Chico Unified School District Special Board of Education Meeting 9/4/24

001e e e okay we're live um great sounds good I will now call to order the September 4th 2024 special Board of Education meeting for CH Unified School District uh we are in Open session it is just after 5:00 pm um during our special board workshops we do close session after our Open session so we will be going to close session after this period of time uh with that uh I would like to ask everybody to please stand for the flag salute all righty I think we're all uh just getting into our accounts so we can see presentations on our small screens sometimes it's a little too small on the big screen for us so we like to follow on on our follow follow along on our Chromebooks uh our next order of business is

002consent calendar is there anybody who would like to make a public comment on consent or anybody that would like to pull any items from consent okay seeing none I'll ask for a motion please I move adoption of the consent calendar second we have a motion by U member Lando and a second by member conin we're going to do a Voice vote since this is our first of the evening we'll start with Mr tennis I conen I Doby I Lando I Robinson I great it's unanimous it passes thank you next up on our agenda is the board Workshop the topic is informational this evening on after school programs pre kindergarten transitional kindergarten and kindergarten for the 2425 school year okay good evening everybody I'm Heather suent I'm the director of Elementary education and we are super

003excited to share with you two massive programs that are taking place in our district um we have two important people with me this evening Ken quack Hennessy who will be rejoining us in just a moment and Kathleen Corbett they really are the experts in this realm of work that has been happening in our district and so our goal tonight is to highlight some of the areas that we've seen major growth in both of the programs where we're headed what we're excited for and some of the things we're still considering and how to keep grow growing so I'm going to start oh I don't have the clicker you come up pretty fast okay big button Arrow Arrow got it okay so uh I wanted to start with this slide to talk a little bit about Early

004Education because it's a gigantic umbrella that has really evolved over the last couple years and encompasses some very very large programs underneath it so when we refer to Early Education we're talking about preschool transitional kindergarten and kinderg garden most of tonight's presentation is really on the preschool and the TK programs that are in place um this quote is something that was brought to our attention from our TK work with teachers as we were evolving um and it kind of encompasses the goal of this Early Education so it says there is undeniable evidence on the profound benefits of Early Educational environments and the critical role they have in nurturing young children's social and emotional skills strengthening emotional regulation social problem solving and leading to reductions in Behavior so this early childhood movement is really helping to

005forge the path for our students to be even more successful when they hit Kinder this is the official kind of definition of early education programs it refers to the environment that provides an education component of curriculum that nurtures the Learning and Development of the whole child including all domains covered in preschool transitional kindergarten learning and underneath is a great resource if you'd like to dabble in it some more that's from the California Department of Education and it goes over the foundations um the program structure of Early Education has has evolved California's early learning standards for preschool in TK are called the foundations and with that it's meant to convey that they're learning in every domain that they'll see as they transition Kinder through 12th grade but the foundations are really designed to recognize the Early

006Education years and understand that it's a major time for their physical development their cognitive development their language development and their social emotional growth this is just a quick snapshot for you that again it shows the concrete goals for the foundations they're written to illustrate the inclusive learning opportunities for all children and they acknowledge that each child is unique and may require different approaches to demonstrate their development the colors on the side that shows that the approach to learning encompasses social emotional development and within it they're still hitting all of those content foundational pieces as well so now i' i' like to welcome Kathleen Corbett who oversees all of the state preschools and who is also part of the LMA Vista Early Child Learning Center hello good evening um I'm here to talk about the Early

007Learning Center in the state preschool program for Chico Unified um we currently have multiple preschool programs uh working in collaboration with speech therapists occupational therapists social workers as well as special education teachers to provide an inclusive and highquality um early learning experience for the children and families all from the one location at LMA um we currently have six full day full year uh State preschool class rooms along with three special education classrooms for Chico Unified um oh it that so the mission statement or kind of goal of our program is to provide a nurturing environment through collaboration of programs uh for an inclusive community where families and teachers partner to provide children with high quality social and academic foundation for a successful education through intentional play and Hands-On learning um so that includes all the

008building blocks of getting a child ready to enter the elementary school campuses um can I pause you just for a second yes um Miss bonder can can you hear our speaker in the back pretty well you can um it's just a little hard for me to hear up here like I can hear it but I don't really hear much over a speaker um I don't know if it's just me but I can hear is it me not talking close enough maybe be a little bit closer okay but also just for our Tech Guys yeah I don't know how that translates over um our video either so so a little better yes thank you um the state preschool program is fun funded by CDE through um the contract is with CDE and it's a California state

009preschool program um the funding is based off of intendance and enrollment um and the funding can only be used for cspp expenses the state is really firm about that um our staffing structure ratios we have a 1 to eight adult to child ratio which is the title to 20 or title five requirement um we have one site supervisor and two preschool assistants for every 20 children per classroom so the registration process um we provide free and lowcost Early Education Services to three to 5-year-old children um families can register at the LMA site um and they do have to meet the state preschool income guidelines as well as the need qualifications um we are full day full year program and open 246 days year um and our hours are 7:45 to 5:00 Monday through Friday I'm

010sorry can you clarify when um I'm just trying to remember it is it when they're eligible for kindergarten that they are supposed to go into the kindergarten program or is it first grade um we we can have three to 5-year-old children so once they start kindergarten they our license doesn't allow us to have those children in our class five five-year-olds is kind of a gray area so and that'll come up in TK but if they turn five by SE September 1st okay then then they're not qualifi so if they're five by September 1st they no longer qualify for the preschool program no there's a overlap like technically some parents choose to stay with preschool rather than TK but not kindergarten that's where it's confusing that's where the line is yeah thank you um and just

011to show the growing enrollment of our program in 2223 we had about 60 children enrolled um 23 24 we got up to 80 and now for this fiscal year we have 120 children um within those six classrooms sorry I'm jumping ahead a little bit to the wait list yes um the current weight list is 79 but it's my understanding that usually is somewhere between 65 and over 100 any time of the yeares for multiple year I mean two years ago I looked into applying and I was like I don't even know if I'll ever get into the program so I'm not going to go through all the paperwork to even try to apply so um so it's not just a current weight list but on average over the last three or so years um it

012it's consistently averaging about probably 80 um I would say anecdotally from my observations not based on your data right right just from what you've seen because it's I think it's important to to note that because in 22 23 there were 60 that were enrolled and still you know 100 plus that were on the weight list and even though we have doubled the number since 2425 there are still 80 kids on that or little ones on that weight list um so the need is growing as the capacity is in growing is is growing which is kind of what I wanted to make sure that we were highlighting yeah for sure I I had a question too on the preschool registration slide okay is that better on the uh preschool registration slide uh it says families register

013at the Lum Vista site and have to meet the state preschool income guidelines and need qualifications could you explain what the need qualification is um because it's a full day full year program the need is either um working going to school or looking for work for the parents so this because it's a full day program the state wants to make sure that the need is there for the family and then we contract hours based on that need so even though we're open 7:45 to 5 everybody has different contra contct hours based on the need that they um that we verify is there any other questions about that um are we still on your presentation yes what are what are our current constraints on expanding the the program to meet the needs of those other 80

014average kiddos that are on the waight list once a year typically but not every year they do offer expansion funding we can't just open a classroom because um there are children on the wait list as that I think that does happen in TK um for our program though they cap us at 120 full day slots um and then when that funding comes up again or comes around usually around January or February that's when we would apply for that so it's it's something that is Count you can count on kind of it depends on the absolutely the state budget yes I can add something too we applied last year Michelle bunch and Kathleen wrote for expansion but because of the state budget um it was denied there was no expansion offered to anybody out of uh

015the California state budget for this upcoming for this year it's not to say that won't change we hope it does and it has consistent we can't guarantee that will happen um they didn't take anything away so that was good this year like we can stay stable oh good they can take it away too that's scary rid a little bit of a wild wave there huh yeah for sure um so January February is expansion is typically offered but not guaranteed from the state and they could potentially even take funding away um so right now we have nine total classrooms serving this six are State preschool the three are um specifically for special ed or ESN classes right that's special special ed preschool classes yes right so that's students that are specialized students that are 5 years

016and younger yes three to 5 olds okay um and then a claric a clarification question because I don't know that this has been conveyed um not even for my own understanding fully because I haven't asked the right questions and I I you know we all have things going on um and it's an important question so I don't mean to make it sound like it's not but there was a discussion several years ago in my time so not too long ago um about Innovative and how they had been housed at this campus and then there was a transitional period and and so I just want to make sure that we are clarified about what what happened to Innovative or is that now fully trans transferred over to Chic unified and just so great question uh Innovative

017is in their last year of anou with us and so at the end of this year they won't be under the LMA roof anymore okay and so is innovative still at the under the LMA roof above and beyond what's being offered under the state preschool classrooms yes so it's operating as a private okay entity for one and they've scaled back they just have one classroom now okay so there's six State preschool classrooms three special education classrooms for preschool and then LMA L not LMA Innovative is still here for this last this is the last school year with Innovative yeah okay and then we're hopeful we get grant money and can expand but that's at the state level is there space to expand yeah okay so one of the the parts that I didn't highlight that's

