LMSV Board Meeting, March 11, 2025

001at 1M We Will We Will reconvene our March 11th 2025 lame Mesa Spring Valley school board meeting um we please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and we will start this evening with the Pledge of Allegiance led by students from L Mesa Dale please stand right hand over your heart ready began 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 good job guys that was great all right next we have our approval of the minutes of the previous meeting I'll move to approve the minutes from our February 4th meeting I'll second again any questions or discussion regarding those minutes all in favor say I I I opposed okay and next is

002the approval of tonight's board agenda I move to approve tonight's board agenda I'll second again any questions or discussion regarding tonight's agenda all in favor say I hi brings us to our Spotlight on um Lisa Dale Elementary so I'm B please come forward and we'll get the video playing and then and then you can do your thing after that got it welcome to L Elementary [Music] single anidea a moment curiosity and a little bit of curving then it grows every day at L Mesa jail we learning growing and making our mark I like that Miss B thought of like um making a different office because the different office is it smells nice conference there's always something happening here this is our new nurses this is a nurse this is a Work bill and this is

003where teachers come in here and print out the papers for the students just to let you know sometimes teachers need a little snack just to help them up and whoever a this will [Music] M but the most things are still the same the friendships that makes a Dale where every kid is valued supported and inspired to leave our work on the world oh that's so good you know really quick I just want to give a shout out to Ron and Karen cook who uh did that video for us and they've done all of our school videos and I think that's the best one so far so thanks you guys Ron and Karen are masterful storytellers with the biggest hearts and we I'm so grateful for them so yes thank you you stole the words um

004I am Tammy babbit the proud principal at lame Mesa Dale and thank you to the school board superintendent and cabinet for inviting us to celebrate lame Mesa Dale um this video is amazing and thank you again it showcases our commitment to valuing supporting and inspiring every student and this is made possible by the incredible partnership between our students parents families and staff um a special shout out to the Neil family the first two rows um they are our rung Club organizers and they help us get started on the right foot every morning James Neil who led the Pledge of Allegiance um has completed 141 miles so far this year good job his goal is to complete 150 miles by spring break and I think if it the rain clears up like he's going to surpass

005that it's pretty impressive um so thank you to you guys and thank you for being here I also want to recognize Henry who also led the pledge he's a fifth grader who since the day I met him has embodied kindness responsibility hard work dedication and impressively he has completed every I ready lesson through 8th grade as a fifth grader wow yeah that is awesome he has a bright future ahead of him and we're very proud amanii couldn't make it tonight she was the tour guide in the video and she wants to be a principal when she grows up um as you can tell it's all going to be hers someday and she um represents our commitment to nurturing Future Leaders like Briana C who also went to lame Mesa Dale so and whose family is

006here as well so um our campus transformation of course all my idea I take full credit for everything I built it singlehandedly but it has been remarkable to watch what was a playground to watch uh Foundation be dug to be there on campus while they used a crane to drop the building into place and for us to all be able to watch that and then to move into this building we've been there for over a month now that didn't exist at the end of last school year is incredible and I can't say enough about the team team that has done the work they've really been amazing to work with and have worked hard to make sure that the construction didn't disrupt the flow of everyday life and when you have a project that big um

007for them to take that care is really amazing I think the building if I invite you to come see it if you haven't it's beautiful and it really shows the regard that L Mesa Spring Valley has for our students and and the care that we have um speaking of truly special our building is truly special our people are truly special and Bethany young is our school social worker who on Friday was awarded Elementary School social worker of the year for all of San Diego County so it was very special to be part of that ceremony on Friday evening and I'm very glad that you came so I could embarass you again thank you um we also have an outstanding special education staff and some of our staff members are here who diligently ensure that all

008of our students receive the individualized support and resources they need to thrive and these are just a few of the many staff members who work to create a welcoming environment where students feel safe to take the risks that are necessary to learn new things and our PTA also invites everybody and creates a welcoming environment with things like Multicultural night in our amazing art dosent program where parents can come and volunteer to teach art art lessons that go hand inand with the vapa lessons that our students also receive we work really hard to make sure everyone feels part of the family from the moment they step onto campus and that includes the 20% of our students who have one or both families who are serving as active military and they often join us partway through the

009year because their family has relocated to San Diego our students speak 14 different languages and come from around the world and it's just a very very special place to be um we have things like second step program for social emotional learning and playworks for structured playground um guidance that promote pure respect and understanding ensuring every student feels safe and included at school and thanks to our community schools grant were able to offer wraparound services that support the whole family and the Community Schools Resource Center for lame Mesa will be located in lame Mesa dalees I don't want to call it the old office maybe the original office and we expect that grand opening to happen soon so I was just I was here just a few board meetings ago and got to talk about our

010academic growth so I won't get into that again but I will share that our attendance rate is the highest of any school in our district and that is a testament to our Collective efforts to make a lame Mesa Dale place where students are eager to be and eager to learn every day and we couldn't do that without your support so thank you so much yeah we'd love to get pictures with you guys Henry you're gonna go get in the picture with one it and then I'll I just want to shout out Tammy really quick because um principal tamy babbit um I'm so proud of the fact that Tammy's the first principal we were able to hire when I started in the role of a superintendent and she's been such an amazing principle but also such

011an encouragement to all of us here like we get random texts from can from Tammy we get random gifts I mean just and they're just all encouraging notes you know so um just every all the great stuff that you're doing at lame mesadale all the great stuff that you're doing for the community at lame mesadale you're doing for us too and and we appreciate you Tammy can I also just say I know you mentioned that um the construction team there and the project management team there really did a great job about trying not to disrupt I think it's because of your leadership though with the communication that you had with that team so I think you deserve some credit for that too what was my favorite one we visited and the workers when they were

012kind of showing us around and the plans well our favorite time is drop off and pickup you know which most people the drop off and pickup time at a school is not the most favorite but the workers like would pause it they were doing be all the way and that was really neat to see um but you you built a really nice looking campus good job design everything even the smell even down to the SM I think also one of the things with the new um admin building going on to the campus as you mentioned I went there as a kid and going on to the campus now it looks exactly the same as it did when I was a kid and you know I and until we were painting last year painting started started

013to make okay this looks a little bit different there's some different colors here but the new admin building really changes especially that back parking lot area like it it really changes how it looks and so it makes it really exciting to see that like you know 20 years later finally things things look a little different which is which is good well and the element of safety made is also beautiful and like with the areas where families can wait while gates are opening um because when you first think of putting Gates all around the school for safety it doesn't always sound that it would look as beautiful as it as it has been able to at our at our site so and we we will be doing a ribbon cutting um for the new office once

014the the parking lot is finished and we're ready to put on a party like with giant scissors giant scissors we have giant scissors they have been secured yeah always go to something with giant scissors on my bucket list okay are we ready to move on okay any other ladale friends family that want to go eat dinner and hang out is a good time if you want to exit otherwise we are moving on to other staff Communications and information yeah and included um in the agenda today is a letter from Sweetwater Elementary staff regarding the layoff of Alex Sim it support technician and there's also some copies of the letter on the back table there excellent next we have the report of action taken in closed session okay in closed session the board voted in unanimously

015to approve expulsions on um students number 24259 and 24210 um the board also took action by unanimous vot vote to um non- reelect uh employee ID 66731 and um pursuant to education code 92921 authorized the assistant superintendent of Human Resources to provide such a notice of action the board also took action by unanimous vote to reassign employee number 60573 6 pursuing to Education Code 45 44 951 to authorize the assistant superintendent of Human Resources to provide notice of such action thank you and that takes us to 4D our uh public comment do we have any comment cards how about any online we do not have any hands raised to address the board excellent thank you which moves us to item 5A which is our reports so we have an update on state budget and federal

016EOS yeah and I am um really excited to introduce to you all Kevin Gordon and some of you um were here when he's presented to the board before Kevin is the um president of Capital Advisors um he's also a legislative Advocate and just advocate for uh public education um he has such a a great knowledge of of just the political landscape every conference that I go to Every conference that Tina goes to um Kevin is always one of the panelists if not the primary speaker on just the the current landscape of things the other thing is that um both of our employee unions um both CCA and the Teachers Association attend all of um Kevin's budget workshops at the County Office of Education and um and I know everyone just really values um your take

