Board Meeting

001Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We're going to go ahead and reconvene back to open session. And we'd like to first start by thanking our tech services and getting us online for tonight's meeting. So, thank you very much. Um, if Max Hook is available, if we can ask for him to come forward. We're going to do the pledge of allegiance at this time and Max is actually going to lead us in that. So, if you'd please all join us and stand. Pledge of Allegiance to the United States of America and to the republic for nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Wonderful. Thank you very much. Good job, Max. Um, at this time, we're going to go ahead and seek a motion to adopt this evening's agenda. Thank you. Is there a second? Motion

002made in second. All in favor? I oppose. Wonderful. Thank you very much. Motion passes. This has is moving on to our superintendence report. Mr. Schumake, fun to see such a packed house and I I want to just double down. I'm glad I'm not sitting in uh Dustin and Lisa's seat when you've got two factor authentication going on and a packed house and meetings running a little bit late. So, I appreciate everyone's uh willingness to stick with us here. Um part of uh I know we're getting to Jack. You're all here to celebrate Jackson. We want to do that with you. Uh the start of most of our meetings include just a superintendent report. I'm actually going to get to highlight Jackson here a little bit. I don't think I've got um so as most of

003you know we uh have an overarching theme of this culture of excellence and our board adopted six focus goals. And so, uh, we start each meeting with just a really just a couple of reminders of what we've done since the last meeting that's moved along this culture of excellence in these in in these areas here. So, first part obviously I'm not going to steal any thunder from you Michelle, but um I I I do want it to come from the DAS here and and from my office for certainly and to the entire staff. What a wonderful recognition to to get. For those of you who don't know, I looked it up. Uh Jackson received this award in 1989, 2002, 2014, and 2025. Most of you might not know, you used to be able to apply

004for this, and it was a lot of work, but and it also you had a really good writer, uh you could maybe get a little further along in the process, which wasn't super equitable. And so the state no longer allows you to apply for this. Um you are just named a uh California Distinguished School. This is your school. all of you here, families, students, everyone at staff had a a role in that. Um, uh, you're the only school in the county that was named that, uh, California Distinguished School this year, and we're looking forward to coming down and celebrating with you at lunch, I think, on May 2nd. So, um, super excited about that. And, um, again, congratulations. Really welld deserved and fun. It's just really fun to see our schools get recognized in this

005manner. Yeah, we can absolutely clap for that. And I I imagine Michelle's going to talk a little bit about it as well. Just on the student support side. Um this is just a picture. I was up at U Pioneer. This is the Festival of Oral Interpretation on the lefth hand side. This is one of our teams. We had almost every single school had a team there. I had the opportunity to judge about 30 kids. I tell you, our hands are in really good shape in this county. So fun to see these kids. I um it is a festival, but it's also there's a there's just a lot of work that goes into this and these kids just show up and just thrive. We had um some kids that got in there. Some of my favorite

006were kids that got deep into their presentation of our stu I got the luxury of having some of our students in there in the uh room that I was in. And this one young lady got really deep into her presentation and then just froze. And we've all been there where you're like and she did not bring anything to like anything in her pocket to like pull out and and she sat there for an uncomfortably long time and uh she started to lose her composure and then everyone was just kind of smiling at her and she just took a moment to just think, you know, I can do this and she got she it just came out like she never missed a beat. That was my favorite speech because it just at the at the end

007of it, I mean, I think she wanted to cry because she didn't perform her best. And she's also everyone was just super happy that she persevered and battled her way through it. And it was fun to see that it was one of our kids that did that. So, I one of my highlights is going up there and I really appreciate the staff that um put so much time and energy into uh preparing our kids to really do exceptionally well um at this event. On the right hand side there is we just had Pleasant Grove just had their unified sports team. This was up I believe at Markham uh elementary where our basketball team play. These are where some of our special needs kids play with uh um our gen ed students in a competitive game

008competitive and fun. We're doing that for our district um for our elementary schools. It'll be on it'll be this Thursday at Lake Forest. We're hosting again this year. We had a great turnout last year. Kids got their uniforms delivered to them today. So super excited to go down and watch our uh kids um compete and play on Thursday. On the culture of excellence related to staff support, this is many of you might know Maddie there in the middle. Maddie has been pregnant and has just been battling to get through till Friday. That was her goal. Get spring break and her baby was uh did not cooperate. She delivered on uh Saturday. Baby Hollis was arrived. But this is I just think it's so nice whenever I go to these sites. There's always these celebrations of

009staff and you can just see the joy in our um and our teachers just celebrating her first child. I just think it's just a thought it was a beautiful picture. I think it's just a reminder of what a great culture we have just with the way our staff lean in and support each other. on the right hand side. This is a really poor picture that I took, but our leadership team and actually Lake View Elementary um their PTO has followed suit, but as you know, um Lissa, our principal at Lake View, um has uh breast cancer and she's had successful surgery uh last uh on Monday and last Monday and is doing really really well for all things considered. But uh our leadership team just um we ordered uh team Lissa bracelets and on one

010side and the other side just says um with you every step of the way. And it was nice to see that the Lake View PTO um also took that initiative. They ordered bracelets for every single student staff member on their site. They're wearing them every Friday. Yeah. So yeah. Um, and I know Lissa is a very private person, but I also know that she's very appreciative of the fact that um, people are thinking um, very deeply for her on and on a real positive note. If you don't know, Cheryl Olsen, we talked her out of never going to retirement, I don't think. Uh, but Cheryl is covering for the last two months there at the site. So, it's really nice to have a steady hand, someone that's uh, uh, just loves rescue and loves our

011kids and wants to support. um she did not hesit her husband hesitated sending her but uh she did not hesitate at all by giving up two months to come out and support us. So really nice to have her on the campus there. As far as a a commitment to community here on the left hand side we had our Gator uh what they call that again it was um Gator Galleria. It was the first time they tried this uh up here at um Green Valley Elementary. This is on Friday night. It was really it was a maker space for kids to produce. They do something similar out at rescue. They might do something at other sites too. This was a cash. This was a business opportunity. So these kids became many entrepreneurs. They do it up

012at rescue and it's with pretend money. This was set up at night up in the um uh up in the empty room up there and the community was invited to come in. They produced all kinds of amazing goods. This little girl uh made basically Harry Potter wands. I thought they were they were so creative. And she had taken hair from her animals on her farm and called it like, you know, uh I don't ow owl feathers and some random character hair that was woven in there and she'd made them. She sold quite a few of them. They they had cookies that were going on there. They had kids with 3D maker spaces. They had jewelry uh going on. It's just really fun to see these many entrepreneurs that um some of them that like this

013had set up just incredible booths and some that just showed up with their stuff and were hoping to sell it and realizing maybe my presentation wasn't as good as it should have been. But I just and this was all sponsored by their PTO. Uh one of the PTO ladies had a great idea on the right hand side there. This is at Donuts for Grown-Ups or Donuts with Grown-Ups, excuse me, at Jackson. Um, the lady who owns this van actually is a Jackson parent and I had an opportunity to, she's just getting this business up and running. In fact, the van is not completely uh, ready to do all the production that she wants to do inside of it. There's still some installation that has to go. But I had an opportunity to just chat with

014her. could not have been more complimentary of Michelle and Lisa as she's tried to navigate the rules to be able to sell the kids, to be able to sell in front of a school, to conduct a fundraiser, and the fact that she was able to reach out to two of our leaders in our district who took time just to say, "We want to help you." Um, she absolutely wants to give back to the Jackson community through this, but just a really cool thing. and her daughter and another little girl sat there in the front the entire time just garden making sure no one got inside and messed with it. It was just there was just a lot of ownership and I I appreciated the fact that this lady was so complimentary over this is something

