Chico Unified School District Board of Education Meeting 2/19/2025

001e e e hello this is Rebecca Ken um acting as president this evening um in Tom Lando's um absence and I want to call the regular board meeting to order and asking if there is any public comment at this time seeing that there's no public comment uh we will go into to close session thank you e e e thank you everyone for being here tonight um I'm Rebecca conin and I'm going to be um acting as president this evening in Tom Lando's absence so let's go ahead and um call this meeting to order regular board meeting to order this meeting is recorded and is being live streamed um for the last hour we were in closed session and no action was taken uh if everybody could please stand for the flag salute ready begin iedge

002Ali to the flag of the the United States of America the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible withy andice all right thank you uh we're going to move along to student reports now and I'm going to turn this over to M sty thank you I love doing the flag salute when students are here you guys are great you keep us right on it uh at this point we are in for quite a treat tonight you can see we have some musical Talent out here and I'd like to invite Mr Dave McKay up to the podium to uh tell us what we're what we're going to hear and who we're going to hear it from and he may just in turn introduce Tanner one thank you sir superintendent Staley welcome everybody it's my

003honor to introduce Mr Tanner John's our fantastic fabulous band choir music piano percussion you name it teacher over at Bidwell junior high school and uh he is going to show off his awesome students our concert band I can attest to how hard these students work at their craft we're very proud of them and their performance will speak for itself I'm sure thank you Mr John's and ban [Applause] all right thank you Mr McKay um we're not going to take up too much of your time but we do have two short numbers prepared for you this evening the first is a piece by Carol Britain Chambers titled down on the Delta a Mississippi tribute um you're going to hear a lot of musical Heritage that comes from Mississippi in this one starting with like a h-like

004kind of Corral transitioning to a more upbeat piece um it transitions then into more of a slow bluesy kind of feel and then ends on the fast note so this is down on the delta [Music] la [Music] oh for [Music] la [Music] [Applause] and we're going to play one more short selection for you this is squirrel Chase um the composer notes that they watched the squirrels running around on all their Live Oaks enough stuff in the backyard and chasing each other and whatnot this has a very like Looney Tunes esque cartoony feel to it so I hope you enjoy squirrel Chase important extra stuff now the real key is where do I I it's right here what's that are you all set up back there good good sure is probably close all right ready Abby

005[Music] la [Music] he [Music] thank you again for having us I know you have a long board meeting planned so we'll have our kids take their stuff outside to clean up but thank you again so much and have a great evening how about another huge hand for Mr John's and the junior high bidwill Junior band great job great song selection too by the way okay we're g to give them a minute to uh grab their stands and instruments and go out and while they're doing that I'm invite the principal of Neil da Kelly Steinbach to the podium while she was coming up I just wanted to say that was super awesome um it's fun seeing the kids out there um I'm recognizing some familiar faces um of players that play volleyball with my daughter and

006it's just reminding me that we have some really well-rounded kids in our district and it's fun to see them thriving for sure thanks guys yes thank you thank you Tanner I think they're gonna give them just a couple seconds to grab their stuff because we don't want to distract from yet another awesome activity yeah so maybe while they're transitioning we will transition our kiddos perfect so um our leadership kiddos could you come on up you know where you're going to stand [Applause] you can see just you're okay okay good evening thank you so much for having us this evening we have a twart um presentation we wanted to involve as many neow uh students as possible I'd like to invite Mr Obie and his chess team up as [Applause] well so at Neil da we

007have had um been fortunate to have Miss Mr Obie uh doing the chess team for quite a number of years and he could tell you the exact number here shortly um but not only has the chess club become a staple at Neil Dow and become part of our culture it has now grown County and uh North Statewide so we have not only Mr Obi here but some of our kids to tell you all about the chess club experience [Applause] on a side note before I begin I'm going to give a little shout out to the fbite teachers behind me here International full teachers who are visiting our country and watching how we do things here so my name is Steven Oberlander my students call me Mr Obie I have been teaching in Chico Unified School

008District for 28 years all but one semester of that at neow Elementary School uh the two-thirds of that have been at fifth grade a third of it has been at kindergarten uh uh in 2008 we had a our annual school carnival and my booth was going fine and I was a little bored so I pulled out an old giant chest antique board I had set it up put a sign Mr Obi one ticket play a game and I played a few games until a sixth grade girl came up and back rank checkmated me in front of a crowd of people and I swore that would never happen again so I decided to start a chess team at the school and I put the word out and expected about five awkward boys that would show up

009maybe and 40 kids showed up uh to that meeting and the uh the number of people on the chest team at Neil DA has pretty much maintained that number uh since 2008 fully 11% of the Neil Dow student body is on my chess team um soon after that I of course wanted to develop the team and I'd heard about a gentleman locally named uh the chess guy and didn't know who he was didn't know how to get a hold of him about a year into it I'm playing uh poker with some friends of mine and the guy next to me turns out to be the chess guy who had been leading uh and uh started Uh u a the Sacramento Valley Scholastic chess League uh a few years earlier and I became very enthusiastically involved

010in that took it over in 2009 and at the time there were 13 schools in the league uh and three of those schools were from Chico they included Sierra VI um excuse me uh Sierra viw Bidwell Jr and Neil da there were about 130 people in the chess League at that time uh since I've taken it over uh as of this year there are now 27 schools in the chess league and we average about 235 people in the tournaments that we hold every year and the schools uh uh are from yubis City all the way up to Corning I had an invit an invitation today from a a school from Olive Hurst that wants to join and we now have 13 schools from unified that are in the chess League I'd like to shout out

011to Kelly who has been actually instrumental in helping me uh establish that that here we've grown so large that we now have to hold pretty much the majority of the the tournaments uh which were used to be held at smaller schools once a month we hold them now at Neil da and so Neil DA has become kind of a Mecca of Scholastic chess in the North State and we have been awarded by the United States Chess Federation as being the ninth largest Scholastic chess league in the [Music] [Applause] country um so I just wanted to invite a couple of the kids up from the team real quick uh a few of them who have are represented today of the 40 uh to give a little bit of uh note to you about their thoughts on

012the team Audrey come on hi my name is Audrey I am a fifth grade student at Neil d I have been on the chess team for 3 years and what I like most about the chess team is that it teaches you uh mental strategy and I like to have fun with my [Applause] friends hi my name is Sydney Miller I'm a fifth grade student at Neil D I've been on the chess team for 3 years my favorite part of the chess team is that it doesn't only give you a mental Advantage it also gives you a mathematical [Applause] Advantage hi my name is Tyler I'm in fifth grade I'm 11 years old and I've been on the chess team for about 3 years now I really like it because it gives you a game where

013you can express your emotions by playing playing a game in which there's very different things you can do like checkmating losing drawing it gives you a lot of different choices and you can express your emotions and stuff like that I I'll conclude very quickly by saying one of the things I really appreciate about the opportunity and and the support that we been given over the years is that chess is a nice it's a competitive it's it's a sport we are competing once a month uh and these kids are all internationally ranked as a consequence of being in the chess league and it's a great opportunity for kids who might not excel in the athletic Endeavors uh so they can compete with their minds uh and it's a nice outlet for those kids who might not

014be in the sport so again I appreciate the support I appreciate the support and uh thank you for your time leadership could we show our appreciation for our chess club members our leadership does a cheer for um at every assembly for our students who we are celebrating so this is a a a little sight into our NE Dow leadership cheer as well and I think they're going to stay present here for the next part as well okay we're going to do just a quick transition into the superintendent report and Miss Steinbach is gonna lead us off on that one as well go ahead perfect so um this person is here tonight and I had to um trick this person to coming she beli Lees that we are talking about our Learning Center this evening which

015is um partly accurate so um Miss evet can you come and join me [Applause] please so I'm gonna so um I have been at neow almost eight years and Miss evet has um so first of all she's our school librarian and does more than just um being a librarian she not only knows every single student in the school they're reading level their star score um their math score their I ready score um but she is also the only person left who started the Learning Center with me eight years ago she holds the key to our Neil success and I cannot tell you enough how much she cares for each student at our school how much she goes above and beyond and how grateful we are to have her and I am so grateful to have

016her standing next to me this evening but every single day so um I did write something and totally went away from it but um every day you go above what is being asked of you you take it upon yourself to create teaching materials taed to each child needs you ensure that the lessons are accessible engaging and impactful and she has a special way with students that they know how much she loves them and they work hard for her do you guys work hard for her yes they do so um on behalf of our entire School community and really myself I cannot express how my my gratitude and my um deepest sincerest um gratitude is the word um you inspire us all with your dedication your compassion and your extraordinary efforts thank you for everything that

017you do I'm not letting you retire for a long time cuz you hold the key to everything so leadership can we show Miss Evette how much we appreciate her thanks [Applause] guys we have more things than you can so we have a certificate for you have something to keep you hydrated thank you and why don't we get a picture with the kids okay I'm do it from an angle you're good you're good we go okay on me one two [Applause] perfect okay we have one more person to honor this even U Mr Obie can you come on back up here [Applause] please so Mr Obie already shared with you that he's been at Neil for 28 years almost solid now and during his time he's touched the lives of so many Neil students um primarily

018in intermediate grades but a little bit in kindergarten as well and um Obie's Journey at Neil D start as an intermediate intermediate teacher where he quickly made an impact on the classroom with his engaging teaching style his commitment to his students and his ability to inspire over time he transitioned to kindergarten before returning once again to the intermediate grade levels showing his versatility and dedication to meeting the unique needs of students you got to learn a little bit about our chess club as well and his enormous dedication to spreading chess to County and North Statewide and this is been a huge culture um impact impact at our school site um we use it as um a privilege for children to join that when children are having a hard time um it's also used as something

019that we expect Behavior to go right along with sportsmanship to be part of this club so um Mr Obie has just all always been there for the students at Neil da and he has been there for his colleagues and his staff and for me he is an excellent tick um teacher in charge he wears a tie to school on those days that he is teacher in charge and um I have a report from Miss Christie our office manager that he is an amazing teacher in charge so um and most importantly what I appreciate about um Mr Obie is that he always puts Neil D first even if it means a hard change for him um he voluntarily moved from kindergarten to fifth grade this year and he did that for his colleagues and for the

020School site for the betterment of it so we appreciate you your students appreciate you and I have so much gratitude for you and um thank you leadership can we show Mr Obie some gratitude [Applause] KN over I know come on over here come on you guys let's go get around we'll do one more picture with Mr Obie we've got a all right here we go here we go one two three [Applause] nice thank you thank you students thank you very much Neil da and um we will take just a short 30 second break here if you want to stay by all means stay for the meeting if you need to get home to homework and other things now is your chance to run e all right we're going to be moving along to agenda item

021number six uh which is announcements I have the privilege tonight to um introduce and um invite professor Charles dartman and Heather hacking and their Educators from all across the country so if you could please um come up now and introduce your for your group of Professor will be here in just a second you told us five minutes so that's good because he can be a long talker um I'm Heather hacking from International training at Chica State University and um we have tonight uh 23 Educators from 21 countries around the world they're part of the full bright teaching excellence and achievement program and they've been coming for countless years to be a part of our educational community and I'll ask them we're not going to come up and introduce each one I'll just have them stand

022at the end but we're really thankful to be able to um be a part of this they've um learned a lot about our um national state and local educational system including the role of the school board um they have been here for four weeks they attend intense workshops through the Educators at Chico State and I'm learning how we do things here in the United States and they work on uh service learning projects and um learn technology and um this tomorrow they'll be joining um three schools um Chico junor High School Chico high and Pleasant Valley high school so they'll each have a mentor teacher and be immerse themselves in the school experience which we were so excited to meet our teachers last night and they're super excited to um meet the students tomorrow so thank

023you for doing what you do so that we have um schools that we can be proud to bring these teachers into and if I can just ask them just to stand and we'll just go hey there they [Applause] are thank you thank you at this time I just want to um ask the board members if they have any announcements um regarding any upcoming students uh events any student awards or particular School site accomplishments um I just want to say this is kind of late but I forgot to do it in uh January so here we are I wanted to say that I it was so fun to go to Citrus Avenue at to to Mr Wan's class and then at Christmas um and then afterwards go and see the kindergarteners sing um until I had

024to go to um another meeting and then I had a distinct pleasure of going to the we not me event and I just wanted to give a shout out to miss Burton she was an amazing MC and if you've never done that activity I really would invite you to do so and Mr John Shepard was one of our referees it was just a really fun uh great event and I'd never been before um I'm a I'm still teaching but that day I took a day off so that I could go to that event it was really neat uh it's lovely seeing what kids and and teachers and staff are doing in the district uh just like we saw tonight so thank you thank you for sharing that um we're going to move on right now

025to um agenda item number seven items from the floor and at this time um we are going to have speakers who wish to address the board regarding a topic that is not currently um on the agenda um and I believe we have Danielle pen here this evening so um if you want to go ahead and make your way up this way and just as a reminder speakers will have three minutes to address the board a bell will ring when 30 seconds of speaking time remains uh the board can listen to public comment but we are not able to respond to any speakers um under items from the floor thank you thank you Daniel so I don't know if I say Madam president for tonight uh board members superintendent um and staff uh president Trump excuse

026me president Trump recently signed an executive order where he has ordered immediate action against schools that deny women's single seex Sports and Single Sex locker rooms within 90 days president Trump will receive recommendations for eliminating Federal funding to schools that do not comp comply with this executive order I am aware that in California um we will not be following this executive order and will continue to allow students to play sports and use locker rooms according to their current gender identity rather than their biological sex the two questions I have um for the board is how much Federal funding does Chico Unified receive and what are the district's plans to recover possible lost Revenue per this executive order thank you thank you all right um is there anyone in the audience at this time who'd like

027to address the board for a topic that is not currently on the meeting agenda there will be another opportunity to speak um for items from the floor near the end of the agenda if you are unable to speak at this time is there anyone who would like to speak all right okay so moving along on to um agenda item number eight which is the consent calendar um and this is in regards to the board members is there anyone who would like to pull a consent item for further discussion I had a question for Kelly regarding the um perhaps you is it 10 yes yeah so does it have to be pulled in order to discuss it at all okay and does that does pulling it mean that that it would um it does it interfere

