2026.02.24 LVUSD School Board Meeting

001Everyone, we are so excited to have such wonderful special guests at our board meeting tonight. First thing I need you to do, parents and any students, I know we have some high school students here, is silence your cell phones. You're going to need them on and out because you're going to want to take pictures, but we don't want them going off during the meeting. So, thank you for that. Um, let's see. At this point, I'm going to ask for Let's see. Where am I? I'm going to ask for Willow fifth grade students Charlotte Walker and River Hannis to come forward to that mic right there at the podium and lead us all in the flag salute. So if everyone will rise. >> Place your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin. >> I pledge aliance

002to 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. That was excellent. Thank you so much. What are you guys doing over here? Okay. Thank you so much. Um, I have nothing to report out of close session and may I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda. >> So move. >> I have a second. Student, are you in favor of tonight's agenda? >> I board. All those in favor? >> I. We have an agenda now. May I have a motion to approve the minutes from the uh January 27th meeting? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Perfect. Uh student >> I. Terrific. Board. All those in favor? >> I. >> Okay. We have an agenda and we have

003minutes and superintendent board uh communication. Before I turn it over to Dr. Steinowski, since we have so many special guests, I want to share with you how this is going to go tonight. First, we have two employees, wonderful employees that we're going to recognize because we all want you to hear about them. Second thing we're going to do is we're going to um honor some high school students for the environmental initiatives that we want because we want you to hear about high school because our Willow friends, you're going to be there before you know it. And then we're going to hear from our Willow students. They're going to do a little presentation for us. So, thank you so much. And Dr. Stepp, it's on to you, >> Madam President. Dr. Ces Ciphers, if you'd meet

004me at the podium, we'll bring up our employees of the month. Madame President, members of the board, is absolutely my distinguished honor to be in front of you to introduce uh you to all our employees, our classified and certificated employee of the month. Both of these two individuals uh absolutely excel and are phenomenal at really uh making sure that students are connected to their respective campuses. Our classified employee of the month uh is absolutely phenomenal and incredible in making sure all students are included in instruction and our particular role and our certificated employee of the month uh is an absolute uh phenom. He actually uh gets students uh instead of recess during their lunch, he gets them to do math uh which we'll hear more about. Yeah, look at that. and they're clapping about it

005right now. Upwards of 50 in his classroom. So, we'll talk more about that. We'll hear from the principles. It is absolutely What I'd love to do now is invite uh Mr. Foley, are you in the house? And Miss Journs and our classified employee of the month, Lyanna, to the podium. Good evening, Dr. Stephenoski, Madame President, members of the board. It is an honor to recognize Lyanna Moscave uh as LBUSC classified employee of the month. >> Lyanna is our bilingual instructional specialist and an invaluable member of our school. She has a remarkable ability to build strong, positive relationships with our students and staff. She is firm but fair and she holds students to high expectations while always showing care and consistency. She ensures students are behaving, engaged, and on task, creating environment where where learning can

006thrive. Students trust her and seek out her support on a regular basis. Lyanna is also an amazing support to our teachers. She steps into the classroom seamlessly, provides instructional behavioral support, and she brings depth of knowledge in so many areas to help meet the diverse needs of our students. In addition, she always makes herself available to sit on sit in on SSTs, 504s, and IEPs to ensure our students are advocated for. Parents understand the process. Her versatility, professionalism, and calm presence make a difference every single day. Congratulations, Lyanna, on this well-deserved recognition. It's all about you right now, Lena. On behalf of the board of education, we also want to congratulate you and present you with this apple as a token of our appreciation. And thank you so much for all you do to support

007our students. most important thing for students is and children is to know that they are they have somebody cheering for them, somebody there to support them and give them confidence. So thank you. You wear lots of different hats and you really are an important integral part of your students, your parents and your staff. So thank you very much. >> I got the phone. Um, when you came into the room, you said 15 minutes. So, get the timer started, you guys. >> 15 minutes. Here we go. Just kidding. Um, I would like to thank first of all Dr. Stephan Austin. Madame President, uh, and the members of the board for even considering me for such an honor. Uh, but to be acknowledged for something that I love doing so much is really cool. Um, I would

008like to thank my AI family. They're all over there. for really inspiring me, for teaching me and motivating me. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to learn and grow from you guys. And not just the staff, but the students as well. They teach us every single day. That's right. Um, the biggest thank you goes to my family. They're over there. My parents and my kids and my husband. Um, I've got Jonah who's actually gonna be joining us next uh year at aight. I have Noah, my teenager over there, my mom and my dad, Eigor and Ella, and my husband, Robert. Um, they support me at everything. Even when I say, "Hey guys, I'm going to quit my business of 17 years and become a translator," they looked at me and said, "You could

009do it." Um, you guys are my rock. You guys are my reason why. And I thank you for being here. And boys, um, just when you think that you can't do it, you can do it. You keep trying. You keep going for it. So, thank you. Now joining us up at the podium, we have Principal Reynolds and Mr. Brian Bour. There you go. Okay. >> Good evening, Madame President, members of the board, Dr. Saknowski, cabinet, and guests. It is truly an honor to recognize this month's certificated employee of the month, Mr. Brian Bourke. For nearly 20 years, Brian has dedicated himself to serving the students of Los Angeles School District. He has not only built a strong foundation as an educator, but he has also built something even more lasting, meaningful, trusting relationships with his

010students and colleagues. Brian is the kind of educator who sees possibility and turns it into opportunity. Two years ago, he identified an interest and created a competitive math team at Willow. What began as a vision has grown into something truly extraordinary. This year alone, nearly 50 students choose to spend their lunchtime engaging in rigorous team-based math competitions with students across the nation using an online platform. Let that sink in. 50 fourth and fifth grade students are choosing to give their math time up. Okay, very close. Um, even more impressive, this year his students approached Mr. Borg and asked for an additional day each week to review the competition problems so that they could deepen their understanding and clarify their thinking. And of course, he said yes because that is who Mr. Borg is. When students

011show curiosity and commitment, he encourages them and makes things happen. He has an exceptional ability to cultivate a classroom culture where students feel safe and truly seen for who they are. His students trust him. They know he believes in their potential and because of that they rise to meet the bar he sets. Beyond his work, his stu with students, Brian is a collaborative and respected colleague. He is a team player who contributes positively to our school community and supports those around him. He approaches his craft as a lifelong learner, always reflecting, refining, and seeking ways to grow so that he can better serve his students. He consistently goes above and beyond, not for recognition, but because he is deeply committed to the students we serve. Mr. Borg embodies the very best of LUSD, dedication, innovation,

012collaboration, and a strong belief in students. Mr. Borg, thank you for inspiring a love of mathematics, for building strong relationships with your students, and for modeling what it means to be a lifelong learner. It is with great pride that we recognize you as the certificated employee of the month. >> Real quick, we just have uh breaking news from the math team that we're fresh off a victory over Brookside by two points. Is that correct? Let's go. >> Wow. I'm sorry. Willow's Matting Beat Oak Park. Wow. >> Music to our ears. Well, I have known Mr. Borg for many years and he is really a gifted teacher, student centered and anybody who can get kids excited about math and wanting to do math more often and just adding a day. I don't know you had me

013at hello. For any of you parents out there, you know that the district has adopted new math materials, could be new adoptions can be a little stressful, a little confusing, but look, your students, your children, they love it. So, we have nothing more to say other than congratulations on behalf of the entire board. Here's an apple as a token of our appreciation for all you do to motivate and excite kids in learning. Thank you. >> Thank you. Well, Madame President, fellow board members, cabinet and guests, and will students and family and my family, thank you guys for being here. Um, I'm honored to have been selected as certificated employee of the month. Um, and I'm honored that you guys are here. I know we have our math team representing today, too. But, um, some of

014you guys know my family, we are a Los Virgin family. My wife teaches fourth grade at White Oak. Our children have attended Los Virginia school since Buttercup and soon our son will graduate from Agora. Even my mother-in-law taught or I'm sorry worked in the district office here. Uh being a Lost Virgin's family has given me a unique perspective. I've seen firsthand how teachers and staff go above and beyond every day to make this district such a great place for our students. The work that I do with my students and the math team is just one example of the things that are happening around our district. A few years ago when Mrs. Reynolds and I first started talking about having a math team at Willow. I think we're hoping for five to 10 students is what

015we needed to like really justify the program. Um we really never imagined that every year we'd have 40 to 50 fourth and fifth graders skipping out on their lunch and recess to do math in the classroom. Um this year our students have competed virtually against schools from as far away as New York and Florida to as close as you guys just heard Oak Park. So good job guys. Um, they've loved the competition, but even more importantly, they've worked as a team. They've enjoyed tackling challenging problems, and they've really discovered that math can actually be fun. Um, and I can say that none of this would be possible without the amazing team that I work with. So, thank you to my wife and my family. Thank you guys for being here. Uh, the fourth and fifth

016grade team of teachers I work with at Willow are just amazing. Our principal, Mrs. Reynolds, and also our dedicated math team, parent volunteers. I really truly appreciate your continued support. So, thank you guys. I appreciate the honor and thank you >> 2927. It was close. All right, if we get the board join us for a photograph. You really have a picture. I I'm on >> my phone right now. >> All right. Next up, I'm excited to bring down a number of students. Young gentleman from Calabasas High School. Let's see. Michael Brunstein, Skyler Fong, Ray Schaffer, Gavin Tesser, Benjamin Arasian. Come on down. You can hear properly over here. Over here, guys. These gentlemen have demonstrated academic excellence and shown exceptional leadership and commitment to environmental stewardship through the school's roots and shoots environmental club and

017in partnership with the Calbas environmental commission. So, we have a proclamation for each of you gentlemen. Uh two years ago they launched bags to benches bags for benches initiative and worked hard over the last two years to accomplish this. They've collected 5,000 lbs of stretchable pyroethylene plastic film uh diverting the equivalent of 350,000 plastic bags from our landfills. They have turned those 350,000 plastic bags into five benches. Two at Calabasas, one at Wild Walnut Park, one at the Calabasa Senior Center, one at the district office, and the fifth one is TBD. Also, special thanks to Principal Wetkkey. This has also been a passion project for Maria Bergstro. Miss Burkstrom has been very involved in this collection. environmental science teacher, Miss Emily Sneed, uh, Miss Isabelle Lynch, art teacher, and community leader and LBD parent, David

018Cohen. Thank you to all of you as well. >> Uh, Michael, did you want to say a few words? >> Hello everyone. My name is Michael Bronstein. I'm a senior at Kabatas High School. I'm joined by four integral parts of the bag project. I'm going let Skyler Fong start off describing where our locations are that we collect the plastic. >> Thank you, Michael. We have several locations around the city, including one here at the district office. We actually drop off all our plastic at participating locations like Ralphs and Albertson's, but we have pickup bins at uh Fazio's Cleaners in the Commons, Senior Center, the Kbasa Senior Center, the Kbasa City Hall, and many others around the city. Feel free to collect some plastic in your garage and bring them to those pickup locations. You'll see

019a white bin that has it's called it has the name next on there and there you'll be able to see oh pictured right over there and there you'll be able to see all the participating stretchable plastic that is involved and you can throw into the bin and most of all I wanted to thank also Humphrey Tyler as well he is the first one to actually introduce us to this entire program so really wanted to give a big shout out to Now I'll pass it on to Ray Shaver. >> And then after, as Skyler mentioned, as we pick up the plastic from either of the locations that we have, we either drop it off at Albertson's right across the street or if we're on the other side of Cabasses, we drop it off at the Ralphs.

