001I'd like to go ahead and call the Martinez Unified School District Board of Education meeting to order at 6:30 on June 23rd, 2025. Will you please join me in the pledge of allegiance and justice for Do we have any changes to the agenda? Yes, I have one change to tonight's agenda. Unfortunately, it was not realized until this morning that the approval of the 2526 school year budget that um Andy Cannon presented at our last meeting was left off the agenda. Board bylaw 9232.2 Two does allow the board to take action on a subject not appearing on the posted meeting agenda only after publicly identifying the item and if twothirds of the members present determined that the need to take immediate action came to the district's attent attention after the agenda was posted. Staff is requesting
002that the board approve the agenda with the addition of action item 10.13, approval of the 2526 budget and statement of balances in excess of minimum reserves. Thank you. Do I have a motion? I'll move to approve the agenda as amended. A second. All those in favor? I. So moved. Do we have any employee organization reports from Martinez Education Association? Good evening. Um, this Saturday, um, Martinez will be hosting a, um, Junth celebration down at the waterfront. and I'm here to invite you to participate in this um celebration. It's um June 28th, which is Saturday, from 11 to 2. Um there will be um live music there as well as a belly dancer and there will also be some educational activities for students. Um MEA will be there um helping run those um educational activities. And
003I'm here to extend um invitation for people to come and join us down at the waterfront on Saturday for the Junth celebration. And also as um MEA just here to acknowledge our superintendent's last board meeting. Um thank you very much Helen for all you have done for our district. Um we appreciate all the time, energy, and effort that you've put into us and you will be missed when you're gone. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have any employer organizational reports from the California School Employees Association? Nope. Okay. Comments from the PTA. Okay. Staff reports. Superintendent reports. Okay. So, here we are. My final board meeting as superintendent. After years of budget spawn measures, school closings, school openings, presentations, and more acronyms than I care to count, it's finally time to hand over the keys. I've
004got a lot of them. So, this is downsized from when I was at the junior high. So, serving this community has truly been the honor of a lifetime. We faced some challenges head-on, celebrated many successes, and even survived a few power outages and construction mishaps together. To the board, thank you for your partnership, even dur even during the fun conversations that got a little heated at times. To our incredible staff, families, and students, you are the heartbeat of this district. Your dedication, creativity, and occasional chaos made every day worth it. I may be retiring, but don't worry, I'll still be around just without the emails or the 6 a.m. wakeup calls, which is untrue because I am here at 6 a.m. or the board packets or the 2 a.m. alarm calls that will no longer
005exist. Thank you for all the trust, the laughter, and the opportunity to lead in such an extraordinary district. My final day is Monday the 30th. So, with gratitude and a calendar full of unscheduled time and oh, I will be throwing out the SIM card to my phone on 5:00 PM at 5:00 PM on that day. Thank you. I've enjoyed every minute. Awesome. Thank you, H. Do we have any board reports? I actually attended the Junth that was at the uh at farmers market yesterday downtown and it was really nice to see so many people there and um I was able to talk to our police chief who was there and a couple of the city council members who were there um and they all wish Helen well and uh are looking forward to meeting our
006new superintendent. So that was a really nice event. Great. Thank you. Anyone else? Next we have integrated pest management report Andy Cannon. Uh good evening board. Um a short presentation. Um each year we bring uh the integrated pest management plan to the board. It is required for us to show this to the board and also to post it on our district website and notify our folks. Um, integrated pest management is an effective way to use products and other techniques to be able to limit um, pest whether that be weeds or vermin uh, that sometime occupy the uh, the external parts of our campus. Um, we do have an internal system called incident IQ. This allows our staff members to be able to put in any type of request if they have issues that are going
007on. Um, and um, when we do, we try to use the least invasive uh, method to do that. um it doesn't sometimes it's just weed eating um different areas of the lawn. Sometimes it's adding um some type of herbicide. Same thing with pest. Sometimes it's setting traps. Sometimes it's asking for um secondary services to come through. So the document that's on the board agenda tonight shows what type of uh uh materials that we use when it comes to pest management. Um, and we know that uh each year when we do go through these processes, we do notify especially when it comes to herbicides. Uh, we do post on our school sites 24 hours in advance before any type of spraying and we leave that notice up for 72 hours. We also include a notification through
008parent square for any of the parents or community members who want to understand when and how we do these post or these type of spranks. So, we try to be very communicative with that. Um and so for for you tonight is um that report that will be posted on the website after tonight. There is no action for the board. It's just an information item. Great. Thank you. Any questions? Any public comments? Next, we have the measure O bond sales report. Andy Cannon. Uh, as the board is very aware, on May 5th, um, it passed a resolution, resolution 2025-25, authorizing the sale of $90 million of a general obligation bond. And then so recently, kind of cutting to the to the most recent part of this process for Measure O, we worked with all of our
009different partners to sell bonds. And we were able to sell um, as of June 18th um, all $30 million worth of bonds. In total, that means we were receiving $29.8 million, and that's already in our district um accounts. Um and we had good news about the interest rates. When we originally presented an estimate, we thought we'd be somewhere around 5.24%. The true inter interest cost, which is a term that means when you average up all of the different small bonds that are sold, ended up being 4.87%. So, we actually came in lower than what we estimated for interest rates, which is great for our community. Um, we also, and the document attached will show this, we estimated that there was about a half a million dollars in issuance cost. That number is down to 366.
