001Good evening. I call this meeting to order. Today is Tuesday, August 5th and it is 5 519. So at this time the board of trustees will hear public comments, presentations 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 full name and address. 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. Do we have anybody? Then we will go to item three I love it. It's great design on it. I also want to share Dr. Congratulations with that. The podcast is getting noticed all over the community. I've shared before that I'm involved
002with so they're starting their own podcast together. inspired and they your podcast has taken the notice of those amazing women out there and so some of them may want to reach out or maybe we talk directly to potential partnership or potential podcasts and been very inspirational and so thank you for the work that you've done with that. I look forward to hearing it from KPBS. I love listening to them every day. So that's really exciting and that concludes my reporting. Thank you so much. We have a great year. Nice to be back. But anyways, um Thank you for the invite for the leadership lunchon. It was such a positive feel and I know I joked about it this morning and it's true. I wake up and the day I showed up at that lunch and
003you could tell you see those smiles on the leaders faces from alone. Um everybody you could feel and sense that smile was actually for the invite. Of course we stayed a little bit um with my kids. I can't get lost for a long period of time. And that day, they kept texting and texting and calling and they said they're going to put one of those life alerts. But anyways, but we we did stay and I enjoyed it. It was very nice to hear from everybody and appreciate you sharing your two trainings that were out of state. One was at the other state, but it was it was nice. Thank you for the invitation. I like the new paint job. Like, wow, what happened to the walls? Nice. Very nice. I think that's maintenance, right? Thank
004you. Very nice. You don't need to put anything on. Um, and thank you for the invitation for the new teacher presentation this morning. I really had to get up early this morning to be ready. I was battling with the with the alarms at six o'clock in the morning, but it it was well worth it. It wasn't that hot, but it was nice seeing all the new teachers and to see everybody here. That's why I say again, we see each other again in the same day. So, looking forward to tomorrow and again, we need to wake up early again. But thank you. Thank you for being here and for joining us >> morning person. But >> for years for years I had to >> I know because you were that early run the zero period run
005in the buses. So >> yeah. So it now it's I even have the alarm on at 7 o'clock in the morning to remind myself don't sleep until 10 o'clock for you. >> Well, I'm excited for the 25 26 school year. um anxious to meet the new teachers. Um I couldn't make it today. Had some things that I needed to take care of, but the leadership conference that we had was nice. Nice to see everybody with smiling faces and we hope we have those smiling faces when we have graduation in June because I know we got a lot going on here at the district. Um those of you I was talking to Miss Ped about this, you know, before the meeting started that co, you know, 2020 and so this year's kindergartens are those co babies.
006>> So yeah. So, I have a co granddaughter that's starting uh she started her dual enrollment camp this week. So, just to see and we were we sent her to a preschool, but some of those new moms this morning, I'm filling in for my daughter because she's doing a seminar in uh Florida and wherever with my husband. So, those new moms coming in with these kindergarten kids that have been home with just mom, you know, and then we were just talking a little bit, you know, some of them, one of them was my students. I really felt old this morning, but that's okay. That, you know, they were born and nobody could be in the delivery room with them. And then they were born and they had these masks on. They never saw anybody smile.
