September 17, 2025 - RVSD Board of Trustees Regular Board Meeting

001Instructions for accessing subtitles in a language other than English are included on our board meetings web page as well as in the description below. including Good evening. It is uh 602 and welcome to the Ross Valley School District Board of Trustees regular meeting. Today is September 17th and I'm calling our meeting to order 602. We have five trustees present in person at the Ross Valley School District office at 100 Shaw Drive in Sano. Myself, Rachel Litwac, Anna Marsh, Chris Landles Cobb, Daniel Cassidy, and Shelley Hamilton. We also have cabinet members present. Superintendent Tyler Grav, uh, CBO Chris Carson, and our director of student services, Lori O' Conor. The meeting is being livereamed via YouTube, and the link is on our website and on the agenda. There will be a 60-second delay between the meeting and

002the YouTube live stream. An audio recording of the meeting will be made available to the public on our district website within 72 hours following the meeting. And with that, I will move on to our first item, which is closed session. I'm going to identify our close session topics. Um the first one is conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation significant exposure to litigation pursuant to government code 54956.9 subdivision D2 or 3 special education program dispute student SSID number 29272425. Um there is no public here for public comment. So with that I will recess us to closed session at 603. All right, and welcome back. It is 6:24 and we are reconvening um closed session. Um I'm going to report out from closed session. Uh the board unanimously voted to approve staff's recommendation on um the conference

003with legal counsel um regarding special education program dispute student SSID 2927240425. Um with that moving on to procedural items. We have uh the pledge of allegiance. If you'd like to join me, please stand. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Our next item is to adopt the agenda and time allocations. Did we have any changes requests? Too late for additions. All good with me. I All right. >> Make a motion to most looking around here. Not seeing any >> nonverbals, but so I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda as >> Great. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Shelly. >> I >> Chris. >> Hi. >> Daniel. >> Hi. >>

004Anna. >> Hi. >> Rachel. I. All right. So, we have an adopted agenda. Our next item is decommunication. The first um item here is public comment regarding items not on the open session agenda. Don't see anything listed there. So moving on to communication and correspondence to the or sorry public comment. There are no one there is no one here to make public comment. Excuse me. Um correspondence and communication to the board. We do not have any items listed there. And moving on to announcements by labor unions CSEA and RBTA. We have no um member labor unions present to speak up for that. So moving on to e presentation andor action items. The first one here is recommended approval of 202425 a unodudited actuals financial report. >> This is our good. So thank you for the

005opportunity to speak this evening. And so what we'll talk about this evening, I think our battery is gone. and I'll change. [Music] >> Sorry for the delay. So, what we'll talk about tonight is just our budget timelines, our general fund, and our reserves, and then sum that up with our other funds. And so, in terms of timelines, we have um we have four budgets that are due annually. Uh you'll see there's five on here. The reason there's five is because two of them are the are the same. One is the adopted budget and the other is the estimated actuals. Those are taken at the same time. U those are due by July 1st. We have our first interim which is due by December 15th, second interim March 15th. And um we also have our unodudited

006actuals on the 15th of September. I just want to point out that uh even though today's the 17th, we actually submitted our um unodited actuals to the county by the 15th deadline so they have them. Tonight we're um approving them >> and so >> procedurally you can we can do that. >> We can do that. >> Obviously >> we did it the same way last year >> for the first interim budget as well. >> I think I may have lost last year too. that that happens sometimes just because of the dates of the budgets. >> Okay. >> Um in terms of our general fund, um this is the way our general fund shakes out and this is our unrestricted and our restricted funds altogether. And so when looking at it, you'll note that we had

007a change in fund balance of $2.1 million gain. In 21223, we had $2 million. 2324, which is how we closed a year ago, we lost 653,000. This year, we lost um just a tick under $2.7 million and we expect to lose about 2.3 million next year. And again, that's the entire general fund. >> Chris, do you remember where our projections were at second interim for what we were going to close at this year? um what where we showed I'm sorry our our adopted budget was just a little bit over the 2.7. So our second interim was a little bit different than that. It was less because we had some salary settlements as well that came in. >> So we made some adjustments. >> So is the 2.6 a larger number than we projected or a

008smaller number than we projected? >> It's slightly smaller than the 2.7 that we had projected. >> But a year ago this time, wasn't it like 1.6 six or something you were estimating it to be at. >> Um, and that happens all the time because what happens is you have salary settlements and you also have carryover funds in your restricted side. So you might start with something smaller and then it might grow. So even even with what you're seeing with the $2.3 million deficit, that will undoubtedly grow as I um start to roll in my carryover budget. So you'll see that number change at first inter. Then one other question for the 2021 22 and 22 23 years where we show like an increase in our balances there is that like co funds basically >> it's

009a combination of co funds um and also on the local control funding formula side the unrestricted side we were paid for several years based upon the prepandemic attendance >> and then when we started receiving um the uh funding based upon our actual attendance What the state realized is that there were such large drops in the attendance and attendance rates that they changed it from a um the higher of your current year or prior year attendance to the pri to those plus adding the higher of your three prior years. And so what ended up happening is you ended up with large carryovers that were really masking what was coming. in that for us because we saw an attendance drop of roughly 275 or an enrollment drop of 275 children. >> So essentially this you can kind

010of see the fiscal cliff happening in the 23 24 25 but kind of cresting in the 22 23 and then that's where it goes because of the whole co >> ADA. >> Yes, that's correct. hold on this stuff. >> So I was talking about a fiscal cliff during that time and it was in the future always in the future. >> You were warning us >> and this is that future. The future is today. >> Future is now. >> So um the other thing that is important to note is what does our actual unrestricted reserves look like? And uh here we were um showing $1,300,000 as our um as our restricted fund balance and our unrestricted fund balance of 3.2 million in 2526. And that what that gives you is a total general fund unrestricted fund

011balance of 10%. Where we actually and that's an estimate in 2425 where we just closed the books. It's 15.8% 8% and u we have an unrestricted fund balance of 5.26 million. And what you'll notice is that the deficit has been um causing your fund balances to drop. And you see that really it's it's very clear. We started at 26.6 25.7 23.1 15.8 8 10% and we actually drop in the two subsequent years within our multi-year projections as well which um you'll be showing again in our uh first interim budget. They were part of our estimated actuals and and those will be um starting to to get in in the low um single digits. >> Our third year out right now is projected to be 5.7%. and we have a required minimum reserve of 3%. And

012the other thing that is important to note is that that does not include any potential changes that we might have for any salary settlements. That doesn't have any um additional cost increases that might be coming, whether it's electricity, um you know, your other utilities, other services, etc. >> Is the increase in the TK population causing an increase in expenses? It does >> a wash with the 80. >> It it causes an increase in your expenses, but we also have increased revenues as a result of it. >> A wash. >> So the the TK really doesn't it it will net not quite to zero, but it it does give you a positive impact. >> And TK is expensive because you have to have a teacher >> hand an aid for 20 students and you can't go

013over 20, not even by one. So, um, where we have a little bit of flexibility in our second or third grade where, you know, our goal is 24, but if you put 25 or 26 kids with agreement with the teacher and the principal, you know, it's not the end of the world. But in TK, there's a very strict cap on the number of students you can have in the classroom for good reason. And and just so I'm clear, I know that they have been slowly metriculating or changing the age range and I believe that we are now at the end of that slow metriculation in is this year the first year that that end? >> Correct. >> It is. >> It's now a full grade. >> It's now full months worth of children within there.

014Um the other thing that's important is this year we went from a 12:1 uh student toteer or student to adult ratio down to a 10:1 right >> so you'll also see smaller class sizes in the current year >> right >> um and they also fully funded the TK program this year and that was that was part of the governor's final push and the the final um budget adoption in June. >> Okay. But as far as like continued I mean there was a massive increase in TK students but that's going to slow down because part of that was driven by more kids because of the younger ages. So it should level off. >> It it will start to level off a bit but we're still seeing an increase as you'll recall with our demographic study. We're

015going to see a slow increase over the next few years >> populationies and it's really a result of what happened with co and you know we just have more children being born. Um, and so what you'll see is a little bit larger grade levels coming in than the outgoing >> eighth graders in essence. >> So, in terms of other funds, um, uh, I kind of wanted to talk about the these real quick because the the titles that are on these, uh, are the titles that they give with this with the actual form, but they might be a little deceptive when looking at them. Uh fund 13 is our cafeteria fund. So that's what pays for our food service. U fund 14, our deferred maintenance fund. That's a fund that will eventually be going away um

016and is used for exactly what you think it is, deferred maintenance. Um the the state no longer allows us to include um a portion of our routine restricted maintenance match into it. So there's no reason for it. It will all be done out of the general fund. uh fund 25, our capital facilities fund, that is our developer fees. So as people pull permits to build homes, we collect dollars on the square footages and it goes into this particular fund, but it can only be used for things um in terms of growth of student population. So I I couldn't use it to, for example, to put a new roof on this building. It's not something to be used for things of that nature. Could we not use that for the TK bathrooms? >> You could potentially

017use it for that. Um I I would say that that's not going to be enough for TK restrooms though, >> but they're little toilets. >> Is there a um >> Wow. >> Is there a time frame like you don't have to spend it all in one year in terms of growth? So if you had a growth, could you spend it on like the last three years worth of growth if your growth then tapers off if you get what I'm saying? >> Uh I can. So you would use it for things like new classrooms. You could use it as Daniel mentioned for things like the restrooms because you have had growth. Um but then there might be an argument that it's based upon change in law and not new students based upon >> um square footages

018that are being paid. body argue against using that for the TK population. >> Um, if it was going to happen, it would generally be the building industry. >> The other thing that you could use this for is you could use it for portable buildings if you needed to put a portable on a campus for expansion. Um, also for a facilities master plan. Um, that's something that we've talked about. Uh, and facilities master plans are not cheap. Um, so this would be a great use of of those funds if we got to a point when we were ready to do that. >> And you do see that there's 21,393 um in expenses in this fund last year. That was for we we do have a modular building that we pay for um every uh year at

019Manor School uh when we had some growth and we also paid for the demographic study out of this. So those are appropriate uses of of funds out of that. So when you say we pay for it every year, you mean you rent it? >> It's a lease. Correct. >> Uh then as you move into fund 35, the county school facilities fund. That's a little bit of a misnomer. That's our um modernization fund. So as you see, it's only um carryover dollars. There's really nothing in it, the revenues or interest income, what's left over. Uh but anytime we have a full-blown modernization project, you would see the revenues and the expenses in this uh fund 40, the special reserve for capital facilities. This is what we have for Deer Park. And so as you see, we

020have an ending balance of 1,951,992. That's inclusive of only the um projects that were um spent in up to through June 30th. We still have projects that were done in July and August that are still going to hit here. Um, so it's not all inclusive as we're where we are right now, but that's those are the Deer Park funds. And then, uh, fund 51, the bond interest and redemption fund. That is it's a fund that is off of our books. It's with the county of Marin. And what this is, um, they collect revenues and pay for our bonds based upon the property taxes. So any old geo bonds that we had approved and sold, that's what goes into and out of this particular fund. >> And this is basically just money in, money out. >>

021Correct. >> Right. >> Correct. And so that's our other funds just to kind of give you a synopsis of what we have up there. >> So basically bond financing money. >> Yes. Bond financing money. >> So it's not something I have access to. I could go tap into it and spend it for something. So, and with that, do we have any further questions? >> Um, can I ask a question about the the MCE letter that we got? >> Yes. >> This week around the extra work we need to do because we are um maybe this is a better conversation for the next >> It's a better conversation for the next >> Okay, then I'll hold that. Okay. This is a great question >> with a segue into the next conversation. If you go back to

022those list of other other funds, >> are any of those other funds? And if so, which ones considered in the denominator of our reserve percentage or are they off of >> They're completely separate funds altogether. And so when we talk about our reserves, it is only the general fund. >> It's only the general fund. They're not. So if somebody were to look at this and and say, "Why can't the percentage? You got $2 million in capital facilities money that isn't that a reserve?" It's like, "No, that's not part of that reserve." >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Yeah. It's not in the general fund. >> It's not in the general. Great. Thank you for that clarification. How much of the like what is the more accurate ending like as of the end of the summer for

023the fund 40 for capital reserves? like it was I'm just curious how much what's the >> so we would have spent dollars still on and this kind of gets into um Dez's presentation a little bit later but we we had a um shade structure that we did at Hidden Valley which you'll see um and the the roof was completed during that time and we also have the asphalt at um both way Thomas and Manor and of just those just those things off of the top of my head are probably about 370 375,000 and we have the Brookside Bridge coming down the pike as well which will take a chunk of that. Yeah. >> Can we use fund 40 to fund a master plan uh capital master plan or does it have to be used for

024brick and mortar projects only? Uh fund 40 would normally be for actual facilities, but the the facility master plan as as Tyler had mentioned can be paid for out of fun 25 because it's looking at your total uh facilities and looking at u sizing of the district. >> But if we needed more than what was available in fund 25, could we use money out of fund 40 or no? >> I don't think it would be appropriate. >> Okay. I think do do you think we'll have money left over at the end of this school year in fund 40? >> Yes. >> Okay. And I think some of the things we have a a prioritized list when we did our facilities walkthroughs and we had our survey at the beginning of last year about facilities. Um

025I know we have facilities walkthroughs with dez and principles this October again. >> Um and we kind of still have some priority. I think Wayade Thomas, I was at Wade today. They'd like to have a fence out in front of the building so little TK kids aren't running out into the parking lot. That's one thing that's on our list. We've also talked about uh TK playgrounds improvements at both Wade Thomas and at uh Brookside. >> Um we've got the Brookside Bridge. So, there's still a few things that are >> on the list that will even at the end of this year, we'll start doing it next summer to spend down the rest of this money. Yep. >> And actually, you reminded me of one additional project that I forgot that's probably going to come out

026of fund 40, and that's the um the uh play structure at Manor, the TKK play structure. >> So, that that'll add another 60,000 there. >> Thank you, >> Chris. What's your big takeaway you want us to hear from this presentation? The big takeaway is that uh we did lose um you know $1.8 million and on the unrestricted side and we're expecting more next uh in the current year and we really need to get our total expenses under control. Um obviously uh a lot of it is driven by salary and benefits and so we do have we have tightened up there. the issue really ultimately comes down to a revenue issue. That that's the biggest takeaway. And if you were to look and you can see it here when you look at that very top line

027LCFF revenues, you do see some growth between 2122 to 2223, but then there isn't much growth and in fact 2526 shows a decline. And so as our expenses continue to climb just on the natural um it becomes clearer and clearer that it's a revenue issue. >> Yeah, we almost have the same amount of funding on that LCFF line this year in 2526 as we did in 2223 by you know $100,000 difference. >> And you can see it just in in our expenses. Just look at your first line for certificated salaries. You go from 12.6 to 13.7 million. >> Y I'm sorry. >> Benefits are continuing obviously to go up. What what's what's the projection there? Is it a steady climb or are we are you looking at potential? >> Part of that is is kind

028of masked um and doesn't really impact the district. Uh we had about $1.1 million in stirs on behalf payments in 2324 and in 2425 we have about 1.3 million and that's about a $200,000 increase just from that one entry uh in your benefit costs. Now what are stirs on behalf benefits? That is the district um uh looking into the state uh equations and saying that we have to book our portion of the additional state payments towards Calsters and we record both the revenue and an expense for it. So for our books it becomes a zero sum game but when you look at the benefits you see a $200,000 increase. There's also a $200,000 increase up in our state revenues for that one particular entry. And so that's that's an example of something that hits that.

