PCS Board of Education Meeting: August 26, 2025

001So weird to see you there. >> Good evening everybody. Welcome. Uh I am reconvening our meeting at 601. Please stand for the leave uh pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance. All right. There was uh no action taken uh during close session. Uh so we're going to have our special recognitions, reports, and presentations. And we have a very special evening tonight. Uh we are going to be swearing in our student board members. So Matthew, take it away. from Pedome High School. See if I can stand right here for a second. >> Okay. All right. So, Paige, congratulations on being elected by your stu the student body to serve as a student board member to represent Pedalum High School under government section 1360 and article 20 of the state constitution by the power of SNE from the

002state of California and the PCS board of education. I'm g have you repeat after me. You ready? Okay. So, I, Paige Litzma, >> I, Paige Litzma, >> do solemnly swear >> that I will support and defend >> the Constitution of the United States >> the >> Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of the State of California >> and the Constitution of the State of California >> 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 State of California. >> That I take this obligation freely >> without any mental reservation >> or purpose of evasion. and that I will well >> and that

003I will well >> and faithfully >> discharge the duties >> upon which >> upon >> I am about to enter >> about to enter. >> Congratulations student board member Paige Litzma. >> So so Pa yeah so so at this time we're going to ask Paige to come on up and we're you're going to have a seat right here with us. Um, this is the same oath that our board members take when we when we swear our board members in. So, we'll bring you through the same same paces here. All right. Next up, if I could have Jessica Dodson from Kasa Grande. >> Okay. >> Same drill here. So congratulations Jessica on being uh elected by your student body to serve as a student board member to represent Kasa Grande High School under government section 1360

004article 20 of the state constitution and by the power vested me from the state of California and the PCS board of education. Please repeat after me. I, Jessica Dodson, >> Jessica Dodson, >> do solemnly swear >> that I will support and defend >> the Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of the State of California >> and the Constitution of the State of California >> against all enemies >> foreign and domestic >> that I will bear true faith >> and allegiance >> to the Constitution of the United States >> the Constitution of the United States >> and the Constit Constitution of the State of California >> and the Constitution to the State of California. >> That I take this obligation freely >> without any mental reservation >> or purpose of evasion >> purpose

005of evasion >> and that I will well >> and I will >> and faithfully >> faithfully >> discharge the duties >> and discharge the duties >> upon which I am about to enter. >> upon which I'm about to enter. >> Congratulations, student board member Jessica Dodson. Okay. And last but certainly not re least, we have Ruby Castro Zarco from um what? So Ruby is is here from San Antonio High School and she's representing all of our alternative high schools. Um, so Ruby, congratulations on being elected by your student body to serve as a student board member to represent San Antonio and all of our alternative high schools under government section 1360 and article 20 of the state constitution by the power of SME from the state of California and the PCS board of education. Please

006repeat after me. I, Ruby Castro, do solemnly swear >> that I will support and defend >> the Constitution of the United States. Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of the State of California, >> State of California, >> against all enemies, >> foreign and domestic >> that I will bear true faith >> true faith >> and allegiance >> to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California. >> State of >> that I take this obligation freely >> take this freely >> without any mental reservation. or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties >> the duties >> upon which >> I am about to enter. Congratulations student board member Ruby Castroco >> so uh Paige Jessica and Ruby welcome to the the

007school board. We're so so happy to have you here. Um, you know, I think before before I started as superintendent, we didn't have student board members and now I can't imagine running schoolboard meetings without student board members. your your voice, your perspective, your um just your enthusiasm for being here, but also to look at look at these issues and give your input and your feedback is critical to the work that we're doing here because at the end of the day, we're the only reason that we're here is because of our of the students in our school district. So, welcome and we're excited to have your your opinions, your thoughts, and we'll be u looking forward to working with you with you all individually and as a whole group. Welcome. Welcome. I just want to welcome

008you. I'm Maddie and I'm the president this year. Um, and I just want to welcome you. I'm really excited. We're really looking at um well some of us are going to work together to really make you uh help you understand what your role is, how important your role is, how you can you know more confidently uh and sooner um contribute and understand you know a lot of the ins and outs of what we're doing here. And I'm really excited that you guys are doing this. I think you'll love it. It's it's really a special thing and so welcome and can the parents I just I know you all must be really proud of your student and I'd love to have you stand and so that we can acknowledge you the family. Thank you. Okay. So,

009moving on. This is your first little thing. So, uh we will have our introduction of the new director of transportation and fleet management, Jason. >> Good evening. Um, we are excited to announce uh Lindseay Pakalone as the new director of transportation for Pedaluma City Schools. Lindsay is a longtime bus driver instructor, school bus safety advocate and dedicated member of the Pedaluma community. She began her career with Round Valley Unified School District as a bus driver, later serving as the lead bus driver instructor before joining West County Transportation Agency. There she developed and delivered original training programs, provided inservice presentations, and managed compliance and credentiing. More recently, Lindsay came to Paluma City Schools as a bus driver trainer and dispatcher. During her time here, she played a central role in building the district's transportation training department,

010providing original training for new drivers, and strengthening compliance and regulatory procedures. Her professional certifications include certificate of administration for transportation, California Bus driver Instructor Academy, American Red Cross instructor, and federal motor carrier instructor for entrylevel driver training. It's a lot. Uh she has also been recognized for developing and delivering highquality safety programs, supporting su successful compliance audits, and promoting a culture of safety and professionalism among drivers. Lindsay is passionate about student- centered transportation and looks forward to continuing to build a strong, safe, and efficient department that serves the students and families of Pedaluma. Lindsay is a proud mother of four children and brings both professional expertise and personal commitment to her new role. Please join us in congratulating Lindseay Buckleone as she steps into the role of director of transportation for Pedaluma City Schools. >>

011Thank you all very much and it's an honor to be here and to um carry this position. Thank you. >> You're still up here. >> I'm just gonna stay up here for a minute. Uh and next I'm going to ask Chris Knight to join me up here. This is the new assistant principal at Kasa Grande High School. >> This is the new assistant principal at Kasa Grande High School, Chris Knight. So, we are excited to announce Chris Chris Knight as the new assistant principal of Kasa Grande High School. Chris began serving this role in in past this past July. Chris grew up in Sonoma Valley, the child of two public school teachers and is excited to be returning home to Sonoma County. He is a graduate of Santa Rosa High School and earned his bachelor's

012degree in economics and master's degree in education from UC Davis. Before becoming an educator, Chris worked in renewable energy policy. In 2010, he began his teaching career. And for the past 14 years, he taught math and social studies at both traditional and continuation high schools. For the past 11 years, he served at Albany High School and McGregor High School in the East Bay. In addition to his classroom work, Chris served two terms as the co-president of the Alby's teachers union. During his time in Albany, Chris led a number of impactful initiatives, including developing and implementing a schoolwide cell phone policy, establishing the Albany chapter of the American Exchange Project as the largest in the nation and co-leading the successful Measure G parcel tax campaign. Chris looks forward to getting to know the students and staff

013at Kasa Grande and to working collaborative collaboratively to craft and implement school policies that serve the entire campus community. Chris moved to Pedaluma earlier this year. Outside of work, he spends a lot of time biking, dog parenting, and completing home projects like building a new fence. Please join us in welcoming Chris Knight to Cross Grande High School as our new assistant principal. >> Thank you all. I'm excited to be here. Thank you guys. >> And finally, I would love to announce the new assistant principal of Paluma High School, uh, Dea Oruro Pesa. I get the last part right? >> You got it. >> Okay. All right. So, um, originally from Pennsylvania, Dea began her career as a middle school dance teacher in Northern Virginia before moving to San Francisco to pursue her master's degree. She

014quickly fell in love with the Bay Area where she now has lived for more than a decade. With over 15 years of experience, Desa has served as a teacher, coach, administrator, and administrator, gaining a deep understanding of school systems and public education. In her central office role, Desa designed professional development for new teachers and organized large-scale events, including the Special Olympics. Later, as a program administrator, she co-created a UC approved A throughG physical education course, which was the first of its kind in the district. While living in San Francisco, Dea met her husband, Mario. In 2020, they relocated to Pedaluma to be closer, but not too close to Mario's family in Santa Rosa. They are they are now raising two daughters, Elelliana and Asa, in this wonderful community. Desa is excited to join the Pedalumis

015high school community and looks forward to building meaningful relationships with students, staffs, and families. She is passionate about fostering a positive and safe school culture where all students feel seen, valued, and empowered to reach their full potential. And she looks forward to embracing Paluma High's tradition and spirit by cheering on students at games and performances and supporting initiatives that elevate student voice, engagement, and well-being. Thank you. I'm excited to be here. It's great coming from a big district to this small community and I have really felt warm and welcome. >> Jason, >> thank you Jason. Uh we are now going to have a nutrition services presentation. Yay. >> Good evening. Oh, you're with me. Cool. Awesome. >> Well, thank you very much for the opportunity uh to present to you tonight on such a cool

016night. It's uh very nice to see you, Trusty Williams. It was nice to have an opportunity to meet you for the first time before this meeting. And uh new board members, congratulations. Super cool. My name is Brian Dufur. I'm the food service director and I'm also a uh very proud dad of two Kasa Gauchos. Um, so the last time I was uh before you, I had just passed probation in this role. Um, and so we'll see. Um, so what I thought I would do, what I thought would be helpful to you would be to kind of give uh an update to you on our food program, but also really kind of benchmark to you uh towards last year when I was here and kind of set some objectives and expectations for the this past year

017and just kind of give you an update on how we did against those uh and then um give you uh an update on what our priorities are for this year. That's cool. >> In 10 minutes. in 10 minutes. So, this is just here for reference. This is our vision. Um, I'm I'm proud of this vision because we developed this as a community. We have the school nutrition uh advisory committee. We developed this and really uh what this intends to say is that a food as a food program we not only have a very very uh huge responsibility to um provide healthy delicious food uh for kids that they want to eat that will feed their growing minds and bodies. Um but we are also a large food program. We're a big employer. We're a big

018buyer. We have a responsibility to the community we live in as well as the community we serve. We have a responsibility to our impact on the environment and so we need to be mindful of all of those things as we're uh conducting our business. We need to behave accordingly in that way uh with all of our decisions. So that's what our vision is intended to uh to guide us. Um we're still reconciling our numbers from last year, but as of right now um we're at uh a little over 988,000 meals served um over the course last last school year. Um so last year I mentioned to you that it's it's a healthy reminder to us about the impact we have on those things I just mentioned like our community, the health and well-being of students,

019uh as well as our local food system and our local economy. Um, but this year I want to also mention that if you don't know, it's really cool to be a food program in California because we're a universal meal state. Uh, which means that the state of California has said that every K through2 student gets a free breakfast and a free lunch every day regardless of eligibility status. Um, which is a super awesome thing. It's a real benefit. Um, and I'm happy to report that that's going to continue through this school year uh as well. Um it also means for the food team though I am just super grateful and super proud to the team to do this kind of volume when um on any given day. Um you really have to really pay close

020attention to how many students might show up. Uh and any principal in the elementaryaries would tell you that on a rainy day if it we're serving uh uh orange chicken and rice that's like the perfect storm of long lines. So, um, it can always just be such a dynamic thing and the team shows up every day. They are so committed to this work and they're just wonderful. And so, I want to use this number to just acknowledge all of the work. I get to stand here and uh be in front of you, but really all of it happens because of them. And it's really pretty phenomenal. Um, this is just for context. uh what I've learned in the very short time that I've been in this role that all of our aspirations are tied to

021real operational decisions that are really nuanced. So this is intended to be our compass to help us guide those decisions. So these areas here uh are the the priorities for us that we should be always mindful of when we're trying to make any decision on any given day. What we buy, what we serve, how we operate, what our priorities are, who we buy from. These are things that are day-to-day aspects of a food program. Um, but they all have implications on the other. It's easy to serve baby carrots in individual bags if you're not paying attention to your impact on the environment. Um, so we're we try to use these priorities as our compass to guide the decisions we make in any given on any given day. Let's see. Are you driving for me? Am