020Hello everyone. My name is Ray Schaefer. I'm also a senior at Calabasas High School. And thank you so much to all you guys for also participating in our program and getting to where we are today. Um, the plastics that we collect are types two and four plastics. Like Skyler mentioned, you can find them on the bin. Our most common plastic is probably grocery store bags and I guess other shipping packages, sometimes dry cleaning bags, stuff like that. But yeah, thank you guys so much. My name is Gavin Tesser. I'm also a senior at Calabasas High School. And talking a little bit about our program successes, we've collected around 5 thou 5,000 pound pounds of recycled plastic bags that would otherwise end up in the landfill. And this equates to several hundred,000 plastic bags themselves. And

021we give these bags to a company called Next, which converts these bags into benches made from the bags. And it's a really full circle moment because the bags that normally would end up in the landfill are turned into benches. And our next bench is being placed at Calabasas High School. So stay tuned for that bench dedication. Thank you everyone. >> I would also really quickly like to shout out the environmental commission itself. I'm the current student environmental commissioner. These are the student environmental commissioners from last year and the bags for benches program started with the environmental commission. So huge shout out to all the commissioners and I see a lot of young students in the audience if any of you are future environmental stewards. Feel free to try out for the Cowbasis Environmental Commission and

022keep the the green path going. Thank you. Come on over for a picture while they assemble for a photograph. Uh just echo for the Willow students, echo what you heard from the seniors here. If you have a passion, if you have an idea, you can take it and run and you can change the and improve the world. Okay. All right, Principal Reynolds, we are ready for the Wildcats. >> All right, so we have Good evening again. We have three special things that we're going to be doing for you for our showcase. And the first thing we're going to do is we're going to be inviting up our kindergarten students. We have a few of our kindergarten students here to show you a little sample of the Valentine serenade. Every year at Willow, our kindergarteners sing

023Valentine songs to their families. And they are going to do a sample for you here of one of those songs titled Do You Love Me? Is this me? >> Wasn't sure I have Is this one? >> Yes. Put it down. Actually quiet. I don't know. First time. Nice job, kindergarteners. You can go sit with your parents and we are going to bring up some of our leadership students from Willow. So, you already heard a little bit about our math teams. We have been growing our student leadership at Willow over the last few years. We are also going to be bringing up play leaders and science leaders and our student council. So, come on up. Leah and this is Carson. We're excited to tell you about the Willow Math team. On the math team, we practice

024and complete challenging math problems during our lunch time. Instead just eating and playing, we choose to exercise our brain. We work together, share ideas, and learn new strategies to solve tricky problems. Being on the math team helps us become stronger thinkers, better teammates, and great mathematics. Our math team competes against schools from around the country. It's exciting to know we are solving the same problems as as students in the other states. We are proud to represent our school and always try our best. Math team helps us build confidence, teamwork, and a love for learning. Thank you for supporting our math team and helping us grow. >> Good evening. I am Bowie and we are the fourth grade science leaders. Our job is to help younger students in first, second, and third grade to learn about

025science through fun experiments. We help organize the materials, explain the steps, and make sure everyone is safe while they explore and discover new ideas. Hi, I'm Eth. And when younger students our science, we guide them through each part of the we help them ask questions, make predictions, try new things out. Sometimes experiments don't work the way we expect, but that's just a part of being a scientist. We encourage them to keep trying and thinking. Hi, I am Sarah and another important job we have is helping students document their findings. Scientists write down what they see, measure, and learn. We help our younger students record their observations by drawing pictures, writing notes, or sharing what they notice during theation and being a helps us practic. It also helps younger students feel conf about learning science. We

026are proud to help build our of Kira science school. >> Good evening. My name is Claire and we are the fifth grade play. Our job is to make the playground a fun, safe, and welcoming place for all students, especially our TK through third grade. During recess and lunch, we help organize games, invite others to play, and make sure everyone has a chance to join it. Hi, and as play leaders, we help younger students learn new games and build friendships. Sometimes kids feel shy or unsure about joining a game, so we encourage them and help them feel included. Our goal is to make sure everyone feels confident, supported, and happy while playing on the playground. >> Hi, I'm Ava, and we also help when problems. If there is a disagreement or conflict, we listen to both

027sides and help inspire their salutes. We remind everyone to be respectful, kind, and good to you. Being a play leader means helping create a playground where everyone can fun and they belong. I'm River H. I'm on student council and play leaders. And being on student council means that you're constantly a role model for younger grades every day. Hi, my name is Edri and I'm a part of the Willow student council. I love about being on is that I can help the school a better place and environment for students. Hi, my name is and one thing I love about being is that I that voices are heard and I help make decisions. >> Hi, my name is Zoe Walsh and I am on student council and play leaders. Something that I love about student council is

028that we get to show leadership and we get to speak during assemblies. And we can show leadership by being a good role model for the younger students. >> If we can have you stay there and we're our little kindergarteners, if you can line up there, we're going to get a picture with the board and cabinet. And I just want to say I'm so impressed. Look at these future current and future leaders here. There is so much opportunity at Willow to be a leader. Thank you everyone for stepping up. Father. Ready? Yeah. Yeah. Ready. in high school. Imagine it's present. Outstanding. >> Thank you very much, Will. We appreciate you. It is such a treat. My mic on? Yes. It is such a treat for us to have all these recognitions and these adorable students come

029visit us. So, thank you. Thank you everybody. Okay, on the agenda, do we actually have an Oh, staff board communication. Dr. Steph, we can wait a minute if you want for it to quiet down. >> Okay, Dr. Staff. >> All right, first up, congrats to Valoian. She nailed her doctorate this year through Lutheran University. So, congratulations to her. her study was on uh TK uh learning strategies. Congratulations also to Las Vegas, one of 13 districts out of a thousand in the state to be recognized as a green ribbon school. Uh three components uh environmental stewardship, reducing carbon footprint, environmental programs, student staff wellness, and we earned a civil silver in all of those. I think the award ceremony is April at a national school district in San Diego. And next week, very exciting, uh, eight

030days from today, we have our second annual women leadership forum. Fantastic panel moderated by our vice president of the school board, Miss Cut Bill. Uh, was a fantastic gathering last year. We got a great panel this year. Super excited about it. Uh, the QR code on their works. We've shared with staff and parents in the community and our cities. And that'll be at the Agora Performing Arts Education Center. Doors open 5. Panel program begins at 5:30. It'll go about an hour. Uh so super excited to have this uh fantastic panel of um women and young ladies uh be a part of it. >> That's it. That concludes staff communication. >> Thank you, Miss Westerberg. >> Madame President, members of the board, Calbas and Agora High School have been very busy recently. At CHS, we continued

031our donation drive for the Los Angeles Children's Hospital, held several meetings for clubs and club presidents, and supported student engagement through wellness meditations and Valentine's Day grams. We also celebrated the Lunar New Year through an on-ampus scavenger hunt where students searched for large stickers in turn to turn in for a sweet treat. Black Student Union has organized a spirit week and movie screening this week to honor Black History Month. Our performing arts program has also been busy with jazz, orchestra, and band concerts within the past couple of weeks. Finally, congratulations and good luck to our boys soccer team who are going to CAF finals. Over at Agora, they've been hosting events as they continue to reach the end of the year. A Agora hosted their final rally of the year in a Valentine's Day theme.

032Agore also hosted their first ever rock paper scissors challenge where students were given bead necklaces and challenged each other for necklaces. Winners from each grade participated in a finale during the challenge. during the rally. Different classes have also been hosting fundraisers, including the juniors who hosted a habit fundraiser yesterday. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Mingos. >> So, I feel like I'm bookending things with uh my report. Um Miss uh Stein and I were able to visit Willow where I got to see a lot of the science and and a lot of the presentation that you just saw. and then um also attended the city schools uh meeting for the cities of Westlake uh village and Agora Hills and found out that um the city of Westlake Village has banned ebikes and the city of

033Agora Hills is looking into it and they also um I also got information that there is an assembly bill 1942 where they're looking at requiring um ebikes to have license plates and um be registered um in the state. So to help curtail some of the uh rampant abuse of ebikes in the community and I think that's really positive for the community and then to bookend at the other end um also was part of curriculum council um with Mr. Lazar and also part of safety and wellness with Miss Cutville and we'll be discussing some of the items that were discussed there in information. >> Thank you very much Mr. Lazar. >> Uh hope everybody's 2026 is in full swing. um enjoyed attending curriculum council with Miss Manges and attended finance committee for the first time uh

034which I enjoyed very much. Dr. Gleason, thanks for all the introductions to your team and so on. Looking forward to uh working on that committee. Uh I attended the gate information night at a writ which was excellent evening. Mr. Foley and his team put together a great presentation, a wonderful in-classroom presentations by our terrific AW teachers and students as well. It was a really wonderful evening. Uh attended jazz pathways at uh Calabasas High with terrific jazz bands from a right, AC style and Calabasas all in one space. Uh really wonderful uh concert and uh just finally I I am hearing a lot from our Iranianamean community in LVUSD which is of course quite sizable. Many are concerned and many are traumatized by events going on in Iran. I know uh a number of them have

035lost family members uh often can't communicate with family and just wanted to express solidarity and hope that our counseling teams at the the high schools and middle schools can you know if students need additional support uh can be can be there for those families. Uh that's all. Thank you. >> Thank you very much Mr. Lawrence. >> I will forgo my report for tonight. >> Miss I will also forgo comments. >> Okay. Uh, and just a couple brief things is this is the last meeting we were looking forward to Battle of the Bands where our students got to showcase their talents at um the Canyon Club in Agora Hills and it was a wonderful uh packed house with wonderful musicians. I mean, music is alive and well in our community. And a special shout out to

036our our cabinet band uh Dr. Stepp and the Expendables. None of them are expendable. cabinet members, uh, teachers, administrators, students in it, and, uh, that was just a lot of fun. So, thank you very much. And with that, I'll conclude staff board communication. I have two speakers for items not on the agenda. So, I want to invite up Amber Sithnham and and Jennifer Shonfield. And whoever wants to go first, please state your name at the come both of you come up at the same time. Whoever goes first, state your name on the microphone and you have three minutes. The board cannot um engage in dialogue and because of the Brown Act and um you have three minutes and the clock is where's the clock? Right there. And state your name please. >> Okay. Hi, I'm

037Jennifer Scoffield. I want to say in between these things I'm stating there are tons of emails back and forth, me pleading, arguing, threatening to sue, etc. None of this occurred on accident or because LBUSD Plus was at capacity. On June 6th, LBUSD Plus told me they would not accept CCRC state payment for afterchool care and if that changed, I would be notified. I then spent all summer asking them to accept CCRC and writing to Dan Stubnowski and looking into legal help. On the first day of school, August 20th, I found out on accident as the squeaky wheel that they were now accepting CCRC and I was added at number 52 or higher to a wait list. We were notified the list would be readressed on November 1st and that more kids would be let in.

038On August 25th, I wrote to Lucian Gleason and Stephanoski requesting that our kids be busted to another afterchool program within the district that had openings as a way to correct their mistake. I was simply ignored. So I waited but I had a sinking feeling and I wrote to LVUSD plus early. The response was October 7th Ryan Gleon quote families on the wait list are being reviewed in order. And on October 8th quote in the spirit of closure I do not foresee you getting off the wait list this year. Let me be clear. I was not asking for special consideration. I took the exact same action I took every year very early to enroll Marcelino in afterchool care. The new LVUSD Plus did not even have a registration system yet and did not seem to know

039they had to accept CCRC. They failed to enroll me in good faith based on the date I tried to register and instead they sent me away. I've been a professor at Santa Monica College for 20 years. I always teach in person because my dream job takes place in person. Teaching online feels dead to me, but thankfully SMC could alter my fall schedule to online so I could pick up my son. but they could only offer two classes instead of my usual three. So, I lost about $9,000 and this may happen again. For spring 2026, I have two online classes and they will try to add a late start class if I can teach in person. I may transfer Marcelino to LUSD to get care, but I don't want to disrupt his life or his education.

040There were additional students let into Chapperel LVUSD Plus near the end of October. They were still aware of us because I was writing back and forth, writing to everyone I could think of constantly. But our kids were not allowed in. The kids we tried to enroll long before there was a wait list. It has never been acknowledged that my public school has taken away my child care when I did exactly what I was supposed to do when I was supposed to do it. Instead, I am told by Ryan Gleon, quote, I understand that this situation continues to feel unresolved from your perspective. So, my life reality and income concerns are now labeled as feelings by LVUSD, which is still blocking access to afterchool care for myself and other low-income families. >> Thank you very much.

041Uh, Amber Sithham, sorry again. You have three minutes. Okay. So hello everyone. I am here for my friend Jennifer. Despite any perceptions that may exist, she is a person of strong character and compassion who has been operating in a prolonged stress response because she is watching her livelihood be placed at risk as her career stability hangs in the balance. While carrying the weight of financial strain, she has still extended support to my children. She offered to pick them both up at the beginning of the school year when the afterchool issue first arose. And she continues to pick up my daughter despite her ongoing challenges with the afterchool program. She did this because she witnessed firsthand the instability my children and I endured navigating divorce, domestic violence, shelter placement, transitional housing, and the psychological toll that

042comes with being a single mother raising children with special needs. And even while managing her own uncertainty regarding afterchool placement, she adjusted her work schedule and assumed responsibility for two additional children, giving me the ability to work and keep my apartment that I was just approved for. And as a single mother herself, she understands firsthand how deeply instability affects a child's emotional well-being and and academic functioning. All three of your students come from homes that have experienced significant family disruption. Children who experience instability are at increased academic and emotional risk because not because of the lack of ability but because chronic stress impacts executive functioning, working memory, and emotional regulation. These family decisions were not made lightly. They were made to ensure safety and to protect the mental well-being of your students. I believe all

043students deserve equitable access to the educational support necessary for long-term uh success. And regarding CCRC, its mission is to improve child well-being by providing financial assistance to working families in need, which both of our families qualify for within the lowincome bracket. If CCRC is not available, ELOP exists as an alternative support. According to lvusd.org, ELOP is designed to support students academic, social, emotional, and physical development. Now, Jennifer's financial stability is directly tied to how many classes she is able to teach. Financially uh financial instability at the parental level translates directly into environmental stress for children affecting academic engagement, social functioning and emotional regulation. All three of those that ELOP intends to support. Your student Marcelino is already an IEP student working through those very challenges. >> Thank you. Thank you. Time is up. Thank you.