029>> But then the other things that go into benefits are our normal health and welfare cost increases. >> I think that's what I'm curious about. Just is there a is there an increase in the Kaiser rate? >> There is. for this this school year. >> There is there's a approximately a 5% increase um between our our rates um last year and then moving forward in health benefits. >> Okay. Well, let me under I just want to understand as I look at these numbers, you're saying that those numbers are tricky because they're actually offset by this >> part of it. Yes. But the actuals are definite numbers there. So >> correct. >> So does that mean that the beginning and ending balances are actually higher than what they are? >> No. If you have a zero

030sum game both revenues and expenses, it nets to zero. >> Right. I know. >> So in in terms of that, but what that does as I increase the expenses that also makes it so I have to have a higher reserve. Oh, so you're you're putting it someplace. Okay. >> It it doesn't it doesn't it's not hidden. It's there because I have to calculate the reserve first based upon our actual expenses. >> Yeah. >> So, if I have higher expenses by that $200,000, then I also have to have a higher reserve by 3% of that additional $200,000. >> Is that the question you're asking, Chris? >> That's not the question I'm asking. Um, thank you. Um, and I'm I'm just trying to understand this because I'm looking at let's just take 202425. You've got 7425012. >>

031You're saying that that's actually offset by other funds. >> A portion of it. >> Portion of it. >> 1.3 million. >> Okay. So 1.3 million. So is it actually 7.425 425 or is it 6.1? >> I would in terms of our unedited actuals it's actually 7.4 but the expenses that we can control would be the 6.1. >> Okay. So the 1.3 is a is the zero sum net. So there's like a 1.30 some net >> correct >> that we can't do anything with >> and the remaining 6.1 is expenses that we can >> correct >> do something with. >> Yes. >> Okay. Okay. >> But we would have to further reduce benefits and we're already kind of at the bottom of the barrel with benefits for our district. And I think the question I was

032getting at was is Kaiser going up? The answer is yes by 5%. Yeah. >> So teachers will or teachers and staff will get a pay reduction if we don't cover that in the coming year. >> Correct. >> In in essence a pay reduction because they'll have some money come out of their paycheck to cover the Kaiser >> their portion. >> Yeah. >> So we have a we have increased expense. Everybody has increased expenses >> if we assume we're going to cover that >> if we continue to cover the percentage that we cover that we're all having. And that's a trend. I mean the health care expenses trend from everything that I've been seeing is is not over is definitely >> that's what I was wondering in the pro projections like 26 27 do you as

033far as benefits with so are you averaging with like the healthcare increases over the last so many years or are you what is the data that you're using? So the school district has a benefit cap on benefits and so I wouldn't be increasing benefits on within our budgets. It would be capped and kept the same for that particular category. >> We pay for Kaiser singlepayer. >> Yeah. >> And what I'm hearing you say Chris is that in the next year projection 2627 we're only assuming Kaiser singlepayer for this year's rate or actually for last year's rate. >> Right. So then we're not assuming we cover that for this school year or we cover the expense the next year or the next year. So I think when you see these numbers it's the hard part is

034because you have to negotiate salaries and benefits as part of that negotiation. You can't project what you're going to cover >> in 26 27 or 27 28. Um so >> you just know that you're probably not going to go backwards. So you just keep it flat going forward. you keep it flat, but then you know >> that if you settle for half a percent or 3% or 8% and you cover Kaiser singlepayer, your costs are going to go up. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> And so the other thing that drives those benefit costs, it's not just health and welfare, it's also your statutory benefits. So you have your PERS and your stirs. >> Yeah. and you have your SUI, you have your Medicare uh workers comp and SU sui. I don't know if I said

035that already, but those percentages do change slightly every year as well. And we do um your calsters rate is based upon statute. So that one has not changed, but every year we're seeing increases in that calpers rate. And so that gets built in and as your salaries increase. So to do your uh driven costs >> for your escalators, do do all districts across the state use the same escalator percentages or like I remember you talking in the past where you're kind of the consortium or whoever is kind of advising all of the CBOS or school districts. There's kind of a package of like here's our projected escalators for Kalpers, for utility expenses, for all that kind of stuff. So, you're following along with those recommendations, >> correct? >> Okay. And are are they statutoily required

036for you to follow along or or is it just a best practice type of uh information? >> Uh I would say probably a little bit of both. I mean, again, Calsters is in statute, so I know that it's 19.1%. It's not going to change, >> right? >> Um and Kalpers changes. So we know that that's based upon an actuarial study that happens in uh the spring every year. And so what we do is we just look at what we're being told or is the expected rate. Got it. >> And so we'll budget based upon that. It might slightly change in June, but once it's set, we know what it is for the year. And so again, at that point, everything is driven. >> Okay. Okay. That's helpful. Right. Do we have any more questions for

037Chris? >> All right. Then I will open it up for public comment on this agenda topic. If there is any public comment, you have three minutes. You will get a warning at two and a half minutes. Anybody who would like to make public comment. >> Hi. Uh PJ Fear the comment is here to be briefer because I came in uh after most of this has been uh wrapped up but um you know I appreciate um Chris's comment on you know the overall budget and a high proportion is on salaries but when I'm looking at the unuded actuals. What I'm seeing on those salaries is that they were at 100.8% of the estimated budget. So, they were not far off at all. Um, that's very predictable and the district's done a good job um predicting that

038the benefits was off by a little more, 103.8%, 8% but Chris just explained exactly you know why that would be the case but the services budget and um particularly the um uh the everything under the object code 5800 and it doesn't get more granular than that and this uh report uh was up a lot more. So, I mean, overall the services budget was um $800,000 over the the amount spent on services was $800,000 over the adopted budget. Um 55.6 million. We ended up spending uh 6.4 million. And that to me seems like if you're looking at um how the year turned out as compared to what your budget was, that's the real eye eye opening, eyepopping figure. And um you know, I think that's been part of a trend for this district for a few

039years with those services expenses rising pretty rapidly. And when looking at the other similar comparison districts, it's, you know, there's a little bit of this, but it's not as as extreme. And from my pers, you know, knowing what a lot of that money is spent on, I don't think that the you're going to be able to stop that trend from increasing without proactively spending money to plug the holes um that are causing those those unpredictable expenses um because they're, you know, a student comes in and we need to pay a certain amount for them to get uh all the services that they need to be part of our district um or not. And you know, it's it's always cheaper for the district to spend that money beforehand making sure there's not uh a hole to

040be plugged. Thanks. >> Do you have any other public comments? Seeing no further comments, I will bring it back to us for a discussion. you know, I I mean, it is what it is. And I think that, you know, I agree with you, the public is even aware of, you know, where our hands are tied. And um I think it's quite evident that we are in a straight jacket here as we start to navigate through what we can spend and what we need to keep in reserves. So, I appreciate Chris your uh consistent presentation of the numbers and your ability to actually 100% effectively answer the granular needled questions that we continue to put in front of you. Um whether that's intentional or not, you'll never know. But, um I just want to say thank

041you for that. Um, it's sobering. It's expensive. Um, and I think it, uh, it really drives home what we have to start doing as we go forward. So, that's just my comment on that. Thank you. I was going to say the other the other thing that I being somebody who's been here since the 20 2122 >> and who was part of all of those discussions back then with your hey fiscal cliff is coming you know and looking at you know the net change in fund balance and thinking back to when I was sitting here with the positive uh numbers on the early years on this graph here and and how um how close you were you have been even with those long range projections out there. It's it's um looking at where we are and

042where you definitely told us we were going to be were there and we're where you had talked to us about being. So that gives me great confidence again in again us moving forward with the track record of looking back and saying we're where we knew we were going to be when you were giving us that information to then as we go forward. Um it's only gotten tighter and tighter and more and more accurate over the years. Not better >> in the reality sense. Yes. >> Um, >> so what do we do? >> Oh gosh. >> This agenda item. I mean, we we've got a flat revenue and we've got increasing expenses. >> Yeah. Ultimately, that's a problem. So, it's >> exactly parcel. >> Yes. Yeah, >> we need >> I think we can talk a

043little bit more about this in the next item because the next item talks a little bit about the >> uh message that MCOE sent us about increasing our reserves to back to where the board has asked us to have them. >> Um and there's two options cuts and increase revenue. Right? So we're we're at a place right now where we've cut everything but student programs. Anything that's cut here moving forward is supporting directly students. And the only way to increase revenues in the school district is increase enrollment, which we're spending money on recruitment, um, on marketing, uh, you know, trying to get as many students into our community as possible. Attendance, we're sending messaging on attendance. We've had our highest attendance rate in four years. last year. We have our highest enrollment we've had in

044many years or in a few years this year. So, we're check check the box there and we'll continue to work there. Then the next is local funding and local funding comes in the form of par tax. So, those are really the only things we can do. Cut student programs, increase enrollment, increase attendance, increase the PAR tax. Those are four options we have on the table to balance this budget. And it's not just they're not just individualized options because at one point I think that there was perhaps the messaging that there was was it the butts and seats >> verbiage and that isn't enough. There is this is a culmination of options happening at the same time. Right. >> So I want to make sure we're clear and communicating that you told us to get butts

045and seats and now you want us to do x y and z. These are things that have to be a linear path forward. Correct. 100%. And >> we're we're talking about the delta between our per student funding, which is 11,700, and the state average, which is like 14,500. >> Mhm. >> It that's $3,000 difference essentially between the two. 3,000 times 1,700 kids is millions of dollars that we would have. And we wouldn't be doing this. We wouldn't be having this conversation just if we had the state average. So when we're talking about a3 or 4 million problem, just getting a 1% increase in student attendance >> is incremental. >> Just increasing our attendance by 30, 40, 50, 100 students is incremental. >> Cutting the budget is incremental. We cut it by 700,000 and if the

046delta is 3 million, four million, that's still an incremental. So, this is a all those four options that I talked about, cuts, attendance, uh, enrollment, and partial tax. All four of those have to happen in order for us to balance this budget. >> And the core issue, I've said it a 100 times, I'll say it, a thousand more is it's a revenue issue. And the reason it's a revenue issue is twofold. First, we have low numbers of low-income students and multilingual students. And second, Prop 13 has decimated our revenues in this community in particular because lots of people have lived here for 30, 40, 50 years and have gifted their children their homes. Both of those factors keep our community's tax base very low. Even though we recognize there are some folks that just bought

047a house three months ago and their taxes are high, the overall average in the community is is low. And yeah, people don't understand that. I mean, it is Yeah, we cannot say that enough. So, say it a thousand more times. >> Well, they I will say that I think our community, the school community has done a good job of addressing the attendance issue. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. So, I mean, yes, I think if we continue to drive home that >> when we're called to action as a community, I think we show up >> and that we have to make sure that we continue to push these other things forward. We've nailed the attendance. We continue to hopefully do that. It was hard doing that coming out of co you have a sniffle, you know, go

048to Texas, right? I think that we've been able to push that forward. Um, >> I mean, I appreciate people showing up to board meetings. I think that that's something also I'm glad to see that we have some people here because it's you know it's nice to have things to discuss that isn't just amongst ourselves you know it I don't know I find that helpful so thank you for the public comments um >> because it is I mean I I while I think we're doing our due diligence and Chris certainly is thank you for this uh I think that we need that engagement and to make some changes. >> But Chris, I want to double down on what you just said. Our our community responded. >> Yes. >> And continues to respond, right? They're talking about

049all the great things happening in our district and more kids are coming here. They are sending their kids here at a higher percentage than they have in many years. The community voted 63% to increase their own taxes, which is pretty remarkable. or just a few percentage off. So, I think this community is right there and they want to support our schools and are taking action to make it happen. Um, it's just the delta between that 63% and that 66.7%. Okay. >> Um, and I think this community will do it. >> We'll get there. >> Um, discussion on this one. I mean, I do want to say thank you to Chris for preparing this because I know this is a huge list. It's like 130 page document every quarter you're like turnurning out for us. So,