028with anything as far as talking about it in the summer you had mentioned that this is something that is discussed in the summer months yeah let's just go ahead and pull it and then um we can approve the rest of the agenda you can ask your question and then we can approve it at that time thank you so if I'm not correct if I'm not mistaken we need to um have a motion correct to pull the item uh we don't need a motion to pull the item but we do need a motion to approve the rest of the agenda okay does anyone want to make a motion to approve the rest of the consent calendar um with the exception of item number 10 Madam president um I have an item to pull okay and that

029would be number 11 all right are there any other items that would like to be pulled from the consent calendar at this time okay so if I'm not mistaken um I think at this time we'll need a motion to approve the consent calendar um with the exception of item number 10 and 11 I move to approve the consent calendar with the except pulling number 10 and 11 I'll second that motion okay so um at this time uh we can open it up for board discussion I think um board member hay since you brought up um item number 10 first let's go ahead and discuss that one all right so on item number 10 um let me pull P I'm sorry I didn't have this open here just one moment so while you're doing that uh

030we should probably go ahead and vote on the prior motion on the motion to approve all the other agenda items so if we can go ahead and do that probably need to do a roll call vote on this one okay yeah let's go ahead and do a roll call vote and let's see uh can we start with you member olssen yes Olsen I conen I haai Robinson I okay the vote was unanimous so we are passing um the voting on The consent calendar with the exception of um 10 and 11 being pulled so thank you um there were a few things uh that I was was wondering about and one of them was whether or not um Seth's law which is the anti-bullying uh needs to be posted in classrooms and I I heard uh

031from uh staff that it's it doesn't have to be posted would there be any objection to posting it um I think there's value and it's a very I mean uh and in our classroom in my classroom I have a you know a poster about yay big that talks about how what the rights are for that no one should be bullied um and it it's um I think it's certainly as important as the Williams Act which probably students don't don't know about and many parents may not know about but I think having something in black and white that says this is you know this is a safe space that to you know bullying will not be tolerated um I think some it may be that um students in my classroom don't pay attention to it but

032I think uh if it catches the eye of a student just as a reminder that that this is good policy so that's one comment is that even if it's not required I thought that it actually was required but I will I will defer but I think it would be good policy um and then I did want to um comment that I thought it was interesting that this new the new policy um states that for on auto replies for emails um that during Vacations or absences there should be links to resources and phone phone and text numbers so parents and students have information readily available so that if a parent you know writes a principal or teacher or targeted case manager or whatever it may be if that that staff member is out or we're on

033vacation that as a part of our the signature it actually pops up with you know if you're experiencing any difficulties here are some resources um and I was told that you know we could discuss that further in the summer review but I think that the point of of the you know the urgency of it you it was supposed to be done I thought by January 1 of this year is that it's probably doesn't take much time to make those sorts of changes to put it in um as a signature line in our emails and then it's there and it doesn't have to be put off and I think having more information available to parents and students is you know the better because all of our Stu all of you know Chico Unified students also have

034email accounts and they can email their teachers and I will occasionally in in my role um get emails from students and so I think that's um this the state wants us to do that and I think it's an easy enough thing to do um and if it helps give one parent or student um a resource uh in suicide prevention I think that's really worthwhile um I I lost a nephew uh to um a death by Suicide and there's you know my sister will never recover you know so thank you for those comments thank you in regards to item number 11 did you want to comment at all and I I have a a question I I appreciate you're bringing the issue on number 10 forward and um what I'd like to know from staff is

035would it be possible just by us saying hey you know this is what we'd like to have that done without too much change hassle so we do have plans to look at this policy this summer and the reason that it needs to be done in the summer is so that there is an opportunity for all staff to look at it and answer that question directly right now our school psychologist our school counsellors our teachers are really you know very busy we do want to take a deep dive into this summer look at the whole thing how do we ensure I mean quite frankly um not all of our staff even use auto reply so to say that they would even be there um we need to do work to even get to that point so

036that there is consistency there might be some that do some that don't I can tell you sometimes I do and sometimes I don't so um just looking at things from a practicality Point how does it happen because we don't want to say that we are going to be doing something the policy says should but we don't want to say we are until we know in fact that we can um thank you superintendent Staley um because of the fact that we are going to be visiting this issue during the summer um I'm okay with not acting on number 10 tonight and just putting it forward until so we do I'm going to jump in here we do need to approve it um with the minor changes that have been made knowing that it will be coming

037back to the board at the beginning of next year um you'll probably see it either August or September so if we could get a motion for that at this point that would be fabulous can I uh I'm I will to your point I've never sent an auto reply from my email ever so I I I do understand that um with that in mind those people who are inclined to do auto replies I think there are many teachers even our busy targeted case managers and our social workers and our there are many teachers that if they knew that this is something that is suggested and it was explained at a staff meeting or it was sent out by ed services that that they go oh yeah that's a good idea and maybe it won't be seen

038by a soul but maybe it'll be seen by that soul that it really makes a difference so I would I'm understanding the reason to put it off till summer but I just think you know education um clears the path to many things so if we could educate staff about it I think that's half the battle so I'll motion that we accept number 10 with those um changes all right do we have a second off second okay so um our last vote was unanimous so um I think we can all vote at the same time correct okay so all of those in favor of um accepting the consent calendar um with the exception of um item number 10 and discuss or wait I'm sorry not with the exception but with the voting on number voting on

039number 10 correct um so all those in favor of number 10 oh okay M you you clarified I I I thank you for your patience everybody all right so now on to 11 on to 11 thank you that would be me um when I read the um background and information on number 11 even though it was on the consent calendar there's um two items identified as to why it's being brought back at this time uh anyway even though we uh we will be doing changes um later on in in the language back to that issue I did want the public and ourselves to know that the two things that have been added that mandate that we add them to our um school safety Plans by March 1st of 2025 our armed as salent drills and

040then there indicates the education code numbers and sudden cardiac arrest again indicating Ed code 32283 so that's um that was my intent was to just bring attention to what's being added because just because they are critical I so move a second all right um so voting on um item number 11 I just i' just like to say thank you for bringing that forward and I'm gonna jump in there and uh just add something to what you said eileene in uh as this says it's not the safety plans are not due to a be approved annually until March in Chico Unified they are always on our board agenda by October because we feel it's really important to have safety plans in place for the entire year not just for you know April May and June so

041this is one of those times where usually it's just not a problem but this is one of the times where the law changed and so we had to bring them back a second time but did want to point out they have been in place since um our October 4th meeting thank you okay so um voting on this uh let's go ahead and start with you member Hayes I oh I guess we were voting all together correct oh let's all vote together all those in favor Robin and I thank you that passes doing a great job by the way Madame President oh boy okay moving along um to item number 9.1 Educational Services uh this is um public hearing um it's informational and I would like to um invite up Heather sentes who's going to speak

042about um Inspire School of Arts and Science Charter renewal request thank you heather I was reading the agenda good evening um so tonight we are back with three of our Charters and this is for the public hearing the public hearing is the second step in the process for Renewal and it is meant to be seen in a public forum so that we ensure transparency and accountability and the charter school authorization process the purpose is to gather input and so we we posted it and for the charters to have a moment to highlight their academic growth areas their strengths and showcase a few things and then receive some comments as well so I would like to begin by welcoming Becky Brown super intendent principal of inspire up good evening Chico Unified board uh Becky Brown principal

043superintendent of inspire School of Arts and Sciences um and I want to give a quick shout out to Heather because this is um my first time with this process it's a little daunting but she's made it all easy and clear so thanks Heather um so I appreciate the opportunity to share a little bit about our school as you Ponder our Charter renewal um we are a tuition-free award-winning Public Charter High School we started in 2010 we like to call ourselves a school for students and families who think and learn outside the box and what that means um I'll leave it to students to to talk about in this short video if I can figure out how to play it [Music] Inspire School of Arts and Science it's a charter school for those who want to

044go above and beyond for those who want to not just be at the bar but above the bar a school that really lets kids do and explore things that they might have not been able to at other schools if you like dance you can do dance if you like theater you can do theater they have competitions they have film clubs it's just a very nurturing fostering Community if you really want to surround yourself with people who are as passionate as you are about Art and Science Inspire is really the place for [Music] you I want to be surrounded by artists and like creative thinkers and I'm not trying to like say like weird kids like people who like think outside the [Music] box inspires a pretty small school school and with that a lot of

045students are really close with each other my friends are always here for me and I met them at Inspire I think inspires teachers are probably the most unique thing about the school my digital art as teacher really was supportive of my creativity and gave me a lot of freedom to work on what I wanted to work on for projects he pushed me to improve myself as an artist which is probably the most important thing to me going to this school after my graduation I think Inspire set me up incredibly well I'm taking an internship and the skills that Inspire has helped me develop just really set me off being able to go to school and do what I like help me get through the things that were harder for me if you really want to

046surround yourself with people who are as passionate as you are about Art and Science Inspire is really the place for you so um we're not just a school we are a learning community with a vibrant School culture um this is just a little brag sheet for you um I'm very proud of the awards and accomplishments that our school has earned especially last year earning the um California distinguished School award and um a couple of years ago um being one of of 19 schools in California to earn the exemplary Arts education award so we're very proud of of our students and our programs and our teachers um for helping us get there uh we have an enrollment of about 357 um and this uh shows inspires demographics as compared to um the other comprehensive and charter

047high schools in Chico just to give you a sense of who our students are uh we do have fewer English uh Learners at Inspire but higher numbers of foster Youth and the other high schools higher numbers of homeless students um higher or comparable numbers of students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds um we have higher numbers of students with disabilities than the other high schools um comparable numbers of African-American students Asian students and comparable numbers of Hispanic students with the exception of one the other high schools we tend to have students yes who know exactly what they want to do when they come to inspire but um a lot of students who come to us because they need that smaller personalized um community and they aren't going to do well in sort of the traditional High School

048structure um some things that I think set us apart as a small community there are so many opportunities for families to engage looking at an Inspire parent right there uh lots of opportunities to volunteer and to lead as parents but um we really try to partner closely with parents um for Student Success and to know who our parents are in addition to who our students are um lots of community Productions events showcases as a way for our students to show what they've learned at Inspire but also ways for them to connect with our community as citizens of our community um we have strong industry and post secondary Partnerships especially um aligned with our Career Technical education programs which I'll talk about in a little bit um and amazing school and Foundation boards that help us

049fund raise but also our our decision-making folks um who con have connections to BU College to Chico State to the Arts Community to business um and to the science community and lots of parents on those boards as well this is another unique part of inspire our advisory program that students uh get plugged into with the same teacher for all four years it's a 35 minute class that they take four times a week um it's a safe and connected environment where they learn life skills they build relationships with their peers they have fun and joy which I tend to think are very important part of a um a student's learning and then I like this quote from a student that Inspire feels like home it's not just the school but it's the place where you want

050to be so just a couple of um indicators of our students learning and scholarship um this is just a look at our uh California school dashboard outcomes again in comparison to um Chico comprehensive high schools and charter high schools so in terms of ela um our students do very well um in math uh every everybody's kind of under the bar in terms of Meeting those um standards and expectations but uh inspires less under the um in science we are um uh exceeding expectations um as compared to other high schools in College and Career 61.8% of our students are um College ready um our graduation rates are um uh comparable to the other high schools with the except of one who are really killing it I want to talk to them about what they're doing and

051then this this is one of the things that I think it in in in addition to that small school Community where we really know our students um is the Special Sauce of inspire and that is this huge array of Career Technical education classes that students can take these are the classes that they love that they're passionate about um we're we're known definitely as the arts school and our student students can take full highquality um path uh CTE Pathways in arts media and entertainment in the Performing Arts um but they also can take um production and managerial Arts uh they can take game design computer programming and Engineering so we're strong on the science side as well um and and to to my mind this is the thing that really helps our students succeed it's not

052just more of those academics but it's really being able to take this huge breath of classes that they love and that they're passionate about that helps them see value and meaning in those those core classes that they need to take for graduation um students have the opportunity to take dual enrollment classes to earn college credit at the same time that they're earning High School Credit um they can take AP classes in every one of our core disciplines um we have effective multi-tiered system of support so looking at multiple um data uh pieces to understand our students needs and their barriers um and really wrap around them parents staff um admin counselors um to make sure that they're doing well and we have a bomb teacher-led professional development uh thing going on and Inspire that we've

053been honing for 15 years and so our um the ways that we improve are not driven by just what ad wants but um what teachers see as valuable and we really lean on them as the experts in helping um each other get better and then we have systems in place programs in place to um allow students to share um what it's like for them at school and to share their ideas for how we can improve so we really try to let student voice Drive our educational Improvement and for them to really have a say in the decisions that we make that impact them and again I like this quote um inspired teachers teach us how to learn instead of what to learn it's not just about content but it's about curiosity it's about being passionate

054um it's about really finding meaning in the things that you're learning um but we're not perfect in fact I'm definitely not perfect because I spelled Improvement wrong but please ignore that um but we do uh try to each we look at uh data informed research-based areas of improvement and some things that we're looking at we're looking at a lot of things but a couple of key things um our suspension rates have um increased in the last year and so we're now in the orange on the dashboard and um so we want to make sure that instead of just leaning on suspension as a way to sort of discipline students for not getting with the program that we're really looking at the core or um reasons for why they're they're um being Knuckleheads or whatever it

055is that uh is leading them down this path so looking at um if they need substance abuse awareness and training um do they need increased counseling and again really partnering with parents to make sure that um the the school and the parent were all on the same page in terms of what the student uh needs to do and then chronic absence boy this has been um since the pandemic our chronic absence rates have been unacceptable and far higher than uh the other high schools in Chico so we we brought it way down um but we are currently it's a quarter of our students who are absent 10% or more of the time um and there are multiple reasons for that um if you look at our socioeconomically disadvantaged students they're chronically absent about the same

