Mt. Diablo USD Board Meeting 9/10/2025 Part 2

001Good evening everyone. Welcome to our board meeting on September 10th, 2025. I'm reconvening open session and I would like to acknowledge that trustee uh student trustee Barrera uh Oriana has joined the meeting uh for uh pre preliminary business under 6.1. I need to uh remind us of our land acknowledgement. We recognize the Mount Diablo Unified School District sits on the territory of the Confederated villages of the Lassan, the ancestral and unseated land of the Bay Miwok and Northern Yokott. The successors of the sovereign Reone Verona Band of Contraosta County. As members of the Mount Diablo Unified 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 that the land we inhabit and learn on is the ancestral land of these

002people who are alive and flourishing members of the Mount Diablo Unified School District and broader Bay Area communities today. Please stand for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Our next item of business is the uh review and approval of minutes from the board meeting held on August 27th. >> There a motion. >> Madam Chair, I would move to approve the minutes of the regular board meeting held on August 27th, 2025. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Trustee Mason with a second by Trustee McDougall. Uh, are there further comments? Trusty Barrera Oriana, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Thank you very much. The motion to approve the

003minutes of August 27th is adopted on a 5000 vote with support from our student trustee. Uh, approval of the agenda. Dr. Clark, are there any changes? >> No changes, Madam President. >> Were we pulling one item? >> Oh, it's on consent. Okay. >> So, um, is there a motion to approve the agenda? >> I make a motion we approve the agenda as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion trustee Mason with a second by Trustee Enzwi. on the approval of the agenda as presented. Trustee Barrera Aurelia, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Thank you. The motion is adopted on a 5000 vote with support from the student trustee to uh approve the agenda as presented. Um next is the report out of close session items. In close session by a vote of five

004to zero uh with no abstension the board took action to approve the resignations of two employees per separation agreements. um under anticipated litigation. In the matter of one case of anticipated litigation, the board by a vote of five to zero gave direction to the general counsel on a liability claim CF1. The board met in close session and by a vote of five to zero voted to reject a liability claim for damages pursuant to government code 54956.95 by CF against the Mount Diablo Unified School District and liability claim CF-2. The board met in close session and by a vote of five to zero voted to reject a liability claim for damages pursuant to government code section 54956.95 by CF against the Mount Diablo Unified School District. That concludes the report out of close session items. Now

005we will move on to public comment. Uh the public may address the board regarding any item not on the agenda. Public comment will also be allowed on each specific agenda item prior to action board action thereon. In accordance with the Brown Act, the board may not take action or engage in dialogue on items that are not po on the posted agenda. >> 18. >> A minute a piece, minute and a half. >> Can you Will the timer work for a minute and a half? The seconds hasn't been working. >> I think it lets me do that. Let's just say two minutes because 18 36, right? >> Okay. So speakers will be given two minutes. If you um don't use up the time, that will be beneficial. Thank you. Well, I want I don't want to

006have to have anyone wait till the end of the meeting to finish their comments. So that's my goal. Aara Koko Contraras is the first speaker. I'm definitely >> the second PE speaker will be Becca Mashado. >> Good evening board members and superintendent. My name is Ezra Koko Contas. I'm a graduate from College Park of 97 and now I work as a neurodeiverse affirming sensory centered speech language pathologist. I work at Pleasant Hill Elementary and I'm grateful to do what I love. I come to you in despair with so much increase in need and severity with children with disabilities. We need um them to stop having so much excess wait time, wait and see time for support services that they require. We are in need of increased support at the elementary school level to support the

007increased need of disability with children. We need an increased pay to obtain Mount Diablo SLPs with media to help us with this load. We need to change from a case load limit of 55 and change to a workload model which is enforced by the American Speech Hearing Association. We need to create manageable limits for assessments and we need to not be overworked and underpaid. creating burnout for us. Our students deserve the best. Thank you. >> Next speaker is Becca Mashado, followed by Beck. >> Thank you, Becca. Followed by Cindy Aguilar. Please, Becca, go. >> Thank you. Uh, good evening. My name is Becca Machado. I teach 8th grade at Sequoia Middle. I've been teaching in the district for over 21 years and I'm a parent to two children attending schools within MDUSD as well. Today

008at our staff meeting, we were working on creating a new vision statement for our school. To get our thoughts focused on the task, we were given a long list of personality traits and asked to identify those we felt were the most important to us. These traits would then help us articulate our vision for our campus. As a middle school teacher, I'm sure I wasn't alone when one of the words I honed in on was respect. Respect is at the heart of what we as teachers try to foster in our future citizens. Ironically, this is also the trait I most take issue with in the current negotiations. When we negotiate for new contracts every few years, we do as most workers do. We seek to improve our working conditions. This happens with all public employees, police

009officers, firefighters, nurses. The difference is when those other workers fight for a contract, they aren't vilified in the public eye as greedy and selfish. The public says, "Good for them. They deserve it." I believe this is due not only to the respect we have for the jobs they do, but also because their employers don't flood the public with disrespectful narratives. each time we negotiate, I'm always blown away when the district uses the media to try to cast their own teachers in a negative light. They propagate misleading information to make us sound unrealistic. They try to make us sound greedy by highlighting a request for a modest pay raise than focus on the multitude of asks that we have regarding better learning conditions for the kids. Basically, they spit in the face of our shared vision

010for our students. respect. So my ask tonight is that moving forward when communicating with our community, I'd like the district to show our students, our children, that they can do what we ask our students to do every day. Be respectful. Thank you. >> Cindy Aguilar is next, followed by Nicholas Selby. Cindy Thank you. >> Um, good evening. I'm Cindy Aguilar. This is my uh 25th year teaching in our district. I grew up in our district and I am a national board certified teacher. Um, I've been up here many times to talk about class size and I am a second grade general ed teacher with 31, which is the max number of students in my class. A fourth of my students have special needs. And so the demand for my my um time and assistance, it

011keeps increasing and increasing without the supports for it. And I know that every year my class is always full. It's always the max. So I strongly urge you to really reconsider the number 31. And besides just the benefit to the children who need more of my time and support, 31 is one of the crulest numbers you can put in an elementary class. We do everything in partners. There's always not there's always a group of three. And when we sit on the carpet, the carpet is 30. How do you explain to that one child why they can't fit on the carpet? And when we sit in groups, one desk has to go in a slightly different direction than everybody else's. How do you think that child feels? Because they're everybody else is in groups of two

012and they're hanging off. So, I've argued. I've stood up here. I've cried. It doesn't matter. I know. But I've been here since class size reduction went away and said we really need to fix this. And I know it falls on deaf ears, but I strongly encourage you to do what's right for the students and to make our class sizes smaller. >> Thank you. Nicholas Selby, Nicholas Selby, followed by >> Nicholas Selby, followed by Sharon Steel, followed by Kim Coag. Thank you, Madame President, members of the board, Superintendent Clark. My name is Nicholas Selby. I'm a parent. I'm a volunteer and a middle school math teacher at Pleasant Hill Middle School. Now, my class size is 37 students. So, my math class size is 37 students. So, I have 37 students. While I appreciate the willingness

013of the district to reduce secondary math by one student, this means I go from 222 students to 216 students. We all want positive relationships with our students where none fall through the cracks. But it really doesn't take a middle school math teacher to figure out that even a smaller 216 to one makes that a real challenge. >> Thank you Sharon Steel followed by Tim. Sharon, followed by Kim. >> Hello board members. Dr. Clark, I'm Sharon Steele. I'm a resource teacher at Valley View Middle School, and I want to make sure that you're all aware of the level of disrespect that the district shows its teachers. We are supposed to be on the same team working together to educate our children. Instead, we are here, teachers are here pleading for a living wage and reasonable conditions

014in our classrooms that support our students. We are not asking for anything extravagant, but the district fights against us and portrays these requests as being unreasonable. They spend tons of taxpayer dollars to hire lawyers and publicity firms to use against us. Another example of this disrespect, late Thursday afternoon on August 28th, right before a 3-day weekend and the day that grievances were due, the district notified numerous resource and special education teachers that they were being moved to other campuses and they would report to the new site and be ready to teach the following week. Teachers were assigned to teach classes at sites in grade levels that they were completely unprepared to teach with two days to prepare. Teachers that were not moved are left covering the classes for the teachers that left. Some resource teachers

015are being forced to work at two campuses on the same day. Students schedules have been upended. Teachers have to learn new content, create new lesson plans, and gradebooks need to be reorganized. General education classes that were supported by resource teachers are left without that support. All teachers and students were negatively impacted by these moves and students get hurt the most. The district has been aware of the teacher vacancies long before the start of the school year, but no one is applying for the positions because the pay isn't enough to live on, and people know the district doesn't respect its teachers. >> In closing, I want to add that I have been to numerous meetings and witness teacher after teacher pleading our case to you. Dr. Clark, >> thank you. You rarely look up from your

016phone and your laptop to even acknowledge us, your teachers, your team members who are speaking before you. >> Thank you. Next speaker is Kim, followed by Deborah Wilson. >> Wait. Hello board members. You have been entrusted by the public to ask questions and see how how to improve this school district. I cannot believe that any of the people that voted for you would say reducing class sizes, eliminating combination classes, giving more support to special ed, and adding counselors should not be a goal for this district. Everything that the teachers ask for comes back to what is best for the kids, including asking for raises and medical benefits that help us live in the area so we can work in this district without the constant stress of worrying about day-to-day finances. The district's initial offer would

017have eventually would have actually been a pay cut since we were losing part of our medical benefits, which would not be offset by 1% raise. Why would we agree to that? That is not being selfish as some administrators would like everyone to believe. The additional take-home pay from the initial oneperson offer would maybe have covered the annual expenses for supplies and materials that I buy for students out of my own pocket, which would be even more for new teachers. The current offer of 2.3% and medical benefits guaranteed for only three or more three more years is not much better. On top of this, I'm confused by the words and actions of the district's administration. The superintendent is more than happy to appear at teacher award events, school modernization reopenings, and look for photo opportunities with

018teachers and students when it fits his narrative. He will say one thing about how the teachers are doing such a great job at these events and then turn around and use parent square to send out biased, incomplete versions of negotiations to the parents, making the teacher sound unreasonable. Year after year, we have asked for lower class sizes. How could anyone argue that this wouldn't be in the best interest of the children? The message that the superintendent gave to the parents was that the district had offered lower class sizes, but the teachers rejected the offer. He didn't mention that it was one student in kindergarten and one in math classes in middle school. What about all the other kids? School board members, it is your responsibility to do right by the students of this district. I

019assume that is why you wanted this position and that is why you were elected. Please start doing your job. Ask questions. Listen to those of us who are with the kids every day. And do your due diligence. >> Deborah Wilson followed >> followed by Rachel Arabella. >> Hello, Superintendent Inet Clark. Members of the board, fellow educators, and community members. My name is Deborah Wilson, and I'm a proud teacher at Riverview Middle School. I'm also a third generation MDUSD graduate. I graduated from YBHS in 2011 where I was part of the education academy and I went into education immediately after college. I spent 10 years teaching in other districts um including in Texas, but I'm back here because I believed in this district. I wanted to give back to the community that raised me. My family

020has deep roots in this district. My dad graduated from Ignatio Valley High School. My grandmother graduated from Mount Diablo High School. And we are still here. I have younger cousins at Sun Terrace Elementary, Elorado Middle School, and College Park High School. My family is in a unique position to see what this district has gone through and how how much things have changed. Class sizes have grown. Class choices have shrunk. Creativity and teaching is limited. The teachers are leaving not to retire, but to survive. It's deeply disappointing to see a district that I have so much history in make choices that hurt both teachers and students. If we say we're for the students, then we need to support their teachers. We are on the front line every single day. We are the first faces that students

021see each morning. With 33 to 37 students per class, it is impossible to meet the needs of every single child, especially our focal students. The ones who need the most support are falling through the cracks every day. I was lucky. I had amazing teachers growing up, many of whom have now left this district to find something better. Back in 2010, I stood at this very podium and I talked about performing arts being back in school because budget cuts took them away. I have never forgotten the lesson that my teachers who have left this district have taught me, and that is to use my voice for good. I've never forgotten that lesson. even though teachers have left this district for something that pays a more livable wage. And yet here we are. Schools don't have consistent

022access. Please respect your educators, invest in us, and stand with us. Thank you. >> the next speaker is Rachel Abella, followed by Ken Kent. Thank you, Rachel. Good evening, members of the board, Superintendent Clark, my colleagues, community. My name is Rachel Labella and I am an alum of Mount Diablo Unified School District, uh, Mount Diablo High School, a parent of an alum of the district from College Park High School, and a teacher of the district Mount Diablo High. This is my 17th year teaching for Mount Diablo Unified School District. I'm deeply disheartened by our school district's reluctance to negotiate with Mount Diablo Education Association, media, the bargaining team. I don't understand why Media's proposals have been continually struck down since the early bargaining stages, particularly the ones that wouldn't cost the district any money. For

023example, one proposal asked for guaranteed enrollment of teachers children at the school site of or near their site of employment. For the first 15 years of my career, I lived and conquered and worked in Pleasant Hill. I filed for intradistrict transfers for my child from kindergarten through 12th grade. This was always a stressful time for me, awaiting the response and praying that it would be in my favor. I was even denied and had to file appeals. As a teacher who's giving all of my energy and strength to the students that I serve each day, I felt that this process was a slap in the face. It's also a slap in the face when media proposals are struck down by the district's bargaining team. Ladies and gentlemen of the board, please recommend that our school district

024negotiate with media so that we may achieve a contract that is fair and just. A livable wage is fair. Class sizes where students needs may be more fully met is just. I am here today in solidarity with my union media. Teachers are united to fight for a fair and just contract. I do not want to strike, but I will to achieve a contract that will benefit our students and educators. Thank you. the next speaker is Ken Kent followed by Janine Cherpy. Ken after Janine is Audrey Wartz. >> Hello. Um, I am a homeowner here in conquered. My kids were raised through the system. I teach elementary school for 25 years out in Antioch. And I remember my students, my children's teachers here being some of the most motivated, compassionate, um, and creative individuals I've ever

025met. They became my heroes and my mentors as I became a teacher. And from what I'm hearing now from these creative, passionate, committed individuals standing in front of you is that our administration and school board has lost their focus. Um I heard a tiny clip of what they're asking for. Um the idea of recognizing full years of service. My district offers full years of service for students for teachers who are coming in. um other surrounding districts are doing the same. And sometimes people leave not because they're unhappy, though it sounds like you're making them unhappy, and they will leave. They leave because life circumstances change, because you can't always spend your entire career in one location. when they leave, they'll look to the districts that will give them the respect and the acknowledgement for all