050I know that there's a lot of work that goes into it. Um, I appreciate that you are ready with all these answers because you know this so intimately. Um, >> yeah. Yeah. Chris, awesome. and PJ, thank you for always coming and asking great questions. >> Great. >> It's really good to have to Anna's point more people involved and just like looking at the >> Chris also just want to add it's hard to be in your seat when the numbers aren't looking good, >> but you're just the communicator of those. It's not I I hope you don't like hold the weight of the world to >> I just want I mean this isn't us this isn't us a whole district and as we've been talking about this the community stepping up and and doing its part

051as well. So I just I just wanted to say I appreciate you giving us these reports but I it's hard to be a CEO on on in this kind of funding environment. So, I just wanted to apologize so that you know that. >> And while we're on the Chris gratitude train, um I I want to give you gratitude for really tightening the screws on the budget this year. Um more than most CB CBOS would be comfortable with. Uh your projection and what actually happened in the budget was, you know, within a few thousand dollars. You were very, very close. Um, and I know our community appreciates that because as you and I both know, projections are always the second you make a projection, it's wrong. Um, and I think you've done a really nice job

052fine-tuning this to where we're getting as close uh to actuals as possible with your projections, and that takes a lot of courage and uh a lot of faith. >> Great. There's no further discussion. I will entertain a motion on this one. >> I'll make a motion to recommend approval of the 202425 unodudited actuals financial report presented by Chris Carson. >> I'll second it. >> All right. Motion and second. Chris. >> I. >> Hannah. >> I. >> Shelley. >> Hi. >> Rachel. Hi. >> Okay. >> All right. Um, with that, our next item is discussion of reserve percentage. Great. That's going to be me today. Um, so today's just a discussion, no action, no vote. Um, just kind of discussing where we're at with our reserves based on what we just saw from Chris. Um want

053to start just with our board policy. There's a lot of words here but essentially the underlined parts the part that uh we should pay attention to. The board has basically set a target of a 10% on that third year out which is above the 3% but inclusive of that 3%. So a total goal of 10%. Uh a little bit about why we have reserves. I like to think about your own personal finances. The same reasons you would have an emergency fund in your personal budget at home. Essentially the same reasons we have them here. Uh part of it is for cash flow. If the state is late in making payments that we have money on hand to make sure we can meet payroll. So pretty simple simple one there. Economic uncertainties. California tends to be

054a place that is a little bit of a since the gold rush been a little bit of a boom and bust economy where things go really really well and then are challenging and then go really well again and then are challenging. So, and the fiscal cliff that we're going through right now is a perfect example of economic uncertainties. COVID, this is the tail end of the COVID issue that we're dealing with right now. So, having some money in our coffers to help us weather that storm is really important. um one-time or unexpected expenses, right? If we had, you know, a school building collapse or, you know, a big storm that wiped something out or the settlement that was larger than we had expected, this is like a one-time we can pull money from there and

055it doesn't impact our operating expenses for that year. So, cash flow uncertainties um and one-time unexpected things. also just for budget stabilization, you know, if we have different I mean that's kind of the cash flow and economic uncertainties issue. So pretty similar there. Um for strategic investments if we wanted to like update the HVAC system at in the 400 building at White Hill, we could have money to do that. If there was something specific we really wanted to do, improve a field, uh build a new building, we could pull from reserves to do that. onetime dollars. That's kind of what a reserve is. It's onetime dollars should be used on one-time things. You kind of see that theme on this slide. And then for credit and fiscal health, I think the closer you get to

0563%, it's harder to borrow and just, you know, we're a worse creditor at that point. Um here's what some of the other districts in the area and we're just kind of pulling our three comparison districts which are Larksburg Court Madera Kentfield Miller Creek. We threw Santafell Elementary in there a little bit different but that's a basic aid or or no it's a state funded or LCFF district and then we pulled Mil Valley which is a basic aid or community district. So you can kind of see what other districts with different funding structures have. At the moment we're at 16.3. This was at the end of 20 24 23 24 Chris. Yeah. Um so that number's lower for us now. Uh you just saw Chris give us a number lower than that. Um and you see

057Kentfield Miller Creek with really low numbers uh in the 8%. They're not deficit spending at the rate that we're spending right now. So they are managing kind of a more balanced budget. So to run that lean, it's you're more comfortable to run that lean if you're not deficit spending to the tune of $2 million a year, which we did last year and which we will likely do again this year. This is just the same thing in a bar graph. Kind of gives you an example of where we're at. >> Can you go back? >> Yes. And Chris, I the report we just had had us at 10%, not 16. >> 2526. >> For 256. >> Yep. >> Uh these are just kind of some recommendations uh from around and you've heard me say this over

058and over and over. California requires 3%. Our board policy says 10. Uh basically CBOS CBO organizations say that 17 is a good number to to head to. Um actually in Santafell their board policy was 17%. Um and they were in each district they were different. The elementary school district was pretty close to that 17%. High school district had a very hard time getting to that that uh level. And the statewide average for elementaryaries is 25%. Smaller districts need larger reserves. Um, and part of that is because of those one-time expenses. If you're a small district, they're your percentage is your your actual dollar amount is small, right? But if you're San Francisco Unified, you know, I think because they're such a large district, they probably are required to only have 2% by the state. 2%

059of a billion dollar budget is a huge number. And you can weather some storms. Um, in that case, Chris, do you have anything to add to the smaller districts need larger reserves? >> No, just that, you know, when you're in a smaller district, even one salary for a teacher could be a huge percentage, a huge amount of that percentage. So, for us, like one salary is probably going to be $300,000 is roughly 1%. So it's going to be a third of a percent for one teacher or half a percent. >> Why is there such a differential between California requirement and the statewide average? >> Because districts generally run larger reserves for the for those reasons. And one of the things that's not even on here is oftentimes districts that are community funded want larger reserves

060as well because when you're community funded, you're based your revenues are based upon property taxes and you don't get that um the smoothing. So if your property tax base goes down, so too do your revenues. So they always want to be careful not to not to give away dollars that are too far in advance. Then your cash flow is also different. When you're community funded, you don't get it in small chunks across the whole year. You get it twice a year, which means you've got bigger swings in your cash flow needs. >> I just find it so strange that then the requirement >> that's about it changed every%. >> They have different levels for different size districts. So really big districts, the percentage is smaller. It's like one or 2% if it's a larger district.

061And then I think 3% is the largest percentage. Is that true? >> It actually goes up to 5%. >> It goes up to five for districts under like a thousand ADA or something like that. If I So just think about that 25%. I'm a simple man and sometimes I need a simple explanation. 25% of a of a year is a quarter, which is three months, right? So if you think about your personal finances, personal finance experts would typically say you want 3 to six or 6 to 12 months reserve or cushion for your family's budget. So 25% would be a threemon reserve for a you know your own personal finance budget. So in my mind that's kind of on the low end of what you would want to run a business or your own you

062know personal finances. So I think that the 10% is moving in the right direction. Um 3% is really low >> cuz 3% is like >> it's two months of sal >> two week. I mean >> so actually I talked to Marcy Tran about this this week. I asked her why did we have 10% as the target and the conversation at the board level at the time was 10% is about two months of uh of operating expenses. >> When was that? How many years has it been at 10%? It's not changed since it was >> I think it was put in place in 2017. Uh and it would be 10 10% would be for your um salary and benefit salary and benefits for two months. For two months and >> does that feel like still from

063then to now that that's still an appropriate recommendation? It >> I'm I'm a CBO so I would lean towards the 17, right? But um 10% seems like a reasonable number to me. >> So >> can I ask you a question? >> Yeah. >> The comparison to our personal finances in the rainy day fund >> unforeseen circumstances. >> Let's talk about that because I know I we would save money on a personal level if I lost my job, right? If a tree fell on my house, the insurance would pay for that. If a fire burned my house down, insurance would pay for that. So when you talk about the unexpected cost, I'm trying to I'm trying to mitigate I'm trying to do some risk management around that universe >> and really think like well here we

064are in a situation where we're kind of facing how do we bend this a little bit and what are those unexpected costs when we also are insured. stock market crashes, your retirement fund just dropped by, you know, x% your cash reserve or investment account that you might need to pay your kids college tuition, those kinds of thing. I mean, that's an externality that's not covered by insurance. I am I I I I I see what you're saying there, but when what I'm talking when I'm thinking about I'm running my house, like I'm running we're running these schools, right? >> And we understand from the actuals that there are predictable incremental increases in cost across the board. >> Okay? So, >> no one's saying, "Guess what? I got into Harvard." Okay? But I'm trying to I'm

065just trying to put my mind around these unexpected unforeseen scenarios and are we are we are we not taking into consideration that when those things may happen that there are funds available through insurance and other factors that we don't have to dig into the reserves for. >> So in terms of our we've had several claims lately. We had a couple last year at Weight Thomas alone. Each time we had a claim, our deductible was 25,000. So, it's not a huge number, but where we have risk are things such as uh settlements, as Tyler alluded to earlier, um which could be unforeseen. You also have um if you get a a large influx of children um that might require an additional teacher, you might have to go out and and get a new teacher, for example.

066And and again, a new teacher when you throw in salary and benefits could be roughly half a percent. And and then you also have that those are kind of your big ones on the expense side. You also have the revenue side that we haven't even talked about. And there's that thing that's looming out there that we haven't even talked about except back in June, which is the LA fires. We don't know what the LA fires are going to do to the state revenues because everybody who lived in LA that is affected by those fires is given until October to file their taxes. >> And so that's when the state will truly know what their revenues are for the current year. And we could see hits to our revenues at that point. >> And so those

067are those are the unforeseen type things. And having been in school finance for for almost 25 years now, I can tell you that I've seen countless times where the state comes to us and whoops, our revenues aren't coming in as appropriate >> and we're going to have to cut um cut appropriations out to school districts. But at the rate that we're spending, and if that happens, we're screwed anyway because there's no amount of reserve that's going to protect us from that additional dip that will happen if our expected the expected revenues in the state are affected by something like what you just said. Right. >> And I think that's kind of gets to the point. We'd have a shorter time frame to be like you're going to die in six months. >> Yeah. >> Lots

068of cuts of two. >> Yeah. >> I mean, you have it's a cushion to give you six months to figure out what to do as opposed to having two months to figure out what to do. >> Well, often what the state does when they go and cut those revenues. What they'll do is they're not going to necessarily take you those dollars from you this year. They'll either defer revenues, meaning appropriations that they would give you on a monthly basis. So, it I kind of think of it as the wimpy syndrome. I'll gladly give you Tuesday for hamburger uh pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. And they'll do the same with our revenues. They'll they'll say you're going to get the dollars in 2526, but we're not going to pay you until 2627. They defer

069it to the following year. That's one trick that they do. Another trick that they do is they say, you know what, we're going to deficit your LCFF for the following year, >> which is another trick that they've done. and they were going to do that to the tune of like 8% or something like that during COVID. Eventually pulled away from that. Those are the types of things that they do. They don't hit you in the current year because they know your hands are tied with the bulk of your expenses being in salary and benefits. They know that we have March 15th deadlines to to issue um layoff notices, >> which means that if we're already in the middle of the year, we can't lay off until next year. >> Mhm. >> So, they know that

070and they recognize it and so they generally push those out a year. >> Other unexpected costs could be we hired special ed teachers, they leave mid year, then we have to go out for an agency. >> I was going to say that >> that's at Sorry, I took your answer. 20% increase there. So yes, we do have insurance coverage. If a tree falls on a on a roof and you know the roof gets broken, >> we can you know use insurance for the most part for that. >> Um settlement agreements are probably the big big one for us. Um for most districts >> um or any other litigation um would probably be the most unexpected cost. Um, so one of the questions I got at the town hall kind of related to this is like

071how do we get here? Why are we deficit spending? Why is our reserve going down? Um, you've all seen this before. I've showed it quite a bit. It's because of our LCFF revenues, 11,700 compared to the other districts in the county. Um, and on the right hand side compared to the statewide average for an elementary school district. So you're looking at, like I said earlier, $3,000 difference multiplied out by the ADA that we had last year, which is 1641, you're talking about millions and millions of dollars. So the reason we're in this situation is that we have low numbers of low-income students, low numbers of foster youth, low numbers of multilingual learners. This is an affluent community. people that live here for the most part that can afford to live here make decent money well

072above the poverty line. Um, and then when we're in community funded status, Prop 13 really, really hurts us. Like I said a few minutes ago, people that lived here for 20, 30, 40, 50 years, very low tax base on their their home or they've passed it down to their children has a low tax base there. So, as a as a community, our tax base is very low compared to, you know, the new family that just moved into town with the very high tax base. >> We're also in, if you look at the, if you look at the ADA numbers, we're also kind of in that middle. We're not a big district, which gets more, you know, this is ADA, and you can see the total. We're not we're not a big district, but we're also

073not a teeny district. >> That's right. So, um, so we kind of get squeezed, uh, in that way as well. We're big enough that it's, you know, your fixed costs are often the same whether you're a one school or five schools. And the more schools you have, more students, you can advertise a lot of your fixed cost. The districts that have the hardest time are the districts that are in basic aid but are just barely into basic aid or they're in LCFF and they're just barely in LCFF which is exactly where we are. >> Right. >> So we're kind of in the worst case scenario from a funding perspective. It's a revenue issue. Um this was a note that we just got from MCOE regarding uh budget adoption. The underlined parts there are the important

074parts to to really look at essentially where deficit is spending at an unsustainable rate and the district is required to submit a a budget reduction and reserve restoration plan. So Chris and I have already been talking about when we're going to do the next iteration of the budget advisory committee. We're going to have to go back to that team part of the plan B. What cuts are we going to make? and you know how are we going to balance this budget? >> If I can add one thing to that title, >> this statement right here, the last sentence is tied directly to the board's reserve requirement. So when they talk about restoration, they want us to restore back up to 10%. >> Because that's what we have said is we need to be up. >>

