Mt. Diablo USD Board Meeting 8/13/2025 Part 2

001All right, ready. It's my pleasure to reconvene the uh Mount Diablo Unified School District Board of Education meeting. Today is Octo October August 13, 2025. Um and uh trustee uh Enzwi is participating at this meeting from the Hilton Checkers Hotel at 53 uh 5 South Grand Avenue in Los Angeles and she was able to join our close session meeting at 4:55 p.m. and she is now connected with us at this point in time. Uh Kaisha, could you respond? We just want to make sure that trustee and Zwei is with us. >> Christian Zwick, >> I'm sorry. I I couldn't hear a word that Linda said, so I had to watch it on video. Um, so it it was completely silent just to let you know. But yes, I'm here. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Now

002I hear you. There you go. >> Okay. Um, let's see. The first item under our um business is the land acknowledgement. We recognize that the Mount Diabil 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 Yokut, the successors of the sovereign 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 people who are alive and flourishing members of the Mount Diablo Unified School District and broader broader Bay Area communities today. Would you please stand for the pledge of allegiance?

003I >> pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Um we will now move to 6.3 which is the approval of the minutes um of June 25th, 2025. >> Madame President, I move to approve the minutes for the board study session minutes and regular board meeting held June 25th, 2025. Second. >> So, we have a motion by Trustee Mason with a second by Trustee McDougall on the approval of the minutes uh that are 20 June 25th, 2025 meeting. Is there further discussion? Hearing none. Oh, let's vote. Oh, yes, that's correct. I apologize. Uh, Trustee Lawrence, >> I'm going to abstain since I was not here. >> Thank you. Uh, Trustee Mason, I

004hope to approve. Trusty McDougall, >> Trustee Enzwi, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Okay. Trustee Mayo votes yes. Would you please vote electronically as well? So for the members of the audience uh we will do roll call voice vote when I remember it and when I'm reminded and uh then we will also uh vote electronically to confirm our voice vote and make it easier for um preparing the minutes. So the motion is adopted on a four in favor, no votes against, and one obsess abstension. Now we're going to move on to the review and potential approval for the special board meeting held on August 4th, 2025. Make a motion to approve the minutes for the board study session held on August 4th, 2025 and that are presented for review and approval. >> Second. >>

005So, we have a motion by Trusty Mason with a second by Trusty McDougall um on the approval of the minutes for August 4th, 2025. Trustee McDougall, how do you vote? >> In favor. >> Trustee Mason, how do you vote? Hi. Trustee Lawrence, how do you vote? >> I vote yes. >> Um, Trustee Enzwei, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> And Trusty Mayo votes yes. >> Please vote electronically. And the motion is adopted. 5 0 uh to approve the minutes of August 4th. Now we are ready for um approving the agenda. Dr. Clark, are there any changes to the agenda? >> No changes, Madam President. >> I make a motion we approve the agenda as presented. >> Second. So, we have a motion by Trustee Mason with a second by Trustee Lawrence on the approval

006of the agenda as printed. Is there further discussion? Hearing none, um, Trustee Mason, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Trusty McDougall, >> yes. >> Trustee Lawrence, >> yes. >> Trustee Enzwi. >> And Trusty Mayo votes yes. Please vote electronically. And the motion to approve the agenda as presented is adopted on a 5000 vote. Um, now for the fun part. Dr. Clark, would you please administer the oath of office to our student board member? >> Yes, I will. If you will meet me at the podium. Please repeat after me. First of all, this is a oath of office, state of California, Contracasta County, and for the office of Mount Diablo student board member. So I repeat your full name, please. I am >> do solemnly swear >> that I will support and defend >> the

007Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of California >> in the Constitution of California >> against all enemies foreign and domestic >> against all enemies foreign and domestic. that I will bear true faith >> that I will bear true faith >> and allegiance >> to the Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of the State of California >> in the Constitution of the State of California >> that I take this obligation freely >> without any mental reservation >> or purpose of evasion. and that I will well >> that I and that I will >> I will well >> that I will well >> and faithfully >> discharge the duties upon >> discharge of duties upon >> which I am about to enter. >> Congratulations. >> You might say Hello. I'm very

008excited for the year. I'm very excited for this upcoming year and I would like to thank my parents Sylvia Dejanna, my dad and my sister uh Rosarita and then I also have my counselor Miss Hindel here. I'm very grateful from them and I couldn't wouldn't be here without them today. We're very pleased that you are joining us and now I can call on you for your vote. It looked like I was ignoring you earlier, >> Miss May. I I just wanted to share that you uh Trustee Mason and I were all here when we had our our first ever student board rep. And uh it has been so great to see this program flourish. And in addition to often dressing better than the board members, they've often asked better questions than the rest of us

009and kept us on our toes. And so congratulations to you and to your family and everyone who supported you. We're delighted to have you here. >> Thank you, Trusty Lawrence. Okay. Now, uh the next item is the report out in close session. So, uh, give me a moment to organize my notes. For item 3.1, the board received, uh, information on the topic of note negotiations. For item 3, the numbers don't match. Uh, we did not discuss item 3.2, 2, which was discipline, dismissal or release or reassignment of public employees. For item 3.3, which was uh conference with legal counsel regarding initiation of litigation in close session under item 3.3, the board voted by a vote of 5 to 0 to ratify the initiation of an administrating proceeding. More specific information shall be disclosed to any

010person upon inquiry unless it is determined by the district that such disclosure will jeopardize the district's ability to conclude the settlement negotiations to its advantage. Then the next item 3.4 consideration to hear the appeal of a decision in a complaintant against an employee according to board policy 1312.1. The board voted by a vote of five to zero to decide not to hear an appeal of complaint against a district employee pursuant to board policy administrative regulation 1312.1. Now we are ready to proceed to item u the uh expulsions items um 3.5. Madame Chair, I move to approve the stipulated expulsion agreement for student number 01-26. The expulsion term is for the 202526 school year. During the expulsion term, student will attend the opportunity program. >> Second. >> Okay. Trustee Mason has made the motion regarding the

011stipulated agreement for student 01-26 and Trustee Lawrence has uh provided the second. Um, we will move to the vote. We haven't done an expulsion in the in a while. Does the student trustee vote on the expulsion because it was close session? The answer is no. Okay. I'm thinking through the process here. Thank you. Um, so, uh, Trusty McDougall, how do you vote? >> Yes. Trustee Mason. Trusty Mason made it. Trustee Lawrence seconded it. Uh, Trusty McDougall has voted yes. Trusty Lawrence, >> yes. >> Trusty Mason, >> yes. >> Trusty Andi. Trusty Mayo votes yes. We're waiting on the vote from Trustee and Zwee. >> Oh, now I hear you. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, please vote electronically. Okay. All right. We've changed up the agenda, so please be patient with us while we work

012out all of the u situations with it. Um, the second expulsion is for student 2-26. President Madam Chair, I move to approve the expulsion of student number 2-26 for the fall 2025 semester school placement to be determined by student services prior to readmission. Student number two-26 is required to meet the following conditions. Number one, complete 10 hours of counseling to address anger management and conflict resolution. Number two, show evidence of a successful school experience, which includes no violation of school rules and ed code number 48900 or 48915 or district rules and regulations of the new site, maintaining a 2.0 GPA, GPA or better, earning 30 credits, and having a 90% or better attendance rate, and remain away from all Mount Dav Unified School District school campuses and all school activities except the new site. Is

013there a second? >> Second. >> So, we have a motion on um by Trustee Mason with a second from Trusty McDougall regarding the expulsion of student 2-26. Trustee and Zei, how do you vote? Can >> I just say yes because I lost all the audio if you're waiting for me. >> Yes. Thank you. Uh, Trusty Lawrence, >> I vote yes. >> Trusty Mason, >> yes. >> Uh, did I get everybody? Trusty McDougall, >> yes. >> Trusty Mayo votes yes as well. Um, so that motion is adopted. 500. Uh, and we're ready to move on to item uh, the next expulsion, student 3-26 from the Mount Diablo School District. Madam Chair, I move to approve the expulsion of student number 3-26 for the fall 2025 semester school placement to be determined by student services. Prior to

014readmission, student number 3-26 is required to meet the following conditions. Number one, complete 20, excuse me, 10 hours of counseling to address anger management and conflict resolution. Number two, show evidence of a successful school experience, which includes no violation of school rules and ed code 48900 or 48915 or district rules and regulations of the new site, maintaining a 2.0 gradepoint average or better, earning 30 credits, and having a 90% or better attendance rate. Number three, remain away from all Mount Dav Unified School District school campuses and all school activities. Is >> there a second? >> Second. So on the expulsion of student 3-26, Miss Mason has moved and Trustee Lawrence has seconded the motion to uh expel the student. Trustee Mason, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Trustee Lawrence, >> yes. >> Trustee Enzwi,

015>> yes. >> Trustee McDougall, >> yes. The motion is adopted on a 500 vote. Thank you. I believe we are ready to move on to public comment. The public may address the board regarding any item not on the agenda. Um comment will also be allowed on each specific agenda item prior to board action. Speakers will have three minutes of time and they cannot uh share their minutes with another individual. >> Two speakers. Two speakers. Our first speaker this this evening is Jenny Rose Gimenez. Welcome. second grader at Cambridge Elementary. Sorry. Hi. I'm a parent of a second grader at Cambridge Elementary School and I'm here regarding their after school program that this year is sponsored by Boys and Girls Club. Um I'm concerned because our students are are not allowed to leave. We're not allowed

