001okay good evening it's 5 o'clock pm and I'd like to call the March 12th 2025 regular Board of Education of the Englewood Unified School District meeting to order and I would like to ask our deputy chief academic officer Dr eima joa to please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance hello everyone please stand in put your right hand over your heart ready begin I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you you may be seated thank you very much I'll ask Miss Som brano to call the role board president miss Margaret Turner Evans pres board vice president Dr Carlos McGee present Board member Miss Joyce Randle present board member Mr
002Brandon Myers present board member Mr Ernesto Castillo present Dr James Morris present Dr Bernard Lucas present Dr Brian coffee Mr Rafael Guzman pres please be informed that Spanish language interpretation is available during this meeting thank you very much Miss Sano moving on to approval of the agenda I hereby move the agenda with move to approve the agenda with no modifications item number five and six on the uh agenda reporting out of actions taken in closed session in this evening's Clos session the County Administrator took action to follow to approve the following case office of administrative hearing OAA case number one67 moving on now to presentations and Report Mr Brandon Meyers our board member will provide an update on the asset management advisory committee Mr Meyers thank you Dr Morrison good evening community and my colleagues
003uh this evening I will be presenting on the asset management committee and as of to date they have held 15 meetings which is amazing uh for this committee uh the committee chair Miss Cheryl Matthews a great woman has led the meetings and I'm pleased to report that all committee members are active and engaged and commended for their dedication and service Mr Hughes once again thank you so much brother great work um during uh tomorrow's meeting which will be uh March 13th at 5:00 here at the district office and the community is encouraged to either come here in person or you can log on on online but there we will be discussing uh the draft uh report findings and recommendations for the former Inglewood Adult School property uh Orbach and huff and Henderson LLP will be
004presenting the draft report um and Serene um our legal council she will be outlining the findings and provide recommendations based on her legal expertise um and just to add some additional updates there will be uh an update on the waiver requests uh submitted to the State Board of Education for the former Worthington Elementary property and this will also be discussing opportunities for Community input regarding District properties uh uring transparency collaboration with our community stakeholders and finally I just want to add and um share that these meetings are open to the public and we urge all community members to come out and participate give your input because this is um this is how you know these committees are are uh Successful by Community engagement so um I'll end right there my report thank you thank you
005very much Mr Myers M Mrs Evans are there any board member questions or comments I had a comment but I won't hold it no I was there on the last meeting I think I think I was there uh any comments everybody thank you okay our our next presentation this evening um I don't want to spill the beans but I'm just too excited so I'm going to spill the beans and take away Mr Guzman's Thunder you know we showed everybody a couple of meetings ago a little brief overview of what Englewood High School is going to look like in the future this presentation is kind of a blow your mind presentation when you see this new video but first we have to listen to the presentation so Mr Guzman and uh Mr Jordan Miles executive director
006construction and Facilities will provide an update regarding the Inglewood High School reconstruction project all righty uh good afternoon um to our board president miss evence our board members uh Dr Morris cabinet and our public it's a pleasure uh to present to you today regarding the Englewood High School reconstruction project uh we're going to go over uh just the the project overview the design history scope and those items we also have an exciting rendering and we're really excited about the video um and so that's going to be really exciting and we'll talk about some next steps um so first of all um I just wanted to just take this time really quickly to acknowledge the team that's actually working on this project so I want to take the time to thank uh Cordova which is our
007construction manager we have Mr uh Noel decastro if he could please stand and Miss Stephanie pulsifer who are working on this along with Miss uh Jasmine Cole who's not here but they are doing a great job of of having us and working through this project we also have our Architects here today Mr Harry Drake if you could please stand so that people could see you and Miss Noel white as well uh they are our Architects they're making sure that architectur it's sound and uh hopefully keeping our costs down right so um and then of course Mr Jordan Miles who's our director of this program making sure that everything is running smoothly um so the district's gone through a lot of uh different uh phases to get to where we are today the good thing is
008in July we're going to start Demolition and we're going to start this project so really excited but in 2022 was when the district selected GGA which is now practice which is the architect and uh to really help us through this IHS modernization project um in 2223 there was meetings to understand what Thea scope was uh required and things of that nature looking at the buildings especially because they're on the older side and so we had to make sure that we really had a good plan together 23 24 was a year of just planning with that Services what do we want how do we want this the high school to look we wanted to be a great looking high school and and um that's what really 23 24 was about and 2425 we've really accelerated so
009now the shovels are going to start hitting the ground there and we're really excited about that moving forward so we're getting ready to submit package one and to talk to you to the rest of this presentation is I'm proud to present Mr Jordan Miles who's done a fabulous job with all of this so thank you Jordan thank you so much Mr Gman good good evening everyone so the Reconstruction of Inglewood High School is the largest facilities project that the district has taken on in decades and very proud to be working very closely with Mr Guzman Cordova practice and Bal for batty the the contractor on this project because of its size uh we have broken out the the design into multiple packages uh that benefits us for a couple reasons if we were to send
010the entire design of the for the whole project to the state at once it would take longer to to design and also would take longer to get review and so we'd be starting construction later by taking this in smaller bites we're able to finish design for increments faster we're able to get a review and approval from the state faster we can actually start uh on on ground activities that much faster as well package one is the largest of uh the packages that we'll be submitting to the state as you can see here it's the the bulk of the work that's being done so it's going to be the demolition of most of the the the campus so on on the image here on the right hand side uh everything really to the right of the
011of the gymnasium is going to be demolished and that work will start later this summer in its place we're going to be constructing four new buildings in this package so and that's a total of 36 new classrooms six of them are lab buildings what I'm calling package two is the future work uh that will be submitted to the state at the later time that will be modernization work to the gymnasium the auditorium uh the additional work to our CTE and our classroom I building there in the center of cap campus and then additional site development like our landscaping and our green space but again the the bulk of the work is going to be submitted to the state next month so the very big milestone for the project here terms of our budget what we've
012been mentioning to the board for a year now and has not changed are all in budget so construction costs paying the Architects the contractors the whole the whole cost of the project has been $232 million you can see our four major uh funding sources for the projects of bond proceeds for measure I uh developer fees that we've pre L levied the reimbursements from State programs uh such as the Office of Public School construction for projects we've already completed as well as our sound mitigation uh program uh with lawa or the Los Angeles World Airport because uh we already have our contractor on on board through the lease lease back uh method of construction delivery uh we're going to be having What's called the general uh sorry guaranteed maximum price or GMP so instead of our
013traditional Bill uh bid process as soon as we uh we have DSA approval or approval from the state on this uh the contractor will take the lead on getting bids from our subcontractors and what you see in front of you it will be that the maximum price of the project so there aren't going to be change orders under a lease lease back the only way that the project cost can increase is if it's our decision if the district decides to increase the scope of the project so the that will cap the cost of the project so there's that's a wonderful benefit to lease lease back then just a quick look at the project schedule here again package one uh most of the work that's going to be submitted to the state next month we expect
