001The board of trustees for Bumont Unified School District will reconvene in open session. And I would like to ask Mr. Stan Martin to please lead us in the pledge of allegiance. begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you, Mr. Sam Martin. All right. At this time, the I will open the floor for public testimony. During meetings of the board of trustees, members of the public have an opportunity to comment on items that appear on the agenda or items that do not appear on the agenda but are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board. Individual speakers shall be allowed three minutes to address the board on each agenda
002or non-aggenda item. The board shall limit the total time for public input on each item to 20 minutes. Speakers may not yield or donate their time to another speaker. With board consent, the president may increase or decrease the time allowed for public presentation depending on the topic and the number of persons wishing to be heard. The president may take a poll of the speakers for or against a particular topic and may ask additional persons to speak if they have something new to add. Um, public comment from Mr. Barry Steel. Hello. Uh Barry Still, I'm the boys varsity soccer coach at Bulma High School. Uh this is my 25th year coaching here and I would like to address our pay. I was told that uh we will get a tentative agreement and that we had shot
0032% which would still keep us as the lowest paid in the league by quite a distance which I I know you know cuz we've given you those numbers and uh we would like to get to 3% which is just fair compensation. We would be in the middle of the league. I know for me I would still be I think fifth of six teams in our league. um as an alumni of Bulma High School um and someone that's been in the math department, uh AVID, CTE, uh filled in as administrator, um PE department, social science department, teaching history. Um I can tell you that athletics is by far the most impactful um culture changer on our campus and we currently have about 1500 student athletes. Um every program is above a 3.0 no GPA. Uh nearly
00450% of our students are scholar athletes, meaning they're 3.5. We just change the culture on campus. and we're frequently told that um we we love you guys and you do such amazing things, but then uh I know I've come here before and spoken we are the lowest paid and have been the lowest paid for at least 20 years since I've been tracking this and we've given you the numbers and showed you that we're the lowest paid and given you the district breakdowns from the districts we compete in. And we were told we would get 2% and we would take it out of the teacher salary and healthcare which will never pass. I'm a teacher myself and I wouldn't vote for it. That's that's um obviously not going to be beneficial to the teachers because there's
005a lot more of them than us. So, um I just I feel like it's uh something that's a culture changer and very much so impacts our students, but it's it's not even about I think it would be if we got a 3% raise, it would be less than $1,000. It's not going to change my life in any way, shape, or form. It's more the principle of the matter that we are the lowest paid and we consistently have stayed the lowest paid all six years we've been in the league and in the two leagues before that and it's been addressed multiple times of the board and we're still the lowest paid and we'll remain the lowest paid even if we got a 2% raise we would remain the lowest paid in the league. So I think
006it's just a principal thing. I think we're um a gem or a jewel in the community as a one high school town. And I think we do amazing things on campus and change young people's lives um more so than other things. And we are really just year round. Um we inter I could show up and interact with my kids for 3 months. We would probably not win a game. Um every one of my seniors is going to college. We were division one this year in CIF and we won league for the fourth time in six years. uh we're interacting with kids year round and it would be cool to get compensated for that work. Thank you for your time. >> A quick point of clarification, you're speaking about the stipens that are within the BCA.
007>> Stipens just for coaches. Yeah. So, yeah, just the stipens for coaches. I know it gets lumped in with other things, but no one else is working year round with like uh just to answer your question. Yeah, stipens for coaches. Um, like other stipens, I was up here every day during Christmas break but Christmas. I was up here Thanksgiving break except Thursday. I was up here February break. I'll be up here in the summer. We're doing spring stuff. Like, we're with our kids year round. So, it's it's a stipen just for coaches. And I know it gets lumped with like stipens for clubs. I promise those people are not here during Christmas break or February break or Thanksgiving break or the summer. So, yeah, just stipens for coaches. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank
008you, Mr. Steel. Um, Shelley Waldron. Hello. I will be speaking on the same topic. Our athletic program not only supports our student athletes physically, socially, and mentally, but for our girls specifically, our programs have the potential to build confidence and leadership skills that stay with them long after their final buzzer at BHS. Over 90% of women who hold leader leadership positions in their field attribute many of their successes to their athletic backgrounds. I personally attribute all of my own successes and skills to experiences gained from BHS athletics and countless coaches, many of which are still at the school, who poured time and energy into building me up. I had a collegiate career as a dual sport athlete with academic scholarships, hold a master's degree, am a professor at California Baptist University, and a doctoral candidate
009completing my side in sport and performance psychology. My time as a Cougar prepared me for life, and I now have the opportunity to pour into the next generation of student athletes as the girls basketball coach. If you value these coaches, as I and the thousands of other student athletes who have benefited from their time, expertise, and encouragement do, you would pay them and now us fairly. As an early professional with all the excitement, and energy to pour into my team, it's sad that I have to seriously financially consider the cut that I'm taking to be able to support my girls. This is an athletically and academically competitive program with all teams over 3.0 GPA and simply deserves properly paid coaches. Confidence, resilience, discipline, and leadership. All skills beyond the X's and O's of sports. As
010of now, our coaches aren't being properly paid for the X's and O's, much less the count the priceless guidance, mentorship, and dedication to their sport and athletes. It is my understanding that you all have the numbers and stats. You just aren't taking us seriously. Our coaches won't walk out. We won't quit. We won't make a scene because none of us are here for the money. Obviously, you have the upper hand as these coaches have been significantly underpaid, undervalued, and underappreciated by you dating back 20 years as the lowest paid coaches in our league. We are here today to simply ask that you take us seriously, to value the work we are doing, and acknowledge the impact we are making both on and off the competitive field. Thank you for your time. Thank you so much,
011Miss Waldurn. Item eight. Item 8.1, approve the recommended action for student discipline case 202526-14. >> I move approval. I'll second David. >> That's me. >> Yes, you can be the second time. >> Any discussion? Hearing none, call for the vote. And the motion carries. Item 9.1, report out of close session, Mr. Sanchez. All right, give me one second here. Persuade to education code section 49070. I am reporting on action taken during close session regarding item 5.2, 2 records challenge. In close session, the board took the following actions. The challenge was denied. Upon consideration of the information presented in the matter of the records challenged, the board made a motion by myself, David Sanchez, seconded by President Jeff Brown, to deny the challenge by a vote of four with one absent. The board finds the information
012in the record to be accurate and was recorded in accordance with established policies. End of my report. >> Thank you, Mr. Sanchez. Uh, item 9.2, receive a report from student board member Kaden Alderson. Good evening everyone. I'm excited to share our secondary school sites great events, activities, and accomplishments. First, we go to Mountain View Middle School. The Mountain View Middle School Cougar Jazz Band delivered an outstanding performance at Bowmont High School. A special congratulations to the boys volleyball team for their teamwork and win against the Summer One Trail School. Congratulations to the students who were recognized at the 7th annual Bowmont Unified School District Film Festival. Students and staff enjoyed their time during the house rallies which included staff versus students, basketball games, performance by the flag cheer and uh and stepper students. Eighth grade
013students enjoyed a trip learning about the nation's capital as well as exploring New York City. Congratulations to the Cougar girls flag football team on their 20 to6 victory over summer wind trail school. The school's national junior society participated in the city of Bmont Cleanup Day. Students competed competed at the SoCal Health Occupation Students of America competition with six of the participants advancing to the round two in the areas of life-threatening situations, foundations of healthy living and veterinary sciences. Next, we move on to Sangroni Middle School. Essio Camarino represented Bowmont Unified School District at the Riverside County Spelling Bee Competition and placed third place. He was pictured alongside the spelling bee coordinator, Mrs. Vasquez. Assistant principal Mrs. Rivera hosted an egg hunt to encourage a positive school environment. Students and staff searched for eggs throughout the
014school day. Students attended a VFW event at Sun Lakes where four students earned prizes for their essay submissions in the Patriots PEN essay contest. Also, Miss Gail Reed was selected as the VFW teacher of the year. A team of students competed in an underwater robotics competition at the Inland Empire SE Purge 2026 competition held at University of California Riverside. The school's team won second place overall and earned first and second place for the underwater mission course category. On summer one trails, eighth grade summer one trail schools uh girls visited the University of Redlands as part of the American Association of University Women Leadership orientation. The girls basketball team performed exceptionally well throughout the entire season. Congratulations Emma Applegate, Kennedy, Meander, and Devon Bailey for being recognized as the top three finalists at the school. At
015the 7th annual film festival, the the theater, arts, and choir students participated in an educational workshop led by Disney Imagineers on a Bulma High School. The Bulmont High School hosted the incoming 9th grade students to provide them a campus tour. The school hosts the youth empowered stewardship conference where students from the Riverside County Office of Education, Marina Valley Regional Learning Center, and Bulma High School students work together to find solutions to community challenges. Students attended the elective rush where different courses are on display like a career fair at some run trails. The Bulma High School drum line competed in two competitions and placed in and placed third in the novice division at Martin Luther King High School and placed first at Ramona High School on a Glen View. Glen View High School AVID program had
016a guest speaker from the Universal Technical Institute to encourage college and career exploration. The school will have its first all girls football team. Special thanks to Miss Romero for the coaching. The school welcomed the newest member to the Coyote family for the fourth quarter. Current students support current students support new students by explaining what it means to be a committed coyote and how to earn Coyote kudos on a 21st Century Learning Institute. Yeah. Um 21st Century uh learning institute students participate in the district chess competition at Sorggonia Middle School. The cycle and social club has continued to integrate fun interactive STEM lessons or steam lessons for each month on the Bulmont Middle College. The Bmont Middle College uh high school students were on a field trip to UCLA in the Getty Museum to explore potential
017future college and career plans as well as discover art history up close. Students students participated in the best foundations night of the stars art competition. Congratulations to the BMCHS students who received first place and second place for their artwork. AVID students volunteered and tabled at the district's literature fair last month. The students supported by the students supported by handing out information on how literature supports college readiness. welcoming uh community members and supporting authors and district personnel. On to Bumont Adult School. Congratulations to the Bowmont Adult School High School uh equivalency graduate, Learius Brooks. Learius will now be enrolling in the phabbotomy program at Bowmont Adult School to pursue a career in the medical field. Medical assistant students complete hands-on CPR certification requirements, a vital skill for frontline healthcare providers. Vocational nursing students from class 41
018practice essential personal safety equipment protocols such as safety put such as safely putting gown gloves and medical garments. As always, thank you to all of our parents, families, and staff. This concludes the presentation on events and activities taking place at our secondary school sites. Thank you, Kaden. Uh item 9.3, we'll receive a report from our superintendent, Maize Kakish, on the district calendar for the months of April and May. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you for being here. I'll start my report by acknowledging on March 23rd, Mountain View uh school opened four fully furnished classrooms, uh restrooms, uh and had upgraded a lot of the ADA travel pathways. $3.5 million project that was made possible by 2008 uh measures Zebon. On March 26, the district hosted the 7th annual film festival award night. Just wait. >>
019Okay. Just going on. I can talk about the film festival while they're putting the um the slides on. It was like an Oscar performance. It was so beautiful. Both the students along with some of our employees that competed for um through film making had done a great job. We could not stop laughing for some of these comedy uh videos. Our staff did awesome led by Lanny. I know April had a um a big supportive role in this. So I want to thank all of the staff members that were involved in putting that event on. It was topnotch. uh the best in the seven that I have um that well five I have seen there was two before I came on board um I just I could not stop talking about it so thank you all
020for working on that really um an event that was uh participated 100 students participated in the um actual competition they were also professional they looked really good and of course this event doesn't um happen without a lot of sponsorships and donations from our um supporters and partners. So, thank you all. Scholars on vacation led by extended learning opportunities program operated on March 30th uh to April 3rd. The free program served breakfast, lunch, and supper uh over the holiday break, spring break. activities included hands-on activities and uh cooking and fitness. And on to award recognitions, we have several. We are so proud of all of our uh members that are being recognized. We'll start with Rexom, which is a chapter for um AXA, which is an associations for school uh administrators. Summerwind Trails Elementary School principal
021Dr. Mary Science will receive the middle school of the year award on April 27th by Rexom. I don't know if Mary's here. And then uh Mosaic Foundation uh the in inclusivity excellence award on April 30th will be uh received by none other than assistant superintendent of HR Jennifer Castillo. for California Continuation Education Award. Um, Candy Romero teacher of the year, Taran Lure, classified of the year, CTE Medical Pathway Exemplary Program Award, Dr. Benisha Carr, administrator of the year, I will be recognized as superintendent of the year. I'm humbly, very, very honored to receive. And Glen View High School will receive model high school condemnation. We're so proud of the whole team. And for AXA region 19, our administrators of the year will be Jennifer Castillo, assistant superintendent of HR, and Dr. Evan Brown, superintendent of
022instruction support services, and Gabby Toledo, director of special education. So proud of you. It is. I mean, it's been five years. I haven't seen this number of recognitions in for our district. I think every year our staff have just gone the above and beyond uh to put Bowmont on the map, the map of Riverside County and the map of the state. So, so proud of all of our staff led by the best governance team. On to upcoming events. Um, I'm I am so sincere when I say that. I'm just not saying that in front of you, by the way. Um, on April 16th through 26, we will um have the Hairspray musical. So, I keep reminding you of buying tickets, so make sure you get your tickets. It's going to be a show that you
023don't want to miss. Uh, cap and gown distribution will be on April 17th. I can't believe we're planning for graduations already. We're in April. >> April 22nd uh will be a special study session for uh our board of trustees to discuss facilities planning. And then on uh to May because we only have one board meeting in April, we're going to give you just a little peak for things that are coming up in May. May 12th will be our regular board meeting. May 15th will be um retirement recognition dinner. May before that May 23rd I think is another regular board meeting and then uh May 27th will be Palm Innovation Academy ribbon cutting for the kitchen and the shade structure. We're so proud of that project. >> And that is it for the report in the
024calendar event. Mr. President, >> thank you so much Miss Kakich. All right. Item 10.1 approve the consent agenda. Items prepared for consent agenda are items consistent with adopted and approved policies of the district and are deemed routine in nature. They will be acted upon in a single motion without discussion unless any member of the board of trustees request that an item be removed from the consent agenda. In that event, it will be taken up in the order indicated on the main agenda. Would anyone like to remove an item? I would like to remove agendum agenda item 10.4, please. Okay. And with that, can I get a motion? >> I'll move to approve consent agenda items 10.2, 10.3, and 10.5. >> I'll second. Any discussion? >> Hearing none. Call for the vote. and the motion carries.
