
156already I already touched on that yes absolutely um if I'm 20 of this board well hopefully I'm 20 of this board one one trustee is um and again we're supposed to bring in different perspectives and just different views and we're supposed to also come to some compromises even if I was adamantly opposed to a decision that was made I know that that was the decision made by the board and I am part of the board and so I would definitely support that decision now would I at a later time potentially bring it back up for review with revisions with other ideas that's always possible certainly but once a decision is made a decision is made and we all support that wholeheartedly thank you thank you could you support a board decision decision you did not
157vote in favor of and why or why not yes um so as I stated that when you are communicating and working together as a board there we are always going to have to compromise um and that's just that's life but especially here not everyone is going to agree but I know that we all if I was to sit on the board would be working in the same favor of our students staff and faculty so I know that I would have to trust even if I did not if that wasn't my original thought I would have to trust that my board is still working in the best for the best outcome for our district and so and with that trust and with working together I would I would have to support it I would support it
158because we are a team and we would work together for the same outcome okay and I stay here I got it now [Laughter] last question my dear what questions do you have for the board to help you prepare to take on this Commitment if chosen um I don't have any specific questions but what I would say is if I was chosen um this would be my first board other than the Oak Hill Elementary School PTA that I sit on I would just ask that you guys would all open welcoming arms um and give me the opportunity to learn and just trust that I am eager and trust that I am a go-getter and that our students and our just all the families everyone every part of this district is something that I am ready to
159serve um and just bear with me as I would learn because it would be brand new but something that I don't ever back down from is a challenge and so learning the duties of the Board of Trustees would be a challenge but I'm ready for that so just welcoming arms and no questions other than that if you were to take the position or get the position it takes a year to really feel welcomed or not welcomed but at home in the position I mean all of us have gone through that um just getting to know what all the rules and laws and all that verbiage is so don't feel like you would be different no thank you I will tell you it takes a lifetime to learn how to be a parent so I'm up
160for the challenge and that's all thank you very much thank you Miss Kelly what questions do you have for the board to help you prepare to take this commitment to choose chosen I am struggling with this question um I know I should have good questions in mind but I really at this point I I just don't um I mean my questions are always on whatever the subject that's being discussed right like I'm I'm listening to the presentation I'm reading the materials my questions are related to what are the decisions we're making so the question for the board is I guess would you be doing the same thing and I already know the answer to that is yes I know you are I've worked with you guys for a long time and I and I know
161that we're all um very diligent about this role and and this responsibility and that it affects the lives of every student and every member of this community and so I I don't need to ask you that question but that's the question that comes to mind is would you also be doing the same thing so um gosh I feel like I should come up with a better question than that but I that's it that's a good question you guys know me you know my passion uh I think you have a difficult very difficult Choice um in front of you and I'm really happy to have been given the opportunity again to to serve and if I don't get selected I'm I'm not going to go home and cry but I will be disappointed and that's okay
162okay thank you Miss Kelly okay it was a pleasure having both of you participate in tonight's candidate interview uh Your Enthusiasm and engagement are truly inspiring and we appreciate you taking the time to meet with us tonight we have already read the interview questions and we have listened to their we have already reviewed their information sheet and have listened to their questions is there any board discussion yes Mr Bruno first of all I want to thank you both um I've been on that side of one of these interviews it's not easy and frankly being on this side isn't very easy either we have two people who have been here in the audience many times have individually shown a commitment to this District have very fun personalities are very passionate are clearly do wanting to do
163this for the right reasons I don't think there's a wrong choice here um and frankly my interview scores are pretty much dead even so uh just thank you both Mrs Anderson do you have any discussion I pretty much agree with what Steve said there's you know very close um I think um the one the one difference just that both of you have done a very good job and I wish we had two positions but we don't thank you Mr ballen do you have any discussion so I concur with uh board members Bruno Ann Anderson um you know thank you for your your service to this District in the past both of you um and as uh trustee Bruno said uh yeah the it's pretty much even it's a very very difficult decision and uh I
