Mendocino County Office of Education Governing Board Meeting

001[Music] Last [Music] heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Don't be [Music] Hey, you're down. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, honey. [Music] really. [Music] Hey [Music] Everybody. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Baby, [Music] by the way, [Music] Ready? [Music] I've got 959. >> Oh, now it's 10. Okay. >> Sorry, I'm so anal. Good. Okay. I'd like to call the October 13, 2025 regular board meeting to order. Um, this meeting is being livereamed and recorded. Um, item 1.1 is flag salute and call to order. 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. >> Thank you. Moving on to item 1.2, to approval and adoption of the agenda. Do

002I have a motion? >> I move that we approve the agenda. Nancy, a second. >> I'll second it. >> Thank you. All in favor? >> I >> approved. Item 1.3, approval and adoption of the minutes of the 9825 meeting. Do we have a motion? >> I move that we approve the minutes as written. >> Second. >> Thank you. All in favor? I >> I >> 1.3 passes. Um, moving on to item 1.4, approval, adoption of the minutes of our meeting. Do I have a motion? >> I'll move to approve those minutes. >> Thank you, Dave. >> Second. >> Thank you, Nancy. All in favor? >> I 1.4 is approved. Moving on to item 1.5, remote attendance of a board member. We always put this on here now. we will until um unless it's extended. I

003I believe it expires in January, but this is in the event that a board member is not able to attend um in person due to certain circumstances, but while it still exists, we'll keep it on the agenda. So that that's an option. >> Yeah. And it's a great one because some of us have other things. >> Can I ask a question about this item? >> Sure. >> So does this So we won't have this option after January. Is that correct? >> Unless it's extended and I'm and I haven't I don't have an update on that right now. Okay. >> Was this due to the co >> It was. It's It's a It's a hanger honor from CO days. >> All right. Moving on to item 1.6 public participation. Do we have any >> room? connection.

004>> Yeah, >> there's um I think you want to acknowledge her. Hi, Beina. Welcome to the meeting. Can you hear us? >> Yes, I can. >> Welcome. >> Can you hear? I can hear you just fine. Thank you for joining us. >> Thank you for having me. Tell me when you want me to start. >> Oh, we're ready for you. >> Okay. Perfect. Good morning, board president, superintendent, and trustees. I am uh Vina Leavitz with the president of ACCBE, and I'm here today to just thank you. Thank your board for being founding members of ACCDE or of the Association of the California County Boards of Education. I wish I could be there in person, but thank you for having me on Zoom. We are especially grateful to Nancy Bennett for um your who is your

005ACCBE board representative whose insights and leadership have helped guide our work in alignment with your county's vision and mission. In just nine months since our launch, together we've built real momentum. 36 county boards have joined ACCDE, creating a strong unified voice for county boards of trustees across California. I hope you've seen our free and frequent training and networking invitations, our weekly newsletters, and soon you'll receive our very first annual report. We promise to deliver advocacy, training, and connection. And we have in at least four of our big ways. On trustee excellence, we've offer we've offered nine statewide governance trainings covering county budgets, board calendars and retreats, governance roles, advocacy, and uh positive board culture, just to name a few. We've hosted five big idea events with experts. We've spotlighted statewide leaders like Linda Darly Hammond,

006an expert in career education, apprenticeships, and early learning. And we launched a new series called Court and Community School Deep Dive. And we also hosted a student board networking. On advocacy, we hosted two legislative forums, including one with the assembly education chair. and our advocacy committee has reviewed dozens of bills supporting nine uh supporting nine bills, several that have now been signed into law. On partnerships, we've built monthly collaborations with the county superintendent and the small school districts association to align our priorities and amplify county voices. Looking ahead, we're planning our first statewide conference in March with Small School Districts Association, two regional in-person gatherings and a new resource hub. And we're expanding our partnerships to elevate your work and your student success. And of course, we'll continue our online trainings that we offer. As

007we hope you'll renew your 2026 ACCV membership, please let us know how we can continue to support your board's goals, especially for our most apt promise students. We'd be honored to present at a future meeting if to share more and if you would like to and to hear from you directly. But mostly, we want to thank you. Thank you for your leadership, your partnership, and your belief in what county boards can do together. So, thank you for having me today. And thank you again. >> Thank you for joining us, Vina. >> Okay, have a great day. >> Thank you. And thank you, Nancy. >> Thanks. >> Take care. Bye. Bye. >> Bye, Vina. Well, that was wonderful. >> She's She's really got some good energy. >> All right. Do you want to add anything, Nancy,

008or >> No. >> Okay. >> Not at this time. >> Okay. >> Thanks. Um, I just wanted to acknowledge you and appreciate you. >> Oh, thank you. >> U, moving on to correspondence, we have none. Our consent agenda, we have none. Moving on to our action discussion item 4.1, our resolution 25.10.1, California retired teachers week. This is one that we >> Yes, this comes annually. And I'm not going to read the resolution, but um many in our county, many retired teachers in our county are still very active in schools as either substitutes or volunteers, but they're also doing advocacy for educators and for students. And uh we have an active California Retired Teachers Association chapter in our county. And so, um it is our honor to bring this um resolution to you. >> Thank you.

009Do we have any questions or comments on 4.1? If not, then I'd like to entertain a motion. I move that we approve resolution number 2510.1. And do we have a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you. All in favor? I I >> Thank you, Don Cruiser. >> As part of the retired teachers, >> yes, >> we got to recognize that >> it's an active group. >> Your ongoing service. Moving on to item 4.2. This is also an annual item a consideration of county superintendent salary. Does anyone have any question or comment about this? I am bringing this to you a month earlier than I would normally. Um, and that is because we have three new board members who have never been part of this discussion before. And I want to make sure that if there's

010additional information that any board member would like that we um if the board's not would like that information before taking action, I can come back next month. But you see here a summary of what has been done um in the past and the um what what the the request for compensation is this year. Um, and again, that would be taking effect January 1st. And in in short, um, it would be a 1.5% salary increase to the salary schedule for the superintendent. Um, and it would be a onetime $2,000 off schedule payment. Um, that percent increase and that onetime payment are also what um um, all employees got. And additionally, um, a request to move from step three to step four, moving to my fourth year in position. And then there are comparisons there um for

011your reference. >> Thank you, Nicole. >> I appreciated seeing all the data um the comparisons and then also having the policy because it reminds us of ED code and law and all that good stuff. >> Um I did have a question. Can you explain to me what the off salary schedule payment what what how does that how does that work? What does that mean? So, um, the other employees just got theirs and it's basically a two, it's almost like a bonus. Bonus is not the right term for it because bonus is what you get when you do something extra. Um, it is what, um, districts and MCE sometimes do when we see that we have some money to give, but we can't commit to continuing. And so, um, so it is usually preferable to give

012an ongoing salary increase. So, you boost that salary schedule in an ongoing basis. that helps with both recruitment and retention, but sometimes you can't do that and you still have something, so you want to give something. So that's that's what that is. >> Thank you. And then I did have another question where on page three of the attachments, attachment A, >> it talks about the master's degree stipend and a doctorate degree stipend. And you even if you had both, you could qualify for the highest. I'm a little confused as as far as what the siphon is. Um, >> is it because a person in this seat may be working towards one of those? And so that's a stipen usually is meant to offset like an expense because they're they're a student or >> so on

013our certificated salary schedule both for certificated so for like teachers um counselors and then also for our certificated managers like principles and some of our directors we have this stipen um it is because it is a desirable um it's desirable for for staff to have that but it's not necessarily required for the position. So it's just a little recognition of that. So it's not necessarily working towards it. It's upon completion um in in recognition of that additional level of education. >> Okay. So it's kind of like a bonus. >> That is more like a bonus than than this than the one time off salary. Yes. >> Okay. >> I have a question about that. I'm sorry. >> Um just my question was so when is that paid at the end of the year? Beginning of

014the year. I believe that's incorporated in monthly. >> Yeah, it's averaged over the year. >> Oh, okay. And then my other question is, do you have >> I have a master's degree. Oh, >> okay. Yeah. >> I mean, people call me Dr. Lenser sometimes. I always hesitate to correct them because it sounds great, but no, I have I have a master's degree. >> I had a question too. I think we had created a salary schedule to >> to sort of save us having to do this every year. >> And so this this is a raise that's on top of your step increase is it? >> Sure. Yes. So on page three you see the current salary schedule which last year we increased by 1% I think or whatever. Yeah. And so this is that schedule.

