Central Union High School District Board Meeting: 10/14/25

001Okay, I call this meeting to order at 5:15. Today is Tuesday, October 14th, and we'll go ahead and call this meeting to order. I know Elizabeth said she might be a little bit late. So, at this time, the board of trustees will hear public comments, presentation, or requests on matters listed on the close session agenda. The board will not respond to any public comments directly. Speakers are requested to give their name and address. Time limit for speakers is 3 minutes. The board shall limit the total time for public input on each item to 20 minutes. The board reserves the right to limit presentation. This meeting is being recorded. And if I look to my left, I don't see anything in the box. Um, Carol, did we have anything? >> Okay, we do not have any

002public comment at this time. So we will go to close session. Okay, welcome back. Um, we did have one thing that I need to report at of an action that took place during close session. Uh, the board voted unanimously to take disciplinary action regarding a classified employee on a motion by trustee Ellit and a second by trustee Espinosa. before we stand up for the pledge of allegiance. Um we the central community actually central teachers lost uh two gentlemen over the weekend and I just want to say a little bit about those two men today. Uh George Folks was a teacher at Central for decades. I had the opportunity to teach with Mr. Folks. He was also an avid softball player >> and when uh I'm sure you worked with Mr. Folks and so when when

003I was coaching with coach Middleton baseball I was coaching softball he was coaching baseball. We always had a game called the Spartan special where the girls would play against the boys and Mr. Folks would always pitch on the girls and would have to pitch to the boys. And let me tell you, Mr. Folks had an an awesome slingshot and did a great job representing the faculty and also the girls softball team. So that was something that I'll always remember Mr. Folks for before for he passed away this weekend. And the other gentleman is Mr. Adam Gonzalez. And some of you might be a little bit more familiar with Adam. Um, he was my athletic attendant when I was the athletic director at Central. And some of you might have seen him in the uh the

004newspaper during the bell game because he would paint his head like a football helmet. He you know he balone he didn't have any hair. He would put a big C on the side and use the tape like the face guard. And uh we lost Adam this weekend as well. So we are thinking about Adam and his his kids. his son just graduated from high school. Little late and I can't I can't believe he's graduated from high school. So, um right after the pledge of allegiance, I'd like to remain standing for a moment of silence for those two gentlemen that we lost over the weekend. Okay. So, let's go ahead and stand for the pledge. >> Ready? Begin algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands.

005One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, we're going to go on to communication and recognition. This time, I'd like to call up Mr. Derma. He has a very special presentation to do today. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay, family, welcome here tonight. I like to call up Miss Jackie Pletes, please. Miss Pletes, come right to the front right here. Read a couple of things about her for those of you that do not know. Miss Pletes is a teacher here at Southwest High School, one of our art teacher. She's been teaching at Southwest High School for a total of 10 years. Um, but most recently, uh, she's been recognized by the county office education as a champion for the arts. Um, we are very proud of her.

006So, let's give her a hand, please. And with that, I know she'll be upset, but I'll like her to say a few words. So, please go with that, please. >> Not prepared. >> Thank you. Thank you everybody so much. Um, I really thank all my students. I feel this award should be for my students. Um, my students is the one they are the ones who put all the the hard work. Um, I I am there. I I feel I'm I'm only the DJ who plays music in the classroom, but um I I I feel honored to be re to receive the the award of champion for the arts. Um I think as ICE for for the support uh Mr. Derma, our principal um and and and and everybody in our district, thank you so much

007for the continued support. Um my students are always working. world always doing so much uh fun stuff. Um anybody's always welcome to my classroom. Right now we're working on some papermâché alrizes. We're going to have a an exhibition the second week of November at Dillards at the mall and um I'm also talking um to uh the cultural arts center in Kexico to also do an exhibition over there. Um so a lot a lot of things uh happen in in my classroom. I am very happy to be part of the progress, part of the the journey of my students, part part of their their artworks and um and I'm very proud of them. So, and thank you very much for this recognition. Thank you, Mr. Derma. >> I feel truly honored by this recognition. I did

008not expected it at all. I feel I'm not doing anything different than any other teacher. Um, but I do pour my heart into my profession, into what I do. I love working with the students, seeing what they're able to create. Um, I love being part of the journey of the process of the creation of their projects, and their creativity. uh facilitating, guiding them, inspiring, inspiring them and motivating them. I think the champion of the art mean um being a role model for the students, being an inspiration, being a motivation for the student, someone who guides them, someone who believes in them, being that person that that supports them in in this field of the art. I love that they like to come into my class. I love that they feel they feel free to express

009themselves. It's not uh teaching art, teaching drawing or painting. It's communication and self expression. Um it's critical thinking, problem solving and I just feel very happy that that my work is not going unnoticed. um that that people recognize what we do in the class um that we get the support. We've always done the support from ICO, from our community. Uh so I love that. I love that we're getting that support in our classrooms that the students are being recognized as well. I'm just the one kind of behind the scenes. I give my students all the credit for doing all that hard work. Um, but I do thank I for this recognition for for for letting me know that the work the hard work is not going unnoticed. >> Okay, one more time. Please give her

010a hand. Thank you. Okay, here. Oh, sorry about that. All right. And our certificate does state. Certificate is presented to Miss Jackie Pes. Certificate is awarded Miss Pes in recognition for her hard work and dedication students of Central Union High School District. [Applause] >> Thank you. >> I had the opportunity of attending the ICO presentation that when she received this award and it was just a wonderful event and I was so proud that I got to sit at her table. >> But yeah, she was the uh So, thank you so much what you do for our students. Appreciate welldeserved honor. Thank you. [Applause] >> Okay, Dr. Farcus, you're up next with our industry partner recognition, caliber screen printing. >> Okay. Well, good e good evening everyone. Thanks for coming, especially for all these uh fantastic

011recognitions. welldeserved recognition. This one tonight is uh one we do we've started to do every board meeting recognize our CTE partners for all of our CTE pathways our community partners and tonight we're going to honor the October career technical education industry industry partner of the month recognition and that goes to based off our CTE teachers selecting caliber screen printing. Do we have a representative from Caliber with us? Come on up. Yes. Cal Caliber Screen Printing has gone above and beyond in their support of our students. They have provided field trip opportunities, actively participated in our CT advisory uh meetings, and generously sponsored student groups. Their engagement helps shape the future of our workforce by exposing our students to authentic industry standards and diverse career possibilities. Through their encouragement and direct support, Caliber motivates our arts,

012media, and entertainment students to strive for the level of excellence necessary to succeed in their chosen careers. Their partnership not only strengthens our CTE program, but also contributes to the economic growth of our local community. On behalf of Central Union High School District Career Technical Education, it's my pleasure to recognize Caliber Screen Printing as our October CTE Industry Partner of the Month. Thank you for your service, your leadership, and most importantly, your commitment to our students. And this is our, speaking of CT, this is our new uh recognition plaque that is created inside our um our engineering and technology um in the STEM building, the the special tools and machines that I c could never use. Uh high techch and well done. So our students created this to thank our partners. So thank you very

013much. >> Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Nice to see you outside of the office. Every time I go there, he's in the back doing all kinds of things. >> Congratulations. >> Okay, now for one of the best part of our meeting is when we acknowledge our students of the months. So, um we'll let the principles back there decide. Arm wrestle who gets to go first. >> Okay, Mr. L. They're all rushing to the podium. >> I always eat first too. >> Well, uh good evening. It is always an honor uh to be able to present our student of the months um and um to be able to recognize these students for all the the work that they do uh throughout the year and uh to start off the year. So at central what we do

014is we uh recognize by departments and so our first uh student of the month that we would like to recognize is Gilberto Geres. Uh Gilberto I don't know are you here? Maybe he's uh would just want to the teacher uh indicates that Gilberto is an excellent or exemplary student who truly stands out as a role model for his peers. His dedication is unmatched. Uh consistently demonstrates and an incredible strong work ethic. Approaches every assignment and challenge with focus, persistence, and commitment to excellence. He uh not only achieves academic success, but also inspires those around him to strive for his best. So, we want to congratulate him and I'll make sure that he gets this tomorrow. [Applause] Our uh second uh one uh from the social studies department is Alexa Zamora Vasquez. I know I think

015I there she is. Um the teacher indicates Alexa has been chosen as student of the month for her excellence in AP microeconomics. Her presence and demeanor is greatly appreciated both uh for her personal enthusiasm as well as her manner of elevating uh the experience for those around her. Her positive attitude and consistent energy personifies what is what it is to be a Spartan. And this uh and it is with great pride to award her student of the month. And I know, like I said, I see her around all the time. She's in our Mexican-American club. uh uh the VP of the Mexican-American Club, class of 2026, treasurer, link crew, arc leadership, speech and debate migrant uh and girls basketball. What an amazing student and we're going to congratulate her for all her achievements. After you

016shake hands, just stay up there and we'll we'll get everybody else up here, too. So also with our uh world uh language department is uh Addison Henry. So Addison, there we go. And it says here uh teacher indicates that Addison consistently demonstrate a strong commitment to learning and academic excellence. Her dedication, responsibility, and positive attitude makes her a role model for her peers. Whether participating in class discussion, completing assignments with care, or helping others, Addison sets a high standard uh for what it means uh to be successful and a respectful learner. And she's also in the HOSA and positivity and the softball. So, congratulations. [Applause] And our final is um for our soul studies uh is Haime Nava. So haime. There you go. And the um soul studies uh teacher uh department is honored to

017recognize him as student of the month. Haime is hardworking, responsible. He is intelligent and caring. But perhaps what sets him apart most from his peers is his passion for the subject and his ability to think critically and apply historical thinking skills. Jaime is an outstanding future historian and is very deserving of this award. So he is also part of our tabletop gaming club, our art club, and our esport. So congratulations. [Applause] >> That's okay. You can still do that. We're going to go ahead right up here and take pictures. And thank you again right up here in the front. >> We're gonna make it work this way. >> Make it behind. >> They're gonna come out. >> We're coming up. Congratulations. [Applause] Okay, good evening once again. And this is for Southwest High School. We

018do it by grade level for our students of the month. We'll start out with our ninth grade with Brianna Takata. [Applause] Brianna was nominated by Mr. Zavala because she is an exceptional student who consistently produces high quality work and approaches every assignment with focus and dedication. Brianna is always respectful, kind, and polite, making her a joy to have in class. Brianna was also nominated by Mrs. Gams because Brianna, this is my favorite part, is a shining light wherever she goes. So, give her a hand, please. And for 10th grade, we have Lola Monero. Lola was nominated by Mrs. Wera because she is a hard worker, has straight A's, participates in cross country, and is a great human. So, let's give her a hand, please. And for 11th grade, we have Don Donovan Enriquez. >> Donovan

019was nominated by Mrs. Ramirez because she is an exceptional student, consistently uh comes prepared to class, stays on task, and is a pleasure to have in class. He is responsible and is actively advocates for his own learning. Let's give him a hand, please. And finally, we have for 12th grade, Alyssa Guzman. [Applause] Alyssa was nominated by Mr. Henshaw because she is in quotes absolutely excelled in IB mathematics. She is standing standing out among her peers and has a great attitude. She is also excellent at participating in class and assisting her peers. She was also nominated by Mrs. Ramirez because she is hardworking, self-motivated, and engaged with her peers in school activities. She balances her education outside activities as well. She also serves as our school site what >> school site presidents. Give her a hand.