016to pick them up before 5:30. It really feels like they're being held hostage. Um we form really really long lines. If you get there at 5:10, you're first in line, but um you still have to wait another 20 minutes. Last Friday, we got there early to pick them up in 100 degree heat and we still had to wait. Like they won't let us pick our children up early and I have a co-orker who has a student at another school in Clayton and their afterchool program and she can pick them up at any time and I it almost feels like there's this big discrepancy between a low-income school and a higher income school. Um, I understand there it's federally funded and students the time that they're there receive we receive certain amount of funding for them,

017but it truly feels like students from one demographic are treated differently than students from another. Um, we can't pick them up until 5:30 ends up being 5:40. We've got to go home and do homework. By the time we get home at 6 o'clock, it's just really a very unhealthy um afternoon evening with your family trying to rush homework and dinner in bed by in bed by 8:00. Um, I don't recall ever signing an agreement saying that we won't ch pick our children up before 5:30, but you know, there was a line of of 30 people waiting, waiting, waiting. Um, and uh, if you miss or if you pick try to pick them up early more than three times a month, you're out of the program, you're kicked out. Um, I understand that if you have

018a specific class on a specific day, you can pick them up early. But being able to pick your child up 10, 15 minutes early as opposed to waiting in line until that 5:30 um it just really feels demeaning um if you pay attention to the demographic at my school versus other schools that they can pick their kids up at any time. Um I I don't know how to get this to be changed since it's fedally funded and all, but I I just know a lot of parents are really upset. Not everyone would want to come here and voice their concern based on the demographics. But um I just thought I'd let you guys know that we truly feel like our kids are being held hostage. >> Okay. >> Thank you for being an advocate and

019I'm sure that staff will follow up and um address your concerns. >> President Mayo, could you briefly refresh myself and the audience as to uh public comment, the ability of board members to ask questions or what protocol would be versus having staff follow up and and what that might look like. So normally uh board members do not ask questions of the um respondents unless or the individual's speakers. Uh you can ask a quarifying question but you don't engage in a discussion with them and we typically refer the item to the superintendent and staff >> and we're not able to do so because of the Brown Act because it's not an agenda. So I wanted to make sure the public was aware of that and make sure nothing had changed. But thank you for that clarification.

020I'm sure the superintendent and staff will be able to follow up on on the concern. >> You should be chair. >> No, thank you. One step at a time and I'm I'm >> Thank you for reminding me, Mr. Lawrence. Um, the next speaker is John Harrington. >> Welcome, sir. >> Hello, everyone. Good evening, Dr. Clark, board members. My name is John Harrington. I'm the music teacher at Pleasant Hill Middle School. I've been teaching for 24 years in California and four years here in Mount Diablo Unified and I'm looking to finish off my career here. I came here to discuss a grievance that I had to file back in January of 2025 for a rat infestation in my classroom. Uh Central came out and we did an assessment and um there were some things decided on

021and we moved forward. Um but unfortunately they didn't happen throughout the year and through in the summertime. And so Wednesday before school started, I I uh reached out with a quick email to everyone. Hey everyone. Unfortunately, the work didn't get done that we talked about and we're starting next week. Well, after the weekend, I came back Monday morning and I opened up the doors and they decided to refinish the floors. They're looking beautiful. Sealed with polyurethane. The offging was extreme. Can't go in there. It's not safe. Okay. I f I had no emails up until then. My principal had no emails that this was happening. We were displaced for the week. Okay. Um throughout the nine months, I've been told four or five times that it's safe to go back into the room numerous times.

022It wasn't safe. I've been doing this a long time. I know what keeps people safe. And I had firsthand information. Central that was telling me that didn't have the first and information. They weren't coming down. They didn't talk to me. They weren't observing it. sent pictures. The biggest thing I want to bring this back to is that safety is the most important thing. We have to be safe. We can't be super far apart on what safe really is. And we got to have real data, safety data sheets. We got to know what's going on and we have to communicate. That's the other side of it. Safety first. And then we have to communicate with each other paramount to make everything go smooth so we can all feel good and not be feeling anxiety with each

023other. Um, this is very important. I think if we just followed the grievance procedure that's laid out, everything would have been great. Unfortunately, I didn't get the written procedure that was going to happen. I think central or maintenance or operations, I don't know what it's called. Didn't prioritize that for the summer. Didn't get it down. Without that grievance procedure in place, I think things got lost. And so, here we are. And I just wanted you to be aware of that. I want it to go forward. It's looking great, but the room isn't done yet. there's things that haven't been finished and it needs to get finished for the safety of the kids, for the future of the room. Uh, and so I can set up the recording studio there so the kids can really take

024this to a new level. That's really what's going on here. And that's all I want to say. >> Thank you very much. >> Thanks. >> Your comments have it been heard. >> Next item is district organizations. Do we have a speaker card? Miss Ortega, would you like to come forward and make your presentation? Thank you. Get the glasses. Good evening, President Mayo, trustees, newly appointed trustee Lawrence, and school board member Allen, Dr. Clark, and members of the audience. For those who do not know me, my name is Lindo Ortega and I am the president of the Mount Diablo Education Association or Media. I represent about 1,600 members in this district and I just want to welcome all the new and returning media members back to school. I hope I hope everyone had a restful summer

025break. I want to start by acknowledging those who worked on hosting the new staff orientation on Wednesday, July 30th. There were about 175 new media bargaining unit members hired. I want to thank everyone who was involved in the planning and welcoming the new hires to this event. I would like to acknowledge the work the human resource department has done hiring and onboarding all our the new hires. What I would like to see is that all are all all of the new hires are welcomed at their new sites and given all the materials they need to have a successful school year. I would like to encourage all the new hires to please reach out to their site administrator for any missing items they may need or to contact their media site rep if they need our

026assistance. Dr. Clark, I want to thank you for acknowledging the work my media members have done in preparation of this new school year. Many of our members spent hours preparing their classrooms and workstations to welcome their students. Many of these hours were out were outside of my members sight time and I know firsthand how committed our our educators are to their work and to their students. I also like to report that in the last couple of days I was able to visit two of the new remodeled school sites. Yes, they look very nice and I am thankful that the major construction has been completed. However, the classrooms are not yet finished. For example, each of the new classrooms that I visited was missing ceiling tiles. I have witnessed and have been told by the teachers

027that the sound in the classrooms gets so loud that some of the teachers are leaving school every day with headaches. One teacher informed me today that a substitute teacher refuses to sub in her class because of the noise level. As a classroom teacher myself, I know the importance of having students share and engage in conversations in their table groups. However, when the noise is too loud, no one is listening. When I asked about the tiles, I was told that they will be coming in September. So, my question is, why weren't these installed over the summer and before the first day of school? This should be a priority, and our teachers and students shouldn't have to wait. For those who are wondering about the HVAC systems, the adverse working condition submissions have started again. The HVAC

028systems should be up and running before the start of the school year. I've been hearing how hot it is in certain classes and that fans were not ordered. So, I would I would hope that somebody is listening and providing um this the school sites with the needed relief. Our teachers working conditions are our students learning conditions and this is not just a slogan. It is a fact. Students cannot learn if their working conditions are affected. I also want to thank Mr. Harrington John for sharing his experiences at Pleasant Hill. I know he's just left and I have walked his his classroom and and I did see how beautiful the floors look, but there's a lot of work still to be done. Finally, I want to welcome everyone back to school and and I look forward

029to working collaboratively with the district to resolve all these issues. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. We'll move on to item 10.0, recognitions and resolutions. 10.1. Dr. Clark, >> I'm going to call on um Adrien Vargas, CBO, to um to discuss uh item 10.1. >> There you go. >> Great. All right. Thank you, Dr. Clark. So, uh, what we have before you is a resolution to raise the federal micro purchase threshold from 10,000 to 50,000 as allowed by, uh, the federal regulations code section 200.320. And really, this is uh to help streamline particularly our food service uh, department. Um, and again, I I think that's just a reflection also just of price increases, but that's what we're asking for tonight. >> Board members, have any questions? >> No. I will make a motion to

030approve resolution 2526-4, self-certification increase of federal micro purchase threshold. >> Second. So, we have a motion by Trustee Mason with a second by Trustee McDougall. Are there any further questions or comments? Not, we'll move on to the vote. Trustee Barrera or Ray Anna, how do you vote? >> Oh, yes. >> Okay. Um, Trusty McDougall, >> yes. >> Trustee Mason, >> yes. >> Trusty Lawrence, >> yes. >> Trusty Enzwi, >> yes. >> And Trusty Mayo votes yes. Please vote electronically. The motion is adopted on a 5000 vote with support from our student trustee. Congratulations on your first vote. Uh we're ready to move on to 10.2. >> So I'll take this one as well. Uh this is a resolution authorizing investment of monies and basically the delegation of authority and the simplest terms we're updating signatures

031um as well as uh running the resolution through this year. Gustavo found out that we haven't done this in many years and the county treasurer's office is trying to create the process to do it on an annual basis, but it has been a few years since Mount Diablo has done the resolution and updated the signitories. >> Trustees, do you have any questions? Ready for the motion? Madame President, I move that the board uh approve uh resolution 2526-5 authorizing investment of monies in the local agency investment fund for account number 757008. >> I need a second. >> I second. >> Uh we have a motion by trustee Lawrence with a second by trustee Barrera or Rayana. Uh on the item 10.2 two which is investing the monies in the local investment uh local agency investment fund.

