Central Union High School District Board Meeting: 6/10/25

001I didn't know. So, we're good to go. Good evening. Today is June 10th, I believe, and go ahead and call this meeting to order at 5:16. And we will go ahead and proceed to close session. your 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 name 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 a right to limit presentations. This meeting is being recorded and we have uh trustee Elllet is filling in for trustee Espinosa who is not here today. So trustee, do we have anybody? No problem. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Now we will go to

002close session. It would be my honor to have a teacher here back or two apart, but our sons grew together and that's that's special. I mean, you're like my sister from Mil Central. So, I'm I'm glad to see you here. So, let's go ahead and stand for the pledge of allegiance if you're able to stand andice for all. Okay. Communication and recognitions. Um, we usually have our student board reps, but they're not here today, so that's kind of I missed that. So, we'll go ahead and start with the governing board, uh, Trustee Elliot. Oh, what a nice month we've had doing all these events at all the schools. I'll try not to do all of them, but um, an amazing one was at Southwest a Memorial Day ceremony and remembering how many people our own

003valley have given the their lives for us was amazing. It was a beautiful ceremony. Very very nice. Then we had a special invitation. The ICE had a special ed talent show that we really enjoyed and then they had a special ed prom that we got to go see in Klexico and then they also um we got to go to their graduations. It was very special. We really enjoyed getting to do that. Um I just kept the flyers. Um we got to do quite a few um awards for the CTE when when the people were recognized. Our CTE program is amazing to see all these young people that are have training and are going on with a future goal. It was really exciting. So all the schools had that this all the schools had um end

004of the school um scholarship awards and things like that. It was it was really a wonderful opportunity to see them. Um a special one at Southwest was also the balora ceremony. It's nice to see all of our schools invited to one ceremony and to see teachers and students there together from all the schools was quite it was really a wonderful experience. And then of course graduations we all enjoyed graduations and congratulations to all the teachers, parents for doing a great job with these students and we wish them all the best. Thank you for being here. Thank you uh Trusty Mora. Um, I'm a Debbie. It was an awesome month. Uh, a lot a lot to do. I felt like I was back to work. But, um, that was my first time attending the Southwest Memorial

005Ceremony. Yes, I have to admit there was a couple of tears in there and it was just and it was such an honor to find out who the teacher is for the cadets. Um, and his mom and I went together to school. So, it was like this with my getting home, but it was such an honor and it was beautiful. The special ed um prom, we were in La. It was beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I wanted to be there. And let me tell you that I I was kind of chit chatting by the dance floor and the kids would come up to me and they wanted for me to dance. And yes, I would Google a little bit. I didn't actually, but it was just beautiful. It's so inspiring. It's And they enjoyed it. They loved

006it. They wanted more food, that's for sure. And then we went to um special ed graduation at Southwest and um even as a sub one of the students I I I would go pick him up in a van and to see him there that he grew like 10 inches. It was just just very awesome. Also the CTE awards we had them at every uh school site, but the the key the key for everything was the graduations. We started on the day before with the adult. Those were easy because they were inside the theater and right after it was back to back 3:30 and then five was it 5 or 5:30? for dinner. We were very well behaved because we were sitting up there and then the next day I got to be at the central

007graduation. It's just beautiful. And I kept getting texts like, "Oh my god, is that you?" It's like, "Yes, you knew I was on the board. You know, but it it was very, very nice. Beautiful graduations and and the kids of course selfies on stage and and something that really got to my heart was the fact that I don't I don't think I kept count maybe Sandy did on how many parents staff teachers classified certificated asked to be up there handing their student their um diploma. It was very very emotional and I'm like, "Oh my god, they're coming on stage and it was beautiful. Great experience." Great experience. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Trusty Tobars. Hi. Good afternoon. And I do have uh I attended with Debbie and Bea, but I'm going to jump the subject

008to a another subject. I wanted to talk about the letter B the varsity letter policy. Either if I I could have a copy of the policy or what policies or can we make it a policy? And I wrote it down so I don't get confused. I want to see if we can make a policy for a letter for our students, athletes, academics, and special circumstances. When students have disabilities, I had a friend ask me if I had a letter that I could give her for her son who cannot play sports due to his disability. A high school letter provides pro and promotes school culture, belonging, and much more. As you are part of a sports of a Spartan or Eagle's nation, it might not seem a lot like it might not seem a lot, but

009belonging to a to a school or a Nat or a Spartan or a Eagle, it's a lot for a student. And I want to know if we could do a a change on that policy because I did have an extra letter from my nephew. He didn't want to get a a jacket. And I gave it to that kid. When I saw his face light up when I gave him that letter, I wanted to cry cuz I saw his pictures on Facebook with his Leatherman jacket and not the letter. I even called ASB if I could purchase a letter. They said no. But he's a he's autistic and he's in basic. So that kind of feels like if are these kids being discriminated because basic cannot give you certain letters even though if you have a

010point a 3 point something because another girl graduated and she had a 3.6 16. She didn't get anything for academics. And uh I saw his pictures online and he was covering the side where the letter goes. And when I gave him that letter, that meant a lot to him. And not to if they cannot give them a letter, let the parents purchase. It's $25. so they could at least feel that they belong to to a school to a team. Thank you. Thank you, Trusty Tvaris. Um, you know, there were a lot lot of things going on uh this month, you know, and I and then we were at graduation together and um central graduation. I was taught there for I don't know 30 something years. I don't want to show my age, but it's always

011um special the way they put the ceremony on. Both my children graduated from from Central. But what was really special, um, Officer Cornell who passed away from COVID, uh, 2020, um, his daughter graduated and I I know it was in the paper and that type of thing. And and I worked with Officer Cornell, just a sweetheart, you know, he was just a just a sweet guy. He played soccer with when the bill was there. I mean, we just kind of had a lot of history together. Um, but to see those those officers bring her up to the stage, I mean, you just had to keep from just losing it. And that's the community that we have, you know, we we come together when we need to come together. I'm sure those officers didn't know anything

012about his daughter, what she did at school, she played soccer, but they were there proudly representing the Cornell family. Uh, Sebastian was there, his son. So, that was something that definitely had a lump in my throat. Um, the kids coming across the stage amazing. Uh, adult ed just gets me every time because those people have sacrificed sometimes they go from work, they go to school, plus they put their kids through school. So, when they receive that diploma, it's it's just it's very very touching. So, I you know, it was it was a it was a nice week, you know, cult with graduations and it's just it's we do some good things here at the Central High School District and I'm proud to be a part of it and continue to be a part of that.

013So, I think that's it for the board. Uh trustee um Espinosa is not here. Um so Miss Elllet is filling in as the clerk this evening and and she'll take care of business. Okay. So we have the superintendence report. Oh, wait a minute. Do we have any student club reports? We did leave that on the agenda for today even though we don't have the students here. Any student clubs? Okay. Uh Dr. Farcus. So here's a great example. Well, I love to point to it and we have so many great pictures. We can hear our um reports with our our words and our ears, right? But when our eyes see all these pictures, it's truly a thousand words, right? And you can see all the wonderful uh people that support our students and families. You can

014see all the programs and celebrations from a very successful school year. And it's so easy to think about the five or six negative things that come up every semester for different reasons. usually peoplebased situations that come up and arguments um and not agreeing with each other in mostly adult world. Um so we see this and this is what it's about. So and we can easily get away from it. I'm guilty of that too where you just have a bad day you get grumpy and next thing you know you're not talking to someone like you should because you're tired and grumpy. But this is what it's about right here. all of these celebrations and the hard work that everybody put together for this school year and we're going to do it again next year even better.