018very beneficial is that the six preschools were all operating off of different Elementary sites and so now as LMA is evolving we have the opportunity for our uh students to have inclusive time with Gen ed students as well as this umbrella to really hone in you're not the solo ship that's teaching preschool now you can walk down the hallway and have somebody to collaborate with and to talk through program and next steps with students so it's really in it's in its next phase I've been referring to it as kind of an onion as it's been developing and and we're in the next layer now of really having it be a Chico Unified Early Learning Center which provides a lot of resources as well and that's a LMA Vista yeah and it's LMA Vista on this

019campus but own it's its own campus yeah it's beautiful yeah um and so just to recap on that um under the LMA umbrella we have this is the first year that we've pulled in all of the state preschool sites from the individual School sites that existed prior to this year to the same campus and there's one Innovative classroom and so six State preschool three special education Early Learning and one Innovative under the LMA umbrella and yet there's still capacity if there's funding to expand that to to more students yep um do do you know kind of a ballpark number off the top of your head like what do we have the capacity for the guy's the limit depending on funding I mean where we at here of the Avail because it goes with the licensing

020of it so eventually we'd love to have the the whole building licensed but that's a process to until we fill the spots okay so that's like future goals yes all right is there um other funding sources besides the the one with the expansion yes there are other creative ways to do that we've been kind of brainstorming some of those if that didn't come through because we could do our own private pay type of thing we could run some part day oh you're yeah not too close not close enough to the microphone say can you repeat what you just like something but that's an important thing that might come up also L this evening there are a lot of different ways to fund that it could be private pay there's a lot of different creative ways

021that you could go about that is it possible sorry I cut you off is it possible to do almost like a tiered structure where um the highest need lowest uh um household uh resources family yeah like a sliding scale kind of um whereas um somebody who's maybe a little bit more able could could put some more money you know pay into it absolutely and so is that something that is on your guys's to-do list to sort of explore further and look into those like you said um other options for and that kind of creative cre ideas exactly fiscally make so there's room in the facility we're just need to figure out how to fund expansion to meet those up to up to 80 more or plus three to five year olds that we would love

022to see at the LMA site yes okay I'm I'm sorry I am capitalized on that but um I had lots of questions thank you right thank you thank you thank you Kathleen all right so um this is kind of moving in we did it in sequential order so now we're moving from preschool into TK and this gives you an understanding of where TK has evolved so back in 2012 is when the kindergarten Readiness act changed and the entrance state of Kinder created a TK program in 2014 2015 chica unified started our TK classes we had five classrooms at that time and they were started with a grant through first five in 2019 the governor started to move to create the master plan for early learning and addressing access to care highquality Universal transitional kindergarten and

023additional monies were allotted in 2021 we the state increased their budget and the B the governor pushed the utk forward and in 2425 we are now currently required to offer TK for any student that is eligible Within in our district this is just to give some oversight the the other part that's been kind of complex with TK is that there's been a sliding scale of age and when you become eligible for it so you could look back in 2022 as it was starting your cuto off date was that you were five by Fe February 2nd it moved to April 2nd in the 2324 school year currently it's by June 2nd and as we approach next year your fourth birthday birthday is by September 1st so technically we may have a handful of three-year-olds starting the

024school year with us in our TK program because they will turn four and be for their whole Academic Year um and that's what we're currently working with is the age getting younger and younger and becoming early Educators so enrollment history to give you a little background on how it's been growing within our district in 223 we had nine schools in 10 classes with 211 students participating in transitional Kinder in 23 24 we expanded to 11 schools we had 13 classes and 305 students and currently we're sitting at 11 schools offering TK programs with 15 classes and 343 students so at some of our larger sites uh Emma Wilson marold both have two programs as well as hooko and Neil da are offering two classes uh just two points maybe more for clarification um just a

025reminder to those who maybe don't come to every Schoolboard meeting and keep track of every decision that we make um the 11 out of 12 elementary schools in our district that offer TK currently is all of them except for Shasta and that's a decision that the board made last year because of the size of Shasta and the difficulty in expanding it sizewise to fit the number of students and so this board made a decision last year to um to limit chassa as a K5 school and have TK at all the other 11 schools I had a question for clarification kind of in the last slide this slide is it's still relevant um when you say that um we're now required I think I'm in the wrong spot on my own slides we're now required to

026um offer TK to all students who are eligible um that means does that mean that within chica Unified School District boundaries any child that hits that right now that June 2nd cut off date um and next year that September 1st C off date fourth birthday at September 1st um have to have we have to have space for them offered in the district we can't turn anybody away because we don't have space left we have to and I it um am I understanding correctly did we have some like last minute uh flurry of like needing to add another classroom here or there this year even we did and then our numbers and then some parents choose to stay at pr- school positions or they get into some other school so our numbers balanced out but we

027were we were on the cusp of opening another one if we needed it um I will say by experience that it is terrifying being a new parent to the school system and walking on that elementary school campus with your very young four-year-old and in the future three yearold that is crazy to me not in a bad way but just like mindboggling and be like okay here you go and my child told me yesterday that she was able to walk by herself from the cafeteria to her classroom and I've walked with her lots of times and it's that's it's our children rise to the occasion for sure but I understand parents who are like H actually maybe I'll just wait um and and we have that we as parents have that option at this time correct

028it's not compulsory not so people with a TK AG child can wait until kindergarten is it compulsory in kindergarten six when you're 6 years old six years old thank you for the clarification no problem and it is ter I might change my lifestyle and go on some road trips for the next two years no I'm just kidding but I think you made a good point what's really impressive to watch as you as these transitional kindergartens have been part of the school campuses is exactly what you referenced how independent the students become very quickly and they like it so often last year I would have by this point third week of school parents trailing in behind them because their kids were telling them no no no you don't need to come with me I I have

029this and they knew exactly where to go so that's a testament I think to the routines and procedures that our our schools set up so it is wonderful but scary at the same time anybody here who's met my kiddo knows that that's exactly what she's been doing so you're not alone yeah it's um interesting so the program goals of transitional kindergarten have kind of morphed for a long time it was when it was first starting there was a lot of discussion of is this Kinder watered down and the answer is no it has really with those foundations in place and the the thinking through of how to roll it out it is the goals for the program are for students to to have access to learn the rules and the routines of classrooms and really

030their tiny little humans how to be students at school they learn procedures protocols Norms such as recess lunch fire drills um so that they're prepared when they jump into the more academic setting of kindergarten they also provide an academic Foundation while focusing on developing the social emotional growth of students so there's a lot of learning happening through play based but academics at the same time um in addition they're implementing in TK and all of our kindergarten classrooms are tier one instructional practices so they are common Focus points for all of the teachers that correlate with our mtss as well as what's best for kids in this grade to be learning uh the TK registration process begins in December and there are postcards that are sent to every residential address in Chico Unified as well as

031posted on our websites there's Aries communication and social media registration is complete when parents bring in birth certificate proof of residency in their immunizations to their home school and then the first round of placement for students begins in January uh the strengths of our TK program is really that it is mirroring our multi-tiered systems of support starting now at the TK level with the social emotional behavioral and academic focuses TK is offered at every one of our sites except for Shasta and four of our schools are currently offering more are offering two classes and then TK is also having the opportunity to participate in our enrichments on campus such as music and Fine Arts all right any TK questions thank you so now I'm going to int oh go ahead I just I have a

032question about growth um and maybe I don't know if we have an answer about this yet but um I guess I'm curious for future facilities modeling Etc if if the growth is is kind of mirroring what we have been expecting to happen or if we're falling if we know if we're falling under or over that at this at this point I I think we're right on target we just read it with um mcmanis has expanded their with their building facilities and then the next round Emma Wilson is also going to be up for some Kinder expansion as well and I will say also Julie Kissle is always brought into conversations when we talk about expansion of TK um she's obviously got to be involved in the in that uh in the conversations that we have

033and there is some funding you know Heather had mentioned some of the funding that comes through it is not a ton of funding it's not nearly close to what we would like but um we make do with it for training and uh Julie really does know a lot about she's to know a lot about the program so she can look at facilities that mirror the supports the program needs so uh she kind of goes above and beyond in that regard and I'll just further add to that um we've been planning one to two classes a year um which is kind of what's materialized um from a budgetary perspective this year with that potential third one it kind of threw me for a loop but it didn't materialize um so from numbers of incoming four year

