001Good evening. This is the August 12th meeting of the Board of Education, the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District. Sorry, I have to turn the page. Our meetings are broadcast over Zoom to provide the opportunity for our community to observe in real time. The Board of Education of the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District is now reconvening to open session, and it is 6.02 PM. Please be advised that our board meetings are televised on local channel 28 on Wednesday and Saturday evenings, and on Monday, Friday and Saturday mornings. All actions approved in closed session must be reported out in open session. I'd ask Trustee Vanden Heuvel if he could please report those out. I'll start with the first one. During closed session, the Board of Education took action regarding the readmittance of a stipulated expulsion
002of student D, and the board voted 5-0 in favor of the superintendent's recommendation to approve that readmittance. During closed session, also the Board of Education took action regarding the revocation of stipulated expulsion for student H, and the board voted 5-0 in favor of the superintendent's recommendation. During closed session, also the Board of Education took action regarding the revocation of a stipulated expulsion for student I, and the board voted 5-0 in favor of the superintendent's recommendation. Also during closed session, the Board of Education took action regarding the revocation of an an abeyance agreement for student AB. And the board voted five zero in favor of the student's recommendation to revoke the abeyance agreement. Thank you. Okay, we're gonna move on to our pledge of allegiance. And I'd ask, I am going to ask Trustee Bueno if
003you could lead us in the pledge. Please stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Dr. Gibson, are there any changes to the agenda? Not at this time. Okay, we're gonna move on to item 10.0, our employee association reports. So we do have representatives from our bargaining units tonight who will report. I'm gonna invite Amy Thompson, the president of LEA to come forward and want to recognize Tara Lutz, her vice president who's in the audience. Good evening, board president Pruso, members of the board, Superintendent Gibson and cabinet. I'm Amy Thompson, president of the Livermore Education Association, representing teachers, nurses, counselors, psychologists, speech pathologists, social workers, and teachers on special assignment. I
004wanna start with a huge thank you to our students who woke up early, two days before the official end of summer vacation to greet us with great spirit at the kickoff. Seeing their faces really provides inspiration to our teachers. And it's a reminder of why we're all here. Tonight, you will hear what sounds like good news for our district budget in the 45 day budget revision. Millions of dollars have been added in both one time and ongoing revenue. We're in the black for this year and the next two fiscal years. But this is only part of the story. While other bargaining units and managers in our district are at or above market rate in compensation, LEA members are compensated well below market rate for the work that they do. To correct this, it will require
005an estimated investment of $5.4 million to bring teachers to average compensation. This is not a time to celebrate. This is a time to dig deep into the budget and figure out a plan of how to provide competitive compensation to our teachers. Medical premiums increased 11 to 14% this year. But to our members, that feels more like a 30 to 40% increase because the entire increased cost is passed on to the members. The average out-of-pocket cost for our members increased $270 a month, which feels like a $270 a month pay cut. And organizations' true priorities can be shown in their budgeting practices. Our new strategic plan says that our budget will reflect students as a priority in strategic initiative number five. However, in our recent budget actions, we have cut teachers, counselors, and psychologists. We have
006cut classroom supply budgets, school site budgets, and stipends for instructional leadership teachers. We've added elementary combination classes and staffed schools so tightly that it's nearly impossible to make any schedule changes or add new students. Comparatively, during this time, we've restructured district management, created new district management positions, rebranded the entire district, and senior cabinet went on a beach retreat. It sounds to me like we're on the wrong path and need to correct our course. Countless LEA members have pointed out to me that their input of focusing on competitive compensation that was also supported by parents and community members in strategic initiative number five was cut out by district management. This leaves them feeling dismissed, untrusting, and undervalued. Before you tonight is the contract for the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources. This is a position that did
007not exist in our district before last year. When it was created, we were told that there would not be a cost increase for this title promotion because there was a restructuring of the cabinet level salary schedule. However, the contract before you has a person hired in at step eight, which is the highest step on that salary schedule, and comes with a $44,167 per year increase in cost for salary alone for that one position. When comparing LEA to the compensation of surrounding districts, our compensation ranks ninth out of 11 districts in the bottom quartile. We have our first negotiation session this coming Monday. If the district is not prepared to offer a substantial pay increase at that negotiation session, then this board needs to take action. The morale of our members is steadily declining as district
008management continues to add to the costs while the burden of budget savings is placed on the backs of those directly working with students. No action has been taken to prove that students and those that work with them are a priority in our district budget. So we are now looking to the board. The contract for the assistant superintendent should be renegotiated to be less expensive and step and column increases for district level management should be frozen until teachers are at least compensated at the average for our comparative districts. Why do you allow district level management to be compensated at the top while continually compensating teachers at the bottom? Please do something that shows we are a priority. Just saying it is not enough. Thank you. Thank you. We do have a blue card on this item.
009So I'd invite Lisa Disbro to come forward. Yeah, we do need a timer. Sorry, we're not used. Give us just a second. Yeah. And the timer is coming. It'll come up. Okay, thank you. I'm Lisa Disbro. I'm a retired lifetime California teacher and I'm the head of Contra Costa Moms for Liberty. I care greatly about children. I have since I was ninth grader at Richmond High where I saw inequity and challenges and lack of educational opportunities. And I set about to make that my lifetime career. And post-retirement, that's where I continue to stand and live and breathe. And I wanna wish you the best of everything for this school year. I'm very hopeful for everything that we can share with our students and achieve. And I come to you today because I'm concerned about additional
010training, LGBTQIA training that seventh through 12th grade teachers will be provided. And I'm concerned at the conflict over their First Amendment rights, their rights to their freedom of beliefs, values, religion and conscience. Tough word. And I just wanna say to all those listening and to you as board members that there's a genuine conflict here because an idea is being promoted that is becoming a faith. And that is the idea of transgenderism, the idea that feelings can actually change one person into something else and that sex is not immutable. So I'm very concerned that we have teachers that are being indoctrinated and that their values and free speech and conscience decisions are being imposed upon. I as a teacher experienced this personally. I was harassed, I was persecuted because I have biblical faith values. And I
011just wanna let teachers know that there are others fighting for them. They can opt out today.com of the union and that there are legal teams who have successfully protected the religious and conscience rights of other teachers in the state even after being fired. And I think this is an important battle for us all to face. It's a First Amendment right. And no one has to say anybody's pronouns or change their language if it doesn't meet their own personal beliefs. And with that, I just thank you for listening. Thank you, we're gonna move on. President Trisa, just a point of personal privilege. You couldn't be seen in the audience but we can see the broadcast in front of us and that the header underneath it said Livermore Education Association. So just for anyone watching, if we
012could correct the record that that was not comments from. It actually got pushed out to 10.2 first, which was CSEA. So we went back to go fix it. And then when he put it back, it was 10.1 but that was actually a public comment on that agendized item. Right, just for someone watching. Correct, I was thinking the exact same thing. It's a citizen's comment. Correct. But it's not Livermore Education Association. Yes, correct, thank you. I was gonna say something as well. Okay, we're gonna move on to our CSEA president, Mamie Kristevich. And I want to also recognize her vice president, Victoria Storti, who's in the audience. Good evening, President Pruso, members of the board, Superintendent Gibson and cabinet. I am Mamie Kristevich, president of the Livermore Chapter of CSEA, the California School Employees Association. The
013last time we were here, it was eight weeks ago on June 17th. It's truly hard to believe that we are in August and school begins again tomorrow. I hope everyone has enjoyed their time off and is looking forward to the new school year. I returned to the role of CSEA president in January in part due to the budget reductions and layoffs that were on the horizon. On the horizon was an understatement as I dove right in from the start and it has been nonstop since. I have spoken at every board meeting since January and you know that I care deeply and sincerely about equity and doing the right thing in my unwavering representation of CSEA members and the protection of our rights within our collective bargaining agreement and as district employees. In the midst of