056rates as their peers but our students with disabilities are absent far more so that's that's an area of big concern for us um a big piece of this is transportation since we're a School of Choice it can be difficult for parents to get kids to school we also tend to have um High numbers of students especially those students with disabilities who are really struggling with um physical and mental health issues that make it hard for them to get to school so again um we have an attendance liaison in place that's really working with families to understand why students are absent um we have a short-term independent study that can help students uh remain plugged into school even if they have to be at home so that when they come back they're ready to learn again

057uh we provide transportation support bus passes for kids that need it um and then this uh kind of comprehensive we are here campaign that that as staff we we want to let students know that we're there for them but that also that showing up is is really important I'm super excited about this so excited I can't tell you so uh we have been so grateful to Julie kle and uh folks on her team for working with us on plans for our new campus this has been 15 years in the making um to have a campus that's our own home um and we are slated to break ground in June and uh to be on our new camp campus on the Fremont Street property um in Fall of 26 so we're really excited about that and

058grateful to the district for that support so we like to say it Inspire you'll find your place your purpose and your people I've certainly found that so many of my students have found that um so that's a little bit about Inspire I'm happy to take any questions you might have oh I'm already green um I know that inspired draws from a very broad um population throughout the area can you give me a breakdown on how many students do not reside in the Chico Unified School District so I think at last count we had about 80% of our students who were uh residing within the district boundaries um so about 20% of our students who come from Corning Red Bluff Paradise Gridley Durham um all over um that that's kind of the the breakdown thank you

059yeah so even though Inspire has been housed at Chico High's campus for the last 15 years um there's been no bus service available to those students is that correct right right and so what how does the bus p are bus passes available to any of your students that's a great question and it's something that we've kind of been ramping up in the last few years as we're looking at that chronic absence um so it's the p uh uh Chico Area Transit um and we provide passes to students who are uh socioeconomically disadvantaged but really it's a pretty low bar if you come in and ask for a bus pass you're probably going to get it that's good to know um it's one of the things that um you know public education um provides Transportation if

060you're outside a certain area yeah and it's uh there's I was grateful to see your breakdown of the demographics because sometimes um because of the lack of transportation and also the um push for parent involvement at um Charter Schools it can be a bit um elitist isn't the right word but you have to have parents that are able to come and volunteer and you have to have parents who can afford to to get their child there and that's not every parents that's not in every family's ability to do so it was great to see that demographics I'm glad then that's why I wanted to show them too because I think there could be that misconception about Charters is we're sort of skimming the cream or you know you have to be a certain type of

061student but um we really do draw um a lot of our students who come because they have so many barriers to school so transport that's one of the things that that hurts my heart I wish we could do more to help students get there but I really do feel like the um providing bus passes is helping us bring down those numbers of uh chronic absence so I think it's helping and I'll just say again I'm so grateful for the voters of Chico to pass measure C that's not a given in every community so I'm very grateful to our community for doing that yes Amen to that are there any other questions from the board I have um a comment and a couple of just um Curiosities I guess um so first off 10 years ago

062my daughter graduated from Inspire so um it's kind of dear to my heart and she went there because uh she tried the Comprehensive High School and said yeah no um she was at answer um and she just really got um it was a great experience for her so thank you I know the teachers work really hard there um make really great connections um and so I I appreciate that so thank you these are just very curious questions I was looking through your lovely binder um and I'm wondering um are you where where do you plan to put ethnic studies in for because I don't think that I saw that as something that would be in there oh absolutely so it's it's not going to be a a Career Technical education class but it isn't going

063to be an elective that any student can take and our plan I know some other um districts and schools plan to e embed those ethnic studies um standards into other classes but we plan to have a standalone one-year class that's really focused on um ethnic studies curriculum that uh we we helped Pioneer actually we started our ethnic studies class um was actually during during the pandemic so told those teachers hey by the way can you um so I'm really proud of our team who's been working on that um curriculum and so our plan is for uh because it's now going to be a graduation requirement that that sometime within those four years every student is going to take that class perfect thank you I appreciate that um and then just another curiosity question can students

064um who live in like Chico high or py area can they still participate in those schools sports programs no no that ended um when we first started we were um a dependent Charter with Chico Unified our students could play sports uh with Chico Unified but that ended when we became independent in 2015 okay yeah so we we have some small Sports programs we have um Cross Country Golf and um and ski team ski snowboard Team U yeah but basically if our if our students if if students want to take do the team sports we tell them this might not be the the place for you thank you appreciate it all right any other questions from the board okay thank you so much this time um we're going to open to public hearing are there any

065um comments from the public no okay we will close the public hearing all right I'm GNA jump back in Rebecca and I will introduce because they're all in a row so our next Charter that is going to present is Nord Country School and we have principal super superintendent Amber Hayes and vice principal Tanner Schaefer all right good evening Chico Unified uh board members thank you for the opportunity to present as part of our Charter renewal process my name is Amber Hayes and I serve as the principal and superintendent of nor Country School and my name is Tanner Schaefer I'm the vice principal so you've all had an opportunity to review our renewal documents test scores and supporting information tonight we want to share not only the key highlights from those materials but also what truly

066makes Nord Country School a special place for students to grow and learn at Nord we have a single class per grade from kindergarten through 8th grade with a current student population of 214 students this slide provides an overview of our demographics about half of our kindergarten class class is typically filled with siblings of our current students the remaining spots are available for children of our dedicated staff students residing in the Nord Community children of Nord Country School alumni and finally children residing within the cusd district boundaries the school dashboard serves as a key tool in tracking student progress we are proud to report an 8.9 Point increase in English language arts this year our partnership with the Northern California educational leadership Consortium has led to a remarkable 23.6 Point Improvement in mathematics these gains reflect

067the dedication of our teachers and students particularly in strengthening number sense across grade levels at Nord we pride ourselves on offering enrichment experience that extends beyond the classroom some of our tradition include daily assemblies our Harvest vestival our pie auction our educational Garden our character trait monthly and our kindness [Applause] Squad so one of the benefits of being a small school is we get to do a daily assembly and how we do this we break this up between K through 5th and then 6 through 8 so during this assembly the middle schoolers get to get daily announcements celebration for birthdays sports updates anything of that the elementary get to do the same however we also do a song of the month and one of the songs is our Nord song so here's a video presenting

068both of those flag of the United States of America and to theu for it [Music] stands and our elementary this is our Nord [Music] [Applause] [Music] song So a really awesome event that we do in the fall is our beloved Harvest Festival this is a community event where students family and local residents come together for a day of fun this includes a pie eating contest a horsedrawn wagon hay ride and snow cone stands this event Fosters Community spirit and provides family with an opportunity to connect at Nord we believe in shaping well-rounded students not just academically but kind good human beings our character trait program represents this on Wednesdays each student will wear a designated color representing the month for those who participate they receive tickets that they can get a prize from our um

069all school assembly then the teachers also in their classrooms get to pick a representative that best character did that trait for the month and they get awarded a certificate in front of the whole school to further promote positive character development our fifth grade students lead the kindness Squad every Friday they greet students during morning drop off assisting younger students out of their cars and offering warm welcomes rain or shine their commitment to fostering kindness makes a meaningful impact on our school culture in addition to morning greetings the kindness Squad spends time on the playground engaging with younger students helping them feel included and supported they also organize fun surprises for other classes such as handwritten notes small treats or acts of service to spread positivity throughout the school so one of this really cool things

070we have is an educational Garden so this Garden is used daily um they can they can be used as in a classroom where they get time throughout the day as a whole class that they can go but they also can do it during their recess and their lunch breaks within this it is designated either a class section or if the student is dedicated enough can be one whole row to that one student during this time there's the students are responsible for weeding planting and watering harvesting the crops and they also learn about beneficial plants and animals that harm it the garden provides a a Hands-On learning opportunity that extends beyond the traditional classroom nor Country School Embraces a vibrant School culture with very activi various activities including this was my favorite this year baby goats

071so um this year um at my house house we raise baby goats or we raise Nigerian dwarf goats um the baby goats I had two that need to be bottle fed so they came to school every day with me and students and staff got to bottle feed the babies um and this experience really brought a lot of joy and excitement to our campus uh another thing is our Halloween parade and our play announcement so this Halloween during our morning assembly our staff dressed in themed costumes which revealed our annual School play this year we are excited to present 101 Dalmatians another thing that we enjoy at our school is our Hispanic Heritage Month celebration this annual event features the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish during morning assembly recognition of notable Hispanic figures Spanish lessons on

072Hispanic cultures and achievements weekly food tastings from Spanish-speaking countries collaborative art projects special guest performances including B Folklorico de Cho and exchange students from Icees through these celebrations we Braden our students Global perspectives while fostering inclusivity and cultural appreciation thank you for your time and consideration of our Charter renewal application we appreciate the opportunity to share what makes Nord Country School a special place for students staff and families we look forward to your continued support thank you Nord I just want to make a comment if I can oh yeah sorry did I okay um I'm very impressed with your test scores and I'm I'm going to reach out on a Lim and say small class sizes and great test scores is right that's that's a great thing so it's wonderful that you guys have the

073smaller community and you really do have a community there um it's like one big family and so you guys all support each other and and um that helps socially emotionally but also clearly academically as well yes yeah AB absolutely I just want to say too um you didn't get to see it in the video but talk about Community is you know during our morning assemblies is we have families there every day anywhere from from 10 to 30 families and so we really make it um every morning a community event for 10 to 15 minutes which I think is something super special about what we have I just want to say when you talked about the baby goats over in the lower right hand corner something was cooking and and I was a little taken back

074I was like maybe that particular picture doesn't need to be on the baby goat I promise it was not a goat I'm just saying and you didn't explain it so I'm like what's going on [Laughter] there I thank you in in my visits out to Nord there have been um just amazing experiences um is the same gentleman doing the garden that was doing it say six or seven years ago so Ernie used to do it and so Ernie no longer does it but his protoe uh Mr Mark who kind of uh came in was his shadow for a long time yeah so Mr Mark still runs it and he was in the uh pictures but Ernie no longer does it yeah so he passed the torch to Mr Mark and Mr Mark's taken that over

075I I just that his connection with what he loves and the kids and connecting the kids with the growing was just amazing the other thing is um I've gone out to your your pie auction oh bad idea on my part because when those pies go home with me I eat the whole darn thing they're amazing i' I've really enjoyed um that and the um one year they had the the um hor drawn thrashing yes so we used to have a threshing bee until we had a track that was it yes yep okay again everything that I've experienced out there has just been so much fun our pie auction is March 1st we'd love to see and then I just want to bring attention that what you saw the of cooking is uh we didn't want

076to take too much of your time but that is a stone soup so the kids actually bring vegetables and we cook it all day long and then our amazing Miss Kyper um has done a performance with the kids of explaining what it all is about so the kids get to cook this all day and then that's actually what they get to eat later so it's super super super cool not goats I will say I have um two graduates from Nord Country School and two current students so it's obviously near and dear to my heart and what I appreciate most about Nord is just the Fantastic teachers and I see a handful of them out there tonight um so seeing the growth that's happened um with my kids academically socially emotionally um has just been just

077super rewarding and the level of preparation um going into high school after 8th grade has been amazing so I I love what's happening at Nord they're um just a a part of raising some really great little kids out there and who are fantastic um students and great people so too many things to say on my part um thank you guys thank you thank you all right at this time um I'd like to open this to a public hearing are there any public comments All right we will close the public hearing all right so the next Charter is our sheerwood montor Charter and director principal Michelle yesbeck is here good evening board of directors Chico Unified School District I'm Michelle yck I am the director this is my 15th year been with Sherwood since the beginning

078um before I speak to you about the information on the slides I'd like to introduce um co-presenters I have Liz Watling with us she is a community volunteer and Tina Hansen Lewis she's the chair of our board of directors and I'd like to invite Liz to share she is a regular volunteer from the neighborhood and so she has the unique perspective of being a Community member and I'd like to have invite her up to speak about Sherwood thank you I'm Liz Watling I'm a retired mental health professional of many years in Chico I graduated from Chico high but college and Chico State I worked for decades in the medical systems of Behavioral Health Care with a focus on crisis Services children elders and worked in the jails juvenile hall and those with chronic severe mental

079illness I'm excited at this time in my life though as a retiree to speak as a volunteer with our County's educational programs from the tutoring of adults with English as their second language when I worked with the literacy services with the library to being a reading palet Neil do da to being invited this last fall to support two teachers in their classrooms at Sherwood I primarily promote the sixth through eighth graders efforts to accomplish a weekly 2-hour group task where they cook for each other on a Friday morning brunch and my job is to keep them safe in the kitchen but mostly to uh promote their peer collab cation cooperation and their demonstrations of respect for each other with the kindergarteners twice a week I provide group Story Time show them how to build snacks

080and play with sensory materials and practice letter recognition skills while sh teaching them and showing them how to focus concentrate and recall what they're learning I spend most of my time and my attention there just applauding these kids' efforts to show their curiosity their patience their kindness and their cooperation it's my joy to have this privilege to work with Sherwood a school that prioritizes self-initiative self-discovery the natural skills that show Cooperative collaborative communication and a natural desire to learn I'm honored that I'm allowed to learn monor's methods of teaching while at the same time I'm being trusted to be helpful even though I'm still just learning myself it's a true win-win and it's a A real blast thank you so much for letting me speak and Tina Hansen Lewis she is our board chair and

081also a parent at Sherwood a little taller sorry um so as Michelle said my name is Tina Hansen Lewis and I'm honored to serve as the chair of the board of directors for Sherwood monstor but in addition to my role in the board I teach chemistry at Chico State and I specialize in science educational equity and inclusive stem learning so as an educator and an educational researcher and a board member and then also a parent of a of a very thriving student at Sherwood I've seen firsthand how the school nurtures a love for learning but also Fosters creativity and builds a strong sense of community my unique perspective enables me to appreciate Sherwood's remarkable ability to meet the diverse needs of its students while maintaining a focus on academic excellence and holistic development Sherwood is