020Okay. Congratulations. Open [Applause] All right. Good evening. Good evening board members, superintendent and >> all public in attendance. Uh thank you guys for being here. I'm the proud principal of Desert Races and Phoenix Rising and I'm here to celebrate and recognize our students for their great achievements and uh and success that we've been you know we we always uh cheer on every student obviously, but sometimes you know we do have to celebrate those special students that kind of stand out and and want to make sure that they're recognized and the families know how great of a job they're doing at school. And so to start off, we have two students from Desert Oasis. Uh our first student is uh George Rivas. And I don't see him here. He promised me he was going to be

021here, but you know, you know, seniors sometimes, you know, they got things to do. Maybe he has a job. I don't know, right? Um George is a he has an attendance rate of 95% and currently is on track to graduating this June. Uh he is one of our superstars in our barber and beauty CT pathway and he'll be a completer this year. I haven't decided on who's gonna come out here next but it might be George. Might be George. >> And um and he also has a he currently has a 4.0 GPA. So >> it's George. And I'll give him this uh certificate when I see him tomorrow. Our next student for Desarasis is Angela Partida. and she's here. And Angela has perfect attendance. She hasn't missed one day of school. So, that's awesome. Uh

022her current GPA is a 4.0 uh GPA. And Angela is also one of our uh schools council student representatives. So, she's there. Um and this really resonates with me because one time I walked into her classroom and she had some concerns. Mr. Diaz, I'm glad you're here. We're going to talk. I was like, "Okay, thanks. let's sit down and talk, you know. So, um, and it's mentioned by by her teachers that she's a go-getter and she doesn't shy away from self advocating. So, good job, Angela. [Applause] >> All right. And then we have uh two students for Phoenix Rising High School. Uh, our first student for Phoenix Rising High School is Aaliyah Valdivia. And Aaliyah has a and Aliyah has a 95 94% attendance rate and has a 3.0 GPA. Her career goal is to

023become a zoologologist. Uh you know, we just found a little kitten or Miss Miss Jacqueline found a little kitten outside. You might want to take them home. Zoologologist, you know. Uh one of our favorite things, uh one of her favorite things is to uh it's arts and crafts. Uh she finds it very fun and relaxing. uh teachers have mentioned that she's uh very caring, very thoughtful, and she gets along with with every peer at school. So, congratulations uh Aaliyah. [Applause] And our next student is Michaela. Michaela Dylan. And Michaela has an attendance rate of 96% and her current GPA is 3.3. Her goal is to become an artist and design special artwork for for people. Uh she really enjoys drawing uh for her friends and family. Uh teachers have mentioned that she's very detail oriented

024and always wants uh to do the best on everything she does. So congratulations Michaela. And I guess now we'll we'll take a picture, right? Thank you. [Applause] And thank you parents for being here. Dr. Parkers, do we need to take a recess or we just go? >> Take some goodies. Please >> just make sure you take some cupcakes. >> I think we can go right into it. You good? It's up to you. Okay, so we'll go ahead and continue. We're on item number five, the governing board reports. We'll go ahead and start with Trusty Elllet. >> Evening. I've had a fun month of learning lots of new things about all of our schools. Um, I was able to attend several ESN classes on the different campuses. Teachers doing a wonderful job. Amazing aids in those

025classes. Each school had a higher ed assembly um presenting different colleges. That was fun to go to all the schools there. And I attended DOHS had a suicide prevention uh I'm sorry, they had a presentation with all the students paying attention. That was really nice. Um see what the flag pole is a national um celebration event and I was able to go at Unina High School. There's over 42 students that met met there that morning at the flag pole. It was a really great event. Also able to attend um the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Our community is very very supportive and this is so much fun to start seeing. But Central Baptist Church and Calvary Chapel actually offer breakfast on game days to the football players. So there were 77 football players there. Um and

026then they did the flag the girls flag football team also uh before a game day. So breakfast is served to them. They get to school on time for sure. They leave by 7 o'clock. So that's really fun. sports assemblies and um went to the IVROP had a advisory meeting for the whole valley and I went there and one of the things I really was was very impressive is when uh the breakout sessions they were saying how to enter the apprenticeship program the mo the most important thing is for our students to have reading comprehension and math skills because otherwise they can't even get into the work field and it just reinforces everything we're doing and how important it is that we work together. That was really neat. And then recently there was a fifth quarter

027at Central Union High School which is after the football game and that was a really neat experience even though it was really really windy. And then uh the girls flag football team from both schools played recently and that was really amazing to watch. So lots of good things going on. Um, oh, and then one more club I was able to visit at Central is the the green team and the science club. And they were really working on recycling. And I don't know if you know, but you have to dump all the water out of all the bottles. So, they were cleaning all the bottles to make sure they were ready to recycle. Great group of students, student le taking minutes for their meetings. We have a lot of great things going on on our campuses

028that the students are doing. It's a real pleasure to be able to see it. So, there we go. >> Thank you, Miss Ellen. Okay, we'll go ahead and go with Trusty Espinosa. >> Thank you, Trusty. >> Not as busy as trusty Ellen, >> I'll say. Um, I was very privileged and honored to attend the ICE Autumn in the Arts event um that celebrated Miss Jac Jaclyn with this. So, that was really awesome to see her work, her enthusiasm and dedication, what verbatim of what she said out here and you can just tell it comes from her heart. So, it was really, really cool to see that. And she was my uh cousin's former art teacher. It was really cool. She inspired her a lot in her own artistic ways. So, it was cool to see

029her celebrate like that. The uh I do want to thank Central for hosting the NASA space apps over the weekend during homecoming weekend. It was in a collaboration with Sir Optimus and I know Oh, there's Mr. Lion. Thank you. Thank you so much. There's been some fun learning lessons with it. seems like it might be a reoccurring event, but uh very positive and thank you so much. Um students and of all ages from I think I said what like one years old to up to like 99 could participate in this NASA space apps challenge. It was really cool. It was fun to see. They brought in different judges from all over the valley to judge these um problems that NASA can't solve. So then how are you all going to solve them? So I think

030it's really cool actually. Um, and it's the three students from San Diego State 1. So, I believe they'll be moving on to the next level, I think, nationally or statewide. I can't remember, but it's really great. It's good to see them going out there. Lastly, um I do see that there's I think game boards on the table, right? The high school game. Okay. So, that's really cool to see. The young woman and her mom, she's come in here a few times. I don't think they're in here today. Um, she's come in here and shared the board game with us. And I will say that I was fortunate in my own time to um present at this women's venture summit and as well as this young woman and her mom. And so this opportunity that we

031were both given and we didn't know until actually we went up and saw each other. It was really cool, really cool to see. Um and it was cool to see her and her mom get on stage, pitch what they're doing with the board game, their vision for across the nation, what they want to do. and they they got this opportunity to speak in front of I'm going to be right say it was this one of the first women billionaire out there. It was really cool to watch their faces and their um responses to what this young woman and this mom have a vision for and to see that emulated outside of the valley and even here too because I see it on your on your tables. It's really cool and I really keep an eye

032on them because I really know they're going to skyrocket like crazy. but they were able to be afforded of that part of the SBDC, so small business development center resource. I do know we were all part of that resource that allowed us to go pitch out there. So, I think it's incredibly important and available for high school students and so I'm glad to see all of that working together and it's just creating opportunities for the students. So, thank you so much and I see that. So, it's really cool support. Um, that is conclusion of my report. >> Thank you very much. Okay, Trusty Tars. >> Um, sorry, I'm not going to report. I have nothing to report today cuz my allergies are killing my throat. >> Okay, Miss Mora, >> that would be me. >>

033That's you. >> Um, I agree with uh Debbie that it has been a busy month, but it's not only a busy month. It has been a very busy >> Every day. I don't know if I'm coming or going, where I'm supposed to be at, and where am I supposed to be at? And it it's it's very nice sharing a lot of stuff with our our students. But first of all, I want to congratulate even though they're gone, the student of the month, they're all gone. They didn't take cupcakes. And I want to congratulate Miss Jackie for her artwork and and the way she speaks about her students. You know, that's that's what I keep asking for. um support, not only support from your board, but it just goes, it trickles down to support from their

034teachers, their staff, support from their parents and relatives because it's not only about playing sports, which we have been to every possible sports out there. Just when you think nobody knows who we are, you know, I think this young lady that wherever she sees me, it's like, "Oh, she knows who I am." Instead of thinking the other way around, right, that uh she would say, "Oh, she knows who I am." We know who you are. And I want to thank the the student uh board representatives because it takes a lot for you to be sitting here, you know, and have that report ready. I don't know if somebody does it for you or you have to be like investigating everything that is going on. But it's much appreciated and and thank you for coming to

035to us when you see us out there at the school site. It really makes us feel really uh satisfied because we're we're here for all of you and and to be able to be recognized or appreciated means a a world for us. But um we've been there at assemblies. They were awesome. I I enjoy him. Sometimes I would just want to I know Craig gets involved and I haven't seen Mr. Derma uh jumping in the middle of everything, but I I enjoy him and and thank you. They're just excellent um assemblies, the games, forget it. It's we just sit there and get popcorn and sodas to drink and enjoy everything instead of sitting in front of the TV enjoying Korean uh drama. I I would rather visit every Just don't call me at six o'clock

036or 7 o'clock in the morning. But we've done it. We've done it. And thank you. I I truly appreciate everybody's just becoming this family because that's that's what we should be, you know. We're here for you and thank you and we will continue keeping busy. Thank you. >> Thank you. Well, there was an event at six o'clock in the morning. was the cross country on a Saturday. So, it was good. We had all the schools there, several schools there doing the >> but it's okay. >> So, I don't want to, you know, repeat everything. There's been football games, flag football games, uh volleyball matches, u assemblies, you know, we had homecoming at both schools. Uh we're winding down the kind of the end of our fall sports and hopefully uh several of our teams make

037it to postseason play, but that's that's yet to be determined. Um Autumn in the Arts was amazing. I mean, they had raffles and they were raffling all kinds of things. And then when it got to doing a silent bid for something that was a little bit out of my price range, I kind of had to say, "Whoa." But I need to go to volleyball match anyway. So, I kind of snuck out the back door. But that was good. I did go to Dr. Korea's first responders class. They took my pulse, took my heart rate, they made me stand up and jump in place, and then they took it again. So, they were so thorough. They did a really nice job. and they had their little stethoscopes and the little the the scrubs. They were very

038very professional. I really enjoyed that. I know we have Cafe 56 tomorrow. So, that's going on. Um I want to just give you a little sneak peek. We have uh the class of 85 is going to have their reunion, their 40th reunion during the bell game. So, I'm sure Mr. Lion is taking uh uh reserve section to make sure that they're accommodated well. But we are going to have two very special guests that will be there at halftime. Um, and I'll give you a little bit of profile what they were doing and what they've accomplished after they graduated from Central in 85. We're going to have the honorable uh judge uh uh Ruth Montenegro. She's going to be there um and talk about some of the things that she has done in the past. She's

039so excited to to go on the tour. I guess Mr. Lion's going to let them tour uh the campus probably during that morning assembly. So, she's excited about that. >> Saturday. >> Sat Oh, she said Friday they were going to go. >> Oh, okay. Well, you I'll let you connect with her. And the other person that's going to also be there is going to be Dr. Fenel and he's our county superintendent. He's going to be there. And what they're going to do, they're going to kick off the halftime show. And I know Mr. Yanni has broken great. He's got some props and it's a Halloween theme show. So, we're not only going to focus on our athletes that day. We're going to focus on the band, cheerleaders, tall flags, Spartans, majorettes. I don't know if