014our re-opener negotiations last year, we also had significant layoffs, our demand to bargain the impacts and effects of layoffs, our cease and desist planned transfer of work as a result of layoffs, and then our me too negotiations on top of other issues. It was a lot, one painful step at a time with uncertainty, disappointment, trauma, and even fear of retaliation for CSEA members and then a witnessing of significant compensation increases for other bargaining units and management employees where our district denied equitable compensation for CSEA classified employees and eliminated a number of our positions. It is always about prioritization and CSEA classified employees are keenly aware that equitable compensation for us has not been a priority for our district. Case in point is the significant increase in salary that you will be considering tonight for the
015assistant superintendent of human resources. On the topic of our me too clause in our collective bargaining agreement, it has been in place for decades since 2004 and it was negotiated primarily to maintain parity and equity across bargaining units, which ensures fairness and promotes harmony between bargaining units and the district. CSEA members are simply asking for what we are entitled to. We went back to the table to allocate the cost value amount that is owed to us based on our contract language and no more than that. During our final me too negotiation session on May 29, we were still not able to come to agreement. We did agree to pre-impasse mediation, which was held on August 4th. As you were made aware, we reached a tentative agreement, but until it is approved by our CSEA field
016office and chapter membership, I am not at liberty to discuss the details. My hope is that we could move forward to do the essential work that we do and that the district will truly collaborate with CSEA. It is vital for the district to be inclusive when trying to make changes or improve processes for those who are directly impacted. Classified employees should be able to feel that they are valued, respected and trusted. They want their concerns heard and input considered, whether it is about their work, compensation or safety and the district would undoubtedly benefit from learning from those on the front lines and behind the scenes. On August 20, CSEA will be welcoming 60 new classified employees to the Livermore School District at our revamped new employee orientation. Our collective bargaining agreement guarantees CSEA time and
017access to new employee orientations during the workday. And while that has slipped over the past four years, we are enforcing our contract language now so that we have the opportunity to introduce ourselves to our new members at the start of their employment. You may know that we have always had new paraeducators to welcome at the start of the school year, but this year we will also have 20 new instructional assistants, largely due to the addition of TK classrooms at our school sites. I hope you will take the time and opportunity this year to learn more about the essential work that CSEA classified employees do on the front lines and in the background. Spend some time in a busy school office or a special ed classroom, or come visit those who work behind the scenes in
018a district office. I look forward to connecting with you this year. Thank you. Thank you. I don't see her here, but our president of our union SEIA is Kirsty Governor and the representative for CMC is Sarah DeGroote. I don't see her either. We're gonna move on to 11.0, which is our public comments on non-agenda items. So if you would like to address a topic that is not on this evening's agenda, now is the time to do so. And we ask that you limit your comments to three minutes and that each speaker may speak once. This is a meeting of the board held in public and not a public meeting, which means we're here to conduct the board's business in view of the community. To ensure everyone has had a chance to be heard and we
019maintain a respectful environment, please refrain from clapping or other reactions. It's hard for us to hear when people do that. So if you agree with the speaker, simply raising your hand is appreciated. Public comments are limited to three minutes and I will give a reminder at the 22nd mark, not trying to be rude, just trying to make sure that everyone has ensured that everyone has fairness and equity in giving their full opportunity to speak. And as a reminder, we as board members may not engage in discussion, take action or give any opinion on items that are not on the agenda. However, the board may briefly respond asking clarifying questions of staff and or refer matters to staff for follow-up. So with that, I have several tan cards. So I'm gonna call you up one at
020a time and I will give you a heads up if you're on deck. And please forgive me if I mispronounce your name, either I can't say your name or I can't read the writing either way. So if I say it wrong, please correct it when you come to the microphone. So we'll first hear from Wayne Hankins and following Wayne, we'll hear from Nathan Trant. Good evening. I was here in June when we had the issue of having LGBTQT month approved and the celebrated. At that meeting, there were nine people that got up and gave their opinions. Six of them were very clear, very passionate about not wanting it. Three were very passionate about wanting it. Yet when the went to a vote by the school board, there was no discussion. There were no comments other
021than this is inclusive for all of our students. We don't wanna leave anyone out. To my ears, that sounds like very toxic misguided compassion because it ignores the people of faith, the people who believe in one man and one woman. The bill, the item went through. One board member voted not to have it. Everyone else in lockstep agreed to it. My concern is when my grandchildren come to school, I am teaching them to believe in God. And that God is a God of duality, of masculine and feminine, man and woman. And it follows a principle that is very important throughout all creation. Everyone here, nobody created themselves. We have a creator and that creator created a beautiful pattern. We see it in man and woman, and masculine and feminine in the animal world, pistol and
022stamen, positive and negative. It covers everything. So coming to an agenda where my children, my grandchildren would be confused. It's not education. I see it as absolute indoctrination. Going to, along with that, men playing in women's sports. I've been an athlete in my high school year. I know top level men and boys that played. And then the second level and third level, they can't compete. They're not good enough. But they have the desire to want to compete. So what can they do now? We've set up a system whereby men can now compete against the weaker sex. Men are stronger, quicker. They have all these attributes. 20 seconds. And yet we see women being pummeled, being hurt. Are we going to have transgender boxing, transgender wrestling? Thank you for your attention. Thank you. Thank you, that's
023your time. I'm gonna invite Nathan Tran forward and following Nathan will be Lisa Disbrow. Good evening, board. Good evening, superintendent. I am a man who wears many hats, but today I'm proud to wear a gift that I just got from my best friend. It doesn't mean uncle who likes guns, though I am a believer in the second amendment. It means gay uncle, even though I'm bisexual. Dualities, but also we contain multitudes, don't we? The reason why I'm here today is because I'm very proud to be a member of the Livermore community. The reason why I'm here today is because I am a believer in a very specific faith. And I am a believer in a specific sort of faith where if someone is different from me, if I see someone who thinks differently than I
024do, who loves differently than I do, who preaches differently than I do, I welcome it with curiosity. And I welcome it with compassion. I welcome it with patience. I don't believe that any God or gods or creator or creators are spiteful or vengeful. I believe in an American faith because I grew up next to Muslims, next to Christians, next to Jews, next to Sikhs, next to atheists, next to agnostics, and I turned out just fine. At least I like to think so. And I like to think that my family thinks so. So I'm not here today to argue or to try to impress my ideology on anyone. Some people just can't be convinced and that's okay. But I just am here to say that Livermore and this school district are safe places. And I am
025very much in support. And many people throughout our community are very much in support. Our city council members, I'm sure, are in support. Our Congress members, our state legislators, there are so many people, so many teachers are in support of just a basic curriculum where they're taught, okay, yeah, so there are students who want to live this way. Here's how you make sure that they feel supported. Here's how you make sure that if they're having a hard time figuring out how they wanna live the rest of their lives, they can go to you, they could trust you, they could open up, and then they could go back and do their classes. That's how I graduated top of my class back in Tracy High. I came out when I was in junior year of high school
026and I turned out just fine. So I'm really here today because I want, thank you, I want any students, any parents, any soon to be students, any alumni who are paying attention tonight, because Lord knows we don't have anything better to do tonight, anyone who's paying attention to know that this is a safe place and that people care here, we have each other's backs, because that is the American faith. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we'll invite Lisa Disbro forward and following her will be Joanne Morrison. Oh, good evening. I'm Lisa Disbro. I'm female. I'm a mother. And I heard that there was a little ripple in the audience concerning the strength versus of men versus women. Giving birth is no lightweight task. So I just wanna say for the record that women are strong in
027very unique ways that men do not have the capacity for. And I celebrate that. And I want to say that, oops, I just lost the page I wanted, there we go. I'm a chlorine mom and that means water polo and swimming since my kids were babies at the pool. And thank God, because it gave us a life of competition and rivalry and setting goals and getting up when we didn't want to and learning to sacrifice and work as a team. And I just looked up the US Olympic team trials because I wanna compare the men's time to the women's time. And if you know anything about swimming, time is the issue. You have the faster time and you win anything below that, you come in second, third, fourth, fifth, whatever. So this is for women
