001e vice president bakus the live stream is now in progress you may turn on your mic and start the meeting good evening trustees the time is now 533 and I ask you oh sorry I am reading Colleen's line good evening and welcome to the March 12th regular board meeting for the capistran Unified School District the meeting is now in session and the time is is 533 Mrs Hayes please call the role trustee casanus here trustee priter present trustee Zinger here truste adnams here trustee Jones here truste bakus here trusty Davis is absent and will be joining us during Clos session Mrs Hayes before the board re recesses to close session is there anyone who'd like to speak uh to the close session agenda item there are none board will now recess to close session to
002address the following agenda items a student expulsion one case conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation one case conference with legal counsel existing litigation one case conference with labor negotiators CUA CA Teamsters Kuma and unrepresented employees conference with real property negotiators uh four properties conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation six cases conference with legal counsel existing litigation three cases Public Employee employment appointment two considerations and Public Employee discipline dismissal release one case any comments before we recess yes board vice president bulus I would like to State for the record that I have a possible potential conflict of interest regarding the district's L ramblas property discussion board report and proposed board resolution specifically I live in close proximity to the L romess property therefore in an abundance of caution and to avoid any appearance of impropriety I
003will continue to abstain from participating in any motions discussions or voting related to this property or any future transactions related to its potential disposition additionally I am recusing myself from any and all closed session discussions related to this property as well as from The Boardroom before this item is discussed in open session for agendized board discussion and possible action I will return when these items have concluded thank you thank you trustee adnams duly noted the board will now recess to close session e e e president Davis the live stream is now in progress you may turn on your mic and open the meeting thank you good evening and welcome to the March 12th regular board meeting of the cusr Unified School District the meeting is now in session the time is 7:05 and Miss Hayes
004will you please call the role student board member Rando here truste ctios here truste Pritchard truste zullinger here truste adnams here trusty Jones trusty Jones has stepped away trusty bulus has also stepped away trusty Davis here Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Clark Hampton I pledge alance 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 thank you may I have a motion to adopt the agenda moved by truste Adam seconded by truste ctios all those in favor say I okay okay and the motion carries 700 to adopt the agenda with a preferential vote of I from student board member Rando Miss Hayes can you please report can you please read the report from closed session
005on agenda item 3A student expulsions trustees voted 601 to approve staff recommendation on the following case case number two 20 25013 on agenda item 3B anticipated litigation trustees gave direction to staff on agenda item 3C existing litigation trustees gave direction to staff on agenda item 3D conference with labor negotiators trustees gave direction to staff on agenda item 3E conference with real property negotiators no reportable action on agenda items F1 through F6 trustees voted 70 to approve staff recommendation on the following cases case number 20 24729 M case number 1218 case number 0103 case number 20250 0106 case number 2025 0113 case number 20251 14 on agenda item 3G existing litigation trustees voted on items G1 through G3 70 to approve staff recommendation on the following cases o case number 1202 69 M case number 017m
006and case number 2024 0236 on agenda item 3H trustees voted 70 to approve the appointment of Chris debc to principal a Royal Vista tk8 school effective July 1 2025 and also in 3H trustees voted 70 to approve the appointment of Melissa gger to principal fistad delmare tk8 School effective July 1 2025 on agenda item i1 trustees voted 70 to approve staff recommendation on the following case resolution number 24258 c and that concludes my report thank you I'd like to recognize Dr Chris Brown who will present his superintendent opening comments followed by trustees good evening everybody um I will keep my comments to the board brief um for those of you who know I've been out sick this week and so I've only just recently got my voice back um welcome to the March 12th meeting
007of the Board of Trustees so I just want to start with a few events that we have coming up uh Friday we have another coffee with Chris hopefully I'll be more able to speak U but it's at Canyon Vista at 8:00 a.m. and then March 18th we have a parent University for elementary math with virtual math lessons for parents to Showcase what teaching and learning math looks like in our Elementary classrooms um Monday March 24th we have a CCA career fair at San Juan Hills uh with over 80 businesses attending and that's always a very crowded very well attended event and then another event on March 24th and I want to add a little context and Clarity so at the board Workshop we talked about facilities based on the DAC recommendations of the 10 sites
008to study and one of the things we're going to look at is studying deliso and kosa this is the beginning this is the exploratory phase staff does not have a plan for these schools yet because we need to go talk to the community so first step was talk to the board Second Step was talking to the community um nothing will be happening for the 2526 school year year so any actions that would be taken would be 26 and out from there depending on input from the community on on a the best plan forward so to start getting that input for the community um Monday night March 24th I will not be at the CCA career fair because I will be at Marco Forester Middle School U meeting with the delab bispo elementary Community to answer
009their questions and explore possible plans for the you know the out years moving forward um for for deliso and kosa and before I sign off I I just would like to congratulate Chris demc on being named The Royal Vista tk8 principal Chris is going to do a great job there and welcome Melissa guer to our district she's coming from another district and we are a desirable place to be and we keep uh picking some of the best and so she'll be taking over Vista doar TKA and so I wanted to extend my congratulations to her and that ends my comment ends my comments for the evening thank you thank you trustees trust you Bist good evening I just want to update you on some of the activity that uh trustee Jones and I've been participating
010in um this week is called leg csba California School Board Association that we are both delegates representing cusd on um and it's called legislative action week so um with various different legislators that um oversee our school district we are mixed with because they generally oversee a few different districts we are working in tandem with other uh board members from other school districts in speaking to the legislators um last week on Friday I wasn't able to attend but um Dr Brown and trusty Jones had a meeting with uh Lori Davies um prior to that we had I think it was the week before we had met with um assembly member Kate Sanchez um and her whole team along with Saddleback Valley School District because Kate Sanchez oversees both um had some really good conversation the whole
011reason we're doing this is don't be surprised but legislators don't really understand education and we are there to educate them um giving them talking points so that when we ask them to um be advocates for what csba um believes is important for schools that they've got the talking points to then take to the floor um and to oppose or to advocate for um one of the things I'm pretty excited about in speaking to Kate Sanchez is we explained about our charter schools and that we um I can't remember if it was December meeting or January meeting we brought up um and I had asked some specific questions about one of our online charter schools that um is costing us a lot of money because most of the students they have a over 5,000 students that
012are online and um they are out of our area but the money doesn't follow them we are paying for them um and they were very interested in that and want to be a part of a a follow-up meeting with the Orange County Board of Education to see um what we can do in terms of um having some oversight when there's underperforming schools we need to be able to um talk about that and um see that they either elevate and educate or they could be getting the students could be getting a better education with cusd so I was kind of excited about that uh this morning then um because it was a big group effort with csba and not just cusd we were uh trusty Jones and I were on with Lori Davies again um to
013discuss and just real quickly some of the things that we are discussing and bringing forth is um special ed reform and the laws um um no un funded mandates um the CF lcff the lcap proposition 98 and the funding uh legislators seem to think that it's the uh ceiling and it's not uh the funding is the floor and we should be getting um so much more and we have not over the years and so we are really pushing for that um and a lot of the conversation is about legislators making decisions and voting without picking up the phone and talking to an educator talking to a superintendent you know calling a trustee um because uh they don't really know and so we are trying to build their comfort to invite them and encourage them to
014give us a call um in regards to that because local control just keeps being taken away with all these various laws and propositions and we really each School District knows their community and their students best so um those are some of the things and we continue because tomorrow morning we meet with um Senator Katherine blakespear again and um um who else do we have tomorrow uh is stepen Choy you met with um the new Steven Choy and then we've got um Strickland um Senator Strickland who is being uh or has been um sworn in tomorrow Thursday I I believe it is addtion oh and we're meeting with Diane Dixon so we're really working to try to um Express exess and explain and have them more aware uh so I just wanted to share that with
015you and lastly uh I want to do a shout out in terms of donations um our PTA is always so supportive in terms of the programs and all the activities um I've cited this before but once again Pacific Life Foundation consistently throughout the year is giving to so many of our schools um just this month they donated 28,00 000 12,000 to Lisa Niguel high school for teex and uh Tech and supplies 6,000 to uh Castile and kappo Valley High School 4,000 to newart 3,000 to Oso Grande and another 3,000 to St Clemente High School so we so appreciate those businesses um supporting education and our schools so I just wanted to share that with you for the evening and I know trusty Jones has more to share with you legislatively thank you thank you D
016Jones so before I get into that I want to uh acknowledge that at last week's board Workshop the cooc staff uh as Dr Brown said uh recommended that the board consider consolidating deiso and kosa schools um as deliso parents have already heard and again Dr Brown mentioned the first family meeting for the deliso families will to hear more about what's going on and express their interests will be on Monday March 24th at 6 p.m. in the Marco multi-purpose room um whatever is to happen it will be subject to a vote by the board at a future meeting sometime probably in the next 12 months um I've talked to a lot of parents about that this week um and I'd like to continue to talk to parents I hope I encourage you if you are concerned
017about this to email me I always say my email address is G gii Jones cap usd.org um my phone numbers on the district website if you don't want to phone me uh send me an email give me your phone number I will call you back if you gave me your phone number I probably did call you back so please I would like to talk to you about this or anything else I um I mean people are always kind of afraid are surprised when I call them but that's my job um so on with the legislative issues I I think it is interesting that we think that legislators know about all these things that go on in the state well a lot of them are new we have term limits so they often don't last terribly
018long in Sacramento uh but in addition we have legislators who are teachers and you might think well teachers know I'm sorry teachers don't know they know about teaching they don't know about school Finance they don't know what laws are being passed in California that affect teaching and so they just plain old don't know and it's interesting to me how sometimes shocked they are when we tell them some of the things that are facing us they they ask great questions and and I'm always very pleased at their response when we met with assembly member Davies last week she asked for additional information about some of the legislation we had discussed and that included SB 1315 uh truste bulus and I brought that up last year I wouldn't be Sur surpris if you don't remember this bill
019was co-sponsored by co-sponsored last year by the California school boards Association to which we belong our delegates and also the association of California school business officials to which Mr Hampton and some of his staff are members um the bill addressed the voluminous reporting requirements for school districts that are mandated mandated by the California Department of Education or the CDE recently uh the superintendent of the Garden Grove School District brought one of her District's legislators a copy of each annual report that their district has to produce the reports filled seven bankers boxes seven boxes from a school district smaller than than CDs ours might have filled eight or nine boxes s SP 1315 which passed just last year requires that beginning March 1st 2025 the CDE must submit a report to the governor the state superintendent
020of Public Instruction and the legislature that lists every report that school districts are required to submit to them among other things the Cs CDE must give the purpose of each report recommendations for which reports must be Consolidated and what it cost school districts to prepare each report I don't know if you heard that date when I said it just now so I'll say it again March 1st 2025 that was 11 days ago has the report been produced it has not where is the report good question I wonder what would happen if school districts failed to submit their reports on time the CDE hasn't even been able report that lists all the come up with a report that lists all the reports they get it makes you wonder what they're doing with the thousands of pages
021of reports that each of more California's more than a thousand school districts County Boards of education and charter schools are required to produce every year thanks thank you trustey johnes other trustees yes um good evening everyone thank you for joining us tonight um I first want to just thank trusty bulus and trusty Jones for their hard work that they are putting in to meet with our uh legislature these are important issues for us as a district um budgetary issues and this is how we make things happen right and they're the ones that make the law pass the law so it's such a good um work that you guys are doing so thank you so much for all the time that you're putting into that um I also wanted to give a shout out uh I
