2025.12.16 LVUSD School Board Meeting

001call the um regular session to order. Please silence your cell phones. Um and welcome everyone. At this time, we also have an sorry an error in the agenda that I do want to call out. Matt Gelb was our board member from last year, our student board member. >> Yeah, it says Matt. >> Sorry, Ben. >> And I called you Matt and I know you Ben, so sorry, Ben. Um, so I have nothing to report out of close session. And at this point, I'd like to take uh I'd like to ask for a motion to approve the minutes of the November 18th, 2025 board meeting. >> So move. >> Have a second. >> A second. >> Thank you. Um, all those in favor, student, >> I. >> Thank you. Uh, board, all those in favor? >>

002I >> against abstain. Angela. Oh, I have. Yes, I abstain. I was gone. It's out of town. >> Okay. And uh Okay. So, our minutes have passed and superintendent board communication, Dr. Stepp. >> Madam President, members of the board, uh couple of quick things. First off, congrats to Calvas's girls tennis division 2 champs. They smoked Harvard West Lakes. >> Nice. >> Agore High School also did fantastic. girls tennis advanced to the championship game for the first time in school history. They played Oaks Christian and lost in a tiebreaker. Basically the closest possible um way to lose a tennis match, but congrats to them on advancing to the championship round for the first time ever in school district history. Next up is the value. I know the entire board shares this value with me and that

003is the value of the student voice. And so I get out to the schools. There's the three middle schools. Just finished um going out and having lunch with them. We talked uh school safety, school wellness, school wellness. I've got two shots of AC Stellan there. So, I apologize for that. Missed >> I missed um uh Lindero. Um so fantastic to listen to the students. You know, we talked wellness, we talked um cell phones, safety, security, grades, stress, all kinds of great things. And so um just a great chance to be out in the field and listen to the students. Uh next slide. And um another unusual program uh one-of-a-kind program is the youth leadership academy. It's with the future foundation. The future foundation has been gosh in the Kho Valley region for well over 50

004years. It really started before any of the cities formed to try and imagine what the region would be like and what the residents and community would be like and what they would need. They now work in two areas supporting uh youth and they support our um senior citizens. And so I'm very involved in the youth leadership work which is so much fun. And last night we had our second meeting with Youth Leadership Academy. This is about 60 students. They come from Kaneo Oak Park and Las Vegas. Of course, I'm biased and the um largest representation is from Los Vess. Um but it's s so exciting to work with students from three districts. See how amazing and similar they are. Last night we met at the Gore Blackbox. We had three fantastic speakers. Um newly promoted

005commander Gen C2 was there and you can see her in the photo on the top left. Uh and then next to her is a very large man. That's uh Mike Sosha. Uh he's got three World Series rings. Two is catcher for the Dodgers. One is manager of the Angels. And then uh on the very far left there, front row is Dr. Kirk Tamon. So we had law enforcement, medical fields, sports entertainment, and with youth leadership team. On the right hand side, you can see students asking the panel members questions. Such a fun night. So great to bring students from the T three districts together. And we had representatives from the senior leadership team from Oak Park and Kaneo also joined for the first time. So a wonderful chance for um all us to work together.

006That's it. Right, Jim? That concludes superintendent communication. >> Thank you, Mr. Seagull. >> Uh got to write this down. Okay. Uh Agora has been busily preparing for finals week with the junior class hosting a finals week care package fundraiser, which I hear went really well. The sophomore class hosted jazz and Java on December 12th with a live jazz or with multiple live live jazz performances, beverages, and pastries. Uh, Agora also hosted a holiday toy drive, garnering over 300 student donations. Um, Agora Wrestling has been on a roll recently, defeating last year's league champions, Thousand Oaks. Uh, and then finally, Agora hosted its annual winter rally to get students hyped up for the finals and winter break. Calabasas High School is getting ready also getting ready for winter break and is preparing for finals. At Calbasis,

007they concluded their Harry Potter winter spirit week. Uh, each day had a Harry Potter themed game and dress up days. The week ended with a pep rally. The senior class just finished their Seas Candy fundraiser. The junior class finished their Mendescino Farms fundraiser. And the sophomore class finished their Uba Tuba fundraiser. That's it. >> Thank you very much, Mrs. Mets. >> So, I was able to go, it seems like a long time ago now, but um to the SDC meeting which was on November 21st and um don't mean to make my fellow board members jealous, but I think that was probably the best SDC meeting to be at. It was opened with the jazz band from a ride playing three different numbers and then there was a excellent presentation by Mrs. Val Luthian uh about

008all the LBUSD programs and camps and and stuff and then um I was able to sit in on pathways with Miss Stein um where we covered a lot of the things that we're going to cover in the meeting tonight and recovered some of those things at a very interesting curriculum council the way it was structured um that Mr. Lazar and I attended where we heard about all of the different um programs um course changes and stuff in kind of a round robin format where we went to different stations um and that all for now. >> Thank you very much Mr. Lazar. >> Um I enjoyed curriculum council with Miss Mang very very much. I also attended uh the superintendent's data committee where such interesting stuff is being discussed uh which is going to lead to

009uh very uh productive developments I think uh attended finance committee uh while Mr. Lawrence was away which was very interesting as it was uh my first time. Uh I attended the reorganization meeting at the city of Calabasas and uh congratulations to Mayor Kraut on his year as mayor and also to Mayor Bizadian uh who is now the new mayor of Calabasas. Um and attended walk through American Revolution at Bay Laurel which was fantastic. The kids always have such a great time and uh finally attended the fall concert at Agura High uh which was just absolutely terrific. Those jazz bands are just quite something. It was a a wonderful concert right this time. Um I had hoped uh merely just to wish happy holidays to everyone. Uh however, I did want to acknowledge that uh many

010in our LVUSD community were getting uh ready to celebrate Kanuka on Sunday when news of the terrible attack in Sydney broke uh as well as horrific events in Redlands, California and Brown University. And uh you know we as a society just need to continue speaking out against anti-semitism and indeed any form of hate uh where wherever it occurs. Um and just to reaffirm of course that here in LVUSD safety is a highest priority uh for all of us in the district. Uh and um we will always keep our our students and staff and teachers safe. Uh and yeah, finally depending on what everyone celebrates, wishing you all merry Christmas, happy Khan, happy holidays, and I hope your homes and families are filled with light and joy and way too much good food. And that's it

011from me. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Lawrence. >> I I said most of what I was going to say during the previous meeting, but um I just wanted to dubtail on Mr. Lazar's comments about um the past, I think, three days. Uh I mean, they've just been an emotional gut punch. Uh, and what was interesting to me, um, you know, sometimes it seems like what divides us is so enormous. Um, and then I discovered I had two friends on the beach that day, um, that don't live in Australia. They just managed to be there. Um, and it it they're fine. Uh, of course, but what what that just reminded me that how while sometimes it feels so cosmically large, we're actually much closer than we think. Um, and it it doesn't take

012a lot for someone in our community to take a second to show kindness, to say take a second to correct the bullying action, to take a second to say we don't want that toxicity to seep into this community. I think it's really incumbent upon everyone in this new year to to step forward and speak up to reaffirm I don't think we can reaffirm enough uh the concerns about anti-ymitism. I think if we talk about it at every board meeting it's important because it's when you stop talking about it that they come out of the rocks they lift up the rocks and they start raising their head because I don't think there's going to be people who are going to shine a light against it. So, I would just encourage everyone um in the new year

013to take it upon themselves to to be that voice that takes a moment that says what unites us is bigger than what divides us. And we all have a personal responsibility to to to shine a light on the bad. Um and I think that our silence in some of these cases is is becoming deafening and it's creating an environment where bad things are happening. So, I appreciate that you brought it up. Um, I think it's something very important that all of us in public office continue to to to raise voice to. >> Thank you very much, Mrs. Cut Bill. >> I would totally agree with those comments by Mr. Lazar and Mr. Lawrence um about continuing to speak up against uh the anti-semitism that doesn't seem to be um receding in any great measure globally

014or uh on many of our camp uh university campuses in the country. I've been very busy as a you madam president with facilities uh items apart from all the bond projects going on and we're actually talking about uh series C which is amazing because the more we get done the more money we save because exponentially with uh inflation and cost of um projects goes up and excited about some new um not necessarily bond projects but upcoming improvements to Willow to Lindereo to our two high schools. So, um that we continue to find ways and that um teachers and principles bring us ways in which they know that their campuses can be improved upon and we have an amazing M team. Um so very excited about that. >> Thank you very much. And I will conclude