028and the 50 free. Qualifying for the 2024 Olympic team trials, the time must be 25.69. That's to get in the event, 25.69. For men, it is almost three seconds faster, 22.79. Significant, three seconds in the pool is a lifetime. I wanna go on to the 100 free. For the women to qualify, it's 55.79. For the men, 49.99. That's because of lung capacity, muscle, all of those very physical aspects, blood flow, everything. And you cannot manufacture, feelings do not manufacture themselves into changed body parts. And so I'm gonna say something that's controversial but is factual. There are no trans people. There are females, there are males who have a psychology that they want to identify as the other sex. Thank you, but there are only two sexes. That's why they use the word immutable. And that's
029why your decision regarding the sports is going to be overturned eventually through Title IX, which is the federal law. That's your time. Thank you. Joanne Morrison will be followed by Tom Wong. Good evening, President Peruzzo, members of the board, Superintendent Gibson and cabinet. Well, here we are. The first board meeting of the school year. And already we're hearing from a nationally known hate group, Moms for Liberty. I want to assure you that these extreme viewpoints are not the viewpoints of the community. This is not what Livermore wants. This is not what belongs in public schools. Religious beliefs and philosophy are not the curriculum in public school. Parents can teach their kids whatever they like at home or in their places of worship. It does not belong in public school curriculum. What all kids need to
030learn is tolerance for those who are different from themselves. Furthermore, when it comes to student athletes, we have laws in California. California education code section 221.5 says, a pupil shall be permitted to participate in sex segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions and use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupils records. That is the law. We in the community trust you all to follow the law, regardless of what fringe groups have to say about it. Furthermore, the honor of civil rights act, civil code section 51 provides a right of action for discrimination based on gender and gender identity. Actual damages, including emotional distress, plus a minimum fine of $4,000 per violation can be awarded against the school district if they discriminate based on
031gender identity in sports or in any facet of public education. So I just wanted to remind you of that. I know you know it very well, but I want you to know that we in the community know it also. Thank you. Thank you, Joanne. We'll invite Tom Wong forward and Ken Williams will be following. Hi, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tom Wong. I am the chief editor of political comment writer for the town hall.news. I report on local politics throughout Alameda County fairway from boards and commissions to city council to just about anything that has to do with public, anybody that has to follow the Brown Act, I will be reporting on it. So I just want to introduce myself, let you guys know, put a name to the face, I was
032gonna say. I am here to wondering why a Title IX agenda was placed on the meeting agenda for tonight. And then later on, it was pulled back. It seems like it met the requirements for the bylaws and that it was later on, it was pulled back. So I will be watching and reporting to the public, but I would like to speak with anybody outside one-on-one giving you time to give your side of what's going on and advocate, be your voice, be the voice of the community. And I'm trying to be balanced about it. And I hope I could meet your expectations in writing you a fair articles. So thank you for listening to me and hope to speak with you guys sometime soon. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, let's see. Sorry, Ken Williams. And then
033following Ken, we'll have Marilyn Dykstra. It's close or far, what's better? That's good, yeah. Good evening. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on Title IX as it's a controversial and emotionally charged topic. My name is Ken Williams. I was a professor for 46 years at Chabot College in Hayward. I've had the privilege to teach undergraduate economics and finance to about 28,000 students historically. At Chabot, coincidentally, I was a faculty advisor for the LGBTQ club. And from 1977 to 1987, I competed at the world level as an elite runner and horseback rider. I cite those credentials because as presiding that as evidence, I'm acutely aware of the challenges the LGBTQ community faces. However, let me be clear, biological males, despite their gender identity have no place competing with girls. Serial biological girls with
034male gender identity never compete as elite male athletes. Why? The reason is clear. The biological has far too many physiological advantages for a biological female to compete with men. America's had a long tradition of trying to be fair, especially in sports. Assume, for example, LeBron James decides he identifies as a female. Get that image. He wants to play for the WNBA, the Women's National Basketball Association. This example is not too far-fetched. In 1976, Bruce Jenner, a 26-year-old gold medalist and decathlon opted to transgender into a woman. What would keep other best in the world athletes from competing as women, would that be fair? Coincidentally, Caitlin, the former Bruce, came out very strongly against allowing transgender women to compete in girls' sports, as it would be grossly unfair. Well, as a professor, I have a minute
035to go. I'm just fighting with myself. Surely I must have something else to say. Parenthetic, I'd like to say that I had a close association with so many of my students, and I feel their pain having to deal with this gender identity, but may make it clear as a small slice of all the problems they face, they do not, men do not belong in girls' sports, and for many of the reasons people before had cited. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. We'll invite Marilyn to come forward. Good evening. My name is Marilyn Dykstra. I'm a resident of Livermore, and the mother of two children who graduated from Granada High School. I'm here to speak right now in support of participation of trans girls in high school athletics. Athletics involves many different skills
036that include not just strength and speed. They include agility, endurance, balance, coordination, flexibility, all of these were qualities that my daughter had as a student athlete. They require mental skills, focus and concentration, decision-making, resilience and mental toughness, strategic thinking, learning and adaptation, game knowledge, effective communication, adaptability, and leadership. When I was in high school, my specialty, I was a high school athlete, my specialty was the high jump. I could jump higher than any boy in my urban high school. When they came to practice after me, they always, always lowered the bar. My daughter was a gymnast. When she was in eighth grade, she was in a co-ed gym class, physical education class. She could do more pushups correctly than the top male athlete in her class, probably because of all the work she had to
037do to be a gymnast. I went to make two final points, banning trans girls from sports, invites gender policy that could subject any girl or women to invasive tests or accusations of being too masculine or too good at their sport to be a real woman. I would be an example of one of those possibilities. In regards to Title IX, it's a civil rights law that promises to eradicate sex discrimination in schools. Discrimination against students because of transgender status or sex characteristics is sex discrimination. Transgender non-binary and intersex students must be able to fully access education, including school sports as their full selves. Title IX guarantees no less. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our non-agenda public comment. We're gonna move on to communications from the public. So our formal written correspondence to the
038Board of Education will be acknowledged if received by the board or in the superintendent's office by 2 p.m. the day of the meeting. Formal written correspondence received after the cutoff time will generally be acknowledged at the following meeting. And please note that our board electronic communications received via the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District website by accessing the formal written correspondence to the Board of Education link with all fields completed and verified shall be treated as formal written correspondence. So I'd ask our clerk if there is any correspondence for the board and if he could summarize for us. Yes, we had two. Mark Zulem requested that the board agendize a resolution in support of Title IX. Augustine Bruckner urged the board to affirm that every student, including LGBTQ students, belong in our classrooms and sports
039teams. That's it. Okay. Thank you. We're gonna move on to our... Oh, I just wanna add one thing that I know for sure. I'm looking at Mrs. Rice. One of those I know was after the 2 p.m. today was the other one was before. Okay, so one of those was this morning. One was after the 2 p.m. But because we did have time today between when we received it and the start of the meeting, we did add it for today. Thank you. We're gonna move on to our discussion action items. So I'm gonna turn the time over to Ms. Kayla Wasley to present the appointment of the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee members. Yes, good evening. This evening I'm presenting for you the appointment of two new members to our Citizens Bond Oversight Committee Measure J,
040which was passed in 2016, has the requirement of a Citizens Bond Oversight Committee in the last year. So we've had three or four resignations. And so in the spring we advertised for new members. And so we luckily received two new members that were interested in joining the committee. And so with that, we are bringing their names forward and it is the superintendent's recommendation to approve the appointment of Jamie Morton and Shirti Argua to the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee. Okay, I have no blue cards. Any questions or comments from the board? And if not, I would entertain a motion. Move and support a super tense recommendation on the appointments of the new citizens. Okay, we have a motion by Trustee Wynow and a seconded by Trustee Druane. Is there any discussion on the motion? Steven and