015So that's what it takes. It takes a village to get these students and these young adults across our stage and on to their futures. That's what high school's about. Preparing them for adulthood and for college and career. And that's what we're trying to do at our district for every single student. And our staff believes in that as well. And they demonstrate that every day. And today we saw more demonstration of it this morning when we had all hands on deck at Central High School for summer school. We had all of our employees and helpers all working to get the students to their first class for their first day of summer school this morning. And by started at 8 buses were dropping off students and by 8:45 it was just a ghost town. Everybody was in

016class, knew where to go and these were students from other Southwest as well that were coming over for their first time. So, I want to thank everybody for the hard work of organizing ahead of time and then also delivering this morning to get students welcomed with the smile and into class so they can recover or accelerate whatever they're up to with their uh um summer school, including our dual enrollment courses. So, thank you very much for a successful summer school first day. I want to just um maybe this will be my last speech as a superintendent. I don't know, but I'm going to go for it anyway. When my mom uh and I were little, when she was uh with me when I was little, um she used to say, "Oh, if you see a

017penny, if it's heads, you pick it up and you can make a wish. If it's tails, we don't really make a wish with that." Um so then as a high schooler, I grew into that and I'd wish for like I hope I have the courage to talk to that girl next period. I hope I get bigger muscles, right? Um, and now as an adult when I pray, I pray and when I wish I wish for students or young people to not have uh their nearby hospital bombed, right? All the things going on in our world. That's sad, right? Big things. Um, students and young people going to bed hungry. It's not okay and it's not part of what we're supposed to be as a human race. Those are the big things that we can't control,

018but we try our best to to model and and share. And when you when it comes to a school district that's a public school district, it becomes even more balanced. We need to be balanced. We need to think all the things that happen at our schools should be under the umbrella of respecting the person next to you. If it's a kindergartenner, if it's an old person, if it's a dog, we give them respect and we get respect. We come to school to go to math class. And in math class, we should be learning math. In English class, we should learn ma uh English. When we have free time or club time, as long as we're treating everyone with respect, we have our clubs and our friends and our free time. And I could have five

019boys that are my friends and two girls that are my friends. So if we can remember that and when we if that can drive us as a community and as a school district, we follow the education codes, we follow the state laws, but if we follow respect, it all works out, but we get caught up like I said about the, you know, you get caught up. You worry about your muscles instead of bigger things, right? So I I guess this is just my way of saying I think as a community and a school district if we take a breath and say how do we respect the people around us even if we don't agree with them completely and move forward so that I'm not late for math class and I'm not late for English class.

020Um that was my best attempt to say let's keep working together. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Carus. Okay public comment session. At this time, the board of trustees will hear 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 time for public input on each item to 20 minutes. The board reserves the right to limit presentations and this meeting is being recorded. Um, so Trusty Elliot gave me the individuals that want to speak on issues on this agenda. So we'll just go with how I believe they were turned in or how uh she handed it to me. Ready? So we start as soon

021as they get up there or Yeah. When they start because this is her first time, so she's a rookie tonight. So we're going to kind of help walk her through it a little bit. So usually we just start when they make their first statement. Yeah. We're good to go. Okay. So we have Pete Melinger. He is uh commenting on agenda item eight. Good evening. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to just share. Hopefully I won't take more less than three minutes. My name is Pete Malinger. I live at 1757 Lotus Avenue. My three children graduated from Southwest High School. Now, in regards to agenda number eight, I think the first thing that I need to point out, if you look at the proclamation, there's an air on it, and that could be found in

022item number two where it says that the president has signed the month of June. Our president last Tuesday declared he would not sign the month of June to be set aside for this matter. Uh side note, if you look at all the days during the year that these are um this group of people who God loves wants to see them saved and go to heaven. There's no doubt on that. Uh, we see that there's 145 days during the year, which I find interesting because I'm a Vietnam vet and a veteran only gets one day for the entire year and here we see 145 days. I think we would spend our time, our effort in pouring into our students. And I just love what the superintendent said. He said, "Why don't we make sure that kids

023don't go to bed hungry at night? Why are we spending all this time on this issue when we could be feeding those people who truly are in need?" So, please consider that. And sure, if you for some reason would pass it just because other people have in the past and haven't taken a stand against it, make sure that you correct that because this president, Donald J. Trump said he would not sign it. Thank you very much. God bless. Thank you. Uh we have uh Miss Ariel Bonado. Sorry if I mispronounced your name. And she is also uh speaking on item agenda number eight. Um good afternoon. My name is Arieli Bonano and I am a proud Central Spartan preparing to begin my senior year. I am a 4.0 student deeply involved in a variety of

024clubs and activities on campus and I genuinely love and care about my fellow students and the future of our school. Through my involvement in many different clubs such as robotics, campus life, green team, and link crew, I've had the privilege of meeting people from all walks of life. Friends with diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences. These connections have helped shaped who I am and have given me a sincere appreciation for the unique stories that each person carries. Before I continue, I want to make one thing absolutely clear. I am not here out of resentment or hostility towards the LGBTQ community, especially those within our school. I love my peers and my friends wholeheartedly, regardless of their sexual orientation or personal preferences, just as I know God loves all his children. That said, as a student, I

025firmly believe that certain topics, particularly those related to sexual orientation and personal identity should not be the responsibility of the school to address. School should be spaces dedicated to learning, focused on strength, strengthening academics, crit critical thinking, and preparing us for our futures. They should not be places where conversations that are deeply personal and often complex are introduced in a classroom setting. These are conversations that belong in the home between a child and their parents or guardians. People who know them intimately, love them unconditionally, and can guide them according to their unique family values and beliefs. When schools step into these personal areas, they risk overstepping their role, and whether intentional or not, can expose students who are still children to topics that can have significant impacts on their mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. I

026say this not out of fear, but out of deep care for my peers and a strong desire to see our school remain in a place where all students can thrive academically and feel safe in focusing on their education. Thank you for your time and may God bless you guys and guide you in making a wise decision. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Okay, next we have Delila Bernol. Miss Bernal is also commenting on agenda item number eight. Good evening, respected members of the board. My name is Delila Bernal. I'm a very enthusiastic student preparing for my senior year at Central. My love for working with others has driven me to be very connected on campus and join several sports clubs and CTSOs, including current HOSA president, class of 26 president for the 25 through 24 through

02725 school year. A large part of Central's drill team and former swim team member. Through this wide variety of activities, I've met numerous people, all with different belief systems, each their own. Never have I tried to enforce my beliefs on them and vice versa. I simply go about my friendships and relationships with love, just as the Lord has intended. While it is important to love one another in any and all beliefs, there is a line that I urge you all to look at before crossing. Indoctrination. Although times are changing, this should not equal to compromise and suppression of beliefs. We can all celebrate them without forcing them onto others. School systems pride themselves on constantly working and creating a positive space filled with equality. But I'd like to give you some insight on what a

028school day is like as a believer in Christ. They say teachers aren't allowed to speak on religion, but they can freely ask me before learning my name what my pronouns are. We cannot force religion on others, but at the start of health ed, we can incorporate students having to learn the different gender identities and sexual orientations. A student in my US history class will accidentally misgender someone, and it is okay for my teacher to tell him to show some respect. But when the Lord's name is blasphemized or taken in vain, I am expected to sit back, stay quiet, and say nothing as well as teachers. Now, this isn't me sending hate towards the LGBTQ community. It is just an observation of the obvious that the same precautions and measures are not taken to protect all

029students and make all students, regardless of belief, feel safe. What we ask for here today is a compromise and reconsideration. In the same way that you do not want religion spoken about in the classroom because it is not suitable for everyone, neither would a new curriculum pertaining to this. On behalf of my peers here today, family, friends, and other members of this district and community who stand with me, we again ask that you truly do take the time to truly see that this decision from all angles and perspectives before allocating funds to activities that do not preach to others beliefs. I pray that God bless you all in this next decision- making process and thank you for your time. Thank you. [Applause] Okay, next we have Diego Kisada. Mr. Cisada is commenting on agenda item