022I Oh, thank you very much. I was not >> I'm like Vanna White tonight. >> Okay. So, let's go to our report card here to keep me on track. That's next. So, last year um this is a synopsis of what I had uh committed to you for our food program over this year ahead. And I'm very proud uh of the work that we did. We made a lot of progress in some really uh meaningful and important areas. Um we have uh aligned uh our procurement with our values and I'll just talk a little bit more uh about that. We've done a lot of work that is not quite obvious um but on our operational efficiency and our discipline around our spending which becomes more and more important uh in a very tumultuous national environment for

023our food program. there's a lot of cuts and so for us to accomplish our goals and our um our aspirations we need to be making sure that we're very very smart about how we're operating. Um so we've we've put a lot of systems in place that have allowed us to do that. We've made great progress on updating our wellness policy. We'll be working on that uh this year ahead. Um I'm super happy um to I want us to be always sure I always say that we have a lot of aspirations for our food program but I uh it's a very big responsibility of mine to make sure that we don't accomplish those simply by adding more and more and more to the team that's putting out almost a million meals a year. we need to

024invest in them, give them the training they need to do the job their job uh and be sure that their health and well-being is center focused too. So, we've done a lot of work in that area uh this school year. Um and we made a lot of progress. There's an organization called the Eat Real uh organization. They work with schools nationwide. Uh we'll talk a little bit more about that, but we went through a year where they took a granular look at all of our operation, all of our data, all of our recipes. um every aspect of our operation um from beginning to end and assessed us and provided us with a playbook about how we can improve in some 10 key areas and we'll talk a little more about that. So, a lot of

025work went into that and we did a lot of work on our menus to make some changes. Um but there are areas that I talked about last summer that we have not made progress on uh or satisfactory progress on in in my opinion. Um, one of those big areas is we put salad bars into our elementary schools. And I said last summer that we uh want to put salad bars in our secondaries. Trusty Webster, I know this is a a promise I made to Trusty Webster. Um, it is um a huge puzzle uh to do it prudently uh and safely and cost-effectively. And we've made progress there, but they're not there yet. So when students go there, they don't see salad bars. It's not that there's not produce there, um, but the salad bars, self-s

026served salad bars are not there. And we're going to change that. And also, one of my top priorities when I started this, uh, role was student agency in the food program. So not just student voice. We did do a survey. We had 1,600 respondents, but we really want to implement mechanisms for students to be decision makers in what they see and experience in the lunchroom, what they eat. uh and we didn't make enough progress there. Um so those are two top priorities for this year. Um and then the last thing was really uh storytelling. We we we speaking back to our vision, the lunch program doesn't just need to be a transaction of a reimburseable meal or a meal that uh the USDA approves of. It can be a place of learning uh and connection

027um and connection to the community as well. and we really want to try to do uh more make more of those connections. So, you >> should tell them how you're doing that on October 3rd. >> I know. >> Should I? >> Okay. So, on October 3rd, Taylor Swift is releasing her new album. And so, our menu will will feature Taylor's favorite foods. um um to mark the occasion. Um and I know that that's uh worth the chuckle. Uh but we did also do something uh at Cherry Valley. They were doing they were all uh there was uh they were reading a book and I think the main character really liked papooseas and so they asked if we could have papooseas on the menu on the day that they were connecting to um to talk about

028the book. So we love to do that stuff. Um and so anyway, so that is how we are. Um NRCBO is very very proud. Um >> okay. Uh >> just waited till the wedding. >> I know. >> Yeah. I don't know if we'll be able to match that menu, but um these are just some quick highlights um uh of progress we've made over the course of the past year uh year and a half or so. Um when I was with you last time, we had piloted uh salad bars two days a week in our elementarymentaries. They're in full stop four days a week now. uh all of our uh ordering from uh for all our elementaryaries and our secondaries order from Feed Sonoma, which is a collaborative of 50 farmers. Um and so we get

029local uh uh fruit mainly right now. We're changing that this year and I'll talk about that in a second. And then we made modifications to how we operate h uh in in our menu. So we eliminated uh chocolate milk on the elementary menu. We were mindful that things like Lucky Charms and Cocoa Puffs, while they are technically compliant, they model something different than what we're trying to articulate. So, we we eliminated those. Um, and we tried to increase fresh options over canned. Um, so we have work to do, but we also try did things like uh all our cafeteria managers when um given the option, we're not buying individually wrapped things. We're buying in bulk. So, we're trying to make those modifications that aren't necessarily obvious. Um, I'm very grateful to CSEA and to HR

030and to Amanda for uh we requested a reclassification of our cafeteria 2 assistant position to really reflect the work they're actually doing. Uh, and I'm grateful that that was uh granted. Um, it's it's very welld deserved on their part. They make up over 75% of our staff and so I'm happy to see uh that they're elevated. Well, talk, I I I just love the snack community and so grateful um to all the the uh members of our community who consistently come out and and join that conversation. Uh and you, Trusty Webster, I really appreciate you giving us that time. It's meaningful. Um so that continued through last year. Uh we did work with CAPS. It was our second year working with the CAPS interns and they gave us a baseline of our single-use plastics. So,

031we want to be able to measure our our progress and they helped us do that. We work very closely with the environmental uh literacy um uh committee uh to make sure that our food program is aligned with what those priorities are and those work. We have p the board the uh resolution up on our wall of our role with our role highlighted in there for food waste. Um and that led to a kind of a 10-year roadmap that we developed. uh for our whole operation to in reduce our environmental impact. Um and then some other things like we I mean this is pretty huge. We have a brand new freezer at our warehouse, a brand new refrigerator. We increase the footprint um significantly which allows us to do things like be ready for emergencies. It

032allows us to take greater deliveries of fresh produce. Uh and we bought a lot of equipment that's going to allow us to process food, which is a big deal on food service operations. So cutting and chopping so we can buy farm fresh stuff and process it instead of having to buy uh processed food. So this year uh looking ahead so this is an an administrative review year for us. It's our first one since 2019. So um that is a will be a primary focus uh for us. On one of the prior slides I had what our guiding principles was and one of those is sustainability and in that context it doesn't refer to our environmental sustainability. It refers to our sustainability as a food program. Uh and that really is founded on uh food safety

033and compliance with the regs. Uh so we'll that's going to be a big work effort for our team this year. Um but there's going to be a lot of excellent byproduct from that. there's going to be a lot of um codification of our policies and processes that's going to help us improve at a much uh quicker rate. So, that's a key a key uh focus this year. We've expanded our elementary staff in our uh in our kitchens. We added salad bars. We switched from a heat and serve rev foods to um a production kitchen that's sending food every day. that creates a lot longer lines and a a lot more demand which is we're grateful for but a lot more work for the team. So we've added a second person to all our elementary sites

034to help uh alleviate those. Again that gets back to the kind of the uh the pr fiscal prudence and being able to show that you're managing your budget to accomplish that kind of goal. Um, we're starting to we have to harmonize our secondary menus. The experience for students differs depending on where you go to school in our secondaries. Um, and that's cool some ways. We want schools to have their identity. We want them to celebrate those things like a casadilla or something like that. But at the same time, it shouldn't be so marketkedly different that you're having a whole different food experience by going to Paluma City Schools. So that also helps with our ordering and our budget as well. We'll update uh we're working on updating our uh local school wellness policy this year.

035Um and then this year, as I mentioned, a top priority for us is uh student agency. We I really want to put in mechanisms that give students uh if they want it. So voice is always always welcome through all channels but if they want a decision about this or that uh I want them to be figure out a way to have them at the table. Um this is pretty cool. You will see shortly. Um we released a farm to school RFP. Um, so we went to bid for locally sourced fresh um, produce. Um, so and we we built that RFP around our values. So, local minorityowned um socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers as part of our evaluation food hub um so that we can be putting our dollars where they will be impactful. We've gotten

03610 responses back. We're going through that evaluation and part of the reason why I'm proud of that is because I mentioned that we have a responsibility on our compass there is this idea of stewardship. So we have a responsibility to the community we serve um we live in as well as we serve. So we um we went through that process and now we share it we share it with all the other school districts in Soma County and they can use it. There's a piggyback clause on that so they can piggy back on to our contracts if they would like. Um but they can use that as a template. Um so I'm really proud of that. We need to focus on our edible food waste diversion. The team is awesome at making sure they order and

037serve the right amounts. They really closely monitor the daily uh production by item. Um but we need if we have edible food, we need to make sure it doesn't land in the compost and we need to work on that. And then finally, our EAR certification. So we are at the point where we're we've gotten the report card on our EATRE certification um and now we have to do the work to get certified. Uh so I think that that's can you uh yeah so um the eat real what they do is they um there are 10 areas these are the 10 areas that require us to make uh improvements across uh 34 KPIs uh to get the certification. But what it does for us as a district in addition to these being the results um is

038we are part of a national cohort. We are part of a California cohort of other school districts going through this. Um so there's a lot of knowledge sharing and a lot of um ability to innovate. So and then that's that's it. No, that's okay. So the last thing um it's not in your board packet because it came up last week, but we found out from the USDA that we are being recognized nationally for our snack program. So um yeah. So, uh, which is pretty neat. Um, so I know it's the innovation in, uh, nutrition education, uh, is the cert is the, um, recognition award. Uh, the USDA with healthy meals initiatives, they have a number of different areas. So, there's fast scratch or scratch cooking, there's breakfast. And so under the umbrella of nutrition education,

039there's not just inclassroom education, but there's a recognition for schools that are uh engaging uh the community to have an impact on what the students are experiencing in the lunchroom. So we told them about our snack program and we found out last week that we got the recognition award, which I think is pretty cool. Uh and that's it. So yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> Hi, Brian. I I emailed you this question. So, how close are we to the real food certification? >> Yeah, that's an excellent question. So, we're we're we're pretty close. Um, so 60 is the is the requirement. We got a 57 on our national on our initial assessment. So, which is pretty close. uh eat real as an organization has gone through their own KPIs and updated them. So in

040October we will get our new report card based on those and then we will determine our goal is to certify by the end of the school year. So you have to make those changes and then invite the new assessment to make sure you um so we get to determine in October what we think makes sense for us. And so it's going to be a bit of a balancing act. We'll see. But we're we're really close. Do our student board members have anything to say about our nutrition program? I don't want to put you on the spot, but just if you have anything to say, but I am. >> That's fine. You will. Uh yeah, go ahead, Jan. Um so, speaking of the students, um I'm happy to see that you're going to incorporate student voice

041and agency. So how do you plan on doing that and how often? >> Well, so the idea right now is on the slide I had uh they're called the HA uh the happy healthy club. So at the elementary levels um it it's we're proposing a student kind of wellness committee. When I was a parent at Penro, we had the happy healthy club for four years um which I ran. Um and so um so we met every other week. We would have at lunch uh in the classroom. We would have a little snack and then we would talk about what the students wanted to do uh for their school community to uh make make their fellow students happy and h happier or healthier. They set the agenda and and so we sort of documented what that

042process was like. There's an awesome parent at Penro right now. um Shannon who was taken it on and is running it continue and I think that that idea is scalable uh at the elementary levels. So um at the secondary levels I I can't So at the secondary levels I've had two ideas. One was more of a formal kind of board. The other one is to replicate the so snack is awesome and of course all are welcome to snack and the more the marrier but snack like our next snack meeting is going to be at 4:30 in the afternoon. Um so which doesn't work for everybody. So we have to create more pathways for everybody anyway. But for students we I need to figure out a smarter way to have uh students who want to uh

043commit to it meet consistently. And so I really don't know uh yet the best frequency and model for that. >> If if only we had a few students here who could help us figure out a way to reach as many students at the high school as possible. Maybe we can connect. That would be fantastic. I need that kind of guidance. >> That was actually my thinking was that maybe we could coordinate that with you guys? I think that would be awesome. Um well and speaking of collaboration with students, is there a collaboration with the culinary students at CASA to maybe use their expertise and their uh passion for nutrition and food? Is there is there any maybe that's an avenue you could look into? >> So we we there's more that could be done there.