014to be able to start demolition later this summer right after all of the supplies and materials at Englewood High have been moved over to the Morningside campus the rest of package one we expect to start that uh that demolition work and the new construction work um the end of uh 2025 and that's expected to last about two years so that'll take till the end of 2027 the future design work what I'm calling package two again um once we've submitted to the state for package one we'll turn our our attention uh back to Package 2 that work is going to take about six months uh we expect that work to start on site at Summer of of 26 so a little over a year from now and it will end uh sorry construction activities will end
015around the same time as package one so really the entire ire project we're still delivering on time at the end of 2027 I'll go through these renderings really quickly because all of these are part of the video that we'll share shortly these are just some overviews um so or some Aerials of the of the project so you can see here on the upper left hand side A View looking West so you can see the existing Auditorium in gymnasium the new classroom buildings there the upper right hand side you're looking at it from Manchester facing south so near the near the library uh again you can see that the new buildings where they'll be located on campus there the bottom of the screen that's looking at the the new front of Campus so this is at
016Nutwood in gralia you can see the new monument sign the new entrance into campus these next renderings are of a classroom building so on the right hand side you can see the exterior one is looking from The Commons or the the quad area to the to the exterior building the bottom right we're looking from gralia from the outside of Campus what it will look like with the landscaping and then the on the left hand side due to our proximity to LAX you we can't really offer the same sort of Outdoor Learning classrooms as other as other high schools uh the way that we're compromis our our solution to that is by widening our hallways in our classroom buildings and creating what we're calling collaboration zones so you're seeing these areas on in the hallways where
017we can have have whiteboards staff can roll out the The View Sonics and students can collaborate in a in a similar environment as like a Outdoor Learning Classroom here are some renderings of the arts and science labs building that's going to be where the main admin building is located now uh you can see at the bottom left what the inside of the classroom will look like very tall ceilings a lot of built-in Cabinetry for the labs upper uh the upper uh photo is again looking from Manchester and we've we've placed the location of the conceptual uh skybridge from the high school into the city library as well and then bottom right again we have a look at the commons looking into the lab building then these are our two non-classroom buildings that have been designed
018as part of package one so at the upper left and at the bottom that's our new cafeteria or multi-purpose room and then the upper right our uh our student Commons we're building for and so that's where we'll have our Dream Center our Student Center other student focused programs and at this time we can play the video it's about six and a half minutes there is some music I'm just going to let it play [Music] mer [Music] morning [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh m [Music] n [Music] oh [Music] m [Music] oh [Music] m [Music] oh [Music] thank you again to Noel white Harry Drake and their team for putting together such a wonderful uh video and excellent taste in music by the way there we go and then uh next steps uh as
019as uh Mr Guzman had mentioned we will be submitting again package one so all that new construction that you were seeing to the state in about 3 weeks on April 3rd uh we will continue our value engineering uh practices so trying to find those cost-saving uh practices where we can throughout this project uh we'll continue uh submitting for uh additional documentation to California Department of Education uh Office of Public School construction seeking additional uh funds uh leaving no funding stone unturned for the project or for district and then again uh come April 4th the day after that submitt we'll turn our design Focus uh two package two and the future design work that you can see wasn't quite at the same level in that that video just because we haven't haven't finished the design work
020there and again we're still on track for our demolition work to start later later this summer after the move uh over to the morning side campus and we do expect demolition uh s the new construction work to start by the end of 2025 as well thank you so much for your time and your attention uh thank you Jordan that fly through looked like it was even larger than it really is we're using the same land right where we are the exact same 18 Acres like it was much larger and I was thinking how are these kids going to get from class in between you know first period and second period how they going to run from the back to the front it's it was amazing I love the open concept with the sunlight going in
021the windows unlike we've had had at most of our schools with the blacked out windows we have lots of sunlight coming in I really like that and I heard you you listened to me from the last time I didn't see my bridge and I saw my bridge this time so thank you very much absolutely um board members you have any comments uh Brandon you want to start sure thank you madam president um Jordan great presentation if we're going back to slide six and this is just one question I'm looking at site uh demolition uh anticipated all the way up until November of 2027 but I'm also looking at new construction uh so I get it if we're tearing down buildings and we're constructing so what is it one or the other or it will both
022be happening at simultaneous you your last question is the answer both can be happening okay so under package one and I know we're I'm trying to fit a lot of detail into the and a lot of colors into this slide what we're trying to show is that demolition is going to start this summer and probably take about a year probably through the summer of 2026 but again that's that's all of Campus we can start some so some of the demolition will be done by the end of 2025 so where where we're complete with that demolition work for the the laying of the new classroom buildings uh that will be done around the end of 2025 so we can start the construction of those buildings so there is some overlap you're absolutely right yeah it was
023amazing um it's something that I know this District really deserves our student deserve um you know I'm a second generation Engle unified uh so I know when I go to Engle High it looks exactly the same as my uncles and aunts when they went there uh and you know when I went there it similar thing right and it's just so amazing to see the opportunity to see that actually happen because you know we were told we're going to get a new high school when I was in City honors um and that never happened happen because in the district under receivership so it's finally amazing to be here on the board and seeing that we're going to follow through for our students and provide them this this amazing high school that they deserve um so my
024question is really based on the next couple months um before demolition begins are we going to take any measures to uh create archives or create footage of the high school seeing that is pretty similar to the way it looked for the past 40 years um it' be great to get some footage so you have any plans about doing that or any kind of documentary type of uh um about Ingle High School itself that's an excellent question M Mr Castillo and there has been some conversation and some of that that work has started but I think we can it's something that we can explore more as well I know that with all of the the consolidations and the moves happening this summer we've there's been discussions about memorability to be kept how we want to remember
025all of these schools including Englewood High even though it's not technically closing it's certainly changing right right and so that's something that can work on with Mr Guzman and Dr Morris of increasing that that that work so we can truly remember what it was like from 1914 until 2025 yeah I think our lumni would deeply appreciate that if we were to do something like that um the timeline we have a two-year timeline which is great um and obviously that timeline is important because it it could save us a lot of cost when it comes to inflation and and you know other issues that made like tariffs um how dedicated are we are to this timeline and How likely and what measures are you taking to assure that we're we're dedicated to that timeline it's a