015with the following comments. Um, I started out Thanksgiving, this uh, giving season that we're in right now at Calabasas High School in Chef Allen's class with I believe her or her foods service three students. Okay, I got a nod. Good. Who who cooked an entire Thanksgiving feast. I mean, it was delicious. The camaraderie among the students, the joy among the students. This is what it's all about. So, thank you to Chef Allen for inviting us. It was really a true kickoff of the joyous season. Um like Mr. Lazar said, we enjoyed a wonderful jazz concert at Agora High School. So the beauty, the wonderfulness, the talent of our students, the creativity of our teachers students just always needs to be mentioned and known about. Um and um again re reorganizations, our cities are reorganiz reorganizing

016right now as well. and I had the privilege of attending Agorah Highe's um reorganization with Mora City Gor City. Thank you. Reorganization. And the reason I say Agorah High is both their mayor uh Jeremy Wolf and their mayor prom Deborah Klein Lopez graduates of Agora High School. So there you go, Los Virginists. We're producing great great people. Um last thing is not as exciting but to some of us who got frustrated in um fires. Fires are very scary. We have them. We have earthquakes. I attended a meeting that the city of Calabas has put on uh by Edison. They have areas that apparently have uh their electricity turned off quite often. So, there was a lot of frustration with that. They covered the PSPS, which is when they shut off the uh power early if

017there's winds and they actually lowered the threshold. So, we haven't had really Santa Anas yet, but we're waiting. So my um purpose for being there and my emphasis was communication because for those of us um who went through January and anytime when they shut off powers and those of you at school and uh teachers and staff and schools and students and parents and district people and board members, it's very frustrating when they don't tell us when they are turning off the power and when they don't tell us when they're turning it on or they tell us and it doesn't happen. So, I did receive um some uh empathy and some sympathy and the name of a person that I gave to Dan who's the director of public affairs and they're working on increasing and improving

018communication. So, hopefully Dr. Stepp will reach out and uh we it will go a little smoother next time, but these emergencies we thank everyone for your patience and um like everyone said during this holiday season, please hold your loved ones tight. It's a tough time out there right now and tough for many people. And just hold your loved ones tight. Enjoy the holidays the best that you can in the way that your family does. And with that, we're going to move ahead to the rest of the meeting. Thank you. And I do have two speaker cards for items not on the agenda. And I'm going to before I call their names one at a time, come up and you have three minutes. There is a clock that Mr. Klein Where is the clock? It's up

019here. It's coming. The clock is coming. Okay. So, Amber Sid Smith, I probably said that incorrectly, and you will be addressing the board and cabinet and the community on LVUSD plus, which is a program that we offer. So, uh if you will make your way to the podium or I will call the next speaker. Okay. Absolutely not. If you'll go to the microphone, this is an opportunity to hear your voice. We do not hear have people phone in. We don't allow listening to recordings. So, you have three minutes and you can sum up the recording or are you passing? Okay. Then I'm going to ask Jennifer Chafield to come up and speak. email >> if if there's is it appropriate? Yeah. Okay. >> If you'd like, you can email the board. You can email the

020district. I would tell you to email Dr. Stepp. >> You can email her >> email the recording if you want. >> You would you can email Jennifer Scoffield. And um I have emailed the district, the board. I've given all of you paper letters uh with this statement. So, you should have it. Um Marcelino, if you could hold up the sign for us, I would appreciate it. Uh we will come back prepared to read um prepared to read a statement but um we're not public speakers. We are just parents at Chaparel who have lost our child care because we received child care from the childcare resource center and LVUSD plus told us they would not take our our um childcare resource center funds. then they changed their mind but they did not contact us to enroll

021us and now they have run out of space and they would not put us to the front of the wait list even though we tried to enroll uh before the end of last school year. So we will come back with a more complete statement um and be ready to read. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. In the meantime, um if if you haven't um contacted um Miss Thomas, uh Don Thomas domas at lbusd.org. Okay. >> Please feel free to She's the assistant superintendent in charge of safety and health and wellness and she can help you with this. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you all for coming out to our board meeting. With that, we're going to move right ahead to to consent A. May I have a motion to approve items

022number one through 38 on consent A? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Whoever's keeping track, did you get that? We have a motion by Mr. Lawrence and a second by Mrs. Cutill. Um, okay. Any questions on any of the um consent a items? Um yeah, I had a a couple questions. I noticed there were um a fair amount of um items around the solar panels and just some relatively small cost changes. Um was were they related to the scheduled outage that is required to get those panels online because there was mentioned that they had to be scheduled outages in order to to put them on. Were the cost related to that, Dr. Gleason? >> No, the the cost on the panels was related to ADA access primarily. I see. >> Just some minor adjustments as

023we close out the PTO's. >> Okay. And then just uh quickly the um the electronic gate at CHS, that's the gate in front there next to the front office you were referring to that uh change order, right? >> Correct. And uh right in front of that parking lot is the chain link, pretty low level. And then uh right into that H build, if you know where the H building is, we're going to have access there. And it will, as you know, Calvas High has a parking premium. >> Yeah. >> Um Mr. has a a a plan to get about 10 more spots through putting the gate. >> Okay, great. And it's great to see that the uh the HVAC at the H building at CHS is now complete. That's great for teachers and students and

024keeping everybody cool. >> Any other questions on any other items? Okay, hearing none, I'll call for the vote. Student >> I. >> Thank you. Board >> I passes five to zero. Thank you. Next item is consent B, the personnel dock, which is a board only vote. May I have a motion to approve consent B? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay, any questions? Hearing none. I'm going to call for the vote. All those in favor. >> That passes 5-0. Action items. The first one up, Dr. Stap, is the approval of AP Cyber Security. Madam President, members of the board, pretty exciting stuff. Um we have outstanding um staff and teachers who are doing great work on our classes. This is a great opportunity for us to uh shine the spotlight or share the spotlight with

025our CTE teachers, career technical education teachers. Uh they've built out outstanding pathways um for our students. Um Dr. Anderson's helping out with this. I think Dr. Scott's the lead on it. We've got Todd Shipley, Joe Keys, Kristen Daison, Chef Allen. They've all done fantastic work for us. And we found our very own Mr. Wright to help out the auto shop program. at Agora. Um, so Dr. Scott, I think you're up. >> Madame President, members of the board, I'm very excited. One of the fun things that I get to do is work with our amazing teachers and assistant principles on developing innovative classes for our students and continuing just to develop our academic programming. And so tonight I would like to pass it off to Miss Musgrove and Miss Yeder, assistant principles at Calabasas High School

026and Agora High School. Take it away. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President, Dr. Stefanowski and distinguished um board members. I'm very excited to introduce the AP Cyber Security team here, Mr. Joe Keys and um Mikey Young. >> Thank you. Good evening, Madame President, members of the board and cabinet. A time flies. Do you remember we were proud to be here exactly 10 years ago when you approved the AP computer science principles course? The very catalyst for that approval was an Agora sophomore named Caitlyn Kab. After loving our Java course, Caitlyn asked, "How can we get the principles approved?" Because you voted yes back then. Caitlyn took that course and today she is living in Washington DC serving as the chief operations officer at the NSA cyber security collaborative collaboration center. In fact, Caitlyn's mom

027and dad are here tonight uh to support um this accomplishment and how um computer science has affected their family. I love the symbolic evolution of how our collective decisions change lives. Just as you opened a door for Caitlyn and many others with principles tonight, we are asking for you to open a new door, Michael. >> And that that new class is AP Computers uh AP cyber security. Uh launches in 2026 in the AP College Board. Um this course prepares students in the world where we must constantly ask is it real? What is fake? How do I spot a scam? Uh is my data secure? Um this will also be our third class in our uh computer science pathway which will um prepare our students in an everchanging world of technology. Um not only does this

028AP course um give them AP credit um this class will also be a launchpad. Students who pass the AP test will get a voucher from the College Board to take the comm TA TIA security plus certification, which is a $425 voucher that qualifies them to high demanding jobs and in internships in the real world. So, uh, we ask your support to bring AP computer uh, cyber security to LBSD. Thank you. >> Anybody want to talk? >> Well, I love this. I think this is um somebody I used to have a top secret security clearance. Uh I I think this is awesome. Um and I'm thrilled that you're bringing it forward. I mean, we spent a lot of time in committee talking about, you know, what are the future careers in a world where AI has

