001Woo! >> [music] >> Yes. [music] Hey. >> [music] >> Good evening. Welcome to our regular and annual organizational meeting of the board of trustees. Today is December 9th, 2025. The time is 5:31 p.m. And as we call the meeting to order, let the attendance show that we are currently missing trustees Chavez and Sudu. Do I have a motion to adopt the agenda? >> So moved. >> We have a motion by trustee CO, second by Trustee Sers. Those in favor, please say I. >> I. Those nay. Those abstaining. Motion carries. 5-0. And that. Do we have any comments at this time from um from the public on any close session items? >> Board President, there's no callers at this time. >> Perfect. Then we will head out to close session. at 7 p.m. Thank you. [whistles]
002Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> feel. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] >> Hey, hey, Oh, dick. Hey. Oh. Oh, oh. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey oh. Oh, Heat. Heat. Hello. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> How? [music] >> [music] [music] >> Oops. [music] Hey. Hey. Hey. >> [music] [music] >> Yes. Yeah. I'm [music] a [music] [music] >> [music] [whistles] [music] >> you down. Oh, hey. >> [whistles] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Hey, Oh, oh, Hey, Oh, oh. Oh, hey. Hey, oh god. Oh, Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >>
003Yes. [music] Hey. Hey. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. Heat. N. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Hey, Oh, hey. Oh, hey Hey, oh Hey, hey. Oh. Oh, Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Perfect. >> [music] [music] >> Hello. [music] Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Oat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Yes. Hey. Hey. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. Keep down. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey, [music] hey, hey. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey, hey, oh, Donkey Kong. Hey,
004oh, oh. Hey, Oh, oh. Heat. Heat. Heat. Let's >> [music] [music] >> Yes. [music] >> [music] >> Hey. Hey. Hey. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Thank you for the community for joining us. We're going to start at 7:00 p.m. So, [music] we'll start in 5 minutes. Thank you. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Hey, Oh, oh, hey. Hey, oh Oh, [music] hey. Oh. Good evening. Welcome Central Unified community. Uh you're joining us for our regular and annual organizational meeting of the board of trustees. Today is Tuesday, December 9th, 2025. The time is 700 p.m. on the dot. We had um Trusty Chavez join us at 5:33 and Trusty Sidu join us at 5:36. On close session items this evening
005on item E1, we had a motion by Trustee Sers, a second by Trusty Keron. Item pass 70. On item E2, we had a motion by trustee Korea, second by Trusty Kurfon, item pass 70. And also related on item 2B, we had a motion by trustee Keron, second by trustee Kirk. That item also passed 70. And with that, I'll ask Vice President Korea to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Those sitting please stand. Thank you. Next, I'll invite up Senior Lazo to lead us in our community engagement information. Good evening. If you wish to address the board, please call 559-276-3150 or fill out a request form provided on the table near the entrance and submit it to the clerk of the board prior to the meeting. If you wish to speak on an item on
006the agenda, please do so when that item is called. If you wish to speak on an item not on the agenda, you may speak during the public comment section of the agenda. The district welcomes other language speakers to the board meetings. Anyone planning to attend and needed an interpreter for a language other than Spanish should call 559-274-4700 extension 10150 by noon on the Friday preceding the board meeting or at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting so arrangements can be made for an interpreter. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, we invite Magender Seikum to share our information, our community engagement information. for meeting section. Spanish extension translator. Next, we turn this evening to our presentations with our first being our school activities presentation. If we can invite up uh Cry Page from Central High
007School, good evening, board president, trustees, superintendent, and distinguished guests. Um I apologize for my appearance. I just came back from soccer practice and I had a very short window to get here on time. But overall, I thank you for the opportunity to be here today. It is always an honor to represent our students, staff, and the entire Central High School community. Since my last visit, our campus has continued to make history through student achievement, school spirit, and unforgettable milestones. I'm excited to share some of those highlights with you this evening. To begin, Central High School hosted a successful Halloween block party that brought together students in a fun and welcoming way. and athletics. We are proud to announce that our girls tennis team and boys water polo team both won their league championships. Additionally, boys
008water polo team received a city proclamation on December 4th, 2025, officially declaring it CHS boys water polo day in the city of Fresno. One of our standout athletes, Brian Easter, broke a CUSD record by scoring 14 goals in a single game and achieving 100 total goals throughout the season. Our adopt a star um program continues to make an impact as our schools went through two trees on campus for buying gifts for elementary students, spreading holiday cheer and fostering community connection. In arts, Central High School proudly rep um proudly presented its first fall theater production in 30 years, 12 Angry Jurors. And building on the momentum, we are thrilled to also announce that this upcoming spring we will present our first musical in 30 years, High School Musical. Our color guard and band have had an
009exceptional season, increasing their scores by at least 10 points every competition. They earned multiple awards, including high visual and high color guard awards. Finished as um finished 11th regional championship champions and have been invited to participate in the Pearl Harbor Memorial Parade in Wiki, Hawaii in December 2026. Our choir program also had made some history. The Grizzly Singers collaborated with the East Bengal Singers and earned a superior rating at the Fresno State Coral Festival in October. Additionally, the Grizzly Singers performed the national anthem live at the homecoming game, marking the first live vocal performance at a central athletic event in many years. In cross country, Kristen Hoover placed fifth in the Valley and is currently competing at a state level. We look forward to sharing his final rankings soon. But as we look ahead, we
010are actively engaged in graduation planning and continuing conversations with Miss Lind, our career adviser, regarding statistics on students who are college and career ready. Winter sports are officially underway, including girls and boys soccer, wrestling, and basketball. In academics and creative expression, Eevee and Raj Karan were named finalists in Fresno County's first ever youth poet laurate program. and Eevee was selected as inaugural Fresno County youth poet poet laurate whom you'll hear from today as well from our FFA program. They continued to thrive bringing home numerous awards from the big Fresno fair. They recently hosted their fall banquet harvested pumpkins and organized a pumpkin patch that welcomed over 1,000 Central Unified kindergarten students. FFA will also be holding a pancake wakelet this Sunday, February oh February, December 14th, from 7:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. which will include
011a 5K run. But through our RO program, five students in our education pathway were hired as teaching fellows, gaining real world classroom experience. Our our United Soccer Team won CMAC league, another example of inclusive athletic excellence on our program campus. At the district level, students participated in the superintendent of schools student advisory board meeting where they discussed the importance of equitable funding for smaller schools regardless of their background. As we approach winter break, we are celebrating our staff and students with holiday staff breakfast, a holiday rally, festive dressup days, and a seven days of Christmas celebration where all staff receive small tokens of appreciation each day leading up to break. Additionally, Central High School seniors recently reached an important milestone as CSU and UC applications officially closed eight days ago. Our seniors successfully submitted their
012applications, including myself, marking a major step towards their prosecuary goals. Finally, we begin early finals on Monday and Tuesday, followed by a retach day on Wednesday and retake finals on Thursday and Friday to support student success. Before I conclude, I would like to test your memory from the last time I was here. Previously, I all had you participate in the Grizzly Nation chant. But to keep that tradition alive, when I say hashtag, I would like you to respond with making history because that's exactly what we do here at Central High School. Thank you for your continued support and for all of our students, staff, and school community. We are proud to be Grizzlies and we are proud to continue making history. So, without fur further ado, on the count of three, 1 2 3 #
013>> making history. >> Thank you so much for your time. [applause] And best wishes, Miss Paige, to you and all of our seniors for their upcoming uh college admissions. Hoping for the best. Next, we'd like to invite our very own Gilbert Felix to share a little bit about what's happening about uh Persing Pathway or sorry, hey Sus Felix, my apologies. >> Uh good evening, board president, members of the board trustes, and superintendent. Uh my name is Sus Felix. I'm the vice president of Fresno Persian FFA and Persian ASB. We have had a great fall semester at Persian and I'm excited to share some highlights from our students, clubs, and school. On September 11th, we hosted our back to school night with teamwork from Project Stealth, our ASB and FFA students, as well as our staff.
014It was a great night. Many students and their families participated in visiting classrooms and getting resources from our support organizations. This year on October 8th, Persian hosted its first ever sunrise. Our students enjoy sharing memories and watching the sunrise while enjoying games and delicious breakfast. Last week on December 2nd, 17 of our students traveled to Seoia National Park to visit the general Sherman tree. This tree this trip gives students the opportunity to not only see our beautiful natural parks, but also to learn about the unique ecosystems of the central Sierra Neadas. On December 5th, 28 Persian students primarily from our art class had the opportunity to travel to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Students enjoyed the trip and expressed an interest in the exhibits they saw. Our dual enrollment class has started has
015nine students who are wrapping up their semester with Fresto City College. I'm in the class and I'm excited to be earning college credit. Our FFA members have had a great semester. Our Fresno Fair landscape garden display took second place this year with about seven students contributing to the design and building our display. Six of our members participated in the West Fresno Madera opening closing ceremonies speaking contest November 19th. We are proud of our chapter president Sakura Ray Mundo who was recognized as the outstanding president in our competition room against 12 other presidents from other chapters. Our FFA meeting continues to see great to see great attendance and we're excited to see our chapter continue to grow. Our Mount Olympus program in collaboration with the Elks Lodge is going well. Our participants are working hard on
016preparing for their final presentations. Our ASB is excited to promote the Centrals Foundation holiday joy food drive with the friendly class contest. The sixth period class who brings the most items will win will win a pizza party. [snorts] Our library media technician, Miss Lopez, hosted our annual Teentober reading promotion in the library this year. Students participated in blind days with the book pumpkin painting diiautos activities and more. Our football and volleyball teams have had a great s season. Although we didn't make championship this year, they enjoyed the teamwork and many good games. On an exciting note of sports, we are having our first soccer team since before the pandemic this year. Wish them luck. As we close our As we close out this school year, we have a couple exciting events our students are taking
017part in to tomorrow night. Four of our FFA members will be competing in the West Fresto Madera banking contest. Plus, on Thursday night, 64 members will be attending as guests at the Freso Central FFA meeting at Central High School, where our chapters will be will both participate in community service for the Make a Wish Foundation. Persian's campus culture is relaxed and gorious and feel like a great learning home to our students. It's a great place to be, and we're thankful for the board's support of our many programs. Thank you, board members. Have a great evening. Go Mustangs. [applause] Thank you for that report, Trusty Felix. Glad to hear all the amazing things happening at your school site. Next, we turn to our student recognitions and we invite uh Assistant Superintendent Dr. Lopez to share some
018of the great things happening in our community. >> Good evening, board president, board of trustees, and Dr. uh Marshall, Superintendent Dr. Marshall. In recognition of the adoption of the resolution declaring December 28th through the 31st as Mong New Year, we are proud to introduce you to Chi Vang. He is a junior at Central East High School and he has maintained a 3.5 GPA. He is also part of our RO video program as well as the leader leadership program. So help me welcome Chief Vang. [applause] Uh I am a little nervous so bear with me. East High School. Hi, my name is Chinuang and I'm a Mong student at Centuries High School. Today I want to talk about the Mong New Year, also known as Napo in Mong. It originated as a harvest festival to thank
019the spirits and ancestors for a successful harvest and to prepare for the new planting season. Since Mong communities are spread across many US states such as Sacramento, St. Paul, Minnesota, and of course here in California each host its own new year to celebrate locally and preserve cultural traditions. Here in Fresno, it is celebrated on December 26th to the 29th at the Fresno Fairgrounds. Some common traditions at Mong New Year are singing and dancing performances, sports competitions, and ball tossing, also known as papa. Ball tossing is a social game where young people toss a ball back and forth. Traditionally used for for courtship and meeting new people. But my favorite tradition has to be moan clothing like I have on today. My mom tells me that back in Laos when they had no money, they would
020create the traditional mo clothes through spinning and weaving threads made from hemp fibers. M clothes is usually styled with of course embroidery and silver ornaments, usually coins. Mo uh sorry. Now that you know a little bit about the Mong culture through through the Mong New Year, I want to talk about how Mong people are recognized at Century's High School. We have our Mong dance club which of course serves our traditional Mong dancing. And then we have our Asian club that connects with the many different high schools and connects Mong students from many different places. We have our Mong language class of course which directly leads to our singoff which is a competition where all our language classes come together and compete with a song of their choice. And of course Mong vocals are heard and
021our teacher Miss Nali C is a very competitive person. Uh my favorite culture event at the school is culture week. This is a cultural week where every language, every uh culture, every race is shown. And there's an event, sorry, Mong culture is shown to its fullest form. M students bring their traditional Mong clothes and there are performances for Mong dancing and there's of course monk singing. I want to thank you guys for giving me the opportunity to share my culture and of course being I like that the Mong people are being heard more and more today. [applause] Thank you for coming. Welcome to our board meeting and thank you for sharing about your culture. Next we turn it back to Dr. Lopez for our Fresno County youth polar laureate. Actually that will be uh Julia
022Mleen. I'm going to invite principal Gambero um Evie Singh and Raj Karan Jeandu to the podium. Tonight's going to be a fun night. We have a lot of fantastic things to share with you. We're going to start by announcing that we have uh Fresno County's very very first youth poet laurate. In fact, there were four finalists out of out of our entire county region and two of those were from Central High School. The other two were from the rest of Fresno County. So, um we do not represent poorly at all. You have met Eevee before. She was here because of the Fresno County art competition that she won and A Eevee placed first. She is the new Fresno County Youth Poet laurate for our region. [applause] Raj Gran was second. So they're they're going to
023have to fight that out later because both of them are 10th graders right now. Uh the competition was held November 19th. Uh Evie received a glass trophy and $250 prize and Raj Karan received $100. She was they were joined by their [clears throat] principal, their drama teacher and their teacher librarian who have followed them and been extremely supportive in all of their competitions. So that's wonderful to see. And today she's going to share with us her poem entitled One Day I'll Be an Elementary Teacher, which she's also going to go on to perform at Soroyan Theater on November 20th at the Educator of the Year event. [applause] Thank you so much for all of you who has have given me the opportunity to read my poem. I'd like to thank my family, my teachers, and
024especially Miss Cheek for letting me know about this competition. >> [laughter] >> Oh, she's changing up the poem on us. Um, this poem is titled titled Why I Wipe Why I Why I Write Poetry. I stood in quiet rooms where voices broke like glass. Fatherly words fell heavy, pulling me small, making me doubt what a young heart could hold. I looked to male teachers with tangled feelings. Not all love, not all hate, just searching for what wasn't there. One fight, a broken moment, anger spilling like wildfire. And then a pause, a place called poetry, where the noise could settle, where I could be myself without fear or hiding. I write not to fix the past, but to open a door, a hand stretched out, a quiet promise. You are seen here. Your story matters. You're
025not alone. Poetry saved me. It gave me space. It moved me forward. A chance to breathe and find a voice strong enough to speak. soft enough to listen and brave enough to hold all of the broken pieces together. Thank you. [applause] So, the board is recognizing your accomplishments and how proud we are of you with certificates. You're gonna have a collection of these. There you go. They're gonna have you come around this way so that you can have a photo with the board. And if your support team wants to take a photo with you, they're going to meet you in the center over here. Oh, they're in sh. Sorry. So, our next presentations are a representation of what a very proud fall and winter music season it has been for our Central Unified students and
026our staff that have been leading them along the way. Tonight we're celebrating several talented musicians for their recent accomplishments and accolades. I'm going to call to the podium Kevin Tingle, band director for Justin Garza marching band and color guard along with band staff Toby Hung, Micah Mastersonson, band students Devin Simmons, Bryson Wiggins, and boosters Regina Bacas, Karen Stevenson, D Carbahal, Sonia Hernandez, and Heather Flores. On November 27 22nd, uh Justin Garza hosted the Western Band Association Class Championships where they placed third in the state. And on November 23rd, they were back performing for the California Grand Championships. They placed 11th that day, making them 11th place in the 38 that competed that weekend. I got that correct? >> And I'm going to turn this over to Mr. Tinkle. >> Thank you, board, for having us.
