001e president Davis the live stream is now in progress you may turn on your mic and start the meeting meeting of the capistran Unified School District the meeting is now in session the time is 5:31 p.m. Mrs Hayes can you please call the rooll trusty casianos is absent trusty Pritchard present trusty Zinger pres trusty Adams present trusty Jones here trusty buus here trusty d are are you having trouble hearing okay it's the January 15th board meeting and there are no speakers January meeting and we have no speakers thank you thank you the board will now recess to close session to address the following agenda items a conference with labor negotiators CUA CSEA Teamsters Kuma unrepresented employees B liability claim one case c conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation significant exposure to litigation two cases conference
002with legal counsel anticipated litigation significant exposure to litigation three cases e conference with legal Council existing litigation two cases F public employment and evaluation of performance superintendent 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 January 15th regular board meeting at the capist Unified School District the meeting is now in session the time is now 7:05 p.m. please note staff has pulled the following items from tonight's agenda 12a Public public hearing notice 13g the amendment to purchase and sale agreement and Joint escro instructions RMB pa3 Development LLC and 13h resolution number 2425 D20 of the Board of Trustees of the capistran Unified School District approving final
003acceptance of real property and site acquisition for the proposed Randa K8 school project and delegating Authority related there too okay Mrs Hayes will you please call the ru student board member verando here truste casanus here trustee Pritchard present truste Zinger here trustee adnams here truste Jones here truste bulus here trusty Davis thank you the pledge allegiance will be led by student adviser Katherine Brown i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all thank you may I have a motion to adopt the AG agenda so moved moved second trusty moved by trusty bolus seconded by trusty Binger thank you all those in favor say I I okay that passes 70 with a preferential vote by trusty gando and
004the motion carries thank you all right Mrs Hayes please read the report from close session on agenda item 3A conference with labor negotiators no reportable action on agenda item 3B liability claim trustees voted 70 to approve staff recommendation on the following case rejection of government claim number 241 2881 on agenda item 3C conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation trustees gave direction to staff on agenda item 3D conference with legal councel anticipated litigation items D1 through D3 trustees voted 70 to approve staff recommendation on the following case numbers ADR case number 202 41203 case number 202 4124 case number 1205 on agenda item 3E conference with legal council existing litigation items E1 through E2 trustees voted 70 to approve staff recommendation on the following oah cases case number 20248 05 15 case number 1752 on agenda
005item 3F public employment and evaluation of performance no reportable action and this concludes my report thank you I'd like to recognize Dr Chris Brown to present his superintendent opening comments followed by trustee comments good evening everybody Welcome to our first uh Board of Trustees meeting for the new year 2025 I hope everyone had a wonderful winter break and that their transition back to school was smooth and effective I do want to start with just a little bit of clarity the staff pulled items 12a 13g and 13h from tonight's board meeting in order to allow for two scheduled discussions between cap astronomy F school district and Rancho Mission Vio it is anticipated that these items will be presented to the Board of Trustees at the February 19th board meeting along with the award of bid for
006the construction of the Renda K8 school this change of agenda tonight will not imp the currently scheduled timelines for the opening of fre Enda so I just wanted to clarify that before we move on and I also want to spend some time tonight sharing some ways that you can engage uh with the district throughout the winter and the spring on topics that that come up frequently when I'm out into the community and I'm talking to our students and our families and and our staff members so beginning this week uh the executive director of safety and student services for the district Darren gindra is hosting bullying workshops at cusd middle schools information and resources on detecting and resolving bullying incidents and talking to students about bullying will be presented parents and students are invited to attend
007and all workshops will be held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. uh we have them around the district we're going to have one Thursday tomorrow January 16th at Bernie air Middle School uh Wednesday January 22nd at newart middle school Tuesday January 28th at Los Flores K8 Thursday February 4th at Niguel Hills Middle School Wednesday February 12th at Marco Forster middle school and Thursday February 20th at Donal on Avala middle school so just some an example of a time a place where parents and students could come to learn about a topic of importance also we just had the holidays and many of our cooc students received brand new gleaming rapidly transporting ebikes as gifts for the holidays uh and it's important to educate our students about ebike safety and ebike rules so officer Brian Kinsey from the
008CHP will lead two ebike uh and bicycle safety sessions for students and their families focusing on Essential Safety practic practices such as proper helmet use understanding traffic signals which for these 13y olds out there on the road is a big one safe road navigation Etc and these presentations are open to all district students and their families so they don't require pre-registration if you want to attend if your kid got an ebike if your kid's going to get an ebike if your kids's friends got some ebikes and your kids's riding on the back which is probably not allowed this is the session to come to so you can help talk them out of that uh so we're having one from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. January 28th at newart middle school and then uh March 19th from
0095:00 to 6:00 p.m. at Shore Cliffs Middle School so we have kind of a a northern and a southern region one my next coffee with Chris is scheduled at truman benedict on Friday February 7th from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. and the final two are scheduled for Friday March 4th at Canyon Vista at 8:30 a.m. and Friday April 19th at Carl hanky at 8:15 a.m. and finally if you're interested in employment Human Resource Services will be hosting a hiring Fair on Monday February 10th from 9:00 to 11 11:30 at the Ed Center uh they do on-site screening and interviewing available for a variety of of confidential positions par Educators supervisors LVN bus drivers if you know a bus driver or a potential bus driver send them to the hiring Fair uh Food Service workers and more
010so uh just a lot of ways to integrate with the district to interact with the district to learn about things that are important to your family and your student as we move into the spring and that concludes my comments thank you thank you PR the Adams yes good evening everyone I just want to personally and publicly express my deepest condolences to everyone affected by the fires in Los Angeles it's an unimaginable tragedy and just personally want to know anyone affected to know that our thoughts and prayers are with you I also want to congratulate all the groups that I've heard of down here in South Orange County churches synagogues and other houses of faith and um organizations and clubs that are rallying support um I know many of us at cusd are looking for ways
011to come alongside the students and the families and the schools um and the incredible firefighters who have been working 247 to stop these fires so um just know our thoughts and prayers are with all of you and I look forward to discovering ways that we can help as a district um I just also wanted to thank the superintendent the staff and everyone who attended our December December board meeting um for the encouraging welcome that trusty Zinger and I got um that we received as we as we stepped into our new role as trustees the staff has been incredible and the celebration in the room was something I'll never forget um it's truly an honor to serve everyone in cusd and I look forward to working together and serving our entire Community thank you well what
012would a January meeting be if I didn't talk about robotics because while we were in being our two week break uh we had the launch internationally January 6th live streamed throughout the world and this year's competition is called Reef escape and I have to tell you with having a uh robotic engineer student at home it looks pretty challenging uh last year there was kind of questions about how challenging um the the course was well okay so they came back and addressed that uh they have to move algae and coral and um you get uh a lot of information when you live with an engineer in terms of the Dynamics of building the the robot but uh competi they have to do the build within six weeks the competition starts next month in February goes through
013April when they have their International competition uh and ually in Houston Texas so stay tuned for updates and I want to wish team 5199 robot Dolphins from out of space all the good luck this year thank [Applause] you I would love to say something I I wish I had prepared something so eloquently is um trusty Adams I haven't but I do want to say I I was able to um join the CCA board um at this last meeting and little did I know the very next day there was a board meeting and a graduation and I thought oh my word what did I get myself into and um I the next morning I'm at I'm in a graduation at Union High School um as part of the board responsibilities and I have to say it
014was remarkable it was emotional it was really incredible they they are doing wonderful things at that school there was so much heart in everything that they did and I was crying like a baby I had never met any of these kids and I thought this is remarkable they have turned a situation for some of these kids that maybe looked a little Bleak into a wonderful celebration and I was just so proud of everyone involved and the kids and I'm grateful to have had that opportunity and then went to the board meeting later that night and could see more of the heart involved our district has so many elements of it that I think um I wasn't aware of you know as a as a mom with five children in the district I wasn't aware of
015a lot of the things so I just want to just point out that we have an incredible district and there's a lot of pieces that we're unaware of and I'm hoping as a trustee I can help I I think the district's done a great job I don't know if I've been asleep or what how I've missed it I'm not there's no criticism here but I hope that I can do a little reach out and help make some of these programs aware of some of a lot of the parents aware of these remarkable programs so thank you trusty Zinger and trusty Jones so um just very quickly I went to the Middle School volleyball tournament today at S Hills High School it was very enjoyable it was oh about a quarter of our middle schools I
016guess uh there's two more coming up one will be at Torro on January 17th at 2:00 and other one is at Cal Valley High on January 28th at 1:00 they run until about 4: it's really exciting these kids are well some of them are little sixth graders well I shouldn't do like this they're a little bigger than that but there some of them are pretty small and I say that as a not very somewhat vertically challenged person myself um and but it it was very exciting and and you know I found I didn't even know any of these kids and I was cheering for them all so it's very really interesting and if you get a chance you might enjoy going um I was glad that trusty bulas did not talk oh oh oh you
017missed your chance uh trusty bulas and I are the California school boards Association Representatives uh from this district and at the meeting in let's see was that December November um they talked about how many of the legislators are brand new and how few of them have any experience in education and I said to trusty bulus we can fix this uh at least in our own District so last Friday uh we had a meeting with our state senator for most of the district not the entire District Katherine blakespear who uh lives in ninus but she also represents uh I think most of our district and uh part of Saddleback Valley District we met with her and and also two trustees from uh salak Valley district and superintendent Brown and had an extremely productive meeting I got
