Board Meeting

001All righty. Well, good evening everyone. I'd like to go ahead and uh reconvene back into open session at this time. Um, I would like to report out from closed session. Um, the RUSD board of trustees met and voted a 420 to zero to establish the duration of the stipulated expulsion for student 25-26A until August 26. That was four yeses, zero nos, and one absent. In addition, the RUSD board of trustees met um in close session this evening and voted 420 to reject the Weineberger pre-litigation demand against RUSD USD El Dorado County Sheriff's Office, California Highway Patrol and the El Dorado County Fire Department in a 40 decision with one absentee as well. I'd like to welcome all of you here this evening uh for being here. Um and if you would all please be so

002kind to stand and join me for the flag salute. Ready? 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. Wonderful. Thank you very much everyone. At this time we'll go ahead and take role. Um Miss White, Miss Bibbo, Miss Hunter, Mr. Flity is not with us this evening and our superintendent, Mr. Shoemaker. Awesome. If I could please get a motion for agenda item number one, the adoption of this evening's agenda, please. >> There you go. I move that we approve the agenda as presented to us this evening. >> Wonderful. Thank you very much. Is there a second? Thank you. All those in favor? >> I thank you. The motion passes. >> I

003guess I'm not supposed to talk. >> That's fine. You guys get >> You get you one that works. Yeah. >> At this time, we'll be moving on to our superintendence report. So, she might be on the floor. >> Yeah. Yes. Thank you, Lisa. Um, so I'm excited for our superintendent uh report this evening. We have a really full agenda tonight, so I'll you know how I can uh go on and on about some of the really nice things going on in the district, but I'll I'll be a little briefer. Um, again, as you know, we tie these to our uh culture of excellence and our board focus goals. sort of the first one I wanted to just uh talk this is us at our so you know when I think of continuous improvement um that's

004what last week looked like with the board I know that we're going to be talking about this during item number eight tonight um about the learnings that went on but I just really appreciate the fact that we were able to go down there and it was all about just how do we get a little bit better what about have we thought about a lot of those type of questions I always come back from that re-energize you know you're driving down you're like oh three days and all the things you have to tie up and I am very appreciative of the fact that um so many of uh those on the board, you got to tie up loose ends with your job, your kids at home, who's watching the dog, all just all the little things

005and the fact that we all made time for it was really cool and I'm looking forward to recapping that this evening. But I thought continuous improvement really was what we accomplished down there and a lot of talk related to that. Um student support, this is uh Lake Forest Elementary. You've heard me talk about this class before. This is Ashley Regan's class. She's the one that does the community building um during a good portion a couple times a week in her class and she has established a really incredible community in her class. This last month um I was able to go down the month the focus was on gratitude. So I was able to go down and really I was able to share the um thank you card initiative. The gratitude that we show before when

006we open up every meeting in uh with our leadership in detail with thank you cards. I was able to share that with the kids. I was able to share the messages that go out after my one-on- ones like who's been really helpful to you that I make a conscious effort to connect. When I hear a name, I try to connect it to the person that was complimented just kind of reinforce that gratitude. And then they I missed this part. They had a nice uh Thanksgiving meal there where they got to enjoy a meal with each other. And the little girl uh closest to us there, you can see she has a give thanks book. They had a little book where they were able to write down what they what they gave thanks for they did

007a lot of reflection and stuff just about gratitude. Thought it was really cool. Uh this is our own Mr. Haley. We talk about staff support. I came in I came in behind Mr. Haley for this for the this was how to build a fire at Rescue Elementary Pioneer days. I don't ever follow Dustin behind an instructional piece because I I struggled mightily. They're like where's the other guy? But [laughter] uh um what what I wanted to just this is emblematic I think of just our district office team. We are covering for a lot of people right now the the three of us and Jen really I would say probably where um you know I'm on a zoom with Lisa the other day. She's at she's down at Lake View. I know Dustin's been at everyone's

008been at Pleasant Grove to support and at um and at Lake View to support. I was down there on Monday. So you just you think about just what does staff support look like? It it looks like people just showing up for one another and just saying I'm I'll be listen I got my own job but I will be there and I I got you covered for that particular day. So I thought this was a good example. This these teachers had reached out and said hey we need a station covered. Do you know anyone? Wink wink. And so we ended up uh working there for the day on our commitment to community. This has uh grown incredibly um especially with in the month of December. But you see there kind of mid mid center the aspire

009the community night that's our community night that we're doing once a month. This is generating when we just do a meeting with people like our DAC our ELAC meetings our community like cyber security whatever you know if we get 10 people at the ELAC DAC meetings that's like a high five and at some of our evening things if we can get 15 to 20 parents like that's a really good turnout for us these are generating consistently 70 plus people are coming to our community nights again they're once a month and our partnership with impact ACT foundation um Barber John Bayside and Aspire Kids for these community nights has been really impactful. This month we're also partnering with Rotary. I'll be there tomorrow morning. They are adopting four uh of our families for the holidays. And

010I I am lucky because I get to find out which families were adopting. you start seeing these stories and what people are going through and and um it just it's heartwarming that we're diving in and Rotary's assisting with us. We're also doing a toy drive with CalFire. Um one of our employees at Marina Village has a CalFire son that's in Calire and they do something so she's connected us with them. And then uh we partner with the ALF project down below. That's they're also tied with Aspire, but they are helping us fulfill a lot of internal the district office. Rather than exchanging gifts this year, we just just each of us chose to adopt students and and um uh Jen collected the gifts for that. And then the very bottom right, this is our National

011Honor Society at Marina Village. They're doing a they did a shoe drive. Uh Julie Sam uh spearheaded that. So just some really we are doing a really good job of leaning in community but I'm most impressed that this is not just a December slide like most of those up there except for Calire and Rotary. Well, Rotary, we work with a lot. Most of those are they are like ongoing. And I I don't know if I mentioned Barbara John. He's also a partner with us for these community nights, which I know, you know, this fiscal accountability piece. It's it's I've got a picture of teachers exploring a math adoption and that, you know, the the tie to the fiscal accountability pieces. This is a big spend for us and it's an impactful spend. and the number

012of people on our on our instructional side of the house that are diving into this work led by Dustin and Jen um and really I mean you just look at that there's zero chance I'd be looking at math curriculum that intently I was just as a social studies guy but you know they're really into it really providing some thoughtful uh input and I know Dustin and couple I don't know how many were there with you today but was down at Scoey Jen you looking at u materials this was happened to be up at EDCO Um, and a lot of work's going into that on our facilities management. This is the project that the never ending house remodel. We are at uh Lakeu. It is going uh we're back on track or we're back not we're

013not on schedule. We are back on the build here. Sewer lines cleaned up. the amount of work that Lisa and Jeremiah have had to spearhead to just kind of keep this in check and make sure that everything's flowing and keeping on track of everything for the really the last I don't know Lisa you and I Lisa I think we met in 2022 2023 to get this project going like so it's yeah two years yeah when we first said we need to like they're changing the law we better get going we met with a lawyer I think the day before Christmas on a Zoom And now we're almost to the end of this. I mean, wouldn't you know it, we hit a sewer line on the the second to last drilling in the entire district. Uh,

014but that's all been resolved. I was there uh today. They've got most of the paneling. I took this picture yesterday and they've almost got all the paneling on today when I was there this afternoon. So, they're This is where it gets really quick and then it gets really slow again when we get into the electrical. But I think our team is doing a tremendous job with what's uh all the different things that keep getting thrown at us with with this project. And lastly, Deb, I didn't know you were going to be here. Uh but Debbie in the audience and her husband were Mr. and Mrs. Claus. You guys crushed Mr. and Mrs. Claus. You were so good. Both my wife and I got in the car. We're like, they were so good. Um and so

015it was really nice. Um, this was at Lake Forest. So many of our schools, there's a concert going on right across the street right now with Green Valley and Rescues bands. I was at the Jackson Lake View and Lake Forest band concert last night. Um, it was at that was at Jackson. The this Santa, we've got a lot of Santa runs going on this week starting uh uh Thursday night. Um, but uh this was at Lake Forest Elementary. Super well attended event. I've been going to this event geez since 2006 probably. Um but really well done and again uh Deb I had I known you were here I I I'm must have predicted it in my head but that you guys just did a really nice job. This is um obviously Renee and her son

016William. And then the other lady there on the right hand is Teresa Merrill. She's a teacher at Reena Village Middle School. And that's her daughter Amelia that's sitting on the lap there. So, I think that is it for me. Yep. >> Very much. Let me open it up to see if there's any questions from our trustees for our superintendent report. >> And if not, that has us moving then on to celebrations this evening. We are fortunate to have Lake Forest Elementary School with us. So, welcome. >> The big one. >> Might have to try it once. >> Okay. Hello. Thanks for having me. It's nice to see you guys. Um, we are going to talk about Lake Forest. Whoa, that is a lot. Um, I have a lot to show you and I have 10

017minutes. Dustin said I have 10. Right, Gina? We have 10. >> Okay, this year's theme, we are better together. This picture is obviously Halloween. I was going through this presentation today with one of our fourth grade students. She was having a rough day and I said, "Hey, I need some help. I have to do a presentation on Lake Forest and I I need some help. What do you think? And she goes, I have this picture on the front. And she goes, "No, not right there." And I said, "Why not?" She goes, "Because it needs to go here." Yes, that is true. This is our staff. This is as good of a staff picture as we have. So, Halloween it up. Um, who are we? Um, changed it a little bit from last year. We are

018a dedicated communicate I can't read dedicated community of educators committed to ensuring that every student's needs are met. We focus on supporting the whole child whether it's academic behavior social emotional. We want every learner to thrive and our staff works really well collaborate collaboratively as a unified team creating a highly effective supportive and engaging learning environment. Together, we strive to provide the opportunities, guidance, and care that help all students succeed. We want them to feel welcome. We want them to be successful. Those are all the numbers. So, we have about 430 students, 17 GenEd classes. We do house our special day classes for elementary school, TK through fifth grade. We have about 33 SDC kids. Um, our prep teacher does both PE and science. She's PE for first, second, and third grade. And for science,