040I'm leaving anybody out, but we're also going to involve that class of 85 that's celebrating their 40th reunion. So, I'm really looking forward to that and they're excited. You know, I talked to both of them today and they're they're very excited with what's going on. Um, so I did attend the CIF athletic leadership symposium and this year they focus on the mental health of the student. So, we had uh representatives from all the schools in the valley. I brought some uh pamphlets back and then also the last year's athletic director of the year is in here and coaches of the year and something that you know you might want to look at when you get a chance. It was a very good opportunity to to network with some of the people that were there. And

041you know what? That's all I have. So, let's hear from our Yes. >> Let me bring something up that >> I forgot. and and of course age the podcast. I was in tears when I was listening to Mr. Marco. What what's his last name? PL. >> Oh, that's right. He was our student. Peralta. >> Marco Peralta. >> Peralta. I I thought it was Pasa, but it's Peralta. I listened to it and I can't hardly ever stay still. But when he started speaking, I listened. His message, the way he answers every question speaks so highly of Imperial Valley. Imperial Valley. And he did not omit anything. He says, "I was raised in the KOA 111 and Ross." And it makes me that's my parents and where I come from made made me very humbled and and

042appreciate where I'm at. and he the way he spoke about how Imperial Valley is this not necessarily family but it's it's everybody is supporting everybody says Imperial Valley support is like no other and he says you don't see this in LA you don't see this in San Diego and it's like oh it was just beautiful please if you haven't listened to it is very very inspirational. I have one of my grandkids in Minnesota, the other one's in Costa Mesa and one is in San Diego and right away I forwarded to to them and I said here's a little piece of Imperial Valley. >> But thank you, S. >> Thank you. I remember when he played soccer. Yeah, Marco, he's a good guy. >> Okay, we'll have with Let's have Southwest go first today for the

043board report. Good evening, Superintendent Dr. Farcus, board members, members of the community, and fellow students. My name is Zoe Baxter, and I'm your 2025 2026 school board representative for Southwest High School. Since the last school board meeting, the club at Southwest has been extremely busy. To my ASB report. I would like to mention how the city champs game was very exciting and that our ASB did an amazing job decorating the seat section for cavity. On another exciting note for the annual canned food drive, Southwest High School brought in 2,852 pounds of canned food to donate and Central brought in 582 pounds of canned goods, making that a grand total of 3,434 pounds that goes to the bank. I think it's amazing that our two schools can come together and really do it for a good

044cause for the community. At the end of the month of September, our academics committee has presented our classified staff to Mrs. Bianca Ortiz for all the hard work that she does to help keep things running smoothly in ASB as as our athletics director there. And they then presented our artist of the month from the Southwest band as Italia Morales. And we congratulate the both of them. Recently, our academics committee has also presented the October teacher of the month to our English department head, Miss Ramirez. Also, congratulations to her. I have her for Ivy English and she's a really good teacher. And uh during the last week of September, our ASB planned and executed an exciting homecoming spirit week and assembly centered around the theme of disco and diamonds. So, at the homecoming game, then Amanda

045Ramirez was crowned the 2025 fall homecoming queen. And at the dance, Honjay Wu was crowned the 2025 fall homecoming king. Last Tuesday, our ASB also had a fun lunch meeting called Slices with the Soup to ask Dr. Farcus any questions that we had about our school and school district in general. As a group, we found the meeting very insightful and we also look forward to staying more in touch with Dr. Farcus and the rest of the board to create more opportunities for open discussion. Yesterday, our ASB also attended the KATA leadership conference at Mir Mesa High School alongside Central where we got to learn more about how to improve our leadership as a group and individuals. The conference is always uh an insightful event that helps us to see what we need to improve on

046and what we need to do right now to help make us better. I also would like to say congratulations to Mrs. Blees for her uh ICOE champion of the arts award. I think it's really amazing what she does. And moving on to my athletics report, making history on September 19th, our tackle football team won against Farrell. really exciting to be there when they made that touchdown. And some athletic events going on tonight at Southwest are the volleyball city champs game and where the theme is pink out for breast cancer awareness. That's why I'm also wearing this ribbon to promote that. And earlier today, our girls golf team had their senior night and competed in their last IVL match versus Vincent Memorial where they actually won. and we wish our girls volleyball good luck tonight at

047their game. The current records of our fall team sports are girls volleyball with 0 to 5, flag football 2 to8, and tackle football 1 to6. Then the current records slashupdates for our fall individualbased sports are girls golf 12-0, girls tennis 102, and with an overall record of 134. So that was their IVL record. Uh then the boy the Southwest boys and girls cross country team swept their colle of this year and the junior senior boys finished first at the Veter and the Eagles brought a home a total of 14 medals at the West Wetlands in Invitational in Yuma. They had four medalists and the varsity boys finished fourth. The junior varsity boys finished fifth and the varsity girls finished sixth. At the Southwest Eagle Invitational, they had 12 medalists with their junior senior boys and

048junior senior girls both finishing in third place. And at the Imperial Valley League cluster meet, Southwest had three top 10 finishers. The JV boys finished fourth and the varsity girls and varsity boys also finished sixth. Some upcoming events for um for the cross country team is at this Saturday they have their IVL cluster and then the Kit Carson Invitational on October 24th, the IVL championships on November 8th and the CIF Division 2 Champions on Championships on November 15th. So any additional information can be found at SHS athletics on Instagram. For HOSA, the HOSA members got to interact with one another in a fun team building ice cream social. What they did was they worked together to create a HOSA Sunday by listing different HOSA values and presented them to the group. They also would like

049to remind everyone to save the date for the October 23rd blood drive with the San Diego uh blood bank. And the event will be from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the SHS gym. for Red Ribbon Week on October 27th to 30 to the 31st. HOSA will be hosting daily lunchtime activities to share the importance of living drug-free. Moving on to Active Minds, the Active Minds chapter officers attended the World Mental Health Day Summit at IVC on World Mental Health Day, October 10th. The event allowed active mind officers to a place to interact with peers and other community leaders on mental health initiatives and awareness. Active Minds will be hosting a virtual watch party for the Youth Voices for Wellness Conference on October 16th from 4 to 7 PM in partnership with Together for Wellness

050and it will be open to all students. They plan to continue their wellness Wednesdays every week except for minimum Wednesdays. and they would like to let everyone know that on October 29th, dental assistant students will be leading My Smile Matters Day. For AVID, during the month of September, they focused on fundraising and t-shirt sales. And in October, they're planning their AVID day, AVID Jeopardy, Kennedy Day, site team meeting, and also the Hebrew Fall Festival. For Key Club, they started the year off strong and with a very successful kickoff meeting. They currently have 86 members on board who show a very strong spirit of service and leadership. And in support of suicide prevention month last month, KeyClub also launched their first studentled initiative called Give Voice Week. During their give voice week, students and members of

051Key Club participated in two themes. Give voice to positivity and give voice to education. Some events that Key Club has planned are October 16th lunchtime at lunchtime tables focus on domestic violence, October 25th, participation in the Heber Fall Fiesta, and October 28th to the 31st, they would like to end the month with Red Ribbon Week activities during lunch to help spread awareness. Moving on to orchestra, this past Saturday, we had a one-day youth camp for experienced students to help them develop their musical skill skills and perform a new piece they learned and rehearsed that same day. It was very successful and the orchestra will be planning another one for the future if you want to look out for that. and Southwest Wind Ensemble and Orchestra would also like to announce their upcoming joint concert called

052A Night at the Movies this Saturday at 700 p.m. They are also extending an invite to the board to ex to attend their performance this Saturday to hear some of your favorite movie soundtracks. Now, moving on to Eagle Corps. In the last week of September, the cadets were called to perform one final time at the Padres's color for the Padres's color guard as they prepared for for postseason. They e they executed the performance greatly and the staff was pleased and excited to continue their partnership with the cadetses. The cadets are also working to participate in the Hebrew Fall Festival on October 25th to execute their parade participation skills along with providing security for the booth event happening right after the parade. This past Saturday, October 11th, the cadets assisted Cody's Closet, which is a vital

053local organization that provides clothing and warmth by bringing new beds to students in need. Upon the or organization's request, the cadets helped to distribute over 100 new mattresses to local children throughout the Imperial Valley. And they would also like to give a special shout out to David Lochek, who serves as a master sergeant of their unit and has also started his final portion of flight school. Alongside being a senior at Southwest High School, he is officially flying a plane and is attempting to become a fighter pilot within the military. Yeah. And then moving on to FFA. For September, FFA had their chapter meeting, green hand leadership conference, vegetable crop class competitions, and SHS can food drive. They are currently for the month of October doing their chapter meetings, Ducks Unlimited banquet, and their opening and

054closing ceremonies contests. On the 28th of October to the 2nd of November, some members of FFA will be attending the National FFA Conference in Indianapolis. And for my attendance report, as Southwest High School had a 96.97% attendance for the month of September, don't forget to follow Southwest ASB on all platforms, including Instagram, Tik Tok, and Twitter. On behalf of our Southwest ASB and Principal Derma, thank you for your time and I hope you all have a great night. That will conclude my report. >> Thank you. >> Busy at Southwest. >> Okay, Central. >> You're next. It's that time of year. The weather changes a little busy busy busy. >> I want to go to >> I know my kids are going. >> Yeah. Okay. Good evening board community members and superintendent Dr. Forkis. My name

055is Alen Alvarado, the 2526 schoolboard representative for Central Union High School. To begin my report, I would like to mention that the month of September was childhood cancer awareness month, suicide prevention month, and deaf awareness month. We would like to thank Spartans Wellness that is with our HOSA chapter, ASB, and Wilkins's wellness, health, and wellness for promoting this entire month on social media and around campus. On September 10th, we had um our senior sunrise, which was held by the class of 26 on the track track field from 6:00 a.m. to 7:30. September 11th was a day to honor those who were affected by the 911 attacks in which we wore red, white, and blue to school and at the city champs game. That morning, we held the pep rally that started with Face May and

056a morning march out by the great Spartan band, Tall Flags, and Spartans, ending with Cheers and Chance by our cheer team. That evening, our varsity football team took the city champs title once again with an ending score of 30 to6. During both lunches on September 12th, we had a club fair where all our Spartans had an opportunity to meet new people, find new interests, and get involved on campus. Congratulations to our girls tennis team for winning 15-3 against Klexico on September 17th. Flack football had a victorious game of 32 to 20 against Holtville. On September 19th, ASB held the Spartan Senate meeting where we talked about all our upcoming athletic and all schoolwide events, ending with the leadership lesson of there versus there, highlighting the importance of being more than physically present at any event.