026great question so part of the reason that we went with the construction method delivery that we did the leas lease back was so we had more um control over over that timeline while when we are able to bring our contractor on earlier they're able to familiarize themselves with the project more so that way when when we're ready to have the rub meet the road their team is ready it's it's not as though like a traditional design bid build where when we start bidding the project we're hoping that a contractor has the team ready B for batty is going to have their their team chomping at the bit to to put their shovels in the ground and as our board president me mentioned um the bridge to the library is that depending on the library being
027completed by that time the bridge is built or is that going to be at the same time as because you as you know the library is going through Renovations as well right so does that affect our plans when it comes to building that bridge or for that B that bridge to be built period so those conversations with the city are still ongoing it that scope of the project U is not going to impact the rest of the the video that you saw so everything is not contention upon upon the bridge being completed uh Mr Guzman Dr Morris and I will continue those conversations with the city to make sure that we have a a seamless transition of the library being renovated ingwood High School being reconstructed and building that bridge um the gym and Auditorium
028now in this conversation we mentioned that they're not going to be demolished but just because it was omitted that we're not demolishing and rebuilding it there's still construction that's going to be happening for the gym in the auditorium to be renovated correct that that's correct it's the work right now that we're we're designing for the gym and Auditorium are mostly on Code Compliance making sure that it's when we submit to the state that uh we're meeting all California building code requirements for 2024 code requirements I believe and then we'll also be making sure that from the Aesthetics that it that it matches the rest of the site so we will be doing some additional uh painting uh lighting uh lighting work as well so not not the same sort of uh upgrades it won't it
029won't feel like the brand new buildings that you see throughout most of campus but they will be receiving some of those upgrades yes and one more question are we planning to do any type of community outreach to get people excited about this because I think it could affect enrollment in our current schools when it comes to TK througha um for them to be ready or get excited about in two three years it'll be a brand new high school for their student yes we we will um I know that the the further along we get on this project the more we have to ramp up that engagement right and now that we know what we're building I think this is the perfect time for us to increase that those conversations increase that engagement thank you and
030thank you for keeping the uh mural in the rendering I think that's a big O to the community of saying we're trying to keep this uh close to what is familiar to us as possible absolutely you got it thank you yes this outstanding absolutely outstanding you deserve a standing ovation a lot of work went into this I absolutely love that every time you turn a corner there's a burst of color in another shade of green or some other shade it's just so that it's not just a bland gray you know it it it's it's just it's an exciting project thank you so much the taxpayers will finally get to see their money going to the construction of a building we uh building I mean it's just I'm so overwhelmed by I can't really even speak
031uh in the classroom rooms is there in an intentional space in the classrooms where uh student work can be displayed you may not be able to answer right now I just want you to think about that um I've watched uh the classrooms and the spaces for students um Administration is real big walking around uh asking teachers where do your student work for open house for back to school you know things like that parents want to see the student work up absolutely especially in in science labs um in art classes in the health class in their Ela classes parents want to see how their students uh their beginning language just they just want to see student work so as you do these renderings just keep in mind places in the classroom with for student work can
032be displayed um I'm just I'm just I I'm telling you this is exciting thank you so much absolutely and just to answer your question uh yes we we have thought about displaying student work and uh just two places I can think of off the top of my head so all of our classrooms are designed to have two projectors from the wall and so we'll have not not just two projectors but we'll also have at least one of those view Sonics so we'll have at least three you know AV uh ways of of displaying student work u in in each of our classrooms and then at the front of the of the campus you know how that we have that kind of green mesh metal um when you as soon as you entered on the back
033side of it so when once you're in the Commons looking back out to uh to Calia there were uh display boards there and so that the intent of that area is to display student work as well so it's kind of right front and center on campus so we can thank you illustrate student work I don't know if you want to hear from me Jordan I think this is the time when I get really sad that we're in receivership because I think so much gets done without our input and we just kind of have to settle for what's being presented M Randall you like the color I saw no color yeah I'm just saying you like the color for me you know this is like Jar's window we all see different things uh the glass I
034I love it but I know the community that we live in so you know I don't want to bust it out the first week that the kids come so I don't know what kind of glasses being used that you know will avoid that and um I guess with the architectural design um it's really hard for me to really comment on a video because I I can't really see it I've not seen anything that our Architects have done I'm trusting that you have seen schools that you know they have um had input in or they did the architectural design on it we haven't so handing this over to about four or five different administrations and we're finally getting somewhere um all of it's basically been done without any input and so it just makes me sad
035that um I have to look at this and say great job um and that's just hard for me to do because I'm looking at a picture as opposed to actually you know when I do any kind of Investigation I go and look at projects that people have you know they actually done and it helps me make a decision ision and um I I don't know if the district did their due diligence in this you know we is kind of you know at the mercy so um I really appreciate some of the comments that the board members uh made in terms of keeping a lot of the memoral Bia where would that be I didn't see anything on that design that would incorporate Morningside being on that campus you know so so I'm just going to
036leave it at that because um I know I have a whole different Aesthetics and I will be leaving this board uh in a year and um basically hopefully putting it in the hands that people are really going to be intentional about the population that we serve and what it looks like and for me right now it was a well done video I don't know about the content for me because it's really hard for me to imagine so for that I'm going to just turn my mic off and be okay thank you Mr miles thank you Mr miles our third presentation this evening Mr rapael Gman assistant superintendent of Business Services will provide an update on the district's second interim budget report and cash flow okay good even good evening everyone again I it's a pleasure
037to be able to present the second interm budget report um so we'll go ahead and get started because I know time has advanced um so some of the key terms we always review this but it's important we think just so that the public is aware of some of these terms when we were talking about them so Ada again is the actual attendance of the students that's how we get funded it's not only on enrollment it's actually how many students attend uh we look at our cash flow report that looks at how much cash we have every month uh we also look at Cola which is the cost of living adjustments um and of course we look at the local control funding formula that is the main pot of money that the district receives um and
038then of course we always have to include a multi-year financial projection and I want to emphasize the word projection on that so when you look at the multi-year financial projection the numbers that you see three years from now are not going to match there a lot of things change in the course of the years um and so we just do this multi-year financial projection to make sure that we are okay in the scenarios that we are seeing um so it's as far as the cycle you can see here we're like sort of in the middle of the cycle we are it's the second interim report it's a really important report because you have your actuals through through January so you really have a a better snapshot of what your budget looks like again the second
