001Good evening. will be in open session at 6:05 p.m. of action taken in close session pursuant to government code section 5 4957.1 report the following information on a vote of 3 to zero motion by Mr. Chibi seconded by Mr. Giles the board the rejection of claim for damages on behalf of student number 710 or 2086 item 5D1 vote of 3 to zero motion by Mr. Giles seconded by Mr. TP. The board approved the rejection of claim for damages on behalf of the student number 710 item 5D2. On the vote of 3 to zero motion by Mr. TP, seconded by Mr. Giles, the board approved the rejection of claim for damages on behalf of student number 71044466, item 5D3. And we'll have the pledge of allegiance by Benj Lopez Birdie ESP president. >> I apologize he
002was not able to make it. So I will be >> perfect. Put your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag and states of and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. recognition by knowledgeable winners. Alicia Casey. >> I'm sorry. and city board executive cabinet and all today. Today we have the opportunity to recognize our schools and winning teams that participated in the Latino knowledge bowl for this school year. My name is Alicia Casey and I'm the director of student equity, access, and >> I'm Cindy Quinn, the director of assessment, insights, and multilingual learning programs. I had the privilege of hosting this year's third annual Latino Knowledge Bowl event as we celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month. This event
003is a friendly competition that allows the students the opportunity to showcase their knowledge of Latino history, past and present, in a cahoot style game. This school year, we had 10 schools participate in grades fourth through 8th. Our elementary and middle school competitions uh competition were was here at Barbiew um educational complex. So before we have our students come up and we recognize all of them for their hard work that they've done, um we want to thank Jamal Brown. He's the creator of the Latino Knowledge Bowl and the Latino 365 calendar. He hosted the the competition part of the event and he is here today. We're going to ask him to come up with us if we can. We also have a couple of thank yous because we can't do this alone. And so we want
004to say thank you to our district admin, our board members for attending and cheering on our students. We want to thank the family ambassadors who greeted students as they came in, greeted families as they came in, and they made sure that they were wellfed after a heavy night of competition. We want to thank you, thank the student performers, and that came from Caillou Endeavor. and Deborah last minute came up on stage and gave us a wonderful cheer. Also, Discovery and Linda Verie. A special thank you to the site administrators who support the event every single year and the coaches the coaches who took the time to meet, teach, practice, and ensure that students were ready for the competition. We could not have also done this without the support of our families who not only made
005sure that they were able to practice after the school hours, but they made sure that they were on time to the event. Very important. Last but not least, we want to thank the students. Um the students, they tirelessly practiced, they put in the hard work, and it showed off on the night of the recognition. of the competition. And now today is the night of recognition. For our middle school competition, we have four schools participate. Endeavor, Mariposa, New Vista, and PAU. For our elementary competition, the six schools who participated are Sunnydale, Manav Vista, Linda, Verde, Lava, Jack Northrup, and Elorado. At the end of each night, we were able to celebrate our second place teams who also were receiving a second place trophy to keep um at their school. Can you please join me up uh
006up front the following schools? Monavista and New Vista up front and be recognized. our students, our coaches, and our admin if you and we invite any of the board members, any of the executive cabinet to come and stand and take a picture with our second place team. Let's give it up once again for new Vista, Lana Vista. again. Congratulations to our second place team. Now, all sites did their best and it was a fierce competition full of fun, but we had two teams that rose to first place and we want to ask Elderorado and Mariposa if you would please come to the front. You are our first place. Any students and Yes. >> Yeah. Family's excited to take pictures. Thank you once again to all the team to the school size and also to Jamal.