082a pretty good example of what a student centered inclusive education can achieve the school's monor aligned curriculum not only meets the California state standards but also celebrates the individuality of every learner creating a supportive and enriching environment our students including a significant percentage of so socioeconomically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities show consistent growth in academic performance as Michelle's going to show you in the Casp scores so beyond academics sure would excels in fostering a strong sense of community both inside the classroom and outside of it the school's innovated programs such as the updated monor aligned curriculum the behavioral support systems that have been recently implemented and transitional kindergarten offerings position it as a leader in personalized Student Center education as we look to the Future Sherwood is well positioned to continue providing an exceptional

083educational experience that prepares students for success in school and in life so as we seek renewal for our Charter we remain dedicated to providing an exceptional education that supports not just our students but also our families and the broader community so I thank you for your time and your consideration and your support of Sherwood and then I think Michelle has all the SL okay it just this top one I brush how do I do this yeah this here yeah okay yeah okay so what we love about Sherwood we are offering an authentic manuri education right here in Chico for this community um and we have beautiful classrooms with Hands-On materials very specifically prepared environments for children to nurture their independence and their uh love for learning uh we have multiple age classrooms so we have

084opportunities that spring up for leadership as well as opportunities to be taken care of by an older um classmate and this builds Community uh and we also do not give homework we spend a great deal of time working very hard during this school day so when our students go home they enjoy their family life and we are still getting academic results um this is a slide showing something of our enrollment overview um those are the last five years you can see the effect that covid had and our enrollment went down uh that last bar where it's coming up was last year and then this year we're up to 122 so we're uh swinging back up there uh s that stands for on the top there that's uh students with so socioeconomic disadvantage so that group

085has been growing over the years that shows all the years that we've been open well not the first year but all the others and then underneath that that is the percentage of students with disabilities which has also been growing um currently we have 22.8% of students with disabilities at Sherwood and I learned recently in our monory life uh Journal that this is typical for monor schools and the US 22% of children who attend monu schools have disabilities um um and only 10% of Monas schools in the US are public schools so 90% are private so what we are offering is something special and also free um okay so these are graphs showing race and ethnicity is the top um socioeconomic disadvantage English Learners and students with disabilities so there's um some diversity there that you

086can see and uh it's pretty volatile we're a small school so numbers can change year to year really quickly just with a couple families moving in and out so in my uh performance audit that I submitted um you could see the Casp scores and they have been on uh the positive the past three years we've made great gains in both Ela and math what this uh slide is showing is the other set of achievement data that authorizers are asked to consider and that's um if students are making on average a Year's growth and uh this is all students and we are uh making more than a Year's growth uh each year for kids in ela and math there's a stronger effect in Reading than in math but in both areas areas we're um reaching that

087that goal and this slide shows the same for um students from socioeconomic disadvantaged backgrounds and uh again uh reading growth and math growth is significant and over a year on average and the same for students with disabilities so this gives us great hope that kids that um start with us below grade level um will catch up and we do see a an effect for contiguous enrollment as well and then areas for growth and next steps there's some more of those beautiful Hands-On materials but we are going to persist with our efforts with our um our mtss the multi-tiered system of support is really catching uh all kids with their data and we are addressing um any needs it's you know one of the advantages of being a small school again is to know all your

088students really well we're going to keep up with that and we're going to continue with our involvement with the Northern California educational leadership consortion uh Nord was uh mentioning that and I've been in uh this is on zoom and it's all the county in Northern California I've been in Zoom rooms with Chico Unified uh staff members as well and we have been working this is our uh third year involved with the program and we have been working on supporting kids emotional wellness and responding to student behavior and we're um looking forward to keep working on that and U meeting with our colleagues up in cisu and humble and all over the North State it's been really wonderful and yeah that was my last slide so thank you very much if you have any questions or

089comments for me yes hi I do um I was also looking through these lovely binders that we got a couple months ago um I have a a couple of questions um it it looks like and so I just want clarification that um salaries overall increase 3% every year is that correct um I think it's a little less I think it's 2.5% but you know what if that's including the hourly staff then that probably averages out higher yeah um and then I also notice that you're currently using reserves uh to fund yes to fund things and your anticipating that your attendance is going to go up um can you help me with understanding what um I don't know the word I'm thinking of I'll just use like I don't know what things you're using to anticipate

090that your enrollment is going to go up and then what if it doesn't yeah so if it doesn't we have to make Cuts yeah okay um we have we have areas we could cut we don't want to but we have more Personnel than we're required to have in terms of support AIDS instructional AIDS and um mental health supports but um we are enrolling and advertising the board um this month is coming back to a conversation that was started at The Retreat about uh engagement Community engagement and promoting the school and fundraising thank you um my comment would be in re reviewing what you submitted was I was very impressed with your reading and math scores so keep doing whatever you're doing because it's working and um I appreciate the um the Personnel no not no

091person personal growth of your students in the monor program um I haven't ever ex had that for any of my children but I have friends who have who've just had wonderful results so I appreciate that you're keeping this school going and hope that uh finances work themselves out with an increase in enrollment thank you I'm going to piggyback on that too because I made a note that wow your Ela scores really went up and while your math scores didn't I can say that probably in every District um districts are talking about well we're you know we're not as bad or we're not that I think math is just um closer math is just where math is right now yeah so I I was also impressed thank you um so regarding the board's perspective on enrollment

092so because our higher or our our large number of socioeconomically disadvantaged students the postco hit was pretty hard on us as far as attendance goes and so we've been looking at attendance but also enrollment trying to trying to bolst our enrollment so it's something we're definitely actively working on um and and know is um a potential problem we're watching the budget very closely and all those things as well but some of those numbers of it going back up is because of the work that the staff and and the board have been doing so we know things are working but we know there's still room for improvement we're very much aware of of the the delicate situation that we're in but we feel like we're on the better side of it now that it's creeping back

093up to where it was postco so that sounds really promising yeah thank you I don't have my binder in front of me and maybe you already mentioned this but how many students do you currently have um currently 122 and what would be the number that you would need to be able to not dip into the reserves I believe it was yeah I did a big tour today so we also know that there's a difference between stable and comfortable and we're aiming for comfortable we're not aiming for staes how many can you accommodate I don't know the how many could we have in our school with the current classrooms yeah we looked at that the last was it 140 I think it's 140 that was your projected for 2930 was 140 so hopefully that that's the

094right number you can having to hire more stuff yeah yes yeah yeah yeah thank you any more questions from the board all right at this time we will open for um public hearing any comments from the floor all right we will close the public hearing okay so all of those items um are no action this evening um but we will come back to that at our at a later meeting so moving along um to 9.1.4 um this is a discussion action resolution number um 1675-1 um authorizing Pleasant Valley High School to purchase gifts for students utilizing a Golden Valley Bank grants so I'm going to invite Tina Keen up correct or you want to stay want to do that yes this resoltion is coming to the over holiday instead of the gift cards being full

095Ty what we do wey situ approve a resolution that will allow for that to haveen KN that we will processes that we have in place for theer does the board have any questions in regards or clarification questions I would just comment um to the public um that there was nothing that was not appropriate that went on with the funds um the funds were used appropriately nothing Shady um that went down but um it was just a kind of a miscommunication so in this situation we're just um rectifying the situation um any other comment just on that note perhaps um what what is supposed to happen would be that the bank would if they're if they're inclined to give $25 gift cards that they would give the5 gift cards and not give $2500 to the school

096and yeah and so that's that's the situation I'm sure it was a Time Savings thing for the bank who is kindly donating money and I I didn't those aren't the figures I'm just using that as an example but I'm sure it was a time-saving thing for the bank entity but it just can't be done that way in public education is correct all right is there any public comment okay do we have a a motion from the board I thought I pushed the button I'll make a motion to um approve resolution number 16752 I'll second that motion okay we can uh vote at this time um all those in favor say I I I all right that passes unanimously moving along to um agenda number um 9.1.4 this is informational only and this is a update

097on ethnic studies so inviting um Pedro Caldera up for presentation thank you uh I get the pleasure of inviting Beth Burton from Pleasant Valley and Gina Snider from Chico to come up and do this presentation than that well Bor thank you so much for having us here tonight uh both Gina and I are excited to talk to you and share the work that we've been doing for really the last three years uh with ethnic studies um I want to start off with that quote this is from assemblyman Jose Medina he's the author of assembly Bill 101 he says students cannot have a full understanding of the history of our state and Nation without the inclusion of contributions and struggles of Native Americans African-Americans Latinos and asian-americans so those are the four core groups that the

098ethnic studies curriculum says need to be included um in the courses that we develop um and with this with the passage in 2020 1 it says by 2030 so this is our current seventh grade class that is a graduation requirement and we've spent three years developing courses to ensure that every student in chica unified is represented as well as hits that graduation requirement by 2030 um the goal is for next year 2025 in the fall it's on the books so that's where we're getting to today uh some timeline woo so three years ago teachers at PV and Chico high as well as our admin leads of we started the conversations going through the state created um adopted curriculum saying we like this we don't like that how are we going to make it work for

099chica unified and we started the implementation process last year we continued to work together so PV Chico we also went to a number of trainings we'll talk about in just a second how are we going to create these courses modeling them from San Diego as well as from Pajaro school districts to see how we'd Implement these into our courses with the idea is to our existing world history and US history courses and enhance them so how do we ensure that the requirements are fulfilled in those courses that all sophomores and juniors take as well as this year having um a semester long course so students can fulfill that requirement and Gina will talk about that in just a second that any student 9 through 12 can fulfill these requirements so that's where we're looking at

100right now with our timeline and a little bit more teachers at pey and Chico High did a lot of professional development so myself and one of my colleagues from Chico High we took classes at UC Riverside so we've now earned a certificate in ethnic studies to teach the course um we went to actually Chico High sent a group down and they're going again this year to the California Council of social studies uh down in the Bay Area focusing on implementation of ethnic studies uh we also got a quarter of a million dollar Grant working with Glenn County Office of Ed to have professional development development hosted by UC Berkeley so again a number of of teachers not only social science but English language arts art music drama we had all of these teachers working together

101to develop um the curriculum we also had a chance last year to go to Chico State and there is the far Northern far north ethnic studies Symposium um bu Glenn Office of Education has also hosted curriculum development workshops where we've had teachers from again pey and Chico High developing new curriculum and then finally we've been blessed to have our district-wide staff development days where We've Come Together We had one at Pleasant valy one at Chico high again discussing working together collaborative between the school sites to how we're going to implement um ethnic studies so I'm going to turn the time over to Gina thank you what are you clicking here this yeah hi I'm Gina Schneider Chico hi and before I start I just want to thank Pedro for um facilitating a lot of these

102meetings and discussion and being really open-minded and flexible as this process has grown um it's it's you know it's a lot of work and um Pedro really um made sure that we were all heard and I and I do appreciate that especially me because people tend to not listen to me just kidding okay so what courses did we create and you know there's a lot of complexities here when we're thinking about course development and um and we came up with these models uh Beth mentioned some of these but we have a um a semester option anybody 9th through 12th can take that and it has that human cultural geography lens and it's a semon closure we're going to be um gearing that mostly towards ninth graders but anybody can take that um we also have

103a world history course so what we basically are doing with the world history and the US history courses is implementing the ethnic studies curriculum into the existing US history and world history curriculum so uh in order to get those credits the students have to pass both semesters to get that requirement met for graduation for both their history and ethnic studies good so we're going to start piloting this all the hard work that we've been doing over the last several years and in doing that oh boy can't see either one of those um what we're going to do is um you know make sure that we are implementing these into our classroom with the idea of fostering unity and the framework um and making sure that we are aligned with the curriculum that has been set

104out before us um but the state has a lot of flexibility so we were able to use that and take that into account in developing this curriculum into our local community and lens but again we're going to do that through the uh lenses of geography or world history or US history and quite honestly with this kind of offerings a student can take it their freshman year as a nth grader for a semester and they could be really interested in it and continue and they will have met the requirement for graduation for ethy but they they might like it enough to take that lens again in their world history 10th grade requirements um or classes and their US History classes as well there's nothing stopping them from continuing to do that which is a nice way

105of presenting you know these models for these students um so what we want to do of course is continue to Pilot this um but still work and in a pilot program you're going to look at what's working well and what could be twe tweaked and be done better and um we've been lucky enough to have the ability to work during our districtwide staff development days to do that and um I think that's been really helpful and significant in developing this so you know the bottom line is that we believe that all kids can learn and that that students should be enriched with a variety of perspectives and experiences in the classroom and we feel that this ethnic studies requirement will provide that for our students so what have we done basically in January check already

106done that we have signed off on these this cours work the department chairs and the administrators have signed off on this we're currently in number two this is what we're doing right now February 2025 presenting to you and in March um that's going to be up to you to um approve the classes if that's what you feel you should be doing and then um we will start registering while we're currently registering right now in the spring for next year's class um for for our fall classes and but the work's not over right so we'll keep working over the summer and again piloting the um classes that we've developed and continue our PLC we have a group like Beth said going to the conferences and continuing work with Berkeley and the other um avenues that we've

107been having a relationship with and um and like Beth said our current seventh graders will um have the opportunity to have this class or this graduation requirement um before they graduate so piloting right now is um an important step in this process so that we can be ready for those seventh graders that's all I got thank you I have a question um clarification well anyone either one either one of you well not Pedro he won't know um so at the at the high schools will students have an opportunity to take either a world history or B world history and cultures yes yes that sorry we didn't I forgot to say that yeah well I yeah I wasn't really clear if it was you know yeah so MH I was going to say that I think

108uh it's an excellent placement for nth grade for it to to make that offering um I think that was great thinking I looked at that and thought teachers came up with that idea good job but I will say this as a ninth grade teacher um I think it's going to be really important for uh I always like tell my freshmen hey you might be thinking about this and I think it would be really important to actually tell them if you really if you like this the the features that are being highlighted here and teachers will know which students are really loving it but you know really helping them see that you're going to have to take world history you're going to have to take us history in order to graduate and so if this lens

