001Okay, we are going to reconvene our September 30th, 2025 Laame Mesa Spring Valley School Board meeting. Um, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded. Um, also participants on Zoom who would like to make a public comment must submit the public comment form linked in the agenda by 6:10 p.m. We will call your name during the public comment portion of the agenda. And that takes us to our pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We have certificates for lots of lots of other kids, too. Did you get stuck by yourself? Oh, okay. It's going to be a part of the presentation. Awesome. Okay. >> I just thought
002everyone ditched him and he had to be the the sole person leading the pledge. >> Um, okay. So, next we have the approval of the minutes of the previous meeting. >> I move the approval. previous meeting. >> I'll second. >> Any questions regarding these minutes? All in favor say I. >> I. >> That brings us to the approval of tonight's board agenda. >> I'll move to approve tonight's board agenda. >> I'll say. >> Any questions or discussion regarding tonight's agenda? All in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. Okay. Which brings us to our communication spotlight on Parkway. >> All right. So, we have a a video tonight to share with you all about Parkway Academy. I'll ask um Principal Danny Root and crew. You can come on up and we'll um you'll be ready to
003to do your thing as soon as the video is done. >> Welcome to Parkway Sports and Health Science Academy, the place to find your spark >> and make your connection. At Parkway, connection is everything to learning, to each other, to our community, and to the future. >> That's how we discover what interests us, what excites us. >> Want to learn the game behind the game? In business of baseball, we explore how sports, marketing, and teamwork all connect. >> We're rolling the science of skateboarding, where physics meets ballies and kick flips. >> This is physics. Love the ocean? Dive into marine biology or create the future with design innovations. If sports and health are your passion, we've got sports medicine and exercise science. Real pathways to high school and careers. And if you like to move,
004hip-hop dance keeps the energy going. >> Or bring the music to life in band where every beat connects us. >> Plus clubs for volleyball, art, gaming, chess, and ESS after school spars. There's a place for everyone to shine. At Parkway, we know we're stronger together. We team up on projects, share ideas, and help each other grow. >> And we don't stop at our campus. We connect to the community, too. Learning how to make a difference today and preparing for tomorrow. >> At Parkway Sports and Health Science Academy, our mission is to help every student discover their passions and prepare for success. Through strong connections, to learning, to each other, to our community, and to their best future, our students unlock their full potential. So whether you dream of being a scientist, an athlete, an artist,
005or something brand new, >> Parkway is where you'll explore, grow, and also connect. >> Parkway Sports and Health Science Academy. Find your spark. Make your connection. >> That's awesome. So, so, so I've asked the our students leaders to come up and introduce themselves and also say a few things about Parkway, what what they what they love about the school. Gabriel, you want to go first? >> Sure. >> It's not really a right. Yeah, that the microphone at the podium should be on so you can you can talk right into that if the other one's not picking up. Well, nice. >> Hello everyone. My name is Gabriel Letter. I am the school's ASB president. And one of my favorite things about Parkway is a wide variety of sports. We have a football field, baseball fields, basketball
006courts, also an ESPN after school uh program with sports. And the coaches there are really helpful and they're really kind. They're great and supportive and it's just a great experience for kids to play sports and have fun. >> Awesome. >> Hi, my name is uh Joseph. My favorite thing about Parkway is the safety and electives. As for me, I'm in yearbook and we always learn from each other's mistakes and create the best as I think the best yearbook in the district and that's that's what I like about Parkway. >> Thank you. Hi, my name is Lea McLar and I say my favorite thing about Parkway is um definitely our elective classes because business of baseball. I mean it's good break from regular class work where you get to hang out and play baseball. >> All
007right, my turn. So, good evening, President McCrae, members of the board and superintendent Feliciano. On behalf of my amazing student leaders and the admin staff, Mr. Dr. Eller, to Miss Gaitley, I want to thank you for the opportunity to share the great things that are happening at Parkway Sports and Health Science Academy. Uh, at Parkway, our mission is to create a school community where students are both challenged academically and supported socially and emotionally. I'm proud to report that we are seeing real progress across multiple areas of focus. I'd like to address what those are today. So, student engagement and school culture. Uh, my focus since I arrived has been to strengthen student engagement and culture. Uh, Parkway has made a strong commitment to student engagement and belonging. Uh recently we had a club rush event
008this fall which was a resounding success allowed for uh students dozens of studentled organizations to come out and show themselves off to other students uh and and encourage more participation. Uh activities like lunch on the lawn with the staff and spirit weeks um have brought the school community together creating a positive and inclusive environment. We also added a student senate this year. Uh the goal is to empower homebased representatives to identify schoolwide concerns and communicate those to staff. We want every student to feel seen, valued, and connected uh to something beyond the classroom. With academics and growth over the past year, our staff has worked intentionally to align instruction and state standards and to use data to drive instruction. Students are benefiting from early interventions and teachers are collaborating closely in professional learning communities to
009monitor progress and share best practices. That collaboration is made possible through the department release periods allowing datadriven conversations and targeted improvements. We are constantly evaluating our processes and structures to strengthen academics and will continue to do so in advance of D2 and cash testing. Our identity as a sports and health science academy gives students access to unique opportunities they might not find elsewhere. Last year, we made changes to the CTE pathways and have been partnering with feeder high schools to strengthen our pathways and look for ways to improve offerings with the goal of helping students as they move on to high school. We're planning on hosting a CTE fair in December uh in tandem with the feeder schools to provide guidance to eighth graders as they evaluate their high school decisions in advance of that