030number eight. Hello, my name is Diego Quesada, a 2025 Central Union High School graduate. First and foremost, like to say I'm a servant of Jesus Christ. I believe that every single last person on this earth was stitched together by God. I believe that Jesus gives the opportunity to be reborn in him to everybody on this earth, regardless of beliefs. I believe that everyone should be loved as a brother or sister in Christ and that believers should reflect the love of Jesus Christ regardless of circumstance. Now, the community of LGBTQIA+ is a community that fights for acceptance and equality, but I think it has gone way past this point of acceptance. Based on my experiences and observations, people including myself in our society do not care whether or not you are by, gay, straight, lesbian, or

031any other sexuality you choose to identify as. As a matter of fact, many people now face a lot of social pressures when disagreeing with people based on sexuality or gender due to its huge cancel culture and the hate that is fired at you for being unaccepting. And many people are too scared to even say anything. It has gotten p past the point of acceptance and has now gotten to the point of indoctrination. Implementing the LGBTQ ideologies into our educational system is wrong on so many levels due to the fact that you are forcing people to learn about sexuality and gender identity in a school setting. Also, making special events and special parades and special months for a community that's trying to be normalized is hypocritical due to the fact that these things make LGBTQ special

032or different, not normal. The only way to obtain normaly is by acting like you are not different. And I have firsthand had this experience. I have friends and family family members that are transgender and that do have different sexuality, but the way they approach their sexuality is not by acting out of the ordinary and excessively presenting themselves as these things, but by acting civil and normal. When I encounter these people, I truly see them as just human beings. Instead of making these people feel different and placing a magnifying glass on them, we should turn our focus towards men's mental health month which is also in July in June. Prevent bullying prevention for all, expanding our influence in the community through community service and engagement, encouraging higher education, and getting students ready for the next step

033in life. God bless you all and thank you for your time. [Applause] Uh, next we have Cam Cameron Kas. Mr. Kas is also um making comments on agenda item number eight. Hello, my name is Cameron Kas. I have been a youth pastor for several years now and a volunteer leader at the Central Union High School campus life club and I've grown up in the Imperial Valley my entire life. I have a deep love for the youth in this community. If any of you are parents, you know deep down that there is almost nothing more important to you than the health and well-being of your child. As a father of four, I want nothing more than to raise my children triumph of the modern self. Carl Truman in his chapter titled The Triumph of the Erotic

034States, quote, "Sex now pervades every aspect of life, from elementary education to commercials to Congress and the Supreme Court. Everywhere one looks, the erotic sexual desire has triumphed." End quote. One would not have to think for more than a few seconds to affirm this statement. The question I would a I would like to ask is why? Why is eroticism and the celebration of sexual orientation making its way into a place of high school academia? In speaking with parents of Central Union High School students ahead of this meeting about the nature of it, they asked that I would advocate for them in my three minutes and ask why were the parents not made abundantly more aware of this resolution? Why not hear openly from the parents? Why not consider what they want being taught, celebrated, and

035put in front of their children? Standing before you, I would encourage you not to ostracize parents, but rather seek to serve and partner with them to the best of your ability. Although it is good motivation to seek creative solutions to depression and anxiety and the personal struggles of teens, affirmation, indoctrination, and persuasion in the areas of sexual orientation are not appropriate for high school academia. Why place this tremendous burden on these high school students whose minds will not even be fully developed until their mid to late 20s? I pray that God gives you the wisdom and foresight to see that this decision is not good for our young people who already have so many outside pressures from television, friends, and society. Do not pass this resolution. Do not cause these little ones to stumble. There

036will be spiritual, physical, and mental repercussions on our young people that you will be personally held responsible for. I would like to close with the words of the greatest teacher who ever lived. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be thrown into the depth of the sea. With all due respect to the positions that you hold, consider the children. Consider the parents. And I would encourage you to count the cost of this decision because you will give account to God for it one day. Thank you. [Applause] Uh, Miss Katherine Drew, I'm not used to sitting down and talking. You can stand up all you want. And Miss Drew is commenting on

037agenda item number eight. Whatever you feel comfortable doing. Yeah, maybe that's better if you want to record it. You haven't been here long enough. This is not my first time up here doing this. I faced them down before and I've won every time. And I'll tell you why. Because they think they got the big Jay on their side and they don't. He's not walking with them. It's just not happening. They can quote him. Can't live it when it comes to one specific group of kids. And it's really really sad because I may be retired but a lot of them are my kids. The one that sits right there. My kid. Okay. My kid. Can't remember who else is here. Many of your children. My kids and tell you that. So both California state law, California

038ed code says that these will be the rules. It's proforma today. You can argue all you want. It's proforma. School is only asked to enforce respect. And if you don't think that teachers love their students, you didn't have the right one, which means you probably didn't have me. Sorry for that, Mers. I always wish I had your kids. I love them. Thank you. We can multitask. We can have this policy and we can still proceed with the lives that teachers need to lead. and the the the staff, not just teachers, but the staff and the respect that is shown to every student, whether we know their gender identity or sexual identity or anything else. That's the respect the teachers need to show to the students and make sure that the other students show the same

039kind of respect. All right? I don't have to like your religion or like your religious view or like your re uh political view, but I'm going to love you anyway because I'm a teacher. I'm a teacher just like you know Jesus that guy. I know you guys get mad when I do that. No one has ever been able to force homosexuality on anyone. No one's really never been able to force hatred on someone. Although you're trying, I know. Give it give you kudos for that. Everyone does deserve love according to everybody. Some of you think not too much love. Worried about that. We seem to be spending way too much time and energy worrying about being indoctrinated. Indoctrinating you by the time we get your kids kind of hard to do because that's happened already.

040Children learn what they live. Remember that little thing we always put up in the kids' bedrooms, right? It was in a Sunday school class where I grew up. Children learn, they live. They will learn. And so they do have your discrimination, your hatred, your bigotry. And it's going to conflict in their mind when they're reading the Bible. And Jesus says just love everyone. There's nothing that says we got to conditionalize this. Three minutes. I knew you were going to do that. You are not a group of loving people. If you were, you'd be more worried about the frightened children. And quoting Jesus, I'm just going to tell you, he was talking about you. State law says this is coming. We're going to have it. Okay. And I'm glad we need to let them have their

041their voice, but it's state law and I know you're going to follow it. Thank you, Miss Drew. Um I think that is 18 minutes on that subject. Yeah, you have it on um that's a non-aggenda item. So, Rosadas, right? And then after that, we had uh Jeremiah Vic was Mr. Vic, you you wanted on the same subject. So I think I will ask the board if we want to continue with these last two even though we've already had 18 minutes. We we don't want to limit to one minute a piece. So do we still want to go for three minutes for each person? Fine. I'm fine. Okay. Thank you. So Miss Diaz. So I'm going to change it on the form here that you want to talk about. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Good evening, distinguished

042board members and school personnel. My name is Rosa Diaz and I am a lesbian. I am also the founder of the and the CEO of the Impro Valley LGBT Resource Center, which was recently rebranded to the Donnelly Community Services Center. Last June, I was invited to this board meeting where a proclamation was issued declaring JW as LGBTQIA+ month. Although I did not request this recognition and disagreed with the wording on in the proclamation, I appreciate the invitation. Within the 10 years of experience working with individuals who identify as transgender, non-binary, gender fluid, I can assure you that promoting the queer ideology has caused significant confusion amongst children and youth. They may identify however they wish, but that does not make it so. And affirming their identities does not necessarily help the situation. On the contrary,