018an email from her uh District director afterwards saying that um let's see uh she was really pleased with a meeting with the trustees she found the information you all provided very helpful and insightful and I think that it was I think that and I think she's an extremely bright woman but if you don't work in education in California you have no idea and I know some of you are very involved in PTA or whatever um some of you are teachers you do know a lot but but truly legislators in many cases do not and I think there were a couple times where we explained the way something worked that she was shocked but Sacramento makes decisions for us really in a vacuum and their decisions are not evidence-based they're not saying oh well if we
019had we know that if we spent 34 more dollars per student this would happen they don't know they often believe it probably always believe it but they don't know so we talked to them about mental health and um what issues we see in mental health uh in California we talked about special education we talked about the lcap the local control accountability program um and the lcff local control funding formula um many of which things she knew almost nothing about and I think it was really really valuable we were delighted to get over an hour with her she also came uh out into the boardroom afterwards where the PTSA ledge team was meeting and spoke to them at their request for a little while she she knows her stuff they were asking questions from maybe only
020a quarter of the questions were on education and they they were going back and forth on topics all over the place and she knew her facts about all of these issues I was very impressed with her and and I think she was impressed with us and how much we knew and how much she didn't know I think it was really really helpful and uh go ahead and well and how much we care about students one of the things I said to her is we have all these rules rules that Sacramento imposes on us I don't believe that there's a District in California that doesn't want its kids to succeed but you don't act like we do you don't act like you trust us you just give us more rules uh I think it was superintendent
021Brown said that a meeting he went to with a legislator one of the superintendents brought in all of the reports that their District had to produce every year for the legislature it was seven boxes seven boxes of reports yeah so uh you know I I think that maybe we can do a little bit to start getting this to not continue to happen um we're trusty bulus is in the process of setting up a meeting with um uh assembly member Sanchez who is over Mission Vio and Rancho um Santa Margarita we're going to meet with Lori Davies uh who represents a good part of the district I've spoken with Lori about it she's really interested and and we'll meet with with all of them so I think we will start making some Headway at least with
022the legislators in this area explaining to them about the environment we operate in because it is not what most people think it is thank you very much okay happy New Year 2025 will be an incredible year yesterday at s CL high school we had a friend of mine Joseph Alexander if you recall he came to bams in October and he's a survivor of 12 12 concentration camps including aitz and he had so much to share with the 10th graders at St CL high school he is absolutely legendary and the way that he was able to um survive aitz is they got to the table where Dr Death is there and they put them in categories if you looked frail if you looked old if you looked like you weren't very able you were sent to
023one side and the others were able-bodied could work could work do Roofing construction whatever is needed he was put in he's about 41 and at that point 17 years old and and small and frail and hadn't eaten much in quite some time and he was put in the yel die section and they he arrived at ashz at midnight after midnight he got past Dr Death and say the table there and was in the category to die and he realized what was happening and quickly bolted to the other side and that's how he survived that location and the stories went on and on and on on um it's such a reminder to me about how important it is that we take time to learn from our parents our grandparents our great grandparents about their stories and
024what everyone has experienced in life because everyone is writing their story everyone has a story to tell and it's important that we share those stories with our children and our families that being said there is much to happen I also was able to attend Union High School graduation and what an honor it is to um to see the growth and watch as they are students at graduated early that came likely came to Union with less credits and um and Dr irvis Ran that ran that school for a number of years and grateful for the work that happened there and principal Kimberly Jenkins is leading the work there now at this time so little shout out to Union and before we proceed with today's agenda I want to take a moment moment to express my heartfelt
025sympathy and support for the individuals families and communities in LA county who have been affected by the devastating fires as a neighboring District we share in the grief and concerns for those facing loss and hardship during this tragedy we're aware of a number of schools that have burnt to the ground and what that looks like and what it takes to build a school let alone um build a school a community um families and all that is required our heart hearts go out to every everyone that's impacted as we work with families and students and Educators who are navigating this incredibly difficult time and I just want to remind our community that our superintendent and our district works very closely with the Orange County Fire Authority our Orange County Sheriffs to ensure that the fire safety
026measures within our own School District are being fully implemented and adhere to the safety of our students and staff is our highest priority and we're committed to taking proactive steps to protect our communities additionally I want to extend a warm and compassionate welcome to any students and families and those students and families that have relocated to our communities and District we're ready to support them with open arms providing resources and care as they need to transition and heal during the time one of the ways our community in San clementy has welcomed families is to find the things that um that children love their books and their animals and um I I learned what what special Jelly Cat animals are I learned that in the last um week and as we began searching for an octopus
027and a bunny as those were really special to a family friend and their child and we've heart attacked homes and dropped off notes and letters and food and clothes and furniture and gathered things to help make a transition um more comfortable and more inviting and feel more like home I mean one friend that had lost didn't lose their home and they were on a street of I think 15 homes on their street and their home was just recently remodeled and it had been very fire retardant and it survived but imagine I mean the Gratitude they felt that their home survived but all of their neighbors and their friends did not and what that looks like so anytime we can provide meals and clothing and an extended um care and love goes such a long way
028as I was at one of a friend of a friend's home that was joining our community from there um I ran into our local mailman Kevin and I told him what we were doing and I asked him to come and sign because we made a bunch of hearts and put him in a Ziploc and Sharpies and people came by and signed and put it on their garage as a welcome and he he's like what do I even write and it was it was great because he will be their Community mailman and so he was able to extend some love and share that too and I just wanted to remind us to continue to hold all those affected in our thoughts and commit to being a source of strength and a support for one another those
029that have been in tragedies and we never know what what anyone's going through so um just a reminder to as it started this new year to extend that love and compassion wherever we are and with that let's begin our meeting and I'm going to move right on over to student adviser um Rando for your comments [Music] you might have to use um trusty uh casianos say mic okay test um I hope everyone had a wonderful winter break uh we have a lot coming up at our our schools including winter formal at our high schools in the next couple of weeks uh and winter sports including basketball soccer wrestling and girls water polo are in full swing many of our schools have organized donation drives to support the fire victims in Los Angeles and despite this
030challenging time it's been inspiring to see how our schools have come together to help our community uh lastly eighth graders are starting to think about high school and our high schools are hosting showcases in the next month uh last week I had the opportunity to attend the student superintendent Advisory board meeting where we talked about issues like like um teacher hiring and retention we also discussed whether desile rank should be included on student transcripts and whether students should have access to them it's a topic that's especially relevant as many of us prepare for college applications I also had the chance to visit Marco Forester middle school during uh their Pace tutorial session I enjoyed meeting with a diverse group of students um from all different groups on campus they shared their excitement and curiosity about
031transitioning to high school and we discuss ways to foster a positive School community and support their academic success as they make that TR transition uh lastly I'd like to congratulate the activities director of Lisa Niguel High School Mrs Carrie Ross uh for receiving the Bob Burton Spirit award from the California Association of directors of activities Mrs Ross has brought positive change to the school in just two years um and is very deserving of this recognition as we move into the second semester I'm excited about the opportunities ahead um and the conversations we'll have to continue to support all of our students thank you thank you and we're moving on to oral Communications the time for oral communication will be 20 minutes Mrs Hayes do we have any speaker cards and how many do we pass
032we have nine speaker cards so po board policy I'll will set the timer at two minutes per person our first speaker is student Louisa and I'm going to call you up and you have you line up in the order that that you presented your cards the first card speaker is Louisa followed by Ron Torres Mary Courtney Stacy Nelson Andrea Manning Stephany Dugas Pam and Martha mcnicholas go ahead um hi I'm Louisa and I'm in fourth grade at RH danana and I'm so glad that my teachers put in so much time to give me and all the other kids at my school a bilingual education I'm especially grateful for having a bilingual education because my dad is a native Spanish speaker and without it it would be harder for me to communicate with him and the
033rest of my family with that being said I love my teachers and all they do for me and I think it would be awesome if there were more bilingual schools in our district [Applause] Thank you Lisa Torres gosh good evening Borton thank you advance your time and attention I'm here with a coalition of uh parents uh and teachers that want to address the decision to close the mar Maran bergerson prek for the 25 26 year we feel that there was poor communication on the threshold and enrollment cut off dates for the 2526 uh consideration um there's many things uh that i' I've given to the board that wanted to go over I'm not sure I can get through them in two minutes but uh how we got here we feel that there was a commitment