010choice window. Together, these programs reinforce a culture of healthy living, goal setting, and preparing for future college and career pathways. We also recognize the importance of partnerships with families and community. With a strong workforce grant, we have been continually looking for establishing new community partners and strengthening those connections uh to not only expand student horizon but also to strengthen ties between the school and community we serve. While we are proud of our progress, we are not standing still. Our staff continues to refine instruction practices, expand extracurricular options, and build pathways that prepare students for high school, college, and careers. The energy and excitement on campus is real and they are fueling a culture of growth and success. In short, Parkway Sports and Health Science Academy is a school where academics, wellness, and community come together
011to create a thriving environment for our students. We are proud of what has been accomplished so far and so incredibly excited for what lies ahead and our three amazing uh student representatives are evidence of that. Thank you very much. >> Mr. Root, can you um introduce your staff that you have here? And >> I would love to. So, um Mr. Ellard is here if you want to stand up. >> Miss Gaitley is here, our brand new vice principal. Miss Shaitlin is here as well. >> And we have uh our our parents as well that have come out in support of our students. in here. >> All right. And we want to get a picture with you guys and we have um some certificates for you and Trying to get out first. brownie points for bringing
012uh students to come speak, too. That's great. Yeah. Awesome video, too. I love that one. >> And before we go on, if our parkway friends want to go do something other than a board meeting, we'll do a little pause if you want to >> hurry out, but we're you're welcome to stay. >> And you don't have to. >> Yeah. Thanks you guys. Thank you. Thank you for coming. >> Okay, so that brings us to item 4B, which is other staff communications and information, and it's including the personnel commission annual report. >> All right, so yeah, included in other staff communication is the annual report. Also, I wanted to announce that our November board meeting, which was originally calendared for November 4th, we've moved it to Wednesday, November 5th, um because of election day and we
013want to make sure it doesn't um uh get in the way of anyone's schedules or ability to vote. >> Okay. Um next is item 4 C, a report of action taken in close session. No action in close session. >> Which brings us to public comment. >> Do we have any comment cards? No. >> How about submitted online? >> Yes, we do. We have Miriam Moody who would like to address the board. I'm going to have her enter now. >> Thank you. >> Miriam, if you could please unmute your mic and address the board. You have three minutes. >> Thank you so kindly. Good evening, board. Hope all is well. Hope your semester is off to a wonderful start. I also hope that you and the schools in our district have enjoyed Constitution Day on September
01417th. As you may or may not know, September 17th of 1787 is when our Constitution was officially born, so to speak. And I'm hoping that the district also knows that there was a federal law passed by Congress in 2004 that requires each educational institution that receives federal funding to hold an educational program on Constitution Day on September 17th for the students. That's under HR 4818 division J section 1112B. I had contacted one of the schools in our district and was informed that the presentation did not line up with any of their grades. I found that quite surprising. So, I'm wondering if the district knows its responsibility with the federal law, the code, since it receives federal funding as well as state funding. So please educate the schools in our district that on September 17th there
015is a requirement told an educational program on the US constitution. It is important for the children to know the founding of this country because some of them will be in Congress. Some of them will be considered consider themselves politicians and so they are going to have to make decisions based upon the constitution not on their own opinion. Thank you for your time. Have a great evening. Thank you. Any additional? No. Okay. Um that moves us on to 4 a public hearing the annual resolution pupil textbook and instructional materials incentive act. Do we have any one for public hearing? Okay. Um, moving us on to the next public hearing was the initial proposals Laame Mesa Spring Valley Teachers Association. Nothing. Okay. Which brings us to item 5A, a report on our child nutrition program. Michelle. So,
016I want to if you haven't had the opportunity to meet Michelle yet, Michelle is our new child nutrition director. She's literally been here for two months. So, she's making her debut at the board. It's like, "Hey, Michelle, by the way, do you want to give a presentation?" >> Actually, she was like, "Yes, I do. I love this stuff." Um Michelle comes to us from um Valley Center Palma School District. um she's already got great ideas for what um she can do here in our district to kind of elevate some of the things that um at our middle schools and she'll share about that. But I just want to introduce Michelle. Thank you for being here. >> Great. Thank you, Tina. Um thank you for having me um the board um those attending. Uh my name
017is Michelle Valdez and I am the new director of child nutrition here at the district. I'm really excited to be here and present um on our department and what we have coming down the pike. So, okay, great. So, who are we? Um our department is made up of about 82 employees. We have um employees ranging from a registered dietician, a school nutrition specialist. We have a chef on board and we have plenty of experienced child nutrition workers, some that have been with us for almost 30 years. Um we support our learning by promoting healthy habits uh for lifetime nutrition and fitness practices. So, this um photo here, I'll just highlight, was on our uh welcome back meeting with our staff, and we did a little um silent lineup. For me, it was really great to