015Um so the the salary schedule is in recognition of rather than um just as as other staff members have they move um over salary for years of experience. And so that this is in recognition of that um of you know to kind of simulate that not simulate it is the same thing >> but again but again the the extra 1.5% is on top of >> correct that is correct and and what you see on page three on the current salary schedule is what we have currently and the 1.5 shows from steps one through five where what that what that looks like in each Well, >> yeah. I always, you know, first of all, we built that schedule in to sort of help us avoid this this decision because it's always it's always a little bit

016of a bothersome decision, at least to me, you know, and and Nicole, I'm very happy with with you and the job you're doing. All right. And and again, the step increase gives you more money, but I uh you know, it's always presented as if this is the same thing that the teachers get, but because your base salary, you know, the mathematics bothers me. Your your base salary is so much bigger. >> Sure. >> It means you get a much bigger raise than the teachers do. And the consequence of that is over the years the difference between what a teacher makes and what you make gets much bigger in a hurry. And and somehow or other I'm a little bothered by that. You know I I actually did a lot of research on salaries in other

017countries at one time and over there in Germany where they have that fantastic educational system. Everyone comes out speaking more than one language. And when when I asked my relatives over there, what's the secret to this German economy? You know, China displaced them as the world's largest exporter just a few years ago. And they do it with, I think, something like 30 to 50 million people. They all have the same answer. It's precision German engineering. And over there in that school system, their administrators don't don't make a whole lot more than teachers do. So, and of course it it sort of connects with a bigger problem that we have in this country and that is, you know, the CEOs are making millions and millions and the ordinary workers are hopefully surviving, >> you know. So

018I just, you know, somehow or other and again we sort of created a salary schedule to to make to help us avoid making this decision. It's built into the system. And so it seems to me like this the step increases would be enough. >> I remember Michelle um Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, >> I'm done. >> Putting this 3% in. And at first, everyone had an issue thinking, "Oh boy, that's too much." But when you look at what our neighboring counties are getting, we're also trying to keep our position keep the our superintendent's position um attractive. >> Yeah. I mean, our our superintendent will never catch up to um UK Unified, which is it seems like, wait, she should be getting more. How did this happen? But >> um since she's in charge of I know

019it just it it is what it is. I hear what you're saying. I I know we did we did do that. We did do that. So our option is to vote on just the 3% staying or additional 1.3 >> or the normal. >> I like the fact that this comes before the board every year because there may be a year that you can't automatically raise someone's salary, but we we as trustees should be pretty fiscally, you know, aware. There may be times we can't automatically give someone a raise. Um, >> and it's hard it's hard to take a county superintendent and and a teacher salary because we're not comparing apples and apples. >> Um, and I I agree, you know, with with our county superintendent. Um, I think we need to stay competitive because this

020role is our countywide leader. So that's all >> you know >> in terms of average income this county is one of the poorest in the states. >> True. >> And then it's also important to recognize that education doesn't happen here. Educa education happens in when teachers and students interact. That's where it happens. >> I have a question. Um are we ahead? So, are we seeking action at the next board meeting in regards to this action item? >> We can take it today if we choose to. We can put it off if we choose to. That's why we're having our questions and discussion. So, hopefully we don't have to put it on. But, Don, I wanted to bring that up again as well that um when Michelle brought this forward, it wasn't so much so that

021we don't have the discussion because we do need to have the discussion every time. We do because there's sometimes we might not want to. That's one of our real That's one of our real things we can do is set superintendent salary. That's right in there in our job one of our first items in our job description. >> But I wanted to point out um that she put this in here to try and be more competitive. The 3% 3% and first we bal wow that's going to be a lot in the next few years. But if you look at it, it is it's really I wish all of our wages were not 3%. >> And that's the question I have. Is there um does the analysis um include um have other administrators um or even assistant

022superintendents have are they getting the same increase in their salary? Are those things being considered all the way down to the teachers? Is is it equitable across the board or is this just something we're seeing at the top? That is very different than what we're seeing for the folks who are most responsible at the end of the day for educating our students. The 3% between steps was because that's based on the management salary schedule for um MCOE. Um and I'm not sure what the steps are in the there are fewer steps here. There are a lot more steps on our other salary schedules, but I I don't know the percent step between each step. Do you know? >> Um I don't remember off the end. We can pull that information. >> Absolutely. Yeah, >> that

023would be helpful to consider um to take action at the next board meeting. It would be look well, we're not going to change steps. The steps are what they said. My question is on top of those steps, the additional that we're requesting, are are we doing that in other places? >> It's already been done here >> for for every other employee in our 1.5 increase in one time payment to all other employees 1.5. >> Okay. So that's the only thing on top of this is the >> and the 2000 right on top. has moved to the next level. >> Yeah. So, we have choices. We can vote on um the 3% that we already got in place. And we can also vote on um granting the request of the 1.5 and onetime payment of 2,000.

024Correct me if I'm wrong. >> That is correct. >> I just want to be really clear. I mean, I don't see a lot to wait on for next time. We already have the information presented. We can certainly discuss it. Paul I mean I'm not asking I mean anyone can make a motion but I think we should discuss it till we're comfortable. >> I have Can I ask a question? So So this is it's the same the 1.5 it's 1.5 this year and it would be 1.5 next year as well. >> So it's 1.5 to the entire salary schedule to each cell. So there are five steps that 1.5 and it would be ongoing >> and and and this is commiserate with uh salary increase that MCO employees correct >> got in their contract. >> Okay.

025>> And there's is ongoing as well. >> There's is ongoing as well. Um as per our board policy any um increase to my salary takes place January 1. Um so every other employee is on the fiscal year. I'm on the calendar year. >> So it won't increase the three. Sorry, we're just beating this up. That's okay. It's important to understand. That's why it's Yeah. >> So, we're not taking this at 3% changing it 4.5. >> No, you're not taking 3% and then discussing your request. Okay. >> I'd like to emphasize again that percentages are a little deceiving because it's it's the same thing. It's the same percent, but 1% of $100,000 is $10,000. 1% of $200,000 is $20,000. So, you know, the higher you are on the salary schedule, the bigger raise you get in

026real in real dollars. >> And over time, there's a separation. >> That's a great um thought. I'm curious, what does our average teacher for our schools make in some schools? What is their average salary? >> So, that's information we can bring back. average salary for just for MCOE schools, >> not um do you so you just want the teachers, not all of the certificate staff, only the teaching staff. >> I think that's the the teachers usually I mean make it the least. Not always, but I mean across the board it would be good to see what that what that looks like. So 1.5% of $60,000 a teacher salary is going to be very different than someone else's salary. >> And again, it's not a one year thing. It's what's the what's the end result of

027this if you do it for 10 years? >> You know, there's going to be another $100,000 difference in those salaries. >> What's the fiscal impact? >> Yeah, we can um gather that information. >> Can I ask for clarification just so I know what to bring you back? >> Sure. So, um I'm not sure I understood the answer on are you looking for just MCOE teachers or certificated staff members? >> So, not counselors, just right just just the classroom teachers. Is that what the request is? >> So, we you guys want to compare the super county superintendent salary to a teacher and maybe not the county superintendent to something more >> like. So, we're comparing like and like So, >> don't we do you want to compare the like and the like? So, taking the county

028superintendent >> and trying to find position that is as comparable I don't think I don't even think we need to wait. I I think the thought is I'm familiar with teacher salaries um they might look a little bit different here lower um than urban areas. So, I can see our teachers here making correct me if I'm wrong. You're more familiar with the area here anywhere between 60 to 85 90 at the most. And that's a very experienced teacher as well. >> Our lowest with um excuse me, I can tell you where's our where ours starts and ends. Um somebody with uh with the lowest would be 54. That's at the very very very beginning. The highest is 1059. And so those that's um different um units, different years. So different variables considered there, but that's