007And then when they one lady was saying when she first took her her son out to Target, 18 months old, seeing all the people because everybody stayed home. >> So, I'm thankful that our school district is 9 through 12 and we don't have those little kids coming in in a couple of weeks. So, oh my goodness. Yeah, the co kinders are coming in. So, >> co nephew. >> Yeah. So, I'm I'm anxious, you know, to be here and looking forward to meeting all the new teachers tomorrow because it's that first day. I mean, I remember I remember sitting in that theater, you know, and it's it's it's it's interesting and I'm I'm excited for the 25 26 school year and thank you for being here. >> Okay. Um, superintendence report because I don't think we
008have any club reports, do we? >> Club report. Perfect. Okay, you're up. >> Good. Thank you. >> Thank you. I um I'll keep this my part real short, but thank you for attending. I'm really excited about um when I came here a little bit over a year ago and presented you with our selection being part of KBBS's explore program. I was excited then but um result has been even greater than I anticipated. The the mentorship that they provided the partnership that we've actually formed is incredible and the content that the kids have put together really came together in an amazing professional way. We have a lot to be proud of of that. But I what I'm what I heard them telling us at the listing party is basically they see this as a we're the
009pioneers and that they are going to use us as the model for the rest of the state, the rest of the nation. And this is you know, we're on the very forefront of this. They're not really sure exactly where all this going to go, but um the idea of providing a vehicle for for student voice really important and they have some amazing episodes. So, you know, um this trailer will drop on Monday, Monday the 11th. Episode number one will drop on the 18th. So, we have every Monday This is a trailer. original stories are the same. They're all very different. We all share different experiences. I wanted to dance. the world before you know that. Those are those are the decisions that you make that are really changing the path of your life because That
010will drop on Monday. Our intention for season two is to kind of expand out and hopefully have some other schools here. [Applause] >> You know, Donald's voice is so distinctive. You know, you You see him in SBU and Sons of Anarchy and and some of the other things that he's done, but his voice is just so Okay. The superintendence report and presentation. instead of a a verbal few minutes, I wanted to take a chance um on sharing a little bit about what we're um what we're heading into for our school year, our direction, and then also um something that will be presented in very similar fashion tomorrow to our um staff on our welcome back at 8 am in the morning. Um to get started, our district theme is strength and unity. Um similar to
011what we heard from our trustees uh with their report, stronger together, strengthen unity, working together. Easier said than done when we get into um the different facets of our school year and all the relationships that we need to have to make our school uh district and community grow and get stronger. So, it's a it's a it's a high mark, but I think we can continue to strive for it. Strength and unity working together. Uh before I get into the PowerPoint, I wanted to take an a minute to appreciate some of the work that's already been happening before we even get to our welcome back tomorrow. One of the um special moments of the summer was hearing from the uh county office of education directly to Miss Peter, assistant superintendent per that our district's LCAP plan
012was exemplary. And that's a word that is pretty u isn't used very often. So to know that we have something that is done very well that has everything in it that we need um and now it's just a question of taking those actions and making sure that we use those actions and follow those actions and try our best to reach for our goals inside our LCAP. Another um high mark was Miss Mart Martinez, our summer school principal, and the team she uh selected, served 800 students over the summer. Eight over 800 students um completed one or more courses in in the summer session. So, that is a mark that's pretty darn high when you talk about a district that has 4,000 students and yet 800 still accomplished in a short summer of one or more
013courses. So, thank you, Miss Martinez. [Applause] We hear the word transfer often. It could be used in different um different ways, but transfer in July means non-stop communication. The district office hallway buzzing the whole time with parents coming in wondering how they can get their student into our district. And it's an awesome awesome situation when you want students to come to your district. But it's also a ominous challenge to find a spot for them when we only have so many seats in our programs and so many seats in our classrooms. So, of course, we want to try to say yes as much as we can, but there's criteria to make sure it's it's uh fair and that we can actually say yes to serve our students and ensure that our schools are at the right
014capacity. So, I want to thank Carol Taylor. rarely as she uh mentioned because she's always behind the scenes, but in this case, she needs to be front and center for her hard work in juggling every minute, especially in July with our transfer um request. Probably most I've ever heard so far since I've been here. So, thank you, Carol. And that comes with teamwork from our from our front um office staff uh to again our site principal, assistant principles, Miss Ped, everyone checking those numbers pretty much daily to see if we can get a few more in um in the right waves of students. So heavy lift, uh meaningful lift, and I'm really proud to watch the hard work and um and recognize you tonight. So thank you. And then finally, just everything going with the
015preparation of opening a school year. It's almost better sometimes to say graduation, we had it. Let's not even shut the school down because to get it up and running again and to move people and everything that goes with it, it's a whole new It truly is a whole new school year in just eight weeks when you get ready. So, I want to thank everybody for the onboarding of staff, our HR team, our professional development team, everything that brings in our new teachers today. Um, to get organized and to get our staffing right is very tricky. Uh, we'll see how we're doing when we get to the end of the first week when everything settles, but um, our schools are ready and it's because of our people that worked hard over the summer to prepare and