044We met with Pam last year um and we've talked this year about how our school food program can support the culinary career pathway in the CTE program. Um and so we've had one meeting so far uh about how we the role we can play in doing that. Um it's Pam who gave uh who is the owner of the Casadilla. Um, and the students also cater. Um, so there's conversation, but I wouldn't say there's like a program. We're in the early stages of that. >> I guess I was thinking of senior projects. Um, maybe connecting with that, but um, cool. >> Anyway, no, that sounds fabulous. Okay, any other questions? Yes. Hi. Um hi uh I am an ASB and we are working on bringing back sights and sounds of CASA which is a program used

045to bring music and uh art back but maybe we could add sights and smells and sound and we could incorporate the culinary. Um I would have to talk to my teacher further about that since it is we're bringing it back this year since we haven't done it in the past uh for the past few years but that would also be something to consider. >> Super cool. Awesome. Thank you. >> Yeah. Right. >> Well, thank you so much for the presentation. This is something that um like you and I talked about that I have dabbled in some of the state policy on this front and it's fantastic to see all the work that has been done and the support that the board has um uh provided and guidance. Um I I'm curious you you you talked

046a little bit about the local procurement. So, can how has that switched started to occur? And then what is local for for is it California, is it western United States, is it Sonoma County? >> Yeah, that's an awesome question. Um, so we get we get to define local. Uh, we as a district have meaning like there isn't a regulated definition of of local. In our RFP, we define local as within 150 miles of us. Um the RFP we issued is for California grown exclusively though um because over the seasons things migrate. So our romaine lettuce and our salad bars migrates from central valley to Arizona to Mexico. Um and so there is a we have a responsibility to be tracing source tracing anyway. Um, so our RFP uh is for California grown only and then

047the feasibility of that for farmers determines whether or not it's within 150 miles. So for example, some stuff just has to come from Southern California and then we get to deter that's registered on our scoring and then we get to determine um you know if if we're going to serve the blackberries or not. Um basically if we want to so but so so that's how the and we're going through the scoring now to this point we've purchased from we've started purchasing from feed Soma which is a farmerowned cooperative they represent 50 farms from um mostly around Sonoma County but as far as 350 miles away um but they're local or there are smallcale farmers who need help distributing to restaurants and so FE does awesome some groundbreaking work. They're tremendous partner of ours. Uh they

048have organic regeneratively grown stuff and so we've started buying apples, Asian pears, plums, anything that is in season and grown by farmers. So they're not exclusively 100. I mean they're they're they themselves are located here in Paluma, which is impactful. Um it helps them scale too. Um but their farms are are scattered. So we're from a farmer perspective, we look at 150 and then within 350 miles from our district is how we've kind of determined. But our goal was in setting it that way. We didn't want to be too restrictive because one of our goals, one of our goals was to see if we could buy uh organic options for the dirty dozen uh which are produce that has traditionally high pesticide residue. Um so uh we wanted to sort of cast a little bit

049of wider net than to what would just be in season here in Sonoma County just to see what our options would be in that regard. So that's why we framed it that way. Sure. >> All right. I just want to say that when we hired you, >> we knew you'd be transformational and you know, you really have been. I'm I'm really appreciative of all the work you're doing and that your team uh is just amazing. It's it's um it's our students are really benefiting from this. So, thank you. Well, I I appreci that's kind of you. I appreciate that very much. And not to sound, but I will say that in this role, I am on a lot of calls with a lot of vendors like Eat Real who who provide technical assistance to uh

050districts and the first question they always ask is do you need our help convincing the superintendent or convincing your board about why these changes? And we can skip right past that to the next stuff. So, uh I you know, I appreciate that support as well. Great. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. So, we're going to take a very short five minute break so the parents and families can uh hug their kids and then we'll be back. Okay. So, we'll be back at um 650. David, we're going to start our meeting. Our board meeting is back in session and we will have comments from the public. Um and um I just have to read kind of the what what I always read about the um public comment, you know, kind of rules and

051um and how we listen. We do not comment. So, um, just know that that's why there's no questions or followup, that we don't comment on public comment time. So, under government code section 54954.3A, members of the public have the right to address the governing board on any items of interest providing to uh, it relates to the subject matter jurisdiction of the school district. When government code allow while government code allows speakers to criticize the district's policies, procedures, programs, services, and/or employees, the district does have a policy BP1312.1 specific to complaints against employees. Uh the topic of interest within the jurisdiction of the board. Should comments from the public pertain to a certain um district employee, the board requests that the complaint first be submitted in writing to the employees immediate supervisor for investigation. If the

052comment is about something that is not on the agenda, which this portion is about something that's not on the agenda, it will be heard only during the public comment on non-aggendaized items. Once that part of the meeting is over, comments will only be taken on agenda items. During the discussion of those items, the board values public comments, and although we cannot take action or discuss items not on the agenda, we listen carefully and appreciate input from the public. Public comments are subject to a three minute per person limit or a 20 minute limit per subject matter. You'll all get three minutes because there's there's five. I have five. Um, so that's within the 20 minutes per subject matter. Uh, commenters may not see their time to others. Okay. And we had a request that David

053Dyn be first. There'll be it'll be up there and then I'll give you a 30 second warning. >> Uh, I'm David Dyn. Uh, my wife and I recently moved to Paluma. uh four years ago. We live on Wendy Lane just opposite uh Cherry Valley and uh feel so fortunate to live in the neighborhood and to be a part of the community. And I think the recent site plan and middle school development like many of the residents there, we were caught off guard. Uh and I want to share quickly. There was a story when we moved here. Um we hosted a surprise birthday party for our 92-year-old neighbor and we did it at Cherry Valley Park. Um, and that has kind of set the tone for our relationship with the community and for the immediate area.

054And we spend a lot of time at Cherry Valley walking the dog. We we use the park as does everybody in the neighborhood. Uh, and so we've found out, you know, I think uh later in the plans uh the extent of the the building plans and I think the community now has quickly taken action um to express our concerns. And so I have a few notes, but um I think our goal is really to kind of keep neighbors informed, to amplify our collective voice, and to ensure that this expansion is carried out with real consideration for the people who live there, raise families there, and attend school there. We support the school um and the students it serves. Strong schools make for strong communities, and we recognize the need for updated facilities. At the same

055time, we believe neighbors deserve a seat at the table in decisions that affect our safety, our streets, and our use of the public park space. Uh, most importantly, we want assurance that all building locations were considered uh before the most recent plans were approved. Um, and again, I walked past my neighbor yesterday on the way to the park. I said, "Hey, are you aware of the the plans for the middle school?" He said, "Nope, never haven't heard anything about it." So, we gave him a flyer. Um, there's a website now with more information with the idea being that we would like a seat at the table and want to be aware of those plans. I think, you know, I'm a designer. I understand how extensive those processes and how expensive those processes are to draft

056and to go through that kind of work to develop a site plan. And we're only now being made aware of the fact that that's going to be uh started. And as part of that process, we're going to lose the one park in our neighborhood. Uh, I drove by Sunday. There was a group of people having a barbecue. Uh I stopped and and chatted. The woman uh has kids who go to Cherry Valley Elementary. She had only just learned of the plan this summer as a as a parent of students at Cherry Valley. So um my hope is and I think others will echo this >> 30 seconds >> that we can have, you know, an open conversation about the impact that this is going to have on people who live in the immediate neighborhood, myself

057included. Um, and you know, our goal is really to make sure that the voices of those most affected and that um are heard and um that the balance of the community uh isn't disrupted and that that trust and support uh is held in in high regard. So, we appreciate your time. Um and thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. Uh, Judy Carme, >> how do you pronounce it? >> Kum. Oh, that wasn't even close. Sorry. >> Paluma High School. >> Okay. So, the part that I'm going to be talking about today is the impact that the previous expansion at Mary Collins Cher Valley School, excuse me, the previous expansion has had upon our neighborhoods. the traffic is gridlock nightmare. Um, with the expansion in 20 uh in 2014, I had uh contacted Amanda Bonav, who is

058the one of the people who's in charge of the project, and I said, "Hey, are you going to do a traffic study for this expansion? And what were the results of the previous traffic study you did when you expanded the school back in 2014? and the traffic flows when you made the streets one way, two-way because they really change the streets in the neighborhood. And she emailed me back and said, "Well, there was no traffic study then." So, uh, the traffic has had a huge impact. My street, I border around to the school, people park on the corners because there are no parking places when they have to go up and get their kid. They double park their cars, leaving the motors idling. um they um park in people's um driveways. And so the previous

059expansion had a huge impact on the traffic in our neighborhood. And I know that there's a promise that this isn't going to increase the students at at Mary Collins School, but I went back and looked at the statistics online. Since 2020, there have been 88 students added with more students added every year. So there's 494 students according to the stats I had in 2024 2025 as opposed to 406 in 2021. I don't expect that that trend of increasing students is going to stop, you know, and so I'm I'm kind of wondering why in the current EIR report, as we were told by our city councilman, they're really not going to do a study based on the impact of the traffic on the neighborhood. They're going to do a study based on the uh what is

060it called? It's a V vehicle miles traveled, which is how many people are going to be traveling to the site, which I think is really it's con it's of concern to us because it's already unmanageable at least three times a day and on special events in the evening. We can't park in front of our own house. It's unsafe to get in and out of my street and other streets because the cars are parked around the corner. They park right next up to the stop signs. There's like now a 20 foot >> 30 seconds. >> Thank you. 20 foot, you know, whatever the new law is. And that isn't being taken care of. And I really want to ask you to please consider doing the traffic study that looks at the impact of the traffic on

061the neighborhood because we are already in a place where we can't get in and out of our things of our driveways and our um streets when school pickup and drop off which is at least three times a day four times when there are special events is happening and it is a severe impact on us. So thank you very much for that. I'm done. I'm done. >> Dan D'Angelo. >> Hi. I'd like to talk a little bit about Cherry Valley Park. You know, if you were to go to the website for the parks and recreation department, you would see that Cherry Valley Park is called a small neighborhood park with a picnic table. It's not exactly true. There actually is two large picnic tables, more than double, a barbecue, uh, three permanent garbage cans, and it's

062the only shade in the area. As a matter of fact, Cherry Valley Park is the only green area in our neighborhood. Cherry Valley Park is used constantly. If you go by there in any time, you will see people playing fetch with their dogs. um fathers playing uh catch with their sons, football, baseball, of course I should mention sometimes mothers with their daughters and their sons too. Um you'll see soccer teams practicing there, the little kids soccer teams. You'll see people having picnics there. Uh sometimes there's large picnics. The folks next to us is a large immigrant family. It's the only green space in the area for them. They'll have um well, probably about once a month have a large family barbecue. We've had neighborhood uh potlucks. The last one, as David mentioned, was for a

063potluck for a 92y old neighbor of ours. Now, this is the only green space in our area and it's constantly used. I know that you've if you look on the plans or you've been told that should Cherry Valley expand their um their footprint that there still will be a green area that can be used. Well, according to the plans, it cuts off about 70% of the park, and that park will be have a uh a fence around it with a lock gate, but it can be used after hours, which is 6:00, which is not all that convenient in the at well, almost any time, but certainly in the winter. I know that you've been told or you're under the impression that the community was involved, that pieces of paper or flyers were sent out to

064the neighborhood. I live next door to Cherry Valley. Matter of fact, if you can straddle our border between the two of us, I did not get a notice. The lady across the street from us did not get a notice. The three people to the right of her did not get a notice. Four houses to the left did get a notice. There's only two people in our area. Thank you. I am just asking you to reconsider for I always have supported schools. I taught at Kas Grande for 28 years. My daughter-in-law teaches K1 at Cherry Valley Park. There is a lot of land in that area. We have not been part of the process. I just saw a quote here about Daski about how much sadness there is in the world from what is left unsaid.