026the years they've earned and put in in teaching. And if Mount Diablo doesn't acknowledge all years of service, doesn't pay a livable wage, doesn't make conditions that allow them to make their job successful, then you will bleed more teachers than you than you receive. But maybe that's the plan. Maybe you don't value the decades of service, the decades of experience standing behind me. Maybe you're only looking for new teachers to exploit and push out in an o in a constant overturn that would be a tragedy for their students. Thank you, >> Janine Chirpy, followed by Audrey Vertz. Janine. >> Thank you, Janine. >> Hello, my name is Janine Cherpy and I teach 8th grade English and history at Davo View Middle School. I've been a teacher at Mount Davlin School District for 28 years. For

027the past 21, I've been at Dabble View. The first thing I want to tell you is that I'm a good teacher. Actually, no. I'm a great teacher. And although it feels really weird to say that in front of all these wonderful teachers, I feel like I have to because I don't feel like you know it. I certainly don't feel appreciated or valued in this district. I don't feel like my hard work and student successes over the years have been seen. I don't feel like my voice is heard. Thank you for making eye contact with me so I see that you see me. I'm here on behalf of all the great teachers in this district who show up every day committed to giving our students a high quality education. Every achievement, you should know, every test

028score, every graduation is because of the tireless work that we do. We put in that work every day. Uh but what do we get for that? Recognition, praise? Nope. We get to stand in front of you and beg for a fair contract. Students deserve fairly fully staffed classrooms, lower class sizes, and highly qualified teachers. We deserve full medical benefits and a livable wage. I can't keep up with the everinccreasing cost of living in California. I am paid at the beginning of the month and within a few days after my bills are paid, guess what? I don't have very much money left. It's almost gone. Let me give you an example that maybe you guys can relate to. My youngest daughter's a freshman in college. She's 3,000 miles away. her phone died, her lifeline. But not

029just for TikTok. It's because that's how she gets through school. That's how she gets her meals. That's how she communicates with professors. That's how I get to know that my baby is okay. So, I have to get her a phone. She goes to the Verizon. I get her an Uber. I get her there. She gets there. Guess what? They want money. Guess what? I don't have money. I figure out how to take an advance on a credit card, even more debt that I have, and get her a phone so I can communicate with her and that she's okay. I just want to let you know that I feel like after 28 years, I shouldn't have to feel that panic in my gut, in my soul for my daughter. >> Thank you. >> Audrey Works, followed

030by Kelly Kit. Audrey Works followed by Kelly Kip. Audrey, thank you. >> Good evening. Thank you all for being here and for your commitment to providing the best education and effective education system as possible. I know you all care deeply about today's youth or you wouldn't be here. My name is Audrey Wartz. I'm proud to teach English at Northgate High School. While I have plenty to say as a teacher about reducing class sizes, tonight I speak to you as a parent of a student in this district. My son is in third grade and is one of up to 31 students in his class. Like his peers, he faces the challenges of growing up and is at a is at a critical age where he longs to learn, grow, and be the best student that he

031can be. Every day, my son's teacher pours her whole heart and soul into all 31 kids in her class. The scale of this responsibility makes it nearly impossible to provide the individual attention, differentiation, and support that each child needs. From personal experience as a teacher and observation as a parent, I know that she gives everything she has during and far beyond work hours. But no matter how amazing she is, and she is amazing, this is simply too much. Managing and supporting 31 unique learners all at once is more than anyone should be expected to handle. And it impacts the academic and emotional support that the students in our district, like my son, receive. Smaller class sizes aren't just a preference, nor are they for the benefit of the teachers. Smaller class sizes are a critical

032necessity for the personalized care and instruction that our students deserve. Our district's current cap for grades 1 through 3 is 31. Compare that to Brentwoods and Walnut Creek's 28, Annioch's 26, or Lafayette's 24. It is a proven fact that smaller class sizes lead to better academic success, including test scores, greater satisfaction with the school experience, and most importantly, stronger feelings of belongingness. Mount Diablo Unified should be a leader, a model, a destination, just as our cities are. So why are our class sizes so large? Why are you only offering to lower kindergarten classes and high school math classes by one when you should be lowering all of them by 5 to 10? We all know that MDUSD has an incredible amount of money in its pocket right now. And I know that you are all

033tremendously intelligent and caring people >> who want the best for our education system and for our youth or you would not be here. >> Thank you. >> So why are you not acting like it by making this district the example of what schools should be doing and by giving our students the best. Thank you. >> The next speaker is Kelly followed by Nancy Bennett followed by Sarah Nebe. Kelly kick Nancy Bennett. Sarah Nev, Kelly Kick, Nancy Bennett, Sarah Ne. Do you want me to call the fourth person? Thank you. >> Good evening, Boredom. My name is Kelly Kick and I am a proud member of United Food and Commercial Workers, your local grocery retail union. I am I am also the president of the Contraosta Labor Council who stands in strong solidarity with media. I

034am a product of this district. I grew up going to school in this district. I am now a parent in this district. My child loves going to school. I cannot schedule dentist appointments during school. We cannot take a vacation during school. She loves going to school. She has not missed a day of class in over four years. She is a straight A student. And the reason why not because mommy taught her the love of learning. It's because of all these people here. They deserve a living wage because my baby deserves to learn to continue going to school and loving what she does. Please give them what they deserve. Do it for the kids. Do it for these educators. Thank you. Thank you. Nancy Denn followed by Sarah Nebe followed by Joshua. >> Good evening board

035superintendent community teachers. I am Nancy Bennett. I'm one of the speech language pathologists in this district. I've been with Westwood for 21 years and our SLPs in Mount Diablo are working under a contract that is fundamentally unsustainable. The current 185day, 7-hour per day contract provides for 1,295 work hours annually, but our actual workload far exceeds this. We are consistently expected to gram 14 hours of work into a 7-hour day. The time required for our core responsibilities is double the hours allotted in our contract, 1,250 hours for direct services, 170 hours for session preparation, 180 hours for therapy notes, medical billing, and safe forms, 200 hours for assessments, 400 hours for report writing, 110 hours for reading files, parent contacts, collaboration, 200 hours for meetings. This total comes to hours of work each year, which is

036nearly double the 1,295 hours we are contracted for. This significant disparity forces SLPs to work an immense amount of unpaid overtime, leading to burnout and make it impossible to provide the highquality care our students deserve. To ensure our SLPs can meet the needs of our students and maintain our own well-being, the district must address this unsustainable workload. Thank you. Sarah Ne followed by Joshua Aar followed by Alena Greenlack Beck Becker. Sarah we'll move. Okay. Thank you Sarah. Good evening Mount Diablo. My name is Sarah Neve. I'm a high school teacher in Antioch and a proud union member. Hey, good news everybody. Antioch has open positions. Uh looked them up on Edjoin. We found something for everybody. Elementary, middle school, high school, you name it. TK. Uh I also looked up our salary schedules. Uh let's

037see here. I had them on my phone. Hola la. It looks like if you've taught 10 years and are at 60 units in Mount Diablo, you're earning $90,324. That same teacher in Antioch Unified is earning $13,789. I'm just a French teacher, y'all. But that's a $13,000 raise. Uh it says right here on edge joint, too. We've had a 23.5% increase in salaries since 2001. And Annioch takes all years of service uh and they put it on Edjoin recognition of all years of teaching experience for optimal placement ensuring maximum earnings. Because all jokes aside, our beautiful Bay Area isn't a cheap place to live. When push comes to shove, teachers will choose jobs that feed their families. Mount Diablo, please respect your teachers or you'll find some tough competition at the job fair. >> Thank you.

038>> Joshua Joshua followed by Alana. >> Hello board. My name is Josh Anar. I'm the executive director of the Contracasta Labor Council. We're a federation of over 91 unions in Contracasta representing over 85,000 workers, including all these workers right here. I'm a son of an educator. I've watched every single day my mom going to classrooms making sure that students had, you know, had a chance to learn, to thrive. Every single person here has that commitment, has that earning inside of them to make sure the next generation of Americans are educated, are inspired, and can take on the jobs of the future. And when I hear their stories, every time we've come here, it feels like it's Groundhog's Day every couple years here that we just keep coming back and hearing the heartbreak of teachers having

039to spend their own money, having to go above and beyond. Give them a fair contract, make sure they get paid adequately. This is like Sarah just said, this is the Bay Area. This is a very expensive area. It broke my heart to hear the one teacher talking about she doesn't know how she can afford with her her child at college. That's a failed system. And we need to make sure that workers have have everything they need because more importantly, students deserve it. Students deserve to make sure that they that everything they do is for the students. Their sacrifices are for the students to make sure student success is happening. So, please bargain fairly. Make sure that they actually give them some justice here and make sure that that every educator here can go in and

040not have to worry if their if their electric bill is gone or they're one emergency away from from destitution. You know, most workers can't afford a $400 emergency. And we need to make sure that every educator can put like not have to stress. They have so much stress already every single day just on curriculum development, you name it. they shouldn't be worrying whether or not they can afford this month's rent or if they have to choose between what type of food to eat. That's ridiculous. So please um we're going to stand with media every step of the way to make sure that the and uh thank you sir Alena followed by Amanda Smite followed by Michael Mahairi. Welcome. >> Thank you Dr. Clark and board members for allowing me to speak tonight. My name is

041Alana Greenblat Becker and I stand before you as an alumni of Mount Diablo Unified School District and as a 19-year employee as a speech therapist and now in what I believe is my most important role to date, a parent in the Mount Diablo Unified District. As the parent of a kindergarten student in this district, I want to speak to the class sizes and my disappointment that the district's best offer was to lower the class size maximum in kindergarten by just one student to 31 and then not to have any other class size reduction until the math subject area for middle and high school. Our class size maximums are higher than every other district in this area. In kindergarten alone, Martinez is capped at 24. San Ramon Unified is capped at 24. Walnut Creek School District

042is capped at 25 and MDUSD is offering 31. And while I'm speaking to you about kindergarten tonight, this issue is not limited to kindergarten. There has been very little turnover in teachers at my son's school. And yet, the rankings of this school have continued to drop over the last couple of years while the class sizes have increased. I have to believe that the increasing class sizes year after year is a direct result of this drop across grade levels. I ask the board and Dr. Clark to please reconsider their offer of class size reduction. Our children's education is at stake. >> Thank you. Amanda Smite is next, followed by Michael Mahairi and David Wright. Amanda, thank you. >> Good evening. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. My name is Amanda Smi. This is my 22nd

043year teaching elementary general music at for Mount Diablo. I am also a former student of this district. When I was a student at Sequoia Elementary, we were lucky enough to get two halfhour music classes a week. When I started teaching, the two classes a week had gone down to just one. But it was known not just by teachers, but also administrators and the district office that teaching eight classes a day is not just standard practice, but good practice. It allows us to work around recesses, lunches, sheltered times, but more importantly, let me tell you what nine classes a day means my students no longer receive. Now that I teach nine classes a day, I no longer have room for a choir. I had to tell my choir students there would be no choir this year.

044They were very disappointed. Nine classes a day means I no longer have time to let students come in and practice during recess. I have several students whose parents won't let them practice their recorder at home because they live in an apartment with thin walls and their practicing disturbs their neighbors. Those recess times were the only times they were able to practice and now they're gone. Um, nine classes a day also means that my schedule is running up against recesses and dismissal times. So, some of my students are only getting 25minute music classes because I have to take five minutes to either pick them up from the playground or walk them out to the front of the school for dismissal. Their teachers are getting their 30-inut prep, but the students are losing out. Fixing this problem

045and dropping us back to a classes a day would mean hardly anything to your budget, but it would mean so much more to my students. Thank you, >> Michael Mahy and David Wright. followed by Christina Mark. Michael, >> good evening. My name is Michael Mahari. I am a fifth grade teacher at Delta View Elementary and I have all of these wonderful co-workers here to support me tonight. I have been truly blessed to be uh working with a great group of people and I am thankful for that every day. Very quickly, I don't want to waste a lot of your time, but I'd like to mention one word. Respect. We seem to have an enormous chasm of respect between us. You could have shown us that respect by moving this next door to a larger venue

046instead of making my teacher colleagues sit on the floor. You could have shown us respect by not putting propaganda out on parent square. >> Yeah. I am not worried about myself. I will survive no matter what. I've been in this district almost 20 years. I am worried about my co-workers who are just starting out, who are trying to buy a house, who are trying to exist in the Bay Area. Show us that you respect us. That is all. >> David Wright. David Wright is the next speaker, followed by Christina Mark, followed by Amanda Grace. David Wright, >> followed by Christina, followed by Amanda. >> Mr. Superintendent, board members, I've been up here three times already. Okay. So, I am the music teacher um at uh Braftoft and Delta View. I am one of the lucky

047ones. I'm only at two schools and I want to talk to you about retaining music teachers. Um, through the 26 years that I have been here, I've seen a lot of the teachers in this district leave and we've had some that you've hired and they would just drop off. These are passionate teachers that love music and want to give the kids the very best as all these teachers want to give the very best in their p respective fields. Why is that? I'm teaching nine classes a day. That doesn't include choirs. My colleague just said by the end of the day, I'll be honest with you, my last class I am exhausted. I if I could I'd have him go in a corner and do something with a little bit of music and I can sit

048back and you know just kind of nod off. Honestly, I don't do that. Of course, I've been in along. I'm a professional. But that's what I feel at the end of the day. So you I will leave you with this. I can say a lot. If you were me and you came into this district passionate about music, passionate about giving the kids the very best music education you can and you had to teach nine classes, you had to serve as a psychologist, psychiatrist, everything else besides that outside of your field with these challenging kids that we love. What would you do at 2.3% raise? I told myself when I came into this district, if I ever get to a point where I don't care and I just do my job as a prep teacher and

049just teach and not worry about it, it'd be time for me to leave. But I want to stay in this district and I want good music teachers in this district. Please open up and hire teachers so my colleagues can teach at two schools, one school and provide the best education for all of our students. >> Thank you, Mr. Right. >> Christina followed by Amanda. Christina >> Christina, >> you're Amanda. Are you Christina? Christina is first, >> then Amanda. >> Uh, good evening. Uh, my name is Christina and this is my 15th year as a credentialed school nurse. Welcome back, Mr. Lawrence. Uh, long time no see. I'm sure you uh may remember the credentialed school nurses. There are many more in the parking lot. They can't get in. um from when you last served on

050the school board and our fight for the health and safety of students and just wanted to catch you up that unfortunately in all these years since you've been gone, students still have the same very limited access to their assigned credentialed school nurses as our ratios have not changed and it's still one credentialed school nurse to 2,400 students. I'm not sure if you remember I brought in a bar like a a graph that had the number of specialized healthcare procedures every year and it shot up year over year over year over year. Yet, our case loads and staffing have stayed the same. Um, I'm not sure if what the district's game plan is, but this is not sustainable. It's not safe. You're burning out your nurses with some on leave, some quitting and fleeing to other