039interim is that specifically it looks at the actual expens is from from July 1st through January 31st that's what it does and then projects out the rest of the year um and so we provide this information in that second interim we also have to project the future expenses based on the information that we know today so that this kind of how that works um so at the second interim we're supposed to provide a certification the certification all it's saying is are you going to make it in the current year and the next two out years do you have enough money to take you for the next three years um our answer is yes we have a positive certification for the current and the two subsequent fiscal years that's great news it's um good for the
040district I'm happy to report that um here are some of the assumptions that we made in the second inter this is really important fcmat requires us to do this um just basically I'm going to run through quickly our colas are at 1% this year um then it jumps up to 2% next year and then 3.5% in 2627 um and then we have the calsters rate the Cal Pur rates U you can see those um for Cal Pur are going up from 27.5 to 27.4 and so forth and so forth our duplicated account is also going up because uh right now the numbers you're seeing there 92 93 and 95 this year's up was or the duplicated people percentage for this year was 95% so um but it gets funded on a three-year average so you
041know that's uh in three years we're able to see the impact of what we did today and that's great as long as we maintain that um enrollment projections stayed consistent with first interum we were pretty on you know on the ball with those we didn't have to revise those projections so those stayed the same the only thing that we did change was Ada projections we had to adjust that slightly downward um so Ada we are now projecting 91% which is down from what we had projected before um and we're estimating jumping to 92% and 92.5% honestly um We should strive for more with Ada that's the reality um and but I have to look at the reality of our numbers and we have not hit 91 uh really solidly yet so how can I project
042more right and so we have to be realistic and so right now it's 92 I hope that I could come here this time next year and say hey we're at like 90 94 that would be amazing for the district um but right now that's where we are um in regards to the uh lcf VES you can see that those are going down uh in in in the uh second interim in the out years and in the current second and R for the current year it actually went up slightly most of that has to do with Charter School Ada going up but in the out years we see a difference because our projection was lower for this year for Ada um the lcap we still have all of the lcap goals in the budget we actually
043were able to identify more costs for the lcap which is a good thing um and so we've added those to the budget so the lcap is reconciling to the budget um and so that's that's a real a good thing for us to make sure that we continue to have so major changes we just really had again uh adjustments for lcff projections we did perform an analysis of our snc funds or supplemental concentration funds uh and of course we update our our onetime funds our Cal programs and we did another detailed line byline budget review as we saw things come in and out of the expenses uh for the year um here you could see uh really kind of three main columns here the unrestricted the restricted and the combined and just real briefly I'm going
044to go over uh just some changes you're seeing a lot of jumps uh in regards to the first interum versus the second interum uh for instance if I highlight here you can see that we had 29.7 million it jumped by 1.1 to 30.9 no we didn't make a math error that's just the reflection of the 8% increase uh that the board approved after the first inter room if you recall the ab200 was approved after first inter room so that's why you're seeing these increases for salaries uh classified certificated and the benefits associated with them you're seeing that on the restricted and the on on the unrestricted and the restricted side so that has an impact to our bottom line basically when we look at the bottom line instead of being at 75 we are now
045at 71.9 as far as it pertains to our unrestricted side of the budget and our reserve and the combined which adds the restricted we at we were at 121 but now we're at 118 most of that has to do with increases that we had in revenues for restricted most of that increase of the revenue side for the restricted side was the equity multiplier we actually received more Equity multiplier funds than we anticipated and we received more Redevelopment agency funds than we anticipated so that's bumping up the restricted side but just want to put in put it in in in everyone's head right like we really it's not that the restricted side doesn't matter it matters absolutely especially because the special education expenses live there and we have to contribute from the unrestricted to the restricted
046but the unrestricted is the one where everybody looks at the state looks at it fmat looks at it that is what's going to make you you know get into trouble if you're not maintaining that but as of now we can see pretty clearly that uh we have a good Reserve level there um and and you'll see why that's so important here in when we look at the multi-year projection but just before we get to the multi-year projection the cash flow you could see here at the bottom our ending cash balances are positive all throughout which is what we want to see um and so those numbers are different from your budget because cash and budget are two different things um but we can see that definitely our cash balances are good the one that we
047ended in January we ended at 151 million in cash which is um which is a good position to be in as a district um here's the uh NE the second year as you can see now with in the second year that cash cash balance starts dropping now we're at like we and the second year we're estimating at about 80 million in cash um so the multiyear projection there's the detailed report in the in the packages there for the uh for the budget but we want to just go over the revenues and expenses so you can see here how the district has to make contributions this year it's 31.8 next year it's 33.7 so that's a pretty big jump the year after that it's 36 why is that jumping it's really has to do with the
048having to make contributions for special education and for routine restricted maintenance those are the two largest areas um because unfortunately the district does not get the funds it needs for special education that's the reality the state and the the federal government do not fund the district sufficiently when it comes to special education so what does that do then it then the unrestricted pot of money you don't have you have to then contribute more from your unrestricted pot which takes away you know and so again I I it's important that we continue to advocate for Mar special education funding um because all of our students should receive the funding that they need to be successful and that's one of the areas that I think we you know the state and the federal government it would be
049great for them to increase the special education funds um but right now that's the reality what I do want to draw your attention to here is the net increase or decrease of the budget so you can see that for this year we had 116 million in Revenue we spent 96 and there's a contribution of 31 which means a negative of 12 a decrease but we had a beginning fund balance so we started with 84 we dropped to 71 the the next year we're showing about a negative of 27 we start with 71 which is this number going here and then we drop to 44 and then we go from 44 we we spent by 22 we dropped to 40 uh to 22.2 million so as you can see the concerning thing here in the multi-year
050projection first of all you're okay for the next uh for the current and the two out years but I wanted to just stress this a little bit more at this presentation because in the uh fiscal year 2627 the district's going to have to identify more reductions to try to attack this deficit spending here when I talk about deficit spending I don't want to scare anyone deficit spending just means your spending more than what you're bringing in in revenues however if you have a reserve it offsets that right um but you don't want to live on that because reserves go run away they're one time so once your reserves are done they're done so it's concerning in 201 28 if I add another column here right what happens to the district's Reserve level so we have
051the district's going to have to identify additional reductions in the out years in 2627 and 2728 and the district has sufficient time to do so that's the good news um this is pretty much the picture in almost any other District in the state of California like it's it's very similar um and it happens usually like that and districts make the appropriate adjustments in out years uh to do so but overall our job is to show that we're able to meet the requirements of the current and the two subsequent and we do um some of the assumptions that we used uh are here really just for you all to see um we have the cola amounts matching we have everything else just matching the assumptions that we uh spoke about um Health and Welfare is one