018see the staff members that were um lining up without using any words to see who was here the longest, and I was all the way at the end. >> Um so, the staff is great. Um really easy to work with. So, um here's just some photos. um that I had pulled from the last previous couple years. Um we really enjoy our time together. Um as you know, we're with each other a lot of the time, so we become family. Um we celebrate, uh a lot of the exciting school nutrition promotions, um school lunch hero day, National School Lunch Program event. So, um here's just a couple snapshots of our staff throughout um the school. Okay, so our department, we currently serve seven meal programs across our district. Um many of uh families might only know
019us for a school lunch program or a school breakfast program. So, I'd like to highlight that we do a lot more than that. Um within the department, we serve our national school lunch program and I'll touch upon that um at a later slide to show our participation. Uh we serve a school breakfast program and thanks to the universal free meals. Um we are offering school breakfast and school lunch free for all students throughout the district. Um and that includes breakfast. I think sometimes breakfast gets lost in that translation. So, um, highlighting breakfast as well. Um, we offer a child and adult care food program, uh, better known as our ESS afterchool supper program. We serve an afterchool meal supplement program, our snack program. Um, we do summer seamless option, which is our summer feeding program.
020Uh, we serve Head Start preschools. And the newest edition is an academic recovery for our students. Michelle, the ESS um supper. >> Yes. >> The adult care component is that um because it's food that's brought home for the family. >> No. So the um the national school lunch program and the school breakfast program is um under the department of education and it's funded through the department of education kind of housed by that parent group. The child and adult care food program is actually funded through the Department of Social Services. So, it's a different funding stream, but it's still all-encompassing of the USDA. >> Got it. >> Yeah. >> And can I ask >> uh supper? >> So, I I there was something I remember I think maybe Tina and I were working on it, but
021a while ago um we were like, why? Let's let's just have it say dinner because nobody says supper anymore. But then we learned that supper is actually a thing that it's different than dinner, which I didn't know that. >> Yeah. So, um, we like to call it supper because it almost bridges that gap for the students that are receiving lunch that are still on campus, you know, participating in ESS. And we like to look at it as it's that bridge, right? So if that student goes home to a family that might not have enough food for the whole family, we know that that student that did receive that meal on our campus, it was a complete meal. Um it's very similar to the components of lunch. So it's a heartier meal um compared to a
022snack. >> So um so as I was mentioning, the USDA um food and nutrition services uh administers the program at a federal level. So that's kind of the parent organization. Then at a state level, the National School Lunch Program is administered by state agencies. So through the um nutrition services division with the California Department of Education, they are um the department that provides the funding to us directly. Um we call it school food authorities but better known as school districts. So participating schools receive cash subsidies as well as domestic foods which are better known as brownbox items or commodity items um for each reimburseable meal that we serve. So our funding is based on last year's numbers. So depending on how well we did last year, we get an amount that is carried through for
023the for the preceding year. Um and all meals meet the requirement um in order to be reimbursed and uh um receive the funding. >> Oh yes, >> sure. >> Uh what time of day is that served? And is is it universal to all ESS programs or is it specific schools? >> Yes, thank you for asking that. Um so currently we're doing about half of our schools are serving supper ESS um the meal um supper program and the other half of our schools are receiving snack. Um that is actually something that I'm going to be looking to shift so that all of our schools across the camp all of our schools across the district will start receiving supper. >> And curious what type of day is that served? >> Oh it's every day. >> No. What
024time? >> Oh, I'm sorry. Um, it is approximately 30 minutes after school gets out. >> So, typically at the 3:00 hour, I'd say. >> Yeah. And just a a point if um just to point something out, I guess, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that one one of the things that's so unique about the the child nutrition program and it being federally funded is that we only receive funding for participation. And so it was I know like when with our um parent committees and things like that, it's always like a reol revelation to people when we tell them that no like your your kids participating in the child nutrition program actually helps the program grow. Um because if we have low participation, we actually have low funding. So it's um you know
025different than like the enrollment based funding or or ADA based funding that that we have in the schools. Yeah. Okay. So, here is just a participation at a glance. This is our August 2025 numbers. So, as you can see from this pie chart, the majority of our reimbursement comes from the National School Lunch Program meals. So within the national school lunch program piece of this um graph uh chart here it will also encompany the um summer meals because when you claim summer you claim it under national school lunch program. So that um takes into account the summer meals that we um collected. Um and then it also is um our current the most current the AR snacks for example. So the majority of our reimbursement comes from the national school lunch program. Um the darker
026shade is our CACF supper. There is a very slender pie between afterchool snacks and CACF CACF supper. Um, and that piece is our Head Start meals. Um, we're only doing about 6% of Head Start meals. And and on the next slide, you'll see the actual meals um served in number. Um, the following is about 25% of of our meals that are reimbursed are school breakfast meals. >> And Michelle, just for clarity, the Head Start program that you provide to is not our Head Start program. It is outside of the district. >> Correct. Correct. So, we are with All Kids Academy. Um, we are their meal provider. Um, and we serve all of our meals out of our Elmmont campus. Okay. Okay. So, in numbers, right, what are we doing in numbers? Um, so in August,