041who? The second. Oh, sorry. We sound so much alike. Okay, sorry. So we have a motion by Trustee Wynow, seconded by Trustee Vanden Heuvel. Any other discussion on the motion? I'd ask the clerk to please take roll. Trustee Coplanes? Aye. Trustee Vanden Heuvel? Aye. Trustee Bueno? Aye. Myself, aye. President Peruzza? Aye. That motion carries unanimously, 5-0. And we will continue on with Ms. Kayla Wesley for the 45 day budget revision. This is for discussion only. Yes, so this, I'm just gonna be reviewing the budget update based off of the adopted state budget. The state budget was adopted in late June. So after we had adopted our 25-26 budget for the district. And so tonight I'm just presenting the changes from the assumptions made in the adopted budget based on the final state revenue assumptions. So
042some key features of our final adopted state budget for the education side of the budget. We did see some increased funding for programs, which was a relief considering that the rest of the state budget did not look as healthy as the education budget did. However, the state budget does rely on deferrals as well as the use of the state rainy day reserve for the education funding in order to maintain our minimum Prop 98 guarantee. For the deferrals, we'll see a deferral in June of 2027 that will receive the revenue in June, July of 2027. So luckily it's not a long deferral. It's just about a month to shore up the state revenues in order to get school districts their money. There's also the use of a novel settle up. This is the first time the
043state has used this mechanism. And so this is where they have appropriated less than the calculated Prop 98 minimum guarantee that should be allocated to school districts. This is to mitigate the risk of potentially over appropriating more guarantee than the minimum reserve would guarantee, which has happened in prior years due to delayed tax filings based off of how heavily we rely on income taxes in California to support our state budget. We have an increase in our TK LCFF funding for the add-on that supports our lower staffing ratios in TK. So the staffing ratio has moved from 12 to one to 10 to one in TK, which resulted in the additional hiring of many staff members to support that program. And then we also have a new one-time student support and professional development discretionary block grant
044that was estimated at $315 per average daily attendance or ADA. This is based off of our 24, 25 ADA. Today's CDE did release the final estimate which put the block grant at $313 per ADA and then is actually going to be in a restricted resource code. So while this is a discretionary block grant in nature, it will be reflected in the restricted side of the budget moving forward. And then the budget also restored a partial amount for the learning recover emergency block grant that was reduced in 23, 24. So then how this actually impacts us as a district for LCFF revenue, the TK add-on increased our revenue by approximately $1.66 million based off of the increase of the TK add-on from $3,100 to $5,545. For other state revenue, there was the increase for the one-time
045discretionary block grant of about $3.8 million. The final amount from the state is right around that $3.8, $3 million as well. So there will be minimal changes to that in the restoration of the learning recovery block grant. For expenditure adjustments based off of the increased revenue, as I mentioned, we increased our TK staffing for instructional assistance. I believe we've added about 15 new TK instructional assistance in the month of July. And then we also plan to purchase the social science curriculum that was approved last June, June of 2024 for TK curriculum for TK, or sorry, social studies curriculum for grades TK-12. In addition, we do have many staff devices that have re neared end of life. Our staff devices were all purchased using COVID funds. And so based off of the useful life of a
046laptop in today's world, that we have many staff devices that are no longer sufficient for our staff needs. So we'll be looking at that and determining a long-term replacement plan. So we are not having to spend significant funds on an annual basis, but more a smaller chunk each year for these staff devices. So overall, our ending fund balance is now at $8.3, sorry, $8.4 million in our unrestricted budget and $2 million in our restricted budget for a total ending fund balance of $10.4 million. And then, and this does the unrestricted reserve does include our 3% minimum reserve of $6.5 million. In our multi-year projection, I've updated this to reflect the addition of the TK add-on not only in this year, but in our two subsequent years. And it brought our reserve, which was at barely
0473% for our unrestricted ending fund balance from 3% to 3.8% in the current year, 3.5% in 26, 27, and 3.4% in 27 and 28. So still on the low side, but at least it gives us a little bit more breathing room above our minimum 3% reserve. Some remaining unknowns from our state budget. There were literacy funds that were allocated within the state budget. Some of the funding will go to high unduplicated pupil percentage districts. So we will not be eligible for that. However, there was some professional development funds that we do believe will be eligible for. And we are just waiting for additional information from the state, as well as for them to adopt approved professional development for literacy training. ELOP funding. So ELOP has two different tiers of rates. So rate one is for
048high unduplicated districts. It was at 75%, they dropped that to 55%. So rate one districts receive a guaranteed amount of funding, and then the rate two amount is determined based off of the balance of ELOP funds that remains that the state has allocated. So at this point in time, we don't actually know what our rate will be for 25, 26. We do have a large carryover in ELOP. So even if it is less than we have received in prior years, we should still be okay to run the program and not impact the regular general fund. Kitchen infrastructure funds. These we have received two rounds previously. They were non-competitive. Moving forward, this is gonna be a competitive grant process. So funding is not guaranteed. We'll be applying for that as we have many kitchen infrastructure needs
049across the district. Just to meet basic needs within our kitchens. So we will be applying, but we do not know yet if we will receive it. And then federal revenue, which continues to be unstable with many uncertainties and frequent adjustments in plan funding levels. We received word at the beginning of July that they were holding Title II, Title III, Title IV in adult education funding for the 25, 26 school year. Late July, that funding has now been released. So at least for 25, 26, we should be okay for those funding sources. However, we're still waiting on our school-based mental health grant to hear news on that and the future of those funds. Next steps. So the 45-day revision will be fully incorporated into the budget at first interim in December. So all of these updates
050that I provided today will be provided in the full budget update in first interim. Our budget advisory committees began this month. Our district staff budget advisory committee started last week with our community budget advisory committee beginning on Thursday this week. We will use that committee to continue the work of evaluating our budget and our spending priorities to better align with our strategic plan moving forward, as well as looking at staffing ratios and all expenditures across the district. And then we will continue monitoring all state and federal funding for any anticipated changes to the budget. So a lot of those unknowns that I referenced earlier. And any questions? Thank you. I have no blue cards, questions or comments from the board. We'll start with Trustee Bueno. It's kind of hard to follow up because I'm trying
051to look at here and you're talking about stuff that you already know. So it just in general, it appears as though the $6 million we were short is about made up with this new amended budget from the governor. 5.8 million came in. We, so for going into 25, 26, we made our staffing reductions due to the shortfall of approximately $6 million. So we achieved some of those savings through the reductions and then we were projected to need to cut an additional $600,000 in order to just meet our minimum reserve in our out years moving forward. So a lot of that has been shored up with the additional funds. But the revenue itself has increased. Correct. Yes. To reduce our deficit. So the revenue from the state has increased by $5.8 million. Correct. More than we
052had anticipated. Correct. How we spend it is a separate discussion. It's just because quite often locally and within the district, it's easy to be critical of the state in terms of cuts. But in this instance, the governor through all these different measures and the legislature has seen fit to fully fund, enhance TK, bring us back, bring some of the block grant be at one time. They've brought money back into the district. Yes. So we essentially have near the $6 million of an increase. Now we've chosen to allocate that with some laptop refreshing and we had some other money, that million bucks. And then we also have a two and a half million allocated to books and supplies, things like that. But I just wanna make it clear that our revenue increased nearly $6 million beyond
053what we had anticipated. That is correct. Okay. Thank you. No. Trustee. Can you elaborate on the deferral? They talked about deferrals. And kind of what does that mean? So a deferral is when, so each month we receive a certain allocation from the state through principal apportionment, which is our LCFF funding, special education, Prop 28 arts and music, ELOP, special education, early intervention funds, all of those, there is a set percentage that we receive each month. It varies from month to month. In June, you typically receive the balance of what you are owed for your year's allocation. And so what they're doing is instead of giving you the cash in June, they're holding onto that cash for a month and they will give us the cash in the following month. In really bad recession times, they
054will sometimes hold apportionments for months and months. So three weeks doesn't seem so bad when you've lived through times that you've had months of not receiving the state apportionments. But it's a cashflow measure that the state uses in order to have the cash that they need to continue their operations, kind of like the district monitors our cashflow for the same purposes to make sure that we have the cash sufficient to make payroll and such. And then next, do we have an estimated timeline for purchasing the social studies curriculum? I think that I wanna recognize the burden with the lack of ancillary materials that our elementary school teachers are facing for not having that curriculum. So I just didn't know if we had a timeline. I know Mrs. Pichette has some answers for you on that.