029taken over things like coding and other things that used to be where we sit, I' got to code, got to code. Good luck finding a coding job today. Um these are the exact types of things where we absolutely need trained, skilled humans. uh prepared both for national security but also for business security, corporate security. Uh anyone could be a victim of this. So I I think that I like goosebumps thinking about this is I want to take this course. This is awesome. So thank you for for being thoughtful as always. Um will this be taught at both campuses? >> Okay, fantastic. Thank you. I'll make a motion to approve. >> I'll second it. I I have a quick question. Um I think this is a great course as well. Uh I'm just a little bit

030curious. Um I I see from the um syllabus that you're planning to uh submit it to UCCcsu A throughG for um math and for laboratory science. Do we currently have teachers that could take this cyber security course so that a student can get credit in a lab science or mathematics or do we have it just in mathematics right now? I can answer that question. >> Mic please. >> Yes. On the Calabasas's campus, it's um math credentialed as well as the girl high schools. Correct. Yeah. Both both are math credentialed at the >> it's submitted both ways on UC doorways and so it depends on the teacher teaching the course. >> I have I want to tag Do you have any other questions? I I want to tag on to Mrs. Mangus' question. Um first of

031all, this is very exciting. Um but to tag on very quickly is um since it's going in for both do we and it will not meet our third year of math requirement. Right. So does that need to be noted somewhere like in the course catalog? >> Why wouldn't it be? Why would it meet? >> The UC's don't count it as a math >> because >> it doesn't meet um so they it we have to get up to algebra 2 or the third year of math and so it's in a considered an other bucket of math. So they have to get >> the algebra 2, the calc, those math levels. And this is like a math elective according to >> does it check the UC box for a lab science? >> Dep It depends on the

032teacher teaching the course. >> So if the teacher So if the teacher is a math teacher, it doesn't count for UC three years. But if the teacher is a science teacher, it would count as the science >> science, not a lab science. So there's a UC science, there's a lab science, there's different levels of of what we submit to UC. >> So it's basically an elective for all intents purposes because we're not teaching it with a science teacher. If we taught it by a science teacher, it could be a prerec for UC eligibility for science >> be a science elective for UC or a math elective. >> Okay. So either way, it's an elective. >> Correct. Okay. >> Yeah. But it's still an awesome course. >> so cool. >> I still love it. Yes. So,

033um, for lack of, you know, uh, confusion, do we need anything noted in the course catalog to make sure that everyone understands that this is an elective and does not meet the three-year math requirement? >> Absolutely. Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> But does I guess the question is three years of math are required. Um, does this look like to a college you took four years of math because they want they like to see four years of math. >> It counts as a math elective. It depends on the school you're applying to. So for those who knock out their three-year required um >> a great >> this this is a great >> senior year what fourth year of math that says that shows that you are the colleges you like math you took four years okay

034so it still kind of counts. >> Yes. >> Any other questions or comments? >> No. >> Okay. So before I I think we have a motion in a second. >> Do we Okay. I don't know who's keeps track of motions around here. >> Same person for the last 10 years. >> Thank you. That's on camera. Thank you, Mr. Lawrence. Okay, >> just quickly before the vote, I did already tell the team at curriculum council how much I love this, but I have to say it again. I think what a great addition to the course catalog, you know, with with AI. Uh, the world is changing so much in terms of the skills that are going to be needed in computer science and uh this is just such a great addition in that regard to to

035face that we have. You >> know, your team has put on the in on this. >> Okay, I'm not calling for the vote yet because I also want to thank you. The thing that I love the most about our district is we are always looking to expand options and opportunities for students. And between Mikey Young and Joe Keys and your passion, this is an exciting exciting course for kids. So, thank you. And I also knew Joe Keys had a Tony. I learn something new every day. >> And we have to talk about that later. But, uh, I also I also want to give a shout out on behalf of the board to Caitlyn Kabi's parents who are here tonight. Um, Mr. Mr. Klein, if you can put that slide back up for a minute. She

036is extremely accomplished. Again, all of our students are wonderful and accomplished in their own way, but if you read what she is doing, she's working for the defense industrialbased um, cyber security division. Whatever they do, I don't know. You're not allowed. You don't get to know. >> What? >> You don't You don't get >> Okay, good. We don't get to know. It's It's top secret. But thank you to your parents. I mean, coming out to a board meeting is a is a big thing. And so, we really appre I mean, it takes a lot. It's dinner time. So, thank you for coming out. Thank you for your all of your support. Please tell Caitlyn, >> please please share with Caitlyn how proud we all of are of her. And thank you. And with that, >>

037Dr. Ste, I think it'd be awesome if you thought about next year's Women Leadership Forum. If if Caitlyn happened to be in town to have her speaker, I think that'd be a fantastic speaker. >> Except Mr. Lawrence, as you pointed out, she can't talk about anything. She can talk about how she got there. It's not what just not what she does there. >> She just can't talk about the >> DC. Oh, >> I see a field trip to DC going. I'll be a chaperon. I'll shout you, Mr. Keys. So, with that, I'm going to call for the vote. Uh, Mr. Seo, are you in favor of this course? I >> Good. Board, all those in favor? I >> passes. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Okay, the next item is exciting as well.

038Approval of advanced live event broadcasting and production honors. All right, Madame President, members of the board, um we have again Miss Yedder and Miss Musgrove up here and another one of our amazing, passionate teachers, Mr. Todd Shiploo. >> Madame President, Dr. Stephanoski and members of the board. I'm so excited to share with you a new course that we're requesting, advanced live broadcasting and production. Um, I will go ahead and turn it right over to Mr. Todd Shipley, one of our fantastic teachers and IB coordinator to give you more details about the course and to answer any of the questions that you may have. >> Thanks. Um, Madame President, distinguished members of the board, Dr. Dan Steinowski. Um uh this is a uh advanced live live event broadcast and production. It's going to capstone uh broadcast

039one and broadcast two. Um it provides an opportunity um for the students not only to capstone in the pathway but enhance their skills in live production um put in hours into the field for production. It kind of goes hand inhand with what we're trying to do in sports broadcasting as well because we're going we're putting up new facilities um aquatic facilities, scoreboards and football. Um but it's going to capture the campus. It's an opportunity to create the culture of our campus. Um it it develops uh story development, script writing, film editing, um marketing, um which is going to be a component of this. Um and then of course live streaming um it builds professional portfolio for college um as well as possible career opportunities. Um and it's seamlessly going to integrate into our IBCP pathway

040which we are currently a candidate for authorization. Um and then also integrate um internship opportunities like I kind of talked about initially in initially internal um it's going to run a lot like uh the CASMA program does with required hours um outside of class in order to build resume in order to uh um um put in hours for experience to hopefully then get internships outside as we build um uh that network. Um it also will provide access to community college articulation um which is again um an integral component of the GSP grant um that we got um where we have to do dual enrollment for the program. So um questions >> uh with that do we have any questions before we put a motion on the table? >> I'll make a motion to approve. >>

041I'll second it. Okay. Any questions, comments? I I I similar to my previous comments. I love that we're bringing these creative things forward. I love I'm very excited to get the new scoreboard on the fields because one of the things we've talked about is all what that unlocks from a production standpoint and you know, you don't think about that when you think of the scoreboard. Think I've just now created a massive screen that these students can create content for and broadcast to an audience that has a real practical real world value. So, I'm I'm very excited about that. Um I love this stuff. So, thank you for being creative and thinking about >> Thank you. I think people don't really understand how all the pieces of the puzzle have to fit together. You have to

042pass a bond measure. You have to have the facilities committee work. You have to be able to get the sign installed. Then you have someone who's thinking about we now have the sign. How do we create a cool course that uses I know it's not all about the sign, but it's a piece of the puzzle. So I love it. So thank you very much. >> Every time we talk about it in facilities, we talk about the educational value of it and what you're going to be able to do with it and that's exciting for students. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I'll cit particularly appreciate that students are able to make uh you know films for their portfolio. Uh I remember scrambling for my USC film school application years ago and I had a bunch of scripts

043and I had no films and I like scrabbled something together and like just for students to have a quality film that they've put together. It's so important in those applications if they want to pursue a career in film. So uh it's wonderful that this is also part of the advanced >> and I and I concur. I mean, this is a course that that actively looks to um help them create the portfolio rather than having them do it on the side and scramble, right? I love it. >> Yeah. Enough fun. >> This is very exciting. Thank you for your passion and expanding opportunities and options for students. Very exciting. So, it's an honors capstone. So, is it a weighted grade for students? >> Correct. >> Even more opportunities for students. Absolutely. >> Thank you. With that,