065And we've never had our voices in this process. Please reconsider. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Joy Ranken. Hello. Okay. My name is Joy Ranken. Um I live at 860 Cherry Street and I can see Cherry Valley Park from my house. Um, and I was shocked to learn that about the plans for replacing the park with a new building for the school, which I learned about from my son Gideon, who is in 8th grade at Mary Collins School. Um, we have loved our time at Mary Collins. My son has received a great education there. Um, I'm not against the school or the teachers getting a building. My issue is that there is room on the school campus for the building. Um, given this, I have a couple of concerns about locating the building in the park

066instead of up on the campus. First of all, I'm concerned about the children's safety being down by the street. Um, I know you all know there's plenty of threats against schools these days, and having the children down by the street by trafficked where the public will be walking on the landscaping right in front of them seems a lot more dangerous than locating the building on the school campus. on the campus. The building will be surrounded by trees and other school buildings. The children will all be in the same vicinity where staff and teacher can teachers can supervise them. Um and they would be up away from the public. So it seems to me that there is a safety issue here that is not being addressed. Secondly, my understanding is that the only reason they are

067not building on the campus is because they would have to move the portables into the playground for the duration of the construction. So instead of putting up with this temporary inconvenience, the school has decided to diminish or eliminate a park that has been in the community for 50 years. Uh this seems like pennywise pound foolish thinking to me. It's important to preserve green space, especially now. Pedaluma is vastly expanding as a community with little thought to preserving our agricultural heritage or the pastoral nature of our town. And I'm really sorry to see the school contribute to this. I know Cherry Valley Park seems small and unimportant, but it is a place of serenity and peace that is available to everyone and that includes the wildlife in the park. I have seen foxes, deer, grey herand,

068owls, raccoons, and many other animals. They are there because the park provides habitat that would be eliminated if you put a building there. My son Gideon is one of many children for generations who have grown up playing in that park, running around on the hills, >> 30 seconds, >> climbing trees, building forts, and playing with the other kids. So, I want to preserve that for the future. And it seems like we can find a compromise for preserving the park while giving the school the new building that it deserves. Thank you. >> All right. Uh, Bill, is it Peterson? You >> first of all, congratulations on your u positions on the student board as students in the board. So, good for you. The planned loss of increasingly rare publicly accessible green space should be an action

069of last resort. However, this is not the case with the recent approval of a site plan for Cherry Valley. While I have heard comments extolling the community involvement in this process, the reality for nearby residents is that there has been so minimal it is effectively non-existent and continues to be so. A dismaying view of civic engagement and on the part of the school a distinct lack of belonging to the residential community in which it resides. As neighbors, we have on inquiry heard vague references to shared open space, but no details. It is hard to imagine how the currently mostused area of the park being surrounded by a chainlink fence conveniently left out of the pretty architectural rendering meets that definition. Taking away much of a well-used, well-loved and only community park in the area would

070be a sad day indeed. I have a direct view of the park and I see its use daily. Once taken away, it will never be replaced. I believe that the public should be informed as to what alternatives were explored or not explored and why they weren't brought forth. This is a chance for the school and this board to be leaders in community engagement to correct this process, breaking away from what only seems to be tunnel vision exhibited thus far and one can only hope resulting in a better and long-term outcome for the entire community. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, Peter Hostess. Good evening. Uh my name is Peter Gauus. I'm a trustee for Sonoma County Office of Education and congratulations to your three new board members. Um um as always, I really

071appreciate the work of trustees. Um it can be really challenging at times, but also very rewarding. um in our county right now, we've got a few school districts that are under severe financial um distress and their boards are um have had to make and are going to have to continue to make some really tough decisions. Um it's a real burden that trustees have, but that's that's what they're in there for. And I know your board has also had to make some tough decisions, too. But you know what it really comes down to? It really comes down to what's in the what's in the best interest of students. you know, that's what that's what when I was an administrator, that's what I always went back to. Um, the next thing is um on August 5th, um

072a trustee from Santa Rosa City Schools, Jeremy Deator, maybe you know, um and John Loftton from SCO, um facilitated a meeting on Zoom to see if there was interest in revitalizing a countywide, um trustee association that I didn't know existed maybe 15, 20 years ago. Um Chris Raphanelli was in charge of that way back then. I don't know he was that old. But um the point is um we had about 17 different districts in that zoom call. A bunch of other trustees from districts called want to participate but it was on a Tuesday night when every district has their board meeting. So um the purpose of this is to um create an association where trustees from different districts can talk to each other, communicate to each other, maybe not feel isolated and and um you

073know work in silos um support each other. And we're looking at, you know, quarterly meetings. Um the next meeting is going to be and you'll hopefully you'll get a um an invite. It's going to be on um Sep Monday, September 22nd at 5:30 p.m. It's it's going to be on Zoom. And again, it's just to keep this conversation going to see if there's any interest again in revitalizing this um you know, county association of trustees. And I'm sure um our student trustees would be invited in that too. So again, thank you for your service. >> Thank you, Peter. All right. Thank you all for coming and for speaking to us. I know it's it's really hard to do that. Okay, we're going on with the agenda now. Uh we need the adoption and approval of

074the agenda. >> I move to adopt and approve the agenda. >> I second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed. Uh the motion passes. Thank you. Um, so now we're going to report on the activities and correspondence of stu of school board members. I want our student board members to know that this is like uh what you've kind of done at your schools or um you know over the the past two weeks in between meetings. And so this is just you know we just kind of mention them. if there's something that you want to comment on. We'd love to hear about what's going on at your schools. So, this is your opportunity. We have a separate line item for student board members. So, um I mean you're welcome to say something

075tonight if you'd like or usually I send out an email and then um and then you guys just tell me what it is and then you can Dave what you'd like tonight during the meeting. Okay. Okay. I'll ask you at the end if you think of something. Okay. So, for our regular board members, Ellen the hero went to uh Cherry Valley, McKinley Pax, Valley Vista, and Grant back to school nights. Very good. And you volunteered at the Pedaluma Music Festival, which is a fundraiser for PCS music. Did it go well? >> Oh, it went really well. It was very crowd. >> It was very crowded. great music and um the volunteers get to say which school they want and since my grandson's in the band at Pedaluma High that was my my school. >> That's

076cool. >> And it's I mean it's a great fundraiser. I just wish that we didn't have to do things like that that we were properly funded especially the arts. >> Very good. You're here. >> Um Okay. And then we had um you were at the crosswalk at McKenley. Joking. >> Crosswalk. It was really um so SCO any employee can volunteer up to two hours a week at any public school and there's like a list and I saw some of our elementary schools needed crosswalk help and that's like my favorite thing to do. I actually miss that the most working on a site. I like I will be in the crosswalk which is dangerous. >> Okay. So I was at McKinley today. I'll be at McDow tomorrow. And um so I actually reached out to the

077um the city council person who represents that area. And so I invited her to come with me because I'm going to be back with her on Thursday because we know that you know safe routes to schools um they did like you know walking studies. We've been asking for traffic studies of many of our schools. Um, you know, my kids were hit by a car in a crosswalk right by a school. Um, it's been a problem for a really long time in our city and we don't have control over the streets. And so I invited her to come and see the issues because Latricia has really reasonable asks of the of the city to make it a little bit safer for the kids to cross the street. So >> great. Were you holding a wheel? I

078was a >> you know the task force um did a whole walk audit and the audit is available so um that would be all >> you know we we could share it. Yeah. >> Okay. Fabulous. Uh we went to >> went to the library >> we went to the library opening >> and it was oh was awesome. Would you like to share? I mean, it was um it's been a long time coming. Having cooped up a three and 5-year-old, we've been chomping at the bits to get back to the library. Um is beautiful. It was it's extremely well done. Um just I think a there's so many amazing resources for um families, students, all residents. Um and so really am thankful to the Sonoma County uh library, the friends of the library, um and several

079of our city council members who are there. Um Senator Mike McGuire sent staff um had a nice resolution for for the reopening. Um just very excited to start be able to use it again. It's really, you know, if you think about the old library and how it was, it was dark. It had that horrible orange rug and um I mean, it was that rug was 50 years old. And um and when you know, it wasn't very inviting. It had a wall and then it had like two then an in um door and then an outdoor. That's all gone. And it's it's all glass and it's a you know a automatic door and you walk in and it's light and airy. They've moved the com, you know, all of the circulation desk so it's back in

080the um uh it's just it's really beautiful. They did an incredible job and the the um the children's department was the hit definitely. I mean, it's just like, oh my gosh, it's just totally I mean, I thought they had taken out walls because it was so much more open. And um it was very exciting. It was really cool to be surrounded by library people, >> the coolest people in the world. >> Yes. >> And um other than the people sitting here. Um so anyway, it was really it was really a fun day. Um and I was glad to see Ryan there. um who had a big hand in getting money for that um that the rebuild. So, it was very cool. Uh and then I went to uh I went on a very fun first

081day of school with Matthew and Dave and uh Amanda and Gloria. And um it was really inspiring and really fun and I want to do it every year even when I'm not on the board. It was just uh quite inspiring. It looked like everybody was glad to be back. So, how long that lasts, we'll see. >> I got that same sense at back to school nights. >> Yeah. >> Lots of parents, beautiful classrooms, enthusiastic teachers. It was really heartwarming. >> Good. Yeah, I know. I think it's great. Um and then I went to the um CHIPA which is I believe community health in the Pedaluma area. Um it's a there's a mental health and substance abuse work group um that's part of healthy pedaluma and um I uh this they've they've kind of since co

082it's been kind of a off and on kind of thing and so they're they're really this whole meeting was a discussion about how to move forward with it what is it going to look like and Esmeralda was there also um and it's just um how do we revitalize the work of um providing this kind of uh health care to our community? How can healthy pedaluma be part of that? And um and so I kind of there was lots of really good ideas going forward. I'm going to continue to go if anybody else wants to go. It's it's I've been going since 20 2019 I guess when we first got on the board. Um, and it's it used to be a very different kind of thing. So, I think they're really going I think the suggestions

083were really good and bringing in so many more of the small community groups that are working. Some of them just one person. Um, so anyway, uh, but one of the things reason I'm mentioning it tonight is that one of the things is that of course I suggested being on the school board was getting students involved. somebody else has had an suggested and I said that we have senior projects we have you know um a healthcare pathway we have the uh CTE and I think it would be really good to have representatives on CHIPA and a healthy pedaluma Mandy I have a question um since there was part of it was substance abuse is there any talk about fentanyl on campus um Narcan training >> you No, there used to be um a lot, you know,

084this was more um this wasn't as targeted to specifically mental health and um substance abuse as it used to used to have just these small uh and the Pedaluma area included Sebastapole and you know the county areas. Um, and it would be like just, you know, a very small nonprofit with maybe two employees that were reaching out and trying to do uh peer counseling, things like that because there's a there's an organization called Micah's Hugs and they're they what they want to do is they want to get Narcan into the schools, train people how to use them. Um, it's called Micah's Hugs because their son Micah died from a fentanyl overdose on campus. So, that's why I was just asking because there are organizations out there that can really help us with that. >> I

085think those are the kinds of organizations that they're thinking about bringing back. >> Okay. Anything else? >> I got one more. Um, I got to uh I was lucky enough to attend a town hall with uh supervisor David Rabbit about uh traffic in the Penro area. >> It focused on uh two intersections that don't involve us, but there was also smaller talk and a little bit of update of the old Adobe and Pedaluma Hill intersection um next to Penro Elementary. Um, so I'm going to say the good news is for the first time I think uh ever there will be some slowdown, you know, element for the for the school zone. They're actually going to uh enforce like the 25 miles an hour around Pen Grove Elementary. So those are going to be going up

