Regular Meeting

Merged Meeting Summary: 2025 Regular School Board Meeting

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Introduction

• Regular meeting held in 2025, focused on budget sustainability, academic progress, Measure O bond implementation, and community engagement.
• Key themes:
  • Structural deficit reductions ($3.4M projected deficit addressed via $5.9M reduction plan).
  • Staff compensation disputes and layoffs (certificated and classified roles).
  • Equity concerns in program cuts (e.g., MCA, Puente) and facilities updates.
  • Transparency in financial reporting and community communication.

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Agenda Items

Budget Reductions & Financial Sustainability

• Description:
  • $5.9M reduction plan to address a projected $3.4M structural deficit, with additional focus on a $5.1M deficit flagged in the First Interim Budget Report.
  • Proposed cuts include:
    • Certificated Staff: 16 FTE reductions (8 via attrition/retirement, 8 via layoffs).
    • Classified Staff: Restructuring IT, custodial roles (4 custodians cut), software support specialists, and a director position.
    • Special Education: Reductions in contracted aides, adaptive PE, and program specialists.
    • Program Adjustments: Technology/vendor savings ($280K) and potential Bridgepoint relocation ($504K savings).
  • Concerns: Over-reliance on one-time grants, transparency in financial reporting, and class size impacts (e.g., 34:1 ratios).
• Decisions/Actions:
  • Draft layoff resolutions to be prepared by February 18; final vote by March 4 (state deadline: March 15).

Student Advisory Committee & Measure O Bond Updates

• Description:
  • Student Advisory Committee: Proposed by Superintendent Vackar and Member Lee to advise on facilities, wellness, and equity issues.
  • Measure O Bond: Passed at 55%, with certification delayed. Oversight committee planning underway; bond issuance aligned with spring 2025 timelines.
• Decisions/Actions: No formal action taken.

Academic Progress & Program Highlights

• Newark Memorial High School Spotlight:
  • AP participation rose to 50% of students; CAASPP scores improved, though math proficiency remains a challenge.
  • Expanded SAT/PSAT access and resiliency programs (e.g., Challenge Day).
• AP Computer Science Grant:
  • $360K grant approved unanimously to expand AP Computer Science pathways, covering equipment, teacher training, and outreach.

Bridgepoint High School Relocation Proposal

• Description: Proposal to move Bridgepoint (continuation school) back to Newark Memorial campus.
  • Opposition: Students, staff, and alumni emphasized the need for a separate, supportive environment and retention of ROP-funded vocational programs (culinary arts, media).
  • Savings: Relocation could save $504K.
• Decisions/Actions: Board requested further analysis; no formal action.

First Interim Budget Report

• Description:
  • Alameda County Office of Education issued a positive certification but warned of a 25% enrollment decline over 10 years and reserves dropping from $22.5M to $2.7M by 2026–27.
  • COLA adjustment reduced from 2.93% to 2.43%, impacting LCFF revenues.

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Public Comments

• Key Themes:
  • Staff Compensation: Criticisms of low wages for classified (CSEA) and certificated (NTA) staff compared to neighboring districts.
  • Program Cuts: Opposition to eliminating MCA, Puente, and Bridgepoint’s standalone campus.
  • Transparency: Calls for clearer financial presentations and Spanish translations of materials.
  • Class Sizes & Substitutes: Risks of increased ratios and unfilled PE/science substitute roles.

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Follow-Up and Commitments

• Immediate Actions:
  • February 18: Study session on bond issuance and revised budget resolution; draft layoff resolutions.
  • March 4: Finalize layoffs and review updated budget projections.
  • Review substitute pay rates and recruitment strategies.
• Long-Term Goals:
  • Facilities: Develop a 7-11 committee for property management; prioritize Prop 39 upgrades.
  • Academic Equity: Explore math intervention programs and align LCAP revisions with state mandates.
  • Safety: Develop incident-tracking dashboards per board goals.

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Conclusion

• The board emphasized balancing fiscal responsibility with student needs, prioritizing transparency and community engagement.
• Next meeting (March 4) will finalize layoffs, review budget updates, and advance bond oversight planning.
• Programs like Bridgepoint, MCA, and Puente remain under discussion, with commitments to preserve equity and student support.

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Target Audience Notes:

• Parents/Guardians: Potential impacts on class sizes, extracurriculars, and campus environments.
• Teachers/Staff: Layoffs, restructuring, and ongoing wage negotiations.
• Students: Changes to elective programs (e.g., AP Computer Science expansion) and campus relocations.
• Community: Bond oversight, facility upgrades, and program sustainability prioritized.

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Final Note: This merged summary ensures continuity across all meeting topics, resolves redundancies, and highlights critical decisions and community concerns.

[15] Thumbs up!

Pause: 54.2s

[70] SPEAKER_20: Okay.

[85] Okay.

[85] SPEAKER_20: There's a digital one up here if you need it.

[103] There's a digital one in your Chrome if you need it.

[104] SPEAKER_20: Okay.

[122] SPEAKER_20: I'm starving.

[135] SPEAKER_22: Yeah.

[151] Yeah.

[151] SPEAKER_20: Thank you.

[166] SPEAKER_22: and trash is around.

[183] Okay. you. Okay.

[229] SPEAKER_20: Oh, yeah. Okay.

[263] Yeah.

[282] Yeah.

Pause: 5m 0s

[582] SPEAKER_20: Thank you. Thank you. Test one, test one.

[625] SPEAKER_20: Test two, test two.

[630] Thank you.

[644] SPEAKER_20: Thank you.

[658] Thank you.

[672] SPEAKER_20: Thank you.

[692] SPEAKER_32: I bring this meeting to order. I have to look at the clock. It's 7. It's 19.

[708] Kat Jones: I like to make sure I keep my own nooks. I was using my big voice, but it's not enough. I'm cutting out of position item 2.1 anticipated litigation. The motion was to approve the staff recommendation for settlement of $56,000.

[731] Kat Jones: Thank you. Also, we will be extending our closed session tonight until after

[742] Kat Jones: the rest of the meeting, because we still have some more to discuss and have chosen to continue it tonight, later after the meeting, rather than coming back again tomorrow night.

1.1 Roll Call

[755] Kat Jones: All right. We are actually, member Lee. Would you do us the honor of, oh, we need to do roll call first, don't we? Pardon me. OK, Miss Lemus, could we have roll call for open session, please?

[773] Toya Lemus: Yes. Student board, member Lee?

[776] Kat Jones: Here.

[777] Toya Lemus: Member Hill? Here. Member Anguiano? Here. Member Block? Here. Member Thomas?

[782] Toya Lemus: Here. Vice President Jones.

[786] Kat Jones: Here.

4.1 Pledge of Allegiance

[788] Kat Jones: Thank you, all present. Member Lee, would you do us the honor of leading us in the pledge? Yes, I'd be so honored.

[803] Joy Lee: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[820] SPEAKER_32: Thank you.

1.2 Meeting Practices and Information

[824] Kat Jones: Meeting practices and information. Just as a reminder tonight, as we have a very full room, the board made agreements and I will be reading those. We will keep our focus on the best interest of our students. We will work towards that future, learning from the past. We will stay focused on our goals and avoid getting sidetracked. We will build upon the ideas of others and look for common ground. We will paraphrase for understanding. When we have a difference of opinion, we will debate the facts of the situation and avoid personal criticism. We will address processes, not persons.

5.1 Approval of the Agenda

[871] Kat Jones: We will respect the differences and we will never dismiss or devalue others. Before we approve the agenda tonight, I would like to ask the board if we can move 10.1 which is Newark Memorial spotlight presentation. up after our employee organization.

[892] Kat Jones: So we'd be moving 10.1 up to just before item 8 public comment.

[900] Kat Jones: Do I have the board's approval to make that motion?

[906] Austin Block: Sure, I'll make a motion to move item 10.1 up after 7.1.

[911] Austin Block: I'll second that motion.

[915] Kat Jones: Could we take a vote, Ms. Lemus? And a roll call vote is just fine.

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

[930] Kat Jones: Yes.

[931] Toya Lemus: President Jones.

[932] Kat Jones: Yes. All right, that passes with six yes.

[939] Kat Jones: Thank you. Sorry, I am again, once again, taking my notes.

6.1 Student Report: Student Board Member, Joy Lee

[945] Kat Jones: Student reports. Member Joy.

[949] Joy Lee: Thank you. Good evening board members, executive cabinet, and Newark community.

[957] Joy Lee: To provide a brief recap on the last two weeks, Newark Memorial High School had our second semester club rush where around 22 clubs were able to participate. At the Judy Ryder Memorial Competition, three of our Newark Memorial High School girls wrestling team placed first.

[972] Joy Lee: Malia Sal, Sophia McCloy, and Gianna Hernandez, congratulations. At the Varsity Boys Basketball game last Friday, not only did they secure a win, but our cheerleaders and our elementary Cougar Cubs were able to perform at halftime.

[986] Joy Lee: Thank you to everyone that came and supported our cheerleading team and our little cubs. The boys basketball game also won their game, by the way. And our boys and girls soccer teams have been killing it on the fields.

[1000] Joy Lee: and would like to extend thanks to the Silliman Center for letting us use their fields. This past Saturday, our Interact Club was able to partner with the Newark Rotary at the annual crab feed where we had a great time serving crabs. Today was the Newark Memorial High School Art Fair, which was organized by our art teacher, Mr. Normoyal, and the art class and was held in the library.

[1022] Joy Lee: There were many different art forms from photography to fine art, delectable finger foods prepared by our culinary class, and a performance by band. And yesterday, President Jones and Vice President Thomas was able to come to meet with our prospective student board members. And it was a great time where we were able to discuss and meet each other. And I will now share a couple of upcoming events, so if you would like to mark your calendars now is the time. This Friday, there will be a food fair at the high school during lunchtime, providing clubs an opportunity to raise money by selling food to our students. To provide a peak of this food being sold, there will be In-N-Out, Elotes, and Shirley Temples. And with winter sports coming to an end and senior night fast approaching, spring sports orientation will be held in the old gym from 5 to 7 p.m. with sports like baseball, softball, badminton, track and field, girls lacrosse, swimming, boys tennis, boys volleyball, and boys golf.

[1086] Joy Lee: you would like to sign up your kid, please come. And our ASB class is currently selling Valentine grams, a rose and a bear, which would be delivered to the students on February 14th. Our next in-person sale will be happening at the Friday Spring Sports Orientation, so please show up.

[1105] Joy Lee: And thank you for listening.

[1110] Kat Jones: Thank you member Joy. That's wonderful.

7.1 Employee Organizations

[1113] Kat Jones: OK we are going to move on to employee organizations.

[1121] Kat Jones: NTA.

Pause: 9.9s

[1132] SPEAKER_16: Mister you are at.