044we have a motion in a second. Any other comments? hearing none. I'll call for the vote. Student >> I >> board. All those in favor? >> I >> passes five. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And the next one is is a bunch that's an official word bunch of CTE uh programs that we are moving into honors designation. So they will all receive a weighted grade which is so exciting for students. So, >> all right, Madame President, members of the board. Um, so just a quick overview for um we have quite a few CTE courses and this year in working with um our department chairs for CTE, Miss um Dison and then Chef Allen and then uh Tina Johnson really like diving into our CTE pathways, working on our marketing material

045for them and really looking how we can be competitive with surrounding districts, how we can help support our students. These five classes that we're bringing forward tonight are courses that are already at that level of rigor to meet an honors requirement. Um, with the help of Miss Dieson, we did a lot of research. What are our surrounding districts doing? What's on UC doorways in terms of CTE capstone courses that are getting honors weighted credit? And so, um, that is what we're bringing forward tonight is our courses that are currently meeting that with some adjustments like for Chef Allen's our culinary 3 adding an industry certification to the core. So, really, um, recognizing the work that our students do when they get to that CTE capstone level. We go to the next slide. Um, just for

046a point of reference, we did do some digging or actually I should say Miss Dison helped with this. Um the numbers listed there are how many C or how many schools on UC doorways have a similar course that is a weighted honor CTE capstone course. Um and then as I said our surrounding districts are doing this as well. It came out of a request for our advanced kinesiology because Westlake does it and so Miss Dison was like hey can we look at this for our course and the what they do in these courses is truly phenomenal and deserves this recognition. that I wanted to um introduce our team again, our two APs. They have done tremendous work working with their teachers and working with me and then our CTE department chairs. They really are leading

047the way with our courses, really looking at the pathways and developing them, working with our dual enrollment to connect our CTE to dual enrollment. So, huge kudos to our CTE department chair. So, come on up. Thank you everyone. Madame President, members of the board, Dr. Sepnowski and cabinet. I could not be more ecstatic to be here. Um, this is something that when I heard other schools were doing, it just made complete sense. Um, it was also exciting to be able to look at what other courses are being offered and get to make some adjustments to our courses. Our courses were already rigorous. Our courses are already honors level. Um, but then even just for example in our class for kinesiology, we're going to add some more ethics into it. Um, and so we got to

048pick different things that we really liked from these other honors curriculum and adjust ours. Um, so Chef Allen and I are very excited. The five courses are advanced kinesiology, um, advanced film and video production, culinary arts, careers and education, and our auto capstone. Every one of these honors level courses provides students with certification. So they can work immediately in the field and it also prepares them for that college level coursework in these fields. So not only is it career now, but it's career readiness and college readiness for these careers and amazing life skills and things they can bring to their future. So we are very excited. And I like to point out that our teachers of the courses are here too in case you have questions that this is how passionate they feel that they

049they wanted to be here tonight. They're like when is the board meeting? What time do I need to be there? Very excited. Um and they make all the difference for these courses. >> I I would just say one I as I looked at all these earlier I was like these are all courses that we need humans for. Uh so I got really excited about that. They all specifically touch on this. I know I keep being that but this is all we're hearing in the educational world today. like how do you prepare kids for the the next wave that's coming so they don't and I think this is super exciting. But what I also love is I I think I know someone who's in at least one of these pathways the district each of them. That's

050how that's how diverse these are and how how much how many students they touch. >> Um but I hear more about these types of pathway classes and the teachers standing behind you than I do just about anything else. I mean, math and history are super exciting, but I get pulled aside to talk about the culinary program, the sports medicine program, the auto shop program. You cannot go to a game without having someone say, "It's amazing. The auto program is amazing." Um, so I probably left somebody out, but um I I want you to know that it it's it's you can feel it. Um people are really excited about these courses. The students love them. Um and I'm I'm just thrilled that we're kind of giving the students the extra bump they deserve for the amount

051of weight they do. I'll make a motion to approve. >> Well, wait, wait, wait. >> You can still talk. He made his motion, >> right? Are we still going to hear from our teachers? They're here. >> If you would like to hear from them, it's totally up to you. They just were here in case you had any questions. >> Anybody have any questions for our teachers >> or anything you want to tell us because you're here? >> Yes. I mean, you came all the way here. We'd love for you to even just say hi. >> Brian will say hi. >> Hi, everybody. >> Hey. Uh nice to see you, Madam President. Uh distinguished members of the board, Dr. Seanowski, appreciate uh the invite to to be here. Um Dr. Scott as well. Um any questions

052at all for Otto? >> How about just Yes, I do. I have a question. Tell us how long you've been in the district and what the number of students you had when you first came and the number of students you have now and the number of sections. >> Yeah. >> Uh so when I uh started the program, Yeah. When I started the program last year, we had 35 students. I was I've only been here, this is my second year and um now we have 75 students and uh through the work of a lot of the middle school principles, we plan on getting over to those schools and getting more students excited over the to the high school to see what we do. And um we plan on getting even more students in the auto program

053next year. >> You brought the car to the middle schools, didn't you? >> Yeah. One of my cars, but our car isn't street legal yet. So, but that's in the plan. >> I heard about it from my son. It was like they brought the car. It's very cool. >> Wait, so you brought over a car that's not street legal? >> No, that's one of my own. >> Okay, good. >> No, >> the street legal car stayed at Agora High School. Did not leave the campus. >> A flat bed. >> Okay. Um, thank you, Mr. Wright. Thank you and congratulations to you for the success of your program. Okay. Who do we get to hear from next? >> Come on, Miss Davis. >> Hello, Miss Davis. Hello um madame president and members of the board Dr.

054Dan. Um so careers in ed two you know two years u Mr. Seagull tried to take careers in ed one it didn't work out in his schedule this year. Uh when I started teaching first of all I have an elementary background as many of you know and so it really does pair well well with this. When I first started teaching the careers and ed course there was one section with 17 students. Now we have two sections with between I think 45 46 students >> and um their fieldwork is in our local schools. So at one point when it was sort of on the chopping block for budget it was the elementary teachers sending in letters that save the program basically saying um then are you going to hire us aids and helpers to do the

055work that these high school students do when they come in. So they're getting real world experience. Uh we're working on putting it in their resume. uh they are that you might see the year level two kids here later in the year because one of their tasks uh year two is more focused on leadership and they have to observe a schoolboard meeting as part of that and just see the outside of >> definitely deserve honors credit then >> just to see you know so beyond the teacher what is it that makes education work and kind of look at it from different perspectives >> and we have in California and across the nation a teacher shortage So, thank you for imparting your love of teaching onto our students so they can hopefully go on to be teachers

056as well. >> And I wanted to say sometimes in the end they say, "I realize I don't want to be a teacher." And that's that's important too before they go to the college, right? And and know ahead of time. And so, and then I also have a lot of students I've had students become social workers and they attribute that to the Keenan training. I do the Keenan training with them in in class, by the way. And uh so just you know I've had social workers, I've had aids, that sort of thing. And um teachers and I mean just they're I see them around campus. A lot of them come back even to this district. >> Thank you very much. >> Yep. >> Okay. Who's up next? Chef Allen. >> Do you think whether you want

057to or not? I guess you just Well, if you don't know me, I'm Chef Ellen. Been here 21 years. um teach six sections for about the last six or seven years full schedule. Um the bump in the level three uh will bring a like I said a uh certification that we'll be adding that um both campuses will proctor from the teachers um and we'll bring them a management certificate if they pass it which if they work in any um in any hospitality they have to have a food service certification which is what we're trying to also do in level two but the level three will bring a manager certific uh certification. >> So, this is something that if they did not attend this program, but were out in the workforce, they'd have to then go

058get on their own somewhere, >> they would have to go and take it um on their own and find a place to go and get it proctored um and it would cost them um a couple hundred. >> That's awesome. Thank you. >> Thank you. So wonderful. Such great opportunities for students and they get a weighted grade and some of these students may not be your UC bound students. So, they get it's just wonderful. Thank you. Next. >> Hello, Madame President, distinguished members of the board, Dr. Nan Steinowski. How are you? Um, so with advanced film and video uh production, you were so gracious in uh approving it last year. Um, we've now added an honors component um to that extensive uh um curriculum. Um, I'm excited to say that I've been reaching out to uh

05964 alumni that are currently working in the industry. Um, we're I'm pitching the idea to have an alumni film fest. >> Um, uh, in conjunction, we Praner and I are in the beginning of talking about possibly bringing back some theater alumni too and doing a big >> a bigger thing. Interesting. Um but this also opens up possibilities for internships as some of my some of my uh in fact we have one student uh who graduated last year that is um on a Latino um scholarship or in Latino internship sorry with Mucho Moss um through Sony um and she is uh writing cover on scripts right now which what is you know great way to to learn films. So we're getting we're moving in that direction. Um, a lot of in incredible things. Uh, finally got