017on things I I personally always feel like when I'm seeing you know like the panelists of experts um I'm always waiting for for you to share because I feel like you you really understand like the the just the mechanics of things and and what the reality is on the ground for schools and so my um the biggest motivation asking you to be here today is there has been so much um uh you know concern voiced around executive orders um that have recently been passed or signed um and the impact on education and the potential impact on um you know the dissolving of the Department of Education um if that were to happen just what that would look like funding wise for schools um and then also just anything you can update you can give us

018on the state budget and and where things are at you know crystal ball wise yeah good and yeah you can do that next very good yes well it's a pleasure to be here and anytime the superintendent wants you know me to come down and visit with you I'm always happy to do it you guys know the reputation of your super but also you guys know I know you know the reputation of your CBO who's been a Statewide leader is looked upon all across the state as an expert and we know that by the numbers you had when you would do your updates online and that sort of thing I to seeting there saying what can I say that Tina can't already say but anyways um but anyways it's a pleasure to be with you um

019I'm GNA give you a little bit of an outline of kind of what's going at the federal level and we will touch on state stuff too and try to do it in as comp of time period as possible understanding that we've got community members that maybe have something better to do than listen to me um but you know Madame President members of the board it's a it's a pleasure to be here in front of you um I just got back the timing is so great because I just got back from Washington DC and I was joking that I was back in DC looking for friends with power and the reason why is because C Capital advisor as a group has a really close relationship with the California delegation both parties but we have really strong

020relationships San Francisco's been a client for many years so we've been close to this to the speaker Meritus there if any of you have gone to the Coast to Coast Conference that cspa does we usually queue up all the speakers that are for that event and know we do this one reception on Capitol Hill in the members dining room and the fact of the matter is is there's a there obviously dramatic Powers shift in Washington DC and so there's a decision that we had to make as an education Community which is that is the governor right the day after the election sort of declared war on the current Administration and said you know we're not going to deal with these people and quickly realize with fires and other kinds of issues that as advocates regardless

021of how much we may disagree with what we're hearing out of Washington we have to make an effort to sort of speak truth to power which is to help lay out to them our views about issues and instead of sort of retreating it's really important to try to create an opportunity for doors that we can walk through where they will hear what we have to say about the implications of whatever they're doing on education and again you know what I also like to do is try to accentuate the areas that I think there might be opportunities where we might agree um say you know there are lots of things we're not crazy about we don't agree with um I think probably the biggest challenge for us in the education Community is going to be when

022there are issues that are being raised by leaders in different quarters of government is sitting in the room with somebody that's doing something where you might be able to influence on an issue that you like but what they are advancing is so morally wrong so incredibly distasteful to you that you don't even want to be in the same room but we got to kind of resist sort of that Temptation and say where are their areas where we they might agree with us and again I'm talking about you know both sides of the aisle you know we got to have those conversations so I went back there with that in mind we ended up having some really good meetings with um Senate staff and house staff uh I met with folks on both sides of the

023aisle Republicans Democrats but I really spent a lot of time trying to meet the folks that are Staffing in particular the new leadership I met with members of Congress that are in charge now in the US Senate and in the house that are doing education policy and if I gave you the bio in the background on some of them honestly I think you would be like oh wow that's good um because you would find out certain things that I think even as Republicans that sort of are markers for balance um in the case of the CH the new chairman in the US Senate was one of the few US senators that's still in the US Senate that actually had voted voted for conviction on the impeachment vote in the US Senate and the current new

024chair of the House of Representatives education committee is one of those few Republicans that had voted for impeachment in the House of Representatives now they're both very much advancing the Viewpoint of the Trump Administration on a lot of different issues and we got to remember there are some things they say that are very appealing and should be to us as governing board members superintendents and people that are in management managing public school districts like this huge big premium on local control the idea of less bureaucracy a focus on kids with disabilities to the extent that they understand that sort of This Disaster that's going on which is fire everybody and get rid of functions without thinking about what that actually means for programs like special ed because I think that they gravitate toward special ed

025they don't want special ed cut but I'm telling them that from a standpoint of structure some of the things they're doing are not going to be good for the very programs they say they support so we've had some back and forth communication since I got back to California of hey let me point out some of the things that don't match what you say but actions that are being taken by your Administration that are contrary to what I think you believe in and showing them whether it's on Career Tech education or special ed or these issues if you want to advance the objectives of this Administration the Trump Administration on some of these things we all agree on here's the right way to approach it and we're trying to help them with regard to the executive

026orders one of the things that I've tried to tell a lot of people is the president made a lot of promises during the campaign we all know what those were and what he has done with the executive orders it's almost like I call it check the box he'll do an executive order that speaks to an issue and there's people people even in my own family who are have been really supportive of this particular president and I I'll hear him say look at how much the president's getting done and I'll my response is he's going down his agenda item and making executive orders that call for the government to focus on an issue I'm going to use one as an example but the executive order itself actually doesn't do anything so the the the best example

027there's a couple of them but one of the great examples is the executive order he did on choice in public education the idea that they really would like to steer money that would otherwise go to public education to the parents and families of kids that got their their families that have their kids in private school and you know it's one thing if we knew that marginally you would support public education so there's an excellent education and we have all the resources we need in a public school district and you marginally want to give money out to somebody else too but usually it comes at the expense of public education that's the part where we have some objection to but when you look at the executive order it says it orders the secretary to and the

028Attorney General to look through all of the power they have and all the programmatic stuff that they have jurisdiction over and say where is there an opportunity to shift money that's currently in in programs at the department toward opportunities for districts and kids that want to offer choice in public education where is that money and can we build that in that we're going to move that money out and make it for families tax credits or whatever it might be for Choice options and the thing I chuckled at it when I read the first executive order because um everybody knows that with federal education programs they come as a result of federal law and when they write that law they can't help themselves it has a bunch of strings attached to it it has very specific

029delivery and usually a lot of Hoops you got to jump through it's all tied down the federal government never we wish they would but never sends US money as a block rant and says spend on whatever you want so the margin of money the secretary will be able to report back to the White House that says here's the amount of money for Choice should be probably close to zero it's not going to be any resources so when you look at the executive order it's oh the president signed an executive order advancing the idea of choice in public education yeah he did do that but does it do anything and the same is true with the first executive order that called for dismantling the US Department of Ed it orders the secretary to do basically report

030back to the White House and it says I want you to report on everything that you is the secretary which has very vast Authority unilaterally to do all kinds of things wave regulations do all kinds of things what within your power can you do to close functions of the US Department Department of Ed on your own and what would take an AC of Congress so what it's going to be is a report and it'll report on all the things that the secretary can close on her own and there might be considerable number of things there and it'll show the things that take an active Congress which is a whole another thing including ultimately shutting the US Department of of Education which takes an act of Congress and in the US Senate in order to do

031that it's a 60 vote requirement meaning they're going to have to get seven US senators that are Democrats to vote for it not going to happen so what can they pair down is what that report will look like now in this particular case the combination of the work that Elon Musk is doing and the secretary who announced today her intention was to lay off 50% of the staff at the US Department of Ed you know how does that manifest itself usually in in the quickness of a slow bureaucracy already to respond to the needs that we have in the education Community across the across the country that's the one thing I worry about those bureaucracies are famous for being bureaucratic and if you get rid of a bunch of positions how accessible will it be

032programs and money and things like that so that's probably the biggest thing I worry about but there's a lot they cannot do they can do executive orders that make pronouncements about issues but probably don't have the effect of law so then finally there was this letter that came out from the office of civil rights this is two weeks ago and it was with regard to the issue of discrimination and enforcement of the Civil Rights Act and they had a lot of opinions in it about what their view of the Civil Rights Act was and they basically were leaning on school districts to do the right thing under their definition in that letter what is true is that as long I I looked at the whole letter and I concluded that in the fuzziness of what

033they wrote that almost every District in this state is probably in full compliance with the Civil Rights Act Now relative to a classic example was do you do a graduation ceremony for Latin next kids and I actually talked to a superintendent that day and I don't know David if I mentioned that example to you but um um it was a superintendent up in in LA county who said Yeah we actually do one of those and I said the question she was real worried about it and I said the question is is there a conference of the diploma officially at that ceremony she goes well not officially it we do that at the regular graduation ceremon this is just a celebratory event that we do on the weekend and I said is there any District funds