027And yeah, so we're missing some people. Our uh our staff member, Toby, he has a a concert tonight and Micah, our other staff member who's going to be here, his wife had a daughter yesterday, so he's a little busy. Um and so yeah, so like Mrs. Mlennon said, uh, the the championships that you guys, um, approved and and allowed us to to host, uh, we for the first time ever, not just in Justin Garza history, but in Central Unified history, we had a group that, um, made top five in the class championships and was able to perform in the grand championships, which is basically um, there's no classes anymore. It's basically all the groups fighting it out to uh, to see who wins the reign supreme. So we we got 11th. It was the first
028time ever from again any Central Unified school uh that has done that. So and it was some perspective uh last year we in class championships we got what 12th out of 13 and it was it stung. And so we came back with a vengeance had some really great leadership with our students and our staff and we uh we had a really great season overall and we got third place in our in our in the state uh for our class which is great. Uh just some perspective too, the practices, you know, it takes a village and it takes a long time to get these things right and the practices we started them in May. Um and it really we had about 100 extra hours of rehearsal outside of the classroom and it was weekly grind and
029it was tough sometimes but we just pushed through and they you know we persevered. Uh it was great to see a lot of we have a little a lot of strong leaders in the senior class this year so they really helped push us over the edge. Um, and again, let's see. Uh, and it really was like a true team effort from not just the students, from the staff, and also our amazing parents. We have a lot of senior parents who are going to be losing this year as well. Um, and that makes me sad, but they're they've been awesome for us. And it really is just a great team, total team effort. Um, all cogs in the machine working kind of at all times. like the parents helping out the students, feeding the students when
030they need to be fed, giving them water when they need water, students rocking, and the staff teaching them really really well. So, um it's been a it was just kind of a it was a whirlwind of a season, but it was fantastic. So, yeah, we wanted to kind of share that with you guys. Um so, just a few other things. We have a student, Devin Simmons. This is just another just another recognition. He's actually uh this is his second year at in high school as doing in January in Sacramento. He is uh he got in he's in the all state honor band. So that's pretty awesome for Devon. Yeah. Pretty cool. Um and also we have concert Thursday. Yeah. Give it Yeah. [applause] And also I think at last time we were here I did
031a shameless plug. I'll do it again this Thursday night. It's a little closer than it was in like October. This Thursday night at 6:30 at the at the campus mall at Garza High School, we have a concert uh the winter concert. It's going to be um the choir is going to be performing jazz band concert percussion and our wind ensemble is going to be performing and at the end towards the end the choir and the band will be performing a number together. So please come out. It's free. Just takes it just cost your time. That's it. But it's going to be worth it. I promise. [applause] >> So the certificate there's one for you and one for the color guard to come back with. You didn't have to share it. Uh to recognize your distinguished
032accomplishments that reflect the ensemble's exceptional musical ability, discipline, and commitment to excellence. >> Awesome. >> Thank you. [applause] >> And and we have a trophies to show you, too. They're heavy. Our next recognition goes to Jeff Larosa, a Glacier Point music teacher, and his students Karen Emanuel, Sophia Bayas, Sarai Sanders, Jeznite Sandu, Habani Verk, and Torren Wood. [applause] So, these students uh were all auditioned for honor band. I'm sorry, honor choirs. And all of them were placed in the Fresno Madera County Music Educators Association Honor Choir. So, first applause there. [applause] In addition, Karen, Sarai, and Terron also auditioned and made the California Coral Directors Association Allstate Honor Choir. [applause] >> I wasn't really prepared to say anything, but uh these students um I'm very proud of them. um they're brave enough to go. You
033don't never know who you're going up against. And all of them took uh some of them there's this is their first time auditioning. Um two two were seventh graders who made the all state choir. Super super exciting. Um and u just super proud of them for being um brave and um and I'm just so glad they get get this uh opportunity for them. So um congratulations guys. Yeah, super proud of you. >> [applause] >> Yeah. Oh, absolutely. We got a lot of >> Okay. One, two. [applause] Thank you so much. I know you are getting your exercise in front of and behind the podium. It's a wonderful problem to have from our visual and performing arts programs. So, our last recognition for visual and performing arts for this season is a uh with our music
034teacher Christopher Golden from Rio Vista and Ian Mason, an eighth grader and their band president. [applause] So Ian has proudly represented Central Unified and Rio Vista Middle School and was recently selected to perform with the 2026 All State Honor Band. >> [applause] >> parent. And I believe Ian's parents are here for the photo. Now is proud principal. Thank you so much for supporting our students and our programs and the arts. Thank you to all the students, all the parents, and of course all the staff that um [clears throat] have our students doing such amazing things throughout the community. Next, we turn to our employee recognition and uh we'll hand it over to Assistant Superintendent Dr. Childs. >> Yes. Good afternoon, President Singh, members of the board, and superintendent Dr. Marshall. Tonight, we want to recognize
035three of our district employees that have promoted into these new positions. The first that we want to recognize is director of technology services, Evan Robas. [applause] Uh, thank you for that. Um, uh, good evening members of the board. Uh, Dr. Marshall. Um, thank you for having me here. Um, as a central alumni, I'm very proud and deeply honored to be able to serve the students and staff uh of this district. I spent many years at Teague Steinbeck Elementary and then uh graduated from Central High School. Spent four years in the FFA myself. Um, in 2014, I returned to the very same halls at Teague uh Teague Elementary where I was once a kindergartener. It was a very surreal experience for me, but uh it's been a rewarding one. Um, and I'm very grateful for every
036opportunity I've had to advance and grow myself uh and my career here at Central Unified. And I'm very honored to be able to lead such a talented team of individuals in the technology services department. Um, I'm a proud parent of two Central students, one of which graduated just last year, and I look I'm very much looking forward to my continued support of this community. Thank [applause] you. Miss Robus, don't go too far. After we introduce all of you, we'll make sure you go around and shake hands. Uh, the next uh employee we want to recognize is our network systems manager, Bradley Gum. [applause] >> Good evening, President Chan, Superintendent Dr. Marshall, and members of the board. It is my honor to accept the position of network systems manager. Uh as a graduate and you know
037throughout the uh my entire education career, I've been a Central student. Uh so Central's very close to me. Um I'm excited to continue serving this district and supporting our staff and students through technology. Uh in this role, I am committed to providing a reliable and secure network that supports teaching and learning across all of our school sites. And again, I'd like to thank you for this opportunity. Thank you. >> [applause] >> And finally, our last employee that we would like to recognize is our EEL migrant supervisor, Marcy Brekie. [applause] >> Thank you. [laughter] Uh, good evening. I just want to thank you so much for approving me for this role. I'm really looking forward to using my experience in education and my love for students and teachers and improving our outcomes for students not only
038in language proficiency but also also in content. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you. Now we would like to invite our three uh promotees if you would like to go around and shake our board members hand. And congratulations again. Next, we invite our employee association to uh share about their highlights. I'd like to first invite up Laura Bolton, our CUTA president. [applause] Okay. So, I'm going to do my very best not to repeat any of the stuff that's already been shared with you tonight. Um, I received um a lot of information um from Central High School because they're so excited about all the firsts and all the achievements. Um, but I'm going to I've been checking them off, listening, and trying not to repeat. Um, so before I dive into Central High School's um, sharings, um,
039Roosevelt Elementary had a Dvali art night on November 20th. They had 80 families attend. They said it was an amazing event. Um, Glacier Point held a drama showcase and um, one of our um, our elementary teachers was invited to attend by one of her former students. Um, and so she reported out that um, that it was amazing that the kids um, put a lot of effort into everything they did and that they'll be doing um, Rock of Ages and that um, she encouraged everybody to come and take a look. And then Central High School. Um, so, uh, I do want to, um, add that this is the first time in, um, 30 years, over 30 years that they've had a marching band. So, to point that out, it's it's a really big deal. Um, [snorts]
040and that they had multiple awards, including, but not limited to high visual um, awards for their um, their color guard. So, high color guard awards. Um, and then the rest of those achievements, you already heard. um their choir um sang the national anthem at the homecoming football game and um their performance was the first live vocal presentation um at a central athletic event in years. Um agg um I have a handout that just went around to you that um lists out everything um that they won at the fair. Uh so lots of names and um and amazing accomplishments there. Um but there they've also had six American degree recipients, six opening and closing ceremony teams that competed in the public speaking contest. 27 freshmen attended the Reedley new member field day. Um they had 153
041greenhand degree recipients, 45 chapter degree recipients, and they were the sixth highest team in the state for cotton judging. Um and then let's see, uh a upcoming event is um on December 10th, they're going to be doing the um WFM big and banking contest. There's 14 competitors in that. And then citrus and pruning teams will be competing in multiple field days coming up. Um their RO um had career and um their career and education pathway had um has eight students that are working six hours a week in their community classrooms. They're actually employed. Um, five pathway students were hired um as interns with the teaching fellows. Um, and then in sports um, Christian Hoover was fifth in the valley, top 100 in the state for cross country. The girls tennis um, team won the league.
042Football kicked off their first opening season in um, 30 years to much support. Um, boys water polo won the league and Brian Easter surpassed the CUSD record of most goals scored in a game with 14 plus um, 100 for the season. Um, and then they offered every single sport and fielded a team for every single um, sports event. It's the first time in decades. Um, they had um, 154 fall participants in athletics which is 17% of their population. Every single player who was marked ineligible for grades gained their eligible eligibility back um so that they could continue to compete which is a testament to um the department and their teachers um that the departments where they were struggling that they were able to support them and get them back up where they needed to be.
043136 winter participants in athletics which is 15% of their population. Um their facility is um getting renovated. So they're um getting work on their weight room, wrestling room, gym, softball and baseball fields. Um boys wrestling varsity plays 10th out of 62 teams. JV plays seventh out of 24 schools and their competitive cheer team placed third. So keeping in mind a lot of this is new for them is pretty amazing. Um, United PE has 31 general ed students participating with five special needs students and um, United Soccer won the CMAC league. I think I just repeated one, but you'll forgive me. Um and then um their theater um Grizzly Theater Company presented its first play in 30 years with um 12 Angry Jurors. And um they also um were a recipient for the foundation um from
044from the foundation for a 2025 classroom grant of $2,000 for their theater company. And their next um upcoming musical will be High School Musical. I think I just repeated another one. Sorry. [snorts] And that is it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next, we'd like to invite Angie Giri, our CSEA president. Thank you. Uh, next we turn to our school highlights, inviting up Principal Frink to share a little bit about what's happening at Rio Vista Middle School. and Superintendent Marshall, thank you for providing me the time this evening to [clears throat] share a little bit about Rio Vista Middle School, all of our celebrations, our highlights, and even some of our challenges. As you know, with the boundary changes, Rio Vista has grown so, you know, quite immensely this year. We've fluctuated from about 93
045to 932 students this year and have officially become the biggest middle school in the district. Um we have an interesting dynamic going on. We used to welcome schools from just Riverbluff Liddell Soyan and um Hernand Barstow and now we are actually receiving students from 11 of our elementary feeders. We currently have students from um our usual four but also we have students from Madison, Central Elementary, Steinbeck, Tilly, Mckenley, Roosevelt and Harvest and so with that it's you know created quite an adjustment but we are welcoming it with open arms and we are rising up to that challenge and I am so proud of all of the tenacity and the accomplishments that we have achieved thus far. So just to highlight a couple as you can see um Rio Vista ranked on the US News and
046World Report again this year. We grew from 11% to top 8% of middle schools in the the state of California. And then in addition to that we were one of three schools in the district to make state honoral recognition presented by the educational results partnership. And this year we moved from gold to platinum it which is the highest recognition for our positive behavior intervention and support systems implementation. And we have made such impressive gains this year. In the two well in the two and a half years that I've been at Rio the most notable contributions I would say um to our success have come from three top things. And I would say that the big focus on the refinement of our PLC process um and ongoing coaching, all of our staff on campus have immersed
047themselves in collaboration. We've refined best practices. We've improved our instruction. We've aligned our system schoolwide, implemented a variety of strategies in interventions and supports to improve achievement. We've aligned our priority standards, learning targets, pacing, or common assessments. We've created opportunities for retach and reassess cycles. Um and we have and we have definitely targeted strategically um each and every one of our students to try to address their needs and their learning gaps. Um the second thing I would say would be our completion of our math collaboration through the Caled partnership through OnTrack and we've now extended that partnership to include ELA social studies and science teachers on our campus and that extended on track team has actually provided professional development to their colleagues. Um they have shown them different ideas of how to retach in the
048classroom, different ways of teaching things the second time and going in a little deeper with the students that didn't get it the first time around. And then the third thing I would say that has added to our achievement is the refinement of our positive behavior and intervent intervention and support system. Like I had said um restorative practices, building positive relationships, resolving conflicts, teaching um and and intervening with student behavior and social emotional needs. And so as a result, we've had several exciting gains. Uh just to name a few, we received the highest ELA score in the history of our ESPback and we grew 7.3% to a 58.29 and we jumped from yellow to blue on the California state dashboard. Uh we grew 10% to a 36.15 in science, which is the highest um score that
049we've had in the history of our cast. And then math earned a 40.8 and they improved their distance from the standard by 5.4 four points which allowed us to increase two levels on the dashboard from orange to green. And then a big moment of pride, our English language learners received the highest score in the district with an 88.6 of our students making progress. We increased 21.1% and we jumped two levels in the dashboard from yellow to blue and we had 17 of our 22 identified students um reclassified. A total of 27.4% 4% of our English language learners were reclassified. And um in addition to that uh with the platinum recognition that was achieved as we lowered our suspension rate to the lowest reportable in history at a 3.8% and obtained a green level overall on
050the state dashboard. So um another moment of pride, we were able to move all subgroups out of the orange and red zones for subpension rates completely. So we're working really hard. Um, but with all of that success of course comes challenge, right? And so we are seeing some challenges as we acclimate to our new dynamic at Rio. And so that has uh created a great opportunity for us to exercise and improve all of our tier 2 interventions and our tier three interventions that we already had in place. And we have worked to focus and continue to focus on engagement and safety. Our student engagement is measured on the dashboard through our chronic absenteeism rate and that definitely continues to be a struggle for all of our student subgroups. This year we increased our chronic absenteeism
051rate by 2% to a 22.3% which um well and our overall current rate is at a 15.87 which is about 1% higher than it was last year at this time. Another area for challenge that we're working on is our safety. So last year we improved our safety enormously and this year um at the beginning of the year first few months we saw an increase in student incidents for behavior. Um and so that created a definite urgency to address those needs of those students and at the same time we were taking our panorama survey. So we definitely saw a negative 7% or 7% drop in safety um from students and parents. The three things that we're doing to tackle engagement and safety on our campus are number one, uh we've revamped again our PBIS system and
052we're reteing reinforcing our positive behaviors. We're looking at different creative ways to incentivize the behaviors um while also being really strategic in how we're intervening with those students and trying to think outside of the box and and determine the best approach for each student individually. And then the second thing that we're working on is redistributing our support staff and trying to figure out different ways different places for for them even um you know positions on campus where we're supervising and locations and so on. And we've added additional staff as well. And then the third thing is a strategic improvement to our bell schedule. And so in the first two months of school we saw 197 incidents. And so this last month with these improvements we had dropped it to um which is about it was
053about 66 a month that we were seeing if you take the average we dropped it to 34. So we've already dropped it 50% in one month's time. Um so we are all committed to working together to not only build equity in our programs but ensure students and staff are engaged and safe. And that brings us to some spotlights. I know you heard a lot already. I might repeat myself. Um, and that's okay because I have some great information on Ian. Um, so I'm going to go into detail on him, but our 95 member band and color guard, um, our Rio Vista Titan marching band and color guard placed third overall in the big uh, Fresno Fair review and had a historic win at the 49th annual Fowler Band review, earning the following honors. First place
054overall in division four, first place drum major in division two and four, third place percussion in division three and two, and the music sweepstakes trophy for highest music score of all 28 middle school bands. The first time a central band has received that honor ever. Our band president, eighth grader, I wish he was still here, Ian Mason, was selected for that 2026 California Allstate Honor Band. Um but important to note that he made the symphonic band which is the top ensemble eligible for junior high band students. He is one of only 12 junior high trumpet players in the entire state selected for that honor and based on his recorded audition of scales and solo repertoire. He he'll actually be featured in performance at the state music educators conference in Sacramento in January. And you also
055heard about jazz sand who made the FM CMEA honor choir. So, congratulations to bands. We also have a teacher highlight. Um, Gabby Donado is in her third year and already becoming a trailblazer for Rio. She's facilitated um an entire schoolwide intervention and enrichment deployment schedule. uh she's collaborated with colleagues not only within her own PLC but across um the districts and other districts networks within our Caled um partnership on ON on track and she's become an extended part of our staff providing professional development to our teachers and she's also been the first in central's history to have a service dog um to support in the classroom who has acclimated seamlessly with our students and staff. So, Wellington has been a positive addition as you can see um in the picture up there. And let's see,
056athletic accolades. Golf finished second in league. Emma Pistachio won individual league championships. Emma finished second overall in league to her teammate last year as a seventh grader, but she won the individual championships this year by eight strokes in a nine-hole championship round. And for girls tennis, they won league title. Emma Thompson and Victoria Yakalena won individual doubles championships. Cheer just took first place at the Buchanan Invitational. We had our Dia de los Muertos event which was an amazing collaboration between many departments on campus from Spanish guitar home economics library and even the ELA and uh li technician got involved. We had a gorgeous and elaborate school of frienda. I know some of you came to see that. We had sugar skulls, painted pumpkins, culturally affirming writing practices, project art and book selections along with folklorical
057dancers from our high school and a student rally. And for Special Olympics, some of you did come to see that. It's like no other event. On October 31st, we welcome 600 athletes for Special Olympic soccer from across Fresno County for a day filled with teamwork, sportsmanship, and celebration, highlighting our ongoing commitment to inclusion and student engagement. I'm excited about the great work we're doing at Rio Vista. And as Dr. Marshall says, we're chasing excellence and changing lives here at Rio. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer. >> Thank you so much, Principal Frink. Questions or comments from the board? >> Trusty Chavez, I >> I don't have a question, but you know what? I really appreciate because we hear these presentations all the time. I really really appreciate your authenticity with regards
058to the challenges and how um you just directly addressed it head on. So I really think that that's important for us to hear because sometimes we just hear the good stuff and I like to hear where there might be room for growth. So thank you for being so honest. >> Thank you that >> Trusty Kirk and then Trusty Kon. Thank sorry I was looking at >> Thank you so much. I was there and got to see the incredible ofrena that your campus put together in the library and I was there for the day for the Special Olympics which you had done wonderfully on Halloween with your awesome costumes. Um, what I wanted to say publicly, I know I told you that when we were on campus, but I know February is coming up around the
059corner, and I wanted to remind you um, to reach out if you have any um, if you want any support in doing things for upcoming cultural holidays. >> We definitely do, >> trusty Kon. >> Thank you. Uh, and thank you for the presentation. It's always great to see that Rio Vista Titan tenacity. Um, but I have a question. So, we both acknowledge that there was, you know, more um safety incidents this year, um but our suspension rate is down. So, I'm just curious for a little deeper uh what tactics are we using to resolve some of the uh safety concerns or behavior concerns outside of traditional suspension, expulsion. >> We've tried definitely different interventions. So, we have a whole multitude of interventions. We have different um lessons that we provide. We have different resources from
060prodigy counseling to um behavior clinicians on site. We have a new thing that we did a couple years back where we started rally around the titan. So at a certain level when they hit a certain step we it's kind of like a mini SST. Our teachers get together, all teachers for that student with the family and the stakeholders and they, you know, talk about the student successes, what they're doing well, um areas that they have challenges and they try to create a plan to help support that student and provide um intervention for that student. Um there's different ways to um offer lessons without necessarily suspending a kid home. For example, a student that's vaping, right? going home and and vaping more might not be the answer. So, we try to really u make sure if
061it's not a safety issue that's going to cause, you know, more um harm at school, we try not to send them home. We try to not just pass them off. We try to actually teach and and develop their um their ways of thinking and try to offer that support to help them grow in whatever they're struggling with. >> Thank you. And again, congratulations on the uh improvement in all categories of test scores. So when we say it's the highest ever, are we talking about five years? >> Um for English, for example, in the history of the ESPback, it is the highest score in science as well that that they've ever had the test. So >> So this isn't just highest since the pandemic, we've gone beyond that. >> No, the past 10 years, I think