051local districts with better working conditions that are safer for students, and have fully covered health insurance that is guaranteed and not dangled as a bargaining chip from bargaining contract to bargaining contract, which is essentially pressing as the current insurance structure ends this December. I am 6 FTE as I have three schools, one middle and two elementary schools. And every day is a fullcourt press on what emergency will come up and what will trump something else and try triaging triaging everything all day, all the time. Today I was in a 2-hour plus meeting. I walk out, a staff member is telling me a student fell yesterday. Today they have blurry vision, a headache, they proceed to faint, pass out. They're on the way to the ER. My third school and now that's at one school um

052that I'm doing a training for that I'm prepping to do another training for. So that's school two. School three sends me an email that I have a type a student with type 1 diabetes that is starting school. So I have to stop everything I'm doing as one student is on the way to the ER to then call my boss to request an LVN as soon as possible to be staffed at a school site cuz they don't have one. So then I have to get orders from the family and prep everything and create a care plan for that LVN that will be starting that include that. Most people when they think of credentialed school nurses, they think of hearing and vision. And I'm excited for part two at the next board meeting so you know what

053that entails. Thank you so much for your day. Thank you. Have a great day. I must forward. I think I think Christina gets the award for being one of the fastest speakers. Then the next speaker is Amanda, please. >> I was in the parking lot. So, it took me a minute. >> You're welcome. Yeah. >> No, I appreciate the two minutes. I honestly do. >> Okay. Give me eight-year-old, nineyear-old. Got it all day in front of like your peers. A little nerve-wracking. Okay. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. I want to take a moment to speak about a challenge that my school has faced this year. I want to speak about the frustration that families and teachers have experienced. mostly families and families and students, but also teachers. I'm talking about class size overages and

054the overflow of students. At my school site, our first grade classrooms were over capacity at 32 and 33 to start the year. As a result, students were overflowed to Braftoft and Valley Birdie. Unfortunately, HR directed families with concerns or questions to reach out directly to the teacher, saying it's the teacher's choice whether that student was overflowed or if they could stay. This is appalling. It's appalling. The onus is on the district, not the teachers. The district knew at the end of last school year that our first grade classes were over. When registering new students, families were not informed of this overage. Teachers couldn't tell families. This way of filling classrooms to capacity is not okay. Telling families that it's the teacher's choice, not okay. When classrooms are overcrowded, it's not just the numbers. It's about

055the lost opportunities, misconnections, moments with students, and the added stress for the teacher and the students. To touch briefly on combo classes, there's 690 students at my elementary school. We usually have four second grade classes and four third grade classes. This year, there would have been 25 students in each second grade class, 26 in each third grade class. The district said, "Nope, too low. Can't do it." A combo class was created. So, I just want to shout out all of the amazing combo teachers that are teaching this year. You are amazing. You are a rock star for teaching a combo class in a math adoption year. Okay, three seconds. I'm going to finish this. We media and the district wants what best for our students, right? Students are our northstar. Correct. If this is the

056case, I ask that you listen and not dismiss media's ask for lower class sizes. Hooray for factf finding. I hope the facts show the district has the resources to support students and what they deserve. Thank you. All right, we're ready to move on to communications. At regular board meetings, a single spokesperson of each recognized district organization may make a brief presentations. Items are limited to those which areformational. Mrs. Ortega ready good evening president Mayo trusted trustees Dr. Clark, members of the audience, first I want to thank my media members and the other surrounding union leaders for attending tonight's meeting. You have made me very proud. Thank you for sharing your heartfelt speeches. They have touched me and those around me. Our educators are dedicated members of our community and schools. They are committed to ensuring

057students success. Second, I want to sh uh share how much I enjoyed last week's teacher of the year celebration. I was there with some of you and I always enjoy these events that celebrate the good and great work our teachers do for our students. They are also a great event to remind ourselves of the lifechanging impacts teachers can have on their students and as we've heard from some of our returning um students and recommmit ourselves to listening to the voices of the teachers as an ex expert partner for student success. During the presentation, we heard this and I know we were enjoying it as we heard um all the speeches and all the um videos. I understand that on tonight's agenda, you will vote on approving the purchase of ceiling tiles. I'm glad these necessary

058school improvements are happening as some of our facilities are very old. However, I do have to share that these types of projects create disruption of our schools. students and teachers who have shared with me that the noise level causes them to have headaches. That's not what we want for our students or our members. My teachers necessary facilities upgrades are important. The district should do everything they can to ensure we have the best possible facilities for our students. However, I would be remiss if I did not point out how early are how early we are in our school year. And so these disruptions to teaching and learning should be avoided. These upgrades should have been ha should have happened during the summer break to minimize impacts on our students learning. I also encourage the district to

059rededicate itself to more thoughtful strategic facility planning that ensure necessary upgrades happen in a timely manner with minimal impact to the teaching and learning that's happening in our classrooms. Deliberate strategic facility planning should include not only district staff and school site staff but our teachers to ensure that a truly collaborative plan is built and that protects the precious instructional hours. As both media and the district are in negotiations, I would like to remind the trustees that your teachers, those who are standing behind me, they are your teachers, not just media members, but your teachers. They have always focused on what is best for our students. We have continued to ask the district to invest in our students, to fully staff classrooms, to invest in smaller class sizes, and to ensure we have the best educators.

060Investing in our educators by paying a living wage that affords them to live and be in the same commun communities that they teach. It always touches me very deeply when I walk into a grocery store or any place and I see a student I have and they always say, "Mrs. Ortega, do you remember me?" Of course, I don't remember them. They were second graders, but they've grown to be beautiful, thriving adults. And it just pleases me that they remember me. We have heard from our teachers, there is a need for more counselors, speech language pathologists, and nurses. And we need more time for our librarians and our music teachers. These are very vital support members of our media. Investing in our students is investing in their future and their needs. Again, from last week, your

061budget shows where your priorities are. And from what I have read, the district can afford to invest in our students and our educators. Thank you. So, we're ready to move on to recognitions and resolutions. Okay. >> Are you leading physical activity? >> We got to get used to these >> support and Okay. Ready. All right. There's a seat. Welcome Huh? Please >> there's Miss Jameson also. >> All right. Um, we have item uh 10.1 uh recognitions and resolutions, review and potential approval of resolution 2526-10. And this is in support of amendments to the state alcohol regulations to um to allow oversaturated communities to regulate alcohol sales for health and safety. Whereas the 21st amendment to the United States Constitution overturned the alcohol ban during prohibition area era and granted states sole power to make and

062regulate laws related to alcohol, thus limiting the power at the local level. And whereas Mount Diablo Unified School District encompasses nine cities, including major jurisdictions such as Conquered, which has 79 active offsale retail licenses, Walnut Creek with 49, Martinez with 37, and Pleasant Hill with 28, thereby reflecting a high concentration of alcohol outlets across the district's communities. And whereas h high alcohol outlet density is a key environmental factor associated with increased crime including violent crime. So whereas MDS MDUSD youth who frequent convenience stores for snacks and non-alcoholic beverages are exposed to excess amounts of alcohol and advertising and have easy access to cheap single alcoholic beverages. So be it. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Mount Diablo Unified School District Board of Education supports making amendments to state alcohol regulations to enable oversaturated communities

063to regulate the sale of alcohol to mitigate negative health and safety impacts. Be it further resolved that copies of this resolution shall be sent to Governor Nuome, Senator Tin Grayson, and assembly members Anna Marie Alvia uh Ferris and Rebecca Beher Bower Cahan. Ladies, I mean uh members of the board, I now leave this hand this resolution in the hands of the board. I motion to approve resolution 25/26-10 in support of amendments to state alcohol regulation. >> I'll second it. >> So we have a motion by uh student trustee Barrera Oriana and a second by trustee McDougall regarding the approval of resolution 2526-10 in support of amendments to state alcohol regulation. Uh, Trustee Barrera Orana, do you want to speak first on the item? Do you want have any comments to make? >> Uh, no, not

064>> okay. Trusty McDougall, >> I think it's a good development. Uh, alcohol has been a scourge and the lives of many people and so I think that better control is overdue. >> Thank you. Any further comments, Mrs. Inulei? So, believe it or not, what hasn't Ki done in her career? Well, I don't know. I'm always able to point to something, but the very beginning of my career, the sort of beginning of my career, not the very beginning, um was actually working on alcohol policy in um Alama County in uh like Hayward and incorporated Alama County and Oakland. Um and this is in the late 90s. Um, and how all of this type of work started was actually part of um, then community organizer Karen Bass, now mayor of Los Angeles. But following, bless you, following

065the uprisings after the Ronnie King verdict, a lot of liquor stores in Los Angeles were destroyed. But what came of that was like not rebuilding them because of the absolute overconentration of alcohol outlets in already struggling committees. Like that's the only business that was able and allowed to open. Um and the research does show as the um resolution stated that um that overconentration of alcohol outlets does is directly correlated to increase of crime. And so then cities cannot control um the over concentration by limiting alcohol licenses because that's regulated by the the alcohol beverage control ab the department the ABC in California. But the tools that cities do have is through planning tools. So they can say they have power over how land is used. Um and those are the tools that for now almost

06630 years um cities um across the Bay Area and California have used to manage um the over concentration and to reduce the concentration of the places that you can buy alcohol. Um and often using rules around gathering um things like that just to keep them as because many of these stores in fact have been owned for a long time by the same family and are places of gathering in the community but also they have value. They um might be the only source of fruits and vegetables sometimes and other small groceries without when there's no other big grocery access. Um and it was just a matter of changing their um what drives their revenue. It could be other items than just alcohol. So I strongly supported this. Uh you will remind me of um my work

067in California state PTA when we were advocating on the ABC >> and also uh working on legislation that would ensure those locations were certain distances from schools uh and sometimes um it was you know it was work worth the effort is what I would like to say. Mr. Lawrence, would you like to say something? I may have interrupted you. >> Okay. I was just going to say many years ago I was on Channel 7 News with Marty Gonzalez walking the streets of then West Pittsburgh and um we I'm I've been on the Bayoint Municipal Advisory Council for many years which acts as a city council but the county makes decisions and we were able to get ABC to agree that before they would approve any alcohol sales because I think the only thing that we

068had more of than alcohol which luckily was churches. So before they would approve any of those, they had to come before the MAC and get the MAC's approval before they would move forward. So I'm glad to see that this work is still important to some folks. >> And Madam President, if I may, I just want to mention um in the resolution, it it um you know, just talked about um you know, how many of these stores there are. Um unfortunately, many of our students do have to attend these stores to get to to get meals. I'm thankful that we have such a robust um lunch, breakfast, and supper program here in the Mount Elbo district, but I also I'm in support of this resolution and and work to bring this resolution forward uh Laura and

069myself after it was presented um from from um from someone associated with us. Um, but we did have someone from Contraosta Alcohol come to this board a couple years ago. And again, so this is something Contraosta County has been working on. And so I do think it's um just timely and appropriate because our students are oversaturated with ads and and temptations when they go into these stores to to think alcohol is something just like soda or something like that when obviously we don't want that. So >> yes, >> that's one of the reasons why I'm happy that we this came forward. Thank you. So, are we ready for the vote? So, resolution 2526-10 in support of amendments to state alcohol regulation is adopted on a 5000 vote with support from our student trustee. Uh we'll

070move on now to 11.0 board member reports. Uh Trusty Lawrence, let's start with you. >> Uh thank you very much. Um I I'll start with I had the opportunity to attend uh several events. Uh, one was the, uh, home football game for, uh, Mount Diablo High School, which due to the, uh, vandalism that took place at Mount Diablo, uh, field was played at Conquered, and Conquer did a fantastic job of welcoming them. It was just an outstanding environment. Uh, there was tons of energy in the stands. I will make a quick note that I sat right next to the aunt of uh a player from Mount Diablo High School, Antonio Campbell. He's a running back. We're going to be watching him play on Saturdays. He is really good. Scored several touchdowns. It's fun to watch.

071Just a great environment. Um and I also had the chance to spend time uh with Dr. McCain who uh the principal at Mount Diablo High School. And I think one of the the things that I've most uh been impressed with uh since uh you know my return to the board and in that interim period is the the advancements and achievements uh taking place at Mount Diablo High School. And so it was just really fantastic to see have the opportunity to talk to him as well as Miss Visayiah uh one of the the vice principles there. So, had a great opportunity. And then I will put a plug in for um I was the the uh I'm pretty sure it's not a conflict of interest, but I was in charge of flipping the uh the down

072marker at the girls uh flag football game, which um at Northgate and uh it's really fun because you can hear the coaches and talking to the refs and the refs are talking and lots of interesting commentary. Great view. highly highly recommend if you do get a chance to volunteer at any of our uh athletic events. Always more volunteers needed. So there was uh so those were a couple of the events. Um I do have a suggestion for uh my other board members if there is interest. As I mentioned at the last board meeting, I'd uh like to have a study session on uh I know we have the the review of the um budget today, but for a working session around that, particularly how uh that would impact negotiations, which I've know have happened in

073the past. Um, but in addition to that, so you know, I I commend uh the superintendent staff and and my fellow board members for our meetings have been incredibly efficient to the point that um when I get home at like 8:30, my wife and kids are like, "Oh, we what happened to school board." I think they're worried like I was kicked off or like I didn't make it through that provisional period uh because I've been getting home so early. Uh but with that I I would be interested in having a study session on a pretty regular basis uh where we go deep into one particular item such as you know in addition to the budget things like title 9 calendar pouches and the efficacy uh our school lunch programs curriculum and those different topics to

074have us give us an opportunity to go deeper into those. So, if there's interest from the board, I would be very interested in us uh having a a board members selects their preferences and have a a schedule of those that um one would be informative for the board. I would love to spotlight many of the great things going on in our district to be able to learn more as well as share that with the public. So, uh if there's interest and then I also spoke to uh the superintendent. Um I know Mr. McDougall has done uh town halls. Um, I'm planning to to do something similar. I spoke with the superintendent about possibly doing a joint Q&A with him in my trustee region and uh if he has interest or other board members are interested

075in doing that. Uh, and the superintendent was was gracious enough to say he would certainly do that. So, that's one of the things I'm looking forward to to doing. And then I will just um make a note uh or or comment briefly that um I think regardless of political affiliation, I think the fact that um a political commentator Charlie Kirk was shot and killed uh on a university uh campus today while giving a speech. Um and at the same time, uh two students if if two two students and I believe the person responsible, um at a uh high school in Colorado uh today due to gun violence. And so um this tragedy continues to happen day after day, week after week, and we as a country continue to allow it to happen. And um I

076I just don't think that this is the soci society that we want. And it is something that I worry about as a parent um constantly that that I have concerns about the safety of our children and the gun violence that continues to happen in this country. So with that, that uh wraps up my report. Thank you, President Mayo. >> Thank you, Mr. McDougall. Thank you. U I'd like to go over some of the activities that I attended uh in the last couple weeks. On the 2nd of September, um Brian already mentioned that I had a town hall. We did it via Zoom and uh I find that this is a good way to um let people have a free speech moment um over Zoom. we can control it uh somewhat better than an open meeting.

