Mt. Diablo USD Board Meeting 3/11/2026 Part 2

001the Mount Dav Unified School District school regular scheduled school board meeting for March 11th, 2026. We always start with our statement. We recognize that the Mount Dab Unified School District sits on the ancestral and unseated land of the Miwok, the Northern Yokut, and the successors of the sovereign Verona Band of Contraost County. As members of the Mount Wish My School District community, it is vitally important that we not only recognize the history of the land on which we learn, but also we recognize the land that we inhabit and learn on is the ancestral land of these people who are alive and flourishing members of the Mount Davel Unified School District and broader Bay Area communities today. Thank you. And please join us in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States

002of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. 6.3 Review and potential approval of the minutes for the regular board meeting held February 25th, 2026. Madame President, I move that the board the minutes of February 25th, 2026 be approved as presented. >> Second. >> Have a motion by trustee Mayo, second by trustee. That's >> okay. I think I got it. Wasn't letting a joint Okay, I think we're good. >> All right, that passes. 5 0. All righty. Next would be review and potential approval of the agenda. Dr. Clark, >> I have no changes. Madam President, >> I move that we approve the agenda. >> Second. >> Have a motion to approve by Trustee Ze, second by Trustee Mayo. And that passes

003500. We now have our report out from business in close session. Discipline dismissal and release of reassignment of public employee in close session by a vote of 5 to zero. The board took action to approve the reassignment of one vice principal and one social work specialist to positions for which they are credentialed for the 2026 2027 school year. In close session by a vote of five to zero, the board took action to approve the retirement of one employee per a separation agreement. And under liability claim, we uh with by Linda Cervantes, the board met in close session and by a vote of 50 voted to reject a liability claim for damages pursuant to government code section 54956.95 with which was Linda Cervantes against Mount Abel Unified School District. And that was all the our business

004in close session. takes us to public comment. You'll have a minute and a half. Good evening. Uh, members of the board, I'm John Kelly and I represent the Bankraftoft Dual Emergent Families Association. First, let me say thank you to all five trustees for your service. I know how thankless this job can be. I served two terms myself. Um, the education code requires seven specific things to be done before something like what's going on at Bankraftoft can take place. None of those seven things took place for the announcement by the district on the 28th of January. The district's response to our letter has been to hire a large outside law firm. That firm is defending the decision. No one is giving this board independent advice. That firm works for the district. You need independent advice on

005whether you have followed the law. The superintendent is your employee. You always have the power to say stop. Consult with parents, consult with teachers, then decide together. Under your own bylaw 9124, you as a board can choose to obtain independent legal advice on what is taking place. You need someone who reports to you and only to you. Thank you. Thank you. Next up would be Anna Maria. >> Okay, next up would be James Vaughn. Members of the board, superintendent, I am a member, sorry, as a part of area one and also an educator myself. And what I wanted to relay to the board is that what you're going what you're going to do is going to drive down the education of students. To ask brand new teachers in a new area to either take something

006that you've never done before, change everything you have and start over again is very difficult. Especially depending on how long a teacher has been a teacher. If they have been less than 5 years, they are trying to set their own schedule. 10 years they have just begun their own schedule and they're beginning to educate on students in a way that they actually excel. Beyond that is what dual immersion should be. I have actually been a a child of a teacher that actually has taught dual immersion for more than 20 years. The other thing that I'll tell you moving teachers from one area to another is not helpful at all as well. It actually changes the entire environment and the entire way that actually teachers will actually acclimate to where they are. Doing this process of

007just changing dual immersion to another school will actually drive down your scores. And we all know CASP and other scores are important especially to school districts. If you want to maintain those, my suggestion is you keep bankroof where it is. Try and hire or figure out how you can actually get Woodside to actually have a dual immersion program because if you do this, there will be more detrimental education to your children than anything else. And I believe that is my time. >> Thank you. >> Next is Bobita Von. Is that okay? Okay, come on up. >> Good evening, members of the board. My I am a retired teacher, a dual immersion retired teacher from Pittsburgh Unified School District. I am also the grandparent of Marie and Jeremy Van who got to uh bankraf. It has

008been my experience as an educator that when there is a school who has a strong parental support and extremely capable teachers, children cannot do anything but succeed in their endeavors. It's my understanding that districts that this district is considering um to move the highly achieving dual immersion program for Braftoft to Woodside Elementary School. I don't mean to demean the staff at Woodside, but why move a program that works to an unknown situation? If something is not broken, please don't try to fix it. Children don't do well when personnel and surroundings are strange to them. Additionally, if you aim to unite two programs into one, have you considered the consequence this will have on everyone? Why are you going to burden the Woodside staff with more children in their classroom? or are you going to provide

009them with more personnel to alleviate the situation? Has anyone looked at the numbers to see what impact will have on these students and the Woodside students? Are you going to provide more bilingual teachers and aids so that there is ample space to provide for a comfortable and positive learning environment. This transfer will bring our children's high performance level down and damage their future success. Please consider >> your actions. Thank you very much. >> Next is Jorge Ali Oliver. Okay. >> Jorge. J O R G E. Hello. >> Or hey, is that Oh, it looks like an O. >> Sorry. >> Hi. Um, thank you again for your time. Um, I actually have a a question for the board. Um, when the district cancel the program and then deny the proposition 58 request without the required

010steps both actions or the demographic study of the consequences, does the district believe that it follow the law or do they believe that the law does not apply to them? That's that's a my general question. uh why is eliminating one of the strongest academic program why are we eliminating this program without a credible reason or actually sustained uh reason 94% of voters say maintaining a high quality education in our schools is important to them according to your own survey that we saw last week um this program produces bilingual students with a strong academic results and attract families to the districts if this is about enrollment ment then keeping this program will bring enrollment eliminated will decrease the enrollment and I actually heard uh Dr. CL saying in September that in order to increase enrollment we

011need to have a high quality programs and engage with the families which were here but if we are eliminating this program 40% of voters have on have only 40% of voters have federal abuse of the district we will make sure that they will remember this. >> Thank you >> Elizabeth Silva. Hello board. It's nice to see you all again. I feel like I'm getting to know you all a little bit at this point. On February 11th, uh Dr. Gilly presented to the board and cited poor performance of English language learners as one of the reasons why the program would be phased out of Braftoft Elementary. But of the six Spanish English immersion programs in Mount Diablo Unified School District, Braftoft ranks number one for English learner performance. The district presented com combined data from two

012separate programs when disagregated data was later shared. The picture changed. The performance of English language learners in the Englishon program at Bankrooft was very low. Less than 6% were proficient in English language arts. But when you look at the TWWDI language learner performance, it was three times better than that in the English lang in the English only section of the school. So the district is closing the program that really works. Was program quality taken into account in this decision? You know, we can assume that there was no thought to program quality when this decision was made. The program attracts students to Mount Diablo Unified School District. How will enrollment in Mount Diablo Unified School District be be affected when this program goes away? We know there are six programs in the district. one in Bay

013Point, four in Conquered, and one in Bankrooft's program in in Walnut Creek. I support having a fifth program in conquered 100% at Woodside Elementary. Um, it's going to be the third TWWDI because the other three are one. Um, so what we want to do Yep. So, um, please, please support us. We want to work with the district. >> Elizabeth, all of all of us. There she is. Good evening. My name's Elizabeth Kolivas. I'm here to address some of the other claims in the letter already referenced. Um the first one is Bankraftoft is overcrowded because of the TWWI program, but the data does not support this. Bankraftoft's enrollment grew when TDWI was initiated, but it has held steady in recent years, even after the district added two TK classes at Bankraftoft. More telling, the neighboring Walnut

014Acres Elementary, which has no TWWI program, shows virtually identical enrollment growth over the same period. If TWWI was the driver of this overcrowding, then Walnut Acres, which does not have TWWI, would not track so closely. I personally have a friend whose child was moved from Walnut Acres to Val Verde because it was so overcrowded there. We don't have that same issue at Bankraftoft in the monolingual classes. As you said, there's space in each monolingual class, but TWWI is actually the one that's full at Braftoft. Um, the other point since I have a little more time is that Foothill is impacted by TWWI students. The transfer requests don't support this. They are flat and stable over the last seven years. Foothill actually experienced this enrollment drop between 2015 and 2022 predating any TWWY related pressure. Thank

015you. >> Thank you, >> Jose. >> Good evening, members of the school board. Uh my name is Jose Olivas. I have a son in the TWWDI uh program at Bankrooft and an incoming TK um student. and I'm urging the board uh to issue a pause uh on the uh transition to uh Woodside uh so my daughter can attend the program at Bankrooft. Um I'm here to rebut a claim uh that was made in the letter that was issued by Dr. Clark um that this is a move and not a termination. Uh lo uh relocating Bank's program to Woodside Elementary and Conquered without consultant parents, family, ELAC or the schoolside council is not a neutral administrative transfer. It is the elimination of the only Spanish immersion program in Walnut Creek, serving a predominantly Latino and English

016learner population and replacing it with a program geographically separated from those families by city lines, demographics, and access barriers. The demographic data makes the equity stakes undeniable. Bankrooft sits in Walnut Creek and feeds into the uh Foothill Northgate corridor where the student body is predominantly white and Asian with only 1.8% 8% English learners at Northgate. Woodside feeds into Oakrove Middle School, Ignasio Valley High School, where the student body is 76% Hispanic and Latino at Oak Grove and 80% at uh Agnosio Valley uh with 47% and 33% English learner populations respectively. Moving the only bilingual pathway out of the Walnut Creek feeder corridor. Oh, excuse me. Thank you. So Lopez Basquez Good evening. Uh, thank you so much for the invitation. My name is Saul Lopez. I live in Peaceboard and work in Concord. Today I

017want to share my experience with Monument Impact and how it makes it positive positive difference in my life and my current job. I hear about technology program through a friend and enjoy in 20 uh 2025 because I want to improve my skills for work. I started with the intermediate class and now I'm enrolling Camino's advanced class. Through the program, I've been improving my confidence and learning skills in Microsoft One Drive and Quick Books. The program includes professional development and interviews to help us to prepare for the better opportunities. Another important part of the program is learning English through the mon impact partnership with Loma Vista. I'm able to improve my English. Distance learning is fantastic option for work adults. I spend about 10 hours a week on Burlington and meet with my English teacher every

018two weeks. Monas makes a difference in our community by helping people growing and gain confidence in building a better future for the for those that great teacher about hurt and a strong collaboration with the hering their work and truly improving uh people's lives. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Sure. Thanks >> Tatiana Dutra. I'm gonna mess up your name. Dutrio. Okay. Good evening. My name is Satiana Dutrio and I teach at one of Mount Diablo Adult Education's Family Literacy Center. Our program is unique. While parents learn English and workforce skills, their schoolaged children are right there with them being prepared for elementary school. Frequently see our these families. These children frequently act as translators at doctor's appointments and school meetings. Just today, thank you. Just today, a 9-year-old boy walked into my classroom, litting his