055Yes, happy to answer that. So we are looking with this discretionary block grant that came in. We are looking to purchase those instructional materials in the spring to provide professional learning because it's a whole package that we need to offer to our teachers for implementation of the 26, 27 school year. The timeline to try and implement in the middle of a school year, a new adoption is far too hectic. And then regarding ELOP, which rate of ELOP were we at last year? I believe we were not at rate one, but I could be wrong. We were at rate two. So that doesn't impact us then? It impacts us in that more districts will now be eligible to be in rate one. And so how it works is they've set rate one, I don't know the
056exact dollar amount since we're not in that rate, but say at $2,500 per unduplicated pupil for rate one districts. And then now more districts are eligible for that. So they receive that as the minimum. And then the balance of ELOP funds that the state has allocated is split between the remaining districts based off of their unduplicated pupil population. So there's no guaranteed amount that the district will receive as a rate two district. And so we're impacted in that we don't know the balance of the ELOP funds for rate two districts. And then lastly, you'd mentioned the budget advisory committee, which I'm very excited about its existence. And I wonder if Dr. Gibson, you can just kind of tell us a little bit when are they meeting, kind of what's their purview? How does the budget
057advisory committee interact with us? Will they make a recommendation to us or just tell us about it? So we ended up, great question. We ended up having two different budget committees. We have what we're calling the internal and the external, the internal comprised of unit members from all of our bargaining teams. So all five groups, as well as district management, cabinet, trustee Bueno. So that team is doing some immediate work right now on some things that we all, we met last week and now we're all doing homework and we're coming back together. So that group will meet once a month. I believe we settled on the first Thursday of the month for that group. The external group will meet on the second Thursday of the month. And that group was consisted of approximately 24 community
058slash parents, community members slash parents of the 57 that were chosen. Each one specifically has been identified to at least one school. Most parents actually identify with multiple schools but we wanted to make sure that there was a representative from each school site present along with cabinet and again, trustee Bueno. That group, we have to start a little slower. The first two meetings will be really around school finance 101 and just getting them up to speed. Last week when we walked in the room we just all start talking the lingo and our crazy acronyms and all the things that's like a foreign language, right? And so I'm looking over here at trustee Vanden Heuvel because he's been learning quite quickly our language. And so with that group we'll spend a meeting or two however long
059we need to bring them along. The goal is eventually, so currently we're working on staffing ratios with the internal group. We're going out and we're looking at comparisons. We identified agreeable comparison districts. So we're all going and collecting different things from those districts just as a starting point. As we then start working on some of those pieces the goal then will be to take some of those concepts and feed them and do feedback loops between the two groups eventually landing somewhere that will then be information that we'll bring back to the board as we're making budget decisions going forward. And then just lastly, hearing from our organized labor groups talking about the, I mean, I guess I will start with I'm cautiously optimistic. And as trust, I think trustee Vanden Heuvel said something about we
060can breathe. And I feel that this kind of gives us breathing room and I'm cautiously optimistic about that. And then kind of looking at some of the decisions that we made knowing that we had to make or at the time we had to make those cuts but kind of planning forward and making sure that we I don't know, are giving our students the best opportunities that they can looking at all corners from our staffing to other opportunities as well. So thank you. I just had a quick question. So with the purchase of the new social science curriculum the estimated cost for that is 3 million, 2 million? 3 million total. 3 million, okay. Yes, we already had 1 million set aside through our restricted lottery funds. And then we just needed the balance of the
0612 million to purchase the full adoption. Okay, thank you. I was wondering if you could explain again the novel settle up and it seems to me like it's kind of a low estimate. And if so, could that change as taxes come in? That's my question. I don't know if it makes sense, but. Yes, so the way Prop 98 guarantee works is that once the state certifies the Prop 98 guarantee it has been set for future years. And so by doing the novel settle up they kind of kick the can down the road in certifying that guarantee to make sure that they didn't over appropriate it. So they've now appropriated the one, I think 117.6 billion instead of the currently calculated 118.9 billion. So what's gonna happen is next year when they go to adopt the
062state budget they will then relook at what should the Prop 98 guarantee should have been and settle up with districts through the 26, 27 budget process. That's not something that will change like in December. That's the next year. Yeah, that'll be a next year then. Yeah, that answers my question. Okay, thank you. Any other comments or questions? This was, I believe for discussion only, yes? Yes, it is correct. Alrighty, so we're going to move on to 13.3. Turn the time over to Dr. Tori Gibson. This is for the ratification of employment contract. Good evening. The board approved the employment of assistant superintendent, Dr. Jessica Bondors. I'm at the June 17th, 2025 board meeting the employment contract for the assistant superintendent of human resources is presented to the board for ratification this evening. In this particular
063item, the contract specifies the employment agreement would be in effect from July 1, 2025 through June 30th of 2027. The reason for the two-year agreement is so that it aligns with all of the other assistant superintendent contracts for their two years that are left on their contracts. The assistant superintendent's base salary will be $276,098 annually paid in 12 monthly installments with a work year of 220 days. The assistant superintendent shall receive the same stipend for earned master's and or doctorate degrees as other members of the Livermore Management Association. The assistant superintendent will not receive paid vacation and holidays, sick leave will accrue at a rate of one day per month. The assistant superintendent will receive all health and insurance benefits that are provided to LMA members. If the assistant superintendent is unilaterally terminated without cause
064during this agreement, she will receive the amount remaining of the agreement not to exceed 12 months of pay. This includes a summary of the employment agreement, a copy of the proposed employment agreement is available on the website, or I'm sorry, on the board packet. And I'm happy to take any questions. I have no blue cards. So any comments or questions from the board? We'll start with Trustee Vanden Heuvel. Not so much questions as just to say welcome. I was part of the interview process and having opportunity to look in your file and seeing what you will bring to this cabinet is super impressive. I think you bring a skill set that's going to help us get to the next level as a district. And I'm really, really excited that you're here. And I can't wait
065to see what you do. Also welcome. We've had a chance to meet. And so thank you for accepting the job and coming here. The question does have to do with, because I got brought up a little bit today and I had it as one of my questions. And I appreciate you doing the two-year contract because then it aligns, because that was the same courtesy that we extended when you came on, because we had assistant soup. So that everyone, we gave it, we gave the decision to you so that you could get everyone aligned and you did such. I do question the coming in at top step. Being in government, my whole life, most people don't come in at top step. And then we have two veteran assistant soups in the same rank that are making