015I had no idea had been going on for months and I love that about our district. There's so many wonderful things that I just may not even be aware of and then to have someone just pull you aside and say your team's really good and and caring. um I thought was I wanted to share with you fiscal accountability. We're in the middle of bargaining. I did gave the board an update tonight and I know many of all of us here are impacted by bargaining that goes on. What I just want this picture resonated with me. I used to be the lead negotiator for se in a previous life in another district. It is uh the the parties that get together and bargain these from the teachers association from the classified from our management team. It's

016a very thankless job. There's a lot of thought and intentionality that goes into this. And what I appreciate just about this visual is just a reminder that you could have a handshake and everyone's seen if you just look at that as a different frame of that handshake. Everyone's looking at that potential handshake from a very different lens. I w I wish I would could have found one that had a more divergent uh lenses on there. But it's just a reminder that as we sit down with our bargaining partners that I know as a as a governance team, we talk about wanting to do the best by our members, wanting to provide raises when when we can and and obviously um with our bargaining uh teams that are here tonight and just our our members wanting

017to feel valued. I mean, there's just there's a value in u compensation. And so, um, I appreciate the teams that sit down and work so hard on this and we're not at an agreement, but we will be. I I have 100% confidence we'll get there. It just wasn't this week. So, um, moving on. Uh, fiscal uh, facilities management on the lefth hand side. I think I've shared with you, we've had two CSD managers leave us in the last two two years and we've done a lot of work with both Kevin and Mark and unfortunately almost get to the finish line on these um this initiative to create pickle ball courts on our on our facilities and then the person leaves and we start at ground zero with a new general manager Mark just left and

018I was really uh pleasantly surprised that the uh LRL CSD told the staff even though we don't have a general manager right now, this is work we have committed to with rescue and we need to see this to completion. So, they've got actually just staff that reached out and met. This is at Marino Village Middle School. I'm I feel um I'm not sure I bet the house on it at this point, but I I'm very encouraged by the fact that I I think we're going to get something done that creates a really beautiful pickle ball space and play space on our campus that our kids can use during the day and that our community can use on the evenings and on the weekends. So, um hopefully that will be coming down the pipe soon. And

019on the right hand side, I was reminded while I'm at Jackson's event, uh, their play, this is the talent show at Lake Forest. You look just at this picture and there are I don't know how many cords were running. You can't see all the cords. There's chords going everywhere. This is all set up by staff that are just trying to pro provide an amazing experience for our kids. And they had 23 acts that went on in a in an hour. And these kit, these were the first to go out because this was the most complicated one. But the sound system was beautiful. The performance was great. The curtains worked, the lighting worked, the things weren't cutting out. It was very well done. I didn't I wasn't like embarrassed to be the superintendent there and go

020like, can't we do better by these kids with like what we offer them? Everything ran so smoothly. And it was just a reminder to me that there's a lot of work that goes in just to getting the sound system set up and the MC's and these kids had a great time. This was this band was called Seven Up. Seven Seven Kids was the actual band that played there. But it was really fun for me to um to see that and it's just a reminder of what incredible opportunities we offer our kids. The same thing could be said for Jackson. I don't know how many microphones you have at Jackson when those things are going on, but they always work. Um, and I'm always impressed by the fact that they work. So, thank you. Almost done

021here. We'll get to Jackson. And this is just something to make you smile. I know we've done a lot of PR about the the MP room. This was not even on my agenda until 4 o'clock today. I went back in and did this. I showed up at the school site. This is another amazing thing I think about our team. On the right hand side, the the um synthetic turf had not been installed in time for the grand opening. So, I wanted the board to be if you have not I had not I didn't know it was installed yet. So, it just got installed this week. I drove up and I and it was like this is beautiful. And this is what we imag imagined this facility would look like from the outside. There was kids

022doing cartwheels and playing around out here. Just gorgeous. And then you go inside. This is if you haven't been up there. Is Megan Wojun here tonight? Yeah, Megan was up there. Isn't that a beautiful facility? Megan's daughter. Yeah, Megan's daughter was playing. Uh um but it was just you go inside, it's just a beautiful um atmosphere and a beautiful environment for our kids to be able to play in. This is one of the first volleyball games. And there was actually room on the sides around the entire ring for our visitors to be able to watch watch the game. So, if those two pictures don't put a smile on your face, I don't know what will. Um and that is I believe that's the Yeah, that's my last slide. Thank you for listening. Awesome. Uh any

023questions from our trustees for our superintendent report? I did also want to identify I went out of order a little bit. There was nothing to report from close session. Uh this has us moving now to celebrating excellence and we're fortunate to have Jackson Elementary here and school principal Miss Williamson. I would like to say in advance, thank you for my mug. am. Oh, but I'm glad you're enjoying it. That little piece of artwork though is from our kindergarteners. They were working on Chahulie glass. They were learning about Dale Chahulie and they produced those um for you as part of our art studio and our um art teacher, which we'll get to. But before I get started um on the slideshow, I want to take a moment. We have our nature bowl teams here for fourth

024and fifth grade. They um competed about a week or two ago and they both both teams made it to the finals. So they're here tonight to share their environmental commercial with you. And Mrs. Haden and Mrs. Kuth are the coaches. So I'm going to let them take over for just a little twominut Nature Bowl. Uh little tribute to Nature Bowl. Okay. So, basically there is this big patch of land in at our school and um it's really muddy. People can get hurt. really just like boring. So, um so we've decided to add like a bunch of flowers and uh make it like a native garden. Uh yeah. And yeah, is there a way to angle the kid just um we talked to like a few organizations and we talked to like a master gardener and

025like a garden coordinator. Um, so to like get some information and stuff and after we we found out what plants would be good to plant there and we decided which ones that were not harmful to other species. Yeah. Um, as she said, these are a couple of plants that we were thinking of putting in our garden. California poppies, white sage, blueeyed grass, um, exelina California, and sunflowers. A little bit about the events that you had to do at nature. your favorite? Well, um my favorite event was Speedy Ringers. Um it's where you had to like ring a bell and then um there were like three three people sitting on a table. Whoever rung the bell could talk with their team and then they had to give the answer. Oh, and that one person had to

026give the answer. And yeah, another event was nature relay where it was like a normal relay, just they had a dish full of like nature things and they would give us a clue and we had slime and it matched. An example for the nature relay thing is like uh find something hazard uh to the wild and then you could like pick up a soda can. Another thing was uh what was it called? Like team that teamwork. Yeah. Team problems where you had to like solve this problem of like the life cycle or something. Yeah. Uh, and you had to do it with teamwork. It's probably it's it's in the name. Another one was um Envirro where we prepared like a twominute like um commercial that was like um about the native plant garden. kind of

027had to show what the problems were and what's been happening to some of the kids who've end up been slipping in the little mud pit. Hi. It's all over his back. So, basically, Nature Bowl is about like trying to help the world be more uh not hazardous. That sounded weird, but you we wanted to like help um the earth and not be polluted and stuff and not and like we just wanted to learn about nature. Yes. question. Hello. Take a bow. Question. I am wondering how this is so rare. People always tell me they can hear me a mile away. Anyway, they they probably could even Can you guys tell me a little bit about preparation? Because I know in order to do the ring the bell and the relay and stuff, you must have

028had to like spend time outside of regular class to prepare. What was like your schedule like to prepare because you had to learn all the words and stuff, right? So, during school, you do it um after school. It's a basically another it's another activity um that we could use and we sometimes just do nature walks. We learn about we go outside of the school. We kind of learn about what's around us and that really helped with um the nature relays because they had some of that stuff around there so we could figure that out. We did like um um like we did like practice video ringers and stuffation [Music] and it I think it just helped us prepare a lot for all the events and and mostly the thing I really loved was finding all

029those bugs and re and researching them. Like I found a lot of them. I actually know a fact about every day. Sorry, not every uh every wait um after on Monday like like work on speedy ringer. Uh we had homework as well and um it started at 310 and then at and then ended at 4:30. Wow. Miss Kuth and Miss Haden. Okay. Got it. Yeah. You guys got to get We will. We will. Okay. Okay. Oh, there we go. Jim, do you have the clicker? The good news is I talk really fast. Oh, why would Oh, he's going to bring it back. Thank you. Go back one. No, I'll get I think I'll see. Okay. All right. So, our first picture is just um our Halloween parade this year. Just some of the traditions at

