001Okay. So, we're gonna we're going to call this particular agenda to order here. I got a 504. Um, we're going to skip the pledge of allegiance for now because we're all both I think we're both on online. So, we'll skip that one. Is there any uh public comment today? >> I'm I can't hear you. Say again. >> No. No. >> No comment. >> No. Okay. Could we have Could we have a staff member do pledge of allegiance? >> Sure. Let's do that. >> Cool. >> All right. >> Right hand over your heart. Ready? Again. >> To the flag of the United States of America and the to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, Jackie, you want to move in the uh the
002first bylaw 9320 meetings and notices? >> Thank you, Dr. De Jesus. So, this is a bylaw that was sent from the California School Board Association just uh February 1st of this year. Last time it was updated by the district was April of 24. The differences is that the board meetings exist where the majority of board members gather, including remotely or electronically, to hear, discuss or deliberate or take action upon an item. A majority of the board shall not use a series of communications of any kind, including official or personal social media accounts, to discuss, deliberate, or take actions of any matter. And if an emergency meeting is held, media needs to be notified by telephone or email if they have provided the email. And then lo locations of meetings. The additional um change is adds
003that no meeting may be held in a facility that prohibits the admittance of any person on the basis of ancestry or any characteristic listed in government code 11135 which is inaccessible to individuals with disabilities or where members of the public must pay or purchase in order to be admitted. The new bylaw removes certain sections that were in the one from 24, which is traditional teleconferencing, teleconferencing by individual board members due to just cause, teleconferencing by individual board members due to emergency circumstances, or teleconference meetings during a proclaimed state of emergency. and those were all removed because they have come up with the uh next bylaw which is 9320.1 which addresses those issues. So Z uh 9320.1 is also new from the CSBA from February 1st of this year and it talks about uh the need
004to hold board meetings in which board members meet remotely or in which in individual board members attend and participate remotely and then it gives specific definitions of certain words and terms. First one is local emergency and that is a condition of extreme peril proclaimed by a city, county or city and county. A local health emergency proclaimed pursuant to health and safety code 101080 and that uh safety code is the release, spill, escape or entry of waste. And waste is considered hazardous waste, medical waste or dangerous substance or also contagious, infectious or communicable disease. The next uh definition is remote which is not being physically present. Remote attendance and participation which is the ability to attend and participate in a board meeting by electronic means. A remote board member is a board member not physically present
005who seeks to attend and participate in a board meeting. And then it gives different examples. So the first one is the traditional method of remote attendance and that is remote board members may attend and participate as long as the following conditions are met. All votes need to be taken by roll call. The meeting is conducted in a manner that protects the statutory and constitutional rights of the parties or public appearing before the board. Physical location of the remote board member is open and accessible to the public during the meeting except during close session. The location from which the remote board member will attend the meeting is noted in the agenda and the agenda is posted at that location advance in advance of the meeting. and at least a quorum of the board is within the
006district boundaries. So we would need to have at least a quorum here at the district office for the board meeting. Then the next is remote attendance as an accommodation. So a board member with a qualifying disability under the Americans with Disability Act that precludes the board member from attending in person. If the request is granted, they may attend and participate in the board meeting as long as the following requirements are met. And some of these are repetitive, but again, the vote by roll call. The remote board member us utilizes both audio and visual technology to participate. The remote board member publicly discloses before any action is taken whether any any individual of the age of 18 or older is present at the board member's location and the general nature of the member's relationship with each
007individual age 18 or older. Conditions not required. Location of the re remote board member in the agenda. making the location of the remote remote board member open and accessible to the public or the posting of the agenda at the location where the board member is in these circumstances. The remote board member shall be considered to be attending in person. So just to >> just to I want to backtrack just to clarify because I'm reading something different for the SB77 which is talks about that change and you mentioned that if a board member is using the just cause exception and is at let's say at at at his residence to my understanding what I'm reading now it doesn't have to be his his space no longer has to be accessible to the public and he no