075How how soon are they reflecting this plan? Did I miss them? But if we change our policy, if the policy changes, then we would restore. We would never do that. >> When are you thinking of >> getting the gang back together? >> Find a date for that. >> I think we are putting it together. We'll get it out this week. >> It's probably going to be in the late fall. >> Can you say a partial tax is our plan to do this or they want to see cuts as the plan? Can reserve restoration include revenue restoration or is it all >> I don't think we can >> budget adoption. >> I don't think we can count on that. >> So they need a plan B. >> Yeah. >> Plan. >> And that's exactly what we

076did last year. Plan A go out to the community and ask for partial tax renewal and increase. Plan B make cuts. And I think we basically just need to do that same thing this year. >> Plan A, which we'll vote on later in the year and which you all will vote on later in the year. And then plan B and what I'm talking about at the town halls is somewhere between 500,000 and a million dollars cuts. So even deeper than we did last year. >> What What does MCOE do if you don't do what they ask you to do? >> I haven't gotten there yet. >> I'm guessing more strided letters. >> Yeah. So my next question is >> and then my my other kind of >> you know is um if we can't make

077payroll so we have a a cash flow issue or something like that. Um where do we get the money from? And then how much does it cost for us to acquire that money? Are there loan do we have to take out loans? Do we have to what do we >> So let me let me take it because that's two different questions. So first you asked what will the county do? they can provisionally approve our budget, meaning they can push us into a qualified status >> and say you must do these things. So they don't have to accept our budget as it's prevent presented to them. So that's number one. um they would likely um do that with us only because they know that you blink and our estimated actuals in June will have an additional

078year on there, right? >> And at that point, we know that we'll have to pull $5 million of revenue out of our um parcel tax revenues and we would be negative. >> So that's for the three-year plan. That's the third year of the multi-year at our June adoption next year. >> So between December and June, >> June of this school year, next >> this current school year, >> they know that that's very little time. So they will probably push us that direction. Um, so that that is not really an option and it doesn't mean that we have to say we're going to make the cuts necessarily in the second year of the multi-year because again the multi-year projection is a three-year plan, but they do want to see that planned, >> right? >> The other

079part to your question is if you ran out of money, what would you do? Um, well, first of all, the only time you should be running out of money is if it's just a cash flow issue because you shouldn't get to the point where you actually run out run out. So, if it's just a cash flow issue, the county of Marin has something called a TAN, a tax anticipation note where we can borrow against the county so we can go negative and what ends up happening is they charge us negative interest. So rather than get interest income on our money, we pay to the pool as a whole. So that the pool is kept hold. >> But that's a short term. >> It's a short term. >> That's a short-term thing. That's not you actually

080ran out of money. >> It it's you ran out of money, but it's only because of when you are receiving your dollar. >> We got to that level, we'd be in state receiverhip. I was going to say >> going to your next question. Yeah. >> Okay. >> So that's the presentation. That's what I have for you all today. So essentially, just in review, it's our policy says 10%. This is why we have a reserve. Here's how we compare to other districts in the area. Here's what other organizations do across the state. Um, this is why we're in this position. Um, and here's what the county has just recently told us. >> So, what are we what are we what are we doing with this eventually, this information? Are we going to decide on what we

081should determine as our percentage? >> Yeah. So, I think tonight is just a open discussion and if you have direction for staff to bring something back to you later for a vote, we can do that. Um, if you want to change the percentage up or down, we can always do that. Um, but I think this is a worthwhile conversation given the state of our budget. Um, and if we just name it and pause on it and come back to it next school year, that's that's fine, too. as you can see from stress eating and stressing. But yes, >> it was it was interesting because I got this letter from the county of Marin. I was like, great. I've never seen that wording on there before. So >> I was like, we need to discuss this

082percentage that we have as a board policy like why we have it. Do we still need it? Is it still relevant? I mean, we haven't discussed that as a board here as a whole. And so I wanted us to talk about it. >> I think it would be great to put that >> dive into that further. >> Oh, sorry. No, no, no. Go ahead. Go ahead. Finish your thought. Well, just that what is the recommended evaluation process? I mean, does the county does the state have that that we can look at our numbers like more of like a formula? >> Our reserve number. >> No, no, our u Oh, yes. The percentage. Yes, our reserve percentage. I feel like that I would like to feel confident that that's the right number for our district. >>

083That 10%. >> So, that's really just a board decision, right? >> There's nothing at the state level. the state would only say that our requirement is 3%. So they wouldn't enter that discussion at all. >> Well, no, I don't mean enter the discussion. I just how did we arrive at 10? >> Like I I want to re-evaluate that. >> So the the way we arrived at that initially was because 10% was roughly what two months worth of payroll was at that point. Um and so you have 10% there. uh the CBO groups would say 17% because it's 2 months worth of operating expenses which includes accounts payable and things of that nature as well. >> Um >> the other thing I remember historically was that decision was made after an era of being well over

084that 10%. So, as far as a board being board decision making, making a making a 10% board policy well under what you've historically always been at was a lot easier than making a board policy over what you're at now. It's a lot like us sitting in these seats now is a lot more difficult than when they were sitting in the seats making that reserve policy in terms of the considerations. concerned >> and I remember when I came on there was a lot of concern among some members of the community that we have these big reserves and yet we're not paying >> our teachers >> enough and it goes back to the onetime dollars like you can't count on this >> and we're seeing that now the three years I think we're at what 5% out

085or something 6% >> thus you know this warning letter >> so that's a concern that it makes sense to have more but community doesn't like that you're just sitting on you know this proverb real money tree that we have hidden. And so that was a concern. >> And I see in a couple different ways. If you're adding to your reserve year over year over year, >> you kind of have a fiduciary responsibility to spend that money in that year for those kids. Whether you're paying staff or >> building out intervention programs or, you know, improving facilities, you should really be spending most of, if not all of the money that you get in that year in that year. if you're increasing your reserves, the way we're going is the opposite direction, right? So, to your

086point, we're at this place where, okay, we've got to press pause on the deficit spending quick >> and think about building reserves, but the only way you build reserves is not giving raises, right, and reducing your your spend >> in today's in today's >> where we're at today, right? And I would venture to guess that the community's ask would be first let's pay teachers, then let's build back the reserves is my guess is what where it would be. >> So this is kind of more of a long term. This is not something we're going to do next year, but over the next three to five years, how do we get back to 10%? Is 10% the number? Is it 7%? Is it just three? Like what do we do we want to move it up

087to 17? The other part of thoughts that I have and probably saying if we have feedback can get it too is is um conversations around that reserve level at 10%. Is it that we won't ever budget like the third year out can never be lower than 10%. Or we never want to be when we get to the actuals below 10%. So that you might be okay and and I think this teetering below for a little while. This might go to the language and I haven't gone through the the actual verbiage in our all of the reserve um policy, but we might look at that reserve policy language and maybe refine it a little >> um to for something that's like the farther out you go, your delta beyond the 10% can vary by whatever we

088say something or another, but that we never want to have actuals be below that 10%. So that it's a clarification >> because when I read the policy at the beginning when I was putting this presentation together specifies >> it's not crystal clear about whether that 10 the assumption is the 3% is in the in the multi-year projection right in year three. Therefore the assumption is the 10% is also there but we're not specific about whether the 10% is actuals or whether it's the year three. So that could be a shift that you all want to make >> which could give us a little bit more >> leeway for the farther out you get the more unknown you have. So maybe it's okay to but the closer in you get the less you want to be

089>> but this is going to be a jarring >> Do we have more questions? >> Oh no questions. Okay. >> I'm going to let it go out to public comment. I know that there are people who may want to comment on this. So if you'd like to come up and please do just if you would like you may say your name so people listening know who is talking but it's not a requirement. >> I'm Diana Sila. Um we are RBTA co-presidents and we're Hidden Valley teachers. >> I'm Sarah Hi. Thank you for having let us speak. Um, we wanted to just thank you for the presentation and learning a little bit more about our board policy with the budget and the reserves and for future. We also have a statement from RBTA that we'd like

090to make. >> Yes, the fiscal cliff is real. We have learned that. Um, on the bright side, we on behalf of RBTA, we really wanted to express our gratitude to all of you. um sincerely thank you for your continued dedication um to our district and your collaborative efforts. It's it really is noticeable. I listened in um over the summer I think it was >> um when you were on boarding the interimm board member and um wow I was so impressed at first I was like oh you got to listen in and see what's happened and then it just went on and on and on and um but you know it was it was I just felt and you kept mentioning you all kept mentioning also that um or how lucky we were that we had

091you know not one but several community members that were really ready to commit and dedicate themselves and in fact um just want to also acknowledge I think people that are in the room here that are um still doing a lot for us and and express our gratitude for that. Um we're also really grateful for our strong parent community and um most recently at the first two town hall the first of the two town halls um that we just had last week um as we prepare for another partial tax campaign. It was great to reflect back and then move forward the the information that's being shared through the town halls um here at the board meetings and the the the mailers that have been gone out. It's been really great and detailed, clear, and essential. We

092really think it's important that that information as stark as it is that it be out and uh out to the community regarding the re our revenue district revenue and the potential impact on the on our programs. Um and in particular, we want to highlight the difference um or or the the highlight the differences our reading intervention specialists make for our most vulnerable students through careful assessments and targeted direct instruction. They ensure all students have the support they need to succeed. Um, and this is especially vital to the teachers taking on the challenge of implementing a new curriculum that's rigorous from one that we had before. Um, and requires the additional support of the stu, you know, for those students not falling through the cracks. We also deeply value the work of our counselors. As students

093emotional and behavioral needs continue to increase, their expertise and presence on our campuses are indispensable to the well-being of our school community. So, as the school year begins, we want we warmly invite you to visit our sites. We recognize the many demands on your time and energy, and we deeply appreciate the commitment, creativity, and care you bring to your volunteered situation. Uh we know it's not easy work, and we're grateful that you choose to do it for the benefit of our students, families, and our community. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other public commenters? Hi, I'm Ana. I am the parent. Um, this conversation about reserve and the percentages. I think couple points I kind of want to make is that sure the 25% average state average is much higher than what they have,

094but how is it even relevant given how far we are from the state average revenue, right? So we are I'm just calculating 4.6 million away from the state average revenue. So I don't see how it's relevant that we are far away from a average reserve figure if we are also 4.6 million away of average revenues. We can't we can't get both and it just doesn't work right. You can't have both. So I while I understand that that's state average I don't see how it's relevant to what what what we have the same way San Raphael isn't really truly good comparison because as you show always on that curve center is so much higher than us so that makes sense that they can afford it. Um the one thing in particular I would encourage I guess

095you to think about is in terms of the optics this conversation might have of rebuilding the reserves. what kind of high percentage we want for the people who would then be asked to pay more taxes. So I as somebody who can a lot and talk to a lot of people I think if we're going to go with the message that we have to rebuild reserves I'm not so sure people going to want to vote to increase their taxes to do that. So I just wanted to kind of have that kind of add that angle that yes obviously we have to acknowledge might have changed the policy the number percentage number but I just want to kind of highlight that there's this other side of the equation that make it might make it much harder for

096us to even get that parcel tax and then obviously everything is going to be relevant if we don't. So just wanted to share my thoughts on that. >> Thank you. public comment. >> Uh yeah, PJ Feer, man. Um thank you for the presentation. I think this is a important conversation for the district. I also want to make sure that I remember to say that I agree um with Anya's point on the state averages not being particularly relevant that you know I was reading through the uh California School Board Association publications about uh reserves like when Prop 98 passed and a bunch of other things and it's really um they actually highlighted how many school districts It's there are under a thousand uh students and under 300 is when you get to the 5% cap. And

097in those places they actually have the formula is not just a three 5% or 4% they say it's like $64,000 reserve or whatever that. So it's the the scale of the numbers is very different. Um and you know the these reports and the suggestions are obviously driven by fair enough uh school district administrators who it's if your bias is in you know even not you know maliciously you're going to skew towards making sure you never have to go to the state and say hey we didn't have enough money and if you don't spend it all you It's a bummer. But um but but you're just going to air on that side. And um you know, I I I like the line of questioning that trustee uh Landosk was going on in terms of >> what

098why are we really considering the big big issues when setting a high reserve number because we're screwed either way. if those like big uh catastrophes come like if uh you see a co drop in revenues, you're not going to make it up with reserves. You're going to rely on this is affecting everybody and so the state or the federal government is going to step in and that's going to be your your you know unbudgeted reserve. Um and I like the idea. I mean I see it more as budgeting for unforeseen expenses and we are on you know consistent theme with us with service service expenses um being the the big uh red light here because for 2018 through 2021 every year our expenses were lower than what was projected. I know that's going to be

099tightening down as we get rid of unfilled positions, things like that. But, um, you know, we the district doesn't have a history of very high overall variance of expenses being more than what's budgeted and so the expenses are predictable. Um I also like that Tyler mentioned um spending spending money in a fiduciary context first time not uh fiduciary duties not brought up in the context of uh cuts or not spending because you have a fiduciary duty also to all of the students currently in the district. Like every year there's a class year of kids. It's their last year in the district. And if you're saying we're not going to we didn't spend money or we we added we wanted to make sure that we didn't go too far in our reserves so we cut eighth

100grade music or something like that. Those kids are being short changed and if you if you don't need those reserves it's all for nothing. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Do you have any other public comment? >> No. Okay. Um so bring it back for us for discussion. I just want I just want to say personally I I asked to have this put on the agenda because we as a board have not discussed this policy aside from hearing about it regularly. We have not discussed it. We did not set it. We as a five of us we did not. So I wanted to make sure we all had a chance to hear what it's about. Um given the letter that I did get from MCE and what they did say at the very end of

101it. Um I just wanted to make sure we all had an opportunity to hear. I'm not saying that we're going to build up the reserve to 25%. I'm saying we need to have a discussion openly so people can hear us learning about it and why and the ramifications of how it looks. So that is just why it's here. And I know that it might optically look bad, but honestly like we do need to have a discussion about this. So not going to hide it. Rachel, I really appreciate it because as I'm new and learning and just gathering all the information, I don't I don't know these things. And so it's helpful to like why is it 10%, why is the state 3% so different than the state average of 25%. Like all of that I

102think it is extremely important for us to discuss and I don't know I really feel like somebody probably wants to know this also. somebody listening, somebody here, like I think it's a really important discussion to have because I mean they're certainly not arbitrary numbers. So learning why they are there. Um not that it really yes it's not relevant to the revenue we need to pay our teachers more which is our main priority but just generally it is relevant. And so I I appreciate it. Thank you. And I appreciate the public comments too. Um I think that you know two of you are very well educated on this topic but a lot of people are not and so it's important we talk about it. I thought an interesting point making the uh connection between our our

103revenues and state average revenues versus our reserve and state average reserves and just it was just kind of a I hadn't thought about it in that way and um it was just an interesting thought for me to kind of consider um as it relates to this board policy and what you all want to do moving forward. I I do want to say that as I was sitting here, the 25% was not my beacon. And I want to be clear, I I I would I personally would never agree to that being our beacon. I think that's fiduciarily ridiculous. I think it was there and help me understand my assumption. It was there to just give us some perspective. That's right. as to what the state average is, right? Okay, >> that's good to know because I

104just was not going in that direction. Thank you for providing that though. It's interesting to see that that's but that's because you have these really in the state you have these we're talking Los Angeles, you know, we're talking, you know, >> up up up in Sacramento, there's some very large school districts that have a lot of money. So, that's going to bring that percentage up. and large reporting Madera just right down the road is at almost 40%. And if you keep going down the road to Reed or Ross they're close to 90% reserve. So that to me is an irrelevant like >> yeah it's like >> but I I do think that having the context of 25 not as a recommendation >> but as a you know >> where are we in comparison? >> Yeah.