030Jackson. We ended story time yesterday. Um was our last story time with TK in kindergarten. So, I dress as a storybook character every month and share a story with them and do a character counts trait with them as well. And yesterday I was fortunate enough to have Miss Coco as the Easter Bunny and I was the son and we did a dynamic duo story time yesterday. Um, and this year we did Snow White. And I don't know how this happens, but it seems like every time we do a Halloween theme, a movie comes out like the next spring. So Snow White just came. I had no idea Snow White was coming out. I know. I just have premonitions about Halloween. Um this is of the end of our I always share this when I come

031for my board presentation because I think it's nice for you to see a a time a place in time for us. So at the end of second trimester we always just try to get a gauge on what are we looking at at each grade level for how many kids are meeting benchmark at that point in the year. So this year for TK um it was 88% for English language arts and 98% for math at the end of second try which is the end of February. Kindergarten was 87% ELA, 91% in math. In first grade, 96% ELA, 96% in math. Second grade, 90% ELA, and 86% in math. Third grade, 80% in ELA, 79% in math. And fourth grade, 81% in ELA, 84% in math. And fifth grade, 87% in ELA, and 91% math. And that's

032just our pulse point before we go into that third trimester for our last big push to get everybody to benchmark by the end of the trimester. Um, this was our dashboard this year. We're incredibly proud of our dashboard. Um, it took a tremendous amount of work on behalf of our support staff and our teachers, but we had a 5.3% jump in math and a 4.3% jump in English language arts coupled with a 96% positive attendance rate. And, um, our suspension rate was zero this year. So, um, because we don't apply for California Distinguished School anymore, it was quite a surprise when we learned that we were a California Distinguished School for Elorado County because you don't know anymore. or they don't invite you to apply. There's no process. It just kind of drops out of

033the sky. So, it was a fabulous surprise and a great way to celebrate with my staff for all the hard work that they put in um in helping all of these children succeed. Uh this is an example again of our intervention highlights because I just think it's so powerful. It's 30 minutes three days a week. Um and it's a first, second, and third graders, although kindergarten and fourth and fifth get some intervention as well. But this happens to be our um phonics for first grade. Some examples from first grade and third grade. But if you look at the top for the BPST, that's a phonics assessment. At in August, 0% of the children in intervention were meeting benchmark. And in at the end of February, 90% were meeting. And then 8% were meeting site words

034in um August and 75% were meeting at end of second try. And if you look down at the third grade stats, those are initials of children just where they came in um for core phonics in August and where they ended in January. So 68 to 87% 68 to 89% 47 to 75% and 87 I think it's 93 or 94% it's covered up but it's just a very um powerful researchbased program. We have a dynamic team. The lead is Megan Wojan who's just done incredible work in that program in closing gaps for those youngsters. Yeah. And Jim already shared um we were very very excited to be named a California distinguished school. Our librarian's incredible. We just celebrated her for librarians day and she said she was just overwhelmed with all the gifts and notes from

035the children. But she um has created a an exciting library where literacy is fun and she is always on top of all the latest books and she knows what everybody loves. And she's partnered with the art teacher and brought in books on the different artists that they're studying in the art studio and doing work and they've done art exhibits in the library now coupled with the literature that matches up with the authors. So um this is at the end of March. I don't know how these kids keep breaking records because last year I think our final was like 162 million at the end of the year and I and it had just gone up exponentially over the last four years. But on March 26th we were already at 156 million. We had 27 children who'd

036read over a million words at that point. Six over two million, four children over three million, two children over four million. Um and we celebrate every month. We go into rooms and we give them certificates and when they go over a million they get the golden ticket with a bag of goodies of bookmarks and all kinds of fun things based on reading which when we first started giving the million word goodie bags and the golden ticket we thought well it's going to it's going to leave the second graders something we've got second graders reading a million words now which is pretty incredible when you think about the effort it takes for a second grader to hit a million words. So a good portion of those 27 children are second graders. So it's catching. Um this

037is our art studio. This is some of the um pieces of art that our art teacher has worked on with the children. You'll see that chahulie art up on the hand in the upper um left corner that you have in front of you. The kindergarteners did that and then different grade levels have been doing two-dimensional um clay textiles, all kinds of she just has a wide variety. our dance studio. We have a dance studio on site and we do a dance program at the beginning of every year. And this is just some of the classes. Um their performance pictures when they were finished. And um this is the Actor's Guild led by Karen Magayana. She's our musical director. And this was the fall I threw a couple piñatavville ones across the bottom, but the top

038one was our fall musical for um the holiday road trip. and Daniel. Um, well, Anna Mountain stepped in for me in the mariachi costume on the right side. Thank you, Anna Mountain. And, um, um, Mr. Daniel was in, uh, the show again as well. And then in the on the bottom show in the Pirates of Piñata, Mr. Daniel was scurvy dog. I And he had the Davy Jones. Davy Jones. And he had the tentacles in his beard. We couldn't find a beard for him last minute. and he cut up a brand new mop and it worked perfectly. I'm like, so ingenious. And Coco, Miss Coco, pulled out her needle and thread and sewed all the tentacles into his beard the day before the show. Was fabulous. Um but the kids really enjoy the arts and

039the arts are very powerful for children not just for creative risk-taking but for pres stage presence, eye contact, confidence, um feeling successful in areas where they may not have opportunities in the general education classroom sometimes to maybe math isn't their thing, but um they can get up on stage and um they're celebrated and being a part of that. Well, then this was my last experience with it, but being a part with the children and leading up to a culminating experience, the night that we perform, the energy behind that stage is really hard to describe unless you've been a part of it, and Karen can attest to that. It's very, excuse me, it's very powerful for everyone involved. So, um it's a wonderful program. It's in its 17th year now at Jackson. Um this is the

040Nature Bowl team that you just saw, and this is them at Nature Bowl competing. um the kids that were just here. This is our multiple abilities program and the children that are practicing with our fifth grade general education students um and preparing for the big um tournament on Thursday with their jerseys and so they've been out there on the blacktop. Dustin Bailey, our director of special education, is our coach and one of our parents, Holly Reininger, is assistant coach. Um so that the kids are really excited about that coming up. Um, this is family science night hosted by our PTO and they just the program every year gets bigger and bigger and bigger. It took three rooms for this family science night this year. They had all kinds of live animals up in the library,

041all kinds of giant bugs and things you could hold and snakes and um, owls and apossums and a lot of really cool live animals. Then they had a dark um, blackout room with neon and all kinds of experiments going on in the dark. and the um uh observatory in Plasterville uh came down. The astronomers from the observatory were in there too talking about space and they had some cool pictures they had taken through their telescopes and then all the activities in the gym on top of that. So it was really really fun. We have med students that come every year and help out. Um there's so much going on there. Bethis in the audience. She just coached oral interpretation and was just up there with our oral interal interpretation team. Um, there's always a lot

042going on. I mean, the list could go on and on and on like all of our schools, but there's just so many opportunities for our kids. Um, and I think it just produces a really well-rounded opportunity for everyone to learn and we celebrate all of them. And our PTO continues to strive. This year uh was our Julie 16th or 17th giving gala. This year we start out with Boots, Barbecue, and Boogie in the CSD gym. And I remember the first year we did it, we had maybe 100 people there and they said, "Wonder if this is ever going to take off." And we raised $191,000 um yeah, just a couple of weeks ago. And so that funds many things, our school garden program, um our science fair, the music program, the art program, our library

043collection, and so much more. So our PTO is a very strong force and part of who we are as a school. They really are a component to why we're so successful. So, we're incredibly grateful for the families that are at Jackson. And I always say this every time and just childhood is a really short period of time in comparison to the span of one's lifetime, but those first few years really shaped the majority of who we are as people for the rest of our lives. So, we all share in that stewardship. It's a short period of time, but it's incredibly important. And we take our jobs very seriously. And I know the staff, I mean, they're all here tonight because I really wanted them to be in front of you to be recognized because they