010So that's another savings compared to what we thought would come in. Um, and all told, we're looking at um the the cost for this issuance is about two times. So that means we're borrowing $30 million. We will pay back a total of $60 million, which is pretty good for the industry standards. Um, but these changes in interest rate and in issuance uh means that we saved about $3.1 million just on those from estimates. So, it's still expensive. It's a long process, but we are committed to trying to save the taxpayers as much as possible, which will include any future refunding of the bonds um if it becomes such a time and makes sense from interest rates to be able to do so. Um, but tonight you're seeing this document because ED code 15146 says that
011we have to know the um actual cost of issuance to the board at the next board meeting after the bond sales. So, because it happened on the 18th, this is before you tonight. There's no action needed. It'sformational items, but I'm open to any questions you may have. Thank you. And that's always nice to hear. We saved some money. 3.1 million is a good amount. So, good job, Andy. Um Any questions? Public comment. Next, we have public comments. Under government code 54954.3, members of the public have the right to address the board on any matter within the board's jurisdiction. However, the board may not take action on any non-aggenda item. Individual speakers will be allowed three minutes to address the board. 20 minutes have been allocated for this portion of the agenda. Additional time is allowed
012at the end of the meeting if there was not enough time to speak during public comments. Our first public comment is from Carlos Melendez. Thank you. Good evening. I know there's a lot of excitement this evening with the installment of the new superintendent and I know the uh board will take a time at the end of the meeting to recognize our outgoing superintendent. But I'd like just to take these few minutes to recognize Helen Rossi whose quiet strength and unwavering dedication will leave a lasting imprint on our community. 30 years ago, Helen arrived at the Martinez Unified School District and from day one she began shaping lives. I still hear stories from her former students, now adults with children of their own, who vividly remember her impact in them on them as an educator. Some
013positive, some not so positive, but memorable either way. Whether in the classroom or behind the scenes, Helen has always carried herself with the same purpose, to do what is best for the students. Over the years, she has supported numerous superintendent, sometimes from the classroom and later from the administrative side of the desk. Through it all, her values never wavered. Her focus has always been on the betterment of children, and her leadership has been rooted in integrity, not ambition. I met Helen later in her career, but it didn't take long to see what others had had long known. Her work ethic, insight, and most importantly, her heart for the students. When the opportunity first came to step into the superintendent role, she was reluctant. Not because she couldn't do the job, but because she didn't want
014to be caught in the messiness messiness of politics. She wanted to lead. She wanted to lead quietly, effectively, and always with the students in mind. When the opportunity came around again, she stepped forward, not for personal gain, but because she understood the community, the district, and the challenges that couldn't be solved by someone on the outside. While she never had political aspirations like many that have shared this room, she bore the brunt of political battles, financial tension, the cultural with cultural criticism and cultural criticism with grace. Her motivation has always been pure. Our children, there were times when I, like many others, felt disheartened by the district's direction, but I always found comfort knowing Helen was there, steadfast, steady, and student focused. While others saw the district as a career stepping stone, Helen remained loyal
015to the families who needed her the most. Her commitment to Martinez is is not just rare, it's inspirational. Helen, your knowledge, your patience, and your leadership have made a difference. You've endured ignorance with grace, led with wisdom, and never asked for recognition. You've added real value to our schools and our city, and for that, we are endlessly grateful. My only regret is not getting more getting more time to learn from you. But even in the time we've shared, you've taught me so much about leadership, about service, and about the kind of courage it takes to do the right thing, even when it's hard. I genuinely hope you can enjoy every minute of your well-deserved retirement. No more late night emergencies. No failed electrical services. No more being subjected to rude or ignorant politicians or community
016advocates. No more union negotiations. And most importantly, no more being accused of not prioritizing our children. Thank you. Thank you. Um, do we have any changes to the consent calendar? There are none. Do I have a motion? I'll move to approve the consent calendar. Seconded. All in favor? I. So moved. I forgot to mention the black fun. Okay. Okay. MUSD administrative and TOSA changes for the 2526 school year. Helen Rossy. Um did this get to you? Yes, it did. So um this was not attached to the agenda. It was made um this weekend and I apologize for that. But we had um due to a um resignation of our program specialist and we know that we're going to be looking at uh budget reductions next year. cabinet um took a look at how we could
017uh make some future um savings out of um an opportunity we had by the resignation of Anne Kim, our program specialist, who went on who actually took a principal job in Mount Diablo because she wanted to go back to uh being around kids all the time. So, um which she was so excited to do. So, what I did was I tried to It's hard to see the color on this projector. Either that or it's my glasses. But if you um look under ED services and special education and the affected school site, so basically it's it's very little movement, but under the administrative ranks, an Kim was our program specialist, which is the second block under special education in 2425. So when she resigned, we took a look at how we could fill that need without
018um filling that specific position in a less, you know, um and so what we did was we took April Raz Muen who was 50% special education TOSA and a 50% ed services TOSSA. And April has has a background in special education. and she worked for an NPS before she came to us. And so we we decided to um with the help of Matthew has is our director of two of special education and Amy Espinosa has a background in special education and Janelle has a background in special education. And so we put our heads together and came up with a plan to move April 100% into special education to support our students in NPS and to support Matthew with special projects and um take her out of ED services. And Yadira Zapata who is our coordinator
019who was at 218 days um had asked to go down to 210 days. She has two small children and she felt that she could do her job within 210 days. So that was a bit of savings there. So we just kind of shuffled positions around and um we took Samantha Hodgees who works at MEIP um which is our special day class, our special ed program for our preschool students. and she is going to um work as the administrator for our IEPs at MEIP because a couple of years ago when our enrollment at the junior high went down to just over 700 and we reduced a vice principal position um we went up at the junior high to over 900 students and I didn't feel it was safe to have just one vice principal with over
020900 students. So, we moved Renee to the junior high for next year to increase um you know for safety reasons obviously and their special ed population increased with the incoming fifth grade had a lot of IEP students in it. So, we needed more help there. So Renee is transitioning from elementary to middle school and our um psychologist at the special day um or the special ed preschool will be handling Rene's um position at the elementary of handling the IEPs at MEIP. So what we've done is we've reduced administr an administrative position and have a cost reduction ahead of time um for budget reductions for next year in the administrative ranks. So I we we're going to keep a close eye on it. We're going to make sure it works and we have all next year
021to take a look at it before we tweak anything and you know for the next year if it doesn't work. We still have a year to play with it. So um I just wanted to say that it's just a staff report. That's what we're doing and I'm putting it out there before um next year starts. So, okay. Any question? Thank you. Any questions, public comments? Okay. Thank you very much. Next, we have the 2025 CSBA cohort ed cohort educational workforce housing report. Helen Rossy. Well, this is a combination. This is a Helen Rossy, Andy Cannon, Annie Horak Martin, and Michael Cass from the city. So, last year um in August, uh the board signed a resolution and directing me to take a look and do some research on educational workforce housing to see what it's
022all about and see if it's something that Martinez was interested in. And do you have that PowerPoint? Do you have that PowerPoint? Okay, I'm going to share it with you right now. You sent it to him. Okay. All right. We're gonna put it up anyway. I'm gonna send it to him right now. Can I share the regular one or do you want it in a P in a PDF? It's just easy if I just share it with you. Okay. Okay. It's on its way across the room. Okay. So, we'll go ahead and start. So, what we did was um as I reported out at the beginning of last year, um I wrote an application to CSBA, California School Boards Association. and they were advertising to start their I think fourth or fifth cohort, something like
023that, where they select uh school districts up and down the state can apply to be in a cohort and they pick five or six school districts to be a part of a cohort and they teach them about everything they know about um educational workforce housing. And what they do is they show school districts where they have excess property because every school district apparently has excess property. um to to use in whatever way they want. And they show you where this is and they teach you how to look at it from the perspective of building housing. And so I wrote this application and they had previously only worked with larger school districts. So we took a chance and they chose us. So we were one of six districts chosen and then one district dropped out. So
024we were part of this cohort and we were to meet with them for four meetings. um throughout the year and of course our first meeting was in LA and we were so excited to go and then LA caught fire and we did a virtual meeting um which was kind of a little bit lame. We weren't really excited about it but we we did it and we gave it our our best shot. So we're going to go ahead and and tell you what we learned and then show you um aside from what we learned. We had homework each before each of the four. We learned how what the process was and then we um were given a project and the the four sessions ended in this project which was a PowerPoint or a pitch to our