044Thank you both very much for coming out and for sharing. Um we appreciate you taking the time to share with us. And with that, I'm going to move to consent A. May I have a motion to to approve consent A? May I have a second? >> Second. >> And um any questions or comments on any items on consent A? >> Um just one question. I wasn't familiar how um surplus property was disposed of. Um I know there's a surplus property list in consent A and what what is there a specific process you go through to dispose all of this or >> Absolutely. Most of the the surplus property um in the past few months or past few years is related to technology obsolete technology. So we work closely with Mr. Klein's department. He could speak

045to how he determines determines an item is obsolete. In terms of furniture, when we see something that is at end of life, we will bring in and we'll put on the surplus list. And then with respect to uh curriculum or books only if they're at end of life and we have adopted a new curriculum where we surplus and >> sorry I was going to say on the technology front it's generally generally we run technology just about as long as we possibly can. Most of the stuff that we uh surplus is generally nonfunctional or just so old that it can't run our software. So we we do try to extend the life of as much as we can. Typically we get six to eight years out of devices and we will reallocate devices strategically as necessary

046to to meet needs. Even if they're somewhat obsolete, if they can do something for us, we still try to utilize them. So I did just want to quickly mention that I noticed we were approving the field trip request for AHS Jazz Band to go to essentially Ellington competition in New York and that is such a big deal. I mean they're like one of the best jazz bands in the country. It's terrific. So just wanted to give them a shout out. >> Thank you. And with that, I'll call for the vote. Student, do you approve of consent A items? >> I. >> Board, all those in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Passes 5-0. Uh, may I have a motion to approve consent B? >> So moved. >> We have a second. >> Second. >> Okay. Miss

047Chambers, are you taking the >> I withdraw my second. >> Okay. Just as long as she has it. Okay. This is a board vote only. Although >> do we need to reject the claim or >> No, it's it's under consent B. Okay. >> So, there's two items on consent be. So, uh all board, all those in favor? >> I >> Mr. Lauren, >> I >> Okay, that passes 5-0. And with that, we're going to throw a little uh wrench in the system. We're going to jump right ahead to info items. Our first information item is the transportation contract or Dr. >> I think we're just moving to measure E. I'd like to propose move to measure E because that's who's here, right? >> Dr. step. Did you want to move to all the information items?

048>> Yes. Yeah. Starting off with measure E and measure S. >> Okay. So, measure E is the first one. Sorry, I skip I have to skip ahead. Okay. So, uh Dr. Stepp, measure E. >> Madam President, members of the board, we so appreciate our um citizen and community volunteers who spend time on the Measure E and Measure S oversight committee. Um we also very much appreciate the community support uh with those funds. We've done fantastic things in a short amount of time with measure um S and measure E continues to be an ongoing revenue very valuable revenue stream for us first approved by voters in 2004. Dr. Madam President, members of the board, uh very excited tonight to have one of our members of the uh measure citizens oversight committee to share uh the oversight

049pro process and ensuring that our parcel tax that brings in about $2.3 million a year goes to the initiatives that um the voters have voted for. We meet uh twice annually and Mr. Badinsky was very excited to come to a board meeting tonight. Uh Mr. Mike Badinsky uh he's a parent. He's also the senior vice president of finance at Zenith Insurance Company. He's a licensed CPA multor science and accounting uh and management information from CSU Northrish. Another MBA from USC. Go Trojans. Fight on. He has served two terms on our committee and is here tonight. He represents the uh wonderful volunteers that are on this group. >> Welcome. Thank you. >> Well, thank you for having me. Hello. Well, good evening everybody, Madame President, members of the board. My name is Mike Bnitki and I

050am speaking on behalf of the Measure E oversight committee. This evening, we're pleased to present our annual report for the 202425 reporting period. As you know, Measure E, first approved by voters in 20 in 2004 and renewed in 2015, was nearly 79% support, continues to provide a stable, locally controlled funding source for educational programs that are not only fully funded through the state uh local control funding formula. Over the past year, the committee met publicly to review Measure E revenues and expenditures and to ensure that funds were used in full compliance with the voter approved provisions of the measure. Based on our review, the committee confirms that 100% of measure E funds were expended appropriately and for their intended purposes. The breakdowns are in the attached letter which I have here. Measure E revenues continue

051to support critical programs across the district, including class size reduction, counseling services, library media specialists, science enrichment, art education, and high school athletics, and corecurricular activities, programs that directly benefit students at every grade level. On behalf of the committee, I want to thank the board for its continued commitment to maintaining these programs for students and families. We respectfully submit this report to the board and to the community and are happy to answer any questions. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Any questions, comments? >> I should say thank you very much. I know uh as somebody who campaigned for this, as we all did, a big uh thing the community asks us all the time is oversight. How do we know this money is going to stay here? How do we know it's going to

052be spent effectively? I think a number of initiatives failed the year this one passed. Um I think a big differentiator was they knew we had good oversight and trusted folks. So we appreciate the time you put into it. Um it makes a huge difference in our community. So thank you. >> Well, thank you. And we're happy to serve the district and the community >> and thank you very much on behalf of the board and and the community, the district, the the leadership here and the entire community. We thank you. It is a time uh commitment. uh not a huge one but it is it's very important to have independent oversight and thank you so much for and please extend our appreciation to the entire committee that we really really thank you and appreciate all that

053you do as independent oversight on this and obviously we appreciate the uh report and um thank you very much. >> Thank you. Have a good evening. >> You too. >> Thank you so much. Okay, next item is measure S. Dr. Stepp, >> Dr. Gleon, >> just one has a little bit of a longer intro. We have a couple slides. Measure S, uh, as the board knows, is passed in 2022. Our first series was funded in 2023. Um, and our second series was funded in 2025. Just want to share before I introduce Mr. Sloan on behalf of the oversight committee just share just for any of the public watching just the work that has been accomplished uh since uh this has been passed. Of course we have an amazing team the core team here is uh

054what does all this amazing work in terms of uh the core projects as uh Mr. Lawrence mentioned the ballot uh language for measure E measure S. It was largely a deferred maintenance bond and we're uh coming off a couple major rainstorms. I think this couple has shared at a prior meeting how nice and refreshing it is to not get calls about leaky roofs. Uh we have >> I was just going to say usually after we get the heavy rains I'm like how many roofs leaked and it'll be like 115 or something crazy and to hear that >> we're not having that is amazing. >> It's uh it's refreshing and um it's nice to have gone through that previous time just to know how lucky we are to have these funds. 11 of our school sites

055have had new roofs to the tune of about $23 million over the last few years. Uh roofs don't make for great pictures. They do make for great protection against the rain, though. So, here's some pictures. These are the best I could get you. Uh they look like a new roof. Um in terms of HVAC, so another uh major need, we had 50 or 60 year old HVAC at several of our sites. We've had six sites uh overhaul their HVAC systems uh to the tune of $22 million this summer. Round metal will be finalized as will Chapperel. Um so these are six projects, six major sites that are ongoing. Several of these sites we didn't think we'd get to till 2031, 2032. Uh but wanted to make sure we prioritized it and we have a very

056creative and innovative maintenance team that's allowed for that. Um the board has seen these pictures, but I wanted to include them in our presentation for any of the members of the public uh in terms of the extensive work and the creative work the team has done. So I'll pause here. Here's Round Meadow, a a 60 plus year old school with a brand new HVAC system. Makes all the difference. >> I think that's also made such a difference for parents. So many were getting concerned about their conditioning systems in schools. Something I heard on the campaign trail a whole lot and it's just really great to to see all this work done. I know our community is going to be very happy about it. >> Absolutely. And a positive impact on student achievement when the classroom

057is uncomfortable uh hard to learn. So this is definitely a big uh a big boon there. solar. All 14 sites now are off the grid. We're doing our part environmentally as was uh shared by the students earlier tonight. Uh that originally was going to be a $29 million project. Again, uh through the creativity largely uh Sean Venbosa on the maintenance and operations team, they've been able to streamline uh the um uh the way the projects have been uh submitted as well as how the um uh construction has gone to the tune of 23 million. Um so here you see um very visible at all of our sites. A lot of not only is solar providing energy, it's providing a lot of shade. TK expansion uh TK was about I believe it was about a $9

058million uh uh contribution from Measure S. Would have been very hard to meet our TK mandate without Measure S having passed when it did. Um, and now we have brand new compliant classrooms, restrooms, and play facilities for all of our students who are entering our schools as four-year-olds, which uh is new as of just a couple of years ago. And then in terms of outdoor learning spaces, um, very important. We live in a beautiful area for our students to have access to outdoor learning spaces. A a common uh villain in the maintenance and operations world is the ground squirrel and everything that eats the roots of uh grass. We have snake proof fencing around our campuses to keep snakes out for obvious reasons, but that outlets the rodents uh have at it. And so these

059innovations have allowed for play surfaces to be much more safe, much more stable, concussion proof um and are also recyclable. So exciting to see that. And then paving and fencing to the tune of three million. Fencing and level paving are things I cannot understate the importance of in a board meeting. They don't make for great pictures just like roofs, but I have them in there just in case you want to take a look. Um, again, the board has seen these projects through many updates and through committees sharing this so the comm community can see uh how their investment is being uh maximized. And finally, in terms of internal improvements, interior improvements, uh we have four schools that have had significant flooring work. Um as well as career technical education has really grown under leadership of

060Mr. Watkkey and Mr. Lepto who are in the audience just to see these slides, I think. Um and so here are the new broadcasting uh rooms. We have our auto shop as has been previously stated is uh absolutely taking off. Uh Mr. Klein is here uh has been burning the midnight oil on uh tech projects which are also uh Mrs. Thomas is very excited that they're also safety projects that have communication systems for lockdown um for uh two-way communications and our classrooms as well as modern screens and modern sound for access. And then coming soon we have a new athletic facility um uh coming to Agora High School. should break ground this uh summer. Um in addition to um as the board knows very well, but for the community, we have uh really encumbered our

061series B dollars and so we're trying to maximize every dollar with today's buying power um and might be in a position to look at series C here within the next uh 12 months or so. coming to a board meeting near you in the spirit of um just making sure we we maximize the taxpayers's investment in our district and their trust in our systems. Uh we have some measure G bonds that we'll be looking to refinance and bringing to the board for a couple million dollar savings for the taxpayer probably at the next board meeting. But I say all that to say, we have an oversight committee uh for measure uh s uh who uh not only has oversight of the projects but make sure uh to make sure that the projects are in line with

062the ballot language but also to ensure that all expenditures are uh going to the intent of the ballot language that the voters have put forward. Uh just as the board has been briefed independently, the uh citizens oversight committee has been briefed by an independent auditor who reviewed all expenditures for measure S. And tonight we have Daniel Sloan here. Daniel is a new uh member to our community. Just moved here a couple years ago uh kids at Babuana. He manages about uh 1500 rental units and 250 properties as president and owner of the Howard Management Group. um is just one of the um many wonderful volunteers that provide oversight to this committee and he's going to provide a small report tonight. So, Mr. Sloven, >> thank you and welcome. >> Good evening, Madame President and members

063of the board. My name is Daniel Sloan and I'm speaking on behalf of the measure GNS Citizens Oversight Committee. Tonight, we are pleased to formally present our annual report for the fiscal fiscal year ending in June 30th of 2025. As required under Proposition 39, the committee met publicly throughout the year to review bond expenditures, audit reports, and project updates related to measures G and S. Our role is to provide independent community oversight and ensure that bond funds are used only for voter approved purposes. Based on our review and in reliance of the on the independent financial and performance audits, the committee reports that bond proceeds were expended in accordance with measure G and measure S were used solely for authorized facilities projects and were not used for salaries or general operating expenses. Importantly, the audits

064reported no findings. This year's report highlights significant progress across the district, including major investments in roofing, HVAC, solar installations, TK expansion, outdoor learning spaces, technology upgrades, and site safety improvements. Projects that directly support safe, modern, and sustainable learning environments for students. On behalf of the committee, I want to thank the board for its continued support of the oversight process and for its vision and direction to execute so many capital improvement projects on behalf of our community in such a short amount of time. We respectfully submit this report to the board and the community and are happy to answer any questions. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Um, any comments or questions before I wrap it up? >> I would just say what I said earlier. I mean, you're a parent, so you know how

065important this is in the classrooms. But to what Miss Cutel said, I remember having students across the street, a you right, and going into one of the classrooms and seeing three separate >> buckets etching rain water in one classroom >> and thinking, where am I? Um, you know, we're in a community like this and you know, we shouldn't have these problems and and uh it was a huge I mean, 100 plus, you know, multiund million dollar bond. I don't think it would have passed if we didn't have citizen oversight. I think there are people who are really concerned about the expenditure of that money. So, >> it gives it the the the legitimacy, the the the level of respect of of um that we're doing what we what we say we're doing. I agree. I