044work tirelessly on behalf of children. So, so be before I sign off, um I just want to introduce my lovely counterpart that I'm sure you heard. The lovely Molly Griffin will be writing the next chapter for Jackson. And I just honestly couldn't be more excited and thrilled to have her take the helm. I am so excited. And I have so many things to give her like this necklace. She's gotten a few things for me already. This one's really heavy, M. You have to really build up stamina. You're going to have to walk around the house and practice holding your head up. It's like five pounds. But um I will I will be giving you quite a collection of things that you will have going forward. Thank you so much and the staff for being so

045welcoming. I don't know if Jim has shared anything with you, but Michelle has been just amazingly wonderful in this onboarding process, as has the staff. So, thank you so much, and I'm I'm thrilled. So, thank you for allowing me to celebrate with you guys tonight. Thank you. Let me go ahead and open it up to our trustees with any questions or comments regarding Michelle's presentation. First, I would like to just ask a quick question. I just missed it. Is your Vapper program and your dance program uh class during the day or is that something that happens in the morning or after school? Oh, dance happens during the day and art happens during the day. And our music instruction, Julie Reamers here, our music teacher through Prop 28. We had her here for many years and

046she left when we couldn't sing during the years where we had this and then we brought music came back and so we're really fortunate to have her back doing music instruction addition to band and so it's all built into the students day and the drama production is that multi-grade or is that fourth and fifth or drama production is in the fall we typically do the fourth and fifth graders and in the spring we typically do the first second and third graders so two different musicals but her cast. Your cast was this last cast was 76 students. So, it's a pretty big musical. It's a lot of moving parts with scenery and and Karen just does a seamless job. They Yes, the musicals are the one of the things that do happen outside the school day

047as does choir. Choir is also outside the school day. Thank you. And then one other just quick mention as you were going through your presentation, I was writing down all the, you know, areas that you were covering and then it just started dawning on me that you were talking about like Miss Coco and I'm like I know like I felt like I knew the people, right? I felt like, you know, the way that you were presenting it was so familial and community oriented and I think that's definitely um demonstrated in your staff showing up here tonight and supporting you and just really reinforces the idea that Jackson has a very strong community that believes in all that you do and and the kids there. So, I appreciate that tremendously. Thank you. Thank you. I just

048have to say, and I know you'll be great, but um you will be great. It's just hard. It's just hard. It's really hard to um think of Jackson and not think of you because for years um your your your passion and dedication every single day, every time I've been on campus, every time I've been around, every time do you come to the boardroom, you're just I mean, you just embody that, you know, love of children and learning and wanting them to um to re reach their highest levels. And all of you know this because you all work with her all the time. So, um I just wanted to call that out. And to uh to Michelle's point, she said, you know, you come up here and you make everything very personal. You do because everything

049is very personal and you you do still always get a little choked up, which always makes me get choked up um because you because you um because you give it your all and have always given it your your all. So, I just want to thank you because I have seen you do it for years and again, you're going to be great. But I just wanted to call that and I just I just wanted to call that out because I really appreciate all that you have done for the kids at Jackson. Michelle, thank you. I was just going to call out the intervention program that you have. I think that it's really great that you guys as a team put all of your effort into all of your children. not just some of your children. So,

050those intervention numbers, I feel like I maybe say this every time you present, but I think that's really important that all of your children are met and all of their needs are met. Um, I also was just going to point out that I think it's a beautiful thing that you're onboarding Molly in such a inclusive way. Um, the worst thing that could happen is that she could just be left in the dark and the best thing that could happen is exactly what you're doing. And I think it's beautiful that you and your entire staff are putting your arms around her. So, I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it's I think uh it's no surprise that you and your team have have been have had this awards as so many times as recently as

051as this year. So, congratulations to all of you. It's really incredible. Molly, you inherit the keys to the kingdom. Congratulations. Um but yeah, I was looking at at my notes like Michelle. I mean, your spirit, your energy, your pride. I think more importantly, the impact you make on your kids and your community is just unheard of. Um, you know, Jamie mentioned it for me the intervention. I got emotional just looking at your your phonics and your and your site word progression. It's incredible. And then, uh, you know, when you talk about the award, it's no surprise when you see just the tremendous jumps and increases. Uh, those are those are phenomenal percentages in your in your dashboard data. So, congratulations, Michelle, and the whole team. It's really been for sure. It's definitely a team effort

052and we work closely with families as well. It's all of us. We're all in it together. Thank you for 33 years. Oh, Michael, but I'm I'm used to being forgotten in my house, so it's no different here. I'm It's your birthday, too. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Thank you, Michael. That means a lot to me. Um, Michelle, you said something that I wrote down because um I've I've been kind of um fixated on the statement. You said, "You're not quite sure how, but you keep breaking records." And um it reminded me of a runner that came out of the University of Oregon that was committed through hard work to break the 4-minute barrier mile. Never been done before. And um through his um commitment and hard work he

053broke it. And interesting enough um months afterwards um his time was broken and years after that time continued to be broken. And what it showed me is that when an individual or group of people are so committed for a common purpose that they can continue just keep getting better. And I think that emulates um who Jackson is is just a commitment of being better um for the purpose of their students. It's led by you. Um it's participated by your team and um I think it'll constantly be celebrated and uh it's going to be challenging for us to lose you. Um I think we're blessed to have Molly. Um but you are a pillar of this community and um pillars never leave. Um so thank you for sharing your time with not only your staff and

054your school but this community and the kids and um we're going to miss you. Thank you. You bet. Um, this does have us moving into the um, riveting part of the rest of our agenda this evening. Um, but I will take a moment to allow for you to move closer if you This takes us to our public comment portion of our meeting for items not on tonight's agenda. This item is placed on the agenda 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 does not appear on the formal agenda. Each speaker will be given two minutes. Um, and that time will count down on our screen. Under the Brown Act, the board of trustees are not allowed to comment

055on items that are not on this evening's agenda. But, uh, all comments of our public have great value and we can direct our superintendent and cabinet to follow up with our community on those questions. For items that are on this evening's agenda, I will be identifying the opportunity for our community to lean in and place public comment on them. With that being said, it allows for us to move on to agenda item number two this evening, which is food service department update. And we are fortunate to have Kim Anderson here this evening to give us an update and a sample and samples. For those of you who can't see that, we are I believe this is called birthday cake. Yes, thank you. [Music] Welcome. Welcome anytime. Here we go. So, um, what you have in

056front of you, I will talk about the raspberry granola bar later, but you also have our new smoothie, which we just finished the recipe for yesterday. It's got blueberries, bananas, yogurt, and orange juice. And so, that'll be a new breakfast items for our kiddos next year. It's fantastic. It's good. I had some yesterday and it is good. Thank you. Good. All right. So, I kind of wanted to talk about commodities with you. It's kind of the boring part of the job, but it is really important because it's very um financially impactful for our food service program. So, I don't I'm sure that you've all read your packets and so you all studied and know all this info, but I'm going to go over the quick highlights with you. So in the 30s and 40s the

057government was helping the farmers by um buying their leftover produce their products and giving them to schools and other institutions to um help the farmers and to help schools. So then in the uh the 40s they came up with the national school lunch program. That's basically when it all started. And then in 1966, they added the breakfast program. Move into the 1980s and they came up with what's called an entitlement program. So instead of just taking um whatever produce and items, including meats, from the farmers, they gave us money. they determined how much money we would get and then we could determine what what items that we wanted to bring into our schools. So that um shifted into actual money instead of just what they would call bonus items. So um that was really helpful

