Regular Meeting

Introduction

• Meeting Date: January 21, 2025
• Key Themes: Budget reductions, classified staff compensation disputes, equity in special education services, and operational restructuring.

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Agenda Items

Budget Reductions & Financial Sustainability

• Description:
  • The district faces a $6.1 million structural deficit. Proposed cuts aim to reduce spending while minimizing classroom impacts.
  • Key Points:
    • Certificated Staff: 16 FTE reductions (9 temporary teachers, attrition, non-relects).
    • Classified Staff: Restructuring IT (eliminating 1 IT tech, 2 software specialists; adding 2 analyst roles) and custodial positions.
    • Special Education: Reducing contracted paraeducators ($390K savings) and adaptive PE services.
    • Facilities: Consolidating Bridgepoint program into Newark Memorial High School ($500K savings).
  • Decisions Made: No formal action taken. Final recommendations expected by February 4.

Brown Act Compliance & LCAP Committee

• Description:
  • Legal counsel clarified remote participation rules for LCAP committees under the Brown Act.
  • Key Points:
    • Hybrid meetings require a physical quorum; fully remote meetings risk non-compliance.
  • Decisions Made: No formal action taken.

Birch Grove Intermediate Spotlight

• Description:
  • Principal Robert Chang highlighted academic initiatives (i-Ready diagnostics, ELD blocks) and community events (STEM nights, art shows).
  • Key Metrics:
    • Chronic absenteeism decreased to 3.9%.
    • 83% of students met i-Ready weekly goals.

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Public Comments

• Key Themes:
  • Classified Staff Wages: Food service and custodial staff demanded raises (e.g., $18.53/hour cited as unlivable).
  • IT Restructuring: Concerns about understaffing during tech upgrades and Chromebook procurement delays.
  • Special Education Cuts: Parents/advocates warned of legal risks under IDEA for proposed reductions.
  • Think Together Program: Families urged preservation of after-school care.
  • Budget Transparency: Community members challenged deficit projections, citing $22.5M unrestricted reserves.

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Follow-Up and Commitments

1. Budget Adjustments: Final layoff resolutions due by March 15.
2. Study Session: Board requested deeper financial analysis of structural deficit claims.
3. Email Access: Revisit policy blocking public access to board member emails.
4. Grant Compliance: Ratified $1.4M in after-school safety and CPA grants.

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Conclusion

• Outcomes: No formal votes on budget cuts; proposals remain under review.
• Next Steps:
  • February 4: Updated budget recommendations and potential layoff resolutions.
  • Ongoing: Community engagement on Measure O oversight committee formation.
• Key Message: Board emphasized balancing fiscal responsibility with student/staff well-being amid declining enrollment.

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Audience Note: Summary prioritizes clarity for parents, staff, and community stakeholders while adhering to California Ed Code and board policy frameworks.

3.1 Report of Closed Session Actions

[769] Kat Jones: At this time, from closed session, there are no actions to be reported at this time.

4.1 Pledge of Allegiance

[775] Kat Jones: Could we please stand for the pledge? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

1.2 Meeting Practices and Information

[787] Kat Jones: And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Well, we have a full house tonight, which is exciting. But with that, we're pretty much assuming most people are here for public comments. And so we are proposing to move public comment up to right after approval of the agenda.

[822] Kat Jones: but wanting to say that before we approve the agenda, because I want to make that change within that. Live stream is working. Earlier we reported that live stream was not working, but it is at this time.

1.1 Roll Call

[842] Kat Jones: Everything on YouTube is as is, or as regular. OK, we'll do roll call again, please, Ms.

[852] Kat Jones: Toya. You're right here. I'm asking her to do roll and she's right here.

[868] Kat Jones: I ain't getting it.

[878] Toya Lemus: Student board member Lee?

[880] Joy Lee: Yes.

[880] Toya Lemus: Member Hill? Here. Member Anguiano. Here. Member Block. Here. Vice President Jones, I'm sorry, Vice President Thomas.

[892] Nancy Thomas: Here.

[893] Toya Lemus: President Jones.

[894] Nancy Thomas: Here.

[896] Aiden Hill: So, Member Thomas, President Jones. Yes. For your recommendation, I'd like to make a motion that we move the public comments to right after 5.1 approval of the agenda.

[913] Kat Jones: Do I have a second?

[916] Aiden Hill: I'll second.

[918] Kat Jones: That would be Member Hill. Motions?

[921] Kat Jones: Member Block, seconds.

[926] Kat Jones: And so let's just do a roll call vote on this.

[931] Toya Lemus: Student Board Member Lee? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Anguiano? Yes. Member Block? Yes. Vice President Thomas?

[940] Kat Jones: Yes.

[941] Toya Lemus: President Jones?

[942] Kat Jones: Yes. OK, with that being said, we're going to do the approval of the agenda, moving public comment before the student report. and then conducting business for the rest of the agenda as is.

5.1 Approval of the Agenda

[960] Kat Jones: Could I get a motion for that please.

[965] Aiden Hill: I move to approve the agenda based on the modifications we just voted on.

[972] Kat Jones: I'll second. Thank you. Member Hill, motions. Member Thomas, seconds.

[978] Kat Jones: Vice President Thomas, seconds.

[985] Toya Lemus: Student Board, Member Lee. Yes. Member Hill. Yes. Member Anguiano.

[990] Kat Jones: Yes.

[991] Toya Lemus: Member Block.

[991] Kat Jones: Yes.

[992] Toya Lemus: Vice President Thomas. Yes. President Jones?

[995] Kat Jones: Yes.

[996] Toya Lemus: Six ayes.

8.1 Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items

[1005] Kat Jones: All right, so moving to public comments. We are going to start with non-agenda items. And all right, looks like I have three. And then I have a couple of public comments, one from Angelica Visceral? It says public comment, but I don't know if it's agendized or not.

[1041] Kat Jones: Is it non-agenda or is it agenda?

[1047] SPEAKER_19: Agenda?

[1061] Kat Jones: And Ray Wood, the same. I don't know if it's agendized or non-agendized. Okay, thank you very much.

[1082] Tracey Vackar: We do have a translator in the audience if somebody needs assistance for translation services. So thank you.

[1089] Kat Jones: OK. Let's see.

[1092] Kat Jones: Let's start with Cindy Parks, non-agenda.

Pause: 10.4s

[1106] Cindy Parks: Good evening. This is a much needed improvement over the layoff resolutions brought to the board in March 2024 without board input. 10 weeks ago, a presentation was given regarding the district's fiscal health. The presentation highlighted a $10 million reduction in budget deficit. Several of us questioned the accuracy of one and the one and only slide that showed a $14 million deficit being reduced to $3.9 million without any supporting evidence. The budget has been and continues to be built on inaccurate expenditures, such as staffing levels and services and other operating expenditures. At the time, revenue had been underestimated by using low ADA calculations this district has never experienced. I understand school district revenues fluctuate. However, year after year, this district forecast an unrealistic deficit only for the unaudited actuals to reveal a much healthier financial picture. As I pointed out during the first interim budget presentation last month, these forecasts affects the community's trust and the staff's morale. The fifth slide is labeled unaudited actuals, but it should be labeled projected revenue and expenditures. That is unless you have a crystal ball. On to the recommendations. This is the first meeting, so I hope the administration will explain its thought process and how it plans to mitigate the impact of the structural plan. A few of the proposed cuts, in my view, compromise the integrity of certain departments. Certificated cuts. No offense to all the CSEA members that are here, but it's easier to address NTA. Based on slide number nine and slide 11, the 2024-25 fiscal year, you intend to cut or defund 27.1 FTE. That's insane. I don't feel qualified to address the special ed cuts, but I will say that the law is clear about identifying special ed students, having their needs met, and remind you of the numerous lawsuits this district has settled in the last few years. IT restructuring. With the increasing technology needs of staff and students, many of which are still unmet, how does it make sense to decimate that department? Half a million dollar restructuring of Bridgepoint. Does this mean moving the program back to the high school and having an assistant principal oversee it? Is the administration aware it was at the high school and it was moved to the McGregor site for a reason? Additional reductions, restriction, consideration slide. The provided list lacks any cost analysis. It would be helpful for the board to see the financial impact of these considerations and whether any of the programs are partially offset by grant revenue. Future revenue consideration slide. Increasing ADA beyond the current 93% assumption should be a top priority. Newark Unified previously achieved close to 97%, and this is an area where significant revenue gains can be made. I'm glad to see the facility use contract included in the potential revenue source. It also mentions the cell tower, which was previously considered several years ago and tabled. I hope tonight's presentation will include details about the possible location of that tower. In closing, I look forward to attending and participating in future discussions that are transparent and grounded in accurate fiscal analysis.

[1309] Cindy Parks: Thank you.

[1318] Kat Jones: Thank you, Ms.

[1319] Kat Jones: Parks.

[1322] Kat Jones: Non-agenda.

[1329] Cary Knoop: Good evening and welcome new board members. The clock's not working?

[1336] Tracey Vackar: Clock is not working.

[1338] Cary Knoop: That means I get extra time?

[1339] Tracey Vackar: No. Miss Toya down there is keeping track of time.

[1343] Cary Knoop: I tried it.

[1345] SPEAKER_26: You try.

[1347] Cary Knoop: OK, I want to talk about two things that kind of go together, I think. The first one is this idea of cutting. the number of regular board meetings to one. I think that's totally absurd. The district has operated for, what, 20 years with the idea that we need two meetings a month to do the business of the public. How are you going to compress that into one meeting? It's crazy. This can only mean two things. One, that discussions will be cut off because of time. And even when there's a lot of public speaking, there may be even some cutting of public speaking as well. Or that a lot of the business of the public is suddenly There's not time to do that, so we can just do that in the back rooms. I'm not suggesting people violate the law, but some things are kind of borderline, right? Should we put this in the meeting, or can we handle this by the district by ourselves? And if you're not sure, do it in public. So I think this is really a bad idea. And I'm pretty sure that very soon we're going to find out this is not working. Then the second thing, which is really more concerning, and that's this luminous idea of taking away email addresses from board members. I don't know who came up with this idea, but it's crazy. We need to be able to send email to our board members. Now, of course, we can do that informally, but we have to have formal channels where board members can be addressed and board members can reply. And I know all the buts and ifs. As board member, you want to make sure what you reply is there's a potential liability. You have to get schooled on what to say. But we need to have that direct communication. So I don't know what's going to happen. I looked at the website. There's no more emails. If this is going to be replaced you know, checks whether, you know, it need to be forwarded, whoever controls that, it's ludicrous. You can't reply on it, you can't forward it on it, and who knows, maybe we're going to get replies as fast as we get some public records request, you know, so a bad idea. Right now, I don't think anybody can send an email to the board members if they don't know the email address. That's not acceptable.

[1503] Cary Knoop: Thank you.

[1511] Kat Jones: Thank you, Mr. Canu. Maria Acosta?

[1516] SPEAKER_00: Hello, everyone. My name is Maria Alejandra Costa. I work in Newark Middle School.

[1538] SPEAKER_00: I am senior food service. I want to talk about my food service department. First of all, I want to talk about the importance of my job. with the kids. My role in the school is to feed all the kids every single day. So I'm under pressure. My schedule is very tight. And this could be challenging because it will always get me stressed. We managed to get the job done. Second of all, of the wages of food service in the lowest around of Newark. At the beginning of this year, everything was in cost, like utilities. food and car insurance. Therefore, I'm requesting a raise of minimum of 15% so we can live more stable condition. Please consider me request because it is essential for us to get a response as soon as possible.

[1617] SPEAKER_00: Thank you.

[1625] Kat Jones: Thank you, Ms. Acosta.

8.2 Public Comment on Agenda Items

[1628] Kat Jones: All right, moving on to agendized items. We have quite a few cards tonight. We would really like to be able to hear everyone. And so if someone ahead of you has said something, if you can just maybe limit and make a reference to it, that would be awesome. But we do want everyone to have an opportunity to speak that is here tonight. Thank you. The first person is Joni. Is it you?

[1665] Kat Jones: Thank you.

[1669] SPEAKER_26: Hi, good evening.

[1676] SPEAKER_08: My name is Joni Yu, and I also work for the Food Service Department. And I am speaking on behalf of all my colleagues right here. Because I don't think you guys ever heard from us before. Because nobody in our department have ever spoke up. Because a lot of people who doesn't speak English, and English is our second language. So there's a language barrier. And they're always afraid. to speak up because they don't want to lose their job. Okay, so today I want to tell you guys that in the food service department, our pay is $18.53 per hour, and I've been here for 16 years, and my pay is still $15.53. 1853. I think this is embarrassing. And also, I think Newark Unified School District has the lowest pay amount compared to all the other districts around here. So I am requesting to get a raise

[1749] SPEAKER_08: at least $1.50 per hour or 15% raise across the board for all the classified employees. We are struggling here and we are suffering because we are so underpaid. And we are so afraid that we may not even be able to put food on our table. And we are very upset about the pay. 1853, we're not going to survive. Please. Open your eyes and open your hearts to take a look at us if we can get the race. Thank you very much.

[1793] Kat Jones: Thank you, Ms. Hsu. We appreciate your comments.

[1807] Kat Jones: Fabiola Cruz.

Pause: 12.2s

[1822] SPEAKER_29: Good evening. My name is Fabiola Cruz. I would like to let you know how concerned I am about the proposed reductions to our programs. It's very concerning to hear that you're considering cutting programs that are vital to our kids. I'm well aware of the deficit we have in our school district but it is absolutely heartbreaking you're considering cutting staff like custodians and other vital staff. I would also like to mention how disappointing it is you're considering cutting things together. That is a program close to our hearts. As a working mom who commutes, this program has given me peace of mind knowing my child is in a safe environment after school with talented and caring team leaders who truly do their best to provide a learning and fun environment.

[1862] SPEAKER_29: My daughter feels supported and cared for while in the program. She's gotten to know her team leaders well and enjoys the program. She does her homework and is able to partake in fun after school activities that are good for her self-esteem. And in return, I'm able to have peace of mind knowing she's well taken care of while I get off of work and commute to pick her up. I am a concerned parent, and I will be completely honest, I might not have all the facts right, but I'm here to learn and listen to solutions. I know things are not always black and white or simple, but I know our first priority should be the kids and the ultimate impact it has on them. I would like to implore all of you, all of you, to find a way to keep important programs like Think Together, special ed programs that are vital for families that have that need. Let us not just be numbers on a spreadsheet. But remember, these reductions can affect families in real life. And life is so hard, so please reconsider a different route. Thank you.

[1928] Kat Jones: Thank you so much, Ms.

[1929] Kat Jones: Cruz.

[1934] Kat Jones: Cindy Parks. Do you want to speak now on budget reductions or?

[1940] SPEAKER_19: I did the budget reductions. I thought what you moved was the budget reduction to now because that's what most people are speaking about. So I'm confused about

[1951] Kat Jones: Well, I started with non-agenda items, and then I moved into agenda items. And I think maybe we just got confused. That's the royal we, by the way. So did you say what you wanted?

[1967] Cindy Parks: I said that what I did on 10.2 is what I spoke on earlier, because that's what I thought you moved. This is my non-agenda.

[1974] Kat Jones: OK. Fire away. Thank you. I'm sorry for the confusion.

[1977] Cindy Parks: That's OK. That's OK. Last year, the Kennedy Psych Council allocated money for much-needed Chromebooks. The need was generated by an influx of students for music and the lack of properly functioning Chromebooks. When staff sends a Chromebook over to IT for repair, they don't return, which further reduces their supply. When the Kennedy office manager placed an order for Chromebooks last year, she experienced a roadblock with the IT department. I brought this issue to the Superintendent DeLeon and to Superintendent Vackar. The situation was finally remedied, and we received our Chromebooks. In May of 2024, based on staff and council based on staff's input, the council allocated additional money for Chromebook replacement. The third through fifth grade students must have sufficient Chromebooks for state testing, and the new English Language Arts program has an online component, not to mention the push for district staff to increase i-Ready usage. At our site council meeting last week, I asked for an update on the Chromebook printer and ink purchases. The council was informed that the principal and office manager are running into the same issues as last year. When trying to purchase Chromebooks and printers approved by the council and by this board, In June, Jenny Lee, the IT director, is holding up that purchase that was approved by all of you and by our council. I wonder if any of their sites are running into the same situation with the purchases outlined in their plans. The Ed Code does allow for the board not to approve our plans. and send it back for a revise. You did not do that, you approved it, and I would hope that our purchases would, I'm imploring to you to advocate on our behalf before our money is frozen on March 1st. The next issue I would like to bring to your attention centers around Measure O. I was originally going to address the timeline spelled out in Ed Code 15278, which paraphrase says, the governing board of the school district shall establish and appoint members to an independent citizen oversight committee within 60 days of the date that the governing board enters into enters the election results in its minutes, pursuant to Section 15274. But after reviewing that section, it says that the certificate of election results that 55% of the votes cast on the proposition of issuing bonds in the Constitution are in favor of issuing bonds. The governing board shall cause an entry of that fact to be made in its minutes. And you did not do that last month. When you certified the results, you only certified the results of your trustees. You did not certify the results of that bond measure. And so now I question whether you need to do that now, whether that's something that the county just automatically does for you. The city did it in their meeting in December. They certified Measure LL and all their city council and their mayor. That needs to be done, and your clock is ticking, I think, for your appointment of your oversight committee.

[2170] Kat Jones: Thank you, Ms. Parks.

[2171] Kat Jones: Carrie New on budget reduction? I'll refer to that. When you want to wait, no problem.

[2185] Kat Jones: Stan Norman?

[2193] SPEAKER_27: Hey, what's up? I'm Stan. I'm one of the lead custodians at Newark Memorial High School. I've been doing this for

[2213] SPEAKER_27: over 25 years. I didn't want to come up here and be pessimistic, but I feel like every time there's time for a budget cut, we always take the hit. Hey, let's hit the custodians. They can figure out a way to make it happen, which we are doing. But at some point, we got to feel a little relief. And you guys got to help us out, too. Because if you come visit our sites, walk around, you'll see the stuff that we do. And you realize the stuff that we keep together because we're not getting the help we need. We need more subcustodians for when other custodians are out sick or they have family issues. A lot of us have to do more. and what's required. So an eight-hour day can turn into a 16-hour day or a 12-hour day. And then you're beat by the time you leave. And now with overtime being cut, and that was That was one incentive to keep people going. It doesn't have to be a full eight-hour type of deal, but you have to give us a reason to want to continue to do this, besides for the kids, because we have our own families that we have to worry about. I've worked with just about everybody standing back here behind me. Summer, whether they were a subcustodian, team cleaning, I've crossed paths with just about everybody here. And I've seen them work up close and personal, and I know we can get the job done. But it would be nice if we had a little more help. And we don't cut us and ask us to do more, because it's not conducive. The pessimism I didn't want to bring up here will definitely rear its head, because We know, basically, that from our point of view, we can't always count on you guys because you haven't always shown us that. We feel like we show you, but you haven't shown us. So what we're asking is for you to show us.

[2363] Kat Jones: Thank you, Mister Norman. Barbara Pagan. You want to wait on 10.2? Got it. Cindy, 13.6? I'm sorry. Okay, you'll speak for that? Great, thank you. I believe this one was also yours because it was tucked in between two of yours on 1310. It didn't have a name, but I'm recognizing the pen and the penmanship. Oh, 10.13. It's 12.2 minutes was the topic. Okay. Thank you so much. Angelica Visceral. Oh, I'm sorry.

[2436] Kat Jones: Yes.

[2443] SPEAKER_12: Hi, my name is Angelica Pena.

[2458] SPEAKER_13: I work at Newark Memorial High School in food services. In food services, I work four and a half hours and I love my work.

[2470] SPEAKER_12: And I think I give it my best to do a good job. I feel it's unfair.

[2492] SPEAKER_13: We are underappreciated given that the low pay that you give us and you don't appreciate our work, knowing that we're indispensable to do the work, the job that it's necessary at our job site. We prepare the food for our students and we make sure that everything is clean for their own health and we have a great responsibility under our hands.

[2533] SPEAKER_12: I feel that you underappreciate our work and they don't give us enough importance. given that we get a salary of $16.16 per hour, and that is not enough to survive. Unlike yourselves, we don't have a career and we cannot be where you're at, but we are indispensable and we need each other.

[2584] SPEAKER_13: My question is, what would you do with a salary of $16.16 an hour to survive and maintain a supportive family?

[2601] Kat Jones: Thank you. Thank you so much. Ray Wood.

[2607] Kat Jones: I'm not sure what the agenda item is, but.

[2613] SPEAKER_16: The agenda item would be on the budget cuts, proposed budget cuts. So good evening everyone. I stand here tonight as a parent and advocate deeply concerned about the proposed reduction of special education services when the needs of these children are already not being met. Neurological conditions like ADHD, autism, and sensory processing disorder are medical realities that create developmental delays in areas such as executive functioning, communication, and social-emotional regulation. There's a saying, when you've met one neurodivergent child, you've met one neurodivergent child. These children are unique and one size fits all programs don't work. That's why individualized education programs IEP's are essential. They provide services that enable these students to access education on an equal footing with their peers. The 2024 data from the California School Dashboard and Newark's LCAP document paint a troubling picture for students with disabilities. According to the dashboard these students are performing at a very low level in both English language arts and mathematics. with scores of 102.9 points below standard in ELA and 125.3 points below standard in math. Despite the significant gap, the district's LCAP report highlights systematic challenges that exasperate these struggles, such as staffing shortages, inconsistent implementation of targeted interventions, and delays in professional development. While efforts like community engagement and coordination of service teams have been noted the lack of sufficient behavioral and academic intervention specialists directly impact the ability to close these gaps. This leaves students with disabilities without the comprehensive support they need to succeed further burdening families and teachers who are already stretched thin. Without immediate and strategic action these students will continue to fall further behind. Deepening the disparity and undermining the district's commitment to equity and inclusion. Let me be clear. This is not just a matter of funding or logistics. It is a legal issue. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act the district is obligated to provide the services outlined in each student's IEP to ensure they receive a free appropriate public education. This includes having the right staff in place to meet those needs not just on paper but in practice. Bailing to do so is not only unethical it is illegal. I urge the board to prioritize hiring and retaining qualified staff. When we invest in the success of these students we invest in the success of our schools and community as a whole.

[2778] SPEAKER_16: Thank you.

[2788] Kat Jones: Thank you, Ms. Wood. All right. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that's all the cards that I have for public comment, except for the ones that wanted to wait to the specific agenda item. So I want to make sure I didn't miss anything. OK, great. Thank you. We are going to move on to the student report. Member Joy Lee.

6.1 Student Report: Student Board Member, Joy Lee

[2812] Joy Lee: Thank you. Good evening board members, executive cabinet, and your community. I hope we all enjoyed the winter break. Today the high school had an assembly on pride and resilience by the speaker Dee Hankins. In the assembly, he spoke about finding resilience in our own lives through the message of life, curveballs, and home runs. After talking with the students after the assembly, this response was very positive, saying that they were very inspired and liked the speaker. Here are some upcoming events at the Newark Memorial High School. Newark Memorial High School has their very first Brawl Stars tournament scheduled to take place tomorrow. For those of you who don't know what Brawl Stars is, it's a very popular game right now. It's a video game that you play on your phone and it's been very popular among the high schoolers. This is a wonderful opportunity for our community to engage students, especially those who may not like to participate in other activities. We have 16 teams participating for a special prize. The high school is hosting our second semester club rush. This is for our freshman students who might have not had a chance to explore all the various clubs offered at our school. They will have a chance to sign up and explore the diverse clubs this Friday. Newark Memorial High School is... Newark Memorial High School's Art Club is hosting an art show on February 4th from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Newark Memorial High School Library. Friends and families are welcome to come and experience the various art forms from ceramics, fine art, and music all done by cougars. And there will also be food prepared by our culinary class. NTA is hosting the annual Silent Film Festival and Academy Award Night in the Newark Memorial Star Labs tomorrow at 6 p.m. Come and relax as you can enjoy the films that NTA students diligently made. At the Newark Memorial High School, there's an opportunity on Sunday, January 26 from 1230 to two o'clock to meet with our local congressman, Ro Khanna, who will be hosting a town hall at the Newark Middle School. For our athletics department, last Wednesday was our wrestling team senior night. Congratulations to all our wrestling team seniors. Newark Memorial also celebrated our 2025 inductees into the Newark Ring of Honor Athletics Hall of Fame. Dan Freitas, Keith Yagi, Rick Echols, and the 2022 NCS Champion Baseball Team. We also had our junior cross country runner, Kenji Kawabata, receive a commendation from the city of Newark for outstanding effort and achievements.

[2967] SPEAKER_26: Congratulations.

[2969] Joy Lee: And the spring sports orientation is on February 5th at the old gym at 6 p.m. And I'm extremely excited to announce that Newark Memorial will have our very first boys volleyball team, which we haven't had in the past 20 years. It will be part of our spring sports this year, and it's something that the students of Newark from our volleyball club was very passionate about and they brought it and they made it happen. And so I'm so proud of my friends and just people who were able to make this boys volleyball club happen. And from these announcements, I'm so thrilled for this upcoming season. From a Brawl Stars tournament to sports games and art contests and fair. To end, I would like to quote Martin Luther King Jr., an observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day yesterday. And he said, if you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't walk, then crop. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.

[3032] Kat Jones: Thank you for listening.

9.1 Superintendent Report

[3049] Tracey Vackar: My report this evening is going to be fairly brief, just because we've got such a full agenda. But I do want to thank everybody for coming out here this evening. I know how important these issues are. I know how difficult these issues are to discuss and to look at. where the reductions may be at in order to be able to help support our school district and provide all the services that we do to children. I want to thank each and every one of the employees that's here today that's giving an expression of your thoughts and your kindness and the things that you do each and every day for our kids. I do know that your work is difficult. I do know that these decisions are difficult. And together, I think, as we work through these challenges, not only will it be happening for this year, but it will be happening for future years to come. Every time we decline in enrollment, We're going to be faced with these challenges. And so I just want to share that with our employees. We do appreciate what you have to say. We do appreciate your thoughts and maybe suggestions and ideas. And so I would ask that you remain open minded to be able to help us look at ways that maybe we can do other kinds of savings that would be of help. to supporting our budget, not only for now, but also for the future. And your voice does matter, and we do appreciate you. With that, I would like to be able to move into talking about the Brown and Green Act.