052that you know we um continue to see going up so we adjusted for a 10% increase in Health and Welfare uh for this so you'll see a little bit of a jump in the benefits that's because we are seeing increased cost and benefits um we do have the fiscal stabilization plan in place that's already incorporated into the numbers that we' that we've presented um so we've shown the fiscal stabilization plan and we have identified the reductions that need to take place in 25 26 um and uh that process was done through um you know the previous board meetings with the uh different uh postings that we had uh regarding reductions in certificated Personnel reductions in classified Personnel reductions in man management reductions and benefits in those areas um a lot of that was alleviated by
053the Ser um or the supplemental retirement plan which um helped with this because had it not been for the Ser um the reductions would have been larger or not not larger but the reductions would have affected more people however the the district wanted to mitigate some of that so they did we instituted a ser and luckily um many of our employees uh took advantage of that opportunity and so that helped us with some of the reductions next steps we have to approve a budget for next year so we'll have the estimated actuals and the adopted budget um we'll have to look at the fisal stabilization plan and start thinking about what what can be reduced in the out years and again we look at we'll have to look at everything we have to look at
054it's not only Staffing it has to look at con uh Consultants we have to look at contracts we have to look at how we're spending our money and we have enough time to do so and make the appropriate adjustments we'll continue to monitor enrollment projections develop a plan to increase Ada if we can increase our Ada that's going to help offset some of the reductions right so there's a lot that can happen uh for the district and we have to identify additional reductions and preparation for 2526 and the new fiscal stabilization plan that we'll have to present to the board once we are ready to do so when we adopt the budget so that is a presentation overall if I could summarize it we are in a really good place we have uh Reserve levels
055are good for the current and the two subsequent fiscal years but we have to start planning today now now for what we will do in those out years if we do not do so the district will start to get into trouble and that's why we are all here to make those difficult decisions to adjust and write the ship so that we are clear for the next uh in the future and ongoing so I'll open it back up to you all for questions thank you thank you Mr Guzman um you know when you start talking about money and I think about my own checking account and I don't have that kind of money in the bank and I hope that we have money in the bank that we don't have to worry about the next couple
056years the money is there right yes and with the state of the country right now and all the cuts at the Department of Education that might affect us some kind of way as far as getting that special ed money and all those special projects that we get from the from the federal government are we thinking about I know you can't see into the future you this stuff is just happening as we wake up every morning it's something else that's new and I'm I'm just thinking about how how is this going to affect us um we have all these projections of we're building a new school we're just hoping that people start coming from everywhere to come to our school because it's going to be a brand new school but are we think thinking about what
057if if we don't get that special ed money and what if if we don't get that you know I think about this every morning when I turn on the news and the and the answer to that Miss Miss Evans um is we do think about the wh ifs um that's the reason why we do a multi-year projection we're looking and we're seeing this is what we think is going to happen in two years right and and then what we do is we continuously get updates from the governor's office of what they think is going to happen right and so we make those adjustments we look at what's going on in Washington DC and we say how is that going to impact everything and so we have contingency plans for those types of items and so
058we we have to do a good job of keeping a a breast of all those changes I do want to just quickly say and acknowledge Mr Saddam Bata who's here today uh if you could please stand it he is the guy that really makes the magic happen he's amazing um he's he's done great work for the district and he looks at these things every day he sits every morning he comes in he looks at Cash make sure we have enough cash although there's hundred million dollar in cash but he looks at it to make sure nothing crazy happened overnight and so he's always consistently looking at it so we have several several people I look at it um and then School Services of California does a great job of trying to anticipate these scenarios but
059we do look at that that's why we have that Reserve level as well because we want to make sure there's sufficient Reserve levels right now that last out year is it about a 12% Reserve if anyone wants to know the percentage right 12% so the district is in a good place um it's just like you said if we do find that something happens we then have to adjust for that cuz you know um like with the uh the the tariffs on steel that we're now you know with our architect looking and seeing how that's going to impact the Englewood High School project right so we look at all these things but we have contingencies in place to make sure that if we do run into a scenario like that that we have sufficient reserves to
060at least get us through another year and then make the adjustments we have to make thank you that's what I was wondering about the contingency plan yes I'm glad somebody's watching the money several people oh yeah we're watching it over this year and the next too I we defend that and uh but I I think to your point about um you know really a driving I I think that yes the construction of the high school is going to help with that but the other portion that helps tremendously is is student achievement and I think our Educational Services Department is is really running on all all cylinders to make that happen because that's going to generate interest in the district I would say more so than even the new buildings um if if that student goes
061up and I think there's a lot of great plans that the educational services department has it's doing great work you can see that evidence in the fmat reports and everything else and so that's going to help drive that naturally and I think that if you know it's going to see we're going to see those days come where we're going to see those uh increased enrollments and uh it it'll be great for the district thank you uh Dr MC would you like to have no thank you Dr mcky M Randall do you answer the this the dismantling of the Department of Education was what I was going to ask about um if that happens how does it impact the district um the reduction of staff and how we were able to downsize to balance the budget
062I'm kind of sad about that but the Ada you can't do anything the enrollment is not there the enrollment is really not there I was going to ask about the cost of uh raw products but you she she asked all that and you answered it admirable and I thank you for this well um comprehensive report I love your your accounting reports here just they don't leave any questions thank you so much thank you Miss Randle Mr Castile yeah I just want to follow up on that on that question because I think it's becoming a reality now um idea Title One funding I know the state has been able to accommodate in terms of you brought it up thankfully for bringing it up the equity multiplier um which allows the state to kind of fill the
063gaps that most likely will come from the federal government and the state has been very vocal about filling those gaps and filling those uh areas that the federal government will probably cease to support um so and then another thing we didn't to mention because not part of the budget but pel grants right for our students who are dependent on that as they're applying for colleges currently um so I I appreciate you touching on that top because I know that's definitely in everyone's mind when they're looking at you present the budget um so we'll see what happens with that uh but again on Ada you you make it a very vital point of your presentations to discuss Ada and I really appreciate that because I think it's something that we could all work on as a
064community um and I wanted to know how has Ada been uh impacted by the past couple months uh has there been a a number that we have now that's I know it's a decrease talking to the school sites but where we have currently with 88 we have seen a downward Trend in the past couple months due to uh different fears um we've seen some of that happen materialize um and uh but we are doing everything we can to reach out to our communities and make sure that they feel safe um coming to school and and um to the question about Title One yes so one of the things that we've heard is U and again we we keep a close eye on it with school Services of California but it would take Congress to disallow
065some of that funding so even if there is a dis maning the funding portion would still have to continue in one way or another so we're blessed you know by the Lord in that way um and so it's just we're hoping that nothing happens in Congress so they dis if they do dismantle that it doesn't which we've already seen the indications of um that they don't take away the funding portion of it too um so but if you know we do have other state funded plants um like that we could then look into and see okay can we move some of the tital one areas if that were to somehow disappear can we move it into these other pots of funds that we have and and we would just have to reorganize but um I'm