025All right. Item 11.1, approve the travel request for list dated April 7th, 2026. Do I hear a motion? >> I'll move approval. >> I'll second. >> Discussion. So, I have a um an interest in this travel request, so I'll be abstaining. >> Yes. >> Oh, okay. Call for the vote. And the motion carries. Item 12.1, receive an update from Highland Academy Charter School. Good evening. Thank you very much. Good evening, Superintendent Kakkesh, President Brown, members of the board, cabinet, colleagues, and community. My name is Nathan Chimera, and I serve as the director of fiscal services here for Bumont Unified. Tonight, we we have two guests, uh, both of our charter schools here. We have Highland Academy Charter School and Mission Vista Academy that will be providing, uh, updates to the board. And to start today,
026we have uh we are joined by Mr. Billy Macintosh who serves as the director for Highland Academy Charter School. So, I'll go ahead and I will bring him up to the podium. Good evening. Thank you for having us this uh this evening during this board meeting. Um, I was here about a year ago, um, under slightly more stressful circumstances getting our charter renewed. I'm glad to be here again to share some of the exciting things that have been going on with our school um, over the last year. I'm joined this evening by our assistant director, Miss Elizabeth Boucher. Um, and then Mr. Terren Lee, our our CFO, our CBO. He was not able to join us. Um, but he was also help helped me prepare this presentation. Um, we understand that when you renewed our
027charter last year, um, there was a lot of trust that went into that and I want to assure you we don't take that trust for granted. Um, there we go. So, on on the um screen right now is our school's mission statement. Um, it hasn't changed in a couple years. Um but really I think the um the the the statement we pride ourselves in helping students find their strengths really is the key at what we do at Highland Academy. Um we really invite students to bring their strengths, their talents, whatever they may be, whatever form they may take. Um and see what Highland Academy can add to it. Um we do receive a lot of um students who have struggled in more traditional school settings um throughout um Bowmont and surrounding communities. Um and the
028program that we're offering them, the flexibility that we that we provide um I really feel that is a key in helping these students thrive um and find their genius as we say. Um in the top photo there, that's our boys flag football team. Um, reason I put that photo is not just with that team, but with all our sports team. This year alone, we've had the most participation that we've ever had at Highland Academy. Um, we've had more students try out for teams. Um, we've had more stu students suited up. Um, and we've been able to field a team for every sport um with with every single time. And that has not always been the case. with only 340 students, sometimes we struggle um finding interest, um finding just bodies at at times. Um but
029this year that definitely has not been an issue. Um the lower right hand corner, that's a photo of our advanced theater class. Um earlier this year, we were able to go to Orange County and see the play The Whiz. Um and then at the end, we were we had the really really amazing surprise of meeting the main actor, The Whiz himself. um who talked with our kids um were you know inspiring them encouraging them to follow their passion um and that really was a very uh memor memorable event for our students and so again we have some really incredible things happening at Highland Academy despite um the our small size um and I'm going to put our little pitch in here as well. Our advanced theater um class is doing their play here at the
030Bumont um high school theater um May 6th through the 8th. They're performing the high school musical. Um my daughters are very excited about that. I can't say I really know a lot about it. Um but I can tell you the amount of effort um and work going on is it it's going to make it amazing. Um about 5 years ago, Miss Whitford came to us with the idea of doing musicals instead of just regular plays. And at the time I thought she was a little bit maybe ambitious. Um but five years later she's proven me and all the doubters wrong. And so if you're able to join us May 6th through the 8th at Bulmont High School Theater um we put on a really good production. This is our current staff at Highland Academy. Um
031and without them there's no Highland Academy and I can say that uh with certainty. Um our staffing levels have remained pretty constant um over the years with the exception of an added uh certificated teacher um a special education teacher um to work with the rise the the increase of special education students that we're getting at our school. Um and we're really happy with that change and I think that's going to um continue to work for us. Um we're projected to stay at the same same staffing level for next school year. Um, and again in our hiring, we're really looking for versatile teachers who can work with any kind of kid, um, who really have a passion for teaching and for students. And I think with this group right here, we really have found them. So
032again, I cannot uh, express my appreciation for that group um, enough. So here are our enrollment numbers for this year and our projections moving forward. Um currently we have 317 students at our school. Um so our capacity, our max capacity is 340. So that basically there's currently 23 unfilled seats at our school. Um a large part of this is due to the changing dynamics of students who are applying for our school. Um when I first started at Highland Academy in 2015, um we were basically a middle school only um school. Um, and we had a very small elementary home school with I think maybe a dozen students. Um, as I've been there and as time has passed, um, the demand and the interest in our elementary program has has gone wild. Um, the vast majority
033of applications that we receive are for the elementary grade levels. Um, and so we are adjusting as needed. And so moving forward in 2627, we're anticipating having full capacity. Um, we've received 110 applications for next year already. Um, all grade levels are projected to be full, um, with the exception of sixth grade, um, which we will have 15 openings that we're going to be trying to fill between now, um, and August next school year. Um, we're really, so right now our div we're 60% middle school and about 40% elementary. Um but again being that the demand for elementary is just is so high, we're really looking to increase our capacity at the elementary level. Um and so that really is a focus of ours. Um we're, you know, we have waiting lists at every grade
034level again except for sixth grade. Um and again back in 2015 that was not an issue. We had sixth grade applications coming from everywhere. Um this year it it's a struggle. There's a lot more competition, a lot more charter schools. the district has opened up several very quality schools that have sixth grade. Um, and so we're we're adjusting and so our focus really is filling those empty seats, making sure we're at 340 students, um, and increasing our capacity in elementary. Um, as far as our student groups, we've seen a steady increase in our Hispanic student group. Um, that's increased dramatically since I first started. We were about 30%. Um now we're close to half of our student population belonging to that group. Um our sedcioeconomically disadvantaged group that also has increased dramatically. Um back again
0352015 we were about 20%. Now we're close to 40%. So we've almost doubled that group. And again I mentioned this earlier but our students with disabilities um we have 42 students are about 13% of our population. We've seen a very steady increase with all uh three of those student groups. Here is our financial uh summary. Um last year we had a surplus of 164,000. Uh this year we're forecasting to have a surplus of 19,000 and then next year uh slightly higher than that than 22,000. Um part of that dip that actually the big reason for that dip is because of those empty seats that I mentioned earlier. Um and so moving forward when we get those seats filled um we expect our surplus for 26 27 to be significantly higher. Again in budgeting we don't
036want to just assume we have to do the work. We have to get those seats filled first. Um but we anticipate our surplus um for 26 27 being significantly higher as we fill those seats. So our ending ballot balance for this year is going to be roughly 74% of our overall expenses. um as a very small charter school, we understand the importance of maintaining financial flexibility um so we can respond to unexpected expenses. So that always is a focus of of the administrative team and our school board um and it's something we definitely discuss every single month at our at our board meetings as well. This is a snapshot of our dashboard. Um, our chronic absenteeism, as you can see in the upper left hand square, a rectangle right there is, um, in the orange,
037that is, um, currently we're at 16.4%. That's an increase from last year of about 2.7%. And it's kind of funny cuz our ADA is actually higher this year, but our chronic absenteeism is also a little bit higher. And I think I know why, but we're we're again we're we're working we're working through it and we're talking about some solutions to that. Our suspension rate is pretty much the same. Um it has increased uh 0.44% from last year. Um and then I'll talk about the language arts scores um on the next slides and and math scores. Um and as you can see, our local indicators show the standard has been met. So this slide shows a year-to-year comparison of our language arts scores. Um in 2324 44% of our students met or exceeded the standard. Uh
038this year we were 39.9 so close to 40%. So we saw a dip of about 4.78% from 2324 to 2425. Our math scores again the sideby-side comparison 2324 we were at about 26%. Um and then 2425 we were at 22.87. So we saw a drop of about 3% there as well. And this last side right here shows the school to state uh comp uh performance comparison. Um so we're below the state average by about 9% or 8.9% in language arts and about 14% in math. Um in looking at these scores, it was very easy to become discouraged. Um however, you know what when we get data is data and we data doesn't lie and it is what it is and so we're taking it and we're we're breaking down our program piece by piece to
039see what we can to do to make that better. So really uh some solutions that we've come up with to in addressing these is we're re-examining our curriculum. We're forming a committee um with all stakeholders, teachers, administrators, and parents. Um we're seeing if what we have in place is actually working and if not what other solutions are there. Um we're revisiting um our diagnostic program that we're using. Um up to this point in time we've been using curriculum associates I Ready. Um and we like that and when we do the internal testing we are actually much much closer to state averages but then when the state test comes we see the dip. And so we want to we I mean ideally we would want our diagnostic testing to mirror what our state testing is um
040as much as possible anyways. And so we're we're we're examining that see if there's other solutions out there that could give us um a better indication of what our students have learned and some are areas of focus. So most of these I've already talked about in the previous slides. I did want to emphasize a few. Um, maintaining small class sizes continues to be a priority for us. Um, it's very tempting, especially when we're down students and we have empty seats, to just load students in. Um, but we really are committed um to the the the thought process that the students are most successful when they have one-on-one interaction with their teachers. And so, we really are focused on keeping those class sizes small so teachers can work with their students one- on-one. Um, the special
041education services is a big one for us. As a small charter school, we don't have an in-house like occupational therapist and a speech language pathologist. So, it really becomes necessary for us to contract out with NPAs uh to get these services done. Um, there's a it's kind of hit it's been hit or miss if I can be honest. Some NPAs are better than others and I'm sure that comes as no surprise, but I can say the the team that we have now in place is absolutely fantastic. And I would say there's absolutely no drop off from what a student at a larger school or a larger district would receive than students at Highland Academy are receiving. And then our campus, I just we love our campus. It's it's old. It has character. Um there's a
042lot of repairs and upgrading that need to happen. Um but I think if you were to stop by and this is actually on the next slide, um there's been a lot of upgrades and a lot of improvements that would make the district proud. So, as far as some highlights, um, as I mentioned, our increased attendance. So, our chronic absenteeism is actually up, but so is our ADA. We did increase our ADA. And so, what that tells us as a administrative team and as a board is that we have more students who are coming to school. Um, but our chronic absenteeers or whatever we want to call them, our frequent flyers, um, there's still a continued problem. And so we are working with um RCOE in Riverside County and this and trying to figure out how
043we can get these students to school because if students are not in school, they're not learning quite simply. Um we've expanded our middle school elective classes and as you can tell we're we have quite the variety there. We want students to have a class that's enjoyable um that helps them find their their genius and um gets them even out of their comfort zone a little bit. And so this is a a good start. Um, but we're already at this point in the year looking for new electives that we can offer our students. Um, I'm really proud of the family engagement that we've had this year. Um, we've had the best attendance that we've ever had um at board meetings um at sporting events and school activities. So, we continue to advertise those. We continue um
044to encourage parents to come and so far we've seen the fruits of that labor. Um, and then lastly, like I mentioned just previously, campus looks great. Um, we have all sorts of upgrades and repairs and things that have um, needed to happen that we wanted to happen and we have more on the horizon. So, that I believe Well, I have a really cool picture I have to show you. So, that that really is the end of my presentation. Um, here we have most a lot of our elementary program with I think it's Harold and Holly Husky. Um, and I can tell you that the students of Highland Academy are thriving and again we we're grateful for your trust. Um, and we I think we're putting on a really good program for our kids. >> Thank
045you so much. >> Thank you very much. >> And at this time, we will receive a report from Mission Vista Academy Charter School. So, I would just like to welcome uh Miss Amy Davis who serves as the executive director and Dr. Erica Vanderpec who serves as the deputy deputy executive director for Mission Vista Academy. >> Hello. Thank you for having us tonight. We're excited to be back and tell you about our school. I'm Amy. This is Erica. We're from Mission Vista Academy. Oh, okay. So, most of you know about Mission Vista Academy. We're a personalized independent study school and we're serving most mostly Riverside County kids and a little bit around there. And our kids are customizing their learning through community partnerships and different curriculum. Um, and they get to really work on their strengths.
046So, we're I won't read that to you. Okay. We have grown since we've seen you guys last. So, our school has currently 501 employees. That's all of our departments. Um, for our general education teachers, we have 280 and 114 special education teachers. So, this is our general ed teachers at a all staff PD. uh a year ago. Yeah. Okay. So, currently we have 7,730 kids and we are projecting 8,100 next year. 8,100. These are our demographics so you can see what our school is made up of. Okay. And here's our financial summary. Um, our revenue and our expenses have gone up because our enrollment has gone up. Um, but we're still projecting a surplus. Um, and going into next year looking strong. We go. Sure. Yeah. And then this is a snapshot of our dashboard.
047So, we're making progress and moving up in some colors. And then our ELA um CASP progress from year to year um we have grown by almost 3%. So we're proud of that. We're working hard. And then our math um we made a little progress eaked that out and every bit counts. Uh and then we have a comparison on the next slide to uh the state. So we have are are performing above the state average in ELA by a hair. And with math, although we've been making progress, we're still a little below the state average. Um that's just an area of focus for us. We have targeted interventions. We have a platform called exact path where students are taking a diagnostic and working on their exact areas of focus. Um and then we have some goals.