022was I was honored to attend the honors concert recently at cerom uh theater and was so impressed with these these high school kids um performing the orchestra the choirs it was incredible and I just I was so blown away that our District offers this kind of an experience to our students that excel in music I'm watching these violinists and I'm thinking someone recently told me to make one decent sound with a violin is near impossible and they're just up there like it was so beautiful so I just want to give a shout out to the teachers involved the music teachers the guest conductors um I think it's is it Albert young that was the that coordinated the whole thing thank you for that incredible job incredible job to the students shout out to the kids
023it was really really good um my last comment I also had the opportunity to attend the um Community advisory committee Sunshine Awards and next time I go to that I need to bring my tissue because it was amazing and so moving to hear the parents nominating teachers par Educators who have um just G gone above and beyond with their exceptional children and um and then to see the kids performing it was it was an honor to be there it was amazing and I love that our parents and families of exceptional students have this committee they have this support um I've sat on both sides of the IEP table as a parent and as a teacher and it's it's not an easy Journey so I just huge shout out to the um to the committee the
024sunshine awards were amazing and it was um an honor to be a part of it so thank you thank you trusty ctios yes thank you um yes thank you to trusty Jones and trusty bulas for um going taking the time educating our legislators but I also want to also do a shout out not only in this District which makes us so phenomenal that our trustees educate our legislators every day but our parents do it as well so we have a huge advocacy team in this District they just traveled up to Sacramento to work with legislators to learn more about what's going on up there to educate to advocate for the kids in this District so it's a tremendous amount of work that they do they do it every day and they're constantly watching to see
025what's going on and this District alone out of Orange County sent 22 uh ledge reps up there that that week to to talk to Sacramento so um a huge shout out for that event it's called Sacramento Safari it happens every year it's an an annual trip that happens our student um board member was also up there with us and so it was a great opportunity for parents to also advocate for this for the kids of cusd we also heard from assembly member maruchi and Senator Sasha Renee Perez also Senator Choy was there and and also gave some remarks this year there's over 2,000 bills that are being um introduced and so that's a pretty heavy lift so at this time there's not a lot of specifics yet because there's still a lot of transition with
026bills so as those kind of come to fr I can give more updates um at the board meeting next month or the following month to kind of what's coming down the pike and what will directly affects C USD also um I wanted to shout out to shore Cliff's middle school I had an opportunity last night to attend an amazing event it was called I want to get it right here um be awesome internet it was an opportunity for um parents and students their child to come together um in that forum and and talk about how to be internet safe they talk about how to raise smart strong alert kind and brave kids when going online so that was a great opportunity for our families to interact with their children they had activities there so amazing
027job from the shore Cliffs community so thank you I was it was great to be there and that's all I have for tonight thank you thank you trusty other trustees okay and I yes um I just want to highlight a few things as well I was also able to attend the sunshine Awards and the honors concert at sagstrom and it was incredible it was absolutely incredible we were there with trusty Jones and trusty bolus and trusty Adams and trusty Zinger and and staff and it was such a beautiful beautiful event and for our students to be able to play and perform in that kind of a concert theater was absolutely unbelievable and they were wowed as much as we were to be able to be there so that was that was incredible and the Sunshine
028Awards again it is such a special event and honored to attend with trusty cosos trusty bulus trusty Adams and trusty Jones um the shore Cliff's career in college day is always a hit that was on Monday or Tuesday did yesterday I don't know Monday I think um great to see I love having our community and um those come and speak to our students about potential ideas and things and ways that they've made their way through life and choices the torao spring concert was beautiful I was able to attend that with truste u bolus and I also want to give a big shout out to the board workshops this year if some of you have noticed we are doing longer extended periods of time on board workshops and I just want to a huge shout out
029to our staff and superintendent for the direction that we're taking on that and um the the opportunity for parents to come and participate and we're hoping soon that it will be available online as we're making some changes here in the in the district office so um appreciate the the work there and that all that was done by staff to make sure that trustees were informed as we're making decisions um I also want to trustee um Echo trustee Adam's comments and trustee cios and the appreciation for the advoc advocacy work for um both trustee Jones and trusty buet and our superintendent to help educate our um our legislative members so that they can best know the needs of our district and be able to share that up in Sacramento and um and also appreciate trusty casanas
030for her attending up in Sacramento last week in the advocacy work with our advocacy team so thank you um there's a lot going on always in our district and I appreciate everyone that that comes together in all of our ways from our students obviously to our teachers to our staff to our uh everyone that makes it come together because we are the largest largest District in Orange County and we're the largest employer in Orange County so South Orange County sorry South Orange County yes absolutely okay and with that we'll move to the student board member for your comments thank you uh good evening everyone earlier this month I had the opportunity to visit Niguel Hills Middle School and meet with their students from ASB and pal it was really insightful to hear all of their
031ideas and um as I've been visiting these middle schools it's been uh incredible to hear their experiences and also um learn uh be able to tell them a little bit more about the Board of Trustees and at the beginning of every one of my sessions I always asked them how many uh students are familiar with the Board of Trustees and usually no one raises their hand or only a couple of students so it's been um really eye openening for me to be able to talk to them about the board um and the work that all of these amazing trustees do um and the staff here at cusd um also I've been able to share a little bit about the College and Career program um as many of the incoming eth uh incoming freshmen in high
032school are are interested in learning how they can be more involved and what career paths they can pursue uh while while uh attending a USD High School um additionally um I had the uh incredible opportunity and privilege to attend the Sacramento Safari conference alongside trusty castalanos and many of the PTSA members in our district um and it was it was incredible to hear from so many eye-opening speakers including some elected officials um for me uh as a student um I do not know a lot about the uh behind the- scenes process and the funding and what goes on at the state level so that was um a valuable experience to learn more about um the advocacy efforts that our PTSA does at the state level um it was also incredible to see some the dedication
033of our all of our parents here in CD and uh their aspirations and dedication to providing support to all of our students and making sure that they receive the educ quality education that they deserve um March has also been an exciting month across all of our schools right now our many of our high schools have been planning The Clash of classes competition uh with students showing their school spirit and competing in Friendly events ASB elections have wrapped up at many of our schools uh and it's been great to see so many of our students stepping up to lead uh many of our Middle School's asbs have also hosted school dances this month and have done a great job at building school spirit for our eighth graders and underclassman course selection for next year is underway
034and registration for after school CTE classes is now open these classes provide a valuable opportunity to explore different career paths and gain hands-on experience uh finally for seniors the financial aid deadline has been extended to April 2nd if they'd like any additional help they can schedule appointment with their futurology counselor for one-on-one support thank you thank you okay we're now moving on to oral Communications the total time for oral Communications is 20 minutes Miss Hayes do we have any speaker cards we do we have 16 17 speakers for all oral communication so I'll call your name and I'll ask you to line up over at the side of the room and then come to the podium one at a time I'm going to call the first 10 speakers starting with the student and it will
035be one minute per board policy since we're at that number of speakers speaker number one is Daphne our student Daphne following Daphney will be M Ortiz Nancy Jamie Lisa Meyers Mary Kevin Kim Pam Jean and Luca dapan please go ahead uh on March 8th all Orange County jotc programs got together for the annual military ball at Fullerton High School it was a very fun experience and I can't wait to experience it next year along with this we started we had our first competition at fton High School in February where I par participated in the color guard and won third place and in April we will get the chance to go to a camp called jclc JC is a very fun program and I want to thank the former trustee Amy hich for bringing this program
036to s High School our next speaker is Pala Ortiz good evening my name is Palmira and I'm here today because my son I straight A student am Maria bergus from elementary was repeatedly rally harassed at school by a student called the N War black monkey pushed threaten with violence and told he would be beat up in a fight and yet the greatest humiliation he suffered was not at the hands of his bully but at the hands of his principal Dr Linda Kim on February 21st my son bravely reported the ralist Lop to Dr King the bully admitted to using the N war and rally harassing my son but what happened next was shocking the very next morning in front of enti School Dr Kim publicly celebrated this same student at the flag ceremony she called
037him up had entire school including my son applaud him not for academic achievement not for kindness but because his family made a monetary donation to an organization that has nothing to do with the school let's the 24 hour thank you our next speaker is Nancy Roar where is the transparency for the first time in 45 years the new board decided to hold workshops during weekdays many interested people cannot attend even including one board member who teaches classes at a college another had to get a sub to cover her Public School classes even for those who tended like me two weeks ago much of the discussion was not able to be heard because the microphones were off from much of the time but the worst of all was when the board members and District staff broke
038into small groups and not a single word or comment was Audible nobody's transcribing these discussions and there's no live streaming the community deserves to know what is being said by whom regarding ethnic studies courses and school closures the new board members campaigned on bringing kids back to cusd schools again and just what are they doing to accomplish this I don't think school closures are going to do this at all if anything closing a local school and making a neighborhood population travel across town is going to have the opposite effect of bringing kids back to cusd thank you our next speaker is Jamie H please come forward good evening I'm here as a concerned cusd parent and Community member one who cares deeply about the future of our students especially the most vulnerable with the looming
039Department of Education Cuts I'm here to ask each of you what plans do you have in place to ensure that our most vulnerable students are not forgotten we're talking about students who already face significant barriers in potential discrimination students with disabilities low-income families students of color and families who rely on school-based support systems like free lunch I would also like to address a specific concern to those of you who have openly campaigned for and been sponsored or endorsed by extremist far-right ideologies with policies that have historically undermined public education and marginalized communities I want to ask how will you advocate for the students who will be disproportionately affected with these Cuts our children deserve more than partisan politics and empty promises equ and accessible education is a constitutional right for all kids this is a
040critical moment how will you protect and support our most vulnerable students during this Chen challenging time our next speaker is Lisa Meyers Lisa please go ahead hi good evening um as a parent of two dual immersion students I want to speak in support of the incredibly hardworking teachers who teach our students students who are learning two languages there is so much more to the students and the families in the program than last month's data presentation showed us my children went into kindergarten not speaking Spanish and other fam's children went into the program not speaking English The Early Elementary teachers run highly productive classrooms full of children speaking two languages and teach them all of the academic content that other students in the district learn in one language I wish I could list these dedicated te
041teachers this experience has made my daughters and my family's life richer due to learning more about the Mexican Latin American and Spanish cultures it has widened our worldview now they're in an equally strong program at San Juan Hills where they're taking world history in Spanish AP Spanish courses I hope that the trustees learn about what amazing teachers and programs that cappo has and they become champ our next speaker is Mary Mary please come forward conveniently have two very big Trojan horses the first is called inclusion um because of ab1 1955 it allows secrecy from parents in sexual grooming in classrooms also putting children in compromising situations at sleepover camps like Pali the second is named critical lens the horse F this for horse focuses on oppression and power in Just western civilization and not worldwide