066$2,000 a month less. And so in the spirit of keeping them aligned contractually, so that their things go, it just doesn't appear to me that it leaves us any latitude for merit raises. Like you're topping someone else. Given experience and no knock on any of that, because you guys have judged that. But bringing someone in that's making more than the people that have already been here could create division and maybe signal something to our employee groups that might not be desirable. So if you could shed a little light on that. Sure, so just like our certificated teacher employees or LEA employees, same with cabinet members. Historically, they come in with the number of cabinet seat years that they have. This is Dr. Bondoris' sixth year. So that would place her in the sixth step. And
067that is the same with other cabinet members and their experiences that they bring as to where they are currently placed as well. So it's consistent. Sixth or eighth? Six, there's six steps. Okay, I thought she was at eight. Oh, sorry. Dr. Gibson, there's nine and there's eight steps and it's year nine. Sorry, hold on. I pulled that up just a few minutes ago to make sure that I had the right one up. Oh, that's my confusion. Would you like to go? I don't have it in front of me, I'm sorry. Go ahead. It confused me as well. That's why I asked the question. Yes, we added last year in December of 24, we revised the LMA Assistant Superintendent Senior Management salary schedule. And then when we brought the salary schedule forward for approval for 25,
06826 in June, we accidentally used the wrong salary schedule. And so presented in this meeting is the corrected salary schedule with the eight steps. And so now there are eight steps for senior cabinet members. So that is in consent that you'll be approving. But confirming Ms. Bunder, her coming in, she's coming in at the highest step and two of our tenured assistant superintendents, same rank, are two steps below her. So that salary schedule changed post when two of our cabinet members came in. I'm gonna pull this up, what number? Yeah, please. I understand sometimes we recognize experience and things like that, I get that. So I think probably what we need to do is, well, I'll let the board decide what you'd like to do because the salary schedule here is different than the salary
069schedule that is on our website that was promoted in this position, which another human resources, which is why we... Yeah, so I mean, we can table it if you would like, or you can vote on it, whatever you would like to do. My preference would be that we are looking at and that we can't, that it's... When you get in these things, I understand, just in government, you want everything to be transparent and that there's no perception. I don't want someone to come on board with a little cloud around them. And you know... I don't think there's any cloud with any of our team members. No, not with the work, but just simply on the salary schedule that we actually, that it's what's posted and what we're voting on, that we're very clear. And so
070I, because I still have the question. My question remains, I'd like that to be clarified and you don't have it in front of you and I apologize that... Yeah, in the future, if I know in advance, I can have the conversation and get it fixed. I can even make adjustments as long as it's agendized. Had I known specifics today, I mean, we can make changes as long as an item is agendized. I just, I don't know when I'm sitting here on the spot and I have different items and different sheets in front of me. So I'll let the board decide how you would like to proceed. If we table this until the next board meeting, just to make sure we're all on the same page, that doesn't really... It doesn't cause any harm. Yeah, it
071doesn't. Does it cause harm to... No, I mean, she's, you already approved her, you've approved her employment. So that's fine. I just think it's probably unsettling for a new employee coming in to not have a contract in place. That's all, yeah. Right. Yeah, I was at the table. Did you say that we're going to be, also be voting on a new salary schedule later on the agenda here? Yes. So what happened in the spring is that, trying to be very politically correct. I don't like to throw people figuratively under the bus, but unfortunately, prior human resource department pulled outdated salary schedules. So every year salary schedules have to go to the board, updated with the year on them. So when we brought it back last in May, an old salary schedule was pulled. It's the
072end of the school year. And to approve it so that when we hit July 1, we're compliance with STRS, PERS and all the things. That's why every year they come back. That got pulled incorrectly. So the one that was approved is the one that's currently on our website, not the one that was approved back in December. So that's the issue that we're facing currently tonight. I think let's keep it in order and fix this first, and then come back and approve this in the correct way. I don't see any harm in that, other than, you know, you're good. Yeah. I'm a man of a menopause. If we can... How many other items? And I did try. It was a 2,000 page packet that I got on Friday night. It's tough. It's rough, I know, I
073know. Yes, we're gonna table. Do we need to move or can we just? I would say somebody moved to either pull it or table it, and the five of you decide what you would like to do. We'll do whatever you'd like to do. It's fine, either way. If we need to move, then I would move that we table this specific item 13.3 and bring it back with the clarifications. I second that. Thank you. So we have a motion by Trustee Bueno, seconded by Trustee Vanden Heuvel, to table this item and bring it back at the next meeting. Any discussion on the motion? I'd ask the clerk to call. Roll. Myself, aye. Trustee Bueno. Aye. Trustee Capuanis. Aye. Trustee Vanden Heuvel. Aye. President Prusso. Aye. So that motion carries unanimously and we'll hope we get this,
074we'll get this all figured out and everything will be fine at the next meeting. All right, thank you. We're gonna turn the time over now to Dr. Jessica Bonduras for approval of our provisional internship permits. Great, thank you very much. So the provisional intern permit, otherwise known as PIP, is issued from the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. It allows employment agencies to fill immediate staffing needs by an individual who has not yet met subject matter competence required, the subject matter competence required to be an intern. So these candidates, however, do possess a bachelor's degree. They have satisfied the basic skills recruitment and they successfully completed coursework for the permit type requested. We have three individuals who will be under the umbrella of the PIP this year, Susan Lawson at Croche, Jessica Valdex at Mitchell, and Eric
075Vasquez at Junction. PIPs are required to be placed as an action item at an open session at the board. And so we have placed the agenda item here and it is the superintendent's recommendation to approve the PIP intern permits. Thank you. I have no blue cards. Any questions? Ask Trustee Vanden Heuvel. How long do these three candidates have to comply with normal standards here? Yeah, so the PIP, it's a year and they need to get into a program. They'll be given a mentorship here. And so given that they make significant progress, it will continue. Is there accountability for that? Do you check in with their mentors? Yes, they'll have a mentor assigned to them and it's about the number of units they complete and tests that they pass. Great, thank you. If there's, if we
076do a hire two months from now, do we go through the same process of approving PIPs? We do. Okay. If there are no other comments or questions, I'd entertain a motion. President Peruzza, I move to support the superintendent's recommendation to approve the provisional internship permits. Second. So I have a motion by Trustee Druhan, seconded by Trustee Vanden Heuvel. Any discussion on the motion? Trustee Druhan, could you please take roll? Trustee Bueno? Aye. Trustee Kaplanis? Aye. Trustee Vanden Heuvel? Aye. Myself, aye. President Peruzza? Aye. That motion carries unanimously. We're gonna move on to our consent motions, consent item motions. There are 30 consent items on the consent agenda this evening. We, I just have two quick things in regards to consent. We need to poll and vote separately on the personnel recommendations because we have one