025school district to take a look at workforce housing. So, it was pretty interesting and my team is going to jump in when I don't know what I'm talking about and they're going to support me because it was a four-person thing. Okay. So, Okay. Oh, you're you're you're doing it there and I'm doing it here at the same time. Okay. So, I'm I'm looking here and I'm going, what's going on? All right. So, we we visited over the course of the four visits. We went to four each of the meetings was held at four different sites. Um, we went to Jefferson Elementary in Jefferson Union High School District in Daily City. We went to San Francisco Unified and we went to Los Angeles Unified. They actually took us down there for the last cohort, which I
026really wish was the first one when we were supposed to go there because I think I learned the most at that at the last one. And I can see why we should have went there the first. But um so I actually it was probably the best one. And while we were at each of them, we got to understand each of the school districts process, which each one was different. How they financed it was different. how they built them was different and who they served um and how they served the community. Some were all school district housing, some were partial school district and partial community housing. Some were um built by um um what do they call them like Adobe and and Med Pen. They were affordable housing communities, some were not. So, and then we
027got to tour them each of the apartment buildings and see what their amenities were, how they were built. Some were put together differently, some were better quality than others. So we really it was rather interesting. Um so this was the process here and we had presentations throughout the whole thing. We had question and answering answer periods. So a lot of information was provided and they were all day sessions and you had to attend all four and everybody did. So so the development process was uh a preliminary exploration and then we got into feasibility and decision making. We had to look at what properties we had. Each of our a lot of our properties have excess land attached to them and surrounding them. Which ones were would work for us for housing. Um why we would
028look at housing? What were the issues surrounding our community? How would the city be involved? Who did we want involved? Who are we serving? Um did staff really need this? Is this something we wanted to do? Where would we get money? Um what would it look like? How would we build it? um what parameters would we put about leasing? So, some districts um some of the housing units have rules around them that say we're going to rent to staff only for seven years and we're going to rent to them at 60% of market value and the expectation is they're going to put 40% of that rent away and after seven years they're going to have a down payment for a house and that's the expectation but seven years you're out. Now San Francisco in San
029Francisco's housing they can stay forever even if they leave the district and that's their housing as long they can retire and stay there because they have attained their goal of recruiting and retaining teachers and they can just stay there and then move through attrition. You know they can stay there and then you know when they move on they move on. I mean they they obviously are going to move out of the apartment at some point. I don't want to talk about when, but it's, you know, they stay forever and then they move on. But everybody has different rules and everybody has different um market values that they put and parameters they put on it. Um so all of that is done and some of them are run by um not the governing board but they
030have a governing board for housing and they make all the decisions. So, everybody has different rules that they make and it's up to um each district what they do when they do it. And some of them just hire property managers and go ahead and do it that way. Some of them just lease the place out and have the leasing the leasing uh the developer handle the whole thing, right? Am I saying all this right? You guys correct me when I'm wrong because you know I'm old here. I'm the oldest one of the group. So, okay. So um this is the process here. We went through each of these processes uh you know from their perspectives. We haven't done this but we did partially we did a lot of this. We brainstormed. We did a lot
031of this and you'll see that as we get to the second half of this presentation. And we actually went through you know some of this and and thank god we had Michael from the city with us as far as zoning and planning. and he knew he knew he was like the hero of the of all the school districts because they would have questions about stuff and he would have the answers. So, it was good that we were the only one that had someone from the city or the county who was able to give us the zoning and and and a lot of the information we needed, but they also assigned us an architect. Each group had an architect. So, we had an architect from San Francisco working with us too to help us. So, um,
032anyway, this was our process that we handled that we went through and that you would have to go through should we decide to go in this direction. Okay, go ahead and flip, Joe. Does I want to take financing? We went through uh at one of our our visits, they went through all the different financing options which are out there, which we're not even close to taking a look at. So, but it's here and we can get into that when we need to. Go ahead. Um, this is community engagement. It's really important that we have engagement from the community. I know that Michael and I did go to Thousand Friends and I think we reported out here at a meeting and we talked to them about this issue and they had questions and that's where we
033got some feedback about maybe using the Monaceto name from Monaceto Elementary. Right. Is Monaceto? Yes. and we had no problem incorporating that name into this should we ever go into a housing development on that property. That's that's an easy ask. So, you know, feedback is good from the community. You want to have the community involved. Go ahead. Uh I think Annie and I came up with this mission statement um for the project in itself. The whole idea of of workforce housing by using our district property, we will attract and retain a diverse pool of quality educators. So, you'll see as we get into what we did in our project, our teachers, our beginning teachers and our be beginning uh classified staff, they can't afford rent unless they have more than one income to to supplement
034it. So, go ahead. So, right here, housing status. So, the average rent in our county is 2767. There's our beginning teacher average beginning teacher salary in our district. the average classified salary um 48% of their income is going to be on rent, 64 for classified. They can't afford to live. That's the bottom line right there. So, go ahead. We're going to go a little faster. So, we took a look at all of our sites. We looked at we kind of focused on the adult school site because it is a large area. It's almost five acres on that half without the um the uh shop, the the maintenance yard. So, we looked at the pros and we looked at the cons. Go ahead. We're going to flip faster because we don't want to spend all night
035here. We looked at the asset map. And the asset map is shows you the location of the adult school, where the closest shopping centers are, where the restaurants are, how far it is to any of the things, you know, you know, all the things that you would need close by to to live. You don't want to put it all the way out in the middle of the woods and have nobody be able to go anywhere or get anything. So, we want to take a look at the asset map. We took a look at our goals. Why are we looking at developing housing? Um, we want what do we want? We want it affordable, appealing, comfortable, and what uh resources might we want in it? We want staff housing. We want to possibly have child care
036center. These are just wish lists. Transit access, shopping access. We thought of all these things and we put some pictures there. I think Michael found those because he found better pictures than us. So, and he also Michael added this. This is the um housing plan for the city of Martinez that and you can talk about this for a second because he's more knowledgeable about this than I am. Good evening everyone. Michael Cass, planning manager with the city. Um the slide before you is on our housing element. Every city and county in the state is required to have one. Um, this is planning for our eight-year cycle, which is between 2023 and 2031, of which we are expected to plan for 1,345 units at varying affordability levels um from market rate and affordable. Um, the adult
037education site is one of the sites that's been identified in the housing element um to hopefully accommodate some future housing. Okay. So we took a look at what we thought the benefits were. One of the biggest thing is cost savings on professional development. We get a lot of new teachers in. We train them on our curriculum. We put all this time and effort into them and they come back here because a lot of times they come and live with their parents and then they don't want to live with their parents. They want to move and they want to move in on their own and they can't afford to live here and they go to where they can afford to live. They go to Sacramento or they go, you know, somewhere where their friends are and
038they can house, you know, double up in housing and we lose all the money we just invested. And I I I looked it up. It was the average of somewhere between 20 and $25,000 per new teacher when they leave in the first couple of years that you lose in professional development and so on and so forth. So, um, that's a lot of money and and we want to stop that. So, right here, um, other benefits are listed right here. So, it's it's having teachers live in your community where they work. They coach, they can do clubs. They don't have to commute for two, you know, an hour over an hour when they leave. They can be more involved in the before school or after school activities with the students. We brainstormed ideas about what we
039would want. How many units? We know the creek is there. How could we enhance the creek being right there? What could we do? Could we put running paths by there? Um playgrounds, um indoor communal areas for gathering. I was probably the only one that's lived in in in a boarding school with kids, so I kind of knew that that's important when you live with other staff members to have an in a communal area. And they're like, "Who would want to ever live?" I did it. I know how important that was. I My husband lived there, too, for a year. Well, we came back to California, but that's another story. But it's a lot of fun. I mean, you have to have those areas. So, um, in-unit laundry was a big one for us. Annie especially,
040he's like inun. And I know Gregory just rented an apartment and he would not look at anything without an in-unit laundry. It's like it was a big thing. We did talk about it a lot. And then that last meeting, they were like in-unit laundry very, very difficult. And we're like, we want it. We want anything. We want it. So, well, it just speaks to we had a lot of great ideas and then some of them were grounded in reality with the property management things. I think going forward, that's what the the if we choose to go this route, we're going to have to really ground everything in reality of what people are willing to do. I know they they kind of chopped us up a little bit at the end. Okay, flip on, Joe. financing.