034to the manderin emmersion prek uh cusd made a formal commitment to the establish uh to establish a u maintain a mandarin immersion prek as a feeder program to the Mandarin immersion program this program was supported by elevated monthly fees to cover and Mandarin speaking uh teacher Nas's a model successfully implemented for years U there was a failure to staff cusd failed to secure Mandarin speaking teachers for the program and U filling these roles with an English speing speaking staff instead although Miss Martha is a fantastic teacher uh the district then reduced the monthly premiums to reflect the staffing change and the transition of bergus and prek to English instruction was then B done by default and without meaningful communication or coordination with the m program many of the M parents feel that the district did
035not take adequate efforts to recruit Mandarin speaking teacher or involved stakeholders in the decision making process worse yet last year parents interested in meip were discouraged from enrolling their children in the bergenson prek as they were told it was no longer Mandarin Focus so bergerson pre's role as a feeder program despite these challenges burgus and prek Remains the intended feeder program for MIP with mandarin speaking T miss Connie who's also here with us feeling critical roles and Miss Martha filling the English teaching uh portion uh parents have demonstrated their commitment uh bying maintaining enrollment so there's a value of mip to C USD we understand the district's uh Financial challenges especially postco however it's essential to recognize thank you Mr Torres our next speaker is Mary from Dana Point you're welcome to email your comments
036to the board as well do thank you thank you good evening um this is kind of a [Applause] comment set the time please hold your applause so that other speakers have the opportunity to speak thank you thank you um this is a comment based on what trusty Jones was saying about the laws um the new laws um for 2024 that are supposedly making California safer there's a total of about a 100 new laws in 2022 we had 40,7 74 laws according to californ matters.org uh in 2023 they added 2100 uh more laws California is number one in laws according to Merk this.org most States average 135 laws according to news.com and my point is why do we have so many laws the question is um does it really make us safer does it make our
037school safer I was a teacher for um from 1970 to 2010 my husband and I both put in for uh years total in Orange County and um we just saw such a encroachment upon the paperwork like you mentioned and the and the everything became like like chaotic because you couldn't do the teaching because the IEPs were so long and involved I think that we need to get away from bureaucracy we need to get away from laws and get back to teaching and common sense and I think that's that's something that's a a real problem within our state and I think we have kind of a dict dictatorial idea that we don't have enough common sense we have a lot of common sense and I don't think we need all the directives coming from Sacramento um
038ab1 1955 the safety law that's supposed to make us safer that's the one that prevents parents from being notified I question these kinds of things ab1 1825 I'm talking about what are the acceptable books uh take back the classroom do.com you can actually read the books there's 40 to 60 books on there and you can actually see the actual um book on there and as a former teacher we did the three Rs we didn't get into CRT we didn't get into Dei and all those types of things and I think that the children were far better educated starting back in the 70s and I really feel sorry for the teachers today that they are so inundated with over testing over regulations um all these different programs our next speaker is Courtney Courtney please come forward
039okay hello my name is Courtney papalon I'm a parent and volunteer with the Marblehead PTA I first engaged I first engaged with the district and trusty Personnel at a parent meeting hosted at Marblehead in response to public statement from manaria Charter School in November of 2022 that was also our first semester here in Orange County I am proud of our pta's advocacy for Marblehead and our community is engaged since then we have consistently attended district meetings coffee talks town halls and other events in January 2023 we hosted a meeting with Dr and Ryan bur on the future of Marble Head tonight I am joined by Marblehead PTA president Tony matani fresh off an airplane as well as our Ohana community of parents and teachers behind me we completed a study and are here to present
040a resolution that our PTA adopted on January 9th 2025 the resolution formalizes our position on Marblehead as cusd prepares to make decisions regarding School utilization following the meeting you'll receive a copy via email thanks our next speaker is Stacy Stacy go ahead hello Marblehead PTA stands against closure whereas Marblehead has been identified as a school of study for possible closure the PTA is United against the closure of the school and whereas Marblehead leads the district in declining enrollment and projected utilization the PTA believes that the cistron Unified School District underutilized the School site and welcomes the addition of programs including dual language immersion Stars special education expanded TK and other Innovative District sponsored programs or merging with another cusd operated public school on the marble Hood campus and whereas the Capistrano Unified School District is
041at capacity with a waiting list for the Spanish dual immersion program in s Clen and whereas the Marblehead campus is in good repair with permanent structures to safely accommodate more students and whereas the Marblehead community of students teachers staff and parents will be negatively impacted by a closure with potential long-term outcomes as outlined in the study attached our next speaker is Andrea tall hi my name is Andrea Manning I'm the treasur of our PTA I'm also the CAC representative for Marblehead Elementary and I'm going to continue to read our motion therefore be be it resolved that Marblehead PTA stands United against the closure of our school and be it further resolved that Marblehead PTA challenges the Capistrano Unified School District staff and Board of Trustees to seek and support solutions that will optimize usage of
042the marble Hood campus for Capistrano Unified School District operated public school students and programs including a possible expansion of dual immersion offerings at in s Clen and be it further resolved that Marblehead PTA recognizes the ongoing Capistrano Unified School District declining enrollment creating Financial pressures on the district and that marblehead's campus is considered over other facilities that pose a liability to the school district because they are in ill repair utilize temporary structures and or unsafe and be it further resolved that the Capistrano Unified School District staff and Board of Trustees comply with the school closure best practices outlined by the California Department of Education the Marblehead PTA urges all levels of leadership to communicate and create opportunities for input as outlined in the best practices for students and their families thank you for your time
043our next speaker is Stephanie hi my name is Stephanie Dugas I'm the Bilal representative on the PTA as well as the garden coordinator and as a conclusion I would just like to say that as a district and Board of Trustees please remember that these decisions are not just finan itial your actions will make a permanent and lasting impact on our kids and our community as a title one school our community includes many marginalized students for some this is the only Community they have ever known removing that security can have long-term detrimental effects we invite you to visit Marble Head to see our incredible Community tour our building and collaborate on a solution that benefits everyone involves involved our school is marvelous so please come and see it thank you our next speaker please hold your
044applause our next speaker is Pam I just first want to give a huge and sincere congratulations to the two new trustees and the two incumbents that are also on on the board of the 2025 School board your campaigns were stellar and it showed your true desire to make changes we believe and pray that you will stand and you will build upon the platforms that you campaigned on of academic Excellence of stopping excessive social issues in the School classrooms and instating a parental notification act that puts the parents in back in the place of responsibility for their child please know know that you're being prayed for and that you will be given assistance as you forge ahead thank you our final speaker for oril communications is Martha mcnicholas good evening trustees I'm here on representing the
045dolphin Foundation at Danny Hills High School and hopefully you all got one of these flyers for our oops okay they're coming you will be getting a flyer for our second annual chili cook off Chile for charity this is in support of the dolphin Foundation it is Thursday at January 30th the day after your next board meeting so I don't think there's any board schedule so no excuses um this is our second annual and I'm have it on good authority there will be possibly two of our High School principles in competition at this one defending his third place uh outing last year so we hope to see uh something there it's going to be a fun evening um there's games and prizes and all funds go towards uh facilities project at Danny Hills High School hope
046you can make it love to see you there public hearing this item was pulled by staff so we're on to discussion action information items 13A presentation and receipt of the district and Community facilities District's annual Financial reports for the the fiscal year ending June 30th 2024 may I have a motion to receive the district and Community facilities District annual Financial reports for the F fiscal year ending June 30th 2024 so move move second moved by trusty Adam second by trusty costenos thank you we'd like to recognize Clark Hampton Deputy superintendent business and support services to present the item Miss Haste do we have thank you president Davis trustees so uh the school district's fiscal year is ends on J uh June 30th every year and we have a financial audit that is for that period
047of time from July 1 to June 30th uh tonight on the board board's agenda are two audits one for all of our community facilities districts and one for the district uh itself's financials um and here with us is our um auditor uh Peter GL he's a partner with Nigro and Nigro Auditors who audits our books and he's here to present the audit uh for you tonight and we will stick around to answer any questions you might have thank you good evening members of the board cabinet and audience again as uh was mentioned my name is Peter Glenn I'm with the audit firm Nigro Nigro and we're your independent auditor and annually we conduct an audit of the uh Community facilities District as well well as the district itself and that fulfills the Education Code requirement
048and so I'm going to just briefly kind of go over a broad use broad Strokes here and uh talk about the audit a little bit about the process and then about the results so the audit started about last year February March as it usually does and it continues on over the months periodically uh visiting School sites coming out to the district to do um compliance audits both federal and state compliance requirements and then it wraps up the end of the year after the UN audited actuals are accepted by the board which usually occurs in uh September and then we uh conduct our our audit of the financial reports in your un audited actuals and we uh wrap up the finishing steps on all of the compliance areas that are required by the state and by
049the federal government so um in the reports we issue to an opinion letter and the opinion letter goes into whether the financial statements are fairly stated and I can say that yes they were both fairly stated and um also there are three additional reports in the district audit and those address the internal controls of the district as it pertains to the financial reporting and then it also goes into controls over the state compliance areas and there are continuously being added as kind of was mentioned earlier in your board meeting uh state requirements so I wanted to uh commend the district on their compliance with some of the new state requirements that have been especially Troublesome for some districts and then finally um the federal compliance where there was a finding noted and that um has