105So, >> well, Chris, you were saying that when it's a smaller district, they have to have bigger reserves, right? >> You generally want bigger reserves. Yes. >> So, technically, even though we had like 1641 on our books last year for student enrollment, we should have we if since we're so much lower than the state average, we should have a bigger reserve is what you were saying. If that is that how that works? Like, I'm trying to figure this out. >> No. No. And honestly, what makes me nervous isn't necessarily the reserve percentage that we're at. Even >> even if we're below 10%. That doesn't cause concern for me. What causes concern for me is the combination of the reserve and the deficit. It's that deficit. >> The deficit is what causes concern for me. >>

106That's one of the things that I was thinking about both from the comments and in general was kind of time horizon perspective. And for me again, I think it's us whatever the percentage is, it's all in the context of what direction are you going >> on your budgets. >> Yeah. >> And so if you're kind of a district that is a balanced budget or maybe a little bit of fluctuation, the idea of like, do you really need 25% because you know, whatever that kind of thing. If you're heading in a downward trajectory or your CBO says, "Hey, there's a fiscal cliff coming." And when we look out, we're falling off that cliff. Uh-oh. I mean, 25% sounds like a whole lot, but we basically went from 23% down to 10 in 5 years. In 5

107years. So, that's a pretty I mean, that was a slide. Now, we had COVID. So, we had the COVID masking, some sliding, and then we had a cliff. we had a bit of more of a cliff situation than you might normally have if you didn't have some major pandemic thing. Um, but I think it's the idea of for me the fiduciary responsibility isn't necessarily the fixed percentage but being a fiduciary in keeping my time horizon and my trajectory and my directionality awareness up there. So, um, >> I mean this is a good slide for that the exact point, right? We're well above Kenfield and Miller Creek, >> but we're deficit spending at a much higher rate than them. So, we've got a higher percentage, but the direction we're going is not the right direction where

108Miller Creek and Kentfield have a more balanced budget, much lower percentage, but they're less they might be less worried than we are given the deficit spending. >> Right. And Right. Exactly. So, it's that deficit spending combined with the percentage >> um that is on my thinking cap. And so and again in terms of timing for making this decision or to whatever I do think that we are it's like we have to dig ourselves out of a hole get to a place where we're not deficit spending before we start considering okay now if we have extra how are we going to allocate the extra to teacher salaries or building up the reserve. We're not there yet. You just got to get out of the hole before we can spend money on any like right now it's

109can't spend any money or can't spend money can't keep going in the hole any we need to increase our revenues and then and then we can you know figure out how to do that because >> and I think that really is bringing it back to the individual side when you talk about rainy day funds in your own bank account 25 years ago a salary of say you made a hundred $100,000 25 years ago, >> chunk of change, you know, eat out, get a steak, whatever. You can pay for a lot of things. If you're still making that same salary in 2025, you might, you know, consider it's just the the rate of inflation, expenses, or teacher salaries, nothing is keeping up with what we've been bringing in with this old parcel tax. >> That's right.

110It's it's it's the parcel tax income is is antiquated and it's no longer meeting our needs. And I think that has to really be, you know, the message that the increase is not because we're like not >> fiscally responsible. The increase is because it's an antiquated amount that is not relevant to the expenses of which our district demands today. And had we not had a 23% reserve when we did five years ago, >> there you go. That's why it's >> we would not be having this conversation at this moment in this time because we wouldn't have had the money to be able to do it. Exactly. >> We would not have been able to have made the decisions that we made over the last two or three years where we were still deficit spending and

111we still gave raises. Not enough granted, but we were still able to do some of that even in a deficit partially because we had that that reserve. >> If we had been at a 10% reserve 5 years ago, this whole reality would have been completely different than we are now. >> So, keeping that in mind as we go forward again. Appreciate that. >> And I like that to your point, Shelley, thinking about getting more specific with the language. And again, this doesn't have to be done at the next meeting or even this this year, right? It can we can bring this back next school year and kind of have a discussion around it, but being more specific about when is that 10%. Because the assumption is in year three, but is it year two or

112is it in the current year? And if we want to get more specific as a team, then we we can do that. >> You could even get even wonkier and have it be a ratio of deficit spending to bottom. I mean, you could even tie it to some sort of directionality. If we have an x% drop in revenue, you x% drop in net uh income, then whatever. I mean, that might get a little complicated, but at least it would tie it to that directionality of our budget. >> It's not arbitrary >> and it's and it maybe it doesn't need to be a fixed percentage. It could be a rolling percentage based as a percentage of something else or something like that. I don't know. And if you decided that it really was in the third

113year out, maybe the percentage is 8%, not 10%. >> Or but but if it's in the current year, maybe it's 11% not 10%. And that that could be part of the discussion. >> Yeah. >> If you all wanted to do that. >> And and could it be possible that this reserve amount like you're probably implying is that should be revisited every year? Should be a yearly thing, >> right? >> To look at the reserve and to say where are we and what's this going to look like as you have done for us. But really, I mean, you have a policy based percentage. >> The policy maybe should be revisited in that and instead of having us look back and say, "Well, five years ago we determined this," right? >> Yeah. And it could be I

114don't it's probably super more complicated to say that our reserve policy is two months of X Y and Z expenses because then you have a rolling percentage change based on whatever your expenses are. And if you >> if your if your expenses increase then your reserve increase. your expenses decrease or some some sort of appropriate cost or revenue driver. I don't know if that's too complicated for budgeting or it probably causes other kinds of unintended consequences that I'm not thinking of now. But >> yeah, >> I think and again we don't have to we got to dig ourselves out of a hole before we come back to this conversation because >> well and again I just want to make sure that this was a conversation that we were able to have because I feel like

115>> we haven't been able to have this conversation so far. We have any more conversation about it though before moving on. I just think the one thing I would say is I I think the timing is right. Even though I think someone might see this as a distraction from the core mission here, it is directly tied to the unodited actuals we just saw from Chris in that last last of the last presentation. You're seeing where our percentages are. So, it's worthy. And I think Chris, you make a good point. Maybe every year, every other year we we revisit it just for discussion and maybe there's no action at all, but at least we're highlighting it and discussing it. >> All right, that I'll move on. >> Great. Okay, our next item is recommended approval of

116resolution to adopt the GAN limit. >> That would be me again. This is one of those preunctery type of things that goes dates back to Prop 13 and the 70s and all of that. And uh in essence what it does is it uh sets our threshold for spending and it's a moving number every year and all we're doing is just agreeing to um the numbers that are provided through the the SAC software and taking a look at all of that. So again it's just a preuncter resolution that is required by the by the state >> saying we won't spend more money than they're giving us. >> Right. >> Yes. Exactly. Like could they give us more? We could be maybe in a position where this is something we need. Do we have any questions for

117Chris? No. >> Do we have any public comment on this item? >> All right. Seeing I'll bring it back to us for discussion. >> Any comments that is strange. >> There's this will be one of the things as you move forward. There's a number of like things that have been around for a while that life has changed, procedures have changed, policies have changed, but things >> it's still required of us even though it's irrelevant. We do it >> once a year. Yeah. All right. I will there's no more conversation. I'll entertain a motion on this item. >> I'll make a motion that we approve resolution 012526 to adopt the Gan limit. >> Great. Second. >> Second. Daniel. >> Hi. >> Shelley. >> Hi. Anna >> I >> Chris I >> Rachel I All right we

118approve that. Thank you Chris. Um our next item is presentation on summer 2025 facilities projects and this is actually going to be Dez. So come on up. So Desmond Kissant is our director of maintenance operations and facilities and he's going to discuss the projects that we had going on in the past year mainly in the summer. >> Good evening everyone. Thanks for the opportunity to have our annual update. Um this year we uh no soon to be finished graduation at White Hill and then we're it's go time and we uh as always we try and pack like 11 12 weeks into eight and a half weeks. Um we tackled a couple of uh large bid projects this year. um the roof um the NPR at Valley and of course the asphalt project at uh two

119of them at White Thomas and one at Mana as well as DSA shade project for the TK playground at Hidden Valley. Um, as always, um, there's always a couple paint pressing, painting projects we have to try and coordinate. And then this year, we also, um, I've noticed over our walkthroughs with the board and with Tyler that um, the groups of these redwoods like to try and see water and they played a habit with their walkways and their asphalt. So that was something that I wanted to um just make our campuses uh from a safety perspective just um tackle the trip has a problem. Um and then uh as always we've uh we've pressed on with their campus beautifification. It's getting easier. Um we just give them a lot a refresh. Normally do that the last

120uh week before school. Um and it just makes um the curve appeal curve appeal of our campuses for that first day of school. Students and parents are dropping off um it makes a difference. Um we also bought a uh we have our own uh paint sprayer and uh Johnny's got very adept at using it on our curbs and also on our black tops. He did it to uh he tackled that the last week of before school came back and it just makes just gives it a bit of a wow factor, you know. So, super proud of that. But, um I've got some before and after photos which always make for some interesting uh viewing. So, we'll start off at White. Uh for those of you that have spent any time there, the seventh and eighth

121grade courtyards are pretty modern, but um the sixth grade courtyard needed a birthday. So, um, the photos on the left show the arbor of the library and why someone would put cloth on top of that, I have no idea. So, it once it gets saturated, it just seeps into the wood. So, the the middle top is what one of those beams look like. It's just water's just been sitting on there and seeping in there. So, um, plus it was flat. So, we had to add a gradient on top of those beams. to replace uh a third of those beams. And then we put in a similar um uh sheathing that we used at Brookside last year. It's clear sort of provides um some shade, little bit of shade in the summer, but also some protection

122for them uh students to um at recess in that during the winter. Uh but we're doing that. Uh when you look at the 100 building, um it it just needed a birthday. So, um what we did there is uh we painted it uh and then we removed um the grass areas uh and added uh new turf, artificial turf. Um benches have gone in there now. So now it's uh more practical. It's so much easier to maintain and it aesthetically looks so much better. >> And by grass you're referring to the weeds, >> right? >> Um yeah. So that was and then we're um on October 3rd the professional development day we're um replacing the shade structures in the triangular shade structures in the eighth grade amphitheater. So um way Thomas got uh some special attention

123this summer. Um the recess area by the fourth fifth grade buildings. Um, thankfully there's been picnic tables there because how no one's tripped and chipped a tooth on there, I have no idea. So, we had to tear that out. Um, as you can see in the top, uh, two right hand photos, uh, two twoinch layers of asphalt. So much better. And then the bottom um, black top area. Took out the old gaga pit. um will be replace uh we've got a new one ready to replace that. Uh but the chip hazards there we had to uh take out root areas uh by the um larger playground. It was sealed 10 days ago and it's going to get um painted uh on October 3rd on development day. So, um, as I said, uh, the problems with

124the tree roots and that, um, between the staff room and the music room and leading down to the fourth, fifth grade building, um, we took out concrete areas. Uh, we ground out asphalt areas and then out in the front area, um, uh, we used a new product. Johnny did that himself. Um, and Jordan knew nothing about this. Ste came back was just blown away like just she was so um appreciative. Uh she was also enjoying we um as far as cab security goes we added a couple of gates one on woodland there. Uh we had to replace the concrete there as well and also uh one between the library and the NPR. It's um not intrusive but it just makes our campuses a little bit safer. And as uh Tyler alluded to earlier, we are

125Julie wants to do another one. um by the office area to stop the the TK runners. Hidden Valley. Um I love that shot there. Um so it's not unbeknownst to most people. The roof on the NPR was up the left hand side. It it would have struggled to get through another window. So, we went out to PL for this. Um, and very happy to use uh state roofing systems out of San Leandro. They're tricky to work with. Did a great job. Um, and the end product is uh it's awesome. They did a really good job. I've actually don't tell Mr. Carson, but I've been on the bridge since. Um, and it's there. We got it just in the nick of time. There was no uh water damage to the old roof. So now it's good