048>> Yes. So our our areas of focus are of course we want to increase our achievement in the on the CASP um in language arts and math. And we've done so many things in our school um with our student support and intervention programs, um targeted instruction groups, uh what else? Intervention classes, just a lot of working with our kids that need extra support. And we also want to increase our college and career readiness by three percentage points. We have some high school highlights. Um high school is something that we're always working on. We we worked really hard with our eighth graders to to get them to stay with us. Um and we're happy that we had 92% graduation rate last year. Um a lot of our high school students are taking community community courses at
049the college and they're passing. So we're we're excited about that. And we have national junior society and national honor society. Um our kids are really involved and they're staying with us. So we're we're excited about that. And then we have a small population of English learners, 88 um but they uh were performing green on the dash board. So we're happy to see that and we've been working hard on um reclassification and um some targeted classes as well as Lexia. Um so our students have been engaging and and reclassifying. uh we have a biiteracy recognition pathway that 700 students are enrolled in and they are studying 23 different languages through that program. And then our special education population has been growing as well. We have 988 students that have IEPs. um 805 of them have mild
050moderate needs and 183 which has been growing um have extensive support needs. We provide special education services in a variety of ways and it is what the IEP team has decided is most appropriate. So we have virtual services, we have inperson um and the whole gamut. We also have built out an adult transition program with job coaching um and life skills that we're proud of as well. We have lots of um community building at our school just because of the way that our model is. We need to be able to bring people together and let them have a community. So we have park days throughout all of our service areas every month where the kids and families come. There's lots of academic field trips where they get to go do hands-on learning. Um, our high
051school students have special things. They have meetups and they also will meet for their national honor society and do different activities for that. We had a multicultural fair. Uh we've had it for a few years actually where the families will set up different booths and we invite everybody and there's all kinds of different um there's like food and what else? There's it's a big like uh >> celebration. Yeah. >> Regalia and costumes. Yeah. >> The outfits and everything. Um and then we do an annual awards ceremony. So that's coming up for us this year where we honor different different things in our school for our students and their families to come to. And we have lots and lots of parent support. So we have to help them since they're working with their kids so much.
052Um we have parent university and parent support. We have book clubs that meet every week and they study different books together. parent night outs where they come to talk with our lea our family leaison and other parents. And then we had a really big high school expo this year um where it was for our current high school students and anyone interested and also our eighth graders where they could come and get their high school plan and talk to people and there were different sessions and workshops. Um we had maybe 450 people attend that so that was exciting for us. And then we've been working with the ENCUST. It's the National Center for Urban School Transformation and our leadership team has get been getting professional development on raising achievement and through that program they um we
053qualified for their honor role. So America's best school honor role for 2026. Um and we achieved that because our students in the um low socioeconomic demographic category outperformed the state average in math and language arts for uh high school. So we're proud to make that honoral. And I think that is our last slide, but we just wanted to thank you for your support so that we're able to serve these students. and we're looking forward to seeing more of you next year as we go into our renewal season as our charter is expiring on June 30th, 2027. So, we'll uh work with Mr. Kamada and um going through the renewal process. So, thank you again for your support. >> Thank you. You know, I have a question. >> Thank you so much. Wait, >> some question
054couple for you. Can I just say do you know how many um Bulmont school uh how many stu Bulmont's start over >> the residents right >> Bulmont students you have >> we think it's close just under 400 we we have not checked this week but >> so so when you have your um your awards and what where you have your events and stuff where do you have those >> we rent facilities like um Pchanga Arena or a um community center. Um, you know, maybe in Riverside. We've used Riverside Community College. So, we we rent facilities. >> Okay. Yeah. >> I was just curious. >> We try to find a central >> Yes. >> place so that they'll drive in. >> Okay. >> You mentioned something in one of the slides. So, carrying on with what
055Susie said, you mentioned something in one of the slides about how you have regular park like we meet at a park. Is does that happen in Bowmont or is that one of the is do our local students have to travel for that? >> We do have a park in Bowmont there. It will happen at six or eight locations at the same time. So they it's all different areas, but Bulmont does have a park that >> Okay, >> we meet up. >> Thank you. >> Did you I did but I think I think I know my answer. Um I was going to ask about your e population. it's like one and a half%. Uh and then I'm also looking at your cast test scores for the state. Um is it is it just because of the
056model of instruction on why the EL population seems not to enroll into your program or do you have a very structured uh redesignation process once they do start? >> So we have 88 students out of the 70 7,000. So I I we enroll anyone who wishes to come. Um so it it may be that it's not appealing to that demographic possibly. Um but we have a structured program for the students that have those needs which is you know um designated EL classes with our EL credential teachers. Um, the Lexia is a it's a kind of like I Ready or a program where they go on the computer, they practice the specific English skills. It's supervised by their teacher. They have progress each week. So, we have the structure in place to support those students. There
057just aren't a lot of them that are enrolling. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Uh, item 12.3, receive a presentation and report from True North Research and discuss the results regarding the recently conducted bond feasibility survey. >> Good evening, President Brown, Superintendent Kishin B trustees. This evening is a follow-up presentation from the January 27th board meeting where we tked Dr. Timothy McLarenley to um survey our population in terms of a future potential bond measures. Uh you have with you in front of you a report that he's going to go over with us in detail. There you go. >> Thank you. I'll give you a board. Uh Tim McCloney with True North Research. Um uh I was here a few months ago. give you a little bit of background on us, but just quickly, we're
058and for those in the audience, we're a firm that for 25 years has specialized in working with school districts and other types of public agencies in conducting surveys to help them develop a statistically reliable understanding of the communities and the customers that they serve. um 1500 studies to date. Probably twothirds of the work we're doing these days are uh revenue measure feasibility studies of which a bond uh measure feasibility study is a type where the goal is to understand if it's feasible for uh an agency to put forward a bond for example and if it is feasible to help them understand uh based on the research how they might go about structuring that measure in a way that it's consistent with the type of measure that their community is interested in supporting. Uh tonight's presentation
059covers the highlights of uh the survey results and I welcome questions from the board along the way or at the end whichever is your uh preference. So um before we dive into the results, quick reminder of the purpose of the study as well as the methodology or how we went about conducting the study. Um as a bond feasibility study, we're really trying to address the three bullets you see here on the slide. The first is answer that basic question of is it feasible? And what I mean by that is if you were to put a measure on the ballot, does it have a reasonable chance of success? Answer to that question isn't always yes. Sometimes we do this work and no matter how you look at the data, there's really no clear path to get
060you from where you are today to where you need to be to be viable on election day. And if that's the case, I'll be the first person to tell you that. When we do see feasibility, that second bullet kicks in gear, which is to understand using the research, how might you go about structuring this measure in a way that it's consistent with the type of measure that your community is interested in supporting. There's a lot of components to a bond package. Uh there's the project list uh identifying uh how you intend to spend the funds. There's the what's the total bond amount, the price tag, the tax rate, what sort of accountability provisions can be built into these measures. And so uh there's a lot of important sort of decisions that have to be made
061as you're moving forward and getting ready to place a bond on the ballot. The research can help guide that. And then finally, it's an opportunity for us to gather information that can help in terms of uh future communications related to this effort. Uh in terms of the methodology, we use the same methodology here that we always use uh when we're looking at the feasibility of a bond. And the first thing we want to uh address is um to think about what election your measure is going to be uh on if you were to move forward. Different elections have different turnouts. And as you expand and you shrink turnout, you will tend to get a different profile to the group of voters who are participating in that election. It's really important if you're for your research
062to be reliable that you're choosing a group of what's called likely voters from the universe that you're thinking of. So in this case, if it's the November general election, we identify individuals who are what we call likely November voters based on when they registered to vote in the district, what elections they've participated in since that point, as well as some other demographics. We then use a process called stratified and clustered random sampling to choose a sample of voters that matches the profile of that likely November universe on all the dimensions that we know tend to drive how voters behave on these types of measures. So the balance in our sample by age and gender and partisanship and household party type and where they live within the district, the balance in our sample matches the balance
063in the universe. Um and that is really one of the keys to making sure that this research is reliable. Um once we do that, we reach out and solicit participation in the survey from those that we've sampled using three different methods, email, text, and telephone. Uh folks had the opportunity to take this either by telephone or online, whichever was their preference, as well as in English or Spanish. Uh and we had contracted, I believe, for 400. We walked back in the door with 576. So we had a really good response uh to uh the the survey solicitation. I always have to kind of make some guesses about what I think that productivity is going to be. I tend to be a little conservative. That way we're overd delivering and not underdelivering. Um but because we
064now have a somewhat higher sample size than we had originally planned, we have a somewhat lower margin of error due to sampling. In this case, it's plus or minus 4% at the 95% confidence level. So, what that means is we can be 95% confident that the results I'll share with you tonight are within 4% of what we would have found had we spoken with every single likely November voter in your community. Okay, so on to the results. So, we like to open up our bond feasibility studies with what we call the importance of issues question where for each of the issues you see there on the left side of the slide, we just ask voters to tell us how important is this to you? Is it extremely important, very important, somewhat important, or not at
065all important? It is a great warm-up question. Kind of gets voters into the groove of taking the survey, thinking about their community and local issues. But it's also an opportunity for us to understand how education as a topic stacks up against some of these other issues that compete for tax dollars and in particular, how does the topic of maintaining the quality of education, local public schools stack up against the issue of preventing local tax increases? been doing this for a long time uh using the same basic methodology and it is surprisingly predictive. The higher up in this list that maintaining the quality of education in public schools stacks up relative to the issue of preventing local tax increases, the better positioned you are to move forward with some type of bond measure. Um so you
066see here at the top of the list um maintain the quality of education local public schools was in fact the number one issue at 86% rate that is extremely or very important followed by maintaining local streets and roads uh reducing traffic congestion on down when you go down about middle of the pack there you see preventing local tax increases checking in about 75%. So there's about an 11point gap between maintaining the quality of education local public schools and preventing local tax increases. It's a little smaller than what we typically see in most communities. Usually that gap's more like about 22% 23%. So what that tells us about your community is just it's a little more tax rate sensitive than the average community uh that is going out and looking at these bonds. One other thing
067I will point out is the very bottom of the list you see repairing and upgrading aging school facilities at 64%. So much lower obviously than maintaining the quality of education in local public schools. I point it out not because it's unusual. Uh we always find that that issue trails by some uh margin maintaining the quality of education in public schools. I point it out mainly because it's a not because it's unusual because but it's a important lesson uh when you're thinking about as you move forward with a bond. Although bonds are about facilities, right? They're about what you're going to fix or improve or construct. At the end of the day, voters don't care so much about facilities as they care about what happens inside those facilities when it comes to schools and education. So,
068it's just a reminder that as you're moving forward with a bond measure, we're always wanting to be connecting the dots between this issue of what it is you're building or fixing and repairing, but why it matters to your core mission of educating students. Right? So connecting the dots between that lowest item, repairing and upgrading agent school facilities, but how it connects to the thing they care about the most, which is maintaining the quality of education, local public schools. >> Can I ask a question? >> So um I'm not I'm not quite sure how to ask this question. So you have the the first one is maintaining the quality of education and then the bottom one is the repairing. Mhm. >> So how do you marry those two together so that you get the um I
069mean do people understand the difference between the quality and the facilities? Like are they going to connect the dots that in order to maintain the quality education we need the facilities as well. Is that an easy connection for them to make or is that a hard to get? That's that's where the the messaging around these your facilities master plan and the bond that's going to support that we're you have to connect the dots for voters uh in in your messaging and how you talk about it. So for example you'll see in a lot of times we could just talk about classrooms or you can talk about you know science and technology engineering math arts classrooms you could talk about the programmatic uses of these facilities. it helps a lot, right? Um, and so it isn't
070about walls and and roofs and floors and, you know, only or constructing new schools. It's really about trying to help them understand how by doing that, you're also giving students educational opportunities you might not otherwise be able to do. So, CTE pathways is a good example of that, right? You um, you know, if you don't have certain facilities, you can't offer certain pathways. So, it's just trying to help them understand that facilities are part of what shapes that educational environment. >> So, I guess well, and I'm just going to say right now, I'm a little skeptical all the way through this process. Just so you know where I'm coming from, but so, um, I I think that, you know, our school district, we're in a really great position where we have a lot of opportunities
071for kids. So, we have a lot of that stuff already. So, um, it's like we already have 12 pathways at the high school, you already have these things happening at the middle schools and all these great programs. So, um, so you're already maintaining the quality of education. So, if it's just facilities, how do do you get what I'm saying? >> Yeah. And I think maybe there's a couple of slides in here that'll help with this and you'll see where we start to unpack it. And keep in mind, this is the first question and we're just talking about repairing and upgrading aging school facilities. We don't get to unpack anything yet. you get a little deeper in here and you start to talk a little more about, hey, if we do a bond, this is what
072it's going to go for >> and you can see how voters start to react to different potential uses, some of which are more priorities than others, right? >> But I think that but looking at it before tonight, what we had to see, um, the numbers are pretty close for me, close for comfort. I mean, it's like they're not like yes for sure and or no for sure. They're kind of like right in the middle. Well, and you'll see as we get into this, I don't want to as we go through the slides, it'll be a little clear. There's two measures, >> right, >> that we're going to be talking about. And it's kind of a tale of two measures, right? There's they get very different reactions from voters, and I'll explain why >> get ahead
073of you, but I'm just I'm still trying to >> So, Susie, I have a ton of questions on the same stuff when we get to page nine. Okay. >> All right. So, I just Sorry. >> All right. Here we go. Slide five. So, um, one of the interesting things I we already talked a little bit about this is sometimes when you're doing these measures, we're looking at one bond measure, right? And so, everything's about one bond measure. Here, what we examined was a two bond scenario. One bond, measure A, is what's called a bond extension. And what it means is you have bonds that voters previously approved in the past. They're about to come off the books. And what it allows you to do is layer in a new bond behind that. As one bond
074comes off the books, the other one layers in. And it basically just continues the tax rate that they're already paying out into the future. So, um, in this case, you've got this $20 per 100,000 of assessed valuation tax rate that's going to come off the books. And if you just continue that out into the future, it allows you to uh obtain about $86 million uh for your schools without actually increasing the tax rate or the property taxes that voters are currently paying. So those are called bond extensions. So measure A is a bond extension. Um you can see that that's the 75word ballot statement that we tested at the initial ballot test. And one thing I'll point out is that first slide where the importance of issues, that was the first question we asked. This
075is the second. So, we get right to it right after that little warm-up question because the initial ballot test is a really good gauge of where your voters are at on the natural with respect to these proposals because they haven't seen anything beyond the 75word ballot statement you see here. So, that is the language that we tested for the bond extension. And here are the results. So, at that initial ballot test, we had 59% say that they would support this proposal, 30% opposed, and you got about 12% who are not sure or prefer not to answer the question. So, in the state of California, for a Prop 39 bond to pass, you need 55%. So, we're sitting about four points north of the 55% threshold uh right away. Now, as I mentioned this concept of
076a bond extension, if you go back a slide here, you can see in the ballot statement, the the the way we try and capture that within the 75word ballot statement is in the bottom. You can see it says, "Shall Bowmont Unified School Districts measure be adopted authorizing $86 million in bonds at legal rates and then parenthesis without increasing current tax rates." That's all we can sort of say within the 75 words to try and get at that two-minute explanation I gave you a minute ago. Um, and then it goes right into levying $20 per 100,000 assess. We know that not everybody, some people just sort of gloss past that. They don't see it. They don't, it doesn't connect, right? So after we test it with the 75 words, we also go on to sort of
077give them a little background. We say, "All right, voters approved a bond in 1998 to construct and repair local school facilities. The current tax rate for the bond is $20 per 100,000 of assessed valuation. Measure A would not increase the property tax your household currently pays. It would simply extend the current $20 tax rate previously approved by voters for an additional period of time to make priority repairs and improvements to classrooms and school facilities. So, we have a moment to explain the bond concept to them there. Once you do that, the results jump. You go to 64% support, which is at this point, you're nine points north of the 55% threshold that's required for passage. >> Yes. So, where is that clarifying statement? Cuz on the um ballot measure, you said that's all you can
078say is that very vague. So, where does that clarifying come in? >> You have to say that in your messaging around the around the measure. you can put that in the arguments in favor. Um there so there's places you can put it. The problem with the 75word ballot statement is you get 75 words, right? You don't get 76. You got to cram it all into 75. And there's a lot here that is legally required. And we just do not have the room to really explain the bond concept, the extension concept here. The best we can do is carve out those five words without increasing current tax rates. And some people get it there. Some people don't get it there, but then they get it the moment you sort of explain it. >> Yeah. Because I
079think some people would would see, we're not increasing your taxes, but you're going to be paying this much, and that's what they would see. Yeah. >> And that doesn't those don't match up. >> Look, there's a lot in, you know, there's certain measures, types of tax measures that are, I think, very clear to voters in terms of, you know, when you say it's a $50 parcel tax. Well, you know what that is? It's $50 per parcel per year. There's no mystery there. One of the challenges, and you'll see this in in a couple slides ahead with bonds, is the tax implicate or the tax rate for a bond isn't as intuitive, right? It's $20 per 100,000 of assessed valuation. Well, to translate that into a meaningful number, you need to know what assessed valuation is.