050a recommendation in there as well um about some of the processes is in um the particular program that was audited which was the idea program um and then there were some recommendations at the very back of the report as there as there are usually always when it comes to ASP just some minor uh things that can be improved so um kind of in closing I would just like to thank on behalf of Jessica Barry who is the partner on this uh on this audit and the entire Nigro Nigro team we wanted to thank the district for their cooperation during the audit process and if there's any questions I would be happy to answer those may I have a motion to receive the district and Community financials Hing Miss do we have any speaker cards on
051this item okay thank you Davis I have some questions being there's none let's move on to trustee discussion go ahead okay so um in the the main audit report not the cfd audit report I'm kind of just curious about this I think was in Note One or note two uh you mentioned that the district does not have a policy for custodial credit risk for deposits is that kind of a normal thing not to have a policy for that it seems a little minor to me but I was just sort of curious yes it's not it's not uncommon and um the those are you're referring to the cash note and the uninsured probably cash notes that are at the at the bank you know I I read audit report a few days ago I actually do
052read audits um I'm a strange person in that regard um and I don't remember anymore but it was Note One or note two I think um okay page 34 I can see it here yeah it says None of the district's bank balance was exposed to custodial credit risk because it was insured or collatz with Securities held by the the pledging financial institutions yeah okay and and so not having a policy is not not unusual not the end of the world not Not Unusual no and then you made a an interesting remark about the state requirements cause a need for audits um my assumption is that uh a larger district is going to have more complex reports and the audit the cost of the audit is greater um any any situation where the where something is
053bigger is going to result in more Hest uh more cost so I assume you've been doing this for a little while you don't don't look like you're a teenager sorry um um what would you say the difference in the audit requirements and the cost thereof or the time involved in it in in school districts is the change from say 15 years ago to now or whenever you began doing school district AIT well we we've definitely seen a much larger emphasis in state compliance requirements um I would say they probably you know since I started maybe not doubled but probably increased by a third you know um over the number of requirements and the number of audit steps that are required you can you could go back if you wanted and look at it was 2011
054by the way when I started um and you could look at the you know the um State audit guide there and then compare it to now and and you you would see probably an additional I would say 30% or so steps yeah so the chances are that the cost of doing the average school district audit has has doubled since I don't know if I I would say doubled but sorry yeah something like that approximately we're you know we're not we're not going to we're not going to not pay based on your conversation um so since 2011 you think that the cost has probably just about doubled well I'm not going to say that but and there's a lot of factors I mean you've got inflationary pressure on salaries all that just pushes everything is definitely
055an upward pressure and the the increase in compliance not just from the state but also from the governmental Accounting Standards Board which also requires like your pension uh notes those didn't used to be in there your open Notes those didn't used to be in there so yeah everything is just pushing it higher and higher okay all right well thank you I just um this will be something that I will be mentioning to legislators thank you perfect any additional questions or comments yes thank youy bolus I have I have a question um although you might have some input but it might be more specific to Philipa uh in reading the report um we're very good um and we've done our improvements one of the challenges that always remains and my understanding is at a lot of
056school districts is the ASB um and I do recall from last year it was just last year about changing that there was less cash handling and um I read that we've had turnover in terms of who I think in the middle schools the office manager actually oversees that but in the high school um you know we've got the activities director other than doing the trainings and all is there something else that we should be particularly working on and to your uh position anything you know from other schools that has really worked for them maybe some kind of system um or this is just always going to be a a challenge so we did speak to ocde today and you process got to get used to it we did speak to ocde today they did hire
057a person specifically to help districts with asbs Elizabeth McMillan and one of the things she is presenting to schools um to their asbs on behalf of ocde is Cash handling um how they should count money how they should transport money to the district office how they should uh document their cash procedures so that they keep themselves safe and keep the money safe so that's one of the things we're doing um we also did Implement a district audit position where the the staff member does go out to each School site that has an ASB and works with that ASB Clerk and also does uh spot audits as they're there thank you I I know it has improved and we always have to stay on top of I just wondered if there was some um big thing
058we were missing but training is always key thank you any other questions comments okay with that um all in favor I I any opposed any okay all right with that we have a the motion carries seven Z with a preferential vote of I from the student board um member of Rond okay move on to 13B the governor's January budget proposal for the fiscal year 2526 this is an information only item and no board actions necessary and we'll recognize Clark Hampton Deputy superintendent business and support services to present the item thank you president Davis trustees so this is the um the governor just released their his budget proposal for next year for 2526 which won't go into place till June 1 of next year so this is the very first step uh in the state's process
059for um a abl lishing a budget um speaking back to the last item about the audit as far as the increasing um oversight that the state requires for uh school districts and that usually all comes from um anything if something goes wrong then they Implement something to fix it so um there's a lots of oversight on how school districts spend their money um we've come a long way from last year when the governor's proposal was predicting a $40 billion deficit for this year and that didn't come to fruition uh his proposal proposal for next year is a little bit more um I'd say it's kind of boring just pretty back to the basics no nothing um dire and scary um but it also speaks to the volatility in school district funding which you'll hear more
060about um over time especially with the new trustees you know that's one of the struggles for school districts is uh California school funding volatility so it's up the ups and downs of that um so one change that the governor has proposed is to increase the rainy day fund for school districts from 10% to 20% Reserve levels so that's uh something you'll be hearing more about um as well and I'd like to now introduce Phila towns and to give you more of the details of the governor's budget proposal and staff is going to a school Services conference um next week to hear more details thank you thank you so when the governor um proposes a new budget for 2526 he also revises the budget for the current year 2425 and the prior year 2324 so for
061the prop 98 guarantee in the current year the budget establishes a funding level of 1176 billion for the prop 98 guarantee which is 1.6 billion lower than the estimated level of 11 19.2 billion this is unprecedented it hasn't happened before um the governor has stated that the conservative approach is to prevent over appro appropriating funding to k12 and community colleges in the event Revenue projections are too optimistic so this amount will be re-evaluated as part of the mayor revision and it may end up being higher for the current year uh there has been some debate over whether this is a a legal method that he's doing right now but I guess we'll see in a few months for 2526 six the cola the co statutory cost of living adjustment has been estimated at 2.43% which
062as you might remember is about a half a percent lower than we had estimated in June the local control funding formula overall was increased by 2.5 billion to fund that Cola and also to implement the final year of the expansion of the transitional kindergarten program plus an additional 1.5 Bon ion to pay for a lowered adult to student ratio of 10 students to one adult reduced from 12 students to one adult in the current year for transitional kindergarten the governor has also proposed some one-time funding the first one might sound familiar because it's the learning recovery emergency block grant and you might think well we've had that already we had that Grant in 22 2022 we spent the money then the governor said we're taking some of that back in 2023 and now we're getting
063some of that money back again so we will get that returned to us in three payments uh over the next three years the next onetime funding is the student support and professional development discretionary block grant this is a one-time Grant of 1.8 billion to provide one-time support for various educational priorities as well as addressing unspecified Rising costs the next one is kit funds uh which is something we've had before it's funding for specialized kitchen equipment infrastructure and training to allow schools to prepare freshly made meals with locally grown ingredients which as you know is very big in our district and finally literacy instruction Investments which is support for liter literacy screenings we did receive some of that this year so we we will get some more next year next is the expanded learning opportunities Grant
064this gives additional eligibility for leas to access expanded learning opportunities Grant um which lowers the cut off for unduplicated students from 75% to 55% to access the highest tier of money since cusd is only at 32% and duplicated students we would not qual qualify for this extra money Al though we do qualify for the lower tier of funding and finally for facilities uh the governor proposes to sell 1.5 billion of the bonds that were approved this last November this is just an initial look at the budget and we will get more details next week and with that if there are any questions I'd be happy to answer very good thank you do we have any speaker cards on this item there and with that okay trusty Johns so I think you just said that there's
065new money coming in for the TK class size reduction there yes are you aware of that do I am aware of it because it was just released in the governor's budget proposal it was one of those things we were planning for it to not be released the indication was originally when he did his budget last year that the requirement would remain but the funding may or may not come in his current budget the funding does come okay so so we're not being paid for the reduction this year but if the if this goes through as he's now speaking and we will be paid for it next year for the 10 to1 adults yes and it will it go back three years so currently we're at 12 to1 to so there's two pieces to this um
066the first piece is we're gradually implementing TK for all fouryear olds so this is the final 25 26 will be the final year of the implementation up till now we've been at 12 students to one adult in 25 26 we were told we had to go to 10 students to one adult but there the the language said it was an intent to fund but nobody thought he would actually fund it so he is actually funding the the reduction in class size but I thought we were in 10 to one this year no okay all right so next year oh yes you would know so okay rum right right it was a surprise cost our district 1.9 million doll to just reduce those class sizes by two yes $1.9 million almost $2 million that's a lot