060the light grid uh through after a year and a half. Um, thank you for your help on that. Yes. Um, so we've got that approved. It's going in mid January. Um, which would be great once it's up. I'd love you guys to come out and and take a look. Um, and again, thank you for your support. So great. So well appreciated. So thank you. and and in these fields of um kinesiology, sports med, film and video production, culinary arts and careers and education and auto we have increased the facilities of these. So we have enhanced the facilities and um thank you for all you do. I believe we have a motion and a second, Miss Chambers. >> So >> okay, any other questions or comments? >> What? Nothing. >> They're laughing at me. Okay. Um,

061okay. With that student, Mr. Seagull, do you approve of owners for these classes? >> I. >> Great. Board, all those in favor? >> I. >> Thank you all very much. Happy holidays. Thank you. >> Okay, next is not as exciting. >> No one's gonna want to leave for the next part. Oh, this is riveting. >> Not a >> You don't want to stay for the audit. >> Exciting, but equally as important. Equally as important, Dr. Steppp, the audit report. >> Madam President, members of the board, I believe Dr. Gleason's got the next six items. First up is the audit report. And I do want to um share appreciation and thanks for him. He's built great capacity within the business services department. Fantastic leadership. We've got audit clean audit in front of us. I guess the

062technical term is no findings. So congratulations Dr. Leon and your department and their hard work. >> Thank you very much, Madam President, members of the board. Is it working? >> Yes, >> it's kind of working. Uh it is uh always a pleasure to go through this process. Audits are always instructive. Uh we've had a great uh partner for the last couple years of Nigro and Nigro. Of course, they are hired by the board as our independent auditor. They uh come out and meet with us several times throughout the year. It's a rigorous process and um Mrs. Jessica Miller, who is the lead principal for Niagara Nagra, who supports our district, is here to share uh the process of both the um the general audit as well as our uh bond audit. We will have a

063member of the citizens oversight committee for measure S come to the January meeting to also do an annual report. Uh Miss Miller will be presenting uh the uh the bond audit to them too uh as a part of good process. um as well as Miss Miller has met with the board reps of the finance uh committee as well to be able to ask his questions. It's important to have an independent audit uh so that uh all the controls all the things that we do on behalf of the public have um really tight scrutiny and uh we're very proud of the team as Dr. Ste had shared and the process itself. Miss Miller, >> just real quick, it's important to want to make sure I highlight for folks watching at home. Um, because we will not

064go into minutia in this meeting, but the audit has been presented to the finance committee. They've spent one-on-one time with it and then all of us have received the full audit days ago and have had a chance to review it. So, it's not we don't save it for this meeting to do that opportunity. >> Yes, absolutely. And and I I forgot the punch line which is as Dr. step had shared the the report is an unmodified opinion for both measure S and for our audit but I don't want to take away any more spoilers from Miss Miller. >> Thank you. Um as was said my name is Jessica Miller. I am a partner with and We've had the pleasure of working with your district for uh actually a couple years recently and then several years

065before that. But um I'll first go over just the regular district audit and then I believe the bond is the next item. So I'll save that for a little bit. Um as was mentioned, it has been presented to several of you. So I'll do kind of the shortened version here out of respect for everybody's time, just give you a brief overview of our process and the report itself. But I am more than happy to answer any questions you might have. So for our process, um as again was mentioned, it is a rigorous process. It takes uh several different steps throughout the year. We start off in the spring. We'll actually be just about resetting that coming up soon in January. And we start with our site visits. When we do site visits, we're primarily looking

066at attendance taking procedures and ASB transactions that are done at the individual school sites. Obviously, attendance is a big driver of your funding. So, we want to make sure that there's proper checks and balances over how attendance is taken, including regular in-classroom as well as independent study. We come back again later on in the spring and work with the district office. And at that point, your books aren't closed yet. So, we're really not looking at final financial numbers, but we're looking at processes and procedures. We do questionnaires with different staff. We look for proper approvals. We sample trash coming in, money going out, payroll transactions. Really, just kind of a cross-section of all the different activities and making sure there's proper checks and balances. And we also look at a variety of compliance areas, both

067state required compliance and federal compliance for your federal funds that are received. We'll fast forward a little bit again. We come back in the fall. At this point, your books are closed for the year. So, we're really shifting our focus onto final financial numbers, working our way through your unodudited actuals and making sure that we can tie out the numbers that are presented in those unodudited actuals to supporting documentation for validity of those numbers. All of that comes to the audit report, which I know everybody kind of leaves at board meetings, but hey, I think the audits are actually exciting. Maybe not the most fun reading, I will admit. But the audit report itself, um, just to kind of give you an overview of what's included, it starts off with an opinion letter. As was

068said, this is an unmodified or a clean opinion saying that we agree that the financial statements as presented here are presented fairly and all material aspects. So that's really what that opening letter is saying. After that is what's called management discussion and analysis. Um, it's kind of the I often call it the cliff notes of the audit about 10 pages or so with shortened financial statements and it gives comparative history. So, current year as well as prior year so you can get a little bit of an idea of kind of what went up, what went down. Good overview section. After that are the main financial statements followed by the bulk of the audit which is really the notes. So, a lot of details on the numbers that are presented in the main financials, details about

069accounting policies, uh, any of your pension, your OPED, your different long-term debt items, those have a lot of required disclosures. So, a large portion of the notes as well as the tables in the back are devoted to that. There's also some other tables in the back that sometimes are of interest. They'll have bound one listing your average daily attendance that was reported for the year, your instructional minutes, one that shows a schedule of all your federal expenditures. Those are just kind of a few of the ones uh budgetary comparison as well in the back. And then way in the back there's three additional letters. Uh the first one is really over your financial statements. The ones in the back are governmental audit controls and compliance, federal controls and compliance, and state controls and compliance. So

070again, all unmodified or clean opinions on those letters that are in the back. And then after those letters to wrap anything up are any findings that were noted during the audit process as well as a listing of all prior year findings and then the resolution to those findings. So again, very very brief overview, I know, but I want to be respectful of everybody's time, but I'm more than happy to go into details on any particular area or answer questions you may have. >> Okay, thank you so much. Let's have a motion. >> Make a motion to approve the audit findings. >> May I have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Okay, any questions, comments? >> Just wanted to make sure I'm understanding correctly. Is this the first time we've had I know we've had

071clean audits basically every year, but usually they say, "Oh, by the way, you know, ASB receipts got to be corrected here and there's a couple like um is this the first time we had a completely no finding of any kind anywhere?" Or we've had these before. >> No, I think in our history we've had uh no findings many times. Um what's been complex the last few years is brand new grants, Prop 28, that's what it was, expanded learning. We had all the er co money which had federal connections to it which always makes the process complex. We do have a carryover uh just to be uh straightforward we have a carryover finding that was uh from last year if you remember we um it was it was noted that in the for the expanded learning

072opportunities program where needed to be an explicit offer of transportation that was fixed and resolved last fiscal year. Um, by the time it was noted, which was fall of 2024, the 2324 fiscal year had closed and the 2425 fiscal year had it started. So, we still have that mention of that 2425 component of it, but there's nothing beyond that. >> That's because it was it was over the summer and the the the term for this audit report is July the 1st of last year up until June the 30th of this year. Correct. So, it wasn't a repeat finding as such. It was the same finding >> technically. Yeah. So, technically from a reporting standpoint, it's a repeat. Um but it's it's related to the same issue that was resolved at the same time. Um and

073then uh in terms of of the growth of the team, I want to give all credit to the team that I work with. They are phenomenal and fabulous and I've grown a lot. Most of us have uh started all together and to see a consistent team for several years come together and really have be able to produce at this level uh with the complexity only increasing is phenomenal and all goes to them. Um, you know, cong congrats to you and the team, Dr. Gleason, it's it's wonderful to see a clean report like this and, um, I mean, the extended learning opportunities program, ELOP, it was a new program at the time it was first implemented and so from what I'm seeing from the report, uh, we are completely compliant in terms of what is necessary

074there. I mean, we're meeting all the requirements. >> Absolutely. I think, uh, probably be best to, if you're okay with it, to ask Miss Miller about the expanded learning opportunity program. Um I think general question is new program um and what have you seen across the state in terms of implementation. We're now fully of course uh in complian with that but I I don't believe we're in uh in terms of the roll out of that. I do not believe we're in um rare air in terms of figuring that out as the plane. >> Yep. >> No, I would concur. So um this is the so the 2425 audit that you have right now is the second year that this program was under audit. So previous year was the first year where it was actually subject