008longer has to post an agenda if the quorum at the physical location is met. And I think I don't know if you maybe I heard wrong, but I believe you you mentioned that you still need public access. And I'm reading something totally different under SB77. >> Okay. So the public access is if it's a traditional method of remote attendance. So that's if somebody is just if a board member is uh is going to participate and attend um and they have to meet those specific requirements. Now what you're talking about if it's a remote attendance as an accommodation? No, they don't have to have a public, you know, it does not have to be open to the public. They do not have to post the location or anything. The next um item is what you're talking
009about just cause and that's beginning July 1st of 2026 and it gives what is considered just cause and that if it has to do with child care or caregiving that the board member needs to do during the time of the board meeting if there if they have a contagious illness or if it's it needs uh to be related to the board member's physical or mental condition not otherwise reasonably accommodated. If the board member is traveling, so if they are out of state or the local agency, if they're uh immuno compromised, someone at their home where it would be a risk for them to participate in person, or if physical or family medical emergency prevents the board member from being here in person, or if they have a military service obligation. And in that case, the
010vote has to be taken by roll call. The meeting is conducted in a manner that protects the statutory and constitutional right. Again, the public is able to access the meeting via a two-way audiovisisual platform. The agenda for the meeting includes information describing how the members of the public can access the p the platform. Minutes of the board meeting state that the remote me member attended and participated remotely. There has to be a quorum here at the district. The remote member utilize utilizes both audio and visual technology. They have to disclose if there's an 18-year-old, but it doesn't say anything about their location having to be put on the agenda. It doesn't have to be something that any public can access. So, it depends on which way the remote is being used as to what applies
011to it. >> Gotcha. And I know there's a limit five for five. I think it says no more than five board meetings per year for just cause. >> Correct. If if we are a a district, which we are, that normally holds two meetings per month. So, yes, it does stand it can only have >> five remote meetings. I I think this is a great change because a lot of times I know myself and others other members uh had to travel due to work and um this allows us to still participate and at least put in our comments and see what's going on and um you know handle our obligations with the district while we're still doing our full-time job. Um I think it's I think it's a great change, a much needed change. >> Yes.
012Um the next is if there's a remote board meeting uh being proclaimed because of a state of emergency. So again, the the majority has to decide that yes, the emergency is enough to where there should not be um a a board meeting held in person. So all members would be able in that case to attend remotely and the uh the agenda let's see in the board may hold a remote uh board meeting without including the location of the board members making the location of the board members open to the public posting the agenda at the board members location and there has to be at least a quorum that even though it's remote is still within the boundaries of the district. Um, that one entails again votes by roll call. Public is able to access the
013meeting via call-in or audiovisisual platform or service. And the agenda for the meeting includes information describing how members of the P public can access the platform. and the board may continue under a state of emergency to meet remotely uh throughout one or more 45day period. If we need to extend for another 45day period again, the board needs to reconsider and make the decision that yes, it's still necessary. So, it's not an automatic renewal of the 45 days. It has to be voted on by the board. The next bylaw is 9322, which is the agenda and meeting materials. Last time the district adopted this policy was in January of 2007, and this policy again is new from February of 2026. It offers two different ways for public comments. One is a public comment item for all
014open session items or a separate public comment for each open session agenda item. And it gives you two options. So you you know the district we will once we bring this up for a uh approval for a vote, we need to decide which option we're going to use. There's also the agenda doesn't need to provide an opportunity for public comment on an item that has previously been considered at an open meeting by a committee comprised exclusively of board members provided that the following conditions are met. Members of the public at that time were afforded an opportunity to comment on the item. The item has not been substantially changed since the committee considered it and a quorum of the committee attended and participated in the commi committee meeting at which the item was considered from a
015singular physical location that was identified on the agenda. The agenda for a regular board meeting shall provide members of the public with an opportunity to address the board regarding matters within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board which are not on the agenda. The next item is the disability related accommodations or modification. Um, the change is the agenda for a regular meeting shall list the address designated for public inspection of documents related to an open session item or for records of a statement threatening litigation against the district to be discussed in close session when such documents have been distributed to the board less than 72 hours before the meeting. Each agenda shall include a statement regarding the option for students and parents or guardians to request that directory information or personal information of the student