[1149] SPEAKER_16: For the second time, my name is Cheri Bill, and I am president of our Newark Teachers Association.

[1155] SPEAKER_16: All right.

[1159] Chery Villa: Clearly, many site admin and district admin have come and gone.

[1164] Chery Villa: The school board members have come and gone also.

[1169] Chery Villa: The administration school board is not the heart of our district.

[1173] Chery Villa: These teachers, especially the teachers who have been with NUSD, who have stayed with NUSD, they are the heart of this district. The chaos that I have seen first hand with my own eyes in this district office day after day for many years.

[1188] Chery Villa: Our teachers are the ones who keep that chaos out of the classroom. Going back to the beginning of the school year, we're talking about relationships, building relationships. When you make executive decisions, That's not a relationship with our teachers.

[1207] Chery Villa: When you balance your budget on the backs of our employees, both NTA and CSA, that's not a relationship. When you say, when we're talking about negotiations, when the message is, if you want a salary increase, then we have to increase class sizes.

[1225] Chery Villa: That's not a relationship.

[1228] Chery Villa: Heartbreaking as it was to hear last week CSEA members come up and talk about how they can barely put food on their table. Same thing with teachers.

[1238] Chery Villa: Teachers putting money out of their own pocket to get things done day after day.

[1244] Chery Villa: That's not a relationship. So again, your NTA members, all of them, classroom teachers, counselors, the district nurse, our high school librarian, they're the heart of your district. They're holding it down. They're the first ones. first contact with these students and these families.

[1269] Chery Villa: So if we're talking about where we should be putting our focus and where we should be putting our resources.

[1281] SPEAKER_27: Thank you.

[1284] Chery Villa: At one time, our NTA had 34% who lived right here in Newark, 34% of our NTA members. Now, 17%.

[1294] Chery Villa: So I brought up negotiations earlier.

[1305] Chery Villa: Once again, we have fallen to the lowest paying district in our surrounding communities, our surrounding school district, the lowest paying. I had spoken, I'll end it with, I recently connected with a teacher that left our district.

[1325] Chery Villa: and is working in a new district this year. It was her second year when she left Newark for a different school district.

[1332] Chery Villa: And the first thing that she said out of her mouth was, I didn't know teaching could be like this. She was ready to give up teaching. She thought she win.

[1343] Chery Villa: The wrong career path, but the first thing out of her mouth was I never knew teaching could be like this.

[1351] Chery Villa: So that's real, that's real for our teachers.

[1357] Chery Villa: Teaching shouldn't be like this, being a counselor shouldn't be like this. And it's going to be up to you, all of you.

[1365] Chery Villa: In each one of your campaign messages, all of you said competitive wages for our people. So are you going to live up to that promise? Because that's what it was.

[1379] Chery Villa: You support us, we promise you we're going to give you competitive wages.

[1384] Chery Villa: So it's on you.

Pause: 16.3s

[1401] Maria Huffer: Thank you. All right, good evening, trustees, executive cabinet, staff, community members.

[1408] Maria Huffer: I stand before you again tonight proudly representing the 186 classified employees of CSEA Chapter 208. Why do we continue to cut the essential staff needed to run this district, but continue to tell the very same staff that they are respected and valued. How do such actions put our students, families, and the community first? The students of Newark Unified need a strong board of trustees to support student needs, which starts with fully staffing schools. classrooms and support staff to meet these needs. For the past several years, staff has been cut to the bone. And we started this year with revolving staff to cover classrooms for weeks and months at a time. This has been going on for a couple of years actually. This is unacceptable. The proposed cuts for non-management classified staff will make very little difference to the bottom line of the proposed budget.

[1465] Maria Huffer: The cost of the 1% for our bargaining unit is actually less than $120,000. Some of the proposed reductions must first be bargained with CSEA before the district can move forward with any proposed cost savings. This board and administration need to look at the top salaries and how much it is paid for ineffective and incompetent management that continues to be hired instead of investing in the experienced staff we currently have and promoting within are with, let me back that up, staff currently have in promoting within or providing training for them to excel in the areas of expertise. As I've stated before, this has been an ongoing issue here in Newark Unified. The board and leadership continue to enrich

[1510] Maria Huffer: management with money you claim the district doesn't have. The district continues to hire outside consultants to help the positions that have been previously laid off by the district.

[1521] Maria Huffer: If there was no need, then why are they being hired to do this work? Please do not tell our staff and this community that you are saving the district money because the actual reality is very different. Newark Unified needs to learn how to manage its finances properly because the district cannot continue to run this way year after year. Every year, There are recommendations for reductions, and every year, these so-called reductions focus on the same budget areas, making staffing realities worse the following year. How is this the rank-and-file staff's fault?

[1559] Maria Huffer: Why must classified staff suffer for administration's mismanagement? As a reminder to the board and executive cabinet, the appointment of the interim superintendent was made to allow the district to do a thorough search for a permanent superintendent that would fit with Newark's mission and goals at a more appropriate time of the year.

[1580] Maria Huffer: This search for the permanent superintendent should begin immediately, should have already started. This board of education was elected to make good decisions and hire a solid, trustworthy education student-focused superintendent. If this does not happen soon, this district will continue to run into the will run it into the ground with the overspending on a consultants interim appointments revolving administrators and principals who are not working towards the best interest of our Newark community. Again, wasteful spending. We need to find a way to retain our staff and our students and community families before it's too late.

[1622] Maria Huffer: Staff, students, and families are being lost to neighboring districts and will continue to be lost without immediate changes. Again, Newark Unified School Board members and executive cabinet, I ask Explore other fair share, not full share solutions that minimize impact on students and staff alike. Start with the overpaid, unqualified management and inexpensive, inexpensive, unnecessary consultants.

[1650] Maria Huffer: Thank you.

Pause: 12.6s

[1663] Kat Jones: Thank you, Mrs. Hover. Do we have anyone from NEWMA here tonight? Okay, thank you.

10.1 Newark Memorial High School Spotlight Presentation

[1674] Kat Jones: At this time, we are going to move to 10.1, Newark Memorial Spotlight. Good evening, Mr. Murphy. Hey, good evening.

[1699] SPEAKER_06: All righty. Good evening, honorable board members, Superintendent Vackar, assistant superintendents.

[1707] SPEAKER_06: My name is Mike Murphy and I'm the principal of Newark Memorial High School. Your administration shares a combined total of 89 years of educational experience. The photos above show you how we looked in high school. Terry and Connie and I have been there for three years.

[1722] SPEAKER_06: Bernie Flores, this is his first year. My sword stinks. OK.

[1736] SPEAKER_06: Sorry. It worked before. Oh, it's on this one, not this one? All right, I'll do it, man.

[1747] SPEAKER_06: You'll tell good.

[1750] SPEAKER_06: I got it.

[1752] SPEAKER_06: It's all good. You sure? All right. As you tell the kids, I joke around and say this is as good as it gets. It's a public school.

[1769] SPEAKER_06: All right. Hi, Joy, I'm just going to warn you here. You're thinking about going to school and stuff. This is what education does to you, OK? Look what I used to look like. All right. All right. OK. So I'm going back to this. Terry Connie I've been there for three years now. Bernie Ford has been there. This is his first year. Ironically as I'm putting together the loss and the 23rd principal in 21 years your typical assistant principal has been there for about one year at a time. So Terry and I were sort of

[1825] SPEAKER_06: Been here for a little bit. Bernie is his first go. A lot has changed since we've arrived, both academically and behaviorally for both students and staff.

[1834] SPEAKER_06: When we arrived, there was a lack of school pride, apathy, and a lack of connection. I'm just going to go through the slides and give you the rundown of where we are academically. The first next two slides are about our advanced placement results. Greater number of students are taking AP exams now more than ever because of access is being made for students to access rigorous college classes. Please note that although the scores are slightly lower, this most recent year, there's a greater number of students taking the exams. As you have more people taking the exams, you're going to have multiple regression, or you're going to back off a little bit. Now, please note that roughly 50% of the student body enrolls in at least one AP course at Newark Memorial High School. This chart reflects the percentage of students who take the exam and pass.

[1882] SPEAKER_06: is considered a passing rate. Here is your current California dashboard with how we look. I want to note that when we arrived, it was very dismal. It was all yellow and red. Everything is green with the exception of English language learners and math. We're making great strides.

[1904] SPEAKER_06: We're moving in a pretty strong direction.

[1908] SPEAKER_06: Additionally as noted earlier we continue to grow. Something we brought back to Newark Memorial is the PSAT and the SAT. Here you see this is the second year we've offered the PSATs in recent years. Above reflects our students who outperform students across the state and the United States inclusively. We're the only school from my understanding that offers the PSAT. I believe that only because people would bug us to try to seek their kids. It's in-house. This is the only offer. If your kid goes to Newark they can take the PSAT through us. The SAT

[1946] SPEAKER_06: And granted now please note this CDC 32 kids took the SAT this fall. Those are low numbers. Do consider though when COVID came out just prior to COVID colleges were not requiring the SAT's and the PSAT's. The culture was changing a little bit. There are, you have some Ivy Leagues, you have some, you want a scholarship, so they're starting to require it again. So we expect that exponentially there's going to be more and more kids taking these exams with us. We'll go back to the SAT. This fall was the first time we introduced the SAT. We will begin offering this every fall and spring for Newark Memorial students. Our scores demonstrate, again, we've outperformed students across the state in the United States.

[1987] SPEAKER_06: And again, just like the PSAT, we're the only one that offers it for the kids. Here's your English Language Arts CAF scores. Since we've been here, we've implemented the following five items. One, assemblies that encourage students to take accountability for their actions and for self-improving themselves and taking ownership of their education. Two, educating stakeholders of the importance of these exams. Be like the test maker, not the test taker. Reduce those anxieties and think about strategically, how can you improve your test scores? How can you come up with as closely as possible a flawless execution of your exam? Number three, designing quarterly benchmarks by department and course. This is something new to Newark Memorial. We've been doing this for a year now. So it's in its infancy, but it's something that we're going to share with the WSCA visiting committee in the next couple of months. Number four, ensuring teachers have time to plan and analyze data at least two times a month. Number five, working on building capacity among others. You know, I use a lot of Yogi Berra-isms, if you're around me a lot. And I just say, there's a few things I always say to the kids and the staff.

[2057] SPEAKER_06: It's like, we work hard, we play hard, and we take test scores seriously. Get your business done. Kids, you're here to get a grade. The only good credit is a pass credit. Do your business. Do what you need to do. Then go crazy and have fun. The above scores up here, they reflect your English language scores. They continue to rise. But I also want to note to you that before we got here, you've had a, I don't know how long, but there was a relatively long period where your scores at Newark Memorial High School did not meet the 95% threshold for all students taking the test. The last two years are the first two years that you've had that in recent years. In 22-23, I was the test coordinator. I was able to score up 97%. Terry was able to get all of them. So she was able to round up all the kids. Notice the scores are going up.