086along with additional um I think radar signs to get people attempt for people to slow down around the school. Um, our favorite uh crosswalk I think is going to be slightly moved so it lines up better with uh the the ramp and there will be additional signage around said crosswalk. Um uh and uh but the bad news is the actual intersection itself um they the county updated saying they're having issues with the surrounding land owners. So there will not be um any near-term fixes to the intersection. So, it's going to continue to operate as is. >> Thank you. That's really interesting. That's good. First steps, right? Okay. Um, did you guys think of anything that you'd like to say? >> Um, yeah. I'm the ASV president at Pedalum High, so I have some um insight

087into Pedalum High. First of all, I don't know if you guys were involved in the new courtyard for PHS, but it probably approving it. But it's beautiful and it actually like makes an impact. It like really beautified the campus. Everyone was like, "Oh my gosh, there's so many more tables to sit at. It's way easier to find a spot to like sit and chat." And there's high tables and short tables. And anyway, there's a place for everyone to sit now. And it's beautiful for ASB things. We can do like we do like lunch activities. So there's like a stage with like Anyway, so that's good. Um the neon dance we have our back to school dance last Saturday or two Saturdays ago now I guess and it was the most attended neon dance we've ever

088had and I feel like this school year is going to be super good for um I'm already noticing really good enthusiasm and engagement from students from ASB. So that's or just from the whole school towards ASB. Um, we're doing spirit mornings for things like senior nights for like flag football, football, tennis, maybe sports like that. Um, and so basically ASV is going to go out and like have speakers and dress in all out purple and like greet people and have science and like run around the cars in the parking lot. We did that once last year and it was really fun. So that's fun. And then I'm also taking anatomy randomly, but I know um there's some money towards like CE CTE pathways for like medicine and we have a lot of new cool things

089in my anatomy class. So, thank you for the money for that. That's what I have. Thank you. Either one. Okay. Oh, yes, please. Ruby. Um, I would actually like to talk about something new that I feel like we could add into the schools and it would be driver's ed because I see that a lot of students right now can't afford to take the classes under the age and some people can't always find rides to school or like in my situation I live like on a winery so buses don't really go to my like house so I feel like that's might be a problem for some students and I know back then we did have some classes for driver's ed like back in the days my mom you in a school. and I believe that if

090we brought that back, it would help our community be safe with drivers. It would help our students learn how to drive. And I go to San Antonio and at my school, there's a lot of crazy drivers. Our students, they like to show off their engines. They like to go fast. And I believe if they actually learn the proper rules before getting on the road, that will make all of us safer and our community safer. >> Yeah, it's a great idea. >> Thank you. Really good idea. Perfect. We're writily writing it down. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Um I was just gonna add to that. So we have advisory now for at I'm assuming all the schools. Um which is I have other things to say about that, but for driver's ed. I feel like

091it'd be really cool if there was like an option to take driver's ed like during advisory for sophomores because pretty much everyone in that age group is trying to take driver's ed. So, it'd be really cool if they could have like a few classes and just have everyone maybe like just a few driver's ed programs could be like sponsored by the district or they could like be partnered with us or something and then just help kids get logged in because a lot of people don't like are just so behind on doing it. So, yeah. >> Excellent. I actually have something else to So, there is this like online course called um Coastline Driving. I for I don't know the full website, but you could get scholarships from there. And I believe if we promote that

092more to our students, it could give them more opportunities than them having to find them on their own. Cuz I kind of found that on my own. And I feel like with little opportunities, kind of putting it like on our school grounds, little flyers or little announcements like that, I feel like it'll be easier for our students to get those um opportunities to do. >> That's a great idea. Thank you. Those are that's really great really good things because I know that that's where you guys are is like safety and driving and so um this is really good information. Okay, so we're going to move on. Uh we are now to um comments from the public on consent items. I don't have anything yet. I seeing no uh public on asking for >> obviously I'm

093making up for it later when you get to >> and then we're done. >> Is it now? Okay, we're at 13. Approval of the consent agenda by consolidated motion. I move to approve the consent agenda. >> Okay. Okay. >> Now, now we'd like to talk about a a slight change to um the item 13.3.1 the bell schedule instructional minutes. So from the time it was posted originally posted until now we've have there have been some slight some min some slight adjustments um cleric some clerical items that have come up and so I just want to highlight them because I don't want to I think she's passing around the paper right now. This is the same item, correct, Amanda? >> This what you're talking about? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Okay. So, I want to just highlight

094those because I I want to make sure that we're voting on the the accurate uh bell schedule. So, these are times when students are entering class, when they have break, when they have lunchtime, when they get when they get dismissed, that's we call the bell schedule. So, this is for elementary and for secondary. So if there were any So typically we don't make any changes but clerical stuff I just highlight it for you guys and make sure that we're all voting on the same thing making sure that they the minutes are accurate. So I'm wondering if uh >> is that all kennel word >> this? I don't think so. I'm wondering if um Amy and Gloria if you want to just take turns and just kind of share what were the the the small changes

095to these. >> Sure. So, it looks like some of the papers might have got mixed up, but Maddie, everyone should have a Valley Vista public Waldorf and a Kennelorth >> and a Kennorth. Yes. Okay. So, um there was a change for the number of C days that are happening at Kennallworth. Um they have an amazing program coming to their school and Whitney was working with the staff on if they should do that on their regular schedule. Um Sandra and I were able to be a part of that and so they made an adjustment. um they were doing C days and now they're just sticking with a regular schedule. So we're going back to what um Whitney had. Um so no change in instructional minutes there. And then for Valley Vista Public Waldorf um we realized

096that the TKK teachers um even though they have a regular TKK lunch of 45 minutes, it was accidentally listed as 20 minutes, which of course we want to make sure our teachers, especially for TKK, are getting their full lunch. So that correction you'll see there for Valley Vista as well. And those are those are on um the live link that was sent to you all on the Google sheet. Everything's been updated there, but because it was a change that we made after the agenda was posted, we wanted to provide a paper copy. Sure. Um so Kennelworth had said, you know, we have when A days and B days and C days are. Um they have a special program coming in to be working on school culture that's going to um happen the first week of

097September. And so in um the company that's working with them needs two and a half hour blocks. And so they were thinking, uh oh, we might have to go to do C days instead of AB days. Um but in some great conversations with Sandra, myself, and Whitney, we found a solution to keep the schedule as originally intended, which helps our staff, especially that's split between two sites, um and our staff that works part-time, so it does not impact their schedules. So, >> so the one that was listed on the agenda is not this one, >> right? There's you'll see three less C days and um one more AB and one more B day. So, the number the days stay the same, the minutes stay the same. It's just that where we list the date, >>

098we had to just make the change. >> Got it. Got it. >> Anything to add, Gloria, or is that it? Okay. So just to be clear, these everything was posted correctly on time in the agenda. These are just minor clerical ch clerical errors. If we we found a couple little things that ah we need to make sure that you're approving the the most accurate bell schedule possible that's going to be on the website. So >> perfect. Thank you. Good job. All right. Any other discussion about the consent agenda? All right. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? None. That motion passes. We are now going to uh 14 comments from the public on action items. We have a bell. >> Action. Action. Uh, seeing no one wanting to comment, we're going

099on to 15 action items. 15.1.1 resolution of the Latino Heritage Month. >> So, I just want to bring this add to this. This is something that um we've we've done in years past and um Trustee Williams and Trusty Quinn worked on this resolution. So, I don't know, typically we we read it into the record. I don't know if Ryan if you want to you want to read it or happy to read it for you. >> Happy to read it. >> Okay. >> All right. Resolution of the board of education of the Pedaluma City uh elementary and ped pedaluma joint union high school districts uh for declaring September 15, 2025 to October 15, 2025 Hispanic Heritage Month. Whereas Hispanic Heritage Month is a month to celebrate and pay tribute to the contributions that generations of Hispanic

100Americans have made to American history. society and culture through their contributions in sciences, arts, government, and commerce. And whereas Hispanic Heritage Month begins on September 15th and ends October 15th to coincide with the independence dates of five Latin American countries that declared their independence from Spain in 1821, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. >> Whereas the United States uh Latinx and Hispanic population comprises 60.4 4 million people or 18.5% of the population and 22.76% of the population of Pedal Luma. Latinx or Hispanic communities continue to contribute significantly to the political, economic, and uh social development of our city, our state, and our nation. And whereas each year Americans are encouraged to deepen their understanding of the Latinx community by celebrating the histories, cultures, and contributions of Americans whose ancestors represent pre uh Colombian

101civilizations, including Maya, uh Zapotech, oh, I'm going to, you know, some of these I have not uh Tel uh sorry, I don't I don't pronounce, but mixtech, Aztec, and Inca demonstrating kingdoms, empires, soph sophisticated cities, intellectual accomplishments, and vibrant indigenous cultures developed in parts of Mexico, Central and South America before Spanish conquest. And whereas Pedalum City School District recognizes the diversity represented with Latinx communities such as black and indigenous uh Latinx populations and commits to creating spaces where the identities of these students are represented and celebrated year round. Whereas the Pedaluma uh school board of education recognizes that each student needs an opportunity to understand the common humanity underlying all people to develop pride in their own uh in their own identity and heritage and to understand respect and accept the identity and heritage of

102others. And whereas the Pedaluma School District continues its commitment to eliminating barriers that prevent our Latinx students from receiving equitable access. And whereas the history social science framework for California public schools, kindergarten through grades 12 states that the history curriculum of community, state, region, nation, and world must reflect the experience of men and women of different racial, religious, and ethnic groups and must be integrated at every level. Now therefore it be it resolved that Pedaluma City Elementary and Pedaluma Joint Union High School Districts Board of Education proclaim September 15, 2025 to October 15, 2025 a Hispanic Heritage Month. >> Excellent. I move to approve. >> I will second. >> Uh any discussion? >> So I think just we the next step just so everyone's clear. So we we will take this res if if approved

103we'll take this resolution send it out to um to all staff in the district we will encourage our our principles our ASD leaders our student leaders to pro to promote this so from September 15th through October 15th recognizing um this as Hispanic Heritage Month and celebrating the amazing contributions of our um this pop this subgroup of our of our ation. >> Excellent. Okay. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? The resolution passes. Yay. Okay. 15.1.2 Memorandum of Understanding Approval between PCS and Old Adobe Union School District for the Pedaluma Regional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Residency. I actually asked this to be placed on action because I want to highlight that we're doing this. >> Yeah, this is so >> if it's passed. >> So, this is a continuation. It was it was on

104the consent agenda. Uh Trusty Cloud asked to to move to pull it out just to sort of highlight it and share a little bit about what we're doing. This is a continuation of a grant that's been going on that includes Sonoma State University, Old Adobe, and Pedaluma City Schools. I'd like have Jason just share a little bit more about it. He's been >> Yeah. So um this is one of two residency grants we have. We this one we are the lead on. We uh we are the lead agency working with Sonoma State and then we work in partnership with Old Adobe. Our other one is a secondary grant for STEM where we are Santa Rosa City Schools is the lead and we partner with them for our secondary teachers. So both these programs have been

105great. This one in particular is geared towards elementary um elementary our elementary classrooms. uh this last two year the last two years we've added a special ed component to it and um we've been prioritizing this this current year some of our really early childhood positions. So we've been increasing we see a huge need for our our TK teachers and so we've been uh adding more residency positions in in that area as well. So it's been it's been very successful. We've hired some of our teachers out of that program which what is what it's designed to do. Um, not all, you know, we don't have as many positions as we have residents, but it's great because it gives it gives uh we can have candidates that may not have the ability to to quit their jobs

106and do volunteer student teaching to now get paid to become teachers. So, it it means more people have access to to this to this opportunity and this program and that we can then uh work with them to enter into a partnership with us or as I tell them like if it's not us, we want to get you into whatever that next step is because we need we need more we always need more teachers and and adults that care about kids. >> Is this the CDE grant or a federal grant? And that's the first part. And then is there a chance for renewal um since it ends at the end of this school year? Um I'd have to go uh so there is it's it's not so simple. It is a state it is a state