067of money in any District um and yes um well I mean that's great uh because yes I mean I read the budget trailer and it they they said oh yeah we intend to fund this but they you know they're like wishes are if wishes were horses um um okay um um and I and I I just want to say you know when we had the s priest funding I don't even know how long ago that came up the and and there were all these low wealth school districts and we were a low wealth school district and we still are um and that went away and we came up with lcsf lcff it was like oh we're not going to have these grants anymore you're just going to get money and now the grants are back
068with a vengeance and again this is what causes all the paperwork because every Grant has to be accounted for and every nickel that's spent has there's forms to fill out um and I mean this is it's it's eating Us Alive the the the paperwork alone is eating Us Alive um and you know again we want kids to succeed I mean I I know I'm preaching the choire we just give us the money and we will spend we will spend it wisely without all of this nonsense of reporting so thank you I appreciate it any other comments questions as far as the kitchen equipment will you talk a little bit about that and what direction we've gone and are basically already ahead of it so our director of foods food nutrition services Kristen Hillman is is
069totally on board with locally uh grown Pro produce and um scratch scratch cooking um she is involved with all of the groups in California that do this she's on committees um she's actually traveling I think tonight to go to another meeting on this and so the more um space she has and the more uh uh the more fridges freezers places to cook she has the more she can implement this um because that's really the only constraint she has it's space which we're addressing now with the um the central kitchen renovation and just more um equipment so this will be great just as a reminder food nutrition services is a self-funded um entity right so part of the district but their their budget and funding is is kind of wholly enclosed for them it's it's not
070crossover buet our general fund yes hey thank you this is information only item thank you okay move on to C Charter School dashboard performance and this is an information item only and no board action is necessary we'll recognize Dr Greg mwin associate superintendent education and support service to present the item thank you very much president Davis and trustees staff presents item 13 C Charter school- for performance for 2024 this is an annual presentation that we share with you to provide this information information after the state releases their updated dashboard uh every year as a followup you'll recall December 18th board presentation where we shared our District's dashboard and tonight's item will focus on the charter schools within our district boundaries assistant superintendent Dr Carrie Johnson will lead the presentation for you this evening and Dr
071Johnson you may proceed thank you Dr Merwin all right so um as Dr mwin stated we have eight charter schools located with the within the boundaries of cusd six of them are authorized by cusd Community Roots Journey Oxford Preparatory Academy South Orange County Cal Ops or California online Public Schools okasa college prep opport and opportunities for learning then there are two um Orange County Board authorized uh charter schools in our district um okasa K5 and California Republic Leadership Academy here you have a table displaying um grade span of students served enrollment and key student groups for comparison with the eight charter schools located within our district boundaries so along the the far left uh column there you see grades served the enrollment for cusd as well as the other Charter Schools um students for socio
072economically disadvantaged students English Learners Foster Youth and students with disability um and also the final uh row there that is in District enrollment meaning students who live within the boundaries but are enrolled in those Charter Schools you have both the percentage and the total number of students so I want to draw your attention to some key data points um CRA has the highest total number of IND District students at 682 while okasa College Prep has the highest percentage at 98% conversely okasa College Prep also has the fewest number of in District students at 103 while Cal Ops has the smallest percentage at 3.3% um and then also if you look at the Double asterisk at the bottom there ofl is a Das school and I will go into more detail of what a dash school
073is in a few slides and just as a reminder that um the dashboard is based on performance in the current year and change from the prior year so starting on the left um low performance is indicated with a red going all the way to the right where blue is a indicator of high performance so um Das is or dashboard alternative school status was something created by the state of California um to alternatively measure schools who serve at risk or high-risk students um for example ofl and in our own School District Union High School are two Das schools they tend to serve students who are um behind on credits or credit deficient and are high risk for Dropout um unfortunate not uh so back in 2017 is when the state of California um created this designation
074but the federal government um denied the waiver of the Das assessment so that means that even D schools are measured based on the same measurements or same um indices that all other schools in California are measured on so the first indicator we're going to look at our first academic indicator is English language arts um so this is a measurement of student Performance Based on distance from standard on the smarter balance assessment in English language arts in the upper left corner you see the um overall California performance score which is orange so overall California was 13.2 points below standard and then on the table you see going from left to right are the our Charter Schools range from highest performing to lowest performing the exception is the last two in Gray the reason those two are
075in Gray is because they have more than 11 students but fewer than 30 so the state does not assign a color code so I don't want you to think because they're on the right hand side they're lower performing there's no um indicator color assigned to them so Opa and okasa K5 are designated as blue CRA and journey are green cops and okasa College Prep are in red the next slide here so last slide we were looking at distance from standard here we're looking at the percentage of students who met or exceeded the standard so so a little different look at how students are performing uh once again the colors of the columns are associated with the uh dashboard indicator color assignment by the state you see again on the left hand side California at 47%
076and then the rest of our um charter schools with their percentage of met and exceeded and also their dashboard color assignment so one of the things we wanted to do is um try to do an Apples to Apples comparison between the highest performing Charter School in our district which is Opa and then other similar schools within our district so here you have Opa on the left and this is distance from standard so we're going back to that how many points above standard um are are the schools performing so Opa is at 87.1% and Castile chaperel Ladera Ranch ooso Grande and Wagon Wheel are all similar schools now they're not exact match but they're very close match to Opa and as you see Chael um outperformed Opa at 9.1 points above standard next we're moving on
077to the academic indicator of mathematics California was assigned the orange dashboard color which um is uh 40 they were 47.6 points below standard then once again you see we have all of the charter schools arrange from left to right from highest performing to low performing but once again the gray that's just because they have more than 11 students but fewer than 30 so the the state does not assign a color so with Opa and okasa K5 and blue crra and journey and green Cal Ops in Orange and okasa colge prep in red and also I needed to point out that crla does not have data from the prior year that's why there's an NA so there's no way to measure progress from the prior data so now we're going back to percentage of students meeting
078or exceeding standard in mathematics once again California is on the left and then you have the various Charter Schools arranged um on this table and then here we are uh with a slide going back to distance from standard but trying to do an Apples to Apples comparison once again the highest performing Charter School um in mathematics is Opa at 74.5 points uh above standard and then you see the other similar CD schools one thing I would like to point out is that um I looked back over the charter dashboard over the last couple years and opa has gone up progressively and luckily I have some insight information their former principal now works for us and I asked about that and so four years ago they actually adopted uh classroom mathematics by I which is the
079curriculum that we've adopted and started implementing this year um so I I know that we already had a strong foundation and cognitively guided instruction and now with a really robust curriculum that our teachers really deserve I I predict that we will have an increase over the next couple years as well so now moving on from the academic indicators we're looking at the English learner progress indicator or LP um this measures the percentage of students um English Learners who are making progress in English proficiency so instead of um distance from standard or matter exceeded this is the total percentage California as a whole um we 45.7% of students were making progress so in IND at as orange and then once again only one of our schools actually had more than 11 but fewer than 30 students
080to to report out and so that's Cal Ops is in Orange um CRA Journey okasa CP um College Prep in O Opa um more than 11 but fewer than 30 so there's no change from the prior year and then as you see for Kasa K5 crla and offl they actually had fewer than 11 students and so for privacy issues the state does not report any actual numbers next we have the College and Career indicator so there are only uh three charter schools in our district that serve high school students that is Cal Ops ofl and okasa College Prep as you see both Cal Ops and ofl um were in the low or um or orange um dashboard indicator and then okasa College Prep has fewer than 11 seniors and so no data is reported now
081we move on to Chronic absenteeism so once again this is only a measure for K8 students and this is the percentage of students who were absent 10 or uh 10% or more of instructional days that they were enrolled um once uh California was at 18.6% chronically absent Opa is in the green with 7% absent and then going from left to right CRA and journey or in um or in Orange I'm sorry in yellow okasa college prep and okasa K5 or in Orange and Cal Ops is in red I do want to point out that um Cal Ops is actually an online independent study program as well as ofl um and crla and ofl are once again in Gray because crla has fewer than 30 students and so only reports out the current status but not
082a comparison from year to year and offl had fewer than 11 students in K8 um for graduation rate um once again only have three uh Charter School in our district that serve high school students uh Cal Ops was in green ofl was in red once again remember um ofl is a d School meaning they serve at risk or high-risk students and then okasa College Prep um fewer than 11 students so no data is reported and uh finally suspension rate um this is actually an indicator where the state wants to see a lower percentage right not a higher percentage uh the idea is we want to suspend fewer students um and represents the percentage of students who are suspended for at least one day so even if a student is suspended multiple times they're only counted
083once um so you see once again moving from left to right in blue we have Cal Ops ofl aasa K5 and in green Journey Opa and okasa college prep and then CR and orange and then crla um once again um fewer than 30 students more than 11 and also they didn't have data from the prior so that's why you see an NA finally um once again we have three uh schools charter schools in our district that serve high school students and high schools tend to be was accredited so wasque is an accrediting agency saying the diploma that students receive actually means something and and can get you into college or into the world of work um so the traditional assignment of was accreditation is a sixe cycle with a midcycle revisit so opportunities for learning