029where our um range is. >> Good questions, guys. >> So are we also thought that we wanted to vote on this um next meeting? Would that make everybody more comfortable? We would normally vote on it next, but we certainly can't vote on it today. Today or next meeting, do we have a motion? >> I just I want to comment real quick. I think it's I think it's good that um the salary increase is being tied to what the other employees are making. I think that's a good way um you know for administrators to u you know it's good to have that parody. I think just wanted to make that comment. >> Yeah. Thank you. I have one more question regarding the fiscal impact and um what that means for our overall budget and I know

030we don't have an individual here but hopefully our assistant superintendent or even Nicole if you want to speak to it um how we projected out what this will look like like in 5 to 10 years and is it comparable to other areas? >> Yes. Um when we when we work on negotiations with all of our staff members, we do we look at the cost of 1% for all including the county superintendent because we want to know what that's going to look like. Um and then we um this cost won't be included in the or wasn't already included in the budget. All other staff members were. So just the additional um and then that's typical within counties and districts as well. And then we do uh we have to um look at that for a three-year

031projection to make sure that whatever is negotiated is um is a responsible negotiation um looking three years out. >> Then what what is the cola? >> I'm sorry. What >> is the cola? >> Um oh gosh off I don't remember. I don't and this was this was negotiated last year with other staff and I don't remember the cola from last year but this what was negotiated is below the cola. >> Yes, >> that's >> yeah and yeah >> can I ask one more question? >> Yeah, of course. >> Um so this the increase is based on a contract. What where are we at in actual for for employees? Where where are we at next? So for our employees um so we negotiate with our classified and certificated when we settle with them then we um

032usually do um the the management and that's usually closed up. So um we have not yet started negotiations for next year yet. That will start this year in the spring usually. Is that right Heather? When do you usually >> Yeah, we usually um this year the whole contract is open so I might start a little bit earlier. Um, but generally we start conversations around January to get it, you know, our meeting scheduled >> because that's not just compensation, that's also contract language. And then really try to wrap it up by springtime. >> Um, and so that whatever so that starting July 1, it's set. And so that's been the cycle that we usually um have are able to follow. And are those typically just one year contracts or they >> um we typically do a

033one year. Okay. Um and then the contract language this year is open. So you'll be only sunshine on a few things. >> The other thing that is it's listed in my letter here, but um any increase um to the employee benefits is also applied to the superintendent. And that's that that's here as well. But that was um it's it's not practical to have one person different than everybody else. So that's um so um there was nothing additional negotiated um regarding benefits this year, but last year it had been. So I um but we took that we made that clear that it's always going to happen that my benefits mirror the the um employees benefits. >> Thank you. When when I was negotiating, we always like multiple year contracts. It saves you a lot of work.

034>> Sometimes a lot of hard feelings. >> Any more comments before someone entertains a motion? >> I have the cola amounts if you want those before. Um for 2526 the coal, this is projected and it can sometimes change throughout the year. For 2526 it's 2.3%. For 2627 it's 3.02%. And then for 2728 it's 3.142%. >> And that's that's a percentage of our totals. >> Uh yeah just of the LCF revenue >> which is our primary. >> Those are good to >> Yeah. Thank you for looking that up so quickly. I'm sorry that was 2.3 >> 3.02 and 4.42. >> 3.42 >> 3.4 Thank you. >> All right. Do we have a motion on item 4.2 or do we decide to let it go till next? >> I move that we approve a 1.5 salary increase

035to the superintendent salary schedule effective January 1, 2026 and approve a one-time payment of 2,000 off salary schedule paid in January 2026. Thank you, Nancy. Do we have a second? Can I can I ask is there also is that does that motion improve include moving to the next salary? >> I'm sorry. Yes, it does include moving to the updated salary schedule. >> I'll second. >> Um, >> I'm sorry. Step four, >> I want to be specific. >> Is does that fully cover it? I want to make sure it makes sense. >> I think so. uh >> advancing the superintendent salary to step four >> and including uh bullet points one and two. >> Thank you. Have the proposal. >> Thank you. >> And does that include inclusive of health insurance cap increase? >> Automatic. Yes.

036>> Great. Sorry. >> We'll do a roll call vote starting with Nancy. >> Yes. >> Thank you very much. 2 passes 4.3 approval of lease amendment between MCLE and KYX. >> Before we begin, I want to announce that I am a board member of KCYX. So, I will be recusing myself for comment and voting on this item. >> Thank you for >> So, this is being brought to brought forward to today. Um we have um originally um have an agreement with KZYX dating back to the 20 year 2020. Um and they lease from us that little we call it the DC portable but used to be our our break room. Um and we have like our historical practice has been to look at you know like kind of an inkind credit. So, they've asked for

037an extension of the lease from, you know, which was ending in October to extend it through June 30th of 2026. Um, in doing that, we're also looking at the cost because we want to make sure we're recouping any costs that are included in there. And this will be the first year where there would actually result in um monthly charge. So, the monthly fee um well, the cost for the facility has been calculated to be um just under $600 per month. Um and then there's a broadcast credit um of $542. So the monthly fee would be $53.72. Um and they have looked at this agreement and are agreeable to the terms. >> Um I know that most of you were aware that we leased to KZYX. Um the lease agreement has not come to the board

038before. I think it was just an oversight when was originally done which was prior to me taking office. Um once they did take office, they asked for an extension which we granted and now they've asked for another extension which we are we um recommend we grant as well. But recognizing now that we know more we know this should come to the board. This is a decision that the board makes regarding our real estate. Um and so um it should have come to you before. Apologies. I'm sure that my predecessor that was just an oversight just like it was an oversight that I didn't bring it to you when we renewed it um or extended it. But now that we know better, we want to make sure it does come to the board um for this

039extension. >> Thank you. >> I did have a couple of questions. >> Absolutely. >> Um what does underwriting spots look like? Like what kind of messaging? And then uh looking at the original contract from 2020, was the is the insurance kind of up to date to where we need it to I know like building costs have gone up and things are just much more pricier now. >> Yes. >> Are we considering that as well? >> Yes. Um that is being considered and we do um provide some custodial support and things and so there's been a couple of moments where like we would see something with the facility and we're like that might need to get corrected. They're very good about doing it very quickly. Um so we're they've been good >> and the underwriting the

040message uh they'll they'll do a message that we asked them to do. Um and that gets um announced. I think they have scheduled times during the day that MCO gets their messages and conveyed. And I usually it's just this show is underwritten by a minimum count. Okay. >> But occasionally I think we've asked them to do something more specific >> like school closure information. >> No, they'll do school closure um like in their community updates or so that is um it's more like when we're trying to promote a particular program like I think we've done it for um maybe for our dental assisted program. >> Okay. Got it. >> Um I think maybe for um our science fair we've done something like that. >> Okay, perfect. >> It's a really good question. Oh, sorry. Because

041the insurance is skyrocketing for every clarify question. Are they leasing our real estate at market value? >> Um when we looked um it's hard to find a comparison for something so specific to that one. Um so what we've done is looked at below value to be good you know educ partners and kind of the world we're doing. So it's not technically uh market value but it is under um and I think the reason why they asked to lease this facility is because they're you know trying to get funds to build their own facility. So it was um kind of a partnership when this agreement was made in 2020. How much below value are they leasing the have they leased the property for? In in other words, I see this as a donation. This is almost

042in the form of donation partnership. How much have they benefited um financially, economically without leasing it at market value. In other words, it can be looked at how how what does that number look like? because those are resources that can go to our students and families. What does that number look like? >> Um I don't have the exact number without having um typically you would have some like an appraiser or somebody come out to help make that determination because of the low cost of that um facility lease. I think back in 2020 I think it was determined it probably wouldn't make sense to do so. What we do include in there is our actual cost so that those are being recouped. I think one of the challenges in figuring out like what market quote unquote

043market value is is that it's really not open to the open market. Um we wouldn't be making the facility available to say a business or another agency necessarily. Um this was I think originally this was during COVID um I think the the the prior superintendent had um a radio show. So it was there was a little bit more um overlap in services I think at that time. Um but once they are out of that facility we will not be looking to um rent it to um another agency. So we are um we want to make sure that it is not costing us anything um to do that because there are um custodial services, maintenance services. That's why there is an increase because we think that the cost of it has gone up because it should