[2106] SPEAKER_06: They're not going up as high as we would like, but that reflects all the kids in the junior year. Those other ones don't. The highest that they got in 21-22 is 70%.

[2115] SPEAKER_06: And years prior to that, I believe it was more dismal than that. OK, moving on to the next slide, math. Just similar to the English Language Arts scores,

[2124] SPEAKER_06: The numbers continue to rise overall, and although some subgroups have dipped, overall, we're continuing to show that we're gaining growth across the board for our kids at North Monroe.

[2137] SPEAKER_06: The next slide is our LPAC. This is what we've been working really hard this year with our English language coordinator, our EL aid and the counselor that works with the EL students and just faculty and staff and our ELD teachers. We've purchased a summative K-12 software program. It's a test prep program to help kids take the state, pardon me, the ELPAC. We've identified our students who are, Back in the day, we used to call them the bubble kids. They were the ones on the cusp that could go either way between three and four. You want the kids to be at four. So I quickly identified those students and worked very vigorously and closely with them to help them rise up to the four side. Our English language learner counselor and aid work with students weekly during pause during intervention time. They do this religiously with the kids. They're awesome. They have developed some really strong relationships with the kids. We're very fortunate to have them. Our long term language learners. conversations. We're going to have this in the next couple weeks as they get ready to prepare to take the LPAC. We're going to talk about, what's going to be great about this is we're going to have it in the theater, we're going to do it by grade level, and we're going to have those people who do give the test orally, all those various pieces, and talk to the kids. These are the things that can get you not doing so well. These are the things that you need to do. These are the things you need to stay away from. It's going to be a test. I call it the Newt Rockne speech, but it's also at the same time, hey, let's win one for the Gipper. But talk about how this is going to help your life. How is this going to help you be able to get your classes back that you really want to take? all the awesome electives that we can potentially offer. This is to fire up the kids and quite frankly, it's not what you know how to take the test, it's how to take the test. And if we can reduce that anxiety for the kids, it's gonna go a long ways for these kids. Should students reclassify, there are gonna be more elective choices for them. And a group that we've started up, it has a different name than it had in the past, is Padres Unidos. This is the first year we've had Padres Unidos. It's a group of parents that come together, and there's a couple of community ladies that come in. We meet monthly. We have meetings where we discuss topics of interest to families.

[2267] SPEAKER_06: We talk about reclassification, we talk about EL programs, we talk about a myriad of ideas and stuff, but we seek input and participation from them on how we can better serve their students and make people feel connected to the campus. The following are some campus initiatives that we've implemented for this year. Our focus this year has been building pride.

[2289] SPEAKER_06: This is our school-wide learner outcome.

[2291] SPEAKER_06: Building capacity is what we hope that students will get connected and take ownership of their education. Through focusing on building school pride, I believe the school should be the next best place to be in at home and the happiest place north of Anaheim. are receiving training for this through Challenge Day. We offered Challenge Day last year. We identified about a quarter of the kids took Challenge Day. They were freshmen. This year, it was so well-received, we've expanded it for all the freshmen. All freshmen will participate in Challenge Day. All students receive resiliency day training.

[2326] SPEAKER_06: So last week, Joe, was it last week, two weeks ago? Was it last week? Yeah, it was last week, two weeks ago. Yeah, Dean Hankins came out, really great motivational speaker, talked to the kids about, identify where you're at, what are your goals, and how do you want to get there? We're going to help all these students be able to develop the connections to the school.

[2361] SPEAKER_06: One of the pieces we're doing is we're expanding staff through wing crew. We want to make sure that every single incoming ninth grade student feels as they transition from the middle school and go to the high school they feel connected to each other.

[2374] SPEAKER_06: They feel connected to the staff and it's going to make a more positive transition from the middle school to the high school. These are some unique programs that we offer here at Newark Memorial. We have a number of unique programs that allow us to holistically work with students. Aside from the list above, I'll just say it like that. Here's how I say it.

[2396] SPEAKER_06: If we have students that come into the office for a variety of reasons, whether it's disciplinary, whether they're having a bad day, whatever it is that's going on. We have sort of a different approach we've developed over time. And what we do is we sit down with the students, have a referral, pick what you want on the referral. We sit down, we look at, I'll just give you an example. I'll sit down with the kid and I'll say, okay, what grade are you in, what's your name? I'll pull up their. the database system. I'll look at their transcript. I'll look at their current grades. I'll look at their attendance. We talk about how school's going for them. How are they feeling connected? What's working for them? What's not? I haven't even talked about the discipline yet. It's about connecting with the kid. And this is me. We've got lots of people doing this there.

[2440] SPEAKER_06: But what comes out of that is, We're addressing whatever happened in there with, let's just say it was disciplinary. How is this keeping you from reaching the goal that you want? Do you want to go to college? Do you want to go, you have really strong grades? Have you thought about going to a four year college? Have you thought about a pathway? Is there a college pathway that you'd like to, a career pathway that you'd like to take? These are the conversations that we have, and then we talk about the discipline. We've got to get consequence? We'll get the consequence. Not a problem.

[2469] SPEAKER_06: But it's about going back to all those models and the yoga bari-isms. You get what you get, you get back what you emphasize, and focus on your business. Get your business done, do what you need to do, and then go crazy. Have fun at school, but do the real crazy off campus.

[2485] SPEAKER_06: That's how we do business. The next couple of slides have some photos of the kids. These are some things I was able to scrape up from Ms. Canales.

[2494] SPEAKER_06: Thank you, Sarah. The food, by the way. I mean, we are so fortunate to have this culinary teacher. It is amazing stuff that he puts together.

[2511] SPEAKER_06: And I'm looking forward for Boss to be able to see what's going to be on the menu for them during lunch. This last slide is for you for your reference. Newark Memorial's WOTS will take place, that's our accreditation, will take place the Sunday through Wednesday when we return from spring break.

[2531] SPEAKER_06: The list above will provide you with an outline of the end of the year activities in Newark that you are welcome to attend.

[2539] SPEAKER_06: Any questions?

[2542] Kat Jones: Thank you very much.

Pause: 6.3s

[2549] SPEAKER_30: Number who?

[2552] Aiden Hill: Mr Murphy, thank you so much for the presentation and thank you for sharing all of the academic information around what's going on at the school and could definitely see progress. And so congratulations on that. Um, and then also I think I'd like to speak on behalf of the board. I think I can speak on behalf of the board in saying that just as Schilling brought one of their remarkable students in to talk about her educational journey. I think that the high school has an open invitation to bring any of your kids in who are doing amazing things. And I don't think we even need to have a special agenda item. They can just come and speak in public comment, so.

[2593] Kat Jones: Very good. We'll do that.

[2595] Aiden Hill: Great.

[2595] Aiden Hill: Thank you.

[2598] Kat Jones: Anyone else?

[2601] Austin Block: I just want to say thank you for your presentation, your optimism and your positivity is really infectious. I feel inspired listening to you talk about all of the really positive things happening at the Memorial Campus. One question I did have was about interim data throughout the year. So I know you mentioned quarterly benchmarks that are starting to be implemented. I was wondering if there's any other sort of mid-year data that's collected just on students' basic reading and math skills to be an indicator partway through the year about what expectations will be for CASPP. A few months down the road.

[2633] Austin Block: And if so, how that data is used.

[2638] Karen Allard: Currently, it's something that we definitely need to look at. We don't offer I ready at the high school because it only goes up to eighth grade common core standards for reading and writing and the personalized pathway does not include writing. It does go to algebra too, but only goes up to common core standards for eighth grade in math as well. So we need to take a look at something of what would be a common form of assessment that would give us real time data on how students are performing at their grade level.

[2662] Austin Block: Awesome, thank you for the clarification.

[2664] SPEAKER_06: Yeah, the only other thing I'd say is benchmarks. My background was I would work with schools. I was in management when I was 26. I'm 50 now. And I would go in and work with schools to get them out of program improvement before they would be taken over by the state. And so data was something that we used quite often to work with staffs.

[2686] SPEAKER_06: Newark. started that process before COVID and it's just sort of after, and we're getting back into it. It's a process, but I'm gonna say, and I appreciate you, thank you for the compliment for me, but I have to say, it wouldn't have happened without the students and staff. both faculty and staff. So I'm very fortunate where I work. You guys are really good people.

[2713] SPEAKER_06: I care about kids there. Thank you.

[2716] Austin Block: Thank you.

[2717] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Mr. Murphy, I just want to, just as a parent as well, just want to say thank you. I do see your presence at the field. I do see your presence outside always involved, you know, where the crowd is you're always around. So really appreciate that hats off to you, especially yourself, yourself is always out there. They go beyond so really It's nice to see and it's really comfortable to have staff out there, especially when you're, you as a parent, you're pretty much busy, right? So you guys are always out there and really just taking care of our young ones. So thank you and great job on all that you guys are doing right now. Really appreciate the efforts of you guys being here and also all the students that came out to support you with Ms. Lee as well. It's always good to have that voice and also just to be a part of the community, which really shows. And the efforts are always there. Thank you much.

[2782] SPEAKER_06: Thank you.

[2785] Nancy Thomas: Thank you very much. I really appreciate the fact that the dashboard has improved, and I think your efforts to make sure that we have 100% of our students taking the test scores, tests, that speaks volumes because I don't think we've ever hit 100%. So thank you.

[2805] SPEAKER_06: Be sure to thank Terry. She was like the kid who wants the $2 for the newspaper. Only $2.

[2809] Joy Lee: Beverly. Thank you. First of all, I wanted to say thank you so much. Just everything you and your team have been doing at the high school, it truly shows. The students can tell the community that you guys have been building over there, it's really great. I also wanted to say thank you for, it's great to see all the improvements in test scores, especially just echoing my fellow board members, seeing how 100% are getting tested. I did have a question, however, on the mathematics cast on slide 10. Do you think you could just explain a little bit further on what's been happening over the years for math? Because it says 50% hasn't been met, but then for English,

[2861] Joy Lee: Like we see like 20% hasn't been met. Yeah.

[2866] SPEAKER_06: Well, I'll say thank you. But remember, that was your class that took that test.

[2869] SPEAKER_06: Yeah. But I'm going to say, I didn't know why. That campus was like Mad Max and Thunderdome that first year. Most of you guys don't know what I'm talking about. You know you were a freshman. You had the eyes on your back head and everything. And some of you know what I'm talking about. It was crazy, but it's paying down quite a bit.