084um is accredited for six years through um 2028 with the midcycle report this school year Cal Ops is accredited for six years as well through 2028 with a midcycle um inperson visit this year and then aasa College Prep is on probationary accreditation status through 2026 with a two-day visit scheduled for this year and finally why is this information important specifically for charter schools so the state a few years came out with new ways to categorize um charter schools in preparation for Renewal um so charter schools are either assigned High middle or low performance status so high uh a charger school is assigned High uh if they have blue and green across all the dashboard indicators like the ones we just went over then I'm going to skip to the bottom uh bullet there uh they're
085classified as low if they have red and orange across all dashboard indicators and then they're put into middle if they don't fall into high or low um so this also these performance indicators have to be over two years prior to the next renewal so it's not just it's a one year it's a two-year process with that I would would like to turn over to uh president Davis and trustees for any questions thank you Miss Hast do we have any speaker cards on this item we have two speaker cards I would ask Dr Julie Bal Schubert and Jessica Newburn to please come forward Dr Julie you'll be first go thank you Madame President uh trustees thank you for the opportunity to share about the joyfill learning experiences and environment founded Orange County Academy of Sciences and
086arts Elementary otherwise known as okasa Elementary which is located in Laguna neigel my name is Dr Julie Betto Schubert and over the last 34 years I've been had the pleasure to be an educator with the last five serving as the principal of okasa Elementary at okasa we recognize every child is on a different academic social emotional and behavioral PL path each we take each child from their place on these continuums and move them forward by providing interdisciplinary instruction designed to support individual student growth as a result okasa Elementary's English language arts and Mathematics scores are in the blue or the highest performing and our students consistently demonstrate the highest growth our ability to achieve the highest academic achievement and growth is due to the exceptional instructional practice and strong parent student and staff relationships in
087addition okasa Elementary was voted the number one school in Laguna Niguel to work I attribute this achievement to Capel MAA our executive director his leadership and support during my 5-year tenure has been exceptional and laid the foundation for aasa's continued success okasa Elementary is genuinely a joyfill school and a fantastic place to work thank you for your support of okasa our next speaker is Jessica Newburn go ahead you good evening board members my name is Jessica Newburn I'm the new director of school development at the Orange County Academy of Sciences and arts uh this fall I started my position um and was had the opportunity to help okasa College Prep plan plan for the year and I wanted to share some highlights from from this school year so far um first something about last year
088last year our senior class was small but Mighty um as you saw that it was redacted on the dashboard um but all of our seniors graduated with acceptances to uh CSUS or uc's or both um and we are on track for that as well this year um using star 360 we are monitoring student growth really closely this year and after our winter Administration we were really excited to see all our students on track to meet their growth goals this year um at okasa College Prep we're really proud of the individual support we provide for students at a small school and um they receive weekly mentoring from our teachers to support them with their academic goals as well as making sure that their school experience is tailored to them and connecting to their personal needs and
089interests and this individualized support really benefits our substantial proportion of students with disabilities our students additionally receive Hands-On learning uh through Project Lead the Way courses and field trip or field study experiences and students this year have already had the opportunity to get uh into the community several times with field trips and are participating in several Project Lead the qu classes including design and modeling and app creators that are super engaging for them they're really excited about those and we're just off to a great start and want to say say that we appreciate your support thank you thank you trust's discussion okay and oh sorry sorry thank you okay um kind of have comments and some questions um I'm charter schools in my opinion were um created to offer something different something different and as
090it's been expressed um all kinds of kids need all kinds of different ways in learning um but the whole point is educating the student um to give them a a bright future and so my comment is I'm especially curious about 56% of the students at Cal Ops um are considered SED which stands for socially economically disadvantaged now as Dr Johnson mentioned Cal Ops is a at home learning they're they're basically on Zoom or whatever format they use so can you imagine 2,97 students socially economically disadvantaged at home teaching themselves with you know reference I guess they can contact teachers or whatever but by themselves at home um I I looking at those numbers and seeing them in Orange and seeing them in red um only 3% 170 students are in District in cusd um that's
091out of a total of 5,189 students so that's over 5,000 students live out outside of cusd and correct me if I'm wrong we're not getting any funding for them or it costs us more or may maybe that's a a Clark Hampton question all right so the the way funding works for Charter Schools is called an inlo property tax transfer from the uh from school district to the charter school so for Cal Ops the they submit their total enrollment as every student so the 5,196 students and they submit the Ada for those students to the school district that we pass through local our local property taxes for those 5,196 students of which 170 are in District students so they receive and it's about $ 45.7 million of funding that they receive to operate their school and
092then for the students who are outside the school district the state then backfills that funding for TR to unified okay so it's not a losing Financial proposition for us uh the difference what the the key aspect for for cap Trina unified is it changes the type of money so what we we start with $ 45.7 million in local property taxes that's GI given to um cops and then the state gives us state aid so if say there was a huge State Calamity and there was massive budget cuts we would have to absorb 45 5.7 million more in cuts that we wouldn't have to have cut because we're giving away local tax dollars and getting back state aid and replacement yeah I mean the way to think about it is is when your local property tax
093exceeds your requirements for your Ada funding you keep the local property tax and your What's called the basic Aid District LCA Beach Newport Mesa and so your property tax funds your district and if the state has these um what's the word you used earlier Clark the uh volatility of State funding uh you're uh insulated from that volatility because your funding is property tax based right so when you pass through the money um you get now a bigger proportion of state aid in the form of lcff but when the state then has to make Cuts all of that money is subject to those cuts for you whereas your property tax money wouldn't have been subject to those cuts so that's why when the state has large fiscal downturns uh districts like us have to make you
094know fiscal decisions whereas districts like basic Aid districts that are wealthier basic Aid districts um don't and they can just continue to do what they've been doing right so it push so these 5,000 students push our district farther away from that basic Aid designation um significantly farther away from that basic Aid designation uh when I went and visited most of the students are from LA and Riverside County do they not have a program like this in LA or Riverside countyline School well there there's cops that exist in different places of the state um and there's a lot of other online schools they're just choosing to attend this one well I want to thank uh Dr Brown and the staff for presenting this is now our second if not our third time in presenting so that
095we're aware of the the charter schools um and I know I have an invitation I need to get to this spring um Opa um in terms of um their their school and what they're doing May um and I can see they siphon off some of our kids from some of our students from Castile and yet Castile is a really high performing terrific school but I would like to just kind of make the comment and and give the direction that we would like to continue seeing these reports and when we've got um I mean again looking at these kids 2,97 at home you know already disadvantaged and I'd say disadvantaged in their education too um besides financially that um they're being a part of us and and we've got no say in terms of bettering their
096education um what do what do we do when we see this and how do we get csba to help us recognize this legislators we're talking to them about this um this is not good for students and I just want to make um parents and and constituents out there understanding that there's some great charter schools and then there's ones that are not serving their students um as well as they should thank you and once this is presented to the board then it goes on our district website or where does this information go so the public can access it yeah so it along with all artifacts and and mes can speak to it it is available so the entire presentation is available to the public on the website and and and easy to locate my yeah so
097it's linked to the board agendas who through the board agendas okay thanks any other comments truste Jones um I guess I'm curious about absentee rates um at cops because they are not zoom they're not seat-based you basically have Independent Learning and uh check in with with your teacher I'm not even sure if it's by phone or by email periodically I I don't remember now the what their requirements are so is that how the students become 19% chronically absent they're not checking in with their teacher periodically or do we know uh thank you trusty Jones yeah I I don't know specifically about kops but one of the ways that you account attendance for um independent study is by work product and actually the weekly check-in or I'm not exactly sure how they do their check-in but
098work product is one of the ways that they do attendance for for independent study programs but I can find out in more detail for you for it just seems so unfair because we get uh we're we're paid on average daily attendance and we work very hard to get kids to school we want them to be in school but they actually have to have their bottoms in the chairs for us to get paid whereas um and I mean lots of kids can do all the work without any effort but if they're not you know sitting in the chairs we're not getting paid their kids don't have to sit in the chairs they just have to produce the work and it's different from um um uh opportunities for learning because those kids do packets and they do
099tend to come come to school opportunities for Len has many campuses we have have one here in sanan uh I know and have known kids that go there and they do go in and they are working with teachers uh where but in uh cops that's not the case at all um and like I say it just is it again impacts our bottom line because these schools are judged for their Ada on something far less rigorous than we are judged on so I I'd be interested in knowing I don't want you to have to spend a lot of time at it but if you could find out how they derive that absolutely no problem I mean it's part of our our job is um you know oversight of Charters and so I can reach out to
100them and find information right but don't spend you know a week trying to figure it out thank you well as part of oversight we visit all of the charters that we Charter so we can ask while we're there like like I'm going to Journey tomorrow as part of oversight so and just as a followup it sounds to me like maybe 19% of the work has not been submitted because if you're working on your own and you're a night person not a morning person you're picking your hours like why would you report you were absent one day so it's probably the assignment based um is really what that absenteeism represents there but so we'll be curious to know what you learn thanks Absolutely I'll follow up with a board update thank you and as a reminder