041Very short slide. Measure O will only move the adult school. It won't build anything. We'll have to identify funding as it comes. Design process. So, this is where we're going to go really quickly, but there are pictures on this and this will be attached to the district uh website. So, that they brought in an architect for each group and they matched us with this architectural group. Um I have it written down Irootocott and they were from San Francisco and they've won all kinds of awards that are wonderful big from even they've done international and they've done a lot across the United States and they're very modern but they did take the time to come out here and look around Martinez and see what the area was and then see downtown in all different areas. They
042did take the time to come out here and this was just a a free thing that they did to work with um CSBA. So they did a site analysis and we're going to go through Joe quickly. So I'm just gonna hit they did this this one. I'm gonna let you talk about mine. So because the site's about five acres, we looked at four conceptual site plans and layouts before they went further. Um, so I won't go into all of them, but we selected the one which will show more details that has buildings up at the intersection of Alhhamra and F Street. It builds upon the creek at the rear of the property and really emphasizing that as an asset, breaking up the buildings into kind of smaller um smaller buildings rather than one big massive
043building. looking at circulation patterns and really building on some active open space areas as an asset for those who would reside there. Okay, next. And these are just unit types. We picked um onebedroom, twobedroom, a couple of three bedrooms, and some town houses. I think that's all we have in there, right? And a couple studios. Okay, keep going. We made sure there were shared outdoor spaces. Uh we wanted a certain uh space look and feel when when you went outside. You'll see it all come together. The public edge when you come down Alhhamra Avenue and around that corner, we wanted to make sure that we focused when you came down Alhamra that you had a good look as you were coming down there because right now when you're coming down Alhamra, it's not such a
044good look looking at the parking lot. No offense, Suzanne. I know you're here somewhere. Okay, go ahead. But it's clean. At least I It's clean. So go ahead. Uh so that's the public edge. That's the corner they designed. This is not necessarily what's going to be there, but this is their concept of what could possibly look like. So that's the corner there. This is along Alhhamra Avenue. And uh they nixed our coffee shop and our little, you know, dinette places and so on and so forth, but we thought about adult school classes under there. We we could put a bunch of things there if we went with this design. But go ahead, keep going. Just kind of flip through these different concepts along the road or street, sorry. up and down. Apartments on top view
045from internal parking. You can read. So, just kind of flip through these. These are the interior spaces. Doesn't even look like the same place. There's a courtyard. And then there's this limited access drive with the with the things that stop you from driving through. But the it's a cobblestone area where cars can't drive through, but the bikes can go through and the kids can, you know, ride their stuff through. You can jog through. Keep going. There's a playground for kids. Keep going. Keep going. Just kind of keep There you go. Just an aerial view. There's a path along the creek for jogging. You can go up and around. And then we come to vision and next steps. Um, if we were to move forward, our next steps would be to there's a more pictures and
046more stuff, but we'd have to do more planning. We'd start with planning, maybe look at some affordable community um, companies like Medp or Adobe or decide what direction the board wanted to go in. And then, but before we even did any of that, we would have to put out staff surveys, take an interest, see what what people really want, if there is an interest in anything like this, and move from there. So, and that would all be done next year and in the future, but you'd start small with the surveys. But that's basically what we found in our um research. So, okay. But this isformational only and great. Thank you very much. I'm nice to see you guys put so much time and effort into this. So, hopefully it comes to fruition. Any board questions?
047Just really a comment. So, thank you so much for everything that was put into this. Um, I can't stress enough how important that survey is going to be because obviously it I my hope is going to serve as many of our teachers and staff as possible. So, really understanding what their needs are and then even working with them to see what other districts needs are because, you know, we're hoping to attract new teachers as other teachers uh age out. So, um move on. So, uh and then open like the concept, but obviously I live pretty close to there, so there's some concerns around safety. There's a lot of transients, so I'm hoping u that will also be consideration just because, you know, it can be a concern sometimes. So, uh having open access to people's
048yards uh versus more open concept, just try to weigh that as much as possible. Yeah, thank you for this. This is exciting. I have um I think my two questions might be for Michael and I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit, so I apologize and if you don't know the answers, but um for the uh the city's housing element for the affordable housing, would these units count towards that or since only district employees could live there, is that cheating a little bit? They could count as is the answer. I think it depends upon what the rental rate is that is agreed upon when the development occurs. A lot of that will be determined based upon which financing option the district chooses to go with. There typically are a certain percentage and
049certain affordability levels that are required based upon those financing terms. Okay. Thank you. And this the my second question came up a few times when we had our um our uh help me I'm forgetting the name our our uh our facilities master plan meetings um does the embark property being next to where our adult school is does that will that potentially limit some of our options as far as like child care and stuff like that if we choose that site? So, that is actually a question that your esteemed superintendent actually asked after we went through the program. Um, the way that our regulations are written for cannabis, it specifies that um you cannot have a daycare facility um located within a certain distance of a cannabis uh retail operation. However, the way that it's worded
050is the cannabis business cannot open um if there is a daycare there. It's not the other way. You could theoretically have a daycare open. The question would be is that a decision of something that the district would want to do given potential concerns. Okay. Thank you. That's an interesting point. Um any other questions, public comments? Right. Next we have appointment of the superintendent of schools. Um Dr. Gigi Patrick has over four 25 years of dedicated experience and expertise in equitydriven administration, strategic planning, and community engagement. She has a deep commitment to fostering inclusive learning environments and improving student outcomes and has led transformative initiatives within diverse school communities focusing on equity, access, and highquality education. In her most recent role in the Valo City Unified School District, where she has worked for the past 27
051years, Dr. Patrick served as the assistant superintendent of human resources. As the assistant superintendent, she ensured compliance with district policies and state and federal regulations. As chief negotiator, she successfully led contract negotiations that resulted in settled agreements, salary enhancements, and sustained positive labor relationships. Dr. Patrick worked closely with fiscal services to maintain financial stability and ensure alignment between resources and student needs. As a school site leader and academic director, she successfully implemented research-based instructional practices that resulted in closing achievement gaps for all students. She is deeply committed to collaborative governance. And through her work with executive leadership teams and stakeholder groups such as LCAP advisory and budget advisory committees, Dr. Patrick has reinforced her ability to lead with transparency, integrity, and a student- centered vision. Is there any discussion or comments from the board? I'm