107grant. There's pieces where they've been talking about renewal and then some of those are like is it on is it not on. So that remains to be seen. There's also a piece where um we're not all we haven't we haven't don't have as many uh residents as we intended. like most of our most of the programs across the state are experiencing similar similar situations and so that means our funding we have more funding and so we'll actually be able to extend our funding longer than what it looks like. So we'll get extra at least one extra year maybe a little longer because the funding will be in place and we didn't we didn't go to capacity each year so we had this block amount and we didn't use it all. So we'll be able to

108stretch it out a bit >> so it's not the state. >> This was this was administered through the state. I don't I don't know. Um I came in after it was already started. Maybe Amanda might know. >> No, I don't know the >> Okay. I would know the budget resource code. >> PDE grant CD. >> It's a state thing. I I don't know if they were connected with the federal. I don't think it was. I think it was it was mainly state and it was run through the CDE, you know. Even our federal funds are grants are rampant. >> Yeah, that's what I'm not sure what the >> what if there is another connection from the federal level. >> Yeah. Um, I just have a um clarifying question because I remember uh the discussion about

109what it means to be a residency >> and we were envisioning dorms in the gym and so could you clarify what the definition of residency is? Um I I don't know if I if there's one a technical one in the GR. Can you talk about what? >> Can we talk about residents? So we still have student teachers from other institutions and when they come they uh they are in a program and they are doing some student teacher and that teaching and that's a volunteer process. Uh in the residency there's finances and additional training for the res the the prospective teachers. there are the residents and they're having a residency at that school and within our district and there's a partnership that's more concrete than in a traditional student teaching where they just it's just a

110placement. Uh so there's a bigger relationship like we have an outlined agreement with the resident as a district that says they will not take a job with another district before this date and we agree that we will guarantee you an interview for anything you're qualified for. So we have some agreements that aren't in place with student teachers. So that's what it means to have a residency within our district is more agreements and the financial support that that is along with it. In addition, there's financial support and additional training for our mentor teachers that are supporting the residents. >> Well, thank you. I know mentor teachers don't get stipens for student teachers, at least through Sonoma State. So >> they do for this >> and that's great. They should because they do extra stuff. >> They

111do. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Any more questions? Okay. Uh, I need a motion. >> I move to approve. >> Second. >> Uh, any other further comment? All right. Uh, all those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? The motion passes. Thank you. I just I think it's just awesome. So, hope it can continue. All right, we're moving on to 15.3.1 education services overnight field trip request for approval. Yes. So, we have an overnight field trip request from Cherry Valley to attend um Camp Garas, which is a fournight 5day trip. Um the cost will be covered through a variety of funding sources um including site funds, PTA, parent donations. Um all students will be uh able to attend regardless of whether they're able to donate and so we are requesting approval for the field trip request. >>

112Yes. >> Any questions? Okay. Uh, I need a motion. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. Uh, any. All right. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. They are going on an overnight field trip. Thank you. All right. We're going on to comments. Number 16, comments from the public on discussion information items. Dean. No one coming forward. We go on to 17.1.1 board member office hours for 2025 26 and my >> so in the past um several years board members have we've had board member office hours where two one or two board members would go out to each site uh in the fall and then in the spring. Um really the idea was to support open communication and collaboration. Um, so there was some community input. I think you all talked about

113this last year is my understanding. And this the proposal or the idea is to host um two locations in the fall. So one on the west side thinking about Pedalma High School, one on the east side at Kennallorth and then in the spring flipping it would go to CASA and Pedalma Junior. So that there's ample opportunity for people on either side of town to just to go and and meet with board members. or you can we can go back and say no, we want to go to every single school and host board office hours. Uh it's up to you. This is just a discussion item to kind of gauge what you all are thinking and where what how you'd like us to organize the office hours for this year. >> So if we if we

114did the two in the fall, two, would they be after school? Because what we did in the past was we would do one very early in the morning and then one right after school. So, I'm just curious. >> It's that's that's the conversation. I think it's up to you. It's up to you. It's up to the board on how you want to organize this. It could you could do one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Where did you get the most engagement at the idea is to support open communication and engagement with families. You you tell me what you want to do. Um I I feel like um this is really geared towards secondary. Um I think it would probably we would need an additional day or maybe true >> uh for elementary and

115have it um you know on an elementary school campus. And >> I like the idea of having it just, >> you know, at one spot, but u maybe having it here. >> Sure. >> Um >> and I think the idea too is that we we could help to advertise this to people and say, >> see, that's >> just because it's at Pedaluma High School, it doesn't mean it's only for Pedaluma High School. You could say Grant Grant here at Valley Bist any school that wants to you could you could even be you know if you're at CASA or at McDow Kennallorth if you want to come to one of these nights because it fits your schedule you can come and we advertise advertise it to families and say I think you get >> some sites

116I know that board members have gone to and there's no one there or maybe it's a >> passing teacher or maybe a parent who just kind of sees it last minute but to really advertise it and say here are the here are the times that that you're going to be that at least one or two board members will be there to hear from the community. So I don't really it's up for you if up to you guys how you want to do it. >> The my issue is that a lot of times when you do board office hours they are specific to that school. So people come in to talk to you about issues at their school and I'm just envisioning a free-for-all. I mean, how do you personalize those those office hours? So, if

117some, you know, if there's some people from Grant who really have some issues and they're there with a bunch of elementary, do they get their issues heard? That would be my concern. >> I think it's just how you structure that your time with people. Yeah. >> Yeah. I I guess when I was mentioning elementary um was that we have seven schools >> on the west side, you know, and then, you know, two secondary schools. So, um it just seems like it's really not an even distribution of two and two, you know, we need to have um just because the elementary schools are mainly on this side of town. Um yeah, I don't know. I don't know how to avoid that. I just know that everybody is working also except for me. >> Me? >> I

118thought you were at the snow state. >> Well, I am, but I make my schedule. >> Oh, okay. So, um and so it um we we really try to always attend the office hours, but um I want to be able to make sure that everybody else has an opportunity to do it, too. So, I'd like to hear from the worker bees and how they see this and and not having it be problematic, which sometimes it has been in the past where we do become like targets. >> Um, >> I think this is I mean I think this is a start. I mean, we can we can revisit and I I do hear we should have uh the elementary schools. I do think at you know another elementary school site per semester and then you know

119um then it's up to the us to potentially uh you know swing by the the PTA meetings and or to have provide notice and we're not just limited to uh these these events. Um so it's it's kind of then we can you know make our uh try you know do our best for availability. >> I uh need some time to think. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I think we need some more time. >> Sounds good. >> Okay. >> Can digest this and and let's try >> maybe work through Maddie and Maddie we can you and I can bring another bring a proposal for the next one with some some ideas. I believe that um Babs is coming to approve the Anyway, we were going to go over the priorities again. >> Yes. >> And so we

120could maybe start running through maybe how this might work. >> Sure. >> Oh, you're gonna go Oh, Ruby. >> Thank you very much. >> Welcome. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Nice meeting you. We don't see you. Thank you. We'll be in touch. >> Love the balloons. >> Yeah, I do too. Very appreci. >> Okay, we'll bring we'll communicate something. >> And if you guys have anything that you're thinking about, then just email me and Matthew. >> Okay. >> All right. Now, we have uh 17.2.1 meal reimbursements. Do we have any phone? >> It's not true. Oh, yeah. Jason did. I did. >> You Dave. All right. Um this evening I'm bringing forward our current rates for our meal reimbursements for travel and conference compared to other districts in our area and what the

121state average is. Um though we are seeing or we will be seeing less travel and conference now that our education education educator effectiveness funds have expired. Um we will still have travel in different conferences throughout the year and um the feedback that we've been receiving from staff that are attain attending conferences is that they're finding it difficult to find meals. Um a lot of times if you're in downtown Sacramento, you can only go where the convention center is. Um and people are having to pay higher rates than what we allow. So I just wanted to bring this to the board for discussion about um though our you do approve the board policy. Um the amounts are part of an exhibit on our travel and conference application forms which are attached. So we could move forward

122with the change with direction. Yes. So, we're we're mid-range and um we actually fall in line with the it's like the California average. There we go. Um but there are if you can see though we we're mid-range for for lunch for breakfast and lunch. Um we're a little low on dinner. So overall, but um I think where we see a lot of um the feedback is specifically around our lunch. Um we have far less breakfast because either the hotel includes it or a lot of conferences include breakfast or people eat before they leave. But I would say for the most part what we reimburse is the lunch meals. And then another piece of conversation is districts vary on if they allow tipping to be included in the amount. Some districts, our past practice has been

123um up to the amount. So if it's for lunch for $15 and up to 15% um but there are districts that do not allow tipping to be included in the total. >> So you say it's um a 75 per per DM instead of because sometimes you might just want a bagel for breakfast and that's five bucks and then you want to go out for a nice dinner. So wouldn't it be easier to just do that average rather than setting sides for each meal? Um so we h um we have a lot of issues getting the information that we need to even reimburse what we do. Um, we do require um reitemized receipts because there are things that are not legally allowed to be purchased with um state taxpayer funds that um I worry that if

124we just did an amount that that would it would create a lot more work to determine if um it is really allowable or not. We already are looking at agendas and quite there's quite a bit of work that goes into it. So my worry is we already have to look at timing and things like that for when meals are purchased. It could create a lot more work by just saying um you can have this much for the day. >> Well, what about if you take some off of breakfast and add it to lunch? We could do that. Or $15 for breakfast is >> nice. I mean, >> yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, we could look at doing that and maybe increasing um make making breakfast $10 and increasing lunch even to 20 to offset um

125some of it. or or leaving breakfast and increasing lunch to $20. >> Do you have any strong feelings about >> if we should increase the our current rates? >> Um, >> well, I think we should look at the average and increase it to the average for lunch. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Sorry, someone was gonna say something. Were you >> I just had a question. Okay. So, basically it's $54 for the meals, but then plus 15. So, it's really $69 a day. Is that what that is? Underneath it says when an employee attend is >> that is for um that's probably that's for San Rafell. It looks like it went up instead of down. Yeah, we were just trying to give some information. >> Yeah, that's for incidentals. We do not cover incidentals. So, do

126you know how much people were going over before and how you know what I mean? >> It's really I think there are a lot of people that go out of their way to make sure that they stay at or under right around the amount. So, the reimbursements that we see probably do not answer that specifically. It's the the most I do see is at lunch. >> I I don't know. I have a real problem with just our budget situation in general and then increasing, you know, I I know that it's really hard and I know that people that need to go um to these conferences um you know, need to be reimbursed, but I just think we need to stay within the budget here. I I just feel very uncomfortable about doing that, but that's

127that's just me. I don't eat breakfast. I bring my own. >> Uh I'm fine with, you know, checking in with our labor partners about their recommendations and uh you know, I see where we're below the state average or like the I don't know comp average. Um so we should, you know, evaluate. >> So this has this has come up at EERC. That is one of the reasons why I was bringing it for discussion. it. >> Yeah, I mean it's if it's uh you know workrelated expense, I mean we should do what we can. >> Can you tell can you share a little bit about what was brought up at the ERC? like was it was the >> I guess was the conversation because I wasn't there but was the conversation >> to increase a little

128bit or was the conversation the same or >> so it was on the e it came up it was on the EERC agenda at the end of last year and um I think Sandra and I had talked before we receive a lot of I' I receive personally a lot of emails about it um and about the rates when people come back that um that they do not cover their meals and I'm often asked to make exceptions um which I we do not. So I thought like and I think it's on the agenda for EERC um this week too. So it was great timing um to start the conversation at this level to see if it is a change that the board is interested in making. I wonder if we if we have the conversation saying

129bring back to the next board meeting a recommendation for any changes that because I don't Is there is there a recommendation right now? >> So my my recommendation would be to either increase lunch to $20. That's where we see so increase it by five or um go to I wouldn't reduce breakfast or we're a little bit over this the average um at 13 over 1220. So we could um increase lunch and dinner to the state average. So one of those two would be my recommendations. They it it equals about a $5. We're about $5 below the the state average. >> And Jessica had a comment. >> Yeah, I believe you said that a lot of people kind of flocked to the same places to eat. Have you tried looking at the prices of the places?