034olds it's kind of been on par with what we have projected um Julie and her team do an Actuarial kind of of a demographic study and we look at that as far as estimation of number of four-year-olds coming in and there are three schools that are getting TK expansion facilities we're actually selecting Architects next week um so that's a great opportunity for those three schools and to have additional facilities related for these little four-year-olds great um yeah I think that when we were doing our facilities Master Plan update that was a little bit more of a question mark when it comes to surveying and predicting and watching the demographic you know Trends is we don't know how many people are going to follow through with putting their kiddos in in TK um and you know

035we already talked about some of the hesitations why excuse me so I was just curious about being on track or On Target and not obviously being BL blindsided not having enough facilities or having empty classrooms you know and just making sure that not like I'm trying to make sure but just expressing that we we have stayed within that margin that we kind of expected so it's nice to know that you're maybe a bettering really better weather predictor than the uh the meteorologist um so next we're going to move into expanded learning AKA after school programs so I'd like to welcome Ken to the to to the stand to talk the stage H yeah great thanks hi there um so expanded learning programs is is a pretty wide umbrella that does encompass after school programs but

036it's ALS also before school programs that we have at nine schools early back camp that happens for one or two weeks in August depending on the school year spring break Camp um four weeks in June of summer camp uh tutoring uh reading Pals and then other enrichment groups that we have within blast such as math olympiads drama biking and also chess teams at six of our schools um so our vision for expanded learning is to create a safe and supportive environment for students uh to achieve academic success and reach their greatest potential as a student and a citizen our mission is to provide and reinforce High academic and social expectations for all children by providing students and families with targeted opportunities for enrichment personal growth engagement in a nurturing and safe environment um so a

037history of our Elementary programs I'm going to do elementary and Junior High separate um we do have programs at all 12 elementaries and all three Junior highs um so in 2004 our elementary schools were awarded the aces um after school education and safety Grant um it's a state Grant which we still hold and the 21st century Grant which is a Federal grant which we do no long uh no longer hold um at six Elementary sites so the ones that are listed there um at the time those were the title one schools um so that funding has been um in place since then but in 2122 there was a state initiative um for the expanded learning opportunities program which is elop um with that funding we've expanded our programs to all 12 uh elementary schools in

0382223 we added Emma and LCC 2324 we added shaston sier viw and expanded um positions for our tkk students and in 2425 so this year um we added marold and Hooker Oak so finishing off all of our schools this year at the junior high level um we got the 21st century Grant which is federal in 2006 uh just for Bidwell and Chico Jr in 2122 Esser funding um started a prr PR at Marsh um the 21st century Grant ended and so the other Junior highs um were through Esser last year and this year all three Junior Highs are funded um out of elop um our enrollment at the junior high level there's about 120 students at Bidwell and Chico junr and 85 at Marsh can you explain why those are differentiated like why is Chico

039and junor and Bidwell in one lump and Marsh's separated out um the need at the at the schools how many families that have um enrolled or applied to role um those schools are bigger in population as well I I I still don't understand why they wouldn't just be listed out as chica junor Bidwell and Marsh they have they have 120 students versus 85 students sorry thank you yeah okay that explains it better than um so the program structure at the elementary level is um the students get a Supper meal which is provided by nutrition services there's a 30- minute reading period um then there's a recreation time which is about 40 minutes um which which is PE time uh then the 30 minute academic uh homework time so depending on if the school or the

040teacher provides homework it would be um homework support or it would be other academic enriching activities um then an enrichment activity and then at 5:15 um there's free choice stations for the students that are remaining because pickup time is between 4:30 and 6:00 at the junior high level it's a check-in a supper same Supper meal um as the elementary then they do a homework time activity time and pickup is between 4:15 and 5:15 so our staffing structure at the elementary level um each program is Ran by A credential teacher um and an assistant coordinator which is at least a teacher sub um at all of our sites and then we contract with card um which is a partnership that we've had for a long time a really strong partnership um we H we pay this

041contract with our elop and Aces funding um and that provides us with a recreation supervisor that oversees the leaders which is the Frontline staff three Recreation coordinators that support those 125 card leaders that um that are working directly with our students there's also 49 card leaders that are substitutes for those 125 uh leaders that we currently have um so uh just for clarification the one credential teacher coordinator and one assistant coordinator is per elementary site yes and then the one Recreation supervisor is that districtwide correct and so they're and then the three Rec coordinators divide them for each sorry uh the three Recreation coordinators are supports and each of them have four sites that they support that's good that makes the math the math checks out yeah um and so is the recreation supervisor kind

042of like the just pushing out what the recreation coordinators should be presenting to the Frontline staff to be implementing at the school sites uh yes and she does a lot of the hiring as well for those positions and the credential teacher coordinator for each School site that's their that is their job at that school site they're not it's not like an extra Duty type job it's a fulltime position same thing with the assistant coordinator uh it is not a full-time position but that is their job sometimes they're student teachers okay yeah gotcha a lot of times they they do need to have a bachelor's degree so a lot of times it's um for most of our staff right now they're either in the credential program or taking a gap year between their bachelors and starting

043the credential program and so when we're talking about the weight lists that exist which I I think you have the numbers in yeah those are in a couple slides and when we talk about like the need to potentially try to expand where is there room for that expansion in this list of Staffing um we would need to add more Chico Unified support staff so that those credential teachers and then more card leaders and then possibly more Recreation coordinators as well to be able to support more leaders gotcha so would it be like more you said more Recreation coordinators right yes so a few more of those that lead least you know splitting it maybe two sites instead of four sites and um and more assistant coordinator credential teach recording I guess I'm confused about their

044role if there's a one person on the site for TK through fifth grade right so correct um there would be need to be more than one of those yeah potentially would a one and a half work or would it need to be like another yeah I got my answer already in uh in in Miss s's face um that's a no by the way for those who can't see her face that's like no it would need to be another FTE if we were going to bump it up okay likely yes good okay thank you that's good to know um our ratios at uh the elementary level for tkk it's 10 to1 that is a CDE requirement right now we're closer to 8:1 um just because it is a lot of TK students that are in our

045programs and in 10 to one doesn't seem to be enough supervision um and then first through fifth grade is 15 to1 which is a card requirement so our our staff members are um that's that is requirement for all of their programs do you happen to know if and I'm not going to ask for numers specifically but is is there a constraint for card to be able to increase Staffing or get more Staffing or have they been doing okay this last year or two ever since we kind of came out of that crunch they are always hiring so it's it's not necess there's they're always hiring always hiring please apply yes okay um Stephanie told me yesterday that she had 110 applications that she was weeding through okay yeah um and and so I guess that

046would that would indicate my second question but I feel like it's answered now is um if it is competitive enough pay um on on card's end which we don't specifically have direct control over I don't think but no what's difficult with our contract with card is they do need to have similar pay with all Recreation programs that they have because the position is under the same umbrella of camps and um Youth Sports and things like that so it's it's all so that's where we don't have control over that interesting okay I add one thing too with the card folks every semester it might shift quite a bit because a lot of the card leaders are students at the University and but college so their class schedules shift and change depending on what classes they need

047so that's kind of part of the EB and flow we have about a 50% turnover of these card leaders every year and it's more often than that but I would say throughout the year there's about 50% brand new leaders okay um at the junior high level there is one uh credential teacher that is the coordinator and then it's actually School site teachers and student teachers with a sub credential that are um doing the activities with our students and they are at a 20 to1 ratio which is the CDE requirement are the School site teachers getting extra pay yes it's an EA sheet yeah um so our training and support for our staff we do four um Saturday program-wide trainings we we do them on a Saturday so we don't have to close program to to

048train our staff um we also have buil in Staffing support um so my position which is the districtwide administrator um we also have a teacher on special assignment that is supporting the 12 elementary schools our Recreation coordinators which we already talked about um and then we do weekly on-site um I do a weekly meeting with each of the coordinators and then the teacher coordinator does a weekly meeting with their card leaders um our registration process it's an online application for the program that opens each March um for the following year so in in the spring sometime um currently enrolled blast students maintain their spot in the program um and all other positions are selected uh via Lottery uh remaining applications are put in um on the weight list based on their Lottery order um for

049the CDE um students that are un uh identified under the mckin vinto act or in foster care are given weightless priority and we do our best to enroll them as quickly as we can um so some strengths of our program is we provide a safe place for students um during the after school hours uh we provide enriching opportunities that may not be accessible to students that that are not in Blast um or if they did not have blast um extens it's an extension of the school day that's really focused on learning and growth uh socially and academically um it's positive community building and um you know anecdotally we have a lot of kids that become really close friends because they're in blast together and and maybe they wouldn't be friends just by meeting each other

050in the school day but but in the smaller environment that is the after school program they get really close um we have increased enrollment each year and I'm Tyler do you want to click on that so our enrollment history so the purple line there is um the there's two ways to enroll in blast so there's Chico Unified enrolled which is no cost to families and we do have a select number of card enrolled spots which are paid and there's not an intendance policy so we have currently 195 families that are choosing that option because they do not want to they cannot adhere to our attendance policy and and just to clarify the the cusd enrolled is is anywhere from TK to 5 whereas the card enrolled is only first through fifth correct so so there's