052just um looking forward to working with you and welcome to our district. We're um we're uh sad to be losing our um our superintendent, but we're very glad that we have someone like you that is willing to step in and take the helm. So, thank you. Any public comments? Is there a motion? I will um move to a am I just moving to approve the appointment? Yes. Okay. I will move to approve the appointment of Dr. Gigi Patrick as the next MUSD superintendent. Second. All in favor? I. So moved. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Gigi Patrick as the new superintendent of the Martinez Unified School District. Dr. Patrick, would you like to come to the podium and introduce yourself and any family members you have brought with you tonight? [Applause] Well, first before I
053do any introductions, as you can see, quite a few people came with me this evening. Um, this is my village that's here. Um, I did prepare a statement and I'd like to share with uh the entire community tonight before I do any introductions if that's okay. First of all, I'd like to say that I'm deeply honored and humbled to serve as the next superintendent of Martinez Unified School District. I want to thank the board of education for your confidence and for this incredible opportunity. I look forward to working collaboratively with our educators, our families, our students, and to build on the district's strength and ensure that every student has the support and opportunities provided for them. Again, I really want to thank you. I'm so excited to be here and I'm really looking forward to
054working with each and every one of you. Thank you. And are you going to introduce your family now? Absolutely. So I have with me my husband came um to the last meeting but he he left out a little early. So this is my husband Arie Patrick. He is also an a longtime educator. So we are very committed and he will be supporting me in my new role. My mother is also here Carolyn Finley. She is also um an educator and um so excited and I'm happy to have her here with me tonight. Um, I have my aunt, um, who was also a retired educator and she was here with me last time, but obviously everyone is really excited and it is it does take a village and and this is my village. And I have
055my professional um and personal colleagues and friends that I've worked with for a long time. Some of them I consider to be a part of my legacy as a leader in education for the last it's actually 30 years 30 plus years. This is 33. So I've been around a long time. I started when I was 10. That's what I thought. All right. So we have um director Nikki Pitcher. I think she works for Contraosta County. Um we have Tana Simmons who was also I I consider one of my legacies. She's an educator. I have my cousin over here, Judy Yates. Um, my wonderful friend and colleague, sister, part of my legacy, Crystal Points. Kimberly Mitchell Lewis, who is also an educator. She's a leader in Val. She's a principal. And over in the back far
056right corner is a director, Rosyn Hines, who is also part of my village. We grew up together and worked together for many years. So, I'm really happy to have them all here to see me um accept this new position. So, thank you so much and I'm looking forward to um scheduling time with you really soon. Thank you very much and congratulations again. Thank you. [Applause] Next, we have the approval of the employment contract. Um, the next agenda item addresses the board's open session discussion and possible approval of the superintendent's employment contract. In short summary, the proposed employment agreement contains the following material items in regards to term and work year. The term of Dr. Patrick's employment agreement with the district will be from July 1st, 2025 to June 30th, 2028. And the work year shall
057consist of 225 days. The superintendent shall be paid beginning July 1st, 2025 based upon an annualized salary of 250,000 upon receipt of a satisfactory evaluation at the end of the 2526 school year and within the sole direction discretion, excuse me, of the board. The superintendent will be eligible for a 2 to 3% increase with the board reserving the right for additional increases. The complete contract with all fringe benefits is attached to this agenda or can be obtained by contacting the superintendent's office here at the district office. Any board discussion? Any public comment? Is there a motion? I will move to imp approve the employment contract for the superintendent. Second. All those in favor? I so moved. Next we have approval of the revised NASA salary schedule. Janelle Ayat. Good evening. This item is being brought
058back tonight for approval. Um, as discussed at our last meeting, the only change to the salary schedule is to is to reflect the reduction in days to the um the voluntary reduction in days to our educational service coordinator position from 218 work days to 210 effective July 1st. Thank you. Just for people in the audience, this was her request. So, um, it just saves us a little bit of money. Um, any discussion, any questions? Public comment. Do I have a motion? I will move to approve the revised uh massa salary schedule. Second. All those in favor? I. So moved. Next we have approval of new job description noon duty cafeteria supervisor Janelle Ayat. This item is um being brought back for board approval tonight. This is a new job description negotiated with CSEA. It's the
059noon duty cafeteria supervisor um which will allow us to um designate additional supervision at all of our campuses for in the cafeterias. Great. Thank you. And again, this was discussed at the last board meeting. Any questions, discussion? Any public comments? Do I have a motion? I'll move to approve the noon duty cafeteria supervisor job description. Seconded. All those in favor? I. So moved. Next we have approval of Proposition 28 annual report. Amy Espinosa. Good evening board members and superintendent Rossi. Tonight I'm here um to uh ask for the approval of the annual report for Proposition 28, which is our arts and music um funds for the 2425 fiscal year. This was presented at the last board meeting. Any questions? Any public comments? Is there a motion? I will move to approve the Proposition 28 annual
060report. Second. All those in favor? I. So moved. Approval of the propos proposed 2025 2026 local control accountability plan and local indicator report. Amy Espinosa. Good evening again, board members and superintendent Rossi. Tonight, I'm requesting approval for the 2526 um local control and accountability plan that was presented to the in the board meeting on June 9th. This includes the um parent overview budget as well. Thank you. Any questions, comments? Public comment. Is there a motion? I make a motion to pass the proposed 2025 2026 local control accountability plan and local indicator report. Second. All those in favor? I. So moved. Next we have approval of the facility master plan update. Andy Cannon. Uh we took uh quite a lengthy amount of time last board meeting to review through this plan. I think it's very exciting
061and I'm hopeful that the board will approve it for future projects. Thank you. Do we have any um board discussion? I just had one more question, Andy. How so um once we approve this master plan, how does that affect our committee? Will we still be having meetings as uh projects go forward or what's next? We haven't thought that far ahead. Um I would be happy to take input on if we want to meet as a group and go forward. Um right now we're starting that planning phase with contracts and work. Uh we will be using the uh community oversight committee and reviewing that information. So uh depending on the direction from the board to the new superintendent or current superintendent, however that works, um we'd be happy to find out what you guys want to
062do. We're still going to have our regular facilities meetings twice a year, right? We would still have them a year. Whether we'd have more frequently about this, we could do that. Would we incorporate them at all or They would be separate. It just depends. Okay. Gotcha. Thank you. Okay. We do have two public comments on this. First one, Brenda Leil, you wrote 10.7. Somebody wrote master facility plan. What did you want to talk about? Oh, under public comments. I'm so sorry. It was under I think it might have been changed. Sorry. Okay. All right. We do have Suzanne Murphy though. Uh good evening to the board cabinet superintendent Rossi and our incoming superintendent as well. Um I was here two weeks ago. um with the master plan, which I understand everything on the master plan
063is important to facilitate, but I did bring to the attention of the board and we talked about that the idea for the adult school to only be 12 classrooms is concerning thinking about programming currently and programming moving forward. So my ask was the board to consider classroom space to be 14 classrooms. Currently, we operate under 15 classrooms with a multi-use room. That's our current programming. I talked last well two weeks ago now about adding on-site child care that not only will support our students, but could support the community in a variety of ways. Early childhood education courses, it could support the students at Alhhamra or possibly Vicente with internship opportunities with their teaching pathway that they currently have. And there's also apprenticeship programs for early childhood through the county office of education. That is an