044not cost us anything. It should be cost neutral. Um and uh so so it is I think that's part of the tricky part of getting the the cost of it or the like a competitive price because we wouldn't make we wouldn't put this out to other competitors. And I think also the the underwriting spots that we are being um it's kind of an inind. So it's not that it's a donation per se. It's just kind of a trade of services, >> right? >> Um if that helps because I think if we were to go >> we have to report the inind amount when it's in kind. Isn't that reported to the IRS? >> Um no because of the type of agency we are um we do reporting but that's not um included in that. >>

045Okay. It's not required to be included in that. >> And even if we don't put it on the market to rent, we still have the ability to rent it at a rate that we determine. Correct. >> Yes. Okay. And this board does. This board does. >> I think it's good to keep the round low. I mean, we serve a similar purpose. We're in public education and public radio. They do a lot of education. >> Yeah. They do advertise for us. Um, and this uh we're seeking to approve today is only up until 6:30 26. So theoretically, you know, we'll rather have a hearing some change. >> So if it goes beyond that, it'll come back to this board. >> Yeah. And do we have any more questions before we entertain a motion? Nancy, >> I

046think it's a good partnership and in reading the original agreement, looks like there's a lot of safety measures that protect students, staff. So, I would like to I move that we um approve the facility use agreement uh amendment with KZYX. >> I'll second. >> All in favor say I. >> I opposed. No. Okay. and >> one and one abstain. So we've got three. Okay, we have our quorum. Just checking. All right, so 4.3 passes. We will continue our lease agreement up until 6:30 26. Thank you all. Good questions. Uh moving on to reports. Item 5.1, our MCO school programs and student enrollment reports. So, I'd like to point out there is an error. Um, in the October 2025 column for West Hills, it says 1 1213 plus three graduates. Um, the 12 was not deleted.

047So, it's 13 plus three graduates not in Aries. Those are students that are in there, but they've already graduated high school. Um, as you can see, there's not much change in our numbers. We did have one drop out of our phabbotomy program, but otherwise our medical assistant and dental assistant programs are running and our CNA is about to start. Wonderful. Thank you for that correction, Dr. Nicole. Do you have any comments on item 5.1? Everyone's had a chance to read this, I'm sure. No comments and we will move on to item 5.2 to MCE human services personnel report >> that's before if you have any questions a lot on it we had a chance to look at that one comments moving on to item 5.3 Williams quarterly complaint report 25 and 26 so this is

048for MCOE school programs we've had zero complaints um and none resolved or unresolved because we have had zero complaints. >> Can I clarify one thing? >> Um, Williams complaints are very specific. Somebody calling is complaining about um somebody could took my kid's phone or, you know, complaining about a teacher that would not be captured here. Those sorts of kind of day-to-day complaints all the time. Um, this these are specific to complaints that fall in a specific category regarding resources or regarding um No, it's regarding resources. Yeah, we have >> facilities and >> yeah, so staffing and facilities resources >> and everyone's had a chance to read it. Do we have any questions? Moving on to item 5.4 services report with Dr. Nicole Dell. There's just a few things I would like to highlight. U one

049thing that's not included is that u my division's been running ARIES workshops. areas is our student information system that almost all of our LEAs and parters use. Some of the smallers use another uh system. Um but we've been hosting monthly uh trainings where we have a Aries trainer come in. We had almost 40 people in the room last Wednesday um learning more about attendance systems and how to do it better and all the little intricacies that and areas of things that you didn't know it's capable of doing. and we have those monthly and um we have very high attendance and it's helping our districts a lot. And then um a couple things I just want to point out that are already in the report is under our student services and wellness. We are with our

050new director. We're building out a lot more programs and our foster program um has received some data that they would like to share. So, we have the highest homeless count that we've had in Mento County at 1,136 students um for the 2425 school year. We're currently serving 161 homeless students weekly at 19 different schools in our county. And we just recently received um an increase in the JJCP grant um for $70,000 moving forward to help support the food program that we provide students every week. In addition, um we have a lot of trainings that have been going on. Um one and a couple that are brand new. We have a family community leaison community practice. Um we had over 26 uh individuals in the room about two weeks ago and those are classified staff across

051the county that come and they support students in the most engaging ways. They're often the first point of contact and they were able to sit down and say, "How do you do it over in your district? you know, what can we do together and to build for it? So, we have those coming up. There's several more sessions, four additional ones as well as another inerson session in May and we're going to host our first ever classified conference on November 3rd. We had to increase our um capacity. We were thinking 50. Uh by the end of day one, we were already at 35 with people still not still rolling in day after day. We're have almost uh 60 people signed up already. We think we can go to 80. So, we're super excited to um offer

052some training for our classified staff. >> Great. I have some questions. Can you can you remind me um what classifies um homelessness? Like I'm looking at the doubled up. Does that mean like if you have multiple multiple families living in the same household? >> Yes. Okay. There's several classifications though, but that is what I'm going to talk about. Yes. >> Okay. And then shelter is obviously like a homeless shelter. >> Yes. There's also um depending on the the facility they're living in. If they're living in a travel trailer, that also counts because it has wheels and it is made to move and it's not something that's been set down stationary for the long term. um they could it could be also the classification of what the facility has. So for example, when I worked over

053in Williams, we had our migrant camp. It was a a camp that had solid buildings, but because of the AC and the heating issues that were there that they didn't really provide any that was considered uh homeless shelter as well because of the fact that they um it didn't have things that we consider necessary at least in that area in the central valley when it gets to you know >> very high temperatures. So there's different classifications >> that they can fall under. >> Thanks for clarifying that. Mhm. >> Any more questions? >> Can you repeat the number? I'm sorry. What was it? The overall student homelessness is >> for last year it was 1,136. Wow. >> And we have about 12,500 in the county students. There's a link right there. You click on your link.

054>> This is homeless only, not homeless and foster. >> Correct. And scroll over here. It'll tell you all the different a lot. [Music] Any more comments or questions? Moving on to item 5.5, business administration administrative services report with Heather Rantula. I'm going to keep mine very short because we have Ryan Barto who's be presenting on some of the work happening in facilities in a little bit. Um, just to highlight just a couple really small thing or small items, but a lot of work. Um, in the fiscal world, we just recently finished closing our books. Um, so we're jumping right into working with the auditors to get the audit wrapped up. Um, and then working on first inter room. Um, and we're also working with our school district and charter school um, business office staff um,

055and bringing in some additional training opportunities for them. um per the request, they're looking for some things that we don't typically do. So, we're bringing in things like um school and college legal services to work on um ethics and Brown Act as it applies to the business world for um their school board meetings um and things like that. So, I'm going to keep mine really short, but I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has. Any questions for Heather? All right. Thank you. We're moving on to item 5.6. Super superintendent report. >> Uh yeah. So in the last month since I've seen you uh we had um a lot been going on um including we had an all staff meeting which we have quarterly. Um the North Bay Construction CPS has had a couple of events

056including a mixer and recognition. Um they held that in Willlets. the north um North Bay Construction Corps um is uh they do the um that's the program that Eric Crawford has been partnering with. He's from from our agency um doing the um training for students um some soft skills inclassroom training um and then construction training on the site. That's something that starts in the spring. Um and so they did a really nice recognition of all the partners um the different construction agencies that um sent some of their professionals to teach some of the classes and um so anyway that was fantastic. Uh and I am on a a new committee um through the Association of California School Administrators. Um so this is a statewide committee uh for their leadership development. So I'm very excited to

057be part of that. I've been part of AXA for um I think over 20 years now and so um this on this committee we discuss some of the other committees and so I've sat on some of those other committees and so it's all very um some of it's a little bit dry but for me it's very interesting to um look at a different some of the work that I've done in the past from a different angle but um really trying to make sure that um that the needs of administrators are met with real time like what are the actual needs today. What's the latest legislation? What's the um new changes in law, new changes in funding to make sure that the um support that the administrator gets is really um supporting the needs of the

058classroom. So, really glad to be on that committee. Um the League of Women Voters held their annual meet and greet on the coast. Really, um wonderful, pretty well attended. Got to meet some people um who are always excited to be reminded that um the county superintendent is elected official. Um but that that was um a a really well-run um mixer. Um Menino College American Indian Heritage Celebration uh was a few weeks ago. Really fantastic at the college. Um they do some really good work and um got to see some former students behind some tables doing some work. Now they're working at different agencies that are supporting um different, you know, nonprofit and um social services. So that was a wonderful experience. Um the California Conservation Corps um who were our neighbors for you know two