034that are used for that event and she goes no it's actually paid for by a foundation I said you have zero to worry about I said not only that even if you use District funds and even if you reave out a diploma that was given in a in a particular ceremony none of it is against the law under the current law is that he can do the executive order he can do that letter and what it's what it's intended to do probably more than anything is probably to intimidate school districts to do a behavior that's not currently required in law so now depending on the community that you're in and I've said this to superintendent I don't know what communities that you're in but you go through and look at what your practices are and

035if there's slight modifications you can use to the title of things or whatever you're doing and you feel compelled to do that but the truth is if you can if if you're not worried about a civil right investigation or them opening up an investigation or an inquiry about the district guess what's at the end of the inquiry a conclusion about whether or not you're complying with law and the answer is going to be you are the question about the headline that says they've open it up an investigation against you is the one that you have to weigh as a governing board as a district about do I really want that and there are some communities where it's I don't want that so I'm going to make some adjustments so that I don't bring that upon

036myself I don't make a Target out of myself now you guys know there's a thousand districts in California alone so it's kind of who they choose to pick on and they are going to go after certain people to try to make an example but at the end of the day it kind of depends on your disposition as a community about how you're going to react to this and then what I would say the safe place is and you guys are a classic example of this that your Viewpoint about all the issues that have been controversial over the last 5 10 years have always landed on the side of what's the law we will follow the law and if the law does change you guys will continue to follow the law and you'll Implement policies that's

037in obviously compliance with the law and the problem for this White House is their ability to change the law is going to be very very difficult on a lot of these issues so they'll go down the agenda of things they will try to advance their agenda without change of the law because they're going to have a hard time doing it and see what kind of progress they make and frankly I think all across the country they're going to make a lot of progress without changing the law just by putting out these executive orders and getting communities to say oh I need to change something because they're saying I need to change it so we're trying to get make sure people understand you as a governing board have a lot more latitude than you might think

038you have based on the stuff that's coming down now the part that scares me the most is with regard to funding and and we saw an action today it was a classic example of that so the the continue resolution that was passed by Congress today basically says we're going to operate on essentially the same dollar amounts that we operate in the prior that's generally good news I mean normally what I really like about the federal government process for budgeting up until now is that if you can convince them to do what they do best which is nothing then you'll get the prior year budget you won't get cut because that's the way the system works it doesn't work like that in California with the legislature but it does with the federal government and when they

039cannot agree and they simply can just push out the timeline because they can't agree you get the prior year budget so when you're in an Administration where you can get more money for key things that we really value you want to do that but when you're in a situation where education funding is threatened and might get be cut you love the idea of continuing resolution because it protects us from reductions what's in this bill however were all kinds of references to appropriation levels including across all the things we care about Title One the title program special edit and everything like that and it is level funding all the way through to September so for the current fiscal year and going well into the next fiscal year we don't really have anything to worry about I

040think but the problem with the CR they call it CR is that it gives latitude that hasn't existed before for the president to move money around any way he wants that's really unprecedented is that they've sort of created these flush funds in big categories where he can move money all over the place and one of the arguments is that he can actually move money out of what we call domestic discretionary funding over to defense which isn't normally something that's allowed to be done so there's concern about that and then there's concern about the next fiscal year because even though our fiscal year starts July 1 the federal fiscal year starts in October is to the extent that that when they start debating what they want to appropriate to us in the following f school year

041there's a process normally we're protected by that's that 60 vote threshold where they can't mess with our programs without getting 60 votes in support in the US Senate except by a process called reconciliation which is simple majority vote and they are moving in the direction to try to structure it so they can just use that process called reconciliation Democrats have used it and Republicans have and if you follow a very strict set of rules which they look like they're lining up to do then they can cut as much as they want in a lot of different areas now in the meeting that I had I had a really good meeting with the new Special Assistant the president for Education there's this position that exists in the White House and Tina I think you've met with

042that person in the past um under the prior administrations and I worked with the the person that had that role in the prior Trump Administration we've worked with them under Obama and under Biden but this gentleman got this appointment and he's there and he basically will have an enormous amount of power in the in sort of the way he works through these issues and basically what they were saying is that even though Congress the House of Representatives ran an effort a year ago to cut Title One by 80% which is crazy those are the programs for kids in poverty for the benefit of the audience um 80% cut to that program that starts to affect California districts in a really big way that's a lot of money but um they were he was saying to

043me that if you take a look at the totality of money that's in title one it's about $18 billion across the whole country that's the budget if you look at all of special ed about 1516 billion doar for the whole thing for the whole country and you take a look at student loan the debt programs as well as uh pel grants $1.6 trillion so he said there's a lot of latitude for us to get to the targets we want 120 billion is the Target that the House of Representatives has to do cuts if they go through reconciliation process and I just that's just breathtaking to me to cut that kind of money out of education but it likely will they think will not be a target of the programs that we're all sort of really

044focused on Title One and some of these other things the other lesson is last year they were able to get Republicans were able to get the cut out of the House of Representatives committee but they never got it off the floor well they had a majority of members well the reason why I didn't get off the floor is because they realize in Republican districts all across the country there a lot of orkids a lot of Title One in those districts so in their own self-interest and I totally respect this they were saying we don't want to cut title one so to the extent that title one and some of the title programs in special ed do get insulated going into next full year I think will be good I am not an advocate of districts

045taking budget action predicated on the threat of might happen at the Federal level because it's just so fuzzy right now there are issues going on with your budget in here in the state of California and the state legislature that would create caution for you but at the federal level we just kind have to watch it real carefully and then keep you apprised of what's Happening along the way so that's kind of the federal picture which I think all in all is probably better news than you might have thought so a lot of executive orders a lot of noise being made probably doesn't have the force of law number one and then one issue to worry about would be funding but where they're going to focus to get the kind of dollars they have are probably

046not going to be on some of the major funding streams grants are a problem there are a lot of Grant programs that districts have gotten we had there was a grant up in a republican District up north that was for kids transitioning from a traditional uh a special ed type program into a more inclusive environment in which we've used that term for years in Special Ed trying to transition kids obviously into a regular classroom and that's good public policy right move special ed kids when they're ready and they're it's appropriate into a regular setting with other kids and there's some big grants the federal government has while they're chopping all those grants off because it has the wrong words yep you know and it's just like inclusion and transition it's just insane and it's like

047you guys probably heard about the anola gay you know aircraft where they're not showing the picture anymore because it has the word gay in it and you know it's it's overreacting to terminology that may be the disposition of administration and that's their right to have that position but when they apply it using some algorithm they're clipping off really important programs that have nothing to do with whatever their agenda is and that was the case in this case so we have alerted folks again with this Administration who we think are really sympathetic specialized to say hey thought maybe you went a little too far on these grants can you look into them and the answer has been yeah let's check let's check it out so you know and we're going to have to do that a

048lot that's a lot of work to go back and try to make those things right but that that'll be where most of our work is at the federal level yeah it's I really appreciate the um like the focus on uh educating and opening doors that can be opened um I I think that exactly what you're saying in terms of the terminology like e even if we go back to um I don't I know how maybe it was just a week ago but it feels like it was six months ago but if we go back and we think about like the the pause that was placed on federal dollars and and kind of that whole you know panic and then it was you know really quickly well no we're not trying to cut the VA we're

049not trying to cut you know all these well those are all federal programs you know um and I feel like the same exists in the world of uh Dei because um you know the thing that's so interesting when you look at all of this is there's definitely a focus from the administration and a dislike for Dei in relation to what that means in the military and what that means in the corporate world but when we talk about diversity inclusion equity in the school the context of elementary school like there's no one that's not in favor of those things because we're talking about simp giving our kids what they need it's not about um any of what it would mean in in you know those other areas and I think there's so much just education that

050needs to happen I just feel like this conviction of we're Educators so we should be in the mode of educating because I think that it's exactly as shallow as that where there's just some Mis I mean we've been dealing with it as a school district for the last five years of um you know the concerns about whether or not um there is um a CRT being implemented in schools or what um you know what we mean by the term equity and that sort of thing and it's just like this translation of no I know that people are using this language over here that that's not what we mean and you know that's why we we don't really put even the letters together to have like a a a Dei program or something like that because