101the presentation's available at the link thank you okay 13d ethnic studies this is an information only item and no board action is necessary recognize Dr um Greg Marin associate superintendent education and Sport Services present the item thank you president Davis and trustees staff presents item 13d ethnic studies tonight's presentation will provide for you an overview of the ethnic studies curriculum staff is going to share the legal requirements the learning objectives the goals the purpose of the proposed curriculum the process for curriculum development and a proposed timeline that you will notice emphasizes multiple opportunities for feedback transparency and awareness with our community so Dr mag irvis our executive director secondary curriculum and instruction will facilitate the presentation for you this evening and Dr irvis take it away good evening thank you cheses so assembly Bill 101
102made ethnic studies a California graduation requirement beginning with the class of 2030 the purpose being to Foster understanding respect and empathy so that we can help students see themselves and each other as part of The Narrative of the United States there is a very recent development with this mandate according to the California Department of Finance the 2526 portion of the mandate to offer the course on all of our campuses has not been triggered since it was dependent on apportionment in the very recently released budget proposal so more will likely come on that however the graduation requirement does remain a part of existing Education Code so the goals of ethnic study in California are to promote cultural awareness enhance critical thinking strengthen inclusivity and Empower student voice the ethnic studies model curriculum which you can see
103there on the screen was adopted by the state in March of 2021 it is not a made curriculum or a textbook the name might imply it is a guidance document to be used by districts as they develop their courses and the entire document is available on the CDE website so the California model document states that proposed curriculum should focus focus on four themes identity history and movement systems of power and social movements and Equity additionally California's Focus includes the four primary disciplines of ethnic studies which include African-American Latino Latina latinx Native American Asian-American and Pacific Islander perspectives including specifically the contributions in histories of diverse communities in your local context for us Orange County using an interdisciplinary approach so providing of an overview of four major groups within California is in itself a formidable Endeavor
104and there are many other groups that have contributed to California's history so in order to incorporate additional person perspectives the committee recommends providing time in the T final portion of the course for students to further research an aspect either of one of the four groups already studied but something that piqued their interest or an additional group not covered within the major four in that way we can personalize the experience of ethnic studies for each of our students in our very diverse School District resulting in a additional time at the final unit of study so as far as the curriculum development process the ethnic studies committee here in cusd began meeting in the 2324 school year and included a team of History social studies teachers from across our district high schools who worked in collaboration to
105develop course content this year we added additional Partners from Orange County Department of Ed one of the Departments of Education within California that has been charged to support this work you can see the rest of the approval process and when all of the steps have been taken to approve the curriculum the recommendation which is actually from the original history social studies framework is to place our ethnic studies semester long course in 9th grade as a partner with our n9th grade semester long Health requirement well there are lots of thoughts of why it might be in a variety of different grade levels this focus in nth grade on examining multiple perspectives helping students begin to really develop the high school level critical thinking and ultimately to to learn how to form their own opinions based on
106information provided from a variety of sources and perspectives will lead to Preparing them for subsequent courses both in history social studies and other areas of study so this is a sample of lesson topics that are provided in the model curriculum that the committee has recommended for consideration you can see that these lessons represent the four disciplines they also weave the four themes of identity history and movement systems of power and social movement and Equity within the four groups there are many more lesson options and we'll go into much greater detail at the board Workshop in February so the timeline the next steps include parent engagement meetings in January and February the aforementioned board Workshop the imrc review process which we have here in cppo and then back for the imrc approval there is also a
107public review period so the curriculum that has passed through the imrc will be available to commun Community parents students staff for over 30 days prior to bringing it back to the board for final approval and then it becomes a graduation requirement for our class of 2030 which are currently in seventh grade I want to thank the members of the committee all the teachers who have been pulled from their classrooms to help us do this work I I greatly appreciate their contributions and and I'm happy to answer any questions thank you Miss Hayes do we have any speaker cards on this item we have two speaker cards I'll call you both to the podium now um Jean you will be first and then Robin good evening board so I um last board meeting was no it
108was a little while before that last board meeting was a celebration um there was a it was brought up about this graduation requirement for ethnic studies and I had asked hey is there a curriculum already um there wasn't and thank you Dr Brown for communicating um I do have some concern about ethnic studies because I have read about some of these courses in other districts and I just want to share a concern as a parent a grandparent because what I I mean there's a lot of words in this presented you know that that you just don't know what's included mentions a lot about Equity um you know what I'm concerned about and what I've read is a uh is the is this a focus what's the purpose what's the guiding principle is it like is
109it to critique a white supremacy you know racism anti Blackness patriarchy capitalism and other forms of power and oppression um is it also to communicate that if you are a certain race that you are automatically disadvantaged or inherently privileged My Hope Is that as you review this and you know maybe there's an opportunity for me to look at the curriculum um that you can vet a curriculum that doesn't push Equity based on race but promotes equality of opportunity for all so how do we Inspire our children toward the American American ideals no matter what their background so I would love for this I mean since this is a requirement and we're developing this curriculum can it become something that is inspirational and not something that provides you know our our kids I I just that's
110my concern and I just thank you for your time our next speaker is Robin Robin go ahead hi I'm Dr Robin gurian I am a um a professor at Cal State Fullerton and I use a lot of ethnic studies pedagogical um tactics in my classroom so I am not here to oppose ethnic studies curriculum I am also um somebody who has been working up and down the state um and am aware of a lot of the different kinds of curricular problems that we've seen in ethnic studies as Jean has pointed out so the reason I'm here is to give you some guidelines on um some dos and don'ts as you go forward in building out your curriculum and I want to be clear and make sure that everybody understands that the legislature when they created
111this ethnic studies um uh program they did not intend it as the Collegiate academic content of ethnic studies which is an entirely different academic discipline they intended ethnic studies to be an opportunity for students to see themselves in the curriculum um and you're absolutely correct that the model curriculum is really just a suggestion um and and um when you use that model curriculum a little bit to literally um that's where we see these schools getting in into trouble so what I would recommend very specifically is in those two modules where you're talking about Power Systems you have two choices you could either not do it at all um and that's an option because there's really no um standards for this course at all so you could leave that module out entirely and still offer a
112perfectly legitimate course or you use Power Systems in such a way that you're not just critiquing Western ideology but also the kinds of Power ideologies that we see through out the world because one of the things that we see in the course is that when you're focusing only on the um oppressive Western ideological systems that's when we start to see um claims of bigotry and discrimination likewise we really want to make sure that our students are able to develop a sense of critical thinking when it comes to concepts of social movement and social structure and so not just focusing on the positive social movements um in in a snapshot kind of way but making sure that students get to see positive and negative social movements social movements like the McCarthyism of the 1950s um and
113uh how about the um the Arab Spring of um 2010 uh we really want students to be able to make critical assessments of your time so now we will move on um president Davis discussion comments questions Tristy casianos thank you um just a couple of comments about the curriculum and um the class I should say um super excited I know this has been in the works for a very long time it's almost painstakingly slow um that we've rolled this out and so um I think when I was on the board in 2019 we were talking about it and um I think the class was going to start at that point in 2025 and I was excited because I was like oh maybe my uh child would get an opportunity to take the course but uh
114isn't going to happen um but excited for other uh students to take the course and learn and identify with other cultures uh around the world so this is an exciting uh time um for high school students to take the course I think one of my favorite courses in college was an ethnic studies course although this may uh look very different in a high school setting it's still an opportunity for students to explore and and and learn more um just a quick question Meg if you um I just had a comment for the so the course is being offered in Fall of 2026 so that means that rolls out across the district or it we're skipping a pilot class or how does that work uh so originally the rule required us to offer it as a
115pilot course as an option but not a mandate for students to take starting next year um and then starting the year after that any kid entering High School the year after that must complete the course and their High School experience uh when we talk about a change to that like the change that we're hearing about to that rule is days old like really Fresh So from that standpoint it'll be you know part of the board Workshop in February where the board can dig into it and then decide if um we're going to offer it as a pilot as per the original rule um which may or may not come back depending on how the budget changes over the next few months um what I would tell you is that staff wants to be prepared because
116we don't want to rely on the state changing their minds one way or the other and suddenly we're left out of compliance so we plan to be prepared to offer the course next year as was originally intended um and the board can direct from there okay thank you I think that's it but thank you I love the I love the presentation thank you trusty buus thank you I just want to say I'm looking forward to the ethnic studies but I'm really appreciate the fact that we're working with um Orange County Board of Education and that there is going to be so much um input and um to jeans uh you you are invited to come when it's open up to the community and um I I liked Jean's expression about talking inspirationally not focusing on