032Is there further discussion? Uh trustee Oriana, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Trustee Lawrence, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Trustee Mason, >> yes. >> Trustee McDougall, >> yes. >> Trustee Enzi, >> yes. >> And Trustee Mayo votes yes. Please vote electronically. Item 10.2 is adopted on a 5000 vote with um support from our student trustee, Dr. Clark. >> Yes. This next item um we're going to have Mr. Shehy take both these items, but I do just want to mention last year we had a situation where um a teacher had to be removed from a classroom because they didn't meet the requirements that they had agreed to. And so that's what these next two resolutions are that uh uh Mr. Shehy will explain them in detail, but we're giving them an

033opportunity to either enter a program or complete units or complete things within their credential. And if they don't do it, then we have to do the painful uh removal of them from a from a you know, from a classroom or from a position. We don't want to do that. I know our HR department works extremely closely with these individuals and so I don't know if you were going to bring that up but I just thought I would. >> I don't even know why I need to talk now. You're good. >> No, thank you. Thank you, Dr. Clark. So, the the resolution tonight bringing forward is required by the California Teaching Commission. Uh the the commission replaced the emergency permit with the provisional internship per per uh permit which provides applicants additional time to meet the

034subject uh competency requirements needed to enter an internship program. And the requirements of the CTC is that the the names of these employees are made public, which is why they're here tonight in the resolution. >> Okay. Questions from the board. Ready for the motion? >> Madame President, I move that the board approve item 10.3, the review and potential uh the uh apologies. uh the board resolution 2526-6 for personnel with provisional internship permits. >> There a second. >> I'll second that. We have a motion by Trustee Lawrence with a second by Trustee Mason uh on the item for review and potential approval of the board resolution 2526-6. Um, Trustee Barrera or Rayana, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Okay. Trusty Enzi, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Trustee Mason, >> yes. >> Trusty McDougall,

035>> yes. >> Trusty Lawrence, >> yes. >> And Trusty Mayo votes yes. Also, please pass cast your ballots electronically. >> I'm having trouble. need to look at the resolution. I want to get out of this. So, if I should go back to there, >> the motion is adopted on a 500 vote with uh support from our student trustee, >> Mr. Shehy. >> Yes. Next up, we have the variable term waiverss. And these are these are this is a resolution brought forward tonight to allow employees who meet the minimum requirements and who require additional time to complete all necessary requirements for the appropriate credential which authorizes service for the position assigned. As Dr. Clark mentioned, you know, our HR department, our credential specialists, they work very closely with these individuals, constantly checking in, monitoring, checking progress

036towards meeting the requirements for their credential. And almost all of these are administrators. So it's not just it's not just teachers who go through this, but our administrators go through this as well. So I do just for fairness, I want to point that out. >> Madam President, I move that we approve 10.4 review and potential approval of board resolution 2526-7 for personnel with variable term waiverss. >> A second. So, we have a motion by trustee McDougall with a second by trustee Burella or Ray Orana. Um, further questions? Just uh as a point of clarification, if if I may, I I think uh board member McDougall did the same thing I did. And just to make sure that we're clear on the um that that the resolution would actually not be the review and potential approval,

037but rather it would be just to move the approval. Um if I could Amend the motion. >> Okay. Well, it's not an you're correcting the motion. Otherwise, we do we need to start over and place a new motion on the floor. Okay. >> Everybody understands what we are doing? Okay. Trusty Barrera Rayana, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Okay. Uh, Trusty Mason, >> yes. >> Trusty Lawrence, >> yes. >> Trusty McDougall, >> yes. Trusty Adwi >> yes. >> Trusty Mayo also votes yes. Please vote electronically. >> And the motion is adopted on a 5000 vote with support from our student trustee. Thank you very much. On this on this next item, Madam President, um I just want to acknowledge the fact that our HR department was extremely busy over summer and although we're we're

038just looking at three appointments tonight. I mean, I know we were far busier than that, but I think the HR department has done a really good job in in hiring this year. Um it got a lot of hiring done in the spring and definitely got a lot of hiring done where this board was able to approve those hires in its regular session. So, um Mr. She >> I have a question first. Will we be considering these separately or as a group? >> As a group. >> Thank you. >> So tonight the human resources department is bringing for the board's review and ratification the appointments of three elementary school principles. Alexander Bennett at Monte Gardens Elementary School. Kai Dwire at Silverwood Elementary School. Steve Porus at Ignatio Valley Elementary School. The HR department is very excited

039for these individuals. They've already hit the ground running. I visited them each of them at their sites and it's great to see the energy that they're bringing to their community and we look forward to watching them grow here in Mount Diablo. With that, I leave this here. >> We have Miss Kaidwire is is here tonight. >> All right. Um, may I have a motion? I move to ratify the appointments of the elementary school administrators as listed. >> Second. So, there's a motion by Trustee Mason with a second by Trustee Lawrence to approve the or ratify the personnel appointments for Alexander Bennett at Monty Gardens, Kai Dwire at Silverwood Elementary School, and Steve Poros at Ignatio Valley Elementary School. Um, Trustee Barrera or Rayana, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Trustee Enzi, how do you

040vote? >> Yes. >> Trustee Lawrence, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Trusty Mason, >> yes. >> Trusty Mayo also votes yes. Please cast your electronic ballot. And the motion is adopted on a 500 vote. Congratulations. and please come forward and um say a few words and uh if you have supporters in the audience introduce them >> oh >> good evening uh President Mayo trustees Dr. Clark. Um, my family is not here physically, but emotionally they are. Um, I am really grateful for this opportunity. I was an intern at Conquered High in 2010, and it's a really big deal to be back here 15 years later. I love my Skyhawk community. Um, Aaron and Lauren have been so supportive, as have the uh, tenure elementary principles and my new principal friends. We're like a little

041group. So, um, I really feel like I'm in the right place and that this is just an upgrade for me and I love my little Skyhawks and, uh, I'm excited. >> So, thank you and welcome. >> We did not notice that. >> Thank you. Thank you. I love it. >> Thank you. >> So, we're ready for reports and information. 12.1 is the budget update. Dr. Clark. >> Yes. We have uh, Mr. Vargas, who's going to give us an update uh on the 2526 budget that he has a presentation and we're excited to see what is included. >> I don't I don't know if I'll be as exciting as the introduction of the new principle, but I will try. Um and I don't think I'll keep it under 20 seconds. So, with that, um so I

042have a 2526 budget update. Uh we we adopted our budget before the state or governor Nuomo signed the state enacted budget. Um so with that it was signed on June 27th. Also a couple additional budget trailer bills um that were related to streamlining environmental review for housing and infrastructure development. I don't know if you followed the news, but that was a really big piece of Governor Nuome's uh plan to sign off on that budget. Um it addresses a projected $12 billion deficit using a combination of borrowing, deferred payments, funding shifts, and tapping reserves. And as I like to think, I I wish we could do that, but we can't. Um but the state, that's how they're balancing the budget. So with the enacted budget uh it does maintain the 2.3% cola uh for LCFF and

043other categorical programs. Uh one for example is special ed. So uh our funding for that is also getting the 2.3%. Um the state enacted budget uh approve or also um has the 1.7 billion that I talked about at the adoption for one-time discretionary block grant. School services is projecting that to be at about 8.5 million in one-time funds. Uh the budget also included on um more funding related to the learning recovery emergency block grant. That's an additional 1.5 million for Mount Diablo. Again, this is one-time funds and this can be used uh all the way through the 2728 fiscal year. Uh, additionally, um the proposal related to the uh TK add-on was part of the state enacted budget. Um so that was a big piece for Mount Diablo and and that estimate is roughly between

0442.2 million to 2.6 6 million and that's dependent on our enrollment and then of course how much uh students come to school every day. So this calculation at the low end is roughly about 1,200 students at a 90% attendance ratio. Um and again the higher is just taking a higher enrollment uh which could be about 1300. And then these uh revenue adjustments will be part of our first interim which will be presented all the way in December. Um so just FYI on that. Also the state enacted budget uh had an increase to the expanded learning opportunities program of about 515 million. Um the access threshold was lowered to 55%. uh we we should see some additional funding from this proposal being in the enacted budget. I don't know the exact dollar amount, but we should

045see some additional dollars. Uh 480 million uh for ELA ELE literacy improvements, 300 million for student teacher stipens, and then ongoing and one-time support for school nutrition and other programs listed here. But for school nutrition, we're continuing universal meals for the 2526 year. And I would say the biggest thing why I have it highlighted is we have deferrals built into the 2526 budget of 1.9 billion. So basically right now as it stands, our cash dispersement that we would expect to receive in June of 2026, we will not receive until July of 2026. And the only reason why I point that out is if the state gets into trouble, if you've been around a long time, you would remember deferrals, deficit, revenue limits. My guess is that they will do more deferrals. They will kick this