019father by the hand. He looked at me and said English. At 9 years old, he already felt the weight of the language barrier to help, but he shouldn't have to carry that burden alone. Adult education transforms lives with the speed that K12 can match. They don't have a decade. They have months and years career ready and navigate American life for children and that the child's success is intrinsically linked to the parents literacy and economic stability is stabilized and children thrive. Thank you for your attention. Susanna Hernandez. Hello, my name is Susanna Hernandez. I'm from Mexico. I have three childrens in the district. I studying English at LMA Vista. When I came in 2004, I bring my daughter. She was seven years old. was very frustrated for both because we need to understand how to enroll

020in the school. We have many problems both because I work six day a week 12 hours a day and after them I had to help my daughter to do the homework. I don't know how but I helped her a little bit but we were very frustrated because we don't understand a lot English. This is why I study at Lom Vista. Thank you Rodriguez. Good evening. My name is Carla Mundo. I mother the two little boys and I stud the ESL. I'm writing this letter for us. My name is Carla Mundo. I have two beautiful boys. They have a level two. They are a student in Montiablo district in the family literary centers me. I am a students the family little centers me homes. I am student. My teacher is Susan Rush. Every day Monday to

021Friday my kids get very happy. They like to go to school. My first boy he has a he is a student in El Monty Elementary School. He has education special since he has five years old. The teacher she is very professional. She is teaching him. Jacob is his name. He is progressing very well. He is a good student. He's ready for graduate the ELD. He is in third grade. He start in generic class in the morning first class. He has a speech class two two days at the week. My second boy, his name is Derek. He is in middle home school, too. He is in general class, but he is very smart. He has a speech therapy in a bilingual class. He is a student in the district, too. He receives help so that he

022can focus in his class. He love his school. He is excited and every morning he want to come to school. What? Sorry. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening. >> Thank you. Alandre Madera. Hello, my name is Alandre Madera and little speak English no more. Okay. I am a student in English class Miron family center. I feel I like my class. I like my classmate and teacher Susan Ro. I want to live in English because I want my license right and I speak English with my family. I have a two daughters. They are a student in different school. They take ELD class because I want them to be belued. They are good students. Kimberly SB is my B. Dora. She a student in conqueror high. She want to learning psychology and in youth in

023the future. Haiti is my little daughter. She like to animals. She a student in Dorado Middle School. She like animals. I want to be veterinarian. I like it to get involved in my in the school. I participate in meetings and volunteers. Thank you. >> Thank you. Martha Garcia Zapara here. Okay. Marin Anton. I'm an instructor at Luma Vista Adult School and I'm reading on behalf of a student, Rita Sea Sigel. It is Wednesday morning, dear school board members, and I am in class with my friends and teachers. We are talking about how important our class is. I am a mother of two children. My son is in Oak Grove Middle School and my daughter is in Meta Homes literacy. English is not my first language. So I feel I have to improve my English. All

024of the information comes from the city and school district in English. As a mother, I feel you don't always recall translators. Learning English has to be my highest priority for my children. I have been learning my reading and writing skills too and I want to continue this class. Meta Holmes is near for me and my daughter is also in this school. I can continue my class with my daughter. I hope we can continue this class. Please hear my small voice. Sincerely, Rita Sigdal. >> Thank you. >> You and Okay, now we have is it Taha Khan? Okay. and then we'll go back. >> We have one more. We'll come back to you right after her. Yeah. >> Um, good evening. My name is Tatiana and I have two children in the Spanish emer uh immersion

025program at Bankro Elementary. I was born and raised in Mexico and I always admire the public education system here. When I found out about Bankro Elementary, I was impressed by the great outcomes and the welcoming school community that has become like family to me over the past three years. My family has sacrificed so much so that my daughters can attend Bankro. I am worried that my daughter is in the last class at this school and I'm worried that the quality of the program will decline. I am deeply concerned about the stability of the program and our teachers during this transition. Dr. Clark and members of the school uh board, please don't close the the door on this successful program. We must replicate it, not eliminate it. I visit Woodside Elementary School. While I hope the

026program will success there, I also want us to be able to continue having this wonderful program in the city of Walnut Creek at Bankro Elementary School. Let's build on this success, not replace it. Don't take this program away for our families and our community. I would like to say something in Spanish. Um, Thank you. Wonderful. >> Paula, >> good evening. I'm talking name with my friend. She's not here, but she is this is the letter for uh from her. My name is Elena Santos. I am 41 years old. I am a student at Meadow Homes Family Literacy Adult English class. I have a son. He comes with me to a school. We come Monday to Thursday at 8:15 a.m. But almost every day we have trouble to find parking. But it's okay because I love

027to come to a school, meet my friends, classmates, and my excellent teacher Susan Roach. I learned a lot with her. She has a lot of passions to teach us. She is friendly and lovely. I learn grammar, how to write, speak, and understand what she does for us. I hope she gets a payment increase because she deserves this and more. This school helps me and my son. In the beginning, my son cried a lot. Now it's incredible. He's changed. Now he he is happy to come. He wakes up happy and he says, "Yeah, we go to school." This reaction makes me so happy because I know I made a good decision to come to to Meadow Homes. I'm sorry if you see errors in my letter. It's why I am here to learn more day by

028day. I hope you are doing well. I heard that you have come before. We hope you visit us soon. Best rewards, Elena Santos. Jessica Lee. Good evening, board members. Um, on February 27th, I submitted a completed Proposition 58 petition requesting that the district evaluate maintaining the two-way dual immersion program at Braftoft. State regulations allow districts up to 60 days to conduct a feasibility review. That time exists so districts can analyze data and meaningfully evaluate requests. However, the dish the district issued its determination just 6 days later on March 4th. Compressing a 60-day process into six days raises serious questions about whether a real phys feasibility review occurred. Families are asking for good faith process, transparency, and decisions grounded in the law. We have a petition with 600 signatures. We now have a website www.bangraftoftdemersion.org. Please

029go check it out. This decision has activated hundreds of parents and we are going to continue advocating to save the Spanish program at Bankraftoft. Please listen to us and our families, our constit your constituents. We want to work with the district to find a solution that works for our families and also meets the district's needs. Thank you so much. you, Melanie Galo. You think by now you think I get it right, huh? >> Good evening, board members. I'm here again advocating to save the dual language program at Bankrooft. I hope you can all see how important this program is to so many of us. In regards to the change from bankrupt to Woodside, I feel the district did not consider all families affected by this decision. The plan addressed current families in the program by

030allowing them to finish out their years at Bankrooft and it also considered new families by starting the program at Woodside. However, families currently enrolled at Bankrooft with younger siblings who are expecting to enter the program in the coming years were not considered. Dr. Clark referred to this as an inconvenience in a recent news interview, but for many of us, it is far more significant. This decision impacts our children's opportunity to receive the same educational experience as their siblings. It also creates serious logistical challenges for families, and most importantly, it does not prioritize keeping families together within the same school community. There are there are alternative solutions that could help address this issue while still allowing the district to move forward with its goals. I again respectfully ask that the district pause this phase out, consider

031reducing the program to one class at bankrupt or explore a transition plan that better supports all families affected. Thank you. And I'd also like to just reiterate, you know, all the families, we can see just how important language is in general. I used to be that seven-year-old translating for my parents and for my aunts and uncles at work. I speak Spanish every day. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Theodore Landavazo. >> Hello board. My name is Theodore Londono. Um, I'd just like to introduce myself really quickly. Um, I would like to say to the board, thank you guys for your guys' public service. Um, me myself as an adult, I've been doing public service my whole life since I was 18 years old in the emergency medical system. I devoted my life to the public.

032I've been a foster parent for 8 years. I've adopted two boys and I have my children in the dual immersion program. Three of them are currently in it and my youngest son is going to be coming into the program, but due to its closure, he won't be able to go to school with his ch uh brothers and sisters. So, what I'm asking for today is so you guys can just take a look at everything. You guys have heard all the similar stuff. I don't really want to, you know, keep saying the same thing, but I think it's really important that we try to keep families together and we do the best that we can to serve the public that we serve. Right. Thank you. >> Thank you. That is all of our public comment cards.

033As every other meeting, I want >> Oh, you missed it. It was like getting your ticket pulled and you're not there. No, I'm kidding. Come on. >> Good evening, board members. My name is Santa Maria. We have been told that one of the reasons that the program cannot be maintained a bank is due to lack of funding. Yet the district appears to be ready to allocate significant resources toward potential legal proceedings. I have to ask why is there money available for that and not for students for teachers and schools and this same district that is currently considering is currently considering a bond measure. If there is appetite to ask this community for more funding, then the community has every right to ask. Can we trust how those dollars will actually be spent? That question becomes

034even harder to answer when this decision is moving forward despite a clear failure to follow proper process. This community deserves transparency. I urge the board to pause, follow the process, and demonstrate that it can be trusted before asking any more funds from the community. Thank you. >> Thank you. And as once again, I thank all of you for your comments and your politeness. And you're welcome to stay for the rest of our meeting if you'd like >> to board member. Oh, no. Report. Dr. Clark, >> what about >> Oh, I almost forgot. Linda, >> thank you. Lindo Ortega Just waiting my turn. Okay. Good evening, President Mason, trustees, Dr. Clark, members of the audience. Happy W women's history month. I love data. So, according to a recent study, 77% teachers working in K through 12

035public schools are female. I saw that when I was a teacher in the classroom with that percentage increasing to 89% when only elementary grades are considered. So we have a lot of wonderful women teaching in our classrooms and I just want to acknowledge them as well as our male teachers but this is women's history month. But unfortunately in other professions men still outnumber their female counterparts in executive positions and in pay. This is why we need to continue to value the work our educators do and remember that we all need to invest in public education. Um, as you know, media is bargaining with the district and I'm here to speak on behalf of our adult educators. And you heard from many of the parents and the teachers and the students themselves that our adult educators

036are actually once some of the most lowest paid educators or teachers in California, but yet they impact so many. As I as I have said before, I will continue to advocate for what is best for our students, our educators, and our community. And we can see that our adult educators really make an impact in our community. And it is a positive one. Um that's therefore I would like to um share that the district please trustees um tell your bargaining team to please provide us with a reasonable offer. I don't think we signed anything today. So I'm I'm curious what's going on there. I also want to acknowledge all the 2026 teachers of the year and the two finalists who represent Mount Valo at the county level. They too were two female educators. To our educators

037who show up every day and educate our students, you are appreciated. And I know some of you are listening right now. I want you to know that media media leadership appreciates all the work that you do. On that note, today I had the privilege of visiting several schools with some administrators and some of my own members. I saw firsthand the welltaught lessons and many students engaged. classrooms that were filled with activities and students working together. I am often asked by members if they should invite a school board trustee and I say yes of course please do. I know they would love to see the wonderful things that you're doing in your classrooms. So today, I want to focus on the positives and to say again, my goal is to continue to work collaboratively with the