051it's all embedded all throughout the the work of education and not only education but also just like like having handicap spots out in front of the mall and you know like there's all sorts of stuff around Ada and like those are the most Dei things that this country does but people aren't relating it to that because there's so much political just I mean honestly just nonsense and misunderstanding in terms of what it means in our context I just feel like that's the education that we need to be doing and I remember you sharing Kevin in Trump's first Administration that you guys had an audience with the Secretary of Education um because no one else wanted to talk to the Secretary of Education and then when you got in to talk to her like she was

052so open to hearing all about spe very concerned about special ed very concerned that we're improving Special Ed I I think the same thing like special ed the most Dei of all programs in a school district is like we're giving these kids what they need that's different than what all of the other kids need in the school right and and we're doing everything we can to include them so that we know like we're all children here at the school like we all love each other we're all a part of the same and I just don't know a parent in the world that doesn't believe in those things right you know even though they may think they don't believe in those things because they're so caught up in the politics of it right but it's like

053that's the education I feel like we need to be doing with people yeah it's it's it's literally taking words that mean one thing and ascribing a a really sharp partisan label to the word to mean something else and then holding everybody accountable to what is the ugliest definition in their view of that and so it's just and at the end of the day the thing that I try to emphasize that the president has talked about and the people around him do you really believe in local control because everything you're doing actually is counter to that MH is what you want to control local communities to be doing now the other issue is is that in one of the very first executive orders it talked about if you're doing this that and the other thing with

054federal dollars we're not going to allow you to do that well that was the other thing I was thought was kind of humorous is that all those strands of money that come from the federal government are for very particular things and if there was any Boogeyman they thought was getting with federal dollars you could probably sign a form that said we won't use federal dollars because you're not because you're using it for very specific kinds of deliverables and you're doing whatever else you're doing that they might object to probably with local money which you have a right to do so we'll see kind of where this goes I mean we know also there is double speak in the administration between the president will say something one day Elon Musk will say something another day Elon

055Musk has said he believes that the federal government should not be contributing a penny to public education well that's a problem they say we believe in local control we want to turn the control of our schools back to local communities but the but the the real meaning of that is we don't want to have to pay for it and well hold on a second if you want to write a check tomorrow of all the money we send you and let us deal with it we don't have to deal with you as the US Department of Ed bring that on we're totally happy with that idea because we'll have more money if you take a look at California's share of the contribution of tax tax back there it's crazy so send us the block grant of

056all the money that you would otherwise would get come out on a per kid basis that's got rules around it and we'll definitely decide that so you know again there's ways in in the in the first Trump Administration there was an audience to hear some of that messaging and we're looking for that again we want to have people hear us I am really encouraged by Congressman Wahlberg who's the chairman and the House of Representatives Republican chair who said I have not served on this committee for 13 years to eviscerate public education and he goes and I'd like to see special ed fully funded that's the chairman of the committee in the house so there's something to celebrate there I'm trying to get him to come to the coast to coast event that we're doing with

057Californians in Washington DC because I think that message would be very well received I want that event to be an event that has people from both parties I don't want people just an echo chamber of us talking to people who have no power they give good speeches but they don't control anything so we need to make sure that there's balance in what we hear so a little bit and I'm I'm definitely taking too much time on the state front good news on the state front it's kind of an interesting budget and it really comes down to that there's a constitutional provision in the budget that was put there by a ballot measure prop 98 that all of you guys understand but for the sake of the community prop 98 is the mandatory amount of money

058a minimum amount of money that has to be spent on on TK through community colleges every year and because of the guarantees that are in that ballot measure and because of them not honoring the full amount that was required in Prior years there's a trigger in the Constitution that says hey if you can't afford to give us all the money you would otherwise owe us you do have to make us the first call on new money when you can afford it well we just went through a couple of really weird years in terms of big budget gaps it's triggering that trigger is happening now because more money is coming in than expected by a pretty healthy amount more money and guess who's the main recipient of the benefit of that is the education Community the

059non School side of the budget for the State of California has like a 20 billion dollar hole in it so they're actually going to be making cuts and shifts and adjustments on the non-school side where on the school side we know for sure we're looking at a change to the positive of about $7.1 billion between this year and next year well all that news got a little bit better by several billions of dollar in terms of the overall health of the state budget but again those people that are on the non-school side are not all that thrilled because we are the beneficiaries again of the additional extra money it'll go into restoring a rainy day fund that we have for education that needs to be filled back up again that bucket and it'll manifest itself

060in onetime money that we get for districts around the state on a perkit basis we know that we're going to get the recipients of our per pupil amount of $1.8 billion and you guys will get that in this district one time so that it doesn't really help you with budget cuts and other things you're doing that are that are systemic budget problems but it gives you one-time breathing room that's nice and then there's 1.6 billion the governor's been holding back which we think is not constitutional that we say you need you need to spend that on us too it is one time as well we now know because we can count the votes in the legislature we've met with members of the budget subcommittee for education in both houses and none of them are going

061to vote in favor of holding the money back they're all in favor of appropriating the money so that's going to get appropriated I wish it would be added to the 1.8 block rant so that we get a $3.4 billion do block that would be the best but all of them have ideas on oh I want to fund this or I want to fund that so some of that's going to get peeled away some of it will go into making the block rant bigger I think but then so there's 1.8 1.6 that's all onetime money and then there's the increase permanent increase in money that will fund a cost of living adjustment which I think is a pathetic cost of living adjustment by the way but there's some modest permanent increases that we'll get in the

062budget it's good to have but the governor remains committed to TK he remains committed to uh uh expanded learning opportunity programs Universal meal programs all those things he's invested billions in all that's going to be fully funded and that's what we do with a permanent ongoing money but within the last two weeks we've gotten news about the budget that will increase inrease the amount of money we probably see even in the one time Beyond those two piles of money I was telling you about and there will probably be implications for on ongoing money as well we just don't know what it is our advice is always never be budgeting beyond what you see in the governor's January budget and even be careful with that so I always say I I want a budget based on

063the money I know is coming in where's the green money that's actually showed up not the optimism of something that's kind of in the future and while it's great to have that optimism and I think things will turn out good you guys obviously have an obligation where you can't be budgeting on money you don't have and then with regard to Leos and I know you guys have been going through that I always like to point out particularly the community that we have in the law in California requirements that you have to do that says that you have to send out layoff notice if you think there's any possibility that your budget's going to be upside down in the coming year and the the language was put there by our labor Partners so the Teachers Association

064and most recently the classified Association went to the legislature and said we want that protection we want layoff notices in March and we're like in March we don't even know the what the budget is yet why would you want to put yourself through that strain and Agony that early when we don't know numbers because you're putting the board in a situation where the board has a fiduciary obligation to guard against what the fiscal uncertainty will be in the future and if you don't do the layoff notice you can't lay anybody off after you hear what your budget is and the budget's upside down you're in trouble so I I'm always reminding communities about this that it's the fault of our friends in Sacramento and other people that Force you guys to deal with layoffs when

065you would otherwise not want to do a single layoff till you know what kind of money you have but you don't have the luxury of that that timeline now the argument that our employee groups make and it's totally legit the reason why they want March is because in the event that they do we do get an ugly budget and they have to they want to know that they have time to look for something else but even if you're an employee in a district you're not going to start looking for something else till you know the district doesn't have the money to fund you so you're probably wait until June anyway so you know it's just sort of there's a two-edged sword to that whole process but I want to make sure people are aware of

066it and I'm going to stop there and see if you guys have any questions yeah any thoughts or questions there's a lot sorry thank you um I don't have any questions right now it's good maybe I do good anybody else I think I'm gonna agree with what David was saying about the education part because um when the campaigns were going on um I was you well obviously I'm from California but I had to go to North Carolina and it was a huge different um way of that things were being presented in North Carolina and I started to realize I'm like okay well this is why you guys think this way and then you know then we got stuck in Texas and then we were there and and I started to see again the campaigning and

067I'm like wait this isn't true like what's going not so I think when you say about the education part um there is a lot of people that don't understand um like what you here to tell us right I wish there was a lot of people that I knew were sitting here so they could hear you um but I think that education part I don't know how that could be brought on for our parents um so they know um but yes I I completely understand how when you the further east you go the different this it's like playing telephone that's kind of how it message at the beginning compared to the message at the end yeah and I was like wait what wait excuse me yeah so it's I I hope somehow we could figure that