080You need to have some estimate of the AV for your property. And you got to be able to do math pretty quickly to turn that rate into some meaningful number. And understandably, not everybody's good at that. And so, this was a rule change, going back to the language, this was a rule change that happened in 2018. And we saw that the moment the rule change happened, basically on average, support for bonds around the state went down seven points. And when you talk to people about it, there's just a lot of confusion, right? People don't there's a lot of numbers that are in there. Unfortunately, that is the law, right? you have to put every one of those elements in there even though it is a bit confusing for some voters. Okay, so back to here.
081So with the extension, what we see is a fivepoint boost and we're now 9 points north of the 55% threshold uh that's required for passage. So that was the measure A bond extension. The second bond we we introduced was measure B. Measure B is a new bond. So there's no extension part of this. Um it would be an increase in the tax rate of $38 per 100,000 assessed valuation would raise about 179 million to do the things that you see there in the bullet. And so that's the language we tested for measure B. And here are the results. So for measure B, we found uh a little less than half. 49% of the initial ballot tests were willing to support measure B. 39% were opposed. and you had about 12% who were unsure or prefer
082not to answer. So measure B is sitting whereas the other measure started out above 55 and then climbed. Measure B started about six points below the 55% threshold. Um and that's a reflection I think of two things. Number one, it's the second of two bonds. So anytime you take a bond and you you know that you put a second one on, there's a little more scrutiny that happens. We see that on the ballot all the time. And then also, not only is it the second bond we introduce, it's also a new bond, meaning it's going to have uh an increase in taxes, whereas measure A would not. I And point being is I don't think it's as much a reflection of what measure A is going to fund that is as this as it is
083the position of it and the fact that it's a tax increase >> because it looks like like going back to what we were saying before though, that they see the $20 on the measure A, they're like, "Oh, you're charging me $20." and now you're going to charge me even more. >> Yeah, >> they they they're going to put it together that way possibly and not realize that they're already paying that $20 >> cuz the way that's worded, it's a little confusing. >> Well, the the you I can tell you and we've done all sorts of scenarios with double bonds. So, we've done two bond extensions, right? We've had um districts where they had like $60 worth of they were, you know, elementary school districts. The Prop 39 max for for an elementary school district is
084$30. And they had a six prior $60 bond coming off the books. Well, we could do side by side measure A, measure B bond extension. So, you could approve both of them and it would never actually impact the property tax rate above what it currently was. And then we've run scenarios which are one's an extension, one's a new bond. And then I've run double new bonds in some cases. Um I can just tell you that the double bond scenario tends to be a little tricky, right? It's a little harder. Whatever comes second is going to be looked at a little with a little more scrutiny, right? And so part of the drop here is the position, right? If we had flip-flopped these, this measure B would probably been a little higher than it is that
085you see here. Um and then also obviously part of it is the fact that unlike measure A, measure B is a tax increase, right? Measure A just continues an existing tax. Okay. So um now for measure B because it is a new tax um we want to be very clear about that and we said all right um you know for measure B uh the amount your household would pay um based on this in this first case what we do is we start at the top we say all right if you knew that the uh property taxes on your home would increase by $38 per 100,000 assessed which is the tax rate for measure B would you uh vote yes or no um And then if they're anything but a definitely yes at the 38, we
086stepped it down to 28 just to see how tax rate sensitive voters were with respect to measure B. One of the things you see here is as we saw as a bond package, right, in when we tested the ballot language, we had 49% support for measure B. The moment you kind of put the blinders on somebody and focus their attention on the tax rate, it has a bit of a wet blanket effect on support for your bond. That is also very common. I I will let you know. Um, and so instead of 49%, when you zero in on that $38 per 100,000 assessed valuation tax rate, uh, support checked in at 38%. When we lowered that to $28 per 100,000 assess, you get a little bit of a tick up at 40%. But at either
087of those tax rates for measure B, we're well below the the 55% that's required for passage. Now, we also know though that this question tends to be a bit of a conservative read on voter support for a bond measure for a couple reasons. Number one, we're putting the blinders on a on a respondent, right? And when you think about what a bond package is, it's a 75word ballot statement. A lot of the things in that are about what it is you're going to fund. The price tag is one piece of that. And so, anytime you pluck the price tag out, set it aside, and kind of put the blinders on someone and focus on it, it always drops the rate a bit artificially compared to when they're voting on the package. The other reason we
088know that it's a conservative read is because when you say that the property taxes on your home are going to increase by $38 per 100,000 of assessed, like I said earlier, not everybody knows what you're talking about, right? They know you're talking price tag, but they don't know what $38,000 per 100,000 of assessed valuation increase translates to in a meaningful number. Instead, they hedge. They'll say no or not sure instead of yes. And so that's why we also come about it a little differently on the next page. We said, "All right, let me put it another way. If you knew that this measure that measure B would cost the typical homeowner about $149 per year, would you vote yes or no? The $149 per year is the $38 per 100,000 assessed valuation tax rate multiplied
089times the median assessed value for a residential property in her district. So, it's what that middle property owner would pay. All we're doing here is trying to take the mystery out of that that tax rate, turn it into a meaningful number everyone can understand. Um, and when we do that, you see you do get a boost in support. Okay, some of those people who are hedging jump over and say, "Okay, if I know it's going to be $149 per year, I'm okay with that." Um, 47% are opposed and about 9% unsure at that point. So, after we go through the tax threshold section, we get to what we call the projects and improvement section of the poll. What we're trying to do here is really two things. One is we are now starting to educate
090this respondent more about what this measure will accomplish. Um when we had those ballot tests, we only had 75 words and you can only maybe half of those words were devoted to talking about projects and improvements. Here we get to unpack your bonds and all these potential uses of funds. And in that way voters are getting a better idea about what these proposals are about. The other reason we do it is because we want to know of all the ways you're thinking about spending the money. How do voters feel about each of these ways and which of these might be their priorities? So, the thing that jumps off the page to me, and I get to do this a lot for for different school districts, is everything we're testing here is popular, right? Even the
091lowest rated item there had better than almost 3/4ers of of respondents say that they would favor spending some of the bond proceeds on that item. When you go to the top though, there's kind of four that stand out the top there. um not only because they're at the top of the list, but the intensity of the favorability. The dark green bar is a little longer. And what you see there is a pretty typical combination of things that we normally see. Number one, basic repairs to your facilities. You know, roofs, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, you know, as your schools age, you need to be taking care of these things. Voters understand that, right? Um, you know, sometimes we I I encounter uh clients who were like they think that in order to pass a bond, you've got
092to give voters something shiny and new, right? You've got to make it sexy in some ways. And and what I have found is sexy does not sell bonds, right? What voters care about is taking care of the facilities already have first and foremost. And you see that at the top of the list here, right? So the roofs, plumbing, electrical, that sort of stuff. Then it was safety and security, number two. Number three, again, back to your older facilities, right? Uh we want to make sure that they are upgraded so they meet current health codes, building safety codes. If you have ADA issues, they want those addressed. And then the fourth one there is CTE, right? And so that those things are often at the very top of the list when we're working with districts. So
093it's not unusual to see them there here, but again, everything on the list that we tested here was popular. So, if you as a board were to choose to place a measure on the November ballot, there's going to be an election cycle. And during that election cycle, there will be a lot of discussion and debate in the community about your proposal, right? You'll have some folks who will go out and talk to their friends and neighbors, advocate on behalf of this measure, tell them why this is needed and why they should vote yes. You might also get opponents who step up and say, "This is a terrible idea. Shouldn't be doing it. And here's why." For this survey to be a reliable gauge of the feasibility of a bond measure, we need to simulate that
094discussion and debate in the space of the survey. So that we know not only where are your voters on the natural, which was those initial ballot tests, but what happens after they've here heard arguments pro and arguments con. So we start out here with positive arguments. It's just a series of these. Um you can see uh at the top of the list um well the nature of the question is supporters of the measure say blank. So we let them know it's a supporter saying this. We insert a an argument and then we say do you think this is a very convincing somewhat convincing or not at all convincing reason to support the measure. You can see here this is sort of the top tier. I just broke it into two tiers to make it easier
095to read. Um but the top two up there were about um crowding schools. Right. So the top one was your schools are overcrowded already. Experts predict the area is going to continue to be one of the fastest growing areas in California for the next decade. We need to build new schools and add classrooms, labs, and facilities to existing schools to keep up with growth and relieve overcrowding. So, that was the number one. The second one there was another one about crowding specific to your high school. And so, um, and we tested some other negatives that I mean positives that didn't resonate as well. And then we also tested negatives, right? And the idea behind the negatives is I want to put my opponent hat on and I want to pepper respondents with a series of
096of negative arguments. the kind of negative arguments you might encounter during an election cycle because I want to know should you get opposition, should they be effective at getting their message out, how might that impact voters's opinions about your your measure. One thing I'll point out, we test fewer negatives than we do positives. That is by design. And the reason for that is most of the time when you get into a bond uh election cycle, the advocates of a measure, they're much larger in number. They're they're organized. They raise money. They have a louder voice typically than the opponents. To the extent you get opposition, it tends to be a smaller number of individuals. They don't raise money. They don't have as loud a voice typically as the proponents. And so that's why we we
097simulate that that disparity by testing fewer negatives. That said, the negatives we test are hard-hitting negative arguments, right? We're trying to trying to pepper respondents with, you know, with arguments to see how much how resilient is the yes vote and how much uh can support can we carve off with the negatives. And you can see here that the negatives get some traction. Um this is going to be the election about cost of living and affordability. Right? In case you haven't figured that out yet, that's going to be the theme all the way to November. Um and so um we leaned right into that with these negatives, right? You can see, you know, for example, item B, local residents and businesses have been hit hard by inflation, high interest rates, rising cost of living. Many are
098struggling to stay afloat. Now is not the time to be raising taxes, right? So we pull our punches on the negatives. Um the question though is what happens afterwards and that is here. So for measure A, the negatives cool us down a bit, but not a lot, right? We went from 64% to land at 62%. So, even after the negatives, we're about seven points north of the 55% threshold that's required for passage. Um, I can say offhand that I've had the chance to do polling for the district in the past. Your there hasn't been a case in the polls where your bond has where bonds have hit anywhere near 62% of a final ballot test, right? It's always been significantly lower. That's the game changer that a bond extension offers you, right? because you can
099talk about it as extending rather than increasing the tax rate. They just tend to be much more appealing measures to voters than um a new bond. And that's why we're hitting numbers here that um you've never had in your past polling. >> Dr. McCclar, right here in front of you. >> Where'd that go? Sorry over there. I was like, what? That's a neat trick. So looking at this slide, okay, so at the very beginning when we were talking about when you were talking about the numbers, >> Mhm. >> you said that your numbers had a 4% margin of error. Okay. So 62% is 58%. We win by three. >> That's not super convincing to me. So the way this works, the way this works now is what the plus or minus 4% means. We can
100be 95% confident that if we went out and pulled every single one of your likely November voters in the district that the the result we'd get from that, right, would be within 4% of the 62. So if it could be as low as 58, could be as high as 66, right? But it's >> so when I pull them into the ballot box, that's exactly what I'm doing is I'm pulling a 100% of them. >> What's that? >> When I pull them, literally drag them. Yeah. >> Into the ballot box, that's when I'm pulling, >> right? >> For your phrase, polling 100% of my >> voters. So, right. And so what I'm saying is, you know, in our sample, we have a sample of 500, what was it? 70 something, right? So, you obviously have a