038district so together we can make Mount Diablo a destination district. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, reports. So, we are um tonight we are thrilled to um receive a report um item 10.1 transportation department update and home home to school transportation survey overview and our very own um Adrien Vargas is going to introduce uh Chris Lepe. >> Thank you, Dr. Clark. Um it is my pleasure to introduce Chris Lepe, the director of transportation. Um he's going to give you an update of what we what his department supports uh in the district. I think the timing is very um good with the transportation survey that's on the agenda as well as a pretty large purchase that's on the agenda. So with that um like I said, Chris is going to tell you about all the great

039things we do uh within his department. >> All right. Good evening everybody. Uh, President Mason, uh, distinguished board members, Dr. Clark, I'm here to talk about my transportation department. And I will tell you, I am very proud of my department. I think that'll show. So, let's get with it. Whoa. What happened? So, we start all our meetings with the LCAP goals one, two, three, four, and five. All the work that we do is rooted in the LCAP goals. Um and part of this trans this presentation LCAP goal number three just being transparent. Also four and five you'll see that we do quite a bit of work for our department mission is in our uh all of our literature. So, if you go to our transportation safety plan, if you go to our uh special education

040parent handbook as well as general education parent handbook, it starts off with our mission statement. This is a general overview. You can see goals are embedded in there as well. Um being respectful, inclusive work environment supports continuous personal and professional growth. I believe in being a student of the business. Some will say lifelong learners. Uh we service 150 miles square square miles uh of our uh area here and we drive over a million miles a year. Now you're going to ask how do I know that? Because I have to report it to CHP. So every year we have to report that to CHP, let them know how many miles we're driving, uh our school bus drivers are doing, right? um total of 109 buses. We've gone down a couple buses because we had to retire

041a couple of them. 23 electric buses. Why do I highlight 23? Because those were all grant buses. The school district did not pay for those buses. Those were three grants that were awarded by the Carl Moyer uh grants from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District um to help our communities, especially our impacted communities in the Bayoint area. We also have compressed natural gas which we're going away from because that uh technology is just old and now lower emission diesels are out which we also run diesel buses but we run a renewable diesel not because we're required to but because it's the right thing to do to have cleaner tailpipe emissions and reduce reduce the soot that comes out of our tail pipes. for our students, our community, and just the world in general. So,

042when we talk about vehicles, like that's where I geek out on because that's just where I come from. I'm sorry. Student transportation, what we do, our daily home to school, our obligations uh for students with uh transportation in the IEP. As you can see, we have 60 routes, 778 students, quite a bit. as well as our general education coming out of Mount Diablo. I believe if I I think I saw one of our Mount Diablo friends or or Mount Diablo High School friends out here. We transfer about 60% of the students going into Mount Diablo High School from Bay Point in our buses. We have 11 routes that do that and then they also continue on to Olympic from our students that are coming from the Bayoint area. Olympic is part of our LCAP goal

043number five. So that's where we support that. We also do conquered bus shuttles from Glen Brook to Elorado and then back. And then we also do like a a homework run out of uh Elorado to capture our students that stay later for homework and we bring them back to that area. Where it helps us u get up to the mileage of over close to a million miles is our athletic transportation, field trip, extracurricular activities. We were in San Francisco today. We we are we're planning to go to the Special Olympics, correct? Uh we go to Camp Conquered. I I've been to Santa Cruz Mountains to pick up a class. I also hold a school bus certificate, which I did not have that eight years ago when I started and you guys uh were kind to

044bring me on. Our school bus drivers also are emergency and contingency support drivers in case of a natural uh or an emergency. We're called upon to drive, right? I don't really like to talk about those things. Our drivers know about it. The training is there. I just don't like to focus on the negative, but we're there. Safety, oversight, and compliance. This is our bread and butter. Now, we're going to say I'll cut goals or you but safety is my number one priority. You'll always see that every decision that we make, everything that we do is rooted in safety. And then also our LCAP goals and and supporting our students, our families, and our communities and our sites principles. Um, and we have regulatory compliance with the California Highway Patrol DMV where we get our licenses

045as well as the California Highway Patrol uh federal motor vehicle safety standards on our school buses and all the uh vehicles that transport our students. We also our school bus drivers are enrolled in the Department of Transportation drug and alcohol test for all our drivers. So, we stay compliant with that. Every quarter we have random drug testing for all our drivers to make sure that we're compliant with that. And we're making sure that our our students are being transported safely by uh highly um trained individuals, which is our drivers, which also our drivers do our spa safety inspections. This may be eye- openening to you guys because I don't think the public knows about this and I would love to highlight this and that's what I'm going to do. our drivers, professional school bus drivers,

046daily pre-trip and post-trip inspections. That means that they inspect their school bus before they go out on a r on a run and when they come back. Complete inspection of the bus. Anything is found on that bus to be faulty. They write it up, give it to our great mechanics, they fix it, and then it's back on the road. Speak of our great mechanics. Did you guys know that our school buses need to be inspected every 45 days or 3,000 miles? That's what we do. Our school buses are the most inspected vehicles on the road and also the safest safest vehicles on the road. My neighbor came over, knocked on my door yesterday and said, "Hey, can you look on my vehicle?" I opened up his hood and it was full of oil. I was

047disgusted. I was like, "My buses would never." And then after our our drivers do that and our I'm sorry neighbor. Uh after our hope he's not watching. After our drivers are checking that and then our mechanics are checking, CHP comes behind us and inspects all that on our annual uh terminal inspection that gets done every July and they check everything of our of our veh of our vehicles, our driver's times, our safety records, our training records, um our drug and alcohol program. Uh and then every quarter they do their uh 292 inspections of our school buses where they reertify that bus and we do it every quarter because our fleet is so large. The largest school bus fleet in the Tri Valley area. That's what we operate. That's what we run. They they check those

048every quarter. And we have consistent satisfactory ratings on our CHP year after year, year after year. And we pride ourselves in that. And when I say it's we, it's our support staff, it's our supervisors, it's our mechanics, it's our drivers, myself included. Um, and then also we do education education for students that ride on our buses, right? They they just don't get on our buses and just ride. Just like when you get on a plane southwest now, right? You know where your exits are. You know where the emergency equipment is. And we also do emergency evacuation drills. Um, we don't want we don't want this to ever happen, but we don't want it to be the first time that a student has to evacuate out of a bus is during an emergency. It is proven

049that if you have been trained in something that when an emergency happens, it just clicks and you go, right? And that's what we want to do for our students. Again, safety kept goals number two. Sorry, Dr. Clark. technology and safety tools. This is what we have a board of of of our buses. The safety enhancements that we have. You may see a school bus out there and you think it's alone. It is not alone. We have radio digital radio communication where we can communicate with our our our buses from the grapevine all the way up into San Francisco and and Tahoe. onboard video systems that we just upgraded last year that the board approved those upgrades, right? GPS tracking, never alone. And also our great dispatch staff that keeps in communications with our school bus

050drivers and if they need support, they're there. if they get to a place and they may not have been there before and our our dispatch will look at GPS, see where they are, zoom in and say, "Watch that brush on the right hand side. You want to go around it? It's a second driveway, whatever it is." And then also our our schedulers are also monitoring our routes to make sure that they're efficient. that we're just not running routes that not are efficient um and and where we can condense those and make them better, lower the ride times for our students. We also had a transportation service uh plan survey. Um we put that out on the Friday letter, December 19th through January 23rd. And we also put it on our transportation website and that was

051uh December 18th through January 31st. And the community gave us feedback. We like to get feedback. I do I it's like constructive criticism and we'll never shy away from it because you may think you're doing a great job, but if you don't get that feedback, where can we make adjustments to be better? We asked two questions which is part of our uh requirements for our 60% reimbursement from the state and these are this is a question we ask is there anything you believe we should consider in the area of transportation general um responses that we put on there in in the uh consens uh agend or the consent item it's more um detailed home to school transportation services requests, eligibility, student conduct. Those are things we look at and see where we can be better,

052where we can adjust. Um, do you have any other further questions, comments or reviews of the transportation should consider? Again, generalized. I will tell you that we take some a lot of these um comments and suggestions like we just recently we added a Rio Vista um route three stops and we said where can we best impact our community and our students with the resources that we have and we added our Rio Vista route. We started off with one student. Yesterday, it's up to 24. And that's where we want to impact our schools for attendance. And we know that if the student attends, they learn. And if they learn, they succeed and they graduate. And that's what we're here for. I mean, that's that's what we're doing. Um, also, we help like our Olympic routes. We

053added two routes to our Olympic this year. Uh, one in the Monument Corridor. We transport a student with a child, the child's five months old. Car seats. We're buying more car seats. Whatever we have to do to get our our students to to school so they can learn um and graduate and become career um and college ready, that's what we're here for, right? And I'm not even going to talk about like classes we give or or uh field trips that we have for transportation or me talking to the auto class. uh last no it was this Tuesday talk to the class about you know where do you want to go for uh transportation so we'd like to thank you for allowing us the time to speak on our great program um I my team loves

054supporting our sites our principles and our community and our students and we're the first ones to see our students and the last ones to see our students and So, that's a big thing for us. And a good morning and a have a good night goes a long way. And like our kids are great cuz I've driven a route before. They all are so nice. They say thank you. Have a good night. They don't even know me, but it's great. So, any questions? >> Thank you so much. um you know my community have probably impacted and benefits the most from what you do and it's very appreciated. I know several years ago there was an evacuation and the kids had to be moved out and without anybody making a phone call your school school bus drivers

055found out they were at the Bay Church and they were there to pick them up and take them to Mount Devil High School. So >> yeah, >> thank you so much for all that you do. >> Thank you so much. We appreciate that. I I will take that back to our team. I will see if uh other board members have any comments or questions now. >> Sure. >> Trusty Mayo looks like she does. >> Yes, I do. Um because I'm a veteran board member and have observed this board for many years. I remember the years when trustee Sherry Starret in the who was a trustee in the 1990s, advocated for walkietalkies on our buses so that we could locate them in in case of an emergency or a flat tire or whatever the reason. and

056we've advanced from that to GPS and everything else that improves the safety and well-being of our students and drivers on the buses. I also um made a comment a couple of years ago about something that I had read that you just reinforced that students who ride a bus to school will graduate particularly if those students are kindergarteners and first graders. It sets the tone for that everyday discipline. I have a place to go. I have work to do. I have things to accomplish. And then I come home and play. So that's a routine that our students um learn even in kindergarten and first grade in riding a bus. The final thing I wanted to mention is that I appreciate the changes that you have made in the start of the year around bus routes because