019fourth, and fifth, we have a learning center and some amazing support staff who show up every day to support our kids. I cannot I don't want to list them all because I will miss people along the way totally intentionally. Um, we have really focused on our tier 2 interventions this year and making sure we're I'm going to talk in a couple slides about our first go-to if kids need help is not just, oh, let's test them for special ed. Oh my gosh, that's a lot of testing. That's a lot of meetings. That's a lot of time that kids are out of class. And if they really need it, yes, but let's give them the intervention and let's give it a try. So, we have revamped our literacy intervention program, which I'll talk about in a

020little while, and our math intervention program. Um, our kindergarten runs a like kindergarten boot camp in the afternoons in the spring. So, that should be starting. And then we want to make sure that we have specials for everybody. Everybody, gened special ed gets to go to art, music is TK through third grade. um band for fourth grade. Mila Olsen pushes in and then kids in fifth grade have the option to join the band. Everybody has an opportunity to go to garden to library. Dance is starting next month. We had three goals. So when we started this year, we had out of about 70 staff members, about 24 of them on day one were new. anywhere from teachers to aids to bus driver like we had a lot of new and so it was really important

021to welcome everybody and bring them together um making sure that they all feel supported and trusted and that we're working together and then on the other side on both sides it's um building a consistent MTSS build I can't talk building consistent MTSS procedures to meet processes, procedures to meet the NEA needs of the students. What do the meetings look like? What do the next steps look like? How are we going to do that? So, we've really honed in on that. And then really being intentional about planning ahead, calendaring, what does that communication piece look like so that staff, students, and families have the information that they need, not at the last minute. This is one of my favorite exercises that I do with my staff each year and we actually did it this last Wednesday.

022We were reflecting on first trimester of what's worked well, what hasn't, what do we need to work on, who needs extra support. So, we talked about that curriculum-wise, but then I handed my staff gets two triangles and one is for academics and one is for social, emotional, and behavior. And I I hand them the triangles and I hand them their class list. And I said, 'P place your kids where you feel they are. We're trying to find the kids who are get we don't want anybody to slip through the cracks. Who needs that extra support? Who we haven't talked about yet? Who's not on our radar? Um and then what commonality commonalities can we find? Who needs extra support? What are we going to do? When are we going to meet? Who needs extra intervention?

023and it leads to some really cool discussion as a staff and then that's how we can make the changes through our intervention program. We are revamping our PBIS. So Lake Forest was one of the first schools in 2018 when we did it districtwide and it just needs some extra TLC. So we're actually recording the videos on Friday if y'all are free. Um our behaviorist is recording. and she goes, "We need like Tik Tok style videos." I'm like, "I'm not on Tik Tok, so help me out here." She's like, "30 seconds or less." I said, "Okay, so we have the videos for classroom, library, lunchroom, and really, what are the expectations?" The posters on the right, I swim in the classroom. I actually just picked them up this morning, so you'll start to see them around

024campus. We have them for all areas. Again, classroom. Debbie, I have yours for the library. Um, and then as I picked them up, I'm like, "Oh my gosh, we don't have an office one. We need an office one." Um, and then the IWIM rules on the left side, those will be seen around campus. We are going to do a kickoff the Monday we come back in January of just a reminder to students. Here's the expectation. We are all about inclusion at Lake Forest. Um, making sure, and what does that mean? making sure that all students feel welcomed and included, but making sure that inclusion is meaningful. So, if you're a friend in an SEC class and you're pushing into a gened class, you're not just sitting in the back coloring. [snorts] You're engaged. You have

025a desk. A lot of our SDC kids go into their gened class, they have a desk, they have a name tag, they have the curriculum there with them. Um, and really making sure that the lessons are meaningful. Yes. Are they modified down if they need to be? Absolutely. But they're part of the groups. They're part of the team. Our staff is also ongoing monthly inclusion training. Um, and it's really cool. I was talking to the inclusion specialist a couple weeks ago and I said, "Okay, these Wednesday afternoons are great, but I need like some boots on the ground now that you've given your first three professional development pieces. Can you come during the day and like help the team? What does this look like in this class?" class and she's like, "Yes, I could. That's

026a really good idea." So, kind of exciting. Um, we start our kids as pushin for the specials. So, the art, the music, the non-academics, lunch and recess. The past several years, the SDC classes have have had their own tables during lunch with fourth and fifth, and it will soon be the other grades. We took their table away about 6 weeks ago and we said, "Go eat lunch with your GenEd Pierce." The light up faces were so cool to see. You mean I get to eat lunch with so and so? And was, "Yep, go eat lunch." And then our staff supports threw off that. Mrs. McKelie is our counselor. She does a great social emotional focus. Last year, she purchased the kimchis. Those are the little stuffies on the top. and she goes into each lesson.

027Each stuffy has a different character trait and a lesson that goes along with it. Um, so she does classroom guidance lessons TK through fifth grade. Everything is um scheduled out and it's again very intentional. So she doesn't cancel unless an emergency happens. If there's a crisis and a student is having a hard time, it's no, those lessons are just as meaningful. Let's talk intervention. So I told you a few minutes ago we revamped our reading intervention program. We are our staff loud and clear was like we need a systematic researchedbased program that it is repetitive that the kids just need to know the routine as TK through second grade is using really great reading. I said what does that look like for intervention? So, we're actually using the really great reading program for intervention. And

028then upper grades when they're focusing more on reading comprehension are using Read Naturally. We went to four days a week instead of three. So, they're getting that consistent small group. Let's learn how to read. For math intervention, the past two years, it's kind of been like extra help. Do you need 15 minutes a day or two a week? Well, that's not a true intervention. So this year we said nope every grade second through fifth grade we had limited funding for math intervention. So, it's grades 2 through 5 again, four days a week. It's pull out. So, the kids go, they focus on the math skills, math facts. The math specialist has it down because she has like 23 minutes. I mean, it's down to like 25 minute session, but there's a passing. So, you have

02923 minutes. This is what I'm working on for four minutes and five minutes and this is what we're doing. On the other end of things, we're also enriching. So, our students again, art, music, band, dance garden. You're going to see a picture of a um Rick and Bod. Rick and Bodie are our weekly service dog visit and his handler. Um lunch bunch with Mrs. McKelie. The library. Miss Julia Janisk is our music teacher. Miss Lana is our art teacher. She is fabulous. Mrs. Olsen library is Mrs. Shed Garden. I'll let Gina talk about lunch bunch. Every Wednesday, two students from each class have the privilege of eating lunch with Mrs. McKelby. That is a hot commodity if you ever want. And her wellness center is full of pizza because pizza is Wednesdays. Um but the

030kids love to go and there are some kids who just have a standing weekly Yep. You're coming to lunch bunch. Rick and Bod come every Friday to the Zenzone. You might ask, what is the Zen Zone? Um, this year we have a new position. It's our PBIS facilitator and Eileen Sanfeliss has moved from being an aid to our PBIS facilitator. She created an amazing room. If you ever have like, I don't know, 15 minutes and you just need to chill, she has created the Zen Zone down to the smell of lavender and it's quiet. She h it's amazing. [snorts] Um, Rick and Bod come, they come in the garden, the kids get to go see them, and it's just something that they love. Bod is a service dog. Rick used to be a baseball player

031with S San Francisco Giants. Like, he is well known on our campus. Mrs. Oxford is running our student leadership this year. And out of all of the like, if you know anything about me, I'm very much like the students need to lead. We need to build up the students so they can give the presentations. I don't need to stand up here. They can do it. Um, and so that is very much our Veterans Day, our Constitution Day. For Thanksgiving this year, I said, you know what? We have a lot of families who need some extra love and support. Things are expensive. Families don't have food at like there's just a lot. So, our student leaders um created a Thanksgiving food drive to support families. And what started out as like, okay, maybe eight. We had

03225 plus turkeys and we supported 25 families with full Thanksgiving meals down to turkey the foods for the week. We did a food drive. I said, I don't want the food drive to come and then I go somewhere else. Like we need to keep it in house. So Mrs. Oxford came and she organized all of the food into like, okay, this is snack foods. This family has five kids. This family has, you know, one kid. The families either came and picked it up, so grateful, or we delivered it and saw huge smiles on their face. So, I was super proud of them. I was like, I love that. Veterans Day celebration, our second and third graders got up this year. They sang, our student leaders led, and we had a I want to say 36

033veterans who came on stage and introduced themselves. Upcoming, we have dance beginning in January, six weeks. Miss Christine from EDMT will come and teach everybody. We're doing something new. Um, we are doing a winter singing performance on Friday, December 19th at 11:30. Each grade level is practicing a song. They're going to perform on stage. We typically haven't done anything for Christmas at Lake Forest. And I said, let's try something new. It's new to Lake Forest. It's not new to me. So, um, if you are bored and need something to do, Mrs. Shed is hosting our International Women's Day event on Friday, March 6th. We can always use some good women. And our teachers are always looking for readers to read to their class. Before I go to the next slide, I also want, and I

034didn't include it in here, we have a huge focus on ongoing professional development. Um, and it's really important to us to develop teachers from within. So, we host one of our teacher residents who is here tonight. Her name is Bethany Frederrici. She is in a fifth grade class working with Amy Benzo. Um, and she's fabulous. So, I'm super excited to have her on staff and get to see her grow throughout the year. If you are bored this Friday, come at 11:30. You may hear, I don't know, many different songs. You might even hear the five golden rings. Any questions? Some Thank you so much. Great presentation. Um, let me go and open it up to our trustees with any questions or comments. >> I don't have a question, Renee, but you you give such a

035great presentation. You have such energy. I don't know what it is about how you present, but it always like I literally listen to every word you say. You have just have such a way about you, but um you know, Lake Forest is an amazing school. You have, you know, stepped in and just done an amazing job there. And uh yeah, thank you for presenting to us. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> And I just wanted to say the thing that stands out to me the most is the community building that goes on there. And so I really appreciate that. seems like it's everyone's all in. So, I think that's wonderful. >> It's fun to see the fam like Saturday morning. All of a sudden, I looked at, you know, you prep something and you