101lot more voters, right? And so all this is saying is that if we've got 62% in our poll, right, >> in this snapshot in time, we can be 95% confident that had we gone out and surveyed every single voter, right? That we'd be we would be between 58 and 66, right? So 62 is the midpoint, >> right? >> So if you're if you're a a guy is sort of I want to air on the downside, right? And I want to air on the side of caution. You could say, let's take 4% away from that, right? Let's take the 4% off. You're at 58%. You're three points higher than 55, right? >> Yeah. Which which but at the other the other way I would say this and and look and and from my perspective, you know,
102I have no interest in whether you go or do not go, right? My job is to give you good information as a district here. Again, you've never been in a position where you have a final ballot test that is north of 55, right? Much less north of 55 by this much. Um, these are the best poll results that you've had and has everything to do with this being a bond extension. Bond extensions are sort of limited time offers. And what I mean by that is as you're approaching that bond as the other one's going to come off the books, you have this opportunity to do a bond extension. If you go past that point, right, where now the bond's off the books, you no longer have a bond extension opportunity, it's a new bond. So
103most districts when they get to this position, they make the, you know, when they get a bond extension, they're instrumental bond, they will pull the trigger and and put it on it. I will tell you this, I've only seen one lose in my entire career and I've been at this for 25 years and it lost because the the board put it on the ballot and then something happened in the board and they got angry with each other and then two of them started to campaign against their against their own bond after putting it on the ballot. That is the only reason it lost. That's the only one I've ever seen lose. Um, and so that's and I don't want to say that as you can just throw it up there and walk away and it's
104going to win. But I just want to reassure you a little bit that when we have numbers at the at the low 60s, does it mean it's a slam dunk? No, it doesn't mean it's a slam dunk. But these are the kind of numbers you can win with. >> So when when when was this survey done? What like >> Sure. >> When did you finish it? >> Uh, let me get the date on that. >> It was done. We were in the field which is where what matters. We were in the field March 10th to March 16th. >> Okay. Was that was that before the war started or after? >> I think the war was started. I don't know that um I mean gas diesel wasn't eight bucks then. It is today, right? But it's
105it's um you know but you could start to see the ramp up, right? >> Yeah. >> The war is over 30 days. So, but I so my my concern is world events and in the nation things are not going well and have you ever done a bond in this kind of environment because there's a lot going on. There's all the there's all the fraud that's going on across the nation and you know you got the war and you got all these things. >> I hear you. >> So that's why I'm like this is seems like a very um rare time. I mean this is this doesn't happen every year. >> Yeah. No, I I hear you. And um the short answer is I've I've you know being at this for 25 years I've interviewed I've
106done this in every kind of scenario the great recession right remember I mean which was in a lot of ways you we're feeling the gas prices right now the g the great recession was people losing homes right uh it was a much bigger deal and you know if I had a dime for every time uh you know somebody would say this is not you know you can't win in this environment and then we'd go out and win um what you'd you figured out is no, you know, communities care about their schools and they're willing to invest in them if you have a good solid plan and put in front of them and you're transparent. The the pandemic, right, the March election when the pandemic hit 3 weeks before election, that was a terrible election, right?
107But by November, the passage rates on bonds were up in the 80% range, right? So, we're still in the midst of the pandemic. It's just the panic of the immediate, oh my god, we're all going to die thing, right, went away. And not that people weren't concerned about it, but they just weren't as fearful, you know, 6 months after the pandemic started as they were in the first 3 4 weeks. >> So >> even 911, I think, did not affect the bond as bad um the November after 911 and then the Iraq war in 191 Kuwait and Iraq. >> Yeah. I mean, we you go through these cycles and and I will tell you this this you know, one of the arguments is now is not a good time, right? There's always the now is
108not a good time argument. It's always there. You will hear it every election. The reasons just vary, right? And so, you know, during the pandemic, it was about the pandemic. During the recession, it was about the recession. Now, it's going to be about gas prices and things. The question is, where are we going to be in November? So, >> right, I mean, do we think that the shock that's happening now is going to be in place in November? Well, then that's something you really need to think about, right? the what I would advise and I'm jumping ahead here to a little later slide is you don't have to make any decisions about this tonight right and in fact I advise you not to right but you should sort of leave the door open so that
109you can make a decision closer to the filing deadline which is early August we'll now have you know early August is several months away we'll have a sense of whether you know the war in Iran is over what's going on with fuel prices what's going on with the economy are things leveling out a a little bit and then you'll you'll just be closer to that point that you'd be thinking about putting a measure on the ballot. Um that would be what I would recommend. So no no decision tonight, but just >> keep an eye on things >> information. I have another question about measure A. Mhm. >> Um, so you mentioned that with the new bond with the new rules about bond language on the ballot, um, you're seeing about a seven, I think you
110said 7% decrease in bond passage >> compared to what it used to be. compared to what it used to be. And um you also mentioned that um you know brought forth I think what everybody knows with the uh tax sensitivity in the community of Bowmont and um that there was that 11% gap when it's usually about 22%. >> Yeah. Um, so how does that 7% play in? Does it widen that gap or does it change these percentage rates? Uh, is that is that 7% >> factored into this at all? >> It's already there. >> Yeah. So the the difference is let me I'll just scan back here real quick. So here's measure B and I'll just use this example. The way it's worded now, you have all that stuff at the bottom, right? the levying
111$38 per 100,000 assessed valuation, the annual levy of $12 million while bonds are outstanding. All these additional pieces of information that was information that was added to the 75word ballot statement in 2018. Um AB195 was the legislation that did that. What we found was because before that the way bonds read was shall it would be like shall Bowmont Unified School Districts measure be adopted authorizing 170 million $9 million at legal rates with independent audits oversight and all money local. So you didn't say those three things. You didn't say the duration. You didn't say the tax rate. You didn't say the annual levy. The moment they added that to it, support for bonds dropped about seven points on average. So that seven point drop, that's already baked into your results. The other way to look at
112it is if we could use bond language that was like it was prior to November 18, instead of 49% here, you'd have, you know, 56%. Right. So, it's already sort of a a a downward pressure that's effective on all bonds in California. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Mhm. All right. So, measure A ends at 62%. Measure B ends at 49%. Right. So, we're still we're still below we're kind of ending where we start with measure B. it it doesn't move. So, I have la two wrap-up slides. Um, and again, I'm happy to continue answering questions, but you know, when you think about all these results and you sum it up, what does it mean? Well, I'm going to circle back first to that overarching question I mentioned at the outset about feasibility. If you as
113a board were to choose to place a measure on the November ballot, does it have a reasonable chance of success? The answer is yes for a bond extension, no for a new bond. Right? So, if you look at measure A, I think measure A is feasible. I think you've got a path to a successful measure if you choose to place a measure on the ballot. Measure B, I don't really see a clear path. I don't see how you could take measure B um uh to success in November. I think there's just too steep of a hill to climb with that one. Why the feasibility for measure A? It's everything you see under the positive signs there on the slide, right? We saw that, you know, for starters that voters do uh rank maintain the quality
114of education local public schools as the most important issue facing their community. The natural support with just the 75word ballot statement for measure A was 59%. That's four points above the 55% threshold that's required. Once we explain the bond extension concept, it jumped to 64%. All the projects that you're thinking about funding with these measures are are popular. You've got positive arguments that resonate and importantly at each point in the poll where we circled back to voters with the measure A ballot language and said now that you've heard a bit more where you stand at every one of those points support was north of the 55% threshold and that's even after testing opposition arguments. So when we see that pattern was we see those pieces in place that's the kind of pattern we want to
115see for a measure to have a reasonable chance of success on election day. Um that said, I mean there are some challenges that come out of the poll or if you sort of step back from the poll and just think about external things that are going to be going on probably in November um that are there as well. Um and so you know the one one of the challenges is the clarity around the bond um tax extension concept. We saw that some folks get that out of the 75word statement. Some folks you got to explain the bond concept for them to get it right. And so you that there's about a fivepoint delta there. So, we're not capturing the 5% just based on the 75 or that means you're going to have to educate on
116that point, right? That's going to be important. Um, we do see the negative arguments get some traction, but not a lot. It only cooled us down about two points from where we were. Um, the bigger question, and you had already raised it, is kind of well, what about all these other things, right? What about the things are outside the poll? in in some ways um you know I always like to in some ways we're pulling at probably one of the most difficult points in the last year right when you think about the environment we're in right now it's probably one of the more challenging and so that's encouraging the question is really kind of what happens over the next 6 months right what what what other shoes might fall during the next 6 months you've
117got all these sort of unknowns in that respect this is why I was saying I would you know hold judgment in terms of make don't make a decision tonight either But continue the, you know, leave the door open for a November measure. Start to communicate, start to engage with the community. You'll hear, you know, this is just really the first part of the conversation. >> You know, it shouldn't be the last. You should continue to widen that conversation and then you'll be able to make that decision when you get closer towards the August time frame and have a better idea kind of what the conditions are at that point. >> And Dr. McLaren, I have a question. Serge right here. >> Okay. >> I don't think I don't think this is throw me for a
118loop. This is an important point but I don't think it was tested but just to keep us uh more to think as before the board makes a decision early June to July um that with the measure A extension it's a onetime thing onetime deal after 2027 we lose that. So that's $86 million but my point here is that those $86 million will qualify us for another $86 million or more at the state. So, it's not just $86 million. It's over $172 million of of a measure that potentially could be secure for our district if we walk away from it than is we're leaving money on the table. >> Yeah. I mean, that is a really important point and um because these measures, you know, again, it's it's just a different conversation with voters when you
119can talk about a bond as being look, we get the 86 million, we get our state match, right? we get some of our tax dollars back from the state and it's not going to increase the property taxes that your council's paying above where they are today. You're just extending that in the future. It is a totally different conversation than talking about a brand new bond. Right. And to your point, if you if you were to punt it now, it sounds like that it falls off the books in 27. You will not have that opportunity in 28, right? So it'll it'll be only new bond in at that point. So, couple things just to keep in mind and this is my last slide. Um, you know, it's important to remember that a poll like this is
120a snapshot in time. It is not a crystal ball, right? Uh, it is not looking forward to election day saying you're going to get a certain percentage on election day. It tells us where your voters are today, right? Gives us a good idea how they react to the types of information that they'll probably encounter during the election cycle. But ultimately, what happens on election day isn't what your poll says today. It's everything that happens from this point forward, right? And I say that because you've got promising poll results for an a bond extension, right? You you really do. Um and nevertheless, it's going to be real important that you make smart decisions about the type of measure you put in front of your voters. Make sure that it reflects their priorities. And you got to
121put the work in in terms of communication, right? And that's really two parts to that. There's what the district can do as a public agency, non-advocacy, communications, just raising awareness, having a conversation with the community, helping them understand what your facility needs are and how they connect to those educational opportunities. And then there would need to be an independent campaign, private dollars separate from the district, right? Volunteer time um that would go out and advocate on behalf of this measure during the during the election cycle, right? So that's separate from the district. Um but that is the end of my presentations. If there are any additional questions, I'd be happy to answer you. >> I have another question, maybe two. >> Okay. >> Um, so on on your slide where you talked about the negative