057for those of us who attend the special ed CAC meetings, we have not had concerns expressed by parents about changes in the routes and um student concerns and hesitancy to get on buses because the bus driver is different and like you said the students know the bus drivers trust them and value them and so when the bus driver has to change for whatever the reason it's an adjustment for our special ed students and you've reduced that um change that occurs naturally every year so thank you very much for the changes and the work that you've done in the department and thank you to all the drivers >> definitely definitely I will let them know Um, I tell them that that it is not me, it is them, it's my staff, it's my drivers, it's my

058mechanics. I'm just there to support. Uh, I do thank our special education department because they help us with that, knowing those uh going to those trainings and knowing what our our students with IEPs require and being able to support them with that. So, thank you. Yeah, I first I I appreciate this presentation. So, thank you Dr. Clark for putting it on. U huge congratulations to your department for all the work that they do. And I want to specifically um talk about you, Mr. because I remember prior to you coming and uh just the multitude of challenges because um the logistics behind uh coordinating a million miles of driving each year are are not insignificant and um that missed routes and many of the issues that I heard prior to your coming and the the work

059that you've done to to help uh work with your team to improve that and also um if anyone has taken a look at gas prices recently. The fact that we have 23 electric buses uh goes a long way and especially of the fact that um MDUSD dollars did not go towards paying for those that we received grants for those 23 buses is quite an accomplishment. So, thank you. >> And our infrastructure and so um just to add on that, thank you. Um again, I take it, but I will give it to my team because they make me look good. Um it you know um the grants also gave us infrastructure dollars for level two with the help with Melanie Coslo and her great team. We're going to level three and so like your Tesla supercharging

060stations that's what we're going to have at our yard. The city of conquered came to our yard last week because they wanted to know how we're so far ahead of the game. and and when we told them that we didn't pay for that and it was grants, they they just fell out because now they're having to to to say, "Well, I think we can do that if there's money available because the grants are not available for them." So, thank you. Thank you so much. >> I just want to make a comment. I see 23 electric buses out of 109. So, you're roughly just under quarter, correct, >> of your buses, >> and those were purchased by grants, which is good news. >> Um, how do you foresee us uh in expanding or cutting back on

061electric buses? >> It's a great question. Uh, and I was asked that question five, six years ago by Trusty Count. I remember it. and and and it's do you see us going full electric? Um just like your portfolio, you have to diversify, >> right? It it you you will have electric, but we also need diesel. The battery uh technology for electric is is like every year gets better. Um like I say, I don't buy electric, lease it, but because the technology gets better. Um, so I could see us growing our electric fleet, but not to the point where it's 50% or 100%. We do want to grow it because that is the future. And in 2035, California is going to require for every vehicle to be to be electric that's going to be purchased. And

062so they're doing these things for fleets as well. Um uh with our diesel uh buses carb California Air Research Board is requiring our buses to be smogged this year by annually. So that means twice that means your personal vehicle you would have to smog it twice. If it was but our fleet is twice next year we have to go four times. So what does that mean? We're having to pay those costs just like you're paying Smog four times. So having an electric, we don't have to do that because it's clean. And so we we divert those funds um to the electric and because it is grantf funded and and we're very conscious of spending dollars that are grants on these vehicles. As you can see, we have three buses, three diesel buses at a cost

063of $930,000. That's for three. We got 23 for little to nothing as well as infrastructure. So, we really want to go for those because it helps our community, helps our district um and just our students. Like we I mean I I suffer from asthma as you can probably tell right now because I've been sick last week, but those things help. >> So, >> um I've heard >> I hope I've answered your question. >> Yes, you did. Another question. Um, I've heard that uh in other districts that have electric buses, they've been running into problems with the Canadian manufacturer that's gone bankrupt. Is that affecting us much? >> So, we know because our buses are Microird and they're built by uh Ecotune. And so, um, and I'm I know I'm sure you know I come from

064the automotive field. And so, when we have had issues with our buses, I have zero qualms to talk to somebody and let's talk about automotive and how you're going to fix my buses and get them on the road. So, we have dedicated mechanics from Microbird that fix our vehicles. And so, the uptime on them is higher. Um, you're talking about Lion Electric. We did not buy Lion Electric. We I wanted to make sure that if we were buying from a manufacturer, it was a reputable manufacturer and I believe the manufacturer that will stand next to us and not leave us and go bankrupt. And so, Micro Bird is funded by Bluebird, which is a large American bus company. Um, and they're not going anywhere. So, we made the right choices of of the bus manufacturer.

065>> Mhm. Yeah, >> good. Thank you. Sure. >> So, Mr. Lepe, your um your response time also adds to the presentation time. So, >> I know we talked yesterday about this, but >> that wasn't that wasn't told to me. >> So, but I just um I I want to Mr. Lepe, I want to I just want to commend you because, you know, this board really sets the vision for the district and then it's my job to implement it and the board says that they want all of our students to um to be supported and um and the message that we constantly talk about throughout our leadership here in the district is that every department plays a critical role and um and your department is right up there with all the other departments and um and

066the personal touch that you put to it to ensure that our students um who have to ride the bus and and ride and lots of people like to walk to school or or um ride with their parents or something like that or drive themselves, but if they if they have to ride the bus, the environment that you have created really makes that the most optimal. And you're absolutely right. I've I've visited the shop before and even in my clean shoes, the shop is spotless and your people are so dedicated. Um, your mechanics are just right on everything. Your drivers um, just we really appreciate it and your department is just as important as any other department in this district and I love the pride that you have and I love how student centered you are

067as a leader and it really shows. So again, thank you and we'll be talking tomorrow. >> I'm not gonna say anything. Now you turn yourself. >> Got it. >> Thank you so much. Have a great night. >> Alrighty. >> Board member reports. You want to start us off? Trusty mail. >> Sure. So, um, last night, um, Miss Mason and I attended the special education community advisory committee meeting and there was an excellent presentation entitled, "Welcome to the world of AAC." AAC stands for augmentative alternative communication and the presentation was pres presented by Stephanie Self and Renee Burke. Um they serve as a team of four two educators and uh a technician and an assistant to serve 630 students in 100 classrooms across 40 schools in our district. and they provide te um devices for students

068so that they can communicate in our classrooms and on our playgrounds. It was fascinating to learn how simple and complex devices can be modified to support our young people. Dr. Gilly spoke about the joy of seeing a program success with a young student who is now ready to transition to an advanced level program who was initially not communicatively. These presenters enthusiasm is very contagious and I'm sure their goal will be achieved in that they want to be recognized for their work statewide. So keep an eye on our two presenters. I would like to remind you to mark your calendars for the um special ed advisory committee celebration of success to be held on March 24th at 6:30 p.m. at Conquered High School. And remember to bring your tissues as we celebrate these students because it's

069very moving. Finally, I've talked about the Contraosta Science and Engineering Fair a couple of times. I want to share proudly that two Northgate High School students entered the fair uh that was held at Los Madonas College. Their project boards were reviewed by judge teams two hours in the morning and then two hours in the afternoon they were interviewed in person by our judge teams and the awards were presented on Saturday March 7th at Los Madanos College. We have a second place winner in math and computer science to a 10th grader, Sulana Sirinath from and her project title was beyond the kidneys, renal decline as a predictor of cognitive impairment. And the fourth place for engineering science in 11th grade to Russell Mitchell optimizing sound dampening and transmissing transmission using 3D printing acoustic filters with various

070infills and materials. I'd like to congratulate these two outstanding students who chose to compete out of 80,430 Contraosta County students grades 7 through 12 in this gateway fair. Their uh courage was amazing and their work was also fantastic. Thank you. >> Thank you Zwood. >> I do not have anything. I did but I left my notes and I don't want to meander. because I just wanted to share something I went to, but I'll share it next time. >> Okay, Trusty Lawrence. >> So, I uh would start I I've spent uh a great deal of time over the last few weeks meeting with members of the Bankro community both as a group and as individuals and I think that uh we've repeatedly seen uh the pride and the passion that these families have. Um I've discussed

071with the superintendent and staff my hope and expectation that we can do um you know at this point there is a legal and administrative process uh to this and that um we just do everything as a district to uh be as uh accommodating and supportive of these families and I'm confident that that we will as we go through uh this process. So that that is one. Um, two, I just wanted to speak to the I, you know, I I continue to believe that our adult education is one of the gems of this district, and I think there are few things that are more inspiring than, and I want to acknowledge the the courage that it takes for people who are learning their second or third language to come and speak publicly. That that's daunting even

072in your your primary language and to to do it and to do it so uh eloquently. And I think um when I think to me about like what the American dream means and symbolizes and that we have so many people who I believe are representative of that who um you know come from other countries who seek a better life who want to improve the opportunities for their family for their children and they engage in our community. They take advantage of the programs at uh adult education. I just believe that is something that that's truly inspiring. I'm very proud that our district does so much to support that and look forward to uh continuing that. And then third, I would just briefly note that as we continue to look at the challenges that we have around

073funding education that um the Department of Defense in uh the last month spent $93 billion, which is a record for um defense expenditures. And so anytime you hear that we don't have the money for health care, that we don't have the money for education, um it is hard to reconcile those two facts and it's not a question of do we have the uh funds to do it, but rather do we have the political will to direct our resources towards education, towards healthcare, towards feeding families in need. Thank you, >> Darcy McDougall. >> Thank you. Um on the 28th of February, I uh was attending a 23rd annual jail ministry conference that we had on a Saturday near Sacramento. Uh the people come from about 10 Northern California counties and they're all volunteer chaplain uh in

074the jails and the prisons. uh testimonies by former inmates uh were very rewarding to hear at this and were so pleased that it was a success this year. On March 4th, I went to the robot reveal at uh um the u um which high school. >> Yes, thank you Nishio. I put down the wrong high school here. It was so rewarding to hear and to see uh about all the hard work they had uh when they went to create their robot and we wish them well in the upcoming competitions that are coming along. And then on March 6th and 9th I went to the social emotional learning curriculum review that was held is being held or I guess it's finished today at Willow Creek. Uh, I found I I thought I'd go for one session

075and realized I needed much more time, so I went again this week and so I found it very highly informative on the actual programs that are being considered. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, I went to Shakres Elementary School, the ELAC meeting at the last Friday of the month and they get really angry with me if I forget it. So, but actually it's a great meeting. Lots of parents there. Um they have a clear understanding of how their program's moving forward. They're very happy. They feel supported by the district, which is good. Um I went to LMA Vista on I think it was Friday. There were I saw that they were having an event where the library was coming out so um people that were there during the day, students could get free books.