046down the road. So with that, um, just things to think about again, the state budget, the financial impact of the wildfires. As a reminder, LA County has a tax extension deadline through the middle of October. I think it's the 15th. So, we're not going to get their data till November. So, that could impact the budget. And if I remember the stat, I think they make up 20% of tax receipts. So, that's a big um data point that we will need. Again, enrollment and student absence rates, we're monitoring that. uh the opening enrollment was pretty close to our projection which I believe was 29,496 something like that. Um but we continue to monitor monitor that as well as students coming because of what is happening especially down south. I mean I'm reading all those different articles

047um about ICE being down there. Um, so again, that's a a big thing for us because our budget is built off 93.5% as the attendance ratio. I know in talking with Dr. Agiley, like we are going to take advantage of the new independent study rules um to help bolster our attendance ratios or at least try to mitigate maybe any potential drops in that. Um, and then the other thing is we are not settled with all our bargaining units. So, that will have an impact on our budget. And then, um, just federal policy changes. I mean, about a month ago, I thought I'd be talking about the federal, you know, freeze on funds, but that has been released, so I didn't include this in the budget update, but potentially, I mean, we've been dealing with that

048since February. So, we just don't know what will come um and what the future holds for that. And then just ongoing cost pressures, you know, pension rates, uh, health benefits, and then insurance and utilities. And then moving into the budget calendar. Um, we're doing the budget update, which is pretty close to a budget revise or the 45day revise. We are not changing our budget, so we'll make those changes at the first interim report. Um the fiscal team is working on the year end closing for the 2425 fiscal year. We'll be here September 10th to report out on that. Um and then we'll start the budget development process probably the end of September, early October. Um our first interim report will be presented as I said earlier in December. Our audit report is due to the

049state controllers's office, CDE, and the county office of ed. and then January 2026, we start this process all over again. So with that, I will take any questions. >> Do board members have questions? >> Mr. Lawrence, >> jump in. >> Unfortunately, some things never change. Uh, you know, phrases like may budget revise and and things that are just uh etched into my memory. But I I guess just a couple of the things that that I have a particular concern about are that the state of California's budget is um incredibly cyclical and tied to uh revenues which can be heavily impacted especially if we see tariffs and we see an economic slowdown. Um and so that that is one concern that I have. And then just to you know one thing I'm already hearing is that

050there is a great deal of fear and apprehension in our community and that um you know we as a large diverse district are uh particularly negatively impacted by what what I think is a a ill-sighted uh funding mechanism which is the ADA and so at 93.5 you know I think we we look at that as being aspirational But when people are are scared because that they see that ICE is raiding schools, raiding after school programs, raiding courous and um that people, you know, citizens uh are are scared. People are scared to come to school to show up and um that is something that I have a great deal of concern about. And so I think that the uh challenges facing us in public education have never been greater than they are today. Thank you very

051much, Mr. Vargas. Item 12.2, facilities update, summer projects. >> Yes. Um, we're gonna, well, I'll let uh Mr. Vargas introduced Melanie, but just um you know, there was so much going on this summer and it really was um it was really seamless in some places. It was um just really want to take hats off to Melanie and her team and working with all the contractors and different folks who were who were here on the district. Um the the three schools that received the refresh was incredibly awesome. I think that that all three of those schools um deserved it and I believe that um those students and families are very very appreciative and um we could not be happier. But that was not the only thing that was taking place this summer. And so Melanie is

052going to go into detail about that and just really want to acknowledge her and thank her. um she takes a she takes a lot of unnecessary criticism um for doing the work that she does and I want to applaud her for um doing a position that is primarily held by men and she is um you know being a role model for people to say if you work hard and you um stick with it then regardless of gender or things like that that you can achieve. So very pleased with the work that Melanie's been doing and and I think this summer was a an example of of that work. So I don't know what your presentation is going to say but hopefully Okay, good. Hopefully you back up all the stuff I said. Thank you. >>

053So there's not much for me to add. I I will say the same like I you know going to the three school openings was just I mean I I'm on on CCD on a lot of different emails and to to go to Rio Vista first and I had Dr. Clark with me across the street and we were getting out of our cars to walk over and I was there a year ago and that it was a big transformation from a year ago and um just to see you know just to see Rio Vista the first as the first one and um and then just to see MDE like I remember when that was just stripped and that front office was there was nothing in it but studs and then you see what the product was

054or what you know became of it. And yes, there are things still to do at each of those sites, but just to see the overall, you know, completion of work, I I commend Melanie, like I've been there and try to be there along the way, but just to see the end product of those three sites and um you know what the Measure J bond funds went towards. So with that, I have Melanie Coslo to talk about that and as well as some other projects that we did over the summer, but I just want to commend Melanie on, you know, following through on the work. It's not easy. Um, and you know, I think it was a really great job. So, thank you. >> 20 seconds. Uh, Madame President, members of the board, Dr. Clark, Adrian,

055thank you for the kind words, both of you. Um it is uh a lot of responsibility but I get up every day excited to come to work and excited to uh support the district and all the programs that our district has to offer to our community. Um so I will be brief. It's a lot of slides, a lot of information. Um but I want to just highlight some of the work. So one of the divisions or departments that fits under uh my authority is our facility construction department. The majority of that is bond funded projects, but we also have other facility funds and other funding things. Um, obviously Dr. Clark and Adrian both touched on the elementary modernization projects. So, this was um three refresh major refresh projects of sites, you know, that that are

05660 70 years old. Um and while the structures themselves have remained the same, we created um new interior spaces as you walk through those campuses, whether it be on the outside and you see the new landscape and the new um entry points. Um but but really walking into these classrooms, uh the new flooring, the new um ceilings, paint, um we replaced some HVAC equipment where it was aged out. We did some um maintenance work on some others. We're still doing some maintenance work there. Um uh we have scope, some of it is still left to be done, but new doors, tackboards, whiteboards, casework, all new furniture, really that creation of the 21st century classroom. Um that was, you know, the vision for our district. Um we also upgraded our emergency response system. So the old,

057you know, clock and speaker are now an upgraded system that sits on our technology network. We really partnered with our IT department. And so all of those services can be used in, you know, in response to dealing with an unfortunate emergency if we had one at our one of our campuses. um electrical and data infrastructure enhancements and then just you know upgrading our technology having usable functionable Wi-Fi in every single learning space um was a plan from our technology department's long-term plan and together um with my colleagues from the IT department we have created that at these three campuses. So, just very quickly, these are pictures from our kickoff day. This is Mount Diablo Elementary. Um, we couldn't do it without the support of our taxpayers. And so, we do have some signage there. Um,

058our staff and community down in the bottom left, some of our littlest students who were on site that day walking across um, the campus. But just really, this is just the vision of taking our existing spaces and what we've created. Um these are pictures at Meadow Homes. Um very very very large community turnout over there. That's where we finished our day last Tuesday and that was just very exciting. Um working with our site administrator there. We uh coordinated a mural going up. And so I can't take the responsibility for that bottom right photo there with the meadow homes, but it was all just strategically planned so that we could um turn that over all at the same time to the communities and just all the color matching and all of these um different spaces that

059we have. And then this is Rio Vista Elementary School. One of the things that um some of you may have spoken with me about or heard me say before, the community of Bayoint when it was originally built compared to what it is now was a little bit different. Most of our schools in the Bayoint community are, you know, maybe walking communities or they were originally walking communities and now they're commuting communities. And so we didn't have a safe drop off space at Rio Vista for the amount of families that come through there and drop off and also pick up their kids. And so we've created um a very exciting new entry point. I was actually with Janice um our lovely principal out at Rio Vista this afternoon and she just said you know one week

060in it is amazing to see how excited these families are to be able to pull through drop their kids off and also the same on the return um instead of parking you know in an unsafe busy street. Um so those are just some of the pictures there. Um, and again, we just want to say that like without the community support of our 2018 general obligation bond, none of this work and some of the other work that we've completed um could be possible. But we're really excited for this. Um, moving on. Uh, unfortunately I don't have any pretty pictures of our other site technology infrastructure. Most of that happens between the walls in the ceilings, that sort of thing. Um but uh going along with the technology infrastructure that we did completed our refresh projects, we

061also have sites that are getting just the technology upgrade. So currently we are at Willow Creek finishing out that project. We are at LMA Vista. Um and so it is LMA Vista Adult Center, but as we know it houses many district programs. Um we are out at Northgate High School, Ren Avenue. Um and then we just started Heirs Elementary School. Coming up is going to be Gregory Gardens which is right at the kickoff point the Dent Center to later um this evening we are going to see a bid being or a contract being brought forward for um our technology infrastructure here. Later this fall we'll see central services which houses the rest of our operational. So, my department maintenance operations and facilities, my colleague, um, Elizabeth's purchasing and warehouse department, Chris Lee's transportation department, and

062Alexandra Emtt's food and nutrition services. We all sit over there and we will be getting the technology upgrade. Um, and that will just allow us to better serve all the programs within the district. And then future plans. U Matt um Russo, our IT um director, and that is not his correct title, but you know who I mean. Um uh we are working on plans uh for Hidden Valley and Sun Terrace as well. Um additional projects. So some of these u these are these are projects that were not bond funded but funded through other facility funds. Um, so we did roofing replacements at Heirs Elementary, Delta View, Shadelland, Sunrise, and Valley View. Um, I think we have somewhere about five uh four five four or five uh schools left and then we can say the entire

063district has new roofing. Um, we did an interior project. I have a couple interior painting project at Northgate. Uh, Northgate is an interesting campus since we were there for the technology infrastructure project. It was the right time to do a a refresh. We know that with future modernization, the actual structure of Northgate probably won't change too much. We'll have some internal changes um if we're allowed in the future, but just really it was the right time to do a muchneeded deferred maintenance project by painting. Uh we didn't do all the spaces, but we did all the main um hallways and and entry locations. um we worked with um uh our food and nutrition uh department to support her food service improvement painting. And so we did paint out at Rio Vista um and Meadow Homes.

