10/15/2025 - English - Chula Vista Elementary School District Board Meeting

001Welcome everyone. All board members are present except for Vice President Tamayo. We will now approve the agenda. Is there a motion? Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Recording secretary, please call the vote. >> Ramirez Dominguez. I >> Tolston. >> Hi, >> Dominguez Cvantes. >> I >> Ugarte. >> I motion carries. 41 absent. >> Oral communication on close session items. The oral communication section provides the public with an opportunity to address the board on close session items only. Persons wishing to be heard may attend in person and should complete a request to be heard card and submit it to the recording secretary before the start of the meeting. Speakers are requested to limit their remarks to three minutes and speak in a respectful and professional manner. The board shall limit the total time for public input

002on each topic to 20 minutes. With board consent, the president may increase or decrease the time allowed for public comments depending on the number of persons wishing to be heard. No board action can be taken. The board of trustees cannot legally take action or respond to matters not posted on the public agenda due to government code, but will refer the matter to the superintendent for review and report. There are no speakers. We will now adjourn to close close session in accordance with the following. Government code sections 3549.1D and 54957.6 Six, Collective Bargaining Employee Negotiations LLP and Adam Silva McNal LLP employee organizations Chiliva Vista Classified Employees Organization Chiliva Vista Educators Non-represented Employees and Administrators Association Chula Vista Government Code section 54957B1 public employee discip discipline dismissal release conference with legal counsel anticip anticipated litigation, significant

003exposure to litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9D2, one case government code section 54956.9D1, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, case number H9061, CMS-J209956, Education Code section 35146, consider waiver of student expulsion hearing and stipulated suspended expulsion agreement. Student number 114334. Government code section 54956.9D1 conference with legal counsel existing litigation in the office of administrative hearings case number 2025030975. Government code section 54957A allows for discussion of potential threats to the security of building services or public access to services or facilities. Note the chief of police, a deputy, a security consultant or a security operations manager must participate in that portion of closed session. We now reconvene to open session with all board members present. If the minutes can um include that Vice President Theayo arrived at 4:45, close session announcements will be made by the

004clerk. Education Code section 35146 consider waiver of student expulsion hearing and stipulated suspended expulsion agreement student number >> 114334 a motion by member Deia Dominguez Cvantes second by member Jessica Tolston the board approved the settlement agreement by the following vote the A's were four ns were zero abstensions zero one absent on Government code section 54956.9D1 conference with legal counsel existing litigation in office of administrative hearings case number 2025 a motion by member Lucio Garte second by member Karen Ramirez Dominguez. The board approved the settlement agreement by the following vote. The A's were four, no zero, abstension zero, one absent. >> Thank you. The open session of the regular meeting of the Chula Vista Elementary School District Board of Education is now in order. Welcome everyone. All board members are present. And Dr. Reyes, if you

005will lead us in the pledge of allegiance, please. All right, right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America to the stand indivisible andice for all. >> Thank you. We will be approving the agenda. I want to note that the staff has withdrawn item 13 C, so please strike it. Um, I will entertain a motion to approve the agenda with flexibility. We've asked that items 10A, 10B be moved before item 7 and that 9B, 9 C, and 9D um are moved after the or following the oral communication and that item 14 be moved after those items. >> 14A, please. >> Yes. >> Uh instead of just 14 >> 14A, just 14 A. >> Just 14 A. >> Okay. Thank you. Are you making that motion?

006>> I'm making that motion. >> Second. >> Recording secretary, if you will call the vote, please. >> Ramirez Dominguez. >> I Tolston. >> Hi. >> Dominguez. >> Alvantes. I >> motion carries. 5. >> All right. We have moved item 10A um before oral communication. Dr. Reyes. And I know you have Dr. Dr. Reyes also would like to make an announcement in in the same manner of presentations and recognition. >> So, welcome everyone. We have a full house today. So, before we begin, um I know I'm going to put her on the spot, but I would like to welcome Wendy Lopez. So, she is uh the new assistant to the superintendent and the board of the education. And it's also her birthday. >> so her first day will be here till 10 11 o'clock >> 10:30.

007>> So welcome welcome Wendy. Uh I board uh today uh this month is breast cancer awareness month. So I would like to uh give the board and cabinets and everyone here on on my left uh a pin which uh is in support of breast cancer awareness. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> I'm a survivor. >> I'm a 10. [Music] >> All right. So today, you know, we have a a student that uh we would like to recognize. And so the American Heart Association Kids Heart Challenge and the American Heart Challenge teaches students how to care for their hearts, minds, and bodies through age appropriate lessons and activities in more than 200 20,000 schools nationwide. These programs encourage students to get achie uh to get active, build confidence and support the association's work in funding life-saving

008research and education in heart disease and stroke prevention as well as cardiac emergency preparedness. So out of uh out of hundreds of youth applicants, Bodie Perez, a second grade student at Salt Creek Elementary, was selected as one of only 15 National Youth Heart Ambassadors for the 202526 school year. Congratulations, Bodie Perez. Congratulations. Count down. >> Everyone One, two, three. One more. One, two, three. [Applause] Board comments. >> Bodie, congratulations. Thank you for um making our district shine with your effort and the things that you learn and the way that you've um just guided us and and keeps giving us like this sense of of honor that you are part of our district. So, thank you. Thank you to your parents, to the teachers, part of the school for obviously this is a collaboration. Um, and

009we see just the great work that you're all doing um in him as second grade. It's an amazing accomplishment. I can only imagine the marvelous things you would do in the future and I wish you all the best and continue to shine bright, lead us, and thank you so much. Congratulations, >> Bodie. Congratulations. Um, you're so young to be doing so many things. So, I can only see the future is bright. The sky's is the limit for you and you're a shining example to all of your classmates, not just at Salt Creek, but at the whole district. And everybody will see you on the Instagram and everybody will be so proud of you as we are already. Congratulations and keep it going. >> Bodie, you're famous. >> I saw you on the internet even. Yes.

010And this is what it says. Recognition of National Youth Heart Ambassador. We are excited. This is what it says to introduce Bod as National Youth Heart Ambassador. He is a second grader from Chula Vista and a heart survivor. Bod's journey heart journey began at the age of one when he was diagnosed with congenital heart defects, including a hole in his heart. It's already public, Bodie. It's on the internet. At age three, he had open heart surgery. Boy, you can be an example for us. You look at you. You're here. You won't let go of your plaque. Yes, we know you're not going to let go of it. And we want to congratulate you. There's so much that we can learn from the youth. Thank you, Bod. Likewise, as my colleagues has said, um I think

011it's is great that you're sharing your experience and sharing and uh raising the awareness of how important it is to uh take care of ourselves and and the importance of um the heart and and being able to to be physically fit, right? Um, yes, you are in the news. You're in on the internet. You're on the Star News. Uh, so you're you're very um public right now. Uh, so congratulations for for that publicity. Uh, congratulations for what you're about to do in promoting and and raising awareness. Uh, let us know how we can help uh as a district uh to help your campaign and help you spread the word throughout the district. Congratul Congratulations again, >> Bodie. You're an ambassador already. That's a lot to live up to. You're famous. You're on the internet and

012you have the title of ambassador. That's a big title. I'm kind of thinking Salt Creek might do a Bodie Day or something cuz we got to celebrate you. Um, congratulations Bodie. It's a it's a big honor. Um, one out of so many people and at such a young age. And so as everyone said, um, thank you for representing us well and congratulations. Good job, Ambassador Bodie. [Applause] Dr. Reyes. >> Right. We're also very proud to acknowledge and congratulate director of communications, Miss Jovanna Castro, for being appointed as the regional chair for the California School Public Relations Association, also known as Kaspra. Kaspra is a professional organization committed to advancing excellence in the school communications and strengthening public understanding and support for education. In this regional leadership role, Miss Castro will represent the region, support local

013out uh outreach efforts, and help elevate the voices of school communication professionals. And uh you know, uh Miss Castro, you make us all very proud and uh you represent CVSD very well. Congratulations. [Applause] You get a plaque, too. One, two, three. [Applause] more comments. >> I don't know how you're going to find the time to do it, but I know you will. You are an amazing um hardworking woman, and we've seen it since I got here in in January. Um, and I just want to congratulate you. I know that you do a lot and and I just am excited for you to this new um area where you're gonna be um working and representing us and I'm sure you're going to do a great job. So, congratulations again and >> get a spa treatment or

014something before you start. >> Communications and >> congratulations. I've always told you you do an amazing job. I mean, the way that you communicate, organize, everything has been nothing short of amazing. I'm sure you're going to do great contributions to Calspra. So, just again, like Bodie, keep it going. So, congratulations. >> Thank you, Jovanna. You're also on the internet. And um I didn't realize that you're also going to be the regional chair for the San Diego Imperial Region. So, it's not just San Diego for the California School Public Relations Association and um it details the process of you getting appointed and which is amazing. They looked at your qualifications. Uh they looked at your professional background and their executive board decided you were it. Well, thank you and thank you for representing us. We look

015forward to bigger things. Okay. Thank you. Jovanna, you you've been amazing all this time since uh almost day one. Um you definitely have trans transformed the level of communications that is going out from from the district ever since I remember the first week you came out with the standard of this is the color that we're going to use. This is the image that we're going to use and only this format we're going to use. So you started standardizing and you started putting some frameworks around the uh communication that everybody is going to use. Um you transform our websites. Now our websites uh are being updated consistently. They have the same look and feel. It's not I'm doing this and somebody else is doing something else. Uh so I'm grateful. I'm grateful that um every time

016Well, I'm almost grateful because now it's everywhere, >> right? I know that's >> every time I open any social media, anything on the internet, there's something about the district there. Uh pictures about uh the community events, pictures about our students and the highlighting. Um we're being recognized everywhere because of your outreach. Um, and especially I want to highlight your your efforts to bring families into the fold. Uh, I think that that has been an important step. I think you're you're taking the the bull by the horns and and doing something great about it. So, I seen an amazing out outcome from with the parent university and I'm looking forward to everything else that you're going to achieve with that. So, congratulations. Welld deserved. >> I always go back to the first time we met and

017you gave me your lesson plan. Um, you've impressed me from the very beginning. Um, and you continue to impress me. Um, and it's now time and and if I'm right, you really weren't in this educational world prior to this. And so you've really made a name for yourself because not only are you on the internet, if I say that I'm a trustee in CVSD and I talk about communications, other communications people go Jovana and I'm like, "Oh, so she's famous. She's you guys know her." Um it it's about time. I'm I'm glad that others are finally recognizing the the impact that you're having. And um if it means that I have to see Dr. Reyes's face every time I open social media, then I'm good with it because he's everywhere. and CVSD is everywhere. And

018when I'm driving and I see whether I see it's a a vehicle with an advertisement of our school or it's on a radio station or we're on social media, I always know that that's you and your team. And so congratulations. It's very welld deserved. [Applause] Okay. Communication to the board of education. Chula Vista Classified Employees Organization, Miss Angela Reid. Thank you very much. So, my four years, no speech tonight. I would just like to thank the board for the time that I have spent in front of you, the support that you've provided to CBCO. This is my last board meeting and um my term is coming to an end. I would also like to thank Dr. Reus for acknowledging October as breast cancer awareness month. We do have employees currently working in the district that

019are fighting breast cancer and I'm glad that we're acknowledging it as a as a district and providing that support. But again, I just want to acknowledge the help and the support that the district has provided to the classified employees here at Chula Vista and the growth and the improvements that we as a team have provided for these employees. Thank you. Thank you, [Applause] Chula Vista educators. Miss Rosie Martinez. Good evening. I want to start off by recognizing Raquel U Tian, Rachel Tien, one of uh CVE site representatives at Wolf Canyon who was here last month advocating on behalf of the staff um and the resources and supports that they are l that they were lacking. We want to thank the board and Dr. Reyes for hearing their concerns and quickly responding. Thanks to Miss Morales

020for being there and being hands-on. I know that it has made a difference and progress is being made to address those concerns and to move forward. It is important that we continue to work collaboratively in ensuring that all voices are heard and concerns addressed before having to get to this point in order to respond. There are many needs across the district that still need attention and we look forward to continuing the dialogue and problem solving together. On another positive note, I want to share with you that tomorrow our district community school steering committee will be providing onboarding for our newest community schools. We have Montgomery, Otai, Castle Park, Vista Square, and Lauderbach. We strongly believe that this work is the best way to be proactive and ensure the needs of all our students, community, and

021staff are met through shared leadership and engagement, especially during this time when our federal government is continuously taking away the muchneeded resources for our neediest students and families. I also want to thank Dr. Patel and her team for their work around MTSS. They presented to parents yesterday during DAC DACA and anyone who knows me knows that one of my main goals in joining union leadership was to advocate for this work and to ensure that all students have access to early interventions in both academics as well as social emotional supports. MTSS has been a 10-year journey and so it means a lot to see it incorporated into the rigorous learning for all and um rather than just some extra work that gets put off to the side if there is time recognizing that the the needs

022of the whole child are essential for their success. I know that there is still a lot of work to do in this area but we are moving in the right direction. One concern I do need to bring up is around dual immersion. I have many years of experience as a bilingual teacher as well as both the Spanish and English components of dual immersion programs in a 5050 model. So I can appreciate the amount of work that goes into teaching in two languages as a big challenge. Um the biggest challenge is always around appropriate materials. It is difficult to find authentic highquality text in Spanish which forces many teachers to have to create their own. Since the challenge is aloc since the change in allocations made to the dual immersion program this year, our teachers have

023had to shift their instruction to teach language arts through science and social studies. We recognize the positive potential in this shift, but those who are in the classroom putting these changes into practice were not brought into the conversation before making this change. I want to thank Lonnie Pettis and Maria Montgomery for recognizing the importance of this and for scheduling some meetings to provide these opportunities. Now, I want to ask that we make sure that there are multiple ways to open this dialogue up so that everyone um can be engaged since afterchool meetings are not always possible for everyone to attend. Some challenges that I am aware of include the quality of Spanish in our twig curriculum, the lack of training on NGSS standards that our teachers have received throughout the years, and the lack of

024literature materials being provided. We're happy to see that the district is looking into a new social studies adoption before the end of this school year. It is much needed and long overdue. Lastly, I just want to say that as you review the contract for assistant superintendent tonight, I cannot say enough about the amazing work that everyone at that table um does every day and you're very much appreciated. Uh the amount of responsibilities on their plate and the grace with which they handle them is admirable. Um thank you for recognizing breast awareness month. uh CVE will be having a team participating this Sunday at the American Cancer uh society walk and so and also lastly to congratulate Jovana for the amazing work that you do. Thank you. Good night. >> Thank you Administrators Association Chula Vista

025Miss Terresa Corona. >> Uh good evening. Uh on behalf of AACV, I want to recognize that tonight's agenda I know carries um quite a bit of significant and important business for the district. So in that spirit, I'll keep my remarks brief and just take a little bit of time to remind us all of our shared purpose. um in the midst of uh upcoming conversations, decisions, and all those things that need to be made, our focus must always return to those at the heart of our work, the children of the Chilivist Elementary School District. Um really, they're our purpose, our responsibility, and our greatest measure of success. Thank you. >> Thank you. Before we get to oral communications, if our students that are here who would um were honored would like to leave, it would be

026a good time for that to happen. We have seven speakers in public comment. Oral communications. The oral communication section provides the public with an opportunity to address the board on non-aggenda items. Persons wishing to be heard may attend in person and should complete a request to be heard card and submit it to the recording secretary before the start of the meeting. Speakers are requested to limit their remarks to three minutes and speak in a respectful and professional manner. The board shall limit the total time for public input on each topic to 20 minutes. With board consent, the president may increase or decrease the time allowed for public comments depending on the number of persons wishing to be heard. The board of trustees cannot legally take action or respond to matters not posted on the public

027agenda due to government code, but will refer the matter to the superintendent for review and report. And first we have Rachel Than and after Rachel be Rosemary Long just to be ready. Good evening. I want to begin by sincerely thanking you for listening to the concerns we shared at the last meeting and for the swift, thoughtful response. We've seen real progress, more visible leadership, stronger communication, and a genuine effort to listen and support. Those steps have made a difference and we're truly grateful. At the same time, there's still important work ahead, particularly in making sure students are placed in environments where they can succeed and where staff and peers feel safe. Too many teachers still come to work carrying anxiety about what the day might bring. That shouldn't be the norm. We are also noticing

028a growing trend where general education classrooms, as I alluded to last time, are functioning more like mild mod settings and mild mod programs are beginning to resemble mod severe environments. This shift makes it even more critical that students are placed appropriately and that staff are equipped to meet their needs safely and effectively. The district has invested significantly in social emotional learning curriculum and positive behavior systems. For many students, those supports are effective, but for others, they're not. Teachers often feel hesitant to enforce real consequences. And without clear tools and consistent support, more and more teachers are beginning to see suspension as the only option left to maintain safety and order in the classrooms, something none of us want to be um see become the default. We're also starting to see another concerning outcome. Some families

029are choosing to keep their children home because they are being bullied and the students responsible face little to no real consequence. This not only impacts the safety and well-being of those students, but undermines the trust families have in our schools and district to protect and support their children. What we need now is training and guidance on how to respond when behaviors go beyond what social emotional learning can address. When a student is verbally aggressive, destroying property, or physically harming others, these situations are real and staff need practical strategies and clear protocols to handle them confidently and consistent consistently. Our shared goal is a safe, supportive learning environment for all students and staff. Thank you again for the progress already made and for continuing to work with us on the next steps toward that goal. Make

030it a great day or not. The choice is yours. >> Thank you. >> Rosemary Long and after Rosemary, it will be Christy. So, Rosemary and then Christy. >> Did you mean Rosemary? Larry. >> Oh, Larry. Sorry. I'm Yeah, I'm looking at my >> I might have just scribbled that. It's okay. My fault. Good evening, Superintendent Reyes and members of the board. My name is Rosemary Lowry and I'm a parent of two students of the district. I am actively involved in advocacy for the special education community at the district and in South Bay. I want to begin by expressing my gratitude for your continued commitment to student and staff safety. At the last board meeting, I asked that the district prioritize the front office buzzen systems. I'm happy to hear that progress is being made at

031several school sites. I truly appreciate everyone who has prioritized, inquired on, and worked on this project. Tonight, I'm here to speak on behalf of several concerned parents regarding a recent shift on campus of inampus access at several schools. This school year and for some, shortly after fall break, some schools transition from our district-wide bell-to-bell closed campus where parents or guardians could walk their children to the line and exit at the sound of the bell to a new parent free model. Parents are now stopped at the gates at these schools and not allowed to walk their children to their line, even for younger grades like kindergarten or students with IEPs. Some schools have tried to set assembling locations such as using the NPR for a few grades awaiting their teachers. This also has its challenges. Crowded,

032noisy spaces make regulation difficult and create challenges for supervision. It's pract practically impossible to properly supervise many children in crowded loud spaces. Therefore, bullying behavior goes unnoticed. Starting the day already disregulated sets our students up for a day of struggle rather than a day of learning. In addition, there are concerns regarding children with IEPs. Many um while some have taken into account children with one-on-one service minutes by ensuring parent aid gate handoff, there are still children that are currently undergoing evaluations or don't quite have enough behaviors to warrant a one-on-one that still require parent support during drop off. Not all aids can arrive early. Most campuses do not have enough staff or noon duties to facilitate appropriate gate handoffs and supervision afterwards. For students with school for students with school refusal or transition difficulties, a

033few minutes with the parent at drop off can mean the difference between a successful day and one filled with behavioral challenges. In addition, for students with one-on-one service minutes, you need to ensure the appropriate service minutes are documented within the IEP if you are now requiring gate handoff. These are all very important details to consider. While we greatly appreciate the district's focus on safety, we do not believe that removing parents or guardians during a brief 10-minute drop off window will meaningful meaningfully improve campus security. Instead, it will increase student dysregulation, student behaviors, and bullying. It'll decrease staff retention, parent engagement, and sense of community. With less interactions with our principles, teachers, and other parents will be increasingly disconnected and isolated. We urge the board and superintendent to consider the broader implications of this policy shift,

034especially since it's been reportedly um been it's been reported to be implemented districtwide. We all all we ask is that change is meaningful and appropriate to each school site and child. Thank you. >> Thank you, Christie M. And then it'll be Paresa Hill. Good evening. I'd like to follow up on my request for a current equity based needs assessment at Rogers. Our behavioral support currently manages more than 40 behavioral intervention plans while another school site with the same full-time support manages 12 behavioral intervention plans. Our counselor also carries a case load over 30 students, many with be um significant needs. Yet, the position is still deemed only part-time. I don't understand how these positions are funded equally when the workloads are so different. This doesn't reflect equity. It reflects imbalance. A current needs assessment would

035make these disparities clear and help ensure staffing and funding truly align with student need as outlined in the district's own goals. I'm not asking for special treatment, just transparency and equity in how support is allocated. Thank you. Thank you, Paresa Hill. And then Mary Davis. Hi, my name is Paresa Hill. I'm a parent of two young children um within the district. At the suggestion of district HR, I'm a newly school site council and safety committee member and I'm the founder of Bonita Mamas, over 600 mamas and a handful of active grandmas. to our two newly elected within this year um parent board members. Thank you for your time on the board. I know it's hard to be a parent and then also be here. Um I'm want to commend Miss um Ramirez Dominguez for asking

036the difficult questions and providing the transparency that we need. While we may not always attend the meetings, we as parents are listening to the board meetings live, on playback, and in the midst of our busy evenings with our children. I'm here to address an issue that affects us all, which is a continuing theme of safety and security of our children. I will not be naming schools for the safety of our students, but I have given the information um to this um lady over here. Um, unfortunately in today's climate, we must be vigilant to protect our children from potential threats. One simple nocost step the district can take to ensure that all school buildings are properly locked and secure at school drop off. This includes, but is not limited to front doors, corridors, and gates. This