016our staff and also to prepare our facilities. So, thank you all for your hard work on that. Um, it's going to be appreciated even more when our students show up next Monday. So, thank you. Okay, just when you thought the presentation was over, it's just beginning. Okay, so thank you again to our semi-new governing board. We're going to probably get rid of the word new probably as we start the school year because three of our trustees are now past the halfway mark of their first year. So, I don't think they're so new anymore. Um, want to thank everybody for your presence and your support for our students and our staff and helping us guide and steer our district. So, we're looking forward to working with the five of you uh more than ever to have
017a wonderful school year. So, thank you and we're looking forward to introducing you to our staff formally tomorrow morning. The district vision is based on those those words right at the end. preparing our students for career, college, and life. We want to make sure everything we're doing from the time we get them as young freshmen to the time they cross the stage, whatever their interests are, we have most likely something to expose them to that will enrich them and also possibly hook them into something that they wanted to pursue for career or something to study in college. and we want to make sure that we're um guiding new young citizens into the um into our society in our community. So that is our vision every every day we work towards it. Our why similar and
018you could see at the end of our why we want each of them to find quality life, happiness and satisfaction as they live their adult lives. And each one's different. So, the end goal is for their happiness, whatever that's going to look like. I don't even know what favorite picture I have on that one. I think it's our championship soccer coach teaching one of our boys with special needs in the gym and putting his hand on his shoulder and having that moment that probably was one of the better moments of that boy's day, getting to participate and being encouraged. And that's what it's about. Then we have our avid young ladies smiling at accomplishing her way to college and our graduation speaker all the good and then some guy with a big head getting a
019haircut over there on the left. Um so all the different things our students are exposed to and that's led by our wonderful staff. So that's our why. Core values. The um I'm not going to read all of them, but these core values are what we believe when we get out of bed and when we go to our workplace to serve students first and making sure that they all have an opportunity to achieve and succeed. And then as you can see with the bold words, leading by example, equity is a big one, right? um technology usage so that we don't have our students finishing out our district behind. We want to continue to expose them to modern technology and preparing them for the workforce in college. Being transparent and that's not that's sometimes it sounds so
020easy but it takes time. It takes um empathy and it takes listening to be transparent. So, we want to continue to work on our relationships and building transparency and that sometimes means slowing down to actually build that relationship and that interaction. And then um always trying to get our best and highly qualified and productive employees. And that also comes with coaching and building each other up as well because no one knows everything. So, if we're working together, that's how we become more productive. It's not just necessarily hiring an awesome employee. It's also the years that you work together to make yourself better. And that brings me to a slide that has been just created and it's based on the acronym EPIC. And EPIC is also a word we would use if something's going really well,
021right? Oh, that's epic, man. Right? We want to have an epic school year. And an epic school year is going to be done through every single day, every single interaction, every instructional hour. So the first E is for engaging and strategic instruction. We know there's all kinds of ways we can improve. Most of the time it's by working together and it's making sure that our students come into class excited to learn something new. And if they come in excited to learn something new and they're interacting, they're going to probably want to come to school the next day and probably be excited about being on time for that class ready to go. So different ways, different u content areas and this will be also led by our teachers how we can keep improving our engaging and
022strategic instruction and that comes with how we can work better as what's called professional learning communities. Um it's a little it's a different uh different umbrella when you say professional learning communities because it's not based on oh just go to your department and sit around a little bit. It's more about what we're doing together in our content areas to use data to say, okay, these students are for some reason not understanding what I'm trying to um teach them. What can I do to change that to reach them and how can I teach next time I teach them a little bit differently? And maybe it's my partner in my department that has something that's working. So it's it's a truly about teamwork, professional teamwork together. So these professional teams will be very similar to departments, but
023it'll also be based on assessment data, finding out what's why someone is having any trouble and what we can do about it inside our daily um classes. Um and then making those tweaks with instruction as needed. Um number three is inclusion. That is a name is a word we um we um tend tend to connect with equity. Making sure that our students regardless of their levels, their ages, their needs. We do our very best to make sure that they are getting the best opportunities and also to be included in all opportunities at least when it's most uh most possible and highly effective. So, one of the examples that we had incredible success with was taking on our new program from the um Imperial County Office of Education for our students with disabilities of moderate to