164very much hope whoever uh is not selected will continue to support the district and and look for new opportunities with us thank you and I agree with my fellow board members this is this is a tough one um so at mimic motion yes so just a second is there a motion to a point one of the two candidates as our new board member and to be named on the resolution 20 number 21-22 3. Mrs Anderson you want to make a motion I would like to motion that we appoint Adriana Simmons to the board second I will second that okay okay very good well then um let's just do a do of trustee Bruno I will vote I trustee Anderson aye trustee ballen hi and chair votes I and you both did a great job thank
165you and Miss Kelly you did a great job see she would have voted for her too okay so we're going to continue with the meeting congratulations Miss Adams we do not have a student representative today he is absent so we will continue with Barton superintendent reports and we're going to start with Mr Bruno this evening okay I've actually had a very busy month um and I think I view that as a really good thing um I feel like I'm leaving some things out so I apologize if I do um one of the things I got to do is went to Dudley for the oral language Fair um first and hopefully not last annual oral language Fair where students went up and presented poems that they had memorized this was fourth through sixth grade students and
166especially the fourth graders struggled with this but it was so inspiring to see the way they were supporting each other and encouraging each other and I thought all the students did wonderfully and so that was really awesome and then left there and came to Center to uh to watch the play uh to play with his wolves it was rough subject matter it was definitely not easy um but just like you know you have some movies that are fun and silly and enjoyable and you have others that are really deep but kind of make you uncomfortable This falls into that category um I really enjoyed it I thought all the performers were amazing there was one scene um it was about a girls soccer team in a like high school age soccer team and there was
167one scene where the goalie just loses it and it was done so well the emotion was so raw I was Disturbed for a couple weeks from that one scene and it's still getting to me now just thinking about it amazing play not not a pleasant one but very well done and then right after that went to uh Riles for the sixth graders coming to visit um and the students at Riles were giving presentations about the different elective choices and I thought that was such an effective way to get the kids interested in these elective choices because they're hearing about it from their peers not from teachers and I just thought it was really well done and again another great experience then shortly after that there was the top 10 dinner for the top 10 uh
168GPA students of the graduating class and listening to their stories and the impacts the teachers have had on them and the impacts that they've had on their teachers um just amazing and one of the things I particularly enjoyed about that is some of the teachers that were asked to introduce these students were some of the same teachers that had major impacts on my student on my children when they were at school including um Ben Klatt who was my son's wrestling coach and um did introduce the geometry and construction which was the first math class my son really did well in um Mr Metcalf the the band teacher who I cannot say enough good things about what he did for my daughter Elizabeth Mr Huey who was incredibly influential on my daughter Bella is just wonderful
169to see other students getting the same thing that they were um and then just this past Friday I got to do my first ever site visits and definitely will not be my lost it was absolutely wonderful I got to visit Dudley and Oak Hill and some of the things that I saw that really impressed me first of all Mr homsley knows the names of almost all students at his school on site uh I can barely remember the names of the board so um trustee ballon and I were both really impressed by that um but the other thing that really struck me on that site visit was the way they addressed some behavioral issues that they had not by coming down on the students not by lecturing the students but by adapting the environment to meet
170the student needs for instance they had students that were riding their bikes between buildings and rather than having them get sent to the office and having to deal with them they moved the bike rapid and the problem went away they had a student who kind of was in a habit of trying to leave with premises so they introduced a walking Club where the student can get their energy out in in the morning and then actually pay attention in class and this is a creative way to meet student needs and I absolutely loved it and um my favorite moment though was as he was taking us on the tour he told one of the other staff members that student over there he knew the student's name is having a rough day why don't we have him
171join the um the walking Club this morning and see if we can turn it around so a student's having a rough day and rather than coming down on him you're compassionately finding a way to redirect it and try to make his day a good one after all that really struck me and then at Oak Hill as we were being taken around um I noticed the number of students that came running up to give this Oliver hugs which really says something about how safe they feel in that environment and how they view the administration the other thing at both schools that I really enjoyed is looking at the history of Staff members we have staff members who used to be students whose parents were were staff members um there's a lot of people who served as
172teachers and then vice principal principal and they're now in the district office it it really brings to mind what a tight-knit community Antelope is and what a tight-knit district centers and then my favorite part of the tour of Oak Hill we were just popping into classes trying to be you know trying to kind of be in the background so we don't disturb the classes but one of the teachers called us back in as we were getting ready to leave because the students were doing a unit on electoral college and since we were elected representatives she wanted to talk to her students about us and actually let the students ask questions and they asked really good questions and I just it was second grade I was thinking it was fourth so it was it was absolutely