068out yeah yeah sorry I realized I do have a question um it's more of a clarification making sure that I understand just how everything works um with the federal budget um they are they need to pass something it sounds like the house passed something today um that is the continuing res resolution or this the CR um and that needs to be passed by both houses and signed by Friday my understanding correct so Senate has not acted yet correct and that's gonna be a big and that funds us really just through the rest of this FIS this Federal fiscal year you got it so then you mentioned that they'll likely be setting things up to do reconciliation bills and that will be for next year's funding and that will be in September that they'll be doing

069that so really like we don't know what's going to be funded for next year until September right well that reconciliation process actually will happen sooner if they if they get their wish which is that they want to start working on it but it would go into effect October one uh for that next fiscal year so we're going to know in the next you know eight weeks probably what's happening on their ability to actually do deeper cuts and will we able to see whether and handicap it about whether or not they're going to be able to get them or because there's also a decision that's made interest inly by the clerk of the house it's the parliamentarian actually of the house about and I think it's actually the US Senate that makes a decision about whether

070or not what they're doing actually abides by the rules for reconciliation and they will call them on it and there's nothing anybody can do including the president when that parliamentarian says I'm sorry I'm not letting you do this because you're not following the rules then they get stopped in their tracks and they have to think of another way to go about however they want to do this so that that hasn't happened happened yet so there's a lot to happen but you're right on regarding it's it's in the future and it's not going to happen in a way that's going to be able to be reflected in the budget you guys put together yeah and then I know that sometimes because you know that's that's 15 to 20% of our budget is the is federal um

071and so you know the bulk of our budget is State money and that a lot of the times they don't pass the budget until the the wire which is all also in terms of actually incorporating things into our budget too late for us to incorporate things into our budget I know that sometimes the push on that is based on I know last year I think it was because you know there's the the floods and delayed tax dollars and whatnot and I believe there's going to be delayed tax dollars again for um uh the Los Angeles buyers and so do we have and it's only March but do we have any indication on if that's the state budget is also going to take a while to get figured fur out yeah is we were really nervous

072about it so they have delayed the tax filing obligation of all taxpayers in LA and ventur County well that's more than 20% of all taxpayers so our worry was the last time the state budget writers did a budget without having all the information about taxes they actually had no information because everybody got to wait to file taxes till what ended up being November they started a fiscal year first time in the history of the state of California we start started a budget year spending money passing a budget and spending money not having a clue about how much was going to come in really weird and they guessed really badly they were really off to the tune of it was the biggest budget crisis we've ever had $70 billion dollar problem so what we're hoping is

073and what a lot of the folks in Sacramento were just talking about slicing over open envelopes and looking at quarterly returns of rich people and they said oh my they were really shocked at what's going on trend line to the good so they like the Trends they also believe that the percentage is so low the overwhelming majority of taxpayers will give them a much more educated guess about what's happening to revenues than they would otherwise have so they're fairly confident that they're going to gauge this right we'll see thank you yeah great questions though Kevin the coast to coast that you mentioned in Washington DC is that the um csba correct csba and AA and have you guys done it before anybody I'll be going this oh that's great yeah definitely remind me when you're

074back there and we'll make sure that you you seeing the right people yeah I'll reach out to you and because Tina was going to do casos and was sick and so um I'll reach out to you about if it would make sense for any of us to go to one of my views about that event it's a great event to go to because a lot of people will come to you but the biggest frustration of the people that go is you fly back to Washington DC to try to make a difference right try to be heard people and they stage up and we help them get their speakers these great speakers so you'll hear from we got you know Javier Basera who's a cabinet secretary and we got um you know speaker Pelosi to do

075something we got just a lot of great speakers to come in and talk is I always say but understand being in a hotel room a hotel Ballroom in Washington DC is not any different than being a hotel Ballroom here any you have these great speakers and there's 300 people in the room where do you get to make a difference so it's really important and we're happy to help you guys is you know I'm we invented this event on Capitol Hill in the memb private dining room for an event where we brought members of Congress in from all over the state and all the board members got to interact with real congressmen face Toof face and I was saying you got to get them out out of that hotel and over to the capital where you

076can actually meet elected officials and people that make a difference right so we're going to do the same thing again this year but we should be looking for opportunities for you to go up to Capitol Hill and visit members of Congress that are from the San Diego delegation and you know have that impact but I always say don't stop there now it's going to be a little more difficult under this administration because they're cutting everybody but typically I would say you know if you guys have school transportation issues go see the US Department of Transportation people go to their member of Congress but they forget that Transportation or Health and Human Services or EPA or whatever the agency is it's amazing every agency does something that ends up having an impact on our kids and

077you can you can go in and have a conversation with them about those impacts and it can do great great things so when you get the opportunity to go back there try you know we can help you try to make the most of it yeah great thank you all so much pleasure being here thanks thank you okay youa we're up to our second interim budget report that thanks Kevin all right second inter room report so he talked a lot about Federal impact State impacts and now I'll talk about the state impacts basically on our second interim budget report so our first interim budget report really reflects the change from our adopted budget to First interim and a lot of things that change during that point in time is we're posting carryover we know what our

078ending fund balance is because we've actually closed our books Etc the difference between first and second interim really for the most part is less minor in the sense that we're just making sure that um we're adjusting our budgets to reflect how we're actually spending um and then in the multi-year projection the bigger piece is as you've heard Kevin talk about we start to show the impacts of the January Governor's budget proposal in our multi-year so what the second interim report is reflecting is our um information through January 31st um and so that's what we're here to um share with share with you this after this evening um one of the the things that we do have to do as we're presenting our information to you is certify the budget and ultimately there are the three

079different certifications positive qualified and negative positive means we are going to be able to meet our obligations for the three-year period qualified means we might be able to and negative means will not and so we are at um certifying positive we will be able to meet our obligations over the course of the next three years and and that really is um coming because of the um $6 million budget savings that we've been able to do um over the course of the last year so um the themes so what are some of our themes for second interim um we've I've shared a little bit about it you'll see in our multier projection when I show you um that information the impacts of the governor's budget proposal from January because we will have updated information that we

080know at that point in time as Kevin had mentioned onetime dollars that we don't know yet we're going to receive that has not been reflected in the budget but I'll share with you this the things that we have um put into the multi-year projection we also have if you recall at our first inter room report we had almost a for lack of a better term um a hold if you will for a reduction of $6 million what we have now done in our multi-year projection is actually account for that savings within the various um object codes that we know we're going to have the Savings in and I'll talk a little bit more about that when we get there and then same as Kevin had suggested there's a lot of different things that happen at

081the local level and as you all know we are declining in enrollment um and we are working on our an increase in our attendance with some of the um attendance recovery programs that we've been um putting into place so in terms of second interum this is just a snapshot from the Sachs documents just trying to make sure that um you can see from the Sachs perspective because those are the documents that we're required to have in saaks is our standardized account code structure those are the documents that we're required to use um at the state level so this is just a snippet of that looking at our revenues and what I'll share with you are just just some of the change major changes within that that document as compared to First interim to Second interim

082Minor Adjustments in um Ada so you'll see some changes there obviously there's a slight increase and so that's a great thing it just kind of shows how we are coming along with our attendance recovery programs and then really want to make sure that you understand that while there's a decrease in federal revenue it is not because of anything that's happening um at the um Federal level it's really just because of the way the federal programs worked we have some programs that we're no longer we no longer qualify for and then we also um adjust Revenue because the way our programs work um this one in particular we um basically only budget for what we're actually spending um so we have to make some adjustments there and then just regular um changes that we make as

083we move further along into the year knowing what our attendance looks like we make adjustments to our state revenues because a lot of that is based based on enrollment and attendance so we'll make adjustments there and then our local Revenue we've had some changes in our interest rates and so we're making adjustments in that location and then for donations we don't typically budget donations until I shouldn't say typically we do not budget for donations until we actually receive them because we never know what they're going to be from one year to the next so those are some of the variances um big big picture for revenue and then just sharing some of the big picture changes from first interim to Second interim for our expenditures and really as you're looking at the document I know