037is a stop gap until the planned autolocks, buzzing system, and cameras are installed. This simple measure may deter and will most definitely delay unwanted company. Locked and monitored entrances serve as a critical line of defense against unauthorized individuals that wish to gain access to our campuses. While rare, open doors and unlocked entrances allow students the opportunity to exit, particularly if they are one of our more vulnerable sped students. Anyone with mal intent could walk into the doors a sexual registered sexual offender, a parent with a restraining order, or god forbid a mass shooter. Anyone with um excuse me, I'm grateful and relieved to report that I brought this up with our school principal and she included us in safety discussions while also working with the district to make plans to follow through with additional safety

038installs. I'm grateful for her leadership and collaboration. My gratitude to her and every principal that works tirelessly to help keep campuses safe. Let's keep the momentum and continue to focus on entrance safety. I urge the board to ensure all schools are locked after parent drop off and remain locked until pickup. Our children's safety is non-negotiable. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mary Davis. And then Logan Beloo. Hi. Yes. Good evening. Mary Davis, government watchdog and regional accountability partner and I'm here tonight to express my concerns with AB495 and that it's my understanding that it did pass and um so now it's into law. But I I was closely tracking it and even I lost track. there were changes along the way and such and so my concerns were at one point there were no signatures required

039um to be verified you just had to like the honor system so um if we compare that to the county library they actually require two forms of ID to check out a physical book from the library but no ID to actually show anybody to check out a kid from school so what I'm asking your district to do is to um now that it's in its last iteration that you would put out an information packet to parents, tell them exactly what AB495 is, what exactly the parameters are because even if you go into AI, I'm getting different answers about it. It's changed so many times. Um I'm also asking that you uh realize that the community that it is meant to serve, the vulnerable immigrant community is ripe for predation. we have only to look at

040notarios who pray on their own community um for this vulnerable population. We could also look at Los Angeles where a soccer coach prayed on a young man, pied him with alcohol to sexually sexually prey on him and he ended up dead. So, um, the dire consequences are real and I'm asking you to lead the way because what I'm hoping is if you do this that other districts would follow and that maybe like through CSBA or something that you could even do it like a large umbrella to make sure that the correct information is going out that safeguards are in place and also for that parent notification list with the last I checked the 495 like three weeks ago, they said there was nothing that that prevented a district from going above and beyond. And that's

041what I'm asking you to do to make that emergency contact list a requirement that the form doesn't override your contact list. Your contact list is always uh overriding because the kids are counting on you, the parents are counting on you, and the community is counting on you. I I feel like the state kind of dropped the ball. I did reach out to Celeste Rodriguez, the bill sponsor, three different times, never heard anything. So, we're counting on you and I really look forward to working with you on this. Thank you so much. >> Thank you Logan Belaloo and then Cara Good. Good evening board. My name is Logan Bolier and I am here to present a program that I would like to do between Olympian High School and Wolf Canyon Elementary. Now, I have some packets

042that I would like to give the board to the clerk, please. And these packets entail all of most of the information that I will be talking about. So currently I am a junior at Olympian High School and I am a previous graduate of Wolf Canyon Elementary. And at Olympian, we have some engineering programs, but I would like to start an engineering program that not only includes everybody at the high school, but when we do our our experiments, we go and bring it to the elementary schoolers for them to do. Now, being raised as a Navy brat, I've been to a few different schools and I've picked up on some programs that I really liked. And one of these programs was very similar to this where the high schoolers would come down and they would do

043experiments with us. I liked it so much that it kept me motivated to stay in school. I was always looking forward towards the next experiment and I it created an environment that we were all had our imaginations running. We were all creating crazy ideas and I want to create that same feeling with everybody else that I can and talking with peers is a lot of them have brothers and sisters that go to Wolf Canyon and they are all on board with this program because they want to teach their brothers and sisters what engineering is and a lot of us have thought about going into engineering. So getting experience and leadership with the high schoolers and then we give the elementary schoolers, we give them the creativity. We let them let their imaginations run wild and

044overall they get experience and they can decide if they like engineering or not. Now, what's in it for us, like I was kind of saying, is it gives us experience. It gives us leadership skills. We get to lead a team of like four or six elementary schoolers. We get to teach them how to build a bridge. We can see what how far paper airplanes go. And for the elementary schoolers, they get to create whatever they want. And I would really love to make this program come alive. So, Dr. Reyes, if I could please schedule a one-on-one to talk more with you, I would really appreciate it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Sarah, good. >> Superintendent Reyes and school board members. First, I would like to thank the district for improvements that they have made

045to school safety over the last few years. I appeared before the board for the first time in 2022 after the Yaldi shooting. Thank you for hearing my concerns. As a safety committee member at my daughter's school, I am encouraged by the priority Miss Diaz places on school safety for Mr. Newborn's attendance at our meetings and for our video cameras on campus. I look forward to the upcoming improvements that will be made over the next year like access control systems. On another note, I wanted to express my disappointment at the fact that two long-standing traditions were discontinued this year. School campouts and graduation ceremonies at East Lake Church. Mrs. Diaz informed us of these changes made by the district at her monthly coffee chat and for that I am grateful. However, we were not provided with

046a reason why these changes were made in communication by the district. From my understanding, a few campouts were cancelled last minute. Rumor is that parents were were caught with alcohol at one school campout. My question is, why were the other 50 district schools punished for those parents' actions? Would a better idea have been to discontinue campouts at that particular school for a set period of time? My daughter was extremely disappointed that she would not be able to spend the night with her friends on school property as she is a sixth grader this year. I feel like the district is continuing to restrict these community building events that bring a sense of belonging to our school campuses. In addition, I was also disappointed to learn that schools would not be allowed to hold their graduation ceremonies

047at East Lake Church. From what I understand, this did not cost the district money to have our school graduations at the church. East Lake provided a special venue for our sixth grade families. It was a large air conditioned venue that provided a comfortable arena for the students immediate and extended families to attend their child's graduation ceremony. With graduations moving back to campus, the district is now placing the burden on school staff and parents, especially the custodian. You are also decreasing the number of family members that can attend. Rumor has it that a family from Marshall complained that graduation was at a religious institution even though there were no religious components at the graduation. My son, who attended Liberty, had his graduation ceremony at East Lake Church two years ago, and there were no religious components

048to the ceremony. Again, no explanation was given as to why we were moving graduation ceremony celebrations back to school campuses. Can I finish? Thank you so much. Why can this decision not be made on a case-byase basis? I recall being at the board meeting where other Marshall families spoke in favor of keeping their graduation at East Lake. Why were their concerns ignored and not heard? In conclusion, why are we making decisions based on the actions of a few? Why are all stakeholders not considered when making these decisions? Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. [Applause] We're now moving on to the fiscal crisis and management assistant team business services and human resources review. Dr. Reyes. >> Thank you board. Uh in uh on April 2025, the district and the fiscal crisis and management assistance

049team, also known as FIGMAT, enter into an agreement for FIGMAT to conduct a review of the district's business and human resources uh process and procedures. The scope included review of operational processes and procedures in the two departments and make recommendations for improvements improved efficiency. Evaluate current workflow and distribution of functions and make recommendations for improvements. Conduct an organizational and staffing review and make recommendations for staffing improvements and improved efficiency. And um and with that uh we have uh from Figmat we have uh Marcus Warwick that will be presenting. >> Thank you board members. Uh Superintendent Reyes. I appreciate you having me tonight. Um again my name is Marcus Warwick. I'm with uh Fikmat. I'm going to refer to FICMAT because that's what I call it. So it's fiscal crisis and management assistance team. As I'm

050going through this presentation I want you to pay attent. We're here for the management assistance not the fiscal crisis. Right? So, um, you'll notice on our logo there's like the lighter blue right below the lay, uh, the A on Fikmat. And so, that's really what the what we're here for, uh, on that is that management assistance portion. So, real quick, who is FickMat and and what do we do? Um, we were established in the early 90s when the first school district in the state of California went bankrupt or insolvent uh, up in in uh, the Bay Central or I shouldn't say central San Francisco Bay Area. um the a the state at that time created an agency FICMAT to uh add in fiscal solveny, fiscal accountability and so on. So over the last three decades

051we've really evolved from fiscal standards and fiscal accountability to a lot of professional development, management assistance work and so on and so forth. On the management assistance time uh side, that's when school districts will reach out to us and say, "Hey, there's some things we want you to take a look at. Can you be a fresh set of eyes? bring a team in and let us know what you think of and and how can we we can improve and so on and so forth. So, um I I kind of want to keep it to that that um we are an independent external agency. Uh we get our allocation from the Department of Finance. Um our FICMAT administrative agent is Kern County Superintendent of Schools which is in Bakersfield. A lot of us don't live in

052Bakersfield. We're actually all throughout the state. Uh, in fact, two weeks ago, I was in Susanville, which I had to drive through Reno to get there to kind of give you an idea how how to get there. Uh, so it's it's that's kind of what we're do what we do all throughout the state. So, as Superintendent Reyes, I would go through the scope of work. Um, we specifically were looking at your business services, more specifically your budget development, budget monitoring, position control, payroll, accounts receivable, and accounts payable. So that's what specifically we were looking at at the on the business side of of uh of the of the district. On the HR side, we are looking at hiring, onboarding, uh exit interviews, evaluations, training, personnel file management, and then leave management as well. And although

053for example on leave management and especially on on the business side position control there are some uh overlapping with other departments that we'll also review and and I'll and I'll speak to that as well. Lastly evaluate the workflow um of those items in between the departments for communication purposes and so on and so forth. So and then conduct a staff and or and I'll actually talk about the staff and org uh uh towards the end of my presentation. So these reports are a deficit model. So when when the district asks us to come in, we're looking for issues. We're looking for problems. We're looking for, hey, this is what you're doing, but it's not quite hitting hitting, you know, hitting the ball out of the park. You're you're almost there or hey, your policies are

054outdated and so on. So our process is we will develop a document list and it's an extensive I mean I think we're there was over a 100 items on the document on the on the document list to the to to both departments. We'll conduct interviews over the three days that we were here we interviewed about 40 people uh HR staff business staff payroll staff administrators um other other key leaders within the organization to really get an a sense as to what's going on. Then from there we'll triangulate in terms of hey what's the best practices? What are the board policies? What are relevant laws? uh what did we hear and what do we see and then where's the disconnect in those right a couple things that I want to point out though on on this

055as we're going through through the report on the business side uh you had some new people there uh new key people within that department when we were there I think Mr. Pong was 8 months on the job when we were when we first started. You had a brand new director of fiscal. Uh two accountants were brand new and so on and so forth. We like to hear that because we or when we when we interview like hey why are you interviewing? They're here. They're still trying to understand the district and and the organization. But we like hey what do you see what's going on? What do you see that's working or not working? And so on and so forth. And so I want to recognize that like hey when we're talking to people and they're

056new it's what they're seeing and and so on and so forth. So if anything, this somewhat kind of helps them work on improving the organization or improving their their department. Um we're focusing primarily on processes and procedures within the organization, right? So what's working well and so on. And the reason why we focus on processes and procedures is when somebody leaves, is that process going with them? A good or bad process, right? So if they've got this excellent budget development process for example, but if they leave the organization, are there systems set up in place that that just continues and they continue to do it and that's the expectation or is that how they did it and once they leave nobody's really understanding what's going on and so on and so forth. And so that's

057kind of what we're looking at when we when we speak to people. So kind of going over to my key findings. Again, I want to I want to make sure these are deficit models. So we're looking for problems. if we were reporting out everything that we'd be good uh we would we we would still be here working right so so we're looking for problems so I just did key findings that I that I felt were important throughout the report and just some things to be thinking about so one of the things on your personnel files in speaking with staff and and and seeing them as well you have four different areas where you're storing personnel information so you have physical files right somebody brings in transcripts your your the employment application or TV test results

058or anything of that sorts that's stored in there. You have your FileMaker Pro, which to our understanding is what we heard that's your legacy system of former employees with within the district. And then you have two systems, business plus and peopleoft. So to our understanding, business plus was your old financial system. Um, and then you transitioned over to Peopleoft, but they're still maintaining information in business plus. And so one of the questions that we were asking staff, how do you use the different like what's the purpose of the different systems? Because we're not we don't understand that, you know, we're not getting it. Why are you having all four? Like if you're, you know, we gave an example of if you're uploading an application, where are you putting them? Oh, I'm putting them in all

059four spots. Okay. Well, why are you doing that? What's the purpose? And so, you know, what's what's the reason behind that? And so we're trying to ask like you ask ask probing questions to to the ones that we're interviewing of like why are you doing like what's the purpose of this? I think the concern one of the concerns that we would have is what is the primary uh file system? So if if something litigation or something of that uh uh comes comes to the district, you're going to have to determine what is the primary system or primary file system that you're going to review personnel data because what you don't want and this is what we started seeing. Sometimes files are uploaded to this system. Sometimes files are uploaded to to the other system or

060a department may be using this system but the other department may not be using this system. And so what's what's the correct system to use and what's the most important one? We we did hear and we did know that um the district was going to be uh eliminating or I should say or ending the contract with business plus. Um, but when speaking to staff, they had no idea. And, you know, kind of felt like we let the cat out of the bag of like, well, maybe that wasn't communicated to them and we shouldn't have said anything. But, you know, importantly, staff have to know like, hey, if this is if I'm not going to put this into business plus anymore, where is it supposed to go? Uh, what are we what's the new process? What's

061the new procedure? And so on and so forth. So, we ensure that everything is correct. I think the other thing is a duplication of work. one staff member indicated that, you know, oh, you know, I was doing a lot of filing this day and and so on and so forth. Well, if if they're all if they're filing, I would say probably 25% of their day is is relevant, but the other 75% of the day, it's just the duplication of work, right? Because you're putting the same thing in Peopleoft, then to Business Plus, into FileMaker Pro Pro, and then and then to the physical file. So what's the determination in terms of what's the primary system within the organization that you're going to use? Right on position control. Position control is near and dear to Figmmet.

062Um if you don't know what position control is, it's it's a it's a tracking mechanism to ensure that the district is aware of all of their allocated positions within the district. Why is this important? Well, your your your people make up 88% of your budget and and really if you're going to do reductions, there's only one time out of the year that that you can make those reductions if needed. Um and if you miss that then then you know this is where the fiscal crisis where we would come back on a fiscal crisis basis and so on. that is one of the easiest that some of the districts that have gone become insolvent have been because of their uh uh position control was not accurate and their costs were not realized appropriately. So when one

063of the easiest things that we will do or questions that we will ask and reports that we ask for are hey give me a report of your position control of of you know show me where everybody's at show me where everybody's at in the site show me everybody's at at the at within the departments within your divisions and so on. If those reports don't match up correctly there's a problem. Right. So right now from what we heard payroll and hum the human resource department was using business plus uh and then business department was using peopleoft. Now the problem though is peoplelesoft is your primary financial system that you're reporting to the county that then ultimately reporting to the state. So if there's not a reconciliation between business plus and peopleoft that can become a problem

064right for budgeting purposes and so on and so forth. And so that's one of the things that when we saw and we started talking to people, hey, what's what's the what's the reason behind this? Help us understand why why this is occurring and and so on. The other thing on your position control is your personnel action form. So these forms are paper forms that are initiated when there's any type of change in personnel, separation, uh promotion, termination, uh change in pay or anything of that sort. We heard sometimes the forms gets lo get get lost. Sometimes they're not filled out completely. and so on. But then more importantly, what's the reconciliation from that paper form into either Peopleoft or into business plus if there's reconciliation going on and and we weren't really hearing that. Um

065when we say reconciliation, that's really business department, HR, payroll. HR saying, "Hey, here's who we have at the various sites and departments." Uh business is here's who we have budgeted. And then payroll is here's who we're actually paying. Right? I can tell you a school district that when they implemented a a position control system, they found over a hundred employees that were deceased were still receiving a paycheck. That's why it's important, right? That's why that reconciliation process is is important, right? You have people here. We're a people business. We're here to educate kids. You want to make sure that they're paid correctly. And if they're not here, well, that's money going out the door that can be spent spent somewhere else. So on we we also threw in our fiscal health risk analysis. Um section

06619 is specifically related to position control. When I say get to yes responses um that is a fiscal health tool that when when districts are experiencing fiscal crisis, we go in and apply the the FH to them. Those are 20 areas that that we've seen that are most that we've seen common items in district that have become insolvent. It's not that you're heading in that direction or anything of that sort. That's not what I'm saying. But these are things to do to ensure that best practices are occurring, ensure that you're tracking your personnel correctly, ensuring that people are getting paid correctly, uh people are showing up correctly, so on and so forth. So here's a a a chart and this is in the report and I'm going to go to the next slide because it

067expands it a little bit, but I lost the clicker. Did my battery die? There we go. Uh, this is on page 22 of the report and and really this is a breakdown of position control as to who's responsible, what department is responsible for what within position control. Um, this gives you a framework. This doesn't mean that this has to be the Chula Vista way or we're forcing this, but this just gives you a framework as to how things should happen and how things should occur uh appropriately for a well functioning position control system, right? um some changes will have to be made. Not every district is the same given the size, given the the the what what is uh priorities and so on. But this just gives you a general framework as to who is

068responsible, who should be doing what within position control. And then ultimately again going back to that FHA, what's the reconciliation that's being done between uh business HR and and payroll because that that that's vital. I think my my clickers. Yeah. So leaves is another one that we talked about and and so leaves was um when I say both departments um I mean on that human resources and payroll uh that they expressed frustration with the process not sure what what's occurring and so on and so forth. So from our interviews uh payroll was primarily the the department that was responsible for managing leaves and and and we disagree with that. And the reason why we disagree that payroll should be managing leaves is you have you have uh relevant federal state and law involving revolving around

069leaves. You have board policy. You have collective bargain agreements that have impacts to to leaves and how that should occur. You have potential accommodations if necessary or interactive processes that should occur. Uh, and that really should be under HR's umbrella, not necessarily payroll. Payroll should be involved, but they're more or less ensuring that they're being paid appropriately, ensuring their retirement contributions are done correctly, and so on and so forth. But that information really should be going from HR to payroll and working together. We also didn't hear that there was a centralized system of tracking leave correctly as to who's on what leave, how much time they have left, so on and so forth. And so those were those were concerned. Now, both departments expressed we're just not sure how this is supposed to work and

070and and had frustrations with it and so on. Lastly, they uh uh you did contract with EFMLA, which is an electronic leave tracking system. It's great. I actually put in my information. I immediately got an email. I think the thing that was missing with that is it didn't reflect back to your board policy, which is important. It didn't reflect your collective bargain agreements, which are which are vital, right? And so I think from on the employee side, on the customer service side, it's it's it's important to know that, hey, here's information in terms of your board policies, your collective bargain agreements on on leaves to ensure that that we're following or the district is following that appropriately. In addition, at the time of fieldwork, when you took a look at the board policies, the last

071update on the board policies were anywhere from 1991 as the latest one to be updated to 2002. And so that is something that that should be potentially revised. Sometimes board policies uh the law hasn't changed, but at least you revisited it to say, "Hey, we're reviewing this and so on." I'm pretty sure that leaves have changed since 1991 on some I think it was a 4,300 which was um on the management side. But, you know, it's just something to think of, right? Because what you don't want to do is have an outdated board policy and it conflicts with the law or it conflicts with a collective bargain agreement because that that could cause some frustration. In other words, uh, next slide please. Can you go one more? So, same thing as to what was that

072position control just we put together as the typical task that the the HR department should be responsible for uh what payroll should be responsible for and so on. Ultimately, what needs to occur here is really just that communication between both departments and and that's occurring. It's just how does that communication look like? What does that look like? Who's responsible for what? And that's why we're hoping with this chart people understand what needs to occur and and so on and so forth. So, so that's you know when I when I say that that communication that's vital and we're hearing that right and the employees were great talking with us. Everybody was wonderful speaking to it was just sometimes it's how do we fix this? What do we do? What's occurring across the street across the state

073and so on. Uh next slide. The last one is our staffing uh our staffing staff in org. So, a couple things on here. We typically will do um a a similar size district and so on. Well, in in Chula Vista's case, you're the largest elementary school district in the state. It wouldn't be it would be inappropriate for us to compare you to a high school district. It would be inappropriate for us to compare you to a unified district, right? And so, that was that was interesting to see that. Now when we look at district, we look at district enrollment, not necessarily total enrollment because of the impact of charter schools, right? We typically will remove the students that are associated with the charter schools because we don't know if it's an independent or dependent charter.

074What services are on the oversight process and and so on. And so then we're looking at just I think I I think it removed 8,000 students. I know a good portion of that are still, you know, are they're still your students and you're still serving a majority of those 8,000 students. But that's how we look at things when we when we take a look at enrollment and comparable districts before anything should happen with addition or subtractions. And I'm not even saying anything on on on doing that. I I would first go back to how could we be more efficient with what we have now. Great example is the personnel files. If we're entering something into the same thing into four different systems, the question has to be asked, hey, look, like what what what can

075we do to become more efficient? Um, a big thing that we look at is training. Um, we we all know laws are being changed every single day. It's a nightmare to keep up with CSBA's uh uh policies. Um, I remember loathing the time that those would come in because you'd print them out and it'd be a stack that thick and you have to read them and ensure that they're you how does this apply to the district? But but that's important which also relates to our you know staff training and so on and so forth. That's vital to that. So before we do anything on staffing changes or anything like that um I would want to make sure that what how are you implementing recommendations within the report to ensure are we becoming as efficient as

076we can with what we have because sometimes we might not be able to add staff um but we've got to become more efficient and what does that look like within our organization. Uh last slide. So I I want to I want to say kudos to the district for asking us to come in. These are and again we always tell this when we do interviews. It's a deficit model. We are looking for problems. We are looking to how to improve and so on. We write to best practices. We write to uh board policy. We write to relevant uh uh law and and so on. And so if we're not seeing these things, that's what we're writing about. Um it's really how can we get better? How can we do better within an organization? And so I,

077you know, there's kudos to the district for bringing us in because, you know, we're a public agencies. This report will be posted on our website. Um, and so it takes, it takes, it takes, uh, guts to to have us come in and do this willingly on the management assistance side. Um, I will say though, there's a couple of these these recommendations though, minor modifications, uh, communications or changes in policies. I I would really consider that the lowhanging fruit in terms of just pushing that department forward, pushing those staff and helping them become better. So with that, I I I went through that quick. So I was kept on wanting to look at the timer if I have like running out of my three minutes. But uh any questions for me or anything like that? >>

078We have no speakers on this item. Board questions. >> I I do. But first of all, I want to thank you and I want to thank you also for uh being very clear that this is a deficit uh assessment which we all know if anyone went to look for uh anything in your own closet at home your dishes you going to find it. So I appreciate that. Uh what I do also appreciate though is um my colleagues here when I first asked for the Figmat um uh I'm really uh encouraged that we all agreed that this is what we wanted to do so that we could make the process better. >> Yeah. >> I had one question regarding um hiring. >> Uh did you take a look at that onboarding process, the posting uh that

079sort of thing? So on on specific like are you talking about like recruitment? Yes. >> So we're looking at the are you talking about the process of hiring or we're having a difficulty hiring staff? No, the process of hiring like we're posting and then with the hiring uh piece of it if you saw any efficiencies that we could um so that I that that is mentioned in the report under page um 15 of the report. Um, you know, I I will point out one thing that that I scratched my head on, right? In terms of um there's a there's a pre-employment physical, right? Which which we noted in there, hey, what's the relation to risk management, right? Because if there is a necessity of an accommodation that needs to occur, right? And and what's that?