130So like everyone wants to go to Starbucks for breakfast. Their sandwiches kind of run at like 7.45 I believe. So you can kind of estimate the costs on what is most popular that people go to maybe. Yeah, that's a great idea. Our our travel um is actually all over the United States. So, um I was speaking specifically um recently people went to Sacramento, so that was what I heard about, but I'm not exactly sure where they eat around there, but looking at that is a great idea. Um, some districts do have, to Jessica's point, they have regional allowances depending on where the location is, and that's what the reimburseable reimburseable rate is. Um, it is not something we have really looked at though. Yeah, >> I have one more. Um, so you you you hinted

131on and I've dealt with this and I'm going to have to take off like most of my day on Friday to do reimbursements. You know, it's it's an awful process. But if um uh our labor partners or you like or anyone else has like ways to help streamline reimbursements because that's another way to ensure folks who don't get frustrated with the process and then just eat the whole cost. But um sure we have you know um best practices and and anything we can do to make it as uh as easy and possible to get the reimbursements for our our employees. That's something else I would. >> So, we've worked over the last two years on written processes and policies and I think as things come up, we continue to change them. Um, what we require

132is what is required by law for the audit. We don't require anything outside of that. So, but we do um I feel like we have I'm looking where's Tony? Him and I worked on this a lot together. Um but um we do now have um there's a pos a position within the district office that is shared by business and ed services and actually it is this is one of the main things that she does um because most of the travel and conference actually comes from ED services and comes to business less. So um that actually totaling all of that. So, we've we've worked really hard to have a process and a p a person who knows and is now doing the outreach to employees to help get all of that those messages across. >> I

133would just really like to see a recommendation. >> So, my recommendation was to increase uh increase by $5. So increase lunch to $20 or to update closer to this average which would bring we could bring dinner up lunch up by $3 and dinner up by two. >> This is a discussion item. So um >> maybe if you could just come back to the next meeting with a recommendation like that. >> Sorry that it's not action tonight. So we can't take >> So this is not so um >> policy. >> This is not in our board policy. It's an exhibit that we use and that the last time it was updated it was just a discussion too. The amounts are not actually written into my into our board policy. So I was asking >> I was

134or I can come back with more information. I was >> Yes. So how do we feel about doing it tonight? What? >> increasing by $5. >> By $5. >> Yeah. >> I would just like to increase keep PCS breakfast but increase the lunch and dinner to the national average. I think would be a good compromise. >> I'm fine with $5 and defer to our employees about how they would want to see that allocated. How about if How about if I take both options, either increasing lunch and dinner or just lunch by $5 to both of our labor partners and look for consensus? >> That would be great. >> Okay, perfect. Great. >> Thank you. >> Actually, you're still up there. >> Yes. >> Uh we have 17.2.2 transportation. Yeah. >> It's like a zombie. >>

135Never goes away. And this time I have a guest. So for transportation, um this is really a twofold discussion. So at our I believe our last board meeting, I was asked to bring back um the policies on um our re for our current policy is parent drivers within 22 miles. and then also what our insurance requirements are for our parent drivers and then the amounts of what we gave for transportation to sites for last year versus this year. So I would like this is up but we're going to start with the insurance piece of it. So um I would like to invite Sandy who is the executive director of Resi up um to help with the conversation. I'm just going to go over what our recommendation was. We'll do that. So, um, as you know,

136we ensure all of the school districts in Sonoma County, including one in, um, Marin, which is Shoreline. And we were asked for a recommendation on what we thought the, um, insurance coverage should be. Um, we did give this out. This is as of two years ago. So, this is actually, in my opinion, ready to be updated again. Um, and it was increased to 500,000 per vehicle for auto liability. So, that's going to cover all of the passengers in the vehicle. Um, and then for property damage, 100,000. And we also may have a requirement for uninsured motorist coverage, which is pretty standard on all auto policies. And for medical payments, 10,000 uh per person in the vehicle, and that coverage is regardless of fault. I know there were some questions about those um recommendations. Is that

137going to be a huge expense to increase your insurance by that much? >> It would depend what your insurance is. Now, a lot of factors go into that. I do know from my past in working at AAA that if you want to increase your rates for one day, you can do that to drive on a field trip and a lot of parents don't know that. So, that helps out a lot for parents that want to drive on field trips. >> Can you Sorry. Go ahead. >> I was going to say, can you say what the amounts were again because I thought it was 300. It was that that was my question. I think it's 300 currently 300. Correct. >> At one time it was 300. Go ahead. >> Like last year it was because that's

138what I turned into the district. >> So this is our current recommendation. Okay. >> I know it used to be 100,000 um per person. 300,000 max. >> So it's only really going up 200,000. But if you think about it, if you have a minivan full of kids, it's really still not a lot coverage. So, >> how do we make parents aware that they can just up it for one day if they don't know that? >> What we do, what we have done is we've let districts know because parents do call and ask that question. Um, it's something that you could attach to when you send out that field trip sign up information um a little extra page on there saying, "Hey, if you don't have this coverage and you really want to be a part

139of this and drive on this field trip, here's what you can do. call your um insurance agent and find out if they can um give you that rate for one day and then you just bring that certificate in for the one day coverage. Obviously matching the date of the field trip and then you're covered to drive on the field trip. >> I think for secondary families that will be an issue if they're driving to athletic events especially if we change now that we have to change the transportation policy since it sounds like we can't afford to have buses for everything. So, I can just see that as being a barrier because I know people were saying it was an issue to increase to 300,000. Now, we're asking him to increase to 500,000 for how long?

140Like for a season, for multiple seasons. So, um there's been some confusion about when the rates changed. Um about a year ago, it through an audit, it came to our attention that we were not using the most updated rate and we changed it. Then um what I have found out over the last couple of months is that some old forms were still being used at sites. So there's been inconsistencies um at the site level on what forms are what amounts were being required. Um and the other piece that I so our practice has always been to follow ResiG's um suggest suggestion um and I was hoping hoping that Sandy could also speak to the impacts on if we choose to not follow ResiGs, >> please. >> It could be a situation when there is a

141claim. Um but you have to remember these guidelines are set up to protect the district. Um because if you do have someone out there that has the minimal limits and like I said, you have that minivan full of kids and the person's distracted, which you get a bunch of kids in the car, it could happen. Say you run a red light, hit another vehicle, and there's people in that vehicle injured also. And there's $500,000 for the injuries to go around. And nowadays, that is just not enough. Um, we don't have a hard fast we're going to deny your claim right now, but I'm sure that's in discussion with our excess carriers because these claims are getting into the excess layers of our coverage and they're really watching the auto claims which have been um actually

142pretty high. Everybody thinks it's more of the sexual assault and lestation claims are really high right now. It's more auto um traffic accidents. Yeah, I'm totally in favor of us doing whatever's safest for families. So then how do like what are our next steps? Because right now it's at 300,000. I know cuz I turned in the form a year ago. >> Where did you find the form? Because if you pull up >> to me by >> if you pull up our policy that is on our district, >> I can share the email after the fact. It is um our board policy. >> I believe you and I believe you and that's not that has not been my lived experience. Okay, >> I'll just keep it like that. So then how do we get in compliance

143with resix recommendations? I know that when we did data confirmation, that was one of the things filled out. It was confusing. Okay. And when also when you do the athletic clearance, there's also a part of that too about parent drivers. So it sounds like all of that is now irrelevant. So then how do we go about because um the sports season has already started. So then how do we get in compliance and make sure students are safe? I think I pro probably from my office should send out a parent square to all staff and all parents to everyone with what our um requirements are, what the process is for becoming a driver along with information on a little blurb about being able to update your rates for a day or a week or a season

144with some information about that too. >> Does this apply uh to student drivers? That is a great question. Um this this is specifically for parents or guardians who are driving um either on a field trip or athletes to sporting events um as a dis for driving not only their own students but other people's students. So for our students who drive on campus or to campus um or if parents are driving their own child to the field trip or to the athletic event, this insurance is not required. >> Okay? Cuz I am signing a form just like that for my child development field studies. Uh my teacher, Miss Richard, she gave it to me saying if you would like to drive yourself and they actually had the statement that you gave. That's why I was kind

145of curious about that. >> Yeah. Yeah, >> we can't drive other kids, but we are allowed to drive ourselves once you get back >> with parent parent permission. >> Parent permission and then putting the insurance on it and stuff like that. Yeah. >> Perfect. >> And then remember in California the liability follows the registered owner of the vehicle. So that's really important too. >> Yeah. >> You guys have any more questions for me? Well, um, one way is, you know, I think there was I, you know, what we can do to avoid surprises and have a transition period to updating. So whether it is starting January 1 to 500,000 or whatever we can do to have like not to all of a sudden just have like two weeks from now, you know, I know we

146have to update the policy and stuff like that, but just like I want to ensure that there's quite >> a few of our schools are that's why I'm I'm not sure if you have received emails. Um we are we have received parent emails. So there are schools that are already following the five 100,000. I don't I don't understand where this $500,000 policy is. >> It is on our We update our forms annually. It's on our forms, but it's also on um our >> So, we don't have to approve this either. >> No, our So, this is our current policy. It's our board. It is on our,000 come from >> that's an old rate. So the resi rate changed two years ago during an audit or at least ago. >> Um there's we updated a year

147ago when we found out we were out of compliance. >> So when did this update happen? >> October of 20 24. >> Why are you bringing this? Because when we talked about what what so this >> it's already done. >> So when we talked about the the bringing back trans the transportation policy I had also mentioned we had been getting a lot of questions about this. So I brought back every piece of the policy. So there's the board policy and the >> received phone calls last year as well from parents >> because they called the district somehow they said oh we need to call res they call so >> I need your number get your number >> last year last year we had a lot of small calls and once I explained to the parents

148they understood and I did adise those parents they could call their agent and get off for the one day. So uh yeah so those calls had to come into our office >> I think because since we had to make reduction which means we don't have enough money to support our current policy of the 22 miles now we have to allow student sorry we have to allow parent drivers and so we have to make sure that they have the right coverage which is that am I on the right track so far and so then goes back to what Ryan was saying like what's our transition because the seasons have already started Um, are we now allowing parent drivers over 22 miles with the $500,000 policy? The question mark. That's That's my question. Are we now allowing

149parent drivers with the $500,000 policy over 22 miles? And is there a limit 22 to no 50 miles? What is What are we doing? So currently we're still following the policy of 22 miles and depending on the site the 300 or the 500,000 um insurance apparently >> 500 um so we whenever anything comes to my office we give the 500,000 we still um follow the 22 but in the July board meeting we were asked to bring this back to start the discussion of are we going to extend the 22 mile radius. This is definitely um a part of it. It does come up a lot >> and yeah, this is something that comes up a lot parents. And so the I think this is a discussion item here to say do we want to we

150want to look at that? we want to look at >> do we have a reoccurring like focal point like uh vakavville where it's just like that is it's actually 40 miles would is like what what is like the common >> denominator >> American canyon >> so I was going to say for the 22 miles um that >> radius was selected >> for Napa American because it's a dangerous road but what we are finding is um the overnight field trip that was just approved to accidental um >> is 25 miles from um Mary Collins. So, and it's on basically the highway. So, I think when we originally did the 22 miles, it was looking at that. There's been a couple other field trips that it's come up down um to Marin or Salelo San Francisco >>

151area. Um so >> so those are those are the places that that those are the two areas outside of the 22 miles that come up. Um, other than that, I would say that the secondary schools for athletics um did a really good job explaining and working on the process that um I and they they go all over, but other than if there was trouble finding a bus or having to get a charter for the cost, um I didn't get a lot of feedback or information. Um if so if the the principles received a lot of information they um graciously did not give it to me. So do we need to look at increasing the mileage for a parent driver beyond 22 miles and is that something we would do? Well, that's why this I believe