007Thank you very much and we look forward to our Black 365 knowledge bowl in February. Have a good night. Next we'll have our challenge five poster winners. I miss car. Good evening everyone. Thank you for having us this evening. We are super excited to recognize our students who participated in this year's attendance matters art campaign and I'd like Crystal Rohos our council special assignment who really focus attendance to even everyone. I'm very happy to be here um with Kim. Um it is a very exciting moment for me because you know school attendance is such an important aspect of all things that we do in education and while our kids are here we're able to provide them um an opportunity to access their education and also create positive uh conditions for learning so that they can
008also experience some of the moments here. Um and through this opportunity um we're able to recognize some students who um brought their creativity really take the lead in trying to share with us you know uh from their own lens as to why school is so important. So um I'd like for us to go ahead and recognize those students. Our first student is Ella Tucker. um she is in first grade and um I also wanted to go ahead and share that you know we were really excited to um have Ella participate um because you know she was able to from her experience as you mentioned um able to share why school was we also have Elizabetha and third grade who um participated and we want to honor today as well. [Music] Be on time every day.
009You'll have more than a fun time. Try to be absent less than five days. If you're here every day, you can participate in fun challenges like these in my school big party. So try to be here every day. So again, be here every day. I wrote a list of why we go to school. Riley early from third grade. She said, "Be here on time so you can learn so many things." Gabrielle Hades, third grade, "Be here every day so you can learn in this lesson." Five days in the school year or none. Every school day builds on the last. So missing even one day misses it means missing new information, class discussion, and chances to practice what you're learning. It's a lot harder to stay on track when you're constantly catching up. Proves why attendance
010is important. you don't miss something important in class to learn to participate in school activities. And they shared a little bit more about what their drawing represents. And they said it represents that you should not miss school because you might miss something interesting or important like the alien duck. Michaela Mendes, I think it is important to attend school because it can help us to grow our mindset. It helps you to make friends and its community can help you in your tough times. It shows you different cultures. It teaches you and prepares you for life. And it can help you to challenge yourself and get better in different times. For me, school is important because it compliments our education. Jose Torres, every day I go for my future. When I go, I learn. So, this is
011only a small sampling of what our students believe and as to why school attendance is important. And um I'm glad that you were able to see some of their artwork and a representation of why that is important for them. So, next we'd like to invite these students up so that we can honor them. Um we have a certificate for them and also one for their parents and a gift. So when I call your name up, if you can at the front of this Ella Tucker Elizabeth, Riley early, Gabrielle. Walking Cruz, Michaela Mendesa. Jose Mami. and Rosa Mia. Um, if the parents of the students would like to join us at the front for a picture might be noticing the very proud principal Rubikava from Linda Birdie because they're all her students who won the competition
012this year. Again, congratulations and thank you for ensuring that everybody understands that attendance really does matter every day. Thank you. Next, we'll have the school of administrator, Dr. Maretti. Yes. I would just like to acknowledge all of our school administrators for Lancaster School District, both past and present. I I believe that uh being a school administrator is probably the the best job you could possibly have in education and it's probably the most difficult job you can have in education. Um having been a site administrator for several years, I can I can speak truthfully that it's something that um takes every inch of your effort. Um and um you know, as school administrators, we truly believe that we are servant leaders, that we're here to serve our students. We're here to serve our staff. We're here
013to serve our our families. And we're here to serve our community. And I believe all of us take that job very seriously. It's a tough It's a very tough job, especially today, um when you're dealing with social media and AI and all the other challenges around us. So, um in the course of a day, you're an investigator, you're a mediator, you're a counselor, you're a judge, and hopefully overall you're still a teacher at heart. So, I just like to thank all of our administrators for the great work they've done. Thank you. Next, we have ourformational item stakeholder. Okay. Enrollment report total UTK through 8th grade 13,621 early learning department non K6 for a total of 13,927 students out of 13,927 we have 1141 that are homeless 279 that are bar foster and 666 that are