042and pits against another instead of celebrating us as being united Americans it divides Us by racial groups some claim the power will no longer be focused but it's still in the PowerPoint in the paperwork when we asked the school district to stand up for the children by cleaning up the pornography in the libraries we're told they have no power because it comes from Sacramento Patriots need to stand up for children tell p uh Sacramento Sacramento you will not comply please have another vote on Parental notification for 2025 please inform the parents if your hands are tied regarding the camp situation get them to help you fight the insanity from Sacramento they will do this if you are forthright and um our next speaker is Kevin Kim our next speaker is Kevin Kim information sorry just
043a little nervous right now but um hi um I'm the proud father of a young son who has recently been diagnosed with autism today was his very first day of school and as you can imagine he experiences significant anxiety in new environments and takes time for him to feel comfortable and adjusted social settings I recently learned from fellow parents that Hidden Hills Elementary School plans to relocate students in the sac program program to different schools at the end of the year this news was deeply concerning to me as stability and routine are crucial for children like my son the thought of him having to start over in yet another UNAM familiar environment is overwhelming I am stepping out of my comfort zone today to respectfully ask you to reconsider this decision this CH these children
044thrive in consistency and I urge you to take into account this the emotional um and developmental impact this transition may have have on them I sincerely hope you will reconsider keeping their well-being at the Forefront of this decision thank you thank you Mr Kim our next speaker our next speaker is [Applause] Pam what advantages will our state Manda ethnic studies provide if it's presented positively it holds Merit to unite our students together will it be a vehicle to inspire achievement of ethnic and religious groups and not focus on racial struggles will it highlight progress is that's been made in people of diverse cultures and heritages learning and living together not focus on racial oppression will the ethnic study complement our state's history and social studies curriculum framework or will it critically view traditional history encouraging
045political activism we support writing our ethnic studies focused on positive merits inspired achievements and progress already made living in Unity thank you thank you our next speaker is Jean Gan please come forward good evening board and to follow um what is the objective of ethnic studies well per the model curriculum preface ethnic studies model curriculum helps build the capacity for every young Californian to develop a social Consciousness and knowledge that will contribute to the public good as a result of and strengthen democracy so my question is will the uh curriculum develop social Consciousness by teaching that their all right that they are a member of a perceived racial group that either have a privilege or a disadvantage based on their group or do you inspire students to achieve I if we teach that the deck
046is stacked against them the problem I have with ethnic studies is it's bent towards group identity Collective thought Collective crimes this is not isn't this kind of racism at its core what about personal accountability thank you our next speaker is Luca while Luca is coming forward I would like to call the next set of speakers Bert please line up Emily kasti Sati candra Ashlin and Heather go ahead LCA thank you tonight I want to start by saying thank you to Dr Gomez and Dr Merwin for truly listening to parents advocates and Community leaders while working on the LC cap while listening and talk taking our points it was a real impact to have the ability of working in groups and learning what our schools have and don't have and created more and more discussion this
047was probably the most amazing ELCA presentation I have ever seen in CSD thank you I also would like to say thank you to trusty castiano for traveling with us uh to Sacramento Safari uh I truly appreciate all her work over the years with the advocacy team on educating our legislators in Sacramento and at home and I'm looking forward uh to working with you more as does the advocacy team also um I sent you trustees an email yesterday regarding the rising tie of the online danger for our youth I want to acknowledge uh board president Davis thank you so much for your reply I truly appreciate it for the rest of the board if you have any questions please reach out to our next speaker is Bert Bert please come forward good evening a couple of
048months ago when I was here I heard the uh board talk about an upcoming ethnicity studies they didn't know what the curriculum was going to be like but they talked about how the state was going to mandate that something had to be taught but that the choice would be up to you and that it was envisioned as being almost like a travel L great food and new new cultures and architecture sounded exciting as I'm looking at the curriculum that is suggested by the state it doesn't sound that way at all I was also pleased to hear tonight the recognition of the tension that you suffer with Sacramento in them not recognizing our local needs but as you as a board you're closer to those needs and solutions I hope that as this ethnicity classes are
049taught you won't bow to all of what Sacramento is telling you and that you'll look to the needs of our community instead of teaching victimhood you'll teach appreciation thank you our next speaker is Emily Cravens thank you good oh I'm short sorry good evening Dr Brown board president Davis and trustees my name is Emily Cravens and I am the advocacy co-chair for the C CU PTSA on February 24th and 25th myself along with 21 other Advocates went to our state capital for the fourth District's annual Sac Safari among these 22 Advocates was trusty casana student board member Katherine Katherine veranda and a San cini high school student for two days we learned about the state budget challenges related to prop 98 specifics of prop 28 how School boards function history of California advocacy and legislative
050bills we were given an opportunity to meet with lawmakers and discuss with them the issues facing Capistrano as always the importance of adequate funding was emphasized for me the important takeaway was no matter if you are a parent student or District official what we do now means more than ever C PTSA advocacy team will continue to be a voice for all children thank you our next speaker is kahi if I pronounce your name correct incorrectly I apologize s SLE Katie go ahead yeah thank you um I'm here representing n other families to ask border of Trustees support to reconsider the decision of closing down all Sac program at heeden Hills Elementary we leared the news last week that cusd is planning to close all the SEC classroom in Hidden Hills Elementary moving all 30 atis
051and special needs toddler to other schools we also learned that's Bas driven by a districtwide reveal five seven years ago the rationale is to keep the same kids continue at the same location um we want to point it out that there are other factors we should consider we are strongly ask the board support to explore alternative approach which is adding a k25 sa classroom at Hidden Hills or a home school the rationale of a continue uh the kids at the same location is uh is for the best of their interest however thank you Katie our next speaker is [Applause] Cassandra hello um I'm another parent at the um at Hidden Hills uh my son's in the sac program as well he's a preschooler he's three years old um so this came as a shock to
052me and the rest of the parents um we were actually notified during a team meeting um that all of our kids would be sent to different schools next year even though our our par our kids are so happy at the school that they're at they've made tremendous improvements my son only said about 15 words before going to school now he can talk in full sentences um he he loves his school and he wants to stay there um according to Clint Collins the assistant superintendent of special education moving our children to different schools next year was a decision that was made by following a special education strategic plan that was already being implemented before taking on his role three years ago Charlie settle's mother Katie and his grandmother Linda and I met with the principal of
053Hidden Hills Sandra godbout to discuss what could be done to keep our children at Hidden Hills next year she said that the thank you Cassandra our next speaker is [Applause] Ashlin many parents are outraged by the planned increase in class sizes from 24 to over 32 in early Elementary grades families are fleeing CD schools those who can afford it go to private those who can't are trying to get into charter schools with limited class sizes like crla my daughter is number 23 on the wait list at crla is kappo willing to consider increasing funding to Charter Schools like crla to support what parents obviously want for their children's education where are our tax dollars actually going please email me a detailed response thank you our next speaker is [Applause] Heather hi I'm here representing Palisades
054Elementary School I sit on the Palisades Foundation board as the VP of fundraising we have gone from $7,000 a year to up over $50,000 a year very quickly to provide free Afterschool programming for our children in Theater Arts and stem at this point we're wondering what is going on with the school closures and we know that Palisades is on the list of the top 10 so we would appreciate some expedient um information regarding school closures and uh palisay Foundation uh needs to know what we're going to do with all the money that we have in our bank and if we should stop our fundraising activities appreciate this thank you that concludes our speakers this evening thank you for those of you that weren't able to share all of your notes if you guys or you're
055more than welcome to email us and with that we'll move on and trusty Adams yes uh president Davis just a reminder that I'm recusing myself from items 12a and 13A and so I'll head out and we're moving on to 12a public hearing on resolution number 2425 -24 at this time I'd like to open the public hearing regarding resolution 2425 d24 of the Board of Trustees of the cistron Unified School District accepting Surplus property advisory committee report declaring property Surplus authorizing the pursuit of a potential sale or long-term ground lease and development of property finding property to be exempt Surplus land pursuant to government code 54221 and authorizing the request for waiver of the Surplus property competitive bidding procedure set forth in Education Code 1466 at all the time is now 7:52 p.m. Miss Haye do
056have any speaker cards for the public hearing there are none none okay the public hearing is now closed and the time is still 7:52 p.m. okay and we're moving on to discussion action informational items and once again trusty ads is re has been recused 13A resolution 2425 d24 may I have a motion to adopt resolution 24 25-24 of the Board of Trustees of the capistran Unified School District accepting Surplus property advisory committee report declaring property Surplus authorizing the pursuit of a potential sale or long-term ground lease and development of property finding property to be exempt Surplus land pursuant to government code 54221 and authorizing the request for waiver of the Surplus property competitive bidding procedures set forth in Education Code 14766 second by trusty Zinger second and by trusty um Jones I would like to
057recognize Clark Clark Hampton Deputy superintendent business and support services who will present the item so thank you president Davis so uh as mentioned in the report out this has to do with the L ress property and I'd like to uh introduce Andre Andreas Al District legal council to present this item and answer any questions you may have aot thank you Clark good evening uh president Davis members of the board Dr Brown cabinet here to a very long titled resolution I won't go through that name again their title again you're effectively doing five different actions with one resolution and I want to speak to a little bit of the background and what's being asked of you and then we can touch back on the title and why the why those five actions are necessary this relates
058to what we call the Los Rambles property this is 7.29 2 Acres that the district owns in sanran Capistrano northeast corner of Camino Los ramblas and avenita California this goes back a ways um in March of uh 2016 the district entered into a mitigation agreement with Pacific Point development Partners who were doing resident Building Homes next to this particular site uh in that mitigation agreement allowed the district to buy this 7292 acres for $6 million you had put in some deposit money over time um at uh a few different instances tried to sell the option when the board had figured it probably wouldn't be needing the site uh you look to sell the option to purchase and we were in escrow a couple of times none of those transactions came to fruition uh and frankly
059the district didn't own it yet you were just selling the right the option to purchase uh you have a little bit more headwind when you own something you now own it in November of 2022 rather than walking away from your deposits you very astutely acquired the property for that 6 million it is worth definitely a multiple of that amount so it's a good investment by all means um and then the question becomes what's next uh for a school district to dispose of property through sale or lease uh you have to follow a surplus property process okay there's a lot to that uh but the first step is an advisory committee that is a 7 to 11 member advisory committee it's really a cross-section of the community it's made up of parents and administrators and teachers
060people who have knowledge about um zoning and uh environmental issues uh land owners business community members Etc so you formed that committee you you authorized it being convened bless you um and it um did its good fine work and produced a really nice uh report that was provided as information only to you last year no action was taken it was just provided and I paused to explain that an advisory committee report is necessary in that you cannot lease or sell property without having an advisory committee convene and take its action and receiving a report from them however it's advisory that's an advisory committee you're not held to any particular um action or recommendation but certainly nice to have the guidance and the work of that cross-section of the community so in the report it discusses
061a number of things number one recommends that the board declare the property Surplus that means you don't need it for educational purposes two assuming you're declaring it Surplus and looking to dispose of it it recommends selling that property as a first priority next if you're not looking to sell it would then say to do a ground lease in development it's dirt right now so you would lease this to some developer who would built something on it and give you ground lease payments over time by law you can do that up to 99 years uh and many school districts including yourself have those Arrangements where you're getting long-term rental income so it takes that action as well not action recommendation excuse me it also then noted um if there's going to be development of the property