059or three decades a long time and now they have their brand opening in Willlets. The facility there is um amazing it was um really inspiring to see um what the youth are doing. Um youth I think they're 18 to 25. Um, but that's a facility. If you ever have an um opportunity to be there for an event, I highly recommend it. They have a really big They have a gymnasium. They have a kind of a big event room. Um, not to mention dorms and um business building. So, and that was attended by our state senator, our state assembly member. Um, a lot of people there. Um the Cal County Superintendent just returned uh two weeks ago from the general members meeting and they also do an annual recognition and um uh we were part of

060region one in that group which includes Marines I'm sorry Sonoma, Menesino, Lake, Delnor and Humble counties and we um collectively nominated Mike Maguire for an award which he um was not able to attend but he was the recipient of that award and um Just as a side note, you may recall that you um the we did a CSBA um nomination that has not yet been decided yet, so we'll find out more on that. Um attended a small school district association forum uh in Santa Rosa and got to spend some time. It was also attended by one of the Lilitz board members and superintendent from Fort Bragg. Um the small school district association is doing some really fantastic work um to support districts. Um they they had um presenters u they had some presenters from the

061law firm from um uh social I'm sorry uh um social and emotional learning um collaborative I forget the name of the group but so it was after something like that I usually try to see what I can send off that will be applicable to our um school leaders. So, I sent some of that off, but that was really fantastic. Do Do you Do are any of you getting the SSDA emails? I need to see if um we can add them because I think that you would maybe like some of the stuff. So, if we can't add you, I'll start forwarding you some of their um good work. They they've been around for a long time, but it's really been the last year and a half, two years that they've really up their game. They're doing

062a lot to support school boards as well, including school board training. Um, so, uh, there were several board meetings, board members at this last training. Um, and then, uh, I'll wrap it up with two things. Uh, last week I had the pleasure of attending the principal's network. Um, we had an author, MK McDonald, who's presented in our in our county before. Um, it was amazing. This the principal's network is something that we really restarted last year. had it had had gone away for a number of years, but wanted to make sure that our principles have um a collaborative group that they can come and talk to about the work that they're doing throughout the county. And um it it's just it was inspiring to be with um our site principles from different schools. We had

063charter schools, um schools from the coast, schools inland, um a decent representation considering that it's a hard time of year for them to get off their sites. But it was really good work. And one of the things that the presenter talked about is many of us are familiar with the term ACEs, which is um adverse um childhood experiences and the impact that that has on short-term and long-term well-being. Um but the other flip side of that is a study done in 2018 is on positive childhood experiences and the significant impact that those positive experiences can have regardless of somebody's ACES score. um that those positive childhood experiences can be really be transformational and the u some of the important work that's being done um to really facilitate that and I it was great to hear

064sometimes we get it can be a lot to think about all we wish our kids had that they don't have um but this was um kind of a recognition of that and then an acknowledge of a acknowledgement of what we can give what we do what they do have and what they do have access to and what we can actually do to help. So, it was really inspiring. And then I'll close on this is week of the school administrator. Thank you. Last month you um you adopted that resolution and this week is the week that we um recognize the good work that our um administrators are doing throughout um the state of California. And I just want to recognize that in Meno County, I think we must have a much higher per capita ratio of

065really high quality um administrators. There's some really dedicated people here and it's just great. It's always great to get out and work with them. So, and with that, I'll wrap up my unless there are any questions. Thank you so much. I think everybody's good. We'll move on to item 5.7, board member reports. I just wanted to say that I was really disappointed I didn't get to join the mixer. I was really looking forward to it, but I had a a conflict appointment come up at the last minute. um to take an official moment to welcome David Stro our newest member and I can't see your name Selena Ortiz our student board member welcome welcome welcome officially and I will start down the line here with Priscilla and we'll move down and you'll be the last

066one if you wanted to say anything but don't feel pressured thank you >> Marlin um I wanted to um read an email um I sent to Nicole if is a public record. I'll share it with um our staff so that it is made available to the public. Then I have a response letter as well that I haven't shared. We had a loss in my family, so I haven't been able to get that out. I received some of um the data along with all of you in regards to the the impact of the equity of the new policy that we passed recently. Um after the board meeting, I sent this email. I hope you're doing well. As I reflect on the board's recent decision to revise the eligibility criteria for student trustees, I found myself curious

067about the potential impact these changes may have across different student populations in our county. In particularly, I'm interested in particular I'm interested in understanding how many students would be affected by each of the new criteria and whether these impacts are equitably distributed given the existing disparities we've seen for example the over representation of American Indian students in suspension expulsion and try data. I'd like to better understand who may be excluded under the new policy. To that end, I'd like to request the following data for each of the five new eligibility criteria. One, MCLE students who have never uh who have uh ever been expelled from a school in the county. MCLE students who have less than 90% attendance. Three, MCLE students currently on probation or who would require probation approval. Four, MCLE students who do

068not have good grades. five MCA students who do not have staff recommendations. In addition, please provide data on overall eligibility. Students who do not meet one or more of these qualification requirements and are therefore ineligible to be on a ballot for peer selection. Seven, students who meet all qualification requirements and are therefore eligible to be on the ballot for peer selection. Lastly, please include the following data sets. students who are currently incarcerated at West Hills um within our MLE schools, students who are formerally incarcerated at MCLE, all MCLE schools except West Hills and then 10 students who are not currently incarcerated MCLE schools. Um all MC schools except hills. For each criteria and data set, please share the following disagregated data. the number of students disqualified or qualifying, disagregated by race and ethn or ethnicity

069and or ethnicity, disagregated by gender, and disagregated by school site. This data will help me better understand how the policy plays into plays out in practice, especially in terms of access to student leadership opportunities. I'm genuinely interested in learning more and ensuring that we're creating an environment where all students, especially those from communities that have historically faced systemic barriers, have equitable pathways to leadership. Because the student trustee plays such an critical role in representing youth voice at the county level. I believe it's important that we understand who may be excluded under the new current criteria particularly at the selection and appointment particularly as the selection appointment are underway. Timely access to this data would help clarify the real world impact of the policy and ensure that the process reflects our shared commitment to equity and

070inclusion. Um so we received data that I cannot share because we've been asked not to share it because there's low numbers. So it might be revealing who those student groups are. Um and my response is and I'll share this letter and um an ongoing concern about the new policy we adopted. Take a moment to address the board's recent policy revision regarding student trustee eligibility and the data that was shared in response to my request. I deeply appreciate um our superintendent or our staff's effort to provide the information. However, I'm concerned that we what we received still doesn't allow the board or the public to understand the equity impact of this new policy. We were given raw numbers without uh with portions redacted with no percentages, no analysis, in some cases no data at all. Without

071that level of transparency, it becomes very difficult for this board to fulfill its governance role or to evaluate whether our decisions are advancing or undermining equity across student populations. As I reviewed the data, I became increasingly concerned about what it doesn't show. The response included raw numbers without percentages or contextual analysis. We can't see how these criteria are actually affecting our students, particularly our native youth. We know from our own county data that native students in medicine county continue to experience higher rates of ex um exclusion through suspension, expulsion and truency representing over half of truent students. When we add new barriers such as attendance thresholds, disciplinary history or probation requirements, we risk deepening inequities that already exist. My concern is that without a clear impact analysis, we can't confidently say that this policy upholds

072our shared commitment to equity and inclusion. In fact, it may unintentionally disqualify the very students whose voices we most need to hear, those navigating systems that have historically excluded them. As a board, we have an obligation to ensure that every student, including our native youth, has their opportunity to participate in leadership and civic engagement. Excuse me. I'd like to request that staff prepare an equity impact summary of the eligibility criteria and our new policy for student leadership trustee position with disagregated percentages and analysis by race, gender, and school site. This information will not only help us understand the real world implications of the policy, but also guide future decisions that reflect our values and responsibilities to all students in our county. And in reflection, I'd also like to ask um when we do have a

073new policy that the superintendent is asking for us to adopt or consider that an equity impact report is provided with this type of information, especially when it's in regards to students and staff, whether it be salary increases or, you know, policies regarding student leadership and their eligibility to serve as a leader in our community. Um it's really hard to make a decision without this because um it's like shooting in the dark without knowing how it will impact our our population now that we've already our student population now that we've already adopted it. we're, you know, we should be looking at this data when we're adopting new policies, not after because it's very clear even with um even with the data that was presented to us with with which is in my opinion um very poor