024severe. Uh that was an incredibly well done job by the team districtwide. Uh it came with a couple bumps just like anything that that that's heavy to to move, but we did a good job with that. And we also had students getting access to places that they hadn't been in the school, including working with gened students that are um in physical education and art and being part of pep assemblies and all the good stuff. So, I want to thank everybody and there's a lot of them out there that made that work. And it goes even uh deeper than that. It's just not one group of students. It's our English learners, which you know in our district is a pretty high percentage of students that are still working on uh mastering English language are students with
025disabilities that might not be mod severe, but they also need a little bit of extra help. Having them in gened classes where they're getting challenged and pushed and also have models that are working with them in in the classroom. So inclusion comes in different forms and I'm sure we're going to be able to report progress in a lot of them. We have something that we are had some success on a small level last year called co-eing. This year we're trying to expand the co-eing. Um could it have been organized and communicated and maybe uh built upon a little better? Yes. Um, so we're planning on building some momentum because we don't want to go backwards on something that was showing some real progress. We want to expand, but we know if we're going to have
026an initiative and a priority, something as large as co-eing, working together, and including more students. Bless you. We want to make sure that we have everyone on board to do that. And if we don't, how do you move it forward? So that's a big huge uh initiative and priority and we're going to make it work, but it's going to come with the fourth one, culture, pride, and communication. If we can't sit down and talk with each other and organize a large team for these big uh priorities, which is all of our staff and all of our stakeholders, then we're not going to make any of these um worthwhile. So, we have to be able to build our culture of trust and listening. And it's not something you just say at a microphone. It has to
027be something we do every day. That's our expectation as a district. That's a priority probably for overlaps everything because if you don't have uh culture that's built on communication. If you're not returning um emails, you're not sitting down with people and talking through things, you're not going to come up with the best solutions or strategies that work. So, that's all part of professional learning, working together. And then also the pride in our campus, making sure our students are coming to school feeling like my teacher can't wait to see me. I got a a welcome and a greeting from a custodian or a security guard or bus driver. And that's what culture is about. making people feel valued and that goes from the superintendent to our youngest freshmen and that's our commitment and the expectation is
028that we make make some good strides on that. And then finally, this is um an estimated budget uh done very well by our assistant superintendent of business, Miss Marcy Mendoza. She'll present this tomorrow. It's not a lengthy slide. It's not really one of those uh slides that pe we don't want to lose people in all the numbers. We just want to kind of do our best to be as transparent and as accurate as we can estimate saying okay the big yellow rectangle at the bottom is reserves. Anytime a reserve is below 3% you're heading towards a negative budget and it's a huge no no. We want to always keep this thing in double digits. So three is always the number that you try to run from. um we are looking at a 10.49 which at
029the end of this year if it lands anywhere near that then we're we're we have our feet under us and we don't have to have any kind of panic. We don't have to worry about anything crazy. We're just going to be smart about how we save costs and what we put into our most important resources are students and our classrooms. So, we're going to be very we're going to try to be frugal but purposeful on how we spend money to keep that 10% where it is. And then, as you can see, as as um our revenues and expenditures move towards the three-year projected um yearly projection here, you can see it kind of dwindling. And that's what you always worry about, what that third year is going to look like. Now, right now, the third
030year doesn't mean we need to run around freaking out, but we also need to be careful because a four, last time I checked, was pretty close to a three. So, we need to make sure that that four over the next year and two starts turning back towards a 10 real fast. So, that comes with exactly what I just said, being smart about where we put our money and making sure our classrooms are driving our expenses. And Marcy will talk a little bit about that tomorrow on the stage. Um and she'll mention um just the cost of everything. We know, right? We know when we go to the grocery store, we know when we go buy new tires, everything keeps going up. We're seeing it with our aquatic center. Just when we think we've got a
031a good plan, we hear something else cost extra. So the there's all it's never cheaper than you think, right? It's always just like our home lives, right? You always can throw another couple hundred dollars on something. It seems like that's every single thing. So, we want to be very smart this year so we can start seeing that seven and that four be projected a little higher. So, that is my third fourth grade type presentation with that. I didn't get too into the weeds on that, but that's basically the gist of what we're trying to do with our budget. And we feel that these numbers are accurate enough to say this is where we are big picture. Um, and I think that's pretty much it. I didn't practice this presentation, so hopefully it went well enough