014armed forces which is a gain of 36 from our last board report but a loss of 2.3 from last year this time highlights for me root we grow together school and Just good evening, president, board members, superintendent, and community partners. My name is Leslie Vagaba, and I am the proud principal of Linda Verde Dual Immersion School. And with me today is also Miss Tobar, our wonderful assistant principal. Not working. So our theme this year is from many roots we rise. This uh quote beautifully captures our vision that our diversity is our strength. Each student, family and staff member contributes unique roots that with that when nurtured together are allow our school to rise stronger, prder and united is our theme. Every day we celebrate. It's a celebration of who we are. A community woven together
015by many cultures, many languages, and one shared purpose, our student success. We take pride in creating spaces where all students and families feel seen, valued, and celebrated. From our mariachi and florical performances to our cultural heritage events, color run and community celebrations, every event is a reflection of joy, unity, and belonging. These celebrations remind our students that their identities are not only welcome, they are honored. They show what's possible when a school truly represents the community it serves. Our dual our dual language program begins with an 8020 model in kindergarten. This means that 80% of instruction is in Spanish and 20% is in English. It gradually shifts to a 50/50 model by third grade and continues into middle school. This progression builds a strong foundation in both languages. We focus on standards based by literacy
016units. Teachers collaborate to plan units and lessons that integrate language and content learning. This approach supports academic growth and biliteracy development. We use glad guided language acquisition design strategies which are integrated into our units to support language development. Our walk to learn blocks offer targeted support in language and literacy. At Lima Verde, our goals are for all students to become bilingual, biiterate, and have a strong sense of culture identity and cultural competence. But of course, we couldn't do it without our community partners. So, family collaboration and c and cultural enrichment. Uh, one of greatest strengths is our partnerships with families through schoolsite councils, ELAC works. Parents are active voices in the decision- making and student success. We also celebrate our cultural identity and you will see that shortly through our mariachi rico and again our
017community events that promote pride and belonging. These programs bring families together and create an environment where every student feels seen and valued. Uh leadership and community partnerships are again a very strong uh a very a strength of verde. Through our Lion Park clubs, our ASB and our peer mentorship, our students learn teamwork, empathy, and responsibility. We are so proud of our community partnership with organizations such as Studio 8135, local businesses, the city of Lancaster, and the that expand opportunities in the arts, academics, and social emotional development. Together, we are shaping bilingual, bicultural, and biliterate leaders who will rise to make a difference in our community. Thank you for believing in bilingual education when we honor uh the language and the history all of our students rights. So to show what we do at Lina, we
018do have our mariachi and our Puerto Rico that will be performing today. If I can have our mariachi What's [Music] up? [Music] What? [Music] I'm lucky. Hey, super problem. Okay. St. That's it. This one has been [Music] for What? Michigan. [Music] So, this I thought that when I counted all there Thank you. Follow me. Thank you guys so much. So we'll be using that alone for public hearing public hearing. I leave passive renewal. Public hearing will be held at this time to hear testimony from parents, teachers, and members of the community regarding the chart the charter renewal petition for I leave Lancaster charter school open up at 6:50 p.m. Yeah, I like them release first. You did it. Good evening. I'm Melissa Woods, the director of compliance and accountability and I oversee charter schools including
019charter schools renewal. Uh tonight we have with us I lead and today is their uh public hearing for their renewal of their charter. They are a middle performing school and as such they are up for a five-year renewal. And I'd like you guys to know that on November 18th, I'll be returning and after the team goes over ED code policy and reviewing their artifacts that they submitted and the charter renewal that's before you, we will present our findings to you before your vote and um be present for any kind of questions that you may have. But tonight I introduce to you I leave Charter School. >> Good evening, President Charleston, governing board members, superintendent Maretti and staff. We're so excited to be here tonight to pres present to you Lancaster's charter renewal. And with me,
