001Good. Good evening everyone. It is now 5:39. We are reconvening into open session. Um, no reportable action was taken in close session. But before we get started with today's agenda, um, I would like to um observe a moment of silence. We lost an El Capitan student on January 2nd um Vlette Walker. So if we could all just moment um observe a moment of silence in her memory. Thank you everyone. So, um, do I have a motion for action on student discipline cases number 30, 31, 32, 33, and 35? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Call for the vote. I'm an I, Mrs. Robach. >> I'm an I. Motion passes unanimously. Let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. Coleman, [clears throat] would you do the honors unit Is there a
002motion for the approval of the agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Is there a second? >> Apologies. Second. >> Call for the vote. My name is Roman. I'm an I motion passes unanimously. Thank you. >> All right. So, um item number eight, um principal code showcase for ECS public service pathway. administrative credential and they're here to [laughter] welcome you. and I am so excited students. All right. I have So, great job to the students and also to u a question uh for Deputy Leadford. How has the classes grown in the last three years? full section. >> [clears throat] >> this year. All my classes are 165 students. >> And uh this program also you had Deets who was the SRO at Livingston. Now she's doing uh the same thing at in Outwater, right? [clears
003throat] deputies. She sheriff's department >> question. When is the competition? Is that the one at UC Merrced? We hosted a different thing. We have a law enforcement academy with we have a living academy where students stay in the dorms for academy and level two at the same time. students like graduated will be more competition which will be in March 28 but it's like we have huge it's a one day forum competition Crime scene investigation suspicious dealility >> for a student going through the um the pathway. What does the capstone look like? What do they usually do for a capstone project? >> So for the capstone big capstone course they get the college credits and they I have students that pursued and actually I've had a couple really motivated students graduate with very close to it.
004All right. So the capstone this is my first one honestly. So I haven't like fully fully had like capstone capstone completed yet. reporting and exit interview. My plan is to put together and bring in it's [clears throat] a little bit different law enforcement interview civilian interview process. So I want to bring in people from the law enforcement community and definitely have my students sit down panel in uniform and see what it's like to do. There's other things that I do. testing is required to get into academy. I get samples just I do everything I can to prepare them for the ones that want to go to the academy and then they're prepared as well if they want to go on and get two degree whatever and then you have to be those entry levels they
005want to pursue college or they want to go right >> thank you >> this is for uh Brandon and Allison right Is there anything that you would like to see added to the pathway? about experience. I think we should be more classes. I think that's pretty cool. >> [clears throat] >> Did you say fire science? >> They have that in Livingston already, but good. But I just want to add one one more thing that to uh Deputy Leadford. So I I think uh Deputy Leadford from Allison's um comments. I agree with her that you are a good role model and and and I think you're the right person for for LCAP and and this program. I know you are involved in the community a lot. So, thank you for everything that you do with Maxel,
006with Explorers, and of course with the the new club you started here as well. So, great job so far. So far. No, I'm kidding. Great job all the time. Thank you. >> One quick question there, Mr. Leadford. Several other CTA programs are, you know, like when they get the capstone, they they go out in the community. Have you I know this is your first year so I was just curious if you were starting to build that relationship with the sheriff's office or >> PDF% program they've already chief % sheriff's office. >> Thank you. >> Okay, Principal Cop, it's your turn. I am back. So, tonight's um principal report, I have some different statistics um and different goals that we've been working on as an administrative team and with our staff here that I'd like to
007share with you guys this evening. So, one of our first goals is als ready ready to go when they graduate. So on this on this um chart it has the certifications that our students have been earning over the course of a few years and then also the unique students. So you can see that obviously we have like in that top line it's yellow. Um we have some students that are earning multiple certifications just because maybe they're or in medific the school that was and so that's why we have a lot of students who earned the same amount of certificate um and so our goal for this year but that is to increase our overall CTE certifications but then also so it's not just the same students receiving multiple certifications actually more students across the boarding
008also and so um so far we are working on that and I am happy to say that we are well to meeting our number on that. We've also been keeping an eye on our A3G completion rate. Um, one of the things, you know, when we look at the vision statement for the district and we talk about having college credit, having CTE certificates and then our diploma, we want to make sure that we're looking at the whole child. And so some of the different things that we are looking at also involve and so the inner ring is from 2023. That purple ring was from 2024 the graduating class. And then last year's graduating class of 2025 we have 42% of our students and that number needs to increase and we know that and so we're working
009towards that right now through doing a couple of different things and so our goal for the end of this year is to increase it to 53%. And so we're really optimistic that we're going to be able to achieve that as well. This is kind of a plot of all of the different collegees that our students are taking. We have a lot of students who take a lot of classes, but what we're seeing our certifications, we have a lot of students that are taking a lot of classes, but we don't have a lot of students taking and we need to also improve that and so we've done a number of things in the elementary stats classes and although students when they pass they will also get math credit for that which will also bump our numbers
010up and so we're very excited about that students last year he was helping both us and we had to make sure that we had students that not technically on this list, but what we do is we do encourage students who maybe aren't feeling prepared for some Spanish at the college, but we also want to encourage them to take a college class. So just getting to that as well. So this is the total number of collegees taken over the last couple of years and it's a little easier to see but there is a red line a red dotted line across those blue bars and that is the number of college in the first semester. And so what we notice here is that we are well on track to meet our goal of 872 college classes for