027um, we served about 104,000 meals for lunch. Um our participation again it's it's very it's very critical. Um all of our funding we are a self-funded department um which I am very proud to say. Um all of our reimbursements come from a federal level and it's really important for us to ensure that we have compliance for our meals to receive funding. Um, thanks to universal free meals, it has allowed for greater reimbursements over the last 5 years. Um, we have the ability to do so much with our meal program and um, yeah, I'm really excited to see what we can do this year. Based on those numbers, it seems like it it it would be like a little over 5,000 um students each day. So, a little less than actually it's almost exactly half of
028our our student population that then is participating in the program. >> Yeah. So, so right now we're doing about 100,000 lunches and about 50,000 breakfasts. Right. So, we have room to grow. Um, I think there's always been that huge stigma that school lunches aren't healthy. School lunches don't taste good. Um, it's not cool to get lunch. Um, because it was always tied to um your socioeconomic status, right? A lot of families would have to get lunch. Well, now that we've opened it up to all students and have removed that stigma, we've increased our participation, we've increased our food quality. Um, I would love to close that gap, right, to bring it up even more. Um, and we have some great ideas to do that. Um, I know that a lot of our lunch lines are
029long, so finding ways to expedite meal service, especially a kiddo doesn't want to stand in line, get to the front of the line, and then have that choice not be there. So, we we have a lot to work on, but we're getting there. with um a couple of kids in our middle school or one of our middle one of themies. Um Tina and I were talking about just some ideas because one of the things that I notice is um my sons who aren't they don't they don't participate every day and um they have like this thing about feeling nervous about how the process works and because they're not every there every day they think they're going to get in trouble because they don't you know it's >> Yeah. So, just I was telling Tina, I
030think a good way could be reinforcing with kids like throughout the year like this is how easy it is to go and get food from from the cafeteria. >> Yeah, absolutely. It's I mean it is so easy. Um the district I came from, we had students had to sign up ultimately um and work with teachers to know what the count was that we can get back to the cafeteria. But now we don't we don't have that here. So we we forecast our meals. Um that's the best way for us to take a look at historic numbers, what what works well, what doesn't. And we have so many choices daily that um students have more options to choose from. Um yeah, it's it's great. >> You answer one of my question about tracking and forecasting meals.
031Obviously, I think there's probably meals that are more popular than others, but I mean you either way to do that. A quick question. Is there a different rate of um reimbursement for these meals? Um I I know I believe at my kids school they can choose between breakfast and snack, but is there one that's more advantageous for the school district versus or the schools to offer rather than the other? >> Yeah, absolutely. So, um we are getting our highest federal reimbursement rate at a national school lunch lunch meal. Um it's very similar to our supper meal. Um, that's why my goal is to move all of those snacks over to supper. Um, because the nice thing about reimbursement for CACF or NSP, it's interchangeable. So, the funding can be moved across the board. It's not
032just specifically for ESS meals. It could be funneled back into our National School Lunch Program by increasing food quality. Um so reimbursement rates do vary and of course you know new rates come out every July. So >> and another question um is is there a part of the compliance for like for for waste management and minimizing the amount of wasted food obviously because you're you're serving different menu items on a given basis. Is that part of the compliance as well? >> Yeah. So I believe it's Senate Bill 130. Don't quote me on this. Yeah. Um it's a it's a um I love a clean san I love a clean San Diego. Um so they rolled out um requirements ultimately for us to comply and minimize waste by providing green bins and um before COVID a
033lot of items were individually wrapped or IW. So everything came in plastic and it was quick because it was heat and serve. There wasn't a need for big industrial kitchens. You didn't need to have a lot of staff. You could just pop it in the warmer, come right out 45 minutes later and it's on the line. But now we're moving away from those IW packaging, getting items in bulk, dressing them up, making something like a frozen burrito and flavoring it up. So we are kind of moving away from packaged items. Um, and another thing that we're focusing on is compostable as well. Thanks. Okay. So, how do we get funded? Um, taking a look here at our meal pattern requirements, um, we do have regulations uh, we have to follow. So, um, a student in
034our district has to receive um, fruit or vegetable um, at breakfast, a grain, and a milk. Um, so we have the ability to kind of play around with what our choices are. um within a week we have to ensure that all of our um you we we call them ounces meat meat alternate grain components have to be met. Um so right now we're we're doing something we're moving away from our 1 oz cereals and bringing in 2 oz cereals instead of um putting together a graham cracker cookie with the cereal to make it 2 ounces. So, we're we're we're slowly starting to move um into simpler items, but less less packaging. Um so, this is the school breakfast meal pattern requirement um that we have to follow in order to receive reimbursement. Um here's a
035lunch. It's pretty wordy. So, I'll just kind of highlight one area that many might not know is our vegetable subgroups. So um within a given week we have to offer uh the different subgroups of that are dark green, red orange, beans, peas and lentils, starchy and other. So we can't just serve baby carrots all week long. We have to offer different colors and different varieties to meet those requirements. Um, a lot of ways that we are hitting these targets is offering them on a salad bar or offering them within the meal itself. So, an example of that would be taking a look at our orange chicken and topping the orange chicken with we have brown rice, but mixing it in with our USDA mixed vegetable mix. So, right there, we're already getting our three components.