109is something that you appreciate you know know be thinking about that but freshmen sometimes don't put put those things together so you kind of have to be explicit yeah and the nice thing about the ninth grade offering is that it um we can reintroduce um geography and so we're using that as a lens which is so important and we haven't had in quite a bit and we're trying to incorporate it in our social studies classes but this is more of a standalone to use as an ethnic studies lens as well so having that marriage is going to be great yeah and I did have one other question I'm assuming that this is social social studies credit not elective correct for the for ninth grade or is it it's not social stud okay social be before

110we log off here in a sense I do want the board to realize that c USD is extremely fortunate to have this group of Educators here with us starting with with Chris Montgomery from py she used to be chica Jr just so you know I stole Joe yes Joe chance from Chico High um and we also had M Slava uh and ciso Loria from Pleasant Valley High School I mean they wanted to do this and so it was we're I feel that we're extremely fortunate uh to do this and we also had two wonderful APS that worked alongside of us and guided us with SAS and Diana Holland so I just want to make sure that you all understand that these individuals put in a lot of work before before you go away don't um

111once I got rid of all of my television channels I began to um look for answers to the things that were disturbing me about the world what I discovered in looking at how geography and the movement of populations and the stuff all feeds into I went oh my gosh um and I am so glad that you guys are putting this information in front of our students because it it changes your perspective on how different countries and different populations and different religions have ended up where they are or are moving away from where they were I just thank you so much for the work you're doing um you may find a board member sitting in on one of your classes time anytime no I I do I I just I was I was amazed at what

112I didn't know and thank you I got to add one more thing I had the honor of working at both Comprehensive High Schools one for a very long time and one for a very brief time and I will tell you firsthand that all of these people are amazing uh dedicated devoted um professionals yeah so you guys did a great J job thank you thanks thank you thank [Applause] you all right um is there any public comments okay this is also informational only so uh no action is needed this evening and at this time we'll move on to um agenda item 9.2 uh Business Services uh we're going to be this is discussion and action um in regards to um the 20242 demographic analysis and no did I skip something yes I did uh all right

113hold on one second 91.6 extended school year oh yes the little the mini meeting right okay you sorry I think we're on 91.6 91.6 cor extended school year so um Jennifer Scola good evening I'm here for my annual Springtime discussion with you about our plan for extended school year for special education services so every summer we offer an additional um extension of the current school year for our students with our most extensive needs and um the Ed code identifies that we must provide 20 days of service beyond the school day at a half of day uh or minimum Day schedule and we have overwhelmingly heard from both staff and and families that coming back for that last week when the Fourth of July is always in the middle and um interfering with everything that we

114would rather have longer days at 15 days rather than extended out to uh four full weeks at four hours a day so we're coming to you tonight um with a waiver request that I will turn into the California Department of Education so I've spoken with CSEA and cut on the union side in agreement and um parents are also sharing that you know they want to get out of town for that uh holiday weekend and so we're here in front of you tonight I will add that as an esy teacher for many many years I love the 3- we the longer days um because by the fourth week the kids are burnt out they just want to enjoy their time and and they've earned it you know and teachers and staff are burned out so thank

115you you're welcome so School the students will go to school for five hours a day teachers are um on campus for six doing um prep work for that extra hour and then we have time built in before in May early June to do all of the prep work we've actually started preparing we started last month so this is action an action is required so um is there a motion this time public comment to you public comment good or a motion now motion to approve a second okay and at this time um is there any discussion from board all right so we can um vote now um all those in favor of 9.16 I I all right thank you that passes thank you sorry about that guys I got a little dis you were moving this

116on through the agenda okay moving along to 91.7 this is informational um the midyear local control accountability plan the elcap updates that is correct thank you uh we are required to bring information to you including uh demograph or pardon including data related to metrics in uh during our school year as well as expenditures midy year between um the time we approve the cap in June of 2024 until it comes again to you in June of 2025 so um it is a nice time for us to sit and look at things mid mid year and um talk about them see how things are going and this is a snapshot of what uh where we're at I'm going to invite Tim and Sharice here who uh we are the the folks that is kind of the trifecta

117of uh I pull a lot of the writing pieces together Tim is our data person and Sharice and her fiscal Savvy helps us tremendously so here's Tim good evening um as Tina stated um tonight's presentation is a is required by the state and the state gives us certain uh parameters to follow uh regarding what we are to share with the board in this midyear update uh one of those things is outcome data that's attached to lcap and the data that I have to share with you you tonight is the same as what I shared a couple weeks ago I appreciate the opportunity to take a longer time um answer questions make sure the board um understands um the dashboard and the implications of it so um I would like to kind of speed through the

118data a little bit more um quicker than we did last time I'd like to invite members of the public um who weren't at last uh board meeting to get in contact with me if you have any specific questions um regarding the dashboard and I can also I'd be happy to share the slides from that night and the slides are online too it was live streamed so right the public does have the opportunity to look to look at it there as well right thank you yep okay so um for English language arts um we are yellow and as I shared with you a couple weeks ago we went down okay not a it's a concern to be going down um however we're still at the top end of our our similar school districts what you see

119right here is student group status and this is a breakdown by student group of how well the kids did on on last year's test and then the change so how kids did last year compared to the year before by student group moving on to math um it was mentioned earlier during inspir um presentation it's a most districts are are below um and so are we so um that being said we're we compare favorably to similar districts and you can see a drop in math achievement as well we have student group um results from last year and the change from the year previous stop me at any time with any questions for the scci California science test you can see we're at the top of our similar schools um we don't have a change because is

120the first year it's on the dashboard and here's a breakdown of our science uh scores by student group English learner progress we kind of in the Middle with our comparable districts um like the other uh like English and math we did go down um however we like I just showed you we're still um beiring well compared to similar districts I really would uh encourage the public um to really look at the longer presentation um because it it really does have contextual information that helps put this in perspective um and I don't want uh the public thinking that we're glossing over this because we we didn't I promise you can look at I think it was a three-hour meeting and you're welcome to look at that information and I encourage you to do so and it's

121really information I think it's important mhm graduation rate you can see we're we're near the bottom however we're still green the state so that's a positive from the state um however um it's lower than we would like to see and it went down a little bit this is our student group status for graduation rate and our graduation rate change by student group and again can you explain is is the negative sometimes a negative is a good thing and sometimes a negative is bad thing so so graduation rate is something we want to go up um as opposed to suspension rate or chronic absenteeism so um graduation rate we want to go up so being on the right side of the green line there um means you're growing we look at Chronic absenteeism um we're still

122significantly higher than we were preco however we've been decreasing um year by year um but like I said we're still not um we're still not where we'd like to be and I appreciate the board um inviting us in for a attendance uh Workshop coming up and one thing different than Inspire this is not this does not include high schools for C USD is that correct correct okay yep so you can see our change we went down 3.2% from the previous year and this is our chronic absenteeism by student group and the change from the previous year so we want to be on the left side of this of this for chronic absenteeism meaning we're going down suspension rate um status we kind of right in the middle of our similar districts we are green we

123did go down fairly significantly for um in in our suspension rate by 7% so that's a good good thing um and you can see the stud uh suspension rate by student group here and then the change and again this is one where we want to be on the left side going down for the College and Career indicator you can see us there we're yellow at 46.3% and you can see we dro by little bit less than a percent from the previous year the College and Career indicator status here so this is how uh well our grad cohort last year fared um in this indicator and this is um comparing um last year's grad cohort to the previous year's grad cohort and this one we want to go up so we want to be on the

124right side of the line and I just like to point out that one of our largest groups um our socioeconomically disadvantaged had pretty significant growth here yes that's that's visual you know visual representation of closing the achievement Gap and any questions about any of that data okay thank you I'll turn it over over to Sharice good evening board so the second part of the midyear update we have to look at the financial pieces of the lcap so this first couple sides what we're looking at is the budgeted expenditures that came to the board in June as a part of the lcap adoption and then on the in the mid year expenditures that's expenditures that we actually paid out through January 31st and so um the implementation if it says on target that means that we've

125spent about 50% or more so we consider that on target so if you look at all of goal one and go down to the total because we like to look at this in aggregate um the total we've spent a little over 50% so for goal one we consider ourselves on target okay so then this one shows goals to oh yes go ahead and what does in Pro you exp in progress just means that we're spending it's still part of the LC cap but we're not spending as quickly as we originally thought we were going to um and that could be because of grant funding that we have that has carryover available um like that happens in after school sometimes we'll spend a little bit slower and carry over some of those dollars for plan Staffing

126for next year you're welcome okay so then goals two three and four two and three are very similar to last year here um and so they are both on target we're spending about the pace that we thought we were going to the one that I want to bring your attention to is goal four so this one is brand new to us this year it is the equity multiplier funds that we received that are being spent at our alternative Ed campus and these funds are specific to each School site so we only get them for certain School sites um one of the other pieces for alternative Ed is they also receive a lot of grant funding from the federal government and those funds expire faster so Equity multiplier has carryover funds and we're kind of building

127the program because this is the first year so that's why you'll notice some of those are in progress a little bit lower than we would want to see at this point and the final one down there the I bilingual we've actually hired that as of mid January so that will change to in progress um in my chart just so you guys know yes during my during my review of um go four yes I noticed the um number four Center for Alternative Learning and the academic for change reading interv intervention sections yes and that dis spirit I I I've already gotten an answer but I wanted everybody else to hear yes why that um midyear expenditure is so low so it's a combination of the staff that we've hired in there is an intern so they

128tend to be a little less expensive than actually hiring a certificated teacher as well as as I mentioned some of that Staffing is coming out of other funds like CSI that um alternative that is receiving from the federal government those have a sooner expiration date and so we haven't built up the Staffing within the equity multiplier as much as we originally planned I just wanted to make sure and I have been reassured that that um component of focus for the alternative Ed um programs is still there because this is important important to me I'm sure it's important to the kids so yes indeed and it's exciting to have the chance to be able to build that Intervention Program so in fact just today Andrew Maul the principal and I were talking about strategies and ideas

129to build that because he's never had that opportunity before specifically so I um do fully expect that to to grow and and go to to some great places we have such a short period of time with that student population and usually significant deficits in that in the the reading area So the faster we can do things that work not just spend money but put in place things that work you know the better it will be for that population which does my heart good yes we are of the same thinking as you are thank you okay yes okay so then the second part of this is we are comparing um what is called the budget overview for parents so this is another portion of the LC cap that's presented in June and this looks at budget

130rather than what we've actually spent so on the left hand side there you'll see the projected Revenue that was the original budget total um which was $200 million when we brought it to you guys in June and then the revised Revenue that's our first interim budget that we presented in December so you'll notice there was an increase of about $5 million most of that is in state and federal grants um some of it was a increase in Title One um but mostly it's new grants that we received received uh the the Community Schools implementation Grant as well as the I don't want to say this wrong learning communities uh Grant so we received both of those mid uh fall and we didn't know about them at original budgets that was the reason for the increase

131in that Revenue budget and the second part of the budget overview for parents is the expenditure side um so you'll notice that on the smaller bar there so the top portion just so you guys know what you're looking at is the Pro rejected expenditures as of original budget in June and the bottom the blue bar bars that's the first inter room budget that we brought to you in December the smaller bar over on the right that's our lcap budget so you'll see that the only uh the change between those was very small it was about 130,000 and that had to do with our textbook funds so the budget that we presented to you when we came to in June was pretty accurate with where we landed around first interim okay any questions on the fiscal

132side okay all righty I think that's it and there's no action required this is information only thank you all right um moving along to um item number 9.18 um this is so informational we have the student lcat meeting update for the 20 2425 school year other and Pedra okay um good evening this is our second meeting so we were last year it was decided that we'd have three elat meetings with our students throughout the year so that's what I just told you okay um so the element Elementary meeting was held on January 24th and we had 26 students attend there were two representatives from each of our 12 elementary schools it is a wonderful day I enjoy every moment of it and um what we look at is within their feedback on academic social emotional

133behavior and safety so things that are going really well for them academically are they expressed extreme gratitude for the opportunities are available across their campuses in the availability of participating in PE science stem programs writing lessons student council and art classes there was a lot of pro uh feedback in the positive relationships that they have with their students they or their teachers they highlighted the caring nature they're actively listening to them they have an ability to make learning enjoyable and they are providing extra support as needed when students feel like they could use extra reading math or writing support um they also are very appreciative of the positive recognition systems that are in place such as school chance student stores and the student of the month assemblies their biggest recommendation is that we continue to

134maintain PE stem in arts in regards to social emotional learning again they reiterated that the staff is caring yes I'm I'm going to stop you right here because you it didn't mention it meaning the report didn't mention one of the standout inputs from my perspective I got to attend these again this year um I board members if you haven't gotten to one of these put it on your calendar anytime during the year I think there's three and there there will be more but one of the things that um when it the students talked about um uh you know the teachers helping them feeling like the teachers were listening feeling that that they were getting um uh just all kinds of support and I'm not sure which one of you asked them is this new has

135it always been this way or or is this year better and the students responded that this year is better so that to me was just wonderful that you know that what we're doing with our staff with supports for our teachers with uh they enjoyed the um lessons that the counselors were doing in the classrooms um and it just was such a positive um hour that we spent with those kids and um I was impressed with their understanding of what's going on in their Academic School life world they get it I mean they know why they're there what's working what isn't working and they were really um forthcoming in Sharing they we just I love the fact that we have kids that are growing up that are going to be really really good in this world

136soon and that is a fact they are doing great things and they were and again they're very articulate in these meetings and share what they like and what they would like to see changed so in regards to the social emotional they again mentioned the staff and the approachability of them that they feel safe to talk to them um that they're reliable and they can depend on them when issues Arise at school to help problem solve they did mention again that the counselors are excellent listeners and the weekly lessons that are provided are beneficial to all and they also mentioned that they appreciate the variety of lunch options that were available and they ensured that there was always a meal that they could get at at school um the recommendations is one this one was very