036look at something and you're like, "Okay, this is ready. I know there's going to be a lot of people." And all of a sudden, I looked up and I was like, "Holy cow, the gym is packed." [laughter] Like, there are so many people. So, it's nice to, you know, it all comes to fruition. It's like, "Okay, thank you." I appreciate that you guys have leaned so hard into both math and reading intervention this year. Thanks. >> Yeah, really great presentation. Your passion for what you do is infectious. I just can't imagine um working at your school and not being as um passionate about um what can be done on that campus. I I would feel I don't know. I I think I would be uncomfortable if I wasn't as passionate as you. [laughter] Um, so

037I can only imagine what it's like day in and day out on campus. So, >> Thank you for the love. Thanks for having me. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. >> All righty, Gina. >> Not quite yet. Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. We'll get there though. Yeah, I promise. Uh for items that are not on this evening's agenda, these items are placed there for the purpose of providing members of the public and bargaining unit representatives the opportunity to address the board on any items of business that do not appear on the agenda. Um but based on the Brown Act, board of trustees are not allowed to comment on items that are not on the agenda. However, we can refer to those items to our cabinet and follow up with you on them. However, for items that are on

038this evening's agenda for our community that'd like to speak to that, I'll identify the time for that. With that being said, it allows for us to move to agenda item number two, which is our gardens, Miss Johnson. It's the big button. >> It is contagious. You are contagious because I'm very passionate about what I do, as you know. So, I brought my cards because if I don't use these, I'll go on and on and on and then I know it's a budget night, I heard. Is that right? Okay. So, tonight we are going to cover um our popular lunchtime program. Um our all of our current projects that we're working on and our new partnerships. Uh slide number one up there, our lunch recess program. This is one of the programs we are most proud

039of and makes us unique from other garden programs. Our gardens are all open uh for lunch recess breaks for all grades first through the uh 8th grades. Uh they are a safe place for students to engage in non-traditional recess activities. Uh before I focus on our middle schools, which has been a real big thing for us this year, I want to just point out a few things. The Lake Forest Garden is open five days a week and it's ran by our parent volunteers and we have two dads that come every Wednesday and one grandmother that comes during the week as well. Um, Lake View. Okay, she blew us out of the water on that one. Um, we have a brand new garden coordinator there. She is a grandmother of the famous triplets there. Her name

040is Betty Barnes and she not only opens open opens the garden for lunch recess, she's opening it for the morning recesses as well. So, that's why you're seeing such a a big number there. Uh, rescue, we're now um it's at three, but now we're at four. We just brought on a new parent volunteer that's going to help us open it up one more day a week because that is a very popular garden. I've spent a lot of time there lately. Um, Jackson, you're only seeing it two days a week and 24 students per week. However, that's a 100% increase from LA uh the last few years because they've never had their garden open. We have a new principal and two new garden coordinators and they're going to do great things there. I know it. Uh

041Green Valley, Cara, the garden coordinator there, just brought on another aid to help her. So, we're going to see an increase there. Um and now I'd like to focus on the growing participation at both of our middle schools. Um at Marina, our daily attendance um rose from 20 to 25 students last year to 42 sixth graders this year. So instead of just 20 to 25 sixth graders coming last year, we're up to 42. At Pleasant Grove, participation continues to increase steadily. We have strong support teams to keep up with these demands. At Marina, we now have two garden coordinators. I share the position with another garden coordinator. Her name is Jill. She's a retired um high school teacher from Granite Bay. And we have parent volunteerers that help us supervise cuz 42 sixth graders are

042a lot of kids and most of them are boys with shovels. [laughter] Uh we have a strong foundation success builds on our elementary school programs giving students a familiar bridge into our middle schools. Our number go one goal at our middle schools is student connection. Staff and yard supervisors ensure every student is included. No one is alone at lunch ever. So on to our next slide here. Now here I just wanted to share a few slides of I'm bringing the life of the garden to you here at the board room. You can see how engaged the students are at every activity they do. It's very exciting. Look at the grapes from Rescue Elementary. It's amazing. And we now have art in the garden. We'll talk about that in a minute. Uh, okay. And more composting

043is big on the left with that marina. Kids fix uh weeding the garden box on the right. And now we're going to move into our current projects that are going on at um all of our different sites. Uh last spring, Miss Haden and Miss Kuth along with the Jackson Nature Bowl teams designed a beautiful native plant pollinator garden as part of their competition. After presenting their project at the NatureB semifinals in Placerville, both teams of fourth and fifth graders advanced to the finals at uh Camp Pollock in Sacramento, where they joined other top teams from across all of Northern California. I'm happy to announce that Project Green took their plan and applied for a local grant. Miss Haden had come to me and said, "Do you have any funding?" And we didn't at the time

044because everything was accounted for all of our projects. So, we applied for a local grant with Elorado Endowment and they are funding $3,000 of this project for these students and we're working with um our master gardener Martha Hudinson with Project Green. She's helping the students design the entire area along with the district as well. Um, okay. Oh, and we also got a $500 uh grant from Clark Youth Fund as well. Green Valley Elementary, we were the recipient um for a $3,200 grant for the garden there. She has such a wish list right now. They need a new roof on their garden shed that is leaking. And I know they had some tools stolen over this past year and they're trying to replace all of those. So, this is going to come in very handy for

045Cara. Uh this is the Marina Village Middle School Counselor's Corner. Uh Leah meets with the lunch bunch group a couple days a week out there right in the nature our uh native garden area. And so we're enhancing it. We added two huge planter beds. We're going to add more flowers and plants once the sun comes out. Nothing is growing right now. And we added umbrellas for shade. So, we're just making it a more inviting area for her. Uh here now, we're going to jump into our upcoming Eagle Scout projects at rescue. Uh that we have a Eagle Scout coming in to put up a gazebo and a washing station, and it's to be completed over the Christmas break. Uh that garden gets a lot of sun sunshine. So uh it's going to be nice to

046have a gazebo in there. Uh next, this is an upcoming Eagle Scout project that it will be a stepping stones meditation thinking path that will be right across from the outreach the outreach the learning center. Isn't it called the learning center at the Yes. and physical and occupational therapy. and it will allow the kids to come out and just reset and utilize that space that is not being used at this time. It was a tree that had fallen down right there in the middle. Uh this is uh Lake Forest Elementary. You might have seen these photos in Dustin Haley's Monday memo. Here is Eagle Scout Dylan Gyax. He completed this project. Um, it was a old warm farm into a beautiful outdoor classroom with a stage backdrop and convertible bench tables. Yes, the benches can

047convert to tables for many of our garden projects. That was Yeah, and we still have our composting. We just moved it to another area where we got more sunshine. Okay, this is really exciting. Um, Oakidge High School now has a garden, first in history. uh thanks to the vision of one of the students and I think you all would be very proud. She went to Lake View Elementary then to Marina Village Middle School got to Oakidge and there was no garden. She worked for four years trying to get a garden there. She graduated and the garden would end this last summer. Her dream came to life. She also started a nonprofit called One Green Step um which there are a lot of high school students that are a member of that and now we have

048partnered with them and you'll see it goes full circle. So now they come back and work with us and help us. They helped us at the fall festivals at Lake View and Lake Forest. They helped at Frightfest. We sold some spider plants and they're h they actually wrote middle school curriculum that we've been using at our middle schools with the students during the lunch recess time. Uh let's see now. Okay. Farm to school. I'll call it garden garden to school program. Our middle school students harvest fruits and vegetables from their school gardens when available and deliver them to the kitchen. Becca there on the right. They the students brought them down to her. She's a part of our nutrition staff there. She washed and prepared them and put them out to be served as part

049of the students lunches. We're going to do that as much as possible when the kids are not eating everything right then and there. That's hard to do. That's hard to do. You don't want to take that away. Uh next we're doing a composting pilot program with our nutrition services. Uh Green Valley and Lake Forest are launching a composting program where student compost warriors is what we are going to call them. They'll collect collect the kitchen scraps and turn them into garden compost reducing food waste. The new slogan will be waste less grow more. Okay, now on to our wonderful partnerships. Uh, Project Green, I'm proud to announce, has partnered officially with Project Luma, the famous Laura Watts, who has done the designing and help the students with painting all of our murals and black tops.

050Come on up, Laura. Get out of your way. You need that. >> Oh, yeah. You need that, huh? Which button is it? like a big one there. >> Hello my friends. Um I'm just going to run through really quickly the stuff we have going in conjunction with Project Green. Obviously there's other things going on, but Project Green has been facilitating some of the projects I wanted to talk about a little bit. One of the things that we did is Project Green spent the money and bought a tape machine for the striping at the playground. as you know, those are very it's very expensive to get the striping done. And so I figured if volunteers could do it, that would save a lot of money, right? So Gina pitched in and did that. So a couple

051of these projects are going to like this is rescue. Um these projects that are just adding a little bit of color to the black top are not like doesn't have the added benefit of cooling, but it adds color obviously. So, we have to wait until the spring when the ambient temperature and the surface temperature is above 50° for 48 hours. So, nothing's going to happen till May probably on these, but this is approved and we'll uh Lana will be doing this one. Um they didn't want to have volunteers for this, so that'll be going in the spring. Um I'm in discussion and um design with Green Valley and we're in the design part right now. So this is not final but this is similar idea touches on the playground and probably some murals everything volunteer

052painted again project green is contributing the line taping machine uh for that and um this is was originally um a welcome uh magic carpet and when I talked to the fourth graders one of them was like why don't we do a river and I'm like of course a river so then it got updated to a river and that's going to be a collaborative um volunteer project including students of all ages probably high school, middle school, and elementary along with some adults helping hopefully. Um and I wanted to talk a little bit about um sort of an expansion of what's happening with art in the garden right now. Obviously, Gina has a lot of uh free art, so kids that consider themselves artists are in there doing stepping stones and so on. Uh which is great.