064on-site child care that we'd like to support with the new facility. We can't do it right now, but we want to move forward with that. The other was a designating testing center. We have a highet high school equivalency which tomorrow night it's we're on the eve of our graduation which we have a record number of high completers, 30 this year. And so we're looking forward to all of you being at graduation tomorrow. But my ask is if you are moving forward with a motion tonight to approve this master facility plan within your motion if you could just state this is my ask for consideration that if there is funding available when the adult school is ready to be built that you allow it to be 14 classrooms if there's funding. And that's my ask of
065you this evening. Thank you. Thank you. I'm just going to respond quickly to that and say that I was assured that this is a work in process and that it will be looked at. It doesn't have to be spelled out in the appro approval today because that's probably like three or four years out, maybe even five. And so it absolutely will be considered and I think we'll have um I mean if we have the funding, right? Yes. Um I think the process comes down to is we have to look at a lot of things. um the projects that we've put here and the dollar amounts have different costs in there and we believe that that should be a fair market value for what but we don't know what's going to happen down the road whether
066prices go up or down. I think what's key is looking at the program needs. Um obviously we have to determine whether the site is going to be this is the adult ed whether the site's going to be here across the street or if it's going to remain where it is. That's one domino of decisions that need to be made. And then if we do bring it down here looking at the entire kind of of facilities. Um what can we do to accommodate all the needs and the programs that take place there and there are ways I think that we can do that. But ultimately it does come down to cost and what we have left. If we have an excess of dollars and we can look at doing something differently there we can. Um we
067do have some limitations around space and we know that going to a twotory plan instead of a one-story acres a lot of extra cost in terms of construction. Um, but we are committed to looking at what is the best way to meet all of our programmatic needs within the bond as we go forward. And like you said, we've got a couple of years to still work through that. We also know that the U master plan has to be done every five years. And as I'm looking at the plan that I just got today from the implementation plan and the cash flow plan, they're not looking at the adult school ed uh the education project until 2930. So, they're pretty close to redoing the uh adult school the master facility plan again before they even get
068to the adult school plan. So, I know it was in the last master plan and I know what we have done and Mel Park has a lot of different things that were done. So um we have to see as the budget comes in a lot of the things were done um under budget and that's how we were able to get a lot more done at John Sweat and at Mela Park. So things change as we move. So we just constantly change after each project is done. So we know Suzanne what you want. I and I appreciate that. Yeah. You can't. It's just going to happen. I mean, we if we made every motion that every if we made a motion on the last master facility plan with an addendum to what everybody wanted on their
069wish list for John Sweat, John Mure, Mela Park, and um Los Hundas, we would have had a motion from here to Texas. But we also know what what the wants are. We do. Yeah. So, and it's it's written down and we know you have those notes because I know I know you have those notes pictures and and I know you will be at every meeting and I know they're it's not going to go away and really it's it's for the community. I know you know I want to support the best way that we can. Absolutely. So, I appreciate that. I just wanted to reinforce the the need and and also the future beyond me being here, beyond all of us, you know, for them to the adult school to be able to continue to provide
070what it needs to for the community. So, thank you. I appreciate it and I appreciate that the door seems open possibly to the idea. I'd like it to consider in the motion to say that, but I understand what you're saying that this there is an open door to look at that in the future. So, thank you. So, I appreciate that and I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow evening. And remember, we talk outside the box sometimes. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So, any discussion more? Okay. Do we have a motion? M. I move to approve the facility master plan update. Seconded. All in favor? I I so moved. Okay, next we have review and approval of the 2025 2026 CSEA salary schedule. Janelle Ayat. This item is before you tonight because while the board
071did approve and ratify the MUSD and CSEA contract for the 2427 school years and the associated salary schedules, unfortunately, we did discover that the 2526 SC salary schedules were not attached to the board agenda item that evening when it was brought forward for approval. So this is um item is for you tonight as information and action to clean that up and to ensure that the 2526 salary schedules are approved for uh to be effective July 1st. Thank you very much. I'm glad you caught it before rather than later. Um any questions, discussion, public comment? Do I have a motion? Make a motion to approve the 2025 2026 CEA salary schedule. Second. All those in favor? I I so moved. Next we have review and approval of the 2026 supervisory confidential salary schedule. Janelle Ayat. This
072item is also here for the same reason. Um this is the supervisory confidential salary schedule for the 2526 school year. um which reflects the new salary rates um starting July 1st that we're asking for the board to approve this evening. Thank you. Any questions? Public comment. I'll make a motion to um approve the 2025 2026 supervisory confidential salary schedule. Second. All in favor? I so moved. Next we have memorandum of understanding between Martinez Education Association and Martinez Unified School District for the 2025 2026 school year. Janelle Ayat. This item is being brought forward. Um it does relate to the information um that Superintendent Rossi shared earlier this meeting regarding a reorganization in our administrative unit um and the support and how we are going to be supporting um our Martinez early intervention preschool program by
073designating um an MEA unit member to be an administrative design for the preschool program. And that does require anou because we will be paying um that unit member a stipen for the year for that additional work. So this is um we're asking for approval for uh theou for the 2526 school year. Thank you. Do we have any discussion questions? Public comment. Is there a motion? Okay. I would like to uh make a motion to approve the memorandum of understanding between Martinez Education Association and Martinez Unified School District for the 2526 school year. Second. All those in favor? I. So moved. Next we have ratification of contract for RFP 25503 office equipment and related technology services. Joe Gangler. Good evening. Uh that this is the contract that before you is from our overview from our last
074meeting July on July 9th discussing the intent to award uh for this request for proposal. Uh we have a fully executed contract presented to the board uh for ratification. The contract term is 5 years starting this July 1st, 2025 and ending on June 30, 2030. Uh the contract has uh stipulations to be extended after the initial term with five one-year extensions. Uh we are asking you to ify that contract. Any questions, comments? Any public comment? I'd like to ratify I'd like to make a motion to ratify the contract for RFP2503-03, Office Equipment and Related Technology Services. Second. All those in favor? I so moved. Next we have change of regularly scheduled board meeting dates in August 2025 and May 2026. Helen Rossy. Okay. So um I've had a request to take a look at the
075second board meeting in August. There are a couple of board members that have requested we change the A. Okay. I can't August 25th board meeting date um due to conflicts in their schedule. And the easiest thing to do is to just simply move it to the 26th. If we move it uh because of Labor Day falling on the 1st, we can't move it down and it it's it will get lost in the shuffle and we will need that because it's the beginning of the year. So, um moving it to Tuesday just makes the most sense. So um that is the first thing and I thought everything else is fixed all the way through December and we fixed that on the agenda at the beginning of I think mid year and when we did our reorg