075to audit. Um it was I would say for that year definitely the most common finding that we wrote across the board for our school districts. Uh it's obviously a new program um which makes things complicated and it has quite a number of audit steps. Uh certain programs only have one or two. This one has a a long listing of different audit steps um when it comes to the different elements of the program. And so there was definitely a learning curve. We're starting to see across the board. The findings kind of whittle down, but it's still one of the one of the more common programs that we're writing findings on for districts across the board. And as was mentioned, this one really is uh related to something that was noted in last year's audit, but crossed

076over fiscal years, which is why it's still showing up in this year's. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Please, Dr. Dr. Gleon, please um extend our appreciation to obviously you and your whole department for all the work. Excellent, excellent work. And I know you've made a lot of changes in the department over the few years that you've been there. So, we appreciate it. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? We have a motion in a second. With that, I'm going to call for the vote. Student, do you approve the audit? I >> Thank you, board. All those in favor of approving the audit. I I >> Okay, we have an audit. Next is measure S audit. >> Mr. Miller, what you can't see in the audience right now is there's a standing ovation with

077a lot of applause just like the last agenda item. Uh and so uh they're asking for an encore. This is the measure S audit item. Uh similar it is an unmodified opinion. There's no findings in the S audit. Just want to note for this one um that uh in addition to our fiscal team, our facilities maintenance and operations team has done a a job that is uh absolutely innovative and incredible to be able to execute the board's vision as fast as they have and maximize the taxpayer dollars. Of course, when you're moving that fast, uh you you need to make sure you're crossing all tees and dotting allies. So, it's it's great to see that we can move fast and u make sure we connect all those dots. So, it's a real testament to a

078number of teams working hard together. Uh again, spoiler alert, unmodified, clean, no findings. Mrs. Miller. >> All right. Well, then I will jump into the requested encore. Um so, we conduct bond audits is the same time as the regular district audit, but obviously focusing on the bond measures and the money related to those. a much smaller audit report that comes out of that process. But um our process really kind of runs along the same timeline. We're starting off the year not looking at final financials because your books aren't closed, but looking um at really allowability and compliance for a bond audit. The main purpose is to have the funds expended on capital projects. And so we're pulling large samples of expenditures and making sure that those expenditures align with the ballot language and what's allowable

079out of these bond funds. And then we're also taking some time looking at the bidding process. Um, a lot of different construction contracts require different types of bidding. Um, certain levels of advertising, how many responders, things like that. And so, we're pulling a sample of contracts and making sure that everything was properly bid according to public contract code. So, that's what we're focusing on initially. And then again, at year end, similar to the regular district, we're looking at your unodited actuals. In this case, specifically, the fund 21 where the bond funds are held. and we're making sure that the numbers reported there can be tied out to supporting documentation as we're going through. Uh the audit report itself that's produced with that again much smaller kind of an easier read starts off with really an

080introductory page at the beginning that just lists kind of what measures that you have open lists your CBOC or bond oversight committee as well. Right after that is our opinion letter where we're giving an unmodified opinion. Again, same thing saying that we agree that the financials as presented here are presented fairly in all material aspects. Right after that letter are the financial statements themselves and then some additional notes and disclosures. Mostly just accounting policies um included in those notes, not quite as long, but um they also do go through debt schedules, your future payments that are owed uh on the bonds that are related to this. And then at the very very end of the report, there's additional letters. Usually the very last letter of most interest, it kind of gives a detail of our

081procedures that we did. So it talks about us pulling contracts, looking at salaries. It says what percentage of total expenditures uh we looked at, if we did any sitewalks, things like that. So that's kind of the very last page of the audit report goes through just a listing of our procedures that were performed. So again, keeping it brief, but more than happy to go into detail or answer any questions. >> Thank you very much. May I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. >> Terrific. Any questions or comments? hearing. None. I'm going to thank Mrs. Miller for all your time and effort and thank you for your due diligence in um examining the expenses of the district and uh making sure that we are compliant. So, we will let you go. Have a good

082evening. With that, I'll call for the board for the vote student. >> Thank you. >> I board I it passes. Next item is approval of the first interim budget. Dr. Gleon. >> Madame President, members of the board, the greatest hits tour of the December board meeting continues. Uh excited to bring the uh first interim budget. Uh AB1200 requires four school districts as the board knows, but for the public uh who is watching for school districts to bring interim budget reports forward. Um we have our first interim in this uh in December of every year, our second interim in March, our adopted budget in June, and then the unodudited actuals. uh that were just presented are presented in or unodudited actuals that were just audited in the prior item are presented in August. First interim budget

083is uh it is precise in some ways and and imprecise in others. So it's precise in that uh this reflects all the uh closing activity that we had as we closed the books in the fiscal year that we didn't have in the adopted budget. Um it's imprecise in that it is based off of about a month and a half of uh personnel data. Um so our second interim budget is often a little more precise in that level. Uh similar and another common story is of course we're always chasing the state uh because Prop 98 which uh funds uh backfills the property tax the state aid that uh districts like ours get is so dependent on the top 1% of income earners uh uh in California it's very hard to predict the economy. And so we

084looked at two entities while we waited for the January budget. We looked to the governor's office and we looked to the legislative analyst office. Legislative analyst office, some good news coming out of there in the short term. There's an uh uh good and bad. They thought there was a $21 billion uh increase in revenues. Uh their latest projection has lowered that to 11 billion. Why that? Uh but as we look to the outy years, the deficit is strong on the statewide level. um in California because we have Prop 98. Prop 98 is a guarantee that cannot go below the prior year guarantee unless it's the last two years where Governor Nuome did not follow that. Um but I digress. Uh we should in a in an economic um recession, Prop 98 is somewhat insulated from

085those pressures. The last two years uh the Newsome administration and the legislature decided to not fully fund Prop 98 which is required by the Constitution. Uh I believe their methodology and purpose was to not give us money that they would have to pull back because as they waited on final returns. Um because they did that move uh and because the economic position of the 24 25 and 25 fiscal years are both uh have both improved uh over the projection of the governor and the legislature. That means that there's a settle owed to local school districts. Um now what's not clear and we won't know till the January budget is how that settle up will manifest. It can either manifest in terms of a um one-time significant funding. My napkin math is roughly $6 million depending

086on the funding formula. One time money that would come in. But the state could very well decide to use the money to populate the rainy day uh fund and put it into reserves. We won't know until January. Um, onetime funding uh is always uh it's always nice to have money. Uh, onetime funding is always tricky. Uh, right now districts really need it for cash flow purposes, which I'll talk about in a bit. For those that are have been following the last few years, uh, we are now currently on season seven of uh, this episode. Every year in December for the last two years, uh, which is not common. This is not common. uh our cost of living adjustment for the existing fiscal year is adjusted. Uh two years ago we had it adjusted from around

0874% down to around 1%. Last year similar adjustment happened. This year just like the two prior not as bad uh is a half percent reduction in cola projected. And and so in the single swing of an email and this single mark of a pen we lose $600,000 right there. Um, and that is really tricky to adjust for in a given fiscal year. Um, good news is right now 2829 2930 look more favorable in terms of COLA estimates, but as we know, if I if I'm being optimistic, I'm excited about that. If I'm being realistic, I will look to what's happened in the past two years and be very cautious about it. All that to say, that brings us to our first uh interim assumptions. Um, as was stated in our adopted budget and throughout the

088interim reports last year, our uh revenue assumptions were based off of a 1% enrollment decline. Um, we have uh remained conservative uh because LA County across the state of California is the county that is losing the most students. We are one of only three districts who have shown enrollment increases when others have enrollment declines. And because we were able to materialize the increase we had uh hoped for and it had worked for our LCFF revenues are up. The state revenues are up because we got uh in the last budget uh Governor Newsome put a one-time discretionary block grant in there. Um that's the reason you see the spike. And then local revenues are up as a product of our increase in facility use fees and the ad of LBUSD plus as well as the statewide

089expansion of center edex. On the expenditure side, uh everything is well within the um norms of what we would predict. Salary and benefits are up uh because we settle with LBEA and LBCA after the adopted budget. So what you see there is a product of those settlements coupled with the need to hire more staff for the higher enrollment that ended up materializing coupled with LBUSD plus on the classified side as added staff for our expanded and extended learning programs. The reason books and supplies are up is really an accounting adjustment. We had ed services uh adopted as was stated earlier in this meeting a really fantastic eight-year math curriculum uh which is paid upfront. Um accounting procedures require you to book the expenditure in the year in which you received the materials. There was a