126for another 20 25 years. Um I think I may have shown you this one before. Um there's so much wood fasure on our campuses on our buildings and it's just been let go for so long. So um there was a little bit of rot in the curved fasure on the admin building. So in those situations now we're adding um two lots of flashing to try to prevent from having to paint it in the future. Um and we needed to do that uh over spring break um because we had the shade structure bottom right the shade structure was going in um over summer and we didn't want to interfere with our work. So, um, super proud of the way the, uh, uh, roofing project went and, um, we've got a little bit of, uh, public works

127stuff to do in the upper, uh, car park area, but, um, we've got a a couple of other things, Chris, to move on. So, if you look at the top left hand picture, that is the end of the metal building. There's two different types of tan, two different types of green on there. So it it needed I I decided we're going to give it a paint job. They painted the benches and everything there as well. Um in the bottom we al because we had these projects going over the summer. Uh the maintenance department tackle well we're not the maintenance department. Johnny's labor of love the hidden valley amphitheater. Um if you had to walk that campus between February and May then you would have seen Johnny working on that. um he did a phenomenal job

128and he's it's uh he had to do a lot of work replacing um more than just the uh the seats and that there was a lot of concrete work in that to be done as well and the storage shed at the back as well. We um we replaced structurally we repaired it and then we put some T11 on the outside and that painted it. So, um, manner, uh, major concern with manner was, uh, the upgrading of the TK yard. Uh, so the top left photo will show you what it looked like. There was three diseased trees there that we had to take out and trying to find the best possible use of that area. Um, and you'll see the middle photo at the top. We took them out. We cut the asphalt. Um, we put

129in turf there. Uh, it's the markings on the right have been done and we did a slurry coat over the entire area which goes all the way back to the art room. Um, as Chris mentioned earlier, we had to make the play structure uh TK compliant. So, there's a lot of work involved in that. um taking out some of the um old equipment, replacing it, and then um redoing the turf. Uh the TK fence is in over by uh between the library and room three. Um but if you actually go over by the art room and look at the whole area, it's it came out really well. It's a lot of coordination to get that done. And as well, we did some um uh concrete grinding um around the front uh drop off area as

130well. Brookside. Um, a man has been pleading with me uh along with um the Brook Brookside parents um about repainting and redoing the staff uh office area and staff room. Um this is the second or project I've worked with the Brookside parents. A lot of coordination. Um, they like to show they show a lot of initiative. Uh, but sometimes you have to rein them in sometimes, Chris. Um, >> hey, that's my wife. >> But the end result, um, it looks the staff from area looks amazing. It really does. And I also want to shout out, um, the Emily and, uh, her garden party. I don't know any of you made it back to the Brookside Garden area. It's phenomenal. The gazebo area and back there is terrific. And now they've set their sights on uh

131between the amphitheater and the basketball court. So that's something we'll be tackling this year as along with um the bridge which we're which will Chris probably knows more about that, but um it's with DSA right now and we'll know more about that um in a couple of months. >> Is is the bottom one? Yes. >> I'm not sure they showed you that before. That's what I was. >> Yeah. So, we took care of that in uh spring break. Um because students or community members just come through there and that that the post and rail just >> there's a bathroom right on the other side. So, >> right. I know. So, um yeah, just um makes the area more accessible. Happy to hear that you're tackling the amphitheater part between the amphitheater and the basketball. Yeah.

132>> Because that is like uh the community's favorite bike jump >> and definitely a safety hazard. I was there tonight, Tyler, at 5:30 and there was guys I was walking up to check one of my custodians and you probably seen it, Daniel. You probably got gone on the loop around there and the guys coming around them almost throwing at their hands to say, "Hey, you're on that bike track." >> Caused a lot of damage on an ebike just two weeks ago jumping off. No way. Yep. And >> one one thing that um no one really sees over the summer is the work that my custodial team, my maintenance guru Johnny and my groundsman throughout the summer, they work their tails off. They really do. And we've built on some of the um summer team cleaning

133um philosophy that I I I bought in. Um we're working smarter. We're not using stripper anymore. we're um been working more as a this just needs more camaraderie. So this year there's always been oh we can never get finished and get back to our own campuses by the end of August. So we had all the elementary schools done by middle of July and with the TK classrooms, more TK classrooms and more furniture and supplies being delivered, they were so appreciative to get back there to single furniture and um playsets and everything like that. So that's something I um I've worked on and I'm really happy to say they they they did a phenomenal job this summer. Um the two photos on the left are from Wade Thomas. They they they um shampooed a floor, a

134carpet just says and they done another area twice. There's this it's not working this t and I went in there and I I it's it just looks tired and I showed Chris went checked it out and I got a a bid and we we recarpeted five classrooms at Thomas over the summer. Um, as always, the ball walls take a pounding and I just want to, you know, that's something that Johnny tackles. Also, for some reason, when they built the kil room at White Hill, they didn't rop proof it. So, Emma is does phenomenal job up there. So, Johnny rewired it and now it's free. So, she's super appreciative of that. Um, harking back to what I'm saying about my custodians, you'll see them inside a classroom, a reflection of that. And then outside um cleaning

135the concrete and I took a photo of uh room 10 at Hidden Valley um Christina Workman had the shift classrooms over the summer and I went in there the second week of what was going and I'm like if that was this is my first day of school that's the sort of classroom I'd like to walk into, you know. >> So that's that's what we strive for. So, um, yeah, all in all, just another super productive summer. >> And I just I just want to say that this this was not just a super productive summer because we had additional money from the sale of Deer Park and we had gotten input from the community about facilities projects. This was like a doubly uh busy summer and the team did a phenomenal job. And Dez, that's your

136leadership. Johnny, it's you. It's, you know, our whole M team, our whole custodial team. They really do a phenomenal job. And, you know, our campuses are aging, which means there's a lot of extra work for only three guys to do five campuses and the fields. It's a lot of work with very little funding and very little personnel. So, um, I'm just super proud of what you all were able to accomplish this summer. >> Truly. Do you have any more questions for Dez? >> Dez, with your team, do you do you um It's got to be a huge list of these are the things that have to get done at these schools. >> Yeah. >> And how do you determine what rises to the top with your team, especially because there's so many labors of love

137here. >> Yeah. >> So, just curious about that process. Um I I look at them as like we prioritize two or three times a year and then um I I'll get some bids on like well that's exorbitant. We don't have that in the budget and like there's a hole in the carpet in the library at Brookside. >> I'm like we can't replace the entire carpet, you know. Do I shift the bookshelf on top of it or do I maybe do a replacement square? M >> um but uh like going going out to bid the bid process and that like you know for a roof there there might be $80,000 difference the highest bid and the lowest bid and they build they got the same um bid specs and so um I'm frugal to a point

138but if something has to be done the NPR roof at Hidden Valley it has to be done you know. So you have so you have big things, >> nice to have things set down to nice to do things, right? And and so you work as a team as to say let's tackle >> and and with and like with Johnny like we we we do a lot of in-house stuff. We've got a um a silicon product we use on our roofing now and if we can tackle that it means we don't we can it works and it's always good when you bring in professionals just this is what we do over here. we have it and they're like, "Oh, that's a great product, you know, and we're and we've got um Johnny and I got our

139skill set allows us to do it in house." So, it saves us a little money. So, therefore, oh, now we can get the five carpets for >> We Thomas, >> you know, but the most pressing things like say if someone had have tripped on a trip hazard way Thomas C then that rises to the top. >> Yeah. >> But that's something that I've noticed and I'm dislike. It it's getting worse. >> Yeah. >> You know, >> so um uh but I also lean on Chris. Chris will say this has to be done and um just having different set of eyes, you know, like Johnny will see something. And then we did the walkthroughs we did with the um principles I've still got that spreadsheet. It's just like this has to be done and we're fortunate

140to have some of that to your apartment. >> So you do get input from the principles. >> Yeah. Great. >> Yeah. We look at warm, dry, and safe. And then we're also looking at the scope of the project in terms of can it be done during school? Can it be done during a break? So we have to kind of prioritize based upon all of these different things >> and and what the funds are. >> And then I always throw a wrench in the system by saying this is what needs to get done right away. And sometimes that's an alignment, sometimes it's not. >> Any more questions? No. Comment. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Do we have any public comment on this item again from Manor? Uh you might remember me talking to you every

141day, I guess. Um but anyway, a couple meetings ago, I talked about an asphalt project at Manor and how it looked not up to par at all. And then I followed up is to kind of like figure out well what really happened there. Why the cracks weren't even filled. I mean it was just the top story on top of think it was a really poorly done job. And what I learned was astonishing to me and as a project manager. And so I'm going to preface this by saying that I am fully aware that it is not your job as a board to manage everyday projects. Like I don't I did my homework. I understand that's not but I think what the reason I'm bringing this up is that I think like there's a larger system

142problem here that I think results in us essentially not being a very efficient with little money we do have and I do feel like that is where you come in is that that's is your responsibility to to make the system work better. Um so back to our asphalt project. Um there was a bid out to do a proper stripping of asphalt that goes way Thomas at manor where you actually like strip two inches down. They're all everything is flat. Everything is sealed prop like actual repavement and that's what the bid was for. Um and there were two bids. One was 180 another one was like 250 70k difference. Of course we have to go with a little bit. We went with a little bit when I come on the first day of school, we don't

143have the asphalt redone. There's no new asphalt. The cracks are still there. The grass is already growing. All was done is some slurry was put on top without even like filling the cracks. It's not it was not repaved. That that was what the contract was for. And so when I followed up I learned that like that that the contractor said oh well no actually even the contractor was required to do walk through. Oh no that was that would be too much. We can't do that based on the contract. So then we just did the way Thomas they got the asphalt and was a little leftover money. We just did this useless job of making manor just more hot because it's more black but it didn't even fill the cracks. And that's where I'm like, how

144is that even possible from a project management perspective that we have a signed contract >> and somebody then can say say, huh, well, no, actually, I'm not going to do the work for the money I signed the contract. I'm going to do and we're just rolling with that and then say in essence, we spend this $200,000, but only half of the project got done and we still get the box box check that manner got asked for done even though what's my contract was not done and the cracks are there. It's not actually got any better. There's some systemic thing here. How like if I'm a project manager, I would never sign up on that and it's like a basic project management 101. And somehow we are okay with that. Like what what kind of precedent

145does it set for next project? You go out for the bid. Your contractor going to come and say here's my lower bid. You have to take low bid by the law and then it just turns around say um no actually I'm not going to do it. I'm like how does it even a thing? And I think that's where we need some sort of a a system changes to how do we manage these things and that's why I wanted bring it up. I do appreciate all the hard work that this and all the team does but this was the contracted out and the process of contracting out is where I'm having the issues with not any all the all the amazing things you guys do. I just want to be clear on that. Any other public

146comment? >> All right, with that, I'll bring it back up to us for >> I'd like to hear what happened. >> I mean, you know, I I don't know about that, but I'd love to hear what actually happened. Is >> does do you know, Chris? I do actually. Um, first and foremost, we put a bid out and we got no biders. So, we put it out again and we got two biders and the bid was approved by the board at the end of June. um as soon as they came and actually um as parents may have noticed um during the way Thomas promotion ceremony um the the company was out there measuring even during that time. Um and when they came to do the or came to schedule the project, what they started discussing is

147changes to um the project immediately. There were sections that needed to be cut out at um at Manor which were were done in fact and the entire the entire manor was not to be ground down as as was done at way Thomas. It was a different layer of project. Um they there was then disagreement immediately over um over square footages and also the the scope of the project. They were they were discussing that immediately at way Thomas and so at that particular point we were starting to get into um July and there's an expectation that the project is going to get done. So we had to work with the contractor in order to get it done. Had we tried to enforce it, we would have ended up in litigation and no projects would have been

148done. So it was it's one of those where you have to look at whether you can get a project done or not. And it it wasn't just one project, it was two in two school sites. And so we worked with that contractor um on the scope of the project. So and they and they again they did do additional work that was above and beyond at manner from what was requested in certain areas. I was just I was part of what I was going to say is I think I do think that our district does an amazing job of uh holding a lot of um tradeoffs and the work that you all do in terms of creative problem solving that I've heard of examples of it over the years has been phenomenal and the fact that

149you have like the couple years ago you came in and gave a larger presentation on those wonderful shiny floors and the new product that you use and um and figure, you know, doing the doing the research to figure out problem solving and from little things from I don't know rat proofing figuring out how to do rat proofing on one little corner of something to to big huge projects. I think we are blessed to have that kind of in-house knowledge, skill and just that can do attitude and also like caring for our kids in terms of their learning environment because the place the people that our kids learn from are amazing and the place and the environment that they learn in I think also is really important and the caring for that definitely shows through in

150part of the answer. So, I've done a couple of big I was in nonprofit facilities for a long time and I've done a couple of big multi-million dollar projects on buildings and learned that you've got it's like that better, cheaper, faster triangle of tradeoffs. So, time, cost, and scope of it. And just like what you say about budgets, as soon as you make them, they're no longer what they were. inevitably facilities projects, it's almost exactly the the day you sign that contract and they get in there, it's really rarely ever on those three variables of trade-offs exactly from the day that you start what it was when you contracted for. And so often, for example, like in in um asphalt projects that I've done before, you can measure it out, but you can only see

151the surface. And once you get into it, oftent times you start thinking, "Oh, I was going to have to take I budgeted for, you know, three inches everywhere and you hit a spot where you're like, "Oh, wait, no, that's got to be five inches." Because there's a root and you didn't see it because it was under the whatever surface. So, you start going and then you have to do value engineering, they call it, and redo your scope. And that's where then you come back to your client and you say, "Here's here's an unforeseen circumstance that I ran into. Do you want it faster, cheaper, or you want to change the scope? And so that's where these guys are constantly having to manage those scope tradeoffs with the time, which we have because we also have