057Our HOSA officers attended the Washington Leadership Academy Conference from September 20th through the 23rd. Having the opportunity to talk to other hosted chapters from across the country and senators and legislators helped them reflect on their strengths and weaknesses as leaders. They also advocated for more mental health resources, training staff, and continuing per the Perkins funding. We appreciate our HOSA officers for representing Central and using their voice in hopes of making a global change. Our varsity girls volleyball team swept Broly on September 22nd, winning all three sets. September 24th, our varsity girls volleyball took another win against Southwest, winning three out of five sets. September 26th was such an eventful day at our central campus. We held a morning prep rally to get ready for the football game against Linta. We also had our fall sports

058assembly, Sparty Jungle Mania, where we recognized all our fall athletes leading off with performances by our Spart teams, cheer, and pep flags. Thank you to all our athletes for participating in our games and our amazing teachers who participated in our inflatable teacher dance battle. That evening, our varsity football team took another victory with a score of 35 to 29. Thank you to the great Spartan band Tall Flags and Spartans for wearing yellow bandanas to bring awareness to childhood cancer. The girls golf team also had a successful match that same day against Vincent Memorial holding a record of 6 to1. Our cross country team participated in the IVL cluster one on September 27th with varsity and JV boys winning first place. Also that day, law academy students volunteered with the sheriff's department helping them with the

059community service fundraiser. The attendance rate for September was 96.13%. October is breast cancer awareness month by showing our support. We are promoting Pink Wednesdays this entire month. Thank you to Dr. Farcus for coming on October 1st, speaking to our ASB council, and finding ways to continue to make this school a great success. Our homecoming football game was on October 3rd against Imperial, which was themed pink out. The homecoming dance on October 4th was themed a night in Paris. Thank you to class of 26 for hosting such an eventful dance. Congratulations to Victoria and Emiliano Morales on winning homecoming queen and king. Our flag football team also won city champs on October 8th. Thank you to ARC for partnering up with Rudy Leas continuing um to highlight what our culinary arts is doing and those students

060created a video for Instagram highlighting what um highlighting their u food handler certificate and they had created a meal. Also, ASV and link crew representatives attended the Kata Leadership Conference at Mi Messa High School on October 13th. We learned all about the importances of leadership and how we can implement new ideas into our campus. Thank you to our amazing district for funding this conference and giving us an opportunity of becoming better leaders. Lastly, I want to congratulate Central on being the 2025 winners of Imperial County Race to submit. October upcoming events include a Spartan Senate meeting on October 17th, no school on the 20th, honoral night from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on the 22nd, our blood drive on the 23rd, our volleyball home game versus Imperial on the 23rd. as well. Change makers are hosting

061Red Ribbon Week from the 26th to 29th. Fall con carnival during both lunches on October 30th, bellgame morning assembly the 31st, and our 82nd annual bell game on the 31st at 700 p.m. I thank you for your time tonight. Make sure to stay updated with all our central activities and events. Follow us on Instagram at CHS updates, Tik Tok, CHS Spartans, and YouTube Spartans for Life. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] >> Take a breath. Okay. Desert Oasis. >> Good afternoon, Superintendent Dr. Parkus. Board members, staff, and all those in attendance. Thank you for this opportunity to speak in front of you. My name is Gala Allesandro Gillian, and I am the student board representative for Desert Oasis High School and Phoenix Rising. Here are some of the things that are happening at Desert Oasis and

062Phoenix Rising. We recently celebrated Miss Aguilar's advisory who had the most participation using impactive pathway our SEAL online program. Quarter one focus was curiosity and perspective talking. Now for quarter two our focus will be gratitude and compassion. We also had five top students who excelled in their participation with impacted pathway. To increase our students attendance we have a monthly friendly competition where we celebrate the class period with the highest attendance rate for each month. For the month of September we are celebrating Mr. professing courts period one for having an attendance rate of approximately 89%. Our current attendance rate for Phoenix Rising is approximately 92% and our attendance rate for Desert Oasis is approximately 89%. On September 16th, the students celebrated Mexican Independence Day. During lunch, ARK provided a piñata, interactive activities, and a frescas. Higher

063education day was hosted on September 22nd. This gave the seniors an opportunity to speak to college representatives about their schools and programs. To promote suicide prevention awareness, ASB students created posters to place around campus. A representative from behavioral health visited the campus on September 24th to provide a suicide prevention presentation. On September 26th, we had a suicide prevention awareness fair where we had over 15 community agencies on our campus to provide resources. During lunchtime, students have a sensory table available through art self-care club, giving students an opportunity to make slime, jewelry, and other hands-on activities. Patriot Day was recognized with posters and wearing red, white, and blue. Students welcomed the month of October with a celebration for staff members Juanita Martinez, Caroline Calron, and custodian Tony, who has served our school district for 28 years.

064Counselors began assisting seniors with logging into their CCGI accounts. The first financial aid workshop was held today during the ARC CUSD community lights on event on October 23rd. Two students will be showcasing their musical talent with a per sorry with a performance and nine CTE barber and beauty students will be showcasing hair cutting skills at Southwest High School. In the following weeks, ASB will be hosting a pumpkin decorating contest where students and staff will be showing off their creativity and ARK will host a Halloween social filled with themed activities such as face painting, tricky tricky charades, and delicious delicious treats. Now, I want to conclude my report by handing out a gift from all of us at Desert Oasis and Phoenix Rising. >> Right. [Music] Thank you. >> Got to buy ours. >> I know.

065They took it away from me and Debbie last time. >> Wow. >> I know. I like that >> a staff gave it to us and then the other staff took them away. >> Thank you for your time. I hope to see you at Desert Oasis in Phoenix Raising. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Wow. I know. >> Okay. >> You're not up yet. We have No. Do we have any club reports for tonight? >> Okay. Now you're up. >> T-shirt and some cupcakes. Tonight we're going to um spend a little bit of time with the report. Instead of be sitting here and talking about a couple things that are going on in our district, I want to go into a little bit of a a more um focused big picture on our district initiatives. Um

066hopefully it won't be longwinded and hopefully there'll be an opportunity to answer any questions. We talk about our district in so many ways. We hear these incredible reports that seem like, how could you really accomplish all of that at this school in that short amount of time? It's amazing in our programs, our recognitions of our incredible students. We've got a lot of good things going on in our community and our district. When you put that many people together, young adults, uh, families, staff, you're going to have different kinds of conflict and disputes, right? Um, but I like the way we work together and we rise above it. use it obviously a democratic process at our board meeting for policy. We recognize all the hard work of our staff and our families and our students and

067it's really a privilege to be the superintendent in our district. Tonight I want to focus back into the things that maybe we don't notice every day because we see all the awesome stuff that you know that is the centerpiece of that day and what connects us to school all the awesome athletics and programs but drive that is the engine that drives it and the engine that drives it is why do we come to school? Well, most of the time it's the teenagers come to school for friends, connection, achievement, everything they do. We all come to school every day to try to make our school and our classroom better. And that's what we're going to talk about tonight in my presentation. First of all, our district vision. I underlined it because anytime you get a vision,

068unless you're really really sharp and you can memorize, I don't do that very well. So, I underlined what really pops out for the vision to take away when you say, "What's your district's vision?" Well, it's really it's simple. It's getting our students prepared when they walk across the graduation stage to be ready for college and career and life, right? We want them ready. It doesn't matter what they're going to do. Are they ready to move on to the adult world and be successful in college, career, military, whatever it is? And I believe our district has everything in place and has already proven that that we get our students ready when they turn 18 and beyond to go on with career in life. So that's our vision. And then our next step is why do we

069do it? Kind of like a mission, right? That's a mission statement. Why do we do it? Why do we get out of our car every day or get off the bus every day? And this is a little lengthy to and you all can read, but I wanted to make sure the underlined uh words are are they equipped or are we making sure we're equipping our students? What do they have in their toolbox to make sure they're ready for college and career? The one thing that jumped out to me was career character quality. And what is that? Well, we heard it with our student of the month. She was recognized by our teacher for being a good human being. Whoa. We haven't heard that in a while. It's usually somebody did something. She was recognized for

070being a good human being. That's what we need in our country. That's what we need on our schools and community. Before you show your skills, what kind of human being are you? So, I really like character qualities. And what I've learned over the course of well, many years, but especially lately, is the word empathy is something you shouldn't overlook. And it's very difficult to remember every day, especially when you're upset about something. How do you see the other person from their shoes and their perspective? It's so hard when we run into conflict to take a take a breath. I've gotten stronger because of marriage, right? If I if I don't empathize with the other side there, I'm going to probably not get dinner. So, I have to make sure that I practice empathy in my

071job. And the character qualities for our students is that important for our future when they become parents and successful community members. And then quality of life. We don't care what you're going to do for your career. We just want you to be happy to be able to buy a house and have a a life that you want, whatever that is, or move to the city, wherever you're going. So, it has to be about what kind of quality of life. And we know that means having the ability to earn income and have a salary at a job that you hopefully enjoy. So, you on Monday mornings, you don't dread getting in the car. So, that's kind that's why why we do it. for our students to move on. Yeah. Next slide is our core values. I

072won't spend a lot of time because I went on a little bit of a rant about empathy. So, I'm going to let you just take a take a look at our core values. Sometimes it's difficult to hit them all when you're having a tough week. But these are the thing these are the um what we believe in. And the first one's the most important. All students will learn and achieve. It doesn't matter what your strengths or weaknesses are. Together, you're going to learn and achieve. And you might not be the 4.2 valadictorian, but you're going to learn and achieve so that you can accomplish what you are setting out to do. And that's our number one quarterback. Next slide. So, this year we got real fancy and not only fancy, but real purposeful. And that

073is what are our district priorities? Well, we have this monster called the L the L cat, right? Local control accountability plan. And that's like some of us older people like a very fat phone book. That's how big it is. And inside it, there's usually a district will have between three and seven goals. And we have our five goals. And what we do with it is put LCA LCF dollars towards those actions. But you break that out, you're really going to fall asleep. So what we're going to do tonight is just focus on pulling from that LCAP and saying this is what we're doing about it. Right? These are the priorities that we have put in place while we started in the past but this year we're going trying to go 100 miles an hour with

074them because they matter for our students, our staff and our district. The first one is an epic E for engagement, right? Engaging and strategic instruction. Back to the classroom, right? what is going on in our classrooms. They might be different in each classroom, especially with the different subjects and the different personalities with teachers, right? We all have different teachers that we collect with and some we just do our best and we get through. People are all different, right? But what is going on with the instruction in there? Are you wanting to go there because you're being challenged and you're engaged and you're talking with others, participating, feeling active instead of just falling asleep? Right? And that's what we're focused on. And we have incredible teachers throughout our district that have multiple examples. So utilizing their

075incredible talents and skills they've developed from college all the way to being veterans. That's what it's about. How do we share the good stuff that's going on? And I'll go a little deeper in a second. PLC, that's u professional learning community, right? Your school is a professional learning community. It's not just a bunch of um buildings. It's a community where you work together. Students, teachers, all working together. And then inclusion. We've heard that word. We can uh give some good examples including recently last year we took on the and I'll get into this the program from what was underneath the um ICOE the county which which was our students with disabilities u moderate to severe. Well, that was transferred back to the school districts. It was quick. It was uh stressful and it was perfect

076because we then took the program and made it ours. And we're doing a good job with that as one example of what inclusion looks like. All kids don't care who you are. I mean, we care who you are, but we don't care um about what specifics we have. It's about all of us. So, that's the inclusion piece. And then culture and campus pride. That's the big one. That's the the C and epic, right? Culture and campus pride. So, let's go in and I'll try to speed it up because my goal was 15 and usually when I say 15, it turns into 33 and then I'm not going to have a lot of friends. So, let's we'll keep moving. Next slide is basically moving on to the E. It's engaging and strategic instruction. You hear this

077word sometimes called teacher clarity and instructional improvement. That's one part of what we're trying to do with the engagement. Teacher clarity is a fancy way to say, are we understanding what our students need? And most importantly, do the students understand what the lesson's even about? And how do they know they succeeded where they don't walk out there and then at dinnertime family says, "What'd you learn today?" And I like I would do with my dad like I don't know nothing, I guess. I don't know. I went to wrestling practice. What did you learn today? When the students leave the classroom, they know because their teacher was very clear on the goal of the lesson and where we were going. And we'll get into that in a second, but that's teacher clarity and how do we