076we did looked at the calendar and the only other conflict date is going to be Memorial Day for the whole entire year and if we want to look at that and I don't know if you want to look at it now but it Memorial Day is the 25th if If we want to just move them both just over one day, that would be the 25th to the 26th. It would stop us from having the two Mondays right in a row, which is really difficult. And um to meet the timeline for doing the agenda twice in a row um and it's hard on you guys. It's the end of the year. It's graduation week and it makes a lot of nights right in a row for those of us that attend all the graduations right in
077a row. So, um just uh it out there. You don't have to touch the May one right now, but you're going to have to touch it eventually. And you know, because of the LCAP and the budget, you're going to need to have things spread out a little bit so we don't have the meetings that go forever. So, I added that one on as well. Helen, I have a comment. Um, August 26 is one of our back to school nights. Okay. So, we'd have to change that. Okay. It would we'd have to double up on which one is it? We h we have to have a board meeting. It will be the junior high. Okay. They would have to change the junior high to another night and maybe double up on a night or move it
078the week before because we have to have a board meeting and there are no other nights in the week. And if we don't have it on the 26th, if you look, can you if you don't have it, go back to where we were on the 26th, you're going to have two right in a row. And I think that's really hard to do at the start of the year, unless the board feels that you want to have two right in a row at the start of the year. So, What's August? You're talking about August, right? Yes. Okay. Um, what about the 27th or 28th? Are those back to school nights as well? Yes. The 26th, 27th, and 28th are. Okay. Are those dates that have already been published and people families know and have planned for
079that already? They're there. What they do is they always line up with the half day before Labor Day and there are three nights and there are four elementaryaries and then middle and then high school. So, we'd have to either put the junior high with the high school or put the junior high with the elementaryaries, which is hard because parents have kids at both. That's the only thing. We'd have to move it to the week before. I'd almost rather move our board meeting. And I mean, it's that's fine, but it's inconveniencing us, but that's less fuel than if it's inconveniencing an entire school. Then you'd have to do maybe Tuesday after Labor Day. the second. So, Tuesday the second. What if we 18th? I could do it close together. Well, I was going to say or
080the 11th and the 21st. When are you out of town? No. Logan, are you out of town on the 22nd? Are you available on the 18th? We can do the 18th. So, we want to do the 11th and the 18th. Does that work for you, Courtney? The 18th. And there's no school complex on the 18th. And I know I had actually asked Brenda if she was okay. Are you okay with the 18th, Brenda, since Okay, thank you. So, then we'll go. If it's the 11th and the 18th, you don't have another board meeting until the 8th of September. So that's for any contracts or anything that come up. I don't I want to just Can I just take a peek at the master board calendar and see what we did last year so that we're
081not cutting ourselves short in something? It's the only thing I want to worry about. Yep. Thank you. Just give me a second because it's the start of the year and we haven't had any. I just you know me I worry. So Dr. Patrick, would you be okay with that too? Uh we were looking at um August 18th. So doing a meeting August 11th and August 18th. That's two Mondays in a row. You're okay with that? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um, is there a on the GAN resolution, Andy? Is there a um date for the GAN resolution? That's the that's the only thing I see. I have pips and resolution if we had to. That's that's the only thing I see. No. And we should be able to do the 45day revise if needed during
082that time on the 11th probably or the 18th. I think both of those work. Okay, I think we're good if we do it. Okay, great. So, we will move. Okay. To do the 11th and the 18th. Yes, that's good. Yeah, I will. Public comment. Okay. Do we want to work about the May one or No, we're with that later. Okay. Okay. Sounds like a plan. Okay. Do I have a motion? And then it'll leave the the May. I move to move our August 26th board. Is that No. What? Sorry. August 25th. August 25th board meeting to August 18th. Second. All those in favor? I. So moved. Okay. We do have um a couple of additional comments from the public because we missed um we will start with Brenda Leil. Hi everyone. Um I just wanted
083to formally thank Helen uh for the contribution she has made to Martinez Unified School District. It's hard to follow uh Carlos Melendis's eloquent comments, but I I second all of those. Um she has shown incredible hard work and integrity throughout her entire career, and she's worn so many hats. How many hats do you have? It's it's almost like a comic western, you know, where you you walk into this uh police department or sheriff's office and they start pulling out hats. So, um, and she's achieved excellence in every position, um, from leading Martinez Junior High School to leading our district. Um, and I just want to say that in 2020 when the world was chaos, um, Helen was there and she really stabilized our district. And I had such appreciation for you, Helen, when we met
084to hand out those COVID tests in March of 2021. And I thought I knew a lot of people, but um it turns out Helen knows everybody. Um I was so impressed. She knew their kids' names, she knew the parents' names. Um and she was there helping everybody um assuring everybody, making sure that we got started um back in person. Um and I just believe you've been an incredible asset to the district. You're going to be greatly missed. Um and please enjoy your retirement. Thank you. Oh, that's right. You amended the budget. Okay. So, can I do the last public comment then or should I do that after? Let me do the last public comment that I had. Um, Michael Cass, you didn't know I was going to do this. So, I'm gonna read because I
085wanted to prepare in advance rather than speaking. Helen, it's an honor to stand here today to celebrate someone who has given so much of herself to our schools, our students, and our community. Helen, you have always led with grace, wisdom, and unwavering belief in the power of public education. You've brought together you've brought people together to build something larger than any single person could. And what you've done to the facilities in Martinez for our schools is a testament of everything that you've accomplished. You haven't just led, but you've led with your heart. We've seen you navigate challenges with courage, such as COVID that was just mentioned. uplift your fellow teachers and staff with compassion and champion every student like they were your own. Your legacy is not just in the policies and programs that you've
086implemented, which there's many, but in the lives you've touched, the futures you've shaped, and the deep sense of care that you've instilled in our community. Helen, thank you for your many, many years of service, your example of integrity, and the strength you've brought to every corner of this district. You've left it significantly better than you found it, and we're all better for it. Wishing you joy, rest, lots of rest, and adventures and time with your family. You've earned it. Thank you. Thank you. And then going back to Andy, I forgot the name of it because it's not written down, but go for it. Okay, there it is. The 2025 2026 budget and statement of balances in excess of minimum reserves. Thank you for the opportunity to talk about it again. Um we do have a
087budget um that we're projecting to be positive. Um we do have many challenges ahead which the board knows and is going to go through a whole process um hopefully with the new superintendent to evaluate our goals and what priorities are from the board and through that process we will find a way to make sure that we are meeting the needs of all of our students and maintaining um the conditions of work that we have in this district. Um but there will be lots of challenges ahead with that and so tonight um I would appreciate the board to approve the budget for the 202526 fiscal year. Okay. Thank you. Do you have any questions? Public comment. So I'll make a motion to approve the 2025 2026 budget and statement of balances in excess of reserves. Second.