011this graduating class because it's closer to 200 last year at this time we were sitting at about 113 and so we're already on track to improve those numbers as well. We're just talking with our students making sure they're aware of all of the different opportunities that um classes they can take our student involvement data um we are wanting to increase our student by 40% that's really important to us because know that when kids are involved, when they're active, when they feel engaged, and when they feel connected to staff here on campus, that their attendance shoots up, their success shoots up. We actually did along with that data analysis. We did a deep dive into our attendance data earlier in the year and our teachers discovered throughout looking at the data how important connections are for
012students while they're here at high school and it's not just supporting connected me and so far we're sitting at about 70% involved and we're going to increase that. So our goal for this year is to get we have excal and you can see where we're at currently just for the first semester. So we are looking at those students who are not that data we know that are not being listed as involved and trying to find out why we find that we obviously have an attendance goal because you know we need our students to be here. We know that if they're not here they're not learning as well as they can be and so we want to make sure that we're constantly working towards that and so our goal is to increase our overall attendance and
013decrease our chronic absentee and red dots [snorts] on the right hand side show where kind of our targets are for the school year. Um and I can say December was rough and January is going to be difficult too but through some of the work that we've been doing with awards and incentive programs for students we are seeing a little bit of improvement. I'm not sure that we'll ever get to 97 or 96% attendance but we're definitely working really hard to improve our attendance to get to a solid 94%. We also look at our depth of knowledge through and so for the semester we were sitting about an average of 2.4 by the time December goal is to get a week so that each admin does 10. Some weeks are good, some weeks are a little
014bit more hectic, especially when we have a shorter week, but we're definitely working towards that. And then our big goal really was to not decrease one, but to be able to see more. And so a lot of times when we do walk, we see it as some of the deeper learning that we've done being able to for the planning through the learning targets has been really helpful and helped some of our conversations with our teachers as well. >> I spoke earlier a little bit about the elementary stats class and that was a huge thing for us. One of the um one of the things that we really pushed last year was for students to take a third year of math um especially for those students who maybe were not agiter for them to be able
015to earn classes and one of those if you didn't meet a certain mark on our passing or you weren't missing of math. And so that elementary stats class was very very helpful for a lot of those kids who just needed a little bit of so we're not quite meeting where we need to be. However, we do have a lot of students that are going to take classes also in the spring college and also try to update as much as possible but getting those math classes on that were subitted think from college may not have been as well. But we are we are working to improve that because we really want to encourage those students whether they go to college or trade or closer to that map is really important. We were also looking at college
016and career preparedness. And so looking at our data from RCCI on there, the white would be students. So they're almost there. That's going through that list of students to see what we need to do. What is it? Are they missing a capstone? maybe they're currently cap or maybe they need that third year of math and they're taking math in the spring. And so we're working to increase those numbers already. And so for currently as we stand, we have 56% of our students will be considered prepared and based on our data. And so we're still working to improve that because of course all of our students prepared. But through looking at this data and doing regular check and information. It's been really helpful for us to try to develop some plans and targets moving forward. >>
017Megan, I really appreciate the data. It kind of gives us a a pretty good picture you're at and where what your plans are. So, thank you. >> I agree. And it was very colorful night. Good. Uh it was good for my vision. It was easy to read. Question on the first slide. Uh what did you mean by unique on the first slide? >> So for individual students when I put them >> got it. Thank you. Also, thank you for the information in the data and I also like the color scheme. It's very nice. Um, going back to the A throughG slides. So, that was referencing students who um successfully completed with transcript credit. >> Yes, this was I was looking at specifically the graduating class. So, the seniors, >> but they but not just enrolled,
018but they successfully completed with transcript. Okay. And the same thing with the math. Completed refers to transcript. Right. It's nice to see that extra year of math. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. >> Moving on to general public comment period. Mrs. Roarback, do we have any comment cards? >> Okay. Well, we shall move on to um item 11, reports. So, Dr. W, fiscal and facility update, please. >> Good evening. So, normally in January, we'd have two fiscal things that we would be discussing. Uh, the governor's budget, which we will be talking about, and the audit. Uh, we do not have the audit tonight. Um, most districts in California had to ask for an extension because auditors were not able to complete the audits in time because of the federal government shutdown. They were not able to get
019the rules for the federal part of the audit and so those got extended. So that will most likely be in February. Um, so we won't be seeing that tonight, but we will be looking at the budget, the state budget. So we did get the release of the governor's 2627 budget last week. Um the 2526 budget had estimated the cola to be 3.02. Uh but last week the governor's January budget came out with a cola of 2.41. So 2.41 is what we'll be looking at for uh 2627. Uh income tax, sales tax, and corporate taxes are all up from 2526, which doesn't seem to match what you hear in the news, which is $18 billion deficit. But yet revenues were up. And so we'll talk about that in in just a second. But uh the budget
020deficit for California isn't because of revenues. It's because of spending. And so their budget had more spending in it than they were able to do it. The revenues are continuing to go up, but not as much as the spending was that they had put into the budget. And there was also some games that they played about moving money around that they have to pay back from last year. And so they have to take care of that. And so there is an $18 billion uh deficit from what the budget says they wanted to do in 2627, but it's because of uh increased expenses, not because of decrease in revenues. The other issue that uh we always deal with for Proposition 98 is the amount of money we get is set. It's set by law. And so