137interesting to me they asked us to explore additional ways to Pro promote kindness and inclusion um such as videos Awards and more awareness campaigns they actually said we'd like to see the principles use the video cameras to watch and just find good things happening across campus um they they also just again to continue to Foster that kindness and incl usion throughout these reward systems and then the one recommendation for our nutrition services was unanimous to consider changing the pizza recipe and that was well received because nutrition services was with us as well so they have a plan um in regards to behavior and safety they they reiterated that they feel safe at school part of that is the presence of the fencing the cameras the radios that are used uh the locked doors and emergency

138drill were mentioned that they they that provides reassurance for them that we're practicing those drills again they reiterated in this context the caring nature of our staff helps them to feel supported and welcomed and really they they hit on all staff not just teachers in the classrooms but everywhere that they go in the campus um they also mentioned that bullying is not really a significant issue but because students are learning tools and strategies to resolve conflicts on their own and with with the support of adults a couple of their recommendations in regards to behavior and safety were increasing Supervision in the areas where problems are more likely to occur most of that in their mind was during lunch recess they'd like more supervision so that football soccer basketball all are refereed as well as other

139games that are being played and then um implementing stronger anti-bullying initiatives and those positive behavior interventions and Les lessons and reminders throughout the year and then the big concern is just that we continue to work on addressing language that's used and sportsmanship among the students and that is the elementary you will be hearing a Rec a recurring theme here uh and it's going to sound a lot of uh well it's going to sound similar so uh we met with the junior high students on uh Feb on uh Friday Jan uary 31st and we had 11 students there so with that what's going well um they felt there was an increase in uh teacher check-ins with students from the previous years so much like uh uh Mrs uh Robinson was saying is that you know we

140we students are noticing different things happening teachers are available before and after school for additional support science labs offer Hands-On learning students collaborate with uh class classmates in small groups uh which allows for different approaches uh to solving math problems that may be more effective with for them um and what you're going to see there I believe is a testament to what our uh CH unified initiative is is to push uh teaching strategies and to make uh engagement strategies that much more um I guess effective with inside the classroom so that is what Mrs Robinson was uh uh alluding to was that students are starting to notice a difference and uh I thought that was pretty cool so so with this whoops let me see all right social emotional what's going on well students know

141how to access counselors through their Chromebooks and staff teachers and principes are welcoming to their students that's also recurring theme PBIS video slides and many lessons are frequently presented I do encourage the board to try going to at least one of some of the middle schools and sit in on a PBIS lesson and just know that those are repeated weekly and then uh recommendations uh our students felt that uh it would be nice if the counselors would check in on students who had a d or an f grade and that is a little bit different to what we currently have set up within our mtss system and we do have thre thresholds and our thresholds may say hey two or more failing grades and those are the students that we meet with so it was

142kind of interesting to hear it from students saying Hey listen if I'm failing a class I would really appreciate the counselor calling me in so that's something that we will share with our mtss group the other part was organized whole school activities rallies and kindness awareness events does it sound familiar to Elementary sure does yeah and then um here's something the middle schools wanted um and I was like man you I I'm going to present this to the board but there's no guarantee because it's virtually impossible for that to happen and that is ensure that all grades have the same lunchtime I was like yeah no we can't feed 900 kids in a 30 minute window or a 45 minute window good luck with that so no yes so the counselor is checking in oneon-one

143with students who have a d or an F of course that goes to the bigger question of what counselors you know their workload and the amount of students they have and so while I do think that it that would be awesome um you know it has to be something that um I think you'll I mean the the reality is you'd need more counselors and I don't know whether that's going to to happen or not but I do appreciate them seeing the value of counselors and and that we certainly see the value of counselors too but that I'm sure that's why there's um if you have two or more D's or you know whatever that there has there is a threshold there if you go to the very first bullet to me that's the biggest thing

144is that students know how to get a hold of their counselors and so I mean they have access to them so it's just a matter of just reiterating at the beginning of the year if you are failing in class and you want to speak to a counselor you always have that available it's via the Chromebook Pedro yes can you go I might have I might have slept through it but go back one slide academics did you go over that recommendations oh maybe I didn't but thank you I might have skipped it I wasn't sleeping okay no okay no I was with my eyes open all right uh increase Hands-On learning opportunities and this is their recommendations uh of course and provide more classroom suppliers such as rulers color pencils and erasers um allocate approximately 20

145minutes of homework in class time to do homework I was like um you know I don't I don't think we're going to be doing that one yes we can work it with it within certain classes but we're not going to be doing that but here I am sharing this uh uh make uh more loner Chromebooks and Chargers available in the classroom that's a tough one um and and the whole reason behind this and I'm going to throw this out there one of the things that we really try to instill in our students is a sense of responsibility to bring that Chromebook charged or at least bring the Chromebook to the classroom we can always provide Chargers and we totally understand that there are situations where some of our students probably don't have access to uh

146Chargers after school but um within the classroom there's always one available and so I just thought I'd throw that out there um yeah please so you're saying that there are Chromebooks available in the classroom yes there are yes okay and is that a do you have a certain number like um so in junior high school we're talking about Junior High correct um class size is you know in the 30s to 40 you know right so every student has a Chromebook right right and every student has a charger at home inside the classroom you'll have maybe um depending on the classroom but a minimum of two Chromebook what we call looners right they're inside the classroom that a teacher can automatically hand out along with that and by the way they are older models for a

147reason along with that there's also Chargers in inside the classrooms and they can be anywhere from 2 to 4 right and those Chargers students can sit next to an outlet connect and be on their Chromebook to add to that there are Chromebook loaners inside the Library so those are always accessible so my my concern is that while it's true that every student is assigned a Chromebook and that the expectation is that they bring them back and forth just the weight of this like if this is heavy um and I'm not having to bring my my school binder and my coursework I don't I'm just bringing one little bag and you know you have sixth graders that I just want you to consider that per a percentage of total body weight is that's incredible like if

148we were if as adults if we were having kids if if we had to carry the same percentage of body weight around it's it's a factor um and I don't know whether that it would be possible but I do think that it's something that Chico UniFi should look at you know we in in my classroom I had a class set of Chromebooks and they had their Chromebook at home but they didn't have to bring it okay you know and so there was a locked box and I mean two may not be I I realize that a whole class set a 30 may not be a possibility I mean they're expensive and they're also a durable good they only last so long right so I get that but perhaps two is not going to be an

149adequate amount I'm just throwing it out there thank you I appreciate that um a nice one was there an additional comment I saw you pointing I just wanted you to know that you'd been Knuck up on from Mr Vincent I just saw him so if there are specific questions I'm sure he can also answer I I have a question because um I know how many Chromebooks we have in this District it's a few yeah it is a matter of fact I just took today and there's about 19,000 that are in the district exactly yes and to double up 19,000 it's um so we right now we spend about a million a year on Chromebooks you get 3,300 so we need to double that looking at another million dollar a year right I've looked at that

150before I I just wanted you everyone to have a an understanding of um just exactly how significant the problem would be if we were to try and purchase more than one per student thank you uh two more items on there and coming from kids reduce the number of students in each classroom to a maximum of 25 and I'm gonna I'm guess I'm just going to skip ahead just a little bit but it was the same thing the high school said which was kind of interesting and then um of course if you do have classrooms of 25 right what do you do with classrooms of 38 they asked well it'd be cool in those big classrooms if there was an additional adult so the perspective from students yeah that's kind of interesting yeah safety uh staff

151teachers and principes are always welcome to our students campus supervisors are always present um School Representatives uh report that the students are aware of blind spots in the camera uh C coverage right and then at Chico Junior High School students feel uncomfortable with the area behind the well Fargo being unsupervised I know exactly where that's at so especially since the gates are open um the gates are only open during specified periods of time which is the morning and after school so uh just just to clear clarify that and then uh there have been incidents of fights on campus so that's what they're sharing recommendations increase the number of Campus supervisors in areas uh that are in the blind spots add supervisor visors during uh lunch breaks at Chico Jr and Bidwell so they wanted more

152supervisors during that time provide more outdoor space for sports during lunchtime um uh I encourage you all to visit the middle schools during lunchtime just so that you're able to understand the wonderful job that our administrators and our support sta do um to make sure that the students became are are active and are doing safe activities during lunchtime um so I'm going to leave that one there for you uh Supply more sports equipment such as basketball soccer balls and volleyball nets and so one of the things that I share with the students is that I will be sharing this with their administrator and then improve campus cleanliness by ensuring that trash is picked up regularly and so that was something that was shared by all three sides just so you know after lunch it does

153take a while to clean up after the students High School um there was a snafu that turned into a blessing uh we did uh have a scheduled meeting for both of our high schools together uh but it didn't work out that way and so we ended up meeting with them separately and it was actually pretty good and uh it is something that I think that we're going to be doing from here well here on out uh meeting with Chico high and PB separately we were able to get more students there and get a different um more more opinions so um but we had eight students total what's going well same thing Hands-On activities um learning uh sorry English class has uh acting opportunities from Shakespeare Napolean robotics through CTE and of course old schools have

154an amazing CTE program um they like the freedom to choose academic classes such as science uh the science department is very strong uh and that's something that uh both schools shared um and you know we all these amazing things that are up there that you know that you all can see um some of the recommendations here it is again students are comfortable with class sizes of 25 and allow students they want some of the students ask can we take additional college classes and I should say students can take additional class sorry college classes but how that works into um the current a our current AR only allows a certain amount of credits so I just want to be clear with that one social emotional what's going well students have access to the wellness center the

155wellness center is perceived as a very a very safe place um coaches and this is Athletics promote a healthy lifestyle by encouraging students to work hard all students can access their counselors um and counselors have a dedicated web page with a Google form for students seeking support and students are aware of their counselor's email addresses for easy communication so I mean sounds like the high schools um have a very easy access to their counselors uh and here's something that they shared in terms of uh recommendations increase education and awareness about impacts of gossiping and spreading rumors interestingly enough both high schools shared that they did not believe that bullying was existed on campus nor did any of the students share or say hey we've seen bullying they did share that in social media outside of

156school that's where they see um bullying if you will and so uh with that they uh also made a recommendation make the wellness center more interactive during Mental Health visits uh snacks aren't necessary um got to be careful with that one because I know a lot of students that would love to go in there for snacks safety um all the campus supervisors are available they're out there uh they mentioned that a lot of the campus supervisors they're they know them on a name- to-name basis and the campus supervisors go out of their way to speak with the students and theyve part of the chico high and our PV family their recommendations are provide education to students about special education a lot of the students share that there there needs to be more education with regards

157to that um in particular uh py said that uh well the event we not me really opened up a lot of the eyes to a lot of uh the students on campus and it's something that needs to be continued so they raised awareness about effects of gossiping and spreading rumors once again um they asked if they could have the bathrooms renovated um that was on the last report that we did or last presentation but here's a new one and uh um I'm looking up here because uh they said replace all the flat roofs as there are many leaks in the classrooms that are due to the flat roofs um I was like okay all right I'll share that uh increase Greenery around the campus at PV they would love to see more more shrubs and

158more trees and PVE also said uh we need to improve the drainage on the walkways to address flooding issues I told them that only floods floods maybe once or twice a year you'll be fine but builds character right we used to walk in the snow what 8 miles of uphills both ways exactly uh what's what's two Ines of water all right uh Fairview Oakbridge student nail cap meeting which was on Friday the uh January 24th there were six students there uh what's going well um it is overwhelming ly powerful that the relationship that our alted teachers build with our students is incredible I cannot tell you every time that I'm there they I mean hands down they say that it's the teachers they communicate well they have strong expectations they're extremely supportive they're doing everything

159possible to support their students and that's all up there one of the things that they also noticed was students had gone back back and forth from the comp sites to alt dead and one of the reasons they appreciated Fair viiew uh in Oakbridge was the smaller class sizes um and they did make some recommendations they said hey establish game clubs uh homecoming events and if possible sports teams they also asked is it possible for uh Fairview students that play sports at the Comprehensive High Schools so throwing that out there social emotional learning once again we've covered this uh recommendations they had none so you know that's a testament to what they're doing at Al dead and with regards to safy safety uh there were many campus supervisors present campus supervisors actively move around the campus

160instead of staying in one place I can tell you I'm over there at least once a week and all the campuses supervisors are always greeting anybody who walks through the front door and they're always present so um and and you could see them greeting the students and just making them feel comfortable their recommendation was we got they got a set of bathrooms renovated they would love to have another set of bathrooms so just throwing that out there and then provide education awareness about the impacts of gossiping and spreading rumors interesting across all three high schools so and that's it I just have a couple comments um one I'm really surprised not to see anything regarding cell phones on either end um that wasn't even brought up at all um I want to say that there

161was a comment but now I I do get confused between the last one and the similarities that I I I think there students are starting to focus a little bit more because cell phones are not allowed inside the classroom yeah but there was Zero uh comments regarding like oh we want cell phones oh absolutely nothing like that and then the other thing um I love the idea about Fairview students participating in sports I mean is that something we could potentially explore or um participating with the neighboring we could always explore it but I don't know if it's feasible I know the CIF has definitely some rules and they're would need to be some sort of agreement um like we would just need to explore it yes um Pedra thank you I do remember comments about

162the cell phones good and the comments were we like it yeah we see a difference we know we're paying more attention and we know there aren't as many issues because of photographing things that m shouldn't be photographed so I do remember comments yeah all positive which is good so do students get a diplom students get a diploma from Fairview yes yeah yes and so I think that's that is the reason that it limits their ability to participate in other another high school's sports team it would be like a Pleasant Valley student saying I'd like to participate on red buff team you know they're separate High School I think I I mean I don't know all the CIF rules but if a school is issuing a diploma that's where you're that's where CIF would see that

163you're associated with is my understanding um I wanted to just it's Mr Vincent right I didn't get the the number you you said that you we spend a million dollars a year on Chromebooks can you is that replacing Chromebooks or for incoming freshmen or or incoming students like can you explain a little bit more there you bet so we buy 3,300 a year 3 th thousand of those cover three grades and so we deploy to second graders believe sixth graders and ninth graders and so then we take the old ones and use those in classroom spares and for children who have a difficult time managing Chromebook so they get an older one right and it's not that a million dollars is an inconsequential amount um not at all obviously but you know uh currently we