080I I will say in terms of hiring and this is where I scratched my head and this is where the team kind of questioned it is is um the charging of fingerprints as an organization. The concern with that is it is already difficult finding staff. Not only finding staff but good good staff and we're really competing with other businesses that a it's slow, right? Our processes are slow. We're a government entity typically they're slow anyways. But then is it faster for them to go down and get the same pay for and not having to pay for fingerprints? So if you look at a classified staff person, if they have to pay six, I believe it was $60 was the charge for fingerprints. If they have to pay for that, you know, I'm just thinking, you

081know, that means depending on what their rate is, that's what a couple hours of work just to work off what I just paid for from my fingerprints. >> Four hours, five hours of work. And so and so that would be you know that would be I think something as an organization now that is board policy that is absolutely your board policy right there is a cost associated with with eliminating that and I and I completely understand that you know that would you'd work with with uh Mr. for pong your HR and HR to determine what that would look like. But, you know, in trying to become efficient as possible, is that a barrier uh is that a barrier for staff? Is that a barrier for pro p prospective um um uh employees within within the

082community? Um some communities wouldn't even wouldn't even do that, some not. That is odd. I I did ask we have I have a colleague that lives that lived in the San Diego area. I'm like, "Hey, did you guys do that? Is that common in San Diego County to do?" and and it sounds like that's something that's common within this area, but you know, again, I've been all up and down the state of California and that I'm not really hearing that a lot. And so, you know, it's already hard to find staff. It's already hard. Why add one more thing that that's more out of their pocket to come, you know, say, "Hey, come work here." But you have to pay for it, right? You know, >> almost seems like a pyramid scheme if I may,

083right? So, so just >> technology, but >> you know, but >> that that that would be I think that would be the one thing on on the hiring. >> Um >> I'm also on along those lines on the hiring. Uh I know um a specific situation where Ed joined called out a specific job requirements and such and uh other documentation didn't show it. So, I'm wondering if there was a disconnect between the edoin process. Did you look at that? >> We didn't look at edjoin specifically because ultimately that's a contract between the district and I believe it's San King County Office of Education is who runs Edjoin. And so, that would be a discussion that you really your contractor. I mean, they're contracted with you for that service. I I would still say hopefully you

084continue with Edgejoin because that is really the primary uh um educational on on the certificated side. that's primary recruitment source. Uh maybe not necessarily on the classified side. I I think I'd go back and figure out, you know, what classification are you specifically referring to? If it's something within the job description, uh that would be something, you know, I'm sure HR would be able to work for work towards changing or working with the associations if they're positions that are represented. >> Right. And and my point, the reasoning behind it is so that that what we're posting actually equates to what we hire. >> Yeah. that's that I mean ultimately you'd hope that people would you know you have the minimum qualifications and that they would apply for it and so on but sometimes you know

085you I I mean even on when I was at a district working and you know I well yeah I have a credential from you know out of state or or from another country and it's like that that really doesn't work you know or they don't even know what the job is they just saw it uh where I was from they would confuse it with Riverside and so they were like oh yeah Southern California. I'm like, "No, no, I'm Central California." So, >> you know, but again, I I would that's something that you'd easily be able to work at. I I would that's that's lowhanging fruit that that's, you know, look at what specifically and and I'm sure the HR department would be able to rectify that. >> I appreciate your time on this. Thank you.

086>> Absolutely. Anything else? >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> Um I know this is business and HR, but um when you interviewed employees, you or your team, how was their morale? how was their enthusiasm with making changes or they're providing their input and I the reason I ask is because I feel that for an organization or a company to run the employees themselves need to be >> happy and excited >> for what they do 99% of the time and and we go into districts that aren't great 99% of the time it's never the employees right And I I will say this for your employees. Everybody was wonderful talking to I I even on on I forgot the individual's name. We were talking about the personnel files and I was just well why is that? And she's

087kind of like I don't know. But that's a great question, you know, but sometimes like you're so uh react, you know, you have you're reactive to things. So you're kind of going fire to fire to fire and we all understand that. But to you know I mean and this is where I think it's good for us to come in because we could ask the questions help it make sense to us or why did this occur? How did you get to this? And we could ask those probing questions and so on. All the employees that we sat down with were wonderful. You know at first they're they're little like this is fiscal crisis. We're like no no no. You know we're here we're here to help. You know we're we're just we're we're talking about things.

088We want to know how we can help you improve. Uh and typically that's how we would start out. How can we help you improve? How can we help you do your job better? And that drives a lot of what we hear too because if we're hearing it collectively and then we're not seeing in the documentation or we see in the documentation but we're not hearing it that that's where that triangulation comes from. >> Does that make sense? >> Yes. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Um and my question was about exit interviews. >> Um of what I read with your recommendation um how helpful it is to conduct like exit interviews >> depends. >> Okay. >> Right. I I think there's a lot that goes into exit interviews and not just um not just is it

089somebody that's retiring they're like hey I'm out of here you know is it somebody that was uh um that didn't make probation right it's a good you know where do you actually getting your data which really shouldn't be there to get your data right uh you know you we as an organization and this isn't in the report um but you need to be surveying employees and so on and so forth that's that's a more of a customer service thing to ensure So then you even prevent them from going to that exit interview and getting upset, right? >> Um they do have information uh they do provide an exit interview and opportunity if you will. Um but but again, you know, sometimes they it's it can be skewed data and and so on. So that that's

090what's somewhat difficult at times, right? >> Okay. Yeah. I was thinking like also the different positions like the range of positions that we hold. Um I was also like very interested to seeing what you guys see um and the beneficial part of conducting these. >> Anytime you can get data, it's beneficial. >> Okay. >> You know, even if it's bad data, at least it's something. Yeah. >> Right. Because if there's something consistent that you're constant kind of like for us, if we're constantly hearing it, >> right? But if it's this comment, then there's this with you know these comments that are out in left field. Okay. But if it starts becoming a consistent comment, it's like, well, why is this right? And start asking questions. So even if data is data and it's still good.

091>> Yeah, sounds good. Um, does it actually have a very like a large fiscal impact to conduct exit interviews rather than not doing them? >> Would we be losing money conducting exit? You know, like the time that it takes to conduct exit interviews, does it really is it fiscally >> impactful? >> The cost. >> Yeah, >> I you know, I think the cost is going to be very very minimal. >> Okay. Um, you know, I I believe they they did a Google link and that's part of it, but again, it's hard who's doing it, who's not doing it, and and so on. It goes back to that, but the co I would not say the cost. I think the data would still be more valuable than the minor cost of this. Yeah. >> Okay. Well,

092thank you so much for the report and the presentation. It was really great. Thank you. >> Yes. Hi. Well, thank you for the 40page report. Uh I I did skim a little bit through through it. Uh obviously position control is something important in every single district and that is something that I'm looking forward for this district to do a better uh improve the the process of of position control here. One of the things that I and you did find it is this idea of having four different systems >> and we've been talking about that for at least two years. I've been asking what is the plan to move from business plus into peopleoft. Peopleoft is very expensive. Business plus is very expensive. FileMaker Pro, it's like a 100,000 and then whatever we're using to do

093the file system uh in personal time. >> Is that mostly yearly? >> Yearly. >> Wow. >> Um so it's it's an expense and not only that is the expense of the rep the repetitive work, right? Uh having to enter four times. So, and I know that people south of is a county uh system that uh every single well most of the districts here in San Diego County use. I don't think all the districts have four different systems. Have you seen that? >> Well, I I haven't been in every single district uh uh yet. >> Or have you seen other districts that have >> No. No. You know, I I've seen too where maybe the county system isn't providing all that they have that they need. Right. You know, cuz ultimately Peopleoft is a financial system

094that thinks about HR information, >> Right. Uh there's not a perfect, you know, human resource information system that then automatically converses with a financial system and so on. And so I I I recognize that. But I think the accuracy of the data is what's going to be important. If if the district decides to use four systems, right, for whatever reason, our response will be like, okay, but what's the rec, you know, aside from the duplication of work, right? Where's the reconciliation? So all of them are the same, right? Because right now there's not a reconciliation. There's not, you know, whether that be automatic or or something of that sort. So you know what would what and what are you specifically using this system for because know that what's being ultimately sent to the county and

095to the state is out of your soft system. So we're by default fickmats by default be like look peopleoft needs to be your primary system. If you have other supplemental systems okay fine you know that that's local control right? Um but that that people soft system needs to be as accurate as possible. And and so but if you have other departments that are paying, you know, tracking people and then paying people out of other things, that's not your primary financial system that that that that's where you run into issues, right? Because you could look at a business plus report, hey, we're fine. And then what's going to the county is, hey, what's going on? You know, so so there's not that reconciliation. Right. Right. >> Does that make sense? >> Makes sense. Now, with um

096and you hinted a little bit on your presentation that there's there might be tasks being done by other pe other departments that should really belong to other departments, right? So, and and why they're doing that might be because we always done it that way. Yes. Right. That is the the classic answer in education. We always done it that way. Yes, that's why we're doing it. >> Uh the great thing about it is that we have a fairly new team in in the finance department, right? So with Mr. Pong and his team, they're fairly new. So that gives us an opportunity to to bring fresh perspective and fresh ideas there and and change. Now with HR, there's a lot of the HR team. It's a little what four years now? >> Yeah. four years. So is

097there like a list that or a framework that you can provide on what tasks should belong to HR and what task should belong to maybe somewhere else. >> So so in terms of leaves the management of leaves should for sure be under HR, right? Um, every organization is going to be a little bit different and I'll give you know benefits for example sometimes it's under the business department sometimes it's under HR risk management sometimes it's under HR sometimes it's under business and that's where that local control comes in and I think I would defer to the expertise you know uh Mr. Pong over here and and like what what do you think he's well aware as to what should and shouldn't be and so on that's that local control right so there's not a framework

098in terms of of this has to be under you know this outside of internal controls when I mean internal controls you don't want payroll entering somebody paying somebody and then making changes right that's where that had that segregation of duties in terms of business funds it HR fills it payroll pays it because then you know that kind of that that's that internal control, right? So, the reason why we recommended leaves to go over is because you've got the collective bargaining implications which is an HR function. You've got the board policy. You've got relevant federal, state, and laws related to leaves that are that really are under that that HR umbrella, right? Payroll is everything's going to be how to pay appropriately, how to make sure we're compliant with uh pers and stirs and and so

099on. And so that's why in in that instance we recommended leave to be under the management of leaves to be under HR and not payroll. Payroll still needs to be involved but not necessarily managing it. >> Right? >> So um I'll give you another example and I think this is also in the report on the staff and or on the business side. Bakersfield city they theirot department is completely separate from their I believe that was the one that was completely separate from their business department whereas I believe in here it's it's under business and some districts it's under business so so when you when we do staff in or we look at that we always have to figure out okay if we're just looking at you uh budget accounting accounts receivable accounts payable are those

100all under it because we don't want to include when we look at other FTEES at other departments because they're you know hey they have 50 and we only have 25. Well, they have MOT under maintenance, operations, and transportation under them as well. And that's a separate department over here. So, it's not necessarily apples to apples. Does that make sense? >> Makes sense. >> Okay. All right. Well, I'm looking forward to hearing the responses from the district to this report and how we're going to improve. And thank you for paying us a visit. >> Absolutely. I really I don't have a lot of um questions because I think they were all answered in the course of our conversation here. I do want to thank you for the report. Um I just want to kind of make

101sure I'm understanding correctly. Um what you said, I'm sorry I don't have my mic on. Um so there were no major red flags in in anything you saw. Just a matter of tweaking things that could be better, right? And is that is that correct? >> Yeah. Yeah. I I think probably the only thing that would be would be the paying out of the different systems, >> right? >> Well, that was my next question to to kind of clarify. So I and I've only been in the district at in this position for four years, but it seems to me like if we kind of gave a direction of, hey, let's go down to two because and and analyze all four systems like if this one does something here that the other two don't, then maybe we

102do that a different way. I mean, obviously, we're going to use the county system, the people soft, because we have to have that communication with the county. But I think that we need to look at the other three and analyze and and say, what does this one do that this one's not doing that this one's not doing? And which one of those and and talk to the people and I also want to thank anyone who participated in these interviews with you and thank you because um this data is very important for us to hear and it's very helpful. But I also want to go to them again and say which systems do you think are the most important in the work that you do every day so that we can narrow it down and streamline

103down to that important um I want to say not I say additional but the um the one that's going to help us with people soft if we need to even have those extra systems because I'm all about systems but for and duplicating work I'm I'm not about >> well you know just to kind of give you an idea when we write the report, one of the things that we we have to write to when we're writing our sections, you know, what are we seeing? What's the conflict with board policy or relevant law? What's the best practice? How did they get there? >> Right? >> And so when speaking to employees about like, well, how did this come to fruition? How how did you get to this point? It it's kind of what Francisco said was,

104well, it's kind of how we've always done it, >> right? We added this one and then we added this one and then, >> you know, but but I will say with Superintendent Reyes, Mr. Mr. Hong, you've got people in place that could help you make those recommendations and make those changes. The fact that you're calling us in and just saying, you know, cuz again, they're not nice. I I will fully admit that, right? Like they're they're not they're not great, but there if you look at it, if you remove it and look at it, could this make us better? >> Right. >> You know? Yeah. Well, >> so does that answer your question? >> Yes, it does. Because I and and that was kind of what I was saying and and thanking them. I would

105I would go to them as the experts in that department to say which which of these if I said to you today they all had to go except for one in Peopleoft what would you tell me? >> Yeah. Yeah. And then and then then that's and ultimately that's that local decision. You know our our thing is and again going back to that fiscal health risk analysis what's the reconciliation right is is is this report is this system as accurate or is there hey there's a delay the one day delay because of up you know whatever but the reconciliation. So then at least everybody's on the same page and and and things are matching appropriately. >> Well, thank you very much. This was very informative. >> All right. Thank you. >> Are we ready? Zoom in.

106Item C, human resources response to the thickmat um report. Miss Rosenale or Dr. Rosenale. [Music] Good evening, President Huggarte, trustees, Dr. Reyes, executive cabinet, members of our community. I am Dr. Angela Rosenale, senior director of human resources. Before we begin our presentation this evening, we would like to take a moment to honor and remember our dear friend and colleague Gilbert Adrisa, who passed away unexpectedly on September 17th. Tonight, our HR family is wearing shirts with a yellow heart and his initials as a tribute to the kind and caring person he was. At this time, we invite everyone to join us in a moment of silence in remembrance of Gilbert. Thank you. Tonight, we are honored to present our human resources department's response to the recent FICAT findings. We recognize this is a pivotal moment, an

107opportunity to reflect, recalibrate, and recommmit to excellence in service of our staff and the broader mission of the Chula Vista Elementary School District. Our team is committed to using this feedback to strengthen our practices, improve efficiencies, and enhance the support we provide to our employees. Ultimately, we every improvement we make in human resources helps ensure that our students receive the best education possible. Thank you for the opportunity to present our work and our vision for continuous improvement. 6 to 12 months from now, we welcome FICMAT to return to assess the meaningful progress we've made and reaffirm our commitment to continuous improvement. Our approach is guided by a set of core principles. We are fully committed to using FICMAT's feedback and recommendations not just as a checklist but as a roadmap for growth and improvement. Their

108insights have helped us see both where we are strong and where we must evolve. Second, we are using the findings to identify strengths that we can build upon and address areas of need with urgency and care. Third, we are implementing best practices to increase efficiency, ensure consistency, and elevate the level of service we provide to our employees because when we support our staff well, they can better support our students. Fourth, we are embracing FICMAT's guidance to refine internal processes for greater clarity and accountability, enhance communication across departments with our stakeholders, strengthen compliance with policies, procedures, and regulations, and most importantly, to foster a culture of continuous improvement, one that is proactive, reflective, and always striving to do better. Our ultimate goal to is is clear to build a human resources department that is recognized for

109excellence, driven by innovation, and unwavering in its support for our staff and the district's mission. We are grateful for this opportunity to grow and we look forward to partnering with the board and our community as we move forward. Good. Thank you. Our work is anchored in these guiding principles. Ensuring our process are clear and our actions are responsible. providing fair and uniform practices across the district. Working closely with all stakeholders to achieve shared goals, keeping employee support at the center of everything we do, always seeking ways to refine and enhance our operations, and aligning with regulations and industry standards to maintain excellence. Tonight's presentation will focus on key areas where these principles come to life. Streamlining processes to attract and retain top talent. Building capacity and resilience within our team. Using feedback to strengthen retention

110and engagement. Ensuring accuracy, security, and compliance. Aligning HR practices with district governance. And improving efficiency and clarity for all staff support. Each of these areas reflects our commitment to creating an HR department that is efficient, responsive, and recognized for excellence. Good evening, uh, Dr. Reyes, President Nugarte, trustees, and cabinet. My name is Horge Mura, and I'm the executive director of human resources. And one of our most vital responsibilities in HR is hiring and onboarding. Each year, CVESD processes and welcomes hundreds of new employees. While our current process is robust, FitMat has identified opportunities to strengthen our onboarding system. Tonight, I'll walk you through our process designed to ensure every new team member experiences a smooth, compliant, and welcoming start. We begin with recruitment where job postings are ma made available on edjoin and cved.org. Applicants

111submit their credentials, resumeumés and references for review. Next is the screening and interview phase where HR ensures candidates meet qualifications followed by structured interviews at the site or department level. Reference checks are conducted to validate experience and fit. Once a candidate is selected, a conditional offer is extended pending clearance of all pre-employment requirements, which include live scan, fingerprinting, TB clearance, and credential verification where applicable. The onboarding process begins with a welcome email and instructions to complete the new hire packet, training such as mandated reporter and sexual harassment pro prevention, and setup for payroll and technology access. Finally, the employees engages in an orientation which includes reviewing safety protocols and familiarizing themselves with district policies and expectations. This orientation is now mandatory for all new employees as recommended by FitMat to ensure consistency, compliance, and accountability

112across all onboarding procedures. This process ensures that every new team member is wellprepared, informed, and supported from day one. At this point, I'd like to give a little history lesson. Um, when I was hired over a decade ago in this position, I was tasked with exploring ways to make the hiring process more efficient. As a former district technology coordinator, I had a strong background in tech that was helpful in finding a strong personnel tool. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, we were unable to bring such a system into the district. As was highlighted by the FitMat team, the district currently has four different personnel systems, the paper path, Peopleoft, Business Plus, and FileMaker. We also use Frontline for substitutes, but we consider that its own entity. However, by January 2026, our plan is to migrate

113into two personnel systems, Peopleoft and FileMaker. Peopleoft is aligned with the county's personnel system and payroll system and FileMaker houses our historical data. This streamlining will improve our efforts to minimize mistakes and make personnel management more efficient for Cveesdes and Dr. Reyes. My name is Barbie Sakco, human resources supervisor. Our department is currently focused on strengthening training and support systems to foster consistent growth across the team. While many of our staff are relatively new and have gained valuable on the job experience, we are refining our approach to provide more structured guidance. A key priority is ensuring the team is well-versed in legal requirements and district policies to maintain compliance and uphold best practices. To support this, we are introducing a role specific training program designed to build core HR competencies, reinforce district policies, and encourage

114professional development. The program will include hands-on learning, mentorship, and regular peer collaboration to promote continuous improvement and a strong team culture. In addition, we are expanding and formalizing cross trainining efforts to increase adaptability and ensure staff can seamlessly support key HR functions, enhancing efficiency and understanding. We re we are revising desk manuals to include more detailed step-by-step instructions to better support staff in their roles. At this time, you will be receiving one of our revised manuals for review. These updated resources will serve as comprehensive guides for both new and experienced staff, ensuring clarity and consistency in performing critical HR tasks. The training program will cover essential HR functions such as performance data management, recruitment, employee support, and systems like Peopleoft. We will also leverage external resources including SDCoE trainings and other professional development opportunities to

115enhance the team's expertise. Ultimately, these initiatives will equip our HR team with the knowledge, tools, and collaborative mindset necessary to in to ensure consistency, compliance, and operational excellence. So once again, I want to start by expressing our appreciation for the opportunity to identify areas of improvement. In any organization, especially one this large, there will always be areas that need improvement, and FITMAT's goal was to help identify some of those areas. One of their key recommendations was to develop a formal exit interview process. Fortunately, we do have one in place, but obviously it needs to be more clearly identified so that we may obtain the valuable information from those choosing to leave the district. We intend to be more explicit in our process of providing the best information for our retiring and resigning employees. To make