[2891] SPEAKER_06: I can't see. Math is something that we need to work towards. We recognize it. I think probably the best way to put it is the goal is with benchmarks. I mean, look, you're already boring yet. But basically, what we used to do with benchmarks is whatever the state test had, As long as we were working towards what was on the benchmarks and if the kids were as you're describing if we can ensure that whatever was on that benchmark is going to be aligned to the state test we can ensure where that student potentially is going to be. I would argue. I've struggled with that for high schools trying to identify a test that gives me that since they've transitioned the test to the cats. I'm trying to think the old Stanford test, the cats, I'm gonna date myself now, but all those older tests. I can predict where you're gonna get, and we have those benchmarks that would help us with that.

[2955] Karen Allard: I think you all said this last year eloquently in a board meeting actually, is that at the high school when 11th graders are being tested, that there's nothing holding that. It's not to their graduation, it's not to their next college or their career path. And so as Mr. Murphy mentioned, calling kids in, telling them they're going to do well, we're bringing them in by grade level. Here's what you need to do. Here's what you need to do. Please take the test seriously for us, because it represents who we are as a district.

[2985] Karen Allard: It should help us increase those test scores.

[2988] SPEAKER_42: Additionally, can you hear me? Hi everyone. My name is Han Fan. I'm the Director of Teaching and Learning and I also support secondary. So the math course that you see is something that as a state across the districts we're trying to figure it out as well. And so it's not our district alone. And so we are learning from other we're just checking in to see if there are other districts that are doing it well but this is something that is not something that we're facing alone.

[3019] SPEAKER_06: One thing I will add lastly on that. What I appreciate about you kids when we took that test And I would sit you down and I'd scream at you all and stuff like that. The thing I appreciate about you kids is when you take that test and you submit your EAP, which I don't know what EAP stands for anymore. You say I want my scores to go for my English and reading to go to the, should you do well. You can avoid having to take an entrance exam to your college. Should you do well, you can avoid having to, if you did poorly and blew it off, cuz you blew it off, you're gonna have to, guess what, you get to take six weeks of summer school for college. Because they don't think you're prepared to take a lot of math or whatever. You kids took it, those of you who took it strongly, a lot of you really benefited from that. And I appreciate you listening to me on that one.

[3070] SPEAKER_23: Yeah.

[3072] Aiden Hill: Just one follow-up question. I know that a few years back, that at the high school, we were having the students take CASPP, like in May or something like that. And I know that at the school where I teach in Cupertino, we actually did it in March.

[3088] Aiden Hill: And so did we change the date at all? Go ahead. I'm sorry.

[3094] SPEAKER_06: We're doing it in March as well. Oh, great. And the reason for this is this. Right now it's the LPAC season.

[3099] Aiden Hill: Yeah.

[3100] SPEAKER_06: Next month is CASPP.

[3104] SPEAKER_06: April gets a little wonky because of spring break, and then May you're looking at two weeks of AP testing. I'd love to push it to the very end.

[3117] Aiden Hill: I think it's better to pull it in. I think that one of the challenges we had was we were so late in the semester. that that wasn't necessarily everybody's focus at that point. Correct. So yeah, last year was great.

[3128] SPEAKER_06: I'm hoping that we'll have the same positive turnout.

[3131] SPEAKER_06: So fingers crossed, toes crossed.

[3134] Joy Lee: Thank you so much. I just want to say once again, They've been doing such a great job at the high school when I entered as a freshman and like now that I'm leaving as a senior the school has become almost unrecognizable like students just like the students like faculty like obviously there's work to be done, but just.

[3153] Joy Lee: The change in the atmosphere and like students just following rules has become so much better. And so I just want to say thank you.

[3161] SPEAKER_06: Thank you. I think it's been a team approach. So that's a testament to everybody. Teachers, faculty, classified kids.

[3168] Tracey Vackar: If I could just weigh in on the math. Actually, it's a problem across the entire state, as our learning director has shared with you. I attended a workshop last week that really talked about a school district that was able to turn around their mask orders at the high school level. It was an interesting process that they were using, something I plan on connecting Dr. Murphy with so he can do some more exploratory along with on to determine whether or not this might be a program we might want to consider for the future here. They had predominantly low scores. They're actually now kind of leading the pack at the state level. And so to see the changes that they made and what that looks like, by the way, it's a systemic thing. It doesn't just happen to high school. Their math program actually starts at the elementary school and getting students engaged in some of this just through clubs, playing chess, doing different math games, special math nights, really trying to bring a family engagement that comes with it, right, moving right into middle school, same thing, continuing those practices. Right that are just habitual like you're just constantly doing it.

[3228] Tracey Vackar: You're playing math games in your head, you're doing to be competitive, you're doing to keep your brain kind of on fire. So it was kind of exciting to see some of the strategies that they were using to be able to reconnect kids into math and then also using statistics. The statistics was like a really interesting piece where they were really looking at using sports and how sports were related and actually it also followed a CTE program that they had that they were using for For sports and being able to do sport gaming and taking a look at what does that look like by keeping track of these different things that were happening and then actually creating those different algorithms that need to happen and bringing it up all the different levels through and so I definitely look forward to kind of connecting you with that program. I did get ahold of the person who has been working with the district on this for a number of years to be able to see it. Success in any kind of change that happens takes a couple years, right, to be able to indoctrinate. You got to make sure the teachers have the training that they need. We talked about teachers earlier this evening. When Ms. Villa came up and talked about, you know, making sure that you invest in your teachers, those are important elements that we really need to make sure that we're really driving in. And then not only are we investing in them, but we're also listening to our teachers. And this is, I know, a discussion I know that I've had with various board members about the importance of hearing from the teachers what it is that they need, right? and making sure that it happens, and so I just kind of wanted to share those elements with you. I think they're important. I think there's some programs out there that are successful, and if there's others, we should be looking at those as well as we, you know, enter into next school year is to, you know, maybe something that might actually help our students to be able to achieve that, but also help our teachers. with whatever the strategies are that they need to do to be able to help keep things engaged.

[3332] SPEAKER_32: Thank you. Thank you.

[3336] Cindy Parks: Thank you, Dr. Murphy.

Pause: 5.1s

8.1 Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items

[3350] Kat Jones: So as we move into public comment tonight for non-agenda items, I just want to let you know that what comes with a full room is a full list of public comments. So we do have for non-agenda items, which we will be starting with, we have eight people who will be speaking on non-agenda items.

[3373] Kat Jones: And I would like to start with Juleus Chapman.

Pause: 8.6s

[3384] SPEAKER_44: All right, good evening, board and cabinet. I am Juleus Chapman, RFP teacher at the high school. I'm also the Newark Teacher's Association vice president. So I come here today with a question of asking you, what do you value the most? For me, it's a clear answer.

[3401] SPEAKER_44: I value Newark students.

[3405] SPEAKER_44: I've been with this district for the past eight years.

[3409] SPEAKER_44: And it's troubled me to know that we have $28 million that could be reallocated to helping with our students. I don't think we should have any of our budget cuts. Now if we're gonna cut positions for teachers,

[3425] SPEAKER_44: We definitely can't afford that.

[3428] SPEAKER_44: Newark is struggling as it is.

[3432] SPEAKER_44: We definitely need to reallocate our funds.

[3438] SPEAKER_44: One of the major leading contributions is that we need to have more special ed. I've been advocating for two program specialists for a while now. The fact that we're going to cut that in half, there isn't enough people that we can ask questions to to keep us out of our issues. We definitely need more support and cutting those types of

[3466] SPEAKER_44: positions if not helpful.

[3469] SPEAKER_44: Also at the high school it's not good that we're thinking about cutting programs like MCA and Puente who are what are getting bringing kids into our district. And we need to be able to keep those kids so we can keep getting more students too. come in.

[3485] SPEAKER_44: These programs are really amazing for our students and they're great selling points for our district and the high school. One of the things I'm most concerned with is that we have $2.5 million allocated to future board actions.

[3501] SPEAKER_44: That's a lot of money.

[3504] SPEAKER_44: much more money than it would cost to keep our programs and we have our 11 teachers back and we could even increase that. So I want to ask you to please reconsider. Also we need to start putting students first. And in order to put a student first we have to put teachers first also.

[3524] SPEAKER_44: Thank you.

Pause: 18.9s

[3544] SPEAKER_40: Robin Calvado. Dear board members welcome tonight and district administration. I'm Robin Calvada. I'm a homeowner in Newark. I'm a parent of three children. Two are in high school or in college. They're graduates from Newark Memorial. And I have also one that is a junior at the high school currently. I'm a teacher with over 24 years of teaching experience. I'm a wife of a retired law enforcement officer who subs at Newark High School. Our family cares about this district and community. We are here to stay and are committed. I would like the board and the administration to know that my students are missing out on many of the important programs and experiences that my three children had while attending Bunker, Newark Junior High School and Newark Memorial High School. Our district has continued to cut programs and resources over the past years.

[3615] SPEAKER_40: We are getting to the bare minimum.

[3618] SPEAKER_40: which should not be the case since we have an abundance of money in our reserves. My students lost their P.E. yesterday because there are not enough substitutes in this district choosing to work at Newark. They are choosing to work somewhere else. Our district is churning away retired teachers who want to sub. Our district is turning away current employees who have their college degree and are qualified to sub. Please help me understand why we are allowing students to lose PE when there are substitute teachers available to work and be hired.

[3653] SPEAKER_40: Our pools of substitutes is large but they go to other schools because they pay more. It's quite simple. Pay our subs more money so our students do not lose their PE and science classes along with at the junior high how many teachers and also at the high school how many teachers have to cover their co-workers classes. The district constantly says our focus should be on the students but it's not. when we cannot provide the basics like PE in science. Just in case our audience is unaware when I miss my prep for Miss PE class I get paid and my kids go without PE. So who is losing out. Not me. I get paid. The students are losing out. Instead of paying me put that money towards paying our substitute teachers more money and we will not lose them to other school districts. The past few years I have paid for programs such as ESGI which is an online assessment program. And let's find out and our science magazine out of my own money raised through our PTC and our ASB funds. These are programs that have always been paid for by this district. So again who is losing out because the district is not paying for these programs. It's our current students no longer having these resources. Teachers are leaving our district to work somewhere else because our pay is not competitive. Our classified staff have spoken on several occasions about their low wages and their voices are strong and unified because they are tired of working in this district and not getting the proper compensation. Recently I read in the NEA National Educators Association magazine this week that schools in Southern California received an increase for their classified staff to $30 an hour. Newark needs to put more effort and make it a priority to keep our staff here and hire enough teachers to staff our schools with full-time teachers. And how do we do that? We start this year with making sure that we have staff in place.

[3770] SPEAKER_32: Thank you.

Pause: 12.0s

[3783] Aiden Hill: I'm just wondering from the last speaker that there was some commentary about turning subs away and not competitive salaries for subs. I'm wondering if the superintendent could explain a little bit more about that. Because I know that we raised the rates for subs. So it's my understanding that we are competitive. And I don't know whether we're turning people away. If we are, that's an issue.