058for schools. It really helps with our budget. Move along to 1994 and they came up with what they call DoD. That's the Department of Defense Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program. So, um, that allows us to get all kinds of produce, all kinds of vegetables from the Department of Defense. We literally log into the Department of Defense to order that. I know, right? Department of Defense. And then you come along the from the 2010s up until today and we had the healthy hunger free kids act and that focuses on whole grains, lean proteins, reduce sodium. You know, everyone's starting to okay, let's get let's get healthy now. So, we started bringing some of that in. That allowed for more scrumptuous scratch cooking and friendly options and local food initiatives. future trends basically is working with local

059farmers and the flexibility um for what we have in our program. So that's kind of like a little brief little history. Moving on to the entitlement funds and giving you an explanation. We receive funds based on the prior year's lunches that we serve. So they will calculate based on my reimbursement numbers how much how many lunches. It doesn't count breakfast. If you're a district that does suppers or snacks, it does not count that. It only counts your lunch numbers. The USDA will come up with a commodity value and they will multiply that times the lunches and that will be how much money we get. That's a huge cost savings for districts because I've always called commodity money monopoly money because they're not sending me a check. They're just saying this is how much you have

060and then I go out and I go shopping and I decide how we're going to spend it. So there's definitely a nutritional benefit because a lot of the products that are coming out, they're top quality products. You know, you think commodities and you think that it's a lower class of product, but it's not. It's it's just like what you would buy at the store. And they actually even contract with, you know, the Tyson's and the the Gold Kisss and things that you would buy in the grocery store, you know, brands, Foster Farms. So there's different types of USDA foods. So, when I get that entitlement and they tell me how much I'm going to get, there's different ways that I can plan out the money. The first way is called brownbox. That's what I've known

061it for for 30 some years. They've decided to change the terminology. Now, they're going to call it direct delivery. So, what that is is items that will be delivered directly to me. And there's a list of probably couple hundred items on there. It could be canned products like canned diced peaches or pears or frozen vegetables, frozen fruit, um meat, could be raw hamburger, um turkey roasts, it's a whole variety of items. And so there's a fair market value attached to that. So when I go in and I decide what I want to get, that fair market value is deducted from your checkbook, your your your your bank of money. The next pot of money that I determine is our raw materials. So raw materials sounds kind of funny, but it's basically your chicken, your beef,

062your pork. The chicken, we actually have to allocate. We have to go in and figure out how many pounds of chicken do we want for our program. And the reason we have to allocate the chicken is because chicken is divided into white meat and dark meat. And back in the day, everybody was only ordering white meat. Well, chickens have dark meat, too. And so, manufacturers were stuck with all this dark meat. And so, now when we go in and order, we have to order white meat and dark meat or a mix of both. So, we don't have to allocate specific pounds to beef and pork, but we do for chicken. So, that's where we have to really calculate what's on our menu. How many pounds of raw product does it take to make a finished

063product? and do all those calculations and then we place our place our order. The next bucket of money is what we call our processed foods. So that'll be like ingredients. So it could be um your cheese, your tomato paste, anything that's going to you be used to make something. So our pizza, our pizza has cheese, it has flour, it has tomato paste. All those ingredients fall under the processed bucket. And then our last bucket of money is our Department of Defense. I will tell them out of this amount of entitlement, I want this much to go to Department of Defense and I'm going to buy produce with that. We still have a produce vendor that we go out to bid for, but Department of Defense has really nice product and we just order from them

064and they contract out with different produce companies throughout the nation to deliver that product to us. So, it's it's quite it's quite the thing. So, how is titlement awarded? So, the calculations are again they're based on prior year's lunches. So each reimburseable lunch that we serve earns this pot of money. And it's really important that you spend that amount of money correctly and you spend all of it because what happens is we're a member of a co-op. And so there's many districts throughout California that are part of there's I think there's like three or four co-ops throughout uh California. We are a member what's called Super Co-op and it's probably the largest. It's huge. that gives um me more buying power to have so many in this group. Um and what that does by being

065part of the co-op, I don't have to say, well, I'm going to bring in 500 cases of this one item that I can't store. But if all these other districts are going in on it, then they can make a truckload. They can bring it in and then they can distribute it to us. So spending that money is um really important. And partway through the year, the super co-op will go in and they'll say, you know, you're not spending your money, this district right here. And so we're going to sweep some of your money. We're going to leave you the percentage we think you should have for the rest of your year, but we're going to take the rest of the money and put it put in the pot. Same with you. You're not spending all

066your money. We're going to take some. You've used all yours, so we're giving you their money. That's what we do. That is what we do. Um if you have money left over, it does not roll to the next year. They will take it. So, um the the co-op is really good about managing the co-op's money. It takes all the district's entitlement that goes into a pot. We designate out how we want it and then we have to spend we spend that money. So, as a co-op, as a state, we're spend we're spending that money and our co-op makes sure that we spends it all. If other co-ops aren't spending it within the state, we take their money. And then the next level is if California spends all their money, but New Jersey doesn't, and we

067have states that do not spend their money, guess what? We get that money, too. They will reallocate that money to states that have used all their money. So, it really behooves us to be very mindful of how we are um utilizing and spending that money because I don't want to say it's free money, but it is because it's not coming out of my budget. Nobody's nobody's um I'm not writing a check. So, um that is how that part works. Kim, if we have questions, would you like it during or at the end? You can ask during if you would like. So, something that comes to my mind as you're describing these things, I if we happen to have endless freezers, would we be able to spend more and have carryover product? We do. We do.

068We do. And I used to be really good about wanting to like the end of the year and like who's not spending their money? I'll bring it in. I would load up my freezers getting ready for the next school year. Why can't I do that anymore, Lisa? Because the auditor got mad and said, "If I have more than $20,000 of inventory, they're going to come in and they're going to they're going to interesting test me." So, that's never happened before because that was my mode of that's what I would do. I would like fill up the freezers and that way as soon as school starts, if the commodities haven't come into the co-op yet or into our distributor yet, I've got I know I'm going to have chicken strips. I know I'm going to have

069burgers. I know I'm going to have certain products. I'd bring it in and I'd be ready to go. So, the first month or two of school, I've got a freezer full of food. Then I'll start ordering as it goes. Now, I'm like, reduce that inventory. Spend that down. Get it down to like between 15 and $18,000. So, I I don't really have the option, but we will spend it during the year. Is your leftover product does it depreciate as it sits in your freezer over summer? No. Unfortunately. Nope. Yeah. I don't mean in quality. I meant in price. No. No. The fixed price is for the year and um that fair market value price that is that is what it stays at. Does it change based on supply and demand? Um not the commodities, commercial

070products, yes, but not commodities. So if you look at this next slide, I've actually shown you what 2324 entitlement was. Our initial entitlement was over $130,000. because I spent everybody else's money. We spent $167,800 and some dollars. That's $37,000 that we weren't entitled to, but we were able to spend. Um the commodity value was.365 last year. Um this year was the biggest raise. We normally they raise it by a penny or two. They went up to 45 cents. So again, that's4 cents times what? However many lunches we sold last year is our entitlement. And so they will start the year with the prior year's entitlement, and that's what I get to spend. But then a couple months into the year, they will reallocate because when they give us that um entitlement money, the year hasn't

071ended because the last, you know, last month is June, school districts have two months to turn the reimbursement in. That's what gives everybody the that what gives them the numbers and then it takes them at least a month or two after. So, it's several months into the school year and they'll say, "Oh, yeah, you have another $25,000 or or whatever it is." Again, based on numbers going up. I've never had him give me less because our numbers have always increased. So, this year our entitlement was $166,000. That's what we started with. That tells you we served a lot more lunches, so we got more money. um when I pulled this, you know, I don't know where we're going to end up. We I've never ended up less. We've always spent more than we've gotten. Always.