053and obviously needs to continue. But I was thinking more about um larger collaborative pro uh projects that kids that maybe don't consider themselves artists could participate in in a way to change their environment. This is a great mural that I didn't have anything to do with other than a little bit of facilitation at the beginning. Um this was um run by the students and Mrs. Wilson, right? >> Jenny Williams. Yeah. So, as you can see, there's uh there's a desire to do some bigger stuff. This is something I've been working on for a couple years. I've always been struck how there's not a lot of comfortable seating on campuses. So, this is a kids-sized bench. On the left, it's not rescue, but this is the aspiration. So, I have that on there. On the right

054is a bench that is in the Lake Forest Garden, which we're allowing the kids to freely paint. So, it becomes an art bench and can be repainted every year. The idea is is to allow kids to change their environment in significant ways with without having to like be worried about a wall or something like that. So, by the same token, I did these uh CNC routed birds that will eventually be decorative on a fence. And we were really struck by how so many of the kids that had never touched a paintbrush before did not want to stop, you know. So, this is something that they collectively can work on. um and kids that don't normally consider themselves artists really felt empowered and interested in it. So, I'm hoping to do more of these things in

055all of the Project Green Gardens. So, we'll see how that goes. Um and then I think we're under the expo, right? So, I'm not sure if everybody knows that uh Project Green and by extension project luma was invited to participate in the home and landscape expo which is um the end of January and first day of February and they're donating to us to Project Green a 50 by 20 exhibit space in the pavilion at Cal Expo and there's only three of those and they give us the middle size and it's right at the front. No pressure. >> There's 20,000 visitors a year. Um and so we're going to be highlighting the gardens um that you know have been occurring in in the district. So I need my little list of everything we're going to be

056trying to do there. Um so so yeah, the design um the design is here. So, we're highlighting school gardens, kid-friendly backyard gardens, winter gardening, composting tips, in addition to painting a mural sort of um on panels, uh butterfly photo op, and um there's going to be a live segment from Good Day Sacramento a few days before the event at Lake Forest. So, and they've given us some VIP tickets for you guys. Um, and then this is something that is just to make you smile at the end. Do I How do I make it play? Oops. >> Oh, how do we make it? >> Oh, now I need to go back. You want to play it? >> I think they can scroll over it. >> It's only a second. >> No. You have to sing the

057song then. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Children of dance. >> They they made up a song is what it is. >> It's a It's like >> get it to you. >> Yeah. >> So, we brought a gift for you. Merry Christmas. Happy. >> Thank you. Look how excited they are. Sorry. >> That song went on for 30 minutes, by the way. [laughter] >> So, um I guess we're at the point where if you have any questions. >> Yes. Um, I do want to point out we're going to have a make and take as well at the uh pavilion and we're there. We're going to have handouts. Home Depot is supplying everything at no cost for us. >> Yes. So, we hope that every student comes through and that we are able to inspire other families to

058put wonderful gardens in their own backyards and at their schools. That's our any question. >> It's a great presentation. And let me go and open up to our trustees at this time. >> Gina, I just want to thank you so much because you are we are so lucky to have you in our district. And I'm not just saying that because we're friends. [laughter] Um you I mean really every time I watch you give these presentations, it just warms my heart. I actually wrote down something you said um no one will be alone at lunch ever. And that just like makes me cheer up because um to me I know you know there's different there's so much that comes out of our garden um and what you put into it and what our kids get out

059of it. But what always matters to me is that um that all of our kids feel connected to our schools and to people and their community. Like I don't want any I you know I don't want anyone being left out or left behind. And um not everybody wants to, you know, there's some things that a lot of kids like to do, you know, they want to play four square or whatever, but not every kid wants to. And anything that we can provide, that's another alternative that kids can be excited about for coming to school and for um you know, connecting with their peers and with the adults on campus just makes me so happy. So, I'm happy to see that your numbers are increasing. Um, I'm grateful that you are doing this and um, great

060job um, keeping your um, presentation a little shorter than before. >> You did good. And I want to thank Laura because the art part is really bringing in a lot of the artists as well. They're connecting and some are very shy. I don't know. A lot of artists are very introverted. So, it's the one I know. >> My son Nathan. >> Two things. One super quick to echo what Kim said, I did choke up three times during your presentation. So beautifully, beautifully done. I appreciate everything you do. Um, one or two years ago, the group that sits up here had a meeting [clears throat] and it was a discussion on what's what's important to you. What I if if if I recall, if funds were endless, what would your perfect school district look like? And

061there were a lot of things said and it was so wonderful, but two things were kind of unanimously agreed on. One of them was outdoor learning and one of them was hands-on learning. Wow. >> And I cannot help but just say that's exactly what our gardens are. Yeah. Um, and so I will just say on behalf of me, but kind of the people who stood up here at once upon a time, we all agreed that that was so important and our gardens are that. Um, and so I personally am so thankful for that. I love what you guys do. I think it's so important for all of our students. Um, and I love that you guys have um connected. That's the word I'm looking for. >> Uh, partnered goodness have. >> Well, thank you. We're

062lucky that our board and our schools, they support us on this. Can't do it without that support, honestly. So, thank you. >> I also um really appreciate the interconnectedness that's happening like with the art and and um other activities on campus and that it's accessible to all kids at all times, >> right? I really like that and I love how it's growing at some of the sites too. like people are, you know, so excited about that they're willing to volunteer two, three, four, five days a week for two recesses and they're not back toback. That's really impressive, >> right? Yeah. [clears throat] >> Exactly. >> It's the excitement of being >> I think it's neat to say that not every lesson to be learned has to be in a classroom. M >> and um I

063love the partnership that has developed between the two of you and how it even reaches more students interests outside of the classroom. So it's just such a wonderful place to be a part of rescue. Um and two people like yourself sure add a great element to it. So thank you. >> Yeah. And thank you for my invite. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Oh yeah. Merry Christmas. [laughter] I'm just going to uh layer on here, but Gene, I remember sitting with you on our property >> like 2016. I mean, well before I was here. >> Yes. just and you were so passionate about the garden and you were we we met you were trying to just solicit like how do I get this going and and um you know fast forward and I've I've told people

064all the time you know hire passion and then just get out of the way >> and that's that has been uh that's been you you know we've just hired someone that's just extremely passionate the partnerships come with are just layered with passion and I wanted to share a story I was subbing as the uh uh principal yesterday at Lakefield And so I go down to the garden and she's got a full They are going at it with the composting. >> Yeah. >> And the kids were having such a great time and I I slid up to the kitchen just to say hi to the kitchen. And the kitchen ladies knew exactly what was going on in the garden with the composting and they they were it was so neat to see a group that typically

065is just there for a few hours and then leaves like thinking about how they could support. They've got a share table now that could for composting that they and it's like stuff that I don't even know is going on in the district. I'm like that is really just amazing. I I was holding on to that cuz I wanted to share that with you today. But uh the the grandmother there is doing a really good job. >> He let some fly with those hoes. I was I was like I got to I have to leave this is they were composting and I know with >> I know they do and I think that's what makes me so passionate about it is that every day I get to witness and see how happy they are and I

066have I had a first grader say two weeks ago she goes this is the happiest day of my life she's in first grade and then one boy said this is better than recess and so I'm like okay >> that's awesome So, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Yeah. The uh next elements of our meeting might not be as um exciting. So, we'll give you a second if you'd care to. >> Good night. Big crew leaving. >> Gina, as you leave, any chance you ever want to bring in some vegetables from the garden for the This board really likes to eat. They They love to eat. night. We were >> next time. >> And she was gonna help me. >> Do you have cookies in the garden?

067Because that's that's that might be it. [laughter] Throw the cookies on the cookie tree. Thank you. Night. Drive safely out there. Alrighty. Was awesome. That was great. Okay, [clears throat] this has us moving then to agenda item number three, our annual organizational meeting, board officer selection. Mr. Schumake, you have the floor. So, as you know, uh, each December, um, our board is required to nominate and approve our officers. These will be officers for 2026. These are part of the, this is part of the ED code and our board bylaws. Um, so tonight, uh, I'm asking that you, you know, have a discussion, um, on the board bylaws related to selecting the president, the vice president, clerk, and then confirming me as the secretary to the board. So I'll let you lead the conversation. >> Wonderful.

068Thank you. Appreciate that. Um we can begin with uh nominations and have some discussion um at this time and I will open up to our trustees on what their interest and nature is. [laughter] Uh I would like to nominate Michael Gordon's president. An nomination has been made. Um, you like to entertain a second. >> Is there a second? >> My fault about the cookie said about the broken cookie, [laughter] but I will second. >> Motion made in second. Um, all those in. Are there any other motions for that position at this time? Um motion made in second. All those in favor? I oppose. Wonderful. Thank you. Well, I I will tell you, um as the opportunity to serve as the board president this past year, um I always relate things back to sports analogies. And

069um when you look at some of the great dynasties in history, I think it's fair to say that the New England Patriots has been considered one of them. And the greatest argument between the head coach and probably arguably the greatest quarterback in history is whose responsibility was it for that dynasty? And the head coach would of course say it's because of him. And the quarterback would say it's because of the team. And for me, I I at least in this specific um category, I would probably side with the quarterback and say um it has been a blessing to be a part of an amazing team. and the work that we have done thus far um with our students and teachers and classified staff always at the um front of our discussions and actions have been

070because of this team and um I'm just lucky to be a part of it and constantly remind myself to say less and just help all of you um get your points out. So um I want to thank you very much for your confidence in me to do this again. Thank you. Okay, that has us then moving on to bylaw 9100, which is selecting a vice president at this time and allow me to open up to nominations. >> I'll nominate Kim White to be our vice president. >> I would second that. All those in favor? >> I oppose. Therefore, let it be said, Miss White will be resuming our position as vice president. >> Well, thank you guys. Thank you very much. appreciate it and I'm happy to step in and uh whenever Michael is unable

071to be here and definitely shoot. >> Wonderful. This has us in moving on to board bylaw 9123 and the selection of our clerk and opening up to nominations at this time. >> Uh That seems so funny. I um I nominate Michelle Bibo for uh our uh board clerk. >> I'd like to second that motion. All those in favor? >> I oppose. Fantastic. Motion passes. Congratulations, Mbo. And uh board law 9122 and the confirming of our superintendent as our secretary. Um, can I please get a motion for that? >> I move that we affirm super terms of secretary to the board and I'll second it. >> Motion made second. All in favor? >> I oppose. Wonderful. Motion passes and our organization of board is established for the 2026 calendar year. Uh, this has us in moving