021if revenues are going up, we know we're going to be getting more money than we got the previous year in education. So they have an $18 billion and they can't do it in the 60% that goes to education. They have to do it in all of the other side of the budget. So when we saw the budget come out, it did reflect that. Um so we are getting the 2 uh 41% COLA. There is money that's going into the Prop 98 reserves and there is most likely going to be about $2.8 billion in one-time funding that would be coming to the uh to the districts because again Prop 98 sets the amount revenues are up. we get that the $18 billion deficit they're having has to be in all of the other departments of the
022state, not in education. One thing I do want to bring up real quickly as you're out and about and if you see these conversations, I want to make sure I put this on onto your mind so that you're seeing these, but there are a lot of conversations about changing the way in which the funding is done. And when you when you hear those conversations, sometimes they sound like they might be good ideas if you take them just by themselves and and don't look at what the actual implications of those ideas might be. Uh and some of those are things like, well, should we pay uh districts based on enrollment rather than on ADA? And that's one of the biggest ones that we're hearing out there right now. And all of those are philosophical. I'm not
023even going to look at the philosophical arguments. I'm just going to tell you what the fiscal impact for us would be. Um we are a district that has about a 93% uh attendance rate which is actually higher than the state average and we have a high unduplicated count. Any of these changes that they're talking about would not be good for us. Um, so even if they sound like they might be a solid political idea, for us fiscally, they would most likely be a deficit because if you're going to go from an enrollment model, uh, from an ADA model to an enrollment model, if there's no new funding, then those districts that are at 85% attendance are going to get a lot more money, and those of you at 93 are going to get less. And
024that's how that would balance out. if they do it with only new money. So in other words, we say we want to change the way we do it, but we're only going to pay with new funding, then they would get all of the new funding and we wouldn't get any of the new funding because it would be used to offset that new formulas. So just when you're out and having those conversations at the school board meetings and the different types of things, you're going to hear lots of those types of conversations. And again, you might have a political opinion of where do you think something's good or bad, but fiscally, most likely any of those types of things that they're talking about right now would be a negative impact to us fiscally. So, I just
025wanted to make sure that was out there in case you hear those types of conversations when you're conferences or or talking to other districts. And and most of the issues are coming from the larger districts, LA and Oakland being being the two notable ones. Any questions on the the state budget? It's pretty it was pretty straightforward. Other than that, a lot of the stuff is all K case K8 and doesn't really impact us that was in the budget. Um, moving on to facilities. We do have some existing projects. It was nice to attend the El Capitan Stadium opening and and hear them cheering in the stands as we walked in tonight and get another one of our big projects uh done and operational and and out there for student use. Uh we do have the
026completion of the business park project which is in progress right now and that still has a June uh timeline. That would be when they would hand it over to us. That's not when we would necessarily be moving out there into the uh the new facility, but we do have that that's going on right now. We do have the Golden Valley pool is in design. Um there's lot of issues there, but it is going to be a DSA project, so it's going to take longer to get those designs done and get them through so that we can have that whenever that happens. We will probably have the Golden Valley pool down for a year. So, I'm making sure everybody hears that when we have these conversations. I've had it with the Golden Valley principal, making sure
027they have that conversation. When when we get to the point that this project moves forward, it will cost about a year's worth of time to get that done. So, they'll have to be going somewhere else for that period of time. It's it's extensive concrete work around the deck and then some of the work within the mechanical. Uh we will also be looking at access control next week uh next month, excuse me, not next week. Um and looking at card keys, cameras, security controls, those types of things. We're going to be piloting that at the new business park. And then once we know we have a system that we like and is going to work for us, we would then move that out to sites and we would go for um each of the sites one
028by one to put all of those different types of things. And as part of that conversation, we will also be talking about the uh metal detector evolve and and different types of things like that and where we want to be with that. So when we're done at the business park and we know what we want to do with the other access control, this would be ready whatever we want to do if we want to do anything in that area that those things would happen at the same time. General needs for all sites. Um electrical and plumbing. I could spend $5 million on every campus just doing electrical, plumbing upgrades, HVACs, roof repairs, restroom renovations, uh storage areas, vehicle storage, lighting, shade structures, scoreboards, mares, murals, parking, concrete. These are all the things that constantly come
029up that the the principles are putting on a list for us to be able to do. And those are things that are pretty much across the board. Almost all of our campuses need some of those. We could probably spend a million dollars on every C uh campus on just repairing sidewalks and and walkways and those types of things. Um we also have the CTE facility matching grant that you looked at in December and so that is due by uh December 1st. We'll get a review from CDE and know which of our projects make enough points. Unfortunately, then they're going to score or excuse me, they were due in December. They'll tell us whether it moves on in March. those that move on in March, we won't know until December of the year uh at the
030end of the year on whether or not they're actually going to be funded. And so we have to have matching funds available for that because it's not a a gift. We're putting up half of the money for those. So we do have to have money sitting aside for those for those projects if they do make it through. Uh we also have uh railroad property, construction, transportation, HVAC and and manufacturing. These were the key CTE ones that we put forward. healthcare facilities, public service facilities, um a facilities, and performing arts upgrades. So, those were the ones that went in. And again, we'll know here in March, uh which of those move on, but we won't know till December which of them actually gets funded. But what that does do is that locks up about 12 to
03115 million that we cannot move on other projects because we have to have available if those projects get funded to be able to move quickly and match the funds for those projects. This is just a a a major facilities if you compare across the district. That's been one of the things we've been trying to do for seven years was take the big uh items at every campus, what's common at every campus and who's missing that and get those filled in. Um, and you can just take a look at that chart if if you want to. I'm not going to read it all to you, but the the green the bright greens are the ones that we've done within the last seven years. So you can see we've been making a good deal of progress on