016or parent or guardian be excluded from the minutes and that request has to be made in writing for the agenda preparation. If a board member makes a written request to have a specific matter within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board and it is denied, the board member may appeal the response to the the request of the board. The appeal shall be placed on the next upcoming regular meeting agenda for board action. The action will only decide whether, when, and how the item would be agendaized if that is what is decided by the board. Then it discusses the regular meeting agenda dissemination to members in the public. Materials distributed to the board related to a regular meeting shall be made available to the public upon request without delay. agendas will be posted on the homepage
017of the district website. And then it goes into if a if a writing which relates to an open session agenda item or which contains a claim or written threat of litigation which will be disclosed in co close session during a regular meeting is distributed to the board less than 72 hours prior to the meeting. The writing shall be made available for public inspection at a designated location at the same time the document is distributed to all or a majority of the board. If the writing is distributed to at least a majority of the board at a time when the designated location is closed to the public, this requirement may be satisfied by posting the writing on the district website if the following conditions are met. An initial staff report or similar document containing an executive
018summary and any staff recommendations related to the agenda item is made available for public inspection at the designated location at least 72 hours before the meeting. The writing is immediately posted to the district website and marked clearly that it relates to an agenda item. The district lists the website address where such writings may be assessed uh on all board meeting agendas and a physical copy of the document is made available for public inspection at the designated location at the beginning of the next regular business hours but not less than 24 hours before the meeting. And then it discusses special meeting agendas. the same requirements are applicable as a regular board meeting. Um, so those are the new uh bylaws and those are the changes that are different from what we currently have approved by the
019board. Are there any questions or clarification that's needed? >> I do not. Ken, do you have any questions? Um, listen. I think I'm going to bunch everything up. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I'm going to kick my camera on. Expect that you'll see me in a car moving. And I think that this will address one of the comments I'm going to make. Uh there's a lot going on here that seems to indicate me that there is a movement to try and get everything to be as consent calendared as possible. So, in other words, we've had some subcommittee work and now all of a sudden, we're going to bring all that back and basically get into a habit of it's been approved by the subcommittee and you couldn't make it that day, then too bad for
020you. or we have these board members that are off and wherever they happen to be and it just becomes very um easy for everyone just to not be there in person. it it. So, the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to kick my camera on. So, we um don't have people thinking that I have another board member or two in the back seat whispering to me about how we can circumvent a process. So, uh I'll kick the camera off now. Could everyone see that I was actually there? >> Yes. Good. So, um I wanna I I want to talk about um sometimes what things have looked like in 10 years of service. Um it it has not shocked me. It would not shock me to find out that at certain times you
021may have had staff members texting each other. You may have had board members texting each other. I'm talking about the days of the charter fiascos. Uh you may have had um um some interest in the community. I would hate to think that someone's wife was telling them what to do, but here's what I would think. I think the nature of it is if you're sitting up there texting everyone and you had somebody in the community is particularly ligious, they could ask since you were sworn in since you are conducting the district's business and since you can't separate your phone from your hand that maybe your personal phone has become an instrument of district business And I think that if everybody looked at that at it that way and decided that well I I do have
022to take a call from work. I have an emergency. Um that I could depend on the rest of my um uh board members to handle the business because we have cohesion enough on the board where there's not a bunch of underlying motives and politics and all that going. So, I think I would tell someone if you are producing, if you're in the business of producing uh evidence by using your phone to text everybody in the meeting, it would knock me to find out that the lawyer for the at for the district could not protect what you're being uh texting on your phone from being introduced into the record. And and of course when that happens, you don't get to pick what you want everybody to see. The contents of your phone get produced and then