036It's a meal that we know works really well for the kiddos and it's hitting those vegetable subgroups for us. Okay. So, what are we doing? Um, as you know, breakfast is served during the um half hour prior to the start of our uh school day. Um, they can select from a variety of breakfast cereals. We have grain products, bread products, yogurt parfets, smoothies, uh assortment of fruit. Um each day at lunch, um elementary students are offered one hot one hot entree and about two to three cold entre. Whereas our middle school students have a little bit more variety. We're giving anywhere from three to four hot entre as well as two to three cold entre. Um across the district, we're offering a variety of fruits and vegetables on our salad bars. Um assortment of 100%
037juice, um white milk and uh fat-free chocolate milk at Braftoft Highlands, Kemp, Murdoch, and Murray Manor. We are offering second chance breakfast. So, if a student um is not arriving to school on time, if they're um you know, perhaps they're not hungry first thing in the morning at these campuses, they're allowed to come in during the recess time and get a breakfast. If that student at one of these sites is extra hungry, they have the choice to buy that second chance breakfast if they already received breakfast in the morning. >> I have a question on that. Why is it only at those five schools? >> You know, I don't know. I'm not sure. I I think a lot of it had to do with participation. Um, and we take a really strong look at if
038it is worth the um opening of a second chance at the other school sites. And keep in mind, our meal times are very tight. So having a second chance breakfast during recess, we give ourselves about 20 to 30 minutes to turn around and start serving lunch. So there's other factors. Um but from what in my experience it has to do with mainly participation. Okay. So, here's some photos uh that we um are highlighting some of our uh scratch. It's speed scratch cooking. Um the bottom right is a play on a uh candy corn yogurt parfait that they they made last year. Uh we have our Mary's organic chicken uh that's really popular. Um our salad bar. The far left is one of our Eddie bowls. It's a um edible taco salad bowl um that the
039students get to dress up their own taco salad on the salad bar uh which is this Friday if you want to go by. Um last year we had um uh Patrick, our chef, they made little jacko'lanterns with the cheese on the on the cheeseburgers which turned out surprisingly well. surprised it didn't melt. Um, you know, we're we're just we're we're trying so many new things and um I'm super fortunate to have a chef on board who's really excited about um just making our meals that much better. Um speed scratch, it's a relatively new term um out of universal free meals. It's taking those maybe not so exciting meals that we get bulk or commodity for example and dressing them up right. So um an example would be like a burrito like I was mentioning a
040frozen burrito that comes in bulk but we put pico on it. We put the salad bar according to the flavors of Mexican um cuisine and that way the student can dress that maybe boring item up into something that's more speed scratch. Okay. So, where's our department going? Um the National School Lunch Program is phasing new nutrition standards beginning with this school year. Um key changes include phase limits on added sugars in breakfast and lunches with specific limits on breakfast cereals, yogurts, and flavored milk. Uh there will be a significant sodium reduction in school lunches starting um in the fall of 2027. And the program will continue to emphasize whole grains and offer flexibility for local food procurement and plant-based options. So some of these changes are going to be implemented gradually, right? We have to
041keep up with the students pallet. We have to keep in mind that um the food industry is going to be changing over their formulations and it doesn't happen overnight. Um, as you can see, the added sugars um are going to be limited in those more sugarybased items, the pastries, the muffins, the breakfast cereals. Um, we will have um limits with the sodium. However, it will remain until June 30th of 2027. Um, right now we're looking at about a 15% reduction for lunch, which is huge. um and about a 10% for breakfast. Um and whole grains, of course, the requirement for whole grains are at least 80% of the grains to be offered as whole, which isn't what isn't too difficult because the majority of our products, they're already, you know, they've been formulated for years.