076So I went out and I visited that. And it's always fun to be at Loma Vista and we've got our bridge students there and we've got our English language learners that were here tonight there and the library was handing out things. And then I noticed a sign that on the weekend they were going to have a a family event with the library. So I went back on Saturday and they had ca games for the kids. They had crafts for the um reading the hungry caterpillar and the kids were making a book and they gave away free books to the kids. And I guess I'm talking I was talking to Eric Wood. I want to say there he said there was about 40 families or people that have gone through. So that was really cool event

077and I hadn't been to Adult Ed in a while. So I enjoyed going over there and visiting with Mr. Wood. It seemed like they're doing great things over there. I met briefly with Senator Grayson at the Ambrose Community Center last Friday and um told him we'll be speaking more about funding for schools in the future. And um I think that was all I did. That was that was it. Wasn't much time I guess between the meetings. >> Um always always uh happy to share kind of what's going on in the district and um and what's happening. Um before I start I just I want to open up um my comments with um some congratulations and those congratulations would be to um Prospect Continuation High School. They were just named a model continuation school and so

078um yep, um extremely extremely proud of the of the hard work from that team there. Um proud of this board for setting the expectation that we serve all of our students. Um want to thank the the administration and the staff there. um and also our our very own Melissa Brennan who also was was leading that school for the last several years. Um I think it says a lot about a district on um on what we do with our students who have historically been labeled as um you know not engaged or um you know needing extra support. And so to have Olympic High School and Prospect both as model continuation schools, extremely proud of that and I'm I'm just beyond excited. And then also we also received great news that two of our middle schools have

079been identified as distinguished schools and that is um Pleasant Hill Middle School. So um very proud for the the work that's taken place over there. Um and then also Diablo View Middle School. So, um, we should be very, very proud of the work of our very proud of the work of our secondary team and, um, and all of the staff over there, of the work that they're doing. So, um, so again, just wonderful things are happening and, um, you know, and you know, I'm always super excited about the things going on here in Mount Diablo. So, as I was as I was putting together this week, thinking of of um a superintendent's update, I thought that I would just all I got to do is just share our Friday letter and just really go through

080it and give it the um the time and respect that it truly deserves. So, um maybe you can just help me scroll. Mario, are you got your headphones on? Can you help me scroll? Because it's going to jump if I Yeah. So, so um every one of our Friday letters since uh starts off with a very positive letter from myself sort of highlighting the things that they will find in the in the Friday letter. Uh we can continue to stroll scroll um and then as we look into the as we as we look um our um spotlight, you know, it's no it's no secret of of what uh project uh 212 does. Um they are truly amazing. Um, Joseph Alvaro, past teacher of the year. You know, I often tell him that his the way

081he runs his class is a model that I wish everyone would watch. He really is just a facilitator and lets the students really lead their um lead their work. And we've had them at this board before presenting and this robot will go on and do wonderful things and they will and they will compete with um schools from all over the area and um and even nationally. last year they they did go to MIT and scored very high in um in a contest that was going on there. We scroll please. Um I got it. So and then also last week we had the we had the opportunity to go to the county office and to recognize two of our teachers of the year. Um we we were there um supporting April and Mary um you know

082both from both from Baypoint and they had um they they had quite a squad there to cheer them on. You see all of us who were just so proud of them and just um you know wanted to make sure that that um that they knew how proud we were and that we support them. Um these are all the teachers of the year for the county and so um for us to have two there to represent was um was you know just just very proud of of of them and the work that they do. Can we scroll? Um and then as we as we continue down special thank to special thanks. I don't know if you can scroll down some. All right. Um so it was uh social work um uh week of the social worker

083and so we have some we have some amazing uh social work specialists and we have interns who are all working with our students. We know that um there's a lot going on in our world right now regardless of who you are. But um who that is impacting I think the most is our young people. And so young people are under a tremendous amount of pressure. And um and that comes out in various ways. And historically where some schools have been um not so accepting of that and really taken a more punitive route. we have taken much more of a empathetic route and really try to follow best practices and what all the research said and to provide our young people with a safe space and the support that they need. So really want to recognize

084um those folks. Um, and then just as as we continue on, you know, we are um something that I'm also very proud of is is the dual enrollment that we have um in this district and the opportunities that we have for students um just to take a college class um and just to expose them to either something that they maybe want to pursue or it may be a wakeup call that they don't want to pursue that. But everything we do is a way to um direct and support our students in making those good decisions and preparing them for their futures. And of course we have flyers for this very transparent. We have them in Spanish. Um and and um and then also we have an article there on our um adult education and and um

085we too uh Trustee Lawrence, we value our adult school, value the work that they that they're doing. Again, we're um you know, we're negotiating that and as you know, negotiations take take time. Um and um but definitely we we value the work that they're doing and um and want to highlight that in our in our letter. Um also as as as Trusty McDougall mentioned um SEAL um curriculum um again as whenever we adopt or present new materials we want to be extremely transparent and we have these materials available for folks to come look at to review to ask questions um to provide input and so that's been that's been going on. you see the dates and times there and today was the was the last day that that um that that took place and then

086we actually do a pilot and so you can see the schools there that are piloting so that if it is something that we want to make more of a commitment to then we um then we've gone through that process. Um, the next thing is our is our kindergarten uh transfer window. And um, you know, I just I can't say enough about the um, work in our in our enrollment office, you know, to be able to um, you know, enroll so many students and and find places for them to to be able to land. Um it it's just such a it's such a better service than having our students uh having our families go out and visit 55 schools to enroll their students, but to be able to go to go to one one spot. We're

087able to keep much better um um track of our students. we're be able to to allocate resources and staffing more appropriately rather than um um you know ch taking an opportunity where where we might miss the boat there and then we don't have enough staff or we're overstaffed which is um which is costly. So wanted to make sure that that um you know um March 10th was the deadline. This letter went out last week. So hopefully all families that were interested in doing uh kindergarten transfers, they had that opportunity. Um we always we always list our our um board meetings and make sure that everyone knows that the board meeting is happening whether they want to tune in or come and visit but that information is is readily available. Um and of course we have

088the agenda. I mean every everything's there so very um very transparent. Um there's a uh MDUSD music festival. This is going to be districtwide choir. Um, so we we wrote an article on that and then also um Northgate uh band area festivals happening and so um and also College Park. So again, we just want to be able to highlight these things, you know, in a time as you um I get news alerts all day, but just as um we have so many districts around us who um you know are on strike or um district are having to lay off hundreds and hundreds of employees. um for us to be able to offer the programs that we do and to be able to highlight them and to be able to make sure that our students are

089receiving the the very very best possible education. I just think it's a testament to our teams for being very um you know very resourceful but also very attentive to making sure that we allocate our resources appropriately so that we don't find ourselves in a place where we have to lay off hundreds of employees. we would never want to do that. But unfortunately, the way school district funding is structured, um there's there's a lot of misconceptions out there and there's a lot of challenges and it's not easy to present a three-year budget that keeps you out of the red. And with 90% of our um dollars going to uh salaries and benefits, it really doesn't leave much else. And so when these districts have these huge amounts of money to make up, they they have to

090cut. And so we're very happy that we're able to um provide these experiences for our students. I'm just going on um you know, our African-American um students has has been a focus. They're part of our LCAP. And so um we're having our our Apac meeting over at uh Sequoia. I think it's happening tomorrow night. And um and just, you know, again, we want all of our parents to be engaged and we have to continue to work to um to get to get more more more parents coming out and engaging in their in their students education. And so this is one way that we're doing that. Um you can also see social media nights uh here at March 12th. um you know um um the district attorney's office is going to be there to present, but

091here we are inviting folks. Again, just being transparent. We were hosting it at Valley View Middle School and also at Metal Homes, so we're doing it two different nights. Um and here we are um putting that information out there. Uh Monday, there is no school. We're doing an inservice. So hopefully we get high attendance rates from staff who need to be trained. Um, we have a wide menu of offerings happening. I really want to thank the um, the CNI department, curriculum instruction for putting all that together. Um, and also just all of our many different departments. There really truly is something for everybody. Um, both certificated and classified staff will be able to go through um, multiple trainings. Um as we continue on um you know just again team journal uh journaling workshop at uh

092at YV and we have this Northgate student that is um leading that also student student film student film festival um you know so again I mean just as you read this letter and you think all this in just one week this is all that's happening but week after week after week we continue to um to show you know show off our students and what they're doing. We're very proud of our College Park students for how they fared at mock trial. Um, I think this is a a great opportunity. You know, these students, they go to Martinez, they go into the courtroom, and they take on real roles and they take themselves very serious. You actually see them in suits and things like that. And I know we did a similar thing over at uh Northgate,

093but just to to give our to give our students that opportunity and to have those adults who work with those students and and support them. um you know, just want to continue to to um highlight them. We have our very own Linda Mayo um giving out a $500 scholarship on behalf of PTA to one of our wonderful students from YV. So happy about that. Um and then we always do a section on school news and so um this article was about the wellness center over at College Park and you can see the um the therapy dogs there. You know, I also I keep in my um I keep in my pocket these are the two um these are two other therapy dogs that that come out to our that come out to our schools and

094they have little trading cards. But I always catch these students when I'm visiting over at Olympic and so uh the students over at Olympic really really enjoy these enjoy these dogs and um and so I was kind of a fanboy so I got a couple of their cards and so so I keep them I keep them in my in my suit pocket here. Um and uh let's see what else we have. Um just again this is the this is the wellness center. Um so it's just a safe space for students. So students having a bad day, students having um you know issues no matter how serious or or how light I mean like if we have a student who's who's having suicidal tendencies or something like that, we will then take the necessary steps to

095get that student to help. But then we also just have um students who just need a break and just need a place to go. And so all of our high schools have wellness centers and and we're really getting into the middle schools as well because it's an important place. So um always always pleased to see that. Um and then we have our um we have our social media um highlights. But before that um Conquered High School, you know, I think at the last meeting it was just all conquered high. They were just doing so many things. But this is a great thing. and they send their uh link crew or uh their link crew down to um Ren Avenue. Ren Avenue has a high population of um of special day class students and um and

096so they're there connecting with students um you know playing with students and just being mentors and like this is something that you know I value heavily and I'm just so glad to see that we have um educators and and folks who will do that. Um, and then we have our social media highlights. You know, um, Gregory Gardens is on on on here. Um, you know, I just the um the work that comes out of out of out of Gregory Gardens is just truly amazing. Those little those little dinos are um are are are Yeah. gators. Dinosaurs. Gators. But they are um you know just just the um the the emphasis on students at that particular school is one that I just um you know you just don't see all the time. But um just just

097very proud of very proud of that work happening. We got Mount Diabo L here and um and here we have Hullbrook, Sequoia Elementary. Just, you know, so many of our schools doing so many wonderful things and just love to highlight those in our um in our Friday letter. Um we have middle school highlights, uh Riverview, uh Sequoia Middle School, um and we have Oak Grove up there as well. And um and then just our high schools. Um, those are three uh very very bad wrestlers that I would not want to come across in a dark alley with because um one pe one person you don't want to ever mess around with is a wrestler because they will just like twist your wrist or put you in some hold or something. But uh very proud of