078improve our instruction so our students know that they've attained the the skills of that lesson. Bullseye classroom visits. Bullseye is fun to say. It sounds like, you know, we're we're we're very accurate, right? Bullseye is a platform basically where you can um collect data basically you're collecting information and you're able to share it with each other saying this is what we saw and when you say that and do that together you build capacity and you build understanding and you're working together collaboratively. So visiting the classrooms and using our Bullseye platform to say, "Wow, that was something. I'm going to tag that principal or assistant principal tags that they're able to use that information to help others and to build the staff capacity, especially our new teachers that are coming in. They've got ideas, but then

079if they don't communicate with the veterans, then you miss the opportunity. So bringing it together and then NWA testing that is the closest you're going to get to an assessment that's going to measure your progress that you would um see when you take the 11th grade um state test. So when we look at our scores that are not that great at our district and we say how are we doing in math? How are we doing in English language arts? Well, we don't want to wait to find out what we're doing until it's too late when we take the test. So, how do we measure? This is something that we use through our process, through our LCAP process to say now we have a summative which can say all together what do you know and what

080don't you know based on the skills of mathematics and English language arts. So, that's part of our data that links into P and E. And then instructional coaching, we have four instructional coaches that are called instructional coaches in our district. We also have mentor and department chairs and everyone that goes into building together. So instructional coaching, using it the right way, making it a support and really building up our capacity through our coaches that can get around and see. So that's all part of what we're trying to do and it links into LCAP goal one, two, and three. So really good. Next slide. Engaging instruct uh instrugic instruction. I just said a little bit of that, but the I underline what they are learning and how they know they're successful. Right? When you go into

081a classroom, teacher says, "This is what we're going to learn in the next 50 minutes. Let's get to work." And this is how we're going to know we did it. And then at the end of the lesson, you say, "Do we know it? Prove it. Prove it. Prove it. Prove it. Okay. See you guys tomorrow. Good job." That's what it's about right there with teacher clarity. Improving instructional practice. I mentioned that we want to really focus on the engagement piece. Like if I did right now and I looked around the room as a teacher, I'd see a few people on their phones, which is okay because I know I'm not the most exciting teacher tonight, but how do I know that you got it? What does epic mean? What does the P mean? Checking for

082understanding. What are you going to tell your dad at dinner? What'd you learn? That kind of next step, next slide. Um, proficiency rates aren't great with our district. We have room for growth and we can do it. We can bump it up. 100%'s almost impossible for proficiency rates across the board that when you when you have that many students, but there's no reason why we can't achieve 10 more percent growth on proficiency. So, that's one of our goals, a big goal for student outcomes in math, literacy, and science. Building a culture of continuous improvement. What opportunities are we building where staff doesn't come in and say, "Oh, that was the most boring staff meeting ever." All you could you have said that in an email principal we don't want those meetings. We want to use

083our time that is for our staff so that they work together for all the things that I'm talking about tonight to drive it right. We don't want teachers to say that was a waste of time because what does a teacher want? Time even maybe just as much as a pay raise. Give me time so I can get ready for my students and prep time goes real fast. So these collaborative meetings, we're working hard as a district to make sure that those are put in place for teachers to lead each other through um build a culture of continuous improvement. That is part of the PLC, the lessons, studies, and observations of each other, learning from each other. Pretty awesome. Next slide. This is the um I mentioned all of these bullseye for clarity. That's how we

084we're going to do it. We're trying to go uh multiple visits, very short 10 10-minute visits to the classroom just to get those um data points and say this is happening, this needs help. What can we do to make ourselves stronger? Uh calibrate quarterly. So, this isn't just like, yeah, we'll see how we did in June. Then we get to June, we say, wait a minute, how do we know what we did? We want to measure and calibrate the good stuff as we go through each quarter of the year. Next slide. Uh NWA, you can see the whole slide. I won't get into it too much, but it's based on if you do it enough, you build your perseverance. So, you're a better test taker and you don't say, "I'm tired after TW question 20."

085So, you build your perseverance, but more importantly, the teachers can use that and say, "Okay, these students are struggling with this part of math. These students are struggling with this part of reading. What can I do with our time provided to bring them back up? What kind of groupings can I do to say this group needs help with this? this group needs help with that. We've utilized our advisory period more than ever before, which is fantastic because during that 30 minutes, we have opportunities to share students and say, and I always like to say the example of the math department and science department at Central last year really were jamming. They were doing like six week cycles where they were moving students based on how they were doing in math. and it was really making

086a immediate difference because they were given that little dose of those gaps that they needed to help those students bring them up. So all of that goes in and we'll give you some more data, but you basically get a score as you take the test and then you try to beat the score the next time. That's called a writ. Okay, next one. Uh instructional coaching. I touched on that, but empowering teachers to reach out and ask for confident help like a thought partner. It's not like I'm going to ask my evaluator because that's a little scary, right? You ask somebody that's on your side completely that just says, "Let's figure it out. It's okay if you messed up. Let's do it again. We'll figure it out." Those kind of experiences really are going to help

087us in a very difficult profession like teaching to bring up our strengths. So, working with our coaches and our thought partners um and tying it back into student learning. And let's move on uh professional learning. This will be a quicker one. Let's keep moving with the P. Uh the P for professional learning community. Next slide. Thank you very much, Carol. You're doing a good job. I highlighted obviously proficiency rates because that's the uh what we're trying to attain. But how do we attain it? We have to measure data. We have to make sure we use our data and our assessments to say what are we learning from this data. is our curriculum missing this or we're not teaching it enough or is my am I teaching it too fast or maybe they just didn't get

088this along the way and I have to give them a double dose of it and maybe teach it a little differently. So looking at those ways to work together and say what can we do to increase our measurements to bring it up to a proficiency rate that's higher. Next slide. um professional learning has uh changes in our teaching practice in ways of how do we better our instructional um strategies. How do we work together in discussion and reflection of our student data? This is teacher teams like a math team, an English team, a social studies team. Um and then you have how do we measure it? And then most importantly, are we focused on improving at least one or two in uh high impact instructional strategies? For me, the easiest and most effective one is

089how do you know they're learning it? I have to check and and make sure. And there's different ways you can prove it that you learned this lesson, right? But if we don't do that, then we kind of lose them to the next period or the next event and we say, I don't know if they got it yet. I have to wait to test them. Next one. uh PLC questions. So PLC, professional learning community, a team of teachers working together and asking these questions. What do we want our students to know? How do we know they learned it? What proof do we have that they really learned it? And how do we respond when they haven't learned it? Or do we just move on and say you just didn't get it? Sorry. We have to find

090ways. And time is never on our side when we're trying to teach multiple maths. um concepts and skills and and reading and literacy reading documents reflect how we use our protocols. So, I'm very proud of how we've rolled out our professional learning community. It just takes more time and support for our teachers to keep working forward and learning from each other. Next one. Um smart goals is what they develop. So you say how do this is going to be a measurement that we're going to see if Jimmy learned multiplication in four six weeks and he's stronger than ever from it because we built this um this smart goal. So it's timely and we can prove that he's learned it and then we build a new smart goal for the next group of the next cycle.

091So there's constant checking, checking, checking. Just like our oil in our car, right? We don't just check it once a year. We say, "Oh, it's time for an oil change." Right? Though that measurement has to happen or then your engine blows up, right? So we want to check more often. Progress towards smart goals and reflecting with our smart goals to make sure that we've attained them and then celebrating too when we do that. Next slide. Uh PLC process. Yeah. uh we want to ask our teachers and make sure that it's meaningful. And if it's not meaningful, what can we do as leadership, management, whatever at our schools to say what else support do they need? Why isn't it working? What else do they need? If everyone's open-minded to it, it should work. But then there's

092always some kind of thing that you want to support with like, oh, we need more time. Can you give us another day? Whatever it is. um establishing the baseline, asking those questions from our teachers to say what's working, what's not, what can we do to help, um interviewing our department chairs. The department chair is such an important position. It's the leader of the team. Yes, we talk about the who's the leader of the school, who does this in the district, but the leader of the team is so important because they're in that boat. The math boat is led by the department chair. If we have the right people in place, all the stuff I just talked about could work out really well. But you have to want to be the department chair and you have

093to have people kind of working with you to follow your lead and work with you and lead with you. Um, and then finally, the PLC documents are how we kind of adjust and and prove that we're making progress and most importantly celebrate when it's going well. Next one, inclusion. This word is um a little different because it depends on who you ask. But one of the basic examples is how do we include it doesn't matter who you are, you're a Spartan. Doesn't matter who you are, you're an eagle. Doesn't matter who you are, you're a panther. Doesn't matter. You can get all Fs and still be an eagle. We just got to figure you out and get you up, right? All of it. If there's a pep assembly, everybody's coming to pep assembly. Don't care

094who you are. You're an eagle, a Spartan, or a Panther, right? So that's called access. Access. Are we are we giving students opportunities to challenge them through the access we're providing? Are we saying you two ladies, you're not getting it. You're going to a different room tomorrow. Just the two of you and we're not going to see you for four years. That's not access. We have to say you're not getting it. But guess what? You're going to get it because we're going to put you in with everybody else and we're going to give you extra support, whatever it takes. Right? That's what access is. And that's what we're trying to improve, challenging everybody where they are to bring them up. Um, and that goes with our English language development and of course the co-eing model

095we're working on. That is true true strength of our teachers to work together and kind of work it out. And no day is smooth and easy, but our teachers teaching together in our is really helping. We have groups of them at both schools. And then that connects to LCAP school two and three. And then the finally the C. I'm going to blow through some of these fast ones here. Next slide. Inclusion. I think I went over that already. Yep. Access is highlighted. Next one. Co-eing. We've uh we've we've set off on a journey that is really really important and we know we're going to succeed. We just have to take each step as we go. So it's basically we launched it this year or last year and we've expanded it to this year. And we

096have West Ed, really good trainers on the incl the co-eing model. They were just here. Well, they're here all week. They were just at Southwest today. Really awesome helping our teachers figure out how to work together and how they can serve our students based on access and their needs. And then moving on to um working and getting the support of our admin and our instructional coaches. And then finally, um, adopting a five-year plan, which we're drafting right now to say we know what we're doing year one and two. What are we doing? What's our goal for year five? And then how do we make adjustments as we go? Next slide. Culture and campus pride. It kind of encompasses everything. When you talk about a word like culture and a word like pride, but it's how

097do we solve disagreements? How do we ensure safety and not just physical safety? Making sure everybody's happy and comfortable. if they're out in distress, we have plenty of resources to support them. We just have to identify and move quickly to support each other, whether it's adults or students. Um, and then you can see all the other parts of campus pride and access. Are we accountable for ourself and our own work? And are we holding other people accountable on our teams to make sure that we're all rowing in the same direction so we can get to the get to the goal. And then communication and collaboration, listening to people before you answer. saying, "Oh, now I get it. You needed more help with this. I'm glad I listened instead of just talked over you." And then

098impactful per professional learning. Is it going to fit into Epic? If it doesn't, maybe it's a different year for professional learning for that. It has to fit inside Epic. Otherwise, what are we doing? We're not really prioritizing. And then, uh, ensuring we get the best people. We we respect Broly. We we have um friends in Broly, we have friends in Imperial, we have friends in Inlexico, right? But we want the best people to work with us at our school, right? So, we have to move quickly. We have to work together and when they come on board as new teachers or new staff members, we have to make sure they're not only welcome, but supported, especially for that first year, so they can really feel like we want you here and we will help you. It's

099okay to fall down because guess what? We're going to pick you right back up. you're one of us now. And then finally, campus culture and pride. And I know we have a lot of that. You just go on the campus. >> I go into my office too many times and I get in a grumpy mood with paperwork. I go to the school with ASB or something, have a couple pieces of pizza. All of a sudden, I forgot what I was grumpy about. It's amazing the energy on our campuses led by our young leaders. So, I really want to thank our young leaders for being way more influential than you guys even know. You have no idea how important you are. But I'm telling you right now, the school district isn't um led by a person