064Um we have Northgates uh finalizing that one over there this coming weekend. Um and then um with Schneider Electric and our controls project just finalizing those last little bits um of our dashboard programming and making sure that our emergency response program um meaning let's say we have an event over at the Martinez um whatever that is over there. Sorry >> uh at Hidden Valley and we needed to shut that you know system down making sure that all of those functions are working. Um, and then you know all of this work took place during summer. And when we say summer, sometimes we stretch it a little bit. Started in early spring, but the majority of the work took place over summer. And so, um, along with just some paving improvements at a few sites, um, some

065utility repairs, much much much needed for utility repairs, and then just some annual things like gym floor refinishing, um, uh, additional HVAC replacements, all the things listed, um, including a very exciting Sequoa Elementary playground upgrade that we did in collaboration with the parent group out there. Um we did somewhere around $33 million in construction over this last summer, a little bit of an extended summer. And so that's a lot for our our district um in the recent years. And so um I couldn't do it without all those that support me. Um but I will just say I'm very proud of what we've brought forward in the district this summer. Um and I couldn't uh let the uh presentation go by without just touching on my other division. So, our maintenance department right now, we are

066in the middle of our Williams County inspections. So, we have 23 inspections happening this week. Um, and so my custodial and operations team is heading the actual inspections to make sure that we're everywhere the inspector needs us to be. Um, but when you hear us talk about our maintenance department um, uh, priorities, it's based on the inspections that we undergo um, which are several throughout the year. Williams inspections, fit inspections, county uh fire protection inspections, and so sometimes um we have to say no to some other site requested things. We've set up a new procedure where sites can reach out to us and and and we can prioritize things a little bit better, but we really have to address those items that are flagged in these inspections. And I think the way that we're doing

067things this year um we're going to be able to see our response time much um uh quicker and greater so that next year we don't have as many deficiencies. Um we worked on uh TKK playground compliance. Um we are just about done. Uh we had 26 I think um kinder what used to be kindergarten play structures. They are now TKK. Uh that needed compliance. It was supposed to be less than that. They did another code change in January, so we add a few more. So, 16 of the 26 are complete. We should be uh finished being in compliance in about a week and a half. And so, I've um I'm in communication with Lauren and Aaron and all of our elementary principles so they know where they are on that. Um and then, you know,

068just always making in improvements to the way that we communicate and receive requests from our school sites. uh landscape division. We have a wonderful newer, he's been here just a year, our maintenance uh sorry, landscape manager. Um the vision that he has for the landscape department and really taking that entry point beautifification and work backwards uh or work towards the back um is really the initiative that he has and he's been doing a lot of training with his um staff and then obviously managing exterior pests and those sort of things. So, we'll be seeing a lot more curb appeal projects um coming forward as well as you know just dealing with the amount of property that we have. And then custodial operations, we took it back to the basics. We did a very large training

069the day after school released right before um summer school started and we emphasized on full cleaning what summer deep clean is actually supposed to be. um so that across all of our sites we could provide better care. Um and then just more of like a co a holistic approach so that when teachers returned to their classrooms they could feel you know they could see the difference. It wasn't just that we had shiny floors but like from the top to the bottom we were clean and we have a plan in place to be able to continue that through the year. Uh low-level maintenance training. Um we have so many summer programs whether it be our own program summer school extended learning um our um our cares program our community users that offer summer camps I think

070besides the couple schools that I closed for construction we had two schools that did not have program with summer being so short it's a lot of work for our custodial department to be able to clean in sometimes three weeks. Um, and so I'm really proud of the work that's happening there. Um, we are still and always dealing with a hiring um, you know, just um, a vacancy issue within the custodial department. We're working very closely with our partners in HR and I'm so pleased with the way that that is going. Um, but it seems like every time we get a sub, they become permanent and we need more subs. So, we're just constantly working on that and that's what we accomplished this summer. Any questions? Great. >> Congratulations. Trustees, do you have comments or questions?

071It is an amazing list and and thank you to you and to all your team, but especially the folks who, you know, this was not quite as hot a summer, but still our summers are very hot and there are people out there working in the underneath the hot sun and the amount of physical labor and what they do on behalf of our students and our community is just very much appreciated. I just wanted to say when I was looking at your report online, I remembered back to when we were looking at Measure J and we went out to all the schools and people had their wish list and I I was impressed with we heard improved drop off which I saw improved curb appeal which I've seen lighting, air conditioning. It seems like we're hitting

072a technology. We are hitting all of those things. Unfortunately, we can't do all of the schools at one time, but it's good to see that we're moving forward on that plan that we set up some time ago and and starting to be able to check things off the list. And I'll just tell you that the reason there was no room for a drop off at Riverview back in the day is because other than Shoreacres, there was nothing but empty fields all around it. So, and it was only meant for seventh and eighth graders. So, it needed to be brought up to our elementary standards. So, thank you for that. the uh work has been amazing and uh I do want to give a call out in addition to everyone that was working on projects to

073the landscaping department because I have seen uh the results of their efforts um in our Pleasant Hill schools as I'm driving through the community and you are correct the working from the curb into the campus uh has made an effect on the um what the beautifification of our front of our schools and I've also observed our um pickup trucks hauling the uh material away including uh trees that have been pruned. So um special thanks to all of them. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> I just want to also echo the superintendent's comments of Miss Coslo. It's been a pleasure to see over the years you taking on increasing responsibility and the tremendous job that you have done and and the heights with which you have led your department. It's very much appreciated. >> So,

074we're ready for board member reports. Um, Trusty McDougall, would you like to go first? I'm sure the teachers and students and maintenance workers and the personnel even in administration think that that summer break was too short. Um I remember fondly the Memorial Day to Labor Day breaks we used to have back in the 50s and 60s and 70s. That's kind of revealing my age, but uh that's we used to have three months. And I know that it's hard to do all those maintenance projects at the schools when you've got about two months or less to do it. And I was finally able to get a week-l long trip into Minnesota where I went uh canoeing in the Boundary Waters area, which was most enjoyable. Then back here on the 23rd of July, I attended the

075welcome back session for the Mount Diablo uh administrators at Mount Diablo High School. very educational and I appreciate the chance to attend that. On the 4th of August, we were here voting for Brian to be our our replacement. Glad to have you on board, Brian. >> Thank you. >> And uh I think we drew a well-qualified group of individuals. So, I think that was a a compliment to what we're trying to do here. And we and we have a highly qualified replacement. And then on the 5th of August, I attended this reopening of the three elementary schools, um, at least two of them, Mount Diablo and Meadow Homes, and was very impressed with the remodeling work. It's been mentioned already how extensive it was, and I have to commend them and the contractors because they

076did an excellent job on really turning around schools that look well, they were 70-year-old schools and so now they're looking like modern schools. So, that was really an accomplishment. Uh, finally, I do want to mention that um I'm going to re resume my town halls uh in September September 2nd on Tuesday from 5 to 6:00 p.m. It will be via Zoom. So, there will be information coming out on that later. Thank you. >> Thank you. Trusty and Zei, would you like to share something with us? >> I will you all till I'm back in person in a couple weeks. Okay, thank you. Uh, Trusty Mason, >> I was able to attend the Rio Vista ribbon cutting and the um Monty Gardens and I was shocked to see they were kind of the same color. Never

077dawned on me before, but that was I thought, "Oh, good. Maybe we saved on paint on that." At least it was it was very nice. Um, families were very excited. Looked very good. Um, I went to Rio Vista's back to school night last night. It was packed. The parents are very excited about the new school and looking forward to um getting their kids on schedule again. And I also went to the CAC meeting last night where Dr. Gily gave a presentation I believe called dial it in where it was very informative for the parents. Um I hope a lot were listening. There wasn't a lot there, but hopefully a lot listening online about how important it is when you're having an issue at the school that you start at the right place because if you

078don't, you often get frustrated. So, she kind of walked them through if this is your issue, here's who you're going to want to start with, whether it's going to be your classroom teacher or the office manager, whatever your problem needed to be, she was able to direct uh parents to where they want would go to get the answers that they would want to make their year smoother. Um the parents there all seem like they're happy and have their kids back in school and uh do very um anxious to move on with the school year. And the first day of school I visited the five re um schools in Baypoint and the second day I visited the five schools at Unconquered and I will be dropping in at a school in your area soon. So that's

079it for me. >> Thank you. Ambitious as always. Uh, Trusty Banana, I apologize. Oriana, would you like to make a comment? >> Uh, yes. I would just like to say congratulations for like a first week of school, first uh new year 2025, 2026. I also wanted to talk about restarting the student advisory committee to highlight our students voices as a integral part of our community, as our district. >> Okay. Thank you, Trusty Lawrence. Yes, thank you for the opportunity to reintroduce myself. Uh it is nice to be back. Um and so I was uh fortunate to have the opportunity to join uh several of the other fellow board members. Uh at one of the reopenings I was able to make it to Meadow Homes um which was incredibly impressive. Um the first day of school,