[3138] Tracey Vackar: Let me just get a hold of Lou here online. At our last OCAP meeting, there was a robust discussion about the Brown and Green Act and how it applies to our committees. It was my understanding from talking with board members that this was a Brown Act committee that had been established. And looking and listening to our LCAP committee members, they're looking for more ways that they can get additional public feedback and community feedback so that we can make informed decisions together. One of the things that I think that they were allowed to do during the pandemic is they were able to meet online. The rules were kind of different and they allowed for some different things. Under the Brown Act, we've got some restrictions on that. Here to speak with you this evening is your attorney Lou Lozano from Lozano and Smith. He's going to tell you a little bit about some of the options that we might have as we move forward. Maybe how we can continue moving forward for this year and maybe establish some new rules and regulations for next year. But I thought it was important to bring this back to the board and hear this discussion. I think it only impacts the LCAP committee. It could impact other committees that the board appoints. And so I just wanted to make sure that everybody was really clear on how it works. And I think we've all learned a lot of information. A lot of information's changed just over the years and I think our board members that have been here and have been seasoned board members you know that as we were in the pandemic we had a lot of different open abilities to be able to do things. Some of those things have narrowed and closed down as of January of last year. There will be even more restrictions by the end of December of this year. for 2025 as different rules and regulations changed, unless the governor gives us additional authority.

[3251] Tracey Vackar: So with that, I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Lou Lozano to be able to speak to us this evening.

[3262] Kat Jones: Is he back? While we're queuing up, Mr. Lozano, I realized that I, in trying to follow the agenda, I did skip employee organizations. I do apologize. It was very unintentional. I just kind of was going down my paper.

[3277] Kat Jones: So you will be up next, rest assured.

[3284] Tracey Vackar: Yeah, they can go first now.

[3286] Kat Jones: Oh, perfect. All right. Employee organizations is going first, please. All right, Maria. Again, I do apologize.

7.1 Employee Organizations

[3308] Maria Huffer: We thought we were winning when you were going to mention it. I'm giving you some time.

[3314] Maria Huffer: All right, good evening, Newark board members, executive cabinet community members, and our staff. As I stand here before all of you tonight the words that come to mind are anger nauseous disrespected and emotional. These words are not only mine but on behalf of our CSEA classified employees that run our schools. Let me say the last few words again. CSEA classified employees. that run our schools. The very same classified staff who play an essential role in maintaining the operations safety and well-being of our schools staff and most importantly our students. At the most recent negotiation session between the district and CSEA on December 18th The district proposed a last, best, and final offer of a one-time payment of 1 percent of the base annual salary effective July 1st of 2024 which is a total of $120,000 for our bargaining unit. $120,000. In addition, on July 1st of 2025, the proposal included a salary increase of the special education aides one and two by $1.50 an hour on the salary schedule. Our CSEA negotiations team took the district's last, best and final offer back to our members. and they were horrified and felt disrespected at the district's attempt of an equitable proposal. I'm here tonight to let the Board of Education and the Executive Cabinet know that the membership feels that this is not only insulting, but it continues to show how little the district values the essential work of classified staff. We are the backbone of this district and are constantly overlooked, undervalued, and severely underpaid. The proposal continues to reinforce the lack of respect that the district has for our members, undermining our role and our devaluing our worth here at the Newark Unified. While I understand the district is facing financial challenges, I cannot reconcile how the proposed budget reductions align with the directive to keep cuts furthest away from the students. Many of tonight's recommendations not only impact students, but doubly impact the district, such as the cuts to technology, custodial, and secretarial positions. Classified staff have taken on additional tasks to support students and staff for several years, especially since the start of the pandemic. For example, secretaries are now monitoring locked doors for front office security, ensuring campuses remain safe and welcoming. Custodians have faced increased workloads due to the lack of substitutes to cover absences illness vacations etc. Who will provide the coverage when they're out. Staff who will provide the cover when they're out. Staffing levels have not kept pace with the district needs and the priorities. Cuts to the custodial staff will exacerbate. I can never say that word. Exacerbate these challenges directly impacting cleanliness safety and security. Cutting custodial staff will negatively affect our school sites. What will happen when parents and staff become concerned about cleanliness. Aren't they already voicing their concerns. I am aware of concerns from office staff and teachers as it stands now in our in our maintenance operations and transportation department is having to pick up slack being pulled away from their jobs and duties to open up schools school sites help take out trash and clean to the best of their abilities. I am uncertain what data was used by the executive cabinet to recommend such reductions. While enrollment may have declined, the usage and square footage of our facility has not been reduced. In fact, we are struggling to keep our site secure and maintain these spaces. Custodians provide access for students and staff, ensuring classrooms and common areas are clean and functional. Maintain restrooms and sanitation supplies, set up and break down spaces for events, sports, testing, as well as respond to emergencies, manage waste and recycling, handle minor repairs. and ensure that facilities are self-safe, welcoming, and operational for daily use? Who will provide supervision, security, and maintenance during evening events if there aren't adequate night custodians? Is the district willing to take that risk of liability if our custodial staff is unavailable? The custodial role not only comes with all the planned duties, but many unexpected events that they must also cover. To quote a neighboring CSEA chapter president, a one-size-fits-all or seemingly random approach to staffing levels disregarding These critical factors risk compromising the functionality and safety of our schools. Who will do the vital work if you keep cutting hours and positions? Some of these budget reductions seem much more personal and do not seem to be based on best practices. Newark Unified is unable to compete with neighboring districts to retain and attract dedicated professionals. Didn't this district learn this lesson last year during the budget cuts.

[3645] Maria Huffer: Who will provide the budget department who are already working bare bones with support. The MOT department yeah. The MOT department must still answer phone calls, assign and submit work orders, address all emergencies regarding plumbing, electrical, carpentry, and alarms, humanly deal with the homeless population, and so much more. We need more staffing in MOT to keep up the increasing amount of work when it comes to deteriorating facilities. What about our students' field trips? who will take on that responsibility, managing the scheduling, contacting vendors, or assigning our district's backup bus driver to perform some of these trips. As it stands, Newark Unified still does not have a regular school bus driver, and I don't see any recruitment postings for this vacant position. Is the district going do in a way with the trips for our students of NUSD altogether. The district continues to offer extracurricular trips costing the district an alarming amount of money by contracting out these transportation services. The district needs to be competitive with the wages to hire a bus driver. which would save the district so much money it currently spends on contracted services. Speaking of contracting out, why is the district choosing to hire an outside contractor to perform the inspections on our district playground structures when we have an employee who can do the work? But when our department asks to send him for a training, it's declined. But here we are trying to cut back and re- and re- right size the budget. Am I missing something. Why aren't we sending our employees to get trained. Why does this district keep sending spending money we don't have on the outside when we have more than qualified hardworking dedicated employees within our district. Who will file the yearly mandated pesticide DMV state reports? Excuse me. The number of groundskeepers remain insufficient to effective care for all our schools. Yes, I said all. Even though we have two sites that are closed, they still. mow the lawns, cut the trees, irrigate the grounds, and perform all pest controls. For ANUSD and MOT to properly maintain the care for our 15 district grounds and sites, we need to hire more groundskeepers because we currently only have five on staff, four at MOT, and one at the high school. Eliminating our students information system staff will have a direct impact on our funding. Who will take on this crucial responsibility or does the district think that they will add some of it some if not all these responsibilities on the backs of in different departments. I think not. Time and time again, we are overburdened with more and more work continuously being added to our plates. Yet, we know this is completely wrong and unfair, but we continue to do so to prioritize our students and keep pushing forward to get the job done. But here we are facing yet another round of layoffs. And our classified staff is once again at the center of these cuts. Until the Board of Education can make good decisions with hiring a solid, trustworthy, education, student-focused superintendent, we will continue the cycle to hire consultants, interims, administrators, and principals who are not working towards the best interests of our new community. Top administrators with experience from very large districts are not going to solve our issues in Newark as they don't understand or learn what really works for our small district. We have pushed and continue to push away more and more students because we aren't focused on what's best for our students and their families. The district continues to push more and more classified out the door to neighboring districts. Why? Why is that? The Board of Education needs to start at the top and hold top management accountable instead of cutting off our toes, feet, legs to balance a mismanaged budget. This district continues to hire management who lack the qualifications to do their jobs while laying off dedicated classified members who have consistently shown up for this district. Instead of investing in training and promoting from within the district chooses to change management job titles and hire seemingly more experienced external staff while ignoring the value of institutional knowledge that our classified members bring. Why do we continue to overpay management and spend on consultants while dismissing the hardworking staff who make our schools run. When will this wasteful and harmful decision making stop. The culture at Newark Unified has been deteriorating over the past several years and is a direct reflection of the Board of Education, who is not holding top administration accountable for Newark Unified's values and mission. Leadership cannot inspire students when they continue to be disrespectful and unprofessional to staff and to the community while not being held responsible for their actions. The actions and choices of the Board of Education and the Executive Cabinet hurt our staff, our schools, and most importantly, our students. It's time for accountability and real solutions starting from the top on down and not off the backs of those who keep this district running. I urge this board to carefully reconsider these recommendations. Classified staff have consistently supported the district's high standards of excellence. often stepped in to ensure operations run smoothly despite limited resources. Asking classified staff to shoulder more workload to accommodate bad decisions from the Board of Education and Executive Cabinet is not only inequitable, but counterproductive. Classified roles are a fundamental foundational, particularly in attendance, facilities, operations, and a direct student and direct student services.

[4004] Maria Huffer: Yet we continue to face cuts every year.

[4009] Maria Huffer: Over the past two weeks, as the CSEA president, this position has been extremely draining and emotional for me. To sit back and listen to my fellow brothers and sisters express their anger and emotions on the unfairness we classified employees receive in our district is heartbreaking to say the least. Then as a president to be part of meetings held by the executive cabinet and go over layoff recommendations with some of our departments was gut-wrenching. to sit there and see the tears and emotions on their faces and not knowing in my head and how I was going to be able to save them or how I'm going to be able to look them in the eyes and say, I'm sorry, is a position I never want to be in again. But here I find myself speaking on their behalf. Why are the classified members expendable in this district? Is this ever going to stop? Who's going to do the work when we are all gone, whether they have had enough of this district or because the district has pushed them out? I asked the board to explore other fair share, not full share solutions that minimize impact. on students and staff alike. Start with the costly consultants in contracting out our work and end overpaid, unqualified management.

[4089] Maria Huffer: Thank you.

Pause: 22.2s

[4112] Kat Jones: Thank you, Miss Huffer.

[4113] Kat Jones: Miss Villa?

[4117] Thank you. Okay.

[4148] SPEAKER_26: Go ahead.

[4158] Chery Villa: All right. Good evening, Board President and Executive Cabinet and School Board members. My name is Cheri Villanueva I'm president of Ardor Teacher's Association. I would like not not okay to listen to these what public comment has to say. NTA stands with CSEA full support NTA is behind CSEA 100%. So first thing I'd like to bring up is the fact that we are still waiting to negotiate. We hear a lot. We're talking about this historical monumental 16% over two years salary increase that we got. Well, I'd like to remind our board members that were here and our new board members, we were 16% behind our surrounding districts. So while it was a historical, monumental, generous raise, we were behind 16%, which means The two years that it's been since then, we're now behind. At the time, our interim superintendent was Dr. Milliken. And the conversations during negotiations were just, up until then, we had been doing three-year salary contract for three years. Three years of salary. So the conversation's in where we'll do two years, just give us time. By the third year, we'll be ready to negotiate the third year. That was Dr. Milliken. Then Dr. DeLeon came. Same thing. The message is just be patient. We'll figure it out. Be patient. We'll negotiate. Now we have Superintendent Becarra, same thing. Just be patient. Let's wait until first interim. Well, that came and went. Let's wait until Measure O. OK, we got that.

[4271] Chery Villa: We're still waiting. Meanwhile, another thing that's happened in the last two years since we negotiated Last was our consumer price index. The 12 months for 2023, it was 3.4%. The 12 months for 2024, it was 2.4%. So that's 5.8% since then. Another thing that happened in the two years is that our executive cabinet salaries, those got fixed. But we're still waiting. The message is, oh, we got to pay this money if we're going to get people of quality. Well, what about our teachers? Our whole first page of our seniority list. are at the bottom of our salary schedule. They haven't got a raise every year. No more stepping column for them. At one time, 33% of our NTA lived here in Newark. That number's down to 12. Our people can't afford to live here. So we're waiting.

[4338] Chery Villa: We've been waiting. Reading things, information, this is your information here. These are your info. And what we have here, it's the increase in unrestricted fund balance. In 1920, it was $1.7 million. That falls out at the end. In 2021, 9.2 million. 21, 22, 7.2 million. 22, 23, 3.9 million. 23, 24, 2.3 million. So in the last five years, 25.3 million fell out of the budget at the end. And my people are still waiting.

[4379] Chery Villa: CSEA is still waiting. So again, while it's 16%, great. We're behind again. And then I'm going to end it with our non-re-elects that we have, let's see, over the last reduction, the RAS. FTEs.

[4420] Chery Villa: that we've reduced, certificated. So again, we've been waiting. We need our teachers to stay. We need our teachers to come back. It's going to be hard to do when there's another 16% behind our surrounding districts. But Ms. Williams, thank you. The work I've seen with my own eyes, HR work like that. Again, thank you, but our people are waiting. In every single one of your campaigns, you said you were going to competitively pay for our teachers. Can't go back on that.

[4469] Chery Villa: Thank you.

[4480] Kat Jones: Thank you, Ms. Villa.

[4481] Kat Jones: Do we have anyone here from NEWMA? OK.

[4488] Kat Jones: I'm going to go back to superintendent's report and pick up where we left off on Brown-Green Act.

[4499] Tracey Vackar: Thank you. Is Mr. Lozano online? We lost him again?

[4502] Tracey Vackar: He says he's online.

Pause: 12.3s

[4520] Tracey Vackar: Yeah.

[4525] Tracey Vackar: Is there a new link?

[4529] Tracey Vackar: He said he's online waiting to be admitted in.

Pause: 18.1s

[4549] Tracey Vackar: They just took one of them.

[4565] Tracey Vackar: They didn't pick it up.

[4571] Austin Block: I think what I'm going to recommend...

[4591] Tracey Vackar: Yeah, I'm trying to see if I can get. Yeah, I don't think I want to present on that. My board docs also shut down.

[4602] Tracey Vackar: Hang on.

[4608] Tracey Vackar: Yeah, he's trying to get online now.

[4615] Tracey Vackar: OK, sounds like he's here.

Pause: 16.2s

[4633] SPEAKER_26: Do you see anything?

[4648] No. Nope, I can hear you.

[4651] Shit.

[4653] Tracey Vackar: There he is.

[4654] Tracey Vackar: There he is. Good evening, Lou.

[4658] Tracey Vackar: Can you hear us, Mr. Lozano?

[4664] Lou Lozano (Lozano Smith): Good evening, Lou.

[4666] Lou Lozano (Lozano Smith): If you're quiet, I hear you on my iPad.

[4674] SPEAKER_26: We can hear you, Lou.

[4680] Tracey Vackar: We can hear you, Lou.

[4688] Tracey Vackar: Yes.

[4695] Lou Lozano (Lozano Smith): I'm not sure I can hear you.

[4703] Lou Lozano (Lozano Smith): There we go.

9.2 Brown Act vs. Green Act

[4709] Tracey Vackar: We'll have introduced the topic of the Brown versus Green Act and explain what happened during our LCAP meeting and part of our discussion.

[4718] Tracey Vackar: And I'm hoping that perhaps you can provide the board and community with some more information. Yes. Can you hear me OK?

[4729] Yes. OK, good. Good.

[4730] Lou Lozano (Lozano Smith): Um, the Green Act does apply to LCHAS committees, and the Green Act oftentimes is referred to as data colliding. It does have meeting requirements. All its meetings must be open to the public. The public has a right to address the committee during the meeting on any matter of budget matter. So it's like a regularly or where the public has a right to comment on anything within their subject matter jurisdiction. The committee is limited under the Green Act to discussing only items on the agenda. Unless the item arose after the agenda was posted, then there's an urgent need to take action before the next meeting. And there is a unanimous vote by the committee to amend the agenda to add the item. All the materials that are presented to the committee makers are public records subject to disclosure to members of the public. All agendas have to be posted 72 hours in advance. There's no such thing as a special meeting 24 hours a day. And all agendas have to indicate the date, time, and location, and have a description of every agenda item. Nothing in the Green Act provides for remote meetings, unlike the grant, which has two different provisions for remote participation in the meeting. That's not to say that that isn't a possibility. I think it is a possibility. But in as much as the meetings have to be accessible to the public. It is potentially problematic if a member of the public does not have online access to participate in the meetings. I think at this, there are no cases, there's no general opinions on whether or not the LBAC committees can meet remotely. I think at this point the board has discretion in setting up the parameters of Is LCAP committee meetings a clue allotment? There may be some risk, but right now there isn't case law or pretty general opinions saying that LCAP committees can't be removed. So now I can take any questions that you might have.

[4921] Kat Jones: Sharon, do you have any questions?

[4926] No.

[4926] SPEAKER_26: Mr. Lozano?

[4931] Aiden Hill: Mr. Lozano? Yes, I can hear you. Great. So I have a question. So if you set a situation where you had a core meeting that was in public, and you always had made that arrangement, but you also offered an arrangement for other members to attend virtually. It sounds like that wouldn't be appropriate. Sounds like the problem is making it completely virtual.

[4965] Lou Lozano (Lozano Smith): Is that correct? Here's the dilemma that we have on this question. There's no permission in a green hat for remote participation. Absent that, I think I would rely on what's called a permissive education code that allows you to carry on any businesses within your jurisdiction. I think the board has discretion in setting up what the parameters are. of remote meetings for its up-cap committee. So you could, the board could say, we want at least a quorum of the board in a single location, physically present, and less than a quorum could participate remotely.

[5012] Lou Lozano (Lozano Smith): I think the board couldn't say that. I think it may be problematic if you didn't have a forum president, but in a single location, and there was 100%

[5028] Lou Lozano (Lozano Smith): participation remotely, I think it might raise questions about public access.

[5039] Aiden Hill: Just a follow-up question, Mr. Lozano. So it's my understanding that our board participation that we're really kind of acting like advisors. We're not voting, correct? So we're acting as advisors. So in that situation, if we're not really voting members of that body, we're just really there participating. Is there a problem with us?

[5067] Aiden Hill: attending remotely?

[5073] Lou Lozano (Lozano Smith): Probably not. Probably not. I think if you were challenged by to the public member that we might want to take a closer look on whether or not it's worth fighting that challenge, an absolute challenge, perhaps case law to the contrary, and maybe we can set that up. Okay, great. Thank you. Any other questions?

[5116] Kat Jones: OK. I think it's time. I think we're good. All right. Thank you very much, Mr. Lozano. I think that we have got some of our questions answered, and we really appreciate you joining us tonight.

[5129] Lou Lozano (Lozano Smith): All right. Thank you very much, and good luck with the rest of your day.

[5133] Kat Jones: Thank you. anything else from you?

[5142] Tracey Vackar: No, that concludes my comments.

[5147] Kat Jones: Well, if I haven't skipped anything else, we're down to the staff reports and BGI spotlight presentation.

[5162] Tracey Vackar: Yes, Ms. Ballard will introduce our school.

[5168] Karen Allard: I am excited for Birch Grove Intermediate to showcase and highlight everything that they are doing, their ongoing dedication and commitment to support student outcomes. while also creating a super strong culture and community.

[5186] Karen Allard: So it's my pleasure to introduce Principal Robert Chang.

10.1 Birch Grove Intermediate School Spotlight Presentation

[5197] Robert Fang: Okay. Good evening Superintendent Vackar board members and Executive Cabinet and also the Newark community. My name is Robert Fang. I am the Principal at Birch Grove Intermediate. I'm excited to be here to share with you and the community all about the things that are happening at BGIA this year that help support the academic and social emotional growth of our students at BGIA. BGI is Upper Elementary School which is part of the Birch Grove School community with Birch Grove Primary.

[5231] Robert Fang: Next slide. Okay so first grade intermediates total enrollment currently is at 287. We currently have 18 percent of students that are multi-lingual learners. 8 percent of our students receive services for disabilities which is about 25 students and we have about 33 percent who identify as Hispanic, Latino, Latina, and Latinx. Next slide. Looking at our CASPP data from last year the 2023-24. We have about 55.52 percent of students that met or exceeded grade level standards in ELA and 40 54.66 percent of students that met or exceeded grade level standards in math. This includes 308 students that took the CASPP last year. Next. Taking a deeper dive into our multilingual learners we have about 8.69 percent of students meeting or exceeding grade level standards in ELA and 9.8 percent of students meeting or exceeding grade level standards in math. This includes 46 students that are English learners that took the CAASPP last year. Next. So looking at our current data through our i-Ready diagnostic test for reading and math. On this slide it compares the i-Ready diagnostic data from the beginning of the year to the fall diagnostic. As you can see in the i-Ready reading and math you can see there is growth. The green areas are students that are on or above grade level. The yellow areas are students that are one grade level below. And the red areas are students that are two or more grade levels below. You can see a shift in the green areas moving from the right and the red areas decreasing. Students are completing IRD minutes weekly. from 30 minutes to 50 minutes a week to help provide lessons at their level to improve their proficiency on certain academic skills and concepts in reading and math that I already had that were already identified for students to focus on. In addition at BGI we are providing a monthly incentive for students to complete their minutes with a monthly monthly lunch party that can include an activity or a special snack or treat. This has motivated our students to work on the higher reading minutes weekly and has resulted with 83 percent of our students meeting their minutes last week. Next. And also diving deeper into our English learners our multilingual students are improving on the i-Ready diagnostics as well. For ELA we currently have 38 percent EL students on grade level or above. For math we currently have 36 percent EL students on grade level or above. IREDI is closely reflective of the CASPP state assessment. So there is a possibility that we will see similar results on the CASPP in May since IREDI is closely aligned to CASPP is what we're hoping to see our students perform. Next. On this slide it goes into our chronic absenteeism and suspensions. Currently at this time similar to last year we have zero suspensions. For for the suspensions we are always exploring alternatives to suspension and through the use of PBIS and restorative practices. We have been able to intervene and repair relationships as a result of behavior. We teach student behavior expectations proactively and reteach after after every long break to remind our students. In regard to chronic absenteeism at BGI we are currently at 3.9 percent. This is a decrease from last year at this time. So we also make sure we meet or meet with our families to discuss needs and support in regard to attendance and we refer our families to the appropriate in-school services such as COS or SST and counseling services. And if if there are more family needs we refer to our parent partners the district has. to identify community resources to support families. Next. The five areas that BGI is focusing on is targeted support. Focusing on lower performing students. Analyzing individual student data and addressing subject-specific needs. and learning new practices in district and site professional development. So teachers are using the IRB data to group their students by level and providing reteaching and intervention in the classrooms through small groups one-on-one support and offering opportunities to get help during break times during the day. Teachers collaborate in grade levels to work on pacing and curriculum planning. Since benchmark is new this year, collaborating with their grade level colleagues is key to learn their new curriculum and adjust as they move from unit to unit. I have observed a lot of wonderful lessons on projects my teachers have provided in the last few weeks. At the back of the boardroom on this wall over here are some of our projects that our teachers have done and provided for the community to see. In addition teachers are also implementing our designated ELD blocks this year to focus on language skills and that correlate to the LPAC test that is given in the springtime. During our staff meeting at BGI we have started to explore best practices so teachers can share their own teaching strategies with their colleagues that are working best so they can learn from each other. We plan to do deeper dive a deeper dive into EL strategies this spring and work on improving our own teaching practices every month so that we can meet the needs of our students.

[5578] Robert Fang: Next. Our campus initiatives. We have gone into a lot of different things this year. So my main goal this year is to provide opportunities for our BGIS students to participate in their own learning through assemblies. in and out of school events field trips and more so we are able to create an educational experience that they will remember. Because when I was a student this is where I remember where we had these assemblies. I still remember those DARE assemblies years ago when we had DARE. Those are the things that I remember and I remember writing something that I won the writing contest. So I had to read my writing in front of the entire community. So those are the things that I remember. So I want to make sure that I'm coming back as a principal to be able to provide these opportunities for my students as well. So we have brought in a lot of different organizations to come in to do assemblies for students. One of the assemblies was music notes. So it was a singing rapping assembly that focused on pedestrian safety. So the students they came in not knowing what it was about and then once they started coming in They jumped in, they started rapping, all the music was coming on. The kids are like, what's going on? So all of this was, it caught them off guard, but after the first minute or so, they were all into it. And I'm still looking for more opportunities for this to happen with our students, so that we can focus on different ways to teach. Through music, a lot of them are very musical, but all of them are very interactive. Recently, we just had our Eagle Hero Assembly come, and it was also another singing, rapping, music assembly that was focused on environmental awareness. And all of our classrooms, they do have different things. Two of our third-degree classes, they have music for minors that we have docents for, that they're coming in to provide music lessons for students. A lot of our classrooms, they're finding different resources and organizations to come in and to present to our third classes. Some of our fourth grade classes they had walked through California came in to kind of do a huge presentation on the history of California. And we have a lot more field trips planned. So we're trying to make sure that we have in-school and out-of-school opportunities for our students. Next slide. So on this slide here are some pictures of some of the things that we're doing. On the top left is our Bulldogs on Ice community event. We invited BGI families and also BGP families to come together at Sharks Ice at Fremont. So we did make sure that We were sharing and bringing our communities together. So we did that a few times. We also did that at our North Days Parade as well. In the middle of the top middle picture this is our Julia Robinson Math Festival. I applied for a grant and this organization paid for an entire event. So we invited our BGP families and BGI families to come out and they were able to do math activities together as a family, which there are a lot of times where we never get those opportunities. So this was a new opportunity for the families to come together and the parents found it more challenging. Then the kids did, and the parents, some of them stayed at certain activities for like 30 minutes versus just kind of going around to all the activities. On the top right, we do have our PBS awards that we give out every month. And we did get a lot of different coupons from Penn and Express Bee's Restaurant and In-N-Out that were donated to our school. So we are rewarding our students with those coupons and gift cards. On the bottom left we have a ring year run that we had 2 students in 3rd grade who were trying to win. One almost won and another one jumped forward. So in the picture you can see that student jumping forward through the finish line. And the other student was very upset he got second. But in the bottom right is one of our. I'm using this assembly where they came in and performed about pedestrian safety. The kids even lined up to get autographs after the assembly too. Next slide. So here's some other assemblies that we had. In the middle we have our 4th grade Fremont Field Trip to the Fremont Recycling and Transportation. We have our PTC Walk-A-Thon. We have the Equal Hero Assembly which they came in and did a very interactive assembly with them for environmental safety and awareness. On the bottom right is another pedestrian awareness and safety presentation. On the top left is a ZunZun Water Education Assembly. He came in with like very unconditional instruments. So after the students saw this as I was talking to students a lot of them started to have that motivation to want to learn an instrument. So that was something that we started right off the bat in August. Okay next slide.