020I'm Amanda Fischer. I'm the CEO of Eile California. We also have the director of leadership support, Miss Nicole Kent, and our school director, Miss Deborah Aut, and our CBO, Kelly O'Brien, to answer questions as we go through. We're going to start tonight with a short video to give you a window into our school. Okay, we'll skip the video. We'll send it to you so you can watch it and get a little bit of a feel for our school. But we'll continue on. Since establishing our school in 2012, we remain true to our vision of empowering people to become lifelong learners, empathetic citizens, authentic individuals, and design thinkers. We do this through ILE methodology which is based on three pillars. Project based learning, social emotional learning and individualizing for each learner. You can see as the
021uh slide presents the details as shown project based learning, social emotional learning and individualized learning. And as you can see on this slide that we are set apart from other programs based on the offerings that we have at L Man Lancaster. Um, just to name a few, personalized education, steam programming, hands-on aerospace and glider. Um, innovative independent critical thinking and entrepreneurial and collaborative experiences. the last 10 years we've continued to grow. Um the CR at the moment is over 7% we have um remained relatively consistent in each subgroups 4% eS% 2% homeless youth 17% of our learners are students with disabilities our socioeconomically disadvantaged students have risen over the last five years currently we are at 79% of the students are socially so socially disadvantage. These serve are kids of all types of learning differences
022in our inclusion model. Students with autism, other health impairment, specific learning disabilities, and speech and language impairment are are some of our largest subgroups. As Melissa said before, um Lancaster is designated and it falls into the mid track, which makes us eligible for a five-year renewal. And right now we're going to take a look at our academic data. So we have met all of our local dashboard indicators. Our percent of students that have met or exceeded standards group by 6% this year in ELA and in math percentage group by 2%. our cap uh ma uh ELA and math scores um we have significantly grown in fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth grade in ELA and every cohort saw their percentage matter exceeded ex exceed an increase in math we saw an increase in third, fourth, sixth
023and eighth. We did not see a significant increase however that is our focus area this year. Looking at the subgroups, we saw an increase in our percentage that met an exceeded standards by 3% for Hispanics, 6% for African-American, and 19% for white. In ELA, in math, we saw an increase in our percent of met and exceeded standards by 2% for Hispanic, 2% for African-American, and 6% for black. Lancaster. Now looking at our dashboard, Lancaster has decreased the percentage of learners with chronic absenteeism by 4.2% and maintained their suspension rate. We continue to focus on these areas and we have developed attendance recognition incentive programs. In addition, we have focused on MTSS to encourage positive behavior supports. Additionally, on the dashboard based on how um learners have grown 4.4 four points in ELA and have moved
024from the red band to the orange. Our Hispanic and socially disadvantaged subgroups have moved to orange and the subgroups for two or more races have move and white have moved from to yellow. In math, learners have decreased in math and it is going to maintain our focus as I said before, but our sub Hispanic subgroups did increase to orange and our white subgroups moved to yellow. And this is something that we really pride ourselves on is that if you see in year one um 18% of our students, learners that have stayed with us for only one year, 18% of them have met or exceeded the standards in ELA and only 8% in math. However, students that were with us for two years, 22% met or exceeded ELA or and ELA and 9% in math. And
025those that were with us for four years have ex 48% met or exceeded in ELA and 35% in math. So as you see that the longer that learners are with us the more growth that they make. Looking at our second look data which is our NWDA map. Um our our target is to get a CGI score of.2 which equates to students making at least one year's academic growth. In reading our students surpass this measure with a negative.1 again showing growth of one one year. In addition we would like to highlight that 93% of our learners hit their learning their grade level projected growth in math. Looking at that same um measurement of negative.2 which means 100% of our learners um met or exceeded their growth in math. At IE we measure the whole child not
026just academic success. And one way that we do this is by looking at learners progress on learner outcomes. How how are they developing into lifelong learners, empathetic citizens, authentic individuals and design thinkers? Learners and facilitators are given metrics and they rate their progress and then they are able to combine that and provide us with the data about how many of our our learners are making progress and how they are applying and mastering those learn outcomes. Every student is our every student is our at our school has individualized learning um plan ILOP and creates their goals for themselves and along with their facilitators. They are they come together and they um come up with the goals as you can see on this slide that all learners are making progress and they are meeting their individual goals.