043I have observed that many children and youth whom I personally work with do not conform to traditional gender norms. They suffer significantly. Continuing to suggest that they have magically transformed into whatever it is that they wish to perceive themselves as only complicates their lives. Yes, we are told the opposite that failing to affirm their self-perception or as the proclamation stated their authentic selves leads to victimization, intimidation and harassment. Sometimes stemming from within themselves as they become hyper aware and hyper sensitive when they are not affirmed. For example, if you refuse to acknowledge their chosen pronouns, they may react aggressively and defensively and claim to feel threatened. This reaction can be interpreted as harassment or bullying. I do not support displaying the pride flag at any public school classroom, and in my opinion, this practice amounts

044to grooming children into adopting the queer ideology. I do not support uh I'm sorry. Furthermore, I am not in favor of school personnel using pronouns as part of their identity or asking students for their pronouns as I believe that this too constitutes grooming. I understand that many people feel that they are helping the LGBTQIA plus individuals but the reality is that this has entered into a dangerous territory. There is significant is a significant difference between being fully aware of what you are supporting and blindly endorsing an idea or a movement. The queer agenda has strayed too far and we need to take a step back to assess the damage it is causing. Otherwise, we risk leading ourselves. We we are leading ourselves blindly. I urge you board members to listen to the voices calling for

045a reconsideration of this issue. It's time to stop the nonsense and stay the course in teaching students how to read, write, history, math, science, and prepare them for real life issues. I'd be glad to speak to any of you more in about this and I will provide documentation and findings on this. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Okay, the last person for items on the agenda is Mr. Jeremiah Vic. Good evening. My name is Jeremiah Vic and I'm the executive director of Youth for Christ here in Imperial Valley. Greetings to the board members and people assembled here. Um, I've been working with young people for 30 years in youth ministry. We work with about 1,200 students a week um on public school campuses through our campus life program on 16 different campuses including uh the alternative

046ed schools and um juvenile hall. And uh just wanted to say that uh as a parent um in addition to being one who's worked with youth and in youth culture for many years um I have found a trend of when um differences are amplified. Um as Rosa had mentioned that um the um intended um purpose is is not always accomplished. We we do a Operation Beautiful campaign on several campuses where we address um bullying and suicide and we find that uh that this has been something that's that's been um showing up in in great increase um since um there's been such a a um uplifting of differences in um students. this um as a parent um I'm concerned about um indoctrination of course um but I'm also concerned about um the uh the things that

047need to be taught in the home uh to my children that I don't have any input on or any say on in in the public school system and so I ask you to um consider reconsider this um this item and would also say that um with our campus life clubs that that are meeting on school campuses, we uh welcome all students from all walks of life and have never uh once discriminated. Um many students from the LGBTQ plus community have been a part of our our campus life program and have felt accepted and loved and uh we just uh hope and wish that this could be the attitude of all students but we don't think that this is the answer to to doing that. So thank you. Thank you Mr. Vick. [Applause] Okay. Um, item

048seven, public comment session, non-aggenda items. This time, the board of trustees will comments, presentations, or requests on matters not listed on this agenda, or other topics that are not on the agenda, but are within the board's jurisdiction. The board will not respond to any public comments directly. Speakers are requested to give their names, address, time limit for speakers, three minutes. The board shall limit the total time for public input on each item to 10 minutes. The board reserves the right to limit presentations. And once again, this meeting is being recorded. Um, we have one person that would like to address on a non-aggenda item. Uh, Lupita Corin. Good evening. My name is Lupita Careno and this is a part of an email that I sent to Dr. Farcus two days ago. Uh I am here

049to express a great frustration and concern regarding a situation that although was communicated and addressed early in the semester was not respected. At the beginning of the second semester, I went to Southwest High School and spoke with Mr. Derma for to formally request that my son not to participate in any portion of the health or sex education curriculum. I submitted the appropriate opt out do documentation and Mr. Derma made copies of the forms. I also requested access to the curriculum and plan lessons but I never received this information. Still, I was assured that when such topics were addressed, he will be sent to the library or removed from the classroom. Unfortunately, my son informed me that he was given a lesson about how to protect himself against sexually transmitted disease. Now that the school year

050has concluded, I am disappointed to learn that he was never excluded from those and or any other lessons. It is unacceptable that my request was ignored, especially concerning such a delicate personal subject. Our parent parental right to decide about our child's sexual education was dis disregarded and prior agreement and documentation was not respected. As mentioned before, my son must not participate in in any lesson or activity rel related to sex education in the future. I also request that this situation be reviewed and that steps be taken to ensure that no other parent has to go through this experience. We deserve an explanation with a possible clarification of of why his exclusion did not occur as mentioned, when and where I might have missed additional steps that were not mentioned. Thank you for your attention in

051this matter and I look forward um for a formal response. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Ko. Okay, thank you. Um let's move on to item number eight, approval of the agenda. [Applause] Okay. Do I have a motion to approve tonight's a agenda as presented? I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. Do we have a second? I'll second. All in favor? I I nine. Consent agenda items. All items appearing on the consent agenda item are routine business matters and will be acted upon 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 meeting. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items? I'll approve it. Second. Second. Thank you. All in favor? I item 10, action

052items, information items. Uh, number one, the action items, approval of personnel report. The board is requested to approve the June 10th, 2025 personnel report as presented. I move that we accept the personnel report as presented. Thank you. Do we have a second? Second. All in favor? I. I. Any opposed? Thank you. Yes. Okay. The personnel. Yeah. Um I think we all in favor of the We did that. All in favor? Second. We Yeah. Okay. I think Dr. Farcus has a presentation. She's in the room. On a very Oh, there she is. On a very happy note tonight. We would like to call up Elsie and help me Elsie if I make a mistake with the last name, but Elsie Elsie is with us tonight because we welcome her as and we're thrilled to have her

053on board as our newest member of the leadership team. She is um going to be our new information technology officer and she joins us from Imperial Irrigation District where she brought innovation and dedication to the forefront of technology services and systems management. So some heavy stuff, right? Um, with a strong background in IT infrastructure, network systems, and business educational technology integration, Elsie brings a wealth of knowledge and hands-on experience to our district. Her professional journey has included impactful roles as a network administrator, an analyst and specialist where she has consistently demonstrated leadership in streamlining systems, enhancing cyber security protocols and modernizing technology infrastructure which we're working on a lot in our district. Elsie's work has been instrumental in leading large scale improvements to organizational security and digital operations. Her forward thinking approach and collaborative leadership

054style will be key as we continue to enhance our own district's capabilities and ensure we're prepared for the future digital education and administration. And finally, we're very confident that Elsie will be a tremendous asset to our team and we're very excited to begin the next chapter with her. Her leadership and vision align perfectly with our ongoing mission to modernize, protect, and grow in all of our cyber security systems. So, welcome aboard. Please join us in welcoming Elsie. And take a picture. Welcome aboard. Absolutely. Good to have you here tonight. Thank you for joining us. Welcome. Right on the side, Elsie, you're starting very soon. Wonderful. Thank you. Welcome. Sure. Please. Please. Thank you everyone. Thank you for the kind words. That was a beautiful introduction. Thank you so much. I wasn't expecting it. What am

055I going to say? You said everything for me. Uh well, my name again is Elsie Cutaloo. As was mentioned, I bring over 10 years of experience in technology, infrastructure systems, security, modernization. I am very thrilled of meeting you all. Um the board members, superintendent and everyone here. Thank you so much for for um accepting me. I am very excited to get started um with my experience. I hope I can advance the strategic goals that we have at the district and um future ready uh the technology for all of our students, the staff um teachers, administrative um I hope that technology can be available for every single student equally. They all deserve to have the same access to technology and to prepare them for the future and hopefully as you mentioned earlier for a career, for

056college, whatever they their path leads them and uh technology is growing so much. There are so many changes coming and I hope I can bring that modernization uh to the district and very uh I'm very happy to be here. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Um, number two, public hearing for the Central Union High School District adopted budget for the 202526 school year. It is requested that the board of trustees of Central Union High School District hold a public hearing as required under ED code 42127. We'll open the hearing. Good evening board members and community members. Um right here I present you the 2425 estimated actuals in the 2526 adopted budget. Um just a little brief summary on the themes for the 2526 May revision. Governor this is a little sensitive.