077board member that needs to recuse themself. Okay. Which would be Trustee Kaplanis. Which is, what number is that? Let me get you the number. It is 144A. Are we there yet? Okay. Are we at consent? We're at consent. Oh, cause I have one too. Which one would you like to? Cause we just mentioned, it just came up. So I think it'd be good practice to pull, it's 144. A. D. A. Personnel recommendations. No, he wants to pull another one. We just mentioned it, so I think it'd be good practice. I actually was gonna request that we pulled D, B. 14. Yes. D, B, and we pull it. I wanna actually table it and completely table it and pull it. Got it. So we can clean it up. A couple of us need to have a
078sidebar conversation later. Okay. So let's, that's fine. Should we, we can still approve D, 14, D, A. Leave that one. Leave that one for sure. We'll pull 14, D, B. Completely. And we'll pull 14, 4, A. For a separate vote. Yes. So I'm requesting that we pull 14, D, B first. So I'll make that request. As long as everyone's okay, we'll just pull it. We'll put that in the notes. Okay. Anything else? 14, D, B. Yes, we're keeping A. We're keeping A. It's just for, pulled for a separate vote. So we'll do that second. Yes. So if there are no other. I'm trying to find this. Yeah, go ahead and look. The school specialty thing. Oh, school specialty. The thing with all these attachments. Lori was nice enough to print those. What number is that
079on here? It is two. Who can find it first? G, the piggyback and cooperative contracts. That's G. Ratification of the contract with Livermore mechanical for refrigeration updates. You want to pull that separately? No, no, that's different. Oh. 14, 2, G. G, okay. Yeah, piggyback. Okay. That's it. Okay, is that all for everyone? Okay, I'm going to make the motion because I have the notes. So let me try this. I move to approve consent items, all consent minus 14, 2, G, 14, 4, A, and tabling 14, D, B in their entirety minus those exceptions. That's my motion. I'll second that. Okay, so we have a motion by myself, seconded by Trustee Vanden Heuvel. Any discussion on the motion? One discussion. That last one you mentioned, you said 14, D, B. Yes. Is there a number in
080between that? 14, 4. Sorry, you're right. 14, 4, thank you. Great catch. Okay, so now we're good with the motion. Okay, Trustee, I keep forgetting your name tonight. Drewan, could you call the roll? I don't know why. Summer. Trustee Capuanes. Aye. Myself, aye. Trustee Buenaventura. Aye. Trustee Vanden Heuvel. Aye. President Pruso. Aye. So those motions passed unanimously. Let's move on to, oh no. Yes, do 14, 4, A next. Okay, let's do 14, 4, A. Yeah. Anyone motion on that? It's the personnel recommendations. Yeah, I move to approve consent item 14, 4, A. Okay. Second. All right, so we have a motion by Trustee Vanden Heuvel, seconded by Trustee Drewan. Any discussion on the motion? Do I say no? And then I'd ask Trustee Drewan to take a roll. Trustee Buenaventura. Aye. Myself, aye. Trustee Vanden
081Heuvel. Aye. Trustee Capuanes. I recuse myself. President Pruso. Aye. The motion carries with four ayes and a recusal from Trustee Drewan. Capuanes. You guys know what I'm talking about. I think we got in your nap time. I think you're right. This is my napitizer. That's what I call it. Right before bed, a little napitizer. Okay, so now we're gonna, that's a real thing. You're welcome, everyone. Okay, now we'll move on to 14, 2G. And that was one that you wished to pull. So we're gonna turn that time over to you. Now, this is a very comprehensive item with nearly 2,000 pages of backend information. It appears the face value, something that I'm somewhat familiar with, the piggybacking, and it saves a lot of money, and allows both on the process, as well as sometimes you
082can just piggyback on someone else's competitive bid. Going through it and trying to eartab this giant wheelchalk, I had a couple of questions. What I did not see in here, when you piggyback, one of the concerns of that is I did not see a provision, or do we have language that protects the district from conflicts of interest? In other words, through a competitive bid process, there's things that have to be disclosed. This is my uncle happens to own this firm. I can recuse myself. When you piggyback, I didn't see any language specifically that would protect the district and the board voting upon piggyback contracts. And I did try, I gave it my best effort, and I didn't see that language. And that's just one, and then I have a couple more that are small. There
083is conflict of interest statements if you're using federal funds within. I saw the conflict of interest relative to the vendor that's utilizing it as the contractor. I think they call themself, there's a name that started with an A, but not us specifically. There was a lot of information from the state of New Jersey and Texas. It was very strong on that. And New Jersey had conflict of interest laws. Texas had full disclosure, but I didn't see anything from California. And I'm just concerned that- Yes, it would apply based off of where the contract was awarded, the language that's included in the contract, and then it would be based off of that state since they were not all through California entities, but we can still piggyback off of them. They wouldn't have the specific California language
084in them. So the language, this, I just couldn't find it. If it's there, or I guess I could just do an overrider. Did we have legal look at this? And do we have some type of, because this is a big deal. To me, this will really help the district if done properly. It's gonna save you a lot of money, they're buying powers greater, there's 35% discounts, but I just wanna make sure that it doesn't give the, because we're a competitive bid agency, and piggyback will allow us to circumvent that. I just wanna make sure that we don't find ourselves in a perceived or in a real conflict of interest down the road. I believe, so we've been using these piggyback contracts for years, and I know previously, we have not been bringing them forward to
085the board for approval of the use of the piggyback contracts. So last year when I got here, we started bringing them forward for approval. So these were the ones that have changed. But if we would like to pull this item, I can check into what process we've used to select the piggyback contracts we are using, and the conflict of interest piece of it. I just don't know when we started using these piggyback contracts, what process we went through, legal, read through them all, or how that went. I have no idea. This is the first time it's ever. Yes. It's been four, 11 years, I've never seen it. Well, because they weren't brought prior. Correct. And they, I mean, for this, as you stated with piggyback, it's very tricky and it has some legal implications. So
086the fact that it wasn't brought to the board is an issue prior, but. Yeah, I'm just looking forward. That's why I said, I appreciate it coming. I just didn't notice, if you guys know that it's there, and you know that Legal has reviewed this and says, yeah, we're good, and there's a conflict of interest. Like, is there a disclosure, that whoever our purchasing agent, when they're doing something that, yeah, they've signed a non-disclosure, or they may have to sign a disclosure agreement saying, like, can we find a 700 form? I don't know. Will this pose any issue if we pull this and table it to September 9th? Yeah. Then let's just go ahead and pull it then. Okay. Because we can't answer your questions, and I'd rather be able to fully answer your questions. And
087also there's a whole bunch of stuff in here that's redundant, like the identical page. Page 499 is the same as page, or page 500 is the same as 509. There's a whole bunch of redundant pages that go back and forth. And I didn't know if it was just, it's gotten so big that whoever shipped you this, just- Yeah, it's probably, the state keeps all of the attachments, or Omnia keeps all of the attachments. That was the company right there, Omnia. Yep, yeah. They seem to protect themselves through the process, but I didn't see anything that specifically protected LVJUSD. You know, or if we need that, because it looks like we're just signing on. Yeah, well, let's just pull it. Okay. Yeah, not a problem. That was it. Okay, so I think we're done with that.