032getting our campuses pretty much all of the same facilities so everybody's in the same place. Red are the big ones that are missing. Uh second practice gyms, uh theaters, the oranges, we have some things there but they're not necessarily up to standard. And the pale greens, some of those need a few upgrades and things like that. But we've got a large number of those things as we look at those types of things. If we took everything on here and wanted to make it bright green, each of the red boxes is going to be at least $15 million. So, there's 60 at just a quick glance and you could probably get to another 25 or 30 on the light reds and then we could keep going uh where we're going to quickly add up very very
033quickly. As part of the CTE process, we do have to uh update our master plan, which is one thing we want to do anyway because it's going to kind of time with the end of the football projects. So, as we decide what is next, we have a facility master plan that would tell us what's next. And so, we're in the process of that plan. Uh, and it is required as part of the CTE matching program. And again, we would look at being completed by uh we had one completed in May of 2022, but we do need to update that. Um, again, March 1st, we know the projects for CTE, but we don't know which ones are funded. So, we we have to keep that money on the side. And so, if we estimate what the
034sites are going to want, and they're going to want more things that are on here, those were things that were consistent across the board and big ticket items that are there. I can tell you Merced High wants turf. I can tell you that Merced High has a whole lot of concrete work that needs to be done because all of their major walkways need to be redone. You know, we can go through each campus and they're going to have other individual projects that they're going to want and think and need and they're going to identify those throughout the spring and they're going to be putting those in as well. Those will all come in in addition to the ones that I've already talked about here. And so I can pretty much guarantee you that when we
035start looking at this and and getting ready to be done with it, you're going to be looking in the neighborhood of $35 million per campus of of needs. So we're getting into the range of $210 million uh to be able to complete a large portion of those types of things. Estimated available funds is between 25 and $30 million that we currently have, 15 of which we have to keep set aside for those CTE projects. Gets you down into $10 million. does not make a very big dent in a $200 million list of projects there. So, we have no ability to move forward unless obviously we go out to raise revenues. Um, and so if we were looking at wanting to move forward on any projects other than the CTE projects, we would be probably needing
036to look at revenue and and the only way to do revenue for facilities right now would be looking at a bond. That was a lot and I threw out very big numbers. Um, so do we have any any questions of that? And and we would also be interested in your thoughts on on moving [clears throat] forward. >> I can't remember if the governor talked about onetime funds possibly. >> Yes. >> Number do you recall? >> 2.8 billion. >> Yeah. Okay. So for us, 3 million, a little over $3 million, >> and we could use that as part of our funding for CTE. >> Um maybe. >> Okay. >> The onetime money they gave us for this year, we had to go through the LCAT process. And so it didn't come just here, do whatever you
037want with it. There were ties to it. So it all depends. And again, we're not going to know what that is until June uh when the legislature gives their input on this because this is only the governor's proposal at this point. Um, and I can guarantee you there will be some restrictions. They're not going to just hand us onetime money and say, "Do whatever you want with it." Um, they're going to put restrictions on it. >> I love those ties. >> Yeah. >> All right. Um, as the former principal of Merced High School, I can attest to Yes. We need better sidewalks. I think there's a couple that we redid recently, but um if you're asking my opinion, I think the bond is probably the only way we can go or it will take forever
038to to fund everything. And I know that the financial world is going back to where I think we should have been in 2019 and 2020, right? That's we're kind of getting back to that level. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Warmer. So, I'm I I would like a little bit of guidance on that. Um, we if we were looking at a November time frame, uh, some things need to start happening fairly quickly. Um, setting up advisors, doing surveys, having some phone calls. Um, if we're interested in going down that route, we would need a little bit of guidance on on if you want to do those things. We don't need an answer tonight. Yes or no. What we need is guidance on do you want us to start preparing? Do you want us to get some more
039information for you for a future meeting to make that decision? >> Uh Mr. Peterson and the rest of the board. I I would like to get moving on this because I know how time timelines work and it's to be ready. We'd probably have to start planning like tomorrow type of idea, but [snorts] the sooner the better. That that's my opinion. >> I agree. >> So, if we do this, is there uh something that would be in the uh Well, actually, November's already passed. So would there be a vote in June 1st or how would that work? >> We would not be able to make it a June vote. Um what we would be doing right now would be putting enough information for you to bring it back to say here's what the community wants. Here's
040what would be available if we went out for a bond. Here's the timeline for how that would work. And most likely that would involve making a final decision on going out for a bond sometime in Aprilish to May. Uh that would be looking at a December. But up until then, it would just be providing information on whether or not that was something we wanted to do. You wouldn't be making a final decision probably until an April time frame. >> So, there's a whole lot of community surveys that need to happen before it comes to you to make the decision to move forward. So, we're not going to move forward if you know 60% of the community we talk to are not for that. Right. So, >> so that's part when you're talking about getting more
041information, it could be Yeah. through that process. Correct. That I'd be interested in some of that information. Yeah. >> Okay. That's what we need. >> And one more question. So, for the U facility plans, who who is involved in the in the process of of selecting what is necessary at each site? Uh the sites will do public meetings um as we did back in the 2022 one. Um we can either have the principles doing it on their own or we can have a consultant come in and and who helps with those types of things who helps with bonds. Uh but basically you have it wide open. You you get your community involved. You get your coaches involved. You get band involved. You get all the different groups. You bring them in. You start going through.