062it was 10 years that they've been taking the test. >> Excellent. I just wanted to highlight that again. Congratulations. Thank you. >> Very impressive. >> Something that we did do this year which was different um and it was through our Caled partnership. They had the idea actually in Modesto if I remember correctly. We were talking about incentivizing that test because a lot of times we don't necessarily see all of what students know because they don't take the test that seriously. It's not always tied to grades. And so this year um we looked at incentivizing with grades. And so um that's something that we've been exploring. And so that helps too. When students take the test seriously or you incentivize it with other things like carnivals or things that they care about, then they'll do their
063best on the test and you can actually see what they know. >> Thank you, >> Principal Frink. I I just had a I mean one is kudos to you and your entire team and school for for everything as Trusty Kon had highlighted. I think one that really kind of caught my attention uh when you were talking about deployment for intervention. How did you make you know such such progress? I think I've been thinking about this. I had an opportunity to attend a workshop around sort of like PLC's. How did you all use data to um to really move the needle and did that also include ELS? So we did a pilot um and so we basically changed the bell schedule internally and we played with some of our um minutes for advisory that we had
064and we created a 45minut time where students um based on their common formative assessments and the four core they deployed and so um we had a whole Google form and kids got to sign up for enrichments that they wanted to start off like all the enrichments that were offered by every teacher um elective teachers, everyone picked an enrichment to offer and then after the scores came in if they needed intervention, then they were plugged into their schedule. So they either had enrichment or intervention based on how they scored on the test. And then we did a week of deployment and we piloted that all last year. Um, and so some students were going off to do like a math um um aerodynamics of um like an aerodynamics of flight unit on math for enrichment and
065some students were actually doing a retach reassess um and so we dabbled with that. We had Gabby Donado actually who um was a lead in our afterchool program in our district and so she's a guru at you know helping uh manipulate a schedule for that and so we literally handched every single kid in the school um and deployed. So something that we tackled last year as a pilot. >> That that's amazing. I'm hoping you're sharing that information with other principles especially at our middle schools. That that sounds like something that we should be really talking about at scale. Kudos to you and your team. >> Thank you. that. Thank you. Thank you for sharing this evening. >> Thank you. >> Next, we'd like to invite up Principal Edmonds from Central East High School. Good evening,
066President Singh, Superintendent Marshall, and members of the board. Thank you for the opportunity to share the progress of the ongoing work at Central East High School. Tonight, I'm proud to highlight the gains our students have made and staff have made, the areas where we continue to face challenges, and the focused actions we are taking to address those challenges. This past year, CHS continued to demonstrate meaningful growth across key academic and school climate indicators. In English language language arts, our students increased ESPback by 4.25%, English ESPback by 4.25% and we maintained our dashboard status with a slight gain. Most importantly, both our English learners and students with disabilities moved out of the red performance band and into the orange, signaling real progress toward equity. In math, overall performance declined. We saw bright spots such as a
06720 point gain towards the standard for our redesated EL students. Our English learner progress indicator rose 3.9%. Moving the school from red to orange with long-term English learners moving to yellow. Reclassification was at we recrossed about 23 kids which was about 8%. And nearly every subgroup showed movement towards proficiency. On the college and career indicator we grew by 3.2% 2% with EL and students with disabilities moving from the red to the orange. Our graduation rate incre increased 2% to 94%. With the first time no students um in the red or orange for graduation rate attendance has been a major uh point of emphasis. Our daily rate has improved 2% to 94% and our chronic absentee has decreased by 7% since last spring. On the fall panorama survey, we continue to to to make tren uh
068upward trends. Our teacher student relationships and our sense of belonging have increased 10% over the past 10 years, excuse me, since 2021. Sorry. um and 3% from the spring to this fall. Uh uh supportive growth and and growth mindset also are showing increases. Um we were awarded a six u six year was accreditation this past spring. Um affirming the strength of our instructional systems climate and leadership structure. Uh as well uh we received uh for the second year in row the PBIS platinum award. Um, however, we recognize that our math remains the most significant challenge. Our ESPback results declined slightly to 64. They they declined 64%. And CHS remains 120 points below standard with notable subgroups particularly African-American, Hispanic, socioeconomically disadvantaged students, and students with disabilities. In response, we've completely redesigned our assessment system. We
069transitioned from the MAP benchmarks to the uh formative interim assessment benchmarks and IAB FIABs and IABS. Early results are showing um some increases across math 1, 2, and three. We have 57 to 77% of our students who are now approaching or meeting standards on the interim benchmarks. To accelerate improvement, our math PLC's are partnering closely with the district ed services staff and solution tree. Teachers are engaged in deep work defining their essential essential standards, writing and scaling learning targets, developing common formative assessments and huddling the around the results to plan targeted intervention and enrichment. Uh we developed a daily vitamin time where teachers are taking a standard or skill that students struggle with and and doing 5 to 10 minutes daily of that standard so they get that repetition. Um we also had an increase
070in our suspension rate. Uh we moved from the blue to the orange uh driven largely by our foster youth population. our admin counselors um and intervention specialists uh we meet weekly in a uh behavior intervention uh attendance intervention team to really focus in on finding ways to help students all students but also foster students. um our intervention specialists and have started a men of character group where we have foster kids with among other kids in that group a men of young men and then our vice principles have started empower her group they meet once a month another area of concern is the DNF rates for our English learners which remain high 44% in A3G courses and 45% in non A3G courses To address that, we have hired three primary language tutors, one full-time Spanish primary
071language tutor, one Punjabi part-time, and one Arabic part-time primary language tutor. We're also developing a we have developed in partnership with Ed Services a three-year professional development plan that focuses on knowing EL's, effective instruction, engagement strategies, and instructional best practices. This year has brought incredible celebrations in our programs and pathways. Our FCA CLA, which stands for Family Career and Community Leaders of America chapter continues to be one of the largest and strongest in California, earning regional, state, and national recognition. We were selected as one of six schools in the valleys for the lead pathway which stands for leadership education achievement development and they go uh about six times a year to Fresno State and they receive leadership skills um and they are guaranteed admission to Fresno State through Bulldog Bound. We have two uh from
072each grade level we have two uh two students. Our super teams um we have two teachers Philip Brunber and Greg Pollinger who started our super teams which consists of robotics ethics mock trial academic decathlon battle of the books and history day. They meet daily to compete at the highest levels. Uh this year we uh implemented the Bingle Road Show where we basically took a high school rally to all of the all of the elementary schools. And tomorrow we're hosting Cub Days where we have the eighth graders from Rio coming to and showcase what what they can expect when they become Bingles. In closing, Central East High School is making meaningful progress. We are proud of the gains, honest about the challenges, and fully committed to the work ahead. Our teachers, counselors, classified staff, students, and
073families continue to demonstrate resilience, collaboration, and a shared belief that every student can succeed at high levels. With our continued support, we are confident to the systems we are strengthening today will produce even greater outcomes for years to come. One thing I'd like to add, Saturday we are playing in the state championship at in Mission Vo. So, go Bengals. Thank you for your time and your commitment to our students. I'd be happy to answer any questions. [applause] >> Uh, Trusty Korea, >> thank you. So you mentioned um with respect to the challenges the fact that African-American students, Hispanic and I think it's special education students and then is SWD >> students with disabilities. >> Okay. Um that there's been a decline. anything I and I apologize if I missed it. At least for math specifically,
074is are there any targeted or specific changes that you're making to try and target those students and give them the support to help them improve? >> We're really working with the um the math teachers and their PLC's and to identify the the students that are struggling and provide them with with interventions. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Trusty Chavez. >> So, um, again, I appreciate your honesty with your challenges. I always I always like for us to have a conversation about those things. Um, so I'm going to ask you about the foster youth increase. Um, is it that you've identified more foster youth in your school or have you just had an increase in that population? We have had an increase in the number of foster students. Um just really trying to find a way to
075get them connected and to the school and to provide you know that opportunity of hope and that something that they can look forward to is really what we are are working on um to to help them not get into into difficult situations. >> Okay. So obviously you know the educational rights of foster youth is something that's something that is my area of expertise. So when we talk about suspension and foster youth I'm just curious how you've been working internally um with our own staff and our liaison to prevent um I mean suspension is obviously like one of those things that we really look at um with regards to AB490 and the rights of young people that are in foster care. So are we having interventions prior to suspension? I mean what are we doing to
076add those additional supports? >> We do have yes we do have interventions prior to suspension. Um we have a structured day intervention where the students will go to um the responsibility center where they receive um it's it's alternative to suspension but they also receive counseling. our intervention counselors or our intervention specialists have case loads of kids that they're meeting with every day, making those connections and and providing that counseling for them. >> And and this may be a conversation for um Dr. Lopez. I'm curious as to how these numbers will feed into our LCAP and any of our funds and [snorts] specifically those extra supports where we have funding specifically for these populations to help them with their performance. >> Yes. So when you look at his suspension rate, it's still at a 2.3%. Uh
077so it's pretty low for the school. However, there is a ratio that we look at for suspensions for specific demograph demographics and we are constantly working with the school sites, the intervention teams, the bait processes that they have in place to help address some of those gaps and needs. >> Thank you. You're welcome. And the bait team consists of school psychologists, intervention specialists, intervention counselors, and they really work to find um interventions and supports that they can provide all students that are on that. But there's also foster kids that are on that on that case load. >> Trusty Kerf, >> thank you, President Singh. Um, uh, thank you for the presentation, um, Principal Edmonds, and for the very, you know, honest, you know, um, trajectory of of what's going on at Central East. I have
078to be honest, I I don't like hearing that the suspension rate went up because of foster youth. Um, because there's a lot of things going on in their personal lives and we want to make sure that we are supporting them, not, you know, we got to be careful with our choice of words. Um but are we providing like targeted you know supports for our foster youth? >> Yes, there like I said in the in the presentation there are we have two groups. >> Um beyond the two groups we have the bait team that's meeting with them. We have SCI and our intervention specialist are are meeting with them. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And it's not just foster youth that they were one of the groups. >> Okay. Thank you. And then uh did you
079say we had an Arabic tutor or FOL at Central? >> An Arabic primary language tutor. >> Primary language tutor. Okay. Well, thank you. Um I know that we've had for a long time an Arabic, you know, speaking community in our district and obviously it's been growing. So I'm glad that Central East is one of our sites that is acknowledging that and providing the supports that that community needs. So thank you for that. >> You're welcome. And uh yeah, no, I again appreciate everything you do and uh looking forward to seeing uh more success with Central East in the next year. >> Thank you. >> Uh just a a few last questions for you. Um uh Principal Edmunds, uh very excited about some of the progress that we're we're seeing at uh Central East. Um can
080I ask probably a series of two three questions that are a bit related? What what have you seen in some of the changes um with the uh decreased number at Central East as compared to last year? What have been sort of the the changes in terms of the >> the decrease in enrollment? >> Right. >> It's very insignificant. Okay. It's a we're about the same as we were last year. >> Okay. So, that's something I'll I'll follow up with in terms of administration. Um I think similar to what I was talk asking for uh principal Frink, can I can you share a little bit what do the PLC's look like uh specifically at Central East? How you monitor them and how are we using that data? And I know it's a little bit different at
081the high school level to sort of inform us inform best teaching practices and which are the areas where we need to really make sure that uh we're spending our time and energy. I mean B can you repeat that one more time? >> In terms of the PLC's at at Central East, how do you monitor the data? How is that how how are our our our different communities sharing that that data and how does that inform our sort of practices going forward? >> So we meet the ad uh the admin team meets weekly um what we call our curriculum and instruction meeting where we look at data where we talk about the results of assessments. Um we are kind of in the in the infant stages as it's our this is really our first year that
082we are we have had solution tree um we did uh in 2122 we did a virtual um training with solution tree um but now that we have a coach on campus um we you know we have a a tighter focus on that um we also go uh our admin team attend PLC meetings so right now their process is um they're and where they are in the cycle is really identifying the essential priority standards that need to be taught. Um um developing uh scaled learning targets for those uh developing learning targets, scaling those learning targets, um developing success criteria to meet the target and then from there we developing common formative assessments. um our math and English um the the FIA FIAB and IAB benchmarks. Um we are bringing in uh Greg Chaperion from ED services
083to meet with our our math PLC's to really get into the data and the results and plan instruction and intervention support around that. We're getting ready to do that with our English department as well. >> Okay. So, and you and your team are are monitoring this weekly. you you you were sharing >> weekly. Yeah. >> And I guess the last sort of question I I have is um you know we've seen especially essential yeast over time consistent gains especially in terms of our college and career readiness especially since the state has created that metric I want to say like about four or five years ago. >> What are what are what do you feel would you know I mean it's still concerning for me like across the district and really even across the state what
084what our numbers currently are. What are things that we could do? Do you think just honestly is asking your opinion to to actually start making significant growth and and change? We've we've had consistent growth, but I'm just asking what would it take to really move the needle on our college? >> Could I be blatantly honest? >> Yeah, please. >> And get out get away from a sixth period day. It's significantly reduced the numbers in our CTE programs. >> Thank you for that. >> You're welcome. No other questions or maybe no other questions. Thank you, Principal Edmonds, for joining us this evening. [applause] >> And with that, we now move to our superintendent, our board communication, starting off with Superintendent Marshall. Dr. Marshall. >> Got it. All right. Uh my report will be brief tonight because
085we have a lot of activities, but I'll start with uh some highlights. Uh we had several employees that were recognized at the uh Fresno County employee of the year uh ceremony. Uh Shelley Sanders, Ral Diaz, and Andreas Reyes. Uh as we discussed previously, uh our students in performing arts who we honor tonight, this is only a snapshot. not the ones that came my way, but we have Port Laurates, uh just Justin Garson, the marching band, the color guard, third in the state, uh honor choir and state choir winners, and then the Rio Vista band. I learned tonight about the choir, our student athletes who are going to celebrate next month. Uh as was discussed previously, the Central East football team is headed to the state championship. Uh the Central High School men's water polo team
086was recognized at city hall by the um city council. uh Central High School women's uh tennis team won a league championship and the G Garza girls golf team won the league championship. Few pieces just updates on the um CSBA conference. It was nice to get go with the board and uh that was our first time going together. That's nice to get to know people, learn lots of uh learning uh fellowship and you know just seeing what happens across the state. Uh this month, Anita sent out a list. I'll be doing my second round of um well, probably more than that, but this round of my school visits, I'm going to be come out and you have you can come with me. Uh the sites are expecting it. They're going to kind of highlight classrooms, signature
087programs, a lot of we'll be talking about. So, I encourage you if your schedule permits, uh come out and join me. Uh we're looking forward to Thursday. We're going to be going to making a visit with our student trustees. will be going to the Analopee Valley Union High School District. Now, this district started uh incorporated the student trustees into our governance system, but the district we're visiting, they've had that model for uh years. And the highlight is we we kind of confirm the agenda today. When we get there at 5:30, there's like a closed session for students and our students going to be invited in see how that process works. So that'll kind of give us some tools as far as as we move this process further. So we're looking further to that. All right.
088And other than that, I want to say if I don't see you before, um next week, uh happy holidays. Thank you, Dr. Marshall. Next, we turn it to our student uh trustees if they have any uh board reports they'd like to share. Thank you. So, first off, just a congratulations to all the students from across Central Unified and especially their families who have won awards for Central Unified. Um, if you're watching this, thank you and congratulations to you and your family. Um, regardless of your level of where you won or the field you won, thank you to the student body of East Central Unified. Um, secondary was a concern that was brought up. It was just about the disparity and e inequity between the facilities between our school sites. And that's obviously a long-term process
089that we're working to address. And and to acknowledge that this is mine and student trustee Felix's um last board meeting at this as student trustees. So I just want to say thank you to the student body of Central Unified for allowing us to serve and advocate for you at this level. And I also want to thank the board for approving this position and allowing student voice to continue to where it has and just preview of next semester. Um we will be helping out with the next student trustees uh like find their voice, find their footing um to advocate to further advocate for student voice. So just thank you to Central Unified for allowing student voice to process prosper. Thank you. >> Thank you. And now we turn it to our board reports. Trusty Kant. >>
090Thank you, President Singh. Uh, I'm just going to start off with my report from the interjurisdiction subcommittee. Uh, we met quorum. Uh, meeting was, uh, minutes were approved at 10:20 a.m. with myself motioning to approve the agenda and trustee Singh seconding. Uh we were joined by representatives from the county and uh city of Fresno, the sheriff and police department, office of supervisor Brian Pacheco, and also council member Anaisa Pya. Finally, our principles from Tilly Class and JSK because we've had some issues in those uh neighborhoods that are on the edge of the city and county and we're looking to find solutions. So, we discussed how we could work together to resolve them. everything from homeless encampments to traffic safety concerns. Uh some positive updates we learned from that meeting. Uh Tilly Elementary over the last
091two years has had a decrease of 14.5% of students classified as English learner through the um because they've been you know transferred out. They're now you know um actual you know um English speakers. That's through the hard work of those students, their teachers, admin and innovation like Till's newcomer Academy. Uh, our newcomer students don't speak one language. They speak many and come from all over the world with varying skill levels. Um, there's also been a request for speed radar signs on Broly Avenue near JSK Elementary. That's a short-term solution. Long-term, the city has been awarded a grant for a hawk crossing near Shields and Fountain Way, though we're a few years out from that installation. But the Hawk crossing at Hearn and Barstow is scheduled for construction during this winter break. And I know the
092her and Barstow community has been one of the most vocal in our district on safe routes to school. I'm excited to share that the county and city of Fresno have uh heard us. The city code enforcement department has also completed outreach to all 15 elementary school neighborhoods in the city of Fresno and we'll be circling back to ensure that our neighborhoods where students walk and bike to school remain clean and safe. And as for uh road pavings, next year Shields Avenue is scheduled for a paving in the city uh and in the county we'll be seeing uh some construction happening for McKinley Avenue between Marks and Donner and Olive Avenue between Hayes and uh Hughes. Repaving normally does have to wait for warm weather and as we know our current weather is very cool and
093foggy. For my personal report, I just want to say hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. Just before the holiday, I joined council member Analisa Prea's Operation Gobble uh food drive at Steinbeck Elementary. Uh we gave out I think over a thousand uh uh turkeys and meal prep uh boxes to uh families and people in our community that are in need. So, big shout out and thank you to not just council member PA for putting this on, but for all of the Steinbeck and even Teague staff um and community members, parents and students that came together to support our community for the holiday season and also attended CSBA, had a good time uh learning uh from different seminars about uh board upcoming board policies on AI uh finance skills for board members, library policies, and how
094to improve sex education. ations um to prevent assault. Um we even had some student trustees that were there and even facilitated those uh those uh sessions. So that was really interesting. And that is all I have for today. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Jesse Korea. >> Um very quickly, I just want to remind everyone that the holiday joy food drive is currently happening and our food distribution is happening on December 20th uh at Central East High School. It begins at 9 9:00 a.m. if you're interested in volunteering. It's one of my favorite events uh of the year. Um there is a spreadsheet that was circulated that you can sign up to help either on Friday or Saturday. So, I hope to see you guys out there and and for our families um in need
095that is happening on December 20th uh beginning at 9:00 a.m. at Central East High School. Thanks. Um although it's been already shared just want to uh thank uh colleagues for all of us being there in Sacramento together. Um we had a great uh I think number of workshops but also time to get to know each other uh as probably seen by some of my questions. I was really honing in on around PLC's and partnerships. I think I I learned quite quite a bit about that and um very much thankful to the community. Uh Trusty Kurfon's uh comments sparked u my memory that Trusty Sers and I also participated at an event at just once in Colorado elementary school providing uh meals and materials for for our community. And huge thank you to all the uh