084there's a lot of columns but as you're looking at the document the First Column column A is our adopted budget that was done in June the second column column B is the most recently approved budget which would be first interim and then you'll see our actuals to date in column C and then projected year totals which is the current budget that we're projecting at is second interim and then the difference um and then the variance between the two so that's there's a lot of columns there they each mean something but it just helps provide the board and the um public some transparency in terms of the changes that have taken place with the um budget from adopted to First interim and second interim so some of those bigger changes um as I said uh we

085there's we've now reflected our $6 million savings so there's a lot of adjust that have taken place um some of that if you recall we have some um programs restricted programs that we are now um looking at and so there have been some changes between um uh salaries and benefits from one program to another um we also have some budget adjustments for books and supplies so just like the normal course of as we are now in this second phase of our budget reporting making sure that we're aligning our um operating budget with the expenses and how we um intend to spend it by the end of the fiscal year so those are some of what you'll see there in terms of some of the major pieces of changes with our expenditure budget uh and then

086just looking at our multi-year projection and as I shared this is the first glance that you will see that the state budget is being reflected so these are just the planning factors that we've used the cola I mentioned that I think um before in an update to the board the cost of living adjustment that is provided um to our programs for 2526 is right now at 2.43 um it actually is a little bit less than what we had um at in terms of projection the last time um but still a cost of living adjust adjustment nonetheless and just as a reminder that cost of living adjustment is not a 2.4 3% increase in Revenue overall it is a per student increase allocation and so as you're declining in enrollment and your attendance rates are different

087you're it's not an actual 2.43% increase it's 2.43% above each of the per student allocations so that that number is not a true Cola in that sense of the word but I just wanted to make sure that um everyone understood that um we are still continuing to project a decline we are watching that very closely um we know at some point we're going to um flatten out if you will we're not seeing that yet um so we do still have a projection of a decline in enrollment um and while we think our um our attendance right now we're should we show an assumption here of 94% but we um our attendance rates are looking really good with all of the work that we've been doing and so that will be an adjustment that we will

088be making during adopted because that is a a big piece that um is going to help our budget and that's ongoing dollars and so the effort that we're putting into that is really going to bring us the most benefit because it is ongoing Revenue to the district um in a time where we are declining that attendance ratio does actually um help us a lot um and then stirs now has flattened out it used to be that stir our stirs rate um which is our state teachers retirement system that is the amount that we pay for for our uh retirees in the stirs program that is not a rate that we come up with that is all um done at the State Board the stirs board level and then our Pur employer rate which is our

089um Public Employee Retirement System that's for classified employees that rate does still continue to increase by a little bit um every year and you can see what those impacts are in terms of our budget and just because we did put a number there that 8.9 million and the 9.2 million just so that you know I mean if you're just looking at the percentages you should know but just to make sure it's not a it's not a $9.2 million increase over the prior year it's just the total cost so um just wanted to make sure that that wasn't like sticker shock but that too is a rate that is done at the purs level it's not a rate that we make up but it does fund the retirement system for our um both certificated and classified

090staff so in looking at our uh multi-year projection this is basically what it looks like you see our revenues um and you'll see a decrease in um one year to the next and for many different reasons um Federal revenues are going down a little bit State revenues are going down the biggest uh reason for that is we have onetime dollars that are going away and so um hence kind of a The Perfect Storm if you will for where we are with the declining enrollment onetime funding going away Etc that's that's the reason why we're in the situation we're in with having to make some budget um reductions um so you'll see there how that looks over the course of the next um three years and then looking at our um expenditures you can see how

091our expenditures are looking after making our adjustments um that 2526 does include that $6 million um reduction that we had and I say reduction savings if you will because there were some savings that we had with the programs that we've um created and kind of shifted through so um there were some savings and then some reductions on top of that but $6 million nonetheless um and this is is a a picture of the changes from our um decrease in fund balance so if you look at that very first line that really is our deficit spending and that deficit spending means that we are spending that much more in expenses than what we have in Revenue so if you look at our 2425 change and our 2526 change you can see that it equates to about

092a $7 million difference to the good right so we're we we have made that that that adjustment and so we actually are doing what we intended to do in terms of the budget and then you will see that that in 26 27 we do still have a projected deficit and and I know three years seems like a long way away um when we get to budget adoption we'll add another year to that um and so that's in essence what we've been working towards is trying to bring that um deficit spending down um thankfully we've had a reserve that has been able to help us that Reserve level we're required to have 3% based on our size so we do have that 3% requirement we also have a restricted reserve and it's not a reserve in

093the sense of a savings account like our um 3% kind of requirement is for lack of a better way of looking at it really it's just um fund restricted money that we have not spent that for that very specific purpose that we receive it for in that year and so it gets carried over into the new year um so it's not it's not a reserve that we save on top of our required Reserve but we also have the additional 2% that the board has historically um tried to set aside as well and so then we have some of our commitments and a lot of that is the declining enrollment um Reserve that we have that will help us and if you look at just where we've been in terms of our deficit spending the reason

094why um we are looking at the reductions that we're looking at is because um if we continue down this path you can see that in year three we don't have much of a reserve left yes we have 5.87 million I mean 5.87% um so it is above that 3% but that $6 million that we had to make um in terms of a budget reduction is what enabled us to get to that 5.87 because we were not going to make our 3% without it um so the the work that was done that was done actually did help us and I know it's it's not ever a fun time um it was it's hard work um but it um it was something that was necessary um so then just kind of looking at at where our ending

095fund balance is i' I've actually talked about all of this so I'm not going to go over that again um where are we going now so in May the governor releases his May revision at that point in time we'll we might have different numbers um that at that point we should have what the actual cost of living adjustment is um right now it's a a projection because they did not have all the factors at that point so we'll know what the actual Cola is at that point in time as you heard from Kevin Gordon this evening there's still a lot of uncertainty we're not budgeting for the uncertainty we budgeted for what we know um at this point so when we talk when he talks about the one-time dollars that um we're going to be

096having once we know what those one-time dollars are we will budget for them but we do not budget for them until we actually do know what they will be um does that onetime dollar help us yes it does help us one time in nature but once we get that we'll update the budget and um all of that will be updated when we come back to the board for Budget adoption um and then what we're the work we're doing right now is really you know tough work and I say that as I look at Meg um because our enrollment is decreasing um as you know we have the retirement incentive um we have been really conservative in our staffing for this year um which is very difficult of course to um to do but we definitely

097have been really conservative in looking at our staff in we will continue to look at that as we get through um June where we are actually establishing our budget and the bigger piece really is making sure that we are updating and looking at all of that and then making sure that we're going to be able to sustain what we can over that three-year period so when we come back for um our June budget adoption you'll see a new year added to that three-year projection right because our current one will fall off and we'll see what that three-year projection looks like at that point time um and we're hoping that when we do that we will be in a a good position or a better position but the reality is with where we are with deficit

098spending that third year out we may have to also have some conversations around some additional budget Savings in order to make our three-year multi-year projection work but we'll have that information as once we know what the May revise looks like and as Kevin Gordon had suggested we are adopting our budget in June and and in many cases it's before the state even adopts their budget um but if they do adopt their budget and it is significantly different we do um bring back a revised budget to the board if there's a material difference um otherwise we will look at that at first interim so that's kind of what we do from this point now going forward um in preparation for Budget adoption we're working on all of that right now um with um Staffing and HR

099and principles that's a lot of the work that we are doing in that regard as we kind of waiting to see what is coming out with the May revision yeah I say thank you very much for all the work you do um your your team uh over there on the corner yeah yeah know yeah we see the agenda that I would look over and I see him over there so I know it's uh which is also very nice having uh Kevin speak earlier obviously kind of clear some of the fog and smoke and kind of a little bit of hope that there is obviously with the You Know Your Role and you know having the of your your level of expertise is great an asset to our district but obviously these kind of standardized updates

100are are great ex you know obviously we look at um The Reserve right when I think when I first joined the board it was over 37% right so it's kind of like you know you you see it constantly going down and down and I know three years feels a long way but I think those of you know as we get older and those of us also with kids are a great reminder three years isn't very long right so so yeah I mean hopefully some of these um onetime payments and you know increased uh commitments to certain programs that are essential for the kids come through and hopefully uh we can kind of reverse because obviously I think in three years it's a much more serious conversations are going to have to happen um being that