066remember a kindergarten teacher telling me that of all the classroom jobs they would divide up, one would be like, "Can I put I know where all the buckets should go, right?" >> Which is not what a kindergartner should be doing. So what you do is so important and really does matter to what happens in our kids' classrooms for our staff and our and our kids. So thank you. >> I also want to give a shout out to the facilities committee. I know you guys this I think when you first joined the facilities committee you didn't anticipate it would be quite this level of a lift because we didn't have $300 million to spend and thousand literally probably thousands of projects when you count them at the end of the day each step that has to

067happen. So, and also shout out to Ryan scene. The fact that we people don't really pay attention to the fact that we push these things forward so much faster >> meant they cost us a lot less. So, we have saved millions of dollars because of the speed. >> And you didn't staff up a 40 person team to do this. You did with what we had internally. So, thank you to the citizens and thank you to the staff. >> And do you want to say something? >> Madam President, I'm so sorry. I normally would not interrupt, but uh we have Mr. Thomas Lou just joined us. Thomas Louu uh is in the audience wanted to support the oversight process. Thomas has long been part of our oversight committee work. Uh he works as a um uh

068he he works with CEOs and CFOs across the the board he has throughout his career. Currently works in the Department of Interior. Wanted to be here just to provide support. So just want to give him a shout out as well being here on behalf of the committee. >> Thank you very much. I also Mr. Sloan left. But I also want to say really we cannot uh um overstate how important this is. Calabasas is turning 50 this year. We have schools that are older than that. And as we know, those of us who live in homes, apartments, anywhere, the air conditioner doesn't last forever. The roofs don't last forever. And for us, the state doesn't give us money for this. So for us, there's really no way to invest in this infrastru infrastructure except for going

069out to our community and we are so fortunate to live in a community that that um that respects and sees the importance of education the way that we do because it really is an investment. We're all paying taxes for this equally the same. We're all paying it and yet again we are fortunate to do that. Dr. Gleason. >> Well, and also Dr. Gleon mentioned um in his presentation that that um we would not have been able to um outfit our TK classrooms >> had measure S not passed. And I think what the general public might not understand is that we had the TK mandate >> to um start teaching TK and that came with strings attached which meant you had to have appropriate furniture. You had to have appropriate restrooms. You had to have um

070a lot of things for TKers that we didn't normally have. And a lot of districts had to do that out of their general budget and we we were fortunate to have measure S to do that with. >> Absolutely. Thank you, Mrs. Mangus. And another thing I want to note is there's no uh statutory requirement to have an oversight on parcel taxes measure E and the district and this board take it absolutely seriously that we require an oversight committee and independent. So again, we thank you. Dr. Gleason, one question. um matching funds from the state when you have a bond. In the past, we've been able to uh take advantage of and leverage matching funds. Can you speak to that? >> Absolutely. So, we are uh constantly uh submitting our projects. We work closely with Howard

071Arc and Dong uh to help submit our projects to the state. Um and we anticipate between 40 and 60% of the 340 million to be returned back to the district in matching funds hopefully before I retire. Um and uh we uh so we should see that uh coming through. There is a delay. It's about uh right now about a four to sixyear delay on the funding. So we should see matching funds for our TK projects maybe start to show up right around 2028 and for our modernization projects that we have right around 2030, 2031, 2032. So, that'll really extend that'll all go back into the bond fund and it will extend our ability to not only keep up with um a lot of the new infrastructure that we're putting in, but also uh imagine things

072that were not on our series A through D priority lists. >> And you're really smart and have a lot of things on the top of your head. Can you speak a uh for a minute about refinancing and what that does for the taxpayers and a history a little bit of a history of our refinancing? >> Sure, Dr. Steppp. Paul, uh, I want to make sure I get the number right. How much have we saved the taxpayer for refinancing over the past uh, 10 years or so? >> Before the refinance you mentioned today, before the one that would be before the board next meeting, we are in excess of $12 million. >> The the refinance we're going to be bringing, I don't want to spoil the next meeting just for those watching at home. U, but,

073uh, for the refinance that we plan to bring in March, we anticipate it'll be about a $2 billion savings. Um, if I'm watching at home, I'm wondering why a refinance would make sense right now with interest rates where they are. Um, and the reason is is the maturity dates cannot be adjusted for bonds. So, we have a lot of our G&R bonds that are hitting the maturity dates um that are five, six years away and we can refinance those even with the higher uh overall interest rates because we have we sustain the same maturity rate. we can save about a quarter to a half of a point and um that say, you know, saves the taxpayer a couple million dollars. Doesn't uh we burn a lot of calories. Does not save the uh general fund

074or the district a dime. Uh but that's okay. We we're very much value that um the public has invested in these projects. And we are committed to ensuring they get not only um the maximum value for their purchase power, but also any reduction of payment that they should be entitled to as a result of the economic conditions. Thank you very much. And again, I want to thank on behalf of the board and the district, uh, Mr. Badinsky and Mr. Lou and Mr. Sloan and your entire committees for taking the time and volunteering your time for this really important role of of independent oversight. >> I just want to add to that quickly. I was on Measure S oversight committee before I was elected board member. I spent a year or two in that committee and

075I was just really struck by all the members of these committees take their work really seriously. Some of them have been on these committees for many years. Uh really care about what they do and uh I kind of getting a bit nostalgic tonight. Actually, I really enjoyed being on that committee. But just a big thank you to everyone on these committees. So, >> thank you. And with that, we're going to move right along to our LCAP midyear. >> Can I make a just a quick suggestion? I think are the two of you only here for cell phones? Could we jump to cell phones on information so they our principles could go home? >> Sure. Right. >> Unless you want to stay forcap, but I think you probably want to get home. So, Madam President, members

076of the board, um I think the only other info item as Mr. Lawrence said that has co-presenters was the cell phone policy. So, thanks for moving forward with that one. Um cell phone policy, the board adopted a new policy last year or staff implemented it this beginning of this school year. I think it's one of the most exciting things I've been a part of in my 30-year educational career. The goal was to separate students from electronic devices to encourage them to be present with each other, to engage with each other, to not disrupt the learning environment. Um, and we have seen all of that and more. Uh, the games that the students engage in when you visit the high schools and middle schools at lunch, it's just fantastic. Students are talking, they're not on their

077devices. Um, something I pray the Sacramento would do some point sometime soon would be agegating social media to 16 or 18 or beyond. um and AI as well. Uh but I'll continue to talk to our local legislators about that. Regardless, uh this board policy showed great leadership. The staff has shown fantastic implementation along with um reducing disruptions, having students be present, be engaged with each other. We also have seen declines in bullying and adverse behavior, fighting fights, suspensions, those kind of things, which is fantastic to see. If you read Jonathan Hate's book, The Anxious Generation, uh he also did tell us that those things would happen. It's it's exciting to see them them happening. So, uh, Miss Thomas has some um in information and data to share with us and of course um the implementation

078has been fantastic. Kudos to her, her team, cabinet and the site leadership uh principles. Of course, there are still some areas we're going to continue to work on and she'll share those as well. >> Thank you. Um, so if you go to the next slide, um, we started um, we've had several updates. This is our third here. So far, um, as you know, we had three extras, um, security team members added to our high schools, um, from August through October. Uh, we've reduced that to two members at each site from November through December 19th, so right up until the winter break. Um we discontinued with the additional staff after converting uh with our high school principles and their staff um after the winter break um because students um were getting used to not walking around

079with cell phones in their hand and following the policies and um meeting the expectations. Um we still knew they were going on a break and we should deploy cabinet to the sites to support the return from break. Um but we really didn't need to be there. After getting back, we saw that students um were engaging with each other. um engaging in the connect and reflect and not utilizing their cell phones. Um so we've been able to continue without added security at each of the high school sites. The next two slides I'll show you at each of the sites um the before winter break um data and the after winter break data. You can see are our first infractions um you know where they're at. So not a significant change as we returned from break. you

080see second infractions and third infractions would go up which seems normal at this time. So um >> just a reminder what is the y- axis on this uh graph? >> Uh so that is the time frame. So before the winter break and then the two weeks after winter break. >> Okay. Up and down the vertical. >> Oh that's how many total infractions. Sorry I gave you x. It's been a while since high school math. Um so well you can see right it looks like the blue the blue bar looks large there but that's actually 10 total infractions. So um not seeing a huge change there. It's a really small amount of infractions um before the break and after the break. And that's Agora High School. The next slide is uh Calabasas High School. And again

081um you can see the similar pattern there. Um we're continuing to reduce in the first infractions. It makes sense for second and then third to go up but again the numbers are really small. So before the break they had, you know, 12 first and then after the break they had about um five first infractions in the second week after they came back. >> That's that's absolutely amazing when you figure each school has about 1,800 students. It's it's nothing. Wow. >> So do you want questions now or because there are two ways to look at the numbers, right? Uh one is the one that you're presenting which is we brought apart cultural change. The second is the numbers directly correlate to the drops in security. So you go from having uh 500 infractions when we had

082three secure alls on campus that are captured to 120 when we're down to two to 70 when we have none. Um and so I'm trying to get a sense for and that that kind of that that trend line is basically the same. The number is all different for Calbas High School. like you see almost the exact same decrease in captured phones because we went from three to two to zero people responsible for it. So, how how would you if we were to surge secure all on campus for a week, do you think we'd catch 150 phones? >> Um, you can see that the security and it's on slide five. Um, oh, thanks Jim. Um, the security was there through December and you can see the trend line continued to go down. So, September, October, November.

083Um yes in November and December we reduced to two but I would say in principles you can jump in if you want to come up here that um what they were seeing more is their campus supervisors their administrators their teachers doing the confiscations and they had better results with that than they did with the secural security um because the interactions were just different coming from those trusted adults um so they could use secural in different ways. They really didn't see that it changed um the implementation of the cell phone policy, but more that kids were engaging as they added lunchtime activities. They added calendars for teachers classrooms. Um they added things on campus during lunch and during nutrition. Those still are the highest times of collecting phones. Um and so I understand what you're saying

084with the trend line that you reduced and so does that mean we don't have enough people to enforce? Um but you'll see too that um at a um at Agora there's a larger classroom um removal of phones and Calabasas is going to continue to work on that as one of their areas. Did you guys want did I capture that correctly? >> Yeah. Good evening madam president members of the board. Um I would agree the secure all as they were there over a course of four months the familiarity with the students increased and so some of their effectiveness also decreased but um at the same time our students just became a lot more proficient at following the policy and enjoying the opportunities they had to do other things. And so even now when we walk around

085we're like actively looking and we're not seeing kids using their devices. We all carry little backpacks that we can confiscate the devices and the students are doing a really nice job of of following the policy and enjoying their opportunities to do other stuff. Madame President, members of the board, um agree with Bennett. Um uh when I am out on campus and I'm always looking for the phones when when I'm out. Um I'm pleased to see most of our students are following the policy. Of course, we're still confiscating phones. Uh just got one yesterday um during nutrition and typically that's a time when students are not on their phones. So that was a bit of an anomaly. Uh lunch is going really well and that's our unstructured time really for kids. Um our ninth and tth

086grade students are mostly the ones on campus with our connect and reflect. That's going really well and and that's just great to see as Dr. Dan had shared the level of interaction and connection that students have during that time is a beautiful thing. Um, pingpong tables are all being used. The gym is uh probably has 100 plus students with playing basketball and volleyball. The media center, we have students playing chess, board games, cards, um, and still a space in the back of the media center for students that want to study and we see that as well. So, that's really encouraging to see the level of interaction and connection during lunch. And we're continuing to work with our our faculty and our staff um to implement the policy and when we see the phones um make

087sure we're taking them. >> I have a question. I know there was a request from um uh a few teachers at one of the schools that um that we allow them during test time to have phone caddies because they felt two or three kids could be cheating. And it made no sense to me the idea that now everyone gets their phone back out, walks it across the room to a phone caddy, then gets it at the end of the class because we were trying to break that of having the phone. And it didn't seem the answer to have 35 kids have their phones out twice in a classroom time because two or three might be cheating. It that seemed that we were going backwards. I mean, how quickly if I had to walk my phone

088over to the podium, I could check it and if I were young and um as able as as our high school students, I could probably do three things. Um so I want to ensure that isn't happening in our classes because we did not make that change. That was very kind of spelled out clear, right? So we don't have any phone caddies or anything like that. >> No. No. And we'll also confirm we'll walk around and make sure that's not happening if there wasn't a misconception somewhere. >> Okay. >> To um just this morning cabinet was talking and reviewing the cell phone. You we ongoing discussion all year and one thing we did notice to Mr. Lauren's point was there was a smooth start to the school year and having extra adults on campus is beneficial

089because every school year 25% of Bennett and Garrett students are brand new and they're freshman and um maybe the squirlier among the uh group. So they're they're coming from eighth grade middle school middle school students are fantastic. Um Dr. Scott has a great passion for them. um but they're brand new to the high school environment and there's freedoms there and so uh going forward next year we're going to bring in extra resources um to have them on campus uh a for the cell phone policy implementation b to support uh Garrett Bennett and their teams and c most importantly just to support the students and help them in their transition to this new learning environment and their success. >> Thank you for saying that. That was going to be one of my questions. What are we

090going to do at the beginning of the next school year? uh to ensure that this type of success continues and we bring in new students accordingly. >> I'd love to get uh Leighton's perspective. I'm just curious because what what I'm kind of hearing is I'm actually hearing that the uh general time is actually fairly under control. Um that the challenges are in classroom and it's fairly inconsistent. You have some teachers that are warners and they're consistent warners and they have no idea if they've warned the person 16 times or one time that they say warning or take your phone away and that the students know the phone so they're going to take it away. Other teachers who are still saying you can take your phone out in the back room it's fine if you're done

091with your assignment and then you have other teachers who are like locked on that are like magnets for phones and taking it. But I'm just curious like what's your perspective? Not to put you on the spot. You don't have to talk about your teachers in particular but like what are you hearing? Um, I mean, as for my teachers, I have seen like some warnings, but for the most part, it's like first time it's gone. Um, and then one of my teachers would put the phone on like if it was like the first time that they took it, they would is the first infraction. That's like when the teacher takes or is that when it goes to the front? >> It goes to the front and the teacher is supposed to take it to the office.