051no paid option for TK and K correct my understanding is that card doesn't have the licensing to to um serve students that age um so total and blast is there in the green so in uh prior to 2022 um total students that were in Blast was 991 and we are now at 1,368 here 63 I don't know I need a vision test here can you make a little B um our current weight list is high but but you can see um in the 2223 school year we ended with 232 students in our on our weight list and we added 200 spots even adding the 200 spots our weight list doubled we added another couple 100 spots this year and our weight list doubled again wow the weight list is doubled every year correct even even

052with um efforts of growth I do have some other numbers on there if you were interested we call that we call that exponential growth in our weight list yes and we are doing our best to keep up with demand but it's slow and steady um I do have some other data there if you're interested on the weight lless numbers by school and then um by grade as well so it's not a astronomical amount in tkk versus fifth grade it's it's pretty even across the board Bo of um the need for families uh Tyler do you want to go back to the slide thanks oops um so constraints and opportunities for us to grow is our weight list continues to increase in all grades despite ongoing growth in the programs um expanded learning Staffing structure has

053a capacity of about 155 right now with the Staffing that we have in place so like Caitlyn was saying of we would need to add more teacher coordinators and more leaders in to be able to um go beyond that number um and then our staff turnover is really tricky just because um the majority of our staff are college students that are moving out of town or class change schedules are only available so many days a week that sort of thing yeah could you go back to the chart that shows the the school sites the um the next that one so that's the weight list number so like currently at Chapman there's five students that are in TK that are on the weit list wait what oh I'm sorry I'm on the wrong Tab and if

054you scroll down you can see the total number for each grade it would be interesting to as a percentage Yeah since the number of enrolled TK is not the same number as the number of enrolled fourth graders I can get that for you yeah I mean yeah that would be faster probably than me going back into one of our demographic slides and figuring out myself yeah at least I'd appreciate that yeah I can add a formula I can add a line at the bottom with the formula for that did you have any other questions about this no I just I had had a chance your I don't think your microphone's on I hadn't had a chance to you know really look at all of them and um I'd like when Caitlyn gets her information share

055it yeah and our weight lists are bigger at our schools with larger population yeah it would be interesting to see the percentages um just because no no grade level is exactly apple stles and no school is Apple stles either yeah percentages make it a little bit easier to compare and see gaps in need really is what it is um so we're continuing to add more leaders to sites to get all of these sites at um at a higher capacity any that was the end of my slides any questions I have Madam president or I forget what you are I have some uh some comments um it's going to be kind of a reiteration of some things that I said at our planning meeting which was very helpful okay um I have three four children three

056of the first three of whom are boys and they've all had some participation in in after school program which generally is a a wonderful program um it's great that we have that funding that makes it possible um a big reason why this pop program is as popular as it is uh I'm just going to stay the obvious thing is is the if you go to the last Slide the top very top bullet that you had on there was that this is a safe place for students after school hours you know um to um there are legit learning and stuff that goes on at um at after school program I can tell you from years of experience of participating in it um but also it's child care and um one reason why families and parents in

057particular like to utilize those programs because it's it can be hard to fulfill some of your career obligations you know which are are are everyone works it seems nowadays has some kind of a career and job and dog on you school people you you know you all quit at 3:00 in the afternoon leaving us with this you know or or young you know earlier for for younger kids and so ASP man it fills a big Niche yep it's a big need in the community and so in a way you're kind of acting in a role of you know you're you're that time you know you're in charge of them and uh so just one aspect of your job is that you got to deal with all their you know little imperfections and and and the

058things that that manifest themselves at home during that time they're going to manifest themselves with you what are those things well uh there's all their interests all their energy not all of which can easily be channeled into you know the play time of dodgeball or or or or the academic time and the reading uh you know and Meanwhile we're handing them this electronic device this laptop computer that's going to be this everpresent you know force in their life attracting their attention and um so I'm just going to say the the may maybe make the unpopular point that my uh my I know uh some some some kids who've pulled the wool over ASP staff's eyes just more times than you could ever possibly shake a stick at you know I know one guy who uh

059was is fond of opening like 20 or 30 tabs on his internet browser ER so that you know when a staff person walks by you know he knows which one to click on to and then he can just click on to another one and it if you were to look at it it wouldn't even look like anything recognizable on the screen it would just look like a bunch of dots going across the top of the page and um so um when ASP has staff members who are on board with the fact that they're in this role that they are you know have like eyes like a hawk and they're acting as a teacher or you know kind of a miniature teacher if you will you know they're overseeing the kids while they're doing their school

060work you know that's a huge asset to the family you know and the community I think you know um if an a staff person didn't have that sense you know that that was that was their job was to to keep on students and make sure they were doing their schoolwork and they were participating uh in a healthy way with these offerings that's not a benefit you know um so I would just encourage you to encourage your staff to make sure that you know you stay on those kids and make sure that they do their homework and do a good job at it and if there's a a game or an activity going on you know they need to be uh doing that if it's prescribed by the leadership of the program which I guess is

061all of us they need to be doing that active thing and not off in a corner or in a dark Corridor sitting on a bench somewhere just surfing the internet and and watching Mr Beast videos one after another on on YouTube or worse you know and I can tell you that those things have happened I've seen them happen with my own two eyes i' I've seen the evidence of it on securely and and we're I'm I'm the parent who's who's got a handle on what my students are doing on their computers and I can tell you that in after school program there's been a lot of time that they've spent you know um at times surfing the internet you know they're not bad kids not bad people they're great but but we need to do

062our job to create a disciplined environment and so that's my admonition to you thank you do you guys have any more questions for us I have a few just a couple actually not a few well two for now um so I was trying to go back into last uh meeting's total enrollments but it just says enrollment which means I and I don't have my notes from last meeting meeting so I didn't have the numbers of like what our initial enrollment was which isn't accurate trying to find their percentage of students who are weight listed for the after school program um it's 10% of total students when I was like I kind of remember it was like 1350 to 1400 or sorry 12,350 to 12,400 students is is is I remember the that ballpark number um

063I'm okay with numbers usually um but that's including high school so it's like okay well let's like shave off a few thousand for just tk8 how many tk8 what's our percentage of tk8 enrolled students that are on the wait list for after school programs and it's roughly 14 to 16% and um that's a large number um if we go back to the first slide of the great list of programs that we are offering students for extended day learning um which I'm not even getting back to yet so it's a race ready who's going to get the first I went too far got it there we go you win okay thank you um that's that number of students 1,239 that were on the weight list last last you checked uh are missing out on these enrichment

064those are only students that are in um on the weight list for blast that is not the weight list for before school program early bat camps June camps any of tutoring any of those things anything other than blast anything other than blast okay so then the when you went over the blast like this is what they do after school etc etc yeah okay fair fair enough um do those weight lists include families that have already left the district because they couldn't get Services um it possible we we do a query at the beginning of the year to weed out any of those but as a family leaves we don't we don't do that monthly or anything it's only if they were to come up next on the wait list that we would see that they

065didn't it might be really interesting to know what that looks like because I was this close to leaving the district because I could not get affordable after school care for my child um especially as a tker or a TK Kinder that I think is probably if we run the percentages is probably a little bit harder to get services for for after school care um that's lost enrollment which is lost Revenue which is empty seats and you know all the things that we are always talking about in running a large school district and so I would be concerned about that as somebody who is in charge of a budget or programming one thing too to remember and I remember this from the site is when families come into Chico Unified throughout the year and they learn

066about the programs their names also go onto the weight list so it's that's a consideration fluctuates yeah but it would be interesting to see that that outflow of families who left maybe they didn't decide to leave because they couldn't get into services but that was a reason that I was considering not you know not I mean that's a real thing I I can't be the only person in all of Chico of over 100,000 people who had that that uh idea um and you know when you have a school an amazing Charter School up the hill in Forest Ranch that is offering busing from Chico to get to their you know seven to8 student TK program yeah I'm giving a plug for Forest Ranch because it's my community I'm not going to be shy about it

067like that is intriguing like you're guaranteed their after school care all the years that they're there um and and that's something that we have to keep in mind not that we want to beat out Forest Ranch but that we want to be able to to um offer Equitable Services for students and so that 1,239 from TK to to to 8th grade is is a pretty big number um that we're not meeting I mean 15% of our stud of our TK to8 students that that aren't getting that and one one thing that we talked about as we looked at those numbers as it's doubling in size each year is really what are we getting close to hitting kind of this is this is the level of the list that it will continue to be is it

068going to kind of level out so then we could better plan for okay what would expansion look like and what would we realistically need yeah and we think we must be getting close cuz it's doubling you're probably ahead of me on this but like this is what our demographers do right they look at at a cohort so at this year how many students in the TK program or three years ago how many students were in the K program that were on the weight list or and that were enrolled and then the and then last school year when they were in first grade what did that number look like and then this year when they were in second grade what does that number look like that I I don't know if you've done that you probably