042So, the flavor profile the students have already adjusted to. And lastly, what our vision is for the future. Um, we're doing a lot of recipe redesign. Um, we are doing some student taste testings. Um, incorporating more eco-friendly service wear and beginning some collaboration with local farmers. >> Thank you. >> Obviously, it's great that this is federally funded. Um, but is there any concern that it will not be funded in the future? Yeah, I I think that's always a question um in my mind. Um it will always be funded. However, it might go back to how it used to be where we're filling out meal benefit forms. We are qualifying families based on income. So, we will always receive funding. It just might not be at a level of where we're at today. Um there are
043so many grant opportunities and California we're ahead of a lot of states. So um I think the support from our um government in Sacramento is huge. Um continuing universal free meals if it does go away at a federal level. They have brought up a lot of the reimbursement themselves. So um I feel hopeful. >> Yeah. It hasn't been one of the programs that is being proposed to be um eliminated or cut, but you know, who knows years down the road. >> Um I have a few questions so other people can go first if they >> Yeah. >> Um I'm sorry. I just have one question. Sure. Can the kids access um >> lunch or breakfast during break or is that a different program? um during like recess break summer. >> Yes. Yes. So we do
044offer um we are working with the ESS um department and we are offering meals um for students that are enrolled in the programs through ESS. >> Yes. Um thank you for the presentation. I um I have had the opportunity over the last couple years to eat a few of our school meals um which have been delicious. >> Thank you. Like much better than when I was a kid. Um I also >> He recognizes that Mary's chicken. >> The Mary's chicken was the most I mean Mary's chicken great. Um but um I know that there had been discussion with your predecessor about um alongside the organic waste kind of side of things um with the state laws that have been implemented, you know, we're required to be um diverting x% of our waste or we're supposed
045to be and um I know that sometimes that's hard. I know that the city of La Mesa has done some work and I love a clean San Diego has done work with some of our schools in the past around teaching the kids how to do here's where where especially around food waste here's where things go. Um and I know that um that's an ongoing obviously you know kids new kids come in so there's it's an ongoing process. Um, one of the things alongside that though that um had been discussed was around being able to reuse food. So I know that some of our schools, many of our schools are those warming kitchens are not full full kitchens and so there's limits on you know they are getting food shipped from a main kitchen school and
046um there's requirements around temperatures dropping of especially around meats and and perishables um temperatures be being able to get raised back up or or keeping things at different temperatures. Um, has there been any discussion about being able to, okay, we didn't use all of XYZ meal, let's repurpose it into something for the next day. Has there been more discussion around that? So, thank you for bringing that up because it's it's very challenging this district. It's the the layout of our kitchens are very unique, right? We have some central kitchens. We have some standalone kitchens that are they create their own meals and then we have our satellite kitchens. So for the satellite kitchens right now, no um food safety is, you know, a huge huge component for our department and our population that we serve
047is very sensitive. Okay. So, ensuring that those meals that we may not serve at a satellite kitchen aren't being reused. Um, we do have a share box um at the majority of our school campuses and staff are very knowledgeable about being able to take those items that are stored and kept at proper temperature, not within the danger zone, to be able to reuse them within the same service. So, we're not having to kind of dip back into our foods that we're going to then be served. Um, the satellite kitchens, that's going to take some time. Um, however, right now, I think at a lot of our um, standalone kitchens, we don't really have a standard operating procedure for reusing because the majority of those items are meant for a one-time use. Um, so moving away
048from the the proteins and the dairy that those are the hardest ones to ensure that we're keeping those within, you know, keeping them out of the danger zone. Um, but packaged items, whole pieces of fruit, those things, absolutely, we definitely recycle. So, um, and then, yeah, just again, you guys are doing a great job. Um again the folks you're new so I'm just reiterating the everyone else has heard this before come out of my mouth but um the I was at a conference earlier this year where um it was some school board trustees from other all over California and there was a discussion around um uh child nutrition programs and um there were multiple speakers during that other trustees being like our school lunches are so terrible our school lunches are so unhealthy and you
049know whatot and I it was like we don't have that problem. Our school lunches are great and our school breakfasts are we're doing so much and you know being able to talk um and you know brag about our district about the scratch cooking and um and whatnot because it's it makes you know even Tina and I at the end of last year sat down with some students that were really excited about the food that we were serving and we're like oh we'd like to see more of you know um this this and you know whatot. Um the last question I have though is around with the variety of foods and you know different kids have different um dietary needs and so we do we have um gluten-free options and um are we incorporating in halal
050options or whatnot for for students that have um specific dietary needs. So regulations if a student has a medical justification need um that is medically necessary. Yes, we do meet those needs. Um right now we are offering uh we have gluten-free options, we have vegetarian options. Um we have not opened up the variety of religious options um because it there's a lot there's a lot of options out there if um if we start with one um we have to implement it across the board. Um so if a family comes um to our department or to the kitchen with a medically necessary restriction then we can't accommodate. Um we are aware that our student population is moving and it's more diverse. So opening up the ideas of variety and different culturally available foods um that is