077Uh topics at this meeting included bullying in middle school, uh the LCAP budget, teacher union negotiations, which very popular tonight, and um title one funding. Uh so there are some questions that I'm going to pass on to the superintendent uh once I get the time to recap them. uh but um trying to do this now not on a monthly basis but maybe on more than a quarterly basis. On September 3rd I attended the PAC meeting here at Dent Center aly overseen by Linda Mayo. So you did a good job making sure they're doing their meeting correctly. Uh able to hear how the PTAs are functioning and collaborating with each other and other schools PTAs. And I had actually planned on attending the one over at Monty Gardens PTA, but they didn't meet that night. So,

078I came over here and was able to participate with your um on September 4th. Due to another commitment, I couldn't attend the teacher of the year awards banquet, but I was able to stream it later and it looked like fun. So, I'm glad that uh that went off very well. And I second the recommendation that Brian brought up on having budget study commission or budget study session uh on the board. And I hope we can do this. And I'd like to also thank Dr. Clark and staff for the info that you provided on the new opt out procedure both in the Friday newsletter and in a separate email they sent on the end of August, 29th of August. And I also want to say a word on today's tragic fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk in

079Utah. We mourn for his family, but it is not appropriate to call for more gun control, but teaching control of ourselves. Thank you, >> Trusty Barrera. Oriana, what do you have to share with us? Uh, >> I just want to say I'm happy to share that we're already halfway through the first quarter. the first progress board grades have been completed and so yeah and so the college application window is opening for many students and many seniors are already starting their applications. I just want to wish every senior that they continue to give their best and wish them the best in the journey ahead. I also have continued the preparations for the student advisory committee. I'm grateful for the to the principles for supporting this effort and continuing communication. I will continue reaching out to complete

080the committee. I'm hoping that we can have our first meeting in October. >> Thank you for keeping us informed. Trusty Andi, >> would you like Mrs. Mason to go first? >> No, I'll go. >> Okay. >> Um, my fellow trustee is right. Gun violence shouldn't be political. And there is only one political party that chooses to not do anything about allowing guns to be in anybody's hand. Everybody's hand. Everyone's. There's only one political party. Only one. Among other awful things that happened today, I just wanted to read an article to you from AdSource. It's short, so I don't I'll probably be shorter than everyone because I'm reading it. California faces federal funding cuts for special ed teachers, DEI targeted. California is about to lose federal funds used to train special education teachers after the US

081Department of Education announced it will cancel over two dozen grants nationwide. The state will lose roughly $3.5 million in the coming year in special education teacher preparation grants for underserved communities. Trump administration officials terminated four California programs under part D of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act based on quote project activities that reference diversity, equity, and inclusion which quote conflict with the department's policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education. According to a list of cancellations obtained by Education Week, funds from the cancellations effective October 1st will be reject redirected towards quote more preparation grants unquote the department said but did not specify which ones. Existing programs such as resource centers for families of children with disabilities will receive paperwork with new conditions to ensure they quote reflect this administration's priorities. of the total

082grants slated for cancellation. The federal department of education cut $2.3 million in funds appropriated for each year of special education teacher training programs in California. Recipients for these funds included the California Department of Education, whose grant was terminated because of a commitment to hiring staff at all levels who are reflective and representative of the community served. and San Diego State University, whose grant was canceled because of a goal to increase the diversity of the enrolled candidates. This is a quote. The impact of the cuts is going to be a less equipped teaching force and a decline in the tangible supports for these students, said Scott Rudolph, special education advocate at Rudolph Advocacy Works. The department also canceled a yearly $1.2 million grant toward rehabilitative services to universities in California. These include a braille training program

083at Cal State Los Angeles, cancelled for promoting culturally responsive teaching and recruiting participants from diverse backgrounds and a vocational rehabilitation training program at San Diego State University canceled for covering cultural humility in orientation modules. About eight and 10 districts in California with the largest populations of lowincome students, English learners, and students of color report not having enough special education teachers. In response to shortages, California appropriated $350 million in 2021 to one-time competitive grants available over five years to develop teacher res residency programs for special education teachers as well as a $100 million increase in funding for services for students with low incidence disabilities. >> That's it. >> Thank you for highlighting that. I read it today, too. >> Mrs. Mason, >> I am really going to be short. I went to Belair's back to school

084night the Thursday after our meeting and it was very well attended. The classrooms looked great, the teachers looked happy, the parents looked happy, students looked happy. Um, I went to the teacher of the year celebration. It was um very nice celebration. I enjoyed sitting next to Elizabeth Swanson who I worked with many years ago and we caught up on what we've been doing and the years since we'd worked together. And then last night I went to the CAC meeting which I'm sure uh Trusty Mayo is going to give a thorough report on. And I'll just say that I too am saddened by what we saw happen today and also find it very unfortunate that the people that have the skills to stop those things from happening and investigate have all been laid off. So, they're

085not there to help solve the the problem. >> Thank you. >> So, um on August 28th, I attended a or participated in a uh California Department of Education webinar entitled Strengthening Support for Native American Students: Best Practices and Cultural Competency in Education. The presenters provided examples to best frame statements and discussions for assignments which research and identify inaccurate or missing EV events and experiences past or present in the United States and worldwide while valuing cultures. The webinar sadly was not videotaped, but I'm happy to share the slide deck with anyone or you can contact our friends in the Mount Diablo School District swore department. uh because we have been working on increasing uh enrollment in the American Indian education programs that we share with uh Martinez school district. Um it was an outstanding webinar and

086um you know it's you always learn something new and when you know better you need to do better. Correct. On um September 2nd, I attended the Contracasta County School Boards Association uh first meeting of the year. This was held at Okalani's Union High School District office uh because of a conflict at the county office of education. Uh Brentwood's superintendent Dana Eaton described his work as Ax's superintendent council president and that was very interesting to see all of the work that's done through networking in the state of California by our superintendent. On um September 8th, I participated again in a webinar for the um CSBA's Alama and Contraosta County Region 7 trustees. The topic was how artificial intelligence is shaping board governance in the classrooms. It was an um very interesting uh discussion. Uh we were

087able to actually uh um ask questions of the five presenters in real time. And if you're interested in more um information about the CSBA AI task force, you can just go to the cba.org org website and type in AI task force in the uh search bar. It uh there are many resources and CSBA has been working on this for at least three years now. On um last night uh we attended the CAC meeting and it was an exciting meeting because there were more than 30 people in attendance. Many of them were firsttime attendees. And the presentation by Brian Kassen was needdriven negotiations, how to identify and ask your child's ask for your child's needs. And it included excellent staff reports. The slide deck will be posted soon on the CAC section of the special education

088web page. And uh while you're um browsing through that section, uh please check out the other informative speaker series presentations. They are excellent and I share them frequently with friends who ask about them. I wanted to um call out the teacher of the year celebration. It was an honor to attend uh with the representatives from the Mount Diablo School District and especially uh proud of our teachers of the year, Elizabeth Swanson and David Patado. Um and from my perspective, they were the winners. Um, finally I would like to mention that on Saturday, September 27th, we have the parent conference at LMA Vista Adult Education in uh center in conquered. It runs from 8 to 1:00 p.m. and features a keynote speaker, workshop sessions for families districtwide, backpack giveaway, free lunch, and child care uh will

089be provided and registration is on site. that Saturday morning beginning at 8:00. And uh if you're interested in more information about all of the sessions there, I think there must be close to 30 different sessions uh on the Mount Diablo website. Type in the words parent conference and the u information about the conference will pop up. So Dr. Clark, >> great. Thank you so much, Madam President, and thank you all for those reports. I have a brief report tonight, but um back to the powerpoints because I think it's important as we're, you know, going through these difficult times um both, you know, in our in our cities in which we serve in state level, national level. I think it's why um these goals are so important that um we continue to to press forward here

090in in Mount Diablo. And again, um making sure that all students, not just some, not just the privileged students, um you know, when we really when our data becomes public, we're going to really dig in and see which of our students are being academically and um um also have positive experiences within our schools. And I think that's something that we have to continue to keep the north star on, making sure that we're serving all of our students, not just those who um, you know, not just those who who have who have resources. Um, and making sure that we have high expectations and rigorous instruction for all of our students regardless of program, regardless of background. Um the other thing is that you know we have 3,800 employees in the Mount Diablo Unified School District and

091it's critical that they are all highly qualified and that they're culturally proficient and that they are re uh responsive staff that create safe and engaging environments for all of our students and it takes all of our employees to do that. And then also um just that partnership again with families and communities is so important. And so many of our families and communities really look to their to the schools as um you know as those beacons and areas where they can come together to support the beauty of education and the beauty of having children and raising children in our communities. Um our our goal for is that we're specifically calling out some students in our district who have historically in this district not been successful. And so we want to continue to keep a spotlight on

092them and continue to serve those students and making sure that they have what they need to be successful. And then we have our other specific um goal around Crossroads and Olympic High School. And we actually in this group this year, we've added Glenbrook Academy um there at the last sentence and we're looking for a 3% increase in attendance and um 3% increase on students um on pace to graduate um there Glenn Book and I'll be talking more about that. We're still we're still a district that um is under um basically state um you know this the um state watch you know eye of the state because of our um academic achievement levels and um and so we're still partnering with CCE doing trainings looking at our data doing classroom walkthroughs um empathy interviews with students

093and um making sure that we are um fulfilled ffilling our goals and our responsibility to our students. Couple things I just want to share again as we um as we prepare all students for for um for college and career. Um a series of videos were put out by um Mount Diablo High School alum Joshua Bonito. And um I could not be more impressed with these videos because they highlight the great things that are taking place in our in our schools. And all five of our um comprehensive high schools are are highlighted in these um in these videos. You're going to see um if you haven't seen them, you're going to see work on autoshop. You're going to see all different types of um health health texts. Our own teacher of the year, Dr. David Pentado,

094is is um in these videos. Our teacher of the year, Joseph Alvaro, is in these videos. Um I'm especially proud of the um teaching academy that we have at at YB High School and just so on and so on. The list goes on. The digital arts over at Northgate and the work that's going on in those with those students. Many of us have engaged with these students, visited these programs, talked to these students in um in in areas where they were presenting their work and um just like I found them extremely engaging, extremely connected to our schools and um and it's just very exciting um videos if you if you haven't got a chance to um to see those. Again, college and career. So, this is just a um this is something that the state

095is is sponsoring and really preparing um families to be able to um prepare their students for the college application process. As our student trustee knows, senior year is important as students are um figuring out what they're going to do next year. Um again, I will always say this, I want all of our students to have the opportunity to go to college. I understand that's not reality for all of them. And so we have other options and other pathways for students who don't wish to go to college. But if there's a um if there's a desire, then there has to be a way that that we can help these students obtain funding, be able to um um put their best forward so that they have the highest opportunity of of being accepted into college and if

096there's scholarships or grants available that they have opportunities to go after that. And so this is um this is something that is taking place tonight and um just again want to highlight the many things that we're doing here in the district. Another one of our signature programs in the district that I'm always just so proud of is our college now program. And again these are our students on DVC's campus. um you know not only being taught by our our staff but also be having the opportunity to engage with um with DBC staff and the research is very clear a student who takes one class at the college level raises their um their um percentage of opportunity to go to college exponentially. So, um, you know, so I will always champion these kids because they're basically

097saying, I want to try something different and they're going out and this this program continues to grow and um just super proud of it and can't wait till we all get to go and visit their graduation at the end of the year or I know we didn't have the opportunity this year, but when they invite us in for their sort of community projects that they do, I always find those extremely extremely engaging. I do want to announce it was um it was um in the paper today National Marriage Scholarship finalists. We have um five from Northgate High School. Um Aaliyah Clark, Robin Count, you may recognize the last name. Um Avanti Maruchi, Ava Scattergood, and Angie Yao um are um Northgate um um National Merit Scholarship finalists. So, I know our um our our wonderful

098Teresa Brandt will probably at one point or another have pictures or interviews with these students about um the light class load that these students uh are probably engaging in. But, um but definitely wanted to highlight that and that was fresh off the press um in the in the local papers today. Um last night again um you know people say lots of things about our district and about what we do here and stuff like that this but this was something that I was extremely proud of. Last night we held a an event. A um one of our community lays came to me over the summer just really distraught about how some of the families who um have come here from other countries um are are struggling in navigating our system and feeling welcomed and feeling a

099part of things and also um you know trying to hang on to pieces of of their own culture but also assimilate to our culture that we have here in this country. And there's a reason why they're here. they want to be here. And um and so so she came to me and she talked about this need and I said, "Well, let's let's, you know, let's put something together like we're here to support our families and live by the words of our LCAP, which is to make all students, all families feel welcome and partners." So, we put on last night over at over at uh YV um the help of of many folks in this room, um many of the district staff in this room. Let me be clear on that. um who who helped put

100this event together and make this very warm and welcoming event for many of our Afghan families. Um it was just powerful as students and families entered into the multi-purpose room. There were young people with um name tags that had what language they speak in case there were language barriers. And we may assume that folks from a particular country or something all speak the same language, but that's that's not the case. And so, um, so that was just how families were welcomed in. And then as they came in, there were many different tables set up with different resources. Um, our our own local Dr. Papal spoke and and it was interesting because it was hard to get the to there were kids in there playing and people were talking and catching up with one another. And

101so as as some of the announcements were being made, there was, you know, humming throughout the throughout the multi-purpose room. But when Dr. for Paul spoke in a particular language, the room became silent. And so, it's just something to um just something to to take note of and and and things of that nature. But there's going to be a whole series of these. We're going to be going to Conquered High School. We're going to be going to Mount Diablo High School. And again, it's just a way to make families feel welcome, have families connect with one another. We did, and Dr. Papal helped with this. We did stress the importance of showing up to school on time each and every day. Families reaching out to their teachers and creating those um creating those connections, taking

102advantage of the resources that we have, our counselors, just all the different things that we that we have in our in our schools. And so, um was very proud of this of of this event. And I know um uh Katherine Fireman, part of our multilingual department, um you know, her team played a role in this. I know Aurelia. Um I know I've been working on it for two weeks. I'm still not going to do it under the under the under the bright lights. Bi um Yes. Bushimi. So um so anyway, her team was there and just lot lots of other folks. Linda Pete was there. It was just it was just a really really great turnout and want to thank everyone because that's really at the spirit of of what we do. Um, we're also

103doing a a um for our African-American parent advisory committees again as um as we look at our students who have historically not performed and we try to think of ways, okay, how can we help these students, these families um feel welcomed in our schools, um be able to achieve at high levels, be able to reach the goals that they that they um that they, you know, shoot for within a family, we have to find ways that we can find support and community for parents. And so just as um you know as my previous slide, this is something that our own Dr. Francis will be hosting out in um out in Baypoint um tomorrow night. So wanted to just highlight that again our many ways that we connect with so many um of our of our