[5883] Robert Fang: So looking at our culture and community. So in so looking at culture and community there are a lot of different events that I've been trying to do since I started here at BGI. It is my first year at BGI so. Connecting to the community has been priority for me. So even starting the first event of Popsicles with Principals so I met the community before school started. I do my coffee with the principals every month just to make sure that I can educate the parents and the community of what's going on at BGI and our school site council our ELAC committee. and our Newark guys Parade. If you see on the bottom right, the city of Newark, they gave us the plaque for loudest cheer and great parent involvement. And this is representing BGI and BGP because we walk together as a community. Think Together is our after school program that we have. They do hold a lot of different family events and they invite our community to come join them. And we have a lot of other, a lot more events coming up. We have our Family Coding Night, which we're going to do with BGP. That's bringing the community together once again. We're at BGI, we're going to be doing the Great Kindness Challenge the last week of January to focus on acts of kindness. And we have Science Family Night in the planning phases, and we have other events coming up as well.

[5968] Robert Fang: Next slide. So the staff students and families have been so welcoming since the day since day one and it hasn't stopped. This motivates me to try to find more ways and opportunities for our families to come together and to learn. I feel so lucky to be part of the BGI and Birch Grove school community because when we look at our school community It is both of our schools not just mine. So I want to make sure that I'm including BGP as much as I can because they eventually transitioned to BGI so I want to make sure that we're all together in this so that we have this educational community and also the experience moving forward.

[6009] Robert Fang: Thank you.

[6019] Kat Jones: Thank you so much for the presentation. Do we have comments or questions from the board?

[6024] Joy Lee: Member Hill? Thank you so much for the presentation. I'm so excited for what's to come for BGI. a question on if you could expand more on how you plan to support our English Language Learner students.

[6044] Robert Fang: So for English Language Learner students, we have hired a bilingual assistant or a bilingual aide on campus. So he primarily works with our Level 1s and our Level 2s. Our teachers have designated ELD blocks in their schedules so they are focusing on providing the language support. So they are working on the four components of the ELPAC which is listening reading and speaking. So they are going into those different areas and providing opportunities for student talk. but also making sure that the lessons are specific to those areas so they can bring it back to the current grade level curriculum.

[6085] Joy Lee: Thank you so much. Member Hill.

[6089] Aiden Hill: Thank you for the great presentation. Could we go back to the slide that says path to academic success?

[6096] Aiden Hill: Are you already reading your math? Yes, that one. So can you help me understand how to read this? I just want to make sure I'm reading it correctly. It looks like the bottom thin line is the baseline. which maybe came from last year, or was it?

[6119] Robert Fang: The baseline is from August.

[6121] Aiden Hill: From August. And then the one above it is at the end of the semester?

[6125] Robert Fang: The end of October, beginning of November.

[6129] Aiden Hill: OK.

[6131] Aiden Hill: And then if I'm understanding it correctly, we're talking about? Is that that in these particular groups, the percentage increase that we're seeing in their scores or the percentage increase of the people that are in that group?

[6151] Robert Fang: In the scores.

[6153] Aiden Hill: In the scores. OK.

[6155] Karen Allard: If I can just add to that, you want the red to shrink and the yellow green to grow.

[6161] Aiden Hill: OK.

[6164] Karen Allard: So you can see at the baseline for the top one in reading, we were 12% of students were three or more years behind in literacy, and that got shrunk to 11%. We were at 17% for kids who are two or more, and we shrunk that to 11. And then 22%, we have more kids now who are one grade level, because we're at 29 instead of 22. Or to 32, I can't remember.

[6190] Aiden Hill: Does that help? Yes. OK. Yes. Thank you.

[6196] Robert Fang: And a lot of students who are in the different in the different areas some of them are moving left. So you'll see some students who are in the red area moving to the yellow. Some from the yellow moving to the green and going back and forth depending on where they're scoring as well. But with the i-Ready Minutes, this has been helping with them navigate through at the i-Ready system. And they're performing a lot better.

[6222] Aiden Hill: OK, great.

[6222] Aiden Hill: And so what we're saying is that we're actually seeing fewer kids now in October in the red versus in August.

[6235] Karen Allard: Yes, and they're about to take their third one starting next week, and we're very optimistic about results that we're going to see if that's what was happening already in October.

[6245] Aiden Hill: Great.

[6246] Aiden Hill: Thank you.

[6252] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Absolutely. First of all, congratulations on which you guys are doing at BGI and BGP. It's just amazing to see the progress that you guys are having, the culture that you guys have created, and also just receiving the community as a whole. My question is just a little follow up from Trustee Hill is that Are we educating, how are we educating our families to read this particular data?

[6279] Robert Fang: So all of this data have been presented to my families already. So whenever I do my copy with the principal and my school site councils, I present this data with them too. And I also post it on the school website so that parents can access it as well. And then I make sure that. If there's anything on here that they need explanation for, they can always reach out to me. I can go over it with them, too. I have a few parents that they asked me for the slide deck. So I share that. I just send it directly to the parents if they do want it as well, too.

[6311] Karen Allard: I'd like to just go ahead and add that we have also invited all families to an I-Ready virtual meeting tomorrow. So to do just that, how do you support your students in I-Ready and how do you rate their scores?

[6322] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: That's great. Thank you. And just a follow-up question in regards to the engagement of the parents in regards to educating them with the LPAC. knowing how to read the level scores of, you know, receiving, the listening, the speaking from the material there. Do you guys have, have you guys been working in regards to that?

[6343] Robert Fang: We have plans to inform parents of what the LPAC is. And also to explain like what those levels are as their students are going to be jumping into that test in the next few months.

[6355] Karen Allard: Okay. Also, I add that through DELAC they also requested the same thing. So this week information will be going out to parents at one page flyer about what is the LPAC, how to help support your students. what are students tested on, et cetera.

[6369] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Great.

[6369] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Thank you.

[6373] Austin Block: I just wanted to say thank you for the wonderful presentation and all the great work that you and the rest of the staff are doing at PGI. It's really nice to see all the progress that's occurring and just all the positive energy that I'm hearing from your presentation and from the photos that you're sharing. I really love seeing that 0% suspension number as well. I mean that is really like such a positive sign of a healthy school climate. One question I had. Kind of also building on the i-Ready related questions is what sort of intervention is done to support students who are not meeting those i-Ready minutes per week? So you said 83% are. kind of on track for the 17% that aren't? Like what strategies are implemented to try to get them to up that number?

[6415] Robert Fang: So for some of these students, we're communicating with parents as far as the importance. So these parents, teachers are reaching out to them directly as far as making sure that they access i-Ready. Then so the conversation comes into do you have a device at home to access it? Then we find out ways to use it in the classroom to just provide enough more than enough minutes for them to do in the classroom. Some teachers have been starting to pull students individually to make sure that they're working with the students so that they can make their minutes. But when you have a class of like 31 students, it's hard to manage every single one to try to make sure that they get their minutes. So teachers are doing like other types of intervention with those students as well because some of these students they're typically further down more in the yellow and the red area. So they are pulling them to do other kinds of intervention to help them understand where they are in I-Ready so that the lessons are a lot easier as they jump back in. So the percentages of students not completing the minutes is because of other factors. So teachers are providing that instruction more directly versus just having them do their minutes as well too. So other things are in the works. We're hoping for those numbers to continue to decrease and some of these students and they are being very receptive to that support and that help from the teachers as well. So we're hoping for it to continue to increase, but with our monthly incentive with our minutes, students are trying their hardest to do it. But in i-Ready, it also tracks to see how many lessons they're actually passing as well. A lot of my teachers are tracking that as well. So if students are passing their lessons, they're being pulled as well to make sure to see if they're understanding what concepts are being taught as well. So lots of different factors.

[6525] Austin Block: Wonderful. Thank you so much.

[6529] Nancy Thomas: Member Thomas? Thank you very much for your very informative presentation. I commend you on having roughly 268 out of 288 students taking I-Ready in the past. Those numbers have not, that percentage has not been met. And so I commend you on that. You're including all of the students virtually. I had a question about your, if I can find it, your

[6563] Nancy Thomas: Chronic absenteeism. You have a nice improvement over last year.

[6571] Robert Fang: It's a slight improvement. The percentage from last year is on there. I think it was like 4.3%?

[6578] Nancy Thomas: 4.4%. 4.7 to 3.9 percent. Yes.

[6584] Robert Fang: So so we do have a slight decrease from that. We are I am making sure that I'm meeting with all of these families to make sure to see what supports that they need as far as coming to school. Some of our families, we did have a slight decrease in enrollment since the beginning of the year. But this is due to some of the students were overflowed to us. So then they were having trouble with transportation, things like that. Those are the conversations and meetings I have with these parents to try to figure out What support do they need. But we did ultimately have some students who moved out of the area. So that's where some of the absences were too because families were like on their way out. So so some of them were like out of our control. But for the ones who are living in Newark who needs resources in Newark We are meeting with these families and referring them correctly. So attendance has increased. But when they fall into this percentage, it's from the past attendance from like weeks before. So as we're going through the referral process, it slowly increases. And then if you look at their attendance right now, It's not the same as it was like a month ago. So it is slowly increasing. So later on in the year, this percentage is going to change because we've improved in attendance as well.

[6665] Nancy Thomas: So would you say that and maybe the assistant superintendent can speak to this, that our District-wide chronic absenteeism, is this comparable?

[6679] Karen Allard: Our district is higher than it was before, if I'm saying that correctly. So we have more kids attending school than we have had last year at this time.

[6689] Nancy Thomas: And our regular attendance? Percentages are, you know, we had predicted 92%. Where are we now so far this year?

[6700] Karen Allard: I don't have that number off the top of my head, although it is an ongoing focus for all the principals at every single monthly meeting. We go over our chronic absenteeism, our suspension, and our I-Ready results.

[6713] Nancy Thomas: OK, thank you.

[6717] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Just a quick follow up on the chronic absenteeism. How are you guys celebrating and rewarding our families that are continuously just showing up? What are you guys doing to celebrate their success and being present?

[6731] Robert Fang: So what we're doing is we have our monthly assemblies regarding like our character traits, but I'm always trying to find different ways to add like different activities and events for students. Because the more events and things that we have on campus, it'll motivate students to come to school. So some of the students Because at the very beginning of the year we were like slowly transitioning into the school year. We didn't have a lot of these kinds of incentives on campus. But we are in the planning phases to add more activities and more events so that we can reward our students as they're coming to school. So it's in the planning phases right now. The first half of the year was trying to just make making sure everyone is transitioning well into the new year but also like adding more events and activities during the school day so that students look forward to coming to school. So that's one thing that my school events committee is trying to create. So like our kindness week that we're going to be doing at the end of the month there's going to be incentives for students who complete the kindness challenge bingo card. So if they complete all the challenges on there they'll be able to turn that in to receive like a reward or a goodie bag that's provided by the school. So so we're trying to create more opportunities for them. to be at school so they can complete all of these kinds of activities. And we have more planned throughout the year too.

[6814] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Great, thank you. And just to make sure that it's a community effort, it's a collaboration. When we have children that are absent, right, more than three days or being late more than 30 minutes. Are the teachers engaging in calling their families? Is it staff, classified, certificated? Who's engaged in making the phone calls?

[6838] Robert Fang: So if the teachers see that a student is absent for longer than a few days, they do reach out to the families. They call them. They reach them out through Parent Square. So it depends. It's case by case with some students. But teachers are making every effort because if they're out for a week, and they're not on independent study or anything else, then they want to make sure that student doesn't fall behind. So they're keeping a track of all the days that they're out, collecting the work, and then they start contacting the parents, especially if it's multiple days as well, too. So there's a whole process for it. Our attendance clerk does keep track of all these attendance, of all these absences. So then that's when we start reaching out to teachers as well.

[6884] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Great. Thank you.

[6886] Kat Jones: Thank you. Any other questions or comments? All right. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciated the presentation myself as well.

[6894] Robert Fang: Thank you.

[6904] Kat Jones: Member Hill, we need to do a meeting extension, don't we?

[6906] Aiden Hill: Yes, just to get the elephant in the room out of the way. So new board members, welcome.

[6914] Kat Jones: to our board meetings.

[6917] Aiden Hill: So based on prior experience, right? So we want to under-promise and over-deliver. So hopefully, we will shoot for less than this. But just given that we have some meaty topics, I would like to move that we extend the meeting to midnight. Because the reason why is we can only make one extension. So after that, it's like you can't come back and say, oh, we need to extend another hour. So I'd like to give us plenty of room with the intent that we'll overperform.

17.1 PLACEHOLDER - Extend Meeting

[6951] Kat Jones: All right, so do I have a motion to extend the meeting till midnight?

[6957] Nancy Thomas: I'll move that we extend the meeting till midnight.

[6960] Kat Jones: Second?

[6964] Kat Jones: Oh, I guess I can second, can't I?

[6969] Aiden Hill: I second.

[6971] Kat Jones: OK, so member Thomas motions, member Hill seconds to extend the meeting till midnight. Midnight. And student member Lee, if you need to leave early, please feel free. Thank you.

[6990] Toya Lemus: Student board member Lee, how do you vote?

[6991] Toya Lemus: Yay. Member Hill?

[6996] Austin Block: Yay.

[6997] Toya Lemus: Member Anguiano?

[6999] Austin Block: Yes. Member Block?

[7000] Austin Block: Yes, and I promise to talk at two times speed for the rest of the evening.

[7006] Toya Lemus: Vice President Thomas? Yes. President Jones?

[7009] Kat Jones: Yes.

[7010] Toya Lemus: Six ayes.

[7011] Kat Jones: All right, motion passes. We hope we're not here till midnight, but we can be here if we need to be. Let's see. We are now moving into new business. 11.1, after school education and safety grant award notification. Oh, uh-oh. Oh, my. See, I just psychologically don't want to go there. All right, so we are back to 10.2 budget reduction presentation. We are going to have the presentation and then we will listen to public comment that the people who wanted to wait until 10.2. All righty. We're going to do a public comment. We're going to do after the presentation. You want to do it before? We can do it before. OK.

10.2 Budget Reduction Plan

[7059] Kat Jones: We'll take public comment beforehand, in which case, Barby Pagan.

[7075] SPEAKER_30: Good evening, superintendent, executive cabinet, board member, and student member. I'm up here tonight speaking on behalf of myself and Maria Diaz-Mendola. We were told Friday that our positions were going to be going before the board tonight on a budget reduction presentation to be cut. are titles of the software support specialists. We handle the student information system synergy across the district and also CABPAD's reporting. Both of us have 13 years with the district have worked as office clerks to office managers. I've been in this position for five years and Maria joined me in September of 2022. We were told Friday that along with the two of us, they were cutting an IT tech, leaving one IT tech for the whole district. In this meeting, we were told that we would both be getting laid off, and they would be creating a higher paying position with with more responsibility and hopes with someone with more experience would apply and that we both could apply for this position if we wanted to. Why would you be cutting a whole department unless it wasn't personal. To us this is personal. We know it and we know where this is coming from. I've asked every year since I've been in this position to go to this energy conference and every year I and now we have been told no. They want someone with more experience, yet they won't send us to training. But when something urgent happens, we better drop everything and help them out. One person cannot do what both of us do. The amount of detail that goes into cow pads and cysts is too much for one person. I did this for almost three years before Maria got into the other position. There were many nights I did not leave until seven o'clock. I worked from home and on the weekends to make sure things got done. I did a lot of work that I wasn't compensated for. I asked, yet it was denied. It wasn't healthy for me to keep that up. The previous IT manager with the backing of the previous assistant sup of ed services fought to get the second SIS position. The district has brought up us going to a new SIS system. If that does happen how is the district going to go to a new SIS system with now a department of three. No one even talked to us. The two that work in synergy the most even asked for our opinion to move to about moving to a new SIS system. When we were told about it, there were concerns about moving to a new SIS system with a department of five. Now it'll be only a department of three. Why is it being brought to the table to lay off positions, but then right below us on the slide presentation, it's mentioning Increasing four people from 5.7 7.5 to 8 hours a day and one employee with going from 11 months to 12 months. There should be no increase in hours. There was a lot to get ready for the new school year. We were told our current positions will end on 630. Who's going to certify for CALPADS for end of year in July. Who will do all the setups and synergy. There is a lot that we do too many to name and not enough time in these three minutes. Please realize how important these two positions are in the district.

[7264] SPEAKER_30: Thank you.

[7272] Kat Jones: Thank you, Ms. Pagan.

[7273] Kat Jones: Kerry New.

[7281] Cary Knoop: You know, I would have hoped that there were some board members who had the strength to say, this thing has got to be tabled until we have a proper financial analysis. It's just a bloody shame, excuse my French. Every time I hear we are deficit spending, I just don't see it. If we look at the general fund, we grow from 2018-19 from 7 million to $34 million right now. How can you call that deficit spending? Now, if you just look at the unrestricted funds, we grew from $4.5 million to $22.5 million. How is that deficit spending? Who in his right mind can say that's deficit spending? Now let's look at the forecasting that this district does all the time. Here's an example. On June 25, 2024, the estimated actuals predicted a $7.8 million loss. You know, you want to guess what happened six weeks later? A $600,000 loss. That's $7 million in six weeks. So we're expecting the district to forecast three years out if they can't even forecast six weeks out. The same happened the year before. The only difference was it was actually even worse. They expected a $1,000,000 profit, because that's what it is, profit. And instead it became $11,000,000.

[7380] Cary Knoop: Six weeks later. But that's nothing. if you compare it to the multi-year forecast. One thing I can say, all the budgets, all the interims, and all the estimated actuals have achieved something remarkable. They're consistently reliably wrong and always in the negative. Oh, we're going to, the interim says $7 million. On estimated, it says $8 million.

[7409] SPEAKER_00: The budget said $3 million.

[7411] Cary Knoop: And then when the unaudited actuals come, when the rubber hits the road, those numbers are not realized. But having said that, if you go into the three-year forecast, the multi-year forecast, That's a complete joke. Year after year, these forecasts show and forecast, especially the third year out, that the district is basically going to be totally on the water. Doomsday is near and it never materializes. So one has to ask the question. Are we basically not able to make a good forecast? Or is there something else going on? Are we creating a theater of budget drama? Because maybe some board members politically want to remove some projects that they don't like or some positions that they don't like and they feel they need to create a drama so that they can justify it. Like, we have to do it. We really don't want to do it, but we have to do it because look at the multi-year forecast. I think it's a bloody shame. I don't trust these numbers at all. We have $34 million in a general fund of which is $22 million unrestricted. Don't tell me we have a budget crisis. or systemic deficit. It's just not true. I don't believe it. Yeah, my three minutes is over. That's all I wanted to say. Thank you.

[7507] Cary Knoop: Thank you so much.

[7515] Kat Jones: All right. Ms.

[7517] Kat Jones: Ficarra, pass that off to you for 10.2.

[7530] Tracey Vackar: Yes.

[7531] Tracey Vackar: There has been a revision to the presentation we've added.

[7534] There's information on a couple of slides.

[7536] Tracey Vackar: And so I do want to make sure that we get that posted correctly on the board docs, as well as put the community note that there is a revision to a couple of slides.

[7550] Kat Jones: So with that, if you could...

Pause: 10.8s

[7562] Yes.

[7564] Tracey Vackar: Thank you.

[7565] Tracey Vackar: Thank you very much for letting me know.

[7571] Tracey Vackar: And slide number two. So a little bit about the history of the district. When I came here in December of last year, we had a $14 million structural deficit that's sitting out there. And I respectfully don't agree with the last speaker. This district has had financial hardship for a number of years. Big Mac has been here. multiple times. We've had numerous letters from the county superintendent of schools warning us that we were overspending and that we need to be careful. And then we also have had significant decline in enrollment in our schools. while trying to keep as many schools operational as possible. Those are some difficult challenges. The Board of Education implemented this whole plan to reduce the structural deficit of last year. And the first interim presentation on December 12, The structural deficit was reduced to approximately $3.4 million in the first interim. What the speaker recently just said was, it's kind of a crystal ball, kind of a guessing game. So that's very true. We actually form a budget based on information that we receive from the governor's office. We kind of do use a crystal ball to try to make sure that we use good facts when we're determining our budget. That's something I think I share with all of you. When we did develop the budget plan last year, you base it on the best information that you have, and then all throughout the year, you're continuously adjusting based on the facts that you receive. and the chats that you receive, how much money has actually come, whether or not they come on time. We also look at our ADA that we're receiving, right, and our CalPADS data that we need to look at. So there's numerous elements that we look at and are constantly navigating within those reports. So I will tell you that the reports do adjust. They are not a permit and not a guarantee.

[7700] Tracey Vackar: They adjust throughout the year as we spend our monies and as we receive our monies. Due to the time-related enrollment and loss of one-time funding and reduction in revenues, We really need to come together, we need a fiscal sustainable plan for our future. Something that the board is listed as being one of its major goals, to make sure that District A is right sized, that we are living within our means. And by saying that, When we receive a revenue from the state that we know is going to be ongoing, we want to make sure that we are spending that wisely and that we're using our expenditures with that to be able to adjust against that. So those are some of the reasons that when we start looking at why would we need to consider any kind of budget reductions. When we know that we've got less revenues coming in than expenditures going out, we do have an obligation to come back and take a look at budget reductions. With that, staff has worked incredibly hard. Not just the executive team, I will tell you this is something that has been worked on over the past year. Some of the budget development plans that came out of some committee work last year that we continue to implement throughout this year. helped in helping us to resize our budget. That's one of the reasons why we were able to take it from a $14 million structural deficit down to a $3.4 million a year later. That's an amazing achievement, well beyond where I thought we could go to with it. There was some truth in what our speaker, Mr. Knoop, said about when you do your unhonored actuals, and you're closing out your books, and you're then tying that into your proposed budget. you're going to have a different kind of ending balance. So if you don't spend as much money on some of your open POs that get opened up, or on some of the services that you estimate, and then those lines close out, you will have additional expenditures on what happens on an actual. It will go up, because basically you're closing out your books, your projection that you were going to spend, I'll just use an example, let's say you're going to spend a billion dollars on services, and then you only spent $600,000 of that million dollars, you then have a $400,000 savings that goes into your unmonitored actuals that happens in September. You then take that number as you then adjust with the expenditures that you continue to do, and you make sure that you do your first interim and that you actually tie that together. Staff tonight is going to be able to walk through some of the recommendations that they're making. These are recommendations, they are not in stone. They are recommendations in order to continue doing the things that we would like them to be able to do to bring additional stability to the district. Again, they are recommendations. There are some items that we are still vetting and trying to go through to make sure that we provide the best information possible to the board. You'll hear more about some of the adjustments on February 4th. And you'll also see the timeline that we're proposing in order to be able to do this.

[7889] Tracey Vackar: And so with that, I'm going to have staff joining in at the dance over the podium for slide number three.

[7903] Christopher Williams: Okay, welcome, and I'm glad to be here. I'm fortunate situation to be in, but I'm going to just grab the mic because that's how I work best. So, again, a lot of tough conversations happening. We've been charged to come up with about $6 million in reductions. I'm going to go through a quick timeline tonight. There is no action required. It's just information. And if you look at the next meeting, February 4th, we're anticipating to be able to present the first board resolution. However, keep in mind with the numbers and the direction of what the board charges us with, that may come back on the February 18th board meeting for a board resolution as information item. And all action will be done by March 1st. March 4th. So that would then provide us an additional 11 days to provide all final notices. So you're required by law to make any official notices up to the March 15 deadline. That includes administrative layoffs, reductions, certificate and classify. And then your final timeline that you have to provide your final notification is by May 15th, which we'll talk a little more about as we go through this.

[7967] Cindy Parks: Next slide.

[7969] Christopher Williams: Yeah. March. Yeah. Did I not say March? I'm going to say March. OK. Well, no, it's actually March 15th. And then your final notice is done by May 15th. So that is correct. Thank you, guys. I appreciate the feedback. Resilience in tough times. You all are mind readers. I know, right? Listen, this does not get any easier as you're going through these conversations. And again, when a board superintendent look at fiscal stability, You know, we have to look at how we put guardrails up on the budget, how we look at all position control, how we look at our FTEs, any and all positions within the organization. But there's also conversations that have to be happening, and people are more meaningful than the process, and being able to sit down and know That our hearts are in this yet we're in a tough situation and a dynamic situation that people's lives are being impacted through this on a day to day basis as well as for the upcoming year which we're going to really delve down into about who would be impacted with these recommendations that we have set forth and how we got to that. Right. So I've got a lot of calls and information and e-mails and text that says, hey, chasing for cars sitting in the room making all these decisions. That is not how it happened. Nor did it goes directly to Jose or Chris or Karen. There's been a process to get feedback. And I'm going to talk more about it because each of our departments, we each are responsible for various departments. So within those departments, we were charged to look, assess, evaluate our departments, see if there's any potential cost savings or reductions that we can do, and get to this next point. So example, we went through human resources and student services, and then all the teaching positions within the organization and anything else that would go through human resources. And for example, with technology, Jose's in charge of technology, but our director of technology would then make recommendations to the assistant sup, that would come to our executive cabinet. We would have to approve that, and then that would come to the board for final authorization. So it's not that people are drawing and pulling straws out of a hat or looking at who's going to be impacted. Remember, layoffs are reduction in force. It has zero to do with performance-related items. It has to be reduction in force, period. So these are not due to evaluations, they're not due to anything other than that. That is the second tier that we deal with as well. As you guys know, for example, with teachers, we have to formally notice any probationary teacher that's a non-reelect by March 15th every year. That is a different subgroup. of what we're doing with the risks, and I'll get a little more into that when I get into the certificated staffing as we take note of that. And then classified are due by their hire date, your three-month, your six-month evaluation, one-year permanent status, that we have to meet timelines within not only collective bargaining agreement, but also within a law and Government Code and labor code. But again, with each one that is or will be or could be impacted, it's a one-on-one conversation. It's trying to find any other alternatives to see if we can put people in positions before people are eliminated. So I don't want you to think the person gets eliminated with the position. Because there are something with classified that we have bumping rights that would have to go back into other positions as we move down that list. There are no bumping rights with certificated administrators, because that's a question I've got quite a few times as well. Those are at will employees, depending on their status. And our teachers, we have three classifications. We have temporary employees, which are at will employees, up through May 15th. And then if you notice them after May 15th, then you would have to have them with their same property, meaning salary, up through June 30th. But they could still be eliminated. So what we did strategically with everybody that has all the answers, We actually have nine temporary teachers that we brought on this year that we would be able to reduce so we're not having to go through a reduction in force on those. But that is part of the 16 teachers that I get to a little loud on the latter of the presentation. So it's not. people and positions for each of these, because also teachers will have a right to be placed depending on their hire date, on what the options are in the open FTE position, which I'll get a little more into as well. But the biggest piece for us is resilience in tough times. We all have family, we all have kids, we might have important people in our life, right? Here's the last time I checked in my life, I'm not that important of a guy, but the person sitting across the table is a lot more important than I am. And when you're delivering these self-messages, you have to remember that could be you sitting on the other side of the table, so take your time. Give the utmost respect and find a way to help these people, right? I mean, there's all of these. I'll tell you right now, they're being riffed. They can utilize me if they want for professional reference, because we're working through, because it's not performance related. We are going through a reduction based on the financial hardship and financial crisis that's been set forth in front of us. and a superintendent on board that's being savvy to where we're at and charging us with coming up with $6.1 million, which this includes this evening that I'll talk more about as well.