074quality. uh it's very clear that there there's a disproportionate impact on students who have been impacted by the systems that are part of um some of the schools that we serve like West Hills and the juvenile justice system. Um so that is is what I'm doing in regards to uh student equity and student leadership. Um following up with that is really important for me and should be important for all of us. Um, in addition, thank you Nicole for upping the list of of um events for us to attend. Um, I was able to I attend a lot of community events. Um, definitely went to Native Heritage Night at the at the um community college. I was I was glad to see some our student leaders, their parents there. Um, and then also um there was

075one more thing uh update. I was appointed by the juvenile um superior judge for our county to serve as the chair for uh the juvenile justice delinquency prevention commission for our county. So that's another update. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And what I got out of that too is that you equity impact. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. and I'll follow up with a letter with them for staff that includes what we need in order to be truly reflective and also for that letter to me record. Thank you so >> yeah I've been somewhat concerned about different cuts to education at the federal level and I wondered is any of that impacting us? Um, yes. Um, there's there's a we were part of a consortium. The the one thing that comes to mind, Nicole,

076help me think what it was called that Napa County was the lead on it, but we were part of the PPI or something. >> PEPI, don't ask for early education inclusion program. >> Uhhuh. So, there may be additional. That's the one most recently where that was um where we received we had to go through a letter of disengagement with Napa because we were engaged in work with them for early education. So that is super disappointing and important work that's been done through that. Um work that impacts the classroom directly. Um >> so approximately 10% of of funds for schools comes from the federal government. That's you know very roughly speaking. Um, but that is the the most recent thing that we're um seeing leave our you know that those funds leave our agency. >> That's

077a good question. Don, I was curious about the the health um insurance. I know we had an increase already and I'm hoping we're not going to have a big one in 2026. >> Yeah. >> But I don't know that we know any of that. >> I don't think >> I think the impact's coming in 2026. The big ones. >> Yeah. It's all a real concern. my family. >> Thank you, Donald. >> Well, I I just want to say thank you for having me and uh I look forward to uh you know doing what I can to serve the students of this county and the third district I represent. Um I don't have anything to report as of yet, but I look forward to um to working with all of you. I think it's it's a

078great group of uh it's a great board and we all seem like we're very concerned and um you know really want to advocate for students. So I'm I'm glad to be a part of that. >> Thank you Nancy. >> Um just short and sweet uh September 22nd actually Nicole and I attended an ACCBE and what it stands for is association of California County Boards of Education. Um we did a piece or attended a piece on effective governance for county boards. Um and a big part of that was uh and feel free to chime in anytime. >> Um was you know getting our board on um kind of the same uh level and you know um getting together for um interactions is really important and building those um relationships and trust. and and then they went

079over some, you know, policies that you should probably have in place and um calendars and I think that we're we're really um doing well. >> Doing a lot of what they said. >> Yeah, exactly. >> Yeah, absolutely. That's all I have. Thank you. >> Welcome, Selena. >> I don't have anything to say yet, but thank you for having me. >> Thank you for joining us. We appreciate you. Uh, moving on to item 6.1, our press release announcing the GASP grants for the 2526 school year. Do we have any questions about the Git Arts in the schools? It's coming up with November 14th deadline. Moving on to item 6.2, review our MCE meeting schedule for 2026. That's important. >> So, we want to get this to you early. Um, this we um bring back in December

080for final approval. Is that right? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Um, so we've kind of taken if if we were to repeat this last year on this on the same dates, this is what it would look like. We can do something different, but wanted to start with something. We took the times out because the time of the meeting is something also um that we might want to discuss. with new board members. I think that the um I'm getting a sense that a later in the day meeting um may be more suitable for people like a 2 p.m. meeting, but again that is the board's decision. So I just I I left it out because it's a a point of discussion and again this doesn't have to be approved today. It's to start looking at and we

081should um be approving it by December. But we have so we wanted to get up on it early. you will see that September 14th we do have a 5:30 PM one and that's because of the lesson that we learned this year um about needing to have a hearing that does not take place during the school day or immediately after the school day. Um but all the other meetings that we have here um the times can be set by the board. Um there's a meeting that takes place in uh March March 6. That's an annual planning workshop that's usually off this site. We've generally had um at a some sort of conference room on the coast and that is usually um a scheduled I think at 9 or 10 a.m. and it go it's it's more

082of a steady session and um so kind of like a longer day not a longer day but we plan for a couple hours. We have lunch in the middle of it. So um but so we haven't put the location there because we haven't determined that yet and we haven't put the time. Thank you. Yeah, I myself appreciate having the morning meetings, but I didn't realize it was an option since it's always been morning meeting since I've been here. I don't I mean, for me, middle of the day breaks up the whole day. You still can't go. You can't plan anything if it's in the middle of the day. In the morning, you can still plan something. But >> then there's the driving at night for all the people on the coast. They'll be driving in

083the dark in the storm. So, when I started, I a 10 a.m. meeting was I I I was curious um what time most agency most county boards have their meetings. Ours is definitely earliest um that that I encountered. And I didn't check every county, but of those I checked 3 p.m. was a pretty 3 or 4 p.m. was a pretty standard time. I do think that we have a distance and driving conditions that need to be considered, but just wanted to put it out there. It's really up to this board. Staff gets on board with whatever you do. This is your meeting. 10 is perfect for me. I like it. >> Me, too. >> I did notice that we're not meeting on any of the school district. >> We We have not yet determined that

084we by the time this comes to you for final approval. Um we would like to have at least two campuses here. >> All right. All right. Good. Thank you. >> It is nice to visit. >> Yeah, it's nice to visit >> as long as we're not disruptive. >> So, will that be an agenda board item where we discuss at the next meeting? Uh we thought we would bring it back between now and December until it's finalized. >> Um so that there's time to look at things or consider things, but wanted to get on your radar soon because this is a um you know getting this set really we we plan a lot of things around these dates so we want to make sure we've got the right times and dates. Um, is it would it

085be possible to change these meetings to and this is something we can discuss, but I wanted to ask this question early to Tuesdays and Wednesdays because uh my family travels quite often to um engage in tradition and that sometimes means not coming home for a Monday morning meeting right away. They're also homeschooled. So, Tuesday and Wednesday, if possible, if there's no huge barrier, would be very helpful. That's interesting. >> Instead of Monday, but keeping at 10. Yeah, great time. >> I probably wouldn't be able to move my I mean, I've asked for these a year in advance, my Mondays, because I I'm a hygienist and I booked six six months at least in advance, six to eight months in advance. So, it would be problem for me to change it, but I don't know how

086that works with I mean with um all of you guys schedule. Uh we make it work for your schedule. Um this um if if they're going to move off of Mondays, we would um uh we would be looking at the availability of this room because this is the primary room that we use for professional development. Um and um we try to avoid Mondays for professional development because that's also a a frequent day that people are out sick. So we don't want to exacerbate the subcondition of in our school districts. So Monday has felt a little bit safer, but we can um like I said, it's up to this board. You guys get to set that. And um additionally um if you want to change the day from Monday to a different day starting in July

0871 or you know all of those things are options. >> This is true. >> It would be okay with me you know free up my Sundays. All right, let's see. Moving on to item 6.3, our M facilities update with Ryan Barto. >> Welcome, Ryan. >> Thank you for hanging out with us. >> So, I'm going to bring up one thing. So, he's gonna he's gonna do a presentation and then um it looks like it stopped raining, but we have umbrellas on for us to tour. So, we're going to go and do a brief tour of facilities. So, you can ask him questions as you would like, but you'll have more of Ryan. This is the last item on the agenda. Um once Ryan is done, we're going to stop the recording and the public, such

088as they are, are welcome to come with us on the meeting and then we will adjourn. But we're not going to go back and continue to to adjourn because that's not we're just going to adjourn. Um so if you have questions that aren't answered in this presentation, you'll have more Ryan on tour. >> Thank you ladies and gentlemen of the board. Thank you for your time. Um and this is mainly an update of since we met about this time last year, but try to keep kind of brief to give us more time on site so you can see in person some of the work we've done. So, this is just a quick breakdown of what I'm going to show for you. Some of the things I may breeze over rather quickly, just again to give