042You have a talks about a wish list and then the site would go through and organize what they want and move that forward to us. Okay. >> Thank you, Dr. Wymer. >> Okay. Next report will be um communications. Good evening, cabinet and board members. Um, today I'll be doing an overview of the communications department, giving you updates how the fall went and what we plan to do from now forward to improve. So, I just wanted to give you guys a highlight of how our newsletter and one of our main goals in my department was again storytelling with having Shawn come in. Um, we produced 152 stories and that was just in the fall. Um and those were published between August and through December. Um that is a very very big thing in our department because
043that cover from sports, academics, alumni, um CTE. Um that was another big goal for us for Sean to go into CTE classrooms and highlight different things that teachers are doing. Um and from that um 29 newsletters were actually distributed during that time, which is the most we've ever done. and we sent out 413,000 about emails out that were received for like parents, students, and um any community members who are subscribed to our newsletter. Now, of course, we want to double that as we come into the spring semester. We kind of overlooked in our communications department goals. And one of the things we do is have more community engagement and make sure that more community members or past alumni that want to keep in touch what's going on here at um their school sites or in
044our district um to be more engaged and then from social media views. So people actually engaging with the content, it was about 2 million about or so um people that are either a clicking um on a link whether it be through Facebook, engaging with the content, sharing it, liking it, um commenting um so that was really huge as well with the views and engagement and also our reach and growth in our community. And then as you can see our open rate was 72.8%. Which is not bad for launching a new newsletter. And I think um we talked about it before we would like to raise it 10% um at least this spring and then our unsubscriber rate was pretty low. Um so our goal is to make that 1% lower, you know, get maybe the
045people that unsubscribe maybe maybe there's something we're not covering as well. So um Sean and I discussed about maybe doing a survey right now. So get some input from the fall. um send that out at the very end of January and then we can kind of pivot as more um CTE things happen, academics um so we can kind of plan better our spring and see what our community, parents, students and staff want to see. Next, um so some of the things that we saw that we kind of summarized, but we're really proud that we have had a better relationship with our media. So, local newspaper, ABC30, um Unbresno and the Merced Focus, um Merced County Times, uh Mercedes Sunstar, we have had really good um relationships and just communication overall through the fall. Um just
046kind of weekly checkpoints sometimes even like, hey, do you guys have any stories? Um sometimes they have seen stuff we have published and would are interested in coming in. Today we actually had uh ABC30 come and do a highlight on Miss Mihot's class because they're celebrating five years of their CNA program and also talking about having the CNA program here at LCAP. So they're starting that too. So that was a really great story. And we also had Merced College their um dean of nursing came as well to speak upon our partnership. So, um I'm really happy that um the media is taking interest of what our staff and students are doing and kind of giving the kudos and credits to the people that deserve to be highlighted for the work they're doing for our school
047district. Um one of the main [laughter] emails that Sean looked back was um can I how do I print this newsletter or how do I hang a p like I want the picture of like my son who was on the back, you know, on the football team or any of that. That was really great um for Sean to hear back especially for like the sports part where people were very proud especially we had a lot of championships and great moments to highlight. So we got a lot of emails asking for photos how to print how to share how can grandma and grandpa subscribe to the newsletter. So that was really positive and we want like again we want to one of our goals is to increase community subscribers and grandparents and people who want to
048keep in touch and knowing up our programs and what we offer here. And then um again our staff engagement increased from the past year. So that was great that there's I've gotten we gotten a lot of positive feedback and emails and like I said we'll be doing a survey at the end to also get feedback and make sure um of anybody has whether it be positive or negative about the newsletter. And then um we have gotten a lot of story suggestions. So just by being out more um people have come up to me and Sean be like hey you know I know these two great siblings you know that would be great to highlight or just pitching stories to us or sometimes people know a past alumni to highlight and things like that and then
049um one like I said the survey will be sent out and then I think just school pride has been a good initiative too um just when not only covering the sports but our teachers and staff I think um people get really happy when they see their school highlight highlighted or how they're doing or um I know students really have loved to see like the amount of photos being shared. Um that has been a great thing on social media. I've seen a lot of students repost their teammates and be like congrats like that's so great. So it's been like a really positive just even for peer on pier um celebrating those moments. Um and then we revamped. So if you go on to the district news um section, we kind of reorganized it um of like