096Central Unified students that actually came out. They were the real allstars. I had a chance to go to the uh Highway uh City Community Center for their Santa's Village and that whole event was also largely powered by our high school uh students. So very much appreciative of what everyone's doing in the community. Thank you. >> Oh, Trusty Chavez. >> I forgot to mention um so Trusty Kirk and I went to the football game, the Bengals football game that was here locally a couple of weeks ago. And I just want to recognize obviously our team, but I think I also want to recognize our community. It was so exciting to be on the field and to hear um how strong our crowd was and how everybody was cheering, our band, our cheer squad, um just the
097amount of spirit that was all around it. It's obviously our players, but it's our whole community that's supporting that team and it was just so nice to be a part of. So, I want to thank our community for showing up for our students. >> Thank you. And with that, we turn uh at this time to our clerk for any comments from the public. >> Yes, President Singh. Our first comment is from Robert Mitchell. >> And you will have uh three minutes from when you begin. Make sure the green button is on. Good evening, uh trustees and student trustees. I'm a central grad and we didn't have this opportunity so uh use it. Uh Mr. Edmonds Lee left. Okay. Uh trustees, uh President uh Singh, Superintendent Marshall, I just wanted to say first of all, thank
098you for allowing allowing me to be here. Thank you for the discussion we've been having over the years. I appreciate it. And um I just wanted to say as a proud Madison Warrior and Central Grizzly that uh I appreciate the opportunity to connect with the kids. I look forward to working in the new year with uh the administration, the staff, and uh getting the mentoring program back on the uh right track. uh principal left, but one of the students I had the opportunity to connect with uh with the mentoring program reached out to me when he heard I was uh coming to the east coast. He's there in college on the east coast uh but was about to punch out. Secondary to the organization that I support, we helped your student, our student stay in
099college. Uh the principal mentioned a number of groups that are challenged at Central East. He was in one of those groups by connection with me and the mentoring program. He's still in college on the East Coast. If I can connect to the kids, I can support the kids. How do we work to break down the barriers for me to help you to help us keep kids in college? Again, have a great holiday season. Thank you. Have a good night. >> [applause] >> Our next comment is from Gabriel Suarez and you will have three minutes. >> My name is Suarez. >> That's not my time. >> I would like to reset my clock. >> I was trying to clarify that my name is Gabriel Suarez. Um, my son goes to Central High and he's on the
100water polo team and they were undefeated and they won their league and they had the league MVP and league goalie of the year and they're the top 50 players in the nation. They received a proclamation in December 4th. This now Central High School men's water polo team day. [snorts] But um there's a big problem here. Uh they don't have a pool. So how embarrassing is that for you Central Unified um Central East and Garza do? So why doesn't Central High? There's no credible reason. Your guiding principles say you believe in excellence, high expectations, equity, access, collaboration, community. You embrace diversity and ensure academic success. With those principles in mind, how can you honestly say that you're following them? [clears throat] Are excellence and high expectations just for East and Garza? Or are they for all
101your schools? Are you really following your guiding principles of equity and access? If my son has to travel to practice and practice starts nearly an hour after school ends, you're wasting an hour of his time every day. That waste of time doesn't occur at East or Garza. I guess equity and access is not for Central High, but everyone else. When Central High Water Polo tells people they don't have a pool, would you call that collaboration and community? Is being a regional leader in education only for East and Garza because you unnecessarily waste a lot of Central High students time because of a lack of facilities? Are you really embracing diversity when you're creating such inequity? You created this problem yourselves by neglecting to update Central High when you redrew the district boundaries. You knew there
102you knew there would be an influx of students, but you did nothing to prepare. Why? And why are you not doing something about this now? This is not something that takes years. I mean, as in to get started, it's unacceptable that this amazing water polo team doesn't have a pool. And it's even more unacceptable that you're not currently in the process of building one. So, um, your words are easy about your principles, but your lack of action is much louder than your empty words. Tonight, I'm demanding that you align your actions with your stated values and fix this inequity. Restore fairness. Ensure every child in the district that their future matter matters equally. Begin the process of building a pool of Central High School now. Saying that you can't or making an excuse for why
103you need more time is unacceptable for these kids. Stop failing your students. I propose that you make a building a pool a central high action item that'll be on your next agenda that is voted on as soon as possible. There's no better place than here and there's no better time than now. So do your job and do what's right and stand by your principles instead of just making them empty words. >> President Singh, we have no other comments. >> Thank you. And with that we turn to our organizational items for for this evening. Our first being to elect a president of the board of trustees. >> Sir, your time has already ended. We have a we have a full agenda. >> Sir, sir, this is not back and forth. Your time has expired. >> We'll
104we'll have a staff member reach out to you. Thank you. >> So again, this is our opportunity to elect a president of the board of trustees. >> Then I'll I'll make a motion for uh uh trustee Curio to be our our president. Second, >> second by trusty Kon's name first. Those in favor uh please say I. >> I. >> Those opposed, nay. Those abstaining. Motion carries 70. I I guess I'll just finish out the items. Next, we uh move to elect our new vice president of the board of trustees. Do I have any nominations? >> President seeing I'd like to nominate trustee Sers for vice president. Second. >> We have a motion by Trustee Kirk. We have a second by Trusty Chavez. I should have asked. Trusty Sers, do you accept the nomination? [laughter] >>
105Trusty Creo, did you accept the nomination? >> So, those in favor of uh uh Trusty Sers being our next vice president, please say I. >> I. >> Those opposed, nay. Those abstaining. Motion carries 70. Thank you. We next move to elect our next clerk of the board of trustees. We're now accepting any nominations. Uh Trusty Sers, >> nominate Trustee Kiron. >> Second. >> We have a motion. Uh Trusty Kiron, do you accept the nomination? >> I. >> So we have a motion by Trusty Sers, a second by Trusty Kirk. Those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Those opposed, nay. Those abstaining. Motion carries 70. We next move to appoint superintendent as secretary to the board of trustees. Do I have a motion? So moved. >> Second. >> We have a motion by trusty
106Korea. We have a second by trustee Kerond. Those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Those opposed, nay. Those abstaining. Motion carry. 70. We next move to establish our regular board meeting day and place. Uh, [clears throat] please see the attached. And do I have a motion on set item? >> A motion to approve. >> We have a motion by trustee Kirk. >> Second by trustee Sers. Those >> president. Sorry to interrupt. May I offer a friendly amendment? So the schedule identifies the dates but doesn't necess designate a place. I can't remember if our board policy designates a place. I >> Right. So I think we intend to stay in this building until we build something which is not going to happen in the next year. Correct. So I think just for purposes of
107the community and for this item just acknowledging that the place of our meeting is going to be in this room with close session happening somewhere within this the district office as well. So perhaps u if the maker and seconder of the motion will accept an amendment to say that the meeting dates are as presented and the place of the meeting will be held at the district office. >> So accepted. >> We have an acceptance by trustee Kirk and trustee Sers. Okay. So with the uh meeting day and placed as designated, do I have um uh those in favor please say I. >> I. >> Those opposed, nay. Those abstaining. Motion carries 70. Next, the need to designate reserve dates on April 14th and July 14th, 2026 for meetings only as needed and cancel regular board
108meetings scheduled for November 24th and December 22nd, 2026. Do I have a motion on set item? >> So moved. We have a motion by Trusty Korea. Second. >> We have a second by Trustee Kirk. >> Those in favor, please say I. I. >> Those opposed, nay. >> Those abstaining. Motion carries. 70. We next uh item number seven. We next uh move to appoint representative and alternate voting representative to participate in electing persons to the Fresno County Committee on School District Organization in fall 2026. Do we have any nominations? is trust trusty Kirk, are you currently I'm sorry, trustee Kiron, are you currently serving on that committee or who's serving on that committee? >> Number seven, the uh school organization, correct? >> Yeah. >> No, this one's not mine. This was uh Trustee Chavez and then
109Trusty Kirk is the alternate. So, we're appointing two people. If they'll accept, I would motion to approve uh Trustee Chavez and Trusty K. >> Do you accept? I didn't know this was >> Huh? >> I didn't know this was mine. >> Now you do. [laughter] >> You want to switch? >> Do you accept? >> Yeah. >> I accept. >> Okay. Do you accept as the alternate? Okay. So, we have a motion by Trustee Keron, a second by Trusty Sers. >> Those in favor, please say I. I. Those opposed, nay. Those abstaining. Motion carry 70. Yes. Uh next, uh as we elect our board member to represent the district on the Fresno County Trustee Board of Directors, um Dr. Marshall, you'll provide some information, >> right? We need a representative to serve on the uh Fresno
110County um board of board of directors. And I think that's presently that's the um the group that uh the bill stands serve on. >> Yes. Yes. We have a meeting next week. I'd like to nominate. So, I'll move to nominate um Trusty Kirk if she will accept. >> Yes. >> Bless your heart. Thank you, Trusty K. >> Second. >> We have a motion by trustee Curio. We have a second by trustee was it Kand or Sers? Sellers. Sorry. also going to ask the I'll get the uh opinions also of our uh stu student trustees as well. I apologize for not do that. Are you trusty Felix and and Trusty Giggle? >> I don't think we're allowed to vote on organizational items. Are we? >> Yeah. I I I don't think you are on organizational items,
111but I think it's it was on on these representatives. I think >> it's a provisional vote in a way. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Um, sure. [laughter] >> Trusty Felix. >> Yes. Thank you. Those in favor. >> Those in favor, please say yes. I >> I. >> Those opposed, nay. >> Those abstaining. Motion carries 70. >> And uh, Trustee Kirk, they need you on Tuesday because they will not reach quorum without you. >> Oh, sir, don't you finish serving this year? I I thought it was Is it for the school year or is it take effect immediately? >> Oh, okay. Send me that date, please. >> Okay, we'll do. [laughter] >> Next, we uh move to establish subcommittee dates for 2026. Uh please see the attached document. And do we have a motion on set item?
112>> Motion to approve. There's a motion by Trusty Kfan, a second by trustee Sers. Trusty uh Gwell >> I. >> Thank you. Trusty Felix. >> I. >> For the rest of the board, if you're in approvement, see, please say I. >> I. >> Opposition, nay. You abstain. Motion carries. 70. We next move number 10. Elect board members to participate on board bylaws, policies, and board engagement subcommittee. Dr. commercial >> right and uh presently we have um trusty president sing um board member sing and uh trustee Kirk are we >> so I would like to continue to serve I don't know if my fellow colleagues want to continue or there's anyone else that's interested in serving >> I' I'd like to switch off actually if someone else is interested in this particular I am I am
113interested in contin third that would like to >> I actually have a question. Are student trustees able to serve on these subcommittees? >> Yes, but we'll need to wait until we have our new trust student trustees. They should be appointed. >> Got it. Looks like we only have two for this one. So, uh, uh, do I have a motion to accept the nominations of trustees CO and Kirk? >> So, moved. >> Second. >> A motion by trustee Kon. Second by trustee Sers. Those in favor? Oh, sorry. Uh, trustee Geral. >> I. And question. Are these subcommittee meetings open to the public? >> Yes. Yeah. And trusty Felix. I >> thank you. And uh for the rest of the board, those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Those opposed, nay. Those abstaining. Motion car
11470. >> We next move on to item number 11 to elect um board members to participate on the finance, facilities, and safety subcommittee. And do we have uh Dr. Marshall? city chair who's currently serving. >> Uh currently we have uh trustee Kurfan, trustee Sers, and Trustee Kirk. >> Correct. >> Trusty Kon. >> So yeah, I currently chair this uh subcommittee. I don't mind passing the chair off, but I would like to continue serving on this committee. I've been able to make all the meetings this year. >> The chair would be decided at the first meeting of of the subcommittee. I'd like to remain as well. >> Trusty Kirk. >> Okay. So, we have uh three three that are interested. Do I have a motion to approve Trusty Kon Sellers and Kirk to remain on this
115this particular uh subcommittee? >> So, moved. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Trusty Curio, a second by Trustee Chavez, uh Trusty Gal. >> I trust Felix. I >> um and for the rest of the board, those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Those opposed, nay. Those abstaining. Motion carries. 70. Item number 11, elects board members to participate on the jurisdiction agency subcommittee. Uh Dr. Marshall, can you share with us who's currently serving? >> Okay. This uh subcommittee consists of trustee Kon, we have um trustee Singh, the third one, >> and then that was Trusty Chavez. >> Trusty Chavez. I would be interested to continue serve on this one >> as would I. President Creo >> and Trusty Chavez. >> I I didn't I didn't make the last one, so I mean
116if somebody else wants to do it, I'm okay with that. >> Anyone else interested? >> I guess I'll stay. >> Looks like you will. Do I have a motion to approve trustees Kon Singa and Chavez? >> So moved. Motion by trusty CO second by trustee Kirk. Trustee Gwell, >> Trusty Felix >> I. >> For the rest of those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Those opposed, nay. Those abstaining. Quotion carry 70. >> And last item is to elect members to participate on the student achievement, student life, and wellness subcommittee. Dr. Marshall, could you share who's currently serving? Uh >> currently we have trustee Chavez, trustee Sers, and trustee uh Sadu. If uh anyone's willing, I would like to serve on this one. >> I'd like to serve on this one. >> Oh, same.
117>> Trusty Chavez, do you want to serve on continue serving on this one? >> You said you want to do this one. >> I would like to, but >> I'll give it over. >> I mean, I trust you. >> I appreciate it. >> I trust you. >> I appreciate it. I don't know if you should, but I appreciate it nonetheless. Um do we have a motion to accept trustee seller sedu and sing? >> So motion trustee uh kfon who the second was over there go trusty gutterwal uh trusty gutteral. >> Trusty Felix >> I. And for the rest of the board those in approve uh please say I. >> I. >> Those opposed nay. Those abstaining. Motion carries 70. And next I turn it over to our now president. >> You can stay. [laughter] I
118can >> you can see we can switch next. >> I'll switch. >> Thanks. >> Okay. >> Thank you. With that, we move on to our consent agenda. A couple of items to acknowledge. We have the adoption of resolution number 2526-22 declaring December 28th through the 31st as Mong New Year. And we have uh resolution 2526 declaring December 2025 as National Blood Donor Month. And then also declaring January 2026 as our National Enslavement and Human Trafficking Prevention Month and uh January 2026 as National Enslavement and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. And so with that uh what are the wishes of the board on the consent agenda? >> Move to approve the consent agenda. >> Thank you. >> I have a motion by Trustee Kirk and I heard a second by Trusty Kon. Um Trustee Got it. Am
119I saying that correctly? >> Almost. >> Gariel. >> Yeah, >> we'll work on [laughter] good. But I I I >> Justine Felix. >> I. >> All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? >> Any absentions? Motion carries unanimously. We move on to our action items. Our first item is accept gifts to the districts. Assistant Superintendent Ewell. >> Good evening. We have uh eight gifts received. for Central High School. The first one is Cal West Rain donated $250 for the boys basketball ESB club. Uh the second one, Katherine Alcre donated $100 for the Grizzly Theater ASB club. Then Darren Colleian Farm donated $500 for the boys basketball ASB club. JPF Incorporated donated $100 for the boys basketball ASB club. Ohio Pile Prince donated $18.24 24 cents for the ASB. Robin Kerry and Edward
120Kerisian donated $750 for the boys basketball ASB club. Steven Hernandez Jr. donated $100 for the boys basketball ASB club. The Academy of Financial Literacy donated books valued at $2,620 for the school library. And finally, Justin Garza High School received a donation of $6,79745 from Gordon Mark McCormick Barstow Law Firm for the mock trial team state final competition. Administration is recommending the board accept gifts for the district. >> Thank you. So after every um item, if there's any members of the public wishing to address the board, if you will just acknowledge or or clerk, if you can please let me know. Otherwise, thank you for the gifts. Any comments or questions from the board? What are the wishes of the board? Thank you. Uh we have a motion by trustee Singh. I have a second by
121Trustee Kirk. Our student trustees. How do you vote? >> I. >> Okay. The rest of the board. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Any abstensions? Motion carries unanimously. Next item is approved nomination of trustee for CSBA delegate assemblies. Uh Dr. Uh, Superintendent Marshall. >> Okay. Currently, uh, Trustee Kfon, he's on the delegate as assembly for, um, your term is up in 2027. Uh, if there are others that would like to participate that, I think we have two, correct? Yeah. Three open positions. >> Discussion by the board. >> Anyone interested in serving? I was just going to share that our region 10b includes Fresno County. So we're among the 20 or so school districts, >> right? >> We typically have a list >> do they provide a list of the
122members so we can just appoint those if no one from our board is interested >> right >> in serving or do we add remind me how this >> this item works. Um each district that's in region 10 is allowed to nominate up to um three people whether it's within their district or uh surrounding districts and the um elections will be in the spring and then their term will start in April. >> Trust >> should anyone have want to serve uh we would not be the only district that has two representatives. Fres Unified also has two trustees serving at the delegate assembly. So there is precedent. >> What is the commitment level? >> The commitment is uh the con the delegate assembly in the springtime and also your CSBA uh convention that we just went to
123extends from two to three days to the entire week. >> Thank you. Is there any board member wishing to serve? I'm not interested. No. Okay. And so do we want to we we don't have to appoint anyone, right? We don't have to take action. Okay. >> Well, his term is still going, right? >> Yeah. Trusty Kon. Yeah. >> Unless unless there's any issue with the um the um description. I believe it does expire in March 27, not 26. So I should uh be good for another full year. >> Yeah. So, okay, no action on this item. We move on to action item number three. Approve the 2526 first interim report. Assistant Superintendent Ewell. All right. Good evening again. All right. Before we talk about the first interim, I want to bring briefly go over the
124formal budget process. It starts with uh the annual budget which is approved before July 1st. The next is the first interim second then the second interim and the end with the fiscal year with unodudited actual. The budget is a living document. So with every new report there is always new updated information based on state and federal guidance. It is important to understand that the first interim is a snapshot in time and this snapshot starts in July 1st and ends in October 31st. So any changes we make in last two weeks will show up in second interim. In uh addition to the first interim report, the district has to inform the county office and the state what certification is the board approving. So for the first interm uh the district is approving positive certification which means
125that the district is able to pay their bills for this year and the next two fiscal years. Uh before we dive into the numbers for the first interimm let's look at some of the highlights. The district is submitting the first interimm as part uh positive certification. Uh the district enrollment is six 16,025 which is which means we went up by about 50 kids from last year which is technically is flat enrollment. Average daily attendance is projected to be 92.1%. Unduplicated count is at 80%. So unduplicated count means that the groups of students who are identified in different categories such as ELLL, English language learner, foster care or free and reduced meals. State adopted budget updates is we got a 2.3 million cost of living adjustment and the special education base rate increased from8 $897 to
126$918. All right. Okay. So, we are looking at the unrestricted general fund. Again, please remember this is a snapshot in time between July 1st and October 31st. So, we begin with the balance of 65.8 million. The local revenue is 231 million. State revenue 6.1 million. Other local revenue 6.3 million contribution 38.2 million and expenditure 235.2 million. So the ending balance comes to 35.89 million. So what are we doing with the balance? So the first of all we have to adapt to the uh to the strict board policy of 5% which is 17.92 million and the rest 17.97 million it will be addressed to meet expenditure in the next two years. So this slide shows the distribution of the unrestricted expenditure. So if you look at it, you have the salaries 100 million, classified salary 37
127million, employee benefits 54 million, books and supply 9.8 million, services and operating expenditure 22.2 million, capital outlay again 3 million, other outlay 2.8. So if you look at the distribution of expenditure, one of the things you will notice that our uh salary and benefit is 82%. 82%. That means only 18% is going towards books, supply, devices, facility repair, uh electricity bill, gas bill and so on. This slide shows the distribution of expenditure in the restricted fund. Again you have the salary, certificated salary, benefits. So what is restricted fund? Restricted expenditure are fund that must be spent for specific purposes as required by the state, federal and grant rules. These expenditure cannot be used for general operation such as utilities, phone and waste services. So these are very specific cost to this to meet our specific
128needs. Before I talk about the multi-year projection, uh I would like to share some of the assumption MIP assumption. The first one is uh central infight is projecting a flat enrollment. That means we had only 50 kids which is 50 students which is pretty much flat. Central Infight is projecting a steady unduplicated percent with only minor increases. So we again we are keeping that flat for the next two years. Uh NYP include the cost of living adjustment as uh we see from the state reported by state. Um then the LCF funding slightly increases for next two years. uh we have to incorporate step and columns st and purse and health and welfare purse is incre decreasing by about from 27.05 to 26.81 81 and gradually increasing to 20 26.9 again ST will remain the same
129NYP includes long-term obligation one of them are COP certificate of participation which has district has to be obligated to make payments now if you look at the multi- projection for fiscal year 2526 again we kind of looked at it if you look at the fund balance 35 25.8 million. First thing if you look at the fiscal year again 2526 both policy requires us to reserve have a reserve of 5% which is 17.92 million. The other 17.97 million is needed to stay solvent for the next two years. Now again if you look at fiscal year 2627 we have the beginning balance of 30 35.8 million we have all the expenditures the revenues and we end up in a balance of 23.7 million. Again if you look at the fiscal year 2627 the company ending balance for
130both board policy requires us to have a 5% reserve which is 6 sorry 17.4 43 million and the other 6.3 million is needed to stay solvent for the next fiscal year which is 2728. Again, if you look at the fiscal year 2728, we have the beginning balance, we have the revenues expenditure and we end up with a balance of 11.6 million. So if you look at the 11.6 6 million and if you look at our 5% board policy which is 17 million we are not meeting board policy of 5%. We are meeting the state requirement. So that means um in the second interimm we have to make some adjustment so that we can get to that 5% board policy. Now what does the new revenue mean for us? For example, in fiscal year 2425, we
131received $225 million. This year with increase of 50 students, we got $231 million. So the increase has been about $6 million. So what do we do with the $6 million? There are some expensive expenses that we have to address. The first one is step and column that's about 2.9 million. The second one is health and wear increases. We have to pay about 900,000. So if you look at the increase of 6 million, you subtract those two number 2.9 million and 900,000 you're left with 2.2 million of new money. Uh final some synopsis again a first term is going to is through July 1 to October 31st. Uh again we are meeting all the financial obligation for this year and next two years. ADA continues to be stable and special education rounds cost continues to increase.