089us more time on site. Feel free to stop me at any time to ask any questions. Um, you know, very simply, we're here to make sure that the facilities is in the best condition we can to let the students and staff succeed. So, um, we want to make sure it's a safe environment for everybody. It's the most conducive for the learning and students and allowing staff to support them as best they can. We kind of fit in for the most part into the four main categories. Just like all of us, we all have things that don't perfectly fit in those categories, but for the most part, maintenance and upkeep of the buildings themselves, grounds, custodial work, capital projects, which you'll see is the CNA project falls into that. Um, and then also supporting our district

090partners. We've been doing a lot of work helping them with specifically their capital projects. Um, but in one way or another, we're kind of bouncing around between those four tiers to try to support as best we can. Um, let me skip this one. So, the main projects we've completed since we've last spoke is we remodeled the alder break room that we can probably do a walk through. Assuming that there's no rain, we can kind of got a path figured out that we can kind of see most of these. Um, we've also upgraded the main entries of this building and older building to have um accessible entries. So, you have those push buttons panels to open the doors in case you have any difficulty opening them. Over at the Town State Preschool, you'll see we've installed

091a 30 foot x 40 foot shade structure over the play over the play structure to allow the kids to play out there on the hot days without, you know, as much concern. And then one that we won't be able to see today, we were able to to do some concrete repair on the center building over in Or Creek, which is the Willow building. And then we we installed these dividing fence to allow different age groups to both be outside at the same time without having you know any concerns of interaction. Um you see here top right picture we have our alder break room again that we'll be able to go um go by and see all new cabinets, flooring, paint, um upgraded refrigerator because that is the highest occupied building on our campus and so

092we wanted to accommodate for the number of staff bringing their lunches from home. Um see your picture is just the front door of the alder building for showing the push plate and the door functioning. And here so we this was our 30tx 40 foot shade structure. Um we did this over the summer. It's a steel structure with a fabric a 10ear fabric cloth over the top. Again, it allows the air to breathe, so it doesn't trap as much heat in, but it keeps the the kids in the shade for a good portion of the the playground. Uh there's also some trees and stuff to get some natural shade, which is always nice. Um to accommodate the the size of the shade structure, we did reesign the concrete pathway just a little bit. One of the

093requests of early learning care was to still have that circular shape because little kids like to ride their bikes in a circle. So, we didn't want to hinder that from being available to them. As you can see here on your two left pictures, top and bottom is the is creek facing the Willow building. The top picture you'll top left picture you'll see the just kind of a makeshift little fencing and a single table area that was was there available for students to use. But again you have the elementary middle school students in that willow building and then you had the high school students in Madrron that couldn't be out there at the same time. And so, as you can see on the right, two pictures. We put that small wall up that supports the skirting

094that goes around the building and then also installed the fencing to allow again students to all get as much out time outside activity as possible. So right now current projects we have in the works is you'll see today the CNA remodel to for career and technical education to provide right now they have grants for I believe three cohorts at no cost to students. Um so we're in the process of finishing that up. We're hoping to have them in by next month to begin um education. We're in the process of working on the the remodel the this range that we had a couple weeks ago. We found about a four to 5ft puddle in the middle of the floor. So, as you can imagine, we have to address that as well. We're going to be bringing

095in outside contractors for that portion of it. Um as planned with uh business administration team, we are looking at replacing the roof on this building and the Birch building as well. Um again, a lot of these are well beyond their service life um and leaking and the worst thing is they just cause more damage and the longer you let them go, it just ex you know exponentially increases costs. And then, as we've discussed before, we had gotten um grants for EV chargers, and I'll get into that in a minute. So, this is so you can see here um a lot. This is about a 3,000 ft space. The building is it's a 6,000t actual structure. We're taking the north half of the building um to accommodate the layout that the students need. We removed and

096relocated walls. We install new plumbing including automatic water heaters. um refurbished the uh HBAC system where all new flooring throughout, new LED lights cuz the lights were just random different colors and the layout just was not conducive to learning. Um, and then we're working with our IT department for, as you'll see over there, you got the main floor, as you can see in the bottom picture here, is the new layout. It's a little bit kind of busy, but the main floor when we get over there, I'll show you, is where all the students will have lecture. And then you'll have three other build, other smaller rooms. One is a skilled nursing facility mockup, one as a doctor's office mockup, and one is a simulation lab. It'll be similar like your VR room would be. Um,

097one of the big tasks for it in in this case is they are helping install cameras and microphones and speaker systems that'll allow the teacher to bring only two or three of the students that are actually in the activity into the room. So, there's not a crowd in there and not as much distraction. But the other students will be able to watch here and see EKG feedback and all that from the large TVs in the lecture room. The lecture room is going to have a very similar setup to this. You'll have the two large TVs and then the a whiteboard for the teacher to use and then there'll be a third one for back where this clock is. That one will actually show the EKG machine for when the students are are participating in activity.

098Um, part of the grant money, um, Eric Crawford's team was able to procure mannequins that will, uh, reenact various, um, medical conditions that the students then have to assess and and figure out ways to address those. Again, you know, you see some pictures, we'll say on the you see the pool table there, that was the layout that the CCC used. The bottom right picture was actually area that they use as an older computer lab. Um, you see some general framing and and relocation of walls, some of the plumbing work that my staff was able to do to accommodate hot water. We're installing three countertop areas with including four sinks. And then we one of the other options we did is there's you'll see the hallway when we get over there. There's observation windows. So if

099some students just don't learn as well watching a monitor, they can they can watch from the hallway. They're only a couple feet away. So it's a little bit giving the students more options. So just for reference, um the roofing projects, you know, we're looking from the west. You see the Cedar building, the top left picture here that we're in now. The Birch building as we know is this one over here. And then when we walk over there, the CNA building, which was formerly used by the CCC, half the building that we're not currently working on is a cafeteria and somewhat commercial grade kitchen. And then the area we're working on again is for the CNA. All three of those roofs are we are working on addressing currently. And then so um working with Heather and

100her team, we were able to we were awarded a grant of $39,000 from the California Energy Commission for the installation of solar char or electric vehicle chargers here for fleet use. Um we also partnered with Sonoma Clean Power which will provide six of those chargers. The project as of right now is to install the six chargers and the infrastructure to allow up to 15 chargers. So as we can we're going to be working with her team to go after more grants and find other outside funding sources to house to increase that capacity. As you know, we came last month, month before um about the MCOE solar project partnering with Caesar Hill um installing solar your standard what we picture is solar at your house here at the river campus at Or Creek and at the

101MCCS campus. Um we're currently working on um working through that. Now, one of the focuses is to get the structural design for this building, what's going to be needed to power this building and Bur because the solar array for those two buildings will be mounted on this roof. And so, what I'm trying to pri prioritize is getting the bracket tray that holds the actual solar on your roof. if we can get that installed by the roofer that's going to do this the typical re- roof instead of retrofitting brackets on later and then therefore potentially compromise any kind of warranty we may have. So, some of the grant opportunities that we've been working on, um, as some of you may know, we've been working with Lake Valley Unified School District, um, specifically for their Whale Gold

102School and, uh, County of Benesino applying, we applied and were awarded the community development block grant to install automatic fire alarm systems in two of the buildings, school buildings they have out there that do not currently have those. And then also there's to address an ADA pathway concern from one of the buildings to the exterior bathroom facility. Another um project we're currently work on our grant we're working on with a firm known as Terracon is the brownfield cleanup act grant that provides funding for assessment and uh abatement of hazardous materials such as asbestous lead um if you have underground contamination that you had maybe storage tanks from fuel or other kind of hazardous materials there. Um the one thing that we're really excited for is that is MCOE is is applying for the grant that

103we're allowed one thing that we're working with them is to the grant allows us to do the assessment and abatement of MCOE owned properties but we're also allowed to use some of that funding for the assessment of some of the Menescino County schools. And so as we get a little further along there, we're going to be reaching out to the uh Menescino County schools to see which ones have known issues or you know high suspected issues. We're all very aware. Um Miss Glen and Miss Rantel and I visited Potter Valley. We know that they have some concerns. I believe from when I used to play basketball up there, I think Kovaleo still has concerns in some of their areas. Um and then uh I think Anderson Valley is the other one that's a very well-known