062that um the district should see to it or at least you do whatever it can to the extent possible to be sure that you've mitigated any uh effect on the neighboring Community Ingress egress traffic views and the like um we noted to the to the advisory committee in detail that that of course gets done by a developer a developer seeking zoning changes for example through and entitlements through the city has to go through a whole list of um issues and reports and a California Environmental Quality document and ultimately get approvals for whatever it is he or she is looking to build whatever that entity is looking to build so those mitigation issues will be addressed in a document or multiple documents by any developer in normal course of action finally the report then also said
063that um it would be fine with the committee that you seek a waiver from the State Board of Education we have advisory committee say yay or nay to that because in order to seek a waiver the waiver office from the State Board of Education wants to know that the advisory committee was all for it or not and so we are able to say to the state bard of that should you wish to seek a waiver uh that the committee was just fine with going that route the reason that even comes up is is because a waiver provides you with some flexibility if you don't seek a waiver from the State Board of Education you have to follow what we call the traditional bid process when selling or Leasing Property this is where you send out
064a purchase agreement if it's a sale or a ground lease agreement if it's a lease and conduct a bid auction a hearing where you literally have bids based on those documents you put out on the street come in much like construction bids you open them you declare them out loud and the opposite of construction where you go with the lowest responsible bidder here you have to take the high bid on a property deals sometimes you could figure out who the high bit is on a ground lease it's very hard because you're comparing a whole lot of different terms so what would be the high when every other term in that document differs from one another so it's unwieldy and you can't negotiate you can't say during the auction I like your offer but if you
065came up a few million more we'd like it a lot more you can't do that you just take the high or reject them all okay so sometimes it doesn't end successfully this stateboard of Ed waiver on the other hand allows you to seek a waiver of that traditional bid process so you don't have to conduct a hearing you can wave almost everything in the Ed code with respect to Surplus property by seeking a waiver and it's done regularly we've done it dozens of times um so that provides you that flexibility and the committee report says green light if should you want to do it so that's what you have by way of the report in front of the board that is bring bring bringing we're bringing it back to you for acceptance with this resolution
066I'll speak more to the resolution in just a moment one other thing to note is the Surplus lands act different from everything we just talked about the Surplus lands act stands for the provits legislation that says hey if you're a public agency including school districts you have to put the um the Department of Housing and Community Development and any identified housing sponsors by that Agency on notice that you have property so that they can say whether or not they're interested in having uh any particular type including a affordable housing on the site you as a school district can exempt this land from the Surplus lands act notice requirements by any formal action like this resolution in front of you tonight the reason we do that is because you allowed to by law if you're selling
067or leasing after following a an advisory committee process and you've done that so you still send a notice to the state agency uh Department of Housing and explain to them that you've Exempted yourself so you don't have to stop for 90 days negotiate with any particular type of Housing Development entity you rather get to go through a state board of ed process get a waiver send out requests for proposals instead of doing a bid auction and receiving those proposals negotiating with anybody who submitted a proposal and seeing where you actually land and then you get to choose the most beneficial deal which may not be the highest money it could be any number of things that you identify for the factual basis as to why it's most beneficial and we announced that an open and
068everybody knows why you've chosen the particular most beneficial deal so I understand that's a mouthful that gets us all the way back to the title the title of this is uh having you do five different things the first being accepting the Surplus property committee report so you do that formally by way of this uh resolution should you accept um excuse me approve the resolution that report will be accepted you declare the property Surplus that's a finding that you don't need it for educational purposes or won't at the time of the transfer in it's raw dirt so you don't need it for educational purposes in that sense if you had an upswing in enrollment and whatnot the committee would have looked at that and in its recommendations said potentially hold on to it but the opposite
069is true they said go ahead and proceed with Surplus property uh should you wish to do so it then authorizes the pursuit of either a sale or ground lease and development of the property so you can do either still and again you that's just the recommendation if you want to just do sale or ground lease you can but what we've offered up here is both because you can have that flexibility and certainly decide later uh you don't have to decide that now it exempts the property it calls the property exempt Surplus land with respect to the Surplus lands act so by taking this resolution and approving it we send notice to the state explaining uh the housing um Department explaining that this is not on that list um but they get that formal notice and
070then lastly um it gives us the green light staff and administration to seek the stateboard of bed waiver to get that waiver again allows you to not have to follow the traditional bid process to do a waiver you have to have a hearing which we just conducted and rarely are they attended or much said about them um we talk with your collective bargaining units and see whether or not they're all four or not doing something at this site uh and then we submit an online application check a bunch of boxes provide a rationale as to why we're doing what we're doing and a declaration from here would be Clark Hampton um again explaining what we're doing and literally show the code that we're striking so we know exactly what's being waved from the education code
071and it allows us to then move forward with the request for proposal instead of an auction so that's all five things that are being done in this resolution and with that I'm happy to take any questions if there are any okay Miss Hayes do we have any speaker cards on this item there none for that okay discussion trustees comments questions hey thank you for a great presentation and appreciate your information thank you pleasure thank you very much can we please call the roll student board member Rando I truste ctios hi trusty Pritcher hi trusty Zinger hi truste adnams she recused herself forgive me trusty Jones hi trusty bullet hi trusty Davis Hi the motion carries 601 with the preferential vote of I from student board member Brando okay and we'll bring trusty Adams back in
072and we'll we're moving on to 13B the language immersion program evaluation report the next item is language emersion program evaluation report it's an information item only no board action is necessary and I'd like to recognize Greg associate superintendent student Support Services will present the item thank you thank you very much president Davis and trustees staff presents item 13B language immersion program evaluation report tonight we will be sharing background information regarding our Golden Bell awardwinning language immersion program pathways [Applause] as well as a highlevel executive summary of the findings from a recent audit of our program by the Center for Applied Linguistics Dr oena Mack returns this evening and she will lead the presentation thank you Dr Mack Dr M good evening Dr Brown and esteemed trustees before we proceed with our presentation I'd like to
073acknowledge and thank some of our Lang anguage immersion principles who are here with us this evening so we have principal Christen nelon from RH Dana principal Jesus bessera from Vio Elementary and Dr Maria Christina Barosa from Las Palmas Elementary they are not only present here with us this evening but they are very present instructional leaders as well in our program and very much the success of our program is highly owed and credited to their instructional leadership at their sites so the vision of a cusd graduate perfectly aligns with the goals of our language immersion program engage Citizen and skilled Communicator in particular these elements are highly aligned to the goals of the cusd language immersion program that are centered around these three pillars our commitment to bilingual ISM and by literacy what I mean by
074that is that we're not only committed to making sure that our students speak the target language but that they also biliterate in that and all components including Reading Writing listening speaking our language domains that they are proficient in as well with that as they're developing that we're also committed to their academic achievement in that our standards and our outcomes for our language immersion students are the same as that of the students who are not in our language immersion programs and may not be learning two languages simultaneously and of course a natural by byproduct of this as well is social cultural competence and the ways in which they are engaged in learning about the cultures traditions and the people that speak the language that they are learning this diagram demonstrates that since 1992 our language immersion
075program has been expanding to ensure that there's Equitable access to our language immersion programs for students and families throughout our district the board actually established a policy that establishes the a matriculation pathway for our students in that once they are admitted into our program they are then guaranteed these Pathways here with opportunities of course for School of Choice once they transition from elementary to middle school and then middle school to High School uh please allow me to just give a little bit of a Distinction on the language that we use what cusd has is a language immersion program that is that terminology is used interchangeably with dual language immersion program within the language immersion program pathway we offer two models we have a two-way immersion program what that strives to do is an equal enrollment
076of students that are dominant in English and that are dominant in Spanish or the target language that is the program that we have in all of our Spanish programs we also have a oneway immersion program um what that means that is the program that we have at bergus elementary where you have the majority of the students that are dominant only in the English and all the students there are learning the language together at the same time this may be akin to learning a foreign language in a secondary level for instance probably much of the experience that many of us have when we acquire a language so on the right we have that 4500 students in cusd are in total are in our language immersion program with the vast majority of that in our twist program
077or two-way immersion Spanish program and about 500 and so in our Mandarin immersion program across our three different School sites not to be confused with the numbers here because the numbers here represent the language allocation or what is the percentage of English and Spanish that will be used as the language of instruction across the different grade levels so we have an 8020 model at bergus Las Palma San Juan Elementary and Vio and as you can see that they may begin with 80% of the instruction in Spanish or in Mandarin the target language with by the time that they're in third grade that is now split to 5050 RH Dana has a 50/50 model from the very beginning from tkk but you'll see here that they both even out by the time that they're in third
078grade that in both models it's a 50/50% allocation regardless of the model of 8020 or 5050 we have the same outcomes and and success indicators for students that are enrolled in these programs so before I get into the findings of the program evaluation allow me to explain the origin of the program evaluation so in 2022 2023 the language immersion PLC that consists of site leaders teachers staff indicated that we really need to prioritize the things that we are doing in our program and that increase coherence and clarity about the program structure would be a good starting point for that and that's why we determined that the good way to do that is to go ahead and to establish or to put together an annual a program evaluation so we contracted with Cal Solutions or Center
079for Applied Linguistics they are the governing body for dual language immersion programs and in fact publish the guiding principle of dual language immersion program and along with this uh language immersion PLC we collaboratively developed the questions that we wanted to include in this research in this audit so I'm going to pause at this moment to see if there are any questions I can answer about the quick overview that I provided at the beginning and um also the impetus for the program evaluation okay thank you so as Dr M mwin mentioned tonight's presentation serves as an executive summary a very highlevel overview of the findings of the program with many opportunities for us to use different parts of the findings to have extended conversations and discussions about how we can continue to strengthen our program so
080what are the conclusions of the findings of this program that language immersion program works that there's a demonstrated Effectiveness in promoting bilingualism biliteracy and social cultural competence that as we are developing our students target language or in Spanish or Mandarin we are not short changing them in our expectations for our literacy in fact there are findings in particular that highlight that the outcomes for English Learners that are enrolled in our program here outperform the English Learners that are not in our language immersion program and that our program structure is highly aligned with the guiding principles for dual language education framework so there's a strong alignment about what the research and the guidelines are telling us to do about the things you need to put in place and the things that are actually going on in
081our program a benefit of course of any audit or any program evaluation is that it gives us a path forward forward and a language to use in terms of how can we continue to strengthen our program and those are opportunities and areas that we look forward to exploring and expanding with you the board as well as our language immersion sites teachers staff parents and students these are the seven different guiding principles it may seems small here that there are seven but each of these um elements or principle actually provides a plethora of information and opportunities that we can really treat in in in isolation or or expand in depth on its own and that's precisely the work that we look forward to in doing for example as I work with our families that are supporters