072on to board number four, board appointments for the Elder County School Boards Association. Should she make you have the floor? >> Yeah. Well done. Happy to work with everyone again. [laughter] Uh number four here is just uh related to um again in each December for our board bylaws. We're able to appoint uh members of our board to serve in various capacities in the county. This one is related to the Elorado County School Board Association. This group typically meets five to six times a year. Kim's uh served on it previous year. Michelle is our current uh person. Um there's typically a dinner involved and then there's a presentation and sometimes they get cancelled. Um but tonight is our opportunity to uh nominate and select someone for 2026. Also, it's left off in the uh narrative here,

073but we also typically name an alternate just in the event that the person can't make it. >> Wonderful. Thank you very much for that leadin. Um, is there a nomination at this time? >> Uh, I nominate Michelle Bibbo to be our Elorado County um, SBA. >> Wonderful. Is there a second? >> I second. >> Motion made in second. All in favor? I oppose. Motion passes. >> Anyone? Anyone interested? It's like it's not I mean it's like every other month. You don't have I mean you can [laughter] >> as a matter of fact you can because I believe Michael Gordon did that once an alterate and somehow >> confirm or deny that taking place. >> Yeah. >> Would we like to do that? I think you should go ahead with your motion. >> I would like

074to nominate Mr. Michael Farities. as the alternate >> and I will second it. >> Motion made and seconded as an alternate. >> Is there a punishment? So you don't >> clarity. >> Um all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Those that oppose. Motion passes. [laughter] This has us in moving on to board item number five. Um, this is for the appointment of the Elderorado School's financial authority, Mr. Schumank. >> Yeah, this uh group usually meets one or two times a year. It's uh a fairly inactive group. Lisa attends these on our behalf. Usually has uh someone like Kim, you've been on the group before. Are you on right? Are you our current I think you are Jamie is that's right. Jamie, sorry. It's written right there. >> President, thank you president.

075>> Jamie is the current president. Thank you for reminding me of that. It's written right here in front of me and I didn't read it. Um, uh, so, uh, we have an opportunity tonight to determine who our 2026 Elon County, excuse me, schools financing authority member will be and an alternate. >> Wonderful. Thank you. Can I please get a motion for this? >> Uh, go ahead. Go ahead. I want to >> Oh, I I like that. I like how that Okay. So I um I move that we appoint Jamie Hunter uh to our Elorado Schools Finance Authority as our representative. >> Thank you, Miss W. Is there a second? >> Motion made in second. All in favor? I >> I oppose. Motion passes. Thank you very much. >> I will say for this one, the

076alternate is um it's an interesting time of the year instead of summer and so it sometimes can be a conflicting day or week. So, an alternate is important in this one because as Lisa knows, it's just it's summer's hard. >> Are you suggesting that maybe the person that's going to be nominated? >> No, not at all. Not at all. I think I've done it for >> I think I've done it for >> Yes, I believe you can. >> One of those I >> say that Michael has expressed an interest in this committee previously. >> Amazing. >> Let the record show I did not open my mouth during this portion of the meeting. >> [laughter] >> Uh with that being said, we those not agenda, I need a nomination for an alternate for the financial authority

077board. >> Well, then I would like to nominate uh Michael Flity as the alternate to the Elorado Schools Finance Authority. >> Thank you, Miss White. Motions made. Is there a second? >> That is Miss Bibbo that seconded that motion made in second. All those in favor? I oppose. >> Wonderful. Well, thank you very much everyone. Motion passes. Then we move on to agenda item number six. This is the certification of district signatures. Mr. Schumake, >> you have the floor. >> Yes, this is just another annual um aspect of our work and it's just certifying the signatures. If you look on item six, it's the uh essentially it's the five board members, Lisa, Dustin, and myself that you're certifying as signitories for the district. >> Wonderful. Thank you very much. I simply need a motion to

078approve that. >> I move that we I'm excuse me. I move that we approve the signatures of members of the governing board. >> Thank you. Second. Is there a second? Thank you very much. All those in favor signify with an I. I oppose. Motion passes. Thank you very much. Moving on to Am I going too fast? Are we okay? >> No. No. You're going great. Great. Board bylaws 9250 and board rem reuneration. >> Wow. >> Remuneration, not renumeration. >> It's reation. >> Always learn new things. This is great. I thought it was re >> Thank you, Miss White. >> Uh, we would all agree that we thought it was renumeration. In fact, yeah, in fact, uh, uh, Christina even looked it up for us. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. But the board policy is called

079remuneration. Uh and so on an annual uh basis, the board may increase super the uh excuse me, the compensation of board members uh of board members stipens uh beyond the limit that was delineated in the ED code. It's not to exceed 5% um based on the monthly rate of compensation. I am recommending to the board that as a practice um that the board consider adopting a um increase to their compensation that is commiserate with what we gave all of our employees except for CSEA got uh more this year but that the board consider a 1% increase to their stipen which is consistent with what teachers and management received this year. >> Thank you Mr. Schumig. Um, is there any discussion on this? And if there is no discussion, can I please get a motion to

080adopt this? >> Uh, I move that we approve board bylaw 9250 and the new board renderation. >> Motion made. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Motion made and second. All those in favor signify with an I. I oppose. Motion passes. Agenda item number eight, which is the 2025 California School Board Association annual educational conference CS BAEC board discussion and chair out. There's a chance that's a run on [laughter] Gota situation somewhere. >> Might be. >> Mr. Shoe, um, want to intro this? >> Yeah. So, um I just, you know, we saw the picture earlier this evening of our team down at this event, but for those of you that are, uh listening, um our team was able to spend, uh several days down in Sacramento with um schoolboard leaders and superintendents from all

081over the state. This is sponsored by CS um BA. And as a practice, we started a couple years ago, just when we come back, just talking about what what some highlights were from you. So hoping that we could maybe just share out um not necessarily what you learned or that you know what you recall from every single uh event, but like what are some takeaways that you had? Um and they it could even be just related to even being able to be together as a team and to talk through like just how do we get better and and learn more about each other. I'll I'll start off by just saying I was able to attend a bond hearing in AI. I was went to a very spicy library book banning that I shared with the

082group that was really interesting. There was a board hot topics that Kim and I were at and I went to an under uh uh presentation on underutilized property and um without getting into all the the specifics. I walked away from each of them with like just like a little nugget like learned um that's going to help inform and make better decisions on the library. I already reached out to the uh superintendent that presented and asked her about a form that she referenced. And then on the underutilized property, I know we had a we've had some conversations about our Sienna Ridge property. It was just good for me to kind of ruminate about that. And for me, just the ability to spend time with each of you was invaluable. I walk away feeling um as Michael

083was talking about team, just really blessed to be a part of this team. I did have uh Dr. Manala called me um the night after uh we were all together at I can't name the name of the myella or whatever it was but the Edco reception board and he he just called me and just wanted to compliment our team. He said it is very clear to his team that was there what a highly functioning and um was the word he used just cohesive group that we have. He said you could see it visibly when you walk in the room that your team really likes to be around each other and they interact well with each other. So I thought that was I was really nice to hear that. So those were my my takeaways. I

084think the lessons learned there are important but I think the the team time was really important. So if we wanted >> I did recognize that we were the only board that took a picture together. >> Thank you Christina. If that says anything, you can go from right to left. Yes. We okay with that? >> Yeah. Perfect. Um I always enjoy my time down at CSPA. Um it was kind of fun that it was local this year. I had a couple of my favorite sessions were um a middle school alignment. Um the AI and a STEAM session, all great. Um I'm going to go big picture here and not small picture. Sorry if we all have the same plan. Um, I am personally so proud to be on this board, but not just to sit on

085this board, to be on this board with um my my my peers. Um, and I'm proud because we all take it seriously and we all have very serious, meaningful conversations. Um, and it's so easy to maybe see that as, oh, let's go down here. I have to do this because I have to I have to attend this, you know, oh, we get get to go to dinner. But it's so much different um for my lens and I think for everybody else's lens, it's so much different when you really want to continually make positive change. And I think we all feel that way. so many great conversations, so many different times. Each of you would bring up a topic or even just make a comment that would really shift the way that I'm thinking about something

086or maybe consider it in a different in a different light. Um, it's really meaningful time that we spend together and I really truly appreciate it. Um, I I love that we got a compliment of seeming to enjoy each other's company. Um, to which I think we do, but I think we also really respect one another. And to me that is so important. Um we don't always see eye to eye but because we respect each other we will listen and I'm very I'm very thankful and I'm very proud to be on this board. >> Thanks for sharing that. >> I went to a session on AI that was talking a little bit about what CSBA was doing with their implementation and kind of the plan and the roadmap they were following for that. I also attended

087the one on the bond with Jim and that was just dense. It was really dense and really um you you called it granular which I agree it was very granular. I went to one on connectedness and I thought that was very um reflective of what rescue union does here. So I I saw a lot of what the district is doing um shared in that in that session. And then I went to two on one was on Prop 98 funds and the other one was on like sharpening your finance skills. And both times about 10 minutes in I thought this doesn't really apply to us because we don't have trouble keeping our 3% reserve and we don't have trouble figuring out where our money's going and we don't have trouble. Right. So, I just kept thinking

088about Lisa about the way that you keep us on, you know, just just such a like a just a tight ship that's not like there's nothing to worry about. There were a lot of questions. Well, what if that, you know, what if this happens or scenarios and what do we how are we going to lay off? And there was all these different things. I thought to myself, I've never had to even entertain those because you're so sharp with what's happening and and um visionary too, right? like looking forward and and and and being um rational in those thoughts. So, I really appreciate that because I felt very like we don't have that here. [laughter] Like I want to knock elbow the person next to us, right? >> Yeah. Um and then I and then I

089want to just kind of echo Jamie's thoughts. You know, there's always like, oh, it's local. you know, you're going to Sacramento, but it was really enjoyable to go down there and um just, you know, be in your own town and and have that opportunity to kind of just be part of the community there. And I and I mentioned to Jim that I, you know, thought that we were honored very well down there as a board and I really appreciated that. So, thank you. >> I heard someone say, um, "Do you want to know how good your CBO is? Have your superintendent do your budget." I said, "Wow, that's powerful. That's really powerful." I mean, I would be very I would be very comfortable with that. >> I run a good home budget, but there's zero.