[3811] Aiden Hill: But I'd like to just hear more from the superintendent.

[3816] Tracey Vackar: So I don't know if I can fully address that answer here right now for you. I'd have to go back and double check on some of the figures and stuff. But I'd be happy to go off and provide you with a report. I did write down the comments. I'm also concerned. I've also heard, too, that we have a lower subpay for our entry pay. So I want to go back and take a look. But I do know that we have realigned it, I believe, being three different types of subpay, if I recall, as to what we offer here in our district. The regular pay, the long-term pay, and then I think there's some specialized pay that we also do. But I want to go back and make sure I provide you with accurate accounting of what that looks like.

[3850] Aiden Hill: Great, thank you.

[3854] Kat Jones: Okay.

[3857] Kat Jones: Mary Alberts. Moving forward, I will give you a 15 second warning.

[3874] Kat Jones: Because our clock apparently is not working.

[3879] Carey Sanchez Para (CSEA): Good evening. My name is Mary Alberts.

[3881] Carey Sanchez Para (CSEA): I have been a speech-language pathology assistant at NUSD for over 19 years.

[3888] Carey Sanchez Para (CSEA): Over the years, I have seen benefit costs for employees increase and our workloads increase, but our salaries do not increase.

[3897] Carey Sanchez Para (CSEA): At least not enough to keep up with inflation. CSEA members and NTA members carry the physical and mental load of serving our students and are doing so

[3907] Carey Sanchez Para (CSEA): making below average wages for this area. Because of this, NUSD continues to struggle to attract and retain employees.

[3917] Carey Sanchez Para (CSEA): Now we're forced to overspend on contracted personnel. While CSEA and NTA members are earning below average wages,

[3927] Carey Sanchez Para (CSEA): Others, such as our executive cabinet members, are making above average wages, if you take into consideration the size of this district. Let's compare NUSD, Fremont Unified, and New Haven superintendent salaries. These numbers are taken from Transparent California Some came from probably 2022 and 23. So the salaries may be lower than this current year.

[3955] Carey Sanchez Para (CSEA): But you'll get the gist of what I'm trying to get at. Fremont Unified has 44 schools and 33,000 students.

[3966] Carey Sanchez Para (CSEA): Their superintendent their former superintendent made $393,000 per year which is equivalent to $11.90 per student per year. New Haven has 13 schools and 18,000 students.

[3985] Carey Sanchez Para (CSEA): Their superintendent makes $320,000 a year which is equivalent to $17.78 per student per year. NUSD has 9 schools and 4,700 students. Our superintendent makes $270,000 a year, which is equivalent to $57.45 per student per year. That's more than three times more per student than our neighboring districts. So when this district has many troubles, Again, so we're told, look at the overpaid employees, not the underpaid ones.

[4028] Carey Sanchez Para (CSEA): Stop trying to solve our budget issues on the backs of CSEA and NTA.

Pause: 12.6s

[4047] SPEAKER_32: Thank you, Ms.

[4047] SPEAKER_32: Alberts. Ms.

[4049] SPEAKER_32: Couch?

Pause: 8.4s

[4058] SPEAKER_21: Hi, my name is Leah Couch, and I'm a first grade teacher at BGP. I grew up in Newark. I went to Snowden Elementary School. I went to Newark Memorial. I went to Newark Junior High School.

[4070] SPEAKER_21: I became a teacher here six years ago. I was interviewed by my sixth grade teacher. I am rooted here. I have my first child here. And, excuse me, I've been rooted in Newark.

[4085] SPEAKER_21: I would like to think that I'm a success story of this town, an alumni that wanted to return and put back into the community that I grew up in. And instead of feeling like a success story and an important aspect of this district, I feel like a failure because I can't provide the things that my students need. The friends that I went through in the credential program have all told me about their districts. How they have art classes. They have music teachers. They have teacher aides for kids with IEPs. They have districts that support their English language learners. and they get to prep every single day as an elementary school teacher. This district has the money to make it make it make me able to succeed and I can provide these things for my class because of you guys. But you guys have this money. The district is holding me and many other new teachers back. Have you noticed that young teachers don't tend to stick around here? They're asked, they've all been asking me, why haven't you left yet? And I keep saying that I'm rooted in Newark and I do it for the kids.

[4157] SPEAKER_21: But what are you doing for the kids?

Pause: 11.1s

[4169] Kat Jones: Thank you, Ms.

[4172] Kat Jones: Couch.

[4173] Kat Jones: Is it Harper Perry?

Pause: 8.4s

[4184] SPEAKER_25: Good evening, Executive Cabinet, School Board, and student members. My name is Harper Perry and I'm a fifth grader at Lincoln School. I am here tonight to invite you all to Lincoln's 30th annual Young Authors Night on February 20th at 6 30 p.m. We will be celebrating all our Lincoln Young Authors and also announce the winners of this year's contest.

[4210] SPEAKER_20: This is my fourth year riding a boat. We hope to see you there.

[4213] SPEAKER_20: Thank you.

Pause: 12.2s

[4225] SPEAKER_32: Thank you, Harper.

[4228] SPEAKER_32: Sammy D.

Pause: 6.5s

[4235] SPEAKER_30: Hello, I'm Sammy and I am a MCA alumni from the class of 2020. I am here once again to talk about the discouraging things about MCA that I've heard again. We were promised last year that MCA would not be

[4253] SPEAKER_30: cut from the budget program, and here we are within a new year with the MCA program being cut. MCA is not only an important program, it's media.

[4263] SPEAKER_30: It's all forms of media. MCA has opened a lot of doors for a lot of my friends. Friends who are animators, photographers, videographers. amongst a lot of other things.

[4275] SPEAKER_30: Also people who make music. It's one of the academies that make in my opinion the high school what it is. MC not only helped a lot of students. It still does. But it helped me and a whole bunch of my friends before COVID closed us all down.

[4292] SPEAKER_30: during 2020. And when COVID hit, it was hard because I couldn't see my friends every day. I couldn't do the things I like to do, which was animation. I couldn't do Photoshop from home. I did not have those things at home. Those are all things I had at school until my brother got them for me. But with MCA, it shows you a lot of different areas that you can learn about yourself, but also is very passionate with the teachers that were in it and are in it still. Like Ms. Vivian Young, who is not here. She is a very, very important teacher within MCA, also with the other teachers. They make MCA what it is. It's not just some academy you join for three years of high school. You grow as a family. And that's what I had. Even when COVID shut us down, we were still able to text each other on Remind, get our phone numbers and text each other over the long, long lockdown. that kept us inside of the house. With MCA, it helped open a lot of doors, not only for me, but like I said, a few of my other friends who do a lot of stuff within the media world. As we are in the year 2025, we are in a very media-focused world where not only is animation, production, movie, movies, audio engineering, just something you do for fun. You can do it for fun, but people make that their jobs. And that's why I say MCA is very important. This MCA needs to be cut. This is something that not only students from the past, like myself, current students, when they are in it, that's something that they will learn. It's not just something you use one time and forget it. I learned those media skills about four years ago, and I still use them every day when I make stuff for my kids at work. And I use it every day, and it's something that keeps you always on your toes. MCA isn't something just to forget.

[4403] SPEAKER_24: Thank you.

Pause: 7.9s

[4412] SPEAKER_32: Thank you.

[4416] SPEAKER_32: Our next speaker is Kiran Pramil.

[4432] SPEAKER_05: Good evening, members of the board, and my name is Kiran Permal I am a teacher at North Memorial High School. I have been teaching there.

[4441] SPEAKER_05: This is my seventh year now. And I have a couple things I would like to say regarding, as you've heard, the issues we're having with budgeting staffing.

[4450] SPEAKER_05: and the decisions that the district is continuing to make around them. As James Carville once said, it's the economy, stupid. You have to pay people so that they can cheat and cover rent. We heard from our CSEA people last week. that there are people earning $18,000 a year here.

[4472] SPEAKER_05: How can you pay rent? When I look at the seniority list from last year, the vast majority of the people who have been hired and are on that list have been here for less than seven years.

[4487] SPEAKER_05: because staff and teachers from here continue to leave over and over again for districts that will pay them for the work they do.

[4497] SPEAKER_05: Not only are we hearing about staffing cuts and custodial cuts, not only are we hearing about program cuts,

[4506] SPEAKER_05: We've also heard about having to increase our class sizes at the high school. Currently, the contract averages around 31 to 1 at the high school level for core classes.

[4518] SPEAKER_05: It is going to go up to 34 to 1 or so we've heard. When you do a math

[4526] SPEAKER_05: Problem for a moment and you take an hour long class. And if I'm supposed to make contact with every student Get to know them, build a relationship with them, check in on them, see how they're doing. Maybe great some work, maybe check in on them, maybe we teach them something all that.

[4544] SPEAKER_05: If I do that with each and every single student in one hour with 31 students, that is less than two minutes per student.

[4553] SPEAKER_05: How is that possible? How are our special ed teachers supposed to cover IEP loads when they have far too many cases?

[4563] SPEAKER_05: is to cover as it is. We hear that the budget is supposed to be covered by getting rid of contracted personnel.

[4571] SPEAKER_05: Many of those contractors, six aides and six teachers, are in special ed. Are you going to be hiring new people? How are you going to attract them? With what salaries? The salaries no one's willing to Be hired for right now.

[4584] SPEAKER_05: The reason you have to hire long term subs because you can't get people to come in.

[4590] SPEAKER_05: We have quite a few new hires at the high school this year and a couple of them have turned to me and said, hey, my students have asked me the question, are you coming back. They keep asking that because they're so used to teachers leaving.

[4603] SPEAKER_05: Please, think about it.

Pause: 12.1s

[4616] SPEAKER_32: Thank you.

[4617] SPEAKER_32: Jackson Hoover.

Pause: 12.9s

[4631] SPEAKER_09: Good evening, Newark students, staff, faculty, administration, superintendent, community members, and members of the board. My name is Jackson Hoover. I've had the pleasure of teaching in this wonderful school district as a history and social studies educator for the last three years.

[4645] SPEAKER_09: This is my 10th year in the classroom as a public school educator. As you're hopefully well aware, all California high school seniors are required to pass economics in order to graduate high school with a diploma. As part of the economics classes that I taught in this wonderful district, our students are required to learn about things like deficit spending, budget surpluses, and related issues. In the past,

[4667] SPEAKER_09: I've used our very own district budget and expenditures figures to build lessons for our students about these topics. It's my grave concern that some of our students may have a better understanding of budget deficits and surpluses than the very people who make the decisions about these budgets. The state requires that our district holds 3% of our annual budget in surplus. Imagine our students' faces when they hear in my class that our district is facing a budget deficit while cutting programs, cutting teachers, full-time positions. the district is committed to providing the best resources available to our students for them to thrive. And I have seen them thrive in our community. From our academic programs run by some of the most incredible consummate professionals that I've ever had the pleasure of working with in my decade long career, teachers who give their whole soul to this profession for our students to learn and grow. to our arts programs, which have been rebuilt from the ground up in recent years through the hard work of both students and staff, providing them with creative outlet for personal growth.