072So, that's kind of we're on track to do the same thing. Ask a quick question. Sorry. That's a That's a massive increase percentage wise. It is. What What What do you think caused that that significant increase in Well, I I'm going to say that I think because we're doing more scratch cooking. That's what I that's how I would like to present it. Um, it's still a work in progress. The kids, they just they like their pizza. They like their chicken strips. You know, there's certain things they like that you just cannot shake them from it. Um, we have recipes that we've tried that have gone over really well and then we have recipes that I was really excited about and bombed. So, it is constantly trial and error and and trying to like hit that

073sweet spot for our kiddos. So, I I think having more scratch cooking and most of it is in the breakfast room because that's a little bit easier for us to to manage. Um, I think that was part of what has increased that entitlement funding. Kim, if if I'm just doing the math on this, is it fair to say if you take your initial entitlement of 166,000 and then divide it by that 45 cents, is that how many meals you're ser? Yes. Okay. It's your almost 400,000 meals. Yeah. Is that my dual math? Right. And remember, this is only lunch. Yeah. They only count lunch. We have We have really tried to get them to include breakfast in there. They just they're they're not going there. They're not they're not adding breakfast in there for us

074yet, but we keep trying. Um the next slide is kind of like my little road book of how we start. So, believe it or not, you know, we start the school in August. You know, we're we're getting things rolling. We're we have our new recipes. We have our our menu in place for the entire school year. Well, come November, we have to start planning for the next school year. So, come November, we are talking about recipes, talking about some of the the ones that we have that are are going well, some that aren't going well. That's when we'll start testing new recipes. people, you know, will come up with new ideas and the girls will this is when they start trying new recipes, you know, trying to get some new things out there. Um, we

075have to start in November because it's a very long process. We meet with um both cooks of Rescue and Buckeye, both my assistants at Rescue and Buckeye and myself. And then we will reach out and send emails out to our elementary sites and our middle school sites. What are kids liking? What are they not liking? Do you have any ideas for new recipes? You know, what what are you seeing out on the line? You know, what are kids bringing from home? What are some ideas of some things that we can bring in? So, then we gather all that information. And we probably have about six meetings, I would say, um to work on finalizing the next year's menu. And the reason we have to do that is, you know, you've got holidays in November, you

076have holidays in December. Come January is when the super co-op has their commodity food show. That's when all the manufacturers are coming out with all their new products and they will they will share recipes with us for ingredients of things that they have. That's in January and that's because they are getting ready because early February is when I have to go in and I take that entitlement money and that's when I have to allocate the next year's how much chicken do I need? How much, you know, ingredients? You know, what are we getting from Brown Box? what are we putting into processing? How much um DoD fruit and vegetables? So, come February, I have to have all that figured out for the next school year, which is why we have to start in November because

077it's such a such a long process. But we still like if we see something at a food show like we saw something that we liked, it was a noodle salad and yes, it was in January. Yes, we started in November, but then it was like, "Oh, this is really good." So, Buckeye actually took on that recipe and is coming up with some different ones and we're going to put that on the menu for middle schools. Um, we saw similar recipes to this, but we kind of did our own and we thought, "Oh, let's try a berry flavored smoothie for the kids cuz they do like their smoothies." We mostly do like an orange cream one is what we've been doing. We're like, "We we need a we need to up our game. We need a

078new one." And so that's, you know, we probably spent, I don't know, four or five recipes making sure that this was all tweaked and ready to go. So Rescue took on this recipe and so that's where that came from. So glad you like it. So um, basically we are going to review what menu ideas that we have or things that we want to put on the menu. And that's, you know, heading into February when I have to input all of this into the um super co-op to let them know, you know, what products we want to order. Um that's when we start doing it. We look at our ingredients. It helps me know, oh, we've got this on the menu. I need to order diced tomatoes or I need to get frozen um carrots and

079um peas for our fried rice. It kind of helps us, you know, zone in. you know, then we might see something on there like um one year there was um egg patties. We're like, "Oh, let's make a sandwich with the egg patties." So, you know, there's still stuff that will come up last minute and you know, see how that goes. Any questions on that so far? No. So, the completing the survey is called the survey. That's what we do in February. Um, this is just kind of reminding you all what we do with those different buckets of money and what we have to put out there. You know, your processed chicken, that's where I'm assigning the raw products. That's what goes to Tyson or Gold Kiss. I have to pick what manufacturer I want. So,

080I have to say out of Tyson's products, I'm going to do use their spicy chicken sandwich. For our chicken strips, I'm going to use Goldkissed. And then that's when I have to figure out how much product I'm going to use and how many cases I think I'm going to need for the next school year. Um, processed food, again, that's funds for beef, pork, ingredients for pizza, burgers, all of that fun stuff. Our DoD produce, and our direct delivery. So, does anybody have any questions on that so far? Nope. All right. Well, you guys are kind of easy. So, facilities update. So, this is kind of fun. Now, this is pictures. I'm not going to keep talking at you. So, our central kitchen expansion, this was a really big deal. This with having scratch cooking, we

081literally had half of one prep counter. So, there just wasn't room. And so, what we did is we took part of our storage room and turned it into another prep area. So, we basically cut our storage in half. So, we've been having to um a little bit of challenges on managing, you know, when the orders are coming in, how much we're getting, maybe get it, you know, more than twice a week just so that we can manage and have the space since I stole the space for the kitchen. So, I wanted to thank you guys because um I did have kit funds I could use. That was grant money that we earned. I did have fun 13 money I could use, but you guys also had to kick in some facility money. So, thank you

082for that because that helped us finish our Pleasant Grove project. So, these are just some construction pictures um before construction, you know, while they're doing their construction. And that first picture on the left, I I still laugh at it. You know, Lisa's like, "Whatever, that's how they do it." But, you know, we had a leak in our kitchen and when we called the guys in to come fix it, we determined or found out they fixed it by putting a five gallon bucket up inside the ceiling hanging from a pipe. And so, that's what caught the water. I'm like, well, it didn't it didn't come through the um ceiling tiles, but they uncovered that when they were like pulling things apart. So, that was our um preconstruction. Um more pre-construction we were able to take in.

083If you look at that picture on the right, there's just a little um porch there area. There used to be a set of double doors going. We got rid of the set of double doors, so now we just have one for our deliveries to come in. and we just that we added that much storage. We got that little bit of section there. So, we were able to buy a little bit of space. And so, there is our new prep area. Um the picture on the left is actually the storage area. And the other pictures are the new prep area that used to be storage area. So, the girls are real happy. You know, we kind of have the a baking type area and a a food prep area where they're like racking the food and

084getting it cooked. So, um, this is Mandy smiling away. She's got scrambled eggs there and ranch dressing in the background. That's what she's got making there. So, our other big project, which you all know, is the rescue kitchen. This is This one's been near and dear to my heart for a long time. I think I've been with the district 18 years. In 18 years, I've been trying to get a kitchen. I think I met with four different architects, had four different sets of plans from where an existing is to a standalone building to I mean there was all these different scenarios and then we finally got one and then it got put on hold. So, thank you Lisa for getting the kitchen done right before I leave. So, we're very very thankful to have this

085kitchen. Um the girls are so happy. So, this was construction in the um the rescue kitchen. It used to be the locker rooms. I'm sure y'all know that. So, we That was all torn apart. Yeah. Bathrooms. It was a locker. The locker room and bathrooms. Just bathrooms. Oh, we're in the bathroom. Oh, cool. I like lockers better. That's That's all right. Um, so, and now this is after. So, the kids are so happy and they're so excited. Um, were most of you at the grand opening? You were. So you you got to actually see it. So um this is just some examples of the salad bar and the hot food. Um the kids get to come down both sides. So I I believe it is helping speed up the lines rather than just one side.