104concern. So So we've been partnering with um the California Department of Education as part of their Sassy grant program which is supporting supporting America's school infrastructure. Um the US Department of Education awarded $37 million in funds over the next 5 years to help uh incur capacity of states to support our high need i.e. a lot of our smaller school districts that just don't have the the staff or the capacity to go after some of these um some of the work that they need to do. Um, we are partnering directly with the CDE, Nevada County Office of Education, the office of Fresma, Fresno, excuse me, office of the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools. We've been doing some site assessments to help them determine what some of their needs are for applying for the grant. Um we

105have our we did about half of the assessments um about three weeks ago I think and we got the remaining scheduled for in November. Um seven of our 15 Menino County schools qualify for Sassy Grant um criteria. One of the nice things is is they the schools that can't directly participate are going to have access to some of the the resources stuff that come out of it. Part of it is we're looking at creating templates and other resources and and road maps for schools that just they get new staff and they don't they get a brand or they get a ball and they do this. They don't know what the next steps are. And so a lot of it is just giving them somewhere to go, someone to reach out to. And so the seven

106schools that are eligible, they will be worked with correctly, but all the remaining schools are also help able to access those resources once they are developed. >> Bless you. >> Thank you. Some notable topics is as you may have we can might be able to see they're actually pretty popular as you can imagine is we received three of our new uh Toyota Camry for our fleet. One of them has been issued over to the coast campus and two of them are here. They are all-wheel drive hybrids 50 m per gallon. Um, all-wheel drive was an option because it's a little safer during some of our our wet weather around here, especially going up to some of our uh further reaching sites. Um, one of the benefits of some of the newer cars, some of our

107cars were getting quite up there in age and then just the likelihood of a breakdown or something like that. We all know Menino County is very rural and there's a lot of areas where you just do not have cell coverage. And so to try to prevent any kind of issues with that, we wanted to to start working on getting our fleet swapped out. As you approved um at a previous board meeting, we are surplusing some of our older vehicles that have just not been used um and are no longer needed by MCE. To date, we have uh listed we have listed three vehicles. Two of them have completed auction. One was a 91 GMC. We got $1,150 when we were originally estimated to get about $400 to $500 for it. Um same thing, an older

108Chevy Tahoe, we got $1,500. And currently we have the older GMC pickup. There was an M pickup used for landscaping that is at that point in time where the cost of repair is worth more than the vehicle. >> I actually wish I would have brought the picture. I found a picture. The 91 GMC van we MCO bought brand new. Um, we found an actual Polaroid picture of it. Um, I wish I would have used that instead of the Toyota. It's >> I love it. >> It was what it looked like then versus now. >> Classic. >> It's Yeah, it's it's got it miles worth. >> Um, we're currently conducting fits for on the facility side. Um as you may have Veronica and then may have shared um we are now up to 32 schools this

109year that we that we're inspecting um >> the FIT is a fiscal in um inspection tool that's used at all school sites. >> Thank you. >> Sorry. Um that includes 18 new schools and 14. Uh they created a new list every 3 years that we that lets us know which schools that we need to inspect. We have to inspect a minimum of 20% of classrooms and all share areas. Um, so far we're about halfway through this year. We, so when I started last year, we were doing it all on paper and clipboard and it was we were averaging about two schools a day out in the field. And then once we returned, it was about three schools a day to to take the terrible handwriting we all have on clipboards and putting it into a

110legible report and sending it to the schools for their use in their smart reports. This year we're using a digital platform that you can run off your phone or a tablet. It allows us to not only get clearer explanations of things, but we also have photos to share with schools to very be very specific of what the issue is so that they can have a better chance of addressing properly and in a more timely manner. Um, two weeks ago, uh, I presented with this as part of the Sassy Grant program with Cal California Department of Education at the California Schools Facility Consortium. It's a annual summit where all the county office of education um either maintenance and operations directors or some uh superintendent participated. It's a good time a good chance for everyone. We bounce

111ideas off each other. we're able to learn about new legislation that's potentially coming out um and bring those back to our um counties for dispersing and acting on >> any questions. >> Absolutely. Thank you, Ryan. I was having a hard time waiting for the end of your presentation. I know for me I I lose track when I'm talking and but I wanted to break in and kind of piggy back on what Don asked earlier because that's really in the back of my mind, you know, when you try and go to sleep and all those things um the the funding um cuts and um we've got this wonderful grant that we obtained November 17th of 23 and it's supposed to be going out for five years. Is that money that we've already gotten or is the

112federal government going to dole it out? And was this part of the big beautiful bill slashing >> uh for the safety? >> Yeah. >> So, that wasn't a grant that was directly given to us. It was it was to create the grant program. We are just partnering with the California Department of Education as um an kind of boots in the field advisor. >> Um >> so it's not f it's not based on federal funds. It is federal dollar. US Department of Education though. >> Yeah, it is federal dollars that is was awarded to the California Department of Education. >> They have an issue. >> It's been awarded and they can't take it back and slash it. >> I think that there is a portion of it that could be slashed. That does not going to

113it's not going to take away any of the work that they're doing with that stuff. >> Oh, good. Okay. >> Okay. >> Thank you. That was mine. >> So, I I wondered what what materials what type of roof are you putting on the building? Uh these are a composite shingle. Um that is a uh mineral overllayment just like what's typically on there. And then um for the scenic facility, it's a like an asphalt uh emulsion and then it gets a a white for title 24 covering over the top. >> Yeah. >> The uh shingles is a 30-year warranty. This one's a 20. And then the one that we're doing on the CNA is actually a 40-year noll. >> Yeah. And that's going over the old roofs. >> No, these will be a tear off. Um

114we know on this roof there is some from previous leaks. There is some damage that we're going to address once the roof is torn off. >> Um that one that's typically you you seal it, prime it, and then you coat over the top of the existing roof. We al we are also addressing so whenever you have an air conditioner or something like that you have the the transition from the roof that holds the unit is called a curb or equipment curb we're replacing all those cuz a lot of those were not designed properly I hate to say um so we're replacing all those we're eliminating on both these buildings unnecessary uh penetrations because as you know on this far end of this building and then far end of this this end were bathrooms at one

115point so you have vent holes, stuff like that that are just irrelevant at this point. >> Yeah. Then the other question I had was was on the vehicles. >> Sure. >> I we have a number of electric vehicles, I believe, don't we? >> Um, currently we have uh the foster homeless youth has a plug-in hybrid um Chrysler Pacifica van. And then the three Toyota Camry are not plugins, they're just hybrids. And then we have four Toyota raf 4s on order that are also hybrids but nonplugin. >> So we're putting in new chargers. Is it for those vehicles or >> that'll allow us to transition over? Yes. Because the problem is right now we have no way if we were to buy a plugin aside from the ones that plug into like the 110 outlet. >>

116We'd have no way to charge them. >> And so that's allowing us so that once we get those in future replacements will be able to be plug in. And then also um having the solar will offset the cost of those plugins as well. >> I've got all of that and I don't have an electric bill. It's really nice. >> And then one thing I I kind of glossed over a little too quickly is um we're actually currently working on two solar projects in a in a way. Um your typical solar project like you would have at your house is called backup meter. And so it's on your side of the meter. Right. >> So, it allows you to augment costs and u reduce your your bill every day. >> We still we still pay our

117user fees. >> Yeah. Yeah. They'll they'll get you a little bit somehow. But uh um the other uh we're working with Pen through a grant program that they have. We're actually in the process of applying for is a it's called a micro grid grant program. >> Yeah. So it actually is it's a fully funded zero match if approved to install solar and battery backup >> on but it's on their side of the meter. So it basically instead of having a backup generator that would kick on when your power goes out, it'll pull from that. >> Yeah. >> And it still runs through the meter. So we're getting charged. So our bill um AP isn't going to see the difference, but staff here will be able to continue to work. So, and that'll be a campuswide

118approach. >> Yeah, we're good. >> So, now we were going to do a brief tour if the board would still be interested in that. Um, it doesn't look like it's raining. We do have extra um umbrellas in case we can bring with us. And are we walking over or do we prepare the band for Okay. Um we will take a >> we'll take and and then um we will not re we will we can you can adjourn the meeting out