090slight delay in shipping. They were received in the 256 year which they were budgeted in to be received in the 24 25 year. Long story short, we acrewed it to 2526 and that's why you see the spike. In terms of fund balance, uh fund balance, we u in terms of our uh enrollment and attendance positions as well as um as we closed the books and really have been tight on spending uh we have been able to preserve most of fund 17 and have total ending reserves of around 33 million on top of the fund 17 uh reserve. Now, uh that uh saying that out loud is it's a lot of money, but we don't always have cash even though we have fun balance. So, one of the tricky things and this uh is a good

091time to talk about the next agenda item is we receive our main source of funding local the local controlled funding formula. We receive it in two ways. The first is you receive your property tax distribution from the local community. That's backfilled by state aid, Prop 98. Um that Prop 98 aid, which is about 40ish% of our aortionment, comes in in regular payments. The property tax aid comes in two in December and May. So right now we're waiting on a $22 million check for our property tax aortionment, but every month we have regular payroll, regular materials costs. And so we always need to be mindful of cash. The next agenda item uh to have a transfer from fund 17 is to be able to uh ensure that we always have cash available while we wait for

092those property tax dispersements. Um and that's why that's coming to you. I'm in a habit tonight of spoiling the next agenda item. So, I will stay on this one as we look at the multi-year projections. Um, and goes without saying kind of miss uh to Mr. Lawrence's pri uh comments of the prior item. Uh the board reviews this ongoing and frequently in committee and otherwise. So, um there's a frequency to the review. uh as we look to the mult multi-year I'm continuing to um you know we're waiting on right now about 2,000 homes to be constructed in our area but we still do live in LA County where there is large attrition of students so still try uh planning to on an enrollment decline in the multi-year projections of 1% even though the last two

093years have shown an increase that is the prudent step to take um it's uh that said we're being you know always being transparent with that's how we are setting up the budget it is always better to underpromise in my opinion than overd deliver. Uh and then uh as we look at expenditures, we don't have any clarity from the January or May uh budgets on new funding. Uh we are projecting now to bring in about 14 million in funds 17 and 267 and 78. Uh for those that have been watching this the last few years, uh this is a common 67 and 78 um or two-year outlook beyond the existing fiscal year. Uh as we look >> everybody wanted to do it. I saw I saw everyone want to do it. So clearly it's not dead

094yet. I saw everybody in the room, oh 67. >> I said it out loud and didn't do it and then didn't immediately regret it. It blow right back in. I know you did. we are going to the 26th 27th school year. So let's hope that uh dies before then. >> Uh and uh so as we look to the next few years, we do have a deficit. We do have a deficit we need to address. Um we are addressing it through um we have if you look across the state, many uh districts across the state have addressed it through uh cuts and expenditures solely. uh our strategy as the board knows very well and as directed under their vision is to raise uh revenues wherever we can and to say to ensure that programs are sustained

095for the benefit of children. Um and so we'll continue that strategy while we continue to rightsize things adjustments that we have made. Uh we've looked under every stone um in terms of workers comp insurance, in terms of health insurance, in terms of LBUSD plus to serve our students, serve our staff better while also having a fiscal benefit. As we looked at expenditures, expenditures on the out outy years uh the reasons you see declines in uh salary uh and benefits are to correspond with those enrollment declines that are projected on the revenues, they should match each other. Uh and then u of course as ED services continues uh their um world famous adoption tour over the next few years is ELA history, social science and science hit the books. Um those are all mapped out in

096um the uh books and supplies sections. Enrollment and attendance in the state of California. For those that might be watching at home, the board of course knows this very well. We are we build a budget based on enrollment. We're funded on attendance. We build a budget on enrollment. We're funded on attendance. So, if we have 10,000 kids, but only 9,500 show up on the average day, we build a budget of staffing, feeding, providing books and materials, utilities for 10,000 kids, but receive the funding for 9,500. Uh whether we like it or not, that's the rules of the game in California, and it's important to be mindful of those uh phenomenon. As we look to next year, uh we just finished or we're in the process of closing our early enrollment window. our early enrollment window

097uh uh is currently demonstrating these numbers uh for our sites. So, we have relatively stable enrollment across our sites. Um the magic number to shoot for is 10,000. Um we're not trying to grow beyond that, but if we can stay at 10,000 while uh all this new construction builds up around us, that is a really comfortable place for us to be and and a responsible place for us to be too in terms of uh where we are as a district. That's uh those are the conversations of course we've had in terms of revenues. If we can hold 10,000 uh over the uh if we can get to 10,000 in the 26 27 school year uh that'll yield 3 million over three years. Of course, if we can hold 10,000 in 78 and 89, that'll only

098have a compounding effect. So that is a good goal to be mindful of enrollment, especially with new construction around us. We do have two developments that are in the process of already having fully secured their permits and have paid their developer fees. So, it does uh demonstrate that families will be moving into at least a couple units near us soon. Uh want to highlight um the work of our school sites and our principles under the leadership of Don Thomas. Uh Don, our assistant superintendent of student services, of course, in partnership with Dr. Anderson, Dr. gone and Miss Davenport have really demonstrated uh a real focus on attendance building on the great foundation of Miss Angie Faul in the prior years and uh we are right now seeing about a 1% increase in attendance districtwide across

099the sites. Uh there are a number of initiatives that are going into that uh most uh focused on support and positivity. The net effect of that is 1% uh that of that 1% is significant. It's even more significant on than the enrollment side is the net net effect of having a 100 more students in the district by 1.7 to 1.8 million a year. It'll be hard to hold that trend at that level. That is an extraordinary increase and is the product of a lot of very hard work from uh Mrs. Thomas and her team. But we are going into a flu season where the uh vaccine might not be as effective and uh rumor has it there's a pretty um aggressive stomach virus going around too. So January, February we usually see uh illness take

100an impact on this. Uh but this early data is really phenomenal and is product of a lot of great work. Uh that's the end of the first interim budget, but if I'm watching at home, I'm wondering when do I get to see this again? When will this come back? >> That's just what I was thinking. uh is in my mind. >> Uh in addition to talking about uh talking to uh uh the board about this regularly ongoing uh daily weekly uh we have our second interim projections which will include the January budget assumptions coming in the March meeting. So for those watching at home turn your TVs to March and uh be ready for the second interim coming to board meetings. >> Okay. >> Motion to approve. >> Thank you. Is that it? Okay. Any

101questions or comments? >> Um, yeah, I had a couple. Um, you know, just first of all to say it's uh it's really great to see that uh the budget in is in a um a better state than earlier this year actually and that's because you were very careful with the budgeting process uh which I think we all greatly appreciate. And uh just also to say a lot of the innovative things you've done uh over the past couple years uh with regard to restructuring benefits and insurance and all of these things have helped so much. Um I've been doing the California school boards masters and governance program and just chatting to superintendents and and board members across California. You know so many of them who've not done these things and are facing real headwinds with state

102budgeting. they are having to make such difficult cost cutting decisions and the fact we you know able to support all of our programs, support our students, support our teachers and staff, you know, it boils down to just careful budgeting at the end of the day and using innovative ways to to keep it on track. Um so just really appreciate all of that. Um just a couple of um small questions. Um the the the increase there was a 12% increase in state revenue. Is that the additional funds? Are you are you projecting there what the additional funds will be that come from the state? Um >> yes that uh the state revenue increases are a product a little bit with respect to uh lottery but mostly it's that um that new discretionary block grant that was

103released in the budget act of 25 >> right yeah that's what I meant I couldn't find the words for it but okay thank you um and then the the increase in classified salaries that's specifically related to LVUSD plus right that we did a lot of hiring for that right that was the the bulk of it right >> uh for LUSD plus to maintain the All all agenda items are coming together tonight to maintain the ratios for the ELOP side of this as well as to launch the program and make sure we have a solid academic and safe program. We've hired approximately uh I want to say 30 classified staff and managers to oversee the five sites that we're at. Big shout out to Miss Hi Chambers who made that possible along with Dr. Cyers to

104my left. Um and then uh to carry out some of the uh initiatives of the board in terms of the cell phone initiative. We wanted to make sure we had um uh you know adequate supervision but also support for all the ping pong championships that are happening at our sites but most of it's obviously >> okay fantastic. Um, also I'm glad you mentioned the books and supplies for the new math curriculum and uh I know folks are out there, you know, certainly a lot of parents I've I've chatted to, they're real happy that there's, you know, there's there's paper going on and not just on laptops, but also, you know, using real books for the for the math curriculum and working on paper, I think is important to a lot of of parents out there.