069are working on it but that really would create a picture of the trends that we're seeing in the need in this community for that after after school care and as families are feeling I mean everybody's feeling that that need to make ends me and work the hours that we have to work and make sure that our students are our kiddos are safe and and enriched uh in the time that we don't get to spend with them because you know you you miss out on valuable hours with a young kid as that's your child like you want to make sure that those hours are are valuable for their growth um and this is not to say that there are not options in this community but they're not all accessible for families who are on a single

070income in their household or who have other constraints like medical bills or other things um and are still not getting into those after school programs and that's not even to mention our staff members who have young kids who can't access our after school programs and they are single family income household families and they also are special education teachers they have extra hours that they have to be putting in and yet they can't get their kid into after school care like these are these are problems these are problems as an employer these are problems as a support to our community and I'm not bashing on you two at all just so you know I'm just saying it for the universe for us to try to collectively over this next couple of months or year to really

071dig deep and find some Creative Solutions that I know have already been brainstormed to address that 12,4 number and see if that's our kind of level off point hopefully for next year but like how do we triple our program yeah and and I think that it true to everything you said it it really is a reflection of where our community is and the need has been doubling in size over the last three years because more people are at work so no good deed goes unpunished as we keep growing we're just we're we're trying to keep up with what we can fill and then look at expanding yeah I think it's Al on a positive note um I think it's also a testament to the services that we provide and the value of those and that

072people find them as valuable um you know the fact that they want to leave their kiddos with us for an extended period of time demonstrates trust in our staff and Trust in our programming and the district as a whole so kudos to you and all of those things and for building up this program that really is meeting needs for families who have a high need and um hopefully we can also meet those Middle Ground families who have the need but maybe aren't winning the lottery yeah so that I think concludes our presentation unless there's more questions and then we just want to thank you for having us tonight thank you thank you [Applause] um before we move on to our next thing just something that that we we had discussed and um member tennis and

073I were the board Liaisons for this workshop and a workshop really is meant to highlight things that the district is doing well um but also to try to uh sort of pull out some ways that we can grow even even better in those areas so it's it's meant to be uh pat on the back in some regards but also you know a little bit of a of a hard discussion about where can we still grow how can we still get better because nobody in here is perfect and nobody's ever going to be perfect but we can always find room to grow and the same goes for any kind of organization and I think it's important for us to to dive deep and find ways to make improvements where we can with with the resources we

074have um early on in the presentation they had mentioned um you know a tiered system of of off offering services and families who maybe could afford a sliding scale type of situation for preschool and and maybe that's something that the district can look into um for our after school care uh I know that it's been brought up in the past I also know that Co got into the uh into the way of those discussions but there is clearly a high need for the families in this community to have support from our school district for those after school services and I think that it is it is our d Duty as a board and as you know District leadership to explore all of the options within our legal limits to expand that um where the budget

075might allow um and so I look forward to continuing the conversation you know in our lunchtime meetings or um in a future board meeting if if it were to come up as another item so thanks for the opportunity for the workshop I know I pushed hard for this one when we did our organizing because I went through an emotional roller coaster on this topic um with obviously with my own personal situation um we're we're getting we're getting by the new routine is is good uh she has my child has adjusted better than me which is to be expected because adults don't uh adjust to change as well as kids do like let's face it um anyway I just had to say that last bit of piece uh that there's there's definitely options I think that

076we we will be exploring to see how we can support that program and the amazing folks that are are running that program okay with that let's move on Kaylin's done talking so much I promise um Eileen laughed at me that's cute thanks uh next on our agenda is the discussion action calendar under Business Services we have a discussion action item for Charter Schools measure K project requests with Miss is Julie Kissle our director of facilities and construction hi good evening thank you for having me here this evening um bringing forward to you tonight two projects from our measure K uh facil charter school facilities committee they met last Monday afternoon and um they approved two projects to bring forward as recommendations to the board uh the first one is up at Forest Ranch School where

077they're going to renovate their existing restroom building um just small uh Renovations like some new sinks some new toilets uh cleaning up and painting their toilet compartments um I was recently up there and these uh items are are really needed and it will make a good Improvement to the school uh the second project is up um at Sherwood montor School at Chapman Elementry and they want to add in some fencing and Gates and sec entry systems at both their gate that they utilize on the Chapman um elementary site on the on the U card end parking lot and then across the street uh 10 Cleveland which is their property um that they have right across the street um it will be the same system as you've seen at all of our Chico Unified Schools uh

078which has been working out really well um we've gotten a lot of positive feedback about them so this will uh in addition to helping shwood be a more secure campus it will also um ensure that Chapman is a more secure campus by tidying up that end of the of the schoolyard so if you have any questions I'll take them uh Julie did both of these go through the um Charter facil oversight committee yes uh last Monday afternoon last Monday afternoon yes not on the holiday but last week cor correct yeah okay they meet on the last Monday of every month the last Monday of every month okay I have no further questions do we have any public comment on this item no uh do we have a motion sure I will uh move approval of

079both of these requests I'll second that motion all right we have a motion by member Orlando and a second by member Robinson our last vote was unanimous so we can all signify our approval by saying I I any opposed seeing none it's unanimous it passes thank you thank you next on discussion action calendar um under board discussion action for leadership search contract with but County Office of Education well I will talk about this one just a little bit uh last spring I let the board know that uh this likely would be my last year that I would my plans are to retire at the end of this school year June 30th got a ways to go still um at that point the board had asked that I look into local options for a leadership search

080firm so I contacted bu County Office of Ed and they have come up with a contract that you have in front of you as well as a timeline that was distributed as well uh for the possibility of conducting a search for the superintendent for the 2025 2026 school year so Mary sukuma the superintendent of BU County Office of Education is here this evening and she can speak to this as well as uh answer some questions from the board if there are any Mary thank you superintendent Staley honored members of the board it's really a pleasure to be here I uh I think I last visited with you when I had the distinct honor of swearing some of you in as a new and returning board memb so it's good to be back so it's our

081pleasure to offer for your consideration and agreement for superintendent search services and um I we'll go into some detail together with my colleagues but I'd like to start by introducing my colleagues uh one of uh whom I think you've already met but we have with us this evening Dr Kathleen wheeler she is retired superintendent from reuff Union High School District and she has been doing a number of different Consulting jobs with the bu County Office of Education she first came to us to help at the time of the campfire and I have not let her leave so she has done all kinds of amazing work in support of the students of BU County and so she's agreed to be here this evening to respond to questions and also to a guide a few questions that

082we're curious about um from the board in terms of the process also with us this evening it's my honor to introduce Mr Bill Cornelius bill is a retired County Superintendent of Schools from Suter County but he also served for a number of years as a superintendent at bigs unified here in bu County he also shared with me that he has uh grandchildren who attend here in the district and he has a vested interest in supporting you in finding just the right person so um I I don't want to presume about what you've been able to review with the contract I did understand that a few questions came in ahead of time and I did want to clarify a few things um first up in regard to the length of the contract um if the board

083makes the decision to engage with bocoe for these Services uh that would commence as of your signing this evening and we would uh begin that process right away the reason that I chose to offer up to you a contract that goes through the end of this school year this fiscal year is that in case there are any other cleanup items or training or governance support that you may desire that avoid it's having to create a whole new contract and the whole idea would be that that would be in support of the new superintendent which of course means a new governing team so with thought that would be important to offer that to you if it's your preference that the uh contract end as of November the 20th we can make that change uh without any

084problem because I know that's your goal for appointment so I just wanted to let you know why that looked like it did um the timeline itself which I understand that you uh received a subsequent to the contract uh and by the way I do do have extra copies hard copies if anybody should need a hard copy of the tenative timeline uh one of the things that uh Kathy will present to you is this idea that some of the dates inside that timeline as we consider um people's personal circumstances in regard to the team that I'll be pulling together for this we might have to make some adjustments inside that timeline but still with the goal of the board being able to offer a contract to the top candidate um for November 20th excuse me I

085have ter terrible allergies tonight so um at this time I if there are no further if there are no questions for me right now I would like to ask Kathy to come up to talk a little bit about some of the questions that have been going over in her mind and to see if we can get a little bit of feedback from you um really quick Mary thank you for being here it's an honor to be here thank you um on the T of timeline um I just want to clarify what you just said uh that's that's kind of a guideline at this point but if we were to approve this tonight we wouldn't be specifically beholden to those exact no chunks of time okay no other than your goal right of November 20th end

086end goal is is clear for sure but for example um we had a brief meeting prior to coming in here this evening and just talked about the fact that probably we're going to have to move the timing of the initial screening um back by a few days or I should say forward by a few days to allow us just a little bit more time because obviously we want to take advantage of this short window make sure that we get all the top quality candidates getting their information to us um I don't know if this is a appropriate question for you at this time Mary but um if if we do approve this contract tonight uh how soon does recruitment start well recruitment has already begun in my own mind just in terms of thinking about