023someone else picks for you. So to be on your phone and chitchatting with everybody and texting and especially if there's something controversial where you're having to make a rough decision that the community might be split on and especially if there is a an an issue where there are some things that the board members cannot release and make in details in making the decision. I have lived through these things all of them. It's been a long time since I've lived through them. >> Um, and I think we've got a board that is able to say, "Yeah, I can. I understand, you know, whatever you got going on at work. Go ahead, step out." Um, whatever. So, uh, that's about as nuanced as I can get about the individual board members and their conduct was, uh, um,
024communicating with others. anything that would violate the Brown Act. So, if I'm in a board, if I'm in one of these meetings and I've got someone else that's a board member chitchatting with me in my hotel room uh and influencing the policy of management or any other subcommittee, that's the nature of this. They want the business to be open. Now, I do know of a situation where there was a Brown Act violation against the majority of a board because they changed the date of the day of the meeting and the time of the meeting, the regular meeting. And somebody went through and said, "Tell me and show me where this was this was um done and and discussed in the public meeting, an open meeting. and it was very quickly determined this decision was made
025by a couple board members getting on the phone. This did not happen here. So, the intent of this is not to have some clandestine communication going on and to make this into a a cut and paste and exclude the public. So, that's on the personal level. When it comes to public comment, I have never ever been a proponent of saying, "Okay, if you're going to make public comment, you're going to make the public comment now at the beginning of the meeting uh for any item not on the agenda." And you're also going to be required if you tend to speak on a subject um in an agenda item, you're also going to make that now because once that time period goes is over, we can be up there saying whatever we want or whatever and
026the public is virtually squaltched from participating. I don't support that. I am of of of the idea that we can that we can um uh that someone can come in. The traffic is LA. They can come in. They may email the board uh the the uh the board secretary, the executive assistant and say, "I intend to show up. I'm going to be speaking tonight. Someone make a call. Someone can do whatever." And just because they get there late, we don't want to exclude public participation. At the same time, I think public participation, especially the people that attend the meetings, however they attend, they may have some, it's a dynamic process. We have people that are attending, they're watching, they have a question. Um, they don't understand what's going on. So to exclude those people by
027saying, "Oh, no, your time has come and gone." Um, I don't want to serve on a board that lacks uh the ability uh to allow for the participation of people that have uh voted for them. It's becoming increasingly easy through appointments and all this other thing where it it rules based on I'm not going to get in trouble here, but there are people ready to serve uh this coming election that have been precluded for one reason or another. So, anything that turns the agenda of the board meeting into business that's been conducted solely in the subcommittees with the decisions already been made and then it's just a series of consent agendas arranged by business, education, legal, whatever. I'm not a proponent of that. I'm the one that inuced the subcommittee thing and it was never
028my intent to do that. So, anything that stops someone from standing up and going out and filling a slip and coming forward and not disrupting the meeting and following the time limits, I am a proponent of someone who allows public input to happen within the rules of order, but I do not want to squaltch that in any way. Okay. Um, finally, when we put this all together, if we're making a habit out of having different people not be there and be there and not be there, um, we just need to ask ourself, can we put can we put, uh, a quorum together? If it's three board members, great. I don't think we need to enact all this stuff that's going on in the background. I think if someone uh has a problem getting to the
029board meetings because of some necessity uh of their position outside of uh of the board in their professional world. I know there are a number of things going on. I don't want to call out one or two different board members. Uh but there are board members out there that are community servants and they are required to be uh participating in certain things that happen that are dynamic and I'm not up for uh counting how many times they've been there. I don't want to say any more about that. But I think we need to to to keep with the idea that if there are three people there and there is not something that requires a four of board member participation or a super majority that uh we do that and my hope is that staff um
030does not get in the habit of understanding what the temperature of the water is where we're coming forward with items that are just constantly controversial and kind of go against the stream of what the community might think when it comes to how the board members represent those people that voted for them. Remember when you go through a when you go through a uh when you're publicly elected kind of decide I'm going to put away what I think and I think I'm going to take a look at what the majority of the community might look at uh and never discount that. Um, so I think I think that's that. So again, if you're going to be on your phone the whole meeting and you need somebody in the community who considers themselves an influencer to be