092>> Okay. Well, I think sometimes they just keep it in their desk and then they don't take it up to the front. I know that happens sometimes, but for the most part it's taken from the student um and obviously they're reprimanded. I did have my old math teacher when I um parted ways from her class, but um she would have us put our phones up in the caddy. I remember that. Um but for the most part, I would say most of my teachers do take it and they definitely don't let us go on it after assignments are done or let us go into a back part of the class and do it. Um, so yeah, we're definitely not allowed to have our phones during the day. So >> that's great to hear. Thank you. But

093so the caddy is happening in some classrooms. >> I think one class and that was this this year more than should be. >> I will say anecdotally I have visited both high schools with with one uh agora with Mrs. Cutville and for various reasons I've been at Calabasas a few times since the fall and um we don't see kids on their phones. we see them talking to each other or playing the games that you have. The activities for for the students are amazing. And I will tell you, I spent um one period in a classroom um with math teacher and she wanted they she has these magical boards that you put your work on and then basically you press a button and the work is gone. So she wanted them to take their phones off

094to take a picture of their work and in our policy that's allowed, you know, discretion of the teacher for that. And uh she looked at me and she said, "Okay, they're going to do this. You know, I want to make sure you're okay with this." And I said, "Yes, you're allowed to by the policy to do this." She said, "Oh, no. We get big trouble over here." And that's Calabas. So, and I talked to a few other math teachers after the period. And so that math department's got it down. Dr. >> I would say we really did not want that to be happening. The the intent was it was like for for 200 years we managed to teach without taking a picture of what's on the board. So it it it it was a somewhat

095shaky argument that they had to take pictures of it. So I I appreciate that the math department is not wanting to do it. >> This is a very complex math very upper level math class with lots of different steps and they do have a journal but they were in the middle of the pro problem which had like four columns. Believe me, I didn't understand it. I was just engaging and asking them question. >> I understand. I'm just saying the the the the methodology behind this and the belief is that this device is an addiction. So you don't tell a drug addict, well you can you can you can you could take a sniff uh for five minutes once a day it's okay because they're going to so you you break them of the habit. So

096again I understand that our interpretation of California law as it is now is that we cannot ban them from the classroom. I think that law is actually going to be rewritten next year um and changed so that we can completely ban and there's no flexibility. whatsoever in the classroom. But, uh, I I appreciate hearing that the teachers consciously aware that they're probably not supposed to be doing it because it was the intent of this board to have that be little if ever in the classroom. >> I do think that there were two um key things that we learned this year that we'll know to start off next year. One is um to educate the students that if they don't bring their printed schedule, they cannot pull their phone out and and look at what their

097schedule is. they can go to the counseling office and get a printed copy of their schedule. And the other is um having access to um uh the time so that when they're at lunch or nutrition, they know if they have time to go to the restroom or whatever before they have to head back to class. >> Yeah. And I I spoke to one student today um I spoke to multiple, but one shared I was seeking feedback on how they thought the policy was going and what they're seeing. Um, one particular student shared in his classes he he's not seeing students on phones, but then he also shared that last week he took his phone out and and the teacher took it away from him and I said, "Well, what were you doing?" said, "My mom

098texted me. They were trying to figure something out for after school." So, that tends to be a common one we're hearing from kids that parents may be trying to connect with them. >> Do we How often are we sending out like when's the last time we sent a communication to parents as a reminder? I mean, we're communicating to students every day, reminding them. Are we sending out a parent reminder saying >> it's in every Friday newsletter, right? >> Yeah, it's a standard. It's a standard part in my Friday newsletter. >> We read it again every time because it makes me so happy. >> Yeah, we do probably at least once a month just make a well probably twice a month make an announcement over the intercom to the students just to remind them. Um, but

099I could send be better at sending an explicit reminder just about cell phones to parents because like like principal episode just said, it's typically them saying, "I was communicating with my parent." That could be a convenient excuse, but at the same time, it feels to be pretty authentic a lot of the times that they're communicating with home and and we've made that clear in our communications. That's not an acceptable reason, but it can still be messaged better to families. I know I stopped the presentation before the best part. So >> no, I I just want to add with regard to parents that I mean I speak to a lot of parents in the CHS community in particular and it's overwhelmingly positive the response to the policy. Um you know most of the parents before we

100enacted the policy wanted it that I spoke to but there were many that passionately did not want the policy and literally everyone is on board now is like wow what a great change these we can just see the change in our kids. Uh it it's been profound. Uh so just really appreciate everything your administrations have done at the high schools to implement it. >> Yeah, thank you. And we're hearing the same feedback from parents even when they do need to come pick up the phone for a second infraction. Um they're on board uh with the policy. >> Um I have a quick question really. Um for taking pictures of like notes on a board, why wouldn't that be considered like an academic use of the phone? >> That's what I thought and that's what the

101policy does say. Yeah. So I mean >> under under the law the teachers are allowed to have academic freedom for the devices they use >> for some devices they can't bring you can't have they can't tell a student you bring in illegal you can't have a student bring a gun into a class or a knife uh because those are against the law there there is a I my belief is that we should be if we're agreeing that cell phones as the surgeon general said are as deadly as drugs for kids we should have the ability to ban them from the campus uh from the use of campus just like a knife or something else on campus. those um and I think there's a movement underway to write that into ed code um so that that

102is very clear because it's a gray area whether or not that can be allowed or not um if the cell phone can be allowed or not in the classroom because again the belief that we were all indoctrinated into at least when we went through these talked to the schools and met with experts is there is a literally a connection to the brain that is causing students to want to grab this phone and check it every day and if you can break that connection for six or seven hours you actually can break the connection for the rest of the day in theory. So, um, letting them take it back out and take photos. We know they're looking at their latest Tik Tok or, you know, a snap that came in or a text. >> Well, I

103also, um, like the idea, like you said, to take pictures of it as a parent of a child that had probably still has an ADHD, uh, the boy in the family. Um, you know, to he would not write down homework even in elementary school. So later in elementary school when I picked him up, I would go in and take a photo, take my phone out and take a photo of the homework. And it was a tool that we used and I know that, you know, in speaking to parents, you know, years ago and currently some of these parents have it in the IEPs because students, you know, with whatever's going on with them, you know, may not write down the homework or the assignments or something. So it it, you know, is a valuable tool

104to do that. >> Yeah. So students can still take pictures of notes as of right now because it's okay. >> It's it's up to the teacher. Okay. Teacher discretion. >> Thank you. >> Now the good part. >> We're good. Okay. Um so some of the trends that we saw as we look through the data, Agora High School does have higher classroom collection. So they had uh 475 in the classroom and then 319 during nutrition and lunch where Calabasas had uh 708 nutrition and lunch and 512 in the classroom. Um, we see still that ninth and tth graders continue to have the highest number of infractions across sites. And again, when we talk about 9th and tth graders are on campus during uh lunch where 11th and 12th graders have the option to go off. 9th

105and 10th graders also have the highest number of third infractions. Um, fourth infractions remain low across both of the sites. Um, discipline for bullying and physical altercations is trending down. Agora High School is at was at nine in uh 2425. They're only at three currently where Calabasas was at 15 in 24-25 and they're at eight currently. >> That is great. >> All right. >> Um also um you know we can't say it's a direct um response to this but definitely correlation and we see attendance um it's higher this time than last year. So two 2.36% and this was when I had made the presentation. We just had a ad staff meeting this week and um Agora in the last three weeks were up at like was it 3.66%. Yeah. Um within um four weeks and

106Calabas is up 1.61% um than this time last year. So >> that that seems higher than the attendance growth at other schools. I mean what what does one attribute that to? I'd love to attribute it to cell phones, but >> so this this specifically was from week 22 last year to week 22 this year. Um unfortunately, we've had some incidences in weeks 23 through uh 25, which we're at now. Um but um they still are both in positive attendance. In fact, all of our secondary schools are um in positive attendance since this time last year where elementary is getting hit hard with the um illness. >> Yeah, lots of flu going around. Oh, thanks. Um, so um what we see is the decrease in the phone use on campus. We see an increase in student

107engagement across campus. We see that decrease in the discipline um severe discipline incidences. Um what we are seeing is an increase in the headphone um earbud pod use. And so both principles are aware and working on that um with their students. Um, so they're not using the phones out for the social media, the texting, the calling during the day, but it seems to be possibly it's it's away, but music might be on um or they don't take um the AirPods out. So um they're definitely working on communicating that with their families and perhaps if we're deciding to do just a cell phone reminder um we could put that reminder out there as well. >> So So what's the procedure? You catch somebody with earbud. Do you just say put those away or is it the

108same as the phone? Cuz each policy should be same as the phone. >> Yeah, it's a complete violation. So we can't we just we confiscate the the earbuds with the phone and say this is a cell phone violation. >> And same for like headphones if they're wearing like Beats, big headphones. So >> how can you be sure that their headphones aren't connected to their computer? >> We can we can typically tell what they're doing. If I walk up to a kid that's on, you know, outside and they're on their computer, >> I can I can assume that's what they're doing. >> Actually, I think the board policy doesn't differentiate. We say you're not to have earbud AirPods or headphones on campus. We're not connecting it to the actual device it's connected to. If I'm remembering

109the policy correctly, it says these are the things that are not allowed to be on campus and used. >> And AirPods and headphones. Again, the exception being if a teacher saying take out your AirPods and connect them to your laptop because we're going to listen to something. That's an exception. But um it doesn't have to be connect I could be wrong. I think that >> right. It it's not supposed to be connected to the computer. >> Yeah. So it's it's those those types of things are not allowed during the school day. >> Okay. But if a teacher says it's fine, then it's fine. >> If a teacher is using it for classroom instruction, >> they're using it for instructional purposes, not to listen to music or >> Yeah. >> And and I think where we're

110seeing it, correct me if I'm wrong, is when they are walking around on campus during nutrition and lunch is where we see them with them in. >> Yeah. If I do see a student using a computer and I'll walk up and see and they're doing homework and they're watching a video for homework and they're just getting ahead of their homework, I'm like I'll make a judgment call and say, "Yeah, that's okay." But if I see they're doing something else, I'll say that's not >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, so what's working? Um, Leslie, you had brought this up earlier, the ID cards for the fivestar checkout. So students making sure that they have their ID numbers. They're not putting it in the back of their phones anymore. they've gotten on board with that. Um,

111connect and reflect, the open gym and media center that was talked about earlier, music in the quads, the quiet activities and counseling and attendance offices. So, those students who need a quieter place to retreat to because it is if when you go on campus much more boisterous, there's a lot more noise um that's happening. So, joyful noise. >> It's great. It's joyful noise, but so students, there are students though that would prefer a quieter space and so those are offered as well. Um, as we already talked about up here, parents supportive of the steps, fewer students um, using the phones um, and that um, on board across both sites, the um, making sure they reach out to parents on the first infraction. So there's no surprise with the second infraction of them having to come

112pick up the phone and meet um, with an administrator to discuss it. Okay. And then last, I think I'll give this to our principles to take over because I know they have worked so hard on this and just have put so much effort in and they get to see it every day, the the joyful noise on campus. So, I'll let them talk about connect and reflect. >> Thank you. Yes, it is joyful noise. Um, absolutely. I think I already spoke to most of our connect and reflect act activities on campus. Um, but I just continue to see this program growing and offering even more opportunities for students to uh interact and be active during lunch. >> I love this picture that that Miss Thomas put on here because this is our upper quad at lunch