088All those in favor? I I so moved. Okay. So, Helen, um the board wanted to um acknowledge and thank you for all the years and everything you've done for each of us. Um, we do have a gift certificate to a restaurant that we hope you will like. I'm sure you will. Um, and we got you a card. And then, um, Annie's getting the flowers, but um, just wanted to say that, um, you are definitely, you're so funny. Um, we're doing it this at the end of the meeting because we know that there might be teary eyes somewhere along the way, but um, thank you for all you've done for the school district. You, um, I think everyone said it wonderfully. I just want to echo everything they've said, but you've left it um in better
089shape than it was. And you will be gone, but you will never be missed. You You'll never be forgotten. You'll be missed, but never forgotten because you've done so much for our district. And we really um wholeheartedly appreciate everything. And you've left um everything very successful and lined up wonderfully for our new superintendent, which I know she's happy about. Um, so we're in a good situation and we just wanted to say thank you very much and hopefully you will actually relax. I don't think you will. I don't think it's in your nature. I think you're going to come to schoolboard meetings and I think you're going to I'm scared about I don't even know how to relax exactly. Yeah. I just think you're going to be here anyways, but um we love to see you,
090but um hopefully you will find time to relax and spend time with your family and kids here for you. And I just want to say everybody, don't forget we have the MEA Martinez adult education graduation tomorrow. Um, I know I'll be there. I think everyone's going to be there. And then I know each board member wanted to say something. So, do you want to go? Okay. Okay. I have a lot to say, too, but I'll try to try to uh not drone on. Um Helen, you took the helm at a very turbulent time in our district. Um you had um Annie and I as new board members. Um you had some new principles, some new cabinet members, and the return to school after distance learning. Um I don't think we could have done everything that
091we accomplished without you. Um, and I do think we've accomplished a lot in in your time as superintendent. We've extended our parcel tax, um, passed Measure O, finished prior bond projects, explored the workforce housing, um, and let us not forget we brought Dutch Brothers to Martinez. Um, your knowledge and dedication to this district has been unwavering and unquestionable. Um, and I do hope you know how much we appreciate you and how much you will be missed. And, um, you've also helped me in my personal life and given me advice that I hope you know that I will always appreciate and remember you for. Um, and I know you don't like the limelight, but sometimes we forced you into it anyway. Um, it was my honor and privilege along with Annie to nominate you for Martinez
092Woman of the Year. I'm glad we they recognized what what we saw in you and gave you that award. That was welld deserved. And thank you for letting us celebrate you even though I know it wasn't comfortable for you. Um, but you let us have that one. So, thank you. And I'm so glad that you finally got to take your vacation last week. A welldeserved, way overdue. I want to thank your family for letting us borrow her um often too much, but um now [Laughter] we're we're giving her back to you. And please know, I know it was often not easy and we do We we do appreciate it so much. So, um please keep in touch and um please try to relax. Thank you. So, we've known each other only for a little while,
093but I think we everyone here agrees that nobody over the last 31 uh 31 years has given more time, attention, and love to this district. and you will be missed uh but never forgotten as Tanya said, but you deserve this for yourself and you have a beautiful family and I hope you get many many years with them and uh I know we'll see you around. So, we're looking forward to that. Okay. Uh oh. Okay, I can do this. I know I can do it. Um, and I have a plan. Tanya might end up reading, but I have some props. Allah Paula McCauley. You have to know I've known Annie since she was in middle school. So, okay. So, I borrowed some props from my son. He wasn't happy, but I told them they were for
094you and that no one else was going to touch them. So, all right. I first met Helen as a tiny, nervous sixth grader. She had the reputation of being a scary eighth grade math teacher. As I know now, her bark was always bigger than her bite. Our paths crossed again when I began substitute teaching in MUSD and Helen was principal at MJHS. Then again when I applied for a teaching position at the junior high. When Helen called me to tell me I got the job, she didn't say congratulations. rather since my mom was on the board at the time. She said, "I'm hiring you because you're the right person for the job, but you're going to need to have thick skin." Fast forward 10 years. I could have never predicted that I'd be part of
095the board that hired Helen as superintendent. I wrote her a card that said, "We hired you because you're the best person for the job, but you're going to need to have thick skin." And you know what? I think we did kind of develop thick skin. But what I'm more proud of is that we kept some vulnerability and stayed sensitive, too. Basically, we're people who feel all the feels. So, I thought it would be appropriate to take a journey through the emotions that you and the rest of us are likely experiencing with your pending retirement. First up is sadness. A few weeks ago, you called me after doing a bunch of what I assume were mundane superintendent tasks, but I think it hit you that you might be doing them for the last time. You said
096to me, "I don't really know why I'm calling you. I guess I'm just sad. And I said, it's okay to just be sad. I'm pretty sure you didn't believe me. I'm going to do it, guys. Got to do it. But I want to remind us all that it's okay to just be sad. You have cultivated such amazing relationships in this district with kids, families, and staff. And I know a lot of people are feeling just sad. Next is anger. We have all of them. I'm not going to go through all of them, but we do actually have all of them. Um, people don't really like to admit that they're angry, but it's valid. And if there's anyone out there that's angry that Helen Rossy is leaving us, well, that's okay, too. Fear and its close
097cousin, anxiety, are next. For years, you've been a shoulder to cry on, a helping hand, a listening ear. So many people had direct access to you. And when all else failed, they knew they could call you and you would fix whatever problem they had. I literally watched you fix a toilet at the John Sweat auction a few months ago. I mean, if that's not leadership, I don't know what is. I watched you take countless kids under your wing. And personally, I mean, it's true. She really did. Yep, it's true. I watched you take countless kids under your wing and personally ensure that a situation would be taken care of. I don't blame anyone, myself included, for wondering how we can manage without you and for fearing what's next. But along with fear is anxiety. Anxiety
098can be uncomfortable, but it also brings with it the nervous excitement for what's next. If there's anything I know about you, it's that you've always wanted the very best for the kids of MUSD. And that also means growth and change and the potential the future holds. I know you will be watching us with the expectation that we will continue to thrive. Which brings me to joy. And I'm just gonna let Tanya do the rest I think. But here's the joy. We are right there. You are so deserving of everything this ne next chapter brings you and I am so happy that you get to spend it surrounded by people you love. As you look back on your career here at MUSD, I hope you keep a few things in mind. One, we are better because
099all you have done. It's okay to feel all the feels, but please don't forget that you have changed us for the better. Two, you could have stayed for 10 more years and still not feel like the work is done because it isn't. But you have set the stage for continued greatness and this community will never never forget it. Three, you deserve to enjoy your life. You earn Saturdays that are free of fire alarms and prom disasters. Try, key word here, try to sleep in. You might like it. Helen, when I was 11, I couldn't have imagined how our world would interine intervene, but I'm glad they did, and I'm proud to have walked with you for this short portion of your storied career in MUSD. Thank you and congratulations. [Applause] That is a very nice
100meeting and again enjoy your retirement. We really will miss you but you will never be forgotten. And it is 8:01. We are adjourned.