098them. They've all um you know they've they've um you know these are these are state level wrestlers and things like that. So very very proud of them. And um and then we have a class from Al Diablo High School out at the Exploratorium. We have Olympic High School out at the USS Hornet uh YV doing mult multural rallies. And then of course we have our um we have our calendar with our dates coming up. So So that's that's my report. That's our Friday letter. I can't believe that all this takes place in in one week on our campuses. And so, uh, board, you should be very proud of the of the programs that you all support and what you and what you do. Um, again, we're going to we're going to be hearing about our

099our second interim budget tonight. So, um, as I shared, these are challenging times in public education right now. And so as long as we continue to stay committed to our goals, live within our means, and be responsible with how we treat our young people, then I'm very confident that we will continue to provide the services that we do. And with that, that concludes my um that concludes my report. Unless there's any questions from any of the trustees, >> President um one, I I just I so appreciate this I look forward to it every week. Um I hear from the community about it and there's a reason that this is actually spread throughout the nation that there are other districts that there are other communities that um are looking at at this as a model. And

100so I I commend you and thank you for that. And then two, I'll just make mention that one of those wrestlers was a former unicorn warrior who uh was my center defender. And like nobody nobody scored on us. And so those young ladies uh I know they've been very uh tough and ferocious for a long time. So >> yeah, we will not mess with them for any reason and we will look to look for them for guidance and protection. So all right, >> thank you for that. >> Yep. >> Okay, takes us to consent agenda. Okay, we have a couple of comments. These are on the consent agenda. Okay, so we have L. Okay, I'm just going to read it because I don't want to say the wrong title because then I'll be like in

101trouble. LTC Davis, Mary Villana, and Diego Lopez. Is that like Lieutenant Colonel? >> Oh, I would have got it right. Do you now are they all together? >> There's also a card for Diego separately. How did >> however you want. >> Should this just be a presentation or how do I do it? >> You're the lieutenant. I'm not going to argue with you. >> Good evening. >> Hold on. Wait. Hold on just a second. Hold on. I gotta know the rules. >> So, it's all public comment, so they can't just do do a presentation, but you can all lot them however much time you would like to give them during public comment. >> Thank you. >> Three minutes each, >> no less. >> Okay. >> Good evening, members of the board. My name is Cat

102Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Mary Justine Villenna and I represent Mount Diablo High School JRTC Battalion in our Raider team. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today. Our team is requesting approval for our trip to the JRTC National Fitness Competition in Florida. This year alone, our battalion has earned five first place trophies in local JRTC competitions. Other battalions often ask us to compete because they believe that if Mount Diablo isn't there, the competition isn't complete. The best team should be on the field. Our Raider cadets have trained all year long to earn this opportunity. Even during Christmas break and other school holidays when many students are resting at home, our cadets choose to wake up early and practice together. That dedication reflects the discipline, teamwork, and commitment that JRTC teaches every day. We also

103work hard to support ourselves. Our cadets organize and run fundraisers to help pay for transportation and meals for the competitions we attend locally. We take pride in representing our school and our district with professionalism and respect. At the national level, only the best Raider teams compete. For our cadetses, this is more than just a trip. It is a chance to test our themselves against the top teams in the C country and prove their hard work matters. Opportunities like this build confidence and show young people that with discipline and perseverance, they can achieve something truly difficult. On behalf of the Mount Diablo JRTC Battalion, I respectfully ask for your support in approving this trip so our cadets can represent our school, our district, and our community on the national stage. We also request that you help

104us fund this trip because our principal has not. Lastly, we would also be honored to invite Dr. Clark to serve as our guest speaker at up our upcoming military ball where we celebrate the dedication and achievements of our cadets. Thank you for your time and your continued support for our program. Thank you. >> You got three minutes. >> Good evening, council. Uh, I'd like to start by giving you all copies. >> I paused it. Good evening, council. I am Cadet Command Sergeant Major Diego Lopez. >> The JOTC department was recently informed that the site council will not provide funding for our trip to the National Fitness Competition. To date, the JOTC program has not received financial support from the school for this event or similar activities. An eight passenger van was donated to the JROTC

105program to assist with trans transportation to competitions and events. The van is now being used as a community vehicle. The athletic department currently uses the van on a daily basis. For example, the golf team uses the vehicle for transportation of practices and matches for both the boys and girls team. The use of this van saves the athletic department transportation cost. Because the van was donated to support the JRTC program, it would be reasonable for the JROTC department to receive compensation for its use. Providing this reimbursement would help cover the JROTC transportation expenses and eliminate the need for the program to request funding from the site council for travel. Additional financial concern. Last year, the site council agreed to pay for the annual military ball. However, the cost of this event was ultimately paid out to

106the JRTC account rather than through the site council funding as agreed. The total cost of the military ball was $17,000. Our cadets work hard throughout the year to raise funds so they can participate in field trips, leadership activities, and competitions. These funding fundraising efforts are intended to support the cadet opportunities, not to cover expenses that had already been approved for funding through other school resources. Because the military ball was paid from the JROTC account despite the agreement, the program is respectfully requesting reimbursement of the $17,000 so those funds can be restored and used for cadet activities. In conclusion, the JOTC program provides valuable leadership training, citizenship development, and extracurricular uh opportunities for our students. Archadsets consistently demonstrate dedication and commitment by fundraising and representing the school at competitions and events state and nationally. We respectfully

107request that the district review these concerns and consider providing appropriate reimbursements and support so that the JOTC program can continue to provide meaningful opportunities for our cadets and our parents. >> Thank you. >> Does the board have any questions for me or my commander? >> It's public comment time, so we just take your public comment and then But thank you. Madame President, I would move that the board approve the consent agenda, but I would request um to be able to speak on item 13.5 and 13.12. >> Nope, you're the one who told me that. >> Second. >> Yeah, I just making sure. >> Yep. >> Go ahead. Uh so one just on on item 13.12 I would just look to the superintendent to uh follow up on the issues that were brought forward and uh

108share that uh in a timely manner with the board and should we hold off on >> yeah why don't we take this comment sorry >> yes it happens okay so I'm speaking um 13.9 and I know I was notified by this um by someone in HR. I understand that this is a recommendation um to eliminate two curriculum specialist positions and create one and this is a executive director position. So again, it's a higher level and there is supposedly um cost um benefit to this. But in reading the description and I'm the person that picks on these things because I would like I see throughout this document the collaboration. Collaboration. I love that word because I like to collaborate with people. I like to solve things at the lowest level if possible. So it's in writing,

109but I like to see it in action. So I just hope that in this in this particular taking it off the um the agenda this position will also strengthen strengthen collaboration across educational services and on and on. Perfect. I was glad to hear that the executive director collaborates to design and implement professional learning. Great. Then I then down here in some of these bullet points it says plans and coordinates calendar organization and contact of district staff development for certificated my team my group and classified staff. So, calendars and I know Aaron Mc Aaron um D Martini knows how I feel about calendars and I'm calling you out Aaron because you know and I talk about calendars all the time and coordinates another bullet point and supervise the selection development purchase and implementation in collaboration another

110so I hear a lot of these things but I want to make sure whoever this person is is selected they do collaborate with our educ educators. Our educators are the ones in the classroom. Our educators are the ones who can say, "Yes, this works because I've tried it and or maybe we need to tweak it." But for somebody who's in an office, and I'm just I'm just going to say it most of the time and not with the students every day, it's hard. It's hard to follow somebody if they're not working it. So that's why I brought this up. I was pleased to see the word collaboration, but I also like to see action. Thank you. >> Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Okay. >> Yep. And then uh item 13.5 regarding referees. Um I

111just have I think one of the underre appreciated things um is referees and umpires and that there is a huge need for them. Um I've seen it at the youth level and at the high school level. Uh both my daughters who are high school athletes are also basketball referees. It's been a great experience for them. uh they don't ask me for money quite as frequently which I also appreciate and um I but I will share that over these last few years I've noticed an increase in um both at the high school and at the youth level of just um vocal parent uh treatment of referees. And I think that that is something that we need to be mindful of because we do need more referees and um you know mistakes are made. If any of

112you saw the highlights from last night's basketball game where a guy scored 83 points and set an NBA record for uh free throws, you will you will know that. Um but I I just wanted to mention that. So thank you. >> I I did make a motion. Okay, the motion's made and got a motion and a second. All righty then. No other comments. All those in favor? We have the motion by Lawrence, second by Trustee Mayo. And as soon as it comes up, we will vote. And there we go. >> Did we lose you? >> 500 Z. Very good. Okay, that takes us to business action items. Dr. Clark, we're doing a potential approval of the second interim. >> Yes. So, um again, just with with school finance, you know, we do a um we

113start the year off with a first interim. Um and then that we're there's particular assumptions that are in place and then um and then here we are in March and we're going to we probably about a month ago we took a snapshot of all of our finances, all of our commitments, um all of our encumbered funds and we do another snapshot uh for three years out. We'll come back in June with our annual budget and then we'll and then we'll come back in October with our um ending fund balance. And so four formal times a year we present to this board on our on our overall budget. And we have our um superstar team here right here, our fiscal department who knows how all these things work. and they are going to um do this

114presentation in a way that we all can understand it and know where we are on this day. >> Mr. Vargas, >> thank you. Dr. Clark, um I think I heard you say we start off with the adopted budget. Is that what you said? >> No, I said we I we start off with the first interim, but but yes, >> just the school year, not the fiscal year. >> We start off with the adopted budget, we go to first interim, we go to second interim. Um, as I was explaining to one of our newer fiscal analysts today, there are third interims, but you do not want a third interim if you are a school district because that usually tells you you're in trouble fiscally somewhere. Uh, so that with that being said, um, we're here tonight

115uh myself, Gustavo Aguilera, our executive director of fiscal services, Brenda Barbara, uh, our director of budget accounting and fiscal compliance. So, they will be assisting me tonight with the presentation. Um, again, these are our uh our LCAP goals and they drive all the work that we do. Um, and as you heard Chris talk about with the transportation department, uh, our fiscal team is a well aware of our of our LCAP goals and the work that they do and how they uh how we tie it to those five goals. So, as a reminder, um, Dr. Clark kind of touched this briefly, but um the reporting requirements were required to do two uh re two interim reports. The first one was first interim that is taking data as of October 31st and projecting through June 30th of

116the fiscal year. Uh the second one is second interim and that is reflecting your projections as of January 31st. And again, we're projecting what we think we're going to spend through June 30th. Um, so it is the snapshot of actual, it includes a snapshot of actual income and expenses through January 31st. Um, also part of the second interim is the multi-year projections uh, which show the current year and then what um, we project the next two years will be. Um, also part of this presentation towards the end I will give you just a brief snapshot into what the fourth year potentially looks like. Um, and again it requires your uh the governing board's approval and certification. Uh, there are three types of certifications. Positive means that you can meet your financial obligations for the current