087you know who might be the quality candidates who we know are out there who might be considering obviously I'm not making re Outreach calls or anything on your behalf um however I um I do know that it requires as a old friend of mine used to say it's not just post and Hope right we got to be proactive about this and again this team that I'm working with we're talking about okay what would be the strategy to hit the ground running first thing tomorrow morning okay thank you because it is a I mean it is a quick timeline so just was curious okay thank you at this time I'll turn things over to Dr waer oh uh Caitlyn's question uh prompted what where my questions were um and let me just clarify you said recruitment

088begins and we've got tomorrow um would you be posting the Ed join and and uh edal and other sources is needed at that same time uh because my concern was if we wait until after we've taken a look at uh candidates that may be known to us we've lost out it needs to all be done at once is that your thinking that's a great question so Ed join is a very quick post that one's the Easy Button if you will edal and others do take a little bit more time than that we're prepared to begin that uh one of the things that we'll be talking about uh this evening is about the some of the specific qualifications that you may be uh Desiring as a board um and so what we the initial posting will

089be sort of the basics right to get it posted and get the word out right away um however as we get input um we'll be proposing to do some uh input sessions with the staff with community and of course with you as We Gather that information we'll be wanting to clarify that with our candidates to say you know these are some of the top priorities in terms of the type of candidate that we're looking for would we be able to um have sessions with individual board members to talk about the um uh candidate qualifications uh because we may not be all of One mind regarding that and I'm I'm hoping that that was in your thinking as well too that you know bringing in uh a process that allows us as individual board members to

090begin to add to that list list so one of the things that we're going to have to be very careful about is that we don't create a Serial meeting um however I think we can um figure out ways to get individual inputs from you and also to perhaps consider forming a subcommittee of the board which I realize would could only be two of you um but if it we want to make sure that the communication is clear and that we don't violate the brown act in any way so so um my legal degree is a little Dusty just kidding I don't have one um but I would want to make sure that your legal counsel is comfortable with whatever process we choose thank you I'll turn things over to Dr wher I only use doctor

091when I need dinner reservations so it's Kathy um thanks for having us back it was nice meeting with all of you before and and um seeing what we have to offer and where you're coming from and we're excited about this process um it's probably the biggest decision school board members have to make and uh there's a tough act to follow with Kelly so we need to really do a good job of uh searching for the right person for this wonderful District I too have an investment here I have a great nephew in the system and um he's had great experiences in all the Chico schools he's attended and now he's at the high school at Chico high and so uh I'm I want this place to be as good as it's been uh for him

092along the way um like Mary said the uh timeline is draft and we have already had to make some changes because some people aren't available to do the searches or the uh conduct the uh input meetings so we'll be moving some of those things which means paper screening will move a little bit interviews move a little bit but we will meet that timeline uh so you can make that decision on November 20th so um as far as that goes uh that is a fluid document but we will keep you posted if you um approve the contract with us so uh just so you know that we will be communicating with you on a regular basis um one of the other things we need to talk a little bit about um our characteristics and requirements for

093the new superintendent and so I kind of like to um discuss some of those things tonight because we do want to get that ad out uh it will be an ed join by Friday I believe so we want to make sure that we are getting as much information in that first document as possible but we can also like Mary said add to it as we get more information from you on what you're looking for um aside from aside from the five of us up here uh is there um input being gaed GED from staff or Union leadership and and other areas besides the I think the um tradition in your district is to involve as many people as possible and we have people have uh Michelle Zev assistant superintendent for the county has done a

094whole lot of work with the district in other areas and she would be part of that uh conducting uh meetings with staff meetings with community members and those kind of tie in with some of my questions tonight done who you want involved and how much involvement uh but I think there is a tradition in The District in high-powered positions to make sure you're getting as much input from community and from staff as possible so that's I do I do appreciate uh tradition but also none of us have gone through this before right in this in this no it's a great question we need to make sure that we are uh including I think including as many people as possible and what you're looking for so you're getting that in put from them so you know

095what the school community and the community want this brings a thought um not too much of a not too much of a tangent but um I think that from my perspective I I was a classroom teacher in this district for a years before I was elected to the board and um and I've admitted I've admitted this to Kelly so it's no surprise to her that I used to wonder what she even does um and I think that there is an aspect of of kind of Mystique around um what it is that our top um you know position holder in a district uh needs what those characteristics need to be in order to um have an effective leadership role in in the district and it's been a learning curve for me but it it didn't take

096too long for me to figure it out uh after I joined the board but um when you know when we are soliciting information from families or staff and um and folks who maybe don't get to meet with Kelly weekly um I think it's good to also be able to express and it's a good opportunity maybe um to just demonstrate you know what it is the superintendent of a school district does for the district um we have I know we have folks out in the community right now again a little bit of a tangent so I apologize um that you know are claiming that oh the lead leadership of Chico Unified makes x amount of dollars and how dare them ask for a school bond and it's not entirely true but also um hearkens back to

097the fact that some folks just don't really understand what it is that that person in that role um is in is is in charge of and and does for the district which is a a big job so that's a that's a great point and one of the um things that we're working on is a survey that would go out um and we would use Kelly and her office to figure out how to do all that and who it would go to but we would like it to go to all uh community members or parents um so and then community members as we can figure out how to get it to them and that would be a written survey and then we also want to include people to come in and work with us and then

098that written survey uh there's a lot of characteristics that you need in a superintendent and they're listed there and then they can prioritize what they think is the most important and that's being drafted at this time I love using surveys as a way to help also educate um you know XYZ this that this is how this works what do you think would be best to fit that that role um I appreciate that um it's going to go out to everybody I think this board um at least this board as as postco or during Co era we we made a pretty big priority of of including um families and community members for uh to elevate that voice um because we want to all be able to hear what everybody has to say um AB so that's

099important we as we get feedback both written and then through uh input meetings that would come back to you obviously so you can make sure that that's meeting your needs and you're meeting the needs of the community um in m in making your decisions thank you um Mary do you want me just to go through my list here and these may be questions you can't answer tonight but there were just my uh thoughts on what we're looking for because the more we can put in an ad right away the more people we're going to attract so um is a masters important to you does does the new person have to have a master's um I would say at least a master's so but that's up to you so that's one question I do you want

100a response sure um I'm really talkative tonight uh ien that's two digs she's getting me man um is there is there a typical Norm to uh State a this happens on almost all job applications I've ever seen uh an education component and or equivalency of this that and the other thing to qualify for those you know those uh uh credentials as far as education goes yes but with the superintendent uh Masters is usually at least a masters is required okay some districts say we're not going to consider anybody without a doctorate others do not that's not important to them so can I think that person should have a masters okay thank you does it matter what a masters in any any topic usually it's in educational leadership uh but it doesn't have to be um

101that's up to you that take me out of the running that would be up to Greek philosophy right quite handy that'll come in handy doctrate is it important for you to have that person have a doctorate in educational leadership or other my answer is Master's not doctorate okay agreed I agree okay and that's not to devalue anybody with a doctorate no yeah just keep the field open experience is important absolutely okay that okay with the okay um do you want somebody who's had previous experience as a superintendent is that important to you I'd say those candidates are welcome you know but yeah no I think that the the verbage sorry I've had enough microphone time to I think we're all proba my guess is we're all in the same wavelength which is that we definitely

102want experience as an upper level administrator but not necessarily as a superintendent okay and then I agree yeah and just going back to um Miss Conan's verbiage preferred or something along the lines of you know yeah it'd be nice to have superintendent experience but at upper level I think is okay acceptable prior District level experience you want somebody that's been a district administ an administrator at the district level or would you consider people who have been uh site administrators and are making the move up again I think that um please correct me colleagues if I'm wrong given the size of chica unified and the fact that a lot of uh superintendent responsibilities are about managing a district level team I think that experience is is important yes okay I would agree yes agreed all right

103um if you have a superintendent who hasn't been through the superintendent Academy would you be willing uh to have them participate in that um uh I want to know what Kelly Staley would recommend on this I did do the superintendent Academy and I will tell you what I took away from that was outstanding connections of people that I can call when problems come up and I like wow I haven't faced this before so it it had it was really rewarding in terms of the connections that I made through that I had that same experience going through it too we you had people you could pick the phone up whether it was one of the instructors or just people you met there it was a great experience are we using are you are you recommending to

104use that as a qualifier no screen to support them afterwards if would you be willing to support them in that yes and also they have Kelly I'll put pressure on her every I have whether it's public or not something we do need to put in the announcement and I don't know if you've talked about this before or not but salary range is going to be important for us to let people know uh where you are on that so uh I think we need to come up with a range based on experience obviously um they're not going to start with somebody who has 18 years in the district so looking at that and making a decision on that sooner rather than later would be really important is there um a is there a source that we