[4748] SPEAKER_09: Resources.

[4750] SPEAKER_09: Members of the board, respectfully, teachers are those resources. Teachers are the resources that provide an engaging environment for our students to learn and grow. We are the resources that create the structures and the tools for our students to learn. Teachers are the resources that have held this school together at times seemingly with nothing but chewing gum and paper clips.

[4773] SPEAKER_09: You speak of providing the best resources to our students, while at the other side of your mouth, talk of cutting full-time teaching positions. I recognize I'm putting my neck out here, admitting that I am drowning in work. There isn't enough time in the week to review, grade, and provide timely feedback for the hundreds, sometimes literal thousands of pages of writing that my students generate on a regular basis. 155 of them every single day. Cutting full-time positions that will result in even larger class sizes than this. There's already talk of maxing out our contractually allowed class sizes next year, but I'm not the one that suffers here. I'm not the one that suffers with overpacked classes. It's our students that suffer under oppressive class sizes. Students who suffer when our staff is so overworked, we cannot meet their needs. It is our students that suffer when we cannot provide them with timely, rigorous feedback. Students who suffer when there physically is not enough desks in the classroom. When they sit on the floors because there is not enough room in the classroom for enough desks for those students. Floors that are filthy because our custodial staff is so desperately understaffed that two people do not have time to clean. I'm sorry, I have to call time.

[4854] SPEAKER_09: I really am sorry.

Pause: 17.1s

[4871] Kat Jones: We do appreciate your passions and your comments, but we do need to be mindful of keeping time. And when time is called, we do need you to stop. We still have 17. We've had nine speakers. We still have 17 more.

[4892] Kat Jones: 17 more at three minutes apiece.

[4897] Kat Jones: We're going to be here a long time.

[4900] Aiden Hill: President Jones.

[4906] Kat Jones: It would literally be another almost hour.

[4911] Aiden Hill: If I could make a suggestion.

[4914] Kat Jones: Yes, please.

[4917] Aiden Hill: if there are people that come up and express a view, and there's other people in line that have maybe 80% of the same commentary. No. No. OK.

8.2 Public Comment on Agenda Items

[4931] Kat Jones: All right, well. We already realized we were going to be calling for an extended meeting, but if you please can try to keep it as short as possible. We do want to hear what you have to say, but we also do want to be cognizant of going well into the wee hours of the morning, which we probably will be doing. But we would like to keep that as short as possible. So we are now moving on to public comments on a board agenda items. 10.3, I have 13 people who want to speak on this. Please keep your comments as concise as possible. Maria Diaz Manola.

[4989] Cheri Garcia: Actually, we'll both have to speak for the three minutes a piece.

[5000] SPEAKER_11: We can't have you double up on... We asked earlier and we were told we could do that.

[5007] Kat Jones: That's not correct. I'm sorry.

[5009] SPEAKER_11: I asked Jody because we were told Jody was doing the meeting before.

[5014] SPEAKER_11: And we were told that has been done in the past. And Jody said that Superintendent Carr knows that is correct.

[5025] Aiden Hill: It is not permitted by our rules.

[5030] Kat Jones: OK, so it'll be just the three minutes then for the two of you.

[5041] SPEAKER_11: Good evening, Interim Superintendent Vackar, Executive Cabinet, Board Members, and Student Member Lee. I'm here again tonight speaking on behalf of myself and Maria Diaz-Medulla. We were told on Friday, January 17th our positions were going before the board at the January 21st meeting and tonight at the board on the board production presentation to be cut. Our title is software support specialist. We handle the student information system also known as CENERGY across the district and also CALPADS reporting which is the reporting data to the state where we get our funding. Back in January 22, there was a JET report, the Joint Ed Tech Review, that went before the board stating the IT department was understaffed. Let me repeat myself. The JET report that was given to the board back in January 22 shows that the IT department was understaffed. There was two IT techs, myself, and the IT manager at the time. From the study we were able to hire Maria back in September 22. Since that study there were two different times that was stated that the IT department was still understaffed. But here we are right now having the board having the district wanting to cut two positions. the IT tech and ours only to bring back an IT analyst and an SIS CALPAS analyst. If the district thinks by bringing back an SIS analyst position at a higher rate of pay with more responsibility that one person can do the work in eight hours it is highly impossible. Cutting our positions does only does not only affect the two of us. As I stated at the previous board meeting both Marie and I have been office managers before. Therefore we do have the right to bump back to an elementary office manager position. While we will still have a job that will be taking a huge pay cut for the both of us. I don't think any of you on the executive cabinet members would want to take a pay cut. Would you?

[5157] SPEAKER_11: If we were due to do this, not only would it affect us, but it would be affecting two office managers and possibly an office clerk, a total of five people. A lot of detail goes into CALPADS reporting. ADA is very important to the district. If we don't report to the CALPADS correctly, we lose money. By having the two of us, we're able to do detailed work into CALPADS and synergy. According to the classified restructure plan, The district will be saving $23,000 after decreasing our two positions. An IT tech position bringing back a position for an IT analyst and an SIS CALPADS analyst. and then increasing four positions by from 7.5 to eight hours a day, then a position from 11 months to 12 months. Wouldn't the district want to keep people who know what they're doing in these positions? Newark doesn't seem to appreciate their employees here. I know several previous employees who left and retired because of higher management. In the past several years, Newark has lost several great employees. That's time.

[5221] Kat Jones: I'm sorry.

[5222] Kat Jones: If Maria wants to finish reading, that's OK.

Pause: 10.3s

[5235] Kat Jones: Brian Robinson.

Pause: 7.4s

[5244] SPEAKER_12: Hi, I'm Brian Robinson. I have lived here my whole life. Work for a nonprofit called Young Life Outreach, working with students. I've been doing this for a decade. And when I was in elementary and then into junior high during the recession in high school, I lost my house and I was homeless living behind the Home Depot in Newark. Stopped going to school and then By my junior year, I found my way back to go to Newark Memorial to see if I can get back in. I didn't have enough credits, so they said, you can go to this place called Bridgepoint. And I was there at Bridgepoint where there was a teacher who said, Chico, when you hit rock bottom, there's nowhere else to go but up. She opened up her class. She stayed early at six and went home late at five so that I can graduate. By my senior year, I got to walk that stage and graduate. I heard that with the budget cuts, they were wanting to move Bridgepoint back to the high school. And for 10 years, I've been walking alongside young people and the significance of this intimate setting or place, what Bridgepoint is for so many people.

[5318] SPEAKER_12: There was a student a couple of years ago that when given the chance to go back to the Newark Memorial said, Though I would like to be in a big crowd of other people, it was at Bridgepoint where I got to be the person, the student I always wanted to be. And it was because there were teachers and custodians and people that knew them by name and knew more than just that. When I was younger, it wasn't that I was a bad kid, it was that I had bad circumstances. And it was at a place where young people got to, teachers got to be with kids and hear that and be there. So having something in a place that's just a little bit further, maybe a place that can change someone's life forever. There was a stat I just recently heard it was a 2.1 million students dropped out of high school in 2019.

[5368] SPEAKER_12: 1 in 3 have a mentor, which means 16 million will grow up without ever having guidance from a formal mentor relationship.

[5378] SPEAKER_12: 95% of young people who have a mentor stay in track in school and engage in positive activities.

[5386] SPEAKER_12: This was on Old Spice. This is an Old Spice, like, stat. And that's what their focus is. Though they're just a deodorant or shampoo place, they're focusing on young people and the significance of what it looks like to just be with.

[5405] SPEAKER_12: And I know that there was a teacher who opened up her space in a place that was not necessarily the high school, but just a little off so they can be with someone and sat with.

[5418] SPEAKER_12: And I just know that by being there can be the biggest difference for someone's trajectory to be there forever.

Pause: 8.9s

[5435] Kat Jones: Thank you so much.

[5439] Kat Jones: City Parks.

[5442] SPEAKER_32: I'm really speaking for the item.

[5450] OK. No problem. Sarah King.

[5451] SPEAKER_38: All right. Good evening board members and executive cabinet. I come today to ask you to vote against the relocation of Bridgepoint programs back to Memorial High School. I come before you tonight in a very unique perspective. I am a staff member so I am the school social worker at this Bridgepoint. But I'm also an alum, so as I am a graduate of Bridgepoint High School, like many Bridgepoint High School students, my high school journey started at Memorial, where Bridgepoint was still on campus at Memorial. By my sophomore year, I was struggling academically. and emotionally and was not on the path to graduate.

[5495] SPEAKER_38: I was even given a reputation which was the student would never graduate by the admin staff and the board members at the time. I was also told that my emotional struggles were my own doing and I needed to get over it. Luckily, I have an amazing mother who fought for me to get to another placement that was supported and would fit my needs at the time. When I was told Bridgepoint was my only option, my initial reactions were fear, hopelessness, and anger because

[5533] SPEAKER_38: At the time, I believe that Bridgepoint was still on Memorial Campus, a campus where I was told I would never graduate and I needed to get over it. However, When my mother and I met with the Bridgepoints principal, it was at the McGregor campus. My reactions changed from fear and anger to hope, curiosity, and excitement.

[5557] SPEAKER_38: And I was, as I would not be returning back to that campus, that had caused me so much harm. So I was excited to, you know, not go back to there. Bridgepoint staff and students welcomed me with open arms. And for the first time in months, I felt as though I was able to breathe. The campus was small, inviting, and just what I needed. I felt lucky to have a fresh start. As many as the Bridgepoint students now feel.

[5586] SPEAKER_38: and the ability to rewrite my story of my high school journey. Bridgepoint's small campus was a perfect place for me to heal and recover, as for many past students and current students feel as well. By the time I graduated, I had overcome the worst emotional challenges and pulled together enough credits to graduate three months early and apply to college, which was all because of my small campus and supportive environment that I would never have experienced at Memorial. Through my time at Bridgepoint, at the Riverford, At the McGregor campus, I had increased in my motivation and gave the confidence to develop and achieve the life goals I set for myself, such as obtaining a master's degree in counseling. I know now that if not given the opportunity to attend Bridgepoint, I would have not graduated and I would not be standing here telling my story and devoting my life's work to advocating and supporting the need for the student. OK, Sarah, thank you so much.

[5643] Kat Jones: And I'm sorry that you were misread.

Pause: 8.2s

[5653] Kat Jones: Marissa Aydes.

Pause: 5.3s

[5663] Kat Jones: Sorry if I pronounced your last name wrong.