100or adults that make good decisions for our district. It's led by the boots on the ground, which are you all and your friends around you. So, keep leading and thank you for ensuring our culture is going in the right direction. And that's with equity as well, right? And that attaches to pretty much all of our LCAP goals because it's a big big deal to have a good culture and a good campus pride. I think that's the last slide. No, it's not. But that's everything I just talked about. And I don't think I missed anything. Attendance. Thank you for reading out the outstanding attendance reports. If you're not at school, you're not going to be understanding what's being taught. And then all of this kind of goes where? Nowhere. So, we have to make sure if

101somebody's out, we say, "Hey, I'm sorry you got the flu. Can't wait for you to come back. We'll get the makeup working. We'll help catch you up." or what are you doing going to the mall? It's a school day. Get to school, right? Whatever it is. And then evaluation systems and ways to improve how we um hold ourselves accountable and growth. And that's it. So, um back to how we do it. Remember that we were talking about getting ready for college and adult worlds. But before you do that, you have to have relationships. If you hate the person across from you that teaches the same subject, that's not going to be a very good team, right? If you can't solve problems, you can't really empathize and get things done. And we're good at it, but

102we can get even better. And that's through our Epic. So, that's all I got. Thank you for listening to me go as fast as I could. Um, and I'll give you updates as we go through the year saying, "Hey, got some. Remember Epic, we got some good stuff to share and it'll be half as long as this." So, thank you. Thank you, Dr. Farcus, for an epic presentation. >> Epic present. >> Good job. >> So, we're going to take like a two-minut break. You got a got a break. >> And students, if you need to go, we know you guys are busy. I know. So, you may go ahead and go. We're going to go into public comment as soon as we get back. But please, if you need to go ahead and go. We

103are on item six, public comment session. At this time, the board of trustees will hear comments, presentations, or requests on matters listed on the agenda. The board will not respond to any public comments directly. Speakers are requested to give their names and addresses. Time limit for speakers is three minutes. The board shall limit the total time for public input on each item to 20 minutes. The board reserves the right to limit presentations. This meeting is being recorded. Uh trust, do we have anybody public comment? >> Uh for not for agenda items, we have one for non-aggenda. >> Okay. So, let me go ahead and do that. Item seven, public comment session on non-aggenda items. At this time, the board of trustees will hear comments, presentations, or requests on matters not listed on this agenda or

104other topics that are not on the agenda but are within the board's jurisdiction. The board will not respond to public comments directly. Speakers are requested to give their names and addresses. Time limit for speakers is three minutes. The board shall limit the total time for public input on each item to 10 minutes. The board reserves a right to limit presentations and once again this meeting is being recorded. >> Good. >> We have one from non-aggenda item. >> Thank you. >> Topic opt out form library access. >> Good evening everyone. Good evening there. Sorry. My name is Lupita Careno, mother of two students at Southwest High School. I am here tonight because I have two serious matters that remain unresolved. Both were submitted formally. Yet, I have not received the complete and respectful response that parents

105deserve. Issue number one is SE ed uh opt out violation and formal complaint. On January 7, 2025, I submitted the official sex ed opt out for my freshman student. Despite that, on April 29, he was part of a lesson on sexually transmitted disease, a direct violation of my formal request as a parent. On June 17, 2025, I I sent a formal email to Superintendent Farcus. I can't hear me. requesting a formal investigation of the incident, a writen a written explanation of why my opt- out was ignored, a commitment from from the district to respect parental rights under the law, and pro procedural changes to ensure that future optouts are honored. The same day I met I met in person with superintendent and the principal. They told me that the teacher was on vacation, but but

106they say they will follow up and if needed, disciplinary action will be taken. On July 22nd, I received a certified letter from Dr. Fuckus containing only four sentences. He didn't say anything different that from what we had already discussed. That was the full content of the letter. No investigation, no corrective plan, and no formal resolution. It would it it has now been 100 days since my complaint was filed. Even though state law under the unifer complaint procedure requires a written resolution within 60 days. Was this letter just a meant it was just meant to formally close my request? I don't know. My motivation is to ensure that no other parent has to experience the same frustration I did and that every family's right to protect the integrity and well-being of our of children is fully

107respected. Issue number two, denial of access to library materials and answer requests. On August 28, 2025, I went to the school office to ask for the new opt out forms related to the US Supreme Court case decided on June 20 27, 2025. I spoke with two secretaries, but neither of them knew anything about it. I also asked permission to to to review some library books. The secretary said yes, but I was but as I was walking to the library, Principal Derma stopped me. He said I could only visit my appointment after school hours and only if the librarian was available on his or her own time. I asked if I could if I could come the next day and he said he will call me as to as of today, October 14th. I have not

108received a call or an appointment, the same day, August 28. I also emailed the superintendent and all the board members asking three specific questions. What is the district's official policy for parents to review library and instructional material? Are parents permitted to review those materials during regular school hours? What limitations for scheduling requirements apply? Superintendent Faras reply, "Hello, Miss Kareno. You're certainly welcome to visit the school library. This will not this will need to be scheduled through the school administration at a time that will not disrupt students activities inside the library." While a polite, that reply did not answer any of the questions of my questions of my questions. It provided no policy, no district procedures and no clarity about the rights under the law. It was generic court c courtesy response, not the transparency or

109accountability I requested. Tonight, I res I respectfully asked the border to the the board to direct the superintendent to issue overdue written responses to my formal UCP complaint. Conduct a review of why parental complaints and emails have been ignored or inadequately answered. Provide the district written policies for both sex education opt out and parental access to review materials. Ensure that parents receive timely, respectful, and complete responses to all former written requests. I have followed every rule. I submitted every document and remained impatient and respectful. Yet, after months of silence and incomplete replies, I feel ignored, dismissed, and violated in my parental rights. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Forot. That's the only one >> that concludes public comment. >> Okay. Thank you. We'll go ahead and move on to item eight. ECST8. >> Anybody

110here? Probably watching the Dodgers, isn't he? >> Okay. How about CSCA? Do we have any comments from CSCA this evening? Maybe they're watching the Dodgers. >> Okay. Let's go on to item number nine, approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda? >> I'll make a motion. >> I'll second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay. Item 10, consent agenda items. All seven items appearing on the consent agenda item are routine business matters and will be acted upon one by one motion without discussion. Should any board member request that an item be considered separately, that item will be added to the end of the regular agenda. So, can I get a motion to approve the consent item agenda items? >> I'll make a motion. >> I'll

111second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I >> Okay. Any po opposed? Okay. Action items. We're on number 11. Um, approval of the letter agreement with uh site logic and I believe we have a presentation this evening. Good evening. >> Good evening, UOVA. >> Yes, UVA. Bear down. >> Bear down. Go wild cats. >> That's okay to say wild cats for UOVA, but not Wildcats. >> That's right. That's right. So, it's okay. >> Yes. Thank you very much. >> All righty. >> Well, thank you everyone uh for having us in tonight. Dr. Farcus, uh board members, and cabinet. Uh I want to do a couple quick shoutouts. Um Jeff and Marcy have been very very helpful over the last few months developing this this program. Uh we certainly consider it a partnership and these projects

112are co-authored. We wouldn't be able to do it without them. So I like to give credit where it's due. Um so thank you very much and thank you to Marcy as well. And um also I'd like to introduce my team. So we have our senior development engineer. Um he he's here tonight. Um I'm so sorry I just blinked. This is not a good start. Vernon. Vernon. Thank you. We have our lead engineer, Gabby. She's she's really been the uh the brains behind the development. Uh and you'll we'll bring her up to speak to her slides here um on the actual layout of the arrays. And um and then we have uh Sergio Sanchez. And Sergio is actually a graduate of Central. >> Yes. >> Central. Yes. >> 2013. >> So he's our PM on the

113project. He does all the coordinating with all the subs, all the subcontractors. Uh and I'm Nick Eddie. I'm the account executive. Um and uh I handle everything business related and contractual and also help with the development to some limited degree. Right. So okay with that I'll jump into the to the uh presentation here. Uh little bit about site logic. We are a design build energy services company an esco. Um so we are the engineer of record. We are also the implement or the prim general contractor. Our focus as an ESCO is really anything as it relates to energy generation and energy efficiency. You can see our core competencies are listed here. Now, up up to date, we've been highly focused on just the solar. Since that time, we have expanded this into a more comprehensive

114energy program that includes uh LED lighting retrofits and replacements. You still have a number of T8s here uh throughout the the district and and the campuses. We want to upgrade those to LEDs and then also we're looking at a building controls upgrade as well. Um and I believe Jeff that that's that's it right that the solar. Okay, great. >> All right, move. And uh I will say that this presentation is very heavily focused on the solar. Uh we're actually bringing out the uh the subcontractors for the lighting and the uh and the um building controls uh I believe next week or the 27th. Okay, 27th. So they're scheduled to be out. So, you'll see that this is very heavily focused on just the solar. We've already walked the subs, we've already done the sites, and

115these are preliminary uh layouts. Um, and as I get into those, I'll I'll explain those in a little bit more detail. I would like to just mention before I go on that I do want this to be interactive. If you guys have any questions, please just jump in. Don't wait till the end because I don't want you to forget them and I'd like to address them as we move through the presentation. So, a little bit about the energy program. Our goal is to improve the learning environment, enhance the the assets and and that could be the uh outdoor learning environments uh or the interiors, the classrooms themselves. As I mentioned, we are a design, build and operate and manage firms. So, we'll be the engineer of record. We'll be doing the implementation as the prime

116and then after the fact, we're handling all the operations and maintenance. So, this is a long-term partnership. Um you know, we're not going to be riding off uh into the sunset after the construction's complete. you're going to be stuck with us for for a little while. Um, moving right along. We are taking advantage of some very limited time federal funding. That is why we're here now. It's coming it's it's sun setting and it's quickly coming to an end. So, we have some uh timets that we have to be very mindful of. And so, we have actually moved ahead on the development prior to this LOA being in place because of those time constraints. So, um, we were doing that at risk, I guess you could say, but really I would say more in good faith.

117Um so moving right along uh we do have this is uh this is um a procurement method government California government code 4217. It's a streamlined procurement method. When the savings of these projects exceed the cost, this is inherently good for the community. So the the uh the savings are going to be quite significantly more than the cost of the project. Uh there's also a potential for state matching funds that is not calculated into our equations at all because uh we really don't know uh what those what that SFP funding looks like. I believe your architect uh Jimmy Sanders has a good pulse on that that he will be able to share with you as well. But we do know that there is potential at you know for state SFP state funding uh state matching funds.