173wonderful um I liked being put on the spot frankly and again it's a reminder of these students are why we're here some people may not appreciate the value of a site visit but having done one I really value it and I'm looking forward to doing some more on Friday and the other thing got going on haven't done it yet but we've got the purple core dinner for the students who are accepted to four universities tomorrow and you know again I get to be inspired by the the students of this district and I just I think it's wonderful and I'm really appreciative that I get to be a board member so that's all thank you thank you Mr Bruno Mrs Anderson I was able to attend field day at Oak Hill and it was done very
174very well congratulations since a lot of you are here tonight um very well attended the kids had a ball and the vendors were great I talked to a couple of them for some time and they were really good people who did a great job um I also went to the play and it was a great play the kids did okay I failed to see why we have to use a play that has so many four-letter words in it I just these are high school kids why do we have to ask they're not acid but why do they have to use four letter words every other time they say a word in a play I just don't understand it it doesn't add anything to the play in my opinion um the top 10 dinner was wonderful
175good food good people the kids it's very always very emotional it's one of my favorite events the stories behind everything that goes on with those kids and how they get to where they're at and the top 10 dinner is amazing sometimes um it's when one of the times that you really do take pride in what we do as a district and what those kids are able to accomplish other than that I it's been a great month um looking forward to some great weather and the festivities of the end of the season and graduations and all the fun stuff thank you Mrs Anderson Mr ballen forgot the button again I'm I might get it by the next meeting uh thank you president Pope so um I think as uh trustee Bruno uh this last month may
176have have been one of my busiest months since taking office even with the school break um so with that said uh first I hope all the teachers staff and students had a wonderful and relaxing break so this time around I had the opportunity to attend a number of events and tour a couple schools uh on March 23rd I too attended the Dudley Elementary oral language Fair poetry recital I was very impressed with the students delivery and their Poise in their presentations and I thank Delane Mathis for her invitation to participate in this wonderful event as a jugs you know we we got to judge the students in there and you know I forgot what was it uh first second and third place was that was how it worked I believe yeah so it was a
177it was a fun time uh and March also on March 23rd I too attended the CHS spring drama theater play production the Wolves uh very interesting play I must say and I can see uh all those that were involved in this production were fully committed to their roles and I commend Drama teacher Doug huey on providing the students the opportunity to showcase this production on March 24th I attended Wilson Riles junior high for the district's sixth grade class screening and introduction it was very informational and I know that the sixth graders had a great time you could tell there was so much school spirit in the air it really was and I know all the sixth graders going to Riles will do very well this coming year on March 24th uh I met with superintendent
178Lair board member Anderson and superintendent secretary hunt at the district office to prepare for the this evening's board member interview process we reviewed applications and selected questions to be asked for interviews and discussed the process that was going to take place on March 25th I along with superintendent Lair and board member Anderson attended the memorial Services of former Center Unified School District superintendent Rex Fortune at the Rex and Margaret Fortune education complex in Elk Grove it was a very nice service and I was glad to be there for the family as an elected representative of this District Dr Fortune gave so much to this district and it was a privilege to honor him by attending this service on March 28th I attended the Center High School top 10 dinner along with the rest of the
179board at the legion's restaurant at the Wood Creek Golf Course in Roseville I was amazed at the accomplishment these young men and women have achieved while under the guidance of this District's many exceptional teachers they are representative of the achievement level that can be attained by all students in our district again I as Mr Bruno uh spoke to when he gave his report I had the opportunity to tour a couple schools we toured them together it was on April 14th Dudley and Oak Hill Elementary um along with uh superintendent lair and I'd like to thank principals Brett holmsley and vice principal Melissa Oliver for their hospitality and generous time afforded us to show us their schools programs and students as always it's great to know what is happening in our schools and meeting the students
180teachers and staff so unfortunately on a negative note I am again bringing up the issue around Safety and Security of our campuses and our students as many of you are aware I ran for this board seat on a platform that included security and safety and I want to be sure that we in the district are doing all what is needed to ensure the safety and security of all our students teachers and staff I bring this up only as a reminder that we must all be diligent in assessing our surroundings at all times and if we see something say something if you're familiar with with that program I bring this up because sadly in just the last month there were deaths of several children this is a tragedy that we must be sure we Harden ourselves