104families. Um I don't have a slide for this because I I didn't take any pictures, but I um I really enjoyed speaking with the PTA folks. um the the meeting that you and Trustee McDougall were both present. Um I'm not missing anybody. You weren't there. Were you Deborah? Okay, thank you. I was I was about to get myself in trouble. But um that was a a really engaging engaging conversation and it's just so great to see parents who are coming out and who want to learn our system and want to be able to support their kids and and um I clearly enjoy speaking to them about all that's going on in the district and um challenges and um and um highlights that that are taking place each and every day. Um, also I I know

105that uh President Mayo brought this up, but again another way to again connect with our families. Um, this is a free workshop for parents and caregivers. Um, you know, it's going to be held um Saturday, Saturday at Loma Vista. And it's again just if you just look down the list here, workshops for teens, lunch included, free child care, giveaways, community resource fair, just so much that again that we do to engage with our with our communities. Um, you may see the sign here. I was invited to um to go and read to a TK class today. Um, I did not know I was reading to all of the TK classes and so it was a great experience. Um, you know, I 50 or so little TKers. Um, it was it was great. I I read

106to them. Um, you know, it's no secret I was an elementary teacher. Um, reading to a a large group of students. Um, being around kids is why I do this work. And um um it was truly a a um you know, a joy, a great way to start the day. They made me this wonderful sign and I told them I would come and put it up in the um with me in the board meeting as I do my other my other work. So, um just just very very um just neat young people. And when we when we look at events like what happened today and then you you're able to go spend time with with young people and just to know like their minds are just so fresh and just they're they're so kind to

107one another and just it was just a a real moving thing and just um you know they took these pictures but the adults in there there's a um there's an an educator there in the corner with a student. There's a gentleman with the student right there to the left. And just, you know, the care that these students receive is just um is is is just really neat. One thing I was doing as I was reading is I was letting the students touch the pictures, which I know was kind of probably freaking some of the adults out in there because, you know, they like things to be orderly and stuff, but I really walked through and just just fired the kids up and just wanted them to be excited about reading and about um engaging with

108the the neat pictures in the book and things like that. So, this was a a special time. And again, um I I've read several books. um their attention span is is is not too you know it's not too long. So I was reading a book and then midbook I switched to another book and I just but the the book that they got the biggest kick on there were two books. There was one about skin that that they were doing and so I was having them rub their foreheads, touch their things and you know we talked about the skin of dogs and cats and things like that and then there was another book all about eggs and so we were able to look at all the animals that have eggs and things like that. And so,

109um, I shared with them. My favorite, um, was the turtle. And so, um, I was sure that they all got to touch a turtle. And there was a there was an atom in the group. Um, and as you see, they all got their name tags. And so, that's something that I'm synonymous for is always keeping my ID so that people know who I am when I'm walking around classes and campuses. And the kids were very excited that we were all wearing the same types of name tags. So, um, just things there's lots of things about about getting kids in school and making sure that students show up each and every day. And I just thought this was a goofy picture at Foothill. We got our principal there. Um, and students, I don't know, it must

110have been I'm guessing that's like I don't know, not Tigger, but what's the what's the horse's name? Eeyore. Eeyore. Eeyore, right? Eeyore on the right there. So, um, so anyway, just some funny goofy stuff over at uh, Foothill. We got these are um these are some little second graders learning about number lines again utilizing our Prometheian boards sitting there. You just see the assignment. I I I love seeing the little second graders take notes like they're in college or something like that. But they got their notebooks out. Um probably, you know, part of the back to school sale and stuff. You know, parents buy the binders and notebooks, but just just a dynamic picture and the teachers up there teaching away. And this is another class. This is um you know, you can see our

111new furniture there. This is one of our um this is one of our refreshed classrooms. And you can just see there's a there's a a purpose to this. There's a design to this. And so you see how the students are there collaboratively working and just the colors really pop and it just the design the new windows and things like that. This is at Metal Homes. So I just thought that was a a great picture. This was um there there's several organizations out there that that do encouraging for students to ride bikes and find alternative ways to school. This is Valhalla and the group which is Street Smarts Diablo and so they have their Twitter handle there. Um but the one on the bottom points is a um the company's been reaching out to me for

112some time. They wanted me to share their information with principles. I know we have, but Points is also an organization that helps find safe uh routes for kids, try to find alternatives to get kids out of out of cars and and things like that, but get them to and from school safely. But I thought this picture was interesting. If you've been to Bajala, like look at the line. The line goes all the way out to the street. And I guess I'm I'm guessing that um if you rode your bike or did something, you get some little sticker or something like that and they're raising points or whatever. But you can just see, you know, this is community here. This is our students. This is families. These are uh students, you know, and their families walking

113or riding to school. And I just thought it was a great picture that really captures the the work that we're doing. That's really all the all the slides I have. Um just again happy happy with our progress. We are um I was thinking either 15 days or 25 days. I know Aaron, you know, Aaron is my tutor back there, so she helps me. So, we're 25 days into school. Um, lot definitely a lot going on. We're super excited for for the progress our students are making. Um, and we're going to continue to um support them and continue to support those who support them. So, thank you. And um that concludes my report. >> Thank you, Dr. Clark. We'll move on to the consent agenda. Uh items listed under the consent agenda are considered routine and

114will be approved or adopted by a single motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items. However, any one item may be removed from the consent agenda upon the quest request of any member of the board and acted upon separately. >> Yeah, I'm just going to jump in super quick. Trusty M. I'm going to pull item 13.6 six and um and we're going to bring that item back at a at a later time. >> Okay. Um other items that will be pulled. >> Request 13.4, 13.12, 13.15, and 13.20. And 13.4 4, 13.12, 13.15, and 13.20. >> Anyone else have anything to pull? Okay, >> Madame President, I would that the move uh move that the board approve uh the items listed under the consent agenda with the exception of items 13.4, 13.6, 6 13.12

11513.15 13.20 which would be moved for separate consideration. >> I'll second that. So we have a motion by trustee Lawrence with a second by trustee Mason um regarding the approval of the consent agenda except for 136 which will not be considered 134 1312 1315 1320 which will be bought um considered under separate consideration. >> Yes, that's absolutely >> all right. Uh Trusty Barrera Oriana, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Thank you. takes a moment to pull those items. Yeah. Second. >> M uh Lawrence made the motion. Mason made the second. And the motion is adopted except for those uh on for the consent agenda with the exception of those items that will be considered separately or will be brought back at a future meeting. 500 vote with support from our student board member. Okay.

116Um for do you want me to make a motion first or just uh begin discussion? >> Go ahead and make the motion if you'd like. >> Uh Madame President, I move uh approval of item 14.1 review and potential approval of independent contractor agreement with ESS. Need a second. >> I'll second that. >> So, we have a motion by Trusty Lawrence with a second by Trustee Mason. And >> so, uh, this is a contract. Um, I had shared with the superintendent. I was just hoping to can I get, uh, more of a perspective on this? It's a, you know, $750,000 contract, uh, annually. Is this something we would uh factor in longer term that we would expect to to incorporate into our budget? Is there uh perhaps a path where we would bring this back in

117house as well as just um what other districts are seeing and what challenges? And so just uh had a request to the superintendent for kind of added color on this particular item. >> So I've asked Mr. Shehi to come and um and provide uh the answers to those questions. >> Yes. Thank you. So K12 districts across California um including MDUSD continue to struggle in filling vacancies especially on the classified um side in terms of our substitute vacancies. We average a 30% fill rate uh on for classified positions compared to on the certificated side we average about a 96 to 98% fill rate. Um so we in order to address this challenge we we have tried um to advertise in-house and to utilize our community resources for these we have not been as successful as I

118would like to I would like for us to be. So, we would like to partner with ESS um who supports over 900 school districts across the country and who has partnered with uh districts in the state of California prior to us who have been able to see successful results where they've gone from similar 30% fill rates all the way up into into the 80 80%. this uh this partnership uh they handle recruiting, hiring, fingerprinting, training, benefits, and daily assignment fulfillment with along with partnering with MDUSD where they have someone from ESS in-house here with HR to partner on that. Um by removing them out of our payroll and within the ESS that does decrease the cost because it's a different it's a different fee structure in in that. Um, we have strate strategically selected the

119positions that we we have in this agreement to those that interact with our students on a daily basis. And actually, these positions have an even lower fill rate, closer to an 18% fill rate. And so, we're really looking to be strategic in this to look and see, hey, is this work? Does this work? And if it doesn't work, then we're going to have to go back to the to the drawing board to see to find a different solution. But what I'm excited about is this is something and it's something different that we haven't tried. And so we are going to continue looking for new ways to bring people in um and partner with different resources to do that. >> Thank you. I have no further questions. >> Further discussion? Are we ready for the vote?

120Trusty Pereira Oriana, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Are you voting? Moren, sorry. And the motion is adopted on a 500 vote uh for the approval of the independent contractor agreement with ESS and support from our student trustee. Uh the next item is um the syn synthetic turf repair at Mount Diablo High School. Mr. Lawrence, >> Madame President, I move that the board approve item 14.2, review uh u sorry uh approval for uh the Mount Diablo High School synthetic turf repair. >> I'll second. We have a motion by trustee Lawrence with a second by trustee Verana uh Oriana on the U Mount Diabell High School synthetic turf repair. >> Mr. Lawrence. >> Um and similar type of ask of the superintendent just of some more information. Um, and just something I I

121would call out I I think sometimes that um people overlook when when it's a large amount but our deductible is X and that's what we're paying that like that money is actually still we we end up still paying that because we pay it in the form of increased premiums and other things like that. And so I just think this was again this this is something that frankly just has me pretty angry that this happened. I look forward to continued updates from law enforcement to track down and hold responsible uh the people who did it, but I was hoping just for uh a bit more of the the the update from the superintendent um uh on this issue. >> Yep. So, um so again, we I know there was a question about this yesterday. So, we

122are self-insured up until $250,000, but we have an ins we have an insurance policy. So, it's almost the the best way to say this is basically we have an insurance policy and our deductible is $250,000. So, so the um the cost for repair, I think, is roughly $380,000 and so we're on the hook for that for that $250. Um the the um investigation on this, although, you know, it's it's a police matter, so I don't want to go too much into it, but there weren't any there aren't any arrests made. If there were arrests made, we would be um you know, as the victim here, we'd be pressing the the full amount of charges and seeking restitution and and and if they were students or whatnot, we would obviously go discipline routes and things like

123that. So, um, so there is that. We we did get a, um, we did get an estimation that we're hoping to get this get this done in the next, uh, and going back, you know, I got the update week and a half ago, week ago or so, and approximately four weeks or so. So, again, with construction, as as we all know, it's never a it's never a guarantee, but that's the estimate that we have. So, um, you know, we, you know, again, the school's been through a lot and to have this as, you know, we're all devastated by this and very upset by this and, um, you know, I want to thank our, thank our our maintenance staff, thank me Melanie Coslo specifically, um, just for being, you know, right on top of this. We've

124had, um, organizations reach out to us offering support. Um, you know, I'm not going to go public with who those organizations are, but we're just appreciative of that. And so, we may be getting some support to offset some of that. Um, but the community has been has been great. You spoke about the um about Conquered High being great host. Um, Mount Diablo High School is playing at College Park this this uh this Friday. So, happy to see that coordination amongst our amongst our um schools with one another. when this happened and and just as people were asking me questions, they I was asked the question, what do you think it was their rival, another one of your schools? And I said, absolutely not. Like that's we we don't we don't have those types of um

125dysfunctional rivalries within our district with between our high schools and things like that. So hopefully that's that's somewhat of an update. Um I don't want to call on Melanie. Melanie, it does so much for us. I really hate to put bring her up here on that, but >> that was all I was just looking for that. Thank you very much. Further discussion. Trustee Barrera Oriana, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Thank you. pressure. All right. Um, the motion to uh repair the Mount Diablo High School synthetic turf um has been adopted on a 500 vote with support from our student trustee. Thank you very much. Next item. Madame President, I move that the board approve item 14.3, uh, project architect agreement with PhD architects for the architectural services to facilitate the College Park High

126School girls and boys locker rooms renovations in response to the Title 9 settlement agreement. >> I'll second that. We have a motion by Trustee Lawrence with a second by Trustee Mason on the potential approval of the project architect agreement with PhD architects. >> Trusty Lawrence. >> Yes. So this item um part of my question I guess my first question that I shared with the superintendent is just uh the cost of this is $310,000. um we continue to have other architectural projects and uh just a question of uh the the feasibility or the the thought process around um and I I do not know what the current going rate is for architects but us having our own architect who would be able to handle this type of project versus outsourcing and at what point does that

127make sense um and and just how we think about that. So that that was my first question. >> Yeah. So I'm gonna I'm going to give you some some high level some high level but also some very specifics is that um one one benefit that we have from um contracting with an outside uh company to do this is their um their breath of experience. And so sometimes when you hire someone and you just have that one person they they often have to if there's a if there's a specialty project they often have to go out and and find other consultants and things like that. I'm I'm I'm not saying she does this often, but just as we have an in-house attorney here, that doesn't mean that um she doesn't go out and still do contracts

128with with other folks. But in the architect world, there there is that. But then there's also the liability risk. And many of these firms come with um with the type of insurance to um you know, to be able to cover unforeseen circumstances or or things that things that um that might come up in design error. for example, I don't know if I can can I talk about the design on this project? >> Sure. >> Okay. So, so again, this is um this is a title n design for the locker rooms and um and we are paying this because of the adults um who we put in charge over there and to, you know, mentor our kids and work with our kids didn't do what they were supposed to do. So, they have to build new

129locker rooms. And so the design of this locker room came with um a a team room, one team room being in the boys locker room. And again, we're being, you know, this is a settlement of of that. And so they're redoing the design. And so so again, so that's part of our part of our contract. The other thing with them is the um is is just the the the fixed cost because again, we're we're spending out the the this bond money on some of these other projects. Um, so we're doing lots of work. You saw all the all the work we did over the summer. Well, this bond is going away. And so unless we have another bond coming shortly, that work is going to go away. We're not going to have that much work.