116the process simple and easy to understand, we've created a fun little story book, which you can see a sample of here. This will be sent to all employees when we are notified of their pending departure. We will also include specific links to the retirement resignation and exit interview form. When we have we have also updated the exit interview form to include questions that provide specific reasons for their departure. In addition to the in addition, the FitMap process has allowed us to reflect on ways to retain employees, which has led us to consider implementing a stay interview. A stay interview is a proactive employer-led conversation with employees to understand what motivates them to stay with the organization and what could potentially make them leave with the goal of improving engagement and retention. We expect these adjustments

117to improve our process for retaining strong employees and to help strengthen CVESD overall. Leave management is critical for accuracy, compliance, and employee trust. Currently, this function is shared between human resources and payroll. However, Fikmat recommends that leave management be carefully be fully centralized within HR to ensure consistency and accountability. What does this involve? Tracking balances, providing required notices, coordinating overlapping entitlements, and maintaining confidentiality, all aligned with our bargaining agreements. Why is this important? It supports employees, ensures legal compliance, aligns with our labor group contracts, improves communication, and creates clear separation of duties. Moving this function to HR will strengthen service and compliance across the district. Board policies are the foundation for clarity and consistency in our district. Our goal is to provide the board with regular opportunities to review updates, gather feedback, and ensure policies

118align with our mission and vision. Each policy will be reviewed for compliance with current laws. Consistency with district practices and support of our values. Updates from the P 4000s personnel series will be presented at every board meeting to keep our governance strong and transparent. At CVESD, we believe in celebrating the incredible people who make our district thrive. Human resources host a series of events throughout the year to honor milestones and show appreciation. From our leadership kickoff in July to receptions for permanent teachers, classified staff, and retirees, these aren't just events. These are experiences. Thanks to the imagination and creativity of our HR team, we transform these gatherings into memorable memorable moments that truly reflect our gratitude. Whether it's welcoming new leaders, recognizing longevity, or celebrating retirements, each occasion reinforces our commitment to valuing employees, and

119fostering a culture of gratitude and recognition. At CVESD, retention is rooted in relationships and purpose. Our employees choose to stay because they feel like family working together to educate and and inspire children every day. Current team members share what what makes CVESD special. And we want to show a quick little video. [Music] I enjoy working at CBESD because of its supportive community and its diverse student population. And the most important to me is the healthy work life balance. The district encourages professional growth uh while also respecting the personal and family life making it a fulfilling place to build both a career and a balanced lifestyle. What I enjoy most about working at uh CBSD is the communication with the people. Um I am a forward facing we are forward facing department where we get to

120interact with the community with the teachers with the staff um pretty much everyone. Uh and it's a pleasure to do. Uh we just don't teach uh as it pertains to safety and security but we also learn. We learn uh we get ideas from all types of people even kids sometimes I had great ideas that we try to incorporate as it pertains to making CBSD better making it safe not just for the students but the staff and also the community. I enjoy the collaboration uh the teamwork. I feel seen. I feel valued. Um, and I don't feel alone cuz the job is difficult sometimes, but the people that you work with really make it possible and the impact we have on the kids. [Music] >> What I enjoy about working at CBSD is that no matter

121what you're doing or what department you're in, you feel 100% support from everyone. It It's exciting. The quality of work we offer and the support is uncomparable to anywhere else. [Music] So I love working at CVSD because students are at the heart of every decision that we make. I get to work with various departments and we work together as a team to support innovation, growth, and learning across our district. [Music] I enjoy working at CVSD because in human resources department, we play a very integral role in working with the public and working with our future staff. So my role is to make sure our future staff feel supported, appreciated, and ready to work. So when our staff shines, our students shine brighter. Yes. So teamwork and support are at the heart of our culture and

122every decision we make starts with students. CVESD is the largest TK to6 school district in the state of California and support supporting our employees at this scale requires a strong dedicated human resources team. Our department led by HR specialists manage everything from recruitment and onboarding to credentiing, leave management and employee relations. Risk management and our security team also live within human resources, reinforcing our commitment to safety and the well-being for staff and students. We have carefully reviewed Fikmat's recommendations and reflected on how to improve support for our employees. This means identifying specific roles, delineating specific responsibilities, refining processes, enhancing communication, and ensuring compliance. All while keeping the students at the heart of every decision. Together, this team works collaboratively to uphold district values, foster professional growth, and deliver exceptional service to our staff. At this

123time, I would like to ask our HR family to step into the room so that you can be recognized. You need to step all the way into the room. All of you >> board members on the side can't see. Coming in. It's okay. All the way in. >> All the way. >> Come on. [Laughter] >> So, thank you. Thank you so much for the opportunity to present our human resources responses to the FICMAT recommendations. This process has allowed us to reflect, grow, and strengthen our practices to better support our employees. Every improvement we make in HR is designed to empower staff and ultimately provide our students with the highest quality education. We look forward to continuing this journey of excellence and collaboration. And at this time, we are happy to entertain any questions you may

124have. >> Thank you. Um we have no um no public speakers on this board questions or comments. >> Yes. Um first of all, thank you for the presentation. It was very informative and clear. And as a former classified employee, I actually am excited for these changes as I was um I fell a little bit under the cracks um when talking about the mandatory orientation. Um so I want to know this or the new hire orientation now it's mandatory um but how long are you going to give the employees to complete it? >> So this is something that we are going to be monitoring um before it was um kind of loosely monitored if you will and so we are monitoring and tracking the new employees that are being onboarded and ensuring that they will be

125um engaging in our orientation. So we hope that within the f first couple of months of employment they will have the opportunity to to attend the orientation. >> Yeah. Um just again because I became part of this board before I was able to have my new heart orientation. So we want to make sure we we get these people. Um and I know that reasoning why it took so long. It was because when I started working they were like we need you to go straight to work. So, as a noon duty, they were like, "Well, you know, it's it's it's different for for you guys." So, um, again, I love and I enjoy the fact that now it's going to be monitored and people are going to be able to have the orientation hopefully before they

126have to start working, but if not in the first two months. >> Yes. >> Um, also for the stay interviews, I've heard of exit interviews, but I've never heard of stay interviews. And I really love this idea. like I think it's a great idea. So before they they want to leave, they they get to tell us, but how are you guys going to conduct this? >> So it is something that we're trying to figure out the best way to do so. Um again, we appreciate the opportunity that FitMat gave us to analyze some of our processes. Um and we came up with the idea of stay interviews when we saw some of the other large organizations. I know Indeed is a big job employment site. They use um stay interviews. Um I did some additional

127research with some large organizations that use it and they find it to be extremely successful for the very reason that we stated that we can get them before they decide to leave. And so hopefully those opportunities that we will um access will give us that chance to learn not only for those that want to stay and know the reasons they want to stay, but hopefully capture those that are getting ready to go for whatever reason they may have. Um, right now we think we're probably going to do um random selections of job classifications and call them personally interview them and get uh as much of that information as we can from them. >> Okay. If I can make any recommendation, I would suggest to look up who's leaving um in a bigger scale maybe like

128the classified like noon duties. I see a lot of the people leaving. Yeah. Um and we have that data already. So I would suggest that we look at those high turn around turn around um positions and try to h like again prevent because we don't want to lose money onboarding new people, training new people and doing all these other things. So that would be my suggestions but otherwise I I again I really enjoy your presentation and I I enjoy seeing this new changes. I'm excited to see it. So thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> I have a few questions too. Um, I was also going to comment on the stay interviews. I think that is a great idea. That's why I posed the question about how were the employees when they were being

129interviewed, were they enthusiastic? Were they excited for changes? So, I think that's a great idea. Um, a quick question. This is great, too. I like this a lot. Um, so just a quick question on how you determine going from the four to the two programs and then the one. Um why what is the difference between Frontline and Peopleoft FileMaker? And why do substitutes have a different system? Why can't it be under one and just maybe two categories basically instead of two >> programs? No other system that we have manages substitutes like Peopleoft won't do that. It won't identify when there's an absence and then call um absences. So that's why Frontline has to be our substitute system. Um, again, it's technically a personnel system, but it's really its own entity. >> I see. Okay. Great

130presentation. Thank you. >> Thank you everyone and thank you for bringing your hardworking staff out because you guys are behind these closed doors and we really do appreciate you. We know that there's a lot of phone calls. being the largest elementary school district in the state, there's not that many of you for being that many. So, I appreciate what you do. And um same note though, um I hear good stuff when you guys speak to when you speak to uh our staff. I've quite frankly never heard a negative on how you uh dealt with uh your customer, the the employee. But um I would also encourage I know you're looking at surveys and exits exit interviews uh an ongoing process on how can we do better you know kind of thing where you know like

131if you you're a customer somewhere else you may want us to provide a suggestion for another organization like at Kohl's the fact that they moved all the Amazon upstairs and now you've got to do the exchange on the bottom you things that might how can we do better how can we better serve you I appreciate that you're recognizing the recommendations on how to uh make your because it'll end up making your job easier also which then translates into a smoother service that's being provided. I thank you very much for being receptive to the recommendations and um and also you know encourage your own staff to provide additional recommendations >> to making the system better. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Sure. Thank you for the presentation. On the presentation, you said your mention

132about leave management. >> Uh what system is going to do that? >> Which system? >> Mhm. the well, we have the EFMLA that we've put in place, but the biggest shift um will be um HR taking that role and and really managing that um ensuring that we're following ED code, following labor laws, following our union contracts. So, we do have EFMLA in place and we're still um learning that system and and and implementing that. Um and it has been a big support to us in tracking those leaves. Um we understand >> we understand that there still needs to be a partnership with payroll to make sure that everything is reconciled but um so we look forward to continuing the conversation with payroll and making that shift. >> Why are you not tracking it in peopleoft

133>> Mr. Well, currently we use um Frontline to track our absence um inputs. So, that's a system that we'll be utilizing u moving forward um for our um absence management. >> Yeah. But now you're introducing a new system um when we're trying to reduce systems and >> right >> in the county we were able to use uh people soft to track leaves and manage leaves and people would go into the self-service system and they would from there they can see where what is their balance on leaves vacation sick time um what is the other one um >> personal leave or whatever types of leaves we have from the self-service portal, we were able to see that. Furthermore, on the paycheck on the payub, we would get our balances every month. This is our current balance

134that something that's not happening here because I see it on on my stipen. I I mean, I don't have any uh sick times or leave, but it's blank, right? if I did. Well, but that that's something that we should look into because that's a system that already has a capability and we should look at maximizing our current investments on our systems because people is expensive. Let's maximize that. Now, FileMaker Pro, why do we need to keep it not imported into peopleoft? That data can be imported into peopleoft. Why not? Why are we not importing it into peopleoft? >> So we can't go back and add historical data into peopleoft from past from the past employees. So in order for us to be able to have that historical data that FileMaker houses >> who told you

135that >> that's what we were told. >> Okay. Let's let's check again with the county. >> Okay. And this is really another opportunity especially if we're made aware that this can happen because all along we've had to keep FileMaker. I'll go back to my time 10 years ago when Dr. Theo was the superintendent assistant soup. >> Uh he said see what you can find out. When we explored the options that were out there were different reasons financial and the way the systems would work. We knew Peopleoft was coming. Um but at that time at least we were told that peopleoft wasn't going to be able to house our historical data so we needed to keep the FileMaker system. If that's changed or if there have been an is there an opportunity to add People Soft

136to be able to house that we're all for it. I mean at the end of the day if that makes our job easier to be able to access it. I mean that's what we want. >> Yeah. Because that that will help you with not only having just one system and one entry point you don't have to train people on managing FileMaker Pro. Mhm. Absolutely. >> Which is a big task. >> Just Mayo, we will look into uh uh I believe the the issue was the dumping of the files. They didn't correspond, but we will look into seeing how that can be done if that can be done. >> Yes. >> When I used to work at the county, we did that and we transferred to people soft and everything was transferred over. So there may

137be that capability now >> that maybe wasn't. That's that's a great idea. >> We'll look into it. >> One more thing I forgot to ask. Could we also possibly get like target dates for some of these implementations and um some periodic updates on um what's been accomplished >> and maybe even some of their like ah we couldn't do this because >> so absolutely so so as uh the presenter from figments shared some of the things can be changed right away some of the things will take longer but I think it's important for the board to know how we're doing and the progress So we'll keep you updated uh on the board updates as we move forward as we reach um certain benchmarks we can uh say you know we are here >> and and the

138other ones you know we still need to go >> two more months or five more months >> the staff inform affects them. >> Yeah. So just so you know it's as you know it's a process uh there are many different moving parts many different moving components but uh uh we believe this has been a very insightful and beneficial process that has really made us reflect on how we can do better >> it's going to save money >> now for the hard copy um file repository what happens to that >> do you want to speak to that the packs the hard the physical >> you're asking what's going to happen with the paper paper >> the personal files are we going to digitize those are we going to shred them what what happens to those >>

139yeah I if there's an opportunity for us to digitize our paper files I'm I I know we all completely support that again that was something that we have looked into in the past and it was uh quite costly um but if that is an opportunity that we can take advantage of then we are ready do it begin. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Are those current or historical? >> Historical historical. Right. >> Historical. So the >> you have to retain them. >> Yeah. So we have to retain them. And the issue with that was the fiscal impact. >> Okay. >> We have many many >> Yeah. >> But we continue to maintain it. We continue to add to it. Right. So there has to be a date when we say okay from this point forward moving

140forward we stop doing hard copies and we do electronics. So when you say they're historical, how far back are we talking about? >> The beginning of time. >> I think one of the things that we would want to do is consult with our legal team to find out what we're obligated to house or how far back. So that's the kind of information we'll we'll get if this is a a move that we'll make. So, uh I know it goes back many many many years because uh if there's any legal issues that come come about. >> We got to be we have to be able to go back and look at that file. >> Wow. >> And we can go back 20 30 40 years. >> Wow. Oh, wow. Okay. Thank you. >> And then finally

141on the stay survey, uh there's a company called Great Place to Work that does those type of surveys. I know they use it at at the community college that I work at. Uh this the surveys are anonymous. It's sent out to everybody in in the district. Everybody gets to uh answer th those questions and then it provides feedback, right, to to management to see how they're how each department, how each school is uh the sentiment of the school and where can we improve. That might be a a great way to to look at it. Um, but definitely your your call, but that's a great idea to start looking at that where where can we improve and be more proactive. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you for the presentation. Um, it was like you were

142anticipating my questions. Um, I I do want to make two comments. I I I agree with um the commentary about the stay interviews. I think that's a really good idea. And my other comment has to do with the um with the video. I hope that we're going to use that for something more than just just a presentation because I really enjoyed that. Um, I want to thank all of you in HR because I know that it involved interviewing you and having to answer those questions and for your courage in saying I don't know because that's very important for us. Um, I also want to um thank you for your patience in advance because there's going to be some changes because as we saw from the report, there's some things that are in HR right now

143that don't belong under HR and there are some things that we're asking obviously to move into HR that should be in there. And so, um, I want to thank you for being willing to do that work and and we'll be patient with you as you tackle these challenges. But um again, thank you very much for participating in that FIKMAT interview and for this presentation. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um business services um support responses to the FickMat report. Mr. Paul, >> thank you, President Nugarte and members of the board, uh Dr. Reyes and members of the community. Tonight uh we have our business services uh team here also uh mainly our fiscal services department which um covers our budget, accounting, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll and uh student attendance.

144And so um I want to introduce a couple of people who will be helping tonight. Uh we have Bernie Pino. She's our director of fiscal services. And then I wanted to introduce a couple um others on our team. We have Alonsto Solano. He's our payroll supervisor and Paula Ryan's sorry, our payroll manager. Paula Ryan, she's our payroll supervisor. And we also have Tina Loretta Buson. She's our accounting supervisor. So they'll be um some of the oversight on on these implementation of these new practices. And then um we have some of our staff here also which uh we'll recognize. So just like HR business services is committed to the feedback and we thank um Pikmat for the opportunity and the recommendations to um identify our strengths and address our areas of growth. Um, similar to HR,

145we have a goal overall throughout this um, review process that we really want to continue to build a collaborative business services and support department that is recognized for transparency, efficiency, and support of our staff and the district's mission. So for tonight's presentation, we have some overarching guiding principles that our um business services department strives for. We strive for um transparency and accountability in everything that we do. Because we deal with so many numbers, we also strive for accuracy and reliability. We want to have modern and efficient practices that um help the district accomplish its goals. We want to be collaborative and partner with our various departments and schools um and staff. We're also always looking at continuous improvement and streamlining our processes. And um we do have a lot of compliance that we have to

146um report on and um support. So we always look at our best practices in our neighboring districts to develop um some of those So the Figma the Fikmat review really focused on a deficit model and by looking at that um you know I believe that one of our greatest strengths as a district is our staff. So just like uh we have highly qualified instructional staff. We also have a need for highly qualified classified staff. So right now um the fiscal services department were in the process of um rebuilding or reconstructing the department. Uh we have had some leadership that had retired um that was here for almost 20 years and it's really giving us the opportunity to look at all of our practices and um ways that we can either improve or um change some

147of the practices um to more modern practices. So, we've hired um some new staff. Over 80% of our staff uh have two years or less um time with the district. So, we're working with the staff that's new to the district. So, getting them familiar with the culture policies, everything like that. Uh we did just transition so the 2425 school year was the first year on the people saw financial system. So, that's been a learning curve for the for the staff. um other districts have been on it for almost seven years now and so um you know it takes time to learn all those processes. Um we've also we're looking at a a different way of staffing the department. So um we have hired two new staff uh with accounting backgrounds but they also have a

148IT system background. So kind of thinking about the accounting positions a little bit differently because we have all these systems in place now. We really want people who are um who are knowledgeable in how all the systems interact. Um our new accounting manager um that will be starting next week. Uh he is from the people's soft support team at the county office of education. So he will be really helping us um really provide the um training and stability that we need um for the department. Uh we also are looking at um our training for new staff. So making sure that they're trained on all of our HR and um business systems. The unique thing about the fiscal services department is that we need to know both sides of Peopleoft. we need to know the HR

149side and the finance side. So, it's a steep learning curve. Uh we're also working on um our standard operating procedure. Sorry, I had a binder over um over there if you don't mind passing around, Angela. Uh the one right under that. Yeah, sorry, I didn't make multiple copies for each um board member, but yeah, you can pass it around. So, um we're working on our standard operating procedures uh so that way the staff have a document that they can refer back to um after their initial training um and another partner staff that they can work with. We're also looking at um better ways to support our schools and departments um that are that have new staff. So, uh we're working on orientations for our principles, directors, secretaries, attendance health secretaries. Those are the main um

150office staff that we uh partner with. And then we also have ongoing trainings. We have Friday office hours and that's in collaboration with our purchasing department and our fiscal services department that um we have office hours. Sometimes people um will put items on the agenda that we um address, but otherwise um it's open office hours for uh to meet with our fiscal services director and purchasing director and team. And then I know myself that I wouldn't be where I am without a professional network behind me. So, we have um the California Association of School Business Officials or CASBO um that I have for the past um 10 years been heavily um participating in. I've been the section president and um we're responsible for planning the professional development for our operational staff. And so, um I've

151been really encouraging the staff to go to these workshops. At the last board meeting, um there was a list of um about 16 people that will be attending the CASBO workshop. So, I'm really encouraging the staff to um go to those professional development opportunities and really build a network outside of Chila Vista that they can um reach out to other districts and um learn what their best practices are. And then finally, uh we also have School Services of California, which is one of our state partners. they provide a lot of workshops and so we've been watching those together as a group um just so that we have the same baseline understanding of school business operations. So as we look at our systems we're trying to um transition more to digital systems and away from business

152plus. So the two main areas that we're looking at are our personal action forms or position control and our time cards and leave or payroll. So the current issue with these systems are that they're on paper forms. Um as Mr. Wowick had mentioned, sometimes those paper forms have been misplaced with uh a manual process. There's also the opportunity of human error. Um and then there's the issue of having to manually enter into peopleoft. So the solutions that we're looking at um we'll also look at two systems. So we'll max be maximizing the use of peopleoft. Um under there there's a personal action form um position control system that we'll be utilizing and we're already working with the implementation team there. And then we'll we'll also be utilizing front line their time and attendance side. So

153currently we have um we have our substitutes that are um called out to from frontline but there's a whole time and absence side where we can have digital time sheets. Um, so we'll be piloting that in January uh with our transportation department first because they're one of the departments that have a strict um time reporting requirement with the department of transportation and so we'll be using them as our pilot for digital time sheets. This uh moving towards the system provides us um a digital process that's more efficient. We can um look at workflows. So um whereas paper documents may be misplaced or it might be sitting on someone's desk, we can see directly in the system who it's sitting with for approval. Uh there's connection to peopleoft so we can uh download from frontline and

154easily upload um the time reporter up to up to the payroll system and overall it's going to improve our transparency and and accountability to our employees. So really the role of the uh payroll payroll staff is more so moving from maybe like a manual calculations towards more of an audit function and there is some um long-term long-term plans for Peopleoft. So for Frontline there's the possibility to get rid of Frontline. Um they're they're working on a system called time labor and substitution. So once that is fully implemented at the county level, then we'll start to look at that as a viable option, but that's not for another three to five years. So, one of the items that was mentioned in the report was that um it made it seem like business services was an island,

155but we always have collaborative meetings with our other colleagues. Uh especially with human resources, uh we've set up monthly meetings with them and bi-weekly meetings um and even weekly meetings. So monthly we talk about um our conversion and some of our processes what are some of the pain points challenges and then we talk about our implementation um every two weeks we're meeting with it um they're also one of our partner in all of these conversions um so we're meeting with them um every two weeks and then on a weekly basis u myself Bernie and Barbie meet about um open positions so we're really focusing on position control, our workflow processes, and we've also created um a master vacancy list together with HR that we didn't have before. In terms of our other departments, uh we're