[5667] Megan Mcmillan: Hello, good evening. I'm here to speak on behalf of the ROP commitment to Bridgepoint. We have been greenlit for a ton of new equipment on the McGregor campus.

[5679] Megan Mcmillan: We have a Professional equipment. I'm sorry I forgot to mention I am the culinary arts teacher at Bridgepoint. We are giving students an opportunity to learn on real equipment to learn career paths that do not involve advanced degrees and the ROP has agreed to a large number of renovations. They'll be installing an oven in the next couple of months that will give our kids a chance to learn on professional equipment and shift from the liability to asset column in the professional workplace. It's a very special environment. And it's only one that can be achieved in an isolated setting. Having the kids moved back to such a large campus where they can't gain the support of all of the staff in the same way as they do at Bridgepoint would be a detriment to the program.

[5741] Megan Mcmillan: Thank you.

[5748] Kat Jones: Thank you so much. Evan and Bentley.

[5761] Aiden Hill: Hi, my name is Evan.

[5765] Aiden Hill: I enjoy working safely because I enjoy doing a lot of work.

[5778] SPEAKER_37: My name is Evangeline. I am Evan's mom. He goes to Bridgepoint.

[5785] SPEAKER_37: Just as a side note, as I'm sure a lot of people here know, one out of 36 children have autism. Evan is a product of Newark Memorial. He's gone to all the different schools.

[5796] SPEAKER_37: He is now part of the TAL program. He's given the opportunity to go to Safeway, to go to Roundtable. He is one of your students that goes to Mission Valley ROP.

[5813] SPEAKER_37: He is able to work part-time. We're very excited, the fact that ROP supports that.

[5822] SPEAKER_37: A small paycheck that goes to Evan every so many months too as well.

[5828] SPEAKER_37: All of this is because of being in the school district.

[5834] SPEAKER_37: Ridge Point was the alternative for us because this lovely young man is not necessarily college bound. His life skills, our goal, we're a whole village in our family, along with our teachers. Mike's son is an amazing teacher at your Bridgepoint School for the Tall Program.

[5856] SPEAKER_37: Just as a side note, not only does he teach, but about over a month ago, Evan had a grand mal seizure in his classroom.

[5864] SPEAKER_37: Very scary.

[5866] SPEAKER_37: Had Mike not known what to do, I don't even know what would have happened. Okay, so you can't teach that, right? You just can't.

[5876] SPEAKER_37: That kind of compassion from this teacher's aides and from that teacher, that comes from the heart. I'm really here to say you need to keep Bridgepoint open.

[5886] SPEAKER_37: 1 in 36 children with autism.

[5894] SPEAKER_37: He's not going to outgrow it. You have other kids coming in. I don't want just to take care of my son. That's not me, to be honest with you.

[5904] SPEAKER_37: If we take care of doing the right thing in general, we take care of everybody, which includes my son.

[5912] SPEAKER_37: And that's what we need to do here.

[5919] SPEAKER_37: I'm also about being part of the solution, not part of the problem. But I'd like you to explain to him why he may end up going back to a huge environment where he's going to get lost in the system and not be able to continue to grow. Because our goal is not have him be a burden on

[5938] SPEAKER_37: financial society, our role is for him and others that have the capacity so that he doesn't use our things, okay? So please, please, please reconsider whatever you're thinking. I'm a business person, I get the answers.

[5955] SPEAKER_37: Thank you.

Pause: 11.0s

[5967] Kat Jones: Evan, thank you for coming tonight and speaking. Appreciate that.

[5971] Kat Jones: Victoria Ureno?

Pause: 8.7s

[5981] SPEAKER_24: Good evening. I'm a current student at Bridgepoint High School. I'm here to talk about the importance of my school staying at its current site. Everybody has different reasons as to why they're at Bridgepoint. Some some could be attendance distractions missing credits etc. We never know why anybody's there. At Bridgepoint, we get a fresh start to get our school life together. It's a smaller environment where we form deeper connections with our teachers and students around us. As a whole, we're all a community. We get the opportunity to learn as other students while staying away from distractions that brought us there in the first place. Personally, BridgePoint made me the person I am right now.

[6022] SPEAKER_24: Their community opened doors for me that I didn't have at Memorial. I didn't have a chance to earn credits enough at Memorial and some say it's my fault. or the way I acted there.

[6041] SPEAKER_24: But Bridgepoint opened their doors to me and showed me that I could graduate with them.

[6050] SPEAKER_24: They didn't give up on me for graduating. Memorial told me that the only chance of ever graduating was at Bridgepoint. And that's not a bad thing. You guys need to keep our campus where it is right now so we could all have a chance to have a fresh start where we were.

[6068] SPEAKER_24: Thank you.

Pause: 9.1s

[6081] Kat Jones: Thank you, Victoria.

[6082] Kat Jones: I appreciate you sharing tonight.

[6085] Kat Jones: Cheri Garcia.

Pause: 7.4s

[6093] Cheri Garcia: Good evening.

[6094] Cheri Garcia: My name is Cherie Garcia and I'm a resident of Newark, a product of Newark schools, and I am the district's alternative ed counselor located at Bridgepoint and Crossroads High School.

[6106] Cheri Garcia: I'm here to advocate for the importance of Bridgepoint to remain at its current location, which is at the McGregor site.

[6113] Cheri Garcia: When the reduction proposal was initially introduced a couple of weeks ago, I was stunned to see that there was not one question from the board members regarding relocating the district's continuation high school back to Newark Memorial. We're talking about a school site's closure, people's livelihoods. and relocating our district students with the greatest needs back to the comprehensive site that essentially pushed them out.

[6139] Cheri Garcia: And yet nobody on the board had a question about this.

[6143] Cheri Garcia: The proposal to relocate Bridgepoint and the absence of any questions about this proposal tells me there is not a clear understanding from the district of why it is so important for a continuation high school to have its own site away from the comprehensive site. Ridgeway consists of students who for a variety of reasons were not on track to graduate in Newark Memorial. They were credit deficient.

[6168] Cheri Garcia: Some came to us on an expulsion contract and some of them suffered from mental health issues including social anxiety that impeded their learning and success at the comprehensive site. Regardless of the reason why they came to Bridgepoint one thing is true for all of our students. They all needed a fresh start a second chance and they all benefited from a smaller learning environment away from Newark Memorial. Meaning away from the distractions that contributed

[6200] Cheri Garcia: to their falling behind and away from any bias that they may have experienced because they were inadvertently labeled and made to feel like a failure. As a school counselor at Bridgepoint I see and hear firsthand just how smaller learning environment away from the comprehensive site

[6219] Cheri Garcia: has positively impacted our students lives.

[6222] Cheri Garcia: Students come here and gain a sense of inclusion, motivation, leadership and ultimately an opportunity to get back on track with their credits and earn their high school diploma. I have no doubt that if Bridgepoint were to be relocated back to the same campus as Newark Memorial This would be detrimental to our students' well-being. Furthermore if Bridgepoint is relocated back to Memorial I understand the proposal is suggesting the principle of Memorial would be the same principle for Bridgepoint. There is absolutely no way this can be done effectively. It is unheard of for a continuation high school and a comprehensive high school to have the same principal. Bridgepoint requires a full-time leader. Our ALTED students deserve an admin that is committed just to them and their needs so they can be successful and not one who is trying to juggle a comp site and a continuation site. If this reduction proposal was presented because the district has plans to move to the McGregor site, I urge you all to visit our campus and realize that there is plenty of space for the district to function and coexist with Bridgepoint.

[6287] Cheri Garcia: Thank you.

Pause: 9.7s

[6298] SPEAKER_32: Meg Gallagher-Bell.

[6301] SPEAKER_20: Good evening.

[6310] SPEAKER_10: My name is Meg Gallagher-Bell. I'm a history educator at New Memorial High School. I'm here to reiterate what a number of people have already been here to say, which is predominantly along the lines of astonishment that we can at this point be asking for all of these cuts. That we have eight teachers slated to no longer be at the high school next year. That we have to cut down our custodial staff. We hired four people and then let them go. Our school is it's it's kids are messy. And it is unconscionable that they have to come to school every day, and it's not always going to be clean.

[6364] SPEAKER_10: And that's not at all the fault of the custodians, because there's nowhere near enough of them. And along those lines.

[6372] SPEAKER_10: This is my sixth year in this district, my 16th year as an educator. And I really appreciate everybody coming out to speak tonight. But Cheri Villa at the very beginning of the night said specifically that she's been here a long time and all this chaos in the DO. And I have to say in the five and now into my six years that I've been here it is it's like dizzying how much change there is at the district office. How frequently we get new superintendents interim superintendents all of these people who we can't even keep track of. And every year, it seems like there's more money going missing.

[6414] SPEAKER_10: But here we are shown that we've got tens of millions of dollars sitting on reserve.

[6420] SPEAKER_10: But we want to make cuts. And that's not OK. It's just simply not OK.

[6426] SPEAKER_10: Our students deserve significant significantly better than this, and when I started at Newark Memorial High School. We had an arts program we had music, it is diminishing every year, and I do not see I I am only seeing movement away from it further and that's. Not okay. And that's all. I yield my time.

[6449] SPEAKER_10: Thank you.

Pause: 9.6s

[6459] Kat Jones: Thank you.

[6459] Kat Jones: Carla Valenzuela.

Pause: 9.7s

[6470] SPEAKER_04: Hello everyone. My name is Carla and I am a former Bridgepoint graduate and I am against changing the current school site. I was one of the many students not on track to graduate while attending Memorial Campus. I was behind on almost every subject and Bridgepoint is what helped me. I believe the location of the school is significant in helping their students focus with their studies. The school's current site gives students the opportunity to work on their credits diligently without distractions, such as personal electronics or the rush of hundreds of students at a time. Although Memorial is still a great campus, I I have had family members and friends who attended Bridgepoint over the years and all of them agree the staff location and community is what has helped them achieve their goals. These same people became technicians medical assistants nurses and teachers. This school is this school as it is gives opportunity and new experiences.

[6526] SPEAKER_04: Thank you.

Pause: 9.4s

[6536] Kat Jones: Thank you, Carla.

[6537] Kat Jones: Alexis Blanco.

Pause: 6.3s

[6545] SPEAKER_23: Hello, my name is Alexis. I'm a 2023 graduate from Bridgepoint. I'm here to talk about Bridgepoint. Myself and many other students receive a lot of opportunities that have helped us in life. Not only the school is amazing, but the teachers are 100% supportive and want nothing but the best for the students. And while you think Memorial is the best environment to move to, it won't benefit the students. From the personal experience of other students and I, the smaller campus has helped many understand their studies and grow as people. And it'll be sad to see BridgePoint go.

[6576] SPEAKER_23: Thank you for listening.

Pause: 6.9s

[6583] Kat Jones: Thank you, Alexis.

[6586] Kat Jones: And our last one for right now, I believe, is Lorenzo Chavez.