117and two subsequent years. qualified is that you may not meet financial obligations for the current and two subsequent years. So that's may not and then uh negative is you will not meet. So for Mount Diablo um we um we are projecting that we will maintain our 3% minimum reserve uh requirement for economic uncertainties in the current year and the two subsequent years. And so we will we will recommend to the county and also for your uh review and approval a positive certification for the second interim financial report. And so with that I will turn it over to Brenda and she will talk about why we think we are going to certifi self-certify as positive. >> Good evening. >> Okay. So in this slide uh we're going to talk about some highlights uh the major variances

118between first and second interim uh for revenue the changes to unrestricted uh there was an increase of about 3 million for unrestricted revenue 1.5 being the LCFF and then restricted revenues uh increased because we recognized uh Prop 28 revenue as well as some local revenue uh for the expenditure variances. is um we had some restrict restricted supplies and contracted services that decreased approximately 10.3 million to align with the projected spending for the remainder of the year. And we also had some capital outlay increases by about 1 million mainly encompassing the purchase of the buses. Um as mentioned in the transportation presentation overall expenditures are looking to decre have decreased by about 9.5 million and this information that I'm sharing here at the high level is broken down in the figures noted in the revenue and

119expenditure um tables that are following this slide. So here we see um unrestricted which is the highest revenue that we have at 95%. Um and then restricted the highest that we have right now is the state funding at 72% a combined um revenue of 492.1 mil. And for the general fund expenditures, um this does include uh the 2.3 retroactive um for all the bargaining units that raised that was included in here. And um the next two slides provides an overall um expenditure amounts and percentages in each of the area um places. So this is um like I mentioned the amounts and the next slide this slide talks about the um overall PI information and percentages. So main takeaway um and we noted it at the bottom are the salary and benefits which compromise at n

120um comp comprise uh approximately of 93% of the district's unrestricted budget. So contributions this slide provides us with information on what we contribute and the changes at each reporting period that we have mentioned um as well as variances. So if you look at we have the adopted budget and what we projected at adopted what was projected at first and currently what we have projected and the changes between the areas. There is that small adjustment of 650 which is just an adjustment that was needed to be in compliance with state and federal forms that get reported at each interim. So for this slide, the small graph to your left um shows the high-level view of our general fund which is SAX form one which is part of the packet that gets handed to um each member.

121And the big takeaway from here is to look at the net increase and decrease row for that small graph. The graph to your right summarizes our components of ending fund balance. And really to look at what are the most important pieces, you want to make sure you're looking at the assignments section as well as the reserve for economic uncertainty of 3% making sure we are meeting that. And with that we can go and talk about the other funds. So this next slide um talks about all funds outside of the general fund. And more importantly the takeaway from here is to look at the last column and noting that we have positive ending fund balances for each of those funding streams. And with that I'll turn it over to Gustavo. >> Thank you. Okay, this slide

122summarizes AB 2756 which increases fiscal oversight for school districts. Um, first it increases fiscal transparency as districts must submit multi-year uh projections and disclose deficits um reserves and cash flow. Second, it expands authority to the county office of education. Third, it streng uh strengthens in interim reporting. And finally, for districts that become at risk, um AB2756 allows stronger interventions um um such as fiscal recovery plans, assign advisors, and restrictions from COE or CDE. Multi-year projections are reason estimates of revenue and expenditures and ending fund balances over a three-year window. They do not guarantee they're not guarantees their best available forecast based on what we know today. And because of funding, enrollment, staffing, and cost changes, NYPs must be updated regularly at each reporting period. Now I'll walk you through the key revenue assumptions that drive

123our NYP um for 2627 and 2728. For enrollment in ADA, we're projecting flat enrollment at 29,371 students and 93.5% ADA for the next two years. um do want to note that at P1 we are at 94% so that number um would increase um at our next reporting period for LCFF revenue we are assuming COLA at about 2 2.41% and 3.06% 06% in the two out years plus unduplicated pupil percentage at 55.9%. That increases LCFF revenue by 12.2 million in 2627 and 11.3 million in 2728 which includes TK add-on and enrollment adjustments for federal, state and local revenues. Um we are projecting them to remain uh flat after one-time revenues are removed and we're also assuming a lower interest earnings which hits unrestricted revenues in 2627 for special education contribution. We are budgeting an ongoing contribution

124um of about 3 million in 2627 and uh 3.1 million in 2728 which are due to salary and benefits. um and and services. This slide shows our expenditures assumptions for the outy years. Uh salary adjustments include a 1.56 stepping column increase for certificated and class classified staff. On the unrestricted side, uh we also included a 20 20ft reduction to align with with the contracted class ratios for base staffing. The ongoing salary increases include a projected salary increase of 1.76% in 2627 and 2.39% in 2728. The restricted uh certificated salaries rise due to uh special education staffing growth and and that increases offset um offetime funds ending for benefits. Uh stirs is steady at 19.10%. PERS is projected at 26.4% in 2627 and and and 2629% in 2728. Overall benefit increases by about 1.2 million in

1252627 and 6.3 million in 2728. Uh and that's mostly because of the medical rates increasing. Um some of the offset uh is off when one-time funds um on the restricted side end in 2627 for books and supplies. uh unrestricted costs dropped in 26 and 27 because of LC LCAP carryover and onetime funds ending at about 1.4 1.42 million. That decrease is offset by around 900,000 in costs as some restricted grants expire and shift. Um restricted books and supplies decline about 5.2 2 million because of ma of major onetime spending ending in 2627 and uh about 192,000 in 2728. Contracted services and operating expenditures um unrestricted costs increase about 2.2 million in 2627. That increase is is mainly from removing one-time LCAP expenditures and then adding back um expected um insurance and liability assessments, self um

126invoice at 1.225 million and another 900,000 tied to expiring uh restricted grants. Restricted contract uh restricted contracted services are expected to decrease with the removal of of about 16.2 million in one-time costs in 2627 and roughly 125,000 in 2728. Capital outlay and indirect cost is projected to remain leveled over the multi-year after removal of one-time expenditures of in 25 and 26. indirect costs uh decreases in 2627 due to the one-time reduction due to the reduction of one-time and expiring grants um spending and it slightly increases in 2728. And now I'll turn it over to Adrian for the remainder of the presentation. I'll take it. All right, I'm back. So, just to before we get into the second interim, this just reflects the capital outlay and indirect cost adjustments and basically we're just adjusting for budgeting

127for the basic million dollars that we're going to spend on the buses and then reallocating it back uh to the the buckets that we pulled it from to pay for it. So that's the adjustment on that. Um the other thing in terms of the my just to kind of summarize the second interim, it's pretty much the same thing we did a year ago. we um or what we did a year ago, but just as a reminder at first interim we had a lot of expenditures added to the budget and that was primarily due to um loading the carryover after we closed the books that we present in September. Um so uh that that change happens again. So we try to do our best job of what the expenditures are going to be on both sides

128of the budget. um we you know the unrestricted is the most important and then restricted like because we have one-time funds and so that's what you're seeing with the changes uh that Brenda talked about in terms of uh unrestricted and restricted and most of the changes are restricted. So that being said um this is the snapshot of the three-year multi-year. Again, it it outlines it by category, but it shows that we are deficit spending. Um, we are at 21.6 million on the unrestricted side. I believe at first interim we were projecting 23 million. So, that has changed. Uh, and and that is primarily due to the the change in revenues. Um, when you if you remember, I think I talked about it the budget update that our P1 was at 94%. So, we went with

129an assumption of 93.5%. Um, and just to give you an idea of what another half a percent equates to, it's roughly $1.7 million on average every year. So, that's what a half a point is worth. If you if we were to go to 94 a.5%, it would generate 3.9 million every single year. So it these are just numbers I run just to see what those scenarios would look like. So even with the enrollment that we have, if we continue to increase our absenteeism and our attendance rates, we can somewhat solve some of the problems that you will see potentially in the fourth year or lower the projected deficits in the current second and third year. Um so moving on um again we are looking to deficit spend 19 million in restricted funds this year. Those

130are really one-time funds. The block grants that are expiring or block grants that we got in onetime nature. Uh moving on to the second year, our projection uh for deficit spending and unrestricted resources is roughly 24 million. Um, still we're continuing to spend down our one-time grants on the restricted side at roughly 11 million. And then the third year out, uh, our unrestricted, um, deficit goes to 29 million. And then our restricted, uh, drops to 8.7 million. Um, and as Gustavo mentioned in the assumptions, this was a big change from first interim. So at first interim when we were uh accounting for the projected raises and then the the outy years couple of things one just as a reminder it is the funded cola minus 2/3 of a percent. So the cola has changed. So

131now the projection right now with the cola projections is 1.74% next year. I believe at first interim it was 2.35 and then uh in the third year out is down to 2.39 from 2.75 at first interim. So the difference is I'm not reflecting it in the components of ending fund balance. That's where I was holding those dollars. I'm actually flowing it in the top part. So on the expenditure lines. So I I remember trusty McDougall you asked me a question at first interim about the deficit spending and I was trying to explain that's not really the true number because I haven't flow I haven't put the projected salaries and associated benefits with the salary increase in the top. So now it is and um and so you you see a better picture of what is

132going to be happening to the general fund. So just that's the the biggest change from first interim to second interim and and I did that more so because I knew I was going to show the fourth year and it just was not flowing the right way to explain what the fourth year looks like. So flowing it through the top shows a better picture of what the fourth year looks like. But again, we are deficit spending and this is not anything new. We've been doing this since we signed off on the 9% salary increase two years ago and it's our plan spendown of of the fund balance. So moving on to the next slide, it is just a summary of the combined general fund budget. Um I've went through those numbers but basically a deficit spending

133of 40.7 million in the current year 34 almost 35 million in the second and almost 38 million in the third year. Um our fund balance is dropping from u the beginning fund balance of almost 169 million to 55 million at the end of the third year. So again, I mean, we we are watching this. We this is a planned spendown. Um we are utilizing one-time funds. We got this the the new onetime block grant this year, roughly 8.3 million, and we are utilizing that to mitigate our reductions that you you know, you'll see some uh reductions from the resolutions after this. Um but those are primarily due to one-time funds uh or carryover funds. So getting to the fourth year um again this is the if you took all the assumptions the colas that were

134given uh the ongoing raises through 2728 and you take that impact. So just remember that um an example is next year the projected uh unrestricted impact of the increase is 5.1 million for salaries and benefits. So in this particular multi-year that would be 5.1 million in 2627 and it flows all the way across. So, if you were looking at that potential raise, it costs us like 15.3 million over that 4-year period, but it's really the three-year impact. In the third year out, that projected salary and benefit increase comes to about 7.1 million. So, in the fourth year, it reflects the cost in 2728 and the cost in 2829. So, that impact to the multi-year is 14.2. 2 million. So, that all being said, um if we had to adopt the budget tonight, we would be