032for you to get something out of it. I think the budget is something that's a good takeaway. And then of course our epic is our big one here because this is I almost wanted to say the leadership team and I didn't want to be too sarcastic, but if it doesn't fall under this, what are we talking about? Right? And then the funny thing is it's always going to fall into this because everything we talk about should be based on how we improve our culture and working with each other. So thanks for listening to me. You'll hear it again if you come tomorrow. We'll see if it's similar or if I change it overnight. So thank you very much. Okay. All >> okay. Item six, public comment session. At this time, the board of trustees will
033hear comments, presentations, or requests on matters listed on this 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 public for the total time for public input on each item to 20 minutes. The board reserves the right to limit presentations. And once again, this meeting is being recorded. Trustee Espinosa, do we have any this evening? >> No, madam president. >> Okay, please written comment. >> So, let's go to seven public comment session nonaggenda items. At this time, the board of trustees will hear comments, presentations, or requests on matters not listed on this agenda or topics that are not on the agenda but are within the board's jurisdiction. The board will not respond
034to any public comments directly. Speakers are requested to give their names and addresses. Time limit for speakers, three minutes. The board shall limit the total time for public input on each item to 10 minutes. Um, the board reserves a right to limit presentations and this meeting is being recorded. Do we have anybody? >> Do not have anybody >> and anybody at this time for public comment. We'll open that up. Okay. Item number eight, approval of the agenda. Consent item. Oh, approval of the agenda. a page here. >> Do I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda? >> I'll make a motion to approve tonight's agenda. >> I'll second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Consent item agendas. All matters appearing on the consent agenda are routine business matters and are and
035will be acted upon with 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. >> Do I have a motion for the consent item agenda items? >> I'll make a motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Moving on to item 10, action information items. Approval of the personnel report for August 2025. The board is requested to approve the August 2025 personnel report as presented. Do I have a motion? >> I move that we approve the personnel report. >> I'll second. >> Okay. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? And we'd like to have uh the principal of Southwest High School, Mr. Joe Derma, to come on up and introduce your new
036uh assistant principal. >> Thank you, >> members of board. Thank you. Welcome back. I'd like to introduce our new vice principal of curriculum, Miss Sandra Ross. Come on up, please. Miss Ross comes to us from um a district up north, but um we are we are very proud to have her here at the school site and we believe that she'll be a great member of our team. So, Miss Ross, welcome. Say a few words, please. >> I'm very excited to be here. I'm a district graduate myself. So, my kids went to I graduated from Central. My kids went to Southwest. >> Um so, I'm very proud to be here. I have a very welcoming community as a parent when I was going through my kids at Southwest. I'm really proud and happy to be part
037of of the Southwest Central District community. Um, and I'm really excited to work with everybody. Um, as far as being >> Thank you, members. [Applause] She is teacher. So I was really excited to learn what I was Oh my go. One, two, one. [Applause] Okay. Now, item two, request approval of the variable term waiver requests, waiver of education code 44253-11, waiver of c certificate of completion for staff development to provide instruction to English learners. The board is requested to approve submitting variable term waiverss to California Commissions on Teachers Credentiing on behalf of the following employee in grades 9 through 12 to wave the certificate of completion of staff development to provide instruction to English learner students. Effective dates of the waiver will be um August 1st, 2025 through July 31st, 2026. And this is for
038the CTE a teacher at Southwest High School, Sydney >> Manet. >> Do I have a motion for the approval? >> I'll make a motion. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Okay. Number three, approval of the course list for the 2526 school year. The superintendent recommends that the governing board of trustees approves the course list for the 2025 26 school year as presented. I'm >> sure that was a long process. >> Yeah. Do I have a motion for that approval? >> I I so move that we approve the course list. >> I'll second. >> Okay. Um all those in favor? >> I oppose. No. approval of new course beginning dance to be offered at Central Union High School for the 2526 school year and that is going to go into that new
039building C building. I guess that's what it's still called right now. >> Um that used to be the old math wing. >> So I went I went to Central today hoping I could could get in there and take a look. I've seen the building itself but I think now they're waiting for the mirrors to be put up and the bars and >> five six seven eight stuff, you know. So looking forward to that and I'm sure um Miss Miss Magua will be very pleased with that building. So and that new course list that she was submitted. >> So our superintendent recommends the governing board of trustees approves a new course beginning dance to be offered at CS for the 2526 school year as presented. Do I have a motion? >> I'll make a motion. >>
040Okay. A second. >> I'll second. >> All those in favor? I >> I opposed. >> Another new course. Approval of the new course cyber security 2 to be offered at Central for the 2526 school year. Superintendent recommends the governing board of trustees approves a new course cyber security 2 to be offered at CS for the 2526 school year. Uh do I have a motion? >> I move that we approve the new course cyber security. It sounds awesome. >> Yeah. And do I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. Okay. >> Item number six, approve textbook adoption AP English literature. It is recommended that the board approve the adoption of ideas of literature building skills and understanding 2023 edition as a textbook for AP English literature at both comprehensive high schools.