156working with them on staffing, uh looking at their contracts, um making sure that all of our contracts and softwares are serving a purpose and if there's any um alternatives, we look at that. And then we're also working with them on multi-year planning. So for example um with transportation and their trans uh their electrification of their vehicles with instructional services and their curriculum adoptions um the technology refreshes those are all multi-year plans that we're working with other departments on. And then for um school principles and the schools uh we've committed to quarterly budget meetings. In the past, it's kind of been um the school site reaching out to the department, whereas now in fiscal services, we're doing more of the outreach um to encourage them to to meet with the with the departments. And we're also

157creating standardized financial reports. Again, one of the accountants, she has a IT systems background. So along with Bernie, we've been able to create a report that um we presented to the principles and they um just talked about how um how it's going to improve the process of their budgeting process at the school site level. And then with instructional services, we're always collaborating with them because we have so many state and federal programs and reporting requirements. Uh we're in constant collaboration with instructional services. And with that, I will hand it over to Bernie. Thank you, Mr. >> Good evening, uh, President Darte, um, sorry. Um, Dr. Reyes, um, trustees, cabinet, and community members as it's my first time, so I apologize. Thank you. Tonight, I will be going over the district's budget development timeline and statutory

158budget reporting requirements, similar to the one presented to the board during the August board workshop or budget workshop. While formal budget preparation begins in January, the planning process starts in November. During this time, the fiscal services department collaborates closely with cabinet, human resources, and program department leaders to review key considerations such as projected enrollment and average daily attendance based on the most recent data. We also review preliminary revenues and expenditure trends and the staffing needs. In January, formal budget development begins. This aligns with the release of the governor's budget proposal which provides the first official look at the stu the state's funding levels, cost of living adjustments and program priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. At this stage, the fiscal services team updates assumptions, refineses revenue projection, and begins constructing the district's preliminary budget. Expenditure

159trends, including step and column costs, benefit rate changes, and program needs are also updated. By spring, fiscal staff work collaboratively with the departments to align allocations with district LCAP goals and actions and available resources. The proposed budget is presented to the board in May and any material updates from the governor may revise in June for adoption prior to July as required by law. This ensures that the district has an approved spending plan in place at the start of the new fiscal year. Next slide. Once the budget is adopted, there are three statutory reporting periods during the fiscal year. For each interim reporting period, the fiscal services team monitors revenue and expenditure against projections and reviews budget with departments and updates the budget for any changes since adoption. Each report is subject to the county office

160of eds education's review and once reviewed the county determines and issues its certification of the district's report. The first interimm report reflects financial activities from July through October 31st and is due to the county by December 15. The second interimm report covers the period from July through January and is due to the county by March 15. The third statutory uh report is the unodudited actuals which represents the final accounting of the prior year's fiscal uh financial activities and the report is due to the county by September 15. The unodudited actual serves as a basis for the annual independent audit. Our district also prepares an estimated actual reports which reflects the financial activity from July through April and provides the most current projection of year-end revenues and expenditures. Preparing the estimated actual reports ensures that the

161adopted budget for the following year is based on the most accurate data available. In summary, the district's budget process is a continuous cycle of planning, monitoring, and reporting guided by both statutes and strong local accountability practices. Although a checklist of budget items were provided, FCMAT recommended that we take it a step further and have the actual assigned staff. As part of the district's ongoing commitment to strengthen fiscal processes and promote transparency, the fiscal services department has enhanced its budget development documentation. A detailed budget calendar and comprehensive task checklist can be found on the appendices of the desk reference guide uh for the budget department uh and have been developed to clearly define out clearly outline key milestones, responsibilities, and statutory deadlines. These update reflects our continued effort to insu ensure consistency, accountability, and alignment with

162best practice throughout the bud budget cycle. Back to Mr. Paul. >> One of the last items that the FICMAT report focused on was um updating our board policies. So, the department's also in the process of um reviewing these. Uh last month we brought three to the board for approval and review the travel, calard and assets. We also have three more on this current agenda uh for review and potential approval. And all the 3000s are the areas of business services. So we'll be bringing some updates every month again making sure that they align with current law and regulations and are consistent with our district processes and the district's mission and vision. And with that, I want to also bring up our staff that's here tonight that was able to join us from our business services, fiscal

163services team. >> Have you come in, take a walk and we will open it up for any questions. >> Thank you. But we have no speakers for this item. Board questions or comments. >> I have a I have a few comments. Um the people soft versus frontline streamlining if we will. Um that's why I posed the question with what trust was saying. So I'm looking forward to seeing how maybe we can put it all together. I know you said it takes a few years, but a few years go by quick. So you know um and again thank you for your presentation. and you guys always do an amazing job with all of your presentations and and everything that you do. Um, just a quick question. The detailed budget calendar, is that like a small report?

164I was wondering if I can get a copy of that. >> Yeah, we can put a copy. It was in the in the binder at the end >> to see for reference what when our deadlines are. >> We can put a copy in the weekly update. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Uh, thank you so much for the report. Thank you for um being thorough. I love those presentations cuz they help me see and understand more. Um, I had a question for the quarterly budget meetings with schools. Um, do you find that once a quarter it's good enough? Um, or are the schools asking for like more? >> Yeah, those are just what we are starting out with. And the schools can always set up more as needed. So they always reach out whenever they're not

165either understanding something or they think something is off. They meet with one of the accountants or Bernie. Oh, >> okay. Great. I was wondering. I'm like, what if they have questions? Um I have I always like express my questions. I think of other people like that. Um and then on the budget monitoring um at the end it's like building budget staffing staffing reconciliation. What is that? So right now we're already starting budget development and so we're working off of assumptions that we have right now. So we're making assumptions about enrollment um staffing those kind of things. So um you know we're already we're eight eight months nine months from the start of the new school year. So um you know we're constantly updating but even still once the school year starts there's changes retirements resignations.

166So staff are moving um to different sites and so we have to make sure that the budgets are following them and things like that. So there's a whole reconciliation process of positions that happens after um like for first interim that's when we're really um reconciling all those changes. >> Oh, okay. Thank you. And let me see if I have anything else. Um no, also I would love um that um appendix to to be available for us. Um, and thank you so much. I know it's a lot of work. Um, and yeah, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Pong and Miss Barbie and all your staff. It just takes a very special person to be staring at numbers all day long. And what frustration you must feel to speak to someone who doesn't understand numbers at

167all. Thank you for what you do. It just does take a very special person for your presentation as well. A couple questions. You mentioned schoolside council and how you were working with some of the principles and you gave them a new what a new what what did you give them to work better with to >> so Bernie I can let you explain it. So um one of the things that the feedback that we've been getting so I've been working with Miss Lanni and other department heads in terms of um what is the pain points for for principles in terms of budget development and one of them was projecting out um salaries for next year for example and the um um sometimes the numbers don't match what they have and what we show sometimes don't reconcile.

168So, um I brought it back to what we did before but fine-tuned it where um they will see their budget in a summary form and then um they will see it in a more detailed budget format but where things calculate automatically >> where they can enter their um staff and then their hourly rate goes there, their daily rate goes there, their projected salary for next year goes there and it will automatically populate their budget. So they can see after all the salaries are paid, do I still have money for supplies? >> So it's just a a an easy tool for them. Um they so they don't have to calculate benefits or statutory benefits. Everything is built in on the worksheet with the help of >> the staff. We put together that worksheet and we presented

169it to the principles last week and um we just to get feedback to see if there's anything that they want and we got feedback so we're we're going to make sure we make it happen for them. >> Oh, that's wonderful. Thank you. And and do you include like for instance the title one monies that each school has in there so they can do their calculations? >> Yes ma'am. So um we will include all the funding that school sites get. So site control, LCAP, title one for schools that have community school funding will be there. ELOP will also be there. So anything where they need to have ICE on and they have staffing in. >> So is this something you're plugging in for each specific school may have different numbers? >> Absolutely. So we've set it

170up so that after we uh prepare the allocation for each school um it will automatically populate that >> to them. Wow. >> Yeah, that's great. And um thank you for doing that for them. I'm sure they're they'll be very um happy afterwards too when they see that it cuts down on some of the work they have to do >> and encourage I I imagine you guys encourage them to provide you more feedback to see if they're >> Absolutely. Because it's if it's not useful for them then it's not going to help. >> Exactly. >> Thank you. >> Hello. >> All right. So for you want to go easy on you um position control you said that we're going to use people soft for that and also for the path. Uh when do you foresee that

171being implemented? Our goal is by January um we'll be able to have HR preliminarily um because they have to become the experts on that also and then after that we plan on pushing that out to the school sites to be able to enter directly into the system next year >> and then my final question do you foresee having to renew business plus one more year >> right now no that's our goal to not have to renew business plus so all of these processes Um we're working with Frontline to get um everyone fully on there for the time sheets. Um we'll be uh working on anou with um the classified staff for um some of the reporting on there. Um so right now we don't envision having to continue business plus. >> All right. Thank you

172so much. >> Hi Mr. Paul. >> Remember when you were hired and I told you you would have a large learning curve? Did I lie? um and you've you've risen to the challenge. So, I I really appreciate. I know that's because of your staff and um and all the work that you do. And I do want to thank you all for participating in the FCM mat and doing those interviews and being honest so that we can get this feedback. Um my only and and I'm piggybacking on my colleague here with regard to the people soft. I'm very familiar with that path pathway and what I'm going to say to HR and to and I'm glad to see that you're collaborating because as you said it goes through V per position control it goes through various

173departments and you can see where it's stuck. So, it's going to take a lot of making sure you're checking and double-checking because even though we know that that paper system has problems, electronic position control can also have problems and it can hold up the hiring process because it does go through all of those departments. So I encourage um I and support that you continue having those collaborative meetings especially with regard to um that paper the electronic trail when we hire staff because it can end up getting stuck somewhere and someone doesn't see it. Um, so, so paper, yeah, we're we're moving from paper, but it can also it can also be a problem when when it's electronic. And I'm sure and as you mentioned, you saw it and and you see that it goes through

174a number of steps, but other than that, thank you all for your flexibility and for all of the changes that you're being able willing to make. Um, I think that once we get this down, right, then we're going to be it's going to be a lot better. Um, and wow, less than two years and you guys are still Thank you very much for your report. >> Thank you. >> Before we get to 14A, um, we do have some biological needs. So, we're going to take about an 11 minute break and we'll come back at 8:50. So, yeah. Second reading of board policies, administrative regulations, and board bylaws. The first reading for the proposed revision to the Learning Choice Academy Chula Vista Charter Petition renewal for the period of July 2026 through June 2031. Mr. Mora

175Good evening once again. So I have the pleasure of introducing TLC, the Learning Choice Academy that will be presenting their petition for renewal. >> Thank you. >> Uh good evening. Um Dr. Reyes, um, President Lugartev, Vice President Tamayo, I senior board members Dominguez Cvantes, Ramirez, Dominguez, and Stalson, and superintendent. Thank you. Uh, my name is Anna Nudson. I'm the school side administrator for the Learning Choice Academy and Chiliva Vista. And we want to thank you for giving us this opportunity to speak to you about our charter school. To our incredible staff, parents, and students who are here tonight, thank you for your unwavering support. Your presence speaks volume. For those of you who have joined the board since our original petition in 2018, I'd like to take a moment to give you a glimpse into

176who we are and what truly makes TLC great. The Learning Choice Academy is a personalized learning charter school that services students KK to 12th grade. Personalized learning allows us to meet our students needs individually and help customize their education. Students come to on-site classes or they work at home. They have an educational partner that assists their parent directly helping them with their homeschool part of it, but they also have numerous resources at their fingertips that the educational partner will provide. We do whatever the student needs to succeed. Whether it's supporting students that are struggling or giving students who are advanced more resources to keep advancing. >> The program is really cool how I can work from home for a few days, then come here and work on campus and see my friends for the other

177few days. >> Now I'm really shy and quiet. and it's really helped me learn how to talk to people, how to interact with people, and I I feel like that's just a really good skill that I needed to learn. I just recently was accepted into SCSU, so I'm going to be going there. Uh my major right now is is English and literature. I want to be a teacher. So, that's that's the plan so far. What's different from TLC compared to my old school is how much one-on-one you get with the teachers, especially since the classroom sizes are so much smaller. >> When I came here, I didn't know English. So, they helped me a lot to um improve my skills um in writing and also reading. And I'm still working on um speaking it, but

178I think I'm getting better at it. My favorite teacher is Mr. Ke because he is a very sweet. He's very caring and he helps you when you have a lot of trouble with a project. >> It's a very dynamic group of parents that help shape what's going on in the school, the activities, the direction that the school is going. >> There's a great support system. They are going to be by your side the whole way and they're going to help your student grow. And that's what we're really here for. >> And we do multiplication. I love multiplication. It's repeated adding >> with this type of program. It works well because I can be involved and my children I feel can be like independent. >> This is a program is a partnership between parents and family

179uh between the the staff and the teachers of TLC. >> This works for us because one likes to excel in doing homework and the other doesn't like doing homework but it's just finding that passion. The best part of being a teacher at TLC is that you can see the difference that you make and you make it one student at a time. >> We here at TLC can tailor education to fit the child's needs most appropriately. >> They are thankful for the program because they have become the people they are right now because of the program. [Applause] So for board members new since our original petition in 2018 and for everyone seeking a deeper understanding, I want to take a few minutes to share our story and demonstrate what makes TLC truly exceptional. >> Oh, I

180have the clicker. That's good. So who we're going to go over who we are, who we serve, our the renewal criteria, the California dashboard and the NWA data accomplishments and community benefit. So we were founded in 2004 and we serve grades TK through 12 and due to changes in the law, TLC sought out to create our second charter and was approved for a charter under CVSD in 2018. What sets us apart is our commitment to personalized learning through a hybrid homeschool model. We offer a genuine choice to families allowing them to select the path that best fits their goals, either 100% homeschool or a hybrid program. The hybrid program is uh three days of on-site instruction and our goal is to create a supportive, rigorous academic environment tailored to each student. uh we have Tuesday,

181Wednesday, Thursdays on site and also an opportunity uh to for students to come on Friday for additional support. So who we serve? Uh we are proud to serve over four right now have 470 students I believe in the Chula Vista community. Our demographics reflect a deep commitment to serving diverse needs. Uh 75% of our students are Hispanic. 52% are socioeconomically disadvantaged, 23% are students with disabilities, and 13% of our students do not live in permanent housing. I'm sorry. Okay. Um, our five-year enrollment trend. Uh, this one highlights our five-year enrollment trends for two critical student subgroups of our Chula Vista location. students with disabilities and our socioeconomically disadvantaged population. Understanding these trends help us track our our reach and commitment to serving diverse student needs. So, as you can see, uh those populations keep growing.

182Our renewal criteria, our academic results confirm that our model is working. Uh TLC qualifies for a 5-year renewal based on state criteria, demonstrating that we meet expectations under the California dashboard and show continued progress with our students. We've shown no widespread performance concerns, that our subgroups are making progress, and that we meet state academic standards for renewal. Um, our ELA program is is solid. We still have obviously have room for improvement, but it's uh it's historically been uh our averages have been above state average. So, we keep working on that. And then uh our math continues to be an area of focus. Uh that is really math is always from the beginning. We've been working on it and we'll talk a little bit more about the the steps we're taking. We do see progress but

183we obviously still have a lot of work to do. Okay. Now now this the following three slides slides are going to explain what conditional growth indexes. Uh so uh conditional growth index of zero represents students growing by typical expected amounts. Anything between negative.2 to 0.2 represents typical annual growth. So when they reach that that means the kids do a whole year progress make a whole year progress in our school. So beyond state metrics our internal data from NWS conditional growth index shows consistent student growth as uh in the 202425 school year 11 out of 12 grade levels met or exceeded one year's growth in both reading and math. We all obviously we want 12 out of 12 but 11 out of 12. This is a consistent improvement showing that the majority of our students are

184growing more than the typical amounts. This is for math. Same thing you can look look at look you can look at the trends between 23 24 and 24 25 continuous enrollment. Um this slide shows that students who stay with us for three, four, and five years make more gains. There's a slight dip in year four, but we more than rebound for students enrolled for five years. And this is very significant because we do have a lot of students coming and going, a lot of turnover of students for many reasons because of the nature of our program. So we try to track the students that stay with us and we definitely see that upward trend uh year by year. We have a lot to be proud of. Our success isn't just in test courses in the

185satisfaction of our community. We maintain an impressive 99% attendance rate. 90% of parents reported that their child's progress has improved this enrolling at TLC. 95% of our students believe there is someone at school who believes they will be a success. As one TLC parent put it, it has been the best thing we could have done for our family. Sorry, go back. Okay, so we do have some key chapter updates. We are incorporating a multi-tiered system of support career and technical education CT courses and a dual enrollment partnership with uh Southwestern College and we offer um in fact Southwestern College courses on campus every semester. We have expanded the number of days students can be on campus from two to three or even four days. That's also very significant. So, uh we have students um receiving

186academic support more often than before. We're also expanding parent engagement uh with multilingual platforms and workshops, strengthening outreach to newer families, and improving data systems to better track subgroup performances. We are committed to preparing every student for the future through college and career counseling, AP courses, dual enrollment, and CT offerings. So, uh, for the first time the past three years, we've been offering AP courses. Slowly but surely, we're building our catalog. We are offering AP Spanish this year, um, AP biology, AP statistics, and, uh, the AP Spanish. For the past three years, we have had a 100% passing rate. Pretty pretty proud of that. Oops. I'm sorry. The community B. So, TLC Academy stands before you today as an established and successful longstanding community partner. We offer a high demand alternative to the traditional classroom.

187We meet a clear local need for personalized learning and our focus on strong parent student teacher partnerships ensures holistic support for every child academically, socially and emotionally. >> She's okay. As part of the charter petition renewal, we have prepared a five-year financial projection that demonstrates TLC's ability to maintain fiscal stability throughout the entire charter term. Um some of the key assumptions to highlight include enrollment growth um going from 490 students to 525 students by year five and that's reflecting a conservative pro conservative projections aligned with current demand and capacity of the of TLC. Um average daily attendance is modeled at that 99% attendance rate based on historicals. And for revenue, we're using FKMax current calculator and expenditure growth and in staffing and instruction is proportionate to growth in enrollment. And we have builtin cost of

188living adjustments in our expense projections just to highlight some of the financials there. But overall, TLC projects to have positive annual net income each year of the full charter petition term with ending fund balance reserves above 44 to 56% of total annual expenses. um no um there's going to be no periods of negative cash flow and the school typically maintains two to four ma months of operating cash on hand and that always ensures liquidity and that's expected through the full charter term. Um, so overall, this five-year projection supports the school's long-term capacity to operate subst sustainably and really just keep providing highquality educational program for all of learning choices academy Chila Vista students. I also said our enrollment remains strong and in fact we have been increasing enrollment every year and we are actually up

1898% enrollment this year. So, we haven't lost any and uh we keep uh building up our enrollment. Um any questions? We have six speakers. Um I'm going to assume they're all in favor of the charter. I might be misconr. Um is there any adjustment to time that we would like to make? Can you tell if they're all our TLC? >> They're Oh, they're also They all say support. That's why I I I was pretty good with my guess and I don't know. I mean, the standard three minutes, two minutes. >> Maybe we can ask them. Do you think you can u do your presentation in two minutes? The speakers, what do you think? >> Two minutes. Do you need the three? Can you do two? >> Two minutes. >> Two. >> Okay. Yeah. Okay. So,

190we'll do two minutes. >> They can do two, I would say. >> Okay. Um, first is Raquel Maiden, then Andy Cardona. >> God, now I need to cut it down. I'm just kidding. >> Sorry. >> Good evening, board members, superintendent. My name is Raquel Maiden and I serve as the vice president of Southern California Advocacy for the California Charter Schools Association, CCSA. And some of you may recognize me. Um, I previously worked for CSBA, the California School Boards Association. And I also served as a school trustee right here in South Bay. So I know firsthand what it means to sit on that side of the DAS and really weigh in on complex information to listen to your community and to make decisions that impact families for years to come. Tonight, I'm here in support of

191TLC's renewal, not only as an advocate for CCSA, but as a former board member and a parent who understands how deeply local control matters, especially for a child like my own. Also, who thrives also in in a flexible, personalized learning environment such as the one TLC provides. You know, your students, your families, and your community best, and this renewal process is a reflection of that principle in action. I want to commend your staff for their thorough review of the petition, for recommending its approval, and for supporting you in exercising your right to local governance. A right that allows districts to make decisions that best serve students in their care. TLC is classified by the California Department of Education as a middle track charter school and based on its performance on the California School Dashboard under

192education code 47607C, this designation qualifies the school for a renewal term of up to five years. TLC has met every legal requirement for renewal and throughout this process, the school has shown a deep commitment to collaboration, transparency, and partnership, engaging staff, families, and community members, and also leveraging all the supports that my organization CCSA provides. Um, CCSA fully supports the staff's recommendation for renewal and urges this board to approve TLC for another five years of impact, innovation, and student success. Thank you for your leadership, your dedication, and for continuing to uphold the values of local control and educational excellence that make this community thrive. >> Thank you. You did it. >> After Andy, it'll be Priscilla. >> Uh good evening board. My name is Andy Cardona and I'm an eighth grade math teacher at the

193Learning Choice Chula Vista. Uh, I just want to say that the community that we have here at the learning choice, it's one of you don't come in, you don't just see co-workers, you come in, you see a community, you see a family. Uh, and I think for me specifically, that really resonated for me in the education system. Uh, I grew up in the foster care system and to the point where I aged out of the foster care system. Uh, and I always had a bad taste of schools, but coming to this campus, seeing the love in the students and the uplifting of the teachers, like they won me over within a week. Um, so me coming from such a bad background, seeing the love that genuine teachers, faculty, students, and staff can bring to a

194community, um, that only builds me up. Uh, because you see the dedication the kids have with like weekly clubs that they do. Um, the kids are so passionate about the clubs that we let them just run with it. We let we help them get community stakeholders. We help them get community partners. Uh, we do monthly beach cleanups and community partners see us at the beach cleaning up and they offer us help and they link up with us now. Uh, so now we do weekly or not weekly but monthly beach cleanups and we have two organizations we work with. Uh, so just you see that on a daily basis and that is zero input for me as a teacher. that is purely my students going out into the community seeing the passion that we have as