152such a tight time frame. So you're tight on the time, we're tight on the budgets because we're required to take the lowest bid. So the most flexibility is on scope. And >> but to Anna's point, was the other bid would that have met the needs of our requirements? Right. That's I think that's her question is like how do we just make sure that we're we're clear on what we're this is how I'm interpreting what we're approving. >> Yeah. And if it's a subpar result for the same price that we approved, well, that's something we should look at. Like how like if we would have approved the other bid for let's call it $80,000 more, which is a significant amount, would that have met the needs that our school required? >> Problem is, we couldn't have

153you done that one because we're legally obligated to do the lower lower one. And Chris, was there a cost overrun at the Wade Thomas one? >> Yeah, that was part of it because they didn't realize that they were going down as much and so that was part of it. >> So the priority was the Wade Thomas asphalt because it was in way worse condition. So the cost overrun on the way Thomas went up. You can only go above the bid by a certain percentage. >> So that was going to take us up to the 10%. So then we had to reduce the cost of manner which was part of the reason it didn't come to where we wanted. So and I think >> you know the the larger question is what accountability do we have

154with the the >> contractor go back and sue them and spend a bunch of money suing them and you know I guess >> from your opinion would we use them again? I in terms of the actual work I think their work was acceptable. Um I think what I would do is make sure that the scope is clearly understood. You put it in writing you you have it with the bid but immediately some contractors potentially point to different things and that's what happened with this. They pointed to the job walk and said that somebody said something. Well, then you get into a he said, she said, and at that point, all you're doing is spending dollars in litigation and not getting the work done. And the work wouldn't have gotten done because it was already the

155end of June. >> So, we're we're only allowed to go 10% over on a So, if you take a contract that's 70,000 less than the other bid, um you're only allowed to go 10% over the bid that you took. So you could, you know, theoretically if you were going to increase and say, "Okay, well go up to $70,000 more, which is what I would have paid, but we're not allowed to necessarily do that unless it's $70,000 is 10% of it." So that's a requirement, which is frustrating. And you can't go back in at such quick notice to do an add-on bid >> because you have to do walk through and all that kind of stuff for every single contract, >> right? So, is what was done at Manor safe and sufficient or are we looking

156into redoing it? >> It is. >> It's safe. >> Yeah. And I'm happy to walk you through the campus to show you what the issues are. Um, it's like some stuff that there was a rise that got ground down and then the slurry seal that goes over it still has some of the grind marks on it. So, it's not perfectly flat or there's cracks that are sealed and the sealant is a soft sealant. So, if you put your finger into it, you know, your finger sinks into it. So, it's not ideal. Um, but it's better than it was. and it is darker which is more heat um and there are no trees there anymore because those trees were so like it's a it's a not a perfect situation and this again comes down to underst

157staffed underfunded we're doing everything we can with what we have and if we had a bond there' be a whole different conversation you could you know do it up to this community wants excellent facil ities and we just don't have the funds for it. So, we have to have get the most out of the staff that we have and the most out of the money we have. And I think that's another thing that I'm hearing is let's make sure we get the most out of everything because we don't have much. So, if we're going to get a contractor, let's get one that knows is clear about the scope and, you know, can do the bid to the correct standard. >> Yeah. I think to what you said about a more detailed contracts built. That's probably

158the takeaway. >> Potentially. Potentially. I mean, the the the biggest issue was that we didn't get any biders the first time and so that caused a two-month delay in even getting it done. >> So, and it we would have been having those conversations with them instead of in early July, we would have been having conversations with them in June. and then you know or may it would have been a very different conversation. >> So, >> okay, appreciate the clarification. I will say that I've been on the campuses and I it's uh marketkedly a aware especially at White Hill bringing the sixth grade buildings to the upper class unified the campus visually in a way that I think the sixth graders needed instead of feeling like they were attending school in an army shanty and and

159hopefully moving on to the glorified white buildings. The match of color was perfect and it just looks like one unified campus now, which I think finally is the last step of probably the charter situation that was there. So, that was very very noticeable. Um, and I I think it might be good to set up some more visiting the campuses. We did a wonderful tour. Must have been two years ago, was it? >> Yeah. >> Where the trustees went to each campus with maintenance and looked around at the things that needed to get done that were top of the list, >> understanding what's being done. You just and and I think the the takeaway, you know, where every crack and crevice of everything is, Chris. You're like this one spot here on this mural, right? this,

160you know, that to me says there's a lot of um labors of love going into that. And I just it does not I it does not go unnoticed from from from from me, Johnny. I you're just a wonderful addition to the team. I think that your your talents are something that I just go you you don't need to be here, but you are here and it's just wonderful. >> No, we need there you he could have his own, you know, no ideas. I had to say that, but um anyway, I just want to >> say thank you. Um it's these buildings are falling apart as we speak. Uh and um >> they do look great. They really do. Going to the back to school nights was really great to see all of work. And Tyler

161pointed some of the stuff out to me and when we met, you did too. But yeah, it's it's cool to see all of the schools when they get refreshes because parents really notice it and the kids kind of do, but >> the parents really do. >> The kids noticed it. I took my kids with me to Wet Hill for back to school night and you know there are ninth and 12th graders and the first thing I didn't notice because I was driving, but they were both like, "Whoa, the sixth grade buildings got painted." I was like, "What?" >> But it was like immediate from both of them and I was just like shocked. I was like, "Oh, you're right. It looks really good." But it was a big reaction from them. I was really surprised.

162So, >> looks like what? It looks like a campus. >> It looks great. >> All of the campuses look great. I think the only one I didn't manage to get to for back to school night was Hidden Valley because we had board meeting here. But, um, I popped around and I could see it when I was hiking the new roof from like where I was hiking in the hills. I was like, "Look at it glowing bright white." >> Um, so yeah, I'm really happy with all the upgrades that you guys were able to do this summer. Thank you for like for sure. It was um a big improvement. Um, and I will get back to Hidden Valley Poker again. >> But it's um probably this Friday for your your Hidden Valley boots and barbecue. >>

163Oh, >> but um yeah, the facilities look really great. Um >> yeah, >> I would be interested if we scheduled a another round. >> Yeah, >> I have them scheduled. So, I'll have Teresa send out an email to you uh tomorrow and if you're interested in signing up for one of them, we'll get you on the invite. >> We can do groups of two two just at a time. >> Oh, yeah. The only other thing I was going to add that I think is an added complexity in the school environment and I was reminded of it when you said kind of somebody use the word refresh annual is from a like a fiduciary perspective from a from a thinking investing money in the long term that's different from like regular commercial real estate is our

164annual cycle that we have. So, so I think there is an element of adding that refresh of of of painting or or not necessarily like a long-term investment that we want to do every year because there is this starting up of the school year um attention which is awesome and totally what we should be doing. But if you think about like a commercial building, if you have something in your wall that you need to fix, you might not paint it as soon as you might normally have wanted to paint it because like, oh, we're saving the capital until we can rip this wall out and do blah blah blah, so we're not going to bother to repaint it. But we don't have the luxury of being able to do that sometimes because we want to

165do this annual refresh. So, I think you all do a really amazing job of being able to hold both of those um in that way. It's a unique facilities challenge that other commercial real estate doesn't have because we're not commercial real estate. We're running schools and we have annual cycles and it's awesome that you guys can pay attention to both the long-term capital and the annual cycle of school starting every year and do an amazing job of balancing all of that. So, thank you because it it's noticed. >> Do you have any more comments? >> Okay. Um, so we don't have to make any sort of decision on this one. So I'll move on to consent actions. Anybody want to comment? Thank you for attending. Does anybody have any questions on this? Want to pull

166anything out for discussion? No. Okay. Um, do we have any public comment on consent actions? Go ahead. Um so just comparing the financial statements for the past three years. I'm sure you know somebody I hope was thinking about this. Uh this time in 2023 the like object code 5800 sort of uh services amount total for at this point in 2023 was about $356,000. In 2024, it was about $533,000. And in this year's uh reports, it's already at $628,000. Um, and I think when we budgeted this year, we budgeted services going down overall. So, I don't know, this year maybe we're getting ahead of those contracts. Um, but yeah, I also noticed, you know, just looking at the just hearing the the last comment in discussion in the warrant summaries, we've already paid about $145,000 to

167the contractor that did the asphalting. um just don't know if you know case you know they even though they're responsible for the bid uh for performance um if if we expected something even though we thought it's in our best interest to just get what we can from them. Are we still paying the full contract bid amount and is there going to be another payment uh for like $35,000 somewhere um coming up in the future or if we lowered the the payment amount in light of the lower amount of work that uh we got? Thanks. >> Thank you. Have any other public comment on consent actions? Okay, seeing none, um, do we have any discussion on consent? No. All right, so seeing none, I'll entertain a motion. >> I'll make a motion to approve the consent

168action items. >> Do you have a second? >> Oh, yeah, I'll second. Which one do second here? >> I will second. >> Uh, Dana, >> Hi, >> Chris. >> Hi, >> Shel. I >> Rachel I uh moving on to board business. This is the time for committee updates, reports and announcements by trustees. Strictly stuff that like you're updating. It's not for commentary. It's not for discussion. It's just what you've been doing and what's coming up or the committees you're on. >> Um I'll start. I went to this I attended the safe routes to school um update uh last week. Uh we were presented with the results of the prioritation process for the overlay maps to inform future walk audits which uh is a big project that they've been undertaking for the past year just to

169continue to find and audit the uh accident ratios that have happened on the walks as well as the bike routes. And we got statistics on injuries and incidents um of all incidents, not just the kids, but then the kids were taken out as well. Um got updates from the towns and the county on the processes of funded projects, which they're still doing. And we heard about the um the new um Marin County school access safety action planning process and how it's going to overlap with the safe routes to school. So, they're bringing in the the cities and towns as well. Um um they're looking to encourage events and really bring some awareness to parents. Um a lot of parents don't understand that if they go to the safe routes to school website and they say,

170"Okay, my kid's going to start biking, for example, to White Hill or biking to Brookside." you can put in your address and it will tell you the safe route to go to schools. So, you tell your kid take this road to get here, whatever. So, they're looking um they're going to be following up with Street Smart's communication contacts with the districts. I think they probably Wendy's probably already I don't know if she's reached out to you yet. Um but uh I think the next meeting um they're going to be attending some San Ando and Fairfax Back meetings. Um and they're going to present at the next meeting the future walk audits for the next school year. Oh, and another thing they brought up the ebike situation that we should be prepared for move that right

171now they're just impounding the bikes and the parents are saying I already saw $3,000 into this bike. I'll pay 100 bucks to get it back. my kid still start gets to ride a motorcycle essentially. So what they're going to start doing is pushing to have parents ticketed themselves. So if your kid is pulled over and ticketed it, it's no longer a they're a juvenile, therefore it doesn't go on their record. It actually goes on the parents record. So be prepared for that to come out soon. >> That's it. Oh, and I went to the White Hill back to school, which was fantastic. Um, great greatly attended. Um, White Hill is, uh, is the red-headed stepchild of parent fundraising. So, they are working this year to um, bring fundraising back to the schools. And a special

172shout out to a a young man, I won't say his name on on as a recording, but he stepped forward, a seventh grader, did a wonderful video presentation talking about how if each family gave $350 or give what you can, it will really help the school, I think, raise the money for some of the events because fundraising falls off in middle school. Um, and uh, it was good to see and parents were already right there giving money in their seats. So, good stuff. That's it for me. >> Well, I'm attending my first parent equity task force meeting tomorrow night, so I'm excited for that one. >> Uh, White Hill back school was was fantastic. We had a kids in real life booth there as well. So, trying to just bring that awareness to parents at

173White Hill. Um, >> okay. Uh, I've been busy. It's been fun. Um, I went to Yes. board meeting. Um, which the enthusiasm there is great. They're doing excellent, which is they're fun. I mean, it's they're getting off to a really strong start start, which is so great to hear. Um the dine and donate last night was extremely successful. Um >> and then they're close to selling out for the YesFest and >> there's Yeah. Um so there's new people involved uh including me and so yeah it was cool to to kind of hear it all. Um what else did I do? White held back to school night which Chris thoroughly embarrassed me. Thank you very much. >> Sorry. >> No, it's okay. No, it was great. I got Tyler gave me a whole tour of White

174Hill since I hadn't really ever been on campus except to the sports field. So, that was cool. I'm like excited for my kids to go there. I mean, it was some of the classes, the design lab. I mean, that is cool. They used all of the um Lisa Skinner. We gave all of the measure E signs to her and we collected and gave them to her and she reused them which was super cool for >> these solar powered cart little miniature go-kart things. So that was kind of cool to see. Little little sad but very cool. Um what else? The parcel tax hall went to that. Uh I was it was you had scared me a little bit Tyler when you said like eight people in RSVP. There was many more than that. So that

175was great. >> Like 40, right? I mean um I thought it was really productive. Um a lot after talking to a lot of people after I think this seems like the next one will be even better intended. People have people have things they want to say and I keep saying cool don't tell me. I mean, do tell me, but also go to the the town hall. So, hopefully that next one will be more there'll be even more people. Um, and what if there was something else I wanted to say? Oh, circling back to a couple of meetings ago because I did not bring it up last time because I missed my opportunity. I connected with um uh uh Marin water whether we thought maybe there was a program they where they would donate water fountains.