050the current stories that are coming in from sports. So it's very organized. So everything if you're still interested in looking at football stats and all that, it's still all archived. Nothing is gets deleted or anything. Right now the f the focus is going to be on to our winter or winter sports. So right now like basketball got moved up. So, you're going to see a lot of like the previews and things like that, but also like anything involving like our CTE um plays. We have high uh high school music by Golden Valley coming up soon. So, that's going to be another great feature. So, um it's been really great. And like I said too, as well um sharing also the videos as well that ABC30 or other um local media have shared as well. So,
051um that has been great and Jamie has done a good job organizing that and making it user friendly. And then I have three seniors that are kind of doing um community service with me right now. And it has been great. They're very limited on time, but I continue what we kind of build in the summer and incorporating that through the fall and making sure we have student voices in the articles we write, student perspective. Um they have done seven original videos I have not touched or they have done them all on their own through my guidance and Sean's. Um Sean um Claire from Beh Colony High School. She's a senior. She's really amazing at writing and she's kind of been under Sean's wing learning and um she has a new set of goals too for
052this spring and our students now that they're more comfortable and we kind of know their schedules better what they can do. We did release four podcast episodes. Um I know we want to release more, but it was great. Um Shemica from El Capetan High School who's a senior was able to interview um she's gonna tomorrow release them psychology interview. So she interviewed somebody from Merced College of students who are interested in attending Merced College, what Merced College offers, um Brandy Ree, our scholarship counselor. So she got to interview questions about how to, you know, be proactive and what scholarships and where to apply going Mary. So um it has been great seeing students get involved and um we would like to do more of that this spring. And then this is just kind of a
053quick analytics um um of the homepage visits in the past. I think this is like from November until now if I'm not mistaken. So you can kind of see. And then the sports feed that was like overall visits. So it was 31,581. So that was like for the whole entire fall. And then um our sustainability score, which is very important, is at 91.3%. And again, we're aiming for 95 hopefully by the end of the spring. Any questions? >> I won't say questions, but comments. >> Yes. >> I really like the podcast, so I'm glad to hear that you're bringing those back because uh that really helps. I know for me what our students are thinking and you know how they feel about their educational experience. Yeah. So glad to hear that that was happening. Um
054the other one was you guys have done a great job of covering all kinds of student activities not just sports but you know band drama and we don't you know we basically don't have a newspaper very much any longer that actually comes out and does that. I know I know when I talked to Mr. Peterson about it. That was one of his goals is we got to get that positive out there and I think you and Sean have done a great job with that. So, thank you. >> I do have a question. Do you know um the uh engagement is it do you do you have like statistics on is it stu more students, more adults? Do you know who's who's actually? >> So, Facebook and like Instagram, they just give you basic like from
055the age of 18 to 25 and then they do like 25. So I have all I can pull all those out and organite like we have it organized. Um but the majority I would say like on Facebook versus Instagram it's I would say like our students are on Instagram the ones who are engaging and sharing like like right now I was looking at one of the basketball stories and like the whole like there was 14 shares from different students versus on Facebook that's where I see the most engagement with staff um parents grandparents community members and I've seen like an uptick on there but I would say the demographic on Facebook and Twitter is very much adult. Anything that's Instagram is very much student driven. Yeah. >> Yeah, that's I heard grandpa. [laughter] So, yeah,
056great job by the way to you and Sean uh with growing these numbers that that you have. Um, you also mentioned the the press me I'll just say like ABC30 I that's the station I watch for news and I see a lot maybe I'm just paying more attention to ours but I think there's more of our stories than anywhere else and from you know Fresno and even this way so maybe I'm just noticing ours but I've seen a lot a lot of coverage on things that we've done especially lately. >> Yeah. >> And on the 4% that is going away. Don't don't don't take it personal. It's probably people that were fired or or went on to another >> Yeah. school district, >> country, district, whatever. >> No, I was proud actually of the of
057the unsuspect rate. Yeah. If I if it was like 25%, I think it would have a concern and Yeah, >> it's very low. Very, very low. >> So, that's good because it says that people are actually liking what they're seeing and the opening rate too. I think if I was seeing something along 50%, then I would have a concern as well. Where, you know, where were we doing wrong? But I think there's a lot of improvement to do. This is like we're halfway through the school year and I think we can do better and we can do more. So, um, we have some new goals and hope to showcase more of what our students and staff and our district is doing >> and it is a place for us. Well, I'll say me as a
058board member can go and see everything that's happening. I a long time ago I had asked to have something similar. Uh, we we have the polls which was giving us a lot and it still does give us a lot a lot of information but it's kind of sometimes overwhelming the polls. So, I think your newsletter is something that I I can get as info that is important to me. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> I follow all the social media pages for all our schools and I love this because it's a one-stop shop. Yeah. >> And it's everything. >> Um, and I don't think you can ever have too much positive press. So, nice job. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> President Jai Singa, may I jump in for a second? >> Yes, of course.