164have a 35% reserve and you know and 1% is roughly what 1% of what of the of the so of the 35 million would be 350,000 so right you know 3 I'm yeah I'm that's why I'm asking a math person I teach English so I'm just saying that um to do 3,300 is a million to if you doubled that um or you it's not just all or nothing I guess is my point and I do see a value and um having more spares in classrooms i' just like to say yes I do too so if you the board decides that intend to take that move I'm more than happy to help with that any other questions any public comment yes do we have to do the time Elaine board um I a question just came

165to mind when I was sitting there during the presentation uh so I attended the autism Symposium at Chico State a month ago now no a couple weeks ago anyways and part of one of our um little cooh cohort chats that we had we actually brought up the LC cap and we were talking about um we were wondering if students with disabilities were actually ever invited to participate in these conversations to gather their input um including those students that have um extensive support needs because obviously they have thoughts and feelings um regarding their experience as a student of Chico Unified and then also while I was sitting there during the presentation uh the thought came to me of how are I believe students are nominated by their principles to attend these meetings and I only say

166that because my daughter was invited once to attend um are we getting a diverse group of students to participate in these um meetings as well because I feel if it's always the um good student that's getting those good grades that participates in everything um that their experience might be different than the student that's a little more shy and sits in the back and and outspoken and babies in the shadows compared to her peer or compared to their peers um so just wanting to make sure too that we're getting diverse input from um our students or we're Gathering A diversity a diverse group of students to gather that input um because it's easy to get all your really good students and have all that positive feedback versus if you have students that um I don't want

167want to use this term but maybe tend to be a little more bad or Troublesome that their experience is going to be different than those quote unquote good kids so just making sure we're really considering and getting input from all students that are part of GCO uifi well and I can jump in there as well when we started this it was long before uh the l cap was a requirement and that was actually our very Target group of students we wanted to make sure we said we don't want Student Government kids coming we want to have a very diverse group of kids and um that's been taken a step further where now we ask for students that represent um are unduplicated count so that we have that representation um and if you uh Eileen can

168attest the conversation do have kids talking about being suspended um and usually they're saying I deserved it so um I guess my only wish is that we could have more you know voices but you know that gets unwieldy too if you want to actually hear everyone but to answer your question it's been a very concerted effort to ensure that we get a diverse group of kids and not just the same group of kids that already have platforms to share uh superintendent say I'm going to add what I know and on um well what I suspect I did not get um to go to the PV input day for the elap however last year I was able to attend the were there 16 or 17 students from both high schools the criteria for selection um was

169was that you would have some special ed kids some C kids kids that were you know Midway through being academically successful um students that were bilingual but didn't have English as their primary um language and the impression that you get after coming away from listening to that diverse group of kids is they all recognize what each other are going through there were some jocks there were some you some students who had problems with suspension well not suspension it was detention a little bit of a discussion about detention um but the overall input was so genuine and so thoughtful it didn't matter what student was offering information they were offering what they saw honestly and um so I I hope that we do continue to do it diverse group that was one of my suggestions this

170year even though I couldn't go um but in the year that that did happen it just was an amazing experience and um again I came away thinking you know what we've got some really good possibilities for the human race in Chico Unified and I do appreciate the diversity and I think it's that's really important um I just want to also say you know we have we had eight and nine members of schools that have 1,00 kids I mean what's the population right and I the reason I bring that up it's not that we didn't I mean we can do our absolute best of making sure and so when you say the unduplicated count for people that don't know what that means that you're socioeconomically disadvantaged you're um Foster Youth and our elel students is that

171right okay so that's that's a I think it's a worthy goal an important goal but I also want anybody out in the public sphere um including Elaine to feel like we are listening we certainly understand that bullying is happening that it does happen and that while the perception of these students is that that's it it's interesting I did you see the recurring theme of how gossiping and and rumors hurt and they may not be seeing that as bullying and so there was certainly room for improvement and I wouldn't want um any parents or student to feel like they're they're being diminished by hearing just this feedback that you know all as well because um we certainly want them to feel heard and um and that we're working on it and I think the comment that

172Pedro made is that the students are feeling that rumors and things through social media and we know that's true you know it's it may not be directly to their face um but you know it's coming around in a different manner which is what he mentioned all right um so this is informational only and we don't um are not taking any action on this item tonight so at this time we'll move on to I think this is the one I tried to jump to earlier 9.2 from business Services um Julie Kissle hi good evening thank you so much for having us here tonight um I always appreciate um hearing all of this information um about our district it's fascinating uh information that you got presented to you tonight um every year in February the facilities Department

173comes forward and presents a new demographic study uh to the Board of Education uh you have all received the big document for your review um this information is a little bit different than what the business department uses like for enrollment projections for for building budgets um we need this information so that we can properly plan for facilities for our students now and well into the future because as you know it takes a long time for the the wheels of facilities to change to create spaces for students um as we see the needs so um we utilize the services of King Consulting um along with information that's gathered from many departments yes Julie Madam president our representative from kinging and Associates is one of the people I love the most because he is so good at

174presenting these however we've been here quite a while without a break this board member would like to have a break before he begins I'm sorry Rob that's quite all right okay for e e e all right we are going to reconvene thank you sure thank you um as I was saying tonight's been really informational for us and we appreciate it very much we do this analysis every year in February it's very very important for the planning for the future of facilities in our district to stay on top of things um different departments in the in the district help to provide data um from the school district to our consultant um King Consulting and and then they go out and they gather all kinds of other information that Rob is going to go over with you

175um you have the report for your review but he's going to do a a quick summary of the highlights of the plan just to go over them and then we'll take any questions that you might have so um let me introduce to you rob Murray from King Consulting all right thank you Julie and good evening to our board to our superintendent and staff but if you don't mind we'll go ahead and dive in to this year's update to the demographic analysis in student housing report again I'm Rob Murray the director of demographics at King we've been preparing this report for you if not annually at least frequently dating back to quite a while so I feel like we have a pretty good bead on a lot of what's happening and the big takeaways this year

176and this is this first point is not new but births are continuing to decrease we're going to show you some visuals of exactly what that's going to entail a little bit later on but that's probably honestly the biggest item uh and we're also seeing as of this year this is maybe the bigger news in terms of something that wasn't really present in last year's version that some of that net growth of your existing students it's still you're still gaining on net but it's slowing down and I have some explanations for that that I'll get into when we get to that part but countering to those city of Chico is maintaining a very steady pace of new residential development and as long as that continues to be maintained which it shows no signs of not being

177the case for at least the next several years that is going to continue to bring you that pipeline of new families coming in and of course transitional kindergarten is the other big one the extent to which of course we have been expanding that program since 2022 23 by next year this upcoming fall every four-year-old who wishes to enroll in transitional kindergarten you are obligated effectively it is a new grade level at that point though it is not a compulsory one and that's some of the wiggle room in the projections is the extent to which after that proportional bump that you have from that last set of the youngest four-year-olds the extent to which that program will continue to grow incrementally a little bit as you have a Delta between the kids that we independently anticipate

178you getting for kindergarten how many of them will also come to you for TK the year before so those are some of the highlights that we'll get to if there's anything I don't cover tonight that you read in the full report of course feel free to ask I'm happy to talk about any of this but here is your total enrollment and as you see you had a steady pace of growth leading up to the 1920s school year you like almost everyone else saw a one-time substantial drop in enrollment excuse me I as I talk about covid-19 going to have my lingering cough that I'm just not quite able to shake but we'll get through it uh but then you resumed that growth pattern really until this year and interestingly while not every grade was right

179on looking back at last year's report because of course we're covering the moderate projection which is good for long-term planning but we give you a low and a high that are good for plausible things especially in the short term next one to two years and that 12286 was precisely the total for the low projection last year which means it was a surprise because we thought it was going to be a little higher I'll get to the things that were unique about this year but a lot of it is that net cohort growth but you still landed within what was plausible that we identified last year based on historical data so again you're not doing anything unprecedented we just hit the very low end of what seemed like a reasonable one-year thing and so it will

180be very very big to see the extent to which this was a blip that we look back on and say well that year was weird or if we get back to your previous very very steady growth patterns so again just that visualization of what you have done if you just look at G uh loss and gain just this you we can exclude the co year but this year just stands out now here's a part of what's Happening happening just a quick overview of how the basic uh trajectory of your future enrollment goes and that is you have every year a new kindergarten cohort that your darker blue color there and you really see since uh you know the co year was low but you are getting lower and lower numbers of kindergarten students and that

181really corresponds with fewer and fewer local births and so every time that you have your outgoing cohort whether that's your fifth graders Elementary School moving up to Junior High whether that's your 12th graders graduating from Chico Unified entirely you're really looking at who's leaving versus who's coming in and when you have a difference in size that sets the tone for what your enrollments do now you have things that offset that but your natural inclination here of your enrollments just based on local birth demographics is that your enrollment is would be tending down if you didn't have these other things helping to offset it and one of those things of course is residential development and so we just want to do a quick review because we always have these numbers in there every year and there's

182a big important point I want to make on your student generation rates but that is we look at actual housing and Chico has no shortage of it that's been built over the last few years and it's exci is just as exciting as it sounds we get the addresses of your students and we just compare addresses find how many students there are in the homes that were built translate that to a ratio of on a per unit basis and we use that to gauge how that's changing over time and you'll see the really big significant one is single family detached housing which remains probably the most common type of housing in certainly some parts of your District really came in lower this year and we actually I went back to every year uh you know back

183to an early early report that I you found some numbers for to the mid 90s and I cannot find another time that your rate was that low in terms of student generation so part of it is home prices are reaching record highs the homes that were built are used to really really draw in younger families with school AG kids and it looks like that may not be as much the case anymore now that said we still have very healthy uh student generation rates in fact it got nice increase this year from new affordable housing and you just had a lot of those completed recently so you did get a lot of students from that below market rate housing so here is the list of everything coordinating with your city of Chico planning staff on projects

184that are just in the pipeline so again well over 4,000 units now some of these may not happen in this projection period of seven years but again it's that long Runway looking ahead of lots of development and the reason I don't have the students here on the same table like I do for some other districts is this if you look back to that last decade of enrollment this trend of steady consistent development have been going on for so long that the students that are generated are kind of already built into what we look at in the past in terms of one of the points I'll get to in a minute how does an existing group of students change as it moves through the grade from year to year so if we already see that you

185tend to gain students at sixth grade you tend to gain students at ninth grade across all of your grades you still tend to get more students the next year than you had the year before that's largely accounting for the impact of these there's just a few specific projects either very large ones or 100% affordable housing that gets put up all at once and you get again at a roughly 2third clip a bunch of kids who will all move in at the same time if you build 50 units all at once that we want to account for but here is again that map again you see it's not spread evenly uh a lot of what's going on now and a lot of what will be coming over the next few phases is concentrated in the south

186of the district between Barber yard between uh what's still going on with Miriam Park Stone Gate eventually perhaps Valley's Edge so lots of things to keep an eye on there yeah we we won't get all the way into all of that but again we're tracking things that are being talked about so quick look before we get to the projections just again I'm only including this one table you have a whole bunch of maps but we look at your students uh not just where they're enrolled in school but we also look at where they live and how they're moving and exercising that choice of what schools they want to attend some of which is program driven uh but just quickly as a review if you look down these columns that's each School boundary and you can

187see for the students of the grade level served by that school who live in that boundary all the different schools that those residents attend and then looking across the rows you see all the schools they can attend that includes Hooker Oak and Rosedale and Oakbridge where you don't have a School boundary but then you can see what boundary all those kids are coming from so this is probably the single most in densely informative thing that we have in the report again not going to speak to it at length but if you have questions on it of course please feel free to ask and that gets us to the enrollment projections and here is uh in terms of long-term View and something that we've been accounting for what we've we've seen this coming for the last

188few years that red bux outlines the years of birst that are already in the books and 2024 just recently in the books actually and you came in pretty close to where you did in 2023 so still at least managed to crack a thousand but again the the norm for a a good while in here has been somewhere between 1100 and 1200 births and that is the pool of birst that have made up your last several kindergarten cohorts and you've seen they've been taking down anyway what you have coming up for the next few years is really going to be the first real impact you're going to see from there being significantly fewer births that we know occurred and so it's just the extent to which some of these will be augmented by people who have

189since moved into the district with young preschool age kids one thing to note here with those ratios you notice pre-co you tended to capture M uh you know mid to high 70% of course in this community you do have some private schools you do have some charter schools of course you have some people who are born here and might not have still live here by the time they are of school age and that's really what's happened postco it wasn't just that big loss of enrollment that you saw one time it was also a bunch of those small children who were under five years old at the time who also left and that's why you've seen that ratio drop down to the low 70s we're still looking at those same birth totals from 2019 and earlier

190but once you get five years later usually that's Apples to Apples in this case we know more of those kids weren't even living in your District anymore we know a lot of people uh there was a lot of movement around the pandemic we do anticipate your ratio will get back higher but of course we're talking about a slightly larger piece of a much smaller Pi so we're still looking at even with that offset you're going to see some records small at least in recent history kindergarten cohorts coming in and of course TK continues to grow proportionally with that roll out uh existing cohort net growth so this is the one I was also talking about that's big this year uh you lived in a you know remote island in the middle of the ocean we

191would expect this to be almost flat who you had the year before probably just comes back the next year the difference being you know seniors graduate new Kinders come in in reality people are constantly moving in and out of your district and on net uh you saw you had been up above 2% total growth You' had a couple of years around the pandemic where it was lower and this year really dropped off again and if you look at it I don't have that up on this presentation but in the report by grade level you see high school has still been consistent uh Elementary School was lower than usual the junior high grades were much lower than usual so that's just a kind of new data point that we want to keep an eye on we're