066happy to say you know really um um our ad services department and and the business department have been working a lot much closer than I think we've ever worked and to because of these things happening we're making sure every every dollar is spent and and if we have any availability we're we're looking to do what can we move into that uh different pot so if that happens I could think of three different sources that we could look into to try to offset what Title One Loss would do to the district oh wow that was very reassuring I'm going call you your time something happens conf you want to reassure me that everything's going to be okay I mean thank you Dr Morris and and the cabinet for uh reassuring those fears and anxieties from our
067parents I know a lot of us as been board having conversations one-onone with our parents to share that their students are safe that they're safe and they should come to school so thank you for for your work on that thank you Mr Myers thank you madam president I think you already answered a great deal of um questions that were asked but I just want to Circle back with the fiscal stabilization plan and I know you mentioned that um just reductions to the staff weren't the only things that needed to be reduced um so just kind of gathering your thoughts so what are some other areas that we can see so one of the issues that the district has is the salaries for employees are throughout time weren't adjusted properly is just my opinion and and
068and for a lot of different variety of reasons and so what it what what what that H what what that created was a situation where we couldn't hire employees to do essential tasks that we need employees to do for example special education instructional AIDS we weren't paying enough so what did the district have to do go out and get contracted service because we could we have to provide the service but the contracted Service is like way more than we would have paid un employee so that's these are some of the things that we have to fix as a district and I think we have the formulas to fix it I know Dr Coffey is and with our unions who started that conversation what can we do to take away some of those positions that we're
069overpaying on the consultant side bring them back to the employee side the really the only way you could do that is Raising salaries and so but to raise salaries you have to make reduction so it's like it's it's a puzzle piece that's very complicated very convoluted we've already started that by the the 10% increase and we've already seen some materiality of that having an impact we've hired some position recently uh for uh in in maintenance and operations that we never were able to hire before and we just hired some we even hired a mechanic we were never able to hire a mechanic but we we're paying more now so that puts us in a better situation to now be attractive and now we're not paying more to a contractor out there which no offense to
070any contractors out there but they charge way too much and so I think that's one of the things that we're going to have to put into this equation how can we reduce these other contracts and how can we increase the salary at the same time and then at the same time for that to have a negative net effect to reduce that deficit spending that's the puzzle that we're dealing with and um you know it's it's it's it's difficult but you know honestly uh my prayer is that we could do this I know that we can um and and um I I think it'll it'll materialize with time it's just it's going to take time and really everyone working together to to make this happen there's a lot of great ideas already that I've heard from
071Dr Morris and and the ed services department as well as Dr coffee for how we can do some of this so you'll see some of that in the future and um I'm again I'm praying that it all materializes for the best thank you Dr Guzman and finally yes let's give him a round of applause I think it's amazing thank you finally I I want you to reiterate the importance of 26 27 because the uh the amount of money that we're we're losing for that particular year is astronomical from the previous years correct and I know it's going to be like dropping somebody in the cold cold ice cold water it's going to be a shock so if if you can just spend a short time just reiterating the importance of yes deficit you know spending
072and yes so as we prepare the budget for 26 we're already sitting down and and seeing what else can we reduce right uh we've already done some steps on on the Staffing due to the closures but we have to now look at other areas and that's what we're doing now in 252 for for next year whatever we're able to reduce in 2526 is going to have a three-year impact because it'll be a permanent reduction and then we have to start planning for 2627 if we could reduce in 2627 it's going to have another cumulative impact for 2728 so it's all about making the right amount of reduction ctions each year and not hiring not not um uh bringing back all those expenses in the next year so we have to commit when we make a
073reduction we have to commit to reducing if we do that then that's all of that will get impacted so those numbers could come down and the other area though is not it's not only reductions if we increase our Revenue base then we have then that number gets lower as well so on both sides we have to really commit to increasing our revenues decreasing our expenses 26 27 and then start planning as well for 2728 cuz this next budget is going to have 2728 so we have to make sure that we do all those things but we have I'm confident we have the time and the right staff to do so yes thank you Mr Gman um it's all a juggling act here everybody everybody is doing so much but you said the operative thing that
074you pray that this will work and that's that's the artive word here we all need to just pray that all of this falls into place and it works and have faith that it will materializing thank you so much yeah thank you thank you thank you Mr Gman um and now we're going to move on on the agenda to public comments on agenda and non agenda items uh members of the public who wish to speak about an agenda posted item must submit a public comment card before the start of the public comment period will allocate 30 minutes to public comments on agenda and 30 minutes to public comments on non-agenda items speech or conduct that is disruptive defamatory or impedes the orderly conduct of the meeting is not allowed our public comments are held within the
075guidelines outlined in board bylaw 9323 and uh Miss Sano do we have public comments I yes we do Dr Morris starting with public comments for non agenda items Mr John Hughes please come to the point to address your public and non-agenda items you have 3 minutes you may begin uh good evening to uh Dr Morris to the board to the cabinet and to the community um I guess I would like to speak since it's non agenda I'm going to speak on uh culture climate and uh commitment in terms of leadership uh in the district we're talking a lot of um uh phrases and terminology but we need to get to the core which is um how are we providing Services how we demonstrate that we care and how we um can be more efficient and
076more accountable in what we do uh I think everyone um can improve in that area I think we need to um take a deep breath and a deep look at the overall um issues in society you know we're cutting the Department of Education was cut by half uh that is going to affect um special education that is going to affect opportunities for marginalized groups now how are we preparing for it the turbulence are there are we buckling up and preparing for that or are we just going to go with the flow of the bumps and the bruises so you know we can't act like we don't see what's in front of us um it's an opportunity though in every situation is an opportunity for us to demonstrate the genius in Englewood there's genius in Englewood
077and people are here because they're committed they could have gotten paid far more in other places but they're here they're not here because um some believe just to get the paycheck they're here because they care about the students that's in front of them and I think that needs to be promoted if we're not promoting the seriousness of the commitment we have many have come back to this community um to teach uh students because they realize the necessity um that they may be that teacher that get that student to go to college that we may be that person that that that helps them out of a a traumatic situation and I don't think that's being communicated or really appreciated um honestly because we we tend to um get logged down with grandiose um policy and and
078and um politics which is necessary but it never replaces the relationships that we build with each other with our students with uh our community and if we really um work together on those relationships I think we can produce what is necessary for this District to not only just survive but to thrive we got to move from a a a state a state of survival to uh an expectation of Excellence because that's what Englewood has always been and we are there now we just have to connect again on that level thank you Mr Hughes please stay we're going to transition to public comments on agenda items you have three minutes you may begin thank you again um as far as the agenda items um we paid attention to the presentations uh and I think we really