057Sorry. There we go. Um, Governor Gavin Newsome released that the 2526 May revision amid significant financial and economic uncertainty. His May revision projects both lower revenues and increase in costs in healthcare and in the current year and the near term, significant emphasis on federal policy that impacts California, foreign trade, tourism, and immigration. uh first seen in his January 2025 budget proposal. The plan underappropriated the 2520 2425 minimum guarantee remains in his May revision to tune of 1.3 billion. To address the budget deficit, he uses a combination of reductions, borrowing, funding shifts, deferrals, expenditures that would only be activated if sufficient revenues materialize. Proposition 98 is larly largely insulated from these problems with minimal disruptions to the proposals for the governor's budget early in January 2025. Um despite that this has all passed since then. So

058these are just topics that are in discussion um just brief summaries but we'll get on to the main um planning factors and these um are what I use we use as a district to compose the 2425 estimated actuals and the July 1st budget. As you can see the statutory cola for 2425 is at a 1.07. For 2526, it's at a 2.3, which was originally at a 2.9. So, you can see that it has dropped. For 2627, we're estimated at a 3.02. For 2728, that's at a 3.42. And these numbers were used in in planning out the multipleyear projections. You can also see um our grade uh our adjusted base grants, what we get paid per uh student per ADA. Um you'll see all the adjustments with the 2.3 the grades span adjustments equates to 12,746

059and then the other planning factors that are taken into consideration when planning the budget. Now I apologize for it being so small. I was trying to to be strategic and add two in one slide, but um next time I'll add a separate slide because I'm having a little trouble um reading it myself from here. Um our projected ADA and I'm going to step over here. I can speak a little bit louder just so I can see it. So, our projected enrollment based on our previous um years, we are projected to drop about maybe 15 students to 4,55. Once we start seeing enrollment numbers um in July, late July, August, then I'll be able to have better projections of where we're at. But as of now, we're projecting 455. Um, which puts us at a ADA

060average of 3,849.83. That's still a a drop from current year. Um, and those are the factors that we'll need to um, you know, be looking out for because that as the as I present interims throughout the year, you'll see how it impacts our budget. This is a local control funding formula. You can see that for 20 and this is just a comparison from 2425 to 2526. For 2425 we received 63 million 542,217. Projected amount for 2526 we're at 64,23854. So we do have an increase. Um, and this also has to do with the the grade span adjustments and the 2.3 uh cola. Here is um our LCFF total revenue for 2526. And this is a projection based on the ADA that we received for 2425 at 64,289,554 our even though our enrollment was 4070 470

061our what we get funded on is the when what when students attend. So that was at 3,849.83 and that kind of puts us at our ADA funding of 16,525.0. 6 and this is for 2526. These are our projections. Here we have the estimated actuals versus the adopted budget which is the 2526 July 1st. And I will go down um you have this in your booklet but I will go down the the unrestricted funds first. So as you can see the LCFF sources we are projecting project projecting an increase of 1,147,262. This includes a 2.3% cola, although there was a decline of 23.97 in ADA from to 2425 because remember I'm using 2425 ADA numbers to to use for my projection for next year's um budget. For state revenues, we have a slight increase of 85,64

062and this is due to home transportation, home to school transportation and the mandated block grant. Then our local revenues, you can see we have a decrease of 273,777 and this is due to one-time fundings. Um, we have FFA and the K16 collaborative. Again, we I know we receive those throughout the year. So once the school year starts that you'll probably see an increase on that if we we get those onetime fundings again. For certificated salaries we have an increase of 121,750. Um there has been um some staffing changes and also cost-saving measures such as shifting roles from director positions. um the increase of 121,000 I know it seems little but it has you know those cost-saving measures plus it also in includes the increase of uh annual step and column increase to all the certificated

063assignments for classified uh salaries you re you'll see a 363 um reduction and this uh budget decrease due to classified to reflect the actual vacancies, coaching stipens, and any LCAP adjustments. Additionally, there is one classified admin position that will not will temporarily not be filled. So, there's a cost savings there. And there are also been some um new hires where the new hires are hired at a different salary scale than the ones that have retired. So, that that um attributed to the savings with the employee benefits. it adjusts as um the vacancies fill. But I know some of our vacancies right now um when we interm budget, they're full they're budgeted assuming that they'll take the full the full benefit package. So that also increases to our employee benefits and that throughout the interims you'll

064see that they'll adjust once we actually have the vacancies filled and the the salaries set. And I know um in October we have our our benefits and people change insuranceances so that you'll that'll change throughout the year. We have an increase of 24,698 in books and supplies and this is um AP testing for students align and any supplies aligned with the LCAP plans and extracurricular um programs. A decrease in services and operating expenditures of 9 6,927 for estimated actuals. Um, we try to budget as close as to where we project we're going to close. So, a lot of these in the services and operating budget, capital outlay, other outgo, you'll see that, you know, the 916,000 reduction, the 2.8 million, and the 24,000. And these are all projects that have not m materialized this school

065year, but will be hopefully materialized the next school year. So, we did a reduction in those expenditures um to align to what where we're going to close at. Um overall, um then you have the contributions at the bottom. Um last year or 2425, we're projected to do a contribution of 7.9 million. that will increase to 8.7 million. Um and the areas that we are contributing to is special education, the migrant education program and the re routine restricted maintenance. Um keep in mind that the uh re routine restricted maintenance we are required to match a 3% of our general fund expenditures. So that is something that we have to do. Um, and that's based on making sure that we keep our facilities in um good fair um um I so they're up to date in other

066words or at least they're they're able to we don't um have to in the long run have to plan for more out and I know it's a lot of it's a work in progress. The next uh slide is the restricted side of the house. So, um, LCFF resources, we don't have anything here. For federal revenues, you see a decrease of 1.1 million. For state revenues, a million uh decrease. And for local revenues, 554,000. For the federal revenues, um, there's been a decrease in one-time fundings. So, anything that's S or CSI, um, that's not in there. any carryover for the for the titles as well. We also have for the state revenues restricted lottery the child nutrition kit um program also and the CT initiative arts and music grant for the local revenues it's a strong

067workforce grant and the medical revenues again this is this is a projection once numbers come in these are prelimary preliminary numbers so once those come in and they'll um we you know we'll get updated amounts and you'll you'll see an update for unodudited actuals For certificated salaries, there is an increase of 277,000 and this is um with the special ed program transferred. The district has identified the need for one additional speech language specialist. Additionally, it takes into account the step and column increase for all positions for classified salaries. We also have an increase of 289,684. The district has identified the need for one new speech um language pathologist assistant. Um this is due to program transfer. Additionally, the cost for um step and increase for any classified salaries. Again, with the um employee benefits, that's

068also increase adjusted based on where the salaries are at. So, you'll see an increase of 276,000. book and supplies an increase of 838,000 and this is any expenditures that were were not were not were budgeted for an estimated actuals but we reduced the budget there. So all the expenditures should happen in 2526. The same with the services and operating expenditures and also with capital outlay you'll see a drop of 1.1 million and these are any projects that were completed that were completed in the 2526 school year. So therefore will not they will not happen in the 2526 school year. Um for the other outgo the these are our leases. So Xerox lease as the years go on the amount we pay for our lease does decrease. Then we have the at the bottom this is