088We pulled that, we pulled the other one. Just a comment. I love that you brought the printout, because it really, to me, it illustrated the reason why we have these incredible cabinet members that we then have to trust and have to go, and as board members, we could never do this in three weeks' time, or three months' time, and I'm so grateful for Ms. Wasley and her team putting all this together, because as I, I mean, I spent, in the hours that we spent together, going over some granular things that I just didn't understand, or that I had questions about, it's really impressed with the answers that I get so quickly, and, but man, this illustrates so poignantly how many things we have to think about as a school district, so thank you. We're gonna
089move on to our board reports, and we will begin with Trustee Caplanes. Okay, first, I'd like to give my deepest condolences to the family of Ms. Burns and the Crochet community. Still very sad about that, and as far as summer goes, it was nice to have some time to be with my family, and I enjoyed seeing lots of friends and familiar faces around the baseball fields and other fun places in town. We didn't really get to travel or do anything outside of Livermore, but the closest I got to international travel was to attend the Little League World Series, and I was very impressed with the level of play for the young international athletes, as well as the athletes representing our immediate area. As far as my work being done for the board, I did make
090it a point to continue meeting individually with people in the district or in the county and just trying to learn as much as I can and to catch up, and I mostly enjoyed just being with my family, of course, but also the district kickoff events. I thought it was great energy propelling us into this new school year, so with that, I just want to wish everybody really successful and fun 25, 26 school year and a happy first day of school to all the students and teachers and staff. Trustee Buena? Thank you. Yeah, so far, the summer has been really, it's gone good, and it's gone good for the city of Livermore. We haven't been knocked on wood. We got through it pretty safely, and you didn't have some of the things that we may have
091had in the past relative to, maybe get the disaster call or something, you know, and we're very fortunate to live here. It seemed like the rest of the country's either underwater or on fire or covered in smoke. It's a really good place to live, and we're supported by a great community here, and I think that's one of the biggest advantages that our students have, is that we have a supportive community. The one request that I would have is if it were the pleasure of the board, when you do adjourn, if we could adjourn in the name of Ms. Burns, that would be the pleasure of the board. Over the summer break, I worked with President Prusso, Dr. Gibson, and the Policy Committee to bring our policies up to date. In particular, President Prusso and I
092reviewed the 9,000 bylaws of our board policies, looking at what was proposed by CSBA, comparing that with our existing policies, where possible, and making recommendations regarding each policy. And so I believe we're finishing up, and so I think in September, if you remember, we had talked about that we had hundreds of policies too. So we're hoping for, in September, to bring that, and then have us and the community review it for 30 days. Correct? Ish. We'll see. That's the hope. More recently, I stopped by the LMA kickoff, a new teacher orientation, and the district kickoff celebration. At the new teacher orientation, I was thrilled to see an acquaintance who had decided to take the leap into teaching as a second career. And for me, instances such as this speak to the positive culture we foster
093in our district. I can name several schools where parents have decided to, they've volunteered, and now they're teaching. And I think that that just speaks to, again, the positive culture that we strive for. Before summer, several parents and employees at Junction expressed concern over facility-related issues on campus in the process of submitting facilities requests. Last Friday, I toured the campus with Director Sherman, Trustee Bueno, Dr. Gibson, Miss Wosley, parents, and administration to document what was completed and what work was left to address. There's still work to be done, but good strides have been made to help Junction shine, literally. As always, this time of year is a mix of excitement and nervousness for my house, as both my wife and I are teachers. So it's good, and anyways. But thank you to Glenn and his
094team at MOF for their hard work over the summer getting schools ready. Thank you to teachers, administrators, staff, for all your work over the summer in preparation for the year. And thank you, parents and guardians for trusting in public education to help your students learn, grow, and thrive. It is going to be an amazing year. All right, well, summer was awesome. I had a ton of varied and deep conversations with members from the community and teachers and staff and seeing those in their civvies was kind of awesome. You get different conversations, you know, when you're just out and about. I attended for just a couple of minutes the ILT professional development thing gathering at Granada High School. I got to see the principals and their VPs and leadership teams gather for two days in July.
095They started in July, everybody. But they dig deep into every process that helps it become a healthier, more effective, more efficient district resulting in a better experience for each student, each teacher, each staff member. And I was super impressed. It was so good to see them working so hard. And then the things that stand out for me of yesterday's kickoff event was the moment when Principal Burkholder and her team honored Marilyn Burns. It was amazing to see the camaraderie amongst the whole group of how many thousand interrupted by intense interest site competition. They were vicious. And an excellent vision casting by Superintendent Gibson and her team. And I really believe we have all the ingredients for an unbelievable school year. And I want to wish my wife and my now junior at Livermore High School
096a great school year, my daughter. And of course, all the rest of the teachers and staff and students, here we go. Thank you. I took a much needed break in July to connect with family and friends. And I've been helping my daughter get ready to head off to her first year of college. We enjoyed plenty of Giants games, a few beach days. And I also found time to read a lot of books, which is exactly what I wanted. This week, I attended the new teacher orientation and was incredibly impressed with the talent, energy, enthusiasm our new teachers are bringing to Livermore. And I also joined the kickoff event. It was inspiring to see all of our employees together, excited to start a new school year. Even after the quiet of summer, our teachers are eager
097to get back to doing what they do best, which is teaching our children. I especially love that the kickoff was run by our leadership students from both Granada and Livermore High. And I have to say that our staff can get surprisingly unruly when they're on the other side of the pep rally. A special shout out to Sunrise Elementary, who despite many efforts and some light cheating, still couldn't manage to win in the prize competitions. I definitely felt, and I definitely felt special that the cheerleaders from both schools were there to welcome and cheer for me as I walked in. But did they for you as well? It was just for me. They were cheering for everyone, which was so great as we all entered the gym. If you ever get a chance to do that,
098that only one chance in your lifetime where you get to walk through a cheering group was pretty amazing. And then I just want a special shout out to LHS for hosting the event. I know there was probably a lot of time and effort that went into it. And a great job by our superintendent and cabinet in pulling that off. While we are filled with excitement and a little bit of nervous anticipation for the new year, I also wanted to take a moment to offer my sincere condolences to the Croche Elementary community and the unexpected passing of their EA, Marilyn Burns. She was an important figure in our community and will be greatly missed. And my prayers are with her family during this time. And in closing, a good luck to all the parents, teachers, students,
099and staff tomorrow as we be in our first day of school. Here's to a wonderful day ahead. Now I'll turn the time over to Dr. Gibson. Good evening. I think most of the things that I was going to report on have already been reported on everything from junction to the board policy manual. Our goal right now is just to finish a couple little minor cleanups and then ship it to CSBA. CSBA takes two to four weeks. So we are gonna hope and cross our fingers that they can get it back to us in time for the September 9th board meeting that we will then post it here as well as then bring it back in October for formal approval. So that is our hope and our goal we'll keep you all posted on that. We
100are excited for all of our kickoff meetings that we've held this year. It's always a fun anticipation for us as we're gearing up. Tomorrow is the fun day where we all go out to multiple sites and visit and see all the excitement, the energy. And it's always just a reminder and revigorating for us as we move forward. We're looking forward to the work we're going to do over the next five years from 2025 to 2030 in our strategic plan. For those who don't know, which I know it's been all over the papers and just different places, our bond survey has been launched officially. And so we're very excited to get those results. We are anticipating bringing that survey back to the board with all the information at the September 9th board meeting as well. That
101is the goal. And I believe with that, in addition, as many of you have stated as well, my sincere condolences go out to the Croche community, the school site, as well as Marilyn's family. She was a true, just a gem when you walked into that school site, just a pillar there. So she will be deeply missed. And again, we send our condolences to them. Okay, thank you. So our next regularly scheduled board meeting will be held on Thursday, August 28th, here at the district office. An open session will begin at 9 a.m. As president of this body, I take the privilege and honor of adjourning tonight's meeting this 17th day of August, 2025. In the name and memory of our beloved Marilyn Burns, this meeting is adjourned at 7.39 p.m.