086They can come down two sides. So that's been really exciting to get that done. This is the prep area in the rest of the kitchen. They never had a prep area before. It's always been kind of allin-one. So they have that nice big table to work on. It's a really nice prep area. They have a dedicated um produce sink, you know, instead of washing in the sink that where we wash the dishes. Um it's it's been great. So again, thank you. We I appreciate that little influx of money for what I couldn't get covered. Um and so this is where I'm going to tell you about our raspberry bars. So um Amy Fowler with Stutter has been doing great things teaching us how to be better leaders. And one time she brought these fig bars

087and I'm like those are like really good. Can you send me the recipe? So we took that recipe and we had to modify it because we're trying to cut sugar. And so after probably I would say 15 or 16 tries. We we made this recipe so many times and we just had a terrible time getting the sugar cut. Um we couldn't find commercial neither Cisco or Gold Star could get us low sugar jam which is what we were going to use. All we could get were like the little jars in the store. Well, that's not going to work. So, then we thought, okay, well, let's try fresh raspberries. So, the first time we had fresh raspberries was pretty tart. We have to add a little sugar or they're not going to eat them. So, we

088ended up working with Simplot and used their frozen raspberry crumbles. And after several recipes, um, this recipe was born. And Simplot is a nationwide company. and they were so excited about this this product that they asked if we would make samples for the California School Nutrition Association show, which is a huge show with probably 4,000 people that come through there. And so they gave us the raspberry crumbles and then we made samples, you know, small samples for everyone. They promoted our recipe and they were so excited they've now made it part of their national campaign. So that fly is going out nationwide for rescue's recipe of these crumbles and that's the little treat that you have in your box there. So that was that was really exciting. So you have a scrumptious little bite there

089and a scrumptious little drink there. So do you guys have any questions for me? A I'm sorry. So I wanted to make sure that touch base with Dustin. And I wanted to make sure that he knew that I understood the assignment and I gave it extra credit if you noticed and that this presentation was brought to you by the word scrumptious. So if you were paying attention, you heard it multiple times. I only had to do it once, but I wanted extra credit. So hit it a couple times. Well done for checking for understanding. That's right. All right, let me go and open it up to some questions maybe for the trustees. Not a question, just a comment. Kim, I feel like um there might be people who hold your position up and down the

090state, even across the country, that are like, "Oh, yeah, this is what I did last year. This, this, this. Okay, order, order, order, order." And just keep it and put no energy, effort, time, or anything into their job. And I feel like that's absolutely the opposite of what you do. You put your heart and soul into this. You're thinking of the children. you do want do you do want what is best for I mean even all the information you just gave us about how you order and where you allocate all your fund that's so great I feel like every time you present it's meaningful and you just put your heart and soul into this job so we're really going to miss you thank you for what you do um but we feel what you put

091in so thank you thank you and I do it's it was really hard it was really bittersweet I think I cried when I gave her my letter I mean I've been doing this for 31 years and so it was a really hard decision I'm getting more excited about it and Unfortunately, I don't have a person to introduce to you because they haven't picked that person yet. But when they do, I'm sure they'll pick a great one and I will be sure and mentor that person also. So, this is the second time I've seen you present and both times for whatever reason I'm so engaged and interested and f and fascinated f and I'm kind of a details detail oriented person. So maybe some of the facts and figures but um I just found this really

092fascinating and and to echo you know Jamie's part I think big part of big part of has been your success and your leadership and your passion. So thank you. Thank you. And I did have one other question. So, you mentioned what what else is coming up that's new next year. Well, I know that we're doing a Yeah, off the top of my head that I don't remember. So, I know that we're putting together like a shakureri box um with like salami and cheeses and crackers. Um yeah, that's more for like the middle school type thing. My girls will love that. Are they in middle school? Uh and elementary. Okay, good. Yeah, we generally don't do that type of stuff for elementary at this point. Um, we could probably maybe think about doing something modified. Um,

093one of the recipes that we did was a um, Hawaiian meatball with white rice with pineapple. Yeah, that's what I said. Ew, I liked it. I thought it was really good. Yeah, the kids not so much. It was good. Yeah. Do you Sorry to interrupt. Do Do you I meant to I was thinking about this when you were presenting. What is the process that you go through to test out the Hawaiian meatball? And do you test them out on the kids as well? We do. We do. Um especially like I'll give you an example of the bars. We made several variations of recipes because I really liked the um variation. It was like a strawberry fig. Again, we couldn't find it anywhere, so we were going to order it directly from the company that made

094it. Um I thought it was really good. We still we just kept having a problem with the sugar content. Um, even though there's not sugar restrictions on us yet, they're coming. You know, they're right they're they're right there. Um, we still want to be mindful. You know, that still has a little bit higher sugar content. We like, but you back off too much more and they're not going to eat it. So, um, we brought out, we did it at Pleasant Grove Middle School and we tested it. We asked the kids, "Do you like this one or do you like this one? What you like better? Well, I like them both." Well, that's kind of how we test it. And sometimes we will send samples out to a school site. Like since we were making these

095smoothies, I think Rescue Elementary probably got some. We will send samples out and then we will ask the girls, "Okay, give these out as samples to the kids. Let us know what the feedback is." I haven't actually gotten the feedback back on them yet, but I know all my adult staff liked it. So, that's what we'll do. we will um the cook will just pick some schools and she will send it out to out to those sites and then we'll ask for feedback to see what they like and don't like. But, you know, we're always kind of trying to think what do we need to do to um even though we have some compliance stuff that are coming down the pipe, we're trying to get ahead of it. Like for example, um with our allocart

096for middle schools, the number one seller is Flamin' Hot Cheetos. Well, what is the number one thing in Flamin' Hot Cheetos? red dye. So, we literally went through all the ingredients of all of the alle cart items and anything that had dyes in it is out. So, then we found um items that were cleaner. Like they make white Doritos now. And so um I let the middle schools, okay, here's here's this is what we're getting rid of. I'm sorry. This is what our options are. You know, what would you like to see for all car for your middle schools? So eventually that's going to come down the pipe anywhere to where it's banned as it should be in my opinion, but um there's just not a whole lot of products that doesn't have that in

097it. So it's been really challenging. So that's where we're at. Just just wanted to echo what Jamie and Mike were saying and but also say that it's so easy to I think for the narrative to be that school lunches are a joke. Um and and I think that you're completely upending that narrative. um quietly but very powerfully at least in this community. So I appreciate that and I'm so thankful that my child has opportunity to eat food that is prepared not just you know um um carefully but personally as well. I think that's very important and so I appreciate that tremendously. And I also just I wrote down like your approach to your presentations is always like the art and science of nutrition which I love so much. Definitely is an art and a science.

098Yeah. And I just wanted to um you know call that out and then compliment you on your um very super savvy business strategies that you've used with your budget and um you know the way that you're navigating the system and and the co-op. So I think that's amazing. Thank you. Well, I do have a problem right now. I have too much money. Yeah. And I'm in trouble. So we're trying really hard to spend down the money. You what? I I'm sure you can. So my with my budget, I'm allowed to keep six months of operating expenses, you know, at the end of the day with the funds. Anything over that is the state considers an excess and you have to be on a budget plan. Well, I've been on a budget plan, I think, for

099four years now. And I got slapped pretty hard last year and saying, "You need to spend down this money or we're going to withhold your reimbursements." Well, I've been like having a meltdown with poor Lisa over here because I thought we're spending lots of money. over $400,000 with the PG product. Another 85,000 on equipment. I bought another 56,000 for more equipment. And I I'm like, I'm spending down that money. Yes. I'm like, what do you mean I made more money? I can't make more money. I'm supposed to be spending down. So, that is that is our challenge right now. You know, we're looking at putting flooring at Marina. Um flooring at Green Valley. Is that okay? Did I tell that? So, we're We're just looking at ways that um I can't do anything infrastructure-wise, but

100I can do things like paint, FRP, flooring, equipment, um small amounts of um construction, you know, but that all takes time. Espresso machine, pardon me, espresso machines are super expensive. Lisa, I saw you turned your mic on. Did you want to Yeah, I did. I just wanted to follow up on um Kim's her problem. Um so just so everyone understands, her funds are specific to the school nutrition and it's um separate from the general fund that we see in presentations each time. And so what happens with food service right now is because Kim is so savvy on getting grants. She's put in for I think three different grants. Um even the one that helped with the Pleasant Grove Central Kitchen, a lot of that was driven because she was able to use a lot of