[8271] Christopher Williams: So Jose, I think you're up next, my man.

[8275] Jose Quintana: Next slide is the actuals. In this slide, you're going to find those actual numbers on our MYP for 23-24. You'll find them on page 17 of those actual reports. And here we're seeing the multi-year projections for 24-25. with our restricted funding and our expenditures, coming up with a total ending fund balance for 24-25 at $3.2 million, zero at 25-26, and for fiscal year 26-27 at a negative $7,937,000. Once again, you can find that on an actual report that we gave for 23-24 September 3rd on page 17. Next slide. This is our first interim multi-year projection that we have our ending balances. This you will find that has slightly different numbers than what we have the actuals. Once again, these are a reflection of what we've adjusted. And so here we see the 2425 not too far off from the actuals from 61. 735 at 61502 here and for 2526 at our numbers here at 59450 and for our 2627 59163. These are our numbers that we have come up with first in a row back in December 12th, reflecting here our ending fund balance. Next slide. Our general fund reduction recommendations.

[8382] Jose Quintana: Next slide.

[8388] Christopher Williams: OK, so now we're going to get into the nitty gritty, and we'll take our time and process this. But I want to give you some important data before we get started. And I've had this question asked quite a few times. How many FTEs have we actually reduced? How many have we eliminated? And from last year, from July 1st to current date, which is today, we've actually used 29 FTE positions within this budget and within this organization that have allowed us some cost savings. So example, the first one, these were defunded, which a defunded position means the position's still active. And the position number is still active, but there is no more money attached to that position. And for that to be brought back, it would have to go through the executive cabinet, it would have to go through the superintendent, and then go through the board as a growth position because it actually means more money because we've already eliminated it. So that $1.36 million, was actually done over the holidays, and we actually inputted the data. Our director of fiscal is here as well, and can show the $1.3 million savings that we've already put in, which is included in the overall $6.1 million we're talking about tonight. So these were active positions. They were certificated teachers. They were management. There were different positions throughout. And those were sitting there that had a budget strand attached to them. And they have been inactive, meaning no one's been in those positions for quite some time. So we reduced those and eliminated all the funding on those. Make sense? Thumbs up? Yep. OK, perfect. The decrease in overall substitute as of today, it's over $96,000. And you say, how does that happen? Well, there's three things. One is we actually have improved teacher attendance as well as our employee attendance. So last year, we averaged about 430 absences monthly in certificated substitutes. Currently, we're at 236.5, which reduces a drastic number, especially when daily subs are paid at 235 per the board, 270 for long term, And any sub that works in our district that works 15 days or more, they get a $300 bonus on a monthly basis if they do the 15 days or more. So things that we've drawn out of this, there were subs that were paid at different rates of pay. They were at higher rates of pay that were not board approved that have been cleaned out. So there's only three rates of pay that you can be paid in this district. And all of those positions are aligned. So when you say, why is so and so, why were they making $400 a day? Because there was paperwork that was not done correctly that people signed and had rights to those positions. For example. If you're an unqualified teacher, meaning you may have a 30-day emergency credential, you can't be placed in a full-time teaching position and be placed on Step 1, Column 1 on a salary schedule. We had numerous ones of those coming and going, but those have been cleaned up. We're still working on interns. Which some interns were also in that same predicament where they were coming and finishing their credential, haven't quite finished their credential. So then you have a partnership with your university. And when you have that partnership with the university, you have one year to complete that intern. It could be two or up to five. But those have to be classified correctly. As a probationary zero teacher, not a probationary one. And guess what? You can work in an intern position for five years in a row and you will not get a step, right? You do not move up on your years of experience until you're fully qualified. So this is another cleanup that in the past. Those are areas that we had to focus on and look at so we could eliminate those and then put our money back in the bank and make sure that our alignment of positions is aligned to what the board has approved and what our regulated pay is that Chris Williams doesn't make up, that Jose doesn't make up, that is board authorized on any of these positions.

[8630] Christopher Williams: and through the collective bargaining agreements. Certificated management, which I want to focus on a few things. Right now, we have 10.48% reduction within certificated management. So currently, we spend over $4 million. on management within this district. On July 1, we actually had 48.6 management positions. By today, we've reduced five positions that are already out of the budget. With that being said, with this projection here, we are eliminating if board approves one full-time director at $214,852. We are going to move one principal as a recommendation to an assistant principal. And all the APs in the organization, because I'm always transparent and I know I talk too much, all the APs in this district will be noticed. And we will do a full reduction of an assistant principal within this district, which comes out to a total cost on the point with indirect costs, anything to do with a salary. that's active is $434,419 in the management. Again, overall percentage, that comes out to 10.5% over the overall expenditures that we spend on management right now. So it's the highest group that we're taking the most money out of. So second one, please. So as we go through, certificated in both different groups. So the first one is non-reelect, attrition, and or retirement, which we have eight positions in there projected, which I feel is very low. If you look at our history, I appreciate Cheri looking at our seniority list, providing information. I appreciate everyone that's working with us. But we already have three of these that fall in this category. In addition, we have the nine temporary teachers. So for us to get to 16, it's not going to be as difficult as it sounds like. Some of these teachers are going to go through attrition. They're going to go leave for promotions. Or they could be eliminated if they're a temporary contract, right? Now, in addition to this, we also have to remember, class size is changing for transitional K next year. So when transitional K is coming in and you're 10 to 1, that's going to require two FTEs versus one. So we've included that in because we will have four new teachers for transitional K. based on our projected enrollment. So that comes in a little light. We might have three. If it comes in a little heavy with enrollment, we might have five. But our projection on consistency over the last three years of data, it shows that we'll need at least four new teachers coming into those spots as we move forward. That total is coming out to $1.6 million. So example, the nine temporary teachers, as of this morning, it's $876,000 roughly for the nine temporary teachers, because temporary teachers are going to start lower on the salary schedule. They're going to be your newer teacher for the most part. Sliding on to the next one. Okay, classified restructure and realignment. We also have some people here that are going to assist us so that you guys have a better understanding of the design of what these restructures look like. So one of the pieces is the estimated $188,000 is generally and Jose are going to I think Jose is going to touch base on this. But it's the one IT tech, two software support specialists.

[8831] Tracey Vackar: This actually has a wrong number on it.

[8834] Christopher Williams: On what?

[8835] Tracey Vackar: On this slide, I believe.

[8836] Christopher Williams: Oh, that should have been reduced to 44,000. So that didn't get updated. Yeah, so that estimated savings cost because of the two positions at 110 and 120 should have been changed to $44,000.

[8851] Jose Quintana: Yeah, so that didn't get updated here. So the estimated savings for one IT tech and two software support specialists was $374,000. With adding a new position for an IT analyst and one SIS, student information systems analyst, that would be a savings of $43,000. Going into our classified restructure for those four positions, from 7.5 to 8 hours a day, and 11 months to 12 months, that's an increase of $30,000. So overall, yeah.

[8891] Christopher Williams: So obviously the district has been charged with going to the central enrollment. So one of the classified members, actually two, will be moving to 12-month to provide better support for our families at a 12-month position with an extra half an hour there available for parents when they're coming to the district office. And then in addition to that, we have another support person that would actually be pushing. By the way, both of these spots, just so everybody knows, have been paid overtime in the last three years. So it's really a cost to be doing this, and I'm showing it as an increase. Because I'm not counting the sub costs, and I'm not counting those costs. When it's random, I don't like it because it's not budgeted. So you have an overall budget for overtime. These have already been paid this amount, so it's ultimately going to be dollar for dollar. It's not an increase, but it's an increase to our FTE and our positions. And I'm not going to hide that because I want you guys to be able to see it as we walk through this.

[8950] Christopher Williams: But those will be support positions and areas to help our parents and students with enrollment as we move forward.

[8959] Christopher Williams: Next slide, please. There's a $10,000 problem there, too. Just so you know, we have two 48 positions that are actually not a part of the bargaining unit. One's a half-hour position, and one's a three-quarter-hour position. Only $10,000. This is a disaster.

[8976] Tracey Vackar: Right, we're... Yeah, for some reason we don't have the right presentation up here.

[8982] Jose Quintana: This is what I'm saying.

[8984] Tracey Vackar: We revised the slides. This is the slide that we revised.

[8988] SPEAKER_05: So you have the update that I passed out and what our board has.

[8993] SPEAKER_19: Let me show you the right presentation up here.

[8995] Kat Jones: And so the board can't see anywhere other than this because we don't have a paper copy of the revisions.

[9005] Christopher Williams: All right. I'm going to try to do some free entertainment.

[9009] Christopher Williams: It's probably not the best timing. I'm probably not going to, but I am going to do a quiz. What's the most important date for layoff notices? March 15th, right? And then final notices have to be delivered by May 15th. Just a little quick, you know, quick quiz here as we're moving forward here. It's kind of an awkward delay of time right now, to be honest, but I'm trying really hard.

[9035] Thank you. That's it.

[9058] Sorry. Oh, OK.

[9072] Kat Jones: I was just going to take a picture and send it to you. OK, thank you, Jose.

[9088] Christopher Williams: If you guys want to participate in a quick joke, we are going to ask a quick question.

[9100] Christopher Williams: How many of you know your capitals? Dang it, you already got me. It's my only good joke I have. How do you say the capital of Louisville or Kentucky? Is it Louisville or Louisville? It's actually Frankfurt, so go check your numbers. It's not a very good joke. See? She's already heard it. She already got it. I know. This is the new one.

[9121] Tracey Vackar: All right. All right. We could just stop here and pause on this slide here for a moment. I'd like to be able to bring some clarity to our community.

[9131] Christopher Williams: OK, so can we just start over on this slide? The numbers will be re-evaluated and just review.

[9146] Jose Quintana: So these are the numbers that we actually need to reflect here. Our estimated savings for these three positions in the IT department for the one IT tech and two software support specialists is $374,000. Bringing in these two new job descriptions that would require An analyst level that would be a little more in depth like for cyber security and the other would be for systems information would come up to about $331,000 with their salary and all benefits included. That would give us the savings of $43,000 and that reflects us here in this slide. is what we're trying to present earlier on. Moving into our classified restructure for $30,000 here and moving up these employees from 7.5 to 8 hours and from 11 months to 12 months. And we have the very last item here, our classified services reduction That gives us a $10,000 savings overall reflecting $23,000. So these are much needed restructuring for our IT department. That's why this was essential as a recommendation to the board to come up with job descriptions and a different type of analyst services for our district.

[9225] Jose Quintana: Next slide.

[9233] Christopher Williams: Okay, so the other one that, again, we're charged to look at different reductions proposed, remember. So this is a consideration obviously some people have already heard this a Bridgepoint would be moved back to the high school with crossroads the tall program and alternative ed to reduce the operating cost as well as some support staff. Obviously the baseline we have 14 and a half staff members there. A majority of them will not be impacted because they're still going to be providing similar like services when it gets transitioned to the high school.

[9267] Christopher Williams: Potential cost savings is around $500,000 that includes operating costs, as well as employee reduction costs. And then the last one was the classified total $461,137 or $371. Again, I want to cover, if you remember, management cost was 10.5% reduction. Certificated teachers out of a $35,800,000 budget. It's 4.5% total cost of their total expenditures on salaries and indirect costs. Classified is currently at 3.4% with where we're at of the total cost of $13 million on their expenditures.

[9313] Christopher Williams: And then special ed is right at 6.6%, which we're going to segue into next. OK, so one thing I really want you to recognize and notice, the word in front of the position. OK, contracted, 0.50.

[9330] SPEAKER_00: Contracted, 0.50.

[9332] Christopher Williams: Contracted, 0.50. School site retirees, so that's a different category. Sped lead teachers that have stipends that have not been filled. So these are contracted positions, and to give you an idea, on any position that you have contracted with in your district, there's a minimum of a 35% cost increase to have that supplemental service coming in from the outside in. So example, if we were to pay a special ed parent educator, total cost with health care and indirect cost, it would be approximately $38,000 on average. $37,500 to $38,500. When we bring in one special ed paraeducator contracted, it's costing us $60,000. We have 24 special ed paraeducators still providing support and services at our baseline. By the way, Chris and Angela don't make these decisions. We have IEPs that we do have to meet and follow and reassessing and doing like forensic audit on our IEPs. So example, I've used this sample quite a few times. But if I have my friend Jose here that has a reading problem, I may need to provide him reading support for phonemic awareness, alphabetical principle, whatever we want to focus on, for about two hours a day, right? And it may be direct, high-level, intense services. But after that two and a half hours, what happens to my eight? That aid in past, again, not in every situation, and again, being transparent, that aid stays with Jose for the rest of the day, five days a week. In lieu of what we're trying to do, again, there is a lot of work on this, and this isn't a magic wand that we're waving and saying we're done. But we're trying to look at these aides that are servicing Jose. so that he can only, or that aid can service him, and then also me, so there might be a little more movement with our special ed aides. Does that make sense? And every time we do that, you guys, it's a savings of $24,000, baseline monies. on one aid, and the benefit is we have more people in our community that we're hoping to bring in to hire. Example, last Friday, we had six pair of educators that were interviewed, and by the way, which everybody's shaking their head, they were actually highly qualified. So in the past, what we do with those, those other five go home and no one talks to them. But we have five potential people that we can bring in as these paraeducators with special ed to help build their capacity and provide them the professional development and the testing necessary so that each one of them that would come in, if we could hire five of those, it saves $125,000. $121,000 to be exact. So being creative on it. Because these contracted aides, we're not required to bring this to the board for elimination because we have contracts that have already been brought to the board for approval. I'm bringing this so that we can be transparent and everybody can see it and our board knows what we're faced against as we're moving to the next step. But if you see the total cost, it's about $390,000. Then the next slide is going to give us the remaining $791,000. So it's, again, PT, physical therapist, contracted, contracted. The only full-time position that is on this is the adaptive PE teacher. which we've actually, Angela has already talked to her. We're still going to work with her and see if there's any other spots that we can bring her back in, in another position, which she may be willing to, as I understand, Angela, is that correct? As of today, this afternoon? But you can see there's a lot of people that may be impacted on this position, but if we have services that we're required to, we are mandated to meet those requirements based on the IEP. Not based on my perception, not based on, you know, all the time with parents' perception, but we want to communicate with parents so we know that we're providing that support for our families. and meeting the baseline. We also have, which I put on here, we have one RSP non-reelect, which you won't see the name on it, but it's already been brought, one of them's already been brought to the board. So I'm going to keep those a prize as we're going through. These lists do not, this is not included in the other list that I've already showed you of the 1.6 million. This is an entire two different slides. The 1.1 million, a little over with special ed, is not touching any of the other reductions I've showed you so far. So it's an in addition to to get us to our baseline. OK. All right. And then Jose is going to talk about the last one on the technology.

[9603] Jose Quintana: So on technology, non-renewal services, this is where our IT department generally has Not only identified some of the services that we're no longer using like zoom licenses that we're paying an annual contribution to it, but only maybe 10% of users are being you are utilizing those services. So this is what we've deducted and just basically cancel that that subscription. Also, old AT&T phone lines that were just not functional that we're actually going into voice over IP now. Also, including our T-Mobile hotspots that we had for not only for our sites, but our staff, some of our students. Those were hardly ever used, so we just basically canceled those out, left a few lines open, a few hot spots connected. But this brought us a savings of $130,000 for the fiscal year in itself. So that's kudos to the IT department that is looking for resources on how to not only cut in some of these expenditures but bring that back into the district. Now there's Think Together. It's the extended learning expenditure. This is grant funded. It's not the Think Together here that we're identifying some of the savings for some of the snacks for our students. Our students into this Think Together contract did not include any kind of nutrition services, any kind of snacks for them. We were using a neighboring district for this, and it was costing us about $5 a student. And sometimes that would be, you could say, charged twice to that. And that was really getting a much higher rate of, I think our expenditures were between $40,000 and $50,000 per month. on some of these months. And here we saw another opportunity for us as a district to look at like for instance Costco to get the supplies and get the nutritional values to get the fruits and to get some of the snacks at $8,000 per month. So that's a huge savings there of $150,000 for the district.

[9717] Jose Quintana: So a total of $280,000, $111 here.

[9729] Karen Allard: We are looking at additional restructure considerations that we wanted to make the board aware of. Some of these considerations are tied to school site councils, LCAP, and the general fund. Part of these reduction considerations also includes funding for two grants that end in 2026. Although the grants end in 2026, we have already exceeded the allotment. As we prepare for the February 4th meeting, we may need to include additional considerations for cost savings, and we'll share these for your review.

[9760] Karen Allard: Next slide. While we look at budget reductions, we also want to include in our presentation some possible future revenue considerations. These can include increasing our daily attendance rates, increasing services for outside contracts with their graphic arts department, Looking at facility use contracts for outside organizations who want to use our facilities and have these contracts in line with our actual cost for cost recovery. We can also look for grant opportunities from the state that may be in the new governor's budget or other organizations. We are also in cohort 2 of the medical reimbursement program and anticipate a $250,000 reimbursement for this school year and up to $500,000 for 25-26. This is a reimbursement insurance program where we can build private insurance private insurances for services that support children. similar to the MAA program. We will still offer an extended learning program for our families and we need to make sure that we are allocating money that was in the grant funds that we receive.

[9832] Karen Allard: So it just does not encroach on the general fund.

[9839] Tracey Vackar: Next slide.

[9842] Jose Quintana: There is a cell tower on there on that slide that we didn't touch base on. And so we're looking at current locations at the middle school. that has two cell towers on there from Verizon. We're currently in negotiations for that number to give us a 20 or a 40-year lease on that and compensate us with a one-time funding.

[9861] Jose Quintana: So still currently under negotiations.

[9868] Christopher Williams: And then just to reiterate, obviously we're at the January 21st board meeting and we'll wait for conversation. We're anticipating coming back on February 4th, we will be providing a new update no matter what. And either February 4th or 18th, depending on what the direction is from the board tonight, the board resolution will be brought back twice, required by law, February 18th and March 4th, depending on how tonight goes. And I'll be able to provide you a recap on what our board directs us to do after this. Do you have your budget up here? That's it. OK. All right. So any questions from the board. I know it's a heck of a lot of information. Walk through slide by slide and do our best to get the information you need.

[9914] Nancy Thomas: Member Thomas. Yeah I'd like to ask a question about the cell tower. You're talking about the initial or the existing cell towers? That's correct. Now, I recall those contracts were limited. They weren't 20-year by any means. And that land is potential. And at one point, we said that was excess land that we could sell or develop. So I mean, we would need to get out of those contracts. You didn't say 20 years, did you?

[9950] Jose Quintana: No, no. The current is 40 years on that. They're looking for 40 or more years. We're trying to get it down to 20 years. If there is a sale on the property, they would go with that ground lease. There is an easement currently in that contract. So that contract is currently due. And so we are in negotiations. for the next term. If we do not give them clear direction, it would go into an automatic five-year term four times over. That's another 20 years. That's the only number that comes in for 20 years. But currently, it should be negotiated. for 40 years, but at a much favorable number. We're currently not getting that from Verizon.

[9997] Nancy Thomas: I guess I'm not understanding. How many years are we obligated to provide, allow them to use those cell towers?

[10007] Jose Quintana: It was initially for our our agreement. It was 40 years on there, I believe is what it states. And if we do not negotiate a new contract, it will automatically roll into a five-year terms for four times consecutive. So that's 20 years there. If we do nothing with it, it just stays at $2,000 a month. which is what the district is receiving currently.

[10034] Nancy Thomas: So we can't develop that land? No, you can't.

[10039] Jose Quintana: No, you definitely can't. There's an easement.

[10041] You have to be able to give them notice.

[10043] Jose Quintana: There is an easement. There is a negotiation. Let them know. Give enough notice in writing. Let them know that if we were to do whatever with that property if you want to sell it, you want to lease it, whatever you want to do with that property, there is an easement that would have to go into that real estate sale.

[10062] Nancy Thomas: Okay, so we can sell it.

[10064] Jose Quintana: Yeah, absolutely. You just have to provide the buyer with that information. There is an easement with Verizon. Thank you.

[10072] Tracey Vackar: And just for clarification, the location that we're talking about, I believe, is at the middle school.

[10075] Jose Quintana: Is that correct? Correct. You are at the middle school.

[10077] Tracey Vackar: I just want to be really clear about where it's at, just because I know we're talking about a community. And by the way, if they were to do something with it, there's no guarantee that cell phone service would get better either. That's not on us.

[10088] Jose Quintana: No, no. And they currently have 4G towers up there, and they like to go, and they usually, 4Gs have a 10-mile radius coverage, but they like to go to something stronger, 5G, which has a two-mile radius. So there's a lot of infrastructure, a lot more, if you will, money to be had on their part. And if we do not renew their contract, then I'd be more than happy to go with somebody else, which those are things to consider.

[10115] Nancy Thomas: Get us the best deal.

[10118] Austin Block: Trying. I had a couple of questions. I just wanted to address some of the things that people had brought up in another comment and see if we can assuage concerns as much as possible. So first, I just wanted to clarify, so Think Together is only in this presentation because there was savings with regards to the snacks, correct? There was no plan of cutting the Think Together program.

[10137] Tracey Vackar: Actually, there could be a reason to walk and cut up any other program, but we would still have had some sort of after-school program. It would be replaced with it. We would want to be able to replace it with something that might be within the cost of the actual grant that we get versus encroaching on our general fund.

[10150] Austin Block: Okay, but regardless, an after-school program would be provided a similar quality in. and in scope.

[10155] Tracey Vackar: Yeah, based on the grant that's out there, we are required to provide that, and we're required to provide it, especially for our parents and families who are unduplicated count type students, right? They have the need and the services. We absolutely must provide it if we accept that grant.

[10170] Austin Block: OK, thank you. Secondly, I guess I was a little bit curious about the IT restructure slide. Can we go back to that one? A couple of questions about that.

[10180] Tracey Vackar: And we'll email this presentation to you soon, the updated presentation.

[10183] Austin Block: Thank you. So I had heard some concerns raised from our software support specialists about the difficulty in perhaps eventually transitioning to a new student information system, given reduced staffing. I was wondering what our thoughts were with regards to that going forward. Clearly, Everyone in our IT department does really great work. It's investing a lot of time and effort in keeping the district running. And it does seem a little concerning to me to be cutting in a department that is already stretched pretty thin, particularly if we, at some point in the future, do want to transition to an SIS that is better than the one that we have right now. So just was curious about the reasoning behind this and the impact this could have on overall district tech.

[10229] Jose Quintana: Absolutely. That's a valid question. And I'm with you on that. It's going to be a learning curve, whatever system we do use with our current synergy. We are looking into different software programs that would launch. Not only with our IT department, but multiple stakeholders from the sites, here at the district office, ed services, that would assist us into this, adopting this new software system. So it's going to be a learning curve, for sure. Nonetheless, We do need to go into something that's a little more up to date and we can get ahead of the curve because of this UPP counts that goes into CalPASS. We want to make sure that we're starting getting accurate data. That data that we not only gather from the site can be inputted much faster than if you will towards the end of the year. So those are the things that we're trying to adopt and learn getting the right software for this and we have been in talks with multiple vendors on this and hopefully we'll get close to one particular vendor that will help us streamline this process.

[10288] Austin Block: Thank you. And then just one final question. I'm sorry for all the questions regarding the conversation around custodial reduction in force. It does seem like it would potentially be like exacerbating the burden on our remaining staff to have these cuts if the amount of facilities that they would need to be able to take care of remains the same. How does that math work out if there were to be a reduction in force, but then kind of an unchanging amount of responsibility for remaining staff?

[10318] Jose Quintana: Right, so your question is how would they service the sites with a reduction in force, if you will. So this is where we're looking for more of a analyst position that has that higher, if you will, knowledge on systems and basically going after the systems information.

[10336] Tracey Vackar: I think the question was on custodial.

[10339] Jose Quintana: Custodial.

[10341] Christopher Williams: So Bridgepoint, if the board accepts the recommendation to move Bridgepoint over, there's one and a half full-time FTEs over there. What's that? Excuse me, I'm off of. So but there's there's 2 bits of 2 people One and a half FTE that are on the books that would then be eliminated and then after further discussion because of the sub issue I Okay, is that better I'll talk very quietly But OK, so with Bridgepoint, if that does happen, then those custodians would be shifted. We've hired four custodians within the last six months. So you go from the lowest of seniority, right? And in addition to that, we have talked after further conversation, and I appreciate some people and voices, Tracy and I talked about possibly eating the two positions and make them the floating subs for us to give us back support back at the sites because there is a huge issue that was brought in. I know we have talked about it to be able to consider that in the next recommendation when we come back to the board in February. But then you would still have two positions reduced because we're shutting down the school, if approved. And then we would create two floating subs that would still be full time, but they would be the first fill ins if somebody was not there in the morning or afternoon. OK, so that will definitely help. It's going to decrease our cost savings, and it'll move the overall classified cost reduction to 3.1%, just so we know. Got it. So hopefully that clarifies.

[10451] Christopher Williams: Yep.

[10457] Joy Lee: So one question. Regarding the school psychologist's retiree, would it impact the students in any way, like, in terms of, like, if they would need help with, like, their social, emotional health?

[10478] Angela Walker: Thank you for that question, Joy. Yes. So our school psychologists serve and support students with IEPs. So they are predominantly psychologists. They assess our students for eligibility and they provide the services within their IEP. So what you're referring to is the counseling, if they need counseling and extra support. So fortunately, we do have a contract with effective school solutions and that predominantly they provide the counseling for students. We were able to look at the IEPs as they are written, and each of our students' IEPs can be fulfilled with the existing staff, minus without retiree.

[10523] Joy Lee: Thank you. You're welcome.

[10526] Kat Jones: Member Hill.

[10529] Aiden Hill: So first off, I want to thank the superintendent's staff. pulling together numbers and recommendations. And I also know the challenges that we face in terms of trying to get a clear financial picture in our district. And for lack of maybe a better explanation, Sometimes it kind of feels like at some point somebody took a jigsaw puzzle and threw it up in the air, and then we had a whole bunch of pieces we had to figure out how to put back together. So I appreciate the challenges. At the same time, though, we're proposing a lot of cuts here. So when I add up these numbers, if I add them up correctly, it's about $6 million in cuts. And so I want to make sure that we have a good baseline as we tackle this. So I'm wondering if we could go turn to Paige. was the one with the pages that are not in the actuals.