069where you see the other side of the contribution. So we're um contributing from the unrestricted to the restricted side. Our next um so this concludes the 2526 budget. As you can see here overall for our 2526 we are at a deficit spending of 9,342,721. This is something that um I think with the years and I think um it'll take some time but we are the as a district we are looking at cost-saving measures um you know looking at supplies looking you know before it impacts any individuals but um that is our overall deficit spending for 2526. I do want to point out though that for the multi-year projection and you have this in your book and it's on the section for the my last section page six um I do want to um point out

070that we are for 2526 our estimated reserve is that at 10.49% for 2627 7.87% 87% and for the 2728 school year 4.10%. So we need to closely monitor that. Um as of now we are at a positive certification status but we do need to uh keep an eye on that because we do need to um stay above the 3% but it is better to be at the 10%. Um so that's all I have for you. if you have any questions, any comments. You know, our enrollment was 4,070, but the figure for um I think ADA you mentioned was 3 3,849. So that's a difference of 221. So we need to do something to make sure we get those 200 kids in the classroom pretty incentives to do that. Okay. And and it and I think

071it takes help from everybody from the teachers, from you know the community, the you know the students. I know I know sometimes we rather be somewhere else but it does make a big difference to be in class and with just to know that this funding not only helps you know with salaries but also to be able to afford you know extracurricular programs. I know some of our cost savings um measures that um are going on for 2526 we had to reduce site budgets including athletic budgets. So it impacts us all. So it's it's it is it we need to work on that. So, so we need to get that out to all the sites that we need to everybody needs to try to promote and get them in class and keep them in class and

072and I know I think one time a few years back I think we did something that we had them there all the time and and the ADA was pretty much with the enrollment. So, yeah, that that's a little bit um interesting there. We need to get those kids out of bed and in the classroom. So, okay, we have some creative ways to do that. Yes. Thank you, Miss Mendoza. Any other questions, comments? Well, thank you very much and I'll see you in a couple weeks. Thank you for all your work. Not everybody understood how much fun you were going to have here tonight. Our LCAP is still in draft mode. Uh we've had our first review by the county and they've given us some narrative things that need to be fixed. Uh for the most

073part, this is a uh pretty good draft of uh what we're looking at next year. Just a reminder, uh, when we're talking about the LCAP, it's the LOCA control accountability plan, uh, that we must write to explain to all of our educational partners, uh, how we're going to spend our LCFF dollars and in the, uh, expenditures or in the, um, in ma in making decisions for how we're going to spend these dollars, those first eight priorities for our district are the things that we are responsible for addressing in the plan. And so that entails things like ensuring that we hire the most um qualified teachers, that we have instructional materials for all of our courses, our facilities are in good repair, we're teaching to the academic standards, and our students are performing um at a

074high rate. that we're involving our parents and our families and things that are going on on campus, that our students are engaged, that they find worth, excuse me, worth and the things that they are learning, um that our school climate does appropriate for learning. That's measured by um a couple of different things that we're going to look at here. And that we're offering access to courses that students are interested in. Number eight is kind of a catchall. Nine and 10 is for county offices of education of which we are not. And then the CDE has put together a dashboard where they measure all of these things to determine how effective we are and how effectively we are utilizing our funding. So the most current dashboard that we have is the 2024 dashboard uh that measures

075our academic indicators um as as measured by the 11th grade state exam CASP in English language arts and math. Uh we're also measured we just had a conversation about absenteeism. So they look at our chronic absentee rates. a student qualifies as chronically absent if they miss 10% or more of school year. Uh the state is also looking at our English learner progress. So our students who are learning English as a second language. Are they making adequate progress? They look at our graduation rates. They look at our suspension rates. They look at our college and career indicator which we're going to talk about um includes quite a few things. There are a number of ways to meet that indicator. And coming next year, the 2025 dashboard, uh, our well, our 12th grade students have taken the

076CAST or the science test. So, we'll be getting those scores um probably in the next month or so. Thank you. And maybe this moves. Okay. So when we look at the dashboard and when we talk about LCAP, it's our responsibility to look at where our all student group is. And the expectation is obviously that we're making progress. We're increasing in our achievement, but it's also that there are no more than two color differences between our all student group and any of our subgroups. And we don't want to be in the red. So you see the rainbow up there. Red is bad, blue is green, blue is good. So on the left for English language arts, you see that are all students fall in that yellow group. And this is district data, right? If you were

077to look at our school data, uh you would see that there are there is a school who is outperforming some of our other schools. Um that's a conversation for another day. Um so all students were there in the yellow currently we are 10.9 points above standard maintain so the state looks at where we are in the current year 2024 and then they compare the average of the last three years so you will see there's a small dip in the in the average of the last three years but the state calls it maintained because it's statistically not uh oh that word just left me statistically Yep. Whatever that word is, significant. Thank you. Now, on the right hand side, you see the areas where we have reason to be concerned. So, our English learners are in

078the red, and you'll see that they're below standard by a large number. But what's most concerning is that they've declined. So, when you look at our average over the last three years, our students are in a downward trend. Long-term English learners. These are students who have been in US schools for five years or longer. Also in the red, significantly lower, below standard, declining. And then when you look at students with disabilities, also in the red, they're maintaining, but they're below standard. So, as we look at how we are spending our dollars, we have to address what we're doing with these three groups of students. How do we help these students achieve at higher levels? Not that other students don't matter, but the LCAP is specifically for our unduplicated populations, which are our English learners, our

079socioeconomically disadvantaged students, and our foster youth. We can use these dollars district and sitewide, but we have to first look at how we're addressing our unduplicated student needs. Just a little more information there. When you look at our English learners, you'll see on the left, it's our students that are currently designated English learners and the middle students who at one point in their tenure, their educational tenure, were considered English learners, but they have recently been reclassified. And then on the right hand side, you see students who have been designated as English only, not English learners at any point in their academic tenure. You can see that there are gaps Our English only students are increasing. Our students who are learning a language are decreasing. So without reading all of it to you, you will see

080that the first three goals in our LCAP specifically are uh tackling these academic areas. And sometimes the decisions that we make with these dollars are not always popular. But we have to do something. There has to be a solution to our problems. So if you look at the things that we've written into the LCAP and the things that the district has said as our initiatives in action 1.2, we're tackling standards align instruction and assessment. We've purchased the NWA map growth this year, set some baseline data. We also got trained. So, it wasn't necessarily popular. We're still learning how this tool can um assist us in identifying where our student gaps are and how we can improve. But there is an expectation that we know where our kids start and we're able to measure their growth

081throughout the year to determine how effective our instruction is. Action 1.3 with interventions. There are multiple things that are going on on our sites, but there's a lot more that can be done. And what's important to note is that tier one instruction is something that we really need to work on. If more than 20% of our kids are failing our courses, it's hard for a system to intervene. The intervention has to take place in the classroom first. How are we addressing the needs of the students that are in our classrooms? And so you I'm going to jump down a little bit. You'll see action 2.2, to professional development district initiatives in the area of teacher clarity inclusion for our English learners and students with disabilities and the new initiative co-eing this year so that we

082can push some of our students with disabilities out into gened classrooms and give them opportunities uh with their their gened counterparts um are some of the things that we are working toward to ensure that all of our students have equal access to both um quality instruction as well as to um courses. So there's lots there, but if you jump down to the actions in that three goal 3.1 32 33 34, those are specifically goals that we're working on or actions that we're working on in the world of English learners and students with disability. We just recently on Friday and Monday had a group of well two different groups of teachers come together. Friday our EL teachers came together. They've uh we've purchased a new curriculum. So they worked on putting together um some lessons and

083and um had some strategic conversations around data about how to start moving some of these kids um how we can address their needs in in in our classrooms. And then on Monday, they did the same with um some of our English learners, our long-term English learners who have been um in our schools for longer periods of time. Sometimes we think because a student can hold a conversation in English, that must mean that they are proficient in English. But if you've been in the classroom, you realize that conversational English is much different than academic English. And so what we need to do moving forward is really ensure that we are teaching students the language um instead of assuming that because they are conversational they are proficient. And we're finding a growing number of students who are