031telling you what to do when you vote, I would re I would suggest you reconsider your your ability to function on the board. Um, uh, number two, if anything is repressive about the public giving their respectful, meaningful input whenever they need to, I think that's a mistake. Um, and um, again, I think there's a lot that goes with the superintendent looking at the things that are coming in from oversight agencies and saying, "Does that fit our district? Are we checking a box? Does a staff member feel strongly about something like that and is completely detached from the community and the board that represents them? And then finally, um um chairman, would you like me to separate my comments about uh the stuff that's coming forward or can I just move this and dump it all
032in with this? >> Just dump it all in. >> Okay. So, so I I I'm going to I'm going to be uh really clear here uh and and be careful. I don't want to disrespect other board members. I don't want it to think that just because I speak that somehow um my opinion is the only one that's valid. There are people that are pushing down uh uh um policies and policy updates and and I I very much appreciate that. But those people do not sit in the chair of the superintendent. They do not sit in the chair of any of our key uh staff members, which is every staff member. They are not the taxpayers that we represent. And so just because someone issues a policy doesn't mean that I have to adopt it. And
033if I look at it and say, you know what, we've got a pretty good way of handling this right now. Now I'm just going to make a general comment here. It should not be uh considered to be some measure of something I'm trying to message. But say for example, we had a need for an emergency service that's provided by a public agency that's local. That might be a medical thing. It might be something else. I am unaware in my entire almost 10 years of service to the board of our agencies that would fit that not being responsive. So if there was an issue arose that something like so for example, this district's been uh around it's the second oldest district. So if someone were to say to me um that in in uh 1892 that
034they should not be using artificial intelligence on a computer, I would be shocked. So every once in a while something like that will come forward where society has a big technology change or whatever. But just because someone decides that they're going to make a policy that I may suggest has a political motivation and it and and it's not something that um is representative to everyone, uh don't expect me to be responsive to that. Um because I will ask is there really a reason to have this policy? So if I think there's a policy needed then I would tell the board president or my chairperson uh you know I think we should discuss this. They look at it they may say Ken I I I think you you have a singular focus on this but uh
035no I I I don't know that we need that at this time and I would have to be respectful of that. Um, at the same time, others may may feel differently than me, but staff at times has a requirement just because the agencies above them, namely the county and state, may come forward and say, "You are required by some action of some governing agency to put this on the agenda." And I understand the staff would be required to put that item on the agenda. Now, if they don't put it on the agenda, then they could be affected a as an employee. There could be some action. But once that's put on the agenda, be very clear, part of the reason us board members sit here is because we maintain something called local control. And that
036is relevance to whether or not this stuff within reason, the average reasonable person would look at it and say, "Yeah, you have to have that or something." But if it's something that's very nuanced and it represents something that's not uh don't be surprised if a board member uh refuses to participate and in fact you could see a situation where something's on the agenda and the board does not participate at all and something needs to be moved into seconded to be open for discussion. Now things may be on the agenda again staff's responsibility would be to reintroduce that over and over and over but let's not forget local control of this district and its students and the considerations that go with individual students groups of students and the students as a whole does not lie with
037anyone other than the five board members that represent this district. I'm trying to be as clear as possible without, you know, causing a lot of trouble. Staff does a great job and this subcommittee that that I um sit hold a seat on to make sure that everything that's being put to them ends up in discussion here. I respect that. And just because something doesn't appear to be uh all lined up 100% doesn't mean staff is doing anything other than an excellent job. So, thanks for your patience. I'm long- winded, but there was a lot said there. In summary, get three board members there. Have an agenda that's not obtuse. Give the people an ability to speak uh uh in a reasonable way. Do not rat hole everybody into corner. Do not put the work of
038the entire board into subcommittees. and do not um expect that things that do not fit our community and are irrelevant and and create partisan politics on one side or the other that I will ever consider those. Thank you. >> Thanks, Ken. Well said. I'm going to move on now to uh future meeting agenda items. You have any uh any recommendations, Ken? >> Uh no. Staff is doing a great job lining those up for us. >> Yeah, she is. I can't complain. You did a wonderful job. I like every all the topics you've been bringing up. So, I appreciate that. Does anybody else have anything else before we adjourn this meeting? I know it's getting close to uh a regular session here soon, so I know you're tired. Anybody else have anything? >> No, sir. >>
039Okay. So, we'll join this meeting at uh 5:40 and then we'll see you tonight.