113and you just look at all the stuff that's happening there. And off the screen to the left is where our our music is being played. And you just walk around and as you soak it in, you're just you're so excited to see kids behaving the way I remember behaving in high school. And it just kind of feels like a time machine to walk around on our campuses right now at lunch. And um with our our new lower quad being renovated and open last week, we were able to open that space back up and create an additional area for connect and reflect. and just watching the behavior of the students that were kind of cramped in the space they had chosen to be and now the extra space they have. This connect and reflect is also

114helping us down there as well. Uh we have we also open up our stadium twice a week for kids that want to go kick field goals and throw baseballs and just have a ton of fun. We have a little room where we've created call it the arcade. We've got um fooball and we've got um air hockey and some coloring and some basketball and there's just so many options for kids all over campus and u we're super appreciative of the opportunity to roll this out this year and we're constantly thinking of ways to improve on it for for this year and for future. I I'm struck by um I don't know uh it it just reminds me almost verbatim of the principal that we met with um at the school who said but I'd love to

115just kind of get your sense for like >> I I mean how big a C change would you say this is for for you on campus as a principal? I mean is it just like okay this is nice or do you are you seeing like I you call that time capsule which kind of gave me like goosebumps thinking about that because that was the goal. How do we bring back that but I'm just you know I'd love to get that sense. There's one of the most difficult times of your day is lunchtime supervision. Prior to this year, you just never knew what was going to happen because a student without anything to do is something to be worried about. So lunchtime is really joyful now for our admin team, too. We have chances to interact

116with kids in a different way. They're engaging with us as we talk to them, >> and it's very pleasant. So I I actually am excited when it's lunchtime. I'm excited to go outside and and check on the students and just see what they choose to participate in today. Yeah, I think for me I I want our students to know that you can have fun at school appropriately and that's what's going on at lunch because they're having fun. They're happy to be there. They're talking with each other and and not on a phone interacting with the adults as well. Um it's just great to see. It's a huge shift. I mean, hopefully next year you get a new class coming in for middle school who's already used to this and then every year it rolls in

117one board. >> You don't have students who lived under a different >> Well, thank you. I mean, I I we we knew when we passed this that the rubber was going to meet the road with with you and your teams. Um, and that it was not going to be >> Yes. >> All the data told us what was probably going to happen if we did it right. and it was a real leap of faith. So, we really appreciate that the two of you embraced it and your teams embraced it. Um, and and I know it was hardest for the seniors um because they never had it. Um, but I do think Miss Cupill's point is is on is on point that we're going to see in the very short amount of time a full generation

118that's coming through that this is life as they've known it. Yeah, >> the interactions are going to be better and all this stuff I think is just so much more critical as we talk about all the challenges AI and everything else that's happening that there is a time where they still learn how to have those deep human interactions uh until the computers take over and run everything but for the time being those are important and we need them. So um thank you very much >> and and you know it is a time capsule in a sense but the thing is is the time capsule is going to finish when they leave high school when they go out into adult life with the world as we know it today reliance on tech with artificial intelligence becoming

119such a thing in our world. This is just precious precious time you've you've created for our kids. Uh you know the the time they're spending every day at school through high school you know with this sort of environment it's going to I believe it will affect them for the rest of their life. It will be positive, beautiful memories of high school and their interactions, their friendships, their uh their peer groups. Uh I mean I I still remember that time so vividly from when I was a teenager and uh it's what a wonderful gift that you and your administration are giving them. I so happy about it. Thanks. >> Is there anything you need that you don't have? We asked you this last last time. Do you have >> I think for me just continued support

120as we implement. I think the check-ins are great. um so you can see where we're at um and reflect on on best practice. So um we just appreciate your support, cabinet support uh in implementing the policy. >> Okay. >> I I echo that as well. Um I think the check-ins are great because it reminds us of things to pay attention to that maybe we stopped looking at as closely. But um just I just want to say thank you. I I'm appreciative of the funds we've had to implement all of this and then just the support when cabinet comes to help us roll it out. Um that's that's super huge. And so we're just really grateful for the support and I'm grateful to see kids kids behaving the way they're behaving right now. >> Well, and

121and um to wrap it up, you know, again, thank you our principles, our teachers, our entire staff. This is a sea change of culture change. I mean, you know, the pandemic, we put them in their homes, in their bedrooms, wherever in their homes said you can't socialize. So the only thing they had was their phones, iPads, what you know, devices to connect with friends, right? And to and to get some activity, whether it's Tik Tok, friends, whatever. Then we came back to school and dealt with their mental health and it was time to deal with, you know, the cell phone addiction that we basically forced on them during the pandemic. Um, but I also want to thank um Dr. step for really leading this and um Angela Dallas for leading this and uh Dr. step

122for getting out at the school sites for really leaning in on this and all of cabinet. I know you've been out at our schools and to see the activities going on middle school and high school level is just so heartwarming. And again, we still have to change culture, break habits, and also break habits of parents. And you know, I will admit, and my children are much older, but I will admit when my daughter was in high school, who shall remain nameless when she was in high school, her cell phone went off in her backpack. These were still challenges then, way before anybody knew about COVID. Wasn't supposed to call her, but I was at the market and wanted to know what cereal she wanted. So again, we have to break parents habits. I didn't think

123anything of calling her. And when I was asking her during the whole discussion last year about this, she's still mortified that I did that. And I had no I had no recollection of it. She reminded me and basically I have to set her up for therapy. Oops. If anybody knows her who's watching this, don't say anything to her. But um but I was, you know, as a parent, >> she might work in the district. >> She might have been a lot worse. But the bottom line is is you know we have to uh change you know parents will change their habits as well. So thank you to everybody for all you're doing to to lean in. It's really important stuff for kids. >> Have a good night guys. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And

124with that now we're going to go on to the LCAP. >> Dr. Stepp. >> Dr. Anderson. >> Yes. Thank you Superintendent Stephanoski. Madam President for this opportunity. Our slides please. Thank you Mr. Klein. So, our LCAP is a three-year plan and we are this plan is from 2024 to 2027. Uh, as requirement for ED code prior to February 28th, I need to provide publicly to the board for an information item, an update, a midyear update. This happens annually. The midyear update is a little bit of a misnomer because most of the metrics are actually end of the year metrics from last year. I'll go through our metrics in actions. Those are the two areas I'm presenting on. In June is when it comes back for discussion and we vote to continue it for that final

125year. We will be convening an LCAP committee beginning next week. We will be providing input and doing that work as we continue forward. The local control accountability plan is our state priorities and then we take our district goals and we assign the money that we're going to spend to it and we get to student achievement. I really need to thank Dr. Gleason and the business department for providing us the funding um allocation that we've been doing so far. This is the funding allocation for our district uh for this current year uh fiscal year 2526 when it was presented to you in June. That was as adopted um originally and then the budget act changed it um after it came to a board and so we got a little bit more money. So we have four

126goals. Each goal has a series of metrics and actions. The metrics in detail are provided in the board item because there's about 10 to 20 per goal and I don't want to go through each of those. You could read through it. Our actions are the work that we're going to do to reach those metrics. These are actions in our goal one for college and career which centers around building opportunities for students to graduate college and career ready with dual enrollment, career tech education, professional development and our specialized programs, dual immersion, gate, IB, AP capstone, Waldorf, etc. The areas that we are doing very well in this area, our graduation rate continues to rise. Our AP exam rate is going up. And what is great about that is we are continuing to open access. So we

127are allowing more students in encouraging more students to take AP and more students are passing and our access to our standards align materials. We do need to continue to focus on our CASP and our CAST scores. Um our A throughG completion rate to go up and our CTE pathway completers. While we have many CTE courses, we do not have very many students who are doing the full three-year completion. Our goal two is for opportunity and equity. You can see our expenditures that we have planned in our midyear. We are um on track to spend the money. Our actions around opportunity and equity is really providing support to our English learners, lowincome youth, and our foster youth, our unduplicated pupils. We're doing this. We're bringing forth an EL master plan this year to adopt a new

128three-year master plan. really supporting our students with disabilities and our tools for intervention so we can support all students in being successful. Those actions are still all continued in progress. We're working on them. Areas that we're doing well, we are seeing low suspension rates for all our student groups and our middle school students with disabilities cast performance has increased more significantly than the other student groups in the general population. We do need to continue to focus on long-term English learners of our four of all four goals. my personal opinion is long-term English learners needs to be our district's greatest area of focus um as well as English learner academic uh performance. Focusing our money and our time and our effort to give those students the support who are multilingual learners and then chronic absenteeism for

129low-income students and for English learners on making sure they're in school so they can learn as well. Goal three is the whole child. So this is providing the counseling at our elementary schools which we have done social emotional learning for them as well. our center here at the district office to support mental health and behavioral needs, providing our training for our staff, and then addressing chronic absenteeism and keeping our suspension rates low. Our areas that we are showing success in is our suspension and expulsion rates are low. Our school sites are doing a great job. Our attendance rates are going up and we are seeing students report stronger connectedness to the school on the California Healthy Kids survey and our facilities are in good repair thanks to Dr. Gleason's presentation earlier. We know that to

130be true. And continued areas for focus. Chronic absenteeism. Miss Thomas was quick to point out that our chronic absenteeism has improved greatly, but we made a very lofty goal. We haven't quite reached it yet. Chronic absenteeism is students who miss more than 10% of the school year. And then our staff and parents, um they are not saying that they feel as connected to the school. So making sure that we increase that feeling of connectedness in the um California parent survey that we give each April. Our last goal is professional capacity. This is supporting our teachers and classified staff that work directly with our students. We wanted to build up our VAPA visual and performing arts, sustain our credentiing program at the center of education excellence, retain, attract and support our high-qualified staff and support literacy

131development and mathematical discourse specifically to support our unduplicated youth, foster youth, English learners, low-inccome youth um through professional development. We know it's a big priority here in our district. Um the highlights, our teachers are appropriately credentialed. The center of education excellence has a great completion rate. Um, excellent teaching staff there as well. And our areas of focus is to continue training our TK through 12 staff on working with people of various backgrounds and experiences. That is our mid-year update of what we are working on. And we will continue to work with our community to bring back in June an update for our last uh year and our three-ear cycle which will be year 26 and 27. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Any questions, comments? I would say no. >> No, go. >> Um,

132no, I I really appreciate the update. Lots of positive news in there. Um you you'd mentioned I think on attendance that the goal was very lofty and we had made progress but had maybe not gone quite as far as we would like and I I did notice in general just looking through the LCAP sometimes there are goals and it's I think it's fantastic we have ambitious goals but at the same point like I think sometimes if they're more attainable goals or goals with you know it's difficult moving the needle on all these things and we should absolutely be aiming to aim the to move the needle but over a year over two years pushing the needle by 10 15% is tough. Moving at a couple percent is uh is often easier. So, uh we may

133want to consider just with future LC caps, you know, looking at that in terms of the attainability of goals and and structuring them such that >> yes, and I concur. We cannot change the goals until after 2027. So, we could change some of the actions we're going to meet them. But, um when they were made, we do have to keep that that's what we're working towards. But yes, it's good to put that into perspective that we were trying to go from 16% chronic absentism to 4% and that's a a hu a a huge ask and it's it's hard when we're talking about education because it's easy to say well how can we make sure no one's absent but um you're right something more obtainable makes us feel more successful >> and can you do that

134that's a great question and I've often often wondered that can you have less loft more reasonable goals >> yes um we decide what we want our own LCAP to be okay >> so we're able in 2027 seven when we rewrite the three-ear cycle again to look at our current benchmark and then say let's make something that is a more measurable progress for us to to reach each year and we did that with some of them but some of them um we're not done that way and I just think it's people with big ambition and big hopes and dreams and our abilities and I think it was all done with positive intent so >> absolutely thank >> so I mean three of us were in the rooms for these so I'll tell you what it was

135and because I was I was pretty passionate about this I will do not want to go their direction it is that you do not set low expectations that you can then step over. Uh our goal in this district, I'm okay if we come up short. I am not okay to sandbag objectives u because we're coming up short on them. So >> that's not what I was referring to. >> I thought you I'm saying but but that the discussion of whether or not we've set too high a goal to reach and we should there therefore recalibrate to come down is the exact wrong discussion I think we should be having. It's >> you know should we have in a high performing highinccome district like ours do we believe that 85% of our students should be math

136proficient? I think that's low. I think we should be shooting for 90% or more. We're not even at 60% yet. We're at 54% in some of our cohorts. So, I I think the solution I I'm I appreciate the the the fresh perspective that you bring in the meetings because I think you're peeling back the onion, finding things that as we talked about during the meeting last week, why we have substantially different expectations for low-income students uh in math, for example, than high-income students. That to me is just abhorently wrong. uh we should not we should have the same expectations and target resources to support low-inccome students to get them up there versus set a lower benchmark for them. Um, and so that that's what I think the board needs to be spending a lot of