[10596] Tracey Vackar: Actually, if you go to the MYP page, it's on here. You're not seeing the first presentation that we had up. Go back a little further.

[10604] SPEAKER_01: Is that slide six?

[10605] Tracey Vackar: If we could expand that page, I think this will be an important page to help you.

[10616] Jose Quintana: Do you have that printout there?

[10620] Tracey Vackar: They don't have the printout. I think you handed out.

[10623] Jose Quintana: They have it.

[10624] Tracey Vackar: Yeah.

[10628] Jose Quintana: That should be slide six.

[10633] Aiden Hill: Yeah, it's kind of an eye chart.

[10635] Jose Quintana: Yes. Apologies Apologies on that that is that's in the first interim report MYP projections that starts up with our 24 25 at 61 502 022 with our expenditures at 49 to 5 to plus the $15,000,648 that you see there on line number three.

[10661] Tracey Vackar: Do you want to go back to the other slide? Does that help you?

[10664] Aiden Hill: I mean, is that one different from the multi-year protection?

[10669] Jose Quintana: Correct. If you go back one slide, Ms. Toya, that's basically just those numbers being reflected on that breakdown. OK. So these are the exact same numbers as you see on that spreadsheet there.

[10683] Jose Quintana: It's just a sheet from the first interim report.

[10689] Aiden Hill: OK. So we're projecting. a little more than 61.5 in revenues for this year, and 65 in expenditures. OK. And we're saying, so basically, we don't really have a deficit this year. I'm sorry. No, we do. Sorry. So is 64.9 minus 61.5, 2.5? Correct. OK. OK. So then that's our starting balance, right?

[10727] Jose Quintana: That is correct.

[10729] Aiden Hill: ending fund balance there at the two point okay so then if we go into the next year right so we would have that as a starting balance so let's let's just say that's like so we would add that to the fifty nine four five zero right so that would be what six sixty two But so 66.7 minus 62 is not 600,000.

[10753] Tracey Vackar: No, your 2,000, your $2,553,283 is a negative. That's not a positive balance, right? Yeah, it should be a negative balance. Right, because if you take your revenues, which are $61 million, minus your expenditures, You're the whole.

[10772] Aiden Hill: It should be. OK, but the issue, though, is how is this impacting our fund balance, right? So we're not seeing the fund balance here anywhere. So we're in the hole. But what's our starting fund balance? What was our starting fund balance for this year?

[10799] SPEAKER_26: $122 million unrestricted.

[10810] Tracey Vackar: Yeah, we're bringing the NC up.

[10820] Yep.

Pause: 14.0s

[10834] Jose Quintana: So in our first interim MYP on our printout, we have a beginning balance of $22,453,555. OK.

[10845] Aiden Hill: So at the beginning of this year, we got $22 million in the bank.

[10851] Jose Quintana: Correct.

[10851] Aiden Hill: OK. At the end of this year, we're projecting that we're running a deficit and that that bank account is going to go down by $2.5 million.

[10860] SPEAKER_01: Correct.

[10861] Aiden Hill: So we're going to be left with $19.5 million. Correct. OK. Right? So we have $19.5 million in the bank, right? So now if we take 66,798 minus 59, right? So that's, again, what, roughly 7 million? You have those numbers wrong. 7 million. So we're really running at that point. we're running a $7 million deficit for next year. Correct. So how did it go up that much?

[10903] Aiden Hill: How did it go up from $2.5 million in 2024 to $7 million?

[10913] Jose Quintana: Right, so we have our commitments. Well, we also have our commitments that we have been discussing here. Our commitments here are $13,217,000 for this year and next year $8.4 million. So that also adds to that deficit there. Well, that's $7 million into our 24, 25. 25, 26, my apologies.

[10942] Nancy Thomas: Agreed. These are commitments, some of which can be taken care of with the bond?

[10948] Jose Quintana: No. No no these are commitments that we've had that we put a resolution I believe in our very last fiscal presentation with our facility and permits deferred maintenance technology refresh furniture replacement declining enrollment.

[10966] Tracey Vackar: Some of those could be replaced with the bond proceeds that we have coming up. For those designated funds that you've designated, that could be potentially money that could be returned.

[10980] Nancy Thomas: Right, but this is all money that we passed a resolution because we had to meet the cap that the state required, which I think has gone away, which to me means these numbers, the board can revisit them.

[10994] Aiden Hill: Absolutely.

[10997] Nancy Thomas: So we have a lot of wiggle room.

[10999] Aiden Hill: So given this, right? I mean, I know that you guys live and breathe these numbers every day. So we're not looking at them. But there's some big mental leaps. And I want to make sure, because we're making an assumption that we need to cut $6 million. I mean, I really need to see how, I don't see that in these numbers.

[11028] Jose Quintana: Yeah, those are unassigned ending balances, what you're seeing there, the 2.5, 600,000, and the $51,440. OK.

[11041] Aiden Hill: So I think it would be helpful if we look at your timeline. So we have a board meeting on the 4th? Correct. So could we do a brief study session where we can walk through a little bit of the starting point here? right so that we we really understand okay you know here here literally is pluses and minuses right so here's what we got in the bank here's what we have coming in here's what you have going out here's what's the delta the projection absolutely right um and then and then to be able to say tie that then to our cuts because I think you know I mean I think we all need to understand it but also as I think vice president Thomas has said not member Thomas that's too lowly so that maybe we have some wiggle room on some of this stuff.

[11102] Jose Quintana: Correct. And I'd be more than happy to set up some time with the board here and go over this at a study session.

[11108] Aiden Hill: Okay.

[11109] Jose Quintana: We'll send email out.

[11110] Nancy Thomas: You know, could I say something or ask something? It seems to me that a lot of these cuts are not taking services away. A lot of these cuts are right-sizing the district.

[11125] Tracey Vackar: That's correct.

[11126] Nancy Thomas: The work we still have to do is, the money's there for the work we still have to do, especially in special ed. We're not cutting services to special ed kids. We're not We are still going to be able to clean all of our sites because with the cut that you said in custodial, you are right sizing and not taking services away. We're having trouble recruiting talent. And some of it is because we're not competitive. Any $6 million we save that we can put into ongoing increases for our people. so we can retain them and reward them for what they need to do. I'm all for that.

[11179] Nancy Thomas: I'm all for that.

[11186] Jose Quintana: Thank you.

[11186] Jose Quintana: Any other questions for the board?

[11192] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Any other questions? Go ahead. I just had a quick question in regards to the classified restructure for the software support specialists. I know Chris went ahead and just elaborated really quick on the SIS analysts and the CALPADS, right? Is that considered like the registrar? Is that the person that will be taking care of that? I mean, or is it the software for like the i-Ready, everything that's out there? It just really, it's not clear to me to what position that. would become a manager position?

[11236] Jose Quintana: Right. Well, for SIS, that would be an information analyst, so it's not a management position. This is a position, basically, that would take all that data. We have the other position that would be a network systems administrator.

[11250] Jose Quintana: That's the administrator, if you will, management position.

[11259] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Thank you.

[11260] Kat Jones: All right. Any other questions? OK. Thank you so much. Thank you.

[11268] Kat Jones: We have some discussion to have. All right. Do we need a break? Quick break? OK. All right. Let's take a four minute and be back at 1130.

[11292] Kat Jones: Bio break. Oh, thank goodness. I was having a hard attack. OK, so 1030. We'll come back at 1030, take a couple of minutes.

[11310] Kat Jones: Thank you. convening our meeting.

11.1 After School Education and Safety (ASES) Grant Award Notification

[12147] Kat Jones: We are on new business of after school education and safety grant award notification.

[12159] Tracey Vackar: Yes. This evening we have two grant notifications that we received. You're actually very familiar with these. They were part of our adopted budget. They were part of our program support. However, CDE was a little bit behind in getting these documents to us. We finally received them over the Christmas holiday, but they've been in effect. They actually go back back to July 1. And so quite often, CTE is a little slow on these grant notifications to us. And this is two of them. We're expecting, I think, three others that we're still looking on a lookout for. that are still funding some of our programs that we have in this current year that have been operating, providing support services to our students. This is just for us now, for us to be able to do our, booking it inside of our actual budget, which is what Nancy does, and then we're able then to expend against it in our reports.

[12216] SPEAKER_19: Thank you.

11.2 California Partnership Academies (CPA) Grant Award Notification

[12217] Tracey Vackar: So actually, both for the ACES and CPA, these are two items that are there.

[12223] Kat Jones: OK, great. Thank you so much. Can we move down to 11.3 then?

[12229] SPEAKER_19: Yes.

[12229] Kat Jones: All right.

[12231] Kat Jones: So the school board, what? Yeah, it's just notification. Do we have to?

[12242] Tracey Vackar: No, there isn't.

[12243] Kat Jones: We don't have to do anything with them. It's information only.

[12246] Tracey Vackar: It's information only because we received it. I've already signed off on them. It's services we've been doing already all year. You were aware that we were doing these services, and we were just waiting for the grant awards to come in from the Department of Education.

[12260] Aiden Hill: So I have a question related to both of those grants, or any grant.

[12266] And that is that I've seen in the past, when I first joined the board, We went after all these grants, but there were all of these kind of strings attached.

[12276] Aiden Hill: And it ended up that the dog or the tail was biting the dog. And we ended up having to pull in resources to satisfy these grants that really maybe had no urgent needs. And so I'm just, I'm hoping that these are more aligned and that we're not neglecting resources from things that are important.

[12297] Tracey Vackar: So, great question. The ACES grant actually provides us with the ability to offer additional safety education services. is definitely a grant we would want to keep. The California Partnership Academy's grant is actually a piece that actually funds a portion of the MCA program. And you may recall we had talked about at one point about maybe reducing the MCA program last year. It was decided by the board to keep it for one more year and then do an assessment of that. When you do your next board adoption for your budget adoption for next school year, it's the one that you'll have to come back and reconsider again. That's correct.

[12335] Nancy Thomas: But I'd like to make a comment on it. I've been very involved with looking at our CPA grant over many years and the The requirement is that the district match the $60,000 that we get. But if you look, I've looked at the budgets, and I'd appreciate it if the board could see what the costs really have been in that grant, because they were always far and above the grant. The money, yeah, because you have to consider small class sizes, which they have, that cost money. So that's part of our match. And our match was probably double what the grant required. It cost us more money, I think, than And Mrs. Thomas is correct.

[12385] Tracey Vackar: So one of the challenges are is that if you're offering a math, a language arts section, I think it's a science section, they all have to be just those students that are in that cohort. So if that grant starts off, let's say with, I'll just use an example, let's say it starts off with 90 students initially, And then by the time they get to their senior year, it's down to a much lower number, maybe more like a 25. It could be problematic because now you're not staffing fully for your FTE, and other students can't come to that cohort. So basically, that particular course gets capped off. just for those individual students so that they stay whole together as part of a cohort. So I understand exactly what you're saying. I do think it's been problematic. It was a piece that we talked about last year. We knew that it was running. It was costing us a lot more money. And we also then were having to bring in another staff member to help fill some of the other sections because we couldn't fully fill those sections. They had to be in a small, small, small grouping. So I can see where your concerns are. The MCA program has been working with the Lighthouse Academy piece to be able to re-strategize and work on recruitment strategies to be able to bring those numbers up, get more students involved in the academies. We know that students that are in the academies are very successful. Students absolutely love being in the academies and it's done some great work on that end of it. It's a matter of whether or not we can really financially make it work. I will tell you that CPAs, there used to be a large number of CPAs in the state. They have collapsed down because the requirements are so rigorous and they have no wiggle room. that it makes it very difficult to be able to operate in it. As a matter of fact, if a district gives up one of their CPA programs, the state does not replace it anymore. So basically, the state's waiting for it to kind of die on the vine, I think, in some ways. Because it doesn't really, like somebody loses an academy, another person can't start an academy. So the academies are just limited to what's out there in the state. And as they dwindle down, they'll eventually kind of fall off.

[12515] Nancy Thomas: And I think media is one area that's covered. But think of what we're trying to do with the STAR Lab. It might be more attractive to students and serve the same kind of purpose that we have.

[12535] Tracey Vackar: I think our students like a variety because not every student is going to want to go into the STAR Lab and be more STEM related with more like the technology and the engineering side of things. But the other students are very artistic, they're interested in communications. their interest in some of those things. So I think we need to find a good blend between the variety of programs when we work with our ROP and we look at the programs that are out there. Again, I think we need to come back and do a bigger assessment of the CPA program. But for this year, The boards that they were willing to add it into their budget, they weren't ready to let it go yet. We've been working hard on strategies. I want to thank the staff over at the high school. They've been very open to working with myself. We reached out personally and talked with people from the state together on a conference call last year to try to sit there and look at what could we do. to make this better and stronger, right? And so that's what they've been working on for this year. I look forward to seeing their report. I'm sure they'll be happy to give a report back to our district and share that information.

[12602] Austin Block: Yeah, I just like to add and we've heard testimony and within the past year of students and alumni of the program who talk about the sort of life changing impact that had on them. And so even if it does, you know, end up being a little bit more costly than the grant itself and does require, you know, some additional investment and recruiting additional students into the program. You know, it does seem like there are some non-quantifiable impacts of this program that students speak very passionately about. And so, I mean, personally, I'm of the opinion that we ought to do whatever we can to hold on to something that students tell us is working for them.

[12635] Tracey Vackar: So I don't disagree with that. I can also tell you that you can bring the CTE component. that's involved with this piece, with the multimedia element. And you could actually create that as being a pathway. Just play devil's advocate for a moment, right? So this is something I've seen done before. It doesn't mean that you lose the integrity of that portion of the program. It just means that it allows more flexibility for the core academic elements. But you could keep the other piece. Even if you didn't have CPA funding, there's other funds out there available that we might be able to leverage and still keep a program intact and not lose it. I think there's just some other ways that you can go spin it, and I think there's other eligibility dollars out there that we should be looking at if we cannot make the CPA work with the integrity of how the program is designed. If we can't conform to that, or it becomes so costly and cost prohibitive that it's impacting other programs on the site, then we should look at what else can we do to salvage it so that the students have the core pieces, which they really enjoy, which is around the multimedia communications element.

[12699] Aiden Hill: So both of these items actually do require action. So we have to vote on it. So it says action. So we got to vote to approve. So I think we're going to.

[12712] Tracey Vackar: I mean, OK, I should. I'm going to say that you ratify them. Although I signed off on them, I'm just doing it as a ratification.

[12718] Aiden Hill: OK. I suspect we're going to ratify, but I'd like to make a recommendation for future grants. And that is, can we have people fill out a template that basically says, here's the grant, here's specifically what we're getting for it. So here's specifically what the goal is for this grant in more detail. And then also, is it cost neutral? So basically, what's the revenue that's coming in, but what are any costs that we have to incur? Because I think that that's important for us to be able to make a a good decision, because what happens, right, is it then becomes like death by a thousand cuts if you don't manage it. And at one point, when I was on the board earlier, that's what happened. We had so many grant—I mean, everybody was out there trying to go get grant money, but not really realizing all of that overhead that goes into getting that, administering it, and what we're getting for it.

[12778] Tracey Vackar: Right. Right. And like I said, at one point, I think the CPAs kind of made sense when we were a little bit more flush with monies. Now that things are a little bit more challenging and people are trying, and districts are trying to fill their FTE sections to their fullest. right to make sure that they're leveraging what they can within their budgets. When you've got one, you've got a teacher who's not meeting the max of what the CBA says, right, for their FTE section, that could be problematic across the board. It actually has an impact, it's a ripple effect on everybody else there at the site. So I hear what you're saying. I think we'll have to come back and let's have a conversation about that. I think it's something that for the future would be great to go off and implement some sort of document that would be helpful.

[12826] Kat Jones: So it sounds like we need to have a motion to ratify the afterschool education and safety grant award. We'll do that first. I move to ratify. Second. OK. So.

[12846] Kat Jones: Hill ratifies and Block seconds.

[12853] Kat Jones: Member Hill?

[12859] Toya Lemus: Yes. Member Anguiano? Yes. Member Block? Yes. Vice President Thomas? Yes. President Jones?

[12867] Tracey Vackar: Yes.

[12868] Tracey Vackar: Student member, Lee, left to go get some rest for tomorrow's school.

[12878] Kat Jones: OK. And so looking at the California Partnership Academies, Grant, may I have a motion for a ratification of that grant?

[12889] Nancy Thomas: I move we ratify the California Partnership Academy's grant.

[12893] Nancy Thomas: And a second?

[12898] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: I second.

[12899] Kat Jones: OK, so Thomas does the motion to ratify. Anguiano seconds. And roll call, vote call.

[12912] Toya Lemus: Student Board Member Lee absent. Member Hill? Yes. Member Anguiano?

[12917] Aiden Hill: Yes.

[12918] Toya Lemus: Member Block? Yes. Vice President Thomas? Yes. President Jones?

[12922] Kat Jones: Yes.

[12923] Toya Lemus: Five ayes, one motion.

[12924] Kat Jones: Motion passes or ratified.

[12926] Kat Jones: The grant is now ratified. All right.

11.3 School Board Site Liaison

[12932] Kat Jones: So I believe we are down to 11.3, school board site liaison. Should I restart this maybe? Sure.

[12942] Tracey Vackar: Yeah. OK. So there have been some discussion about the idea of perhaps having a this actually goes back to last summer during the board planning session that we had. And we talked about the board wanting to have some additional ability to be able to connect with school sites and maybe having a liaison representative available for each of our schools. And the schools would actually reach out to that liaison first to have them either come to events to help lead some discussions maybe with their parent groups. maybe some initiatives that might be happening on campus and kind of be that champion, right? It could be something that could be a rotational thing. It could be something that maybe, you know, you can do it in different kinds of ways. As a board member myself in the past, I can tell you that my board assigned a person an alternate to each school site. The high schools were available to all of us to be able to kind of be there with and it didn't prohibit a board member from going to a different site. But it just allowed for the administration that site to be able to reach out to them, kind of have a conversation, kind of be able to work on some initiatives that were really super important out there. So the board talked about this last July. It was not something that we implemented but it was something we were going to talk about in the board reorganization and we left it off the list. I wanted to make sure that we had a chance to bring it back and have the conversation to see if this is something that the board may be interested in doing again. I want to thank President Jones for reminding me that a discussion had taken place, and so we wanted to place this back on the agenda again.

[13041] Kat Jones: So yeah, and I just, you know, it's attending things, it's open house, it's back to school night, it's being available, going to parent-teacher club meetings, or PTAs, or whatever their organization on the campus is. And I know for the high school graduation, we all go. But then each one of the schools, the elementaries, has a promotion for fifth grade. There's the eighth grade promotion, graduation as well. So it's, you know, for the, for the elementaries, it's a way of making sure that, you know, we are there and having some experiences and for the school site and the parents at those school sites to get to know us. So I was eager to do this and kind of think about, as I was thinking about it, who would I like to work with? And I started working with the. with Memorial this last week. I met with them because of the new student board member process and election process. I sat down with Mr. Murphy and Ms. Canales about what our expectations were, what the process would be, a timeline for this year's process. So I've been working really closely with them on that. I was thinking about this, I would really like to be a part of the liaison for the high school, partly because of that, but also because of being an elementary teacher, I don't have as much experience with the secondary. And so it's a stretch for me to get involved from that level. It's an opportunity for us to say, what schools are you interested in? I'm going to be going to Kennedy events because my granddaughter's there. So that's not a school I would sign up for as liaison necessarily, because I'm going to be going as a grandparent at times too. So maybe on the alternate. So anyway, that's kind of what I'm thinking. Member Hill.

[13177] Aiden Hill: And I just wanted to add that I think that part of the genesis of this discussion is that in prior times, sometimes there's a lot of events going on in a lot of different schools. And sometimes the workload has fallen unfairly on a few board members. And I would say maybe specifically Member Thomas and Member Jones going to a lot of things. And Member Hill not always going to as many, partly because of my job. But I think that the intent is how do we share the load a little bit more.

[13222] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: I just wanted to add to just piggyback on that. It's just being present. shows a lot of support for the parents, also for the staff, and really just coming back and sharing here amongst the board and also the cabinet, and just making sure that we're collaborating, that we have the communication. That's really key. So I really do like the idea I'm all for it.

[13253] Austin Block: So sounds good Yeah, I just like to echo what everyone else has said this sounds like a great idea I'm all for it and I'm just to make the process easier I'm eager to work with people from any school site. So put me for whichever schools y'all want That's fine with me.

[13270] Kat Jones: Does anybody have any preferences?

[13273] Nancy Thomas: Well, I would like Lincoln.

[13277] Aiden Hill: All right. And I would really.

[13282] Nancy Thomas: Because they're doing so many wonderful, innovative things, especially after school programs, and I just I just want to revel in the wonderful staff they have. And it's just electric, and it catches me on fire.

[13300] Aiden Hill: And I would like to sign up for Schilling, because that's so close to where I live, and it's a school that I

[13306] Aiden Hill: I really want to see you do well. OK.

[13311] Kat Jones: Anybody else?

[13312] Kat Jones: Preferences?

[13316] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: For me, I'll go ahead and just mention, I do have four children. Three of those go to different levels. So I think I just fit in and pretty much cover the whole basis here. However, just just being part of a different community for me to get to know. You know, other parts of our wonderful schools, I mean, I would like to do that. So, you know, I have to get out of my comfort zone and be out there.

[13344] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: I'd like to be at a BGI, so.

[13349] Tracey Vackar: One of the things I'd like to recommend is maybe BGI and BGP kind of go together. They have the same parents often, you know, because you've got your primary and your intermediary. One of the things that we've heard from parents is that, you know, like you even heard our principal talk tonight about the fact that they walk together, right? They shared the award together. They're doing a lot of things in joint efforts together. So I might recommend maybe that you maybe combine BGI and BGP kind of together.

[13376] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Sounds good. I mean, that's something that really sparked my interest in being a part of to see what they're doing good, positive. So we could go ahead and just spread that around the different schools.

[13387] Austin Block: So it looks like we're going to need to have two per board member, with one board member having just one, since Memorial is the largest campus. Maybe if Member Jones wants to just take Memorial, then each of us can take two of the smaller school sites. Does that sound reasonable?

[13402] Kat Jones: Yeah, that sounds good.

[13405] Austin Block: So what do you think you may want?

[13408] Austin Block: The next two available on the list are Coyote Hills and Kennedy's, so I don't mind signing up for those two.

[13419] Aiden Hill: And I'm OK with doing 10, New Riverdale School. It looks like that's the one we're talking about, right?

[13426] Kat Jones: Well, at Ridge Point, so. A Bridgepoint, there might be less. I don't know if that helps or not. But who am I to say what you should take?

[13441] Austin Block: I could take Bridgepoint, too, if you wanted to take Kennedy. That would be great. Sure.

[13444] Nancy Thomas: Yeah, because I only have one saying Lincoln. I would be happy to take another. Is there any other left over now?

[13452] Kat Jones: Well, either Middle School or Bridgepoint.

[13455] Nancy Thomas: Well, you said you were going to take Bridgepoint.

[13457] Austin Block: Yeah, I can take Bridgepoint to free up Kennedy for somebody else.

[13460] Nancy Thomas: I'll take the middle school.

[13462] OK.

[13466] Kat Jones: And Aiden, you're going to take Bridgepoint?

[13469] Tracey Vackar: Or no, I'm sorry, Austin. Yeah, I'll take Bridgepoint. Austin's taking Bridgepoint. I'll repeat them back to you here in just a second. So here's what I've got. I think I've got Gabriel for BGI and BGP. We've got Austin for Shea and for Bridgepoint. Kennedy.

[13491] Austin Block: I rolled off of Kennedy.

[13493] Kat Jones: I have Nancy for Lincoln.

[13510] Tracey Vackar: And I've got Aiden for Schilling. I've got Aiden and Nancy over at the middle school, President Jones over at the high school, and then Austin over at Ridge Point. Does that work?

[13525] Kat Jones: All right.

[13530] Kat Jones: OK, great, thank you. So moving on to the consent.

[13536] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: President Jones, just really quick, just if there's no events happening and you would like to attend a different, I mean, it's nice to just.

[13545] Kat Jones: So you can go to anything, drop in. I mean, you're a parent at three different schools. So you're going to go into those as a parent. So no, absolutely, drop in. And if you're feeling overwhelmed and you feel like it's an event that somebody should go to, then put out.

[13564] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Not at all. I mean, just it's good that we have alternates as well, so.

[13569] Kat Jones: Yeah, well, we didn't sign up for alternates, but I mean, I'm happy to sign up for alternate for the BGs.

[13576] Nancy Thomas: I mean, I think that, you know, let's say the liaisons have a more broad kind of connection, but all of us should feel free to go to any event at any school. Absolutely.

[13590] Austin Block: Yeah, I don't think we need to necessarily designate alternates for each site. That feels like maybe a bit excessive. Like if any other board member wants to jump in, if the liaison's unavailable, that seems sufficient.

[13600] Kat Jones: Yeah, I think so. And we don't hit every single event. It's just not possible. But we try to make an appearance as much as possible, as much as we can.

[13611] Tracey Vackar: I would encourage you, if there's something really active happening and whoever the main liaison is can't make it, to reach out to another board member to see if they might be available to help cover. especially if you know it's an area of their interest. I think that would really be great for them to be able to help support, for you guys to be able to help support each other in being there. And I can tell you our schools are thrilled to have you come out and participate. So we look forward to having you out at our schools.

[13635] Kat Jones: Yeah. I mean, I'm going to Lincoln's pizza feed this on Friday, so. That's my school. It's going anyway.

[13645] Tracey Vackar: So could I have a motion to approve the list that you guys just approved for being a liaison?

[13651] Kat Jones: I'll make a motion to approve the liaison list.

[13655] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: I second.

[13659] Kat Jones: All right. Antonio. You got that? OK.

[13662] Toya Lemus: Student board member Lee, absent. Member Hill? Yes. Member Anguiano? Yes. Member Block? Yes. Vice President Thomas?

[13671] Yes.

[13671] Toya Lemus: President Jones?

[13672] Kat Jones: Yes.

[13673] Toya Lemus: Five ayes.

[13674] Kat Jones: Great. Motion passes. Everybody's got their schools. It's like a focus school, but then feel free to. Go anywhere. All right, so we are now to 12.2.

[13685] Kat Jones: 12.2, the increase in minimum wage. And I believe. Tracy, is this you?

[13700] Tracey Vackar: Actually, these items can be taken together. You have the personnel report, and then you have the increase in minimum wage, which we've given you what that looks like for our positions that would fall in those categories to be able to make sure they meet the new minimum wage standards. And so we're asking that you take this as a blanket vote for the two combined. So this is on the consent agenda for our personnel.