027This slide shows the three LCAP goals that we are focusing on for this cycle and our 2024 through 2027 based on these assessments from our learners, staff, and our educational partners. And I am proud to say at highly Lancaster we have many innovative programs. Um we have dream up to space that's really a a fun program that we have where our learners are using engineering design process to to design test and submit their own proposals for an experiment and that it is run um at the international space station. That's really exciting. We have our soaring um aeronautics project. That's our glider project. And not only again this is everything that we do is hands-on and this is an experience where our learners not only interact with pilots we have um simulations they are they focus
028on a fullscale glider that comes on campus and every learner has the opportunity to interact with the pilots and the glider and then the culmination is our learners actually flying the glider. Um, we have our Let It Out Creative Arts program. Again, another hands-on opportunity where our learners experience playing musical instruments and learning production skills. Okay. And last but not least, we have our financial literacy through junior achievement. And again, that empowers our learners to experience real world skills in financial literacy. And we all need that. Um they're focusing on future success and really preparing them um to make smart financial decisions in the future. Lancaster has a very strong financial position. Uh 771 learners enrolled currently and we've maintained um that number for a number of years and the projected outcome is that it'll
029stay right around 1771 students. Revenue is at about 14.3 million. Net income is 359,000 projected for the 2627 school year with the ending fund balance of 7.72 since the inception of IA. Um that's fund balance. I work really closely with Deborah and she makes sure that the learners have all the resources that are needed and uh that the program is robust. Any answers are So, I Lancaster meets the criteria for renewal under these conditions. We have a sound educational program. We've successfully implemented our charter. We enroll all students who wish to attend. We've demonstrated community support. We are fiscally sound. And we're a nonprofit organization. And I just want to close with this final quote from a parent from one of our students from all of my babies went to Eileene. I still have two
030attending. My my ninth grader just graduated and tested so well that she will be moving to all AP and honors classes. If you want your kids to have a good chance at success, I will help you. I am so grateful for this school and their caring, knowledgeable, and creative staff helping me to educate my future leaders. Thanks, Eileene. Thank you to all of you for allowing us to present tonight, and we look forward to hearing from you. and objective. Individual action items intended adoption of resolution 2025 to 2026 review compensation for mixed meeting for missed meetings Julie on October 7 2025 and October 21st 2025 get a motion second >> by Mr. TB second by Mr. Giles. All in favor? Motion passes. 4 Z. Individual action items as approve approval of amendment 002 to construction
031services agreement Biola Inc. for preschool transitional kindergarten and kindergarten project at Sunn Elementary. Motion by Mr. Sec. All in favor of September 20 September 2025 semianual report as adjustment to the facilities implementation plan program. Motion motion by Mr. Tiki second by Mr. Giles. All in favor? I motion passes 40. Addressing the board. Individuals who wish to address the board may complete a speaker card presented and any supporting documents to the superintendent assistant or other district official prior to the start of the meeting. Personal information such as a student, parent, guardians name, address, phone number, date of birth, email address, or other directory information is defined in education code may be excluded from the minutes of the meeting by submitting a written request to the superintendent. The board president shall recognize individuals who wish to speak.
032Individuals wishing to present testimony to the board concerning a specific items on the agenda may do so once that item has been moved seconded and is on the floor for discussion. Final minutes of three minutes per person and 20 minutes per item shall be allowed for by laws 93 22 members may ask questions for clarification purposes. However, no action may be taken and no discussion may take place on an item not on the posted agenda. Comments from PTA CSVA. Welcome. Hi, good evening board of trustees colleagues. I just want to let you know that we look forward to negotiations on November 5th. Uh we still do have a couple items to um go over um salary benefits and some articles. Uh we do have some CSA members with us tonight um to u just bring
033up a couple more concerns uh so please keep them in mind uh while we get into negotiations for next month. Thank you. Good evening everyone. I don't know if this is this on. It's been a rough day. It's been a rough week. It's only Tuesday. So, um I do want to challenge something that Dr. Maretti said earlier, um, while I respect and appreciate the tough job that we all have and administrators have, I don't think there is a tougher job than being a classroom teacher right now. And I would be remiss if I did not say that because I've already received about a dozen text messages of people listening in. And though for the record I will say and I was a teacher for 14 years is a very very challenging job and I'm I'm