080I had the opportunity to uh tour uh Unacio Valley High School and Northgate High School with uh principles and and admins from those schools and lots of excitement. I'm sure nothing compared to what was happening at Conquered High, but uh nonetheless, they are doing their best. Um lots of great things happening there. And then um dur during the report on facilities, just something that hit me when it came to pest control. I think my mo probably one of my most memorable moments was when we learned about the uses of coyote urine uh to chase off pests. Um and and so I just want to something that's changed during my time on the board. By far the most interesting, challenging, and entertaining uh speaker was someone who I was fortunate enough over the time to I

081I did not know him well, but to to develop a friendship with uh Willie Mims. And uh it saddens me that he will no longer he is no longer with us and and will no longer be here. But his spirit remains. Uh but that was just something that struck me and and brought a smile to my face as I thought of Willie Nims uh during that. And so I'm uh incredibly excited to be back here with you and and to continue the the work um that's happening on behalf of our students. So thank you. >> Well, mere fact that you're here, so he's still here. >> Yes. um he would be very proud of our three schools that were mo in the modernization program, but he would chide us about getting busy and modernizing all

082the remainder sites. >> Um so, um I'll share a few things that I was able to accomplish. Uh July 10th, I attended the special meeting called by the chair for the major J community bond oversight meeting that was held here at Dent Center. Uh July 17th, I participated in the budget perspectives workshop on the budget act sponsored by capital advisors CSBA and AXA. Even though it was online, it was very informative and um uh it's also um what do I want to say? There's always a little bit of humor uh thrown in with the presentations as the presenters move along. Um but it was very serious because of the status of the budget. the um I was also attended the welcome back uh for the school administrators at Mount Diablo High School. And um as

083always, I am so proud of Mount Diablo High School's custodian crew because the um multi-use room floor, you can see your face in. And every time I have been in that multi-use room, it's been the same way. So, congratulations to the custodial crew that works out at Mount Diablo High School. On July 24th, Miss Mason and I attended the uh final 2025 graduation ceremony at Conquered High School. We congratulated and recognized 44 additional uh graduates from all of our high schools and um that's amazing. So, thank you for the staff that support the students to achie make that achievement and their families too. On July 30th, we had the new teacher orientation and it was um media and the district did a great job in welcoming all of the um um new teachers and Northgate

084was um beautifully um clean and welcoming for everyone that attended the uh on July 31st I attended the extended learning summer internship recognition coordinator ated by Mount Diablo High School Career Pathways and they we celebrated 72 interns that uh were involved in work experiences projects this summer and we recognized um 26 intern hosts. So we I want to thank the hosts who welcomed our students and I think whenever we have interns in our programs, not only do we learn as adults, but the students learn as well. And so thank you to Miss Fontineella for working on that for our students this summer. Um thank you Miss Mason for attending the special education community advisory committee meeting. I um reviewed the um PowerPoint that's posted on the website about who to call for what for which

085concern. So if you go to the special ed um special education department and then click on the community advisory committee, you can see the PowerPoint that's posted there and it's excellent. Um and then uh on August 14th, which is tomorrow night at 5:00, there will be a special meeting called by the chair for the major J community bond oversight committee meeting and it will be here held here in this room. And I just wanted to welcome everybody. I skipped that part in my comments, but as we begin this school year, I want to recommmit myself to these phrases. Character matters. Integrity matters. Humility matters. Decency matters. Kindness matters. Morality matters. And humanity matter because our children are watching. So, Dr. Clark, >> well said. >> Thank you. So, I'm just extremely excited um for the

086start of school. We've had an a very smooth opening um welcoming close to 29,000 students, 55 schools, and um and it has been um it's always incredible just this time of year to to start school and to start um whether it's TK students or seniors in high school or students entering middle school. It is just such a gift and um and I'm honored and and thankful to be able to work with young people as a career for the past plus 30 years. Um just just before I before I start my presentation and it's a short presentation I do just want to um acknowledge how important it is the work that we do and how um instead of complaining and you know and just talking about you know having kind of this negative lens on things

087to have that positive lens. Um, we lost a student over the weekend. Um, um, a a uh, high school student. And I won't go into I won't go into detail, but it just reminds us just how um, how important our work is with our students. And we, you know, really need to give our very best to them each and every day. And, um, and it just even commits me more to this work. and and um so just wanted to wanted to um acknowledge that and acknowledge the family and and our student community and staff community who's who's grieving now. So um we we have our LCAP goals here and um and again I'm not going to go over them all during my report. I'm going to highlight uh goal three, but um you're going to

088hear more and more about these goals as we as we go through this year because this really is where our our work is centered. So again, goal one really focuses on on the students on on making sure all of our students receive what they need to be successful in uh both college and career. And then number two is really about the adults in our system and making sure that they understand their mission is to create a safe and welcoming environment um for all students and to be highly qualified, highly trained. And I think um kind of echoing, you know, what you just committed to, President Mayo, about you know, just integrity and doing the right thing. So that's really about our staff. Number three is about really partnering with our families and communities, um students,

089community, uh families. That's that's who we are here to serve. We're not here to serve, you know, our adults or me or anything like that. We're here to serve our our students and families. Um and when we when we have students who have historically um you know not performed to the level that that they expect um again not blaming not pointing fingers but really just looking in the mirror as adults who are getting paid. What can we do to fix this? And one of the things is setting tangible goals to be able to um provide those students with high high expectations but the support to get to where they want to go to. So that's really what what goal four focuses on. And goal five is is is two very very special places in in

090our district. You know, Crossroads is is one of is the only school in Contraosta County where um teen mothers can attend and and still stay on track for graduating. And I'm extremely proud on that alone, which separates Mount Diablo from every other district in the county that we provide our students that service. but then also just the amazing work that's been done at at Olympic High School. And um and again, I always talk about all of our continuation schools being state model continuation schools. Something we're very very proud of. We're still working with CCE because we still have students who have historically not met the the expectations that we have for them. And so we're going to continue that work and we're going to continue it um authentically and putting our all of our efforts

091into it until we are able to raise the bar for all of our students. So this is the this is the goal that we're trying to get to. Um I don't care if you're a TKER, a middle schooler, or a senior. Um you know, we're trying to get to this goal. And and I love these pictures from College Now because they really pull together um students from all of our schools who are basically saying, "I want to try something different." And I'm just always amazed by their bravery when it's really hard for for high school students to kind of step outside of the group and to do things, you know, without just kind of following everyone else or trying to, you know, just fit in. I I I just I'm always amazed by these students.

092So, I wanted to start with with that picture, our enrollment center. Um, this is a picture of our enrollment center. You know, a few years back, um, as we were doing enrollment at 55 different sites and having families go through 55 different processes and 55 different experiences, we really saw it important to um to to bring um to bring those that system into one place. And so um you know um Aurelia Aurelia Busousamechi is our is our new um director of student services around enrollment services and um and the the enrollment center has been hopping for um all summer really but like for the last couple weeks it's as if you know people thought they were back in the 50s and 60s and thought school started after Labor Day and then realized oh no it's

093starting now. So, we have all these uh all these families lining up, tons of families coming in and um and registering and um and again, I don't have the picture, but there's another picture of our of our enrollment team. And so, you take your best and brightest and most welcoming people and you put them all in a center and then that's the first experience that our that our students and families um experience as they as they enroll in our district. And so, um, just really wanted to wanted to call, um, attention to that. I also just wanted to, um, just again in the spirit of Mount Diablo, you know, our our support office for access and resources, you know, these are, you know, just all the resources that are that are available for families. This

094is a very um, you know, all of our families, every, you know, we have 29,000 students. every experience is different and and all have different needs and um and so we can't just take this on with a one-sizefits-all approach. And so um so in this particular department, they really um you know interact with the community and interact with our families to try to get families what they need and basics that many of us take for granted. But on the right there is a picture of high school girl tops of clothing or high school girls tops again boys tops things like that. There's bins and bins of clothes lightly used or new clothes donated because you know we want every student to have their their their basics and um and again we don't do this with

095any with any shame. We're very proud about this and families are very proud but we're willing to lend a helping hand. And I think that that really builds on the um on the spirit of Mount Diablo and why I'm so proud to um to to be a part of this team and this organization. So, and there's there's tons of pictures. Um if if you haven't had a chance to go by the SOAR office, I would highly recommend um going by there. Um you know, we we talked about it earlier. Um you know, our students have to be safe first and foremost before we can do anything else. Um you know, every school, every building has a safety plan. Um, you know, we did it a year or two back and so, you know, we do

096it in cycles, but we will be doing active shooter training. We've done this for all of our administrators. We've opened it up for um our communities at times and we'll continue that. Um, we have online um say something um uh say something access for our for our high school students. you know, as um as we look at school shootings that unfortunately take place regularly in this country, the majority of those shootings, someone knew about it ahead of time. And so, this is a system that we have that has been that has actually uncovered either students crying out for help or or helped us uh um you know uh prevent some violence from happening at our schools. And so we have the say something app um on our websites uh targeted for our our upper grade