[13724] Kat Jones: All right. So anybody want to pull anything on the consent agenda?

12.3 Personnel Report

[13728] Nancy Thomas: Could I pull the personnel report?

[13731] Kat Jones: OK. So we can vote on the increase in the minimum wage, 12.2. And personnel report has been pulled, so we'll do two separate votes.

12.2 Increase in Minimum Wage

[13745] Austin Block: Motion to approve. Oh, sorry. Talked too close to the mic. Motion to approve the increase in the minimum wage. I second.

[13753] Second.

[13754] Kat Jones: So, Block and Hill?

[13757] Toya Lemus: Student Board Member Lee? Absent. Member Hill? Yes. Member Anguiano? Yes. Member Block? Yes. Vice President Thomas?

[13768] Kat Jones: Yes.

[13769] Toya Lemus: President Jones? Yes.

[13772] Tracey Vackar: We just make one introduction to the board this evening. We do have a new member of our team sitting out in the audience. We'd like to introduce to you, and I'm going to turn this over to Jose Cantanas. to make the introductions.

[13794] Jose Quintana: Well, I'm very excited about this introduction. It took a while to recruit this young man from a neighboring district. And we would love to welcome Travis Trafitas as our new Maintenance Operations and Transportation Director.

[13810] Kat Jones: Great.

[13810] Kat Jones: We're glad you're here.

[13814] Jose Quintana: So with that, we'd like for him to say a couple of words, just introduce yourself.

[13818] Travis De Freitas: Yes. Hello, my name is Travis Freitas, the new MOT director. I just want to introduce myself to the board. I'm very happy to be here. I'm very excited to work, not only in this position, but in this great district. It's well on day six, and I am already feeling so welcome.

[13832] Jose Quintana: I just want to say to the board here, he's done an excellent job just really looking at all the different processes and addressing some of the work that's being done. Definitely just really fortunate to have this gentleman.

[13856] Kat Jones: Well, thank you. We're glad you're here. Welcome. Thanks for joining us.

[13860] Christopher Williams: Thank you.

[13862] Kat Jones: I'm not sure if the board met Ms. Parker.

[13865] Christopher Williams: They did individually, but I'd be happy to give a great word. Oh, you're a new person. Who's that?

[13871] Tracey Vackar: You hung out with us.

[13873] Christopher Williams: You guys, Trudy came over as our HR manager, which I know she came around and met you guys two more meetings ago. Doing a fantastic job. She's hit the ground running. It's been a blessing to have her, and I really appreciate your work and all the time we've spent together. Lately, but she's a significant role in understanding the alignment of our positions with our expenditures and what our district's vision is, as well as our superintendents. And she brings great knowledge, great expertise, and then she's also learning some of our HR pieces as we talk about. but a very fast learner doing the necessary trainings, and blessed to have her. So a shout out to you, my friend. So.

[13914] Tracey Vackar: Sorry, now I'll turn it back to the board. I just wanted to sneak that in there.

[13922] Yeah.

[13922] Nancy Thomas: That's great. Welcome. Both of you are so needed and so appreciated. I just wanted to say that a while back, we had quite a few numbers instead of names that we put on the panel. And there's two numbers here. And I can understand when there's a non-reelect or someone that is leaving. I don't know. I mean, I'd like to ask a question. In what situations should we have numbers and not names?

[13960] Christopher Williams: So if you're doing a non-reelect, because we don't publicly, we can't disclose the name of that employee. So if there's any employee matter or any not meeting the expectation for the end of a probationary period, that's when they would come down as a number. So I won't ever say on there that it's a non-reelect with a name. because of legalities and exposure.

[13981] Nancy Thomas: But is there any other situation where you would have numbers? And I just want to make sure that we're transparent.

[13987] Christopher Williams: There's very few, but on medical issues, there may be something to do just with HIPAA and our rights and requirements to follow those. Not all cases, but there are some that we do as well.

[13998] Nancy Thomas: OK, so with that, I would make a motion to approve the panel.

[14001] Aiden Hill: Hold on, I have a comment about it. You have a question? Yeah, so it's just a comment. So ever since I joined the board, and this is now like a couple of administrations ago, I've felt that oftentimes hiring is a very opaque process. And kind of my feeling on the topic is the board needs to walk a fine line in terms of the level of involvement that they have in In hiring decisions, for the most part, really, they don't. It's an approval. But at the same time, we have an oversight role. And like right now, at the school where I teach, I teach business. I'm actually teaching kids about all the different parts that go into a business. And we're talking about HR. And I give him this quote from a famous CEO. And the CEO says, most organizations spend 2% of their time recruiting and 40% of their time fixing their recruiting mistakes. And in my opinion, the way that you avoid that is through you know good processes and good transparency and so I I would really like to see I mean and again this has been a history in our district but I would like to see kind of greater transparency at least to the board around like key hires like at the cabinet level or also key director level I mean to understand Who are we recruiting for? What's the job profile? You know, personal characteristics that we're looking for, you know, how much experience they have, salary range, you know, and then also kind of, you know, understand who came in, who were the top three, what were their resumes, how do we make the decision? And again, obviously, we don't do that for every single employee. But I think that for key hires, it's really, really important.

[14117] Aiden Hill: And so I'd like for us to maybe have further discussions about how we could do something like that.

[14124] Austin Block: I mean, that being said, like, you know, technically the board has one employee that being the superintendent and then we trust the superintendent and the staff to take on the rest of that responsibility. So I don't necessarily know if I feel it's our role to step into that extent. I mean, I'd rather we spend time. discussing i-Ready scores and focusing on student achievement rather than asking for more information about their processes. We pick great people to lead the executive team. And then I think from there, we have to trust that they're going to do a good job of hiring good quality people to staff our schools.

[14157] Aiden Hill: One of the reasons why You know, I kind of feel that way because what you're describing is kind of what CSPA says. But I'll tell you that that doesn't happen in corporate America. So the board is very involved in key hires. And my viewpoint is that a board is a board and a management team is a management team. More eyes are better than fewer eyes. But also the thing that's important to understand that's unique in our situation is that the average tenure of a superintendent in California is two years. So we're putting faith in an employee that may be here only two years. And yet sometimes they're making decisions that could last a decade. And so I think that we want to have good oversight. And I don't see the harm in having that input. At the end of the day, ultimately, the CEO has to make, or in our cases, the superintendent needs to provide a recommendation. And they're the ones that are going to have to work and manage with that person. But I think it's always good to have input to make sure that you're looking at all the angles. So that's kind of my feeling.

[14235] Nancy Thomas: I've been on the board for quite a few years, and one of the practices that has fallen by the wayside is that when a new hire has gone through the process and the superintendent's recommending that hire, that we have a discussion in closed session from the superintendent about the person and what all the characteristics and background and qualifications are. And usually, that person is at the meeting where we're set to ratify the hire. And the hire then comes into closed session, and we can meet the hire and hear more about he or she, him or her. Right, him or her. Anyway, so I really enjoyed that when it was done in the past, and it It gave us an introduction to the employee before the employee started work. And then, of course, we ratified and voted on the PAL for the employee. And I don't think there was ever a case where we said no to the superintendent. We could have said no. But there's never a case when we did.

[14314] Nancy Thomas: It was just a nice thing to involve the board in understanding who was being hired and why. Yep. May I have a motion? I move that we approve the PEL.

[14333] Austin Block: I'll second.

[14336] Nancy Thomas: All right.

[14336] Kat Jones: You got that OK?

[14341] Toya Lemus: Member Hill? Yes. Member Aguillano? Yes. Member Block? Yes. Vice President Thomas? Yes. President Jones?

[14349] Yes.

[14350] Toya Lemus: Five ayes.

[14351] Kat Jones: Motion carries. All right, we are now down to the consent agenda non-personnel items.

[14357] Tracey Vackar: Before we move on, I just would like to get some clarification where that discussion just got left. Because it's not really clear in my mind whether or not I'm bringing. information back to the board on my hire side. I don't know if this is a discussion that we're going to have a little further on down the road and what that would look like. It's something I would really like to be able to weigh in and really think about, because I will tell you, I do believe it is my job to hire the staff. And I do feel pretty strongly about that. I don't have a problem with sharing information about our finalists, especially for the key positions of the cabinet. But I will tell you it is my responsibility, and you do hold me accountable on that particular piece.

[14402] Nancy Thomas: And I hope I wasn't implying that. It's just a nice practice by the superintendent to introduce us to an employee.

[14412] Tracey Vackar: I have no problems with that whatsoever. I just want to make sure that there's not going to be second guessing, I guess. And I guess I would want some more clarity on that. I heard what you said and I heard what member Hill said. I feel like there were two different conversations. So I heard both conversations. I'd like to come back and revisit that and have a deeper conversation about this. But I don't know that I had clarity on what member Hill said and what you said. I thought they were two different things. Two different ideas.

[14444] Aiden Hill: And what I'm suggesting is that this might be a good topic for a study session, where we kind of bat some ideas around. But kind of in my discussions in the past with CSBA, You know, one of the things that they've said is that, you know, it's perfectly fine for the board to lay out and to understand, okay, what's the process that we're going to go through, right?

[14469] Aiden Hill: And so what are the steps? the positions that are going to be represented on the hiring panel, what are the criteria that are used, right? And so just as, you know, we might ask, well, how are we going to work on i-Ready scores, rather than just say it's like a black box. But, you know, but hiring is a process as well. And so, you know, having greater transparency around that.

[14494] Kat Jones: I think understanding the steps is important for us to know. We're going to look at A, B, C, and D. But if we did that for every single job, we would have a book of Who's going to be on what interview panel for what position? And that just seems. I didn't hear you.

[14514] Aiden Hill: I didn't hear the point of the interview.

[14517] Nancy Thomas: I'm not advocating that. He said it later. Yeah, and I think we're only talking about.

[14522] Tracey Vackar: I would just like to be able to come back and have, I want to be able to think about it, I want to be able to outline, think what I've heard, and I'd like to just be able to come back and have a different conversation about it. I'm not saying no, I just want to make sure it's clear in my mind the various roles.

[14538] Aiden Hill: Sure, yeah. I mean, I don't think that this is urgent. Right, but you know, but again, I think it will be a good discussion. Yeah.

[14545] Christopher Williams: Can I ask you a question? I mean, being a superintendent working with several boards, never had a board asked to be a part of interview panels because you actually can't. Oh, no, I'm just saying like or interview panels or process process. You guys got to know, right? I mean, this district has had some hardship before. about appropriate process. But I know this, like any CSBA, because I presented these, your job is to keep her accountable who she hires. That's the board's job. I mean, in my eyes, and I get what you're saying, process is great. But I mean, there's 132 hires this year, 133. So they're moving and shaking all the time. But I think what I heard you say, too, like executive level positions with more information and processing on those. Because you guys have sat in on the interviews, I know, for the CBO, correct? And I didn't really interview because I'm just a lonely sub over here trying to help out a district, right? But I mean, if there's protocols like that, I totally get it. But would that not be in your expectations for your superintendents? I'm sorry, you were on second level. Yeah. I just want to clarify that. No. Yeah. But it wouldn't be like an expectation that was set up like as an expectation for your superintendent on what you're looking for in the interview process or hiring process?

[14618] Tracey Vackar: Again, I think I'd like to be able to come back and kind of outline this and be able to come back and chat with the board about it. Yeah, for sure. But I would just tell you as a board member, there is a time that the board also put some conditions down on the board that I was on because we had such great turnover. So I understand what you're saying. And actually, the board did weigh in on having at least an introduction and some other elements that came along with it and some input as to what the superintendent was looking for and some key positions. So I get it.

[14647] Kat Jones: OK. Thank you. Are we ready to move on? Yes. OK. I know that I have some comment cards on some three, I think, three different four different line items in 13. So, Ms. Parks, you have 13-6, 13-10, 13-12, 13-14. Would you like to just speak on all of them at the same time?

[14682] Kat Jones: Or do you want to do them? Well, we can pull these. then vote on the rest of them. So shall I do that?

[14698] Nancy Thomas: Well, I'm not sure that I think we should have our speaker speak. And then if one of us wants to pull, one of us can do that. OK. All right.

[14710] Kat Jones: Good night, Travis.

13.6 Report: Warrant Report for December 2024

[14717] Cindy Parks: So on 13.6, it's the warrant report. And I pulled this because on page 7. There was a check issued to the Chinese journal for $2,080. And the comment is that it's for measure O and candidate statement translation. And my understanding was is that once measure O, once you voted to move forward with measure O, I was just bringing that to your attention.

[14751] Cindy Parks: I wasn't sure that that was an allowable

[14760] Tracey Vackar: So this was the cost of the district putting it on to the registrar voters slate and the district did write that initial check to be able to actually host the election. And so there is a key piece that the district does pay for within that election process, including the translation of services for the initial piece that needs to be done.

[14788] Cindy Parks: Well, I just was throwing it out there. I saw it here and didn't know, Emma.

[14791] Tracey Vackar: That's a fair question. I question the whole entire translation service versus Why wasn't like one entire package when the registrar gave us their fee for translation services? Why did I get these little one-off things and learn that this was a standard practice here in this county to actually separate them out?

[14811] Tracey Vackar: But it is different than the

[14818] Cindy Parks: the measure campaign for for He's not been on your palace, my understanding, he's a contract employee, which means he would have been in the last quarter of this fiscal year. But the quarterly contract reports were not brought forward this evening, which would have been October, November, December for the board to ratify all of those contracts. And that was not included here, yet you already have money coming through from KG. Anyhow, that's my point is that you have somebody who's contract, you've already worked them through the system and the board hasn't even ratified that they are a contract employee. That contract, it should have been here. Usually, the second quarter, it comes in January. That's it for that item. That was 13.6 warrants.

[14891] Tracey Vackar: Yeah, and contract reports, I know, are coming back on the next agenda.

13.10 MINUTES of the December 2, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education

[14897] Cindy Parks: Okay, then on 13.10, it's the minutes for the 2nd, December 2nd, and your board bylaw 9324 says that the minutes shall reflect the names of those individuals who comment during meetings, public comment period, as well as the topics they address. On the minutes for December 2nd under public comment, you had three, well you had two speakers, I had to go look back and look at the meeting. You have people that spoke twice when she spoke Robins on that was not delineated. So it looks like there was a typo here.

[14941] Cindy Parks: And so she's on there twice and then Ray Rodriguez and none of the three have the topics of discussion that they, the topics that they addressed. the same issue. It's on there And then further down under the organization of the Board of Education, the way that it's captured in the minutes. So the recommendation, and I'm gonna deal with the president first, is that the Board of Education approves the nomination for the new board president. It does not stipulate that the nomination is for Katherine Jones as president. It leaves, it doesn't say that at all. Every single one of these organizational, when you're making your motion, right? You say, I'm nominating Kat Jones to be the president. That's not the way it's stated in minutes. It shows that the recommendation is Board of Education. the nomination for the new president. Like I said, it doesn't say her name. Then it records the vote. And then at the bottom, which ends up for me on a different page, says Katherine Jones, staff president. And every single one of these, it doesn't capture the names of the individual in the motion.

[15036] Cindy Parks: It's the names of the individual are recorded after the vote.

[15043] Kat Jones: Am I making myself clear? Yes, may I ask a clarifying question? Or can I not do that because it's... Well, I'm just reporting to you.

[15052] Cindy Parks: that when you make a motion, do you not stipulate what you're voting for, that you're voting to nominate whoever, whatever? I mean, that would be the normal process. Yeah. I'm just showing up there.

[15062] Tracey Vackar: Motion is made by Aiden Hill, seconded by four, blah, blah, blah, seconded by.

[15068] Cindy Parks: Yeah, but it's not reported that way. Here's the motion. Here's who voted for it. And oh, by the way, here's his name at the bottom.

[15078] Kat Jones: So just for my clarification, so if I'm looking at 5.1, election of officers president, where it says the recommendation is the Board of Education approves the nomination for the new board president. comma Katherine Jones. Is that how it would go. OK. So that's where the name would go. That's what I was trying to figure out.

[15098] Cindy Parks: OK.

[15099] Kat Jones: All right.

[15099] Cindy Parks: Or the actual vote is captured. Because honestly I wasn't sure what I was looking at here. I'm like wait a minute. Where's the name of the person. And then I'd like going in here. Now I see.

[15108] Kat Jones: It's at the bottom instead of the top.

[15114] Cindy Parks: Moving on to 13.14, the calendar. I appreciate the calendar coming out now. There's already people on social media asking when the first day of school is. People are trying to plan vacations and such. I'm sure staff is also. What I would ask is that once you determine whether you're going to go with A or B, that I would implore you to request admin to start working on the following year's calendar. because some people have to go to vacations a year in advance. And this impacts your ADA when kids end up not coming the first day of school because they're still on vacation. And I really think that when you do your three-year CBA, that that's great, because then usually a calendar goes with it. But I always think that you should be a full year ahead so people kind of know what they're doing. I mean, people, you're doing a European vacation or something. You need to book things ahead of time. And I think it behooves you. to have this information available to the public. So that's my comment.

[15184] Kat Jones: Thank you.

[15189] Tracey Vackar: With regards to the calendar on 13.14, if you're going to take this as an entire block vote, I do think that we have The recommendation I believe is a yes.

[15200] Christopher Williams: So what happens in the collective bargaining agreement there's actually has to have a designated committee with our certificated staff. It doesn't define how that committee works. So I'm very transparent with this. I met with the union president the union assistant or the vice president. Tracy, myself, and CSEA, and also our NEWMA president. So they brought it back to the vote, to the site reps, and she let me know tonight at about 6.40 that they are in favor and support of A, calendar A, which is very similar to what our calendar is this year. And then ultimately, we also agree that there's no doubt about it. It's been a really hectic timing on this. We're in a full re-opener for three years on our contracts. We agree that if we can get this banged out for two or three years, it would be fantastic for all of us as well, because it takes a lot of time and commitment. After we do the instructional calendar, we still have four additional calendars we have to do for all of our classified next, right? So this gets done, it sets our baseline, and then we have our 10 month calendar, 11 month, 10 and a half, and 12 month calendar that has to be done next if this is approved this evening. So we are recommending that we follow along with. our proposal as well as an agreement with NTA that they recommended and approved calendar A, which is very similar to this year.

[15285] Christopher Williams: So hopefully that clarifies.

[15289] Nancy Thomas: So that means we have to pull 13.14. Yeah.

[15292] Nancy Thomas: OK.

[15298] Toya Lemus: Can I just add something about just some of the meeting minutes? Just that we were advised not to add verbatim at CSBA, just for the meeting.

[15311] Tracey Vackar: So verbatim for the discussion is true. However, for the actual motion itself, you need to have the actual motion captured. So again, Member Hill is motioning to approve staff to do something. Just for the public comments.

[15330] Kat Jones: Public comment, I think, isn't it just the name and then, like, the topic of what they spoke about? You've got to have a topic. You don't do a verbatim. It's just the topic. So if they spoke about veggie, you put veggie. But that would go for non-agenda as well as agenda. Correct. Yeah, and I think what we were missing is just the topic on the non-agenda. We didn't have a topic. We just had the person. All right, so before we look at going with this consent agenda, I'd like to pull 13.14. We're taking that, we're tabling that for a moment and voting on.

[15378] Kat Jones: So I'm looking for a motion for 13.2 through 13.13.

[15390] Aiden Hill: I move to approve 13.2 through 13.13. Do I have a second?

[15393] Kat Jones: Can you just approve the minutes for that? Oh.

[15404] Aiden Hill: Rewind.

[15405] Kat Jones: Rewind. All right, so we are looking to. Approved 13 to you.

[15412] Toya Lemus: Sorry, but it's 39.

[15417] Kat Jones: And 1313 and 13 or 1311 and 1313.

[15429] Austin Block: I'll make a motion to approve 13.2 through 13.9, along with 13.11 and 13.13.

[15437] Kat Jones: I'll second. All right, so Block made the motion. And you got the 13.2 through 9. Point 11 and point 13? Yes.

[15452] Kat Jones: OK.

[15455] Kat Jones: And when you're ready, a vote.

[15460] Toya Lemus: Member Hill? Yes. Member Anguiano? Yes. Member Block?

[15465] Kat Jones: Yes.

[15466] Toya Lemus: Vice President Thomas?

[15467] Yes.

[15467] Toya Lemus: President Jones?

[15469] Kat Jones: Yes.

[15469] Toya Lemus: Five ayes. Student board member Lee, absent.

13.2 Out of State Travel and Conference Request for the Information Technology Director (Approved on Consent)

13.3 California Department of Education Consolidated Application and Reporting System 2024-25 Winter Release Certification (Approved on Consent)

13.4 Resolution 2023.24.15 Declaring Surplus Equipment - Amendment (Approved on Consent)

13.5 Report: Monthly Purchase Order Report (Approved on Consent)

13.7 POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 3400 Management of District Assets/Accounts (Approved on Consent)

13.8 POLICY UPDATE: Administrative Regulation 3440 Inventories (Approved on Consent)

13.9 POLICY UPDATE: Administrative Regulation 3451 Petty Cash (Approved on Consent)

13.11 MINUTES of the December 12, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education (Approved on Consent)

13.12 MINUTES of the December 17, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education (Approved on Consent)

13.13 FIELD TRIP: Curricular, Overnight Trip for Birch Grove Intermediate fifth grade class to travel to Sempervirens Outdoor Science School (Approved on Consent)

[15477] Tracey Vackar: Can I just repeat back what that motion was? The motion was by Aiden Hill to approve from Austin Block. So to approve item number 13.2 through 13.9, 13.11, and 13.13. Correct. Pooling items 13.10 and 13.12 for revision.

[15503] Kat Jones: well don't have to come back right right so you're pulling those items for her to come back okay and 13.14 well 13.14 so that's why it got pulled it's only pulled all of them are there to

13.14 2025-2026 School Calendar

[15523] Austin Block: So for motion 13.14, we would make a motion to approve draft school calendar A for the 25-26 school year. That's correct. I'll make that motion.

[15533] Tracey Vackar: OK, wait. Hang on.

[15534] Austin Block: Sure.

[15534] Tracey Vackar: Let me just finish up the last one, though. So Austin, you made the motion. Who made the second? I did. Thomas, thank you.

[15543] Kat Jones: OK. The only thing that I see that's different on A from what we've had in the past is that, and I'm just pointing this out, is there are two additional minimum days for elementary, for PD. One in September and one in February. And those are both Wednesdays that will be minimum days that have not been in previous calendars.

[15570] Christopher Williams: And this is a great motion that the teachers agreed as well as services because we're really aligning our professional development. So we have meetings on a monthly basis now that we're going to get that extra time to align what our implementation of our programs are and provide more support with professional development, which is exciting.

[15589] Kat Jones: Other than that, the schedule, the calendars, is basically what it's been in the past. Correct. with the addition of those two minimum days. All right, so may I have a motion to approve 13.14?

[15607] Austin Block: I'll make a motion to approve 13.14, in particular, draft school calendar A. I second. I second. All right.

[15618] Kat Jones: So block motions. Hill seconds. And a vote when you're ready.

[15626] Toya Lemus: Student board member Lee, absent. Member Hill? Yes. Member Anguiano? Yes. Member Block?

[15632] Austin Block: Yes.

[15633] Toya Lemus: Vice President Thomas?

[15634] Kat Jones: Yes.

[15635] Toya Lemus: President Jones?

[15636] Kat Jones: Yes.

[15636] Toya Lemus: Five ayes.

14.1 Student Expulsion (Ed Code. § 48918) Case# e2425-04

[15639] Kat Jones: OK, moving to student expulsion 14.1. For this, we are just taking a vote to.

[15657] Nancy Thomas: I move that we accept the expulsion panel's recommendation for item 14.1, student expulsion. Case number E2425-04. I second.

[15678] Aiden Hill: OK.

[15680] Kat Jones: Thomas and then Hill. And a vote, please.

[15684] Toya Lemus: OK. Member Hill? Yes. Member Anguiano? Yes. Member Block?

[15689] Kat Jones: Yes.

[15689] Toya Lemus: Vice President Thomas? Yes. President Jones?

[15691] Kat Jones: Yes.

[15692] Toya Lemus: Five ayes.

15.1 Board of Education Committee Reports, Announcements, Requests, Debrief and Discussion

[15694] Kat Jones: Thank you, motion passes. 15, we are down to Board of Education Committee Reports, Announcements, Requests, Debrief, and Discussion. Keep it short. Member Hill.

[15714] Aiden Hill: I know we all want to get out of here, so I'll make it quick. So number one, Happy New Year, everybody, and thank you to staff and everybody for getting things kicked off for the new year. I know there's a lot of work. A lot of complexity. And so thank you for that. I do have one request and that request is, I would like for us to revisit the email situation, because I do think that it is important for people to have easy access to us as elected officials. Maybe bring that back and talk about that in a future meeting. That'd be great.

[15751] Thank you.

[15755] Kat Jones: Do you have any comments, reports?

[15762] Austin Block: Not as of today.

[15764] Thank you.

[15765] Austin Block: Member Black? Just a quick comment. Just wanted to thank everyone who came out to the meeting today. We really appreciate everyone's civic engagement and know that we're listening, that we hear you, that we do not take cuts lightly, and that we're really going to be thinking very seriously before any decisions are made. I want to echo what Member Hill said about wanting to be open. to feedback and conversation with the community. You can email me anytime, austinb at newarkunified.org, and I'm always happy to listen and have a conversation. One thing that I think we can all do constructively going forward is do what we can to encourage enrollment and attendance to try to reverse this trend of declining enrollment that's causing the budgetary situations that we are experiencing. So as much as possible, if we can spread the good word about Newark Unified, encourage students to be at school every day, that brings in much-needed revenue, which can then allow us to avoid painful cuts in the future. So I just want to appreciate everyone, really value everyone on our Newark Unified staff and wishing everyone a great start to the second semester.

[15833] Nancy Thomas: My email is nancyt at newarkunified.org for anyone and I agree with I'd like to thank our two assistant superintendents that I met with today, Mr. Quintana and Mr. Williams. We had a great discussion about anomalies or errors in our stipends. either overpayments or underpayments. And I think we agreed that that's got to be a number one priority when there may be an error in payroll, and it has to be corrected right away. So there's just a few specifically that we're going to look at.

[15875] Nancy Thomas: So thank you.

16.1 Superintendent's Concluding Comments, Updates, and Future Agenda Items

[15879] Kat Jones: And I, I would just like to say that I appreciate people putting up with my little blips here and there in tonight's meeting, and I really appreciated the audience and people coming out staff coming out and sharing their concerns and voicing their opinions about things. It's always really valuable to hear from staff and in that that just the number of people that were willing to stand up tonight and speak. And it is true. There were new faces in the room that I have not seen and I commend those that came out that because I know it's not always easy to get up and speak in front of a big group and it was a big group tonight. So thank you for your time your effort all the work that you do. We do value you. We listen. We definitely are listening to your concerns and trying to mesh the concerns with the budget restraints that we have. And we will do our best to make the best decisions that we can. That is our commitment to all of you. So looking forward to a new year and second semester and working together. So thank you very much.