034and I'm the husband of a teacher but I know exactly how challenging it is. Right. It is the the week of the administrator. So we're trying to give some love to our administrators. Well, I'm I'm actually I was planning to kind of give them some love also because I did hear uh from I don't remember three or four sites specifically reached out to me to tell me that their site admin gave them some PLC time today to work on some things that they needed to uh in preparation for conferences. So, I I do appreciate them and um but if I did want to make sure that I said something so that text messages will stop. >> So, um on to what I was actually going to talk about though was bargaining. I I just really
035on behalf of my team and our entire association, I want to say that it has been a really nice experience this year. Um, I know that we did a lot of work outside of the table in preparation, but we we all felt like things went very smoothly this year. want to kind of compare it to years past where there was a lot of back and forth and I feel like there was uh struggles to understand sides. And so I did want to bring that to the board and say how much we appreciate all of the work that went in from everybody on both sides and I feel like we came up with a very good uh package. So I appreciate that. I know that not everybody's always happy, but my job as the president of
036the association is to look at the greater good and the benefits for everyone involved. And so I just want to say also that I appreciate everyone's input and willingness to work with us and acknowledge how difficult the jobs have been. it seems like they're getting more difficult each year. And while we're happy about the salary increase and the um fully paid uh benefit package for retirees, I think that what I've gotten the most most comments about was the time the PLC time for elementary teachers because we are all drowning. And I say we, I'm not even in the classroom this year. And it's it's been very difficult. And so they're very appreciative of that time. And beyond that, just the acknowledgement that that they needed by you all. So anyways, um that's all I've got
037for tonight. Have a great evening and I'm gonna head out of here. I'm gonna be a grandmother very soon. So much. >> Thank you. Congratulations. >> Comments from the audience. Our first speaker is Alexis Henderson. Hi, good evening everyone. Uh my name is Alexis and I am a parent of a third grader at Lincoln Elementary. Um I am here because I wanted to speak about two of my um primary concerns. So um the first is uh school policy. Um there are some school policy um changes that I wanted to mention that I think will be uh helpful and important to consider for implementation. Um my son has been at Lincoln Elementary School since last school year. Um and it has not been an easy uh enrollment for him and um so we definitely have some
038concerns about you know communication and um when it comes to my son's safety we are notified significantly late. Um so it's definitely something that is frustrating. Um, so to first speak to policy, um, I know that Lincoln Elementary has a disciplinary log and so whenever a student has any type of, you know, incident, they log it. Um, but I've noticed that there's no positive behavioral log as well. And so that is something that I would like the school to consider. Um, and the the fact that, you know, this is the whole child. it's not just um their negative or you know difficult moments to be highlighted. Um I think it's important to reinforce positive behavior and I think that that comes with public acknowledgement um and add it to their school record. Um this is
039coming from the fact that you know there are multiple concerns of like bullying and things like that and um me personally my student has had uh much severe consequences than other students and it doesn't feel good as a parent to learn that. Um and so I wanted to um initiate a policy change for addition of behavior log. Um I also would like for before any consequences are occur occurring that all kids concerns are addressed. Um I am hopeful that for the blind spots at the school that cameras can be installed in those areas as I've had multiple um incidents where these things that are happening are just not uh visible. Um, and then as far as my child's safety and all child safety, um, I really do think that it's important for children to feel,
040uh, safe emotionally, not just physically. And when it comes to my son's my son's time at Lincoln Elementary thus far, um, there's been a disregard for his safety on multiple occasions. And um it's uh truthfully, for lack of a better word, just turning a blind eye to certain things um that I'm not okay with. And so I just really want to um find out any other policies or safety um safety uh policies that can be implemented such as >> What was that? >> Okay. Yeah. So just overall um just wanted to address um the safety concerns and those positive um positive policy changes and um that's mostly what my uh comments were for today. Thank you. [Music] >> Our next speaker is Mariah. Hello everyone. My name is Marsh. I'm the vice president of CSEA