130But if we hired somebody, then they would be they would be on our on our ticket um a lot. >> The the thing I want to say about this this specifics is is we we've talked about this Title N settlement. Um, these are these are dollars that we are paying. I mean, you just heard of the the turf, right? So, that's coming out of the pot. Um, now these are dollars that we're paying to make sure that we're running programs that support our our female and male athletes equitably. And that hasn't happened in the past. So my message out there if I have principles who are listening they need to get the work done and work with their ads to make sure that that they are filling in the spreadsheets that we are sending them

131around athletes around numbers of athletes for their fall sports right now. So again, College Park is under the spotlight now, but we're applying this to all of our schools and we have documents and information that we're not getting. So, if we don't get that information, you can you can rest assure there's going to be more money coming out. So, I'm taking this opportunity of your question to to express the seriousness of this and and again, as we're talking dollars and cents, um you know, this is money that if folks would have made the right decision, we would not be spending this this type of money. And um I I do have a second question, but prior to that, I would even say, you know, in in my one glorious year as a a varsity softball

132coach, I mean, one of the things that was immediately apparent and that the girls on my team pointed out was the comparison of their facilities to the baseball facilities and the number of batting cages, the state of those, the state of the scoreboard. And I was very uh appreciative of the administration at Northgate with what they did to um help address some of that and even just the field condition since the year before I think there were three girls who had torn their ACL's in in the outfield. Yep. In the potholes. Um I became like Chvy Chase in Catty Shack where I was battling gophers and and going after them. But um and then just my my other question is I wanted to understand um when I look at the overall budget for this project

133which is uh listed at the the 4 point almost 4.4 million soft cost of 15% 500,000 um you know that that that is putting a price tag on the very thing that that Dr. Clark um just mentioned and you know I think there is a direct correlation different pots of money but that is the type of money that we're having to spend that doesn't go towards uh our our teachers and other bargaining units because we're spending money on some of these things but um is the architect cost included is is that already calculated into the soft costs of uh 15% or I just wanted to get clarification on that. >> It is it's all it's all part of that. Yes. Okay. Thank you. That was my other question. >> Further discussion. Trusty Barrera Oriana, how

134do you vote? >> Yes. >> Thank you. So, the motion is adopted on a 5000 vote uh in support of the agreement for um facilitating the College Park High School locker room renovations with support from our student board member. Next item uh is the paper. I should have known. Paper bid. Mr. Lawrence. >> Yes. Uh, I, uh, move that the board approve item 14.4, informal request for quotation, high-speed copy paper for district-wide use. Um, I did not have a a specific question for for the superintendent other than one. I do greatly appreciate the the work of the folks in in our our printing department and high quality work, but I will continue my my campaign for as much cost efficiency as possible. And yes, I greatly appreciate these, but as we look at, you know,

135how we can save money and for me a a priority is continuing to as much as possible move towards uh a paperless environment. And so, uh that that was my only comment on it. Is there a second to the motion? >> Second. >> So, we have a motion by Trusty Lawrence with a second by Trusty McDougall um on the purchase of high-speed copy paper for districtwide use. >> Just like to make a comment on that. Having worked for a paper company, I can see the benefits of this, but uh I I still think we're taking down a few forests here to uh to supply these papers. So, um it's a necessary expense and it would be nice if we could do more electronically, but uh it's not happening now. >> Um I guess I take

136a little bit different viewpoint. So, I respectfully share that there are certain times where the electronic um use is valuable for our students. I certainly agree with textbooks etc. But there are certain times when hands-on materials are important for young people as they're learning and uh my experience in many of our classrooms as a volunteer has been that paper has been important and many PTAs and PFC supplement the paper that is being used in our classroom too. So um >> also I just want to thank Trusty Lawrence because this was not one you gave me heads up on. I was digging trying to think how I was going to respond to that one. And then also I just I'm appreciative that um on on Friday afternoons um Laura and myself are not driving around uh

137uh packets of board documents to everybody that we can we can do that other ways because I yeah I've been through that before Laura has as well. So >> a lot of historical hysterical context to this motion. I see. >> Uh trustee Barrera Ariana how do you vote? Yes. >> Thank you. >> So the motion is adopted on a four yes, one against with zero abstensions and zero trustees absent and support from our school student board member to purchase high-speed copy paper. You know, I'm going after the the the dare the the dairy next, you know, the the paper and the dairy. >> Okay. Been waiting for >> Okay. Okay. Time out. Uh we're ready to move on to uh business action items. Dr. Clark. >> Yes. Uh Madame President, we have item 16.1 and

138we have Leani from our um human resources department um who's gonna who's going to present this item. Thank you, Dr. Clark, president, trustees. Uh so before you this evening, we present um the CLA CST reclassification committee recommendations for 2025. This is part of our bargaining uh agreement with CST. This process is clearly outlined um and before you this evening, we recommend one reclassification um as outlined in your packet. Any questions? I move to approve the clerical secretarial and technical unit reclassification committee recommendation. I'll second that. >> We have a motion by trustee and zoi with a second by trustee Mason regarding the u approval of the clerical secretarial and technical unit reclassification uh committee recommendations. Further discussion trustee Barrera Oriana, how do you vote? Yes, >> thank you. Yeah, doing the same thing. >> Okay,

139>> our screens are frozen. >> Think now it's good. >> Oh, there we go. It's okay. >> So, uh, the motion is adopted 500 regarding the reclassification for the CST uh, individuals with support from our student board members. Uh, Dr. Clark. >> Yep. So, so our next item is that we're going to review and potentially approve um, certificate of the district's 2425 unodudited actuals financial report. And um you know and I know I I know as we were starting our reports um we were talking about just just some of the uncertainties in our world right now and things that are things that are taking place. We'll do those comments after the presentation if if if that that's okay madam president. Um but um school budgets are extremely complicated and you know and I think we're

140extremely fortunate to have a highly skilled CBO. We actually um uh both Gustavo and and Brenda Gustavo Aguilera and Brenda Barbiera um have are previous CBOS's also. So we have you know we have somewhat of a of a dream team here. Um, I would hope that someone just clips this recording and before folks go into the basement and start coming up with our budget and things like that, that they actually watch and see what the professionals say our budget our budget is and and what's going on and the assumptions and where where the um even the difference between something as simple as restricted and unrestricted funds. Like that is that sounds simple. If it's restricted, it can only be used for x amount of things. If it's unrestricted, then it can be used for a

141lot of things. So like that turf and things like that and that Title N stuff, that's guess what? That's coming out of unrestricted, right? But when you're talking Title One or you're talking about specific things for special needs students and things like that, that's restricted. So, um I just hope that folks pay attention to this to this presentation before um we start getting the the basement, you know, papers and things like that. So, that's my I'm putting a lot of pressure on you guys. So, >> no pressure. >> Yeah. >> Well, thank you, Dr. Clark. Um so, Dr. Clark talked about budget and actually tonight we're here to talk about actuals. So, this is how we ended up for the 2425 fiscal year. Um, it's required by the state superintendent of public instruction. As I

142said, it reflects the revenues and expenditures as of June 30th, 2025. Um, it also establishes the beginning fund balance for the budget year that we are in now, the 2526 year. Um so we will I will show uh some information on how that impacts the multi-year and then this information is verified by our external auditors um they have been working with uh Gustavo and Brenda's team um since the spring on the 2425 audit. They will come they we continue to work with them um and we'll work with them all the way through November and they'll do the report. It gets sent off to the state controllers's office, to the CDE, and to the county office of ed by December 15th. And as uh the I have another slide about the timeline, and we'll be back

143in January to present those results. But as Dr. Clark said, I do have Gustavo Aguilera with me as well as Brenda Barbara. Uh she's the new addition to our fiscal team. Um but they will uh assist me tonight in presenting the information. um and basically going over the revenues and expenditures for the 2425 year. So with that, I will turn it over to Gustavo. Thank you, Adrian. Um so before I get started with the general fund revenue and expenditures, um I do want to thank the board, Dr. Clark, um the admin team, and my staff. um fiscal uh which consists of payroll, budget and accounting for making the unodited actuals happen. Um and thank you for for the support that we have here. So, um, with that, um, the unrestricted, um, revenue consists of 338

144million of LCFF, uh, funding, which accounts for 70% of the total revenue. Um for the federal revenue um it was 19 million uh which consisted of 4% of the total revenue and 89 million for the state revenue which consisted of 19 mil uh 19%. And uh 34 million for local revenue which consisted of 7%. And here's an illustration of what was shared on the prior slide. Um for unrestricted it's 93.3% LCFF and um on the restricted side of the the revenue is for for federal revenue 16.3% but as a combined it's it's only 4% of the total revenue. the general fund expenditures. Um here are the categories. Uh certificated, classified salaries, books, material, supplies, contracts, services and other operating expenditures. Uh for unrestricted uh the actuals were at 3.7 uh 307 million and for restricted

145uh 219 million. Uh so a combined total of 526.6 million um in the general fund and um on the unrestricted side 91 91% were in salary and benefits on the unrestricted side. And um now I'll turn it over to to Brenda to go over the next slides. Good evening. Um, okay. So, this slide is a representation of the contributions that the district uh provides to the programs that we have and these um contributions are outside of any revenue that is received within these categories. Um, we have a total of 90.3 million in contributions to the programs listed. One thing I'd like to reference um is always looking back at the last reported um budget and that was at estimated actuals and budget adoption and we had projected uh 90.9 million. So we are very close

146to the projections that we had when we last reported the budget to the board. Next slide talks about some key revenue and expenditures in the unrestricted areas and these are part of the programs um and the slides that Gustavo had shared. Uh the first three bullets represent the three major factors within other local revenues. So these don't represent all of our unrestricted uh revenues but these are the three major categories. Um the first one interest income which is revenue provided by the county out um auditor for interest on deposits for districts funds that are held. We have 3.3 million in one-time local and then 1.5 with uh rentals and leases which is composed of like facilities use um one is T-Mobile community services medical u administrative activities as well. So those are just some of

147the areas that are um composed of that 1.5 million. Um the next four uh bullets um speaks on the expenditure sides. So we have the 37 million of the LCAP actions and services and the LCAP even though it is a plan that we have and it is restricted to the goals of the district um it is a budget that sits within the unrestricted um side of the budget. Um we all have the 4.6 6 million in transportation, 12.1 um in utilities and the 5.2 of property and liability which is the back casting for prior years. Uh the next slide talks about the restricted um expenditures and revenues. The first two slides are again two major uh parts of the local revenue that we receive in the restricted side u medical funding and the cowshaped grant

148which is one-time revenue and then we speak on the expenditures for restricted programs which is um supporting special ed programs our ELOP and ASUS programs um the stirs on behalf which is that amount of the 19.1% that is um contribut buted um towards the stirs rates. Um for 15 uh.3 and routine uh repair maintenance funds which we are mandated to um at least do 3% of our expenditures overall for the district budget um and expenditures. And then the um we have 12.9 million in the one-time block grants which is um again those the arts, music and learning recovery. Um the arts music ends June 30, 2026. And another thing to reference is the learning recovery is a program that ends in the year 2027 and 28. And then we have uh 9.8 million in title

149programs which are programs that we apply for every year um to support our students uh that are e lowincome and foster youth. And with that, I'd like to go ahead and hand it back over to Adrien. Thank you. >> Thank you, Brenda. Um, so moving on to the next slide. Um, I thought it was important to kind of show a budget to actual summary. um because there you know there's been quite a few questions throughout the fiscal year in terms of how we perform um in prior years and and I've been one to say like the numbers are the numbers and we've ended up where we've ended up. Um I always reference back to when we did the 9% on salary schedule um raise for all bargaining units and extending the uh health and welfare

150or the health rates for the Kaiser. Um that was with the intent of spending down our fund balance. And so looking at this slide I put the adopted budget, the second interim budget, estimated actuals and unodudited actuals. And so the first table just kind of shows you what our projected deficit spend um is or what we we put down for these three reporting periods and then what we are seeing with our unodudited actuals. And so just looking at that you can see that we are still trending or the trend was about a negative $34 million deficit. Um and we held that trend from adopted to second to estimated actuals. Um I thought you know again just trying to answer that question. Um, also knowing that what the 9% was going to do to fund balance

151and really, you know, when Gustavo talks about the 91% salaries and benefits related to the unrestricted side of the budget, that is where we're pulling when we give out ongoing salary salary increases. That's where the majority of it is going to come from. Um, so it's a good representation of what I've been trying to say is once you hit that deficit spend, more than likely you're going to hit it in your second year and your third year of the multi-year. Um, and then moving to the restricted part of the general fund, you can see at adopted budget, we were a little bit over 11 million. Second interim, it was about 17 million. Um I will say when we go from adopted to second on the restricted side of the budget most of the time we

152are we are including carryover funds and carryover funds can and usually are related to one-time funding sources. So when we look at the increased uh deficit spend on the restricted side, that's with the plan that we are going to spend down one-time funds or part of the ending fund balance related to restricted programs. And so when we get to estimated actuals, it actually jumped to 20 million. Um but as we ended up related to estimated actuals we we were we were there was a difference of roughly 10 million and uh there was about three programs that that was related to. The first one was our ELOP program or our expendit expanded learning opportunities program and that was roughly about 6.7 million. our learning recovery block grant. We we spent less $2 million than what we

153thought we were going to. Um and then the arts and music and schools grant so prop 28 that was 1.8 million. Um so those those made up the majority of that 10 million. There's probably 16 other programs that kind of comprised the the remaining half a million that um had different adjustments. We uh I have a couple questions on the last slide if I could please. This one. >> Uh yes. Okay. So the um ending fund balance of the the restricted so basically the almost 70 million um that as the example of what um Superintendent Clark was saying earlier, those restricted funds and and you're kind of alluding to this, those are less useful from a reserve standpoint because they're specified for a specific purpose. So, uh, if we need to dig in for $4

154million to build a new facility, it's very unlikely we would be able to take that from the restricted funds since those are already earmarked for very specific things. So, it's not a general availability. Correct. >> I would say generally speaking, that is the case. I'll give you a four example. >> The new block grant that just that was part of the new state enacted budget. Um, we all thought it was coming in as unrestricted. >> So, CDE came out in mid August. So, probably like within a day or two be when I did the budget update. And actually, that's going to be recorded on the restricted side of the budget. >> So, very similar to the arts, music, and discretionary block grant that we received a few years back. However, that grant has some guidance

155in terms of what it should be spent on, but it also gives districts the flexibility to spend it on operational costs. So, that's why I say it with caution, of course, >> because that could particularly that grant could pay for um you know, for the field or or for the Title N, you know, improvements. Um but there's also all the different competing needs you know that we're dealing with in terms of onetoone in the devices and the tech refresh the high school math adoption and these aren't expenditures that are small however they are expenditures that are one time in nature. So really in essence, when you are spending restricted dollars or if you are spending down your fund balance, you really want to focus on one-time expenditures. >> Yeah. >> Because at some point it's

156going to catch up and districts will have to make up for that shortage in the out years. Yeah. And then could you um share the the 9% uh raise what that represented because I I'm guessing that's of the 34 million in U deficit spending on the unrestricted. I would imagine that the bulk of that would be tight or that 9% uh raise would be uh pretty close to that number. Well, it's so the 9% I I'm just going to use a rough number. 1% was roughly about three million. It could have been a little bit less. >> So, you're talking 27 million. >> I think one of the bigger ticket items of that particular um tenative or that agreement that we signed was the Kaiser rates. And I say that one was a little bit