181against and make sure we are doing what we can to safeguard everyone concerned in the district I sit myself sit here before you this evening with the promise that I will work to make sure the district will keep say all as safe as can be and do everything possible to keep it that way anything I personally can do to ensure that this occurs know that I will be at the Forefront of any efforts to do so and lastly I want to congratulate Andy Rana Salmons for being selected to the board oh there she is I applaud you for the important commitment you've made to this district and our community and wish you every success in conclusion I want to be sure that all that watch this board meeting live or recorded know that you are
182more than welcome to come here and attend this meeting in person your presence will always be appreciated and anything you may choose to present will always be welcome also please know that we appreciate any comments on any of the district's social media platforms as well such as YouTube Facebook Etc Additionally you may reach any board member or the superintendent via email which you may obtain on the district's website remember it's you the parents and guardians of our students that have the strongest voice in how your children are educated this completes my report for April 2023 thank you very much superintendent Larry saving yourself for last huh caught me off guard well my uh my report here is going to be a little uh all over the place because that is the end of the year
183and that's what we do right now the end of the year so I I've two public service announcements that I said I do miss Jenkins handed me a flyer she had to leave for the evening but she was going to share that Dudley PTO is holding a family fun night on June 3rd and so they're trying to get as many folks to be a part of that other schools as well so more information to come on that event secondly I I said I would be uh Mr Riley Mason's proxy proxy and just let the board know and some were addressed tomorrow is purple core dinner I'm hoping people can make that I know one of you cannot but it sounds like others might make it so miss Anderson we'll hope when you'll be able to
184join us too um on May 5th is this sports arama for Center High School it's a fun event if you have an opportunity to attend it's it's all right the kids love it dance and band concerts are coming up we also have the moving up rally on May 18th at Center High moving up rally for those that aren't familiar is the seniors give up their spot for in the gymnasium for where they sit for rallies and the Juniors move over sophomores take theirs freshmen take theirs and then we have the eighth graders there that take their spot in the Freshman spot and it's it's pretty loud usually so so anyway so I wanted to make sure that we got those on for for Mr Mason because he could not join us I also want to
185take a moment and thank Kelly Kelly for her efforts tonight and it's great seeing her and I do know I've known Kelly a long time I know she she's not going anywhere she'll continue to support our district um and then I welcome Miss Sammons to the board um hope you know what you're in for no just kidding um but yeah procedurally I'll we'll I'll reach out to you too in case I don't catch up the meeting so we can connect but we'll officially swear Miss Salmon's in at our May meeting um so you might want to bring your fan club with you because I I'm like I'm kind of geeky that way I think it's kind of special um so we'll we'll make sure that we do that and there uh we'll move forward from
186that also acknowledging a lot of remodeling has been been done in the business office and I want to acknowledge maintenance and operations grounds and even warehouse for their continued efforts to make it look incredible I'm shocked odd and cannot believe the talent that some of our staff members have and it went from me kind of joking around like we should we should move a wall to the actual wall actually moving um so anyway Lisa's not going to let me give my input on anything anymore but I I appreciate the work that everyone's doing to make it happen it's going to be a nice uh way to receive our families and give a little more um privacy and and dignity for that office acknowledging Mr barassi and miss sevard again I think uh again on probably
187geek but I think it's a big deal when we get promoted and we promote people from within so I welcome you both your roles I know you'll be very successful in those roles and we are here to support each of you in those new roles so we're all there additionally uh as the boarders remember we engage with West Ed for our diversity equity and inclusion work and we've wrapped that up for this year and are looking to come back for our second year of that so more to come on that and I think May will have the next segment of that work and then finally the board action tonight to name the facility after Mr Ray Bender I think it's important that we know while he wasn't here to acknowledge the honor that he received
188Mrs Linda Bender is here and she keeps hiding every time I look I see her back there but I can tell I can tell she's crowd I know Ray would be very proud and into the family would be is very honored for this recognition and we will make sure that you know well in advance before we get anything planned and we'll make sure that you and your family are are available for it so you'll be our number one priority the rest of us will will bend around you but I love you very much so I want to acknowledge Mrs Bender uh being here to to hear that I think that's a special thing and it goes back to the the point Mr ballen you brought up with recognition and this is what we're all about