152I was asked to bring this policy back was to determine that and I do have a little bit of information on the allocations that we're still giving this year that um we can move on to unless anybody had any more questions for Sandy. >> Thank you for staying. Thank you. >> Oh, sorry. >> So, these are transportation school. >> Yeah. All right. Can we >> Yeah. So at when we made um the reductions at our July board meeting, one of the areas that was reduced were in the area of athletics and transportation. So I wanted to share where our allocations were, what we gave each site last year versus so fiscal year 25 um for the most. Do you guys need that? I I got mine up. >> Yeah, I just need to I I

153just need to read that. >> Okay. So, um once we we were given the once the decision was made to reduce um in athletics and transportation, we went through and reallocated for fiscal year 26 and um the reductions for transportation were not made at the primary level. One of those decisions were because of there were so many they were taking the bulk of the staffing um cuts with the elimination of reading specialists and TOSA APS. There is a difference of $10,000 between last year and this year. That is because Valley Vista as Valley Vista they received $8,000 as Valley Vista public Waldorf school with more student enrollment. they are at $18,000. So you can see the um for the most part the Kennallworth and Paluma Jr. were reduced from 15,000 to 10,000 and this includes

154the the busing portion for athletics too. And then um Kasa Grande and Paluma High School received $40,000 last year and we reduced it to $25,000. Um San Antonio was left off the spreadsheet last year, though they did receive $1,000, so we just updated that. And then Carpay and Sonoma remained the same. We also um reduced Paluma Accelerated Charter by $1,000. And though we have an additional class at the dual language immersion program, we did not increase. So they would have received $2,000 this year. So >> Okay. Yeah. So, um I as we have been closing out the books, what we have found is that all of the funds were basically all utilized. A couple sites went a little over and some went a little under. We were lucky enough to be able to do quite

155a bit of the transportation inhouse. Um it's still at a cost. We are down a couple drivers at the beginning of this year and we have increased some of our um home to school or school to school routes um in for special services and SOCC. So right now we are already needing to contract um some of the athletics out to luckily first student has been able to take those on. They're much cheaper than a charter. And then we will be looking at charters when district vehicles and per student is not available. So this is our additional contribution. Do we know how much because I know we've talked about this before. We've had a hard time getting the totals. how much like the boosters clubs are contributing to the busing costs. >> I don't I don't

156have that number. We've requested it. Um unfortunately when the what I will be able we're finishing um closing out fiscal year 25 in the next two weeks when I bring back unodudited actuals in September. I will have the total cost of what our sites paid. Um, and we know what we paid as a district and then we'll be able to use that to see was it PTA, was it boosters, but I can I can work with the sites to get that specific breakdown. All right, any other questions? So now what do we do? >> Yeah. So I'm I'm very clear about So I um at the last board meeting it was a future discussion I was asked to bring by I believe Miss Vaughn um >> what >> maybe presentation would have been but so

157to bring the board policy back >> it's not really bringing it back. Well, you'd have to bring back the policy so that we can change it if we're deciding to increase the 22 miles, right? But I think that's the discussion for tonight is are you interested in >> Okay. I thought it was the $500,000. >> It's It plays into Got it. It Yeah. Got it. >> Okay. Uh well uh >> uh I would um say yes. Let it let's evaluate again to see if we can avoid some of the issues with just like being slightly outside um to try to catch and be more responsive to parents and the schools. um uh whether we want to start counting outside the city limits and that's where it starts or you know uh you know if we

158want to get a couple extra miles but we should I think slightly adjust it especially as we're putting more on on parents. Um and then two you mentioned um having a communic a communication or a couple communications to parents to remind them of the $500,000 level making sure everyone has the correct form I guess. Um and the options of um contacting your auto insurance company or potentially there's a couple of like you know standalone you can buy one day insurance just like some options for folks so they know how to do it. >> Okay. So, for um to bring back more information on the what is currently the 22 mile radius, if we're looking at extending it, um is the goal still to not allow to not have parent drivers drive to Napa and American

159Canyon? Is that in Napa? >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Napa County. That was so because we could do look at the if it's on the highway the 101. I think it has to be connected >> to the reductions that we have here. I mean I don't know what we can't I mean if you're if we're saying that Napa and that we're still going to provide transportation for those areas and we really can't then we should increase the miles. without limitations. >> Yeah. I mean, that's what I'm well that's what I'm hearing. So, back because this is this is a big reduction and so I don't I I don't think we have the money to really and that's why we agreed to reduce it. So, I think it So, do you want Okay. So, point

160of order here. I need some in, you know, kind of I I'm trying to figure out do we just bring back you a recommendation of like 50 miles. >> Why don't Why don't we look, Amanda? Why don't we look and see? >> No. 25 35 35. >> Um I mean I like the idea of at least including like Napa. >> Yeah. >> Of at least including Napa >> and American Canyon. >> Yeah. And American Canyon. We can we can check in with the school sites and see where they're where the pain points are. >> But driving to Middle We'll bring back a recommen >> to get buses to where we have parents who may be willing to drive >> who may be willing to drive there and are much further outside of that. Also, it

161seems like the size of the sport itself um had a lot to do with um the difficulty of the um of the buses. >> So, I remember water polo was big. >> Um okay. So, is that clear that we would like to have that? >> We'll bring a recommendation. Yes. >> Okay. A recommendation back. Thank you. Sorry to be that I was confused. >> That's okay. >> All right. >> Thank you. Thank you. All right. And now we have student services. Um 17.4.1 regulation 6164.6 identification and education under section 504. >> That must be an old agenda. We removed it prior to publication. >> I don't know where I got it then. Oh, you're on. >> No, it was online. So, never mind. All right, we will go on to number 18, future business. >>

162Yes, >> transportation policy. >> Anybody would like >> transportation policy. Um, I would like to start it off. Um, we have had a lot of budget changes and potential. Um I think we need to start the uh highlighting and uh identifying where are going to be the the pain points if um things don't you know uh go our way this November um and start uh making sure that we are starting up that process earlier and having as much community input as possible. Um so I would say like sometime in September would like to you know and then set a date for the first um uh citizens oversight or or uh the budget advisory committ budget advisory cup. We've got dates. We're already working on dates. So yeah, it'll start September. The idea would be to

163have about approximately five or six. We just talked about this meeting this morning. six meetings over the course of September through about we need to end we need to finish by January at the latest. Mhm. >> So, >> okay. >> Budget advisory without LCAP combined. I don't think it's >> Mhm. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> And along those lines, do we need to revisit the committee selection? I think we do that. Do we do that every year or do that in December, beginning of the year or in >> Yes, it's on. >> It's on the September 9th agenda. >> It's on the next agenda, >> like the new committee assignments. >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's at the same time that we do office hours. >> And and Jason, how's uh how's

164the new bus schedule going? >> We um we are planning to do a presentation at the next meeting. We were we did our 10day counts. We met we've been meeting rigorously. >> Okay. Um and uh I think we have some good information that we'll be able to share and things are actually I mean from our perspective um the high schools did a really nice job with transitioning into this schedule. I mean there's always always some challenges but in general we were we were very happy with what we saw. So I mean that's only one piece of the report but we um we were originally planning to share with you tonight but we wanted to wait till after the day 10 so we'd have a more of a better better information to share with you all.

165All right. So, this is one of the things I'm very curious about how the new how the new bell schedule's going. So, uh you know, for the next meeting, we'll have a bigger discussion item. >> Be ready. >> Um seed days are awful. Um there's absolutely no time to get anything done in 45 minute period. And most of the teachers just say, "All right, today we're just going to do like smiles and frowns or something because there's no time to actually do anything. Smiles and frowns." So you like stand in a circle and say, "Smile, it's Friday or whatever. Not Friday cuz frown, it's Monday." Um, and so I if there's any way to not have C days next year, I would not do C days, but I understand that you have to have the

166fixed schedule thing. And another issue about fixed schedules is that people that play sports since like they have games every single Tuesday and Thursday. So they're missing every single Tuesday and Thursday 6 period. And last year it would rotate. But now I have a lot of friends that are like I literally will not be in my stats class for the next 3 months until volleyball season or football season's over because it doesn't alternate. You know what I mean? But I don't know that's that big of a deal. Um, and sorry. Um, I like the I like not having A+ like cuz a lot of times A+ is just wasted class time or wasted time cuz no one wants to do anything productive after sitting in class for an hour and hour and a half and

167two hours is way too long to be in a class. So, um, I like it feels like a much better flow on B days and A days now. And I think advisory should be optional for seniors because it's crazy to just be forced to do study hall even though like you know what I mean but I think that's up to everyone else and they already were like some people get it like at pedalum high a like there's one a class that gets to have advisory option like doesn't have to come to advisory because their class is like doing like animals like raising animals at home. So they can leave during that period and they don't have to come back for advisory. But I would argue it's a very equivalent workload of me and some of

168my friends taking like six AP classes and two JC classes. It's very equivalent I maybe to raising animals. So I don't know. But yeah, that's awesome. >> Those are some fantastic early uh uh thoughts and look forward to the conversation that we're going to have. Uh, >> I always thought that the whole point of C day at the beginning of the week was was for teachers to kind of set up what was going to happen during the week. >> And that's you don't need an hour and a half to do that. So, yeah, something to definitely revisit is advisory. Um, there was I did realize there's a lot of miscommunication with that. Um, where my counselor, he is amazing. uh he was told one thing, then an email was sent out 20 minutes later from

169admins saying totally different things. Um and that left the counselors in confusion, swamped with appointments super stressed out and then the students saying, "Hey, you promised all of us seniors we get advisory off just to get all of us getting the forms in." Um, and I feel like if we are in good standing GPA, we have a history of turning in all our assignments on time and we don't need um, study hall, stuff like that. Um, I definitely do think we should have it off, but I think it would be a very good tool for students who do need that extra time to study, who are not as motivated at home. So, we could talk about that next time, though. Also, I will say I think advisory is a much better like use of time

170than A+'s because it's a lot more productive because you like go into a different room and you're like your only job is to like study basically and you're with a different group of kids. So, it's less like usually with A+ it would just be like oh the bell rang for A+ and everyone like relaxes and then you just like talk with your class. You know what I mean? It wasn't like you were in the mindset of doing that. So, I definitely like I'm a big big fan of advisory versus A+. Excellent. Thank you. I'm sure we'll get more at our next meeting. >> Okay. >> I actually wanted to have an update on alternative education because I know we had talked about that last year about changing the structure or changing something. I just don't

171want to be surprised again when we get, you know, the data if it's the same as this current year. So what are we doing? Are we doing anything different? Are we keeping everything the same with alternative education? >> You know, along those lines, um to get make sure that Carpedium and Sonoma Mountain and uh San Antonio are included in that bell schedule uh update. Isn't that what you're doing at the next meeting? the that you know the update about how it's all going for the beginning of school because they changed >> they changed their schedule also. So I definitely want to make sure that they have a um that there's a time for them to talk about how their schedule I mean Carpey DM and Soma Mountain are completely different schedules now. So >> I'd

172like to know how that >> I hadn't that wasn't part of our plan. Our plan presentation was as I understood was a request on we have we've invested a lot of time and energy into the entire process around the high school bell schedule. We've also done a bell schedule change at the junior high. I wasn't planning or we were planning on focusing on the high school because there are are many many components to discuss like process um the the changes graduation requirements all of those things the different the how it affects students with a fixed schedule like all of those pieces that was going to be the focus of our next presentation not >> not uh alternative ed and not junior high yeah that >> so then maybe with the alted um we can include

173that because I'd really like to hear >> absolutely and and we could and we could in a future time do uh share on on the junior high, but I I would recommend that for this first report we focus on one because they're all very different. There are they have >> Yeah. >> I mean, there's some similarities, but there's a lot of differences. >> Yeah, there's a ton of differences. Okay. Thank you. Just >> Yeah. And I wasn't necessarily talking about the bell schedule, just in general alternative education. >> Yeah. No, I agree. Okay. I agree that the bell schedule is just >> Okay. Just an addon on that. Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. Anything else? Okay. Meeting