157harder to project just because we signed the the the TA in late October. Open enrollment started like it was already in the middle of open enrollment. So a lot of our employees did not have the opportunity to take to fully take advantage of that new that 100% Kaiser rate. So then you fast forward to last like a year ago and everybody had at least a year to figure out what they were going to do and that's when we saw the impact of people choosing you know going into our medical program. The one thing that I you know as the three of us discussed this morning you know when we look at the special ed contribution about if my memory serves me right about 1.8 8 million we we put into second interim to cover the

158overage in the medical just medical and and and again that was related to the second round of open enrollment. So that number I don't have off the top of my head but that was a pretty large ticket item for the district. um the district, you know, if you go back to the adopted budget, we've been lucky that we're one of the growing districts because of TK expansion. If we were a declining enrollment district, we probably couldn't do a lot of the things that we have been doing. Um so we're lucky in that respect, but the the the drawback is this is the last year of TK expansion. So, um, but if I had to ballpark, you know, maybe some most of that is, but we also have increased revenues. And then one other point on

159on the unodudited actuals, when you do look at the 34.3 million, basically that equates to spending about 26% of our fund balance roughly. And then uh moving on to the next slide, this is just the the combined general fund budget. So I'm basically taking that those two tables and combining them. And as you can see at at the adopted, we were about 46 million. We ended up at 44. Again, with estimated actuals, you know, that that variance of 10 million is what I talked about previously on the restricted side on the previous slide. and then moving into the unrestricted multi-year projections. And so basically all I'm doing is I'm updating the fund balance. So the starting uh fund balance for the unrestricted side uh of our current year budget as adopted. Um you see that

160we are starting with a little bit over 99 million. We're projecting 25.9 million in the current budget year. We are projecting 20.9 million in the second year of our multi-year and then 16.7 in our third year of our multi-year. And just as a reminder when we adopted our budget because at that time we did not include the TK add-on proposal and as well as the one-time block grant. And as I did in the update in August, the TK add-on could generate somewhere in the range of 2.2 2 million to 2.6 million ongoing funding for Mount Diablo. So that wasn't included. And then School Services of California projected roughly 8.5 million in one-time funds for that block grant. So that is not reflective in year. But what is reflective is that we did put a resolution

161forward that we were looking to make reductions or revenue h enhancements of 2.75 million beginning in July 1st, 2026 and then an additional 2.75 million in July 1st, 2027. And that was in order to show the county that we we are aware that we're not making our 3% in the third year out, but we we recognize what we will need to do if those proposals didn't pass. So when we come back at first interim, we're going to include those additional revenues. Um, and depending on how negotiations goes, I mean, that's going to play a big role in how our first interim looks to the county. We just, you know, M Miss Mason and Ms. Mayo specifically, I think we know the impacts of having one year where we voted for reductions. Those reductions did not

162happen. And so then that compounded into the second year and made that so much more difficult. Um and then a question would be the what what does this factor for um compensation? Is this basing on cola or how do we is this projected without any type of agreement or is cola baked into this? Um >> so the projections >> the expenditures within this table that you're seeing does not have any impact of negotiations. >> Okay. >> Assumes everything just stays at the current rates and there's >> with the exception of the two bargaining units that did sign an agreement with us before July 1st which I believe was Teamsters and CSEA. >> Okay. So any agreement would increase the uh annual deficit. >> It would either >> if if there any raises given uh would

163increase the this annual deficit that you're showing here. So, I I would I would answer it in terms of more than likely it would, but it would also require budget adjustments, you know, because that's what we're going to look to first is how do we, you know, how do we lower our books and supplies, our contracted services, if there's room for that, because that's what we can do immediately, >> right? >> Um, but it would more than likely increase the deficits met >> with no other actions. It would >> correct. I mean, if we if we were judged on a single year of of our financials, then we could afford ongoing salaries that are much larger than what we have on the table. Um, but if you put that second year on, then you're going

164to have to do something. But if we don't something is usually layoffs, right? >> Correct. I'd like to make a comment. Um, we often hear the the um reserve fund quoted at 213 million that you're your guys are holding off on and not using to give to salaries. And I'm I wish they were here now to look at these figures because it's not there. The 213 million at the end of the 28 year we're down to 35 million. and that's not accounting for fixing uh football fields and uh paying for title n stuff, that sort of thing. So, you do you can't give it all away on salaries and expect that it's just going to continue through. So, um I I I like and I don't like seeing red figures up there, but um I

165know what you're trying to do here and I think you're doing a good job. >> Well, thank you and your questions. the next slide or your comment. >> Okay. >> Um >> but I I I think in terms of the percentage that I gave you on the the previous slide, >> so when you do look at the unrestricted uh fund balance, we are deficit spending, you know those numbers, but it's roughly 26% in the first year, 28.6% in the second year, and 32% in the third year out. Um and then as as you alluded to um Trusty McDougall, this is the updated combined multi-year projections. And so we have a beginning fund balance of 168.8 million when you factor in the revenues and expenditures from 2425. So it's no longer 213 million because we deficit

166spent close to 45 million. Um, and so then you see that and how it projects out. And again, I will point out that these numbers do include that we are going to cut basically eight a little over 8 million over a two-year period. That's what the 2.75 equates to in each of the next two years. And President Mayo, I saw you writing percentages. So if you want these ones as 26%, 22% and 17%. And then um I included the restricted fund balance detail and I I think this is relative to what you just mentioned, Trustee Lawrence, about restricted funding. And you can see what our breakout is of those programs. um only six of them are programs that receive ongoing funding which is the expanded learning opportunities program, the lottery instructional materials, the arts and

167music and schools so prop 28, the dual enrollment opportunities, the LCFF equity multiplier, and then our ongoing major maintenance account or RMA, which is what we use to repair and upkeep our facility. ities. So, those are the the programs within this list. Um, I know it's hard to read off this, but um this is what comprises the restricted fund balance and most of these, if not all of them, have restrictions to them. Um, and so again, I just want to show, you know, these are the programs that make up our restricted fund balance. And again, the they do have strings tied to them. We do fund positions with these programs. Um, but when I do look at some of the one-time funds, you know, the the two biggest ones that districts received was the learning

168recovery block grant and the arts, music, and instructional materials discretionary block grant. And again, those are one-time funds. And so once we spend those and if we are paying for positions, we either need to find a different funding source or those are going to be on the on a reductions list. So again, the other thing that I would emphasize just in terms of fund balance, you have it as a district, but usually and always you should be using that for one-time expenditures. But I you know again when we signed the deal that we did in leading into the 2425 year you recognize that we did have a large fund balance like most districts did because of all the esser funding that came through and the COVID dollars. So districts were able to build up their

169reserves and Mount Diablo is one of the lucky ones that didn't pay for a lot of positions with those one-time funds. Um and so that got built up and you know I I do reflect back on that year you know and it it was a planned spendown of the fund balance and we are doing that and then as we move on I just want to reflect this is all of our funds within Mount Diablo. All of them are um in a positive fund balance. um you can see the programs uh or the funding sources that um are deficit spending but most have a positive um net change and then moving in um this hasn't changed since my budget update because these are the major things that we are looking at um I think you know

170trustee in Zwei when you I didn't read that article but I read a different one that talked about cutting Title One by 21%. Um, you know, and just the things that we have already talked about in terms of the budget update because of the federal policies, they they could say what they want to say. You know, the biggest thing is holding up funds. Like they may not cut it. You know, that's the worst scenario, but that we've already gone through them holding up funds, which that becomes a cash problem. And when you run out of cash, that's when you go into receiverhip. and um you know and no district wants to be in that and um just because of the requirements that a district goes through and I've had that experience as well at Valo.

171So um you you don't want to be in that situation any questions on uh this is just the budget calendar timeline. So, we're here with unodudited actuals in September. As I mentioned earlier, we're doing the field audit work. Um, and then we will start to begin the budget development process. We we did um re-engage the budget advisory committee. Um, we will meet again at the end of October. Um, and so we'll we'll be providing more information on unudited actuals and then just more detailed information on on the budget and you know what comprises of revenues and expenditures and we should have a really good idea of what our enrollment trend is at at that time because our seabeds enrollment is due the first Wednesday in October which I believe is October 1st. I I don't

172have my calendar in front of me. So in October, November, um you know, first interim is as of October 31st. So we're doing that work. Uh again, we'll continue the work on budget development. We're still doing the audit. We'll be back here in December with the first interim report. The audit should be submitted by December 15th. And then in January, we're we're back to building like getting our information for the 2627 budget and we'll present the audit. >> Thank you. >> I just have a comment as as part of the presentation and then board you guys can hopefully you guys can ask some questions. And couple things just just um you know, Trusty Lawrence, you asked for a study session and I think if you look at the calendar like you know we're we're on

173September 11th tomorrow and then first interim is going to start being built on um in o in October. So so um we have our team here. So as we talk about study sessions, what additional information would really help us paint a clear picture? So, a couple things I just wanted to touch on and and things that that Adrian touched on is and and the team actually was Gustavo who said it. 91% of our of our um unrestricted funds goes towards salary and benefits. 91%. So, um so again, that's something that we have to pay close attention to. The other thing we have to pay close attention to is enrollment. And um you know, we have been lucky with the TK expansion. We've expanded more than any district around us in terms of adding TK. Um

174but that runs out and then we're going to start leveling off. And so the things that keep our enrollment up is when we um is when we run high quality programs and we are responsive to our families and our students are being successful. The other thing that um that counts in this is um is is class size that that has an impact on our budget. Um there are districts around us. I'll take I'll use San Raone as example as an example that used funds um you know whether they were able to pick up other funds from donations and things like that but they were able to lower class size. But as soon as their enrollment started to decline they had to increase class size. So as you increase class size then you're able to you're

175able to serve you're able to serve students. So, I believe, you know, as superintendent, it's my job to make sure that the board has all of the fiscal the best fiscal advice possible out there to be able to make these tough decisions. And I know that we um we deal with competing um entities um you know, whether it's our facilities, whether it's our employees, whether it's uh uh textbook adoptions, which we've adopted all of our curriculums, you know, over the last five years. So those are the hard choices that that we need to make. But all of those are competing issues that are going to impact our that are going to impact our budget. This team during first interim, they said with this with with with these outgoing funds, this is what our deficit this

176is how much we're going to deficit spend. And correct me if I'm wrong, but that number is is extremely close to what to what we predicted it was going to be to what it ended up being. So the numbers are and Adrian said this so eloquently. The numbers are the numbers basically. I mean it is what it is. We are not um you know I know different narratives go out there and stuff but this is one of the reasons why I think it's important to share this information out there to make sure everyone has the information. We had a packed house earlier with hundreds of people here. No one is here to hear this information. No one's here. And so, so how else are we going to get the word out, right? We have to

177get the word out. And so if if you think people will watch a study session and and actually um listen and and and believe what our numbers are or or believe what it is, then so be it. I'm willing to do whatever it is for people to understand so that we actually can collaborate because it doesn't make any sense. How are we going to give a raise and lower in and lower class size? Like I mean it just mathematically it does not it does not add up with the potential of maybe declining enrollment. And as and as superintendent it is my job to make sure that the district remain remain solvent. That that's my job. And so I know it's tough to hear like, you know, it's it's it's tough to hear the facts sometimes,

178but we gota we got to share the facts with our communities and with our employees so that they know we can't we can't not share what's happening. And so that's why um I'm I'm I'm thrilled with this team. I'm thrilled that we're so transparent with our work. This has been on the this has been online since Friday. we'll continue it and hopefully, you know, Teresa can help me share this video out so that people can actually see what position we're in. So, I know you have comments and I know we have we have stuff, but this is this is really important stuff and um and and and I just don't know if it's being taken as seriously from everyone as possible from what I from what I've been hearing just in the ether. My frustration

179is that we keep hearing about the lowering the class size, but we spent a substantial amount of money to go out and do a survey of the community with experts, not district personnel. We hired people and the community was not willing to pay for that. So I ask, how important is it really to the families if they're saying no, we won't pay a parcel tax for that? And I that seems to be lost somewhere. I I It dumbfounds me that media will keep bringing it back because I think they started the survey. They heard >> part of our deal that we would go out and survey the community. >> They heard loud and clear what the community said. Apparently, it's not that important. They're not willing to pay, but they still want us to do

180it, which I'm with you. So, if we do it, then we're just going to have a lot fewer teachers because that's what's going to happen. And then it's the young people that'll go and then get we get knocked for why do you always let the young talented people go and so it's like we're caught in a catch 22. >> So uh let's hear the public comment at this point in time. I know they've been waiting patiently. The first speaker is uh Miss Jameson. >> Thank you. President, I realize that some of you aren't going to listen to what I have to say, especially since Dr. Clark just really tried to inoculate you not to listen to anything I'm going to say. I don't have any basement papers in front of me. What I have are

181pages from your unodudited actuals from the past four years. The area I want to focus on is services and other operating expenditures. In 2122, the district spent $48 million on services and other operating expenditures, the 5,000 line items. And since we always hear about unrestricted funds, 14 almost $15 million of that expenditure was unrestricted. In 2022 23 that had increased the total expenditure on services and other operating expenditures had increased to $69 million and the unrestricted portion had increased to almost $21 million. In 2023 2024, the total expenditure on services and other operating expenditures had increased to 76 almost $77 million and the unrestricted portion of that had increased to $23.5 million. And then this past year in 2024 2025, the total expenditure on services and other operating expenditures increased to $85.5 million. the unrestricted

182portion increasing to almost $31 million. I recognize that there are services that cannot be provided by people who are employed by this district and that it would be inefficient for that to happen. I also recognize that you in your consent agenda and one item that was pulled approved five more expenditures that are going to fall under this category of services and other operating expenditures. By way of comparison, over that same period of time, the amount of money that the district spends on certificated non-management salaries has increased by approximately $33 million. Um, it's when we look at the amount of the unrestricted budget that's been spent, it's down to about 27 million. To answer a question that you asked earlier, Trusty Lawrence, to Mr. Vargas, the difference in expenditure on certificated non-management salaries from last year

183to this year was about $18 million. That's about the price tag of that 9% salary increase, which is money well spent. I do appreciate that you all are spending down that ending fund balance that was at $213 million because it never should have been that high. It's still too high. I understand that there's not an endless pot of money to fund increases. But a question was asked of Mr. Vargas. Aren't aren't we going to have to go to fiscal insolveny if we keep spending? Aren't we going to have to make layoffs? He answered a question about changing budget priorities. It depends on if we change our budget priorities. So, what I want you to ask you to do, and I appreciate your idea of a study session, look at your budget priorities. We've all heard