059Uh, Rosemary, would you like to introduce your class or have Adrien? >> Okay, great. >> Adrian Herertado is an AP here at OKCAP, former basketball coach. >> Yeah, it's kind of hard for me right now. Merced LCA's playing right now. I'm kind of jittery right now because I'm usually in that gym, so it's a little different setting for me right now. >> Uh, again, Adrian Tado, social principal here. Uh, thank you for letting me speak tonight. Uh, I would just like to introduce you to our Merced cohort. Bunch of rock stars behind me. Uh, we've been grinding Stan State program. Um, fun fact is this is probably the first time we all seen each other in person because we're on Zoom. So, it's a little different for us. And if we look a little tired,
060uh, we're in a class right now that's Monday through Friday 4:30 to 8. So, uh, we're grinding it out right now. Uh, the class is community, uh, participation in schools. One of our assignments today is to attend a community event. So, we decided on coming to the board meeting today and then once it concludes, we'll go back to our laptops and create a two-page paper and submit it by midnight. So, again, uh, great group. I wouldn't ask for a better group. I'm appreciative of them. Uh, lots of support and I think the future admins were we're in good hands. So, thank you. >> So, make sure we get a copy of that paper by midnight. >> Uh, yeah. 11:59. Well, thank you very much for choosing to attend our board meeting and good luck with
061that paper. >> Yes, I want to say thank you to Dr. Duran for for coming out tonight. I appreciate you bringing your students along and experiencing what we go through once a month at least. Thank you. [laughter] >> All right. Okay. Um, moving on to the employee association's comment period. Um, do we have a representative from the DTA that would like to address the board? Okay. Nobody. Um, is there a representative from the CSEA that would like to address the board? Okay. Well, in that case, we will move on to item 13. Um, the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Trustee Pickle, would you like to acknowledge their donations? >> Absolutely. Uh the district would like to thank
062the following for their donations. Alejandro Gonzalez, Mandy Nate, Gary and D. Hernandez, and always towing. Thank you for your donations. >> Are there any questions? >> No questions. It's just a again another quick comment. I want to congratulate Brett Nicholson. Uh he's going from an executive director to an assistant soup starting next year. And of course our new executive director of business services, Mr. Steve Hobbs. Congratulations to both of you for your your efforts and your work here in our district. Thank you. >> Okay. Call for the vote. Miss Wach. >> Hello. I'm an I. >> I'm sorry. Oh, I thought you had something to say. >> I'm an I, too. >> I'm an Okay, motion passes unanimously. Moving on to the action agenda, we have uh Mrs. Ballinger with the 2026 superintendent goals. Good
063evening. Uh last month we talked about the superintendent goals or the potential superintendent goals. So tonight I just wanted to highlight a few changes based on that discussion from last month. Um if you take a look at the attached goals there under the data analysis goal, we did change that second part to each site. We'll choose one of the suggested academic metrics to improve. And then um linked there and then also attached to your board agenda item were those academic metrics that sites would be allowed to choose from. What we did was we broke it down by our academic areas um that would eventually be reflected on the California state dashboard. So if you take a look, you'd see there's math. Can you hit the other one? That one. Yes. There's math um some math
064options, some reading options, ELA, there's some English learner options, special ed, and then if a school wanted to focus on multiple courses, there's some options there for them. Um if you remember um last month when we looked at the dashboard, not every school is performing the same in each of the metrics. So we wanted to give them the opportunity to choose from an area that they needed to improve in. So those are the attached metrics there. The other change was in the communications for college and career readiness. Um we did add that students would declare a CTE pathway as part of that exploration in the freshman seminar. So, the superintendent recommends the board adopt the 2026 superintendent goals. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. Are there any questions? Call for the
065vote. Mr. Roback. I'm an I. >> I'm an I, too. Thank you. Motion passes. Thank you. Next is uh Mr. Nicholson. >> Good evening. Uh we are here tonight seeking approval of board resolution number 5-25 authorizing the elimination of classified services for the 2026 2027 school year for one program manager. uh education code authorize and require the governing board to give notice to all employees affected by any decision to lay off a classified employee due to a lack of work andor lack of funds no later than March 15th. So the program manager position is being eliminated because of a reorganization within the department due to a lack of work and or a lack of funds and we are seeking that for uh July 1st, 2026. So the superintendent recommends the board of trustees adopt the
066resolution authorizing the elimination of those classified management services for the 202627 school year. >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second the motion. Any questions or comments? Call for the vote. Miss Roarbeck. I'm an I. >> I am an I as well. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to Mrs. Garin. Good evening. Uh we are here seeking approval for adopting a proactive layered cyber security strategy and partnering with Arctic Wolf. Arctic Wolf's a 247 managed detection and response service that continuously watches the district's network for suspicious and dangerous activity. It functions much like a digital security team. is a digital security team that never sleeps. Um, it detects potential cyber attacks early, alerts real human security experts who then guide our human security experts locally um, in responding and
067containment efforts. Um because schools are frequent targets for ransomware and data theft and attacks often happen outside normal business hours. This constant monitoring helps prevent small issues from becoming major disruptions. Arctic Wolf is a security operations center that supports IT staff by providing roundthe-clock oversight expert response helps protect student and staff data keeps our systems running maintains trust in district operations and our partnership would also include um cyber security education and awareness materials and resources which would be great. So, the superintendent recommends approval to implement this cyber security service provided by Arctic Wolf to begin February 2026. >> Do I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. Any questions? >> This Sorry, Cheryl. I'm gonna ask Dr. Wyber a question. How does this affect that? Because
068we obviously didn't budget for this in June and July, right? So, good. Uh, we have several options in including one-time funds for this year that could be used to carry us over until we include it in the budget for next year. Thank you. >> All right. Call for the vote. Gemini. >> Motion passes. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Moving on to the superintendent report. Mr. Peterson. >> Thank you, President Jaisinga. I just want to point out, as I have many times over the last few months, uh Melissa Miller and um the folks in facilities, including uh Dr. Wymer, who um helps her make those things possible. But I was just incredibly impressed with both the U-Hack uh stadium and LCAP stadium and our pools. We've already talked about that. And it's just