082and proponents of our language immersion program I have pulled out that family and Community engagement piece looked at the research questions that we looked there took a look at the data that was included there and looked at that information to really have a more thorough discussion with our parents and families about what the audit told us about our program and then complementing that of course with their input and their feedback the program evaluation compris of these three different data points it's very much a mixed method in that we had both qualitative and quantitative data included in that so we have student data of course many of the data points that we are familiar with assessment results enrollment information what have you but the researchers also had opportunities to conduct classroom observations so during the year
083that they were completing the audit the researchers actually visited all of our school sites and conducted classroom evaluations to really give us that good snapshot of how this information and how the principles of language uh immersion is manifesting into the things that we are seeing in the classroom so their findings from those classroom observation compris this audit as well and we were very excited to also include parents staff and student listening sessions so the researchers with the support of the site principles put together groups of parents staff and students in their own individual groups and gave them an opportunity to give us their voice and their um input and feedback about their experiences with the program so all these three data points combin collectively put together are what uh make up our program evaluation so
084from this we have some prioritized next steps and staff recommended short-term actions midterm actions and long-term actions just to give us a sense of sustainability and continuity in the work together so I'm going to highlight some of the action steps for each of the three different um uh action steps or um time period for instance for the shortterm actions one of the things that we look forward to doing is just analyzing some of our current practices so taking a look to see what is the enrollment ratio and Analysis telling us about the effectiveness of a program and if the model that we have is the model that we need to continue to be to have is what we need to continue having based on our student demographic for instance in our midterm action we look
085forward to um implementing longitudinal tracking of student outcomes and making sure that as we measure success of our students that we're looking at it very comprehensively again much in the same way that we presented the El annual program evaluation in a very multifaceted way um that includes both the things that we see in the classroom what the teachers are telling us as well as assessment results and last with the long-term actions um it the importance of just the sustainability of pipeline of bilingual Educators making sure that it's a collaboration with our HRS colleagues um and making sure that we have effective teachers and highquality teachers that are equipped with the skills the knowledge and the strategies to ensure that they are very much affording our students with those opportunities that we said and our goost
086that we have with our language immersion program and so with that I'd like to say thank you gracias and shishi thank you re that was wonderful Mrs Hy do we have any speaker cards thank you okay trustees trusty casanas thank you I don't think I mean I could be wrong but I don't think since I've been on the board we've had a presentation about our language programs have we not like this not like this no no but but we've had them yeah but not to this detail so I appreciate it because there was a lot of really good information in it that I think the public needs to know and it was very informative so thank you thank you appreciate that Focus I just want to say that you give an excellent presentation I always
087enjoy someone who knows the program so well that you can just talk to it and you're not reading and um it's refreshing I I can tell just how much you're into this program and um looking at it evaluating it and always wanting to make it better for our students so I I thank you and the entire team thank you I'll make sure to thank my mayor too at home that you acknowledge the efforts of the extensive rehearsal needed thank you yeah all right trusty Jones so I um yes thank you for this and and um and trusty castanos is quite correct that we haven't had uh presentations of this death before and I appreciate that so um I've been paying attention to two-way immers in this district for many years um and have many um
088young friends and parent friends who have been uh experienced it um there have been situations in some of our language emersion schools over the years maybe now maybe 10 years ago various times where at a particular school or at least in particular grades there were um excess considerably in excess of 50% of one model or another uh I I believe I was told one time of a grade at one of our schools that was 70% English models and uh let's see what's the opposite of that uh 30% um Spanish models and I think I'm I'm aware of uh that the opposite of that um and I I do not have data but I have lots of parent stories about what happened to their child in a situation where there was far are in excess of
08950/50 um that not enough time is available for the Spanish models to learn English really well or very quickly or that there was so much English remediation time needed that the high Achievers in either language were being short changed because there was so much time given to English remediation so um I am concerned about that um uh 10 15 years ago most of our Spanish models were born outside of the US or maybe came here as infants now I think most of our Spanish models not all of them of course were born here they are they speak better Spanish than English but they probably speak a lot of English so it changes a little bit but I think it's still not entirely different um uh let's see I'm concerned that we may need to start
090introducing 5050 in the kindergarten and in TK in some of our schools where we're getting an imbalance um because maybe we are getting equal outcomes for all but if the equal outcome doesn't come until 8th grade that's not an equal outcome the equal outcome ought to be there closer to more like third grade uh so this is a big concern of mine as I say I I live in s Capistrano uh where there have been two immersion programs for a long time I've known these people here in the front row forever and ever and I I believe in the program but I believe in making sure we're doing it right so it really does benefit students it no class should be 70% one and 30% another and that doesn't mean like um okay now our
091kindergarten is 7030 so we're going to make that 5050 that doesn't mean the whole school has to become 50/50 but we have to be thinking about whether that class at that school should be um I'm just I just want to make sure that our students are getting good opportunities to become proficient in um well they they have to be definitely proficient in English because they have to live in the society and but I don't want to sacrifice the Spanish proficiency for students who want it um I just want to make sure that everyone has those opportunities thanks thank you I think the gift that an evaluation like this affords us is that it gives us a Point of Departure right um and it gives us an opportunity to recommit to the program and to have
092conversations as to our responsiveness to the needs of our students at the time and how that aligns with our model model so we do look forward to having those conversations with our sites for clarity um you showed a chart in terms of the 8020 down to 730 but whether it's the 50/50 program at RH Dana or both will have it by third grade that it's a 5050 correct so you had reported if I heard right that whether it was the 8020 or the 5050 they both were um um starting from the third grade it's 50/50 yeah MH no what I'm going to say is that both were successful correct correct um I don't know maybe we might have one school stronger than another but your findings that you're expressing to us does not show that
093we need to switch to 50/50 I mean I'm hearing from trusty Jones that maybe she's questioning we're not being as successful I don't know if you can address that any just to be clear I think we have to be careful we're talking about two different things sometimes so one is the model of language use but what truste Jones I I believe what you're talking about because we've talked before about this is the percentage of students who have their home language in the Target or English language who are in the class and the value of two-way emerging programs if they if they get below a certain point where they don't have enough native for our case we have two-way emerging Spanish programs if they don't have enough native Spanish speakers then the model needs to change
094and so as our demographic shift that's different than sort of the 7030 language use um it's the percentage of English only versus English Learners in the classes and so one of the things that our schools will always have to monitor is as our demographic shift at what point would we need to shift models into from a two-way immersion to a to a language immersion program like like the myip program which isn't a two-way immersion program based on native speakers so that'll be something that the schools have to evaluate as they move forward but that's slightly different than the model you slightly different than the model you choose to lose in terms of the percentage the language allocation that's any other comments questions I'd like to thank you for that and thank our principles for attending
095tonight it was fantastic and we I wish all of my kids were able to have gone through it and me as well actually I might go sit in thank you thank you there being no further discussion we'll move on to the next item and we're on to 13 C instructional materials recommended for adoption by the instructional materials Review Committee we have a motion to approve instructional materials recommended for adoption by the instructional materials Review Committee so moved moved by trusty Adams second second by trusty casianos I'd like to recognize Dr marwin associate superintendent and support services who will present the item thank you very much [Music] testing thank you president Davis and trustees staff presents item 13 C instructional materials recommended for adoption by the instructional materials Review Committee like to point out that this
096evening our staff recommendation includes a commitment by our District staff to support the novel through professional development for teachers as well as information for both parents and students regarding potentially controversial topics I'd also like to point out this evening that we have teachers from several high schools our AP teachers who submitted this novel for your consideration they are here this evening in support of the item so I would like to welcome Dave Weinstein Mandy Anderson Zack mson and Kelsey Torres they are all in the audience if you give us a wave [Applause] and and you're welcome to sit in the sit in the front and then we'll go ahead and they can ask you if they have questions so if you want to sit in the front first uh so I I would like to
097point out Dr Johnson I are available for questions as well as our amazing teachers and staff recommends approval okay Miss Hy do we have any speaker cards on this item we do so I'm going to ask speakers to line up her board policy uh with the number of speakers being at 12 we will hear one minute from each person I'll ask you to line up in the following order Grace Pratt Sandra Gilman Elizabeth fiser Barbara Hilton Patricia Holloway Jamie H Amy back Barbara Katherine Hall Courtney dner Lisa and Sarah Grace Pratt please go ahead good evening my name is Grace and I'm a senior at St Clemy high school I'm here to ask the board to adopt James by pural Everett into the curriculum I stand before you tonight not only as a book lover
098and a supporter of the freedom to read but as an IB diploma candidate one of the pillars of the I IB program is perspective in my classes I'm encouraged to learn from different perspectives and challenged to consider lived experiences that are unlike my own I've seen firsthand how diverse literature Sparks meaningful discussions and thoughtful insights for my peers who approach these books with open-mindedness and empathy reading James is a wonderful opportunity to continue fostering compassion and understanding in our Capital USC students complimenting messages and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Narrative of the life of federick Douglas which are both already in the curriculum I've been so fortunate to receive such an amazing all-encompassing education in my 13 years in this district and I want to ensure that future students are granted the same
099opportunities to grow and stretch their Thinking by adopting James into the curriculum the board will not only enrich students understanding of Divi diverse perspectives but also Empower them to engage with literature that challenges inspires and fosters empathy thank you our next speaker is Sandra Gilman good evening I'm a concerned Citizen and I feel that for all the wrong reasons school districts are Banning books from our students curriculum I just finished reading James by pel Everett more than anything it's an adventure story it's also about a man with a rich inner life James is smart well spoken and really thinks about his situation but as a slave he has to hide the fact that he can read and write and even more importantly that he can think for himself throughout the book James and Huck Finn
100find themselves in some pretty dangerous situations and I really liked how they use their intelligence to get out of trouble James is definitely about race identity and freedom when did those things become unamerican the word comes up in the book just like it does in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn it's uncomfortable but ever it uses it to show the language of that time and the way Jim was treated like all enslaved people it's part of his bigger message about race and identity making us rethink how we view these issues today I read this book because it was on Barack Obama's favorite books reading list if he as an African American and former president of the United States thank you Elizabeth Fisher Elizabeth thank you esteemed board members and Dr Brown I'd like to thank you
101very much for approving this novel I am a retired credential library media specialist from a very large High School here in Orange County I understand all of the controversy involved with book Banning and I appreciate apprciate that you follow the accepted procedure for approving novels it involves both staff teachers Administration board members parents community members and everyone has access to those books what frustrates me is the people who come forward in favor of banning books and oftentimes as you well know they have not read those books cover to cover they do not understand them you do and I appreciate that thank you for prioritizing our children children's education and for their intellectual Freedom thank you our next speaker is Barbara Bar Barbara hton good evening I'm I am here to voice my support for the