176They do not do that. >> Uh I think once upon a time like a decade ago they did and it is no longer a thing they do. So we cannot count on them to install water fountains for us. But I tried. Uh I think that's good for me. I went to the JLAC uh meeting the joint legislative >> action committee. Thank you. Um, and uh, again, we've got a great countywide joint legislative with uh, consultants that track all of the bills, which is kind of needed because there are a lot of them. And the meeting highlighted how much activity happens like in a day at certain budgeting times. Like there was a whole bunch of trailer bills that were coming out. So they like here's the best of our knowledge and they give us all

177the information. and they said, "But they're going to be, you know, 30 more came in yesterday or something like that." So, there was a lot of budget conversation. Um, they talked a little bit about how the federal funding um issue, which um really affects a lot more districts than ours, a lot of the larger districts who have um uh a lot of uh student populations that rely on the federal funding um way more than we do. Um so, we're talking about that. Um, I don't know, Tyler, if I'm forgetting, you were you were that at that meeting as well. Um, so there was that one. I snuck in at the very end of the White Hill. Been there number two kids going through and I've been there a number of times, but it's always good

178to see that campus bustling with all of the people uh into the evening and everything that's going on there. So, those are the two things. I'm trying to think if there was anything else. I think we talked about the back to school night. >> Did you get your picture taken? >> I didn't get my picture taken, but I have a fairly new picture. So, we're all getting our pictures to update, but it looks the same cuz I got my haircut to match my old picture. So, >> all right. Um, Ann and I actually both went to the Brookside >> Yeah. >> and the Manor back to school nights together. So, we did that back toback was the same evening. So, we we did half of one at one school and then went to the other

179half to visit the other school, which was really fun to see like all the different schools. And they all they do such a unique back to school night for everyone, but they're all like great. Um, and then I was I didn't go to all of the White Hill back to school night because it was my birthday, so I kind of like popped in halfway through and like hit all the classrooms and then bailed. So, I didn't get embarrassed by Chris because I wasn't that part. >> You're called out as a trustee. all the trustees have to be called out >> unless you're not there. Um so I we I went to that um which is really wonderful cuz my kids actually because we'd been out to dinner, they actually wanted to come with me. So

180um they got to see all their old teachers and a lot of hugs. It was nice. >> Um and then I did get my picture taken at Brookside. I got cleared out by a second grader who's like, "I don't recognize you as an adult on this campus." What are you doing here? >> I was like, "I know I don't have a name tag. That's why I'm getting my picture taken. >> But I was kind of like I was kind of proud of her awareness of like this is not a teacher. What are you doing here? >> Then she smiled really big for the camera. Like the photographer guy was like smile and all this. She went from glaring at me to like a big smile. So >> but kudos to her. Um so yeah, that

181was everything that I've attended so far. Um and with that we'll move on to superintendent and cabinet report. >> Okay, I will go pretty quick. uh parcel tax town hall last week went well. I had 40 40-ish people uh signed up and I'm hoping that next Thursday on the 25th that we have even more folks there. Um had some good feedback and folks from all sides of the the spectrum there sharing their their thoughts. So encouraged about that and hopeful for next Thursday. um went did some classroom visits at Hidden Valley and Manor, which was really nice just to get in the classrooms and see um in particular our EEL education, our new um language arts program in action, which was great. I just finished up our 202526 budget video, so similar to the video

182that I did last year, um that should be coming out either tomorrow or Friday. Um, I have a parent square kind of teed up for a budget update to the community and I'll do an Instagram post for that as well. Um, I got to serve lunch at Manor today, which was really nice. Um, on the plus side, we're serving way more lunches. I got to actually eat the beef bowl today, which was nice. I'm definitely seasoned for a second grader. Um, but the kids are really liking it. Um, and because we're serving more lunches on the Delta side, it's it's much harder on staff and we don't have many. It's like our principal. We actually had our it was the superintendent, the HR coordinator, and the principal serving lunch. So, like the most expensive possible

183lunch service you could imagine. >> It's like a Michelin star. Um, but Sean Sean Maher in the IT department put together a really great uh solution to have a touch screen which is really help helpful because it used to be just a paper thing that people were like flipping back and forth on to find a student's name and what lunch they ordered. So, um, it was helpful to see that in action. I'm going to do the same thing at White Hill tomorrow. Um, then I've also had ice cream with the Wade Thomas Hidden Valley and Brookside. I've gone to all five schools with those three recently. Um, as is tradition, I take ice cream to the the staff at the beginning of the year and just sit and listen to them if they have feedback

184or questions. Um, they've had a lot of feedback around the EL uh implementation of our new language arts program and most of it's been very positive along with some support that Julia will be giving them um here throughout the year. And then lots of questions around the parcel tax have been kind of the themes of my visits with them. So, that's what I've been up to lately. >> Awesome. Um, we've just about completed both our reading difficulty screener and our ID assessments and probably by the end of next week, parents will receive a parent square communication with those reports attached to that communication. So, um, that's kind of exciting. Um, we have an I Ready training for teachers on October 9th. There's going to be a trainer at every site for a half a day

185that's going to meet with grade levels and really dig into data with um those teachers to just kind of take things to the next level. I met with the science department today and they have definitely landed on piloting open sedant science program. I'm really excited about this. Actually, Archie has or maybe the whole team district, I'm not sure, has adopted it for chemistry and they're looking at it for the other sciences there, too. It's an open-source program. Um, and what I really like about it is it's very kind of investigation, experimentation forward, which some of the other NGSS aligned programs have been a little bit weakened. They're very kids will say all you're doing is asking me to write in science when really what kids want to do in science is the doing right. >>

186So excited about that. We had our teacher leadership meeting delight and they gave really good feedback particularly on ELED and know I think the general sense is it's big. It's a really heavy lift and they're tired and they're having to look at these big lessons. Sometimes there's like 20 30 pages to explain what the lesson is and kind of get the gist of that and figure out what parts they need to do, what parts maybe they can. It's it's a big task. It's a really big task and they're like they love the books um and they're finding a lot of things about it successful. It's a really rigorous program um which I'm excited about how high the bar is with this program. Um and it is also a program that provides differentiation for kids who

187are needing a little bit more scaffolding. Um next week we have our first district grade level team meeting of the year that will be at Hidden Valley. Um and grade levels are going to talk about our new report cards. So elementary news flashash. Um, we had a committee that worked over the summer and they went through our math standards and looked at all that good hard work that we did last year on prioritization of standards and kind of went through and said, "Do we have the right standards on the report card and our do we need this many?" So, there are I'd say on average per grade level 25% fewer standards on there. They're very clear. They're all what we call our boulders. Like every kid needs to know these things. Um and then on

188the flip side of the report card where we have our characteristics of a successful learner, those have been completely redone. There are not as many I would say. Um they've been modernized. Like they feel right to me. they're more seal forward and um just really talk about what it means to be a student in the classroom and the kind of language that are principles and our teachers are using the students on a daily basis. So I'm really excited about that again. >> Oh, and they changed this was really brilliant. I don't know if you remember, but the we had the marks for, you know, um academic standards and the marks for characteristics of a learner were completely different letters. It was really confusing. And so now it's like meeting expectations for standards and meeting expectations

189for characteristics. So the the language is more in alignment. >> Good move. Um we have EL ed coaching dates coming up. We just booked our first round of dates. So in October, each site will have a full day of training on their site. And then just in the HR department, um I just wanted to say feeling really good about the solution we came up with for Spanish. Um we have a teacher on leave and there's a really great substitute in there right there now. Um and we found this program, a virtual program that is a lot more exciting than most asynchronous kind of programs that you would find. It has the kids talking to each other, up and out of their seats, watching videos, reading stories. Um, and I think it's going probably better than

190one might expect. So, good solution there. And we filled our open sixth grade um resource specialist position, which is really, really, really good news. So, lots going on. >> Quick question. You had said that the parents got a a parent square email with the summitative I mean formative um results of the formative >> by and are those individual to their student or just overall >> oh sorry yes indiv so they're they will have a student report so our our uh families with first and second graders will get the reading difficulty screener report kindergarten won't take that assessment till a little bit later in the year >> developmentally appropriate Um and then first grade through 8th grade will receive their own student report for I Ready. >> That's great. So there's so parents are getting formative

191and summitative. >> That's right. >> Yeah. Awesome. >> Are those automatically attached or teachers have to attach every single one for every single student? >> Sean has figured it out. Sean and Paula have a way being sent like cryptically so that it can't be whatever. >> Um and actually We're going to be doing the same thing with report cards. And so that's that's been a huge task for teachers having to attach each report card to an email. So So starting this year, teachers will not be sending report cards to the district office. >> Thank you. Awesome. >> All right. U I've been um out at sites a lot u meeting with principles um meeting with our our our special education teachers looking seeing some of our you know what's going on in some of our

192programs and um I'm super impressed with all of the support that the teachers and principles do to go above and beyond to make sure our kids have what they need and um it's been fun to be a part of that and do some problem solving around some of the challenges that we've we've been experiencing. We are um we have an October 3rd professional development day coming up so when you're a um when you plan for a special education day, you're planning for OT's, speech, language pathologist, school psychologist. So, what does everybody need? And so, I'm coordinating that right now and really based upon what the team feels like they need and then a a big project that we're going to be working on um collaboratively throughout the year. Um we do have wellness committee dates.

193Who's our wellness committee? Okay. Yay. We do have dates on the calendar now and I'll be sending a flyer out um to all of our team and then also to recruit a few more people for the people we've lost. We also have um our special education advisory committee meeting coming up on Tuesday night. I'll be sending an agenda out on Friday um ahead of time so you can all take a look. And uh we're really going to be looking at defining the um creating sort of an operational definition of um inclusion and what that looks like in a special education program. So that'll be our goal for the year. And um I'm really excited about that. Um we also have I've also started my work with Holly Wade um on behalf of the district to

194put together plans and you know look at have her do that review. we've um developed a scope and sequence um to what we're going to be doing. And then also she'll be out in October the 21st or 20th and 21st to be talking to people um doing some tours of classrooms and things like that. So that's that's great. We have a uh we're going to have principles be looking at a grade level retention policy that we're going to we're going to have them look at that on Monday around a timeline and what that looks like and so making some changes there. We also have um Julie Harris, principal at Wade Thomas and I are talking about developing a social emotional learning curriculum committee um as we need to figure out some um some strategies for

195and some research based um and evidence-based curriculum and that kind of thing. So, we're going to be co-chairing that committee and bringing some members on on board there. We have a couple of counselors who are really interested, so that'll be great. And um yeah, >> that's it. >> That's all. >> Lorie, get busy. >> I have nothing this evening. >> I talked enough. >> You had the two presentations. >> I I mean, I just want to put a pin in this. The work that this the cabinet team, our administrators, our teachers, our our classified folks are doing right now is monumental. The amount of work that we're doing is something to be proud and slightly scared of. Um because everyone's really burning the candle at both ends. And I think when we're out at sites,

196we we see it from time to time where you know this time of year is really busy and um you know it's tiring for teachers and admin and classified folks alike. So just a reminder that sharing gratitude for the folks you see on campus is really critical um because they're all working super hard. >> All right. And with that I will move on to meeting review. We have future board topics and board direction. Do we have any? We already got campus tours added to that list for this for the the best days. >> Sorry. >> When is the yes? >> October 10th. Okay. >> The only feedback I have is that uh Theresa Mashado needs to be doing the agendas and not me. She does a much better job than I do. >> A cappuccino.

197>> Oh, I was going to ask if we could maybe have find out from Sean if we can get the safe routes to school thing that Chris was telling us about like their safest route to get to school. We could get something like a link that added to our website. So, it's like, "Hey, find the safest route for your kid." Because they may not go safe routes to school, but they might be on our site or might think to ours. >> I brought that up at the meeting. I said, you know, it's I didn't I said, "Is there a way to like navigate?" And they're like, "Oh, yeah." They're like, "It's on our website." >> Like, nobody knows about it. So, >> I didn't know. >> So, yeah. I think I think that's >> we

198can get it on our website or something. >> We're in the process of redoing the website anyway. So, that was great news. That was a topic that I was wondering as you mentioned a couple times, but maybe on a future I don't know whether you want to email. Even the school newsletters too should have that link >> when they start something. Um, and then I kind of would be interested in looking our bid process like if we've getting if we're getting bids and things are not being done to like satisfaction or maybe there are issues that come up then maybe we can look at how we're doing that and like maybe not accept a bid from somebody who like is it a responsible bid if we know that you've in the past that's give us

199given us a bid that we didn't find to be acceptably fulfilled. Um, I would be interested in looking into like maybe >> holding off on payment until we talk about that with that contractor because I am a little dismayed how that turned out. Not to blame you or anything. I understand that we needed to have something done in those schools. So, I understand that, but also that's what a bid process is for. We do bids all the time for audits where it's like, >> yeah, if we overrun it, we end up eating that cost. So, I don't know how different it is in construction, but it's something I would like us to at least take a look at is at operations and systems and process. So, that's and I would I would add to that

200because I think it'd be helpful just like we've done with some of some of our other kind of inform informative just also what are the processes, what are the regulations that we're under, what is the what are the what you know here's a day in the life of a bid process. um here's what can happen. Um here's here's what we can do about it. Here's what we can't do about it. Here's comparatives or something like that. Just just because I think our um regulatory environment is different from other environments. And so I think it's also just helpful to understand what bids look like and how they're the same or different from what bids other people might experience. >> Yeah. >> I don't even know all of them. >> There's facilities wise and then there's also

201just you know, public entity. >> You have any other future topics or direction? >> All right. So, that um to meeting debrief, any comments on tonight's meeting? >> Exceptional. >> It's cold over here. >> It's like a either a freezing or I'm hot. >> I know. Speaking speaking of facilities, the one thing we can we can talk about going to Mars, but we can't deal with an HVAC situation anywhere in facilities, but I don't know if there's a usually it's a physically like move our table back a foot or something like that, but just a thought. >> Is it warmer? >> Problem. Yeah, that's why I scooted back because I'm It's that one over there. >> Oh, yeah. >> That blows right this way. Um, so >> tonight it came on just when my hot

202flashes were hitting. So >> So you were lo >> and Okay, without any things I will >> jump the shark. >> I'm going to continue best at 30 and I will adjourn at 9:13. >> Jump the shark.