069not that often that I I walk into a venue and you look around and you go, "Wow, it's this is primo. This was really well done." and to not have any problems with our our vendor partners. We appreciate them, too. So, just just want to say that out loud. Uh, Viviana and Sean, you are doing an incredible job in communications. Um, I can remember talking to you before we hired Shawn, and you were a little leery of this vision that I I had, and uh you couldn't quite put your arms around it. And you're not alone. That happens to a lot of cabinet members uh at the beginning. But um uh what what has transpired in your department uh over the last few months is has really been incredible for our district uh and and
070and community. So we really thank you. And uh last but not least, I just want to announce that we have the Battle of the Books, which is our big event for January coming up on Friday, January 23rd, 5:00 pm in the Atwater High School uh cafeteria. That's where it starts. And we have staff members, uh, teams, we have student teams, all competing against one another, sharing their love of reading, and it is just a a great event to be a part of. So, encourage our board members to attend if they're able. Thank you, President Joyce. >> Okay. Thank you, Superintendent. So, um, on to board member communications. Um, Trusty Pickle. >> Yeah, there's um one thing I know we had talked about um reviewing board policies and going through and you know having a systematic
071way and um when we might get um or have us develop a a schedule begin looking at that and develop a schedule for that for when we start start that. >> So, >> and start the the board policy review just as a regular practice to go through and make sure we're up to date on our policies, >> you know. You're you're asking what the plan is for cabinet to do that or you're saying you would like to do that as a board. >> Well, that's probably something we need to look at is how that's going to happen, but start developing a schedule so we can actually start beginning beginning it, beginning the process, whether it be cabinet or whatever. >> Yes, we have CSVA scheduled to come in and do a policy review and workshop
072with us the 27th, 28th, and 29th of this month. And so all our policies will be looked at. We have a team in the boardroom from each area and we'll be doing that. That was on my list of things to do before I retire. >> Steve Coleman. >> Couple of thank yous and shout outs. Um, I know Megan's not here. Adrien just Oh, she over there. Megan, great job tonight on your Okay, perfect. I just didn't see you. Sorry. Uh, no. Great presentation from you again. I love the data. Um, also, uh, shout out if you can tomorrow. Just remember, let Mr. Leadford know that I appreciated, you know, that he has grown his, uh, CTE program within three years. That's great. Um, Adrian, congratulations on your assignment for tonight. Hopefully, you have time after
073the basketball game. Uh, Dr. Durant, thank you again for bringing your your group out. Dr. Wymer, thank you for com, you know, kind of starting the conversation about what we need to do for facilities and the bond issue. And I appreciate that. And finally, thanks for all uh again, you you've done a great job when you first started many years ago. I won't say a lot, but it was quite a few years ago. You've you and Cheryl have built that communications department and including Sean. So, great job you guys. Thank you, >> Trusty Valdez. as >> well. As always, thank everybody for being here. For those that always stay, even though you don't have to, thank you all. Um, I I also want to thank Melissa and Mr. Wymer and all the people involved in
074the facilities and building new facilities and so on. In in my time as a board member, a lot has gone up. A lot have been built. Nice. The gyms, the pools, those are big projects. And of course, not the stadiums. Um, so great job. Um, and a lot of it happened not too long ago. So, great job to everyone. Great job again to the communications team. Um, thank you guys, Dr. Duran and staff for I I don't know why you would choose a board me board meeting, but we appreciate you coming and listening to us. So, thank you guys. And thank everyone here, too. you uh you guys the IT guys that are always uh keeping us uh up and and working. So, thank you guys. >> Thank you, Trusty Ham. >> Well, my apologies
075for being so late. I had no idea I was going to miss basically the whole meeting. I was at a conference for my day job and my flight was very delayed getting back. Um, it is awesome to see all of the activity at El Capitan and to pull up and see the lights on and the girls soccer team playing and there is no parking in anywhere out there which is a fantastic problem to see all of the people here supporting uh our students. Um, a couple things. I wasn't here for the facilities presentation so I just wanted to comment. Um, a couple months ago I met with students in the senior seminar class at Merced High. It happened to be pouring rain that day and students were providing feedback and one of the things that
076they begged for was better sidewalks. The campus was pretty severely flooded. Um, and it was hard to walk anywhere without getting soaking wet shoes. So, I would request that we add that into our facilities master plan and evaluation. And I'm sure Merced High is not the only school. So, um, the other thing is I was at a soccer game at Mercer High on Friday and a student went down with nobody around him. There just was a big hole in the field. And I know that Rob Shite spends an inordinate amount of his personal time working on that field and I don't think he's probably going to be around forever. And so I would ask that we also evaluate putting turf at some of our sites or all of our sites potentially that don't have it
077just from a safety standpoint. Um the student was down for a very long time. They ultimately called the game and it was all pretty scary. Um so I just I wanted to to definitely bring that up. And then I've had a couple um community members approach me recently and ask about medical support for games and we used to always have um ambulances on standby at football games and we don't anymore, right? I mean, I saw it in the consent agenda that we do have a contract, but um [clears throat] I it's just been um pointed out that it multiple sites, multiple games, athletes go down and there's not an appropriate medical person there to do an evaluation. So, I just think it's something we probably need to look into. Yeah, there may not be an
078actual ambulance there, but there there's somebody there that is in charge and available to handle an emergency, you know, beyond beyond a trainer. We can we can send that out in the polls to you. >> Okay. I think that would be great. I don't know if there's a way to make the general public aware of that as well, too, because there's some definite concern about that. >> Yeah. If the ambulance is not actually on the site, then there is personnel from EMS that has access to get one there and they are on standby somewhere in the near area to be able. >> And to be clear, that's just football. >> Correct. >> Right. Correct. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. Um, that's all I've got for tonight, but thank you. All right. Um thank you u
079principal cope compilango and um staff for hosting us and for the swag. Appreciate that. These are exciting times for El Capitan. So enjoy. Um as always um thank you to um every single one of you for what you do to keep our students and district successful. Um loving all the positive press recently. And Dr. um Duran, thank you for bringing your class out. And because they have an assignment, we will be wrapping up this meeting in record time just for you. [laughter] So thank you everyone. It is 7:01. I hereby adjourn this meeting.