137time between now and as we think about the limited funding we have for next year is are we targeting resources in classrooms versus the peanut butter approach because we're seeing that when you target and call something out and fund it, you can actually move the needle. But when you just talk about it and don't actually fund it, um, it doesn't move as much. And I think so I I'm not suggesting I'm hearing you're saying you lower our lower our standards, but I I I'll speak for myself as a board member. I'm okay coming up short if I see that we've done everything we can to get there. I'm not okay with us saying let's just lower the topline numbers so it looks like we did better on achieving our cast objectives. I >> I think

138the key thing is that you know over a year say for instance it's very difficult to jump up 15 or 20% in terms of uh overall percentages whereas aiming for a 5% increase over a year is a very good increase. Okay. Yet it's more attainable. So I feel it's more motivating in a sense. I totally agree with Mr. Lawrence that over the long term we want to have very very high standards but it's easier to reach those over four or five years where you're aiming to increase by a couple of percent uh up to 5% you know on a on an annual basis and gradually build up to what the long-term goal is. That's that's kind of more what I'm I'm implying. >> But that's what the LCAP is. The LCAP is four years. >>

139Three. So the LCAP is three years. So >> then it should include year-over-year goals as well in my opinion. >> Can it? Um it's no um two things I do want to correct that we are over 60% proficient in math. We started at 55. We're over 60%. >> I said not in all cohorts. Some of our cohorts are not. >> Yeah. Some of our cohorts. >> Um but it's a three-year goal. If we wanted to write in a year 60.14%, but that's that's on the average not in all of our cohorts. Uh but uh we could write that in if we wanted to say uh grow 5% or if we wanted to grow metrics on a growth model, we wanted to increase our distance from standard by three or four points. And then uh to

140Mr. Lawrence's point, if students that are lower, we want to see them grow at a higher rate. So then we would say we want to see them grow, you know, five or six points if we want the whole district to move three or four points. But >> that's a year and a half conversation away as we can make those um those changes. And right now we're focused on our staff and our principles and teachers are working very hard to have the students master and show their performance on this year's assessments. I did like I noticed when I was on SSE at Bay Laurel we actually grappled with exactly this in what like site goals were and we used to set extremely extremely high ones and often we came up short and when previous principles just

141started setting goals that were okay let's try and bump up 5% or 10% this year we really started seeing change there because it motivates everybody more then it's like okay let's go for it we can actually do this you know um on a on an annual basis or Yes, thank you. I appreciate the conversation. >> The only other thing I would say is for retrospective history on this particular LCAP, the board's direction was very clear that we wanted to get back to basics. Um, which is why you see a lot of it was a lot more fluffy as I recall a LCAP or two ago as we go back in the old when we used to actually sit around with the binders and do all the stuff. it was aspirational and we said no, it's

142reading and math uh are the things we have to address to this district. Um and that's where that's where resources must be targeted. And so the LCAP was designed to kind of put a a rubric for lack of a better term on the district to say this is how funding is going to be done. This is how teacher training is going to be done. This is where resource need to go because what we're held accountable to at the end of the day is LCAP. That that's kind of what how the state and county looks at us for local control funding. Like are we doing that? So, so I I applaud the fact that we set a laser-like focus on moving the needle things. And I applaud the fact that we set I don't think it's

143a high benchmark, but a a higher benchmark than we otherwise may have. So, I would just hope that as we move this conversation forward, we we retain the commitment to the basics. Um because we some areas we're need some areas we're not uh on the basics. We still haven't quite cracked the code at all the basics. >> Uh talk to us about next steps. So the the LCAP committee is meeting and what is the what do you want to accomplish with it? >> Sure. So when we meet with the LCAP we'll re we're going to meet two times. I did meet with um a group of students um this month as well and we will look at these four goals. We will look at the action steps and we'll look at our metrics. Now the

144metrics can't change. Um those have to stay the same. But we will look at our actions. Are are the actions we're doing yielding the results they hope they would? Um are these areas we want to continue to focus? Are there areas that maybe we need to take off or things we need to add? Um, for example, one of the changes is our change to our math curriculum. We're using Renstar as an assessment. Now we're using I Ready. So that changes um things a little bit. We don't want to make big adjustments, but it's a living document that needs to be adjusted with new students and new people each year. So the LCAP committee is composed of parents, students, uh classified employees, um administrators, teachers as well and they will look at the different actions and

145provide their input that yes, I think this is an action that we're doing well on. These are areas that we are doing with that. And so then in June, I'll bring it back and I will have the updated actions for the board to take to action for our final year for our LCAP. >> Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Thank you, Dr. Anderson. >> No, thank you for this opportunity. Great update. And next is a revision of board policy and AR on uh English learners. Dr. Steppp, >> Dr. Anderson. >> Yes. As part of um the LCAP, we are also preparing to bring to the board our new EL master plan so we could work on our EL reclassification. Um in doing that, we were referring to the board policy and it has it's

146not updated to current laws and regulations. This is what is re uh recommended by the California School Boards Association. Uh we are bringing forth the AR and then the BP is first and then we want to bring it back for adoption to be up to date so it will reflect our new EL master plan. >> Terrific. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, we will move on and look forward to having the BP back at our next meeting. Thank you. So now we're back to action items and the first item is the transportation contract with first student. Dr. staff. >> Dr. Gleon, >> Madame President, members of the board, uh tonight we are bringing forward the transportation contract for first student. Uh as the board knows, we went through an extensive process through a request for

147proposal. We had two uh proposers submit uh worked closely with both of our uh proposers ultimately uh the first that was awarded and rescended and now the second that is being brought forward tonight. Uh transportation is an interesting item as we watch uh Los Spurgeonists continue to evolve. Uh less than 4% of our students uh take the bus every school day and our old models of transportation uh that have uh decreased over time uh over the last few years um are uh leading to buses uh 80 passenger buses only having 15 20 passengers. In the spirit of making sure that we are uh responsible and prudent with every dollar that we spend, uh we have worked with a first student to negotiate a one-year contract while we really evaluate the landscape of transportation as a

148school district. Um this one-year contract will uh afford us the ability to have about 300 seats on our bus uh buses for next year, which is relatively in line with where our spring participation rates are. uh the contract as has put together does allow for uh renewals, but it's more than likely if we choose to uh pursue a long-term strategy in this form, we would reissue an RFP in the future. >> Just for those playing the home game, um one of the things that I thought was fascinating as we dove into this was how much the bus is costing per student. Um, am I right that it's something like 75% of the entire funding we get per student from the state and the federal government is going to put them on a bus? >> It's

149higher, isn't it? Like 13,000 or something. >> Sure. So, we only receive about $600,000 for transportation from the state. Um, had we pursued the traditional uh path to this transportation renewal, that would have been about a $4 million contract for the year. Uh and so unfortunately it would cost to uh Mr. Lawrence's question about 70% of the whole reimbursement for a student's education would go just to get them to and from school. >> So just because there are rightfully folks who don't have that context that say I'm paying $500 for this bus pass. Why am I not this should be taken care of? And what they don't understand is the bus pass is costing us north of $8,000 to get that kid to and from school on the bus. had we renewed the old contract

150in Midways so that they were they were covering less than 10% of it. Still a hit for a family, but it it the economics did not work out. They were not paying for the bus, >> right? And there in lies where this model is really tricky, right? So, uh a $500 bus pass to us uh of our generation were used to the bus being free and uh from the old days, I'll put air quotes up. Um but certainly that that $500 bus pass per semester, it was costing 15 times that to transport that same child to school. And so the frustration in the community, I fully understand it, but to your point, that broader context is really, really important. Um, and you know, the uh if this was a modest increase, we'd talk to our

151community about potentially increasing the bus pass cost. But for what we're finding is for many of our families, uh, transportation on the bus is convenience, not a need. And so increasing the bus pass cost has led to lower wrership. And so we don't have a winning strategy by passing this cost on. And we also uh responsibly cannot continue to eat it. >> Yeah. >> The state funding, is it based on the number of students? What's the state funding the 600,000 based on? How do they calculate that? >> So, a lot of things in the in public education uh don't necessarily make sense >> exactly. >> Uh and so like our instructional minutes are based on what they were in 1983 and that was the floor. Uh transportation is based on the rate of reimbursement in

152and we're still waiting for uh some evolution from that. there is small marginal increases annually but it's based on that 1979 threshold. >> Um I I just think it's important to restate I think we did discuss this at previous board meetings but when I was reading the context for all of this uh you know the fact that the previous bus company was basically purchased by an equity firm uh and that suddenly the the quote for our bus services went up by 50%. I just think that's very important context. Um, you know, we all have such fond memories of yellow school buses driving around our neighborhoods. Uh, a lot of, you know, folks feel nostalgic for this, but, uh, when you're putting, you know, tons of money, if this new plan had gone through from them,

153you know, into buses rather than to classrooms, it it's really a a big problem for the community. So, >> may I have a motion to approve? >> I second. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. Student >> I. >> Board. All in favor? I. Okay. Passes 5. Uh, next is the resolution for classified layoff reduction in hours. Dr. Stepp. >> Dr. Sus. >> Miss Chambers. >> Madame President, members of the board, staff is bringing forward resolution 27-25, classified layoff reduction in hours. This is a procedural step required by law to bring forward this resolution when we are faced with potential changes to our personnel staffing. The resolution involves laying off and or reducing positions due to a lack of funds in this case and again is a procedural

154step required by law to take and we are seeking approval for resolution 27-25. >> Okay, any questions or comments? Okay. Okay. And that actually is the third one down. Okay. Uh, no questions or comments. Okay. I'm going to ask for a motion to approve. And this is a strictly a board vote. >> So move. >> Okay. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Board. All those in favor? >> I. >> That passes 5 Z. And the next one is 2825 reduction or discontinuence of particular kinds of service. Um, Dr. Steppers. Madam President, members of the board, staff brings forward our particular kinds of service uh resolution every time we're faced with potential changes to our uh personnel staffing, whether it be based on student interest or program restructuring. Uh should also be noted with

155this particular resolution that it's very early in the process. Uh we do anticipate some retirements and some leaves and other staffing shifts that could potentially reduce the need for any of these uh layoffs that are in front of us. Nonetheless, uh it is a step required by law to take and we're here seeking approval for resolution 2825. >> Thank you very much. Any questions, comments? This one does say a student vote. Is that okay, Dr. Ciphers? The other one was not a student vote. >> Should not be student vote. >> Okay, then we're not going to have a student preferential vote. Sorry, it's supposed to work. >> I'll make a motion to approve. >> Thank you. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. I would just say because as we move through these kind of quickly

156um for those watching at home like the hope is not to have to reduce any headcount. This is a statemandated process we have to go through. I think we've managed to avoid any layoffs of any kind in the past five or six years. You know had to go through this process and I think it's important because we get occasional snarky emails and comments from people about our budgeting and financing and how we operate that the the district here. I think you only have to look three miles to the south to see what happens when you don't have the good stewardship of financial res of uh financial resources the way Dr. Gleason and Dr. Shep and the team have done. I mean LOD just approved 3200 layoffs this week probably come out to 650 they're going

157to be letting go facing a quarter billion dollar budget shortfall and you know we're still able to be talking about what programs are we going to be bringing to the district. Um obviously we're being smart we have to make some cuts. we have some issues, but I think it's um I I am very grateful for the the budgeting balancing act that you guys do, the grant money, everything you do to bring in new funds so that hopefully once again, as has been the last five years, none of these come to fruition. >> And I will add, we will get into that when we get into the U midyear budget presentation. But again, this is this is hard and this is painful. And if you uh listen to the news, there's many districts going on strike

158over cuts. Many district making cuts. Uh COVID money is running out. Other money. Uh Dr. Gleason, you and your department and Dr. Steppp's leadership, you know, have really done a a herculean job protecting the budget and protecting layoffs. So hopefully we'll get some more retirements and we'll get some more money from the state as we watch the May revision. But as Mr. Lawrence said there is a time frame that that you have to do this or that we all have to do this. So, we have a motion and a second. With that, I'm going to ask for a board vote. All those in favor? >> I. >> Thank you very much. >> Next item is uh >> solid waste >> lease for solid waste. Dr. Gleason, >> Madam President, members of the board, Uh all

159of our uh public services are are brought forward to the board of education in align with uh in alignment with public contract code. Uh our current solid waste contract with uh waste management is at its uh term limit. So we are in the process of needing to reissue a request for a proposal for waste management companies to submit uh so that we can have uh continue on our recycling, waste management, uh trash mitigation and composting services uh for the years moving forward. Uh the scoring criteria are align out outlined in the RFP. um all part of uh the competitive process to ensure that uh all members of of uh the business community can submit and have their proposals evaluated and then brought before the board for consideration. >> Motion to approve. >> Terrific. Thank you.