132So with that I'd like to end my presentation and if any questions. >> Thank you student trustees. Any questions or comments? Any questions or comments from the board? I didn't ask this beforehand and so I don't know if you have the numbers but one of the assumptions is also that we're going to receive all the federal funds. Right. There's Yes. I understand there's nothing currently frozen, but we don't know what that >> can change. No. >> Do you happen to know what percentage of either um the general fund or if any of this the restricted funds are um federally funded? >> I can get back to you. >> That's fine. Thank you, >> Trusty Sers. >> Make a motion to approve the inter room report. >> Thank you. I have a motion by Trusty Sers.
133Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. I have a second by trustee Sadu. Our student trustees, how do you vote? >> I. >> Okay. Everyone else, those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Any abstensions? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. >> We move on to item number four. Approve the 2425 annual and 5-year development impact development impact fee report. Assistant Superintendent Nick. >> So again, this is a returning item. So the administration is requesting to approve the report. >> Are there any questions or comments? Student trustees. Okay. What are the wishes of the board? >> Is there a motion to approve? >> Thank you. I have a motion by trustee Kirk. I have a second by trustee sellers. Student trustees. How do you vote? >> I. >> All in favor,
134please say I. >> Any oppose? Any abstensions? Motion carries unanimously. We move on to item number five. Adopt resolution number 2526-21 regarding PAR supplementary supplementary retirement plan and approve agreement for administrative services with PARs. We have uh assistant superintendent uh childs. >> Uh yes, thank you. The plan would provide participant participating employees with a 403b tax qualified annuity that would cost the district 80% of the employees final year salary. The annuity is paid over a 5-year period. The program requires all employees to resign from district employment by the end of the school year, which is no later than June 30th, 2026. Approximately 343 district employees are currently eligible for the offer. So, attached is the resolution uh number 25-26-1 to adopt the PAR supplementary retirement plan and an agreement for administrative services with PARs to
135design and administer the plan for eligible district employees. The the ultimate savings will be determined based on the actual number of enrolled employees resulting replacement employee cost and the number of positions backfilled. Upon implementation of the plan, the district will pay an administrative fee of 5% of all premiums made on behalf of participants in the plan. In the event that the plan is not implemented, the district will pay a onetime fee equal to $3,500. So administration is recommending the board adopt resolution 2526-1 regarding PAR's supplemental retirement plan and approve agreement for administrative services with PARs. >> Thank you. Can you um identify the important dates? So I know you mentioned the termination is or res or the retirement is effective end of year. Any dates from now to that date that employees should be aware
136of? >> Yes. So the employment window to for those who want to be uh take part in this offer, they will have until January 30th to inform the district that they are going to be taking part in this offer. At that point, a f a final analysis of the actual enrolled employees would be presented to the board on February 10th. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments from our student trustees? Any questions or comments from the board? What are the wishes of the board? >> A motion to approve the resolution. >> Second the resolution. My apologies. >> Thank you. I have a motion by trustee Kirk and I have a second by trustee Sadu to approve the resolution. How do our student trustees vote? >> I I. >> All in favor, please say I. >>
137I. >> Any oppose? Any abstensions? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. We move on. We move on to item number six. Approve new secondary course. We have Assistant Superintendent McClennon. >> This is approval of a new course called AP pre-calculus. This course would replace our current trigonometry course which has really low enrollment um interest. And also this course adds some rigor and some additional structure to it that we feel would benefit our math program particularly for our students trying to qualify for uh early admission program EAP um in their junior and senior years and preparing them also for AP calculus. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments from our student trustees? Go ahead. Um, so what is the process of approving like a new course? Like where does it start and like who does it go
138through and like what are some of the like requirements and before it comes to the board? >> So I can send you the entire process, but it essentially goes through a review team. Um, and that typically includes um it can [clears throat] include administrators and teachers. It includes educational services staff. Um, anybody can recommend a course or ask for a course to be reviewed or ask for a course. um kind of propose a course and then is brought to the board for approval because the board has to approve anything that may be a graduation requirement or course of study for the district. >> Got you. And for those recommendations, um they have to be for pre-existing curriculums or can like somebody make a recommendation and that curriculum be created later on? >> So it can
139be either or both. Um, sometimes, for example, if a if there's a conversation about something that people would like to see added to a course, like augmenting a health course, then those kind of things can be looked at for course revisions, and our team kind of looks at putting that together. Um, that's done in conjunction with ed services and the teacher teams for those those uh levels. Um, but it can also be a new course for the future. For example, we have a group that's interested in an ROC program right now. So we would plan that as a multi-year and look at all kinds of things, facilities, credentiing, um, student interest and all of that before we implemented it. >> And so that like recommendation like process also account for dual enrollments >> or college
140credit. >> Yes and no. Because dual enrollment remember is with a partner agency. So we have to rely on what our community colleges are interested in offering and what they feel may be acceptable as well. >> It's more on their side. >> It's it's a little bit of both. I mean, there's obviously conversations going on, but those are courses that we are guests of essentially offering on our campus and supporting our students in taking a college course for dual enrollment. So, there's a little bit of a difference there. >> That's okay. And so, we're allowed to ask the college if they're willing to offer. >> Yes, we can always ask. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> We always ask for our partners and always advocate for what our students are might be interested in. >> Thank
141you. >> Sure. >> Thank you, Trusty Kirk. I'm sorry, Trusty Kurfon. Thank >> Thank you, President Creo. Uh, so I'm very excited that we're offering this uh for the next school year. Um, when I was at CSA this CSBA this past week, AP pre-calculus was actually one of the courses I was talking about with the College Board vendors. That's was one of the things they were promoting. Um, so I think this is a great opportunity. So, thank you, uh, assistant Superintendent Mclennon and, uh, Mr. Chair, I see you in the back as well. Thank you for your work on this. >> That was his work. >> Yep. And then uh I just want to share for any students that are interested um for college students that are not you know have not taken calculus or
142are not ready for calculus pre-calculus in college is one of the most common courses. It's very impacted and I think it'll be helpful for our collegebound students as well that are want to take this AP course because you will get so much more support in a classroom of 30 students than you will of 300 students. So for those that are interested, I highly recommend this. It's going to help you guys potentially avoid taking this course in college should they pass the AP exam and also just you know you get that rigor and learning that um is going to just enhance their education. So very excited for this. If there's no other comments, I will motion to approve. >> Can I make one note on the cost because I know we were just talking about fiscal
143numbers. The 27,600 would not be an additional cost because we would make the switch for next year and we're in the middle of a math adoption anyway. So we would be buying books for one course or the other. >> Thank you. Now it do we have other comments? Go ahead, Trusty Sers. >> I'll back I'll pull my motion back then. >> Thank you. >> I I apologize if you did mention this. um what campuses and students are eligible to participate in this class. >> So, we approve uh courses districtwide and then it goes back to student interest, staffing availability, all of those kind of questions for building their master schedules, but any any campus can offer a course as long as we can find the the credential teacher and there's enough students to take it.
144>> Okay. Uh so if there is a shortage of teachers to teach it, there will be further discussion on what campus it goes to. Okay. Thank you. >> Do you want to entertain your motion now? >> I will motion to approve the introduction of AP pre-calculus. >> Second. >> Thank you. We have a motion by trustee Keron, a second by trustee sellers. Student trustees, how do you vote? I >> thank you. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any abstensions? Uh motion carries 70. >> We move on to item number seven. Approve core and supplemental materials for elementary. We have director English. Good evening, President Curio, student trustees, members of the board, and superintendent Dr. Marshall. Administration is recommending that the board approve the use of the wild robot movie as a supplemental
145instructional material. The book has already been approved and the film aligns with the same learning goals and grade level competencies. Staff has reviewed the resource and determined that it will support student engagement and understanding. And on a personal note, I also read the book and watched the movies and I was moved to tears. >> I love it. Student trustees, any comments or questions? >> No. Okay. >> Any comments or questions from anyone else? Trusty Sellers and then Trusty Kon. Can you provide a little bit more information of how this is going to be beneficial and support students? >> Yes, absolutely. Um, I'm talking with the instructor who is using this or wants to use this in our classroom. She reads this book as a group read aloud with the students and then she wants to
146also pair that with the movie so that it would enhance the students um engagement throughout the process. >> Thanks. I just want to share that this was probably the best animated movie of last year and I think the book is going to be a modern classic. So very excited to see this uh add to the uh cannon of books that our elementary students going to be reading. >> Thank you. I have a motion to approve this uh core and supplemental materials for elementary. Is there a second? Thank you. I have a motion by trustee um Keron, a second by trustee Kirk. Student trustees, how do you vote? >> I I >> Okay, everyone else, those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Any abstensions? Motion carries unanimously. We move on. Thank you.
147We move on to item number eight. Approve emerges staffing contract. Assistant superintendent Dr. Lopez. >> Good evening again. Um so I first would like to start by stating that when we bring these contracts forward our goal is first to fulfill any positions through ELOP grants and programs with our current staffing. So we have posted the position twice already for paraprofessional aids sped a3. Uh and we are glad to say that we filled our positions based on those applicants. Uh we are also opening up we just opened up a pool for substitutes just in case more are needed as students from special education programs. um register for uh for the winter program. We want to make sure we have the adequate staffing to provide those supports and access to the program. Um with that being said,
148the emergence contract being presented to you this evening uh would cover those u paraprofessional absences or gaps if we have any during the winter program to ensure our kids have access to winter camps. Um the cost impact to the ELOP grant would be 371,000 if all of it is spent. However, this is a not to exceed which means we just use it when we have an absence or when we have a gap. Administration is recommending this item be placed on the January. Well, actually, thank you for moving it to action. So, we are recommending that we approve this item tonight so we can cover during winter program. Any questions or comments from our student trustees and for our our board as a whole? This item is coming to you uh for the first time. I
149mean, this is a a contractor that we normally or a vendor we normally work with, but since it's for winter um programs to make sure there's no interruption or delay, >> winter, spring, and summer. So, >> yeah. >> Well, in because it includes winter, we brought it forward. Now, >> any comments or questions? If not, is there a motion to approve the contract? >> Second. >> Thank you. I have a motion by Trusty Kirk and I have a second by Trustee Sellers. Student trustees. How do you vote? Everyone else. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Any abstensions? Motion carries unanimously. Number eight, approved digital marquee purchased from the Treecore Tricore Enterprises, Inc. for Madison Elementary School. >> Thank you, board president, members of the board, and superintendent Dr. Marshall.
150Tonight, I present for your approval a proposal from Trior Enterprises to procure a digital marquee sign for Madison Elementary School. This propo this proposal is offered through a a recognized seamass cooperative purchasing contract which is available to all public a agencies uh throughout California. The CAMASS contract provides two key advantages to our district uh cost savings and efficiency and compliance and what I mean by that is um the the competitive bidding requirements have been met. uh ensure that this approach not only uh ensures fiscal responsibility uh but also expedites the procurement process allowing us to deliver value to the district and community while maintaining compliance with all regulations. Administration is recommending uh [clears throat] approval of this proposal so that we may for move forward uh with enhancing Madison Elementary School's visibility and communication. Uh,
151and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have on this item. >> I also want to draw everyone's attention that this item is coming to you um directly as action because it's my understanding that Madison doesn't have a marquee right now. >> That is correct. >> Okay. Thank you. Student trustees, any comments or questions? No. Trusty Kirk, >> thank you. I was looking through. Could you tell me or give me an idea of where this marquee will will sit and face? >> Yes. So, uh, where the parent drop off is currently, uh, at at the front of the school along Broly Avenue, it will be inside the fence. >> Inside the fence. >> So, the marquee is 8 8 ft tall. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you. I have a motion by Kirk.