195a school system and saying how do we bring them in so we can uplift us as a whole community of Chula Vista and I think that's what really sells us as a school and as like a a whole just community that just shows up daily for these kids is that every single person doesn't come to campus to clock in for a job. Every person comes to campus because they're passionate about uplifting these kids. And if that wasn't there, I wouldn't be there. And I got to say, we got a wonderful principal. So, yeah, I made it. >> Thank you, >> Priscilla Gonzalez. And then it'll be Deanna Kerry. >> Sorry. >> Good. Good evening, everyone. My name is Priscilla Gonzalez, and I'm a proud graduate of TLC. Since graduating, I went on to earn my

196bachelor's and my master's degrees, and now I work as a speech language pathologist. When I look back, I can honestly say that TLC played a major role in shaping the person and professional that I've become. The hybrid model attending classes uh then it was twice a week and completing the rest independently fit my learning style perfectly. I've always been someone who learns best when I can take the time to really process material on my own, explore concepts deeply, and work through problems independently. The flexibility of that model also gave me opportunities that traditional schooling didn't always allow. I was able to hold a a part-time job, stay involved in my church community, and even took co college level courses at our local university. experiences uh that taught me responsibility, time management, and self-motivation. Later, when

197I transitioned to college, I realized how well TLC had prepared me. Um, university courses often meet just a couple of times a week and require a lot of independent studying. So, that structure already felt very natural to me. More importantly, I had already learned how to stay organized, self-disciplined, and proactive about my own learning. And beyond the academic structure, the teachers at TLC provided an incredible level of support. Even though we only saw them twice a week, they made every minute count, uh, offering individualized attention and guidance that honestly felt very personal and impactful. Um, more personal and impactful than what I had experienced in larger, more traditional schools. That's it. Thank you, Deanna Carrie. and then I believe it's Daniela Duran after that. >> Good evening members of the board. My name is Danna

198Kerry. I am the assistant schoolside administrator at the Learning Choice Academy. I've been committed to this school for over 20 years. First as a parent, then a teacher, and now as an administrator. I chose TLC because of its focus on personalized learning. That was exactly what my own children needed. For over two decades, I've seen this tailored approach as the foundation for building positive relationships. When we know our students as individuals, we foster the trust and accountability that drives true growth. Now, as an administrator, I see this focus on relationship. It creates our distinctive TLC community. This strong cohesive network between students, staff, and family is what consistently drives our academic and social emotional growth. Renewing our charter is vital. We ask for your continued support to ensure that the Learning Choice Academy can continue

199to provide this unique, successful environment. Thank you. >> Thank you, Daniela Duran. And then Dr. Jennifer Writer Cook. Good evening, evening members of the Chilivista School District. My name is Danella Duran. I am here because I'm supporting the school that my son Luca Duran now attends. Lucas started in the Learning Choice Academy in the last week of December in sixth grade. When he w Yeah. when he was in sixth grade. Now Luke is a happy ninth grader full of dreams and passion about law and being an advocate for children who don't have a voice. He wants to pursue a career in law when he's in college. Luca was a child going through some learning challenges and nothing was done prior to the learning choice academy academy academy and its amazing staff. I made the best

200decision I could have taken and regret not for doing it so so earlier. Immediately after enrollment, they listened to my concerns and they observed him for a while, but not long. Then Luca was put into an IEP and study in a study plan since the signs were more than obvious that he had some learning challenges. I cannot be more than grateful with the Learning Choice Academy. When Luca started there, he re they received him with open arms. One thing that one of his teachers said to him the first day of school when Luca was scared and did not trust anyone was, "Luca, I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you succeed. And if you fail, it's because I failed first as a teacher because I'm supposed to be here for you and work

201together with you to help you get to to help you get you to where you need to be. This is how Lucas started his journey at TLC. I will be forever grateful with Miss Medina, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Andy, Miss Gabby, Miss Kim, and of course, Miss the our principal, Miss Nutson. Um, who addresses situations immediately and has a very solid staff who show their love for children and teach them by inspiring them to learn and be better human beings in reality. In reality, this is how a school school should be and who teachers need to be in all of our district schools. Again, thank you staff for of the learning choice academy for working with Luca and giving him back the love for school and encouraging him academically and put uplifting him for anything that

202he was dragging from other schools. Luca is now a happy teenager with no signs of anxiety or any and has shown amazing improvement in this school. We have been more than happy in the leadership with Eduardo Reyes, Francisco Tamayo and this board. We know, sorry. Okay. We know that we you guys will put um our children first and we ask you respectfully to support the this item. Thank you. >> Dr. Jennifer Ryder Cook. Hi, good evening. I am so sorry. This is the result of two conferences and three presentations in the past week. Um I will not say how long ago but I started my career at Mueller Charter School as a special dayclass teacher and both of my children went through Camarina Elementary. So um I previously was at the California Charter Schools Association

203for 11 years starting helping schools start uh new charters and help with renewals. So I actually helped the executive director Debbie Gooden Gooding start uh the 2018 TLC charter here. Um so currently my role is along with supporting renewals and new schools I also support special education programming in charter schools across the state help them develop their programs and also uh do professional development for those schools as well. So um just in terms of knowing TLC, they are fully inclusive. They embody a growth mindset. They are constantly improving their programming, taking advantage of their autonomy and flexibility in order to meet the needs of their students. And they provide the choice that's necessary in the community along with supporting the district schools in order to complement what you all are doing and support the diverse

204learning needs. as you know, um may need a wide variety of choices or a continuum of services to be successful. Um so I just appreciate the staff's recommendation for approval. I support approval of this school and I'm happy to uh be a resource both to TLC and to the district in terms of continuing the growth of their programming. Thank you. >> Thank you. Board questions or comments? Um, I had a few questions. Can students enroll at any time in the school year? >> Yes. And that creates unique challenges, especially with high school. Um, sometimes they come in with uh grades from another school. That's an easy transfer. Sometimes they have not been in school for two or three months since school started and we still take them in and we still catch them up and

205it's not easy, but yes, they can they can enroll at any time. Okay, I have a few questions. So, thank you for your patience. Um, can they switch programs because they see you have two different levels. Um, full homeschool and then the partial days. Can they if they see it's not a fit, can they go? >> Absolutely. So, um there are some limitations. For example, in high school, um we do have some deadlines as to when they can drop a class and when they can switch programs. Uh other than that, uh especially in elementary, middle school, it's pretty easy. And normally they would normally they switch from home school to hybrid. I'm going to be honest because sometimes uh the parent realizes their children need more academic support and we are really good at convincing

206them to bring them over especially once they know us. Um but sometimes if the hybrid program is not working for them, they also have the choice to to do homechool. >> Okay. >> Um how many credits average are this the high school students getting from college? That's that's a good question. Um, actually maybe Jeff can answer that question, but it's um I don't know the averages to be honest, the percentages. I do know that uh I'm going to say maybe 20% of our students, high school students, uh take at least one college course. I know there's a data somewhere that I don't have in hand here. You can tell >> that's the data. Uh just on site alone, we average about 15 kids each semester taking one class on site. >> And then we have

207multiple students that are also taking dual enrollment, which they go take over at the actual community college, most likely Southwestern. >> And those numbers range anywhere between we've had as high as 35%. >> Oh, wow. >> Thank you. >> I knew he had the data. >> Yeah. So I need my team. >> Yes. Um, for the students that are fully homeschooled, do they do they have an assigned teacher if they have questions? >> Absolutely. Yeah, thank you. Those are really good questions. They have every student has an educational partner, whether they are hybrid or homeschool. And uh, with homeschool students, they're supposed to meet their EP every six weeks. However, if we have concerns about the student, if the student is not at grade level, if the student is still struggling with reading, we may

208ask the the parent to meet with the EP more often, we may model, especially when they're little and they they may not know exactly how to teach a child to read. The EP can model how to teach them to how to read. They bring them in. We also do all the assessments on site, so they have to bring them in anyway for uh for assessments because we need the data on all the students. Uh but yes, every single kid is a is assigned as a teacher for middle school and high school students. Uh it would be probably a grade level teacher that would be their EP as well. >> Okay. >> Um and for enrichment opportunities, do they have options? >> You're talking about electives for high school? >> Yeah, like sports electives. >> We

209not as not as many as a traditional school. I'm going to be honest because as I tell the parents, we can do a lot because we're small and we cannot do a lot because we're small. So we don't have sports for example, but we do have like this year we uh we contracted with a with an organization called kicks to learn. And so they come in, they uh they help the kids, you know, they have PE with the kids, they play games with the kids, we have art teachers coming in. So we do we do partner and we do offer those enrichment opportunities to students as well. >> Okay. Um, you already answered that. Okay, I think those are all my questions. Thank you so much for your presentation. Of course, >> thank you for

210your presentation. Um, can any child qualify for that school? >> Yes. In fact, legally we cannot say no to any child and sometimes we get children that especially at high school level with no credits that we are I mean I'm honest with the parents and say listen if you want us to keep your child two years more in high school you're welcome to. We never say no. And sometimes they choose to stay with us and sometimes they don't. Uh but yes, we we open the doors to everyone. We don't uh distinguish or discriminate against anyone. >> Okay. For the homeschooling children, are they is there some distance or are they all in the local area? >> They all live have to live in San Diego. So they have to be local. Um not necessarily in

211Chula Vista. So they can come from other areas of San Diego. >> And everybody's hybrid. You can't go in five days a week or is there some children that do? We don't have well we have the opportunity for them to come in on Fridays and we're supposedly offer Fridays from 9 to 12 where they can come in and get assistance from many of their teachers or all of them. Uh but to be to be honest some of them stay all day and we're okay with that. Some of them I have students working in my office all Monday uh because all they need is a space to work independently because they're not getting their work done on Mondays and Fridays. We're our doors are always open. Okay. >> Thank you so much. You're welcome. In full

212disclosure, uh my sister's granddaughter goes to school there and her uh her her son graduated from the high school last. >> Yes. Uh so those were my uh uh grand niece and nephew. >> So I just wanted to disclose that. >> Yes. Thank you. academic scores in comparison to a similarssized school as far as students go. How do you fare >> here in the Chiliva Vista district? Have you had the opportunity to compare? >> Absolutely. I'm looking at data numbers all the time. So, it's a very interesting. So, it depends on what you compare it with. If we compare, for example, the average district school, some our scores are lower for sure. Um, and we keep working try uh to get them to where they're supposed to be. when we compare them to similar schools

213as ours, they're usually stronger because our schools have very specific challenges. And I'm not saying I mean we we tackle those challenges, we continue to do it, but we we when we compare to similar schools the same size and the same program, we are definitely stronger. I mean, I've been looking at those scores very closely. Uh like um what's the school? Um should I forgot the name of the school but we just have one that is um right next door and it's the same type of program spring starters which I should probably shouldn't be saying that but I but uh but I I do look at scores that's very important to me that our kids excel academically. >> That's another charter. >> Yeah. Yes. And what I was actually trying to ask you to to

214compare without mentioning schools is like our district schools. >> Yes. >> Compared to your district schools, we are performing lower than your district schools. We know that and it's not we're not proud of it >> as a district versus a a specific school. Is that what you're saying? >> I didn't as a district in general as as charter schools from the district that are from your district that are fiveday programs. We our roles are higher than theirs. I did look at that as well. So, charter schools, five-day programs in the Chula Vista district, our scores are higher. Not a lot, but they are higher. Um, this regular district schools that are not charter, uh, overall we're lower. >> Right. I saw the data that you sent. >> Um, and also we are TK through 12,

215so that's so it does skew the data a little bit, >> right? Yeah. >> Okay. Uh, teacher staff retention, what does that look like? >> You guys have really good questions. So this is uh our friend Andy here that just spoke. He was actually our tutor. He was in he was in um he was in college and we coerced him to just get his college degree so he could become an intern because we knew he was he's a great teacher by the way. Um we actually lost um this year we didn't lose hardly any teachers. Uh the year before we lost some but most of them because they moved away. once they're in our school. Um, we've had teachers for the 20 years that have their school has been for 10 years. Um, most of

216the teachers here have been with us the long term. >> How many teachers do you have? >> 20. How many? 24. About 24 teachers maybe about >> something like that. >> Do you have staff other than certificated staff? >> Yes, we have I instructional assistants. We have a lot because we are an inclusion. >> What is a lot? Um Diana, how many do we how many IAS do we have? >> How many? >> About 20. >> So IAS and teachers total is 40. So we have um at least 15 instructional assistants. >> Next question. Um enrollment increase. I think you've already mentioned that you had an increase in enrollment. What is your teacher staff ratio? Uh so we kept the classes at 25 to1 is our average 25 to1. Uh some class are smaller uh

217but that's that's our top uh for the elementary I'm going to say it averages no probably 22 to one because some classes are higher than others. >> Okay. And do your do your classes have an assistant in each of the classes? Not every single class, but definitely the ones that have uh kids with special needs where we have our clusters of special education students or we also have students that need a one-on-one. So, I would say a significant number of classes has one. And >> you mentioned personalized learning. Can you give me an example, one example of a personalized learning what you did differently? >> So, um Okay. So, there's a dilemma here because we do need to teach the state standards. So, again, this is one of the challenges, right? But we understand that

218the students don't learn all at the same rate or or the same the at the you know the same way. So what we do when I say personalized to me is we teach what we have to teach. However, if a student needs extra support because we are smaller because we have less kids per teacher than in every in a regular school. We are able to bring them in. We're able to work with them one-on-one. We're able to work with them in small groups. We have intervention groups. We look at the data. We say, "Okay, which kids need help?" And we also were not about like if a student is really struggling, we're not about saying, "Hey, let's look at your grades, especially let's say in high school, and say, listen, I know you had a

219rough time. Let's what about let's give you uh let's just eliminate one or two assignments so you can focus on the rest." That to me, that's personalized. Looking at each student's needs, still holding them accountable, still having those high expectations, but at the same time, just scaffolding and supporting them all. >> Tutoring. You said you offered tutoring. >> We we it's a tier tier three intervention. So on on Fridays, all teachers are expected to be with students from 9:00 in the morning to to noon. Uh so students can drop in. Uh it's open to all the students. Uh but it's strongly recommended for students who are not who at grade level or struggling. We we do talk to the parents and say listen uh we need your kid to come in. And which is also

220part of that community and that partnership. >> All right. Thank you. You're welcome. >> From your current enrollment, how many of those students are elementary school? >> Um my goodness, I wish I would have it. It's uh let's say five. Just multiply about 20 times five about 125 students. About >> 125. >> And then we have the middle school and the high school. Our high school is pretty big too >> in math which is where you show a little bit of well it needs improvement. What is your strategy to improve that? >> Yeah, excellent question. So um again we have students that are below grade level and what what I see that's happening right now is that we're bridging the gap meaning that we have less and less kids that are significantly below grade level.

221They're approaching grade level still not good enough. We want them to be at grade level. So, we've done a number of things. In middle school and high school, we have two-hour blocks of math instead of one because we only see the kids three days a week. In elementary, obviously, they also spend two hours in math because they're but they have more flexibility upon their schedule. Uh we have afterchool intervention. So, for students who are struggling, they can stay an hour after school. And we also have that that Friday intervention and Friday tutoring to assist students that and and what we do is we test the kids um in the fall and we look at the data and immediately especially if we have a new kid and we see already that you know okay this kid

222is you know struggling you know he needs help. We immediately tell the parents, hey, you know what? Why don't you bring them on on Fridays? Why don't we help them? So, we don't wait necessarily until, you know, the middle of the year. We immediately target them and we immediately talk to the parents about bringing them in. >> Okay. Do all your students participate on the state testing? >> All of them. All of them. Yeah. We we know that our charter depends on it. Yeah. Is there a reason why the dashboard only shows that 197 96 students took the test >> for >> math >> for K through 12? I mean, well, it's only because remember not all the grades test. It's only third through 8th and then only 11th and and uh so that that's

223it. It's not all the kids. >> Third to eight and grade 11. That would be 196 students for you. >> That would have been for that year. Yes, we I know that we reached and we have the the reports. I think we reached 98% tested. So, we we did have one or two that despite our all efforts didn't test, but virtually all our students tested. >> Yes. >> All right. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Uh you um had a a a student in the video that spoke about English language. What specific um interventions and supports do you have for English language learners? We are actually pretty proud of what we do with our eels. Um, my staff knows I you can never take the teacher out of me. I was actually an ELD coordinator

224and ELD teacher for many years and so I have actually taken ownership of the high school students that are newcomers because we do have some and it's very difficult for them especially middle school and high school to be especially in high school to be in the class with everyone else. So for about a year they actually take a small group instruction with ELD with me. Uh and then the the younger kids, the elementary school students go with Miss Pena, Miss Gloria Pena, who is the ELD coordinator in our site and she pulls them out during language arts instruction and gives them targeted intensive ELD instruction. So our goal is that in a year they can they can hang in with the with the rest of their peers. But we know especially because we only see

225them three days, we have to do that. We have to like do something special and we also bring them in on Fridays. So, do you allow the EL learners to do 100% homeschooling or do they have to be part of the 3 days? >> Great question. I always, to be honest, especially when the parents don't speak English and they can't really teach the kids the content. I strongly strongly recommend they bring them and we can't we can't make them. So, it doesn't happen very often. Occasionally, a parent will say, "No, I want to teach my kid at home." And it's not always for the best reasons. So we track the kids's progress and if the kid is not making progress that's when we say you know what and we always come approach it as from

226a partnership site. You know what let us help you. Let us help you. Let let us just give you a hand. So we've had really good luck with having them all on site because we know it doesn't work so well at home. It really doesn't. They still have the choice. Yeah. >> Thank you. Um so the decision before the board is either this can be the first read and we can take the information that we've got today and bring this back um and thank them for their presentation or a motion can be made to approve. >> He can and Dr. Reyes can provide additional information including that sack of information we got before the board meeting. >> So let me ask you this >> that well not you Dr. Sorry. Um staff is recommending approval.

227Why? >> So, uh the normal process is to put it forward. Uh but then when they do the first reading then we would have questions from the board and if the board has additional questions based on the information uh presented then uh we would present that to you with um either the same recommendation or a possible different recommendation. So in the second reading we would >> So is there a potential for you to find material changes to the information that they presented and you have gathered before bringing this item here. >> Correct. So, so right now based on some of the questions that you that you that you asked for example um I know Miss Dom Trusty Doming Arvantes asked regarding the comparison between schools. I can provide more uh specific information with uh um

228similar school uh uh information uh district information comparisons. I could do it by grade levels. So I can show you grade levels. I can uh um the segregate data for example ELS with ELEL's, math with math, ELA with ELA um by as a block but also as um by grade levels. So that'll be able to give you more information and I can provide that uh by um by Friday. I would think that that is part of the review process that the district does before bringing this u item forward um as we monitor charter schools and uh I would have a so I would have a meeting with uh the executive director of uh human resources Mr. motor to go over the data and uh have uh additional questions answered and then uh provide uh guidance

229or recommendations to the board. I have to agree with Trustee Tamayo. Staff recommended approval and as I shared earlier with a poor choice of word, but um we do have other schools within our school district that have struggled due to the different behavioral issues and I failed to ask what the behavior concerns are as far as students go. Um actually a lot of our students come to our school precisely because they are fleeing from other district schools. They feel like their kid has been bullied or they're not safe. And uh what I tell the parents is we pride ourselves in having a safe school because we know this is what you're bringing them. So we are very proactive. And again it's not it's very simple because we're smaller. The minute that some some concern arises

230we t we immediately get on it. We immediately contact the parents, figure out what's going on. We have a counselor on site. We just don't let it slide. But it's it's just a lot harder for kids to get away with things because we they have so many eyes on them to be honest. And uh and generally speaking, I mean, ourselves love our school because they go and it's definitely a different environment and you're welcome to come in. It's the kids is they're just like any other kid, but but it's you don't see the big disciplinary problems. We see we see them like everywhere else, but we tackle them immediately. >> I motion to approve. >> Second. >> Do you have any other questions or comments? >> Uh recording secretary, please call. >> I had one

231more question. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Um can I get your what's your reclassified rate? >> Oh, uh Miss Bing Gloria Pñena probably knows it off the top of her success rate. We have calculated that our turnover for students to be almost again that individual attention we do give them a lot. Um I just I before we take the vote, I do want to make the comment um just like you stated with many of your students, the extra time to look over documents and read things. Um I to me um having the presentation today with so much information. Um I I'm feeling a little rushed and feel like I'm not making the most informed decision that I can possibly make. And so I just want to make sure that that that comment is made because

232the questions that are being asked I'm a little bit concerned that the leader of the school is unable to answer. It's great that our teams team members can answer but um the director of the school has to turn and look for someone else. >> With all due respect, we have the data. It's just again it's not we did we were asked to do a 15-minute presentation. We're respecting your time. But I I do acknowledge your concern. Thank you for that. >> Okay. Recording secretary, please call the vote. >> Doming. >> I. >> Tolston. >> Nay. >> Dominguez. >> I. And of note, we have had several presentations here today that not one of the presenters could answer all the questions. We had adjusters present. Tamaya >> I >> nay >> motion carries 32. [Applause] All

233right, moving along in the agenda. Um, we need to go back to item 10A, the safety and health report. >> A 10 A. The >> Oh, no, no, no. Sorry. 9A. 9A. 9A. >> I'm I'm I'm off on my numbering. 9A. >> I was right on the title. >> Yes, it's just a number. Sure. [Music] Throw it to you. >> No, I think they're they're for us. >> Yeah. >> Everybody going for Thank you. Thank you. >> 9 98 Olivia. >> Okay. Okay. >> All right. >> Good evening, President Gate, board, cabinet. Here's your safety update for the month of October. Oh, shooks. >> Got it. Okay. Uh, comprehensive school safety plan draft was due uh today from all school sites. Um, we we have quite a few. Uh, I have I have uh full