[15954] Tracey Vackar: Superintendent, just a few closing comments with regards to email. We're actually working with final site in order to be able to come up with some solutions. Part of what we're trying to do is do some protections around cyber security. During the month of December, we had quite a few activity things that people were pulling from our website and we're creating some interesting anomalies here internally that were wreaking havoc in our system. And so what we're looking for is for a solution to be able to kind of allow someone to actually click on your name, it would be able to send you an email. That was the initial thing that we were trying to do. As a result, that didn't quite work out. We were trying to figure out some quick time solutions, like over the holidays, to be able to make something happen. Wasn't a successful route, but we are still continuing to work with final site to come up with a solution. to be able to not only for your accounts, but also for all of ours as well. So the same issue applies to all of us when it comes down to it. So no one's trying to withhold your emails from the community. I want to make that really clear. That was never the intention. There was some thought around maybe trying to have a way to be able to funnel suggestions or comments so that there was a one voice conversation. That was a piece of the board talked about before in the past, and that the president was the one that spoke on those things, but it wasn't meant to be able to keep other communications away from all of you. So I apologize if that's what has occurred, or that was the public feeling like that was never the intention. It was more from a protection standpoint. I also want to share with the community and with the board that we are moving to a centralized open enrollment system. We're excited about that. We're hoping that that will actually help our families and community be able to have access to a common voice and to make sure they understand why it's important to fill out certain documents. to help reassure them that those documents are secured, that they belong here at, you know, with us here at NUSD and with the appropriate entities that need to have access to those documents, right, for us to be able to ensure that We're able to get all the services that we would have for our students to be able to continue offering the great meals that we have here. Some of the family support services that come from our families notifying us about their incomes and some other things. And so being able to explain, take some time and work with our families. to share that information we think is going to be important. Our team has been working hard on identifying what that looks like and that centralizing role will be starting here on February 12th. So we're super excited about that to make that happen here. And like I said, a lot of great work is going behind the scenes to help welcome our families in. They were welcome at our school sites. We also know that our school sites are very busy. There's a lot of things going on when a family pops in. We just want to make sure that we don't miss anything and that we catch all the documentation that needs to happen. The sites will still have a very common piece of the work that they've been doing. They'll still be Registry the students into their site once that student's been placed there, that family's been placed there, that school site. So our employees will still have an active role that happens at the school site as well with families and interaction with the families. Because it's something new, I'm sure we'll have some hiccups and some bumps that we'll have to keep ironing out. But we are excited about being able to bring in a centralized registration process, and hoping that helps with keeping your numbers up. With that, I'd just like to thank our staff for all the work. I mean, it has been a huge staff effort. I really want to reach out and just thank Trudy and Nancy, for their great work that they did in helping us as a team be able to help look at data, look at information. There's a lot of other people behind the scenes that were also helping us with pulling together this information in numbers, including our directors. There's support staff that goes along with this. Some great volunteers that we've had here in our community, and I just want to thank everybody that was involved with this process. So we've been working on for a couple of months now, but really took a huge, huge effort here. I think Richard came back here right once we knew where the first interim was. We really had to roll first these and really take a look at what can we present. We wanted to be as transparent as possible to the community and to all of you. Like you've been asking us for more transparency and we want to be able to provide that. So I'm hoping that that document will be helpful. I heard some of the feedback that came out of it about the concerns that were out there. I'm listening to that. We'll see how we can help navigate that and help the conversation and help have better understanding about some of the things that I'm still somewhat confused on as to how there's some perception around us having a surplus of cash. I really just need to wrap my head around that because I don't believe that exists. We have a thick mask in here numerous times. We've received plenty of county warning letters. Multiple superintendents have been warned. I knew what I was walking into when I walked into it here last December. I'm really happy that This December, things look so much better and that we are moving in the right direction. But that's been a lot of hard work by a lot of people to make that happen. And so I just want to thank everybody for the opportunity to be able to serve, the opportunity to be able to communicate with our community, with all of you. These are going to be difficult decisions coming up. They're not easy to make. And I can tell you right now, you're going to be back here again next year making very similar decisions. You'll be doing that every time that you have a decline in enrollment. And while we're on that rolling average of our enrollment and how that works, and that decreases because that number will keep changing. you'll be back here every year having to make those adjustments. And so something to think about. One of the things that I am studying, and I have shared this with our principals and some other staff members, is I am looking at like districts that are in the 4,000 range of the student enrollment. And what is the configuration of those districts? What does that look like? and really taking a look at those models. That's some information I look forward to bringing back to you and maybe even looking at contracting with school services to really look at what this would look like in a couple of years from now. Where should we be sizing towards if we continue with the trends that we are with losing our students? And what would that look like? That might help us to be able to create some policies in advance so that when we have like trigger points like school site hits a certain percentage of kids or certain enrollment of kids, maybe we look at having to go off and actually close down that school or combine schools. But if we can make those decisions further in advance and communicate that with our families, that these are trigger points that lead us to a bigger discussion, that would really be helpful for everybody. Same with some of our staffing ratios. Those are some things that we might wanna be looking at, what triggers a certain staffing ratio for reduction. You know, based on where we're at. So we really don't have those things in place. We are using what we're doing as far as how services work. What we have to do for reductions, but it would be nice if we really kind of had a guide that would kind of help us a little bit for when that does happen. It's not perfect, but it would be nice to have something to actually be able to refer back to. It's kind of that guiding template to really help in decision making and things, so it doesn't feel so overwhelming year after year. And people also know, oh, we're here now. This is what we should expect in this space. So with that, I just want to say goodnight and thanks, staff, for all your hard work. Plea, thank you very much for all your work, and thanks for staying so late. It's almost midnight. It is.

17.2 Adjournment

[16416] Kat Jones: All right, I adjourn the meeting at 11.50.

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2.1 STUDENT EXPULSION (Ed. Code, § 48918) (Closed Session)

2.2 Conference with Legal Counsel regarding Anticipated Litigation (Closed Session)

2.3 CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATORS (Closed Session)

2.4 Copy of PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION (Closed Session)

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17. ADJOURNMENT (Not Found)

[769] 3.1 Report of Closed Session Actions

[775] 4.1 Pledge of Allegiance

[787] 1.2 Meeting Practices and Information

[842] 1.1 Roll Call

[960] 5.1 Approval of the Agenda

[1005] 8.1 Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items

[1628] 8.2 Public Comment on Agenda Items

[2812] 6.1 Student Report: Student Board Member, Joy Lee

[3049] 9.1 Superintendent Report

[3308] 7.1 Employee Organizations

[4709] 9.2 Brown Act vs. Green Act

[5197] 10.1 Birch Grove Intermediate School Spotlight Presentation

[6951] 17.1 PLACEHOLDER - Extend Meeting

[7059] 10.2 Budget Reduction Plan

[12147] 11.1 After School Education and Safety (ASES) Grant Award Notification

[12217] 11.2 California Partnership Academies (CPA) Grant Award Notification

[12932] 11.3 School Board Site Liaison

[13728] 12.3 Personnel Report

[13745] 12.2 Increase in Minimum Wage

[14717] 13.6 Report: Warrant Report for December 2024

[14897] 13.10 MINUTES of the December 2, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education

[15477] 13.2 Out of State Travel and Conference Request for the Information Technology Director (Approved on Consent)

[15477] 13.3 California Department of Education Consolidated Application and Reporting System 2024-25 Winter Release Certification (Approved on Consent)

[15477] 13.4 Resolution 2023.24.15 Declaring Surplus Equipment - Amendment (Approved on Consent)

[15477] 13.5 Report: Monthly Purchase Order Report (Approved on Consent)

[15477] 13.7 POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 3400 Management of District Assets/Accounts (Approved on Consent)

[15477] 13.8 POLICY UPDATE: Administrative Regulation 3440 Inventories (Approved on Consent)

[15477] 13.9 POLICY UPDATE: Administrative Regulation 3451 Petty Cash (Approved on Consent)

[15477] 13.11 MINUTES of the December 12, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education (Approved on Consent)

[15477] 13.12 MINUTES of the December 17, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education (Approved on Consent)

[15477] 13.13 FIELD TRIP: Curricular, Overnight Trip for Birch Grove Intermediate fifth grade class to travel to Sempervirens Outdoor Science School (Approved on Consent)

[15523] 13.14 2025-2026 School Calendar

[15639] 14.1 Student Expulsion (Ed Code. § 48918) Case# e2425-04

[15694] 15.1 Board of Education Committee Reports, Announcements, Requests, Debrief and Discussion

[15879] 16.1 Superintendent's Concluding Comments, Updates, and Future Agenda Items

[16416] 17.2 Adjournment

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[99999] 2.1 STUDENT EXPULSION (Ed. Code, § 48918) (Closed Session)

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[99999] 2.3 CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATORS (Closed Session)

[99999] 2.4 Copy of PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION (Closed Session)

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[99999] 17. ADJOURNMENT (Not Found)

1. CALL TO ORDER

1.1 Roll Call

Type                        Information, Procedural

TRUSTEES:

President Katherine Jones Vice President Nancy Thomas Member Aiden Hill Member Austin Block Member Gabriel Anguiano Jr.

STUDENT BOARD MEMBER:

Member Joy Lee

1.2 Meeting Practices and Information

Type                        Information, Procedural

IN-PERSON MEETING INFORMATION:

Please see the attached meeting information in English and Spanish.

OBSERVE THE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING:

Members of the public may observe the meeting via the NUSD YouTube Channel, or in-person at the NUSD Boardroom. Spanish translation will be available in person.

PUBLIC COMMENT:

The public will have the opportunity to address the Board of Education regarding non-agendized matters and agendized items by submitting a written comment speaker card with the Executive Assistant.

File Attachments
Board Meeting Protocols_ENG(1).pdf (69 KB)
Protocolos de la Reunion de la Mesa Directiva_ESP (1).pdf (65 KB)
Original Board Meeting Guidelines.pdf (259 KB)

1.3 Public Comment on Closed Session Items

Type                       Procedural

PURPOSE:

The Board of Education encourages the community's participation in its deliberations and tries to make it convenient for members of the community to express their views to the Board.

If a constituent wishes to address the Board on any agenda item: In-Person Comment: please submit a completed speaker card to the Board's Executive Assistant before the start of the meeting, or prior to the calling of the section for public comment.

1.4 Recess to Closed Session

Type                       Procedural

PURPOSE:

The Board will recess to Closed Session, and reconvene to Open Session on or about 7:00 p.m.

2. CLOSED SESSION

2.1 STUDENT EXPULSION (Ed. Code, � 48918)

Type                       Discussion, Information, Procedural

PURPOSE:

For the Board to review the Expulsion Recommendation.

BACKGROUND:

A Expulsion Panel Hearing was held on January 10, 2025. A Panel Hearing was conducted in accordance with Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 5144.1 and, if applicable, 5144.2 for students with disabilities.

The Board will discuss this in closed session and then take action in open session (agenda item 15.1). The administration asks for approval of the recommendation for Case# e2425-04 (Ed Code. � 48918).

2.2 Conference with Legal Counsel regarding Anticipated Litigation - Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Gov. Code, � 54956.9- Case 1010, 1011, 1019, 1020, 1021,1022 (6 cases)

Type                       Action, Discussion

Fiscal Impact              Yes

PURPOSE:

To discuss three potential litigation for HR, 6 cases

BACKGROUND:

2.3 CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATORS (Gov. Code, � 54957.6, subd. (a): Employee Organizations - CSEA, NTA

Type                       Discussion, Information, Procedural

PURPOSE:

Information and update will be provided by the Interim Superintendent regarding CSEA negotiations and NTA negotiations.

BACKGROUND:

2.4 Copy of PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION (Gov. Code, � 54957, subd. (b)(1)) Title: Superintendent

Type                       Action, Discussion, Information

Fiscal Impact              No

Budgeted                   Yes

Budget Source              General Fund

Recommended                For the Board to discuss Superintendent's evaluation.
Action

PURPOSE:

For the Board to conduct/review the employee performance evaluation for the Superintendent. BACKGROUND:

3. REPORT OF CLOSED SESSION ACTIONS

3.1 Report of Closed Session Actions

Type                       Action, Procedural

PURPOSE:

If available, a report of the closed session will be provided by the Board President.

4. RECONVENE TO OPEN SESSION

4.1 Pledge of Allegiance

Type                       Procedural

PURPOSE:

The Governance Team will recite the Pledge of Allegiance

4.2 Meeting Practices and Information

Type                       Information, Procedural

IN-PERSON MEETING INFORMATION:

Please see the attached meeting information in English and Spanish.

OBSERVE THE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING:

Members of the public may observe the meeting via the NUSD YouTube Channel, or in-person at the NUSD Boardroom. Spanish translation will be available in person.

PUBLIC COMMENT:

The public will have the opportunity to address the Board of Education regarding non-agendized matters and agendized items by submitting a written comment speaker card with the Executive Assistant.

File Attachments Board Meeting Protocols_ENG(1).pdf (69 KB) Protocolos de la Reunion de la Mesa Directiva_ESP (1).pdf (65 KB) Original Board Meeting Guidelines.pdf (259 KB)

5. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

5.1 Approval of the Agenda

Type                        Action

Recommended                 The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the agenda for this meeting.
Action

PURPOSE:

Members of the Governance Team may request that the agenda be amended or approved as presented.

6. STUDENT REPORT

6.1 Student Report: Student Board Member, Joy Lee

Type

PURPOSE:

The Student Report gives the Board of Education and the public an opportunity to hear the highlights, achievements, and initiatives from the viewpoint of the student board member.

BACKGROUND:

The information will be provided by the Student Board Member, Joy Lee.

7. EMPLOYEE ORGANIZATIONS

7.1 Employee Organizations

Type                        Information

PURPOSE:

At regular Board meetings, a single spokesperson of each recognized employee organization (NTA, CSEA, NEWMA) may make a brief presentation.

BACKGROUND:

Discussion items are limited to updates, celebrations, and upcoming events.

1. NTA

2. CSEA

3. NEWMA

8. PUBLIC COMMENT

8.1 Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items

Type                        Procedural

PURPOSE:

The Board of Education encourages the community's participation in its deliberations and has tried to make it convenient to express their views to the Board.

BACKGROUND:

If a constituent wishes to address the Board on any agenda item:

In-Person Comment: please submit a completed speaker card to the Board's Executive Assistant before the start of the meeting, or prior to the calling of the section for public comment.

8.2 Public Comment on Agenda Items

Type                        Procedural

PURPOSE:

The Board of Education encourages the community's participation in its deliberations and has tried to make it convenient to express their views to the Board.

BACKGROUND:

If a constituent wishes to address the Board on any agenda item:

In-Person Comment: please submit a completed speaker card to the Board's Executive Assistant before the start of the meeting, or prior to the calling of the section for public comment.

9. SUPERINTENDENT REPORT

9.1 Superintendent Report

Type                        Information

PURPOSE:

The Superintendent will provide the Board of Education with district information, updates, news, or anything in the jurisdiction of the board or the Superintendent of Schools.

BACKGROUND:

The presentation and information will be provided by the Superintendent of Schools.

9.2 Brown Act vs. Green Act

Type                          Information

PURPOSE:

Recently, several inquiries have emerged concerning the committees appointed by the Board, specifically regarding the applicability of the Brown Act versus the Green Act.

BACKGROUND:

Acknowledging the vital role of community participation in district committees, the Superintendent and staff have been exploring opportunities to expand engagement from community members in our committee meetings. The LCAP committee has raised valid concerns regarding the difficulties of meeting in person. In previous years, fewer restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic facilitated greater flexibility through virtual and teleconferencing options. However, the situation is complex due to the limitations imposed by both the Brown and Green Acts on virtual meetings.

10. STAFF REPORT

10.1 Birch Grove Intermediate School Spotlight Presentation

Type                          Information

PURPOSE:

The School Spotlight gives the Board of Education and the public an opportunity to hear the highlights, achievements, and initiatives at each school from the principals.

BACKGROUND:

Principal Robert Fang will showcase various innovative programs, projects, and initiatives that are taking place at Birch Grove Intermediate School.

File Attachments BGI School Spot Light Board Presentation 2024 - 2025.pdf (5,539 KB)

10.2 Budget Reduction Plan

Type                        Discussion, Information

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this item is to share with the NUSD Board and community the Budget Reduction Plan. The Budget Reduction Plan is intended to start the conversation to identify proposed reduction considerations and the anticipated impact of these changes. The presentation represents a proposal and is intended for review and feedback by the NUSD Board.

BACKGROUND:

Newark Unified School District has faced significant financial challenges in recent years due to a variety of factors, including declining state funding, rising costs, significant declining enrollment, and the elimination of one time funds. These financial challenges have necessitated a comprehensive review of all expenditures, as the district makes adjustments to avoid deficits in the upcoming 3-year budget cycle and at the same time remain competitive to retain and attract staff for essential positions, necessary to support our students. The district staff and administration team have worked on an analysis of district spending in an effort to identify areas where reductions can be made with minimal disruption to student learning and district operations.

Last year the district implemented a committee to assist in identifying strategies and reductions for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years. The board invested in experts to assist with identifying accounting errors that were double booked or incorrectly administered. These strategies have been successful in assisting the district with right sizing and reducing the 14 million dollar structural deficit that it faced in December 2023. Efforts included cleaning up account codes, billing for services, shifting resources, attrition, accurate reporting, and maximizing class size, etc.

There is still more budget reductions needed as we close out this year, and develop the 2024-2025 budget and to ensure a positive three year Multi-Year-Projection.

File Attachments Balanced Budget Reduction Scenarios for Board Discussion Presentation 1.21.25.pdf (474 KB)

11. NEW BUSINESS

11.1 After School Education and Safety (ASES) Grant Award Notification

Type                        Action, Information

Fiscal Impact               Yes

Dollar Amount               $407,169.17

Budgeted                    Yes

Recommended                 For the Board to approve the After School Education and Safety Grant Award Notification.
Action

Goals                           MISSION: The Newark Unified School District will inspire and educate all students to
                                achieve their full potential and be responsible, respectful, and productive citizens.
                                VISION: The Newark Unified School District, in partnership with the community, will be a
                                model of world-class education that develops the unique abilities of every student.

PURPOSE: The purpose of the After School Education and Safety (ASES) Program is to create incentives for establishing locally driven Expanded Learning programs, including after school programs that partner with public schools and communities to provide academic and literacy support and safe, constructive alternatives for youth.

BACKGROUND:

NUSD has been awarded a three - year renewable grant for After School Education and Safety Grant in the amount of $407,169.17. This award is contingent on the availability of funds. If the Legislature takes an action to defer or reduce upon which this award is based it will be amended accordingly.

File Attachments After School Education and Safety Grant Award Notification.pdf (97 KB)

11.2 California Partnership Academies (CPA) Grant Award Notification

Type                       Action, Information

Fiscal Impact              Yes

Dollar Amount              $61,200.00

Budgeted                   Yes

Budget Source              CDE Grant

Recommended                For the Board to approve the CPA Grant Award for NMHS.
Action

Goals                         VISION: The Newark Unified School District, in partnership with the community, will be a
                              model of world-class education that develops the unique abilities of every student.

PURPOSE:

The California Department of Education has granted Newark Memorial High School funds that are designated and required for the operation and maintenance of the CPA at the high school noted in the AO-400 in accordance with the provisions of the California Education Code (EC) sections 54690-54697.

BACKGROUND:

These funds may not be supplant current fixed costs. Expenditures shall comply with all applicable provisions for federal, state, and local rules, regulations, and policies relating to the administration and accounting for public school funds. These funds are instructional in nature. At least 3 key staff members from each CPA are required to attend the Educating for Careers Conference to be held March 2-4, 2025 at at he SAFE Credit Union Convention Center in Sacramento. These funds can be used for that purpose.

File Attachments California Partnership Academies Grant Award Notification.pdf (117 KB)

11.3 School Board Site Liaison

Type                       Action, Discussion

Fiscal Impact              No

Budgeted                   No

Recommended                The Board of Education to discuss members being a liaison to our school sites.
Action

PURPOSE:

To assign each board trustee to a school site to support school events, engage with the community, and build relationships with families, students, and staff members.

BACKGROUND:

School Site BOARD LIAISON ALTERNATE BGI BGP CHE KENNEDY LINCOLN SCHILLING NMS NMHS BRIDGEPOINT

12. CONSENT AGENDA: PERSONNEL ITEMS

12.1 PLACEHOLDER - One Consented Vote

Type                       Action

Recommended                It is recommended that the Board of Education approve, under one consented vote, the
Action                     agenda items under Consent-Personnel, except for agenda items:

PURPOSE:

This is specifically a placeholder, and will only be used if multiple agenda items are approved under a consented vote.

BACKGROUND:

Items within the Consent Agenda are considered routine and will be approved, adopted, or ratified by a single motion and action. There will not be a separate discussion of these items; however, any item may be pulled from the Consent Agenda upon the request of any member of the Board and acted upon separately.

12.2 Increase in Minimum Wage

Type                           Action

Fiscal Impact                  Yes

Budgeted                       Yes

Budget Source                  Various funding sources

Recommended                    The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the revised hourly pay rates for
Action                         classified non-management, unrepresented employees as presented to comply with the
                               increase in minimum wage effective January 1, 2025.

PURPOSE:

To update the rates for classified unrepresented employees to comply with the increase in the minimum wage from $16.00 to $16.50 per hour effective January 1, 2025.

POSITION CURRENT RATE NEW RATE Campus Monitor, Elementary $16.00 $16.50 Classified Substitute - Food Service Assistant $16.00 $16.50 Classified Substitute - Child Care Attendant $16.00 $16.50 Student Assistant $16.00 $16.50

BACKGROUND:

     The State of California minimum wage increased from $16.00 to $16.50 per hour effective January 1, 2025.
     The hourly rates for the Elementary School Campus Monitor, Student Assistant, and Classified Substitute positions for the Food
     Service Assistant and Child Care Attendant are currently below the new minimum wage.
     All classified CSEA unit employees are currently paid above the minimum wage.

12.3 Personnel Report

Type                           Action

Recommended                    The recommendation is that the Board of Education ratify the personnel report as presented.
Action

PURPOSE:

The purpose is for the Board of Education to ratify the Personnel Report as presented.

BACKGROUND:

All personnel activities including new hires, changes in status, resignation, leaves, and retirements are routinely submitted to the Board for ratification.

File Attachments HR PAL 1.21.2025.pdf (148 KB)

13. CONSENT AGENDA: NON-PERSONNEL ITEMS Subject 13.1 PLACEHOLDER - One Consented Vote

13.1 PLACEHOLDER - One Consented Vote

Type                       Action

Recommended                It is recommended that the Board of Education approve, under one consented vote, the
Action                     agenda items under Consent Non-Personnel, except for agenda items:

PURPOSE:

This is specifically a placeholder, and will only be used if multiple agenda items are approved under a consented vote.

BACKGROUND:

Items within the Consent Agenda are considered routine and will be approved, adopted, or ratified by a single motion and action. There will not be a separate discussion of these items; however, any item may be pulled from the Consent Agenda upon the request of any member of the Board and acted upon separately.

13.2 Out of State Travel and Conference Request for the Information Technology Director

Type                       Action

Fiscal Impact              No

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the out of state Travel and
Action                     Conference for the Information Technology Director to travel to Seattle, Washington to
                           present at the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) Conference.

PURPOSE:

To approve the Travel and Conference request for the Information Technology Director to travel to Seattle, Washington to present at the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) Conference.

BACKGROUND:

According to Board Policy 3550, all out-of-state travel must have Board or Superintendent approval.

The Information Technology Director has been asked by CITE (California IT in Education) to join them for a speaking engagement at the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) Conference. CoSN is a national professional association for school technology leaders. The conference takes place on March 31 - April 3, 2025 in Seattle, WA. CITE will cover the cost of all expenses. The session is titled, "The Ramifications of AI for Students of Color."

The Board is asked to consider this out of state travel opportunity, because it shines a positive light on Newark Unified School District on a state and national level. The Information Technology Director previously presented at the CoSN Conference in 2023 and has been a speaker at the CITE Conference for the last two years, most recently this past November. She is a CITE Certified CTO (Chief Technology Officer), and supports future leaders through their Technology Management Advancement Program (TMAP) and mentors aspiring CTOs in the CTO Mentor Program. Her dedication to the district and advancement of student outcomes through technology is made better by the strong associations she has with other professionals in the field.

File Attachments CoSN Session Blurb.pdf (1,434 KB)

13.3 California Department of Education Consolidated Application and Reporting System 2024-25 Winter Release Certification

Type                         Action

Fiscal Impact                Yes

Budgeted                     Yes

Budget Source                Various grant programs (see report for specific detail)

Recommended                  The recommendation is that the Board of Education ratify the Consolidated Application and
Action                       Reporting System (CARS), 2024-25 Winter Release Certification.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this item is to provide the California Department of Education with the information needed to fund a wide variety of federal and state programs that bring supplementary funding into the school district.

BACKGROUND:

The Consolidated Application and Reporting System (CARS) -- formerly known as Consolidated Application or "CON APP" for short -- is the state's mechanism for both funding of identified state and federal categorical programs and required reporting for many of them. It provides the entitlement amounts of these programs as well as required considerations for expenditures. The California Department of Education requires the local educational agency (LEA) to review and receive approval of their Application for Funding selections with their local governing Board.

Each year, the programs included in the CARS change based on federal/state mandates and different methods of gaining or disseminating information. This is the 2024-25 Winter Release Certification.

CARS brings funds into the school district for a variety of programs including Title, I, Title II, Title III and Title IV.

Each of the identified programs has specified guidelines or requirements for their expenditure. All titled programs are federally funded. Title I, Part A dollars are used to support the increased achievement of at-risk students, primarily in reading and math. (We currently have eight schools receiving these funds.) Title II, Part A (Teacher Quality) monies are used to support teacher evaluation, as well as teacher professional development. Title III English Learner and Immigrant are used to support our English language learners. Title IV is used to fund school improvement programs for student academic success.

File Attachments CARS 24-25 Winter Release.pdf (1,335 KB)

13.4 Resolution 2023.24.15 Declaring Surplus Equipment - Amendment

Type                         Action

Fiscal Impact                No

Budgeted                     No

Recommended                  The recommendation is that the Board of Education approves Amended Resolution
Action                       2023.24.15 - Declaring Surplus Equipment.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this item is to obtain Board approval of Amended Resolution 2023.24.15 - Declaring Surplus Equipment, which lists items to be declared as surplus equipment as recommended.