101we're knocking on the door from the the five% two and 3% Reserve so um I mean hoping some of that that light come through and uh things get a little bit um smoother but obviously I think that's going to be some if it doesn't work out it's going to be some tough conversations in a few years so thank you for your work though and your update and just a point of clarification the the likelihood of when those cuts would need to be enacted they'd be they would need to impact the third year out yeah yeah no it's okay yeah right deficit spending we've been doing for you know probably a very long time uh yeah and obviously with with some of the money that that came came in we you were able to build such

102a nice Reserve but now that those funds are gone it's a a tougher reality yep thanks um I have two questions one is on the cola um the cola that we're using in this in this report right now is that the updated preliminary Cola from the January budget report or is that still from last year's the the we we have the current in there for 24 25 the one for 25 26 is from the January's Governor budget proposal yeah got it cool um and then the 2627 though is kind of a hopeful one or kind of based on also from the governor's January budget proposal so when they put out their estimated Cola the out Years also get adjusted and so that was also from the governor's budget proposal so those will change once they

103get the final numbers again yep right now it's sounding as if they're not going to change by much but they might get a little bit higher that's what we're hearing at this point um and then on obviously our funding is based on Ada SL enrollment it's great that ADA is going up or attendance is going up like I've seen lots of post on social media and at the schools of you know their different Camp uh attendance campaigns so that's been super cool hearing that those are actually working um is there anything that that's also though tied to enrollment is there anything that we're doing to try and increase enrollment um I know it's hard you know San Diego's a um and lame Mesa and Spring Valley are very expensive places to live right now but

104um is there anything that we're doing to try and improve enrollment yeah I mean really just getting the word out about our schools um a lot of marketing work that we've um you know there wasn't a lot of that that was done in the past um our presence on social media and um but the big thing for me is really you know we have uh schools some that are like hidden gems you know and because people focus so much on like different grading systems that are out there and that sort of thing um they don't necessarily know that the school around the corner from them is the place that it is um so that's a big thing that we've been trying to you know get the word out about schools like casido and LMA and

105and that sort of thing um and then the other is I do think that um the sixth grade to Middle School transition will have an positive impact on enrollment we won't know that until we've seen a couple years of of data uh but the districts around us have this the same grade spans and the challenge previously is that where where we see more um students leaving the district is in Middle School um and uh previously we would have students leaving before their Elementary career was over because there was a different um grade Span in surrounding districts and so they would like have their eyes on such and such a middle school and be applying you know the year before because that's when you're going to get in you know for us that would be sixth

106grade in the elementary school um but now that's also sixth grade in the middle school so I think that that should have a net benefit um all that to say also though that the enrollment decline is in a lamea Spring Valley one it's it's Statewide and um there's been a lot of uh uh speculation that the immigration enforcement um could have a a pretty severe impact on on enrollment um dist not districtwide um Statewide so uh that's just something we're going to watch really closely as well are we seeing an attendance impact right now I don't know that we've seen any significant impacts in attendance yet there's been little things where it's like a silly rumor goes out about um you know ice interviewing people out in front of a school which is just not

107true and honestly I think that people are um just trying to stir things up by putting that kind of message out there trying to prevent people from going to school it's almost like doing a bomb thread or something like that so um but beyond that we haven't seen any significant impacts and we have added like TK classrooms on some of our campuses so obviously that helps with some of the decline we might be seeing if we get kids in at TK the chances of them staying with us obviously are helpful the HR department when we have community um events happening are out at the community event so that helps get the word out there too and then the other piece that I wanted to say with and thank you um Nathaniel for mentioning the work

108that the finance department does in relation to the budget um but in addition to that I think there's been a lot of real strategic work um that was done and so I I do want to give some shout outs to deian um for looking at the the revenues that we currently have both unrestricted and restricted and really taking a look at how can we maximize the dollars that we're getting to have minimal impact on people and that has been an incredible thing which has also helped us in that regard too and so just having that mindset of not kind of looking at well what have we always spent our dollars on and how have we always used our dollars but really taking a step back and looking at it very differently I think has also

109been something that has been very helpful for us um going down this path of where we're going to be the course of the next few years Brianna and I actually had a really good conversation earlier today about um why this year is so drastic for some districts and not for others and we were just talking about the fact that the stability that we have in our cabinet and therefore like the Strategic thinking over a number of years instead of um you know being in a place of having to make you know like multiple years worth of cuts in one year um is something that's been really beneficial to us and it like um Nathaniel pointed out also just the reserve that we've had and how we've used our covid dollars and how we've been strategic

110about um repurposing existing staff in positions that then are going away and it's so it's like that has it's been built into the system essentially a layoff um uh due to the loss of funding that we anticipated and planned for and so instead of bringing a layoff of 40 positions to the board you know we're able to just bring a layoff of I think one position um and uh it's just the the planning and and strategic thinking from from you guys has been wonderful all right okay so that brings us to item 6A which is an annual resolution for the Employee Appreciation weeks calling out educ Educators Administration week May 5th through the 9th classified employees Appreciation Week May 19th through the 23rd and school administrators Appreciation Week May 26th through the 30th I'll move

111to approve the um resolution for Employee Appreciation any questions or discussion regarding this resolution I think it's great that we do this I know yeah all in favor say I I I I opposed okay which brings us to another resolution affirming our commitment to a culture of belonging so in light of President Trump's recent executive orders on immigration enforcement and Dei programs it's recommended that the district reaffirm its commitment to a safe and inclusive environment for for all students and families these orders have created fear in school communities Across the Nation and run counter to the values and mission of the Lisa Spring Valley School District though lacking substance substance to directly impact our work the executive order on da Pro Dei programs diversity Equity inclusion refuses to acknowledge the existence and value of many

112in this country and within our district opposing the principle of equality and human worth this nation was founded on the very definition of these words understood outside a specific political agenda reflects values of lame Mesa Spring Valley reflects values lame Mesa Spring Valley strongly believes in the executive order on immigration enforcement has also created a sense of fear in our community and across the country with entire families experiencing the threat of increased scrutiny separation and deportation this fear affects students's sense of safety and belonging and threatens our mission to serve all students regard of creed culture or legal status then there's also an attached resolution I'll um move to approve this I think that it's something that's really important that we do um as you know kind of stated there's a lot of concern in

113the the you know and uncertainty in the world right now and this is just a small way that we can you know reaffirm that that here's where our district you know it our district lies but also like David said you know Dei policies are not something that you know it's something that's just embedded in education in all sorts of ways not in the the political ways that are being talked about and so um I think that it's especially important you know to reiterate that every single student every single staff member um you know belongs in our district and we will continue to do everything we can to support and educate every single student um and you know yeah it's just a I'm glad that this is bring being brought forth right now yeah I'll seconde

114them and I think the uh you know kind of the mission of the of the school district right is to create an environment for kids to thrive and uh be be accepted and cared for as they they go from you know TK now to teenager at this point um and so yeah I mean I you know we talk about how do we how do we get the message of our schools and get people to come here it's like you know investing in the schools obviously with the kind of hard tangible things but also at creating that environment where their their their needs are met regardless of what those needs may be I mean we have things like you know we talk about the ESPN all the different uh intervention programs and we have now we

115have the community school programs the lunch programs so you know all that you know kind of at the heart of it is about caring about the kids that of our community and the kids that go to our school so yeah uh and also staff right I mean you guys have been very proud of the fact that when you have a job posting you get a lot of you get a lot of attention um especially with leadership changes principles from all over are applying which is kind of shows like this is the place where people want to be and that's I think the the best advertisement you're going to get so I think uh this statement is important to make sure everyone feels welcome EXC did you already uh yeah I'll second I got got mixed

116in there I'll second any other comments discussion I just want to say if you guys get the chance to read the resolution it's really beautiful and I feel like when we watch these highlights of the schools it's great because we get to see the the heart of each individual school and this resolution is the heart of the district and I think that it's it's really lovely so if you guys get a chance I do recommend looking at it excellent okay anything else all in favor say I I I oppose okay which takes us to our annual um action election of Representatives to the csba associate delegate assembly I know that I'm normally the one that I have either know some of these people or um am in in tune um so I will propose six