117differences so much um in my mind I see this as helping to stop the bullying when we start to appreciate one another understand Heritage differences the way people grew up their cultures um that hopefully it great builds a greater understanding um and not looking down the nose you know and and creating those um differences and to the point of um not that we can say this specifically um I love the project idea that the students could come up with something I hope it is something that students will then um bring about their Heritage bring about something um in terms of traditions and their family uh it was must have been December before winter break at Bathgate there was an Insider report they did an International Fair um is kind of tied in the NPR room
118but um going back to my days when my kids were at Bathgate when we did the same thing it is one of the um best attended events and that people are proud of their Heritage and and the parents were there with their kiddos our students setting up the booths um and um offering foods from that and it it's a great experience everyone enjoys it and um I don't know that we can put that into the curriculum but I would encourage it um as maybe an example you know um when you put these things together so I I'm looking forward to to what's developed and and being able to be a part of hearing um and um giving suggestions in terms of what we're doing with it thank you thank you other trustees Jones I can't
119follow everything that goes on in California um uh I was not aware is it is it true that there are no state standards for this class nothing in the legislation that says we must do this or we must do that we just have to have an ethnic audience class for graduation D correct we would be using the history social state standards there are also common cor standards that are across discipline specifically in history so we have standards we would be using to inform the course but there is not a specific set of standards in the way that we think about a standard in biology for ethnic studies okay right right but we definitely have standards within our discipline to work from okay within the social science stand the Common Core Ela for social studies thank
120um and so there are no state approved ethnic studies textbooks like there are Health books and some other um so we we are rolling our own um correct and it's new so I don't know what Publishers are doing with that information but there's a very strong focus on local context which is unique to the course and and perhaps a conundrum for textbook Publishers however there we really focus in history social studies on primary documents and available sources and so this is very much a document-based course and students would receive documentation on the topics that are connected to the work there's also like one of the units it's the Poetry of Native Americans that contributes to an understanding of a particular experience so it's it's Unique in that there are lots of resources available uh news
121articles video snippet so it it will be a unique course because it won't operate from a textbook but there is plenty of source material available and the CDE has uh collected that and made that available and then as I mentioned different counties County offices of Education have been charged with providing additional resources Orange County happens to be the one um who's supporting the Asian-American Pacific Islander group but across the state these resources are all being shared okay all right and um I had one other question I can't think of it now um thank you I just want to say that sounds like a creative way of learning lot more interaction and um as you say if it's documentation things that they can get their hands on and and see how it applies um to to
122living to history um making it your own I think that sounds actually kind of good not having a textbook Done Right correct I agree it's a it's a really great opportunity to get nth grade students excited about learning really complex topics in new and fun ways with a Project based focus and just a reminder we're going to spend multiple hours uh digging into this and and you will get your fill and and then some in a board Workshop in late February which is also a public meeting I remembered my question which is that whether there 's an apex learning class in already okay so students could be taking this already if they wanted to okay yes for students with impacted schedules there would still be an option to meet this requirement in summer we also
123there's a course already in place at Saddleback College that would meet the needs if a student wanted to do it that way student advisor Brando I just had a a more of a logistical question um so and you mentioned that this is going to be done in conjunction with uh uh Health in ninth grade so I know that many students take health over the summer to have an extra elective um whether they want um in addition to their required language class whether they want to take a history class theater ASB Etc um so I you I know you just mentioned this will be opt available as an online class as well would that be available for students to take in the summer absolutely okay we have students like yourself with impacted schedules and will continue
124to accommodate that and could students take both the health and the ethnic studies class over the summer yes okay and we will say that that that impact discussion will continue as the another state requirement for a semester long uh course around uh fiscal and personal finance rolls out as well um that you'll have three that you have to try and figure out how to get in so Partnerships with Saddleback online options of course options on campus we'll have a plethora of Pathways for students to get through through these things and that's for the class of 2031 so we have a bit of an on- wrap thank you and I'm Native American I was born in Montana and my family is um Native American many of my cousins grew up on a reservation and just hearing
125their experience and what what it looks like and the traditions and Customs around my family's Heritage is is always fascinating in going to the experiences of of like your experienc trusty bolus and um and those are some of the best is when we can share and learn from one another and um celebrate and make it inspirational is just incredibly important so thank you thank you and and I'll be learning from our community of Native American Partners here in our area next week wonderful thank you okay and we'll move on to that was information only so thank you 13e resolution 2 uh sorry resolution 24258 on authorizing filing of applications for State allocated board administered programs for the cap Unified School District we have a mo motion to adopt this resolution I'll moved moved by trusty
126costos seconded by trusty Zinger and recognize Clark Hampton Deputy superintendent business support services to present the item thank you president Davis trustees so this uh item is very similar to the very next item as well the two resolutions there's just one small difference so I'm going to speak to both of them and then of course the board will vote separately on each item so uh proposition two which we mentioned earlier in the budget update uh was passed in November 10 uh10 billion bond for school construction k14 and um uh the as we mentioned earlier also the Governor plans to sell about $1.5 billion of that well part of prop two is the requirements for school districts to receive the matching money from prop two is to sub uh submit a five-year master plan now these
127are resolutions acknowledging that it's not triggering any expenditures that would come later um so the item before you now 13e is for new construction and modernization that type of money and then 13f the next item is for hard uh ship seismic funding that's the only difference between the two resolutions um both are for the and but both require that school districts have matching money to receive that funding as well but the the key is the key difference is the requirement for a five-year master plan um we the two projects that we have reanda school site is grandfathered in is the pre- propop two so we those are already in line for funding and Dana Hills High School two-story building is also in line for funding uh there are two projects that we will come to
128the board later about which are um matching money for S Clemy high school gym for 6.8 million estimated match and Capal Valley High School stadium 11.7 million uh match so more than likely would be coming to you for uh approval for a master plan in the future to be able to be eligible for these $18.5 million in matching funds so okay well let we first do we have any speaker cards on this item there are none okay go ahead trusty bulus can I get clarification on on your last statement because I thought somewhere along the line and maybe it was a question a trustee had hand had submitted is that the cap Valley High School um stadium for example wouldn't that be grandfathered in that we don't have to spend the money to have that
129fiveyear plan I think yeah John can speak to that so when it's when we submitted the applic yeah we the the project we've already received the money to build the stadium but we were able to design it with spaces that are identified for teaching spaces so this is an addition what we'll get in the future this is new matching money so you couldn't submit until you had all your approvals so this is more money that will come in after the construction is over right we just want to keep getting our money our matches as much as we can with what we have thank you you're welcome other trustees thank you Miss hay can you please call the role student board member verando I trusty ctios hi trusty Pritchard trust Zinger hi trusty Adams hi trusty
130Jones hi trusty bulus hi trusty Davis Hi the motion carries 70 i r call with a preferential vote from student board member Rondo okay we'll move on to 13f resolution 20259 have a motion to adopt this resolution authorizing the filing application for State allocation board administered facility hardship and or facility hardship size MC mitigation programs for the district so moved moved by trusty bz second second trusty trust moved by seconded by trusty casianos and thank you Dr Campton for the information do we have any speaker cards on this Dar any additional questions or comments okay please call the rooll student board member Rando hi trusty casianos hi trusty Pritcher trusty zullinger I trusty Adams I trusty Jones I trusty bulus I trusty Davis I the motion carry 70 by a roll call Vote with a
131preferential vote of I by from student board member Rondo okay we'll move on to 13g amendment to purchase and sale agreement and Joint escro instru oh this was pulled sorry thank you and 13h was pulled 13 I may I have a motion to approve the 2025 local control accountability plan midyear monitoring report for the 2425 lcap moved by trusty Zinger seconded by trusty casianos I will recognize Greg mwin associate superintendent education and support services present thank you president Davis and trustees staff presents item 13 I 2025 local control accountability plan midyear monitoring report of the 2425 local control accountability plan executive director Dr Michael Gomez is here as well to assist with questions staff recommends approval Hayes do we have any speaker cards on this item there are none there are none with that trustees
132comments questions okay all those in favor I I okay the motion carries 70 with a prial vote of I from the student board member of rando he moving on to 14 consent calendar we'll now move Miss Haste do we have any speaker cards on this item there are none there are none okay may I have a motion to approve the consent calendar from 15a to 18b so moved second moved by trusty Adam seconded by trusty Jones Thank You discussion and comments any further comments before we call the rooll who say student board member Rando hi trusty castanos hi trusty Pritchard hi trusty zoler hi truste Adams I trusty Jones I trusty bulus I trusty Davis I motion carries 70 by roll call vote to approve the consent calendar with student board member Brando casting a
133providential vote of I to approve the consent calendar there being no further visits before the board may I have a motion to adjourn so move move by trusty Jones seconded by trusty buus all those in favor I motion carries 70 to journ the meeting with the preferential voter by room student board member Rando the time is now 908 p.m. thank you have a great night