079have to look at um I think the one thing that was missing we SP spoke about cutting and um uh salaries and all the things that's that that impact budget a budget again is numbers on a paper um cash on hand is is significant you will never cut your way into um a a better position in terms of a budget that's never going to happen uh labor are always the most expensive cost in any type of business organization a aing you on on average is about 70% of a budget is going to be spent on labor so understanding that and looking at the uh the efficiency in which we do things must be looked at as it was stated um in terms of the numbers and relationships if we are reducing classes and increasing students
080how are we going to service them that's what a parent's going to look at if I'm in a a primary level class and there 30 plus kids in that in that classroom they're going to look and say how is my my child being serviced our number one position as I said 13 years ago is the problem of our students Heming from this district and that problem is solved by us providing better services so when we look at budgets and and managing yes in special ed there's going to be an impact but there's an efficiency model the the conversation that Mr Guzman spoke about I brought it up years ago and I brought it up even this year and I brought it up to him and I'm glad that it's getting Applause now so let's put
081that into practice though because because words are one things Deeds are something else so when you're looking at how to apply things you have to have collaboration the number one issue that most people in this District feel is that they're not being heard or their words are not resonating or they're not being appreciated in a way that they're making meaningful change in their contribution so if you really want to know it shouldn't come you know some 5 years back down the line where we come to this realization we have to have foresight and you only get that with the interactions so if we're not interacting with the people uh for instance if a plumber is telling you that they need to replace all the or go in some direction you can't ignore that you're going
082to have to figure out a way to make that happen so more importantly if a teacher or any other support people tell you that students need better Services you have to listen to them you have to get there and and and listen to them thank you thank you that concludes our public comments for tonight thank you Miss Som BR we're going to move on to approval of action items for the Human Resources Division board members any questions or comments about human resources is Division 9 A1 through 984 no questions 9 A1 through 984 each approved moving on to Educational Services Division does the board have any questions or comments regarding 9b1 through 9b1 no questions 9b1 through 9b1 are each approved moving on to business services division 9c1 through 9 C13 business syis not question
0839c1 through 9 C13 are each approved moving on to GGI and Facilities 91 through 97 91 through 9 D7 are each approved moving on to County administrators de division 9c1 through 9C 9 E1 through 9 E3 one quick question um I was just driving by Highland Elementary the other day and looking at the school and how it's new looking is there a possibility that that charter school that's here in uh E3 could go to Highland instead of going to today's Fresh Start so the oh thank you for the question this is Evans the um the today's Fresh Start site it was funded through a state facility Bond loan and because the former operators of that Charter School defaulted on the loan when the school was closed we have a legal requirement to offer that facility
084to a successor charter school and so we went through a a legal process did a public announcement and it's only to charter schools that are operating in Englewood does anybody want to take over the loan and take over the site and we had one bidder and that was um uh Animo city of Champions they uh put in an offer to the state and so um this is it wasn't an optional thing on our part it was just this is what we're legally required to do I do I do want to point out in the resolution that's attached to this board agenda item by by law since we took the site since we took over possession of the site we didn't take over the deed we just are responsible for the site until a successor Charter
085the district has incurred significant expenses having Security on that site to protect the property from further damage because until it's actually awarded it's our responsibility and so we did include in the resolution um a notation we would be pursuing from the state reimbursement for the costs we've incurred for this process not only for um securing the site but also for our legal expenses um thank you for that uh Dr Morris so ano does not have to incur that as a part of their um uh wanting to acquire that um property they may that's that's in the negotiation we're telling the state we want our money back and that's in the negotiation between them and the state thank you Dr Mars you're welcome so with that 9 E1 through 9 E3 are each approved moving on
086to approval of the minutes from the March 5th 2025 Board of Education meeting March 5th meeting minutes are approved moving on to board member remarks I'll turn it over to our president uh Mr Myers no Mr Castillo I'll be um just want to thank our Oak Street PTA and our Oak Street family for an amazing Black History Month uh event uh thank you Dr Morris for being there thank you honorable Myers for being there and thank you for the oak Tre PTA for always being so warm and welcoming um and making us always feel like we're at home and and saving as a seat they saved two rows for some of y'all so y'all need to start coming to the Oak stre PTA events um and uh you know thank you Dr Morris also uh
087on Oak Street um for the reading Across America uh a book you read you know that book you read that story I won't give it away but it stuck with me it stuck with me I know it stuck with the students so that was you know it was kind of slow at first but it took me it took me a while to get into it but you know that's just because I haven't been reading for fun in a long time um but it was really awesome to see the students kind of react and engage with the reading and and then when I went to read to my classrooms it was also very special but the most special classroom um was was a sped classroom um because they asked me to stay to read them two
088more books um had to obliged so I had an amazing experience in that classroom they were an amazing uh students they were quiet they were sitting down they were listening um and we you know I had to find whatever book I could find I read uh um the Grinch it's not Christmas anymore but it was there so we read the Grinch together um and then also um thank you Dr Lucas for and Dr lah James and Miss Southall for meeting with the hudel parents uh for this this sped class there um it was a very honest and raw conversation we needed to have and I could tell that you've been listening I could tell that you've been taking everything into account when it comes to the best placement for that class and even though it's
089not perfect at the moment I know we're going to get it right and I just want to say thank you so much for everything you've done for those parents because there was a lot of questions I was expecting to come and it didn't come because we already addressed it we were on Transportation we're on all these issues that I know they're going to bring up so um you know this this uh board meeting is definely my SP students are definitely in my mind today thank you thank you m Randle I'm very optimistic that we will have a student population increase that our Ada will increase uh big Mack stood here and gave us a report and told us was it was going to take two to three years to move points and Dr Lucas did
090a Harry Potter and did it within months so we can there is Magic in the room we can do it and I'm very optimistic that we will and with the increase of ADA uh with the increase of um stop Outsourcing everything and put the money in the pockets of the folk that we already employ that will bring not only the employees back when the employees come back in the m IC of our education comes back because now they're being respected and treated properly so I believe that we have all the elements in place where Engle would to shine again and I'm just going to be optimistic and I'm going to stick with that and that's my story and that's what I'm going to keep praying for and you have to always look at your money
091and there's a person in place now the chief business official he knows how to look at the numbers he knows what he's looking at he knows what he's doing and when he says that you don't know how my heart jumped because I keep saying we keep Outsourcing all these jobs and paying people all this money why can't we put in the money of the pockets of the people we already employ that makes uh employee morale be really bad you having somebody come in you're doing the job that I'm doing what what does that say so I'm very glad that we're looking at that um I I believe that we have an opportunity to to not just I think who said it was it you to just not uh survive but and Thrive but we can