084duly identified. So they are English learners who also have an IEP meaning that they have some kind of a disability. And so we're doing some work in that world to ensure that as we're placing students in classrooms that if you're an English learner, you go into EL isn't necessarily what a student who has um a language disabil not a language a learning disability might have. So, how do we determine the most pressing need for students and and the proper placement for students? In with that regard, math is an area where we are deeply concerned and we're not alone, right? This is something that is true in the state of California. Um, if you look on the left hand side, you see our all student group there. We're not in the red, so that's good. Uh,

085but we're not in the red. um because we haven't declined as how do I say this? One school is saving us I guess is what I'll say. There have been increases at one school while there have been decreases at others. And so this um balance is what has kept us out of the red as a district. But again, you'll see that we're declining. And on the right hand side, we have one more group that falls into that red category, and that's our socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Most concerning, as you'll see, we're declining across the board. So, with the fervor that we have um for one of the topics that is on our agenda here tonight, um I also ask that academically we look at where our kids are and that we um have conversations around that

086as well. How do how do we improve in that area? I will tell you that when I sit with most people for input into these plans, academics is not necessarily something that people want to talk about. It's a lot of other things. Um, we're a school and first and foremost, our job is to educate students in content. So again, because English learners is an area of priority for us, you'll see there even in the world of math, um how we score based on language proficiency. When I started my tenure as a teacher, there was a there was always conversation about how math is a whole new language, right? So even if you're an English learner, math is a language. So, our English learners should be speaking math or understanding math at the same rate as

087English um English only students. But you'll see that according to these numbers, that's not true for us. So, what does that mean? And how are we addressing those things? Again, all of the things in our LCAP that we are doing to address and much of it is the same as what you saw in English. We're just doing it in another content area. But I want to highlight action 1.1 where we're expanding and enhancing math options. So, prior to COVID, we were really excited because we adopted a couple of additional third-year math options for students. financial algebra being one of them to teach students all of those things that people say they wish they had learned in high school, taxes and finances and credit cards and all of those wonderful things. Um, but in an algebra

088setup and uh that class happens to be a to which means that those uh credits will transfer to the university system. And then a second course that we adopted is a class called summitive math. In order for a student to be successful on the state exam at the 11th grade, algebra 2 is really important. And what we found is that a lot of our students don't make it to algebra 2. They failed algebra for a year or two, maybe did the same in geometry. So getting to algebra 2 is a difficult thing. So with the adoption of summitive math, we looked at some algebra 2 concepts maybe not to the depth that an algebra 2 class uh would go into and then co happened. So life kind of fell apart and we are building back.

089But at central um in the math world both in algebra one and geometry we've adopted the agile minds curriculum which has all kinds of relevancy for students. So, we have conversations in this teacher clarity world about helping students to understand why I'm learning what I'm learning because obedience has been something that we have taught our kids instead of helping our kids understand the why. So what we're really trying to get across is if we can help students make connections, if we can make connections for kids, help them understand why I'm learning this and how it's going to improve me as a person and my knowledge base so that I can be more successful, then maybe we land in a different place than we've been landing. You'll see our English learner progress. We're in the red.

090And I don't think I need to say anymore there, but we're tackling it. You'll see yours across the bottom there. Summit of ALPAC is the uh the exam that English learners take to demonstrate their proficiency in English. And here's what's tough. If I've taken this test for multiple years, I get to a point where I don't care anymore. So, I may know more than I am demonstrating, but if I don't understand the importance of this exam, then I don't take it seriously. So that becomes part of our responsibility is to help students understand the why college and career indicator. I said that there are multiple ways to do this. I will tell you that this is an area where we do better than in others. And you can see the colors there. So for our

091all student group in the district, we're in the green. Yay. Almost half of our students are prepared and we're increasing. Okay. Students with disability, we still have some work to do. Our English learners, our homeless students are long-term English learners. They're right there in the middle. They're increasing. So, there was an unpopular decision that was made this year. moving forward into next year that our goal was to ensure that more students had access to a CTE pathway. And so what we asked counselors to do was to ensure that we weren't placing students in multiple CTE pathways for the dashboard. Completion only counts once. We have students who complete three pathways. I get it. these and you talk to kids and you ask them what do we keep do what do we do well what do

092we keep doing CTE comes up over and over and over and over again. So there have been things rolling around in my head if students are enjoying these CTE classes because they're hands-on. How do we get math to be more hands-on? And there are UCCCI I haven't pitched this to math teachers yet. that's on my agenda for next year. But UCCCI courses are um interdep departmental courses that have been put together and approved by the UC system. So you take construction geometry, right? More hands-on. I like it. I like that. Again, it's how do we take the feedback that we're receiving and make decisions that interest those for whom we are working. We serve in the capacity that we are in. Sometimes I think we forget that. So, in order to be college or career

093prepared, either you take the 11th grade exam in English and math, and you get a score of three or better, demonstrate your proficiency, you take two or more AP exams and get a passing score of three or higher. You take an IB exam, score four or higher, sorry, two exams. You take dual enrollment classes. For those of you in the audience who have kids who don't know anything about dual enrollment, we offer courses through IVC where students get take one course and they get credit both at the high school level and at IVC and for the most part those credits transfer with students. So complete two semesters of a dual enrollment course. English learners can earn the STE state seal of biiteracy. In essence, you take the AP Spanish language exam, you pass it, and

094you do well on the English portion of the 11th grade exam, and you qualify for the state seal of biiteracy. And you can also meet A to G requirements and then finish one of those other things that are below. You can also replace uh A to G requirements with complete a CTE pathway. they're kind of um swappable, but there are multiple ways for our students to demonstrate their college or career proficiency. And so, it is necessary for us to be more strategic, more intentional as we're looking at where we place students and what kinds of things we are offering to students. So, like I said, I know that that CTE completion um thing is a big deal, but when we have students who don't have access to even one pathway, we're not being equitable. There's

095more, but I know everybody wants to go home tonight. So suspension rate all students on the left were in the yellow we've maintained. So about 3.6% of our students have been suspended at least once. When you look at English learners and foster youth and long-term English learners, we're not too far away, but there are differences. And so we're also looking at our data to determine, okay, so what do we do about that? Now, I will tell you, Desert Oasis is an alternative school and the comprehensive high school situation hasn't worked for these kids for one reason or another. And there's not necessarily anything wrong with that. But when you put all of these students together at one school, it's not a surprise when some of these numbers at that school look a whole lot different

096than they do at the comprehensive site. So those actions 6.1 and 6.2 at the bottom, those are specifically for Desert Oasis. They qualify for what's called equity multiplier dollars because so many of the students that attend that school are an unduplicated population student. So we uh uh Mr. Diaz has purchased a program that we've heard about a few times called impactor which really helps students to evaluate themselves and some of their character traits and then to help them work on making some progress in those areas. And even though there are about 160 kids on that campus, there are two counselors on that campus to really get to the core of what's going on with our students there to help them make some progress. Graduation rate is also something uh that we are judged on, if

097you will. I didn't put it out there because we're perfect. We're not perfect, but we're good. We're really good. And that hasn't always been true, right? Last year was the first year after COVID that we were in a really good place. So Marcy already went through a lot of this and I'm not going to bore you with a lot of it, but what I do want to highlight is if you look at our budget for 2425 and you compare it to the budget for the upcoming year. We're dealing with less money coming out of CO. There were a lot of carryover dollars, a lot of carryover dollars because we didn't spend a whole lot of money during COVID. Kids were home. We didn't have sports. We didn't have activities. Just life was different. We've done