118Um there are options for no upfront capital. What does that mean? It means you don't have to come out of the general fund uh or or or use bond dollars. We have the ability to use a lowinterest financing on these energy projects. It's called a taxexempt municipal lease financing that is available to school districts. >> Um and uh moving right along, student education and community engagement. We do have a uh we help with things like ribbon cutings and and groundbreings. uh we call them flip the switch ceremonies where we actually uh electrify the units. Uh but more importantly, we have a program in place for students uh with a set curriculum where we come in uh with stu for example like the STEM building at Southwest for those students that would want to take advantage

119of learning about this industry and energy generation and that sort of thing. It would be a great opportunity for them to do that. Most of the districts take advantage of it. Not all of them do. Um but it is a great program in place that we offer as well. Um, we have been working with Mr. Sanders at a number of different districts here in the valley. Um, so we do have a a great working relationship with him. I do also want to point out that we have a great working relationship with IID and um have been working with them for a long time. So uh and that's really important uh for a number of reasons, but I think that's what one of the reasons that really sets us apart from maybe other folks that do

120what we do. Uh and just our our footprint and our experience of working here in Imperial Valley. Um, I'll move right along. So, here's the bad news. As we all know, utility costs, electrical costs are on the right rise throughout the state. Um, you know, the California Public Utilities Commissions uh have always traditionally uh those those utilities have traditionally always been on an upward trajectory. Imperial Valley has had it um quite nice for a number of years and and rates were not raised. Uh up until COVID, there was a small increase in in your rates that you guys probably felt at your homes. Um since that time, just recently, there was a very significant increase specifically on the general large consumption. That's what school districts fall under. So, it's about a 35% increase. And actually,

121you'll see that on the next slide. Uh it went from about 9 cents to 13 cents. And uh so very sharp incline. And uh you know, you don't traditionally see that kind of incline. Now, they've said that in the future they're going to have much smaller increments, but more frequent, so more of an annual basis. Uh, so you shouldn't see this huge spike like you did. Um, but after 2028, more more grad, and that's due to infrastructure needs. They have a lot of infrastructure needs throughout the valley that they need to upgrade and that's that's what they've attributed the spike to. Um, but with that being said, everyone's utilities rates are are going up in the valley. The good news is however that um during the Biden administration during COVID um there was uh the

122inflation reduction act was passed and part of that one of the one piece of that was this giant um I guess funding if you will from the federal government into these solar initiatives into renewable energy that was solar wind and battery and EV charging and so what what the Biden administration did is they took the 26% tax credit that was available to everyone and residential. Um, and they opened it up to the public sector in the form of what's called a direct payment back from the federal government. So instead of it showing up on your tax returns, you see it as a direct payment, a check from the federal government. So they took that they took that 26% base, they increased it to 30%. And they have these additional tranches of 10%. And they're all

123based on uh on different criteria. The first one is um disadvantaged communities. So you guys do qualify as a disadvantaged community. So that would be an additional 10%. Then you have domestic manufacturing. The products have to be made in the US. We're we're checking that box as well. The only one that you guys do not qualify for is the fossil fuels. You're not in what's considered a brownfield. So you would max out on the direct payment rebate at 50%. So bear in mind that the cost of this project, you will see approximately 50% of that back to the district. There is a caveat to that and I like to be super transparent. So I'm going to explain that if the district chooses to finance this expense, you have to take a haircut on the direct

124payment of 7 and a half%. So that brings the 50% down to a 42.5% rebate or direct payment if you will. Since you're not using cash funds, you're financing it. So there is a penalty for doing so. However, that with the combination of the state matching funds, um this program will easily pay for itself. Uh provided that the state matching funds are there. So, um and so that's really something that I want to highlight and drive home. This is going to pay this project is going to be fully funded, pay for itself, and that is before we even account for the energy savings that's that's on your utility bill. Uh, any questions about the inflation reduction act specifically and and that direct payment? Okay, great. Moving right along. So, um I at this point I

125will invite Gabby up here. I'm going to maybe lean on you on some of these slides since you you've done come on up. Yeah. So, for this next slide here, you can see the sites broken down. Now, we don't have Desert Oasis on here. We did not consider that as part of our prelim analysis. As we move into what's called the investment grade audit, as we move forward with the LOA, we're going to get much more granular with this and focus on every single site. Um, but these are the meters at these specific sites, which is Southwest, Central, and the transportation yard. You can see the the meter numbers that correlate with the this is every meter at that site. Um, as well as the KWH or the utility usage, the demand, uh, as well

126as your annual cost. So, all these meters at these sites are at $1.6 $6 million currently. And then the next slide is going to be the really the meters that we uh determined that the juice was worth the squeeze. There there was the value there. So we don't focus on the small meters. There's not enough usage there to justify building a an array, a solar array. So there's there's an always an offset which is the the uh how would you describe it? It's where the sweet spot essentially where the project cost um equates to the uh the best value based on the savings that's generated from the solar. So we only focused on these meters because this is where the most value is. >> And then uh this is the actual meter numbers, your PVA

127usage. I'm not going to go into too much detail here, but what the one column you do want to focus on is the annual savings, the second to last column. So that's 730,000 uh just year one annual savings uh when these are constructed. So I will let you take the layouts. >> Okay. I'd like to note on this slide, so the offset you're seeing a range from 20% to 63% that has to do with the school itself and how much room we have to put solar on. So I'll in the next slides we'll go through each of the three schools and our designs that we have. It can change. Nothing is set in stone right now in terms of where we're putting the arrays, but some schools have a lot more space than others. So,

128that's why you're seeing that pretty big gap in offset. Can you see enough of that? Okay. So, this is Southwest. Um, as you can see, we're putting most of the we're putting all the solar in the the parking lots. It's about 1.5 um KW with an annual savings of about 40 460,000 a year. Um, we're offsetting three different meters. the two meters that are inside the campus and the one that's going near where the school u the new uh pool will be built. Um there's not really much other places we think that would be as fitting for the meters as these locations. They're really close to the meters and it's a really good spot. Um central central has a lot more limited spacing than the other sites. So that's kind of why you see they're

129they're kind of patched all over the place. We're offsetting two different meters here with an annual savings of around $240,000 a year. Um two the two meters to the right are offsetting the meter that's in front of the school and then the two in the north and south are offsetting the meter that's in the middle of the campus by the tennis courts and then the transportation yard. We're only offsetting one meter with around 116 KW and around $30,000 in savings. We're putting two options for this to see what the district would prefer. Currently, we have it below, but we understand that you guys have all those EV chargers. So, we'd like to take a look at putting it there. There might be some, you know, we have to look a little bit further about all

130the under under um sorry, the conduits or all the electricity for the EV chargers, but we want to give those two options to see what you guys would prefer. Um but either way, the buses would be covered by either array. So, you would that'd be really good. They wouldn't be sitting out in the sun. Any questions about that? Again, they're not set in stone. If the district has any other places they'd rather the arrays go, we can totally take a look at it. >> Can you go back to the central slide? >> Yeah, it's you can tell where the parking lot is at Southwest. So, >> like you mentioned, they're kind of all over the place. >> Yeah, they are all over the place. Those the only parking lots the school owns, the district owns.

131>> We were speaking with Jeff about potentially putting it in the middle of the campus. We'll have to take a bit deeper look at that because we have to be offset from buildings a certain amount of uh distance, but we will take a look at that if that's preferred because it'd be a closer run to the meter. We wouldn't have to go under the street. There's a lot of different things we have to look at >> because a lot of those trailers have been removed now, >> right? >> So, would that be a possibility of a site, Jeff? >> No, not necessarily. Just because that would be in the way of future stuff that we have. There are a couple of areas that we're looking at. One of them being in the right in the

132center right by the >> in between the office and the >> building. >> What the heck is that thing called? >> STEM building. >> Well, the stem building amphitheater. >> Oh, the outdoor amphitheater. Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. >> And so that creates shape throughout there. It's a lot closer to there. So that's one of the things. But depending on the space and then also we although we have the the shot foot or whatever with the discus and stuff over there one of the options if we ever look at parking there's another option of that grass area out there possible again these are these are the ones they came up with but until we internally we sit down and look at it there may be some more options >>

133and again these are prelims so think of these as as Legos you know we can we can pick them up and move them and relocate them so um you know just Keep in mind that nothing's set in stone. We're going to come back here and you guys are going to have final say on all the locations. You're going to know exactly what the cost is and exactly what the savings is to the dollar. Um and what that that'll be as we move into the next phase. That's called the investment grade audit phase. We'll be we'll be providing all that data and you guys will all have input the board as well as >> Thank you. Any other questions about the three different schools in the design so far? >> Yeah. On the transportation, you saw

134plan A and plan B. Uh, it's either or. >> Yes. >> So, the 116 KW that's we typically don't like to go over the 65 offset. That's kind of the sweet spot that Nick was talking about. So, to do anymore, it wouldn't be cost-effective. So, that it's either or for that. >> Thank you. >> And the one thing also I'll point out was uh she mentioned the proximity to the meter. So, we want to have the shortest conduit run from the array to the meter and that'll that'll keep the cost as low as it can. So, ideally, you put the array as close to the meter as possible. The other thing that's worth noting is green Cal Green Building Code Title 24 requires that if you are making improvements to a parking lot, you have

135to include EV charging. Now, um some districts are real big fans of that, others are not. What I can say is you can use that as an advantage to your district as a revenue generator. So you can have uh certain rates for students and faculty and then you can actually have a a premium rate for community if you decide to open up your schools to the public for consumption of that EV. It's a great revenue producer as well. >> Yeah. Uh so we do this is our dashboard. So we're going to be monitoring the solar production and this will be something that the district can interface with. Actually, we can pull reports for board uh directly from this program, from the software. Uh it's really great. And then uh the program benefits. Let's see if

136I have a way of scrolling up here a little bit. Well, you can't see it, but are currently as it stands, we're at $27 million of savings for the district over the life cycle of the equipment. That's 30 years. Um Oh, thank you so much. and uh so and some of the other financial benefits uh min yeah minimal uh the limited time funding so that is the IRS so it's really important to note that we have to be in construction by July 3rd of 2026 we have to have meaningful physical construction uh in order to do what's what's called safe harboring of those funds so the clock is ticking and you're going to be seeing us very shortly before the end of the year we need to have an agreement in place in order to

137meet that that deadline it does require this to pass to go through DSA. That'll take a few months as well. Uh more like three to four months. So, um so yeah, we're we're we're it's tight, but it's manageable. It's doable, and that's why we're here now. Um and then, uh it it uh let's see, I'm having a hard time reading. There's a long list. Okay. Budget predictability hedges against future escalations by IID with the solar being in place. And then, as I mentioned, there's minimal impact to the general fund through the energy financing, the low interest financing that's available to to schools and other municipalities. And then the EV charging, we just touched on that the additional revenue generation from a facility standpoint, modernizing facilities, making it a better and safer uh, you know, environment

138for students and faculty to come learn and work every day. Um and then of course shade in in the Imperial Valley is very valuable. Um it it makes it uh you know it extends the life cycle of people's vehicles. It also creates for outdoor learning environments if we were to put the shade shade on campus um which became obviously very popular uh during COVID uh when folks were really worried about indoor air qualities at that time. Um student achievement I touched on on the curriculums that are in place there. Also reducing CO2 levels uh with improved air quality makes students more alert. It's been and lighting have both been attributed to student performance directly. Um so those are both both very important pieces too. Um local accountant project management. I am your account exec. I'm

139in San Diego. I'm not too far away. Been working in the valley for over a decade now. And um and uh yeah I know most of the folks you know here. Worked with Jeff and I know Jimmy and Dr. Varcus. I've known you guys for quite some time. Um, but yeah, and then environmentally, you're being an emissary of green energy. Um, you know, you're championing green energy and um, and you're lowering your your utility bills at the end of the day. Um, any questions about this slide? I know it's busy, but it's my my my personal favorite slide because that's why we're doing this. Um, any questions about the program benefits? >> No, but I'm just still stuck on what you said about the state funding that you wouldn't know if they're matching through or

140not. When would you know about that? >> Yeah. So, I I I you know, I can't advise on that, but um I know you guys are working with a consultant, uh Shayer and Associates, who we've worked very closely with at other districts as well, and they would be able to advise on that along with Jimmy probably would, but um I'm not an FA, I'm not I'm not an adviser, so I can't really act in that capacity. Um I do know you guys have modernization funds that you qualify for. I don't know what those figures are. Yeah. >> Question on the ongoing solar operation and maintenance. What does that typically look like? >> Yeah. So, that's a great question. I'm glad glad you brought that up. So, it's the actual monitoring of the equipment and and