122arguments, um, you were saying that the usually the the the positive support outweighs the negative. So the people that are in support are more vocal about it and more supportive or at least that's what I understood. >> Yeah. So the I was just explaining why we have more we test more positive arguments than we do negatives is because that is a an accurate simulation of what we tend to see happening in election cycles. Meaning the group that decides to advocate on behalf of bonds. They tend to be organized boots on the ground, right? They raise money. They do mailers. They do things like that. The independent campaign does that. Typically opposition opposition campaigns don't do that. They're they're smaller. They don't raise funds, right? They just don't have as loud of a voice. And that's
123why we test fewer negatives than we do positives. That said, as I mentioned, the negatives we're testing are hard-hitting negative arguments, right? We're we're trying to we're trying to simulate we're putting on our our opponent hat and using the opponent's voice when we're testing them. >> Well, that I mean, but that is, you know, when I'm on social media, which is our world now. That's it. it is the reality of the community. I'm I'm thinking um the the comments that I'm seeing and the posts that I'm seeing like after we have a town hall meeting um you know somebody will make a comment and you know you'll see one supportive comment out of all of the the many that are posted there. And so I'm wondering have you seen an exception to that? like could
124our community be more less in favor or or the opponents more vocal? >> I think that's played a factor in the past. We've had some opponents that have really been very um >> uh convincing. And what I what I'm feeling and what I'm seeing is those negative comments on on social media that people are just on they're not for it. And so, you know, I'm concerned about sitting up here as being a representative of the community and saying, "Yeah, we should do this." When what we're hearing is the community doesn't want it. >> And then part of the reason why though is this is why you do a survey like this cuz social media is not a statistically representative sample of your community, right? And particularly get on certain sites and it should it tends
125to be a lot of negativity. And then what happens is, you know, we're all getting our news different places now and that's part of the reason why we argue so much, right? is cuz we all have a different version of reality compared to all sort of getting the same version of reality. And you see the same thing on social media, right? They're echo chambers. So if you get in one where they're, you know, they're they're not happy about the bond that that tends to be the fe people will stay there and the supporters will tend to go, "Ah, I'm going to go to a different site, right?" And so that's why you do these surveys, right? Is to figure out what do your likely November voters think and we have a statistically representative sample. that's
126what this data will say. So, I don't mean to underplay, you know, your experience, and I know that >> that happens in other districts, too. I mean, every every bond election that we're involved in, you're going to have you're going to have naysayers in the community, and and that's the right to be a naysayer. >> Yeah, exactly. And and our job is to kind of is to hear that, you know, as elected officials. Um, I just don't I don't know how how relevant or how accurate that is, but I'm not seeing the positive >> much of it, you know? >> Right. And again, that's why you do the surveys, right? Cuz if you if you just if you made policy based on what you see in social media, right? >> Yeah. I hear you. I
127hear you. And I would never make decisions solely based on social media. But um >> you don't want to discount it, but you want to you want to keep it >> in perspective is what I would say. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. >> Melissa, here's one of my concerns that I kind of I I spin this around in my head every time we talk about bonds. And and I don't know if I've said it out loud yet, but so we sit up here and we do our civic duty, right? and we weigh the pros and cons and we listen to um Tim and we listen to uh Sergio and we listen we we bring as much information in as we possibly can and in some ways maybe we have too much information compared to the the other
128uh what are there about 50,000 people the other 49,996 voters in in in Bowmont. Um, but I I wonder, you know, like one of the things that we have the ability to do, and I really it weighs heavily on me, and I'm sure it weighs on all of us, is we have the ability to control whether or not those people really even get a voice. Right? So, that is one of the things. You're looking confused, but I'll I'll explain, Susie. I promise. Um, but so if we five say we're not going out for a bond, then those 50,000 people don't get to say >> whether or not they wanted to buy a bond or not. >> Right now, we have to be fiscally conservative because when we go out for a bond, it actually costs
129our district something to do that. So we don't want to throw money down the toilet and we certainly don't want to go for a bond that Tim says is this is a loser. This is never going to win. Like so we, you know, we need to take the advice of the consultants that we hired and and and trust the data. But I'm really torn about do I want to, you know, and and I know that we all represent the entire district, but we also each represent our 10,000ish people who are in our trustee areas. And do I feel like my voice is worth 10,000 voices? Did I Did I clarify, Susie? Because you look confused. I like your point where you where you said if it's not on the ballot then people don't get that
130choice >> right only we if we don't put it on there then only we picked like it was really just our voice that was heard >> and I we are elected to represent I mean we have a representative government I understand that we are elected to represent >> the constituents of the entire district but I that weighs on me a lot. I really sort of like that that idea that am I really worth 10,000 votes? Like do do cuz I'm taking away 9,999 votes just of my constituents, right? And I'm rounding. So please >> No, I I like I I think that's valid. And I >> One of the things that I really like that you said was it weighs on you. >> Oh, it weighs on me considerably. I I'm feeling the weight as
131well because it matters to me what the community wants. >> Yes, absolutely. >> And it also matters to me greatly what the school district needs and I see both and it's just like this is not an easy thing. And so I guess that's what I want to say is that this is heavy >> and it it matters a lot and I see a all of it and you know we we're up here and and we've been elected to be up here and our hearts are such that we want to make the best decisions and um you know perceptions aren't always reality which is a lot of where social media comes in. Uh but that's the reality you know that is the reality is then that's the genuine uh word from the dis I guess. So,
132the other things that kind of feel like the elephant in the room and so I'm going to say them is, you know, we um one of the things that seemed to me to be apparent and it is not apparent in your data, Tim. So, I'm just going to divorce myself from your data for just a second. >> Sure. But one of the things that felt apparent in our previous bond attempt was it felt like the dollar amount was less significant than the fact that there was a dollar amount. Okay. And I get what you're saying about the continuing the $20 um it's more favorable, >> but there are a significant number of people in Bumont, I think, who think similarly to me. um that well just cuz I paid that car off doesn't mean I
133want to start making payments. You know what I mean? Just be and the other thing is it's not the same. So the So here's the interesting thing. You know you're saying we're going to go out for a bond. It's going to be was it $20? >> $20. Huh? >> $20 per 100,000. Okay. Well, my house is worth a whole lot more. That my assessed value has increased over the past what year was this? >> 1998. So, even at the state maximum, and I understand we're protected from significant property tax increases, but even at the state maximum, my assessed value has gone up significantly even at the I think it's 1.5% per year that it can increase. So, I'm still talking about more money than I was talking about in 1998. I understand that we've paid
134the assessed value. So, it's not necessarily more money than it was last year, but that that that $20 per assessed value is a lot more $20 than it was when it was voted on. Not necessarily when it was paid last, but when it was voted on. >> Well, the the rate's the same, right? The rate's the same. The rate doesn't change. >> I got that. >> And it's applied to your assessed value. you assess value, right? The state can in because of Prop 13 can only raise that I think it's 2% a year. Um, so this is why my dad, right, who's owned his house for 40 years, loves to rub it in my face, >> that he pays something like $1,400 a year in property taxes, right? And >> you know, but if I
135b if I if his neighbor were to buy his house, suddenly it would be 10 times that, right? So >> that growth is going to happen anyways, right? It's that that that 2% they're going to get you for that every every time. >> Oh, I know >> the tax rates the same, right? >> Yes. >> Um, you know, I I think you brought something up and I would just phrase it a little differently. Um, it's the same concept, but I I see this, you know, the the hand ringing and the angst that's happening up here about this. I see it regularly in what I do. And it's all it's important to keep in mind that, you know, you are not voting to impose a bond, right? If you choose to place a bond on the
136ballot, all you're doing is giving the community the choice about whether they want to support it or not. That's all you're doing as a board. You cannot impose taxes. All you can do is give them the option to say yes or no. To your point, if you if you don't put it on the ballot, you're sort of inputting you're imputing your opinion that no, we don't need this and you're sort of denying the community the the chance to to to say yes or no, right? That's and that sometimes helps boards because they I they feel like this is a difficult time as if voting to put it on the ballot is voting to impose the tax. That's not what you're doing. Right. >> Right. We're voting to give them an opinion is really what we're
137doing. >> Yeah. They're giving them a choice, >> but their opinion is not free. And that's one of the things that I want to make sure that we all understand. I mean, obviously we all understand, but I want to make sure it's stated. >> Giving their opinion, giving them their opinion is not free, right? The district has to incur costs. Win, lose, or draw, right? the costs don't change if we win, >> right? >> So, um the it is something it's a you know for all of us I believe it's it's something that weighs on us. It's something that is not an easy sort of decision. >> So with the you said that the measure >> the measure a percentages it's a good percentage. What what would be like the bottom line where you would
138say, "Hey, I don't recommend this." Just out of curiosity, >> honestly, in your community, right, which is a tax-sensitive community, and you've struggled in the past to do bonds, and we know that this is an opportunity that if you don't do it in 26, >> won't be there in 28 or beyond, right? If I saw a a final ballot test of 55%, now we're at 62. If I saw a final ballot test at 55 and the other two were above it and knowing it's an extension, I would say as long as you're, you know, you're comfortable putting on the ballot, I would say go, right? Because it's a chance that you're not going to have again after 26, right? The fact that you're seven points above that and again, your polling's never been close to
139that in the past, it sort of should give you an idea of that, hey, this is a measure that your community is comfortable with, right? Um, and so now if it were a new bond now and you had the same opportunity to go in 28 and we thought maybe 28 was going to be a better election environment, which I don't necessarily think that's going to be the case. You know, I've had counseledled some districts like, wait, don't go now, do some things between now and 28 and different turnout then might be better. I've I've certainly counseledled some districts that way in the past on different election cycles. I don't see that being the case here. Right. >> That that gives a little perspective. I appreciate that. >> Sure. >> Thank you so much. >> Oh,
140thank you. I appreciate great conversation. I don't often get this much banter, right? And it's good. You know, sometimes it comes from up there. >> We do banter. That's Yeah, it's great. I appreciate it. >> Thank you very much, Mr. San. Oh, that's okay. Go away. Look, I'll just I'll make sure you >> I've made a mess. >> It's ripped out. >> Thank you, Maze. Sorry. >> That's what the secretary is doing. >> All right. >> Can somebody grab some paper towels? >> No, it's fine. It's fine. I'll do it. You sure you're going to take a little box of tissue doing that? >> All right. >> Pass it down. >> A big box. >> Better tissues. >> Clean up. >> Yes. So, for those of you who can't see, I just knocked over my
141tea. I'm sorry, Maize. Um, uh, so item 12.4, Four, approve the appointment of Erica Horton as the member at large representative for the second term on the measure Z citizens oversight committee. Do I hear a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Hearing none. Call for the vote. Was that Susie and David? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Sorry. All right. And the motion carries. Item 12.5, adopt resolution 2025-26-32, establishing the maximum and actual special tax rates and authorizing the levy of special taxes for the 2627 fiscal year for community facilities districts numbers 2018-120-1 2022-1 and 2025-1. and the improvement areas contained therein. Do I hear a motion? >> I I move to approve. >> I'll second. >> Uh any discussion? Hearing none, call for the vote. And the motion carries. Excuse me. Item
14212.6, conduct a public hearing regarding the conveyance of easement to Southern California Edison for the purpose of constructing electrical vehicle charging infrastructure on district property. I will open the public hearing at 8:00 p.m. >> We're still here at 8:00. What's going on? Sorry, >> it's Tomb's fault. >> Sorry. No, >> President Brown and board of trustees. Uh there's no presentation on this item. This is just a followup from the last board meeting in March when the board adopted a resolution of intention to dedicate an easement to Southern California Edison for um infrastructure access and the installation of electrical vehicle stations at our transportation yard. Thank you, Mr. S. Martin. Um, so beginning discussion at 8:01. Any discussion from the board? It's a really long 20 seconds. Um, convening the meeting at 80. >> 80 what?