098a lot better job of spending our dollars and carryover dollars are a thing of the past. And so really what we're working on is what we get in a given year. And either there's a delay or I don't know what I'm doing with this thing because I feel like I pressed this 12 times. Okay, here we go. So on the left hand side, still budget 2425. You'll see that that total budgeted general fund expenditure was 95 million and in the LCAP we had almost 22 million and in the upcoming year about $5 million less in that general fund available and almost $6 million less in LCAP. So that means in my department we did a lot of work to reduce what we're doing in the LCAP world. So on the left hand side actually on

099both of these columns these are areas where we decreased funding in the LCAP but on the left hand side we just decreased. So, for example, 1.7 more than some of you ever want to know. Prop $28, um, or dollars that the district has been given to increase visual and performing arts or fine arts on our campuses. At the high school level, particularly in our district, we do a really good job. We have lots of offerings. If you look at Southwest, there are Sava School. So, there's lots going on there. And so, this wasn't necessarily something that we weren't already doing. Um, but the expectation is that you use those dollars to increase to expand and you can only use it for certain things and 80% of those dollars have to be spent on salaries. So

100that means you have to hire people and you have to have places to put those people. So at Southwest an a music a music teacher was hired and central for go for is that a word? I think it is for went last year and what we did is we um replaced the modulars the math building. Um we purchased larger modules uh for two classrooms and we are hiring a dance teacher for this year so that we can increase the offerings on that campus and the intent was to do the same at Southwest this upcoming year. Um, our goal is still to do that. Um, but the dollars right now are something that we don't necessarily have. Still on in our plan, but we don't necessarily have the money right now to do that. And then

101in 1.10, 10. Uh we're dissolving Mount Signal, the virtual academy, and we're sending those students to the comprehensive site as long-term independent study students for a plethora of reasons. Uh but that's going to help us uh with some overhead and things of that nature. And then on the right hand side, there are additional dollars that are available to us. Those are one-time dollars, the learning recovery emergency block grant dollars that can be spent in much the same way that ESSER dollars were spent. So you'll see a list of the actions there that we will utilize those dollars to support. So if you go in and you look at the LCAP right now, you'll notice that in 5.4, four, which is the afterchool program. Zero LCAP dollars are being allow allotted because we're going to utilize

102the learning recovery emergency block grant dollars to assist us in that process at least for the next couple of years um until we can figure life out and hopefully be in a better financial situation. That was a lot. and you came to get one answer. So, anybody have any questions or suggestions? So, after you know we're all still talking about um after COVID and pre-COVID. So, in math, are we finding that the students that are incoming freshmen are at a little bit lower than what they were prior to CO? Not necessarily. Um [Music] although I didn't talk about the fact that we have um split freshman students into um what we're calling algebra 1 and algebra 1 not ready. We're still teaching the algebra 1 standards. But what we heard from math teachers was if

103we're all in the same room. Even when you look at our feeder schools, there are some schools that offer algebra 1 and there are some schools that do not. So, if a freshman comes in and you lump all of these kids together in an algebra one class and they've come from different places with varying degrees of knowledge, it's it's hard in a classroom. Although it happens in all of our classrooms, right? It's it's hard to address all of those needs. Um, math is just tough. I'm getting better at it, right? But there just seems to be this mindset around math. I'm not good at math instead of how do we take like I said, right? How do we make math relevant for kids? How do we help them understand the why and what this will

104do for me? And it's interesting because I had a conversation with a particular math teacher who says um who said, "Well, I don't even know why we learned some of this stuff. It's theory." And I'm like, "Okay, don't tell a kid that, right? Because as soon as we tell I well I you just because you have to then it becomes unimportant. And so really the onus of responsibility is on us. If we're teaching it there has to be a good reason for it and let's help them understand what that is. Any questions? You're blinking like yes, no, maybe some. Absolutely. One thing I found myself of all time. She she the way that she taught was different from every other teacher because what she did is she incorporated she made sure to incorporate math and

105English in a way that like made it to where we knew when we left her period and we went on to English or math class it was important and so she's expressed this before and I really if we were if we could find a way to like gear the curriculum towards like including or incorporating other subjects. I know it sounds a little wacky math but you know I'm taking a language with with Mr. prompt that we have to write it out and sometimes it's about math or the so you're saying that there's math outside of my math class there's math everywhere that's exactly and I think that students don't go to math class there's no point in me to do it it's only here the only time I'm ever going to see math is in

106my pre and we've got to be excited excited about it, right? Like if I'm teaching it, I've got to be excited about it. Yes. construction. I'm already on my way to completing the field. What I aspire to do is to become a nurse and senior practitioner. But I know that automat division was all but I think Okay. So, both of you are gonna come speak to teachers in August. Absolutely. Thank you, Miss Perosa. Thank you. Thank you so much for all your work. Okay, we'll go ahead and close the hearing. We are on number five, adoption resolution 061025-3 to designate authorization representative to the San Diego County Schools Fringe Benefit Consortium for fringe benefit programs. The superintendent recommends the board of trustees of the Central Union High School District to approve resolution number 061025-31 to

107designate authorization representative to the San Diego County Schools Fringe Benefit Consortium. Uh, do I have a motion? I move that we designate authorized representative to San Diego County Schools Fringe Benefits. I second. Any discussion? Okay, this is a roll call vote. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Item number six, Imperial County Adult Education Program, CAP Consortium Governance Board design for 25 and 26. The superintendent recommends approval of the Imperial County Adult Education Program Consortium Governance Board design for the 2526 school years as presented. Do we have a motion? I make a motion. Okay. Do you have a second? I second. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you. Item number seven, board approve approval of board resolution number 061025-32 celebrating Junth. The superintendent recommends adoption of board policy 061025-32 celebrating Junth.

108Do I have a motion? A motion. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? Okay, this is a roll call vote. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Item number eight, approval of board resolution number 061025-33 proclaiming the month of June as LGBTQ IA plus pride month. The governing board of trustees is requested to approve the board resolution 061025-33 proclaiming the month of June as LGBTQIA plus month. Pride Month. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. Okay. Do we have a second? No second. Okay. Adoption of resolution 061025-34 authorizing the committee committed fund balance designation of the general fund balance. It is requested the board of trustees of the Central Union High School District adopt resolution 062524-34 designating the committed fund balance as delineated in the resolution. Do we have a motion?

109Make a motion. I'll second. Any discussion? And this is also roll call vote. Trusty Ella. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Okay. On to item 10, adoption of resolution number 0612, sorry, 061025-35 of the Central Union High School District authorizing temporary cash transfers to the 2025-2026 fiscal year. It is requested that the board of trustees adopt resolution 061025-35 authorizing temporary transfers of fund temporary transfer of cash as proposed for the 2526 fiscal year. So move. Thank you. Second. Any discussion? Okay, we have a roll call vote. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Item number 11, excuse me. Board approval of a proposed proposal with Landmark Consultants Incorporated for the laboratory of record services as required by the division of the state architect. It is recommended that the board of trustees approve the proposal from

110landmark with a total estimated project of 420,625. This is in reference to the um aquatics at Southwest High School. Okay. All in favor? I I I. Any opposed? Item number 12. Board approval of the contract with Precision Inspection Corporation for Department of State Architect Inspection Services for the Southwest High Aquatic Center. Uh, it is recommended the board of trustees approve the contract with Precision Inspection Incorporated uh for Department of State Architect Inspection Services for the Southwest High School Aquatic Center as presented. Uh, do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. I'll second. All in favor? I opposed. Okay, we're on to item number 11, ECST and CEA comments. Do we have anybody here from ECSTA? Okay, let's move on to CS S Ca. Do we have anybody here? It's been a long night. Anybody

111here? No. Okay, we do not need to go back to close session. So, I will adjourn this meeting at 8:07. Thank you.