160Any questions or comments? Thank you. We need our trash picked up and uh with that student, do you approve? >> I board. All those in favor? >> I Okay, go out with an RFP. Next is uh designating authorized agents for CAL OEES and FEMA disaster assistance. Dr. Ste, >> Dr. Gleon, Madam President, members of the board, uh we have uh unfortunately had some emergencies in our community over the past few years, the Woolsey fire, of course, the CO 19 pandemic. When emergencies happen, we need to coordinate services with uh Caloes and with FEMA. Uh and in order to do that, we need the authority of the board to designate authorized agents in order to uh submit uh the required paperwork for funding. Oftentimes, there's a timing component to that, which is why we seek the

161authorization of at least three agents in our uh organization to be able to submit that paperwork. Uh common practice, we've done this over the last few years. The authorized agents would be Dr. Stephenoski, Dr. Ciphers, or myself. >> Motion to approve. >> Uh I have a motion. >> Second. Thank you very much. Any comments or questions? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. This is a board vote only board. All those in favor. >> Passes 5-0. Next is the approval of the second interim budget. Dr. Stepp. >> Dr. Gon. >> Madam President, members of the board, we had a a nice primer with the waste management RFP and the Caloes designation. Now we're into the second interim budget. uh I get the great opportunity of working with this amazing team. Uh I know the board

162uh has gotten to know this team very well. Uh we have had u a lot of change, a lot of uh transition over the years. Uh but over the last few years, this team has really solidified and grown in their capacity. I'm super proud to work with them and they are uh the foundation of what is being brought forward tonight. Uh AB1200 requires us to bring uh interim budgets uh reports to the board of education. Uh we did the first interim presentation in December. This is our second interim presentation. It's due March 15th, but we are ready to pro uh share it tonight. Uh spoiler alert, we are recommending a positive certification uh for the board to approve, which is part of our longstanding um tradition, for lack of a better word. Positive certification means

163that uh I believe and can certify that we will meet our minimum reserve obligations three years out. Um in terms of looking at the overall budget, I know I did a May uh revision update, excuse me, not a May revision, a January 26 27 governor budget uh presentation uh back in January and I know the board is well verssed in this receives updates uh via FickMat and school services in addition to staff. So I will uh provide a broad overview but happy to go into any of these uh details in um with a greater clip if preferred. So uh first and foremost uh the last few years have been very atypical from a a budgeting lens. Um and I'm getting tired of myself saying that but it continues to be true. Two main factors continue

164to surface. one uh we are seeing that the cost of living adjustment that we build a budget upon is being reduced midyear. Uh very challenging to see the amount of money that you intend to bring in in a given fiscal year and in the outy years be reduced only a few months later with the stroke of a pen. Um the LAO, UCLA and uh FakeMet have long been very good about trying uh predicting cola with uh great certainty. The last few years this just the economic volatility has been hard uh harder to predict. The second thing is Governor Nuomo has uh not been following the constitution now three years in a row. uh constitution requires a minimum of 40% of the state budget to be uh dedicated to TK12 funding. Um Governor Nuome over the

165last few years has uh opted to underfund Prop 98. So essentially what he's doing is taking a loan from public education to pay the obligations of other services in the state. um why that might be politically attractive um with the best of intentions. Uh it would be attractive um so that you would not disperse money to a school district that then you would have to claw back in a bad economy. Um uh but knowing also that he is running for president uh it does uh make the books appear that your expenditures are reduced uh in the given year that he is leading and those obligations are passed on to a future fiscal year. very uh in California to uh if you would have said prop governor would have uh been able to get away several

166years in a row with underfunding Prop 98 uh I would have called you crazy a few years back >> it's just accepted everyone just gives it a pass. It's astounding to me it's meant to be a guarantee. It's part of the constitution isn't about politics. It's it's uh shocking to me to underfund and play this shell game. CSBA like totally called him out on it three years ago and now it's not saying it work. I don't get it. >> Yeah. Every year they make kind of a noise. You shouldn't underfund 98. >> I uh the deep concern with the gubanatorial election is that this becomes um a status quo. >> It has become status quo >> and it continues. >> It's outrageous. >> Yeah. >> Uh so those are the two factors that we are

167working up against. Um the uh governor the the budget's so exciting things are falling over over here. I apologize. Uh second interim does that's okay. It's totally okay. You know happens. Um uh in addition to the expenditures being um potentially under represented by deferring the Prop 98 obligation to another fiscal year. Um the nonpartisan legislative analyst office has suggested that the revenues that the governor built the 26 27 budget upon were overly optimistic. Yeah. >> Yes. >> What's fascinating is uh the LAO just came out with a new report that actually is now saying that the governor's um uh optimistic projections were not optimistic enough. And uh one thing that's just really taking uh the California economy in a crazy direction is artificial intelligence. So AI is booting up our economy right now in ways

168that were uh very hard to predict. Um, and so it'll be really interesting to see what the May revise looks like this year and what the June budget looks like. But this volatility of an underfunded Prop 98 and a mid-year cola reduction three years in a row um has put pressure on California budgets across the state. And as was previously mentioned, you see significant reductions in some districts you're seeing in solveny. Um and um thankfully we have uh worked closely with uh our board and under your vision we've been able to sustain ourselves pretty well through this this time. Uh getting to uh the bottom line for this uh second interim. Uh LCFF revenues are up. Uh thank you uh to Mrs. Thomas with her continued work on attendance as well as uh our enrollment.

169As um as I've shared and will continue to share, uh we continue to build a budget on a 1% decline in enrollment. Um our enrollment has grown now tiers in a row, so it's outperformed those conservative expectations as planned. >> Dr. When will we um reap the financial benefits of the increased enrollment? >> We should see the uh financial benefits really start to play out next year in 26 27. >> Okay. Because that is additional money. Yeah. The reason is is uh in the state of California, you are paid on the higher of uh the prior year ADA, the current year ADA, or the three-year average. Uh we need a third-year data point of an increase. Uh because the first and second year swing actually create a a decline until you get to that third

170year. So, >> so what do you know the number of students we are funded on right now? Uh the number of students we are funded on right now is I believe um 9921 >> and so we have we hopefully in 2027 we'll see 10,000 students be bonded. >> That's the goal. That's um slide uh 19. >> Yeah. I don't want to spoil it. Okay. >> But uh yeah, we will we'll jump in there. Uh local revenue is up or I'm sorry, state revenue is up um because Dr. Anderson's team, Dr. Anderson, Mrs. Johnson have uh procured two grants, the career technical education grant and the strong workforce program grant. That was one of the grants that Dr. Anderson brought us from prior district. So why aren't we applying for it? Applied for it and brought

171in a good half million dollars. So Mrs. Thomas and Dr. Anderson doing the heavy lifting and we appreciate it. >> About those grants. >> On the expenditure side, uh certificated classified salaries are higher than projected. Um we uh build our budget in June. Uh Dr. Ciphers uh Mrs. Chambers and the team uh brought forward the AB1200 for negotiations in July. Since our adopted budget is based on the pre-settlement numbers, you would expect the salaries to go up, which is what we're seeing. Uh we are seeing more students identified with uh disabilities who need parent professionals. That's why we see that classified number a little bit higher. as well as LBUSD plus is um uh and the it's bringing in additional revenue, but of course there's additional staff. Books and supplies are down a little bit

172uh at services is doing their ELA adoption in an uh in a different fiscal year. And then services are generally over encumbered right now. Generally, we see that number uh decline about $3 million. Um there's so much that goes on in terms of facilities um that we keep open POS for uh emergencies as well as for residential placements for students with disabilities and some legal contracts that don't close until June. All this to say, we are planning to uh our operating budget uh planned to close with $33 million in net total reserves. Our second interim budget is planning to close with around 30 $33 million in net total reserves. Um the makeup of how that reserve structure looks is just a combination a different combination of fund 17 and fund one. Um and uh a

173product of this is our unodudited actuals coming in under overperforming tenants and enrollment overperforming and us being very mindful on expenditures. Yes, I mean it's great we we we have significant reserves when a lot of districts do not. Uh but one one must note that they they've also dipped a bit. You know that's what happens when there's a deficit. So it just reinforces the need for continued vigilance which you you and your team have really been displaying in an amazing way. >> Thank you and and appreciate the board uh and and all your leadership as well in terms of creative uh thinking and leadership es you know transportation item that came tonight. not a not a fun item, not an exciting item, but is a way to keep, you know, a billion and a half

174out of the classroom. Um, Dr. Ciphers tonight bringing some relatively modest cuts compared to uh other districts around us. It's a responsible thing to do to shore up the deficit in the light of the economy, even though we do have um some tools in our reserves. As we look to the multi-year um multi-year tells a similar story to multi-year over the last couple years, which is um because this budget is built upon uh a 1% enrollment decline based on the current threshold as well as a 94 and a half% attendance rate. Um we see uh a decline in revenues uh associated with that. um and expenditures go up in this multi-year uh in conjunction with cola and the step and column increases are all built in. So in a multi-year projection, you always see uh

175at least in the way that I model it uh a very conservative approach uh uh expenditures being fully recognized with revenues not being fully uh recognized with current projections. We have a 1% decline. Our attendance rate uh uh in this year is a 95.3% to date. It's on average has been a 94 and a half. That 8% represents about 700,000 a year. Um looking at fund 17, it still exists in 2728. I will share with you if you were looking at my slides from 2223 to the 256, it would look very similar to this. And the reason is, if anyone's watching at home wondering why it always seems to look like this, um it's because we don't let ourselves get to that thirdyear place where the reserves uh that ending fund balance is uh depleted

176to the point where we don't have the flexibility that we do today. So, we make decisions like have been made tonight to preserve the tools available to avoid uh to make sure that we can still give students a fantastic education while having the fiscal tools to weather uncertain economy. Enrollment uh is relatively stable um across uh the district. We have some sites that are showing increased interest, but overall um I project next year and the uh the year after uh a good guess is that we're going to land at 10,000 students. And that's a healthy place for us to be um while we await uh new construction. If we do hit 10,000, again, the budget's not built on 10,000. It's built on 1% less than uh next year is built on 98.26 with 1% decline

177in the two out years. But if we do hit 10,000 next year and still have that 1% to climb, am I hearing? Thanks. Uh we have uh we see about a $5 million increase. So >> I was just going to say I remember sitting here a few years ago and we had multi-year projections of being like at 8,600. >> Correct. >> In this year, >> absolutely. We would have been >> district's losing about 500 a year. We lost what 750 students from CO after CO. >> We used to be north of uh uh 11,000 prior to CO. Yeah. So uh we dropped down to south of 10, >> right? >> Um to Miss Cut Bill's uh point, we would be south of 9,000 had we um not made a lot of efforts. And um that's

178that tool that we have available does not exist in a lot of places. And um without it we would be feeling a lot of pain. This is a slide um that show is a slide. >> Well done. >> This is a slide everybody. >> Thank you very much. Um so this is a slide showing all the construction that's going on uh in our area. We have about uh 2,000 homes being built. uh we have about uh per multifamily unit you uh demographers uh suggest vicat suggests that you can get about 0.24 students per home. So as we look to our district uh over the next three to five years it'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. Of course we see a large parking garage now over off of um uh the 101

179right before Chzbro uh getting ready for all those families to move in. Take your vitamin C everybody. Zinc under your tongue. Uh because attendance has really uh taken a hit and it's not for lack of effort from our student services ed services and principal teams. Um it's uh this triple demic that's going around of norovirus COVID and flu is having a significant impact. Usually does January February. This year it seems to be really striking at several of our elementary schools. In spite of it, we're seeing um resilience. So I could look at this glass slide as half empty. That's a glass half empty or a glass half full. I choose the half full that we are at 95.3%. The budget was built at 94 and a half%. Uh these attendance metrics do not come by

180accident. They come through a lot of work and again the leadership of our student services team. Uh you can see though in terms of the impact this is why I uh I am uh I tend to be very conservative in booking these things until they actually manifest because between first and second interim you can see just how a simple cold flu or COVID can manifest in a 2 million or excuse me a $4 million swing over the course of the next five years. Today's attendance matters for 2930 because of that three-year average. That's why you see the decline across the years. I don't choose to focus on that middle line. I choose to focus on the bottom line. The bottom line is we are still up. And so this compounded with enrollment is a good

181thing. All this comes back to uh the uh amazing work of this team every single day. I get the uh pleasure of crunching it and reporting it, but this team is the team that executes it. And uh all that I'll pause on second interim lead uh finish with the punch line. We recommend a positive certification from the board. >> Wanted to say about attendance. The state level is what about 86 something like that. >> States state levels are definitely in the 80s. >> Yeah. >> So, um uh we dove deep in to this at finance committee. So, I'm good with uh everything you've presented and want to really appreciate and thank the team for uh how much they cover and their strong stewardship here. >> Do you want to make a motion to approve? >>

182I move to approve the second. >> I second. >> Thank you very much. Any other comments or questions? Hearing none. Thank you to Dr. Gleason and your entire team. Keeping us solvent moving forward in students learning and teachers getting paychecks. It's very important. Thank you very much. With that, I will uh call for the vote. Student, do you support? >> I. Board, do you support the agree with the second in our budget? >> I passes 5-0. And with that, we're adjourned. Thank you