105can look at you know in the last six to 12 months things that have been posted that are kind of equivalent to our district it's really hard to compare apples to apples we know we have some of our go-to districts that we we use comparisons for because we're not the same as some other districts that are regionally close to us um for to to get a more honed idea of what's competitive we could probably get more information on that from AXA and through research from uh the county yes we definitely would do that in your in support of your decision making and this is not something that we need to know tonight but we wanted we just wanted to plant the seed for your own discussion um but uh comparisons would probably be helpful um

106and we'll do some of our own work with that in the background but also seek out some support from accent groups and that's not something that's required by law to be posted on the job posting no it is not if um if you were to look at the edal you would more than likely see most postings would be listed as commensurate with experience okay okay yeah because California has a a law that you know most most jobs I don't know what the rules are that differentiates yeah contracts versus um salaried or something like that okay thank you next question ties in with paper screening and um in my experience when I've done a search then the search committee does the initial paper screening and brings candidates to you but there are several ways to do

107it you could have uh bcoe and some board members bcoe and staff but our experience has been that um we do the initial screening but that's like I said I I told you when I met with you before this is your search and we're just here to assist you so that would be something we need to decide and it doesn't have to be decided tonight and that panel that item will be moving just a little bit there so something to think about interviewing you usually do two rounds yeah first round would include community and staff and then the second round uh would be with the board so um I think that's a good process you see them afterwards you get feedback from that committee on what they saw and then ultimately the decision is yours

108so would we determine how many uh candidates we would want to come forward to the board in that second round um yes you could decide that we would look at the total um group coming up and see where we stand and how many I mean if we have 20 people that we think you should bring forward that's a bit much so we would be pairing that down and then you could a ask that committee to bring their top three top five whatever it happens to be if they interview 10 you only want to see five or you may want to see all of them and again we'll be working closely with you because that's your decision and what you want and that would have to be during either a special close session or a regular

109close session is not my understanding you could do either you could do a a special or a or a regular close session but we know like what date we would need to do that by we need to do everything we need to have a decision made and in the background we'll be continuing with doing um background checks on people and we don't just check with their um people they list as references we go deeper we look and we we find people that will be honest with us about what's really happening everybody who's anybody in the education world knows knows things about people we do not want to see some and take them in the dance of the lemons we want we want the top person we can find for this wonderful District so uh just

110this this hypothetical or Pro probable date uh when the board has the the round of interview the final round of interviews with candidates um how soon after that would we envision that the decision would be made and then we would bring that forward in our in our open session for the final approval of contracts like what's the what's the time frame in between I think you have to have uh November 11th to get it on the 20th so we would have to have a decision and everything uh worked on before November 11th to get it on the agenda for the 20th like I said we are going to move a few of these things they're a little tight and so we'll be moving the interviews probably wouldn't take place till later in that week okay

111uh or beginning of the next week but in order to put it on the agenda we're going to have to have that decision prior to that my my thought on the uh the number of people and what the C would be a decision that we'd make at the time as we see the candidates as we see candidates and we look at the thing it's it's not something that I I I don't think we're ready to make a decision on now and it's we don't need to make that decision I confidentiality is of the utmost importance so so we will not we don't like to involve a whole lot of people up front so that that gets out as to what's going on um for both you your sake and the candidate's sake we need to

112make sure that we're protecting both you and the candidate uh as they move up uh to through the interview process so two rounds is good with you do the first round with community and staff and then the second round would be the final round would be with the board does that work for you does that seem typical reasonable yes that is typical okay yeah yeah sure I mean even teachers typically go through sometimes a second round of interviews so just making sure that just two layers is fine not necessarily a third okay in the past when I've supported districts in doing searches sometimes they'll say we want two panels on the first day in one room we might want to have staff and two board members another room we might want to have community members

113and two board members or whatever the configuration is um you are able to uh participate in that first round as well so just wanted you to know that as well okay Mary they could also participate in paper screening as well if they wanted to have a couple people participate there as well so that can say that they have seen the candidates from what I've heard from the board it's really important that you're involved in all yes facets of this process and that you wanted to have board represent representation at all different levels of the process yes thank you that's I both board and uh staff representation whenever we can have it our our usual uh operation for upper level admins is to have teachers on the paper screening as well yeah and I think that

114having especially classroom teachers at every level is going to be really important for easing whoever it is we select into and on that note I I I think that the idea of consistency with how we run our our interview panels or our interview sessions with our upper level cabinet members with the added layer of the board being the final interviewee um maybe it is more appropriate the first round being a split you know or a a dual you know interview process where we have our community members and our our staff and then we have have maybe our and that enables you to hear the comments from those committees too so that helps you in moving forward it would we run into an issue if we had two board members in one group and two board

115members in the other group in the okay it it's it's definitely just a different set of listening so I just want to make sure it wouldn't be a an issue yeah thank you um how do you want to choose the community members and the staff for interviews and there are several different ways you can do it you could have Kelly make suggestions you can have site administrators choose staff members you can have you as a board can make those decisions or there's always that other category how you want to you know maybe it's uh you want a representative from Kanas some one from rotary or what you know whatever so those are decisions that we can make down the road too those don't have to be made tonight we just want to plan these seeds

116so we're thinking about where we're going and what we're doing I have a I have a feeling on that that since Kelly has been um really involved with all of those Community types I'd like to get some input from her not that she's the final but but she's the one that has her finger on absolutely who's who's been involved who is involved who has a background that's in-depth one I'd add to that too that um through the process of um is there just thoughts maybe I'm asking for your feedback um through the process of uh determining the best way forward with a new Bond measure potentially there's been a lot of uh feedback provided by business members and members of the academic community and families and you know trying to get the most broad spectrum

117of our community captured as possible so we probably already have a a decent list put together and I'm sure from there we can we can determine how how best to move forward and I think I agree um that Kelly would be a great source because she is very active in the community so I think that would be um a good choice to have her give give you your thoughts also worth consideration perhaps um is that whoever comes in will be inheriting the L Capital the plants we have reaching out to specifically members of our targeted subgroups who you've worked with so that whoever our candidate is can start building relationship sh or at least know faces and names of people who are in those who they'll be working with in the community good points good

118points all of them Bill do you have anything you want to add at this point um again this gives us a good start we're excited about working with you and and making good things HP continue to happen for thank you appreciate your help and your expertise and I hope I unage like you have Bill in retirement you look awesome I'm old um thank you for inviting me and uh thank you Mary for asking me to be a part of this important decision that you all have to make um my name is Bill Cornelius I went to a school at Chico State many years ago uh played some football here Coast here for a year um and then we you know live in Yuba City but I have grandkids to go to rosale your after school

119program by the way it's great we love it um and it's always important to add more slots whenever you can um very important love what's happening here so I have a vested interest here um in my my talk to you is uh much shorter U because we've already talked about questions that sort of thing but um this may be new to you because you know Miss Kelly has been here for 18 years so what I want you to think about a little bit is when Kelly came in here and if I may call you Kelly um she's awesome um she had to have a certain set of skills for the things that were going on at that time and what I would hope that you would look at is when you are looking at a

120new superintendent what are the what are the skill set types of things characteristics are do you think that they need to come in with and where do you see them three to five years from now okay you're not going to probably find many superintendents that have 18 years of experience that have the knowledge that it takes takes a long time to learn plus just the god-given talents that she has so take you know be really be thoughtful on that and and uh you're going to get a different sense of my personal opinion you're going to get a different sense of feedback from the community they may not see the same things that you do they don't always see the meetings that you had tonight they they won't always see the important decisions that you all

121have to make and so um take a good hard look at where you're currently you mentioned a bond and I know my daughter's working on the bond for you out of rosil um but you you know what what are some of the things that you want somebody to be able to come in with and be able to kind of Hit the Road running a little bit you know Kelly is going to be able to give a lot of support um but where do where do you want to see the district you know at least for this year or excuse me for next year 2025 um moving forward and where do you see the District you know 3 to 5 years from now is this a person it's kind of a crazy thing but I always

122ask when I'm done interviewing whether it's a teacher or a superintendent or whomever are they normal do they fit if that makes sense do they fit with the with the community that you have with the things that you're working on um so again those those are just some things that I want you to think about um any questions for me um a little bit of a question um is it is it reasonable to ask for either um I don't know if it be a requirement but a desirable trait or um qualification being uh somebody who has had uh schools side experience and or a classroom experience um because I think that at the core of of our educational system what most folks think about whether they are community member without a without a student or

123with a student is that classroom uh relationship and how that person engaged with their individual child in the classroom um and so somebody who has had that perspective I think comes with a much deeper understanding and empathy for what it is that the staff is going through in the classroom and what the the students and parents are going through with that classroom experience and and then then on up and I'm not saying that you know not having been a teacher as a disqualifying Factor but how do you kind of weave that desirable characteristic if the board thought that that was something that was desirable um into those that list of qualifications that we kind of just went through well I know it's important for a superintendent to have classroom experience they don't always have to