101it. Some of that ending fund balance and some of the grant balances were used for that as well. So, she does do a phenomenal job of really budgeting, but we do have to be very strategic because a lot of this also comes from the fact that we still have universal meals, of which we don't know how long that's going to continue. And if down the road universal meals declines um and goes back to just regular free and reduced meal plans um if we don't have access to as many grants, we don't want to be in position where we're using one-time dollars for ongoing things. So we do have to be very strategic and Kim is great at looking at what are projects that meet that one-time thing. So I just want to Yes, we have

102a lot of one time Yeah, I'll articulate a little bit of where all that ending fund balance is coming from. It comes from her great use of commodities. It comes from her ability to really tap into grants that are out there. And a lot of the grants are available because of all of the scratch cooking that she does. So, um, kudos. And it's it's not a terrible problem, but it is a problem because we do want to make sure that we strategically use these onetime dollars in a way that is um eligible um and um compliant with the food service and at the same time is not, you know, an creating an ongoing situation. So, I just wanted to share that. And we do we I there's a lot of one-time money, several hundred,000 this

103year alone that would normally um come out of fund 13. It would normally draw down that money, but because it's onetime money, I'm I'm about ready to go to bat with CDE right now and saying it's not fair that that you hold this and include this onetime money, I might be talking to the wall, but it makes it really hard when we have onetime money and have to include that as part of our revenue. I feel like that should be pulled out because it is onetime money, but we we'll see how that goes. That's a discussion. Kim, that was a great presentation. Thank you. Um my uh my grandfather was the executive chef at the St. Francis Shot Club in San Francisco for 25 years. Wow. And he was extremely detailoriented because he felt what

104happened in that kitchen described who he was as a person. Mhm. And in your presentation and um your passion in your craft and trade, it emulates that concept and idea of how detail oriented it is. Um the work that you do because of how much you you care about the work that you do and and that's evident and clear. And I would tell you that um my son would agree with that because he always brings home his pack lunches because he eats the food at school all the time. Well, that's good. I'm glad to hear that he loves your food. Good. Thank you. Thank you very much. Are we done? Okay. Thank you guys. Thank you again. I'm sorry. Can you repeat that? I agree. We love our treats here. Okay. Um this has moving

105to agenda item number three which is rescue elementary multi-purpose um facilities and budget update. Um Stlesson, this is your She left. Oh, she's there. Sorry, I lost you for a second. Long way around. Okay. Um thank you. Well, welcome. I don't have anything. Um I don't have a big presentation PowerPoint. I just wanted to go through that. You've seen pictures of the multi-purpose room a lot. So, I didn't think we needed to show pictures again. You've seen it. But, I did want to talk you through a lot of the change orders, get approval on all of those final costs and talk you through some of the changes that came through and how this was all funded. Um, so attached in the presentation are um three spreadsheets. one that goes through the entire project and it

106has what the budget was broken out into different sections including the inspector of record, the architect, the general construction, and then all the other stuff. We had surveys, we had electrical, um we had fire protection, the tents and barrels for outside. Um scoreboards, volleyball sleeves and poles, chair racks, um uh mats for the wall wall rock wall. Um so those haven't come in yet, but we have a rock wall that's in there and we'll have mats that are covering them so that there's no um we're not having to tape them off and it doesn't look ugly. It'll match with the rest of the color schemes and it'll protect any us from having any kids climb when we're not supposed to or when they're playing basketball run into the wall. Um, and then we also uh

107purchased some new outdoor tables. We also have as part of the change orders um there was a lot there's the last two pages is the list of change orders. We did have more change orders than were anticipated. Um the a lot of that stemmed from the soils that were in the front. They were not sufficient to actually hold up the stage. So as they were digging everything out in the front, they had to kind of come in and refill. So there was a lot of um what they called unsuitable soils that were out there. We also had to um look at the ceiling tiles and the acoustical. If you notice in every picture how stunning the ceiling looks, it would not have looked like that if we had left everything and it would not um

108it just it was not in good condition what was there. So, we really took the time that if we were going to do this, we really wanted to do it right because in my book, we're too broke to do it twice. Um, I just really wanted to spend the money that we had in our facility funds and ensure that the right decisions and the right choices. We did have to say no to a few things and really make sure that the things that we were doing was really going to improve the integrity of of the ceiling, of the roof, of the exterior, of the flooring. And in addition to it, it it looked it looked nice. um we didn't want to spend, you know, $5 million and have parents come in and it didn't really

109look different other than there's a stage. Um so we also looked at the flooring. Um uh so we did redo the flooring and um we had to do some duck work. You know, there's a whole laundry list of things. But the at the end of the day when I originally brought this to you, the original contingency that I had on this project was um just under $330,000. Our contingency change orders hit um 524,000 523 um,000 which was a little more. bulk of that came from the addition of the um of the um artificial turf that Jim just showed you a picture of. That was $140,000. Um the other change in that was also for back oh some additional landscaping for the irrigation for the field. So, we uh tied into since we were already digging

110up all in there, it was a good time to go in, relook at all the irrigation on the field and redo the timers and make sure that everything was working so that as that field gets up and going, it's actually working well. We had a lot of places in the in that field where the um irrigation piping was not connected well. There were leaks. it somewhat um some of the zones weren't working properly. So, we just went in, we were there, and we went in and fixed it. So, those were really the two big items that took us over that initial contingency. So, other than those two things, we really hit hit the nail right with where our contingency was expected to be. Um the big thing is just to note that um the funding

111for this all came from our state modernization funds and from our developer fees. So nothing came out of the general fund for this project. And at the end of this project, like I said, we'll still have some funds in there um to continue doing some more work. The last project that we're going to be bringing to you or the next project we're going to be bringing to you is going to be a request to redo the um replace the portable restrooms at Rescue Elementary. But for this project, that's where we are. Any questions? I I had a quick question. You said contingency went up to 523. What was that as a percent of total construction? Do you know? I'm just curious what um initially budgeted versus where that came out. So if I remember right

112I um well yeah it's a little bit more than 10% because the percentages was of the construction the general construction of 4.1 um so it's probably about 11 and a half% I think it was and I had budgeted 8%. This particular agendaized item um is identifying as action. Yes. What steps do you need from us? So, I need you to approve the change orders um that were presented from Carter Kelly change orders 1 through six that we um approve the uh change orders 1 through six on the rescue elementary multi-purpose facility uh project. Thank you very much. Is there a second? I'll second that. Motion made second. All in favor? I I oppose. Great. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um this has us then moving to consent. We do have uh four

113items that we need to walk through individually um based on um the minutes from previous agenda uh previous meetings. So, for example, and if you can make note of this um agenda or sorry, consent item number four, Miss Bibbo and Miss Mr. Flity, um will not be able to you'll need to um abstain from that particular Yes, please. I move that we approve um consent item number four, which is the board meeting minutes from January 28th, 2025. I need a second. Motion made and second. All in favor? I oppose and abstensions. Thank you very much. Agenda item number five. Um we'll have me being uh abstaining from this. Go ahead. I move that we approve consent item number five which is the board meeting minutes from March 11th. Thank you. Is there a second? Motion

114made second. All in favor say I. oppose and I abstain from that motion. Number six, please. This is Mr. Flare. Abstension. I move that we approve consent item number six board uh special meeting minutes of March 20th, 2025. Thank you. Um is there Thank you. Motion made second. All in favor? I oppose. Abstension. Thank you, Mr. Flity. And agenda number seven. Um once again, Mr. Flity. Uh, I move that we approve consent item number seven which is the board study session minutes of March 25th. Thank you. Is there motion made and seconded? That's okay. All in favor? I oppose and abstension. Thank you very much. Now move that we approve the balance of the consent agenda. Thank you very much. Is there a second? Thank you very much. All in favor? I oppose. Very good.

115That motion passes. moves to be a jerk at 8:17.