234confidence that that we'll get all uh probably by tomorrow morning. Um Darren will kind of oversee uh all of that. He'll take a look at those. He'll get those back to the uh to the principles and the APs with any comments that he has. The final uh is due on November uh 17th. Next slide. Sub new hire orientation. So the we the question was asked about EIEX and how do we and how do we get subs into our EEG platform? Well, here it is. So at the board at the orientation, we we teach it. We go over it and we also give them steps to be able to sign in uh to the EIX to the EIEX app. Once they sign in to the EJIX app, what happens is they have eight hours um to

235be signed in and then EEIX automatically logs them out after they after the eight hours, excuse me. It does not track them and doesn't keep their information or anything like that uh for u for for um any additional purposes. Next slide. AB49. Um this is in reference to ICE on our school campuses. Assembly bill 49 came out. I will not read each uh line item, but student records and family privacy uh is one. Um I'll read the first one as far as the immigration officers cannot enter nonpublic school areas without a valid judicial warrant, subpoena or court order. Um student protection, family notification, how how do we notify families? Uh and then our required policies. I I'll wrap it all up here in a second. Next slide. Then we have Senate Bill 98 uh limiting

236immigration enforcement officers on school grounds. So we're talking about sensitive location protections, data restrictions, again notification requirements. So what has to happen is all these things have to have to go into the the CSSPs by March 1st. Um so we have to have a a a devised plan on how uh we plan on to incorporate these things at our school sites. So we're not asking the principles to do it. my team will do it. Uh so we'll we'll put the information together. We'll get it in into the CSSPs and then we'll reach out to the principles to kind of go over to go over that plan with them just for continuity purposes so we're all on the same page and doing the same things. Next slide. And then tomorrow >> tomorrow is the great shakeout

237October 16th at 10:16. Uh we're kind we're pretty excited about it. We'll be doing it here at the school district. I've been told we have some visitors that may be on site at that time. They're welcome to um participate if they want. Obviously, if they have any disabilities or ailments, I wouldn't recommend it. Uh but they all are um welcome to participate. Next slide. Any questions? >> We have no speakers on this item. Board comments or questions? >> Thank you for your presentation. Short and sweet. Um, do we get a view of the safety re u safety plans for the schools? >> Do we? Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. So, we So, so what happens is once we get the final version, we simply get them uh to the board so you all can review

238them as well and also get approval for them. >> Okay. Thank you. I'm glad you brought up the uh the issue of the immigration and I brought this up last month to AB495 which was signed on Sunday by Governor Nuome and the intent was good to you know make sure that children didn't go home. Trusty Dominguez, that's not an agenda item and but it wasn't it wasn't in his presentation and we could end up having it in a future board meeting. So we can't we can't talk about it right now. >> I can talk about safety. It's safety is his presentation. >> Safety but not that portion. It's not it's not part of what he presented. You can talk about his presentation. >> He said immigration on his screen >> but he didn't say A

239before 95. Okay, I'll keep it to my to my comments. So, I'll be asking about that. >> Any other questions or comments? >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. Item 11, consent calendar. The following items listed under the consent calendar are considered by the board in one action. There will be no discussion on these items prior to the time the board votes on the motion unless the members of the board, staff or public request specific items to be discussed and or removed from the consent calendar. Um in addition to what we what items are pulled by the board, the public has pulled item 11H for discussion. And starting with Trustee Ramirez Dominguez. Um, do you have items for pulling on the consent calendar? >> Uh, P as in Peter. >> 11 P. >> Is

240that the only item? That's the only one. Thank you, Trusty Tolston. >> Um 11 C. Uh subsection B. Job descriptions. >> Trust. Is that the only one? >> Yep. >> Trusty Dominguez. >> 11B. >> Uh-huh. >> Then 11 C subsection 11 CB. >> CB. Okay. >> 11 CD. >> Uh-huh. >> 11 CJ. >> Yes. And separate from that 11D, 11 I, and 11P. Some of them are just quick questions. >> Thank you. Uh, Trust. >> And I don't have any items for polling. Is there a motion to Let me go through the list. Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar without the item 11B as in boy 11 C? So, uh, at because we have to take the whole thing. 11 D 11 I and 11 P >> H also >> H I'm

241sorry NH I I the one I >> move to approve >> second calendar >> um recording secretary please call the vote >> Ramirez Dominguez I >> Tolston I >> Dominguez I >> All right starting with trustee Dominguez 11B >> 11B I just needed um more of It's a more of a clarification on page 29, item 15, general information items reports. I was just hoping we could get clarification. It I did say attendance daily uh the attendance date the the ADA the >> what page? >> Page >> 29. >> Page 29 of the minutes. Item 15 under general information items report >> ADA. I just wanted the acronym not not to just be the acronym to spell it out. >> Okay. >> And then go ahead and use the acronym but if we could spell out

242what it stands for. >> That's it. That's it for that motion. >> Move to approve 11. >> The revision. >> With the revision. >> Second. >> Okay. Um recording secretary. Please call the vote. >> Ramirez Dominguez. Hi. >> Tolston. Hi. >> Domingzvantes. Hi. >> Tamayo. >> Hi. I motion carries 5-0. All right. Um I'm not sure which order comes first. I don't I know it's 11 C >> BJ >> and and it's B D and J, but I thought Okay. B D and J within 11 C. I know that trustee Ramirez Dominguez also uh pulled 11 CB. >> It was me. >> It was her. It was me. >> Okay. Cuz I I thought you said the job description was CB. >> No, that was me. >> Oh, that was you. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Oh,

243I have a tea of Tolston. Sorry, you only I'm looking at the wrong column. I have what? A column for everybody. Okay. Trusty Tolston. >> Um I just wanted um I know we discussed it in the agenda meeting, but I just wanted to put it out like what to for you to explain um the change between like the assistant superintendent of leadership and instruction what the benefits are that two positions will be combined and just explain a little more forformational purposes, please. >> Correct. So currently, Miss Jessica Morales uh her title is area assistant superintendent. Uh so however we also had another position which was assistant superintendent and it was like a very long title uh which included curriculum and instruction. And so what we want to do is uh because we that position was

244not filled but yet Miss Morales is kind of doing both and we don't have the area we we we changed the the the way we we're we're um supporting schools. Before it was by areas but now is through curriculum and instruction teaching and learning. And so the whole idea was to combine both and include innovation. So the focus of this new position includes innovation because teaching and well teaching teaching and learning curriculum and instruction and innovation because innovation should be part of any kind of teaching. Uh so that's why you don't see bold because it's it's a brand new position that has both. And then what we'll do is we will eliminate the other two positions >> which is a savings. >> Correct. So we didn't reflect it here because correct we we saved one

245position. It wasn't reflected here because on the new budget the one that that we currently have it's already been taken into consideration. It's already been reduced. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Trustee Domarus. Did you also pull this? >> B. Yes. >> Go ahead. >> On page six of 18 under job descriptions the human resources technician for risk management. Uh the job description is also on page 14 of 18. My question is um it was last approved on March of 2022. So I was wondering why this was before us. Are we looking to hire and fill that position? >> Dr. Rosendale. >> Hi. So yes, this is a position that we currently have in our um in risk management, but that we're making an adjustment to it. The adjustment that's being made is currently it reports

246to human resources director uh director of risk management. Um the position that this HR uh this tech position would be reporting to would be to the senior benefits and risk management manager. >> So this position is not filled right now, >> correct? >> But we're looking to fill it. >> Yes. And Mr. Mark Punk built that all into the budget before. Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. So, it's already budgeted, >> not but not filled. So, before we fill it, we want to make the changes. >> That's fine. Thank you. >> On B. I'm done there. >> Okay. C CD. You also me. Okay. >> I don't know if someone else >> No, it's it's you now. Yeah. >> Okay. 11 CD resignations page seven of 18. What is and I'm glad it came up actually

247in the um Figmat and I believe Mr. Morta addressed it also the exit interviews and I'm uh really happy that he's they're calling it out to also then use that data to how how to make us better. So that was my my question that I had here. I had no idea Mr. Moto was going to speak to it. Thank you on that one. and 11J >> consultants page 12 of 18 playground renovations at various sites >> which schools are impacted by this Dr. Reyes. >> Yeah, this is the actual installation and uh so we're we're getting there. Uh Mr. B, do you have the the actual sites? >> Page 12 of 18. It's >> May. >> So the schools the schools are Lum Verde, Clear View, Rogers, Otai, Montgomery, and Lauderbach. >> And those are

248the schools that still need to be completed or have >> that will be completed with this >> with this extension of time. It didn't change the monetary amount, did it? Uh what what is the question? >> Did it change the amount >> the amount >> for the installation? Well, this new this No, it didn't. But is this this a new uh item? >> No, it it this this is extending the date, >> right? >> Yep. We had some delay in the delivery of the equipment. So >> So we're just extending, but there's no additional cost. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Not with this item. >> Thank you. That answers those questions. >> Move to approve 11 C. >> Second. >> Recording. Secretary, please call the vote. >> Ramirez Dominguez. >> Hi. >> Tolston. >> Hi.

249>> Dominguez Cvantes. >> I. >> Tamayo. >> I. Motion carries. 50. Item 11D. Trustee uh Dominguez. >> Yes. The adoption of a new schedule. Well, specifically it's for December, right? Well, this is really short notice and it the change to a later Wednesday in the month. Uh it's really close to Christmas season and I've made some plans. So I >> Dr. Uh so uh in December the we print out the or the board approves the calendar of uh meetings for the year as uh with the board request. Then we bring it forward to the board and then the board can can choose or or choose to either approve or not approve a change on the date. >> Right. uh in this particular kind kind of like what we did for I believe for this one

250>> it was it was supposed to be on the last week on the 8th and I believe uh trusted Ramirez >> yes asked to be changed and then we changed it >> uh and so um we have to check with the county because there are certain guidelines and timelines like a window of time that we can have board meetings. So we we did check to make sure that it was u within that timeline and uh it does fall within the timeline. So from the district perspective, uh it is allowable allowable to to change it from the district perspective. >> Right. You you shared with me that um Trustee Ugarte had a conflict. So that that's why we were requesting the change and that it didn't make a difference as far as the organizational and what

251happens. Correct. That it didn't um wouldn't affect the change. I understand that. But I was just sharing with you that it affects my already plans for the holidays. So I was just sharing. >> Any other questions or comments on an item 11D recording? Oh, I need a motion. >> Move to approve 11D. >> Second. >> Recording. Secretary, please call the vote. >> Dominguez. >> I. >> Tolston. >> I. >> Dominguez. >> Nay. Tamayo >> Igarde >> I motion carries 41 item 11 I trustee Dominguez >> H >> oh H I'm sorry Mary D uh Rachel Tan please you had a comment or question on the Williams Act >> keep forgetting I you're fine >> you had to tell me because I keep forgetting >> the question you >> it's me again >> hi >> um

252I want to start first by acknowledging the positive news in this year's Williams Act report with zero complaints filed. That's a big feat. Um that's a reflection of how hard our school sites are working to address concerns quickly and collaboratively before they ever reach the point of a formal complaint and that deserves recognition. With that in mind, I'd just like to offer some food for thought that could help ease some of the stress and scramble um we often see at the start of the school year. Student consumables are typically ordered and delivered in sets of 25 and 31 based on grade level. Um if you've ever been a teacher in the classroom, it's very helpful to have a teacher copy of the consumable for modeling purposes. Um, and then also just having those few additional

253copies, not only to account for materials that are lost or damaged, but again, just so that we have a copy to use um in small groups with our students as opposed to just the um teacher manual. And it just makes sense that if we know these extra materials are needed and will be requested to get ahead of the game and plan for those materials at the start of the school year, so we aren't still trying to get a hold of or wait for requested materials heading into quarter two of the school year. As we know, backlogs happen with deliveries. So just getting ahead of the game would be helpful. Additionally, we know that SDC teachers don't just teach the two grade levels that are listed on their rosters. They're often serving students across a wide

254range of grade levels. It would be extremely helpful if they had access to physical curriculum materials and student consumables spanning TK through 6th grade so they can more effectively meet the diverse needs of the students in their classrooms. Thank you for considering these adjustments as we continue working together to support both students and educators. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um and Dr. Reyes, if we can um look at that. I know that when we order materials nationwide, they tend to be based on those numbers of students in the classroom. And so if we can just keep in mind that we have more students than the average and the teachers need a copy. >> Thank you. This is an action item. >> Move to approve 11H. >> Second. >> Recording secretary, please call the vote. >>

255Dominguez. >> Hi. >> Tolston. >> Hi. >> Dominguez. >> Hi. >> Tamayo. >> Hi. >> Ugard. >> I. Motion carries. 50 and then um trustee Ramirez Dominguez. This is your column 11p and then also trustee Dominguez. >> 11 I I'm sorry. Gosh, I I'm sorry. I'm I'm jumping all over here. I I've it was trustee Dominguez. Gotcha. >> Renew u site participation for the Qualcomm think bit lab for the um I I had a question. What is the split between the title one and title 4? monies here and how is it determined? Dr. Reyes, >> Miss Morales. [Music] >> Um, I think Mr. Pong could give like the exact amount that we split between the employees. Um, typically it's looking at our different title monies to determine how to maximize them, right? So, we know

256we want to spend our title monies down. Our title four money is less money, significantly less money than our title one um, uh, budget is. So what we do is we put a lot of personnel in our title 4 budget. That's a lot of our innovation station teachers for example. That frees up some title one money which we can spend um in different ways. And then Mr. Pong has the exact breakdown he can imply. >> Before we get there, help me understand. So the title one money doesn't Are we saying that we're taking some of that title one money that should be going to a school to go here? Mhm. >> We use some of our title uh one money for district expenditures as well. >> So we have allocations for the school and then

257we also have money that we spend for district expenses. >> How much is that? What's the ratio of that? I mean if we get X dollar amounts, how much of it is for district expenditures versus it actually I know it indirectly supports the the students, but how much gets to the site? >> Yeah, I'd have it hand that over to Mr. Pong. But for example, in like the innovation stations, we do service students across all of the different schools in the district. >> Um, but the details of that breakdown, I'll hand it over to our math guy. >> Yeah. And I'm not sure if he has it right now, but if he doesn't, I'll be happy to share that uh in the in an update. >> Sounds good. >> Okay. >> We can wait till

258then. >> Thank Thank you. >> Anything else? P. >> All right. Move to approve 11 I. >> Second. >> Recording. Secretary, please call the vote. >> Ramirez Dominguez. >> Hi. >> Tolston. >> Hi. >> Dominguez. Hi. >> Tamayo. >> Hi. >> I. Motion carries. 5-0. Now we're at P. >> Ramirez Dominguez. >> Uh 11 P. Looking at the appendix uh included, I see that the amount of revenue we receive versus the amount of um expenses we have for the year, it's not the same. So, there's leftover money. And my question is, what where is that leftover money and what are we doing with it? >> Dr. Reyes. >> Yes. Uh Mr. B, you want to take that one? and um in regards to how we get the money and that is that how we receive

259the you know the revenue from the CFDs and how it's spent and why there's always a not always but there's a leftover amount. >> So on on attachment A we can see that there's revenue of about 26 million and there's expenditures of about 25.8 million. So there's a difference of about just about 200,000. So uh we use those funds to have a reserve. Um and we also um we have to be able to you can see here that there's some delinquencies. So we need to have a reserve in case there's delinquencies um that the district needs to pay from. So >> So we have a piggy bank where we're saving it. >> Uh yes. >> Okay. Just making sure. >> Trusty Dominister, >> my question was very similar. I was wondering where the difference went

260and you said it goes into is it don't isn't the CFD monies designated for specific activity? >> Yes. It can only be spent on those schools in those area and to service the debt. Yes. You're a pretty good tracker and I mean to figure out what schools get this additional money. >> All right. Thank you. >> Move to approve 11P. >> Second. Recording. Secretary, please call the vote. >> Dominguez. >> Hi. >> Tolston. >> I. Dominguez Cvantes. >> Iard. >> I. Motion carries. 5-0. >> Item 12, public hearings. The public hearing section provides the public with an opportunity to address the board on specific items. Persons wishing to address the board on any public hearing items must complete a request to be heard card and submit it to the recording secretary before the start of

261the meeting. Speakers are requested to limit their remarks to three minutes and speak in a respectful and professional manner. The board shall limit the total time for input on each public hearing item to 20 minutes. With board consent, the president may increase or decrease the time allowed for public comments on each public hearing item depending on the topic and the number of persons wishing to be heard. Item B1, conduct a public hearing to perform a specified service for the period of October 15, 2025 through May 31st, 2026 and adopt a resolution regarding short-term classified employee. Dr. for Rosen. >> So, uh, Mrs. Casey, you want to take that one? >> Yes. This is a for a position for special education to help support for a short period of time to help support some of the

262staff in the front office to do with some of the files. >> Any questions from the board? I'm now opening the public hearing. Does anyone wish to speak on this matter? Seeing no speakers, I am now closing the public hearing. This is an action item. >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> Recording. Secretary, please call the vote. >> Ramirez Dominguez. >> Hi. >> Tolston. >> I. >> Dominguez. >> Hi. >> Tamayo. >> Hi. >> I. Motion carries. 5. >> Item 13, administrative action items. approve the renewal of the assistant superintendent of student services contract Dr. Reyes. >> So some sources. So uh every year we bring forward the contracts of our assistant superintendent. In this case we so today we have tonight we have uh each one of the contracts. Uh we we'll be starting

263with first with a contract for our assistant superintendent of student services Sharon Casey. Uh you have the opportunity to look at the contracts. Basically everything is the same. Uh so nothing changed. Nothing changes in regards to uh salary expectations. Everything remains constant. The only thing that changes is that it extends it one year. So there's two years remaining. So now uh if it's approved it will be three years three more years. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Recording. Secretary please call the vote. >> Ramirez Dominguez. >> Hi. >> Tolston. >> I Domingzantes. >> I. Motion carries. 5-0. >> Approve the renewal of the assistant superintendent of leadership and instruction contract. Dr. Reyes. Again, this would be the contract for Jessica Morales that >> before the prior agenda item was the area soup. Now is

264the assistant superintendent of leadership and instruction. And again, everything remains the same. It only extends the time. >> Motion to approve. >> Second, >> third, fourth. >> Recording secretary, please call the vote. Ramirez Dominguez. Hi Tolston. Hi. Dominguez. >> Hi, >> I. >> Motion carries 5-0. >> Approve the renewal of the assistant superintendent for business services and support contract. Dr. Reyes, >> again, we have uh the contract for Mr. Punk would who's uh that's the superintendent for business services and support that we'll his was different in regards that he has a shorter term and we want to extend it three more years again with everything remaining the same in regards to salary and step >> move to approve. >> Second. >> They're all trying to beat each other. All right. Recording secretary, please call the

265vote. Ramirez Dominguez Tolston. [Laughter] Dominguez to >> IGA. >> I motion carries 5. >> All right. Um item 11E, discussion and appro Excuse me, my number rings off. You guys know that. Discussion and approval for of a contract for recruitment services for the position of senior director of facilities, planning, maintenance, and operations, Mr. Pong. >> Thank you, President Ugarte. Uh last month we brought for um your review a contract with MGT to look at potential recruitment services and we were requested to bring back additional options. So we did um seek additional quotes from um some other potential um recruitment agencies. So we have three options here. The first one being school services of California, the second being MGT and then the third being school service school leaders. Um both school services of California and school

266leaders have two different options. One is for uh a higher level of like a full executive search. Um they would do all of the um the recruitment um screening. they would um provide for first round interview panels. Um and then uh school services does their specialized they do a credential reference and credit check on their applicants. Um and then they also both offer more of a light service where it's just where they're consulting our HR department um on the recruitment. And then MTT is similar to the light services on the others. So it's really to determine if we want full-on assistance or if we just want assistance to our HR department. >> So just for clarification before I go to the board for comments and questions. Any motion would be for a particular option. So

267it would be motion for option such and such. Okay. So board questions and comments with regard to the options. questions. Go ahead. My question was some of my questions um have all of these options or mo most specifically more specifically the agencies that offer these services. Uh were were uh reviews done for any complaints from school districts or anything that would that would deter us from voting for them? >> Yeah. So all these uh organizations are very reputable. >> For example, school services California are used by >> all districts, everyone in California. >> Okay. And before moving on, I'd like to read an email that we received. All of us received this email and uh this person took the time to write this up and I think it we need to dignify his time. He

268says, "Good afternoon. I am a concerned citizen of Chila Vista owning and residing in a home within the boundaries of your district. Thank you for your efforts to be as transparent as possible and for asking questions and seeking clarification on items on the board agendas." This was addressed to all the board here. You're doing an excellent job and as a community member, I appreciate your dedication to the best interests of our students and community. The purpose of my email is to discuss the process the district is using to try to hire a new COO or senior director of facilities M. When explaining when explaining why it is imperative to hire a third party to screen a pool of applicants, it's interesting how Dr. Reyes mentions that their specialty is in education, not in facilities. Yet

269the executive cabinet makes the final decision on who they want to bring forward to the board. This is very contradictory. They possess sufficient knowledge and expertise in that field to to determine which of the final candidates are qualified enough to move forward and meet with the board, but lack the necessary knowledge to run the entire process. Was your acting COO involved in the initial interview process for the COO candidates? If he was, he made his re recommendations along with your CBO and the last third party agency you used to screen candidates. Yet, the executive cabinet found that none of the finalists met the requirements to move forward. Why would this time be any different? Is the executive cabinet looking for someone who can do the job at hand or someone who can fit in but

270may not have all the qualifications needed to do the job successfully? Effective communication is essential when running a successful organization as it demonstrates a high level of professionalism. If the district intends to find someone who can successfully perform this job and excel in the role, the executive cabinet should share why they felt the previous candidates were unable to do the job. This would help establish a baseline for the type of candidate you're looking for and at a minimum allow the governing board to review their qualifications and understand why they felt those candidates were not a good fit, especially after Mr. Reyes explanation about why a third party is needed to hire this position. I know that 10,000 may not sound like a lot of money to many, but when it comes to school facilities and