117people and if you guys want to swap people out that's totally fine but I would propose Barbara Avalos Jan Lee Smith Elva Lopez zapa Sue Martin zenid Rosario and cypron Vargas and there's just people that you've crossed path with so that and you know we have to vote for six there um yeah there are people that have crossed paths with most um a couple of them are currently on the board and it's a good mix also of um folks that I know of that are like relatively new school board members and so new voices you know in something like csba is always good and then um also people that you know I think Sue Martin and cpro Vargas are both from Vista but Sue Martin is um a retired teacher that is a school board

118member now so like you know I always think that having that voice as an advocate a lot of what csba does um you know at the delegate assembly and and in general is advocacy work for our school boards and um for our school districts and so um I think that this is you know based on some of it is the biographical sketches but also um you know names that I've heard um so that's would you mind saying those names again slower yes Barbara Avalos the first one Jan Ley Smith Elva Lopez zapa wait wait sorry I have a different order than you do okay okay oh do you want me to do it because I know that in the biographical you can do it I'm just just a little slower um Sue Martin okay Zena

119Rosario and then cyano Vargas I think the only one I was unsure on was this was Sue Martin I felt like and I don't know her personally I just felt like her biography was a little bit confusing not biography but the way that she described her um motivation for for the position so I I'm not against it but I just didn't she didn't stand out to me I was um Bob Weller stood out to me um because he has that fiscal mindset um and then I really liked raina's because her Focus was being on students not necessarily political G I like that she pulled that out specifically yeah I'd be F of swapping sue for Reena it's just interesting the way this is all laid out and to compare them across because you're like wait

120I feel like I already read that and like yeah right so I think that sounds good I agree with the yeah swap switching out for um Rea rea so do we need a motion and a second for the the representatives uh yeah that I'll move the okay did you yeah I'll you want a motion do you have the list or yeah do you want me to reiterate the list again oh I don't know if you have to or not oh you got the list okay cool okay so I I'm moving yeah a second okay okay any other questions no all in favor say I I I I opposed okay and that may move whoa whoa whoa computer that moves us to item 7A are consent items I move to approv item 7A I'll second and

121thank um ESS and PTA for the um donations any other questions um all in favor say I I I opposed okay next is for the second interim financial report and Incorporated budget revisions well I'll move to pass item 7 B the uh 2024 25 second interrupt financial report and Incorporated budget rision sorry I just repeated it I'll second everything that all the words he said go additional questions I know we already talked about it but we're good okay all in favor I I opposed and item 7B the application for filing for State allocation board administered programs this goes with school facilities yes I'm okay yeah I move to approve that resolution all second any questions regarding this resolution all in favor say I I I opposed and item 7D is the state facilities program facility

122hardship Andor facility hardship seismic mitigation programs I I want to approve item 70 second any questions discussion regarding this item all in favor say I I I I which moves us to Human Resources um that's our 8A our human resources consent items I'll move to approve our human resources consent items I'll second discussion regarding these recommendations always great to see how many there are and it was fun seeing a friend come out I was like wait is this you and she's like yes it is like hooray right all in favor say I I I opposed okay which brings us to our closing Communications announcements reports and Communications from the board um I always have a few things um I this month was was busy at a few of our school sites um as always and

123I got to go visit Parkway probably the most exciting one was I got to go to Parkway um with Tina and Ann hippie our Child Nutrition director and got to have school lunch there which was delicious it was scratch cooking yeah it was it was I don't know if you guys have had Mary's chicken it was a Mary's chicken um like you know drumstick it was delicious um and there was a new pasta salad that they they were trying out recipe that they were trying out um that was very yummy as well um and we got to chat with some of the students about what they'd like to see on lunch menus what they liked about lunch what they didn't like about lunch um and for any of you that may have not been to

124a school lunch in many years it is not like the goop that we had back in I mean even back you know it's not the um I remember the pizzas in a like plastic bag that had just been reheated or whatever and like that that was you know but it was also really cool and really interesting to hear about you know there's lots of rules and regulations about nutrition values that you know everything has to have and um you know just how how much our Child Nutrition staff work especially around the scratch cooking program to make sure that these are healthy foods that kids you know maybe want to eat and um and but also meet taste good and meet all of the the requirements and how much goes into that how much also um

125some of the different programs around like the kids will have Panda Express and Panda Express has a separate menu that is meets the Child Nutrition requirements and like that's something that I didn't know but that's like that's really cool hearing about kind of that work um that some of these other organizations do you know so so we can partner and have treats for the kids as well um I also got to go to laesa Dale for um a little bit um last week for um uh their Community reading um evening and um that night I was also at Parkway again for the Llama skate park you guys have probably heard me speak about that before lamac skate park is getting renovated and um so the city of lame Mesa was hosting a meeting there's a

126survey I think I don't think I've sent it to you yet but I can make sure that we get that out to the community of what would you like to see in a skat Park um they proposed a few different options of renovating that skate park but what what kinds of features even for people that don't skate or don't use wheels don't bike you know because it's supposed to be an all Wheels Park not just skate park like you know you might have thought of as a kid and so um kind of some some really cool things going on and then um last Friday I was at CAO Oro Elementary for one of my favorite um events of the year community readin and I got to read to a second grade class and um it

127was super fun the kids were fantastic very engaged and um also seeing how many amazing community members Mar Ellen is able to get to come read to the kids um is is always really cool so yeah that's that's that for me right now okay anybody else I just want to say I know uh progress reports went out last Friday I think or last week and so thank thank you teachers who are here I know that's a lot of work so thank you for taking the time to fill out those progress reports and then those of us who are parents in the room I just want to remind us as we're going over those progress reports that comparison is the thief of Joy so if you focus on what your neighbors kids progress report looks like

128or even another kid in your family's progress report looks like you're going to miss the growth that your kid made so I was try to focus on the growth that my kid made and also the teacher comment so again thanks teachers for putting in that bit because that really shows you know our kids not just you know what they're meeting or not meeting um and then our kids character so I think that's important to focus on those instead of the meeting or not meeting or um you know meeting State Standards I feel like the focus is on individual growth excellent um I got to go to I went to Helix hip hop night as a mom but at Helix hip hop night I got to see our elmac dancers and Parkway had dancers there which

129I was very surprised to see it was so it's so well done it starts at 7 and it go it has an intermission it goes long they host it really well and I'm always like well babe I think after you dance I'm gonna go and then just text me out but I get really into it and the dancers are so into it it's mostly for high schools but that one night they host elmac and this year um I got to see Parkway so that was really exciting and the funniest thing is that the the commentator he's like okay shout out like who's from Valla and I's like who's from who's from elac it's like the whole thing and then like who's from Pirate is like what and he's like okay so Middle School parents still

130show up to watch their kid perform that the high school parents are not here they're tired well and it it does go late so I got to to do that which was really cool um and then I happened to be at Parkway we at the soccer field but just pulling up and seeing the work on that building I was so excited and then got a little frustrated cuz I was asking my husband like did you notice he's like what I'm like it's such a big deal and he's like I I it's not really a big deal to me so then I was telling my younger daughter how how dad didn't even notice but I think it looks beautiful um so I was like you have to see L Mesa Dale so I drove her through

131the parking lot now she said good job Mom she didn't say good job to you but I will remind her that you did that but it's been super cool just seeing the measure V progress and I mean I guess it's aging me to think how many years ago we sat in here and even started that um and even that feeling like gosh it's gonna take forever but it it hasn't none of us have got any older and our schools all all look better so that's my biggest announcement for for right now Mr superintendent how about you I I just want to recognize this is a really hard time of year for everyone just in terms of the the work like um we have uh it's kind of like a mix of of two things one

132is everyone's really excited because there's energy like kids are really making progress and you're seeing that progress and it's incredible and then we also have like State Testing and um just things start to wear on you and you feel like you're just like marching toward spring break it's almost like a a tea kettle you know that's like about to boil over and it's like spring break hits right when it it starts to whistle um so I just want to thank everyone for all their hard work and and um and it's just so appreciated uh I'll also share that deian was sharing with me we had um our um our ilt meetings last week with the instructional leadership teams at our schools and um she was just sharing how it was just palpable like the energy

133and the progress that being made there so again like adding to the load of um you know this is a hard time of year people are really working extremely hard and we have high expectations for the things that are happening in our schools and our ilts are really owning and leading that work um and we're just grateful to everyone for for um just all of their efforts for our kids very well said all right anything else okay so at 7:47 p.m. we can adjourn this meeting