041chapter 297 and I'm here on behalf of the classified staff who are expressing concerns about our current salary schedule. Standing next to me is my colleague Rea Gonzalez Torres. Um she was supposed to be up here to see her speech, but going over the years that she's devoted with the district, she's become um she's found herself emotional because she is passionate. So I'm going to be reading her speech for her. Good evening, esteemed members of the board, Superintendent Dr. Marietti, colleagues, and guests. My name is Reena Gonzalez Torres and I have proudly served this Lancaster School District for 20 years. Worked in school site and district office um departments and I speak tonight not only for myself but for the many long-term dedicated classified employees who feel unseen and unheard. Tonight I want to address
042an issue that's been building for years. The growing disparities in our salary scales, especially due to minimum wage increases and the creation of new positions with unequal pay for similar work. While new roles are being created, some that mirror the responsibilities of existing positions, the pay is often significantly higher with no adjustment made to those of us who have been doing similar or even more complex work for years. As an office assistant, I've been I've seen their workload increase while their positions has not been made whole. In fact, OA's experience a reduction in work days years ago, yet the expectations keep rising. Our school sites are busier than ever. The demands keep growing, but there's no support, no compensation, and frankly no recognition for the troll the toll this takes on us. We hear words
043like dignity and respect used often, but those words feel empty when cost of living and insurance go up every year, and we're still told implicitly or explicitly to just be grateful we have a job. We love our work. We love our students and families. But when we express concerns, when we advocate for fair treatment, we're met with silence or worse, with indifference. The message we receive is, "If you love your job, then just do it and keep quiet." Not in those words, but certainly in actions. We feel forgotten. We feel like our We feel like our years of loyalty don't count for much, and our decades of service don't merit fair pay or better benefits. And yet, we've given everything, our hearts, our minds, our energy. Many of us know our families by name. We've
044stood beside them through feast and famine, through all of this district's ups and downs. We not asking for anything extravagant. We're asking for fairness, for equity, for acknowledgement. We're asking you to recognize that longevity should matter. Loyalty should matter. And the people who keep this district running every single day deserve better. fix our salary skill, increase our medical cap, and honor your classified retirees with 100% metacap as you go as you do your teachers. Please don't continue to overlook us. Thank you. Good evening, President Starson, members of the board, and superintendent Maretti. My name is Nancy Kuransza, and I've proudly served the district for close to three years as a budget technician. I'm speaking tonight on behalf of our classified staff, especially our parent educators who are being deeply affected by the district's continued reliance
045on contracted workers and wages that fall behind neighboring districts. As someone who works closely with members, I can tell you clearly contracting out is not saving us money, it's costing us more. Last year, the special education department alone paid 4,813,3851 for contracted parent educators. And already this year, from August to October 20th, the district spent another 1 million110,96082. That's over a million dollars in just two months. Money that could be used to hire and retain dedicated district employees instead of paying agency overhead. And yet our own mods para educators who do some of the most essential and demanding work are on range 24 starting at $2443 an hour and topping out at $2485 compared to Palmdale where they start at $2183 and cap at $26.54. That's a $140 hour difference at entry and $169 cent
046an hour difference at the top step without any increase. After our last chapter meeting, I reflected on the proposed 7.5% salary increase information we were updated on by our chapter e board. It might sound high as a percentage, but let's look at what it really means in dollars and paid $2043 would increase to $21.96 and the top step at $24.85 would increase to $26.71. That's only $1.86 rise at most. Not a windfall, but just enough to finally compete with home. With this increase, employees can truly choose where they want to work. Not be because they have to chase better pay but because they feel valued here right now too many are leaving because they feel overlooked. Let's stop outsourcing our future and start investing in it. Thank you. Agenda item superintendent items 17 A and
04717 C. Motion motion by Mr. J, second by Mr. W. All in favor motion passes 40. Consent agenda items, business items 18. Can I add something to this and that is thank you the welcome and wellness center for pursuing these uh donations pursuing the in the uh socks going to one of the events any of the events for the community has been fantastic. uh the the items we pass out to our family is is tremendous and uh I appreciate it. I'm sure the board appreciates it. Thank you. Consent agenda items, business items 18A through 18P. Motion by Mr. Second by Mr. Chu in favor motion passes 40 comments consent agenda items education services items 19A through 19N motion >> second motion by Mr. T second by Mr. [Music] All favor motion passes. We're thorough. Consent