271school bud budgets, every cent matters. Now, the district wants to spend an additional 20,000 plus for the same process, expecting different results. Please help me understand the logic behind this. The district is in the deficit is in deficit spending and should be looking for ways to keep that money in the classrooms. Spending 30,000 to have someone screen candidates instead of asking Mr. Romero to do this job is very irresponsible. The executive cabinet exists to make these informed and challenging decision decisions. Is this not the case? Thank you for taking the time to read my concerns and I hope to hear from you soon. So I felt that that this would capture any questions the committee might have. >> I I do have a question uh for Dr. and possibly HR. Uh, is there an option

272that they would like us to consider? So, the reason why we we brought this forward is uh I know the board was interested in in having us go through a through an organization that could help us with the process in in in looking at this. You know, the one that I've worked with in the past is School Services California. They're very well known. They're very reputable. Um they they and uh so for example, if you look at option one where they have an industry expert, they do the the marketing, the advertising, they screen the applicants, they interview the they provide interview questions and they provide expert panelist for the first round and then they do all the credit checks. So if the board is interested in having uh experts in the field that have a

273wide range because they they have a wide range of coverage and it's an organization that is very respected then uh I would go with option one. >> Option one >> move to approve option one. >> I have a question. Is option two the same provider? Right. >> Correct. So in option two would they be providing the wide range of people also? >> So on that one they just be they would be consulting for the posting. So they will they'll be helping us post uh they would do applicant screenings. So there's different process uh there's different stages in in the the the first the very first one is the screening of an applicant first. So for example, do they meet all the requirements? Do they have the experience that we require? Do they, you know, all

274the different things that is required? They do that. And uh and they provide interview questions. Uh they also provide one expert panelist for the first round, but they don't they don't do the interviews. So they would um send us the the expert panelist. >> They don't do the interviews for the first one either. >> They do. It says the same thing. Expert Oh, expert panelist for the first one and it says expert panelist for the first round of interviews. It's the same thing. >> Okay. >> So, in the option two, which is less expensive, um, we basically get the same thing. So, >> Mhm. >> you know, >> well, you you do get the marketing advertising on option one, you get the in industry expert, and you get the credential reference and credit checks. >>

275That's important to me. >> Okay. The credentials. The credentials have to be. >> Yes. >> Trust made a motion. Is there a second? >> I'll second it. >> Uh, recording secretary, please call for the vote. >> Dominguez. >> Nay. >> Tolston. >> I do. >> I motion carries 41 >> and we will contact them first thing in the morning. >> Thank you. Um, we've already done item four. So, so I'm sorry, President. It's uh 10:25 and we need to extend if if if the board wants to extend. >> What are we doing? Oh, >> if if the board wishes to extend uh we have So, what's pending are the Because by 10:30 is the the deadline. We have u the >> So, we only have the the board policies. We have the board policies >>

276that we can bring next time or >> it's not the only thing I need to speak on my issue that I would have to speak it. >> So it's up to the board to to extend or not expect. >> Do you need to speak on board policies? >> Nope. >> Could we move? >> Yes, I do. I have on that I have uh >> Could we bring the policies next time and then move on to the following items? So, so the vote we have to vote. Well, you have to vote on whether or not to extend >> the board meeting because >> a motion to extend. >> So, the way to to answer trustee Tolson's question, >> we omit >> we would extend first and then we would take a motion to table items uh

27714 >> B to E and then that way we can bring them >> if we don't get to it. If we don't get to it with the 30 minutes, >> well then we'd have to skip those and go to >> we would skip those to be make sure that we if we fit on the 30 minutes because I don't think uh the policies will be done in 30 minutes. >> Okay. >> Unless you don't have any questions. >> I do have questions on the telephone policy. >> Only on the telephone policy. >> Mhm. >> So then we move to extend and then >> we extend then we to extend to a certain time. >> Pardon? >> You have to specify the time >> amount of time. >> Can we extend 30 minutes? 30 minutes and

278then only do telephone policy and table the rest. >> Okay. Right now it has to be a motion to extend first. >> Motion to extend for 30 minutes. >> I'm going to second. >> Recording secretary, please call the vote. >> Ramirez Dominguez. >> Hi. >> Tolston. I >> Domingo Cervantes >> I >> Tamayo >> I motion carries 5-0. >> Okay. So now can how can I make a motion to table the remaining item items on uh item 14 for next month? >> C and E. >> It would be what was it? B >> through E. >> Yeah. B through E. >> Well, you wanted to have a conversation about the phones, right? Do you want to have that conversation first and then table the rest? >> Yes. >> We can pass one. >> Let's have

279the conversation on 14B. Madam President, >> do I need a I need a motion for the tableing? >> Not yet. >> Oh, not yet. Okay. So, item 14B, the first and second reading, possible adoption of board policy 5131.8, mobile communication devices, phone free school day. Miss Casey, >> thank you. So, Assembly Bill 3216 requires school district to adopt a cell phone free policy by July 1st, 2026. So, this is the first reading of a policy for your review. >> And Trustee Dominguez, I believe you have questions. >> Yes. On page one, uh, we're talking about, um, emergency should be declared by school personnel, but it believe here, I couldn't find my notes here, so I have to go by emergency declared by school personnel, not just let's see, instructional use. >> I'm sorry. Uh, can

280can you >> zero in on it? >> You said page 104 or >> Yes. The point to it is to declare the emergency should be declared by school personnel. >> Where was here? Okay. >> So, can I when you're asking about where it says following exceptions and it says emergency situations, health related purposes, is that why you're looking? >> Yes. My eyes are getting blurry. >> So the So you were are you asking for us to add more to where it says emergency situations? >> So So what what is the ask? I'm sorry. >> To add that emergency should be declared by school personnel. So, so for example, uh, so in addition to one, two, three >> or >> I think she's talking >> because um, number one, in the case of an emergency or

281in response to a perceived threat of danger, >> it should include that who's going to identify the emergency. >> Well, so for example, it could be a situation where there's an emergency, a medical emergency. Uh, somebody falls down with the medical emergency. Uh, it wouldn't be the the school, whoever's there, pick up the phone and call 911. >> Okay, I can live with that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Page two. >> The school bus. The school bus is an extension of the school. So, the rule should still apply or or check what state recommend the state recommends or other districts are doing. So school bus should be an extension of the school and not allow that additional ability to go use their phones. >> Yeah. But >> there's no learning happening, right? >> So So my

282Yeah. So my understanding to to to answer that, my understanding of of the the the rule is that it's within the regular school hours. So in the bus would be either in before or after the regular school hours. So it's not like when they're going on a field trip. >> Correct. So it would be during Yeah. After school hours. >> Okay. Does it say this? >> Uh so after three on on the prior page says phone use shall be allowed outside of regular school hours which may include >> page three. >> So right above that >> at the bottom of the very bottom >> the the last sentence >> and then which uh >> outside. Okay. >> Yeah. under the following circumstances when riding a bus to and from school. >> Okay, I have a

283question. Um, is this policy going to be implemented in our charters as well? >> Correct. >> Okay. So, sorry, follow up. Um, >> is that correct? The charter schools. >> Correct. >> Yes. >> So, just some of our charters are go higher than sixth grade. So that's not in the policy. >> Does it specifically say >> it says TK26? >> Where what page are you on? Oh, I see it. I see it. >> Yeah. >> Got it. >> I'm just Yeah, >> go ahead. >> My understanding is that they would have their own policy with their because they have their own boards. >> I see. Yeah, that was my question. Thank you. >> I was I wasn't quite done yet. >> Sorry. >> No, that's okay. But on page two, items two through four. >>

284So, we're I'm just wondering if it's I'm just misreading it or if maybe the header could be a little different. Phone use, thank you, Dr. for calling that out on page one on the bottom. Phone use shall be allowed outside of regular school hours, which may include, but is not limited to the following circumstances. two or four when arriving at school prior to the initial school bell so they can use it on school grounds is what we're saying >> Prior to the beginning of the school bell. >> Mhm. So I my thought had been not to be allowed to be used on campus period. >> So it to be more firm. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So, so um the discussion was that it's uh during school hours and not necessarily on school grounds because school

285grounds could be any time uh school hours specific to class time to avoid distractions, to avoid sending text messages, etc. Uh if it's before, so for example, the bell rings right after school, the bell rings and the student can call mom and say, "Hey, I want to be on the front side or the back side of the school after the bell rings." >> Okay. All right. >> Any other question? >> Oh, do we motion to approve or motion to approve? >> Second. >> Recording secretary, please call the vote. >> Dominguez. Hi. >> Tolston. Dominguez. >> And this is not during school hours, correct? We're very clear. >> Okay. >> Bell to bell. >> Yay. >> I motion carries. 5-0. >> All right. Um, do you want to consider the rest of them or you want

286to table them? >> Are there questions on the other ones? Um >> my my suggestion unless you have questions the other ones are very procedural >> uh and they're come from business service from business >> so we don't need >> and they're reapprovals right >> they're reapprovals >> 14 was simple the the next one just one letter 14 C was just uh in number three the way it reads it says at the close of the school year >> Mhm. Mhm. >> You crossed off the superintendent >> number three. Okay. >> Yes. And I think you need to have something because who's going to request >> these transfers? >> I'm sorry. Which one are you looking at? >> Page one. >> One of two number three at the very bottom at the close of the school

287year. >> Uhhuh. >> I believe or or unless you're going to substitute the sub the superintendent the superintendent. What does it mean? >> Will request that the county bump or something because you're not saying who at the close of the school year request that the county superintendent. It it's missing your noun. >> Oh, sorry. >> Yeah. Mr. Pong, do you see that? So, who basically is Yeah. Is who's doing the action? >> Who who will request it? >> Mhm. Here it gives it to the county superintendent of schools. No, it's requested two. >> If you read above the header, I'm sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Pong, but if you look at however, when it is in the best interest of the district, the board may one, may two, May three. So, it's the board >>

288may at the close of the school year request that the county superintendent. So, the superintendent out. >> Is that what you want? Well, we typically bring resolutions to the board to be able to transfer the funds um to give us the flexibility at the end of the year. >> Okay. One last thing for you to do. >> So, so I I I think you should read the uh the superintendent would request with the approval of the board. >> Okay. >> That way it's requested by superintendent but requires approval of the board. >> I'm sorry. So, correct that. >> Correct. Is that >> Yes. Motion to make that correction. include the design. >> I'm sorry. >> And include the designate also or >> and designate. Yes. Or or designate. >> Okay. >> So, there's a motion

289and a second. Recording secretary, please call the vote. >> Ramirez Dominguez. >> Hi. >> Tolston. >> Hi. >> Dominguez. >> Hi. >> Tamayo. >> I. Motion carries. 5-0. >> Item 14D. >> 14D. I had a quick on there. Is does this also mean I know that we not trying not to put that pressure on the families and the children about owing school books. Does this also mean library books that the students checked out? >> Uh yes. Correct. Yes. >> So they can take the books and not return them >> legally. Yes. >> Yeah. Legally if if they don't bring it back, a child doesn't bring it back, we can't hold. So we can't hold the transcripts. We can't >> we wouldn't hold the transcripts but just want to make sure that we're clear on this.

290>> So we will make every attempt to collect but >> get denying. Okay. >> Move to approve 14D. >> Second recording. Secretary please call the vote. >> Ramirez Dominguez. I >> Tolston I Dominguez I >> Ugarte I. Motion carries. 5 0 14E one more >> 14E >> lar funds >> who second C >> who seconded C the the the non the transfer of funds when we just did it um >> the not D >> the first one >> oh it was Tolston it was Tolston yeah >> okay so we're on E No, >> we're all a little loopy today. >> Says one page >> 14E. I'm fine with it. >> No. All right. Move to approve. Uh 14E. >> I second. Uh recording secretary, please call the vote. >> Dominguez. >> Hi. >> Tolston. >>

291Hi. >> Dominguez. >> Hi. >> Tamayo. >> I >> Motion carries 5-0. report uh calendar to the board of education. Um any reports requested by trustees? >> Yes. >> Trustee Ramirez Dominguez. >> Oh yes. Um can I possible? Okay. Can I have a report and a possible presentation of what are we doing to respond to AB 495? Um, that's it. >> I'll be bringing that up too. So, >> um, no, not today. >> Combo classes. I know in August, I believe, uh, when we were bringing up the idea of combo classes, uh, Trusty Tamaro had also asked about the cost Did we not get that? >> So, so we did send that on the update. >> Oh, I didn't see it. >> Yeah, there was a >> we resend it for her. >> There was

292a in a Friday update they send the cost. It's It's expensive. So, okay. >> But it's about a little bit over 130,000 per classroom. >> 130,000 per classroom. I know Miss Cara was concerned about that, wondering. No. and uh the other the reports and it's a spin-off of what trustee uh Karen was speaking about. I I know last month we spoke about the AB495 >> and the attorney that was here said he was going to research it. I don't know. He said he had gotten instruction to research it and I don't know that we've gotten anything. And one of the biggest concerns uh for for us is that who can remove the children from the classroom. Like I said earlier, I know the intent was good that you know you don't want children going home

293and there's no parent with immigration issues or whatever, but the way it was written it in it opens it up the door to all the children. So it's not it didn't specify those issues. So it opened the door to all the children. Um it it redefined and broadened the definition to include any adult with a mentoring relationship with the child including non- relatives such as teachers, neighbors, family, friends, and relatives to the fifth degree or divorce from a family member. Language is really vague. I know know parents who have gone through divorces, you don't want the ex to get them, but now they can come get them. That's dangerous. So, I'm hoping that we can uh ramp up our emergency cards that everyone has them in place, but the way this is written, it actually

294trumps the emergency card. I asked around, I called a couple of other school boards. They did a parallel policy that stays within the the boundaries parameters of the 495. It gives us enough wiggle room to possibly insert something else to ensure that we have because we can't even call CPS. >> Our hands are tied. >> We cannot call CPS. Can would you would it be worth the time for us to get the most the the most current reiteration that was passed because I know like as our speaker said >> I've got the summary right here >> through the whole >> just get the one without the crossroughs and yes and and that's what I pulled out. >> So so Miss Casey can you uh work that with legal please? >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. Like

295I said, it includes all stepparents, step siblings, and all relatives whose status is preceded by the words great, great, great, or grand or the spouse of any of those persons specified in the definition even after the me marriage has been terminated. So within that fifth degree of kinship, we're talking about 1,000 strangers. That is a lot. So I know no one here and no one anywhere wants our babies taken by anyone that the parent did not authorize them to be taken. So I think this it it's passed. So now we need to work with that and how what we can do best to ensure that our children are safe. There's no background checks, no fingerprinting, no home visits or welfare checks, no legal hearing, no accountability if the child is harmed. Any other report? So,

296are you asking back on that as well? >> Yes. But I want more elaborate like more defined what are we going to do? I'd like to see it on the agenda. If you would consider that uh chairwoman, President, let me ask this in a way. Are you requesting the policy committee look into a parallel policy with regard to AB495? They said you talked to >> I talked to two school districts >> board members to see what they were going to do to >> Have they done it or not yet? >> Yes, one of them has done it. >> What school district is that? So we can look into it. >> Yeah. Lakeside. >> Lakeside. >> Mhm. They did it and they sent me theirs. So I said like I'd like to make a request that

297our policy um committee brings back something for next month. >> I don't know if we can do it that fast. >> Well well then I can help. Well, we really need to. You're right. I understand. And I'll send you what I have and see what you can iron out. Just parents and school districts. It protects our staff >> also, not just the students. >> So So we'll do this. We'll we'll start uh looking into Lakeside and and what policy they have. Then we'll also look into uh we'll work with legal >> and then once we we develop a draft then we'll take it to the policy committee. >> I'll send the three of you was sent to me so you can work with that. Thank you. I really appreciate you taking the time >> to

298send her. But she said she's not even going to have time. >> No. So it's not going to have time. >> So that way it's not three. >> Yeah, it's not three. So it's two. >> Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. So that that one was the most important one for me and and then the time constraints that we have. Uh also I did ask before Dr. Reyes for a breakdown on how our students are doing. Uh this the CASP came out right in October and I want to see and this is something that trusty Tommy has asked for in the past. We need to know each school how their each grade is doing because we need to we're going to save some money with some of these software that's going to disappear and where

299we can find more money to see what we can do to support the students. We need to get them and I know I I'm speaking to the choir. I know everybody wants them but now we we have to do something. We can't wait more because those students are moving on to the next grade and we know what happens when you feel dumb. You start getting into trouble. You start doing things like what happened here at East Lake High School last week where they're fighting, they're they're gunshots and then there was a knife taken out at the game. These things just snowball. The children need to feel that they're that there's been that they're successful, that there's hope, but when they feel there's no hope, they start acting out. and we that's the part we can

300do that we're responsible for. >> So so we we will be doing a presentation on on Casper Schulz uh December the latest in December. Uh >> each grade each school I want to know who's not who needs help >> and if I got to go hit up people to donate money or something I will. >> We'll take care of it. >> Thank you. Do you have any reports that you would like? Um it doesn't have to be next month but um or even in December but I would like um in preparation for her new title. I would like a short presentation on all the wonderful things that are happening under leadership and instruction because I'm hearing it and I just want to be able to get it all in one place and I go to

301different sites and I hear it but I'd like them to present so that I can say hey good job. >> Yeah. So I think that goes hand inhand with uh the pres the presentation on on CASP on how we're doing with our with our um academic growth and uh because the academic growth doesn't just happen. It it it's it's a work of teachers but it's also the work of principles and a work of uh uh the district office that is working with the principles who are working with uh with our teachers. Okay. Board communications, Trustee Ramirez Dominguez. >> Um, first of all, I want to mention that I will be praying for the Arisa family and the loss of Gilbert Arisa. Um and second of all, um this month I was able to take a

302break, much needed, um to come back, uh to the DAC meeting where we had great presentations from Miss Lani Perez and all their um reclassification. Um it was really really fun. They did like a soccer themed and it was hilarious. So thank you for um teaching us and again I I love learning. So just every time I go to a deal meeting I learn so much um and all our presentations are amazing. So I just um yeah I learned a lot and I enjoy going to those meetings and that's it. Thank you >> Trusty Tolston. >> Okay. Um I wanted to extend because I didn't want uh the week of the school administrator to go unnoticed. So, happy week of the school administrator. Um, I've always I've expressed many times what the administration of my

303son's school did for us when we had the most need. Um, and they continue to support us unconditionally to this day, which I will forever be grateful for. Um, I feel like our administrators are sometimes our silent heroes because the teachers are highlighted. Obviously, our administrators are too, but sometimes they have to deal with a lot of very difficult situations and they're they're our silent heroes. Um, so thank you for that. And most recently, I had the opportunity to spend time with Miss Bias at uh Violindo and um it was a pleasure to be with her. Again, you can always tell um the enthusiasm and the dedication they have to every single student that they serve. um every single school that I've had the opportunity to visit um has shown the dedication that they have.

304So I'm very grateful to all of you. So again, happy week of the school administrator. Thank you. >> Ditto on that. Happy administrators, day, week, month, year. Thank you to our staff, to teachers, and classified that they do this work all year long, too. Thank you. Um, I attended the Faith and Blue uh here in Chila Vista. There was so many kids booths there. They had balloons. They free food, free ice cream. Kids had a great time. They had oldie cars everywhere. And turned out that some of the people there I knew from a long time ago. One of them became a pastor. So, turned out good. And um I also attended the Dak Dac meeting and it was an amazing experience probably has been my best experience that I I you know you guys

305should go the male ex um it's really she play on words they did a play on words and uh the girls were wearing the the >> the world cup. >> Yes. Uhhuh. And uh then we had Miss P Miss Pala, right? And uh Dr. uh Santos and Miss Stacy, is that her name? >> Julia. Uh wearing uh uh like they worked in they were chefs and cooks and you name it, little hats and uh palote, you know, ready to make tortillas. They it was a lot of fun. Thank you very much for making it a learning experience, making it a fun learning experience. Everybody enjoyed it. >> Thank you. >> Being that we have eight minutes left, um, >> use it all. >> I'm going to use them a lot. >> No. Um, just happy

306administrator's week. Uh, I know we're keeping you long here, but I wanted to make sure that I acknowledge your your week and the work that you do cannot just be summarized to a week. Um, we often um as administrators, we we hear the complaints, not the thank yous. So, I wanted to share with you my gratitude for everything that you do and to to make it work. I know long long nights are happening uh even weekend work is happening uh without any thank you. So thank you uh for that work and for making the the district uh work uh as efficient as it can be uh with the tools that are given. So thank you. I know it seems pedantic, right, to say it, but it I am grateful and thank you. And I did

307I did send a message to administrators. Um they're the they're the captains of the ship and so without them, we crash into those rocks. Um and I I do appreciate the work. I I enjoy working and collaborating and going to the sites and seeing what the principles are doing and how they're leading our teachers um and our IAS and our staff at the sites. um so that we can be successful. So, thank you very much. Uh Dr. Reyes, >> uh I want to echo the board with a happy school administrators week. Uh and I really want to thank all the principles and associate principles. Uh, I had the opportunity to be both for many years. And even though I think it was one of the most rewarding and fun positions, it is also extremely stressful

308and and uh you wear you get to work many different hats every single day and every single day is a different experience and different challenges. And so I recognize and I uh all the hard work that goes into leading a school, but I also recognize that our leaders, our site leaders, not just do it with a lot of experience and care, but also genuinely care for each and every single one of the students and staff members. So I I just want to recognize that from the bottom of my heart. Uh we see you and we know that what you do. Thank you. The next regular meeting of the board of education of the Chula Vista Elementary School District will be held on November 12th at 4 PM for close session and 6 pm for the

309open session. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Recording secretary, please call the vote. >> Dominguez, I Tolston Dominguez I. Tamayo, I motion carries 5-0. We're adjourned. >> I thought my husband was