051something that's on our radar. >> Yeah. I know that other school districts like during for example during Ramadan provide bag lunches so kids can take aren't going to eat during the day may or may not eat during the day but you know once the sun has gone down they can still have that food that they're able to you know a graband go option for them. Um and I think that that's you know being that's not necessarily changing the um the what the food is. is I know it just needs to be able to be non-p perishable but um but having that I feel like there's certain options like that that u may not be changing the food itself but providing those those flexibilities. >> Yeah. And something like that you know our meals are intended
052to be consumed on site on campus. So we do have there is a um it's a concept called the traveling apple. And the traveling apple is just that, that if it's a whole piece of fruit, if it's something that's non-p perishable, if the student, you know, grabs a graham cracker um off of the line that doesn't eat it, they could put it in their backpack and have it later. Um and funding is based on that. So um having meals that would be um sent home, we wouldn't necessarily be funded for those because it wouldn't meet the regulations. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Quick followup questions. um in the case of med medically needed like for example the gluten-free and I believe that the share box the concept where a kid who has unfinished
053items unopened items can leave in a box for other kids to share >> yes >> and then and then for a kid who has a actual medical reason is there is it just the responsibility of the child or do staff members like kind of guide the kid make sure they don't grab an option >> so that's a very good point so it we have medical There are medical accommodation forms that our staff keep on file and we have it in our point of sales system so that if student comes up they scan their card and it alerts us that they have an allergy. So we know already what meal they're going to receive. Once it leaves and then it goes to the sharebox, that is a liability because it's still within our jurisdiction. So, keeping
054in mind, you know, having that relationship with the campus monitor, having a relationship with those that are monitoring the meals, um, because yes, it can be of concern. Um, we're trying to do good by offering a share box for other students. Um, but there is instructions on that, >> but sometimes there are items that look like treats, like like a a muffin with chocolate chips in it, right? a kid who may not be able to have it. I might be seeing everyone else eating it. That's probably the only reason I asked. Second, um you kind of category three types of kitchens. What what percent I mean you probably don't have up your head. What what what percentage of the kitchens are um you know the satellite versus the you know the other two? >> Yes.
055Um you're going to test my knowledge follow. I was kind of curious because that was part of the discussion like you know if we have x amount of sites how many are broken up and and what's the capability? I was kind of curious from that that conversation. >> Sure. Um I could throw out a number. I think we have about eight or nine of them are satellite satellite kitchens. Um those satellite kitchens receive foods um from Parkway. Um and then the other campus is Elmac. for schools at the satellite or like you know breakfast items you know there are things you might buy in bulk and you know fancy up but is that is it part of a strategy for like yogurt instead of a giant container of yogurt which you're serving into a cup
056you have individual packages that you can maintain them in the refrigerator and not waste it is is that part of the strategy when considering procurement of food supplies >> yeah it definitely is um and you know we go out to bid every year um right now our contract is with Helandia um dairy. So we get our 8 oz yogurts um which is you know the protein amount. Um we have things like string cheese. The only time we use bulk would be in a yogurt parfait for example or a smoothie. Um but this the school sites that have challenges with storage alone say one reachin refrigerator, one reachin freezer, they have to go with standalone, you know, containers. So yeah, >> obviously it makes sense to have that strategy for that school compared to more the
057bulk purchasing. But >> thank you answering all my questions. >> Sure. One last question related to that with the um I know that at the the budget, the state budget um included some one-time money for um specialized kitchen equipment and upgrades to kitchens with the intent of universal school meals, you know, support. Um I know obviously that is not when you divvy it up to everyone, it's not enough to do a whole ton, but are we is that onetime money that we had to apply for or do we just get? How are we incorporating that into our our kitchens and upgrading them? >> Yeah, so um kit uh kitchen infrastructure and training grant is a uh grant that was provided to the district. Um and the spending was um through June 30th of 2025. Um
058we've wrapped up that grant already. Um re most recently um we put in a brand new uh freezer at our op center um very large freezer um which allows us the ability to bring in a lot of our commodities um through the state. Um so bringing in commodities definitely allows us to cut costs. Um there is going to be another round of kit. Um I was informed just last week that um most likely it will be um introduced in the spring of 2026. Um may be a little bit more difficult for funds to be received. Um it might be more of an application process now. Um and um although I think we're very hopeful that we will receive some of the next round. >> Any other questions? >> Well, thank you. You did great. That
059was very informative. >> Great. >> She was really nervous. >> I was really nervous. >> Nervous. >> You did great. >> I had to bring my water up here. I'd have dry mouth. >> Well, thank you for having me. Of course. Okay, that brings us to item 6A. >> Which is where' I go? Here we go. Um, board policy updates. >> I'll move to approve um all of the board policy updates. >> Also, >> any questions or discussion regarding these updates? All in favor say I. >> I opposed. Okay, which brings us to business services um business consent items. >> Second. >> Any questions or discussions regarding these um consent items? >> Okay. All in favor say I. >> I oppose. Which brings us to our um 8A which is our educational services consent items.