143801. >> Well, you started a date, so it's a whole minute. >> Okay. And that is anformational item. Item 12.7 adopt resolution 2025 26-35 resolution of the board of trustees authorizing the conveyance of the easement to Southern California Edison for the purpose of constructing an electrical vehicle charging station infrastructure on district property. Do I hear a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Hearing none. call for the vote. And the motion carries. Item 12.8. Conduct a first reading of Bmont Unified School District's board policy and administrative regulation regarding business and non-instructional operations in the 3000s. as listed in the summary and adopt if a second reading is not necessary. Um, do we want to do the discussion or the motion first? >> I move for approval. >> Okay, >> I'll second. >> Was
144that Susie? >> Mhm. >> Okay. >> And then discussion. >> Yep. And I apologize. I I I don't know if this was covered at the last meeting. Um Okay. Okay. So, I understand being a school administrator that there are valid reasons for a registered sex offender to be on campus. If they have a student there, uh they're they're legally allowed to be on campus. But what I do not understand and could use some help understanding is what other limiting circumstances would there be in which a reg registered sex offender would be permitted on campus outside of their capacity as a parent or guardian? >> Question. So, and and that's a great question, and it's not necessary necessarily stating that there ever would be a situation where we would allow a sex offender who's not a
145parent onto our campus. But in the rare off chance that we were to do something like that, um we would want to have it legally defensible, we want to have provisions and rules in place on how we would provide that notification to parents. and that clarification that we would provide that notification to parents, right? Um the future's unforeseeable. We know that sometimes registered sex offenders become registered sex offenders for things that may not be so serious. Um urinating in public, it's disgusting, right? But sometimes the need overcomes. And I'm not saying that we would allow someone who urinated in public to come onto a school property, but we do want to have provisions in place in the rare event that that would happen. >> I I don't think we ever know what the offense is
146unless it's disclosed to us by the offender, which is concerning. >> Megan's Law does identify, you know, if it was um >> Yeah. And minor or things like that. >> Yeah. And I have a ton of compassion for parent, you know, for people in those circumstances and and I show that compassion when I'm on my school site. Um, but I just don't I don't know what those circumstances would be or even if it was a parent that was a sex offender that didn't have a reason to be on campus outside of their capacity as a parent or guardian. So, I mean, can we just say we we can't do that or or does the law say that we have to allow that? the law isn't clear on whether or not you can just prohibit anyone,
147but you need to remember that we are a public agency. We do serve the public. >> Um, and this is really it's not opening the door. It's putting guard rails in place in the the event that we were to have a sex offender come on campus for for whatever reason. >> Well, I guess that we are protecting the district from failure to notify parents. >> Yeah. I'd just like to know I I need I need some type of indication as to why we would do that. >> Um that's what I need. >> Well, the the law does already allow limited circumstances. >> Can you give us an example of that because that's that's where I'm struggling like what could possib what could it possibly be? >> Because our our public is minors. >> I mean,
148yeah, we're public. >> We've got urination in public, right? Um, possibly someone who wasow allow them onto campus and I'm I'm not trying to give you a hard time. It's just this is really important. >> This would have to be a parent, right? >> Oh, probably. Yes. >> I'm thinking of um guidance that that we've provided in the past. So, for example, if you have um a parent, right, who is a registered sex offender and they are going on campus because their student is um uh they're going to have a parent student teacher conference, right? It says that. Yeah, it says that. That's okay. >> We want to know what what outside of your jurisdiction as a parent, >> why why would you possibly need to be on campus? >> Yeah, cuz the communication that
149we got said um there would there could be limiting circumstances in which a registered sex offender would be permitted on campus outside of their capacity as a parent or guardian. then that's the circumstances where the where the notice would be given. >> Right? >> So the only thing I could think of would be like a contracted employee with another outside agency that might be coming on campus like a construction company or something >> but we talk we all the contracts we have that's all covered under the contracts that they can't be. Can you think of any other example of like >> um >> so I'm I'm gonna >> I can't >> spitball here specifics but I can research it further and >> we're still talking about assemblies and things like that. What if a >>
150what if a family member or a family friend who was not the custodial parent? >> That's within the realm though, >> right? >> That's within the realm. >> Yeah, the decision. But it says it says they're a custodial parent, but >> I'm I'm >> like grandpa >> or or an aunt uncle. >> But we're never going to have notice of that within 14 days. >> No. So we will prevent that. When they showed up and we scanned them in, they would be sent home and they'd be told, "I'm sorry, we have to provide 14-day noticeation." >> So that would be our way of controlling that >> and that's part of the reason you need that that language. which why I'm recommending that you keep that language in there just so you're not tying your hands
151in the event something unforeseen happened. >> I don't want to tie our hands but I just would like some more information because it seems like it's still like we don't really know what could happen that why we would need this. I think it's the only example I can think of is family members, >> not the parents themselves, but grandpa, >> an uncle that wants to attend and we find out they're sex offenders if they haven't given us a notice for us to provide that 14 days in advance. We would not allow them on campus, we would have a policy that demonstrates that. So, um, like somebody said for an assembly or something, um, or like >> sporting events, we don't scan those people. >> So, I mean that >> we wouldn't know about that, but
152>> we do scan when we do things like after hours like back to school nights and all that stuff. You don't check in for that. >> We don't currently, but we are actually looking into it. The Raptor system now has a a new platform called Event Safe where you can provide tickets to people electronically and then when they come in you would scan them through Raptor and it would pop up with Megan's law. >> But also during during the instructional time there's award ceremonies that family members could be attending and they do go through the scanning. >> But do they have a legal obligation to be there? >> No. if they are not the parent, our policy is saying we have to have notified our parents 14 days in advance. And so if they haven't
153given us that opportunity, then we won't be able to let them in. >> If there was an aunt or a grandpa or whatever, do we do we have to legally even with the 14 days notice allow them on? Do they do they have that obligation being being that they're not a parent or guardian? Okay. >> So, I'm >> maybe that's where that minor offense comes in. Why would we >> 13-day notice gives us something to stand on when we tell the person they're not permitted on campus. >> Okay. I see. I see. >> So, I'm I'm going to go >> what I think is maybe down a little bit of a creepy road, >> BUT ALL RIGHT. YES. YES. SO, let's say let's say I live across the street from the school and I don't
154know a single kid who goes there, but I just kind of like watching kids go to plays, you know, and that's, you know, and I'm a registered sex offender. Like, but I told you I was coming 14 days before. Are you going to let me in? >> No. >> Absolutely not. >> I feel that way, too. But where what does this policy say about? >> Yeah. It says that we would only allow them in limited circumstances. So I think we would be able to say you have no valid reason. Just because you like watching kids doesn't give you a reason to be participating in this. >> And that's my point of contention is that I would I need to know what are what what are some of those limited circumstances? >> Is this strictly K12
155school sites? Strictly K12 school sites. >> Yes. >> Okay. So when our because we have to accept uh sex offenders at certain levels for our adult head program when they're going to San G >> that's the campus of San Gi and the adult head program is on San Gi if there's a registered sex offender going on next to that campus does would would that play into this scenario? >> Not the way it's written. No. >> Okay. >> The two separate campuses. >> Can can you bring back some more information? I can definitely I'll come back with scenarios where what what limiting circumstances would you >> I agree with you. >> I want all THE PROVISIONS AND ALL THE COVERAGE FOR the district but you know this is a big thing >> and that the mama
156bear comes out and I just can't let it go that easy. >> Well that's why we're here Melissa. >> Yeah. It's my night tonight. Yes. I saved up all my energy from missing last time. >> So, thank you for that. I appreciate that very much. >> No problem. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Anything else on this one? >> No, I exact same concern. So, good. >> Okay. Um, >> but we have a motion in a second. So, um, >> so >> I David, you motioned. You want to motion? >> Do you want to revise your motion >> to table it and bring it for third reading? >> This is the first reading of the of this board policy. So let me bring it back to second reading. >> Well, we already have a motion and
157a second. So we have we have a we have a a procedural issue. >> Well, do you want to resend your second? >> Yes. >> Okay, I'll resend my first. There we go. >> There you go. >> Okay, so >> move to the next item. >> I'd like to move to table this item to the next meeting. Does that Wait, we've never done this. Is that how it'll just come back for a second? Okay. All right. We will bring this back in our next meeting of the board. Item 12.9, conduct a second reading and adopt Bulmont Unified School District's board policy and administrative regulations regarding business and non-instructional operations in the 3000s listed in the summary. >> After the last one, I don't want to move this. >> I'll move approval. >> I'll second and
158say thank you for the changes. Yeah. >> All right, Melissa and Susie. All right. Discussion. >> Good. All right, hearing none. Call for the vote. I was really kind of disappointed. The last one was fun. And the motion carries. Ah, finally on to 13. 13.1 Approve the quarterly report on Williams uniform complaints for the third quarter of 2025 2026 school year. Do I hear a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. Discussion hearing none. Call for the vote. And the motion carries. Item 13.2, receive a report of the formal complaint. Excuse me. Formal complaints filed in the district for the third quarter of 2026 school year. >> So moved. >> So received. So received. >> We've received >> report received. >> Thank you. >> Item 13.3, approve the comprehensive school safety plans listed
159below. Do I hear a motion? >> I move approval. >> Second. >> Discussion. Just a thank you to all of the I don't know if I'm on or not. Yeah. Okay. The uh administrators here and all the work that you put in for those those are just so important. And so I appreciate the thoughtful consideration and then also the boots on the ground of implementing what's written in the plans and the uh practicing and the drills and all of that. Um means a lot to me and the community according to the bond survey. So we appreciate that. Was it good? >> That was good. >> Yes. Yeah. Thanks to all of you >> for all of the work necessary to get these done. Uh call for the vote. Motion carries. Item 14.1, approve a new
160job description for the position of research, learning, and data coordinator. Do I hear a motion? >> So move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Hearing none, call for the vote. And the motion carries. Item 14.2, approve a memorandum of understanding between Bowmont Unified School District and California School Employees Association and its Bumont Chapter 351 regarding the revisions and title change to job descriptions for the buyer and medical technician position. Do I hear a motion? >> I'll move approval. >> I'll second. Any discussion? Hearing none, call for the vote. >> Item 14.3, adopt resolution 202526-363 36, sorry. >> Proclaiming May 13, 2026 as California Day of the Teacher. Do I hear a motion? >> So moved, >> Susie. Second, >> David. >> Any discussion? >> Deserve more than a day. >> Yes. They deserve more than
161a day and they deserve as much recognition and tacos as we can throw at them. >> Yes. Call for the vote and the motion carries. Item 14.4, Four, adopt resolution 2025-26-37 proclaiming the week of May 17th to the 23rd, 2026 as the week of the classified employee. Do I hear a motion? >> Yes, I move for approval. >> Second discussion. >> Yay. For all the classified employees. >> Yes. So in the in the army they have a phrase that the NCO corps is the backbone of the army and that the uh the leaders brought up from the bottom and the and the workers that they lead are the uh are what holds the whole thing upright. the classified employees are sort of the NCO and enlisted core of >> a school district and I I
162think I feel confident in saying that they are the backbone of the school district. So >> yeah, >> thank you for all the work they do. >> All right, call for the vote. And the motion carries. Item 14.5, approve the certificated personnel assignment order listed on the report dated April 7th, 2026. Do I hear a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Hearing none, call for the vote. And the motion carries. Item 14.6, approve the classified personnel assignment order listed on the report dated April 7th, 2026. Do I hear a motion? >> Move for approval. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? Hearing none, call for the vote. And the motion carries. Item 14.7, approve the administrative and confidential personnel assignment order listed on the report dated April 7th, 2026. >> So move. Second,
163Susie and David. Any discussion? Hearing none, call for the vote. >> Yay. President Brown, members of the board, Superintendent Kakkesh, cabinet, colleagues, and guests. We are happy to announce the appointment of Megan Cotton as a new elementary principal of 3 weeks Ranch Elementary School. Megan Megan began her career with Bowmont Unified School District in 2018 as a special education teacher and has most recently served as the interim principal at Three Rings Ranch Elementary School. She also served as an assistant principal at Bowmont High School. Prior to joining our team, Megan served as a special education teacher in Marino Valley and Corona Norco Unified School District. Mrs. Mrs. Cotton earned her Bachelor of Arts in kinesiology and her Master of Arts in Education at California Baptist University. Please join us in welcoming Megan Cotton to her
164new position. President Brown, members of the board, Superintendent Kakkesh, Cabinet, colleagues and community, I just want to say thank you so much. Being a part of Bulmont for this many years has just been such a blessing to me and I'm really excited to continue serving in a new capacity. So, thank you, >> MRS. SO, I wanted to take a minute to say that Three Rings Ranch has been my home for almost 25 years and the principal of that school is a very important position to me personally and I feel very confident. Thank you. It means a lot. >> Yeah. And I just want to say that I think you're amazing and I know you'll do a wonderful job >> as you as you already have. >> That's right. Thank you. Sorry you had to wait
165so long whenever this was worth the wait. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Item 15.1. to conduct a public hearing and receive comments on the fee justification report for new residential and commercial industrial development and to consider and respond to all comments received by the district related here there too. I will open this hearing at 8:25. President Brown, board of trustees, we do have a presentation for this item. Okay. Uh this has to do with uh level one fees. Uh each every two years we bring this report to the board of trustees to adopt. And what this does it maximizes our developer fees to match what the sale allocation board has adopted. The sale allocation board adopted it in January. So we're trying to meet that and justifying that we could increase
166those fees to that level. These are statutory fees. And with us presenting is Mr. Justin Borgan with Kalytics who's going to go over a brief presentation. Thank you. Um, as stated, my name is Justin Bjorggan and I work with Key Analytics and we prepared the developer fee justification report for you guys to review tonight. As Mr. San Martin noticed, the developer fees are intended to help mitigate the impact created by new development on school facilities within the school district's boundaries. So, these are fees that are charged on new development within the school district. The governing board authorizes the levy or the imposition of these school fees to offset these impacts. And in order to justify the increase in the level one fees, the board must adopt the fee justification report which is before you tonight.
167The school fee justification report serves as the basis for justifying the levy of the level one fees and presents the documents necessary for the nexus between the required findings by state law. Every even-umbered year, the state allocation board increases the amount of the level one fee statewide due to um based on a cost construction index. Um in January of 2026, the state allocation board increased this fee from $5.17 per square foot for new residential development to $5.38 per square foot of residential development. They also increased the commercial and industrial fees from 84 cents per square foot to 87 cents per square foot, which represents roughly a 4% increase from the 2024 levels. Um, through the analysis of the calculation of the fee, we use the school district's current enrollment numbers. We look at current school
168capacity. We look at the future residential development at the district buildout. And we utilize the actual school cost for constructing new school development. We've determined that the actual impact of new residential school or the the actual impact of new residential development on the school district is $26.11. Because this $26.11 is greater than the state mandatory or statutory fee of $5.38, the school district can justify the imposition of the increased level one fee. It's good to note that this $2611 is due to a lot of the growth that the school district's had in the last decade. We're always building schools. We've had new students or increased enrollment every single year over the last decade. So that kind of puts a lot of um stress on the facilities team to build new school facilities. So, I just
169wanted to highlight that sometimes the gap between the $5.38 and the $2611 of the actual impact is made up from state fees, but can also be made up through um other fees or other ways to impact the residential development such as a melo district or a CFD or going out for a general obligation bond. A part of the study has a uh commercial industrial component to it. We have to justify that fee as well. The reason this is included is because new business attracts workers and these workers have children that would attend the schools. So that's why there's a um commercial industrial fee component to that. We were able to justify the full 87 cent fee for all types of resident or all types of industrial and commercial development except for self storage self storage
170which had a 56 per square foot um impact mainly due to the size of a self- storage uh commercial unit and the amount of employees they would have is significantly less than a normal commercial uh building. Developer fees are typically are can only be used on basically growth capital facility projects. So an appropriate use of them would be classroom additions, interm housing, additions to uh libraries or gymnasium or performing arts centers or restroom facilities. Um inappropriate uses of a developer fee would be regular maintenance or deferred maintenance or any type of asbestous removal. Part of the approval of this fee is noticing the interested parties and the development community of this increase which we've done through um the notice of public hearings. We posted these um information about this notice of public hearings in the
171local papers on March 26 and April 2nd. So after the public hearing today in the if the board approves the increased rates, we will notify those interested parties in the development committee of the increased rates on April 8th and the new fees would go into effect 60 days after approval. Are there any questions about the level one fee or the calculation? >> All right. Thank you. >> Yeah, just looking at the list of appropriate and inappropriate, I'm not seeing like new schools being able to built be built out of these fees that we'll be collecting. >> Oh, yeah. That definitely any growth capital facility project. So, a new school would definitely fall under that category. >> They could fall under that. >> Yes, they definitely would fall. Is it it doesn't amount to enough that?