092really come back and be a glorious Inglewood I I I think I just I don't know I'm a little overwhelmed at the presentation for Inglewood High I've been an Inglewood resident since I was 19 years old and we're going to finally get a high school so thank you so much I I thank you for the opportunity to speak I'm just keep my fingers crossed my toes crossed keep my prayers crossed keep my Bible close that these things can come into FR I think everybody's heart is in the right place um I believe that we're all pulling for the same thing and we all want the same thing uh a better Inglewood thank you thank you thank you Miss Randle Dr McGee thank you Miss Evans um I just really want to start off by saying
093um thank you to Dr Lucas Dr guby and uh Dr Hosea and Dr Morris I don't think we realize how hard uh they work and working is not always about the money it is about where your intentions are and where your heart is and when we get those emails at 6:00 in the morning that a school has been broken in or we've lost a student or a parent um they are on the front line and I mentioned Dr Lucas and Dr guby and Dr um Hosea because we do have a serious crisis with our students that have special needs and um I was at read Across America at parent last Monday and I I have two little Geniuses that I personally have identified and when you know just from a professional point of view that
094all is not being done for those students and you have to call in the calvary and they come and they come with Solutions because a lot of times you know we're just getting a flat no or we're getting the runaround as to why this looks like this and so when you have a dedicated team that's going to go in there and advocate for that student and they're going to find solutions to work with that staff it's a win-win and you don't always get that you don't always get someone that sits in those positions that are going to hear you and do something about it so I just wanted to say to Dr Lucas Dr gusby and Dr Hosea and Dr Morris um they really um they really have made a difference in this um this
095district and I wanted to publicly say thank you and Dr Morris I know you are totally tired of me bringing stuff like you know I get so excited about we could do this we could do that but the good news is um he really takes an interest in trying to make it happen and I just appreciate it so much and I also wanted to make a comment uh about this evening um I am never going to put myself in a position where I'm alienating our uh board members but tonight when we were taking pictures those pictures were exclusively for the Inglewood educational board and so after we get get that picture then yes and too often we allow people to get in our pictures that shouldn't be in there I'm not that girl because we
096have our own website and when we post if Dr coffee had it been here he would have been on the picture so don't ever think that you know we're trying to dismiss you it's just that you know we were asked to be here at 4:45 I showed up we're giv giving away a donation so in the future don't embarrass me cuz that's not cool and I won't embarrass you because that's really not cool so on that note I'm just going to say um hopefully I'll be out of here by 6:30 thank you Dr MC um we thank you for what you do because you bring a lot to this district and the education Foundation we thank you for that and I didn't know what you were doing yeah because I walked out of the room
097when I came back you were making the presentations so um I understand that if it's for the Education Foundation that's fine that's why I stepped aside and didn't bother me not one bit you know but uh we all well yes so because people were people were coming I thought okay we're going to all get on the picture but I didn't know that this was for exclusively for that but it's okay it's okay um oh you were invited I guess they were yeah they were invited but but I just wanted to get that one picture for our website that's fine not a problem because all the things you do is fine um as far as what you just said about how hard they work we all know how hard they work you know even when I
098when I do my agenda review and I just look at everything that's on the agenda what we have what they have to do I mean I'm just coming here once a week or whenever but they're here every day doing and I I always say how do you do all of this how do you keep up with everything that's going on and we can see the evidence of their work because of all the impr improvements that are happening we can see that you're doing what you need to do and I want to applaud you one more time because I appreciate all of you thank you very much um Dr McGee you know how I feel about you you know it's it's women's History Month she gave us a wonderful presentation last week for thanking the people
099who work in this district and you know applauding them for what they do and you know all week long I've been getting all these little affirmations from different people and sending out affirmations to different people so I'm just offering to all of you who are here tonight cuz you could be anywhere else but you're here with us and we appreciate the fact that you're here the women in the room Men We glad you're here too but today is women's history you know it's women's month so we're happy that all of you are here with us uh at our board meeting um I don't know who chose the food for tonight but I guess that's from Black History Month that we got some soul food so thank you very much for that um that's all thank
100you it's 6:30 she wants to go to dinner I have to go all right well thank you so much um in the two minutes that we have left I'm going to refer my comments this evening to Dr Lucas because you know folks we we're constantly hearing from members of the community things that they don't know that are happening or this doesn't happen in other districts and Dr Lucas came forward with an Innovative idea about exposing students to have direct conversations with authors of incredible books and I just wanted her to just briefly talk about the author series that she started because it's one of those things that impacts young people's lives and this doesn't happen in other places so if you don't mind Dr Lucas that's kind of you Dr Morris um so we did
101as a team um decide that we wanted to um amplify and celebrate literacy with our high school students we're doing that with our elementary and middle school students so we as a team decided that we would reach out to published authors um to talk to the kids about our young adults about their stories and the writing process um we experimented last Friday and had our first session and I I wish I had the words to describe how magical it was the author was moved to tears because our kids asked them asked him questions that he had not ever heard he said and Dr Morris Marisella you guys were there you all both were there he said in all the years I've been talking about this book I have never not with adult audiences not with
102u young people ever heard the depth of questions that I heard today he and he said what what who are you guys and people said we are Englewood that was the response that was a response so this is going to be a series that we want um others to come to eventually parents and others but that first intimate setting was with the students and this author David Ambrose who was just phenomenal and it was truly magical um Dr Morris monell would you at I feel like I to do it justice it was incredible no the only thing that I would add is the staff had prepared four pages of questions for the Q&A because the moderator was going to ask the questions assuming the kids are not going to come up and ask questions the
103line went from the front of the auditorium to the back of the auditorium students wanting to ask questions um so it but everybody said they don't do this other places they don't give students these direct experiences to interact with amazing authors and Dr Lucas just said hey we're let's try this so just I think that's a nice way to close well I didn't want to blow my own horn but we've been doing this app parent already yes and I was the first author um to expose my talents to the kids and so now on almost a weekly basis I try and bring in people to share with the kids but we have some extremely talented writers and some extremely talented um illustrators so we we've been doing that I'm I'm glad to see that you're
104doing it on a high school level CU you know I'm going to star with the babies all right well you you invited it Dr MC so now I'm going to get my word in and guess what luck I had I go over to Frank deep parent for read Across America and who do I have to follow the drama actress of all drama actresses reading the book I get to follow Dr McGee and I probably bored those poor children I tried to be as enthusiastic as I could but hopefully you didn't have the same ones yes I oh my God yeah yeah so yeah you you do need to feel sorry for me uh with that I will just point out our next board meeting the schedule date changed because we realized our board meeting that
105was scheduled for April the 16th was actually during spring break week so we move that meeting up to April 9th uh and so that will be our next meeting on Wednesday April the 9th and our meeting will stand adjourned at 6:29 p.m. happy St Patrick's Day also oh yeah