105Um, and yeah, also just wanted to note the the work on attendance. Um, again on on my my CSBA thing I've been doing, so many of the districts across the state, they're looking at like 93 94% attendance and we heading like 96 97. Don't say it, Dallas. Um, I'm one of them. >> Um, again, it's just discredit. I know you've worked really hard with the um administrators and teachers at at many of the schools as well, but these attendance figures just really look great. So, thank you. Any other questions or comments? Hearing none. >> I would just say I I don't think you in the team have credit for this. It's something that internally frustrates me. Uh because you need a Ouija board and like a magic eightball combined and then you know something else

106to be able to figure out what the state of California is going to do. And I think everyone thinks we have more money than we do. I think I think you have the best line I've ever heard. We have to spend every dollar three ways or they want to spend it three times. U but I I this ties back exactly the conversation we had earlier. new programs, pathways, new courses. The fact that we have these in a down budget environment in a district that makes I forget the number. Is it 40% less per student than LA USD? >> It's about $5,000 less per student. >> So 30% less. We do it with less, we do more, and we do it better. And I think that the that and your team is a very unsung hero

107on this, but I think this is nothing else that we do would matter if we didn't do this. We would be an insolvent district offering just core A throughG courses and that's it. We wouldn't have a shop class. We wouldn't have a new film division class. We wouldn't have a pathways for uh you know culinary arts where you're getting a certificate that you would have to pay $300 for outside the district. So um I really hope you and your team rec feel at least the love that they know that everything that we spent the last two hours on is only because of the work that you guys did. I I always look at the state's cola projections in December as kind of like um Lucy with the football >> and Charlie Brown. I never quite

108believe it. >> It's the worst holiday movie possible. >> Yes. >> Appreciate that. I I I think >> for the uh the community watching to the um what was so great about Dr. Scott's presentation is all how hard all those teachers work. Full stop. Um but also that their facilities were able to be all upgraded. Every single the broadcasting sports medicine, auto shop, uh culinary, miss, uh you know, Chef Allen is has brand new ovens right now. So to see that the community's investment is growing those programs and that's self perpetuated is really great. >> Thank you very much. Again, a shout out to Miss Thomas because um attendance is not only a budgetary issue. It's good for students for their learning. Got to be in class to listen to the lessons, do the work,

109hear from your teacher, and learn from your teacher. So, thank you for all that work. And thank you to our schools. I know they all have um attendance incentives that they're doing, and they've really, you know, embraced this. And um thank you. Thank you to our schools. And Dr. And thank you for your team. Like everyone said, the budget is really really um challenging and we face more challenges with you know areas that the federal government normally funds for states that um SNAP and other things that you know that the state may have to take on that and the state the outlook is not that great for the state. So they may have other um burdens that they have to take on as well. So, thank you for always keeping your eye on the ball

110and you and your team and Miss Thomas, thank you. And with that, I'm going to call for the vote, Mr. Seagull. >> Say, uh, Miss Brennan, if you're watching, I have a very bad stomach bug right now, so I can't take my final tomorrow. Um, I say I >> just kidding. >> Um, Mr. Seagull, um, >> it's got it on video. It's legal. It's official public. Do you excuse no because I'm not sure any of us are going to sign it. So anyway, >> uh board all those in favor I >> I >> Okay, we have an interim budget. Thank you very much. The next item, Dr. Gleason, approval of inner fund transfer be between fund 01 and fund 17. And if we will share for the public what exactly those funds are >> briefly

111because we do this every day. >> Just what their name just names. Their names. What are their names? Thank you. That's not okay. >> Madam President, members of the board, um as was mentioned in the past item, um right now the first five months of the fiscal year are the most challenging from a cash perspective because uh as I had shared the uh property tax dispersement, the major one does not come in until December. Um so it is vital to have uh an extension of our reserve. So fund one is uh we call the general fund. Fund 17 is the special reserve for non- capital projects is its formal name. Uh I just like calling it fund 17. Fund 17 currently uh its net position is roughly $15 million. Um the ask in this resolution

112is to allow for the dynamic movement of uh funds from fund 17 into fund 01 for cash flow purposes and for our ability then once cash flow uh once those property tax um aortionments come in for us to put the money back into fund 17. This will uh uh keep us from having to do multiple board resolutions for the same type of action. >> Motion to approve resolution 2325. Any questions, comments? Hearing none, I'll call for the uh vote. Student, do you you approve this transfer? >> I >> You feeling better? >> Good. Uh board, all those in favor? >> I >> Okay, we're transferring money. Okay. Uh Dr. Gleason, uh authorizing release of RFP for summer enrichment and intercession services. Madam President, members of the board, uh in the past board meeting, last board

113meeting, we brought a resolution forward for an RFP for expanded learning services. Um the expanded learning services were to identify a partner to support us with uh LBUSD plus as we expand to all TK through six campuses next year. Uh we received 20 proposals uh which is uh an incredible interest in the uh RFP. And as those proposals came in, what was clear is that our proposal was too broad as defined because we were asking for afterchool support in addition to an autonomous provider for summer and interession. So essentially we're asking for a provider to provide a staff for the uh afterchool portion and then be self-managing and autonomous for interession and summer. uh for a a provider to provide a fiscal and operational proposal for that seemed to be challenging and um to make

114sure that we uh really adhere with 20 proposals to a fair process and uh public contract code. It was uh my recommendation is to split uh the inter session and summer components through the board's approval of this RFP. I've issued an addendum to the existing RFP so that uh our providers we can continue the momentum forward with the afterchool component. Um this will just allow for us to have um uh providers that are able to submit based on their areas of expertise. What it does mean is we could have a provider for summer and inter session separate from our after school. Um from what I read in the proposals that could be to our advantage. Um I cannot share the content of the proposals or I would violate the process. I would just share it

115broadly. This is uh in the best interest of those proposing and especially the district. >> Thank you. >> Motion approved 2225. >> I'll second it. Any questions or comments? >> Hearing none. I'll call for the vote. Student >> I. >> Board. >> Passes. Uh okay. Let's see. Dr. >> Is there a committee by the way that is involved in this process? Which committee is it? Would this be finances would come? >> RPS I bring to finance and I also try um to bring them to facilities as well. um at times >> so finance will have a chance to dive deeper into your final selections when they come back. >> Correct. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Uh school bus transportation. >> Madam President, members of the board, uh speaking of RFPs, the RFP for uh school transportation

116went out. We had two providers submit proposals. Our recommendation is for the board to award based on the criteria that was outlined in the RFP Durham School Services with the contract. Durham School Services is our current provider. Uh they demonstrated in their proposal not only operational excellence uh strong references, financial viability, but also uh in terms of cost, they were much more favorable than the other provider that submitted. Uh Durham did submit a uh cost proposal that is 25% higher than our current rates uh which is common in an RFP. Um my recommendation to the board is to award to Durham based off the process tonight pending the approval of the contract which is common. So uh the board can always award an RFP and resend that award if the contract terms are not met

117that are favorable to the district. There are a couple terms of that contract that I am going to be meeting with Durham on Thursday if the board awards uh tonight to make sure that um uh that we are mindful of the increased fuel and insurance costs that they are incurring while also trying to do the best for the general fund and get kids to school. >> Thank you very much. May I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Seconded. >> Okay. Any questions or comments? Again, we are approving this and the contract will come back at a later date. So any questions or comments hearing? None. Mr. Seagull. >> I >> board. >> Passes. Thank you very much. Next two items are very brief um information item. The first one is um realigning

118board committees. And so what I'm going to ask the board to do is to take a look. There are five board committees. All of them are very important to the operations of the district and to students and staff. So please take a look each of you please individual um email me individually uh your top three choices and we will vote on this at the next meeting which is January 27th and we will rotate committees in February. So please uh stay on your committees through January through the next board meeting and um that's when we will so the so you will find out when the board uh agenda is released on the Friday before the board meeting and again every single committee is very important. So uh with that uh any questions or comments and then

119we'll move on to the superintendent committees. Okay superintendent Dr. to do. >> Okay. Hearing no comments. >> Amen. >> Questions. Any further? >> We're going to adjourn this meeting. Everybody have a wonderful holiday. Have joy, have food, have whatever makes your heart desire, and be safe. Thank you. >> And if anybody at the desk wants to stay, we didn't get a chance to celebrate Mr. Lazar's birthday. So >> somebody makes