041>> Motion second. >> Thank you. Thank you. All those in favor. >> Any opposed? >> Item seven, state 202526 budget and impact on the Central Union High School District budgets 45day budget update. This is just anformational item and there will be no action taken this evening. Okay. So 11 ECSA and CSA comments. I see that we have Welcome back. I do have a presentation for you to All right. Um, good evening. Um, esteemed board members, Dr. Farcus, colleagues, and everyone else in attendance. My name is Gabino Dwas. I am the president of O Central Secondary Teachers Association and I'm sorry that I missed uh both meetings in June, but I needed some time off because the month of July, 18 days of the month of July, I was in conferences. 18 days. Okay, so just
042a little recap. um start off July. I was in Portland for I think eight days. Um I am a state delegate for the National Educators Association. Um so I was there with 6,000 other teachers from across the nation and we talked about a lot of the different issues that involve um educators across the country. Um and uh it is a representative assembly. So it's like um I'm a member of those that make the decisions that uh that NEA will then send or lobby for and uh try to get uh the governors to pass um or sign bills. Um I'm also a state um council representative for CTA, which is why I've got all the nice gear from CTA. Um, so a lot of work has been done, a lot of information has been sent my
043way. And um, this summer I did take a refresher course. Um, since I was, uh, in LA for about five or six days, I took a refresher course on finance, school finance, which, um, is kind of why I have this uh, presentation for you tonight. Um, okay. So what I would my goal is to present to you a budget analysis how we El Centralary Teacher Association read the numbers that are being presented to you. Um I want to thank Dr. Farcus because he did point out um the next three years in the budget and he did give you guys information and he actually used the proper terminology which was that uh these are projections. Um I really appreciate him doing so and he did um point out that over the last three years or the
044next three years it is expected that the reserves drop down all the way to 4%. Which could be alarming could be if it were true. So in my presentation I am going to try to point some holes into that. So the Central Union High School District um board all of you have at some point adopted a reserve requirement of 16% which turns out to be 13,249,734. Now this number is not a projection. I use the estimated actuals which are online on your district website. Estimated actuals are not projections. They are still somewhat could be considered a guess but the margin of error between the estimated actuals and the audit reports is close to zero. There's almost no error. Okay. So, uh for all intents and purposes, although this is still an estimate, I will still
045call it our best guess. It's again I preface this with it's very very close to zero margin of error. All right. So 16% reserve that's what our district has set up as a goal for where we should stand so that we maintain our fiscal solveny. It's it's I have no problem with that. I really don't. State of California has a minimum reserve requirement of 3% which Dr. Farcus did mention and it is on the budget uh presentations that you guys saw today uh from his uh slides. This is equal to $2,484,325. Now again, this is from the estimated actuals. This is not a funny number. It's not an estimate. This is a real number. Now, from the estimated actual reports that is accessible to the public on our district's website, the total lending balance, which
046includes restricted and unrestricted and all other funding sources, is currently at 21,600,131 or an actual real number of 26%. The budget difference between 26% and 16% is currently 8,350,397. Now, that's the difference. That's the amount that we are over our adopted reserve requirement of 16%. That's $8 million more than your policy. Why did this happen? Well, we take a look at the adopted budget and again it's an estimate. We take a look at the first interim and again it's an estimate. Second interim estimate. All are estimates and do not represent the actual financial health of the district. Now why are they estimates? Well, because we have a lot of factors to consider, a lot of things that are happening around the world that will impact our budget. One of those things is ADA. We don't
047have an accurate number on the very first day of school as to how many students are actually going to be in our schools. and will be reported at the time that it has to be reported to count towards our funding, our P28. Okay, period 280. That's a certain time of the year when this number becomes real. We don't get that to begin the school year. So that explains why Marcy, who's done a great job, has always used the correct terms, always used estimates, always used projections instead of what we used to have. And again, I tell you guys again, I respect Arnold. I love Arnold, but he never used those terms. He always said these are the numbers. He never said estimate. He never said projection. So again, the adopted budget is all based on