097students. Um, we have counselors at at every school and I know, you know, we can get into case size and and things like that, but we do have counselors and in the world of budget cuts, hopefully we can continue to keep them. Um, but they do they do amazing works and we have counselors who wear all sorts of different hats, whether it's college and career, whether it's academic counselors, whether it's um, you know, social emotional counselors, um, all sorts of things. Every high school and now moving into the middle schools, we have wellness rooms. Um, and so those are places where students can go to get support and just um, deal with some of the stresses of being a young person in today's world, which all of our students go through something at one time

098during their experience. And so here's a room for that. Our our yonder pouches, which you know rolled out at Olympic High School and then spread to Prospect and then was picked up by Mount Diablo and YV, um, is now at at College Park, Northgate and and Conquered High. Um, and again, this is for safety, not physical safety, but mental safety. The amount of bullying, the amount of of body image issues, the amount of social media, like the fear of missing out, the fear of presenting that everything is fine in life when it's not. Those are things that we're looking to curb and to um, you know, we give this powerful tool to our students with no training, no nothing. And then um we have adults who can't even handle social media. And then we expect

099our students to be able to handle social media and all the challenges with um with high school. So So we're we're excited about the yonder pouches. Melanie brought up earlier about cameras and safety features. And so we do, you know, we do have cameras around our district. You know, cameras outside, cameras in the lobbies, cameras in offices, things like that. We do not have cameras in bathrooms. We may have them outside the bathroom so we can monitor who's going in and out. But, um, our district is equipped with with cameras. That is a safety feature. Um, not only student safety and adult safety, but also to protect our property and to be able to do investigation. And we have fences and locks. We have um partnerships with local law enforcement. I had um a meeting

100this morning with um with two of our conquered police officers who support us at our schools and um and they're just two incredibly um incredible individuals who are very committed to their work and very committed to Mount Diablo and our and our students. Um and and we also have that all around. When first day of school, I was at Bair doing pickup duty and there were two uh county sheriffs who were just stopping by to welcome and so the three of us did drop off duty at Bair. Um and it was it was fun, right? And so um so anyway, just just great great relationships with them. And then you communication, you know, we we do communicate regularly with our communities. Um it's my expectations that our our principles when appropriate that they will send

101out messages that are um that are specific to their schools, stranger danger, a threat that maybe came in or a sickness that's out there or something. But then if it's going to cover multiple schools or multiple areas, then I'll send that out or we'll do that centrally here. But communication really is key. And then through all of this, relationships. Relationships are so important that we need to have. That's how we keep everyone safe is knowing like this person has changed. And it can even be it can even be like employees, right? Someone's going through a divorce, someone's being abused, someone's going through a substance issue or something like that. To see a change in that person, then that can we can seek help. Same with our students, same with our families. So relationships really is

102the thing that pulls all of that together. None of those work in isolation, but the but when you start combining those those processes and and practices, then you create that that safe environment. So, just wanted to touch on that. If you haven't already, um you know, read our Friday letter. I call it um you know, telling our story. We're not going to let um other people who don't know what's going on in our schools tell our story or we're not going to um you know let people say a narrative about our schools that's not true. So in the Friday letter we highlight our students, we highlight our faculty and staff. We highlight highlight our communities and things that are taking place. So I would just really encourage folks to um to read our Friday letter.

103Our Friday letter is shared nationally and so folks from all over the country read our Friday letter and I get messages over and over about the things that we're doing and they want information about things that are happening here in in Mount Diablo. As I said, I was going to talk about LCAP 3 really about that family and community partnerships. And so, um, if you're a principal and you're and you're handy with the, um, with the recording, just record the next five minutes and then share this with your families because this is what it means to be a partner with your community. And parents ask all the time, how can I get involved? How can I do this and that? So, what I have to say goes to every single parent, every single adult who's

104invested in our students. We have 29,000 students. So, there's at least 60,000 adults that care about those students. And I think actually that number could be multiplied. Any one of those people can get involved in the many opportunities that we have. So whether it is our community advisory committee that mainly um works with our students with special needs that covers all all cities, all socioeconomic levels, all races, all genders, everything. Students learn differently in that area. So this is an area where you can get um you can be a part of a team uh get that support and be a part of that committee. um the our our district English uh language advisory committee, DAC, that's something that um is vibrant and we want representatives from every single school. Um you know, we're so fortunate

105to have so many different languages spoke in our district and and this is a way to learn about um how students learn, what policies are there, what are we doing in our classrooms to help students um um assimilate to English and and basically not give up their their home language and and things of that nature. parent advisory committee. Although we take representatives from every school, all of these meetings, every single thing that I'm talking about is open to the public, is open to everybody. So even if you aren't on the parent advisory committee, you can come to the parent advisory committee and hear from myself or hear from our chief academic officer, Samantha Allen. We bring in different guests to come speak about school district operations and business. But those are three wonderful things to

106get involved with at the site level. our African-American parent advisory council, our APAC, that's something that started a couple years ago as a result of our disproportionality within our district. So, it's really just empowering our African-American families and parents who historically have not felt included. So, this is a way where where they can um you know um get information about the schools and then join our regular parent groups at at um at campuses and and things to that nature. But um our parent teacher associations, we have extremely um strong PTAs throughout the district. There's not a PTA at every school, but there's some sort of parent organization, but PTA is a is a great organization with a long history and it's vibrant in our district. And then you have parent teacher organizations which are called

107PTO's. Those are those are other parent groups. And again, you can you can be an officer in these groups. You can just go to the meeting or you can just read the minutes. All of that is partnering with the district. It it can be that little. And I understand people are working full-time jobs, people are stay-at-home parents, people are commuting or whatever. Whatever your situation is, there's something that you can that you can be a part of on on this list here. Um, school site councils. School site councils is a great way to learn about the operations of a school. You are in charge of a budget in on school site council and you have input. They may not do everything that you may want or ask or or but you at least are part

108of the process. So, I would highly highly recommend getting involved in any of these um any of these opportunities. And this is what family and community partnership looks like. Then district level budget advisory committees. If you're interested on how our budget works or want to get information or learn the complications of of school district funding, that's a great way. Citizens bond oversight committee. I think we we heard we have a meeting tomorrow. So, this is a way people can come. It's a public meeting. Even if you're not on it, you can come. But we are recruiting and and accepting applications because many of our folks their term is terming out. And so, we're looking for other people to join and to be involved. A lot of these things meet uh monthly or quarterly. Um so,

109again, we have something where it really could fit for for everyone. And then at the school side also, they have athletic boosters. We have our we have our Mount Diablo Education Foundation that does great work. Um we have our Mount Diablo Music Education Foundation and then different schools have visual and performing art boosters as well. It goes on or you may want to come and work for the district. At all of our graduations this year, I invited our students to um you know after doing whatever they do after graduation, if they want to come back to the district, we have a place for them. So I'm now saying this to our parents, to our communities, to our relatives and things like that. Come in district level employment. It may be uh working in business services.

110It may be working in ed services, human resources, special education, student services. All of those have positions that are open. They all don't necessarily require a college degree or or a teaching credential. So there's something something for everybody. or school site in employment, whether working in the cafeteria, being a coach, um being a special education assistant, you know, working with our students who learn differently, who you know, who again, you can go in there and work three to six hours with kids. What a great way to be a part of of your community. You could be a teacher, a volunteer, yard supervisor. So, those are those are just so many things that we offer in our district to partner with parents. It's not just sending them out information, but it's actually creating these spaces where

111parent input and and community input is needed. We are asking for it. We do so much in this district. Um and and we we can't just do it alone. We need our communities to to uh to join. I took I got this picture. Um this is Mount Diablo High uh uh women's girls across country. um you know they uh I know they um over the past few years they've had a a a challenge keeping some of their sports going and and all of our school to do in particular areas. But I just wanted to highlight this the the coach stepped up Marcy Torres. She's a counselor in the district. She does extra stuff all the time without asking for anything. Just doing it because it's the right thing. and there was a need at Mount

112Diablo and she stepped up to be the coach and um because not just because we're under a a title n um you know title n agreement um we want all of our athletes male and female to to be able to participate and so as we are implementing new title n um guidance for all of our high schools um this was just a a a a picture that kind of summarizes it because you have an employee employee who already has a full day but sees a need and she's stepping up to meet that need. You have students who are doing something productive and healthy um that's going to help them and they're doing it on a on a brand new track at our at our signature high school. So, I just thought it was a picture

113if you just glance at it, it may not mean much, but when you allow me 30 seconds to tell the story about the picture, it really it really comes to life. So, um, so that is my that is my presentation. But again, um really looking forward to this school year. We're only we're only a week in and already just just things are happening and um um you know appreciative of this board. We're going to do some wonderful things this year and um and and again I said you know I said years back when I came that this was going to be a destination district. It is a model throughout the state and it is known nationally for the work that we're doing for our students. So, thank you. Any questions? I'd be happy to answer.