172>> No, not on its own. Unfortunately, the gap is just too big. So, there's other funding sources that the district needs to utilize to build a full school. >> How close are we to level two? >> Are we close? >> We are very close. And that's the next presentation. Thank you for the segue. >> Okay. >> All right. And so this is an information and action item. So um let's begin discussion at moved it. >> You you already opened it. So now >> I opened it. >> Yes. Uhuh. >> So can we get a motion? >> I'll move approval. >> Susie and a second. David. >> Okay. And then discussion. >> We need to close the public hearing first. I'm sorry. We would need to close the public hearing first before taking action. >> So,
173we close the public hearing before discussion because it says open the public hearing, discuss the public hearing, and close the public hearing. >> Presentation for public comments. >> I apologize. I'm Nicole Falses. I'm an attorney with Atkins and Anderson. I help review the report and prepare the materials. >> Okay. >> I just wanted to ensure that we close the public hearing, but for discussion that would have been public comments from public. Yeah. Okay. So, discussion here means public comment. >> Yeah. Okay. Do we have any public comments? All right. No public comments. So that >> we'll close it. >> 8 31 and then we will close the hearing at 8:33. >> Okay. And Okay. >> Now we do a motion 15.2. Okay. So then 15 No, it says info and action. >> Yeah. In 15.
174>> no, no. 15.2 is a different motion. >> 15.1 is the public hearing and 15.2 it adopts the resolution for uh for this item. >> We >> Okay. >> Based on um previous requests, we separate the public hearing from the actual action. But the action to open the hearing and to close the hearing that's action. >> So that's why we put info action. >> All right. >> Because you have to take an action to open and close the hearing. >> That's a technical. >> Yes. >> I don't like >> they don't have to take an action. Just I do. All right. So moving on to item 15.2. >> 15.2. >> Adopt resolution 25. 1 2025-26-33 approving the reported fee justification report for new residential and commercial industrial development. Do I hear a motion? >> I
175move to adopt. I'll >> second. >> And Susie, any discussion? >> Besides talking about how I blundered that whole last thing. >> No, you're still new, man. >> Yeah, whatever. Um, all right. Hearing none, call for the vote. Whatever. >> Of course it is. Now I know how to do it. >> This I swear. >> All right. And the motion carries. Item 15.3. Let's do this all over again. conduct a public hearing to receive comments on the school facilities needs analysis and to consider, respond to, and approve all comments received by the district, if any, related here too, and adopt an alternative school fees. I will open this at 8:39. >> Thank you, President Brown. Um, this 34, sorry, if I could read a clock. Thank you, Maze. This item is also public hearing and
176then adop adoption of the resolution. And this is uh unlike level one fees. This is level two fees. Level two fees is we bring it to you every year as an annual report that we do to increase and adopt a level two fees which is only for res new residential. Um now level one fees is for residential additions and commercial industrial. Level two fees is for only for new residential. Uh and Justin uh Mr. Bjorggan will uh present give us a brief presentation with more detail on level two fees. >> Good evening. I'm still Justin Bjorggan and I'm here to just talk about the level two fees for the school district. >> The government code surrounding developer fees allows a school district to impose a level two fee if they meet two of the four
177following criteria. Uh the first being um if there's substantial enrollment in that school district, forcing them to go on a year- round track for uh school. The school district doesn't currently meet that criteria, but they do meet the other three, which would be uh the school district placing a general obligation bond on the ballot that received 50 plus 1% of the vote. Uh the school district did that in November 2024. So they're able to impose a level to two fee because of that. Um they also have a um incurrence of obligation of at least 30% of their bonding capacity. So the district has that based on the outstanding general obligation bonds of the school district. And then the final criteria that allows for the imposition of a level two fee is that at least or
17820% or over 20% of the teaching stations are in relocatable classrooms. So because the school district qualifies for those, they are able to um impose a level two fee if it's approved by the board. Uh the level two fee calculation is very similar to the level one fee calculation although except for the fact that it has time limits on it. So in the level one fee calculation we can look at the buildout of the school district or the the development of the school district until buildout. But for the level two fee we can only focus on development that's planning in the next 5 years. Same thing with student enrollment. We're able to use all student enrollment to generate student enrollment factors for the level one fee. But for the level two fee, we have to
179focus on the students that were generated from homes that were built within the last 5 years. So it kind of creates a different type of criteria. In the level one fee, we're able to use the actual school cost to justify the amount, but unfortunately in the level two fee, we're mandated to use the state funding grants for school sites, which is significantly lower than the actual cost. So, when we put all those calculations into um our model for level two fees, we were able to justify a level two fee of $6.19 um which is um higher than the current level two fee, which is $553. If approved, this level two fee would be good for the next year and would expire a year from today. Um this page has a history of kind of the
180um level two fees that have been charged by the school district since 2018 2019. um they were unable to justify a level two fee from 2021 to 2023 because they didn't meet all the criterion to do so. But fortunately, the school district has been able to meet the criteria and uh could impose a level two fee if the board approves it. And I'd be happy to answer any questions about the level two fee. >> I I do have one question. So, if the bond if we do our bond and the bond passes, >> does this stay for the full year or does this go back to level one? >> This would stay for the full year. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Opening the floor for public disc. Sorry, >> microphone's
181out. Opening the floor for public discussion. That is at 8. >> We opened it at 8:34. >> Now it is closing. >> Yeah. 8:39 >> 38 and then closing the meeting at 8:39. Okay. Item 15.4. Adopt resolution 2025-26-34 approving the school facilities needs analysis and adopting alternative school fees and making related findings and determinations. Do I hear a motion? >> So moved. >> Susie. >> I'll second. >> Melissa. All right. Any discussion? Hearing none. Call for the vote. Motion carries. >> Thank you. >> Item 16.1, we will receive a report from the California School Employees Association and it's Bowmont Chapter 351. Um, in the absence of the president, we will receive the report from the information officer for the district. >> Good evening, uh, Superintendent Misa Kiche, President Jeff Brown, uh, board cabinet members and
182colleagues. Uh on behalf of the California School Employees Association, uh Bulmont 351 Executive Board and President Frank Hernandez, I am going to give their statement. First, we would like to take a moment to thank the board and superintendent Kich for your support in approving the PAR educator conference that was held in March. It truly means a great deal to our classified staff. They gain valuable training and strategies along with confidence and inspiration that carry over into stronger support for our students and school communities. Even though we are still about a month away, we would also like to thank the board for proving classified appreciation week in May. This recognition means to lot to our classified staff who do not always feel seen or recognized for their consistent hard work and dedication. Their commitment continues to
183make a meaningful difference in the lives of our students. Additionally, we were unable sorry, we were able to reach an agreement on a memorandum of understanding for a job description and title change within the department. This change helps ensure the role more accurately reflects the work being done while also creating an additional classified position to better support the department. As we move into the next few months, we're looking forward to a busy time of celebrating our students. It's one of the best parts of what we do, getting to see and recognize all they've accomplished. Thank you so much. >> Thank you very much. Uh receive a report from Bumont Teachers Association. I do not see a representative present. Present >> send a message that he won't be able to >> that's fine. receive a report
184from the Bowmont Administrator Confidential Management Employees Group. >> Good evening, President Brown, Superintendent Kiche, board members, cabinet cause community. I know it's been a long meeting, so I appreciate your patience. I wasn't here the last couple meetings cuz I was actually traveling up north in Sacramento advocating on behalf of Bowmont Unified. Too many people to celebrate not to take a moment to do so. Uh so, some congratulations. Bulma Middle College High School, California Distinguished School in its fourth year. Can't even believe it's saying that. That's crazy. Only 10 high schools in Riverside County. Um, Glen View High School, model continuation school from the California Department of Ed. Benanisha Carr, Dr. Benisha Carr is a rockstar. There's no other way to say it. Um, AXA Region 19 awards. Uh, huge congratulations. Dr. Brown, curriculum instruction administrator
185of the year. Uh, personal human resource administrator of the year. D Castillo, also Mosaic inclusivity award. Uh, and special education administrator, Gabby Toledo, our director of special ed. Amazing, amazing team. Uh, Raxons, the Western region county of Riverside Associated School Manager. Say that really fast. Uh, Dr. Mary Science Middle School principal of the year. Um, as uh, Miss Kakish mentioned earlier, California continuation education association awards superintendent of the year. M Kiche, Dr. Manisha Carr, administrator of the year. If she could just wear all the hats she does, she should get administrator of the year for every hat she wears. And I'm going to say that until, you know, forever. Uh Katie teacher of the year, Karen Moore, classified of the year, and of course, super excited for the CTE medical pathway exemplary program of the
186year as well. Um, as far as human resource concerned, um, I know this was from a couple meetings ago, but I I absolutely have to thank uh, Molina Cove, who's going to be retiring at the end of this year after 22 years of service in Bulma Unified School District. Uh, she's also has been a leader in back a number of times, was a huge support for me personally when I came uh, into a leadership role in backne. I want to thank Melena uh for everything she's done to support our school district um and me uh as a leader as well. Also want to uh thank and and wish best of luck to Mandy Mccclure uh who's changing roles. Um Manny's awesome and and I wish her the best of luck in her new role. Uh
187also want to uh thank and and wish best of luck to Katherine Mayfield uh assistant principal at Palm. I know she is an incredible part of the team that led to a California school award. um and some incredible academic gains on CASP over the years. So, I want to uh she's going to be moving out of the area and I just want to thank her for everything she's done multiple school sites uh within Bulmont. Uh huge congratulations to Megan Cotton. Um had a chance to work with Megan now in a couple different roles. Um very very welld deserved for promotion to to principal. She's doing an awesome job as interim. Um and I know that Mr. Shear at the high school is is already crying. Um so uh and and finally want to welcome Michelle
188Baron uh HR confidential secretary uh to Bowmont Unified School District. So thank you very much. Have a great night. >> Thank you Dr. Prior. >> All right. Receive 16.4 receive a report from board member Melissa Williamson. >> Yes. >> All right. Well, good evening everyone. Uh I just want to second everything that was just said. Super proud of all of our staff. Um, a couple of weeks ago I had the um opportunity to attend the best ga um gayla or gala. I'm not sure which one that is. Um, Susan Agular Martinez and her team did an amazing job at planning an event that was student focused, engaging, and fun for adults and successful at fundraising for scholarships for Bowmont students. Uh, Supervisor Xen Gutierrez was so encouraging with his keynote remarks. Um the highlight for
189me was Holly Jenkins, the teacher for special education for adult students who spoke about the success of the Bowmont bean and brought several I think three of her students um with her and I don't know how she held it together. Um but they described perfectly the impact that these vital programs have on our adult students and their success after high school. um I would have just been balling by like the second sentence because I was having a hard time holding it together in the audience. It it just was so inspiring. So, thank you for all of that work. I'm als I'm just so thankful for the dedication of the best um foundation towards supporting and serving Bumont Unified School District. Also, the week of the young child is April 11th through 17th. Um, in the
190grand narrative of a student's life, the K the K through 12 years and college often get the most fanfare. But during this week of the young child, let's acknowledge a simple truth. You cannot build a skyscraper on a shifting foundation. Plato said the beginning is the most important part of the work. Our early childhood educators are the ones who ensure that the foundation is rock solid. They are the ones who spark the curiosity that carries a student through high school and the confidence that carries them through adulthood. We owe them our deepest gratitude for being the first and most important step in that journey. Frederick Douglas describes this well, saying, "It is easier to build strong children than repair broken men." While the rest of the world sees child's play, we know that our educators
191are seeing and shaping the future leaders, parents, and citizens of our community. Thank you for the tireless work that all of our childhood early educators do to ensure that our youngest students have the best start to their educational journey and a bright beginning for the rest of their lives. And that's all I have. >> Thank you, Miss Williamson. Receive a report from board member Susie Laura. Okay. All third what Michael Brier said cuz she's second. All third and um that's all I have for tonight. >> Thank you, Miss Laura. Receive a report from board member David Sanchez. >> I'm all choked up. Congratulations to our administrative group, all of our employees, and and I'm so glad I uh I didn't get any reports during Easter break. Our kids did wonderful out in the community. I
192was a little nervous because of what occurred beforehand. Uh but uh everything still shined as as I expect and I hope for. Other than that, the month of May is right behind or right in front of us and everything becomes a blur. So >> this meeting everybody should go home and hit the hey. >> Thank you Mr. Sanchez. Dr. Lanson Sylvester could not be with us this evening and uh 16.8 receiver report from board member Jeff Brown. Um, I just wanted to thank everybody for your uh resilience and patience with uh with with us basically. I mean, we uh the consultant isn't here anymore, but um we and it's not our job to be, but we were not uh um we we we were not fluffy or flowery with him. And and again, it's that
193that's not for us to do. We are the community. We are the representation of the community and and we are here to to hold the the district and the and the consultants and the people that we hire accountable to the community for for what we're trying to do and what we're trying to build. Um, I'm also the I think um, as Miss Laura mentioned earlier, I think the level two developer fees um, qualifying for those is is a positive step in the right direction. Um and as was mentioned earlier by a different uh representative that the um you know the previous failed bond is part of what got us there. So even if we do have a bond and it fails, a failed bond is a pathway to at least some funding. It isn't anywhere
194near the amount of funding that a bonding bond would provide, but it is a pathway to something. So, these are all things that we as a board will obviously weigh very considerably on as we move forward with this. But, um, I want to thank everybody for their time and patience and congratulate all of the administrators for the hard work that they do every day, especially the ones that are being recognized. Not going to go over the list. You've heard the list from several people. Awesome. Thank you so much, everyone. So, uh, uh, we do not have any items to go back into close close session for. So, >> I move we adjourn the meeting. >> Uh, moved by Susie, seconded by Melissa. Is there any discussion? Are you guys sure? >> Actually, no. I'm just
195kidding. All right, call for the vote. >> Kaden has to get up in the morning. >> Everybody has to get up in the morning except for me. >> Oh my goodness. The motion carries. >> Thank you everyone. And have a good night. >> Tired. This was good. >> So did I. >> Not like you were the only one. You know, >> this is very good. That was a good meeting. >> Yeah. I'm about to ask for poor Thomas. And heck as his