090We would be talking about the 3% reserve probably tonight if uh if I was in charge of the budget. I need Lisa and Dustin in my corner for sure in my ear. >> I won't tell you what other districts said that. >> They might be near us. Thank you very much. >> Well, I'm going to echo what my two esteemed colleagues said. Um, I think that um, you know, every every year it's just such a great experience because, you know, people don't realize that we don't get the opportunity really to spend time together and, you know, just get to know one another, which we all know everything's about relationships and it's valuable. And um if you you know if you're ever going to have a different point of view from someone, it sure is helpful

091if you've already established a relationship. So um there's huge value in that. There's value for our community because um and we know this because we have just been at a CSBA conference where people don't get along and people on the same board are not kind to each other. Sadly, none of that happened in any of the seminars I went to. So, I feel very left out because everyone else seemed to get a show a bit more than I did. Um, but um it my point is that it it's um it's valuable to the community to have a a board that can operate and work well together. And we happily um like to to uh have that experience so that um so that we can perform for our district. Um, so with that I So I

092what I love too is we all go to we all go to different things and we learn different things and then we come back here and then I literally have like a panic attack because oh my god I can't remember but you pick stuff up and it's in your head. So if it comes up in conversation while I may not be able to give a six minute dissertation on each and every one of the what did I do one two three four five six seven seven seminars I I can't do that but uh it's all in my head. Uh so when it comes up I'm like oh yeah I remember I remember that and I I learned something about that. Um I did go to a couple that um stand out in my mind. Um

093one of them I went to which was really unique. It was on sextor tortion. Uh this has been something that it's just to me is just um something that's not talked about and it was really interesting to hear an entire lecture on it and how it really is a risk to our kids um as well as and this is what really scared me uh employees with AI so extortion. I'm not going to get into the weeds, but basically it's some stuff um the ideas that come out of that, you know, Jim, because Jim and I had actually talked about this before. Um because it is on the rise and unfortunately, you know, you know, we have our kids and they think that um you know that that someone saying hi, you know, they get a

094text on their phone, hi, how are you? And then they research the person and they think, oh, it's so and so's friend. They're friends with them on um Instagram. And it turns out it's these, you know, people in another country who are doing anyway the the um the FBI, you and I had talked about that, but they do uh that was the recommendation that was put out in the group. By the way, there was a fair amount of school board members and superintendent in the lecture. So anyway, we can we can delve into that. I don't want to get into the weeds on that, but um of course uh you know, there's always the five hot topics. Jim and I went to that together. And one of the things um you know parental rights and

095uh all these interesting things I do appreciate that CSBA um you know brings in attorneys and they try to uh put us in a position where we're ahead of the curve. So they've already got draft policies um that we can adopt um that will be helpful because you know obviously we have in light of some of the recent uh well Supreme Court decision uh you know you know that we'll need to do some action on that. All these things that we know about sure CSVA would provide us with that information but it's all stuff that we're um just getting exposed to and overall it um was a great experience. So, thank you to my friends and colleagues for a great conference. >> Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Kim, for sharing that. Um, a couple of the

096workshops that I went to that stood out to me, one was on the um, Mahammood case, uh, which I thought was fascinating just hearing legal minds talk um, about um, Supreme Court cases and how it pertains to education and um, schools and school districts. um the bond measure um finances in the state of California and education. Um one that really stood out to me was Anaheim Unified on the um creating their own AI world. I that's really just the best way I could describe it. It's if if there's any opportunity any time for us to learn from a district out there about um AI's capabilities from an internal perspective but not from a imprinting on the world perspective. They got it going on from teacher student parent relationship and the management of their mechanisms and

097how it relates to assessments and it really I've been teaching for 25 years and not too often am I impressed by new things that come through education that impressed me. It's it's really amazing and I think definitely worth learning from and unpeeling that a little bit on how it can affect um rescue and AI. Um but the one thing that stood out to me most probably was listening to the gubanatorial um forum on the candidates that were there and [clears throat] I almost became so tired of the word because it they said it so many times. But I really thought about it a lot um on my drive to work on Friday morning afterwards and I'd like to document how often the word accountability was used by these candidates. It was gosh, they each one

098of them had to have used it at least a dozen times. Um, and I thought about how that word pertains to rescue. And I think honestly, um, we emulate the concept of accountability in in how our our teachers hold themselves accountable about student learning. And we hear it so often in some of our leadership presentations about what they're doing on their campuses to help all students learn. Um, and I I I feel as if we as rescue feel accountable um about what our responsibilities are. Um, and I think that also speaks to us as board members. I think we feel accountable about our decisions, our conversations, and our actions and how they affect our students and our parents, um, our teachers and classified staff and how seriously we take those those conversations and steps. Um

099and Kim, I like kind of how you finished um your salutation there and you mentioned your colleagues and friends and I think it's really unique when you get a group of people who are elected that have to collaborate and make decisions that can call themselves uh friends and I spend a couple days with you all and I leave there and I feel like um well at least you either um fake it really well or I feel like we we are friends. So, thank you for either faking it well or being my friend. Um, so with that said, I will uh turn it over. Um, we're done with the subject. Yes. >> Actually, Jim, really quickly, may I just add one thing about the gubernatorial forum? I know that um at least at EDCSBA meetings, they've

100been talking quite a bit about small school representation at CSBA. And I know that Misty Dvorio from Plerville and Jessica Rogers from Elorado Union have done quite a bit of work. particularly Misty have done quite a bit of work trying to work with CSBA to recognize and address the unique issues that small and rural school districts have. So I was really happy to hear one of the candidates acknowledge rural and small school districts like ours. So I'm hopeful that our voices are are being heard and acknowledge a little more and I wanted to thank them for I think they had a hand in that. >> Um just kitty that real quick. I I heard on multiple occasions just that concept of recognizing that the districts throughout the the state um are unique in nature. We

101heard it a little bit from the uh midweek midafter afternoon keynote. Uh he talked a little bit about how districts throughout the state are very different from one another and recognizing the importance of that and behavior. And so, um, when you see them next at your next CSBA meeting, um, tell them great job. Um, it was it was clear to me. Awesome. Okay. Um, anything else, friends? Okay. We're moving on to agenda item number nine. This is rough negotiation, uh, reopeners. Mr. Haley, I believe you've got this agendaized item. >> All right. Good evening. Um, this is a follow-up item. We had discussed it at the last board meeting where we shared uh Ruff's uh openers for our current bargaining cycle. And so, um, as customary when we uh introduce those items and There we

102go. Sorry about that. Um just to repeat them just for the board's um clarity. Uh during this cycle each, um the uh Ruft membership can open two articles and include uh the article for compensation and the district can do that as well. And so uh Ruft has opened article 10 class size, article 11 duty hours, and then article 35 which is compensation. uh the district uh intends to negotiate article 11 duty hours, article 29 staff development days, and then also article 35 compensation. So, at this time, this is an opportunity uh to recommend that the board receive comments from the public regarding those openers and to establish a hearing. >> Wonderful. Thank you very much, Mr. Haley. Seeing there's no public comment from our audience, I'll then open it up at 7:57 to a public

103hearing. We'll go ahead and close the public hearing at this time and open it up to discussion. Any discussion? No discussion. Um not needing action as well. Wonderful. Then that has moving to agenda number 10. first interim budget report and positive certification from our CBO. >> All right. Well, thank you and um thank you for that wonderful compliment. I um it's always know it's always difficult to know how conservative to be without being so conservative that um we're not using today's dollars on today's kids and yet we need to really put ourselves in a position where we can weather some storms. Um so thank you for that. We do have a positive. Um, so I spoiler alert, it is positive. Um, and we'll go through the report, but I do want to say that it

104is starting to get a little tighter. We're starting to feel it. We're still going to meet 10% for all three years. But I do want to talk about some of the things, some of these unknowns that are out there and some things that are causing us to be a little bit more um even more conservative as we continue to move forward. Um, as with every budget presentation, it's always a reminder that public education. We we are committing to our community to have a a every child succeed and do what we can in school. And that is a representation of what this budget means. It's not just a bunch of numbers. It's really the story of our of our district. the financial cycle for the 2526 school year. We met in June twice to go through

105the uh budget presentation initially. Right now we are at what we call the first interim. We're right now we've been in school for you know almost half the year. We have an opportunity to see what's actually landed where we needed what's changed since then. So a lot of this is going to be what's changed since our budget in June. We do have this um timelines for first interim, second interim. This is um the first interim which is due by December 15th. Second interim is due by March 15th and every certification or each of these two certifications need to report out whether we are positive, qualified or negative. Positive means that we are meeting our financial obligations not just in the current year but in the two out years. qualified would mean that we are meeting

106in the first year but not in um one or both of the second subsequent years and a negative is when we're unable to meet in the remainder of this current year. So we are not only able to meet our financial obligations but we are also able to maintain our recommended or required board adopted 10% for all three years. [cough and clears throat] Uh we're going to review our budget assumptions. We're going to look at a multi-year um we're going to review the changes in both our revenues and our expenditures. And then we will take a look into the future as far as what do those two out years look like. There are some separate reports attached. Um, if you have questions on either um any of these additional reports, the cash flow, the multi-year projections,

107or the all funds, we're h I'm happy to review those as well. Next time you'll see me up here with the budget update will be in March. So, our multi multi-year assumptions 2526 our assumptions haven't changed. Um, as far as the COLA, it is 2.3%. We have some updated enrollment and attendance estimates for this year based on where we're at as of right now. And um our unduplicated pupil count has been has shifted just slightly based on our current projections. Our stirs and pers rates have been updated. We are settled for both um of our units right now which is nice or all of our and our unrepresented as well. We are in the last year of our educator effectiveness funding. So this is the last time we'll get that onetime dollars. We also have

108two more pots of money. We did talk about these pots at the first um I'm sorry at budget adoption, but now we'll actually see them incorporated into our budget. And one is our learning recovery. So, our learning recovery, those are funds that we were um were one-time funds three years ago and then the following year the state actually cut our funds and took some of that money back and now they have returned some of it. You will see um in our in February when we do our LCUP annual update, you will see that incorporated into our LCAP as a part of the requirement of receiving those funds. And then we have a one-time discretionary pot of money called student support discretionary funds for the two outy years. Um the colas are a little slightly different

109than what they were well for 2627 it's slightly different. It's a tenth of a percent lower than we had at budget and that is because they're still having trouble while while our normal entities that or um advisors that project cola typically have more data right now. Some of the data is missing because of the federal shutdown. So, it's still it's a lot looser number than it even normally is. So, I took the lower of the two numbers that they're ranging and reduced it by a tenth of a percent. So, um at this time last year, I believe they were saying it was about 2.5 2.6. Our budget reflected 2.42 and now I've reduced it down to 2.32 because their range right now is 2.4 to 2.5. Those are the two numbers that they're gauging. >>

110Can I ask you a question throughout? >> Absolutely. >> Excuse me. Um I'm just curious in your years out predictions on cola, how often the state's adjustment became closer to your prediction versus um missing it. Um, I would say for 2526, um, they were projecting 2.5 in January. I went with 2.2 and it was 2.3. So, yeah, I think I was a little closer. I think I was a little closer. Um, you know, >> has it been has it been rather consistent that description you just gave in the years that you've been with us? If we were to open up the books and look at those, >> um, I would say it's only been recently that I have not used their projections um because everything's been a little more volatile than it has historically been.