135doing a resolution that would get us uh somewhere around $10.5 million in reductions. So, we are still working through budget development. Um the govern the the state budget is not enacted. Uh we do do we do have two proposals on the table from the governor. One is another continued one-time block grant that would generate about $14 million for Mount Diablo. The other proposal is the final payment on the learning recovery emergency block grant that they took away from us two years ago and that would generate about 2.9 million. So more than I I mean all I keep reading is the state revenues out are outperforming the governor's projections. So if we continue to hear that, my guess is more than likely those two proposals are going to go through. So if they go through and

136we'll know that in miday, uh then that 21 million may turn into a $4 million problem. Um again, we will consistently look at the budget as we prepare to bring it in the big the first meeting in June because we have to do estimated actual. So, we'll go through the budget again and if we can see any savings, we will do that. Um, but my guess is more than likely the adopted budget will have some type of resolution. So, just future considerations again, you know, the federal policy changes. We went through the whole uh title scare, I guess, is what I would call it. I mean, we're kind of through for this year and next year because they signed off on that. Um, and I think the funding was pretty flat. I mean, they're small

137adjustments. Um, we still, as I talked about, we're monitoring um, our expiring funds and spending down of one-time funds. And then, as Gustavo talked about, we do have some cost uh, increase adjustments in the outy years for our health and welfare. Um, it's roughly a 15% increase, but just know that it only impacts six months of a fiscal year because of the way the calendar works. Um, so we do have dollars built in to adjust for that kind of raise or cost increase for uh health benefits. Uh, insurance, I mean, I I'll get my first look from our property and liability in the next couple of weeks of what that might look like. We still do not have the self-invoice. Last year it was $2.4 million, which was like a million half dollars more than

138we paid the year prior. Um, don't know what that looks like. Hopefully we get that in the next couple months. Um, but that will be built into the into the budget and multi-year. And then uh lastly, we monitor enrollment and student absence rates. And again, you know, at 94% that that's a I mean, we're trending up. And I know that our student services and ed services are working very closely together on, you know, our new attendance recovery program that um uh it's new this year and it was enacted as part of the state budget. So, we're we're trying to leverage that to increase it even more. But you know to go from the budget assumption of 93% and then to see our P1 at 94 like we are doing good things. So if we continue

139that I gave you the numbers 1.7 million for a half a point bump 3.9 million for a onepoint bump. So um we we can kind of help ourselves but we just got to continue to do that work. Um so with that again uh we uh we will make our 3% minimum reserve and we recommend or we are recommending a self-certification of positive and then moving through the timeline we're doing the second interim report today. We continue budget development all the way through the end of May. Uh we will get the May revised proposals. Um, so we should know what COLA looks like, uh, as well as the the one-time block grant coming through as well as the learning recovery and then any other proposals that, um, are within the governor's proposal. Those are the two

140I'm paying attention to. Um, and then in June, we will be back in the first board meeting for the public hearing uh, on the budget and LCAP at the same time. and then the second board meeting uh we'll be looking to uh approve our 2627 budget. So with that I will take any questions. Um could we go back to the uh multi-year projection with the fourth year slide and you you touched upon this but I was hoping if you could give maybe some more color around I'm just looking at the expenditures total expenditures by year of 532 million down to 520 then back up to 534 and it looks like a lot of that is driven by um a projected um increase in the unrestricted expenditures uh for the the the next two years and

141then uh a decrease from this year and then kind of staying flat on the restricted. Um so it looks like salary and benefits are are driving um the un unrestricted increase and then we're projecting a decrease like in uh books and supplies and the the other services. So I I just wanted to one make sure I'm understanding that correctly and two if you could just give any more color around that. >> So um the driving force in the outy years is the is including the projected salaries and benefits related to the the um ongoing salary increases. So that's why you're seeing those increases. You're also seeing increases in salaries and benefits related to the 1.56% assumption we use for step and column mainly step movement. Um so that that impacts it as well. Like if

142I had off the top of my head it's somewhere in the range of like two two and a half million in each of the next two years just on that 1.56%. um we adjust for the PERS actually decreasing then it goes up um and then it drops again. So we do that adjustment like I said we do have dollars built in for the health and welfare increase on the unrestricted side off the top of my head is probably somewhere in the range of about three million a year uh that we're building into that. Um, we also are building the $3 million uh expenditures related to potential increases in special ed. And so we basically take what our budget is now and we I'm applying like a 2 and a half% increase. Doesn't mean that we're

143going to cover whatever may happen because no one can really predict that. But we we're building in some safeguards and historically since I've been here that's been the rough number about 3 million in potential increases in special ed. And so that is part of it. On the unrestricted for restricted it's a little bit more difficult in terms of pinpoint what it is but really what it is is us utilizing one-time dollars. So like the student support and professional development block grant, you have 8.3 million flowing through the MYP. So we're spending roughly a third of it in each of the next uh three years. And so in the fourth year, you'll see that drop. So that like that's a good example of what you would see drop in the fourth year. Learning recovery emergency block

144grant, the same thing. like we only have so many dollars so we're spending it down in year one, two, three, and then year four it drops. So, um again, you know, the fourth year is built just with the the basic assumptions that we're using. Um and we will, you know, as we get closer to uh finalizing the budget, we're going to get a truer picture of what the third year looks like. You're welcome. Um, excuse me. I am encouraged that the deficit spending in this year actually went down from 44 million to 40.6 or 40.7. Um, that's good news. >> Yes. >> Um, but it looks like the deficit spending for the next year is up to 34.8 8 million and the the year beyond that 37.8 million. So those are higher amounts than the

145projection we saw I believe at the first interim. >> Right. >> So good news, bad news. Um we started last year with 168 million in reserve fund but we'll be down to 55 million at the end of uh 28. And then you put in the fourth year here and that circled amount is down to 21 million. >> Well, actually it's a negative amount. So we're we're negative fund balance. >> So we have to make that up. >> Oh, really? >> Yeah. >> Because I'm looking at the 34 million taken away from the 55 at the end of 28. And that gives you the 21, doesn't it? >> But it's the unrestricted. >> Yeah. Or >> Okay. Okay. It's just in the unrestricted column. Yeah. All right. Um uh so we're spending it uh and you

146might say wildly um anytime we're spending 40 million more and 28 million more and 35 million more than we've got. Uh it seems that we'll be courting trouble. That's my concern. Um maybe similar to what other local districts are experiencing. I hope not. We're we're doing better than other local districts. But let me read a a a comment from the letter from the county office of education that I thought interesting. Continued deficit spending erodess the fund balance and reduces the district's ability to respond to uncertain statewide statewide economic conditions, potential impacts from legislative changes or unfunded mandates, and cost pressures related to special education, utilities, and employee benefits. We strongly encourage the district to adopt a multi-year fiscal plan that eliminates structural deficits, aligns expenditures with available revenue, and maintains sufficient reserves to safeguard fiscal

147solveny. And so that's what I'm hoping we'll follow is their recommendations. Uh because um we don't want to see us getting into trouble. That's my comment. Thank you. Any comments over here? I thought you would, Miss Mayo, at least comment on how this is how it is all the time and then somehow because the funding comes in and a percentage change, the ship tilts back. So, I appreciate your concerns, but it's pretty common in the education world. This was planned spending over time and we have um uh one-time funds that are expiring in the different years and it all contributes to those red numbers over time and um yes I am anxious very often but um the key time um the point in time is following the information that's coming out of the LAO and

148the governor's uh department funding and then also waiting for the May revise and we're just on pins and needles until that point in time and we have to have faith in those in our folks that are um spending the money at our school sites and our fiscal department in um assuring that the numbers are accurate for our review. Great. >> Quick comment. I just again I want to thank the team for um for this presentation. Um I I think it also just really builds on my comments earlier after Mr. Le after Mr. Lepp's presentation that all of us work together, right? Um we saw flat enrollment in there. There's a there's a reason why we have flat enrollment and we're able to track that. we saw an increase in um increase in our in our

149or decrease in our chronic absenteeism. So, we're increasing our daily attendance, which really takes everybody. Um you know, I'm I'm glad that uh Linda Ortega is in here. She talked earlier about collaboration. I'm glad that we have um you know the leader of our largest um employee group hearing the budget and knowing how we can continue to collaborate to make sure that we don't run into some of the challenges that that some of our our other districts are facing. And um so just every single person in this room plays a role in this budget. And it's not just the physical department budget, it's all of our budgets. And so the better we understand it and the better better we engage with it, the more that we can use to support our students, which is the

150only reason why we're here. So, um, so I want to thank your team. I want to thank Gustavo. I want to thank Brenda and, uh, thank Adrian. And you're, and it's not just you three. You guys have a whole team of people who are working. And again, that breakdown goes throughout the fiscal department. accounts payable, payroll, um you know, all of that contributes to this. >> Having said that and heard that, I will entertain a motion. >> I move that we approve the Mount Diablo Unified School District second interim report. >> Second motion by Trustee Z, second by Trustee. and it did pass. There we go. 52. >> Thank you very much to all of you. 16.2 Review and potential approval of resolution 25/26-55. >> And we have Mr. Shehi for the next two items.

151>> Dean. Yes. Tonight we have before for the board a resolution to reduce the number of certificated employees based on a reduction or discontinuous of certain uh particular kinds of service known as the PKS list on the certificated side. And tonight we have a reduction of 14.5 FTE. >> Any questions? If not, I'll entertain a motion. Madame President, I move the board approve resolution 25/26-55 to reduce the number of certificated employees based on a reduction or discontinuence of certain particular kinds of service. >> Second motion by trustee now seconded by trustee Lawrence. And that passes 500. >> And next on the agenda, we have um resolution to re uh to reduce the number of classified employees based on lack of work or lack of funds. Uh this is a much smaller resolution than the last

152one we brought at the last meeting uh for a total of 3.46875 FTE. >> Thank you. Any questions? If not, I'll entertain a motion. >> Madam President, I'd like to move that we approve resolution 2526 56 reducing or discontinuing the number of classified employees um for this year. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Trusty McDougall, a second by trustee. That passes 5. Okay. 13 or 16.4. Review and potential approval of changes to board policies and administrative regulations for California School Board Association recommendations for September 2024. This one is >> we have we have two. Yeah, we have two for the first read. That was good. Okay. 16.5. Reviewing potential approval of changes to board policies and administrative regulations for California School Board Association recommendation December 2024. This one is back

153for approval. Madame President, I move that the board approve item 16.5, changes to board policies and administrative regulations per CSBA recommendations, uh, December 2024 quarterly update. >> Second. >> Thank you. Motion by Trustee Lawrence, a second by Trustee McGel. And that passes 500 16.5 review potential approval of changes to board policies and administrative regulations for California School Board Association from December 2024. This one's back for action. Madame President, I move we approve the changes made to board policy 3516.5 as presented. >> Second. >> Motion second. Motion by trustee. by pressing the Google. That motion passes 5. That is it. We got two more looking concerned over there. We all good. Okay. All right. Got it. Okay. So, unless someone's dying to stay here, we are joured.