184the James Frick quote, "Don't tell me your priorities. Show me the money and I'll tell you what they are." Um, in fact, I believe Dr. Clark quoted that quote to a group of admin credential students at St. Mary's. So, we've all heard it. Your priorities appear to be increasing spending on people who do not work for this district to a greater extent than you do spending money on people who do work for this desk district. And just as insult to injury, because I also attended the teacher of the year dinner, we do have in-house counsel. You approved another master legal services agreement tonight. And I know you have at least one other legal services agreement because the agreement you signed tonight was not with Danis Wall Kelly, the attorney the district is bringing to fight

185the union and who was a corporate sponsor of the teacher of the year dinner. It made me feel super appreciated. and my colleague David Pintado, who I started at Mount Diablo in the same year as, made us feel super appreciated to know the law firm that's trying not to give us a salary increase is sponsoring the teacher of the year dinner. >> Sorry, that's your three minutes. >> The next speaker is Kip Penovich. Welcome, Mr. Penovich. >> We haven't seen you in a while. The light doesn't show. >> Sometimes it does sometimes. >> I'll give that a minute to to get around. Oh, I see. Okay. Was this thing on or do I have to Okay, >> there goes >> trusty Lawrence. Sorry, it's on paper, but I I find spreadsheet stuff is hard for

186people to follow uh digitally. Uh, somebody quoted, "Show me your budget and show me your priorities." What you have here is a five-year summary of your expenditure. uh categories in the unodudited actuals. Uh the document itself contains lots of rows of empty stuff. So I got rid of all of that. Uh and I numbered all of the rows so that you could talk for specific ones. So what you're looking at is um the values from your unodudited actuals all the way from 2021 through 20 24. So you can look at patterns of how values have changed. Now it's true that if you're going to run a deficit, you're, you know, that you want to try and fix, you either go get more money or you reduce your expenditures. So I just focused on the expenditures

187so you can see where things have grown, where they haven't. Uh some of the things that have grown, I'm going to say, awesome. When you you're you're compensating your employees better, you're attracting people, you're paying for health benefits, that's good. Uh I do want to point out a few things that I did highlight in the last four years the negotiated the compounded negotiated increase in pay is 23.2%. So the last two columns you have to the the uh the next to last column is the absolute dollar amount and then there's the percent amount and you know there's a difference between the two. You can say, "Oh, the money for the certificated teacher salaries went up a whole lot." But percentage- wise from where it was, it went up 26%. But if you look at our

188administrator salaries, they've gone up 48% in the certificated side and 71% on the classified side. So, you're either compensating them better or you're hiring more of them. Um, plus somebody pointed out to me when I we were discussing it, they're like, if you look at the PERS contributions, they've almost doubled. and they pointed out well administrators pay into the per system. So the increase there goes on kind of dovetales into the into the increase of the administrators down in the uh services and operating expenditures. Uh Julia mentioned, you know, some of the things there. Here you can see some granular detail in the subcategories, how they've changed over the last five years. And this can lead to the questions of what is it that that thing pays for and why did it go up so

189much. Um if you would like, I have exactly the same thing for the unrest, just straight unrestricted and restricted as well. So, anytime you want to talk, I'm ready to show you what I got. And I got the entire thing as well. This is just a little snippet. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Povich. >> So, technically, we should have a motion um before we begin discussion, but I believe this is required. Madame President, I move that the board approve item 16.2 uh certification of the district's 2425. It was uh 2425 unodudited budget. >> I'll second that. So we have a motion by Trusty Lawrence with a second by Trustee Mason regarding the approval of the certification of the district's 2425 un unudited actuals. Um further discussion. I I would just start with um I

190would like to compliment the team that presented because I think during my years on uh during my years on the board that was one of the clearest ones um that I've experienced and also um the I I I do think that the public is correct in pointing out that there have been many years in part because of, you know, events taking place during the course of the year and and changes, but that the budget has um varied drastically throughout the course of the year and to land so close to the initial starting point, I think um you know takes a great deal of work and that is not not purely done by luck. And so I think that is the result of um some really good work and and I think that uh so I

191would just say that is extremely helpful and I appreciate the superintendent's comments around a a study session. I do think you know the and I did want to confirm well I I think what I did correctly was basically taking the in terms of calculating the uh the the 91ish% was I basically took the I came up with like 279 279 million divided by 307 which um was essentially looking at certificated salaries under under restrict restricted. I just kind of wanted to confirm I was doing this correctly, but if I look at certificated salaries, classified salaries, and benefits, I got that adding up to 279. Uh, and then the total and the unrestricted was the 307. So, I came up with like n 91%. I wasn't quite sure how to think about the the ad back

192in from the indirect cost, but that's essentially how I calculated it. >> That's how I did it. >> Okay, cool. >> Yeah. Was that >> otherwise three years of business school was wasted? So I'm glad I at least got that part right back. >> That's slide five. Yeah. >> So I just added the first three and then divided it by the 307. I presume we weren't including the indirect cost, but that's what I came up with. We well we are including the indirect because that's the total within the 307 >> to get to the 307. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Right. Further discussion just go ahead. >> Give me give us a couple examples of contracted services and other expenses. >> Um sure. I so the one thing I think about in terms of the comment

193that was just made is 12.1 million on utility sits in the contracted services or what we in fiscal would call the 5,000 line. So that's one thing that I think about that sits there. Um, I would be curious to know, you know, we can always back, you know, we could do the analysis on what comprises of those things, but that's a a pretty big one. Uh, property and liability insurance is another one that would sit there. >> And I just want to say like about the utilities. So, it's $12 million in utilities. We tried we worked to address that with replacing all of our lighting with our um you know with redoing our HVAC systems to get more efficient systems and things like that. So it's not as if you know we're just sitting on

194our hands just like looking at this problem thinking like what what can we do? So like you know utilities are a huge thing even you know your your personal PG& bills and water bills and garbage bills all those things go up. We're trying to find ways to reduce costs. We're trying to do more recycling, getting credit for those recycling, training our custodians, training our things, going to electric buses, all of those things, trying to reduce our costs in one way. Um obviously the the insuranceances we have in house um you know I mean the the comment made earlier about one of the um legal contracts that we have we have all kinds of legal contracts of of you know um issues that we run across as a district you know whether it's you know liability

195someone gets someone gets injured um there's an there's an accident we got uh special ed attorneys out there we have property attorneys out there we have um you know all sorts of of of things that that cost money. And so, um, so again, I I didn't mean to stop you, but I just, you know, we're trying to work on these things to free up more money, but when you have to when you have to pay the bills, you have to pay the bills. We're we don't live a lavish we're we're not living lavish here. And when we talk about administrators, pick an elementary school. Just throw one out. Let's pick Walnut Acres. There's one principal there. There's no vice principal there. Let's pick a one in one in conquered. We don't have a vice principal

196in an elementary school in conquered I don't think except mental homes which has you know 900 students. So, so where are these? Social workers fall under administrators. Mental health um specialists fall under DMA, right? So, so again, we're not living lavish. And so, um sorry, Adrian, but >> well, you gave more time to think of examples. >> I know we for you. Give me another example since you're >> Well, the the other things I think about is our software contracts that you know if you for all the things we do technology-wise, there's a program behind that. Um, so that would fall under the 5000s or contracted services. Um, and then I think about LCAP actions and services. Although there's a plan and it's we treat it like restricted funds, it sits on the unrestricted side

197of the budget and um if I remember right when LCFF and the inception of LCFF, you know, when districts got that in 1314, I remember being in Dixon and trying to utilize those funds to put on the salary and guess who was the one that got the judgment against them? It was Mount Diablo that had that that case in terms of not using LC or LCAP supplemental and concentration funds for ongoing salary increases. And I I always reflect back on that because we were trying to do that because that's what was going up was the supplemental and concentration fund. So again, we we do a lot of contractual work within those actions and services when we can't, you know, find the people that we're trying to hire as well. So those are some of the

198things I think about in terms of the 5,000s and I I would agree with Dr. Clark. I don't I don't know that we're spending that much, but again, I it's not hard for us to do the analysis and, you know, send it out and this is what we're doing. But again, as I said, the numbers are the numbers and I can't go back to four years ago, five years ago. I can only move forward and um you know, talk about how we came to the 9% and the Kaiser pull rate. >> Ready? Um are you wanting to speak, Mr. McDougall? >> Just one last comment. Um, I'm quiet tonight, but I've done a lot of research on this because it was new to me. So, I've spent several hours with um looking at it myself,

199but also with people like Kip Benovich, who has looked at these for the last 8 to 10 years. And so, I'm actually quite satisfied that you're doing a damn good job. And and that's why I'm saying I'm not objecting to anything here because I see the difficulties we have. I've heard the teachers at my town halls complain about the 213 million extra money that you're just not going to spend on us. And it it's just not there. And so when I hear this and have done the study I've done, um I feel that you've done an excellent job and I want to commend you for it. Thank you. >> Well, thank you. And I couldn't do it without, you know, Gustavo and now Brenda and then all the people at Gustavo. >> Mostly your staff.

200Yeah. >> Yeah. Mostly staff. >> All right. I'm going to bring this to conclusion. Thank you for the presentation. Uh Trusty Barrerero, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Yes. Yes. Uh, Lawrence made it. Mason made the second. >> I've got it in my notes. >> And the motion is adopted on a 500 vote uh in to approve the unad on audited actuals with support from our student trustee. Uh item 16.3 is the approval of resolution 2526-14 adopting the district's 2425 appropriations limit calculation. Dr. Clark, >> I have a note here that says Melanie with a question mark on it, but I but I got this one. Is it you, Adrien? Okay. I'm sorry. All right. Okay, go ahead. >> Unless Melanie wants to come up and try. >> So, uh, what we

201have is, um, it's really just a compliance piece to to the unodudited actuals. It gets presented to boards in California. Every time we do the unodudited actuals, it's required by the state constitution. Goes all the way back to 1979. Basically, it ensures districts don't spend more tax revenue than the state allows. And even if you do, the state will make adjustments. So we make uh the the form GAN and the limits within it. So but really this is something we do for compliance reasons. We plug in some numbers and the state software produces the form before you and we make up the resolution. I will move to approve resolution 25/26-14 adopting the 202425 appropriate limit calculation or the GAN limit. >> Second. >> So we have a motion by trustee Mason with a second by

202trustee ani regarding the approval of the GAN limit for 2526. Uh further discussion >> just a question Mr. Vargas. this GAN limit uh you say it goes back to 1979 when they was enacted and from what I'm reading on this it's becoming less and less of a concern because we seem to fall in within the limits >> correct >> and so it's not as critical as it was when in 1979 >> as as the so I've been asked this question quite often it's the one that stumps me the most other than saying it's a compliance document and then when I did further research That's where I came up with the other line that even if a district does not meet it, the state will do whatever it needs to do to make sure that we

203all meet it collectively. >> Comply. Yes. Okay. So, this the usefulness of the GAN limit was probably 40 years ago, not so much now. Correct. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Are we ready for the vote? Rusty Barrera Oriana, how do you vote? >> Yes. Thank you. And the motion on the GAN limit is approved with a 5000 vote and support from our student trustee. Um the next item is 16.4 the review of the U Measure J Citizens Bond Oversight Committee bylaws. Dr. Clark. >> Yes. So, um I I I try to keep Suzanne out of uh presenting items and things like that, but she is available to answer any questions um about about this and um can can answer any questions you may have or talk you through this. >> Do you want to say

204something? >> Sure. >> Okay. >> Um well, I think the memo hopefully was self-explanatory that Melanie provided. Um, and I'm happy to answer any questions. >> So, I am in support of the staff recommendations on the bylaws for the seabach committee. I don't know how other board members feel. I move that we approve that we adopt the proposed revision as outlined in the one that's recommended by staff um to the measure to revise the measure J citizens board bond oversight committee bylaws. Does that make sense >> enough for me to second? >> Yes, there were options and MMO. >> So that was a motion. That was a motion and it was seconded by Mr. >> by whom? Oh, by Okay, I'm sorry. I You may not know this. I'm deaf in my left ear. So,

205it's when you speak uh softly, I can't hear you. So, we have a motion by Trustee Enzi with a second by Trustee Lawrence. Is there further discussion? >> Yes, sir. uh mostly we discussed this the last time we met and so um I I don't really need to go into detail uh about my objection to this because I believe we are fulfilling the letter of the law on the rules for the uh oversight committee and uh I'm sorry to see that because I'm a taxpayer and I I want to watch my tax funds being spent well and so I'd rather the oversight committee have some more authority and um I don't see that happening in this measure but I just wanted to make that comment. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Did we

206have any cards uh on this topic? And I don't recall any board comments submitted electronically either. Did we? >> No. >> Okay. Trustee uh Barrera Oriana, how do you vote? >> Yes. and the motion is adopted on a four yes, one no uh zero abstain, zero absent vote with support from the student trustees in uh approval of the Sabbach bylaws revisions. And I would just like to note that many of the revisions provided by the seabach committee were approved within the document. There are just this couple that we um feel strongly about. Thank you. Uh next item is uh board policies information. Dr. Clark, >> this is just first read info only. There's two there for first read. No. Yes. 15.6 where >> So this is just for information. If you have any questions, please

207reach out to Dr. Clark regarding uh those questions. Item 16.6 Six is um review and approval of board uh revisions to 1312.2 AR 1312.2 AR 1340 E1312.2 as presented. Madame President, I move that the board uh approve of the changes to board policies and administrative regulations per uh CSBA recommendations. There a second. So there's a motion by trustee Lawrence with a second by trustee Mason regarding the revisions to um 1312 1340 AR 13122 AR 1340 E 13122 as presented trustee Barana I'm tired >> I know Bana um thank you now you've jinxed Uh, Oriana, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Thank you. And the motion to approve these policies is approved on a 500 vote with support from our student trustee. I think we're ready to We don't have to do a meeting extension

208though you are an hour later tonight, Mr. Lawrence. And um future agenda items. You brought up uh several items. Are there other items to be considered for a future agenda item? Yeah, if I could just ask Laura is going to send an email to you all tomorrow asking for uh potential uh dates and times for for a study session on on budget and um so we'll we'll we'll start looking at those. Sometimes it's difficult to get to get everyone together for that. But we will do that. I also in my notes um we're going to be you know I mean we're only 25 days in school but we will be doing an update um on the yonder pouches. So so we will we will do that. that'll have some principles out here and maybe even

209some students come. Not that we don't trust not that we don't trust your word, but maybe we can just hear from some others. Um and um and then the other notes that I' that I've taken from the from the previous meetings, but those are things that definitely we can get right on and and I'm hoping for are waiting for our um our our last spring test data to be um to have the embargo li um lifted so that we can share those out publicly. and we would definitely do a um definitely do a presentation here and I would be thrilled to do a study session on our data and stuff. You all know how I love talking about our data. So, >> thank you Dr. Clark. So, um there's no further objection. Meeting adjourned at

2109:21 p.m. Thank you everybody. Good night.