060>> I'll move to approve item 8A. >> I'll second questions, discussions. All in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. >> Okay. And next is the appointment of representative to the community community advisory committee, the East County SULPA. I'll move to approve um item 8B um and then thank Brianna Roing for volunteering. I'll >> second. >> Any other questions, discussion regarding that? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Okay. Which next is our resolution? The California Department of Education for Child Care and Development Program. I'll move ahead. >> I'll second. >> Any questions or discussion regarding this item? >> I'll just one quick question. Does this cut into the number of students um eligible for or take away from students that are eligible for TK? >> No, it has different um age eligibility brackets.
061>> Thank you. >> Okay. All in favor say I. >> I. I. opposed. Okay. Which then is our annual resolution sufficiency of instructional materials. >> Move to approve item 8 D. >> I'll second. >> And I have a quick follow-up question on this too. Um actually adjacent to this. Um I know that we're getting rolling out of figuring out a new math curriculum. Is that what's the timeline looking like for that? >> So we are piloting right now. We'll bring a presentation to you in February for um adopting. Yeah. And so that would be implemented for next school year. >> Fantastic. Thank you. >> Any additional questions? All in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. >> Which brings us to human resources. We have our human resources consent items. >> I'll move to approve our
062human resources consent items and thank the HR team for all the work they do on this. Um, there's a lot of teachers on here. I know a lot of the teachers on here are for the many, many, many TK classes that we added after the school year started. So, thank you for um all of the work done on that. >> I'll second. >> Any other questions? All in favor say I. >> I opposed. Okay, which brings us to an action item, our district injury and illness prevention program. I'll move to approve item 9 B. Second. >> Any questions regarding this prevention program? All in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. >> And the next one is a resolution with certificated assignments outside credential authorization for this school year. >> I just want to say congratulations
063Maitlin and Miss Brown in the dance. Great. the program you guys are at Parkway. Great >> and I'll move to all second. >> Perfect. >> Most important part. >> Any additional questions? All in favor say I. >> I opposed. Okay. Which brings us to our closing communication. Any announcements, reports, communications from the board and superintendent. I just want to say congratulations to teachers and staff. We are on fall break next week. So, well done. Hope you guys get a well-deserved break. >> Yeah, I I'll echo the same sentiment. I hope everyone has a restful break and uh yeah, I mean hopefully energized to come back before the holiday season to keep going strong. >> I'll echo that. Um, I've also like u been able to get out to some of our school sites and see
064the exciting things happening. Um, several of our school sites have had book fairs in the last month and I was able to get out to Lemons and volunteer. It was the first year that they've had TK and kinder classes come through the book fair and it was adorable seeing all of the kids just so like there was a few of them were like I I don't know where to start. What? There's too many choices. Um and then um I was also able to see Rolando's um bubble run and um the kids with that were it was it was coordinated chaos. It was fantastic as well. Um and they sounds like they raised a lot of money um for their school's activities through that um which is very exciting and got to chat and see their
065um community schools room office that they'll be using for community schools at that site. Um the facilitator there, David, is very excited for the new programs being able to be brought to their school. Um and yeah, all I'm seeing lots of um you know, fall break things um or after fall break, the different fall festivals um and trunk retreats and whatnot happening at our schools, which will be very exciting as well. I just want to say I hope everybody enjoys their fall break and I'm looking forward also to all the fall festivals and the trick-or-treating and all that good stuff. >> I'm just going to be honest, I'm really jealous about this fall break. >> Yeah. >> Um it seems like this would be a really good time for a break, but that's okay. You
066guys will enjoy your break. Um you guys worked hard and deserve it and we'll come back after fall break. You know, the challenge with TK and Kinder at um book fairs is like the historical fiction. Like you cannot keep the shelves stocked with that. And sorry, I'm making a joke. It's silly. They love autobiographies. Such young kids is like, you know, there are books that are not really uh age appropriate. So it's like having to juggle that. I think one time they closed they closed the shell. I was like there's like four books in. I'm like yeah maybe close that. >> Yeah, definitely very very different. It's been going into TK classes this year. I know that um you know the age difference this year is only a month earlier than it was previous too,
067but it's three months. Okay. Well then that explains it a little more. Um yeah, just wow. Like they are littles when they come to us and it's it's so sweet. Um yeah, I just wanted I wanted to thank Michelle for sharing. I whenever we have um um child nutrition or um you know even the trades like um maintenance and operations and when when we're able to bring them in to share at board meetings and and that sort of thing, it's such a neat reminder of how school districts are like cities. Um there are um many different career paths and many different um um you know trades um and professionals in our organization you know doing hard complex career specific work you know and um it's just always a neat reminder of that and so appreciate
068Michelle being here and sharing tonight. Thank you. All right.