048agenda item human resource services items. A through motion [Music] by Mr. W. All in favor? I motion passes 40. Consent agenda items is student family services item 218 >> motion by Mr. TP second Mr. All in favor on legislation policy. We'll go with comments from the board. Mr. Win, not too many. Just uh hats off to Charles and the increase in enrollment for uh every since we started in August. It's uh bringing the last year's totals down which is good to see. homeless and it's doesn't seem like it's on the rise, but I think it is. When you think about that and you think about the students that are coming to school with uh having no place to live or living in apartments andor homes that they may or may not treat well. I think
049that our students are doing great and I have a I have a big hand for them that's still well I'll tell you what having that kind of afterchool activity with the uh mariachis the cowboys blind dancing and uh the marachi dancers of chlorico. Thank you. It's just it just is great and I have to hats off to Linda Mie for that. Thanks Mark for bringing that or bringing that to us for all of the others who have brought us the information that we need. Thank you very much. Always good to see you out there. That means uh we're spending a lot of time on Facebook and and it's all good. Thank you to CSCA now coming forward and bring information. We we love to have you. We love to have you as parents. We love
050to have you as a We love to have you in the school. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. W. Mr. Giles, >> thanks for all you guys hanging out with us for the night. Uh, thanks Linda Verie for all the uh the presentations and their currently wiping orange poster contest and for their bowl winners. Thank you. Congratulations to all those guys and thanks Paul Brown event. I enjoyed seeing all the dancers and performers and other days. I had my son was even a glorio dancer at Mariposa. So, you know, it's it's for everybody. It's fun. You can get into it. I got to enjoy the uh we we had the last event we had on last was it Friday? Saturday? Saturday. Got to come over have a hot dog and a stick. My daughter
051did a vision board and you know they got to see some district staff in the community. Looked like everybody's having a good time and gets the things they needed whether it be glasses or teeth cleaning. I had quite a good stuff for everybody to do. So pretty cool event. Got to bring everybody over. So we got to do that and enjoy my hot dog and continue the rest of the day. With that I will sit on Mr. Jones Mr. TV. >> Okay. Uh great to hear uh our cow and um negotiations are working well. Uh and looking forward to CSEA and working through those negotiations. Definitely want to get the best we can for uh for our our workers and we appreciate everything uh that they do um all the schools uh throughout our district.
052So, thank you so much. Uh, great to see the Latino uh knowledge bowl. Um, see a lot of the schools participating in that. It's uh attending, but my daughter had a baby that day. So, um, and then great to see the presentations with Linda Verie uh, programs they have there. And it was neat to see all the uh programs and the parents excited about that. And then also again uh pass off the administrators for all the excellent work that you do and we appreciate all of that all the hard work that you do. >> Mr. Dr. I I'd like to acknowledge also Linda Verde and um three three years ago we asked Linda Verde to create program and um we watch them over the years get better and better. So it's really nice to see
053them out and actually playing on their own because prior to that you know in the early days they they were kind of led. So it's really nice that they're coming along and we just expect them to get better and better. So the dancers and music just a wonderful thing. So, I'd like to acknowledge Cindy Queen and Alicia Casey for the work they did on our on both our knowledge roles and Jamal. Um, it's a great event for our families and our community and um it's just a nice place to be on on a week night. So, um I acknowledge all the kids that participated and all the hard work the teachers put in and the classified staff winning coach up for. I would like to um thank um our um HR department and TAL um
054for the wonderful job they did um this year and coming together and um I I don't expect anything less as we move forward um with our our other organizations. Um and uh lastly, I just want to reiterate because I got a text from my wife. Teachers work very very hard and I just want to acknowledge that because I'm in hot water now at home. So check it out. Sure. My phone is also ran. I basically seconded everything. Pretty much hit the nail on the head as far as all the organizations and the presentations that were put on by Chino. didn't make it to, but they're always wonderful when you do. So, so um again, thank you for everyone that works hard in the district. Greatly appreciate it. And with that, I and we will adjourn
055at 7:35 p.m. Can I get a motion? >> Second. >> Motion by Mr. TP, I think by Mr. Giles. Motion passes for zero.