102inclusion of James in the district's curriculum for English 3 and AP English we need our students to become critical thinkers and one of the best ways ways that this happens is exposing them to content that offers different perspectives allowing them to analyze and discuss with their peers and develop their own thoughtful ideas about complex subjects that are important to our country James is exactly the kind of book that students should be reading in this District it is smart well- written and offers a different perspective on slavery it complements the already taught and approved book books um Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas I can only imagine how rich the discussion amongst students will be if they're given this opportunity so please approve this book as part of the
103school's curriculum our next speaker Patricia Holloway thank you we read books as a way to see the world from another perspective and to learn about historical and current events that we will never experience directly ourselves novels like James develop empathy and understanding for other people's life situations that may be vastly different or unimaginable compared to our own as a slave Jim was forbidden from learning to read and write the act of stealing a pencil stub brought great harm to Jim and those he cared for I will never look at a pencil the same way again at least you think at least you think that Jim's quest to gain even a rudimentary education is a thing of the past we only have to look to Afghanistan today where girls are prohibited from going to school and
104their schools are being bombed when I was on the cappo school board I met with groups of high school students who were begging for books that were more contemporary and represented different points of view my sincere hope that you approve this book Thank you our next speaker is [Applause] Jamie thank you I'm here to Advocate the approval of James and to thank the teachers for submitting this powerful book James offers our students the opportunity to explore an American classic from a fresh important perspective it challenges us to see Jim not just as a victim of enslavement but as a multi-dimensional brilliant individual with his own intellect dreams and Humanity this portrayal of Jim created by Pulitzer Prize winning author persal Everett allows readers to engage with his complexity showing that his character is far more
105than a victim of circumstance when the imrc approves materials it's an endorsement of quality backed by experts who know our students needs but I've learned that even when im imrc approves some books there are some trustees who prioritize personal ideologies over educational needs limiting students access to materials that encourage critical thinking and broader perspectives some might argue that students can read James outside of class if it's not approved but teachers play a crucial role in guiding them toward challenging transformative texts James is one such book Thank you our next speaker is Amy [Applause] Baxter uh my name is Amy I'm a former AP Language and Composition teacher in a neighboring district and I'm also a cusd parent AP langen comp is a rhetoric and argumentation class students who score a five the highest score awarded
106on the exam are the students who successfully synthesize works from a variety of genre the adoption of persal Everett's novel James is important because it provides students one more source to analyze and synthesize into a multi-layered complex argument the opportunity to write essays on the exam which synthesizes fiction and non-fiction works from the mid 19th and 21st centuries is a powerful tool for cusd students to deny students the experience of studying a celebrated piece of 21st century American literature like James places students at a disadvantage on this exam limiting exposure to literature is limitating students opportunities to compete in today's Global Society our next speaker is Barbara hello my name is Barbara and I'm a parent of two kids um in the district I'm here today to ask you to approve this the book James
107I'm I'm going to give you a different perspective I'm a first generation American when I was applying to get into schools there was no way I was getting in because of Legacy or because my parents were going to make a big donation or because of Sport the only way I was going to get in was through my Merit and academic record and I needed to take AP classes to show that and get a high score as uh many English teachers have told me one just spoke right before me today um the book James is a fantastic tool for our CD students to have in their toolbox when taking the AP exam and to get those fives by not adopting James you are causing harm and limiting opportunities to kids like me the potential harm to
108students who are not mature enough to handle the book is mitigated by parents opting their children out please adopt this book James thank you our next speaker is Catherine Katherine Hall that's me Katherine Hall um much of what I was going to say has been already said you know the book is an award winner on many book of the Year lists and I just want to share a personal story I grew up uh liking to read perhaps loving to read I read through school and when I got into college my major was in The Sciences I took as an English course comparative literature I will argue with anyone that that's where I started to learn how to PR process information how to analyze information how to be a critical thinker and I think that is
109what you want our students to be this is for these AP classes I would argue it's an appropriate book for most high schools uh 11th grader 12th graders It's a Wonderful book if you haven't read it I recommend it but please uh approve this book and help our kids learn what they need to learn in this time to survive our next speaker is courton Courtney please come forward hi I'm speaking to you today as a mom I just finished reading James last week I'm pretty conservative when it comes to what my kids can watch or what video games they can play my son brother regularly tells me that I have North Korea settings on his phone that said I would be very comfortable with them reading this book I have a seventh grader at Shore
110Cliffs and a nth grader at St Clemy High School much to my dismay neither of them are passionate readers and I'm hoping that adopting modern literature like this to our curriculum might catch their interest in addition I value adding diverse voices and perspectives that increase empathy and compassion I hope that my kids get the opportunity to read this powerful book in a future AP class along side the already approved literature thank you our next speaker is [Applause] Lisa thank thank you for this time you have such an important role in our community as I usually say if you want to take down our democracy start with our education my name is Lisa and I'm a 28-year voting resident of cusd and I want to emphasize why James by personal Everett is essential for our students
111it offers a fresh perspective within Huckleberry fin by giving Jim the enslaved man intelligence and a voice encouraging students to think critically about literature and history the novel Eng es with race power and identity topics that remain deeply relevant today it challenges students to analyze how stories are told and whose voices are heard while it includes the nword like Huck fin its use is intentional forcing readers to confront the realities of History rather than ignore them this provides an opportunity for guided discussions and the power to of language of and historical truth James prepares students for college level thinking and real world conversations thank thank you our next speaker is Sarah Phillips I'm Sarah Phillips I'm a mom of a High School freshman a second grader in the district I'm also credential English language arts
112teacher and a teacher librarian I currently work in a public high school as a teacher librarian in another uh school district and it's my 23rd year in public education I'm here tonight in favor of the adoption of James by persal Everett for the AP book list as I uh read the supporting materials I see that Huck Finn has been taught alongside with The Narrative of uh the Life of Frederick Douglas coincidentally I started reading James in February I then reread Huck Finn to see where they lined up and then I read Frederick Douglas's book and I'm like it's a trifecta reading all three of these uh together was a great experience and seeing how literature and history line up to see how the lived experiences of an enslaved person lineup with the novel of James
113it was also a wonderful experience to read the satire of of uh Twain alongside literary depth of of James I can only imagine the Fantastic discussions that would ensue in a AP language uh classroom James oh that's it okay thank you speakers thank you okay truste discussion would love to say something first off I love to see the English teachers here and I love how passionate you are about this um I know my imrc rep said that this book I don't know if any of you four were were there and presented but they said it was an awesome presentation so well done um I just want to express um my appreciation for the opportunity to have contemporary literature added to our curriculum I was thrilled that this book was written by a black author and
114has ties to Southern California I thought that was a pretty cool side note um I love a book that offers perspectives different perspectives and I would imagine imagine our awesome English teachers will at a minimum summarize Huck Fin and let them read some of that if not all of it would be remarkable because obviously a perspective is only as good if you have both perspectives so um I'm just grateful for our teachers I'm grateful that and I totally trust them that they're capable of high level discussions I I have um I see a San Juan Hill sweatshirt I've got a senior there right now and a freshman so I hope um that one day my daughter will be able to read this in her class and have these discussions so thank you for bringing this
115to us buas well I have a question in regards to um a let first of all I read the book and I read a lot of reviews and so my first question is um while some people felt it could be a standalone book could but um I think having some knowledge of the original story Huckleberry U Finn enhances the understanding of it so if you could just one of you share um how will that be are you going to be reading both books are you just going to summarize kind of share with this or how do you see bringing James uh to the classroom um like one of our parents said uh it's kind of a trifecta right with the narrative Life of Frederick Douglas um Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and now James um I
116do think however a lot of the time it's unrealistic to teach three books at once or three books on the same topic back to back to back um so I would uh probably in adopting this book teach the entire book and bring in what I felt were the most powerful excerpts from the original especially those chapters on the king and the Duke um because that was something I was waiting for all of James when are they coming when are they coming how's he going to do it and um it just blew me away so that would definitely be one one way that I would do it well then of course I know you're not doing Tom Sawyer as well h no is that approved in one of our grade levels probably I just wondered if
117anybody knew um so I enjoyed the book I really enjoyed the relationship between James and Huck um and the compassion there um and the story in you know it was pretty incredible to read how James was teaching the young children to read and how to respond using the two languages and it it was really um I don't know that that just really struck out there was a lot of parts um so the only question that I have which has been brought up in reviews and brought up here is the the nword and so my question is um we had just last year in this boardroom um a parent and I believe it was in the liso vijo area had a child in Middle School um and the and it's been brought up in terms of
118our population we have a very small um population of blacks and this was the only um black student in the classroom and I don't even remember what book it was but it was about that word and the discomfort so someone had said in terms of possibly the parent that is uncomfortable being able to opt out um it's just that there will be those that are uncomfortable I get why it's inserted in all um in fact I didn't even pay attention to how many um times it was in in the first chapter it seemed to kind of accelerate through second and then through the third chapter and and um you know the rape scene and all of that but it was um a terrific book but I I would like to know how you would handle
119um that book in in terms of uh reading it aloud um and and quite honestly just to finish my appointee on the imrc when it came to um because it was explained the imrc because that book was brought back to them Carrie you would remember and I'm not sure what it was and she said she was a teacher in Texas and she said I'm not comfortable using that word in speaking it so when it came to that I probably would have found a um a video or a you know um Nook book you know that's read and she probably would have had it read um and I thought okay well that's interesting so I just wonder about how you feel about that and if there's another um lesson that someone can do if they're not
120comfortable with their child okay um so big question okay um I am obviously not black talking about a a word that has harmed black people for literally hundreds of years um we had an incident at Alisa Nigel High School some years ago where a teacher was reading the n-word out loud while reading and um a student filmed that teacher and reported them and understandably students were uncomfortable with the word being read out loud but also understandably the teacher felt betrayed right um why did this student secretly film me instead of approaching me and talking to me about this when this had never been an issue in previous years since then um Aliso has done several trainings that I think have made teachers a little bit more comfortable and understanding uh you know in the current
121zist what are the current generation's feelings about this word and I think we we are equipped to talk about it now um we do currently teach several books that use the nword The Adventures of Huckleberry fin uh To Kill a Mocking Bird Of Mice and Men just to name a few something that I think is really important to note about these books is they're all written by white people and that word is used only with the intention to harm in those books I think James is unique because it's written by somebody who has had that word directed at him and he also takes into account when people use these words meaning no harm at all and I think that that's something that our students are doing certainly at Alisa Niguel high school kids throw the
122n-word around with their friends and I've heard it in hallways in the classroom and I would say 90% of the time they're not intending to harm and if you call them out on it they go oh he's my friend it's okay um but I want to point out a really good passage it's really short I promise in uh in James that I felt uh was necessary for these kids so Huck says it's it's page 69 it's in chapter 10 why you holding them books Huck asked they feel feels good I said that's funny how can a book feel good he grabbed the rouso and thumbed through it it ain't even got pictures I likes the weight of them I said Huck stared at me for a long few seconds I guess I don't understand and