141the washes and we're and and inverter replacements and so component replacements when they expire, when their life cycles expire. Um, but it's also it's also tied directly to our um our guarantee. So, we have the highest guarantee in the industry. We have a 90% production guarantee. No one else has that. So, we kind of hang our hat on it. >> Um, also our our experience with schools specifically, more than 50% of the work that we do nationwide is is with schools. So, it's really our niche. And um and so I wanted to go back to that, but the the guarantee the 90% production guarantee does require that the on&m agreement is with us. So, we're providing that guarantee. The expectation is that we're the ones putting our hands on it, managing the equipment. So that's

142why I was saying you're going to be with us for a while. This is going to be a partnership. So and you you have the opportunity to renew that every five years and that's up to the district to determine if you want to or not. However, if it was canceled for any reason, then the guarantee would fall off as well. So most folks are with us for the next 30 years >> for the life cycle of the equipment. >> Thanks for the clarification. >> Yes. >> Okay. So tonight, um, we have presented the LOA to the, uh, to the to the board or to the district. And, um, I know there was one question about that and there was an error in in there was a piece about the $3,500. >> Oh, yeah. >> Totally

143ignore that. That doesn't apply to IID C clients. Um, that's for the California Public Utilities, >> SDG&, PG&E, andce. So, that doesn't apply to you. Actually, IID requires way more engineering up front, believe it or not, than those other than those other uh utilities do. So um disregard that whole paragraph >> so it doesn't >> doesn't Yeah, you can strike it. I've already sent the revised one to Marcy. That whole underlying section that's all out that's >> Thank you. And that concludes the presentation for this evening. There any other questions? We're happy to take them. >> I appreciate answering my biggest question. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Very informative fan of the modernization and where we're going with this. So, thank you so much for all the rest of your team's work, too.

144I could definitely tell y'all are like topnotch with it. So, thank you for being on top of it. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. It is requested that the board of trustees of the Central Union High School District approve the letter of agreement to engage site logic for the development of facility improvements, energy conservation members, measures, renewable energy solutions, and energy management services. Do I have a motion? >> A motion. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? this time. No, >> I if I could add that student um opportunity sounded really cool. Hopefully we find a way to like integrate our students in that. That that just sounds like really neat. Thanks. >> Thank you. And your team as well. >> Yeah. Bear down Arizona. >> Okay, we got

145the item number two action items, the aquatic center update with Jimmy Sanders. Yep. >> Okay. Well, thank you for the opportunity to present uh uh a quick update on the aquatic center and also talk about uh how um the possible funding shortfall for the aquatic center uh can be funded. We'd like to answer that question uh that you had just a few minutes ago um as far as the the state funding goes and what that what that dashboard looks like. So, we are currently engaged in working with Valerbat to do um your your lease lease back contractor. there. Uh they did a constructibility review and uh we've we've identified several uh possible cost-saving uh measures uh uh value engineering items and we we are working uh through those items and and we will be coming

146back um uh shortly with uh the results of the bid uh for a proposed GMP guaranteed maximum uh price. >> Okay. So, I'd like to um uh discuss shortly uh uh or present uh how the aquatic center ties into the uh project that that Mr. uh Eddie just presented. So, um, this this next slide, uh, shows that's a site plan of Southwest, as you're all familiar with, and and we have our new, uh, proposed aquatic center. And a part of that aquatic center, because we're adding square footage to the site, requires that you put in a photovoltaic. It's a new code requirement, the the green code. And so, uh, we're we we proposed and part of our DSA approved plans is a, uh, solar shade structure located right there in the parking lot. Okay. Now,

147that solar shade structure is about, uh, $800,000 by the time that you put in the the the uh the shaded parking, the photovoltaic, and tie it all back into into the meter. And so that's a a portion of the project that has to be funded out of whatever your sources of funding are for the the aquatic center. If we're able to to do what what we're going to call the the site logic energy project, we're going to be able to remove that solar shade and we'll get a credit for that. Well, we'll be able to remove the cost of it from the aquatic center funding source >> and we'll be able to uh to build that uh that shade structure or photovoltaic shade structure as part of the larger energy project. So >> um so

148it we would be essentially doing a much larger project and so therefore we would comply with the green code above and beyond what the green codes required. Okay. So, uh, this this is an enlarged plan here showing, uh, what the the solar shade for the aquatic center would cover. And you, as you can see, it covers two ADA spaces and three nonADA spaces, a total of five parking spaces. And that's what we would need to comply with the green code just for the aquatic center. >> Okay. So, we we've got we've got I think we we have a lot better plan that was presented here here tonight. So, um, so this next slide is the Southwest High School modernization funding plan. So, I'm really excited about this slide. We've worked uh we've worked in in

149detail to uh to to list all of the projects that that we're currently working on or that have been recently completed. So, we've grouped them into uh DSA approved projects. We have the steel shade structures that were recently completed uh two summers ago at Southwest. The site utility uh that's that's a DSA approved project but not not yet completed but there's some site utilities that could be eligible for modernization. And then we have some nondsa completed projects roofing HVAC phase one wireless access improvements. And then we have our upcoming uh DSA required uh upcoming projects of fire alarm improvement and HVAC uh replacement phase two. So there's a calculation where you take the actual construction cost and that that construction cost you're able to to uh ask for um or 60% of your your construction

150cost you're able to use your modernization eligibility. So, for example, if you have a $1.5 million construction cost, you're able to use or burn 2 uh465 of modernization eligibility. Okay. So, with that 1.55 million is the state share and uh you know a million 900 and some 980,000 would be the district share. Now, for that particular project, you've already spent those funds. That's that project is completed. So, when you receive this from the state, you've already paid that you're gonna you're going to be able to use that money wherever you want to use it at Southwest High School. Modernization funds must be used specifically at the site it was generated. Okay. So, when you take a look at this the steel shade structure, these the the roofing HVAC and wireless access project that have already

151been completed and that we're going to be submitting applications for here shortly. You add the state share, it's 4.9 million. Okay, so that's uh great news in that you can take those funds and of course you can use them to help fund the aquatic center or you can use them anywhere you would like at Southwest High School. Okay, this last item, this is the one we're really excited about because and and I I do have a bust in those in those numbers there. I'll I'll I'll fix that and and send the the the corrected um uh budget numbers or or project numbers uh to Dr. Farcus in the morning. But this number here, that's a $19 million total project cost, which means that you would be eligible for state funding just for the photovoltaic project

152of $1.4 million. Okay? And then in addition to that, you would receive there's your your estimated amount for the the state grant or the the IRA grant. Okay? So, when you take that number together with the state funds, you can see that you're going to be able to uh completely fund the uh the proposed photovoltaic project at at Southwest High School. Okay? And and because that project is funded by energy savings, well then, you know, you can do whatever whatever you'd like with the with those funds. You can use it to pay down the the loan. You can use it to help fund the pool for the aquatic center. Um or or do another project there at Southwest. Okay. So, uh really excited to to to show you those those uh those numbers. you you

153have a lot of options, especially when you add in the the um the photovoltaic project with with the with the amount that you're going to receive from the state and estimated at uh estimated 11.4 million and then uh the state grant or the IRA grant, I'm sorry, of of 4.8 million. This I've got to bust in that number. That's actually 11.4 million. >> Yeah. So, uh, the the next slide is the projects at at Central, uh, Central Union High School. Um, we have, uh, DSA approved plans for the for the lighting, Cal Jones, uh, sports field lighting. Uh, we've recently completed that shade structure. So, that's that 1 2 million there would be money that you're going to be able to receive from the state currently without having to expend that 40% because you've already

154already expended it. And then we get get down into the library modernization. Um, and then of course the the uh photovoltaic project where you'd be eligible for a a state grant of 1.8 million. This number here uh again I' I've got a bust in that number. That number is um 4.46 million. Okay. So, the only bad news at at Central is that when you add all those up, you're looking at a uh approximately $1.8 million of the state share. Um, but that far exceeds the eligibility that you have at at Central. Okay. So, I'm going to show you this this last slide. This is um your funding dashboard or your funding eligibility at at all three sites. So, notice that at Central Union High School, you have about uh 3.4 million. At Desert Oasis, you

155have about 2.2 million. And at Southwest, you have $21 million in eligibility for modernization. Okay? So, that that $20 million that that we showed on this slide, when we do all the projects at Southwest, um you're going to be able to do all these projects and secure all those uh all those state funds in addition to the IRA grant. Okay. So, we we want to point out though that that uh in order to receive those funds, of course, you have to have the the the state funds from the school facilities program. You have to have DSA approved plans, which you have for most of your projects. You have to submit an application to the OP OPSC, but that modernization money is about four to five years out. Okay? It's going to take a while to

156receive those funds. But once you get in line to receive them, you you know, you will re you will receive them. You just you have to find a way to to bridge that. With the IRA grant though, uh that shows up uh the year after completion. Okay? So when you take the the and of course the IRA grant at at central is not sight specific. You can use that districtwide wherever you would like. So when you take the the total for the IRA grant at at central of 1.8 and the IRA grant at Southwest at 4.8 8. Um, you're looking in excess of of $6 million, which again can help to fund the shortfall in that pool project that you would receive um the year after uh completion. >> That that concludes my presentation. Any

157any questions? >> A lot of work that needs to get done. I I look at that in order to submit that is a lot of application for modernization funding. So, it's really great to see all this teamwork happening and being able to work through that notion. That's that's exactly what we're looking for for the modernization state funding. >> Uh, yes. at Southwest High School. If we do all of those projects that that were on that that spreadsheet for Southwest High School, including >> the the photovoltaic project, you will you you'll burn as as we the term or use up that that full $21 million of eligibility at um at at Southwest High School. >> It's great. >> Thank you. Very informative. >> Thank you. Okay. Item number three, approval of personnel report for October 2025.

158The board is requested to approve the October 2025 personnel report as presented. Uh, can I have a motion for that? >> A motion. >> And a second. >> A second. >> All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Item number four, approval of the memorandum of understanding between the Central Union High School District and the El Centralary Teachers Association. The superintendent recommends that the board approve the non-president setting memorandum of understanding dated September 2025 between Central Union High School High School District Board of Trustees and El Centralary Teachers Association. I think we all had a chance to look at that. So, do I have a motion? >> I move that we approve the memorandum of the moou between Central Union High School District and ECSTA. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any

159opposed? >> Okay. Item number five, red ribbon week resolution. Too many Rs there. >> Red ribbon. >> The superintendent recommends adoption of the red ribbon. week proclamation as presented. Do I have a motion? >> A motion. >> And a second. Okay. All in favor? This is a roll call vote. >> Yes. >> Trusty Eller. >> Yes. >> Justice. >> Yes. >> Trust. >> Yes. Thank you. Carries. Uh second reading of the proposed revision to board policy and administrative regulations as listed. The superintendent recommends adoption of the second reading of the proposed revision to the board policies and administrative regulations as listed. Do I have a motion? >> Make the motion. >> Okay. And a second. >> I'll second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? I'd like to make a quick comment.

160Sure. That this is a good place to put that within this the district has already made an effort to put the opt out form on our website. So it'll be much more available to parents. The opt out form remember that's what we were saying that it's going to be on the website. Just that was an important part of this I think. >> Thank you Trusty Ell. Okay. I think we can go ahead and adjourn. I've got 8:37 and I adjourn this meeting.