152I have a second by trustee Keron. Trustee, student trustees, how do you vote? I >> I Okay, >> everyone else, those in favor, please say I. I. >> Any oppose? Any obstensions? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. We move on to our information items. We are going to take items out of order unless there's an objection. So for the members of the public, we are going to take um item number three second to follow right after we receive information on validictorians. Thank you. That'll help that other item make a little bit more sense. So the first presentation that I have for you tonight is coming, not this one. presentation. Oh, I have to scroll. Hold on. No, >> no, no, it's not. >> Hold on. Technical difficulties. >> I think that's one of our
153last items. Actually, it is our last item. And the presentation wasn't attached, right? Oh, it was attached. Okay. Does everyone have access? >> I will share the information with you. >> So, it'll be an oral presentation tonight. >> So, tonight I'm bringing you information based on your request that was just asking for clarity and again to communicate and overcommunicate to our public um the validictorian requirements in our district and a little bit of history on the validictorian requirements. So when some of the new high schools opened up and I've learned this through an extensive investigation to um at the request of one of our uh prior students but uh my historical digging went to uh the years 2020 2021 when um some of the the high schools were splitting off and starting to open up
154new high schools and there was a thought that there was a consistency among validictorian requirements between them and then there were minor tweaks that were made by staff at each site. So the committee got together and the committee in 2022 consisted of um comprehensive high school principles, college and career teacher counselors and uh area administrators. So the three area administrators at the time they were looking at the graduation or the validictorian criteria that had originally existed and then the the tweaks that had been made at the sites and then they were also comparing that to surrounding districts uh validictorian requirements. The process was um to discuss and then also to determine how the criteria would impact the classes that came forward. The new criteria was communicated to parents and students beginning in the fall of
1552022. So, this graduating class that we have coming through has never seen any other criteria but the one that we're going to show you tonight. Um, some of the criteria for other districts that they compared it to were Clovis West, which is straight A's all classes. Clovis High School, straight A's, all classes. Liberty High School, 4.0 GPA, no matter what the grades and the courses are. Selma 4.0 GPA, and Sanger High School, they had to be in the top 1% regardless of what their GPA was. So, in some schools, that can be an over and above a 4.0. The grid that you have shows um the document that is now shared in all handbooks and it's shared in um the college and career planning handbooks that are passed out and the senior of course handbooks,
156freshman, sophomore handbooks and throughout. So if you go over to the sixth column, you'll see the validictorian criteria. Essentially our validictorian criteria is that students must have an A or a B in all courses. That's the letter grade A or B in all courses that they have. Now, that's whether or not it's an honors, an AP, whatever it is. It's the letter grade that it's based on. Um, that was a contentious point. There was arguments about whether B should be allowed at all. And so, the the committee at that time did settle on A's or B's. You still had to maintain a 4.0 or greater. Uh validictorians are recognized at senior awards and graduations with a medallion. Um and the number one ranked student is given a suma kumladi and the number two is given
157a magnum on in addition to the validictorian criteria. It's also marked with um on their diplomas. Any questions? >> Thank you. We'll first hear from our student trustees and then we'll hear from trustee Kirk, trustee Chavez, and trustee Keron and Sellers. All right. Um, first off, thank you for the presentation. Um, so I have two very simple questions. Um, one is would be the like the origin of this policy because um, I have friends in Kerman Unified and um, King's Canyon and they were talking to me about their val Victorian status and there's this 4.0 no flat and I reached out to my club friends and I was like, "Hey, what are your guys' and they said something different and so my question would be what what would the origin of this policy be and
158what would be the reasoning for us being different than our surrounding difference uh districts um just for equity and fairness purposes and the consistency across Fresno County. So the easiest way to answer that is there is no consistency across Fresno County just as you mentioned um different districts do it very differently. Um and just traditionally before districts started doing some of these adjustments and many of you may remember validictorian was a straight numerical point. If you had a 4.368, you beat 4.367. That person, you know, got saludiatoran and it was a one and a two and those were the only ones that were recognized in the class. Um throughout the time with a lot more augmented classes and those extra courses and then there was a lot of mathematical playing around with um I'm going
159to go over to this district and take an honors class that mine doesn't offer and then I'll transfer back and I'll have a 0.02% higher GPA. um that created some other equity issues and so a lot of districts started looking at that and looking at the different offerings especially smaller schools that couldn't offer as many APS um and so they came up with we still want you to have absolutely stellar grades but we recognize that looking at something by a hundth of a point or a tenth of a hundredth of a point you know is is a little bit ridiculous and it creates some things that we don't want it also was discouraging some kids at times from taking the AP courses because if you got a B in some of the the courses and
160you didn't just take easier classes, you were putting your your possibility of becoming validictorian at risk because you might get a B. And so I the the committee was trying to balance all of those things for our district while also trying to maintain some reasonleness where everybody's not a validictorian because then you lose other you know credibility with that. And so they allowed the A's or the B's to encourage kids to take the most rigorous coursework that they could. You might fall just a little short of what might be a traditional validictorian, but you're coming out much richer and you're actually showing higher academic excellence. So those were some of the thoughts that went with it. Did you have any other questions? Trusty Phelix. No. Okay. Trusty Kirk. Thank you very much. And looking on
161here, I don't see a mention of dual enrollment classes. Now, I know that those are classes. We wait those the same way. However, if we have students who are in a lower grade level who get a C in this class, are they being made aware of the fact that if you do not get a B in the college level class that that counts the same as all of the other grades? That's a concern that perhaps they think because their classes at Fresno City College or Clovis Community College or Reley that they don't count toward this validictorian. Are we making it very clear that it does? >> Yes, in fact because that question so they were making it very clear when they were going through it with the the classes, you know, with their freshman sophomore
162and when they were reviewing it, it was very clear that it was letter grade. But even to make it clearer, the word augment even in augmented was added at one point just to keep reiterating that that that is an augmented course. It's a different course just like APs are are to be taught at college level. It's the same consideration. So it's the letter grade of an A or B must be maintained. Not the GPO, sorry, GPA points. Trusty Chavez. Okay. So, um, I have concerns and my main, okay, I'm going to go backwards because I need to understand how we got here. Last semester, I didn't share on the dis, but the parent who brought this forward um, last year was actually a neighbor of mine um, actually lived across the street. That student lived
163across the street from me. And so I purposely stayed out of that situation because of the fact that that was my neighbor and it felt too close. I didn't want there to seem like I was giving preferential treatment. Um but I have knowledge of that family more so than um the average student. So um in the case of that student, he was denied um valadictorian because he had actually taken an AP course um and had received a C. I believe I remember. Yeah. Um and so what she was advocating for um was that he was still above the well above the 4.0. Um and she basically asked the question of the board. So this was last spring. Um since then I've got conflicting information about what happened. I believe there was like 17 students that
164were caught up in that confusion. Um and so from what I understand, maybe I heard this wrong, but um it was decided that those 17 students would be given validictorian status for last year. Is that correct? >> So what was going on with that? It was a occurrence at a specific site. And it was actually for the graduating class before because during their freshman year, a video had been shown trying to explain validictorian and it had included the C listed in there in the video. That was only done at the beginning of their first semester their freshman year and the rest of the time it was clarified as they went through. However, because out of that those 17 students, when we went back and evaluated all the transcripts um for every graduating student for that
165class to see what might have been the possible impact, we decided to air on the um side of the students. And so there were two students that had a C in their freshman year, which when that initial confusion might have been going on, but because we were going if we were going to allow them to have a C, we looked at that entire graduating class and there were a total of 17 students that had a C in a grade in in a letter grade in one of their classes and still had over a 4.0. And so we sent a full explanation of we are airing on the side of our students and any confusion that may have happened. And to be fair to that oops that whole graduating class, there were 17 students that we
166sent and we changed their diplomas to show the validictorian criteria. >> So I feel like I wouldn't be doing my neighbor's service without saying that that student had already graduated and actually had moved away by that point. Um, so I just feel like I publicly need to acknowledge that particular student. That family in particular, um, the father of that family had actually gotten a job out of state. The mom had stayed for an additional year just for that student to walk in the central graduation and he didn't get to wear the validictorian cord that he earned. Um, and they were long gone after all of that decision was made. So, I feel like that's a black eye on us and I I don't appreciate that that happened. So, I just need to make sure that
167that's said and I take issue with this policy. I I still feel like um we're basically just digging in on well this is what we said and this is what we're doing and this is what we're sticking with and we're still kind of I feel as though um we did all of this investigation and all this talk but we found ourselves back in the same place and I still don't feel like it's a strong enough justification for me if a student is over a 4.0 I know. Um, and you know, I I don't know what we need to do, but I'm just saying I I don't appreciate the policy because our students that challenge themselves and could potentially find themselves in the situation, the student's name was Steven in situations such as Steven where he
168took an AP course as an elective just to challenge himself. And yes, he did get a C. So, I'm not defending the C. What I'm saying is we it's just not a cut and dry policy. And so I really am concerned. I don't know if we got student input in making this decision or if this was just an administrative decision that we just passed down. So the original committee was an academic. So it was academic employees of various ranges. I don't believe there were students that were on that original committee. Um the original validictorian criteria that they were looking at just said straight A's. So what they did was actually make it more encompassing by add allowing bees as well and that was part of the original change. So the the question that came up
169from the investigation wasn't a dispute or the investigation that was actually done that that student got caught up in and was then awarded didn't actually come from that um concern that was expressed. It was caught up with the other student who mentioned that they had seen or this other thing had been shared before. And so that student never raised that, never claimed the confusion piece, which was actually how they ended up getting awarded that back, but it was actually more lenient than the original criteria in the district was in 2021. >> Okay. So I I don't want to split hairs on the history but what I'm saying is I am the person who everybody knows on the dis that I specifically said um during graduation last year that I feel as though when we set
170the standard so high we don't allow for students who have an illness, a death, something that happens to them during their time in high school that could still allow them to be over the 4.0 you know, and they could find themselves with a C. I just don't I think that for us to just categorize it as you have to have you can't have a C and they could still have a 4.0. I just think that we're missing the mark and we're not giving that grace to some of our students who may potentially need it. >> I know there's still three other board members that wish to speak. Can you clarify because this keeps getting used and and I'm just very technical about this. This is essentially a procedure policy that has been approved at the
171administrative level. This is not written in any board policy or administrative regulation. >> No, validictorian criteria are not there's not a board policy that exists in any of the districts for validictorian. It is an administrative. >> So that is an option and I'm sure there's going to be other other feedback. Um trustee Keron, trustee Sers and then Trusty Singh. >> Thank you, President Curio. So my and I again assistant superintendent Mclennon thank you for your investigation on this. I know this incident happened before you were with the district. Can you and can you please share when did the committee communicate the changes to validatoran status and what format did they use? Was it social media parent square flyer? You mean when it when they streamline the the AM >> once they change to the uh
172the status? How did they communicate that to our students? >> So, it's done during parent nights. It's done during the handbooks that are passed out to each class. So, each year it's kind of reiterated and then there's a freshman sophomore handbook, then there's a junior handbook, then there's a senior handbook. And so the policy is is reshared each year in addition to when students are coming in and they're talking about the awards and they're doing like a freshman orientation piece. >> So there was a change between when these students were freshman and they got the handbook and when they were a sophomore, junior or senior and now there's a different criteria, right? >> So it's part of it. >> Yeah. So, for the class of 2025, last year's class, there was a video that was
173shown that was put together by um staff that was read that had the policy misstated actually at the time. So, they had kind of augmented their own at that site within that semester. By the end of that semester, it was clarified as they went through, but because of that initial confusion, that's where it ended up being murky. >> Which format did they use to clarify though? Was it clarified as like the principal read it out on the bell system? Was it in parent square? >> So, it was par it was clarified through the handbook, the publishing of the handbook, the sharing with the students and also um the college and career counselors. >> Okay. Yeah. So that I can see why this would be very confusing. I would be at a loss too. Um if
174I was a student and dealing with this. Um so to those 17 students and family members, if you're watching, I'm sorry that you didn't get to walk as a validictorian last year. You earned it. Um, if you got a C in an AP course, that is still commendable because you took a college level course that is rigorous and that is hard and you still passed it as a student as a high school student. So, congratulations. That that is why the AP courses are weighted. That's why we treat the B's as A's in an AP. That's why you get student with a 4.5. So if it's a if if the B is essentially worth an A in the waiting system, then a C is worth a B in an AP course. That's how it was communicated
175to us when I was a student at Central when I graduated 11 years ago. And we didn't have that restriction on C's um for validatorans because if you tell a student who is challenging themselves, I'm going to p push myself. I'm going to take AP calculus or AP chemistry and they get a C now instead, oh, I could still work hard and apply myself and take another AP course next year and maintain that validator status versus just telling them, no, it's over. You lost. That can be very crushing for a high school student who is driven by rigor and challenging themselves. So I think we did our seniors last year, those 17 students, a real disservice. I think we need to consider revisiting this policy and amending it to be more inclusive. It's not weakening
176any status of validatoran because it's still very rigorous and challenging to get a 4.0, know, but it's just making it clear and consistent and frankly bringing it back to, you know, our roots and what other high schools are doing in Fresno County. So again, thank you for the investigation. I think it was very illuminating and it shown us an opportunity to write a wrong that was made previously. So, thank you for the investigation. Thank you for your work on this. >> Thanks, President Sers. >> Thank you. Um, I've got a handful of questions, but I will try not to repeat the same consensus I've seem to hear from >> my uh fellow trustees. Uh, question. Are we limited on how many validictorians we can honor? >> No, you are not limited. >> Okay. Um, in
177regards to the uh the committee that kind of had this discussion in 2022, who who was on that committee? >> So, there was a college and career counselor. I I know at least one, possibly two, all three area administrators supervising the high school and multiple high school principles. >> One one thing that's kind of standing out to me is that I'm not seeing any academic counselors listed on that. that these are the folks who are actually credentialed and work with students every day developing their lesson plan or their class schedules so that they can actually graduate with the A to G courses that they need to leave them out of that discussion seems that we set things up to fail from the beginning. Um, what I have not heard yet is the discussion that was
178had, the decision that was made. How is this good for kids? because it seems like I'm hearing a lot of uh discussion that we set the kids up, we encourage them to work hard or try harder, push yourselves, but if you slip up for whatever reason over here, maybe it's not even out of your within your control because, you know, there are teachers that pride themselves on I I've got a hard class. I know that we've all had those teachers that, you know, no one graduate or finishes my class with an A. That's just their mentality. So, How is that fair to the students who are really challenging themselves and pushing themselves? I this I have an agreeance with everyone else that it's time to review this. >> That's all I've got. >> Thank you,
179Trusty Saint. >> Just I I think um Trusty Sers largely kind of uh shared my concern the the lack of academic counselors. I mean in terms of our area administrators, our our principles and even our college and career teacher, only to my understanding only the academic counselors have a PPS, meaning no other position requires a masters in this particular subject. Doesn't mean many of our area administrators and others may not have doctorates and and other degrees, but that's the only one that actually requires a particular degree. And um uh I I I know at this point it's only an information item, but I think you're overwhelmingly probably hearing from from the the sentiment of the board anyways that we'd like to relook at this and try to make this as inclusive as possible. >> Go
180ahead. um second time. But because this did occur because of a single video, I'm wondering if all future videos or future materials and supplies being sent out to students or families are being audited by administration. Is there like a review process to make sure this doesn't happen again or is just bill and sent out? So, at this point, we've gone back through and reviewed the materials that have been passed out for the last three years, um, and ensured that there wasn't any other confusion or any other things that were just adapted. Um, and we were able to confirm that. And so, we've had the conversation with the counseling staff and the administrative staff at this point about this is the actual format to use. This is the document. This is what you're sharing. If you
181put it on a slide, don't retype it. just put this up there >> and this goes for future materials as well, right? >> Correct. >> Okay. And second thing would be just to echo something trusty seller said, the lack of academic counselors. Speaking from a student perspective, these counselors are the people on campus who tell us like what when we're graduating, um if we're on track to graduate, um what our class rank is, what kind of grades do we need to get for our career paths. So these are the first people we go to as students to find out about our grades. And I just feel like there should be like a representation of that on the committee when deciding students and two would be the students themselves. This is a student matter and as
182the advocate for student voice there should be students both students and counselors on this and third would be sorry do you want to speak real quick? Okay. Um third would be kind of a personal experience. So sophomore year I was taking chemistry honors and second semester I had to leave because of a family emergency to a trip to India. I was gone for around 25 days and within that time I missed about a unit and a half and after talking to the teacher that was one of the hardest units in that class and that resulted in me not great getting the grade I wanted even though that was out of my hands and that's just my experience but that's a common experience for many students um in high school a lot of events occur that
183are not out in your hands cuz you're not a kid but you're not an adult either right you got to rely on somebody And so you don't have a lot of control in your life at that point. So events do occur for um high schoolers and you can't have complete control of your grades 24/7. And so I do agree that there should be an amendment or at least a greater conversation to be had about board policy and as well as consistency. If Kerman um Dauba, King's Canyon, like school districts like that have the 4.0 GPA policy, why should we not implement that here for consistency, for equity for our students? Thank you. I agree with everything that has been said, so I'm not going to repeat everything. Um, first, thank you, Assistant Superintendent Mlennon, because
184you were not here, and so you're getting the runt of of our feelings, so we appreciate we appreciate that. Uh what I'd like to see happen since this is an information item and I don't think there's going to be any opposition is um can you develop a plan so that we develop a board policy that reflects the sentiment that the board has shared. Um but I think before that comes to our board it'd be important that we have our student trustees and our outgoing student trustees kind of leave that discussion with students so that they bring that back and maybe include information about um the percentage of students that would be impacted by switching this policy. uh and then having something more um concrete and effect and and that can't simply be changed by any
185administrator um or any of our uh schools especially as we continue to expand which I'm sure in the upcoming years will just continue to grow. Um and then assuming that there's no accreditation issue or any other academic issues that we should be concerned about or if there are can you bring those issues forward as well? Okay. Okay. Um, go ahead. >> Just want to say we'll talk with Dr. Marshall about that and our administration before our next board meeting. >> Yeah. So, we'll develop a a timeline so we can have this come back. I don't think it may it probably would not impact our current graduating class. Um, but we can look at moving forward what that looks like and perhaps we maybe we can get some numbers as to what students would be impacted
186if we changed it to allow them to have a C and then the board can decide whether it's something we want to do and you can tell us whether it's even possible. >> I can use last year's graduating class as an example so we could see the impact. >> Okay, >> everyone okay with that? Okay, awesome. Thank you so much. So we'll move we're going to take um item number three next which is receive information on academic presentation. All right this is part two because last you know our meeting was long last time. So you got all the data last time. We're going to just do quick glances at some of the data. Go just a tiny bit deeper because we didn't talk about some of our subgroups and how they did and we're going
187to talk about a little bit about the what next. As you know, um I'm coming in it's month five and so part of that has been a deep dive into what is existing and trying to figure out the root causes of some of the things both the growth like what has been having a positive impact and then where do we not have the system supporting what we want to see. There's some really good news out of Central Unified and some things to be very proud of that are part of the guidance from the board and the teams that are out there working. And then there are obviously areas that we need to dig into. So to start off, English language arts, there was overall growth in the district. That has been a pattern. So it's
188not an anomaly that you're seeing growth in language arts. Um English learners, socioeconomically disadvantaged, Hispanic um and underhoused have had results increased in ELA. Um African-American, American Indian, and long-term English learners maintained. They had had shown some growth the previous years but they maintained their level this last year. Foster youth and students with disabilities saw a decline in this area. Uh one particular thing to be proud of with some of the things that the board has approved that have been brought by your team before me so I can't take credit for these is the results of the letters literacy program. So this program is a intensive training program for our elementary teachers. It goes back on the science of reading or how the brain gets grasp literacy and how to build on those pieces as
189you go through. And what we're seeing because we're in the fourth cohort of that. This is um an 8week course that our teachers take over two years and then there's homework and things that they build into their classes in the meanwhile. It's not a program or a pretty box. What it is is how to teach reading no matter what materials you have in front of you. So it's doesn't expire with a new adoption. It's really helping them understand how the brain is going to grasp reading. So, grade three results continue to show pronounced growth. And these are the kids that through that early literacy period have had teachers with this training. Even though this is voluntary training for our teachers, they sign up. We have 70% of our elementary teachers now that have been through
190this training. It's that good of a training. They're signing up year after year to have more of them take it because they're seeing the results. All but five school sites in our district made growth in the percent or students in ELA that were at or above grade level. Um, three sites declined and two sites had notable decreases. So, we're digging into what's going on with some of these. The average uh Central Unified student is within 20 points of what we would call meeting standard. So, within 20 points of grade level, that's on a 2800 point scale. So, that's something to be proud of with the work as we go through. Do we still have kids below that line? Absolutely. Which means we still have work to do. But the average student is pretty much right
191at that line. That was a fivepoint increase even from last year. And that's been a year-over-year increase that you've seen. So, we're four years into implementing the letters training. Um, we're now at the point where we need to start look at how to get 100%. So, we've gone with the voluntary. It's been very popular. It's been weekend Saturday courses and then they go through and and put it in practice. but we're going to need to start offering it during the school day during the school year so that it can be required for the last teachers and also for our new teachers to go ahead and take. Um I'm looking at including it in the induction process and some of the PD for our new teachers as we move forward so we can have everybody at
192the elementary level trained with this. There's a new reading screener right now that complements that very well and it actually breaks down based on the different skills, the subsklls of reading and literacy so that they get better data for how to group kids when they're working on their literacy interventions. So we're seeing a results of those new materials. Um and then we have pockets of work going on um to examine rigor and writing across the curriculum. Um specifically we're looking at informational text. So, academic uh reading, non-fiction, um and informative writing. Well, uh the theme of pockets of work is going to be a theme going through this because what I'm seeing is I'm seeing some isolated practices rather than some things that need to be brought up systemically and some things that we should
193learn from. As an example of your question to one of our principles earlier, some successes that are going on that we should develop systems to incorporate across rather than relying on some of the isolated practices that are going on. So intentional systems and professional development in those specific areas and then embedded PD which is coaching coming alongside teachers in their classrooms and supporting them in implementing. What we know about adult learning is that you're going to be out of your comfort zone for a little while because we don't learn anything when we're in our comfort zone. We're doing our our same thing. So, we're going to be doing that productive push um and some and people even though they love it initially, they get into that discomfort and they start to slide back. Embedded professional
194development is the only uh researchbased practice that has been shown to have long-term results. Otherwise, you go, you learn something great and then you come back and you don't use it because you go back to what you're used to doing. And so, we're going to be looking at some of that. Um, intervention teachers and a lot of our staff have inconsistent training and inconsistent foundations. So, not all of our reading intervention teachers have reading intervention extensive training. they were hired because they were good teachers and there's nothing wrong with that, but we need a consistent base and a consistent knowledge base for your specialty. And so we're going to be looking at making sure that everyone has that. Um, you heard about the IABS and the FIABs. We're doing more work to align those benchmark
195assessments. They need to take less time and they need to be more informative based on current needs for that teacher to drive instruction. And we're also going to be incorporating high lever strategies across all of our PD. Things that we have identified that we will just be hitting over and over and over again until everybody knows them, has heard them, has seen the tools for them, and just they just become part of what we need to do. And then multi-tered systems of support, really working at our tier three and helping our teachers understand like uh President Singh mentioned earlier with deployment, how to do good tier 2 intervention in your professional learning communities. mathematics. We had overall growth in the district. English learners, socioeconomically disadvantaged, Hispanic, long-term English learners, and American Indians results increased. African-Americans
196and students with disabilities maintained their score level. Again, foster youth and and um underoused students had a decline. So, we're seeing a pattern with those youth. And you'll see that shown at the end as well. Grade three results. Again, what we're seeing is when kids can read well, they can also do other subjects well. And so, we're seeing uh quite a bit of of um improvement from that. We also had some um communities of practice that were working on early number sense and early numerousy skills. And so, we're seeing the the payoff of that coming up as well. 13 schools showed growth. That's something to be proud of. So, we continue to see growth. We don't like our math scores, but they are improving. Uh, five schools maintained, three schools declined slightly and one declined
197significantly. The average CUSD student is within 56.3 points of meeting the standard, which was a four-point increase overall on average. Ongoing work, again, we had that focus on the early numerousy. The members continue to voluntarily meet because that work saw results. And when teachers are invested in something that they see helps their students, they continue to sign up for and they continue to show up and have those professional conversations. So, we're looking at how we can bring that to scale again instead of pockets. We are in the middle of a math adoption. So, for the first time in almost a dozen years, we're going to get some new math materials that really have some added rigor and some added tools to help meet some of our um intervention needs and our differentiation needs. We're going
198to be taking the opportunity as we adopt those to re-examine our essential standards and realign our benchmarks because while we're doing the work and while we have the group there, we're going to do the whole package of work and then plan our supports around that. Um the assistant director of mathematics has been holding vertical and horizontal articulation meetings with middle school and high school math teachers. And you heard um Central East talk about some of the work and the what what they're doing with their teachers in those. And then we're also looking at doing more special education teachers aren't always incorporated in these trainings. And so what you're seeing with our students with disability results is we're not able to maintain growth. that's up and down and sideways. And so we really need to look
199at the curriculum on those and we need to look at the trainings that those teachers are in because they're not typically specialty teachers. And what we see across the board is when you don't have a a very strong math background, like a math specialty, our scores start to tip unless we provide you some excellent um PD. It's also the reason often that elementary schools have lower math scores than language arts scores because a liberal arts major has a lot more writing and a lot more reading and literature in their degree than they have math. And so that's always a challenge and supporting those teachers and feeling confident in this is a important area. Right now we have one administrator and one coach for the entire district to lead math work. That's going to be a
200discussion. There's no way we can do embedded professional development and come alongside teachers with that. And so I'm relooking at educational services and you'll see an item coming up that talks about what do we need to make these things systemic because that requires time and it requires people working. And if we're going to say this isn't a voluntary group that I just meet with 15 people once a month, but if I have to do it with all third grade teachers, we're talking about major time investments and that's great, but time means people. And so we're going to have to look at that and keep our budget in account. And then PD going back uh use of manipulatives, use of rigor, use of academic discourse to increase that problem solving and those connections for kids because
201math can get um terribly abstract if we don't give them ways to make connections with it. English learner progress. So this is a note, you know, we talked about the large number double digits of schools in our district that were growing in the other two areas. This one in particular had the highest. So overall growth in the district. Um there was a focus last year on the long-term English learners, kids that had been e English learners for six or more years without being reclassified as fluent. That group showed the higher increase. So between ELEL's and ELELS, ELELLS rose 5%. Um ELS are running about um 51 right now and the English learner is 53.9% um growth year-over-year. 15 school sites were considered to be high [snorts] or very high results overall. So that's status. Where
202are we scoring? But then when we look at improvement, 13 of our schools still continue to show overall growth. Four schools maintained, three declines slightly, and one declined significantly. So, every single English learner student in our district meets with their um ELEL teacher twice a year to set their personal language learning goals. That means we're bringing kids into the conversation about what it means, what you need to do to be reclassified, how can we help you, what do you think that looks like, and how are you doing so far? The Multilingual Success Network has been working the last three years at the elementary level, and we're seeing the most results there. The idea behind starting at the elementary level was to turn off the faucet. So instead of waiting till kids were in ELTEL, how
203do we keep them from getting there? And so they're seeing success doing that. Um the EL coaches work, originally those EL teachers were doing a lot of individual student pullout and they shifted to be doing mostly embedded professional development, working alongside teachers to do the um integrated English learner strategies across the curriculum. And then long-term English learners continue to be a target group because they're long-term English learners and we don't want anybody being in our system six plus years without feeling fluent and confident and being able to communicate academically in English as well as socially. Our dy identified English learner special ed. So kids that are special ed but are also eelss. Um we there is a requirement that they have an English learner goal in their IEP. However, we know that it's not always
204consistent or rigorous. So, Lori Hinkle, our our special ed director, was really looking at that and really interested at making that more consistent and getting those um special ed teachers and gened teachers some training in that area. Secondary schools, um it's really easy to pick on our secondary schools because they have so many ELELS. You would not be an ELTEL if you weren't in the system already six years. So most of our ELEL students by the time they get to junior high if they're still EL they're going to be an ELTEL. They inherit almost 100% of their English learner population are ELELLs when they get them just by the nature of what an ELTEL is. So we really need to give them some different strategies because we go back to those wraparound services. If I'm
205still not progressing academically well enough, there's other things going on. Is it attendance? Is it um trauma? Is it uh learning disabilities? is it what is it? There's other things going on and so we need to look at that in a more holistic approach and help them with some strategies with that. And then um our EL coordinators again have varying levels of skill and training. So some of them were selected because they're great in English learner strategies and our EL department has done a lot of PD but they don't all have the same foundations that they came to the job with. They're all great teachers, but again, making sure that we have consistent practices and that we're training the same way and doing the same things across the board is going to be a focus.