123he says the nword somehow that word seems strange coming out of Huck's mouth I think he heard it too because we shared an awkward silence and so I think that moment uh when kids say he's just my friend you know we're just goofing around there's I think that's a really tangible and good moment of you know you're hurting somebody that you love with that kind of language and this is something and sorry to you know go in a in a tangent but I I just want to point out you know nobody's a saint and everybody makes mistakes when I was in college I was studying abroad in London and my best friend in London was um this uh this guy named Ryan Kelly and he was gay and we were shopping together at Primark once
124and he was telling me about you know something he was dealing with that that was stupid and silly and I said that's gay this is in like 2013 where people were still saying that all the time and it was this same moment gay is not a slur it's nothing near the NW right but I said this and I remember it 12 years later that he he got very quiet and we never talked about it and I never apologized but it changed the way I thought about language and using pejoratives from then on and that's something I'd like for kids to learn before their adults living abroad and hurting other adults that they love from a systems perspective that's a great answer by the way thank you so definitely not coming in try I I appreciate
125your response um and um I forgot what I was goingon to say thank you I would love to add to that a little bit Judy because I I was here at that board meeting when that parent got up I wasn't on the board at the time but it was Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry and it was a book that I actually read when I was teaching school to my class and he was talking about middle schoolers and I taught in elementary school but I taught that because I taught up in the Bay Area where we had kids bust in from East paloo into our schools that were black and I I didn't I chose not to use the nword because I but I was able to teach them in an educational setting what that
126word meant rather than them hearing it and repeating it from rap music or or thinking it was okay in a different setting so to me I think it's really powerful to hear it in the classroom whether you choose to say it or not I'm never comfortable with it and I'm fine if people are and especially in that context text but um but I think that I I wanted them to know what it meant to me as a white woman who had who had studied the African-American culture and had deep respect for it and the history and and um was sad about what you know it hurt what had happened to them I wanted them to get that from me and to know that that was not okay but I so I think it's powerful to
127be able to teach in this setting thank you so I would just add that from a systems position obviously families can always opt out of a piece of literature there's always um our teachers are trained and told you have to have an alternative assignment if a family opt out of a book that's totally fine um and we're doing a couple of things so one is we're also continuing to train our teachers so that they feel comfortable tackling these issues we have a training coming up in a few weeks with the orange car Department of Ed just to give our teachers um more skill they are already skilled more skill in how you might um take on these controversial controversial issues not just the nword but also the rape scene the murder those types of things
128as well the other thing we can always do we we're going to ask for is in and when topics are coming up in the syllabus or in an information sheet before the parents are just made aware this is the book we're reading here's some topics that are in it and so you know before your kid gets to read it take a read and then if you want to upt your kid out that's totally fine so I think the best thing we can do is inform our families we're going to read James James uses this word James has these themes it's a companion to Huckleberry fin or a retelling in a new way um and and get them involved and add to pay as on that list right please read an excert from this section of
129the book so that it provides that context um hi Miss Taurus hi I'm so proud I don't know what to say I've been sitting in this chair for five years and that was phenomenal thank you I mean can I take your class I don't know what else to say like the education our kids are getting through that powerful text is it's beyond words um and I'm rarely at a loss for words um but my one comment is um and I think a speaker alluded to it it's contemporary books yes please yes listen to that uh as a mom with kids in the high school is kids are not reading they're not engaging with novels anymore they're completely disconnecting and the national statistics out there with kids who are actually picking up a book is horrifying
130and the way that you just taught all of us and if you're teaching that in your classroom I can't imagine anybody not wanting to pick up that book and read that book so thank you thank you for bringing the book into the the district and making the recommendation thank you thank you chusty Adams yeah I would just agree with all the comments so far that I love the idea of different perspective and having our older students navigate these tough topics with the guidance of our amazing teachers um so I love that I love the Contemporary aspect I would love to see it paired with Huck fin you know as much as possible I understand can't read so many but um I love that and I think it's great to involve the parents because that gives
131it you know for me I would love to have the conversation with my child you know alongside of what they're doing um in the classroom so thank you staff and thank you teachers thank you Jones so um so I'd like to be very specific about we what we tell parents because well I was talking to a parent recently who was saying you know if they didn't approve of a book they or they didn't know what was going to be in a book that their child would was assigned they would read that book well that's all very well and good some of our parents don't read English some of our parents don't have time uh some of our parents are not literate um so I think we have a responsibility to be very specific on books
132where there are some possible issues and a parent tonight came and spoke about how her child had had been called the nword this is a this is a thing and and I it bothers me that students say this to each other um if I said it to a student I might not get out alive but it it's it's not okay I think parents need to know that in both Huck Fin and uh and uh James the n-word is used more than 200 times I didn't count someone else did um but uh but I think that should be called out I think it should be called out that there is a rape scene um it is uh very brief it is not described in any sort of graphic way but then there's also the possibility of
133rape that comes up because we do have students who have experienced it or have a close friend who's experienced it and this can be a trigger for them parents need to know this so they can make that decision about asking for opting out and we you know we allow it but we don't necessarily inform the parent and I would like that very specifically to be made the other situation that I'm concerned about is as you mentioned pairing it with Huck Finn I know that there's no time to read both books all the way through but I think some exposure to both is really important this came up in some of the emails I received I heard it tonight um one of the imrc members mentioned um well one of her issue was that uh we
134should be reading the classics and H huckin is the classic uh not James um and and I I I understand that point and so I think that uh maybe the one gets assigned a summer reading as you say maybe just exerp but I would like to require that they be taught together in some way that that at least some portion of Huck fin is taught with James I just um I can't just say oh well I hope you do yeah I want to require it um but I also want to say one other thing bunch of people came here tonight and they have emailed and they have been posting on Facebook and they have been saying to me all about these terrible conservative trustees and our board has been flipped did you hear that tonight
135did you hear anything that you had feared I didn't I've been working with these people I think they're good trustees and I'd rather not keep hearing that from the audience these are thoughtful intelligent people who care about kids and they have shown that in their discussions tonight and I'm ready to hear it stop thank you m ores can I just ask one more question sure so um they talked a lot about this being offered in an AP class but will it also be offered in a regular English course as well like English oh absolutely okay Mr Weinstein's here he I know he he teaches English three and how you doing yeah so it' be offered in English 3 and then Juniors and seniors in AP and trusty buus one more quick thing because I remembered
136what I wanted to say what I especially loved about the book and while we're talking about the nword is why they were referred to that and James with dignity um with being about family his his character I mean he ended up having to do some bad things but um I mean what went through him every time he thought about Katie him being hidden in the room when she was being raped and it came back to him and came back to him um it just showed him not as just some dumb but a very smart compassionate real person and that's the best part to me that came out in the book is the character building and the relationships and even knowing how to handle and analyze Duke and the king and um he was pretty smart
137the kind of know what was coming and and again emphasize that relationship with with Huck so um thank you I I will be voting for the both thank you so I I really would like to see this to be a companion I have a few concerns one the rape scene two if students read read James as an assigned text it's very likely that teachers wouldn't be assigning Huckleberry Finn as an assigned text and I think that that would be a great loss and Ernest Hemingway who said all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn right so Twain used HX distinctive narration to give Outsiders a voice while establishing a tradition of social commentary particularly regarding institutionalized racism another objection is that that the academic rigor one expects in an
138AP class as our student that came and spoke on tonight um if you're unable to compare the two novels the value of reading James lies in a comparison because it's based on and it comes from that direction um Everett wanted to elevate james' intelligence via voler and John and the Enlighten but few novels have ever equaled the moral climax when Huck refuses to turn in Jim as a runaway slave and declares all right then I'll go to ATL I think James would be assigned a summer reading I would that's how I would think that it would be the best way to be assigned a summer reading prior to coming into junior year which allows for a close reading of Huckleberry Finn and then it can complete the analysis and then the classroom discussion during the
139school year one one speaker said race identity Freedom critically important elements of both of the both of those texts the extension of Mark Twain's character Jim um May skew The Narrative of the classic cockleberry Fin and a couple of the things I we I'm sure we all did had a lot of emails regarding the book and a few parents in their emails that were very much in support of James um stated that it would be a perfect companion to Huckleberry Finn which I completely agree with I completely agree with that um and I I like trusty Jones 's reminder that we needed I like the companionship of it and as far as if when as we are deciding to vote on this right now I would like as a board to be able to review
140what will be sent out from teachers to parents about the about the novel and what we would do with that because I think it's I think this is a big I now we're only just voting on the approval of this book that's that's correct but I'm but I'm sharing want to make understanding what we're voting on here absolutely I'm just sharing some specifics about it because if we vote on it will never come back to us so um do you mind if I comment real quick sure for one thing I would challenge you to find a single teacher at Aliso who is teaching Huck fin there are zero teaching James would bring it back so if you care about Huck fin being taught you care about James being taught the second thing that's the second
141thing the rape scene we already have novels with rape scenes and they're pretty foul I'll give you one example The Kite Runner there is a homosexual rape scene that has really no purpose in the narrative other than to shock and to give not let me finish my sentence please no purpose other than to give air a reason to feel guilty about what happened to his friend and seek seek some kind of Salvation from it it is a tool to make the character feel a particular way with James the impetus impotence of James in that rape scene is I think a crucial look at the intersectionality of maleness and Blackness femaleness and Blackness and ultimately is not looking at rape as something to shock or disgust as you mentioned it is has no you know gory
142details or anything like that and as someone who can't even watch a movie that has a rape scene this one I found you know uh digestible perhaps is the best word um and I think it's more about power okay and certainly it was an issue of power and kit Runner but more so it's a character motivation and we could argue all day about whether or not you know Kite Runner is a masterpiece but at the end of the day we're talking about James yes um so with the parent emails talking about it being a perfect companion to Huckleberry Finn I agree I agree I love that we're adding the modern element to it I love that it's from an African-American author I love that it is um drawing a lot of interest and specifics and
143it is coming from um the Huckleberry fin so I I personally would like it to be a companion and to to be taught together president Davis is it all right there comes yes please um so just from a student perspective the English curriculum at in CSD um that I've gone through since kindergarten has been phenomenal I actually I had Miss Tores as a teacher last year in AA I had I had Mrs Anderson as my eighth grade English teacher and um I I read um we read Frederick Douglas last year class I've read Tom soyer and tuckle Barry as well and I think that this this seems like a very interesting book to read alongside those novels um and I I just want to thank you all for coming tonight and for sharing your perspective
144on this book um thank you all for being here thank you other comments questions thoughts okay and with that all in favor I I motion passes 70 with a preferential vote as I thank you Team D the certification of with the second inter may may may have a motion to approve the instruction materials recom just kidding oh to approve the second inter room so moved C if we could recognize you to please present the item moved and second moved by trusty Zinger and and seconded by trusty Adams thank you president Davis trustees we're g to try to make this as exciting as possible for everybody so but so the uh second interum the item before you tonight is is one step in our budget Journey throughout the year and I say Journey because we begin