114>> My only comment is you have students like me that just won't ever go away. >> We don't mind. Thank you, President The list sorry the items listed on the consent agenda are considered routine and will be approved or adopted by a single motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items. However, any item may be removed from the consent agenda upon the request of any board member and acted upon separately. So trustees are does anyone wish to pull an item? >> I would request to pull items 15.23 and 15.25. So Trusty Lawrence is requested to pull and item 1525. We ready to make a motion? >> I would make a motion that we approve the consent agenda with the removal of 15.23 and 15.25. >> Second. So we have a motion by trustee

115Mason with a second by trustee Lawrence on the approval of the consent agenda except for 1523 and 1525 which will be considered separately. Trusty Barrera or Rayana, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Trusty Edwe, how do you vote? >> Well, you came in just in time. Uh yes. Trusty Lawrence, >> yes. >> Trusty McDougall, >> yes. >> Trusty Mason, >> yes. >> And Trusty Mayo also votes yes. Please vote electronically. And it takes a moment for our st Oh, they're quick. The consent agenda is adopted as presented on a 5000 vote with student support with the exception of two items that will be considered separately. So it was 1523 and 1525. They will have new numbers now. 161 So, um, traditionally when a board member pulls an item, um, they make their

116comments about the topic and, uh, then we determine, um, how we're going to proceed. Yep. >> Mr. Lawrence. >> Um, so, first I want to thank, uh, Mr. Joffy for stepping forward to be a uh new member of the uh budget advisory committee and uh the superintendent had touched upon it but I just wanted to highlight the importance of these committees and that this is a fantastic opportunity uh to serve to better understand the funding mechanisms for our community and uh I believe that we are going to continually need uh people to help staff our committees and so just wanted to take a moment to highlight this and and thank Mr. Joffy for stepping forward and then I'd be happy to make a motion if there's no uh so I would uh make a motion

117uh to approve uh the nomination of Mark Joffy to the budget advisory committee. >> I'll second that. So, we have a motion by Trustee Lawrence with the second by Trustee McDougall um on the motion to approve a new member to the budget advisory committee. Uh Trusty Barrerero Reo Herana, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Um Trustee Mason, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Trustee Lawrence, >> yes. >> Trusty McDougall, >> yes. Trustee Enzi, >> yes. >> Trusty Mayo also votes yes. Um, please vote electronically. And the motion is adopted on a 5000 vote with support from the student board member and um the item was approval of a new member to the budget advisory committee. Uh, item 1525, Mr. Lawrence, I'm sorry, this is 16.2. Yep. >> Yeah. >> Um and

118so I had shared with the superintendent my intent to to pull this item. Uh I just had a couple questions around uh one there were three bids. Two were were deemed not sufficient. And so I was hoping one for more information as to why those two bids were not sufficient. We ended up with um the highest bid. And then my second question was just what steps are we taking and what can we do to uh encourage more competitive bidding. So we're not faced with um having a a single bidder for these type of projects. So I'm going to bring up our director of purchasing, Elizabeth McClanahan, to to go over the two questions that you have. >> Good evening. Sorry. Good evening. So, um the process that is put forward is um we bring these

119through um our newspaper and through our local uh builder exchanges. We also work through our um uh pre uh qualification software which reaches out to a larger audience uh sending that notice out that we have this bid on the street. Unfortunately, with this one, we did only get the three bids. Um, and uh, you know, we're always looking at how can we how can we reach out and get more more people more interest in it. Um, as far as the the two bids that were in there uh, that were disqualified, one was they they submitted an incomplete package. They actually had there's five essential pieces uh three of which were not in the package. Uh so we had to disqualify them. The other vendor uh was uh to uh an incomplete um what we call

120our subcontractor list. They're qualified people um that that a vendor will submit. Unfortunately, the the vendor and the subcontractors were not um qualified um as to the scope of this this project. So, we had to disqualify them as well. >> Thank you. That answered my questions. >> Okay. Would you like to make those? I I would uh Madame President, I move that the board approve uh the award of bid 1961 2025 Dent Center technology infrastructure upgrade. >> I second. So, we have a motion on um the floor presented by Trustee Lawrence with a second by Trustee Barrera Orana uh on the district bid 1961. Further discussion. Trustee Ora Borana, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Um Trusty Mason, >> yes. Trusty Lawrence, >> yes. >> Trustee McDougall, >> yes. >> Trusty

121Enzi, >> yes. >> And Trusty Mayo also votes yes. Please vote electronically. And the motion is adopted 500 to award bid 1961. Thank you very much. We'll move on to the business portion of our agenda. Dr. Clark, uh the first item 18.1 >> who's going to take that item? >> Sure. Um so this is the annual resolution. Uh basically we present the levy report for measure A. And so we are um again going through our annual resolution and this is supposed to generate about $6.7 million. Um there there was a board question on this particular item related to the delin delinquency rates and so I learned something new as well. So the chart that you see, I think it's page 12 of the PDF, you will see in 2002, I believe, like there's a smaller

122percentage and you go probably to the last three or four years where the percentage gets a little higher. So basically what that is is that the county is collecting on those delinquency um taxes and as they collect them, they take them off the books for all of those years. And so that just reflects the outstanding balance for each of those years. So in the in the year so 20 I believe 2425 was the last year whereas like 1.61% that's like new data. So until they start collecting on that um then that percentage will start going down just like you see in the prior years. And then the other piece is that the county uh uh Contraosta County treasurers uh or prop or tax works off the teeter tax. So that basically means that they will

123frontload um all of our money and on the delinquencies uh they will collect that but they get the whole the penalty and interest dollars on those delin delinquent uh tax payments. but we will get the 6.67 million. So, thanks for the question. >> I appreciate the answer because I was concerned that maybe Mount Diablo would be losing those dollars. So, it's um we we should all be grateful to our county tax administrator. Okay. Uh any further information on the item? >> No. Um, someone ready to make a motion? >> I will make a motion to approve the adoption of resolution number 25/26-03, approving the community facilities district number one tax levy report and appointing the special tax for fiscal year 2526. >> Second. So, we have a motion by Trustee Mason with a second by

124Trustee McDougall on resolution 2526 um-03, which is the um annual facilities district number one special text tax levy report. Um Trustee Barrera Oriana, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Um I neglected to ask, are there further questions or discussion? No. Okay. Uh, Trusty McDougall, >> yes. >> Trusty Lawrence, >> yes. >> Trusty Mason, >> yes. >> Trustee Enzo, >> yes. >> And Trusty Mayo also votes yes. Please vote electronically. The motion is adopted. 500 with support from our student trustee. Um, next item, Dr. Clark. >> Yeah, this is reviewing potential adoption of the of the revised certificate of signatures. Um, and so this is an action item and so we're asking you to approve this. >> Okay. Has everybody looked to make sure their name is spelled correctly? >> All right. Um,

125is there a motion? >> Madame President, I move that the board uh approve item 18.2, 2 adoption adoption of the revised certificate of signatures for August through December 2025. >> Second. >> So we have a motion by uh Trustee Lawrence with a second by Trustee McDougall on updating the uh certificates of signatures for this school district for the months of August through December 2025. Um, trustee Ber Ber Barera or I'm sorry I apologize. Oriana, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Um, Trusty Enzwi, I'll come back to her. Trusty McDougall, >> yes. >> Trusty Lawrence, >> yes. >> Trusty Mason, >> yes. Trusty Enzwi >> correct. >> Trusty Mayo votes yes. Also, please vote electronically. The motion is adopted. 500 uh with support from our student board member for the certificates of signature.

126Uh 18.3. Dr. Clark. >> Yes, Madam President. We are we're bringing before the board tonight um the review and potential approval of our annual evaluation of outdated documents to be destroyed. >> I hope you've reviewed the list. Are there any questions? Not. May we have a motion? >> Thank you. No, this one warms my heart. And uh so uh I I move that the board approve item 18.3, approval of the annual evaluation of outdated documents and let them to uh let them be destroyed. >> I second. >> And who makes the second? >> Oh, thank you. I'm sorry. I wasn't watching out of the corner of my >> Right. Um, we have a motion um by Trustee Lawrence with a second by Trustee Barrera or Ryana on the um um what do I want to

127say? The record retention list and the documents that will be destroyed and I would imagine that a lot of them are electronic too. >> But you see I don't have the big fat attending. >> We're we're >> we've made progress in five years. We're teasing uh Trusty Lawrence. Um uh Trusty Barrera or Rihanna, how do you vote? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Um Trusty Lawrence, >> emphatically, yes. >> Trustee Mason, >> yes. Trusty McDougall, >> yes. >> Trusty Enzy, >> yes. >> And Trusty Mayo votes yes. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I mean, sorry. voting electronically. Thank you for following my directions. Simon says, okay. Whoops. Did it freeze on us? You confused it when you said I. That wasn't a choice. >> Don't blame me. >> Are we going to have

128to sign out and sign back in? read while I while we're waiting for the system to refresh itself. There it is. Uh the motion is adopted on a 500 vote. Um let's see. Um future agenda items. Uh, do any of you as trustees want to um present something for the superintendent to consider presenting to us? >> Yes, I would. Um, I would like to ask for an agenda item uh by September 10th to review the Mount Diablo opt out policy to align with the Supreme Court's decision on the 27th of June regarding the Mahmood decision. I would like to see the opt out provisions specified. So I just want to just state there has been no guidance provided by the state and so put giving me a deadline is is not helpful but if you

129soon as one comes out we will bring it to this board for review and uh information. >> Great. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And our uh student trustee had indicated that they will be starting the student advisory committee again. So, that will be exciting news and we'll look forward to the information that you are be able to present on your reports at each meeting. Um, I want to thank everybody for your patience. I know we had the roll call vote and my tongue gets uh twisted now and then when we're presenting, but we've had a good meeting. We're finished by 8:15 and uh I want to thank everyone who attended this evening and enjoy the rest of your evening. Uh meeting adjourned. >> Thank you, Trusty Zwi. >> Byebye. >> Good night.