111Um, colas are generally very factual numbers because it's there's a formula that the state uses. Where we've been struggling with fluctuating data and not really having a true number is because of the way that our government has been shifting due dates for things. So, if you think about a couple years ago, they pushed back when federal taxes were due. They're they're they're changing dates and then with the federal shutdown this time they just don't have all the data. So generally speaking at this time I would be using what they would be recommending but because the numbers they just don't have all the data it so it makes me nervous. >> Thank you. >> Um 2.92 is about half a percent less than than has been recommended for the outy years, but they've also shared that

112the outy years are very unknown and a little volatile still. So 2.92 is the same number that I was recommending we use in June. So that number hasn't changed yet. Um, our enrollment went up this year about eight students than I projected. So I was kind of close. Um, I incorporated those additional eight students in our 26 27 and 2728 year just because they seem to be trickling in a little bit more. I still have us declining um slowly in those out years. We'll we'll give it one more year and see. Um, it just makes me nervous again to predict too much flatline. What I will say is because we're funded on current year right now, the least amount we'll see next year is the same amount. So if we decline, I'm not hurting us.

113If we grow, we will see additional funding. Um, our unduplicated pupil rate right now is still um we haven't really touched that yet. At second interim, you will see that that unduplicated pupil count, we're going to project those to be a little bit lower in the outy years. And that is because the um the way in which that is calculated is based on our um there's three student populations in there. Our foster youth, our English learners, and then our low-income students. Our low-income students are primarily, not solely, but the big chunk of them are identified through what we call direct certification, which means that if you've applied for any type of social services, including SNAP services um or CalFresh, they were automatically notified and those count in our um low-inccome student counts. the way in

114which the federal uh regulations are changing, there is concern that those numbers will start to reduce because less people will be eligible for those services. So if less people are eligible for those services, our direct certification will reduce. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean we can't still try and get income verifications, but income verifications are a little bit harder to get than the direct certifications. So, we are going to start in second interim to start slowly reducing those numbers just just to be cautious because we do get additional funding for those um for that. Any questions on on that? Um our stirs and pers rates, you can see our um stirs rates are still flat. Uh still projecting to continue to be flat. Our PERS rates are um still increasing, not at the rate that we

115had anticipated a couple years ago, but they are still increasing and we're getting close to 30% for the PERS rates. Uh we are not settled for the two years out for either group yet. And we do not foresee any one-time funds coming in the 26 27 or 2728 year. When we have the January budget proposal is announced, we'll know a little bit more. I do anticipate we'll we'll see some more one-time funding just because there was some um prior year budget changes with Prop 98 that I think are going to fall into our bucket and we'll probably see them as some onetime funds. Um as I stated, we do have about eight more students than we originally budgeted. So that's reflected. We've increased the 26 27 27 28 just with those additional um students. And

116here's a little bit of an outline. What I thought I'd do is just share with you what did we have at budget time? What does the first interim show for each of the three years and what is that difference? So we're showing a little bit more in each year about seven and a half to eight and a half more ADA that will run through our LCFF formula. Um I wanted to also share just with the um let me see oh funded compared to actual enrollment. So as you look at the top box it's actually showing enrollment and our actual ADA. This the bottom box is what we're funded at. So you'll see our funded ADA is actually a little bit higher in each of the three years based on our newer projections. A lot of

117numbers here. Um the next few slides are going to focus on that third box where it says um the comparison from budget to first interim. Uh and you'll see that our expenses have increased in our unrestricted primarily. Um we do have some reduced um but we are still we have a lot of um contributions going to our restricted programs. So while you'll see our overall um revenues have gone up and we have expenditures that have also increased. We also have a contribution to our unrestricted or to our restricted from our unrestricted that has increased. So our unrestricted variance is um really hit getting hit a little bit this time around and we're going to talk about what where that's coming from. This is a just a reminder of how our local control funding formula works.

118We have a base grant uh which is just each student has a rate for each day they attend. We have a gradespan adjustment which is our TK through third grade ensuring that we don't exceed 24 to1 average at any one site or any school. The supplemental is based on that unduplicated pupil percent that we were just talking about that generates um almost $1.5 million there. And then we have a few more of the pots of money including home to school transportation and some transitional kindergarten funding. >> Lis Lisa, can I ask >> this slide and the previous slide? When we were listening to the governor's presentation, there's quite a bit of energy around changing the funding mechanism in the state of California from ADA to enrollment. And if I looked at that previous slide, it

119looks like that change would actually not be a a great thing. I mean, it's not huge, but it's it's not a necessarily a tremendous positive for us that I was imagining it might be. um >> if I'm reading that right or maybe maybe a better question is when you when we hear the the legislature talk about enrollment funding versus funded uh ADA what what should we be rooting for? So um so if we look at 2627 our first interim funded ADA projection is 3,400 but we're projecting 3505 in enrollment. So we would get about a hundred more. >> We would be funded for a hundred more. >> So we would root for >> I I would say I root for enrollment. Yes. Um >> my question on that though is that since we already have

120um pretty high um ADA, then what about the districts that don't? So then there's only so much money and so there might be a light bit to us, but then they're going to take all our and there's only so much money in the pot. Yeah, they would they would have to increase Prop 98 quite a bit >> because they would have to increase Prop 98 quite a bit because generally speaking when they change funding formulas, they do it in a way that ensures no one's harmed, right? Um just like when they did the LCFF, the switch from revenue limit to LCFF. That's actually why we still see um the targeted instructional the the TIG funding. That was a specific funding that not every school got, but the ones that did got to keep it. Um

121they also did a thing where if you um actually got less money through local control funding formula than you did through revenue limit because some people had very high revenue limit rates. They did an an add-on. So they do protect those that um to ensure there's no harm. Now does that mean we would get more? Maybe not. They just make sure we're not harmed. So, I I don't I don't I don't know a lot. I I heard about it at the um November conference I went to was the CBO symposium, and they talked about it a little bit. They didn't talk a lot about it, but they talked a little bit about um that, but I did not get anything that there's specifics about what that would actually look like. Would they change the whole

122rates? Would they change? I I would I would like to have us go to enrollment just because on the one hand there's a lot we can't control, right? And when we look at the time I'm going to give you guys an example, we spend a lot of time on independent study agreements. Like if we could chuck those and say we don't have to deal with those, the time we would save without having to deal with that. But right now it's generating $215,000 a year for us. So we can't chuck it. But if we were moved to an enrollment model, we could save all that time and energy and focus in on the kids that are present. >> You said something about having to if you go to enrollment, there's a chance you have to raise

123Prop 98. to raise Prop 98, you either need to come up with additional revenue resources or make cuts. And California legislature doesn't make cuts. >> Correct. Well, they do to others, they they won't to us. They have to others, but I I while I root for it, I I struggle seeing us get there. >> Interesting. Thank you. >> Yeah. I mean, I don't I'm I'm not at the capital, so I don't know how they're proposing and and what that really would look like, but as much as I like the idea, I struggle with understanding how we would get there. >> Is it fair to say that the that that piece of proposed that discussed potential piece of legislation benefits districts who struggle in getting their a lot of their kids to school? >> Yeah. to

124ensure they're still getting necessary funding or funding. >> Yes. Yes. What what I don't know what I worry about is if they don't have from a parent and community member, what I worry about is if there isn't the stressor to get kids to school, how many school districts will scrap transportation because it's an expense that they no longer need. I don't need to worry now about getting kids to school because I'm getting funded on enrollment. You just have to enroll. If you come, you come. Um, so there's a a lot of, I think, unintended consequences that could come with moving to an enrolled model. >> Can enrollment look creative? >> Can it look creative? And >> and what is defined as an enrolled student? >> [laughter] >> Well, once they're enrolled and attendance isn't necessary,

125>> right? That's where I worry like, okay, how do they how do they ensure that they're really meeting all student needs. So, I I worry about that. There there's definitely some pros and some cons to it. >> Yeah. at least on the money part that uh Thurman mentioned that if we if we simply move to the enrollment base it would generate 8 billion worth of income for uh or 8 billion more resources to schools and but there was no acknowledgement of where that 8 billion come from exactly yeah >> the billionaires >> oh yeah that's right he's taxing the billionaires I don't know that that's right he did say that too but that that was that was the >> you know of course that was met with hand clapping, but there's really no account for

126okay, where does that money come from? Someone's going to lose, >> and in order to make no losers, it was gonna >> Yeah, it won't it won't make losers. However they do it, it it won't create losers. Um, >> we're bird dogging you and this is my fault. I should have told you I was going to ask that question. I didn't think of it until you were speaking. Yeah, sorry about that. We haven't seen each other literally since Friday. So, That's okay. That's all right. I'm ready to answer on the fly. [laughter] All right. I'll just go home and throw up when I get home. No, >> we're gonna take Jim's mic away from him at this. >> Yes. Yeah. Which is why we don't let him do the budget. Okay. Changes in revenue since

127we adopted budget. So, I do want to talk about the revenue changes here. Um, and then I want to talk about some things that you're going to see in the multi-year. So, for the 2526 year since budget adoption, uh, because we did have a few more students, we did have some increased ADA, we do have some carryover from federal funds, carryover actually shows up as new revenue because we're not allowed to technically carry it over. So the way in which we have to bring it in, it's shows up as new revenue. Um we did get 1.1 million in that student support discretionary grant. Um we have um it is living on the restricted side and although it is discretionary, it is living on the restricted side. We do have um 71,000 in learning recovery onetime