145uh in June of each year with our adopted budget then over over time we can make adjustments and we bring these to the board for your review and then the inter reports are to uh give an update on where we are for the current year and a multi-year projection so uh going back to last year we started the adopted budget with identifying the need for making reductions and then we brought those uh to the first interim and showed a much healthier uh budget and Outlook um now with the second inter room we can say that we're even in a stronger position financially but it's and it really is because of the hard work of um the leadership team with all the different divisions uh fine-tuning their budgets and looking for areas to um uh optimize
146efficiencies and all of that so it's really gone a long way to helping uh the school district be in a really strong um financial position so with that I'll turn it over to Philipa towns and assistant superintendent for fiscal services to present the item and we'll be here to answer any questions thank you [Music] we don't have the presentation you want to do that okay thank you when cluding the second interim budget the assumptions used including include those in the school Services of California Financial projection dart board for the current and future years and which is included with this agenda item the assumptions in the dart board were revised as of as of the governor's January budget proposal and use data available from state and federal agencies such as the Bureau of economic analysis which
147is used for the cost of living assumption uh cost of living adjustment a first a few items in the governor's January budget proposal were not included in the second interim budget and you can see that on the chart uh this was following guidance from school Services of California and the Orange County Department of Education so the first of those items is a discretionary block grant um that was proposed that would bring 12 million to Capistrano and the reason we didn't include that one is because that one's still uh going to be used in discussions in the legislature so we're going to wait and see what happens the second item is the the uh transitional kindergarten add-on Grant to fund the reduction in class size in t transitional kindergarten TK from 12 students to one adult
148to 10 students to one adult um there were concerns raised in the leg is lure that the money was too much um to cover the cost involved in reducing the class size so we'll wait and see how much that is before we include it in our budget and the third item is the learning recovery emergency block grant um and all of these are subject to negotiation we'll find out more in May or June next slide so the learning recovery emergency block grant we've had this grant before but back in 2223 we were first given this grant a year later the the governor took it back or some of it back from us about 14% And with the intent that we would get it back in 25 26 and so this is proposed to come back
149to us in over three years so that would be about $1.2 million a year for three years assuming we get it so the learning recovery emergency block grant did not have restrictions when we first got it but when we get it back it will have some restrictions and those restrictions include um doing a needs analysis of students and learning loss and making sure we address the needs that students may have whatever they are and those needs are related to Chronic absenteeism English language arts and maths and um we have to include evidence-based actions to address those and that plan would be including included in our local control accountability plan our Al cap next slide wait so these are the items that I've discussed um not being included in our budget the last two items tk12
150literacy and maths coaches requires a highend duplicated count we do not have a highend duplic at count uh this the last one is the same elop 55% threshold we do have elop but we don't have this level of funding we have a lower level of funding so budgets are adjusted every time we bring the budget back to you uh we update anything that changes such as um number of Staff if we're doing reductions in staff we take those out of the budget um if the enrollment projection change as they do every December we update those our attendance changes once we have a better idea of where our attendance will come in um and that was adjusted for the second interim and any new information that affects the budget or the future years so if the
151colas for next next year or the out years change we update that if the Consumer Price Index changes we update that so every time you see the budget there will be changes to it so this chart just compares the assumptions we used when we presented the first interim with the assumptions we used um when with the second interim and the reason we include this is not just to let you all know and and the public what assumptions we're using but also because ocde when they analyze our budget to check that we're on track they they like to see what assumptions we're using so it's possible that we could choose to do a different assumption let's say the cola was 3% and we wanted to be more conservative and use 2 and a half% we could
152do that we just have to let everybody know what assumption we're using next slide so this slide I believe you've seen this before um it just shows a last two years of enrollment the current Year's enrollment and the next three projected years next slide this chart Compares our ending fund balance at the first interim compared to now at the second inim and as you can see our fund balances are higher and that's because of budget reductions we've made since first interim along with a change in our attendance percentage from 94 to 94 a half% and just some different assumptions with oute colas and attendance next slide next update will be in May with a May revise which will uh contain the final Cola for the 2526 fiscal year in May we will bring the proposed
153budget for 2526 for the initial viewing of it and then in June we will bring it back for Budget adoption and then in in September we will August or September we will present the anal analed actuals for the 2425 fiscal year and with that we recommend a positive certification of our second interim budget Miss Hy do we have any speaker cards on this item haveen okay trustees I have a question I know we're not 55% but what percentage are we in terms of um UND duplicated 33% what is it 33% 33 okay thank you so um in I think it was the first or second slide you talked about a discretionary Grant is that the sspd grant that you're referring to there uh one more uh yes discretionary one time Grant approximately 12 million is
154not budgeted till later in the year is that that one the student support and professional development Grant I'm not sure what its formal title is okay um okay that's probably not so important um then but on the same slide um the whole TK thing seems to go back and forth back and forth It's like like you know every time you turn around it's it's on it's off so what as of today at 5:00 was it on or was it off as of today it's on okay so that's the the increase to uh 6,400 per per 88 so that was the government proposal but and that's that was the governor's proposal it's still on okay but the legislative analyst office is who who makes recommendations legislature is saying what um Philipa said earlier is they're recommending
155it be less yeah uh they don't know they but not zero not zero right just just they say that the number proposed by the governor is more than what's necessary to actually lower the class size yeah I believe their their number they're suggesting is about half yeah right okay all right and um so yeah and I think that was the latest I had heard it just keeps changing and and I wanted to know what the current status was so um okay all right that's all I need to know and that's why we're not using it on our projections because we don't know what it's going to be so it'd be um unwise to use it on our projections right now but are we even using the 3100 in our projections no no we're not using
156any of it in our projections right now if it comes in that'll be great and then we can adjust our projections and everything else okay great thank you and and we're going to continue with our attendance initiatives so over even though we upped them at half a percent we're hoping to get back to that historical 96% so other trustees thank you all those in favor say I I the motion carries 700 with the preferential vote of I from student board member BR thank you okay may have a motion to approve the 2025 ballot for California school board's ass Association delegate assembly region 15 by trusty Zinger seconded by trusty Adams I'd like to recognize trusty Jones and bolus who will present the item I can um will you have before you um a list of
157names and their um applications and the fact that we had I think there was three or four who somehow missed the deadline but then submitted theirs um I've been on the csba since um [Music] 2019 um and as a delegate and so I've worked with many of these people through the years so uh part of my evaluation was reading their application but also knowing them as a part of the discussion Through The Years um because we do meet twice twice a year um for our um um conventions uh so to speak and we spend several days um discussing these things so you see the list there is um seven openings um in discussion with trustee Jones uh in our evaluation we're recommending six to go forward we are opting not to select a seventh just
158to fill a seventh um and so Beverly barryman um from Fullerton uh Bonnie castry from Huntington Beach um and I will just say Bonnie has oh my gosh she's been on csba she's been on her board for many years um she has been president of csba she is a wealth of knowledge um and she's highly respected so always love to hear her input um Jessica guo and she was one from Anaheim Union who did submit um and Is On Target in terms of um advocating the things that we are advocating uh Susie Schwarz right next door to Saddleback um been working with her for for years and uh let's see Carrie Flanders and Francis new when um I don't know Francis when uh so much but in Reading um you know you can look at
159what you think but those were the six candidates that we were recommending to put forward and if you have any questions about one of them that you may know or something um feel free to ask so if so if if you're in agreement we would call the vote on these six names that CD would put forward and then there will be the tabulation throughout our district 15 um for who will actually then be joining us oh all in favor I I I any opposed so that's 601 first reading of board policy 5111 admission we have a motion to approve board policy 5111 admission on the first reading and wave the second reading so move second moved by trusty Jones seconded by trusty Zinger I'd like to recogniz GRE Mar to present the item thank you
160president Davidson trustees staff presents item 13f first reading board policy 5111 admission Provisions reflect changes in the Universal TK admission and enrollment eligibility staff recommends approval thank you m h do we have any speaker cards on this item there none there are none trustees comments discussion okay all those in favor I the motion carries 70 with a profal vot of I from student board member BR move on to first read move on to First reading board policy 5122 may have a motion to approve board policy 5122 promotion acceleration retention on the first reading and wave second reading moved by trustee buus seconded by trustee Adams I'd like to recognize gre gre Merwin to present the item thank you again staff presents item 13g first reading board policy 5122 promotion acceleration retention the revisions reflect procedures
161for kindergarten acceleration request as well as defining criteria for consideration in response to Universal TK staff recommends Improvement thank you just I mean why wouldn't it be I mean all three of these policies are about the changes to utk that so we're just making sure we match the changes to Edco that's right comments questions trusty cosos comments questions this your world I know [Laughter] all those in favor say I I okay motion carries 70 with a preferential vote of I from student board member Brando and first reading board policy 61701 I have a motion to approve board policy 61701 transitional kindergarten on the first reading and wave second reading moved by truste Zinger seconded by by truste Adams and I'd like to recognize Greg mwin to present the item and thank you again sta presents
162item 13h first reading board policy 61701 transition kindergarten revisions include updated eligibility dates instructional minutes and staff implications again in response to Universal TK staff recommends approval thank you Miss hay do we have any speaker cards on this item there are none trustees comments questions I just had a comment where um in the policy where it says board encourages ongoing collaboration between District uh preschool and TK staff um I I think that's hard for parents right do we I mean I don't know how we do that here when you have a student enrolling and then how do we decide what pathway is appropriate do we make recommendations to the parent or is the parent just it's parent choice on TK prek because really ultimately the programs are somewhat overlapping now because of age and so
163there is actually better Pathways for student certain students and so what I've noticed in my career is that maybe we could have better conversations with parents as to what pathway might be a better fit for their students I know those conversations happen and we can definitely you know as board policy is is revised and approved really highlight that part and work with our Early Childhood Program and make sure families are fully informed of the two options thank you I think it's really confusing because now that the programs overlap with age parents don't really understand the difference between the programs and what might be best for their child thanks Greg is there an assessment that the ters take like the kindergarteners would take just to give the teachers an idea of where they stand and if
164they see it's low they can other comments questions just I think some of that is also covered in the previous policy promotions retentions accelerations in terms of that conversations you would have with with school staff uh in making the decision for your child further discussion all those in favor okay the motion carries 70 with prefer V preferential vote live from student board member Brando we'll move on to consent calendar Mrs Hayes do you have any speaker cards on this item thank you okay may have a motion to approve the consent calendar trustees is there anyone that wants to PLL any items okay may have a motion to approve the consent calendar items 15a through 17 CED by truste Zinger trust and seconded by trusty Jones any further comments before we call the role Missy can
165you please call the role student board member of orando I trusty costos hi trusty Pritchard trusty Zinger I trusty Adams I trusty Jones I trusty bulus I Tristy Davis I okay it is motion carries 70 with the by a roll call vote to approve the consent calendar the student board member Brando casting a preferential vote of I there being no further business before the board may I have a motion to adjourn by truste Zinger seconded by trustee Jones there being no business no further business before the board we will um call with the all those in favor I he mo motion carry 70 to adjourn the meeting with the preferen of V from student board member Rando the time is now 9 33 tomorrow have a great night thank you e e e