189in this district is recognizing and supporting each other and I think that's another example of how we're honoring folks uh as for their legacy so with that I'm looking forward to the end of the year graduation's right around the corner and then that little thing called Summer breaks right in there somewhere so anyway thank you and I'll turn it to you thank you Mr Larry um I would like to say you know Kelly Kelly it was an honor to have you here tonight and and thank you for participating and congratulations to you Miss Ammons and I reiterate what Mr Lair said um congratulations for the recognition for Mr Bender um as he said we will let you know the festivities um I'm not going to talk too much about the activities that I attended because
190it was pretty much everything well Mr Bruno's pretty much his board report but I do have a couple additions um to add to that um a few weeks ago there was a shooting in Roseville at mahaney park off of Pleasant Grove and Wood Creek two individuals that were once students of our district and graduated from Center High School currently serve as supervisors I see your face Miss Bowler did I scare you because somebody said you should not start your board report like that because it sounds like something happened so I'm sorry if I freaked you out but these two students who are supervisors at the pools of Roseville and they were at the Aquatic Center at the time of lockdown and they are employed by the City of Roseville both of them happen to be
191present there when the lockdown did happen at the facility according to their mother they expressed feeling very well prepared to handle the situation due to the past experiences with the lockdown drills that they experienced here at the district so I would like to thank everybody for taking these safety drills seriously and to continue to do them I want to thank Mr barassi for continuing with the safety meetings and all of them that's the safety team that's present practice practice practice as we just heard they're very effective so the mother wanted me to to kind of or ask the mother if we could share that information with you on another note I would like to share some information provided by Mrs Tammy jabaly I would like to announce that 19 of Center High School students have
192attended peer tutoring at least once this semester peer tutoring is funded by an atg Grant and the program is run by the student student and Family Support Services Department it is held in the learning Lounge right here in the annex this is a model from the El homework Pro help program that we ran several years at all Forks elementary schools in December they hired the tutors and three other counselors uh it was Abby Sarah and Julia that did the tutorings for um for the tutors did the tutoring for the tutors um the program was launched in mid uh in mid January um it is so nice to have our students utilizing the resources that we have especially now when it's finals time um so thank you everybody that's involved that is my board report nice
193and short and that is unusual for me so we're going to go to Advanced planning future date May 17th right here at the district and it's like a six o'clock is there any suggested business or a suggested agenda items um not necessarily for the next board meeting but for not too distant in the future I would like to discuss the possibility um when it's time to to run for school board one of the options is the district can pay um for the candidates um statements on the in the handbooks I'm not phrasing this well but um and I would like to have a discussion about is the cost to the district worth the fact that that could get us more candidates to uh to run for the scenes so I mean frankly I don't have
194an opinion on this but I would like to have the discussion at some point and I figure since since we're far away from uh campaign season it's probably the best time to to have that discussion okay thank you so just I just interject real quick just make sure that we're everything's on the up and up uh we don't go too too far down the road uh you know there's the election laws uh I don't know if that would be um if that's within the so there is there is some uh Education Code that allows for it so we could bring there's a policy that we have that we can determine which route we want to go so we could when that time comes we could bring the policy forward but we would certainly want to
195vet to make sure that we don't go too far one way but there is language in there talks about the district covering the cost of the um candidate statement because that's really the only fee you pay um right so so I think that would be I think what Mr Bruno is putting forward is the discussion around that so those are all points you guys would want to discuss uh with that uh I'm getting this thing down too Mr ballon finally get my thumb um one of the things just to put in the back of your heads is now that we have appointed a new member the member would join us officially May at our May meeting be sworn in and then I think it would be good for us to sit down uh either as
196a workshop or like an after work June meeting where we go over the brown act I can ask our our board uh our board our legal uh to come in and give an overview of that I think as a team and then dust off our governance handbook and see if we can uh revamp that I think we got fairly far but with an almost you know two two fists new it'd be nice to get new input on that document to see where this board wants to go because it'd be nice to have a handbook when new members come on so they would know hey what am I getting into so I think that would be something just to put it back in your minds come May I'll probably ask you more specifically let's let's pick
197a date and we could do like a Saturday morning like we've done before or pick a three o'clock in the afternoon at five o'clock whatever works but just think that through needed to activate okay very good we will not continue in closed session the board is adjourned at 905.