124have that you may have a somebody that was a counselor that you know for all the years that they've been working and they worked into some sort of a district position and then um maybe became a vice principal principal rarely does that happen but it could um I think for you all to to really consider is when you have somebody with classroom experience um how are they going to work with their staff to work with kids in the classroom um often times when I've interviewed superintendant they talk a lot about their positions that they used to be in they they kind of sound like they are still a principal if that makes sense and so you know they need to kind of step away from just being the principal to be how will I oversee

125the principal how will I oversee all those folks that are working with the staff that are working with you know the custodians or the maintenance or the transportation or folks in the district office or in my opinion every part of of all our staffs are so important and in working with teachers if you have not been a teacher you know it makes it tougher it's not impossible but that's again something that you may want to look at if uh if you're going to have somebody with that skill set that's going to be able to work with the staff that a district this size is much different I I know I've as a county superintendent I worked with 12 districts and so much different than when I worked with bigs or when I worked with live

126o or you know the different places that I've been so it is a lot different um so here it's it's the management style that you're looking for is it the type of leadership that you want to have um and if not quite there yet is the superintendent's training going to be able to help is Miss Kelly going to be able to help and we can't be experts in in every field so as you look at your new superintendent again look at the skill set that you need to have now and where do you want them to grow to be in three to five years and on that um sorry I actually direct a quick comment Kelly something I think would be very useful for us um would be some Reflection from you both on your

127own growth your first couple of your superintendent and based on the team you've got now in the district office what do you see as the most important qualities um I think that'll really help guide our search to make sure we find someone who fits in and you know has the strengths where they're needed or can grow those okay anything else you think of those things good thank you sorry we're on YouTube and as you think of those things just like that question about um sight level experience um those are important things write them down and make sure we get to hear those Kelly gets to hear him and that's a great idea to have Kelly um kind of do a little chronological um update of what she thinks the needs are too and what her

128needs were if you can remember back that far Kelly thank you with that conclude our oh go ahead I just want to clarify for Caitlyn the reason why I enjoy hearing you talk is because you provide some amazing input oh thank you so it's not meant to be any kind of a downer thanks I'm also not great for taking compliments but I appreciate it um so this is we yeah please I was excuse me I was also going to mention that um normally when you're looking for superintendents January February March are months that you are looking for otherwise you get to June July August the pool is much different you're way ahead of the game um you know we starting early in that sort of thing but it is a very short uh time frame

129so as you are moving along and you have questions or concerns um share those with Mary we're going to do uh we're really going to work hard on bringing some good candidates to you we will do our due diligence on checking background checks my biggest issue I've had with folks in the past is is if we don't do a good job of checking not just with their references but other folks that you kind of know um that's that usually kind of gets you to where you have some really good strong strong candidates that you can trust uh and you're not going to find out something later after you've already hired them that sort of thing so we work real hard on that part so thank you thank you um so I think that that concludes

130our presentation time um and I'm not seeing any further questions from the board um except just for clarification uh this contract comes with a $112,000 price tag uh that goes through the of the school year um can we clarify where that money would be coming from in our budget just um it make this closer it'd be coming from the general fund with the component under the board because the board is approving this contract and the board is in um search for a new superintendent okay and other options would be to just do this internally and not have an external budget amount um or to have there's other kind of Head Hunter private agency types that that will do a national search for a much larger price tag what what usually is ballpark it'd be significantly

131larger than what is proposed under bco contract like tens of thousands of dollars pushing probably 100 okay yes please and my understanding please all correct me if I'm wrong is that the contract we're considering today has the 12,000 as the maximum acred as we you know as as servic is completed that's correct we're not a private business we're trying to be of service to you it would be um really for the cost of hourly rate for the Consultants who are working with us um and then just actual cost of advertising and that sort of thing but and not to exceed 12,000 and my guess is we will exceed it but 12,000 is your max well and if we do we can we can talk about that as we go yeah and we provide accounting and

132everything of course I me I got to say I'm really excited about the opportunity to to work with bcoe in this Regard in that we were trying to find a balance between getting a big reach and having a neutral party um I think I'm yeah looking forward to Serv a good price this is a totally reasonable price tag for the kind of work you're doing and having people who are local and who have a a stake in US finding the best possible client or forgive me best possible candidate um yeah I looking forward to proceeding with the contract Madam president I don't see an identifying um number um on the agreement it just says the um it's under exhibit B I think it's the last page oh page six based on actual cost incurred based

133on the services in exhibit a but but not to exceed $122,000 and this really is to help to facilitate the process we're still in charge of the process but we need the the third party help of of folks who are invested in our district to to hold our hands along the way because we haven't done this before and and you folks have and that's and and you have a great understanding of our district um chica unified is one of the largest districts in the region and a lead a leader in in many aspects and I think that it's important important to have those um those uh outside perspectives to help keep things fresh it's nice any other further questions from the board um any public comment on this topic okay seeing none I will ask

134for a motion we hire a bu County Office of Education to um to do this job second all right we have a motion by member tennis and a second by member conin uh we were unanimous in our previous vote so uh all those in favor of approval please signify by saying I I I any opposed it's unanimous thank you we really look forward to working with you do we want to um Madam president um oh just want to say thank you very much for your confidence in us we'll work very very hard um alongside you to make this successful thank you you we'll talk with you soon do we want to bat around some names of people maybe to serve on this subcommittee that she made reference to because I'd like to um nominate Becky

135if if we would like to do something like that um somebody mentioned having a a subcommittee of the board you know yeah I don't know is I don't know I just don't know if it's something that has to be done during open session at this time or that we have a certain process that we need to go through for it and I'm not opposed to your nomination either just not sure about processes I think we do need to do it in Open Session if we're going to uh assign people to different parts of the process and certainly if we're going to have a subcommittee okay and for clarification um was I was I clearly understanding sorry you're not quite excused but maybe somebody here that heard better than me um we all can be involved

136in the paper screening okay and when we get to the the the subcommittees and such we would split those out well I should clarify um the way we do paper screening is electronically so it allows for everybody and you don't have a conflict I I don't I shouldn't speak for your process so I will well we want to go with whatever your process is that You' like to use so we're not dictating what you do uh but normally we would do the initial paper screening and then bring candidates to you but you are more than welcome to go through all the candidates also we just have to do that in a controlled setting and we right you would weed out the person from I don't know Washington who doesn't have a master's degree for example

137okay or somebody we know that shouldn't be here and and what you could also do is um have a board member or two be part of your screening process so they see all of the different applications and go through that with you absolutely a better way to do that absolutely this is your process and we're going to Aid you in any way we can to make it a good process for you okay and then the same would be true for the different interview panels you could have one or two board members on each of those yeah when's um sorry I don't have my the calendar in front of me I'm just wondering if this is something that we could iron out specifics of what board member would be kind of assigned is to you know

138how do we how we proceed um if we need to initiate that this evening or if we really should probably bring it to our regular session on September 18th um in Open Session give us some time to wrap our heads around those either way works for us knowing that that timeline is not accurate so if you know that it really won't be on the 26th and 27th it'll be probably moved down a little bit moved down move later thank you yeah some people see calendars from left to right and not top to bottom I think if we're going to put people on subcommittees that we should make sure that is agenda as and notified so I don't think we should take that on tonight okay worth having the public be aware of and Weighing on

139if they decide to do so I appreciate that and and that wasn't to that's not to like yeah I think that it gives me a little more time to process the next steps I think yeah I appreciate I appreciate um Mr tennis bringing that forward for us to probably frame for the September 18th meeting I would think so I'll uh do some Outreach with bcoe to see what they see as the needs for different committees different levels of the process bring those back and then you can identify one or two people to participate in each of those areas or if you just want two people to go through the whole process um you could do that as well do we kind of Envision it being like when we do our workshops in Liaisons where we

140kind of plug see see the see where the openings are and plug people in in Open Session kind of approach that works for me Kaitlyn I mean if that works for us does that does that work in general okay thanks just that's all I needed I need a confirmation that that is a we're used to that process so um that would be helpful and if you know if there's multiple spots and multiple layers then the same person could be at each step of the the way um but some of us who are maybe a little less available just pick picks up one thing here and there so that we are all part of the process at some point some probably to a greater degree than others great that sounds fantastic thank you anything else all

141right I think we'll move on to our next item we we'll see you we'll see you for real this time yeah for real thank you wait just one more thing no I'm just kidding I'm not that funny but I try sometimes uh all right uh that was item 4.1 sorry 4.2 um and we will move to item five which is board member request to agenda's item uh there was no request received for this evening and so with that we can move to closed session it is 7:05 and we'll probably take about a 10-minute break in between um and then be in closed session for some time um I don't think we need a motion to move to closed