128money. You will see, like I said, that show up in our U LCAP annual update along with um a funding or an expenditure plan that goes with that learning recovery. The um goal is to use that for some um data student data support system that we were fortunate cost $71,000. I think we we have to chip in about $300 I think to cover the cost of that. Um and that will allow us to track on all the interventions that we're um working towards with Jen Lawson and all of the principles and site tier one tier 2 teams. Um we have $78,000 more in Prop 28 increase. Um, again, that's restricted and that is specific to the ART grant. We have um 20,000 in carryover for our universal prek grant. So, that was a one-time grant

129that we received a couple years ago. We've been using it slowly for well I will say this year we were able to um send some sites some TK money for the additional TK classes that we had. Um we added uh the last few years we've had two TK classes at only two sites and the other three elementaryaries had one class. This year all five elementaryaries have two TK classes. So, those additional three classes were able to get some funds to um ensure they had some curriculum and things for that. The rest of that money is going to try and convert some of our playgrounds to meet the TK in some way. So, um some of the grant previously went towards some um artificial turf PIP um climbers and those kinds of things. And then we

130have [clears throat] um some additional medical money that we're budgeting, but we do have a reduction in our special education. Our SULPA is um struggling to meet demands with some of our pots of money that we can apply for. So there is um when the SULPA receives special ed funding and I may I may bring this back if there's an interest just to go through how the SULPA funds us and how we utilize we maybe I can tag team with Dustin um at some point and talk more specifically about how that works. But from a state level, the state sends all the money to our SULPA. Edco sends about 50% of it keeps it for regional programs that we have access to and the other 50% is divvied up um with the districts and charter

131schools that are in the SULPA on a per ADA basis. from um within that 50% that they keep as the administrative unit, there are some pots of money that also um sit there and districts can apply for. So an example is some um federal um educationally related mental health services money or aka MS money that goes into a pot. We use that to get reimburseed for some of the costs for residential treatment centers. Um so there's little things like that. We apply for reimbursement for um some legal costs. If we have some high settlements, we can apply for it. Those pots are dwindling and so they are shifting some of the formulas that they're using to allow us to access it which is impacting us in this particular budget. um expenditure changes. Um we we

132went through all of our certificated staffing changes and found that our staffing was about 300,000 less than we had budgeted and that was just from where people were placed compared to where we had them um estimated at budget. So, we had some um people come in a little lower, some come in a little higher, but at the end of the day, they came in about 300,000 less. In the meantime, we have um with classified staff an increase of about 600,000, and that is partially because of the negotiated settlement. Um, but we also had 14 new um, one-on-one aids for our special ed department that have been hired since our budget. We actually um Dustin Bailey and I met and have reviewed list things that he's going to be working on is um not just looking

133at how many aids we have, but how our behaviorists are working towards fade plans for some of these because there are some students that while they have AIDS, we actually have some students that have that can start working towards fading. Um [clears throat] and then we have the related and we did increase some substitute budgets as well. We've found that um some of our sites have some needs for secretary and health aid budgets for their substitutes that has been coming out of their site budgets and we've increased the district budget to help support some of those when they're gone for a week at a time. Um, with the additional money from Prop 28, we also have some additional expenditures that we have this year. We have more um, summer facilities that were supposed to be

134spent last year. We had some savings come out um, and that is showing up now. So, some of that was our summer work and then the donation carryover that we saw as part of revenue, we also have in expenditures. um service contracts again some summer facility projects that we had planned and didn't get finished until July August or paid until then. So those are coming out of this budget as from part of our reserves from when we closed. We do have some more site budget donations and then we have an increase to our special ed services um just within our contracts. We we've recently um negotiated with our classified staff for a change in our salary schedule that eliminates steps one and two with a goal of um recruitment. We're still working towards that. We've

135just kind of completed that process within the last month or so. We're going to start um really trying to actively recruit. We have nine open positions right now in the district for aids and right now we're having to contract for those aids because they are required aids. So that contract is quite expensive and that's the additional $450,000. Um and then we do have a reduction in some of our MPS placements. So it's a little bit up a little bit down and it all is kind of netting there. Um, well, this is just our unrestricted and I want to um have you take a look. I always start with the unrestricted because this is where really it's it's going to live. are restricted comes with strings and even when we don't have um the funds, it

136comes out of unrestricted on the from the restricted side, right? If we don't have enough to support our special education, it comes from our unrestricted. If we don't have enough to support our title funds, it comes from our unrestricted and then we shift it over. So, we focus on the unrestricted here. I do want to take you to um first I want to take you to um section A revenue and our federal revenue. What you'll see in 2627 is well actually this is the unrestricted so I'm not going to talk about it here. We're going to talk about on the next one. Um right here we're going to focus on column E or row E which is our net increase decrease. you're going to see that we do have [clears throat and cough] um an

137increase this year in our deficit spending compared to budget and primarily that is because at year end we did not if you remember we had some money fall out because of those summer projects and things that didn't happen. So some of that is planned some of it is also because we have an increase in expenditures. When you go out the next two years, we continue to deficit spend. We are projecting to have a reduced ending fund balance of just a little under $6 million by our third year out, but we are still meeting our 10%. Um within these we do have some um reductions that are some uh reductions that I made to 26 27 and 2728 in the area of some tech and facilities just bringing it down just a little bit and that

138is based on what we've actually been spending. I've just been trying to ratchet that down a little bit. Um when we go to um this is total. So this is unrestricted and restricted. Um and here what I want to take you to is the federal line. You're going to see on the federal side first interim the federal revenues is 658,000 but in 2627 I have it down to 500,000. And that's because we're we're hearing a lot of uneasiness about the federal title fundings and what is going what we're going to get, what they're taking away. Um I've received emails that title two is pretty um um there's concern that that's not going to materialize. Title one is pretty secure. um title 4, but there was an email that we received from capital advisors group that

139indicated there were a couple of title funds, including title two and title three, which is our immigrant funding and our English learner funding, that they're not sure what that's looking like. So, what I did in the two out years was I left the program in intact, but with zero revenue and all of the expenditures coming from our general fund. Um, we'll know more. hopefully by um by second interim where that's all landing. But as I've said, I like to be conservative and I don't want to all of a sudden have revenues in our budget that we're not sure we're getting. So I pulled some of it out. Our Title One has already drastically reduced just over the years. Um it's it's been reduced by about $100,000. We were getting about 230 240 and now it's

140down to about 160. So our title one just over the last couple years has already dropped. I I don't want to be um budgeting revenues that I have no idea what they're going to be. So um but we need the programs, right? we still need to support our English learners and um and assume that the work is still going to be needed. So the expenditures are still in there. Um this is what our components of ending fund balance look like. And at the bottom you can see we are still meeting our 10% reserve all the way across the board. Um but you will see that there is a lot less of other um amounts in our 2728 year. So we're we're pretty tight by the end of that third year. Um other considerations we are

141um again we're fortunate that although our assumptions have been conservative as far as enrollment and ADA we haven't seen a huge decline and we haven't seen that decline trend continue. So, we're just going to continue to monitor it. And it's it's been tricky and likely as we continue to move forward, I am going to have a demographic study done because we haven't had one in a few years. And I'm going to take the last one, compare it to where our numbers actually have been, and then have the demographic study done, and then kind of use that as another tool for estimating out for our next budget cycle. >> [clears throat] >> again. Um it's really it's tough to know what our COLA is going to be, but with that federal shutdown, um we'll we'll know

142more hopefully by the January budget proposal. Um but for sure by by second interim, we'll have a little bit more solid number for COLA for next year. Um, we we're not anticipating any one-time funding, but I do want to share that we've been funding a TOSA with onetime dollars. Um, last year was the third year of that funding. and our um special education teacher on special assignment aka Tossa. We continued that for one more year because last year we did not actually get the full bang for our buck because she was um in an SDC class all year. Uh unfortunately this year we were unable to fill that SDC spot again until just yesterday. Yesterday. Yay. Yay team. Um but again that's half a year now that we have not been able to utilize her

143as that teacher on special assignment again. So in our budget we did continue her through next year to continue in that teacher on special assignment. So she'll remain for the rest of this year and then all of next year as well. So that is still in there. We just don't have the one-time funding to utilize that. So that will likely come out of our discretionary fund that we just got that 1.1 million tied to also some of the savings of not having had that teacher for half the year this year. Um educator effectiveness we talked about that ends this year. Art and music instructional material discretionary grant that was fully spent at the end of last year. Our learning recovery grant was fully spent last year but we have a partial restoration this year. Um,

144so we just need to continue to explore how to fund our priorities, you know, as these onetime dollars continue to be expended. We still have training needs, we still have staffing needs, we still have routine maintenance needs. Um, and we still have negotiations for next year on the horizon. So, sir, Let me open up to our trustees at this time to see if they have any questions on your report. Nope. Nope. Seeing none and no uh discussion from our public or no public comment either. This has this moving to the need for a motion. Please approve the positive certification for the 2425 first interim report. Thank you. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> May second. All in favor? >> I oppose. >> Wonderful. Thank you very much. Um, as we move to consent,

145I need to um, regarding number 19, we're going to be pulling that for a separate vote with the stipulation that the January 13th, 2026 study session as listed on the previous approved 2026 board calendar will be added back onto the revised calendar that's in front of us this evening. And additionally, the date of the December 2026 board meeting is being moved to December 15th of 2026. So that means that I need a motion um for us pulling [snorts] and then tackling consent without 19 and then we'll vote on 19 by itself. Please. >> I move that we uh approve the consent calendar save for number 19 which we will vote. >> Yep. Is there a second? >> I motion made second. All in favor? >> I oppose. Thank you. And now if I can get

146a motion for uh cons number 19 on consent by itself. Simply so moved. I've already read it into our minutes. I move that we approve 19 >> as read. >> Thank you. Is there a second? Second. >> Motion made second. All in favor? I oppose. Wonderful. Motion passes. Miss White, >> I move that we adjourn at 8:41. Thank you. Thank you very