048projections. What Dr. Farcus demonstrated to you showing the three-year projections, they're projections. A lot of things can happen. Now, throughout the negotiations process, there was one thing that we as negotiators were really concerned about, which is what is Donald Trump going to come up with next, right? He decided that he was going to freeze federal funding for our schools. And then he said, "Uh, you know what? Never mind. We're going to give it back to you." I remember that we were in Portland at the National Educators Association Representative Assembly meeting, 6,000 other educators, and the big thing that Becky Pringle was saying to us is beware of this big ugly bill, which the Republican party and doc and Donald Trump have called the big beautiful bill. It's not. It's ugly because if we really take
049a close look at everything and then we called to task all of the senators and all the all the representatives that voted for it and signed it, they didn't know what's in the bill, right? But here we are. We got to deal with it, right? Okay. So the fear that was stoked back then led us to be somewhat apprehensive as to the future of the finances because even though federal funding is a very minute portion of our district's budget, it's still significant. When you take away $6 million out of our budget, that's a lot of money because that's what it comes out to. It was calculated for our district by UNICERF, by CTA, by NEA that if these budget freezes had come through, it would have been slightly over $6 million. So the information that
050I'm giving you today, it's not estimates. It's what it would have been had it been frozen indefinitely. Thankfully, so that did not happen. So the fear should have gone down significantly. Our financial outlook has improved significantly with that. The estimated actuals can also be described as a best guess as I said re earlier. Now the estimated actuals however are as close to real numbers as we have until today. The audit report which you will receive within the next two months will give you the correct and accurate information. Now again I said margin of error will probably be 0%. Okay on this audit report. Now the district is committed to excellence. It's on the sign right below right behind u Sandy Nan our president. We are committed to excellence. Now we do our best to provide
051our students with the best programs the best educational opportunities the best teachers and the best schools. We're constantly improving on that. I mean, construction's happening right now at Southwest trying to get us get us a pool. The STEM building, as expensive as it turned out to be, is is a phenomenal. It's a pillar of this entire community, not just O Central, but the Imperial Valley. People look at it and they're like, "Oh, I wish we had a STEM building, right? I wish we had the stuff that they have going on over there." And a lot of students are transferring to our district. contributed to that and our programs and our teachers and everything else. So, we got a lot of good things going for us. Now, we strive to work together. But we sometimes fall
052short of that. We lose sight of our commitment. We forget what is truly important. I want to remind everyone tonight that ECSTA, the certificated group of employees of this district, is committed to the excellence that we strive to attain together. We are. And the lines of communication will always be open. Our willingness to solve our issues will always be there. But sometimes we don't see eye to eye. We don't agree. Today we don't agree on the numbers. Which begs the question. If we have 8,350, over your budget 16%. And the cost to increase teacher salaries by 1% is roughly 365,000. I won't read that sentence. But I'll just simply say, why can't we continue to negotiate? That ends my presentation. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Do we have anybody from CSA? Okay, with
053that, um, we do not have to go back to close session this evening. Um, I look forward to seeing everybody tomorrow. It's going to be a great day. It's going to be a great year. And I know the unity on the shirts um to me um you can't spell community without unity. >> And so that was something that I was going to say yesterday and I think this is a community that I have been a part of since you know I think we mentioned in the I don't know who it was mentioned about 1900s you know talking about you know when they came to the district and I've been been a part of this community since uh you know 1989 and uh it's it's been good to me. Both my kids graduated from this community
054>> and a lot of people here >> have been part of this maybe even longer than I have, >> you know. Um so I I want that unity >> and I want the community to go with it because that's what we need to do. >> So I think we've got some some things that we can address and look forward to and tomorrow is a day to celebrate and and I look forward to that. >> So with that, >> I adjourn this meeting at 7:16 and I will see everybody tomorrow. >> Yes. Thank you.