192certainly going to explore some other correlations as we move forward with again is to what extent is this an anomaly and to what extent is this the beginning of a new trend that we want to account for but this is our overall projection still one of growth but more modest than we've shown you in the past and a lot of that is really again past projections already knew about the low births and smaller kindergarten cohorts coming this is really accounting for that net growth in your existing cohorts just pumping the brakes a little bit and putting that down again you came in right at your low projection from last year so it makes sense as we make that adjustment uh it still doesn't pull you into a negative trajectory but it just really softens that

193rate of growth that we had been showing the last couple of years but still looking at by the end of this projection period getting up above your previous peak level which was the year before the pandemic so still getting to some overall levels that you haven't seen before just taking a little bit longer to get there and then here is just all the numbers again if anyone wants to ask anything specific we can pull that up so we can look at it uh and then just what that means for facility capacity uh so just this one table highlights all of the school sites where at any point we have projected enrollment that exceeds that Target capacity and the FMP do not be alarmed that does not mean that kids are sitting out in the hallway

194there's lots of ways to uh be flexible about what that identified capacity is but there are some sites where uh it might just be by one or two students it might be by a little bit more but where we've seen that this is actually a lot less colorful than it used to look uh certainly a lot of the work that the district has been doing has you know certainly places like Shasta uh has made those School sites much more in sync with the enrollments that we see there and then just uh in addition to the demographics we just wanted to talk briefly about the other aspect of work that King does for Chico USD which is the state funding program and so uh big thing you you have so you've gotten some uh funding applications

195fully processed uh recently you have at least one more I believe at mcmanis that uh should on the cash flow have that funding within the ne by sometime in uh the next calendar year and then the big news is because long story short it's been another 25 years since you last received State modernization money at a lot of these sites they become eligible again to put new applications in that can be looking backwards to just be reimbursed for money you've already spent yourself so again we'll make sure that we're getting those applications in line and new construction uh to the extent that uh once you're ready to add additional classrooms or potentially a new site at some point again this could be looking longterm but you have you've maintained a very healthy amount of especially

196at the Elementary grades eligibility in that program so that is all I have prepared but happy to answer whatever questions you have and thank you um is there any public comment or you have are I are you is there board comment after public comment I forget what the order is after we [Music] vot all right um so now we need a motion correct is there a motion um the table to accept agenda item 9.2.1 I so move second oh I'll second if you need a second I'll take a second all right we have a um a motion um on the table by m I think I've been forgetting to do this part so now I'm trying to rectify it um a motion on the table by U member Hayes and a second by member Robinson

197um let's go ahead and vote all those in favor signify it by saying I I I any oppose no all right so we pass um item number 9.2.1 I had I had a question I oh yeah I didn't know if if the board got to question I'm sorry I didn't that's okay I'm patient and I thank you again sir for making your report understandable to someone that doesn't understand for those of you that have lived with me for a while this these things were difficult and I I appreciate the fact that you bring us stuff that I can understand however what you have presented um how close to not being in the moderate um projection uh color or whatever it is you are we I I know we're we're still there but are we about

198to fall out into the I would say from last year's moderate projection yes you're going to get I I would say you're going to continue coming in below it just given that you came into the bottom of my low projection from last year which is why we've adjusted it so this year's moderate projection I have done my best to be your long-term planning projection but again that t uh this year was such a significant shift in a couple of our metrics that really came admittedly a little unexpectedly given that a lot of the predominant factors don't seem to have changed much so that's going to be a lot of my job uh prior to the next time we do this is coming back to you next year and contextualizing a little better what was it

199about the 2425 enrollments but given everything we know right now this moderate projection that you just saw is your most reliable estimate for what enrollment will look like for seven years out my understanding interpretation of what you've said is that looking forward for our ability to house the students we have within our district without having to add say another school MH is is is good we're we can make Minor Adjustments here and there and still live within that big pot of students right I I I would basically agree with that okay you not going to speak for Julie but yeah I don't don't see her hopping up and down and pushing me off the mic to interject but uh and I think that's really why it's good to look at you know and the thing

200to keep in mind though is those furthest out years we're talking about potentially kids who are enrolled as kindergarteners who haven't been born right now and that's where uh you know I was just looking at some of the 2024 births Orange County went up uh you by about two and a half percent on births year-over-year from this year to last year so if we're seeing that kind of change admittedly a lot in Southern California but in some of those counties that have been very very hard hit by decreasing births and starting to turn the corner I do want to see that if we start getting your births in a couple of years back up closer to that historical 1100 range again I'm not going to presume that because I have no evidence for that really

201happening but that would be again that's why you have a high projection for well as a board member what I what my concern always is is to look at our facilities master plan which looks out a number of years and see if um housing within what we have while we are in the process of remodeling upgrading you know the the schools that are that were um selected to be um rebirthed shall we say with measure C if that's still viable without having to pull out of that pattern in the next five years in order to build a school that makes me feel good because it's going to take us a while to use our measure C menis to do rosale and Chapman and Parkview and so if we've got the time to use measure C

202to do those schools yay okay yeah so so from that perspective yeah I think you can sleep easier if you've been losing any sleep over that that's That's My worry is that that um our population growth begins to accelerate to the point where we we run out of the ability to do the three schools that we've targeted um so I will sleep better thank you excellent yeah that's a really good point eileene um preco we were just riding the top of the fence trying to keep our um creation of new teaching spaces uh happening fast enough to keep up with the enrollment while trying to keep our promise to the community that we were going to upgrade all of our elementary schools and not have to detour and build a new elementary school so that

203that drop enabled us to have a little Breathing Room uh so that we could stay on target with that promise and it's really important to our community okay thank you thank you everybody I'm next too all right moving along to 9.2.2 um discussion action um this is regarding um Nord Country School septic replacement again Julie kle thank you so um Nord country school is on a septic system being out in the country it is um very old and it has failed so what has failed is the effluent that flows from the tank out into the leech system um is stopped the leech system is no longer functioning and it's created a um a very urgent health and safety issue at the campus so we're bringing forward this um board agenda item tonight to have you

204approve this as an emergency uh project that will will go out for a bid but it won't um it won't be able to come back to you for approval prior to us needing to get the work done um so we have brought in um Northstar engineering from here in town they've investigated the system they have identified and created a report they're working with the but County Health Department they're putting plans together that we can put out so that we can get quotes for the work to be done we're trying to push as hard as we can so that this can be completed over the spring break uh when students are not on site because they're going to have to dig up the system and um you know install the new leech leech U System um

205so I'll leave it at that if you have any questions about it I'm open to those I move that we um oh I think it has to be public I think yeah I think we just need to ask for public comment on the matter no okay I move that we approve the uh emergency um septic replacement for Nord I'll second that motion all right um at this time is there any discussion from the board regarding the septic okay so um let's go ahead and vote all of those in favor this evening for um approving the Nord Country School septic replacement say I I I those opposed say nay all right this passes um 9.2.2 and we can now move along uh to 9.2.3 this is also discussion action resolution number 1676-1698 via resolution from the

206ordinances of the city of Chico um it does save the district uh from uh being required to make certain improvements that the city might require of a nonpublic agency a a business or a residential unit um I want to assure you though that even when we do exempt ourselves we work very closely with the city of Chico we need their imp put we we ask for their help with engineering regarding traffic and those sorts of things around our improvements so in no way does it mean that we're you know putting up the hand to the city of Chico but this um item and the next item are the same um the same uh exemption from the ordinances so with that I'll open up for any questions you might have is there any public comment okay

207seeing none um is there a motion I have a motion and I have a question is it possible to since the information is substantially the same for this item and the next item that we move both items at at once or no we can't just because we already have them listed separately I see okay so I will move that the resolution resolution uh number 16762 um be passed I'll second that motion all right we have um a motion um by member Hayes and a second by member Robinson um is there any discussion by the board at this time okay let's go ahead and vote all those in favor of resolution number 16752 say I I I any opposed all right um this passes okay Julie again 9.2.4 discussion action um resolution number 16 77- 25

208exemption of the little Chico Creek transitional kindergarten um kindergarten building new construction project from the city of Chico zoning ordinances yes so similar to as we just discussed um exempting the Chico Unified School District from city ordinances for the project at little Chico Creek of clarification okay any public comment okay seeing none is there a motion I motion to approve I'll second that so um any board discussion at this time okay let's go ahead and vote uh we had a a motion um by member Olson and a second by member conin um all those in favor of resolution number 1677-1 signify by saying I I any opposed all right this passes resolution number 16772 thank you all right moving right along to uh 9.3 Human Resources um this is also discussion action Sunshine openers between

209Chico Unified School District and C um Chico Unified Teachers Association for 2025 uh 26 and we have a presentation um by John Sheffer thank you vice president conin so in front of you are the two letters uh related to the openers for our relationship with cuta as you can see in the uh background information um given the success of the interpace bargaining format and the collaborative and Cooperative relationship and the willingness um to discuss all issues um both the Chico Unified School District and cuga have jointly agreed not to open any specific article for the 2526 uh bargaining year all right is there any public comment at this time is there any motion on the table I'll motion to approve 9.3.1 Al second um we have a let's see first of all is there any

210board discussion on this at this time um Madam excuse me Madam president just a comment to the leadership of the two organizations that we are not receiving initial proposals from which was what we used to call this process um just my my thanks and congratulations to the amazing working relationship that we have and the continued problem solving along with um you know the just it doesn't matter to as far as I can see what problem arises you guys find a way to figure out how to fix it so thank you all right we have a um motion by member Olson and a second by um member Hayes for um let's see the 9 3.1 uh so let's go ahead and vote at this time um all those in favor signify by saying I I any

211opposed all right this passes okay moving along um to 9.3.2 this is also discussion action resolution 1678 d25 the release non- reelection of temporary um certificated employees and um John is going to speak at this time thank you very much so in front of you is a resolution it's one that um we present every year this one is specific to our temporary and probationary zero uh certificated employees and you'll see a list of employee numbers these are teachers who have been um hired on temporary or probationary contracts for a variety of reasons ranging from filling in for someone on leave um it could be a specially funded program um I do want to reiterate the um collaboration with cuta in ensuring that these temporary teachers understand they have the right um per contract to uh

212interview and so we strongly emphasize that that uh they remember that because they sign these contracts in August and sometimes they forget that they that they have that opportunity so I present it as recommended for approval any public comment at this time okay um anybody on the board like to make a motion yes Madam president I move approval of resolution d25 I'll second oh you second it all right um any discussion by the board at this time okay let's go ahead and um vote we have a motion um by member Robinson and a second by member Hayes um so all those in favor of resolution 1678 d25 signify by saying I I those oppose all right this passes um let's go ahead and move on to 9.3.3 also discussion action This Is Res resolution 1679

213d25 non- reelection of pro um probationary certificated employees also John all right I'll keep going here so this resolution before you is uh very similar to the previous one before however uh any employee who has been included in this non- reelection resolution has been provided the opportunity to resign and for various reasons people decide not to Avail themselves of that opportunity uh so we do need to go through a process of non reelecting them and before you are is the uh employee ID number for one person uh who elected that choice and so we do need to it's it's my recommendation uh for approval of the resolution and these are probationary one or this type of resolution is for probationary one or two employees any public comment at this time okay um is there a

214motion on the table I move that 1679 d25 um be approved I'll second that motion all right is there any discussion by the board at this time okay so um we have a motion um by member Hayes and a second by member Robinson um we can vote at this time all those in favor um signify by saying I I those opposed all right pass um resolution d25 thank you moving along um to 9.4.1 um this is also discussion action um 2025 California school boards Association the csba delegate Assembly election and at this time um Kelly Staley okay so you have in your packet information regarding a delegate that uh is from our area forb but uh this individual Lisa Torres is from Orville City Elementary School District she is the only one running in this

215so uh this is our opportunity to vote for or not a public comment okay are there is there a motion on the table for um agenda item 9.4.1 I moved that we support the election of the delegate assembly member I'll second any board discussion just that um I think it's always healthy when there is somebody that can run from our area I think representation matters so I'm glad somebody put forth the effort to run yeah absolutely okay um let's see we have a motion um by member Hayes and a second by member Olen is that correct yes okay um let's go ahead and vote it this time um all those in favor um signify by saying I I those opposed all right this passes okay this is an interesting um scenario um at this time

216uh we are going to be calling for a recess um and the board will be taking a recess during the recess the annual meeting of the board of directors of the Chico Unified School financing Corporation will be held in accordance with that agenda so at this time we'll adjourn to recess no I'm sorry do we do we pull the curtains okay great okay yes so thank you for coming to the annual meeting of the financing Corporation this evening um there's been no new activity within the financing Corporation over the last 12 months so the only agenda item this evening is to approve the minutes from last February and those are in the packet in front of you okay so if I understand correctly we need a motion to approve the minutes M that's correct is

217there a motion I so move I'll second that you two were there Perfect all right we have a motion to approve the minutes um for this special meeting um a motion by member um Robinson and a second by member conin let's go ahead and vote on this at this time some discussion yes please sorry public allowed public just no public comment so I'm just uh I was just going to say that I'm since we we don't know we're just going to trust that the minutes are good yes I did I get a I did get a chance to review them and they do reflect what I remember of that meeting thank you so um we don't have any discussion other than that uh let's go ahead and vote on that all those in favor of

218um um approving the minutes signify by saying I I those opposed great minutes are passed and go ahead and end that meeting [Music] and opening up back um let's see items from the floor correct right oh my goodness I'm tired okay we're calling we're calling the regular board meeting back to order so um moving along um agenda item number 11 items from the floor is there any public comment at this time are we sure is there any public at this time all right thank you um moving along to um item number 12 um there were no um there have been no um requests by members to um agendize items at this time so um nothing to report there um at this time we're um ready to adjourn only if there's a motion though to adjourn

219I have motion that we adjourn I second all right we have a motion um by member Hayes second by member Olsen um do we want to discuss this at all or just move straight to all I want to say is I'm really proud of us for we caught up because now it we're at we're at 5 minutes to 10 and it says 10:15 we're doing see we did it well let's go ahead and vote um all those in favor of a journey I by any opposed all right