206Graduation rate and college and career indicator. Um, we mentioned that this has been going up, but we don't like anything in the 30%s because that means there's 60 plus% on the other side, right? This is a really convoluted um indicator on the dashboard. They keep coming up with new ways to show it. They keep tweaking it. And so it's not a completely, you know, uh, standing target for us to hit, but there are some things that we need to be doing to, um, fix this. It also is not a quick fix issue because we're talking about the end of 14 years now of education. And so it doesn't just happen when we adjust something that suddenly that next graduating class is going to be college and career ready. So, we're looking at this over a
207multi-year. We have three schools that are classified in the high or very high status, which is a little sad because that's 30%. But that's where the state has set the high or very high status for accomplishment on this. We have one in the medium range and one in the low range. Remember, these are only high schools that get ranked on this, even though it's the culmination of all of it. Three of our high schools showed improvement, two maintained. um soioeconomically disadvantaged, African-American, foster youth, Hispanic, long-term English learners, and student with disability subgroups all increased. Our English learners maintained and our underhoused um decreased. Uh this one is a little bit misleading though, and I will just want to own it. So, one of the reasons, sorry, it's not on there. One of the reasons that
208um we increased is because we had dirty data before. So, because this one is so complicated, if you don't code all of your courses exactly right and you don't code all of your CTE pathways exactly right in the system, they don't count. And you'll see that in something I'm going to show you in a minute. So, um, credit to Mark Fowler and the team that went through and and Chad, our IT guy, they went through and started doing massive data checks and massive data cleanup and looking at all of our courses and how our experiences were coded in there. and we're still finding small pockets where we need to fix, but part of that is responsible for the increase that we saw last year. So, when you look at how our students met this, they
209can meet it with more than one of these areas, but they have to hit at least one of these areas in order to be college or career ready. So, most of our kids um were meeting the A throughG completion. This is just the group that was college or career ready. uh a third of that group had a seal of bi literacy. If they get that one, they have to get a three and a four on the the SPback as well. So, it's not just one criteria and some of these they have to hit. It's two um college level courses. So, you'll see that dual enrollment represented there. You see the ESPback scores. And then AP exams in courses. Now, they have to either pass AP exams with a three or a four or get an
210A with a four or is it's another one of those things where it's quite interesting how they make the combination for the two courses. The next one, we have some work to do. Um, you heard Central East talk about um some of the blockades for our students to be enrolled in CTE pathways. And we also have issues with um having what the state would term as highquality CTE pathways with industry partners and current technology and all of that and work-based learning experiences embedded across all of those. So, we want to start diving into that. Um, until we can fix the blockade of students being able to fit that in their schedule, we can't tell which CTE pathways to spend all the time and energy on until we can see which ones students are interested in.
211And so, we're hoping to work on that. And I know Dr. Childs is um looking at some of that. And we've had conversations with CTE teachers. Vapa is in much the same boat with the classes being a third full, a half full because kids just can't get them in their schedule right now. So, we're hoping that that's some of our lowhanging fruit over the next three years to look at CTE pathways. Um, and then 0% of our kids completed the bottom ones. Uh, you heard me mention the NJOTC that had some interest if we could check out our pathways and see what was viable and what we might replace with an in with an ROC program. I shouldn't say NJOCC because people who don't want the Navy in will, you know, complain. It's always a
212competition. But um we could put a military science program in and that would count towards this and meet a different variety of kids interests. Um pre-apprenticeship programs. This would be for our alternative ed schools. We're not that's job core and things like that. Um and the trades pre-apprenticeship programs. We could partner with those with our pathways and partner with those with our alt eds. And then our workbased transition learning experience. We do have workability for our special ed students. it's not being coded so that it's picked up in our cowpads. And so that's the lowhanging fruit for the data right now that that we're working on. So we're looking at things like master schedules right now to see how we can do this. Um right now kids that have to retake a class are English
213learners and our special education students that are in some of classes related to those things are blocked out of many of our electives. And so that's going to prevent them from getting some of these things. It also gives them difficulties if they get a D, having room to retake that class because they did get the credit for it and they have other priorities and things they have to get in their schedule. So, they may not be A through G as much as we could get them if they had a little bit more room in their schedule. Um, the other items on there I already talked about chronic absenteeism. This is another one. Um it it is still high but is continuing to decrease and there's a lot of work going on in this area. Um
214all of our schools fall in the medium to high range still for being high chronic having high chronic absenteeism on the dashboard. Seven of our schools had improvement last year. Seven maintained, nine increased. Um nearly all of our our subgroups either decreased or maintained. Foster youth had an increase. So, in talking with child welfare and attendance, these were some of the things that they wanted to share. Um, strengthening the SAR boards is going to be important and they're working on that. Um, they wanted to call out the strong work of the intervention specialists that we have that are actually knocking on doors and meeting with parents and doing those home visits and working closely with families like where they live. And so, that was a they felt that that was a key to continuing to
215chew away at this chronic absenteeism rate. Um, we're looking at establishing a district-wide campaign that start targets TK and kinder. So TK and kinder are our highest chronic absentee rates because EDC code doesn't require students to go to school till the age of six and now we have three year 11 month and a half year olds going to school. So, we have two years where mom may bring them on Mondays because, you know, there's a child care need, there's something else, but Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Friday, mom doesn't work or she doesn't have appointments or whatever or dad or whoever is watching them. And so, we're really trying to educate parents more on that. Uh the research behind kinder attendance says if we have a absentee with some problem in kindergarten, they're less likely to
216graduate. They're less likely to be reading at grade level by third grade. It's already like the prefate is already started because it's that importance of school and enjoying school and the the partnership between home and school. So, we're going to start a a campaign and information campaign or child welfare and attendances. And then we need to increase the student ability at middle school and high school to enroll in those electives. My son is dyslexic. He's amazing. He is a manager at Hobby Lobby. I'm so proud of him. He is doing great. He and his family just bought their first or their second home, sorry. Um, they're doing awesome. However, he hated language arts, reading classes, social studies, and for a while, science, because there was so much reading in it. If those were the only
217things he had in his schedule, plus the retakes of those and the intervent invention classes of those, I don't know what it would have been like to get him to go to school. There were other classes he went to school for. there were other friends that he had that were in other classes that he went to school for when it was really really hard. And so opening up and making sure that our kids have those opportunities, that they have those CTE opportunities and other courses to feel successful, to understand that they're not dumb, they just struggle in this area. And so, look, I'm doing this great things the rest of the day. Getting those electives opened up is going to be huge for keeping kids at school. Um and then placement opportunities for high school
218students. Um we have students that have mental health, social anxieties, and trauma. Um they benefit from a small school environment and they're asking we have parents that are asking for it and we just don't have space. Suspensions, we are maintaining uh low suspensions as we go through. We have four schools in the low or very low range. 14 in the medium for average for the state, four in the high and one in the very high range. The very high range is one of our alternative ed programs that um is having struggles and there there were kids were placed that had high suspensions when they came. Um 12 of our schools had improvement, two maintained and five increased in suspensions. It's important to note that several of the ones that increased had extremely low suspensions the
219year before. So if you're at 1% the year before and you go to 1.2% you get dinged your dashboard color falls. So you can go like this and still be like in the very low rating. Um all of our subgroups saw a very slight increase and by that I mean like 0.1%s or decreases um which is considered to be maintaining on the stats. So we have some work going on there. I know that um Dr. Lopez's team has been working with the MTSS for behaviors and then the academics if kids feel successful they do better behaviorally as well. Um and we're also looking at uh through the sim and through some of the other things that are going on more PD and trauma informed practices more parent engagement behavioral interventions planning and monitoring behavioral interventions
220um and collecting data to drive those conversations. So, I know that that's part of the work also that Lori is doing to prevent uh students being overidentified as special ed for behaviors. So, these are the last two slides, I promise. Um, differentiated assistance. Last year, Central Unified was identified for differentiated assistance, which means we had to add a component to our LCAP and we had to work with the county on a plan to address that using data targeting the specific groups. The good news is all three of the groups that were identified last year would come out of differentiated assistance this year because one or both of those indicators improved. So students with disabilities saw improvements in graduation rate, which was one of their reds. Long-term English learners saw math and chronic absenteeism improve, and
221American Indian saw ELA math and absenteeism improve. So that group that was in multiple ranges has zero reds this year. So that was nice to see. However, because differentiated assistance is a new rolling target every year and we talked about schools can end up and groups can end up in the dashboard even though they're doing pretty good, you can end up red or orange just because you fell a little bit. We have some new groups for us this year. Students with disabilities, um although they saw graduation rate improve, absenteeism fell and so that one went in the red. So that group stays in our differentiated assistance targets. foster youth absenteeisms and suspensions. You saw that when we were doing the report. They were the one that kept ending at the bottom with increases. Um African-American
222students absenteeism and suspensions and our underhoused is absenteeism and graduation rate. So this is um where we are at right now and we are required because of the status to partner with Fresno County Schools in a more intensive way and to do a um comprehensive needs assessment, academic needs assessment. So the reason that we asked for this to be switched is the next item is talking to you about that needs assessment. Any questions? >> Okay, before we take any questions, it is 10:17. So, can I get a motion to extend our meeting past 10:30? >> I move to extend. >> Second. >> Thank you. I have a motion by trustee Kirk. I have a second by trustee Singh. Student trustees, how do you vote? >> I. >> Everyone else, those in favor, please say I.
223>> I. >> Any oppose? Any abstensions? Motion carries. The floor is yours to our student trustees. >> Thank you. Um, couple of questions, but before that, thank you for all this research, all this presentation. Okay. First one is in the beginning you mentioned districtwide systems versus isolation. >> We kind of saw that with Rio Vista's presentation with principal Frink how she had implemented some policies that other middle schools haven't. Um what's your vision for that? Do you like intend to take some policies that work at certain schools and move them over to schools that don't work have consistent district policy for all like schools depending on like high school middle school levels. So on the consistency level, like what's what's your vision for that? >> That's a great question because that is always a balancing
224act because you want schools to be able to do things that are unique to them and their culture, but you also want them to have systems that systemically like see improvement or growth across the board. >> So what we're looking at right now is those high leverage actions and we're looking at things called we just call them loose and tights is what they're called in curriculum and instruction. There are things that have to be tight and there are things that you have purview or some flex over. So we're looking at exactly what those need to be based on where we're seeing success and which of our strategies that that we can um bring to higher scale. So maybe we were working with two grade levels. >> Yeah. >> How do we expand that and how
225do we deal with the staffing and reorganize ourselves to expand that? So we're looking at exactly capacity to do that, how to expand that capacity and which ones to focus on as we go through. >> So there is plans to make consistency. >> There is plans for certain things to be consistent. For example, when we're dealing with PLC's, if our grade levels don't have a common time for language arts together, like if all fourth grade teachers don't do language arts at the same time, they can't deploy for tier 2 interventions. I can't trade kids with you if you're doing math and I'm doing language arts during that hour, right? So, or you have music and your kids are gone. So, there's some things that we're looking at making consistent and reviewing and there are other
226things that um sites will have some flex for. >> Thank you. And next was you mentioned dirty data. So again is this data being audited and reviewed for future purposes like are we constantly reviewing this data? >> We are absolutely constantly reviewing the data and in this case the dirty data was in that dashboard indicator if it's a constant moving target anyway. So you have to continuously keep reviewing what they've updated and tweaked the criteria in and which things they've added to that every single cycle. And secondly, you um talked about the blockade, which was a scheduling issue. Um and then you mentioned CTA CTE pathways, which would offer college credit and does qualify for like labeling a school as college and career ready. Would RO pathways also count for labeling a school as college
227and career ready? And is there any plans to expand those RO programs? >> So RO and CTE are synonymous. One of them is a county offer or county partnership class where we use their curriculum and and there's some partnership going on with the countywide career technical education and one some of them are just district created courses that align with those. So they're all aligned to the California standards for career technical education. So they're they're synonymous. >> My bad. I didn't know they were the same thing. >> No, it's okay. That was a great question because we use so many acronyms. >> Um yeah. And next with some missing programs like the IABS, the military science programs that we were talking about that would help our students achieve some of those goals. Do you have any
228visions to implement those programs here in long term? >> One of uh Superintendent Marshall's um bullets that he talked about for his plan is to investigate that. Um again, that's kind of like the CTE. It's a multi-year phase in to figure that out. Um, and as soon as we can figure out because right now we're looking at um, elect like I said elective classes that are one-third half full in many cases across the district. So once we can figure out where which of those classes students would pick if they were able to pick, we can look at which ones they wouldn't and what we might want to replace. We don't need more electives right now. So I can't just like offer a whole bunch more programs. I have to figure out what to switch out
229in order to meet students interests and college and career readiness. >> And last question for the differentiate assistance uh program from the county. So we're continuing those policies regardless of the group, right? Those policies aren't group specific, right? >> So if foster use increases and African-American like increases, it's going to still going to >> So we target across the board like suspensions and chronic absenteeism, language art scores. We we target rich and supportive systems for all students and then we look to see if specific groups have specific barriers. For example, foster youth have some very specific barriers sometimes to what's going on with them. English learners have some different barriers. And so looking at homeless, you know, those are those are some great examples of those. So we also target >> issues within, you know,
230the root causes within a group. But overall, we want it all we want the whole boat to rise. Of course. And there is specific policies for each group, right? >> Policies means >> it's like changes like what the differentiate assistance program recommends. >> Uh so it's going to dep that's what we're waiting. There's an audit coming up. Um there's a proposal to do an intensive audit. Um and when we do our LCAP review and we get input specifically from some of those um atrisisk subgroups then that information and those root causes are always put in that LCAP plan every year to redevelop and figure out additional interventions based specifically on those groups needs. >> I just wanted some context real quick. >> Well and just to clarify the differential assistance is a status. that essentially
231in the most simplest not politically correct terms would be we're not doing well because these students continue to decrease um in their success in the various indicators and so we need to in addition to maintaining the services we're providing we have to provide focus support for those students to improve otherwise I mean it's a bad thing it's it's not good to have that status >> I wanted to focus on it thank you yeah >> yeah great questions thank you any quick questions from the board we are going have a workshop in January where we're going to be able to dig in. But if there's like brief questions you want to ask, uh, Vice President Sers, >> I'll keep them real quick. Uh, I >> 30 seconds. >> IB program. What is that? >> So, if
232you think of AP programs as a state level recognized within California, IB [clears throat] programs, the international balory program would be the international level of that. So, it's a higher rigor course. It's got very strict structures. It has a extensive training program required for any teacher and any administrator that runs that program. Um and and it's uh the international level of AP. >> Okay. Thank you. All the different acronyms. I got lost with that. >> Absolutely. >> And then my last questions are regarding the data that's entered into CalPADS. Who's responsible for entering that and providing that? >> So that's one of those things when we talk about systemic changes and and needs for a system. So over the last couple years, it's been much more systemic. So course information is entered by um Chad
233and his team or Evan and their team. Actually, it's Chad. Sorry. I'm still learning like who does what in each department. That's my fault. And they've been wonderful, by the way. Um but Chad is going through and he's he's the only one now entering course information when a course is outlined or approved. like tonight's course, I will sit with Chad and I will go over exactly what all of those things need to be in Aries, which is where CalPADs will pick it up and if all of those things are coded correctly, it will pick it up to meet tick the boxes. >> Okay. So, somebody is providing the data to him and he's entering it. >> Yes. And on top of that, we now have a system that we worked on this year where the
234cowpads reports when he before he goes to certify them because they're certified several times a year. before that certification, there's a review window and he now prints those individual reports, whether it's an EL report or a foster youth report or a a suspension report or whatever it is. And then we divvy that up to the appropriate director's assistant director so that they can double check the data before he clicks submit. >> Okay. And that's going to be the new process moving forward. >> Yep. We have a cowpads committee now. >> Awesome. Thank you, >> Trusty Kuron. We said brief. >> Thank you, President Ker. But we'll keep it brief. Uh I just want to share though that since now I've heard, we've heard it multiple times tonight and now I've heard it from every level
235in our district, it's become very apparent to me that the move from the eight block schedule to the sixth period has done more harm than good for our students. It has hurt our electives. It's hurt foreign language. It's hurt the arts. And it's now hurt, you know, college and career readiness for our students. I think it's really time for us to take a look on improving this for the next school year. That's it. >> Thank you. So, we will have an opportunity to dig deeper into all of this data and ask a ton of more questions. It's my understanding that we are looking at January 20th for a workshop. So, pencil that in. We'll circle back and make sure everyone uh that works for everyone. So, thank My plans for that workshop are to do
236a data dive into one school with you so that you can go down the rabbit hole that we go down and and look diagnostically with us. >> Perfect. We love that. Um okay, we still the floor is yours. Number two, receive information on West Educational Systems Review. Very briefly, this uh assessment um done by West Ed, which is a highly reputable educational agency um and and educational research agency as well um would look at our educational services systems, resources, and staffing. So, previously there was a evaluation done by a group called TNTP in 2021 2022 that looked at student experiences in the classroom. This looks at our systems, looks at how our things land, do we have the systems that we talked about to sustain and what would it take and what does it typically
237take for a district our size. >> Thank you. Any questions for our student trustees? Any questions or comments? Okay. Any objection to having this return under consent? Okay. This will return under consent to our next uh board meeting. Um item number four, receive information regarding lease agreement for the Central Unified School District warehouse. Assistant Superintendent Eko. >> So currently the district is leasing a warehouse and the lease will expire in next May 2026. The district has to lease the property for 2 years which should give enough time to build the district warehouse. So uh administration is recommending the item be placed on January 13 board agenda for action. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments from our student trustees? Any questions or comments from anyone else? Okay. Any objection to having this return under consent?