BACKGROUND:

On December 2, 2024, the Board approved Resolution 2023.24.15 - Declaring Surplus Equipment. The property as described in Resolution 2023.24.15 includes equipment used at Maintenance, Operations and Transportation Staff determined that items are obsolete and/or beyond economical repair. An incorrect vehicle number was added to the Resolution.

     Vehicle 203 needs to be removed from the surplus list as it is still operable and in use.
     Vehicle 182 needs to be identified as surplus as it's determined to be beyond economical repair.

Surplus materials will be disposed of per Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 3270 Sale And Disposal Of Books, Equipment And Supplies. Education Code, Section 17546 states that if the Governing Board, by a unanimous vote of those members present, finds that the property, whether one or more items, does not exceed the value of $2,500, it may be sold at private sale without advertising, by a District employee empowered for that purpose by the Board; the property may be donated to a charitable organization, or it may be disposed of in a public disposal facility.

File Attachments Amended Resolution 2024.25.15 Surplus Equipment.pdf (345 KB)

13.5 Report: Monthly Purchase Order Report

Type                       Action

Fiscal Impact              Yes

Budgeted                   Yes

Budget Source              Various Funds Per Purchase Order

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education receive the Monthly Purchase Order
Action                     Report as presented.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this item is to present a monthly report on Purchase Order transactions per Board Policy 3300, Expenditures and Purchases.

BACKGROUND:

Based on the discussion at the Board's Study Session on January 6, 2022, staff is providing a monthly report on Purchase Order transactions per Board Policy 3300, Expenditures and Purchases. The policy states that "The Board shall review all transactions entered into by the Superintendent or designee on behalf of the Board every 60 days."

This month's report includes 118 PO's dated 11/1/2024 through 11/30/2024 for a total of $677,267.70.

File Attachments Monthly Purchase Order Report 01-21-2025.pdf (85 KB)

13.6 Report: Warrant Report for December 2024

Type                       Action

Fiscal Impact              Yes

Dollar Amount              $3,236,700.50

Budgeted                   Yes

Budget Source              Various Funds Per Warrant

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the Warrant Report as presented.
Action

Purpose: The purpose of this item is to present warrants, for the total amount of $3,236,700.50 made from District funds for December 2024.

Background: The warrant registers represent a complete listing of all payments made from District funds for a month. Because Newark Unified School District is a fiscally dependent District, each warrant must pass through two separate audits; first by the District's Fiscal Services department, and second by the County Office of Education. No warrant can be paid until such time as it is examined and approved by the County Office of Education.

File Attachments Warrant Report December 2024.pdf (410 KB)

13.7 POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 3400 Management of District Assets/Accounts

Type                       Action, Procedural

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the updated Board Policy and
Action                     Administrative Regulation 3400 Management of District Assets/Accounts.

PURPOSE:

The purpose is for the Board of Education to review the recommended changes and approve the updated board policy and administrative regulation.

BACKGROUND:

This is the FIRST reading of the attached policy. The language is sanctioned by the California School Board Association. California School Board Association notations can be seen in the documents for the benefit of the Board. These notations will be removed from the final, Board approved policies.

The Ad Hoc Policy subcommittee and the administration have reviewed the recommended updates for accuracy and made revisions to reflect district practice. If any revisions are recommended by the Board, the policy will be brought back for an additional reading.

Board Policy 3400 - Management of District Assets/Accounts Policy updated to reflect NEW LAW (SB 1439, 2022) related to conflict of interest from campaign contributions and existing conflict of interest provisions by providing that Governing Board members and district employees involved in the making of contracts on behalf of the district comply with the district's conflict of interest policy as specified in Board Bylaw 9270 - Conflict of Interest. Policy also updated to direct the Superintendent to submit reports of the district's financial status to the Board, in accordance with Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 3460 - Financial Reports and Accountability, and develop additional internal controls to strengthen fraud prevention.

Administrative Regulation 3400 - Management of District Assets/Accounts Regulation updated to reference Governmental Accounting Standards Board's (GASB) Statement #87 regarding lease accounting and GASB Statement #96 regarding subscription-based information technology agreements. Regulation also updated to clarify that the district should utilize the California Department of Education's standardized account code structure software to develop financial reports, and that the district's accounting system should comply with generally accepted accounting principles prescribed by GASB and meet other state and federal reporting guidelines. Additionally, regulation updated to expand the list of actions that constitute fraud, financial improprieties or irregularities; separate out district and county office of education investigations; clarify that the district cooperate with the County Superintendent of Schools, Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, law enforcement, or other governmental entities that conduct a fraud investigation; and, consult legal when discussing or disclosing the result of any fraud investigation.

File Attachments Policy 3400 - Management Of District Assets_Accounts.pdf (100 KB) Regulation 3400 - Management Of District Assets_Accounts.pdf (104 KB)

13.8 POLICY UPDATE: Administrative Regulation 3440 Inventories

Type                       Action, Procedural

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the updated Administrative
Action                     Regulation 3440 Inventories.

PURPOSE:

The purpose is for the Board of Education to review the recommended changes and approve the updated administrative regulation.

BACKGROUND:

This is the FIRST reading of the attached policy. The language is sanctioned by the California School Board Association. California School Board Association notations can be seen in the documents for the benefit of the Board. These notations will be removed from the final, Board approved policies.

The Ad Hoc Policy subcommittee and the administration have reviewed the recommended updates for accuracy and made revisions to reflect district practice. If any revisions are recommended by the Board, the policy will be brought back for an additional reading.

Administrative Regulation 3440 Inventories (Revise AR 9/16) Regulation updated to make minor revisions in the renumbering of legal cites pursuant to the Uniform Guidance for federal grant funds, cross-reference new BP/AR 3230 - Federal Grant Funds, and reflect requirement to annually submit an inventory listing of federally owned property in the district's custody to the federal agency that granted the award.

(Revise AR 7/09) Updated regulation clarifies state Categorical Program Monitoring criteria re: circumstances under which equipment purchased with state or federal categorical funds must be inventoried. Regulation also revised to more directly reflect law re: contents of the inventory, to add language on labeling and tracking of equipment, and to expand section on "Physical Inventory" to address procedures for physical inventory and investigation in the event a discrepancy is found.

File Attachments Regulation 3440 - Inventories.pdf (111 KB)

13.9 POLICY UPDATE: Administrative Regulation 3451 Petty Cash

Type                       Action, Procedural

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the updated Administrative
Action                     Regulation 3451 Petty Cash.

PURPOSE:

The purpose is for the Board of Education to review the recommended changes and approve the updated administrative regulation.

BACKGROUND:

This is the FIRST reading of the attached policy. The language is sanctioned by the California School Board Association. California School Board Association notations can be seen in the documents for the benefit of the Board. These notations will be removed from the final, Board approved policies.

The Ad Hoc Policy subcommittee and the administration have reviewed the recommended updates for accuracy and made revisions to reflect district practice. If any revisions are recommended by the Board, the policy will be brought back for an additional reading.

Administrative Regulation 3451 Petty Cash Regulation revised to authorize the Superintendent or designee to create a petty cash fund of $200 at each school to be used for small expenditures. Regulation requires that the principal develop a system for tracking and documenting expenditures and that the fund be kept in a safe and secure location.

File Attachments Regulation 3451 - Petty Cash Funds.pdf (98 KB)

13.10 MINUTES of the December 2, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education

Type                       Action, Minutes

PURPOSE:

For the Board to review and approve minutes of the December 2, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education.

BACKGROUND:

The attached minutes are reflective of the December 2, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education. The Meeting may be viewed on the NUSD YouTube Channel HERE

File Attachments 12.2 Meeting Minutes.pdf (287 KB)

13.11 MINUTES of the December 12, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education

Type                       Action, Minutes

PURPOSE:

For the Board to review and approve minutes of the December 12, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education.

BACKGROUND:

The attached minutes are reflective of the December 12, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education. The Meeting may be viewed on the NUSD YouTube Channel HERE

File Attachments 12.12.24 Meeting Minutes.pdf (339 KB)

13.12 MINUTES of the December 17, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education

Type                       Action, Minutes

PURPOSE: For the Board to review and approve minutes of the December 17, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education.

BACKGROUND:

The attached minutes are reflective of the December 17, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education. The Meeting may be viewed on the NUSD YouTube Channel HERE

File Attachments 12.17.24 Meeting Minutes.pdf (177 KB)

13.13 FIELD TRIP: Curricular, Overnight Trip for Birch Grove Intermediate fifth grade class to travel to Sempervirens Outdoor Science School.

Type                       Action

Fiscal Impact              Yes

Dollar Amount              $44,580.00

Budgeted                   Yes

Budget Source              5th Grade activities funds, Donations, Fundraising.
Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education approves the overnight trip for the Birch
Action                     Grove Intermediate fifth grade class to travel to Sempervirens Outdoor Science School.

PURPOSE:

The Birch Grove Intermediate community requests permission to take fifth grade students on a curricular, overnight field trip.
Students will travel to Sempervirens Outdoor School at Redwood Glen Camp and Conference Center (Salvation Army), Scotts Valley,
CA for an outdoor science education camp. Students will study science content standards for ecology, resources, life science,
etc. while participating in team building activities with classmates and growing as individuals.

       School: Birch Grove Intermediate
       Dates: February 24, 2025 - February 28, 2025
       Location: Sempervirens Outdoor School at Redwood Glen Camp and Conference Center, Scotts Valley, CA.

Chaperones for Science Camp:

       The ratio of adults to students on school-sponsored trips shall be based on the following formula:

              K-3 1 adult for every 5-8 students
              4-9 1 adult for every 10 students
              10-12 1 adult for every 10 students where strict supervision is required (tours, theaters, etc.)

       Overnight trip supervision must be gender appropriate. However, in the event that the supervisors, who stay overnight
       in proximity to students, are of a gender other than that group of campers, adequate planning, and preparation of
       campers and the physical arrangements of the camp shall be made to ensure optimal safety and privacy of students (AR
       6153).

No student will be denied due to a lack of funds.

BACKGROUND:

According to Board Policy, all trips in excess of 100 miles, non-curricular trips, and overnight trips require Board approval. The
site principal and fifth grade teachers request permission to take students on an overnight curricular trip to attend an outdoor
education/science camp program that is articulated with grade level curriculum. The programs are taught by credentialed staff
members and camp staff and are viewed by the sites as a valuable part of the students' educational experience.

13.14 2025-2026 School Calendar

Type                       Action

Absolute Date              Jan 21, 2025

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board approve the 2025-2026 School Calendar
Action

PURPOSE:

The purpose is for the Board of Education to consider approval of the 2025-2026 school calendar.

BACKGROUND:

2025-2026 Drafts have been considered and evaluated based upon their education practicality, analysis of daily student attendance data, the requirements of the education code, and NTA members had the option to vote A or B for the 2025-2026 School Year Calendar. The District is anticipating voting results for the 2025-2026 School Calendar on Tuesday January 21, 2025. File Attachments Draft School Calendar (A) 2025-2026.pdf (80 KB) Draft School Calendar (B) 2025-2026.pdf (80 KB)

14. STUDENT EXPULSION

14.1 Student Expulsion (Ed Code. � 48918) Case# e2425-04

Type                        Action

Recommended                 The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the Panel recommendation
Action                      regarding the expulsion case number e2425-04.

PURPOSE:

For the Board to take action on expulsion case e2425-04.

BACKGROUND:

A Expulsion Panel Hearing was held on January 10, 2025. A Panel Hearing was conducted in accordance with Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 5144.1 and, if applicable, 5144.2 for students with disabilities. The administration asks for approval of this agreement for Case# e2425-04. (Ed Code. � 48918).

15. BOARD OF EDUCATION: COMMITTEE REPORTS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, REQUESTS, DEBRIEF AND DISCUSSION

15.1 Board of Education Committee Reports, Announcements, Requests, Debrief and Discussion

                            AND DISCUSSION

Type                        Action, Discussion, Information

PURPOSE:

COMMITTEE REPORTS: The Trustees will provide an update, if available, on the committees of which they are members.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: The Trustees may acknowledge or recognize specific programs, activities, or personnel at this time.

REQUESTS: This is an opportunity for the Board of Education to suggest items for placement on future agendas and to review Board requests.

          Approval from the majority of the Board will be required for direction to be provided to the Superintendent.

DEBRIEF AND DISCUSSION: The Trustees may debrief and discuss items.

BACKGROUND: Each year the Board of Education members liaise with schools and committees in order to build relationships, hear from staff, students, and families, and act as a conduit for information to and from the schools.

Board Committees 2025-26

Board Adopted on 12/17/2024 Representative Alternate

Mission Valley Regional Occupational Center/Program (MVROP) 1. Nancy Thomas 1. Katherine Jones Executive Board

Regional Policy Board of Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) 1. Katherine Jones 1. Nancy Thomas

Newark Teacher Induction Advisory Council 1. Austin Block 1. Aiden Hill

Audit Committee 1. Nancy Thomas 1. Gabriel Anguiano Jr.

                                                                                              1. Nancy Thomas

Citizens Bond Oversite /Parcel Tax Committee (CBOC) 1. Austin Block 2. Joy Lee (Attendee)

City of Newark � NUSD Liaison Committee 1. Katherine Jones 1. Aiden Hill2. Austin Block LCAP Advisory Committee 1. Gabriel Anguiano Jr. 1. Aiden Hill

The following derives directly from the Board approved "Governance Team Handbook"

Authority is Collective, Not Individual: The only authority to direct action rests with the Board as a whole when seated at a regular or special board meeting. Outside of this meeting, there is no authority. A majority Board vote provides direction to the Superintendent. Board members will not undermine the ability of staff to carry out Board direction.

Bringing New Ideas Forward The Board will be open to having "brainstorming" discussions, or study sessions, around any idea that a Trustee may feel merits exploratory consideration. "New Ideas" are defined as any proposal brought forward by a Trustee, at their initiative or at the request of a constituent, which was previously discussed during a board meeting. Trustees will first notify the Board President and Superintendent of their interest in bringing forward a new idea at a board meeting. When initially agendized, the preliminary discussion of a new idea will not require staff research time. Initially, staff will be expected to respond to new ideas based on current knowledge. Only a majority of the Board may direct the Superintendent to conduct research regarding the exploration of a new idea. The Superintendent will decide on the delegation of assignments to District staff. The new idea may be agendized for discussion only. The Board majority will decide if the new idea should be further developed and studied by staff. The Board majority will decide if staff time should be invested in the "fleshing out" of new ideas. Individual Trustees, in the course of interactions with constituents, will be careful not to make or imply the commitment of the full Board to explore or proceed with implementing new ideas.

16. SUPERINTENDENT'S CONCLUDING COMMENTS, UPDATES FOR THE BOARD AND FUTURE AGENDA REQUESTS

16.1 Superintendent's Concluding Comments, Updates, and Future Agenda Items

                              AGENDA REQUESTS

Type                          Information

PURPOSE:

This is an opportunity for the Superintendent of Schools to make any concluding comments, updates, agenda requests, or provide information of future meetings.

17. ADJOURNMENT

17.1 PLACEHOLDER - Extend Meeting

Type                       Action

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education extends the meeting to ____ P.M.
Action

PURPOSE:

This is a placeholder, only to be used if the Board adds a motion and action to extend the meeting.

17.2 Adjournment

Type                       Action

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education adjourns this meeting.
Action

PURPOSE:

No items will be considered after 10:00 p.m. unless it is determined by a majority of the Board to extend to a specific time.

This action will conclude the meeting.

1. CALL TO ORDER

Information, Procedural: 1.1 Roll Call

Information, Procedural: 1.2 Meeting Practices and Information

Procedural: 1.3 Public Comment on Closed Session Items No public comment on closed session items.

Procedural: 1.4 Recess to Closed Session

2. CLOSED SESSION

Discussion, Information, Procedural: 2.1 STUDENT EXPULSION (Ed. Code, § 48918)

Action, Discussion: 2.2 Conference with Legal Counsel regarding Anticipated Litigation - Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Gov. Code, § 54956.9- CASE 1010, 1011, 1019, 1020, 1021,1022 (6 cases)

Discussion, Information, Procedural: 2.3 CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATORS (Gov. Code, § 54957.6, subd. (a)): Employee Organizations - CSEA, NTA

Action, Discussion, Information: 2.4 PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION (Gov. Code, § 54957, subd. (b)(1)) Title: Superintendent

3. REPORT OF CLOSED SESSION ACTIONS

Action, Procedural: 3.1 Report of Closed Session Actions Nothing to report from closed session items.

4. RECONVENE TO OPEN SESSION

Procedural: 4.1 Pledge of Allegiance

Information, Procedural: 4.2 Meeting Practices and Information

5. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Action: 5.1 Approval of the Agenda

Board President, Katherine Jones made a recommendation to move agenda item 8. Public Comment after approval of the agenda due to the high volume of public speaker cards submitted prior to the start of open session.

Motion by: Aiden Hill Second by: Austin Block 5 ayes

The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the agenda for this meeting. Motion by Aiden Hill, second by Nancy Thomas. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Nancy Thomas, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Gabriel Anguiano Jr, Austin Block, Joy Lee

6. STUDENT REPORT

Student Member Joy Lee provided the community with Newark Memorial upcoming events.

7. EMPLOYEE ORGANIZATIONS

Information: 7.1 Employee Organizations

Maria Huffer, CSEA- Cheri Villa, NTA NEWMA Rep- Not present

8. PUBLIC COMMENT

Procedural: 8.1 Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items Cindy Parks, community member, Fiscal health & Kennedy chrome books Cary Knoop, community member, Cutting regular board meetings, removing board member email addresses. Maria Acosta, NUSD employee, Food service department & raise.

Procedural: 8.2 Public Comment on Agenda Items Joni Wu, NMS employee, 10.2- Budget reduction Fabiola Cruz, Parent, 10.2- Budget Reduction Ana Norman, NUSD employee, 10.2- Budget reduction Angelica Pena, NUSD employee, 10.2- Budget reduction Rae Jones, parent, 10.2- Budget reduction Kerbi Page, NUSD employee, 10.2- Budget reduction Cary Knoop, community member, 10.2- Budget Reduction Cindy Parks, community member, 10.2- Budget reduction Cindy Parks, community member, 13.6-Warrant report Cindy Parks, community member, 13.10 -12/2/24 minutes Cindy Parks, community member, 13.12-12/17/24 minutes Cindy Parks, community member, 13.14- 2025-2026 School Calendar

9. SUPERINTENDENT REPORT

Information: 9.1 Superintendent Report Superintendent Vackar introduced attorney, Lou Lozano to discuss the Brown vs. Green Act-agenda item 9.2

Information: 9.2 Brown Act vs. Green Act Lou Lozano provided information on the Brown vs. Green Act.

10. STAFF REPORT

Information: 10.1 Birch Grove Intermediate School Spotlight Presentation Robert Fang, Principal at BGI presented.

Information: 10.2 Budget Reduction Plan Superintendent Vackar, Assistant Superintendent, Jose Quintana, and Interim Assistant Superintendent, Chris Williams presented the Budget Reduction Plan.

11. NEW BUSINESS

Action, Information: 11.1 After School Education and Safety (ASES) Grant Award Notification For the Board to approve and ratify the After School Education and Safety Grant Award Notification.

Motion by Aiden Hill, second by Austin Block. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Nancy Thomas, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Gabriel Anguiano Jr, Austin Block Not Present at Vote: Joy Lee.

Action, Information: 11.2 California Partnership Academies (CPA) Grant Award Notification For the Board to approve and ratify the CPA Grant Award for NMHS.

Motion by Nancy Thomas, second by Gabriel Anguiano Jr. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Nancy Thomas, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Gabriel Anguiano Jr, Austin Block

Not Present at Vote: Joy Lee

Action, Discussion: 11.3 School Board Site Liaison

For the The Board of Education to discuss and approve board members being assigned liaisons to our school sites.

President Jones- Newark Memorial High School & Kennedy Vice President-Thomas, Lincoln & Newark Middle School Austin Block- Coyote Hills Elementary & Bridgepoint Gabriel Anguiano Jr.- Birch Grove Intermediate & Birch Grove Primary Aiden Hill- Schilling & Newark Middle School

Motion by Katherine Jones, second by Gabriel Anguiano Jr. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Nancy Thomas, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Gabriel Anguiano Jr, Austin Block Not Present at Vote: Joy Lee

12. CONSENT AGENDA: PERSONNEL ITEMS

Action: 12.1 PLACEHOLDER - One Consented Vote

Action: 12.2 Increase in Minimum Wage The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the revised hourly pay rates for classified non-management, unrepresented employees as presented to comply with the increase in minimum wage effective January 1, 2025.

Motion by Austin Block, second by Aiden Hill. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Nancy Thomas, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Gabriel Anguiano Jr, Austin Block Abstain: Joy Lee

Action: 12.3 Personnel Report Motion by Nancy Thomas to clarify when to utilize employee names and identification numbers on the personnel report. The recommendation is that the Board of Education ratify the personnel report as presented.

Motion by Nancy Thomas, second by Aiden Hill. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Nancy Thomas, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Gabriel Anguiano Jr, Austin Block Abstain: Joy Lee

13. CONSENT AGENDA: NON-PERSONNEL ITEMS

Action: 13.1 PLACEHOLDER - One Consented Vote

Action: 13.2 Out of State Travel and Conference Request for the Information Technology Director The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the out of state Travel and Conference for the Information Technology Director to travel to Seattle, Washington to present at the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) Conference.

Motion by Austin Block, second by Nancy Thomas. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Nancy Thomas, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Gabriel Anguiano Jr, Austin Block Not Present at Vote: Joy Lee

Action: 13.3 California Department of Education Consolidated Application and Reporting System 2024-25 Winter Release Certification

The recommendation is that the Board of Education ratify the Consolidated Application and Reporting System (CARS), 2024-25 Winter Release certification.

Motion by Austin Block, second by Nancy Thomas. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Nancy Thomas, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Gabriel Anguiano Jr, Austin Block Not Present at Vote: Joy Lee

Action: 13.4 Resolution 2023.24.15 Declaring Surplus Equipment- Amendment

The recommendation is that the Board of Education approves Amended Resolution 2023.24.15 - Declaring Surplus Equipment.

Motion by Austin Block, second by Nancy Thomas. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Nancy Thomas, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Gabriel Anguiano Jr, Austin Block Not Present at Vote: Joy Lee

Action: 13.5 Report: Monthly Purchase Order Report. The recommendation is that the Board of Education receive the Monthly Purchase Order Report as presented.

Motion by Austin Block, second by Nancy Thomas. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Nancy Thomas, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Gabriel Anguiano Jr, Austin Block Not Present at Vote: Joy Lee

Action: 13.6 Report: Warrant Report for December 2024 The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the Warrant Report as presented.

Motion by Austin Block, second by Nancy Thomas. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Nancy Thomas, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Gabriel Anguiano Jr, Austin Block Not Present at Vote: Joy Lee

Action, Procedural: 13.7 POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 3400 Management of District Assets/Accounts The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the updated Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 3400 Management of District Assets/Accounts.

Motion by Austin Block, second by Aiden Hill. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Nancy Thomas, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Gabriel Anguiano Jr, Austin Block Not Present at Vote: Joy Lee

Action, Procedural: 13.8 POLICY UPDATE: Administrative Regulation 3440 Inventories

The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the updated Administrative Regulation 3440 Inventories.

Motion by Austin Block, second by Nancy Thomas. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Nancy Thomas, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Gabriel Anguiano Jr, Austin Block Not Present at Vote: Joy Lee

Action, Procedural: 13.9 POLICY UPDATE: Administrative Regulation 3451 Petty Cash

The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the updated Administrative Regulation 3451 Petty Cash.

Motion by Austin Block, second by Nancy Thomas. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Nancy Thomas, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Gabriel Anguiano Jr, Austin Block Not Present at Vote: Joy Lee

Action, Minutes: 13.10 MINUTES of the December 2, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education Pulled by President Jones.

Action, Minutes: 13.11 MINUTES of the December 12, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education

Motion by Austin Block, second by Nancy Thomas. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Nancy Thomas, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Gabriel Anguiano Jr, Austin Block Not Present at Vote: Joy Lee

Action, Minutes: 13.12 MINUTES of the December 17, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education Pulled by President Jones.

Action: 13.13 FIELD TRIP: Curricular, Overnight Trip for Birch Grove Intermediate fifth grade class to travel to Sempervirens Outdoor Science School.

The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the overnight trip for the Birch Grove Intermediate fifth grade class to travel to Sempervirens Outdoor Science School.

Motion by Austin Block, second by Nancy Thomas. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Nancy Thomas, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Gabriel Anguiano Jr, Austin Block Not Present at Vote: Joy Lee

Action: 13.14 2025-2026 School Calendar

Pulled by the board for discussion, approved a draft a calendar. The recommendation is that the Board approve the 2025-2026 School Calendar

Motion by Austin Block, second by Aiden Hill. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Nancy Thomas, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Gabriel Anguiano Jr, Austin Block Not Present at Vote: Joy Lee

14. STUDENT EXPULSION

Action: 14.1 Student Expulsion (Ed Code. § 48918) Case# e2425-04

The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the Panel recommendation regarding the expulsion case number e2425-04.

Motion by Nancy Thomas, second by Aiden Hill. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Nancy Thomas, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Gabriel Anguiano Jr, Austin Block Abstain: Joy Lee

15. BOARD OF EDUCATION: COMMITTEE REPORTS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, REQUESTS, DEBRIEF AND DISCUSSION

Action, Discussion, Information: 15.1 Board of Education Committee Reports, Announcements, Requests, Debrief and Discussion

Aiden Hill- Happy New year, thank you to staff. Request- revisit the email situation and bring it back for discussion. Gabriel Anguiano- No comments Austin Block- Thank you to community for showing up. Do not take lay- offs lightly, sighted email address to the community. Appreciates everyone and encourages students to show up for school. Nancy Thomas- Sited email address to the community. Thank you to Assistant Superintendents and work on stipends. Katherine Jones- Appreciates the audience and sharing concerns. Valuable to hear from staff. Commends those that spoke and heard concerns. Looking forward to a new year and second semester.

16. SUPERINTENDENT'S CONCLUDING COMMENTS, UPDATES FOR THE BOARD AND FUTURE AGENDA REQUESTS

Information: 16.1 Superintendent's Concluding Comments, Updates, and Future Agenda Items Tracey Vackar- Introducing new website for cyber security protection, moving to a centralized enrollment system for the upcoming school year. Launching online registration February 12, 2025. Thank you staff for all of their hard work.

17. ADJOURNMENT

Action: 17.1 PLACEHOLDER - Extend Meeting The recommendation is that the Board of Education extends the meeting.

Action: 17.2 Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 11:50 p.m.