238And I'm assuming we will have a plan eventually to build that warehouse. Thank you. Item number four will return under consent. Uh item number five, receive information regarding the sale and disposal of surplus and obsolete district property. Assistant Superintendent Eko >> attached is the list of item that will be surplus by district which means the these items are unacceptable use by the district. So again, administer recommending the item be placed on January 13, 2026 board agenda for action. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments from our student trustees? Any questions or comments from anyone else? Okay. Hearing none, this will return under action. I believe we have to take formal action. Thank you. Item number six, receive information regarding the Tedar architects contract for facilities master plan comprehensive update. We have director Rodriguez presenting this
239item. Uh thank you again board president and uh board of trustees and superintendent Dr. Marshall. Tonight I'm providing a anformational update regarding our upcoming facilities master plan work. Uh our current master plan uh was approved by the board on May the 11th, 2021 and is set to expire in the very near future. Over the past uh several years, this plan has served as a roadmap for maintaining, modernizing, and expanding our district facilities to meet the ever uh evolving needs of our students and community. To ensure continuity and progress, uh we have engaged Teter architects who will uh assist our district in developing and updating our long reach plan. Their [clears throat] expertise will help us align our facilities vision with both educational priorities and community expectations. The updated facilities master plan will incorporate the new
240requirements established under the state proposition number two approved by the voters in November the 5th of 2024. This ensures that every project we undertake will fully comply with the latest stated standards and regulations. Administration recommends that this item returned to the board for reviewing of the forthcoming Teter contract and for board action on January 13, 2026. Now, even though this is uh is presented as an information item, I would be happy to answer any questions you may have on this item. >> Any questions or comments, Vice President Sers? >> Can you provide a little bit more information about what they are actually going to do for us? >> So, they'll update our current uh facilities master plan. So the facilities master plan under ED code it's required under ED code 1707 uh 54 that requires
241you know them to actually look at our existing facilities uh each classroom capacity it it in encompasses a lot of things capital planning for budget prioritizing it will work handinand with CFW who made a presentation here uh based on eligibility prioritizing our projects uh similar to what we have now but a little more in depth because of the Prop 2 requirements that that are required. It's a huge undertaking but uh we're ready. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> So it's my understanding that they will also be involved in having like meetings with our principles and our employees to discuss some of our needs. >> Is that correct? >> That is correct. And also there's a community involvement component to that as well. >> Okay. Um I know we approved the facilities master plan in
242May of 21. I don't remember there really being a robust involvement. So, um, let's just make sure that the board is actually involved in the process and not just in approving the final product because, um, as we've learned, those of us that have been on the board a little bit longer, we end up having to pay a crapload of money for the the architectural plans that were built 20, 30 years ago that are just not compatible anymore. So, I just want to make sure that the board is involved in the process. >> Yes. >> Proactively. Okay. Thank you. Any objection to having this item return under consent? >> Okay, this will return under consent. Item number seven, receive information regarding change orders for the athletic complex uh increment number two project at Justin Garza High
243School. Director Rodriguez. >> Thank you again, board president, for your information tonight or change orders for the multi-prime bid packages and the attached itemized summary list for the Justin Garza athletic uh complex increment number two for your review. So, increment two, just a real quick uh quick uh rundown. It's the press boxes, the bleach uh bleachers, scoreboards, the batters eye, the flag poles, all of the the uh block buildings, including the concession stands, the restrooms, the maintenance yards, and uh additional perimeter fencing. So, uh just to let the board knows that every change order has been reviewed by the architect, the construction manager, and the district staff to ensure costs are fair and necessary. administration only brings forward changes that are justified and in the district the district's best interest and therefore staff has reviewed
244and recommends that this item uh return to the board on January 13, 2026 for board action and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have on this item. >> Thank you. our student trustees. So, I've been a part of the board for less than a semester and I feel like there's something always about change orders on the agenda [laughter] and I'm just wondering more of the context because I know change orders occur when there's unforeseen circumstances when there's stuff we didn't think about occur and I also realize we're spending a lot of money on this and so I'm just asking why was that like a foresight just uncertain circumstances um was it the architect's fault or something like that or >> yeah so it's it's a perfect question. So so in construction um
245you know drawings and specifications you know serve as the road map for all of our projects but like any complex plan uh they are created by humans and based on assumptions and so no matter how skilled the design team is uh you know there always will be gaps ambiguities and unforeseen conditions when construction begins. So uh one of the things is the complexity. So a school is made up of thousands of integrated systems, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and finishes. And even the most advanced 3D modeling, we still can't catch everything. And a lot of is a lot of code updates and revisions that actually go to the state and come back while we're in construction. Those are additional costs. There are some costs though that are deductive. uh things that are no longer needed and
246I've brought those uh in the past here. I'm hoping that answers your question. >> Um so things first of all I'm not very experienced in construction but >> hopefully for our sake this is a common occurrence in construction having this many change orders >> and secondly um I would like for this to serve as more of a learning lesson for any more construction we do like fill in the gaps what we might have missed or something like that just for future. I know mistakes happen. I make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes, but just learn from them. >> I I appreciate that. And one of the things that we're doing on the new VAPA project, just so you know, is that we've implemented BIM, so BI building information modeling, so we can actually see the clashes and
247all the conflicts that we can see, but even though we're still in construction, so we see those clashes and we try to mitigate a lot of those, but you know, we're >> Thank you for always improving. Yeah. >> Yeah. Well, I thank you for the questions. Any great questions? Any other questions or comments? Any objection to having this return to consent? Okay. Um item number eight, receive information regarding the architectural services by Darden Architects for 26 school painting projects. Director Rodriguez. >> Thank you again, board president. Uh attached for your information is a proposal from Darden Architects for architectural services for the 2026 school painting projects. Uh Darden Architects and Fresno has provided comprehensive architectural planning and interior design services throughout California since 1959. Under this proposal, Darden Architects will prepare uh project documents for
248painting, design, bidding, and construction. It is important to note that uh that the address listed for Persian Continuation High School in the proposal is incorrect. The address shown is 10950 West McKinley Avenue refers to our former West Arts campus. uh center campus. Uh the correct address for Persian Pathway campus is 855 West Nielsen Avenue. So I will bring back an updated version uh at the next board meeting, but I just wanted to ensure that this uh that the board knows that this proposal will be updated to reflect that correct information. And with that said, administration recommends that this item return on January 13, 2026 board agenda for final review and formal action. >> Thank you. Any questions for resident trustees? Okay. Trusty Kon and then Vice President Sers. >> Thank you, President Curio. Uh so
249if approved, when would we see these painting projects be completed? So, uh my our plan uh is to start uh putting the construction documents together uh sometime in January uh right after the approval uh process and then we will start uh putting the bid do bid documents together. I'm anticipating going out in spring because that's when the contractors are hungry for work for the summer work and we'll start doing the uh you know kind of making the phone calls hey you know letting all the painter contractors know that hey we are going to have these projects and it were really successful our central high school uh that came in really good we had a lot of participation there our numbers were really good so I'm hoping to repeat that the same process this spring And
250so this it would go out to bid in the spring, but then the painting itself would be done >> in the summer. >> Summer. Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome, sir. >> Vice President Sers, >> this might just be silly question, but why do we need to spend nearly $100,000 for an architect to design paint? >> It's a great question. So, a lot of that stuff is is like specifications, right? We want our facilities to look good. We don't want them to put one coat of paint on it. We need primer, you know, at least three coats of paint. The specifications are what ties everything together that holds the contractor accountable and we don't pay them unless they are per the specifications. We also get schematic uh design on the elevations to see what that
251uh scheme is going to look like for the school. >> Okay. You're welcome. >> Trusty Sing, >> I just wanted to uh just make sure um Director Rodriguez, so while the address is listed for for the whack, the paint would be at Persing. >> Persian. Yes. Persian Pathway Campus. Yes, sir. >> Okay. I'm going to ask for this to come back as >> Y. Go ahead. >> Real quick. This would just be the plans for the plane, not the actual paint, >> correct? >> Yes. Yes. Just for the design uh the design. >> Okay. This item will return under action at our January 13th board meeting. Thank you. And our final information item, receive information regarding 2627 deferred maintenance plan. >> Good evening, board president Ko, board members, and superintendent Dr. Marshall. Uh, tonight I'll
252be providing some information of our deferred maintenance plan for the next 3 years. Uh, before I dive into the on there. Okay. Before I dive in though, I want to clean up some of the language. Unfortunately, uh, the the board agenda shows a budget for like $9 million. That's incorrect. The budget for the deferred maintenance plan for the 2627 school year is $2 million as it has been in the past. The $9 million plan was a list generated to show the need to start putting some money or try start showing the projects that need to be done. Um that's been brought up in the past. Uh so what I'm trying to do is just show the need. Um so I'm just going to dive into the and I'm sorry the documents you guys should have
253the new ones. They were printed out so you guys should have the new ones. Um for next year's projects, we are looking at a uh roof repairs at Persian Continuation High School. Uh replacing HVAC um replacing HVAC at multiple school sites um based on age and uh we're looking at 20 years and older units. Uh El Capitan replacing classroom uh carpet and Rio Vista Middle School uh getting their PA system changed out. And for the following year, uh again, roof repairs, uh at Central High School and at Central East, uh these will be partial repairs, uh for the sites. Um we have Steinbeck Elementary and Soy that will get classroom furniture uh flooring and then Teague Elementary getting classroom furniture. And for the last year in the plan, uh again, we're going to continue with
254roof repairs at East and uh Central East High School and Central High School. Uh repairing some old portable restrooms at Madison Elementary and uh picking back up with some replacements of old HVAC units. Uh one thing on the HVAC units I wanted to hit on just to remind everybody, we did get a grant through Calshape about three years ago. It was for um it was supposed to be in two phases. The first phase we got, we got about in total about $4 million if not a little bit more. And it was for assessment and maintenance. Uh basically, we had a company come out, check every unit in our district, uh provide us an inventory. They had to do some stuff, send it back to uh uh CDE. Uh we were supposed to with that do
255with that information go in and get put in line for the second phase of the project, which would have been actual replacement of the units. Uh we were um allotted uh $46 million but unfortunately the cowshaped grant was um I will say abruptly um ter not terminated but put on hold. Uh so um it was a we're we were planning on that $6 million to take care of a lot of our old HVAC units. U but now we need to start putting some money away and and taking care of our older units. Uh the next thing on there um is I tried to change up our how we show what needs to get done and just try to make it a little bit easier to read. Uh so the next four pages are u priority
256list based on the sites. Um, how we get to the priority is going to be based off a number of things, but a couple of them are age of the buildings, age of the project that we're talking about. Um, work orders and just assessments based on what we're talking about. So, like with roof repairs, we have done assessments. We know which roofs we need to look at. Um, HVAC, we have an inventory, we have an average age. Um, some of them, um, you know, we have done work, we continue to do work even up until today. If a unit goes down and we need to replace it, we replace that unit. But these are all going to be more of a entire site priority, not individual. So there might be uh you know, I want
257to say I know there's one school I can't off top my head think, but I know when I was looking at the inventory, there's one unit, but everything else [clears throat] has been changed out, but one unit is about 18 years old. Uh same thing with our flooring assessment. We have based we have an assessment we re review and update every year and we um have the priority list based on that. And then and just furniture also that's been a big one. Um we we have a lot of school sites that have original furniture and it's something that our students have to use every day and so we've been trying to get a lot of those changed out. Central High School got changed out last year. Um it wasn't a full site but it was
258for majority of the classrooms that they would be using. >> [snorts] >> Uh the next uh thing the next document I want to go over is actually something that was done earlier this year with site administrators and Dr. Marshall that was identified during the facility meets that meetings that he held at the school sites. Um these items were shared with the facility subcommittee that we had last month. Um we are in the process of defining the scope and priority of each of these items evaluating the impact and uh operational need and uh project scope. Our focus is to complete uh these projects um based on feasibility uh priority of work and minimal disruption to school operations uh while establishing a long-term plan to complete all the remaining projects. Um there's quite a bit on this
259list. Uh you I know the the print printouts might be a little small so I apologize for that. Um all these documents will be uploaded on the agenda so you'll have a digital version of every one of them. Um there's a lot of stuff on here and some of the stuff that really stuck out to me was um enhancement of our school sites for students. Um Central High School specifically um you know we certain areas just can't grow grass where students stand and where they are um providing them concrete getting them spaces where they can sit making a little bit more appealing. That's a that was standing out. We have areas like at Biola and Helen Kernney under solar panels that is just dirt. they can't grow grass underneath it, providing them concrete so they
260can put bleachers or whatever else they need to just make it a little bit more appealing. Um, some of the stuff that we've already gone over um in previous meetings was the actually just approved in this meeting was the uh intercoms the front intercoms for all the school sites. This was on that list. A lot of school sites were asking for that. Uh but this is a comprehensive list with the site's input and uh we are working not only with um de developing that plan but just with our own inhouse uh staff complete as much as we possibly can. Um yeah um administration is recommending that the deferred plan be approved at the next uh board agenda or board uh meeting on January 13th after answer any questions the board may have. >> Thank you.
261Student trustees trustee. >> So um director I mean um I appreciate you putting sort of this list today. I think question is maybe more in terms of conversation with with my uh my colleagues on the board. For the first time about two years ago was two years ago we actually created a deferred maintenance budget at about $2 million. The reality is is for a single roof repair that basically takes out the entire budget. So we've set ourselves systemically to not actually do any of this. If there's a general consensus, would you be able to potentially and and and during our budget conversations we can have that if we increased at least to four, how would we actually begin to make progress on this list? >> Yeah. Um, I think my goal was to kind of
262show and 9 million is very high just but I wanted to be able to show some of the stuff. Um, you know, with one roof costing $2.8 million, I'm having to essentially piece it out and do it for over three to four years just to try to get that project done. Um, I've had to do it and and we've done it in the past um because we had to because we had bad roofs and we need to get them repaired, but it's it's we're we're working against ourselves really. And um I I think a $4 million deferred maintenance list would allow us to get a lot of this stuff done and it would be able to get big things done that we need to get done. >> And and the reality docu Dr. Bach, if
263you're piecing it, the entire replacement is actually that much more expensive. Yeah. because you're doing it in phases. You're you're you're doing it you're doing it peacemeal and um I mean for for the entire board the reality is uh until two years ago we allowed our schools to we we basically patched roofs as they leaked and so our our facilities are have extremely deteriorated. If we're ever going to like give the our students the facilities they deserve, we're gonna have to um we're gonna have to really invest in our facilities. >> Can you So, let's have this return under action um for our next board meeting. Um, considering what Trustee Singh has mentioned, can you bring back a proposal as to what it would how much would be an appropriate amount to allocate to our
264deferred maintenance? Um, if it's more than the four million, like what does that look like? Acknowledging that we have some restraints given our budget, but just something that's more realistic because I'm assuming you just doubled what we >> I did. Okay. I did. So, I would just I would just appreciate kind of your guidance and your request as far as what is some what is an appropriate amount in order to maintain our facilities at the level that our community um expects and they deserve. >> Can do that. >> Perfect. Any other questions or comments? Okay, that was our final information item. Thank you very much. Advanced planning, the calendar is attached for your review. any additional information or closing comments from anyone. Thank you to our two student trustees. Please continue to come back and
265I'm sure we'll see you around as you help our our next incoming trustees. And any feedback, please connect with me or um Dr. Marshall. Uh our next board meeting is Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> Say of course and thank you. Our next board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 13, 2026, beginning at 5:30, close session, and then 7 p.m. for a public session. Um, we do not need to adjourn. Uh, also under our next meeting, um, we're likely going to have our workshop January 20th. And so, we'll send you information about that. We don't need to adjourn. And so, then, uh, can I call upon our student trustees for a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion to journ. >> Yeah. So I have a motion and a second by certain trustees. All in favor, please
266say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Any obstensions? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you and good night everyone.