[6594] Kat Jones: Lorenzo? What's that?

[6604] SPEAKER_07: I said I'll take the time. My comment wasn't accepted, even though I was here earlier.

[6610] Toya Lemus: It was after.

[6611] SPEAKER_07: It was after the start of the meeting.

[6617] Kat Jones: It's actually before the meeting, but please come up.

[6628] SPEAKER_07: Good evening. My name is Julio La Cruz and I'm the parent of a fourth grader at Lincoln Elementary. I'm here again to let you know how disappointed I am to hear about the cuts you're planning to make to vital programs for our kids. I would like to remind you that these programs directly affect families. Families like the ones you see here today, they directly affect my family as well. Both my husband and I work long hours or requires to commute far from Newark. We do not have the luxury to work from home or have flexible hours. I'm sure you're all aware that families here in Newark have the same situation. At least I hope you know. as you have made these sensitive yet necessary cuts. It's disheartening to think that as members that represent our kids in our community, these situations do not drive you to create other solutions, rather just to cut programs. These cuts directly affect our community members and ultimately it is the kids that suffer. Think Together is important and vital to many families who would have to leave their children alone or have them walk home. We are past those times where, one, we could just entrust our kids to walk home on their own. Sadly, we are not safe or comfortable to do that. So OK, you've got the program. Do you have an alternative? Do you have So you have to meet your saving quota. What are you going to do? What am I going to be left to do? What are families going to do with kids pick up? Daycare, you say? Oh, wait. No, you don't offer that. And AM daycare, as of this morning, I received a message saying that due to low enrollment, We no longer have that available after February 28 for families. So I can't leave my child under adult care before school and forget about the afternoon. So what am I supposed to do? I'm incredibly disappointed. I told my daughter about things together being cut and she cried. She literally cried. She was worried. What would happen to staff? What would happen to the other kids? How is it that my nine-year-old daughter shows more empathy and concern for others than a whole room of adults whose job and priorities should include that? Thank you for your time. Thank you very much.

[6761] Kat Jones: Would you mind leaving your comment card up so that we can thank you so much? All right. I believe that concludes public comment under agenda items.

[6779] Kat Jones: So we move to the superintendent's report. I'm sorry.

[6784] Kat Jones: I mean you know that was. I did not agenda, and I did agenda. That's all I'm answering.

[6796] Aiden Hill: That's OK. Remember to help.

[6797] Aiden Hill: Given that it's 9 o'clock right now, I'm wondering if we could take a break. But maybe before we take a break,

16.1 PLACEHOLDER - Extend Meeting

[6807] Aiden Hill: We make a motion to extend the meeting.

[6811] Kat Jones: I was going to do both of those, just not quite this minute. I'm sorry. But I am all over it. That's fine. All right. So I would like to entertain a motion for extending the meeting. I'm going to be brave, and I'm going to go for 1 o'clock, because that'll definitely give us

[6827] Kat Jones: Time to do everything we need to do. Do I have a motion for one? Can I ask a clarifying question?

[6833] Austin Block: You absolutely can. So we have some closed session at the end. That also must happen within the one year window?

[6838] Kat Jones: Yes.

[6839] Yes.

[6840] Kat Jones: Yes. No, we will.

[6843] Kat Jones: That's my intention.

[6850] Kat Jones: I'm sorry.

[6852] Kat Jones: What?

[6854] Kat Jones: OK. So do I have a second to take the meeting until 1 AM?

[6860] Kat Jones: And that is including our extra closed session at the end of the meeting.

[6866] Kat Jones: I'll second.

[6869] OK.

[6870] Kat Jones: Oh, I'm in the motion, and member Block seconds the motion.

[6876] Kat Jones: I apologize, staff. No, it's an extension. It's an extension.

[6882] Tracey Vackar: It's an extension.

[6883] Kat Jones: Closed session.

[6885] Tracey Vackar: Nothing new.

[6886] Kat Jones: OK. Yeah, no new agenda. extending our time, as we did not get enough time to do it earlier.

[6894] Kat Jones: And also, let's take a bio break until 9.10, which is eight minutes. All right?

[6903] SPEAKER_20: Thank you.

Pause: 10m 55s

[7565] Thank you.

Pause: 39.2s

9.1 Superintendent Report

[7605] Kat Jones: to begin and we will be hearing from superintendent on superintendent's report.

[7611] Kat Jones: Thank you.

[7615] Tracey Vackar: Thank you so much.

[7619] Tracey Vackar: Sorry. Excuse me. Member Lee and I met earlier in January and we discussed the idea of bringing in together a student committee that would actually help advise and inform

[7649] Tracey Vackar: Myself and the board on some current ideas and also to create a sense of community with our students and be able to build a relationship. We talked about who the members would be and we looked at having a fifth grade member from each of our elementary schools. having a grade-level representative at the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade. There would be a member each. And Member Lee and I would be co-leading this together. We talked about an activity that we would like to be able to bring forward for this coming spring, which would be probably some sort of a walk or some sort of a a healthy exercise for us to all be able to get out and be able to have a day of community and be able to participate in certain trails and maybe the next year goes along with it. We also talked about an activity for the fall that would be planned in order to be able to help engage students. And so I'm excited about the ideas that we were discussing. We also want to be able to get student input on their facilities and other areas of concerns that they may have. And so we're looking to be able to help survey them, to be able to listen, and to be able to come back and share that information with the board. So I'm excited about that new and future committee. I just want to thank member Lee for spending some time with me. thinking it out, what would that council look like, and how would we go about participating?

[7726] Tracey Vackar: Anything else you might want to add on that, member Lee?

[7730] Joy Lee: Yes, I'm actually very excited because it'll be nice to have all the fifth graders and the junior high, I mean the middle school and the high school all together in one room. Thank you for initiating this. And I'm excited.

[7746] Joy Lee: We hope to bring you guys some really great news after our first meeting.

[7752] Tracey Vackar: Yeah, so I'm excited to additionally at our last meeting, a question came up with regards to Have the district taken the correct certification steps after our bond was passed 90 go back and check with our bond counsel in. Our legal team share with me that the certification there's two different certifications or one there's a certification, the actual election, which comes from the registrar voters. The second certification results actually comes from our Board of Education to certify the results of the election as provided by the county and that there is no time by which this needs to be done. This is because we fell underneath for Proposition 39 at the 55% election amount, so it kind of gives us some different leeway. In addition to that, we know that we also will be looking at, in the very near future, at issuance of our school bond. On the 18th of February, we're going to have our finance team here and talking with the board during a study session a little bit more about what that process looks like and timelines that would go with that, including the timelines that would include the certification of the results. And also the creation of our oversight committee that needs to happen, which is a seven member committee. It's very prescribed by the law to ensure that measure.

[7823] Tracey Vackar: Oh, annually has report their findings. The board also is committed to creating an AR, which we did at the time that we did a board policy. around Measure O to ensure that it wasn't going to be a new school that would be built, but instead it was around facility renovations, if you may recall. And we talked about bringing in AR so that AR would come back at that same time. for those discussions, not at the study session, but when the board would take action for the certification of results.

[7855] Tracey Vackar: And I'll be working with the subcommittee to ensure that we have that AR moving forward and that it aligns with the goals of the district. in the oversight committee. It's important that we do this adoption once the board does the issuance of bonds and takes that action and does the certification of the actual election. It has 60 days to be able to actually form and to be able to create that ad hoc committee. which is for the bond oversight. Legal counsel has recommended that we hold off the adoption and the certification of the district is closer to issuing the bonds because that's when our timeline actually starts. So I just wanted to share that little bit of information with all of you. It's actually something that was discussed last spring. If I recall, we kind of talked about some of the things that would have to happen once the bond was issued. I don't know that we got specifically into the actual certification results in that conversation, but we did talk about the need for a bond oversight committee and the makeup of what that committee would have to be.

[7916] Aiden Hill: So let me just replay this so that I make sure I understand. So the advice that we've gotten from legal counsel and other experts as it relates to the bond is that the board has to take an action to formally adopt or make a resolution So we need to make a resolution stating that the bond is passed? Is that what the resolution is?

[7942] Tracey Vackar: Yeah, basically we're certifying the passage of the election and that the district is moving forward with the issuance of its bonds. Okay. Right, so there's actually two resolutions.

[7951] Tracey Vackar: One is for the issuance of the bonds, but the other one is to certify the election results, which then starts a time taking.

[7958] Aiden Hill: OK. And from what I'm understanding, there isn't a time or there is a time from the time that the election happens to the time that we have to make this resolution. Is there a timetable that we have to adhere to?

[7974] Tracey Vackar: No, there is not. Because we had a 55% passage, we followed Proposition 39 is what we shared with me. So if you waited six months, is my understanding, that's not really a problem. I don't know if there's ever a time that It becomes a problem. I wasn't aware that she didn't talk with me about that particular piece because I told her we were looking at moving forward with the issuance of the bonds, probably sometime in the spring. So we really didn't get into a later timeline than that. We need to make a decision, we need to go back to the question, we need to go back and ask on council.

[8004] Aiden Hill: What you're saying is that essentially the clock doesn't start until we adopt that resolution. That's correct. Then once the resolution is adopted, we have 60 days to form the committee. That is correct.

[8017] Aiden Hill: Okay, thank you.

[8020] Tracey Vackar: And I do appreciate this coming to our attention, so we had a chance to go back and review those pieces and make sure that we were going to be in compliance.

[8027] Tracey Vackar: So I appreciate Mrs. Parks for asking the question. With that, that actually concludes my comments for now.

10.2 Letter from the Alameda County Office of Education Regarding the 2024-25 First Interim Budget Report

[8039] Kat Jones: OK. Thank you so much. We are going to move on to 10.2, which is the letter from the Alameda County Office of Education regarding the 2024-25 first interim budget report.

[8055] Kat Jones: And I will turn it back over to the two of you or Jose.

[8064] Jose Quintana: So thank you, President Jones. So we did receive a letter from the county that would outline our first interim budget report and how they received it. And they concluded with a positive certification for Newark Unified School District. However, highlight some concerns in the following areas that over the past decade, Newark Unified has declined in enrollment by nearly 25%.

[8091] Jose Quintana: Severely impacting revenues and a sustainable operation. Secondly, this enrollment decline is a major factor in Newark Unified School District's ongoing deficit spending and temporary reliance on reserves, which are projected to decline over the current three-year budget period from $22.5 million in 24-25 to $2.7 million in 26-27. Third point, this current projected COLA of 2.43% is lower than the 2.93% COLA used for the first interim. This could result in a $300,000 $1,000 less in LCFF revenues. So overall, what they're stating here is that, yes, there are some changes that are going on in our first interim here, but we're reflecting an accurate data picture here of our fiscal report halfway through our fiscal year, our school year.

[8151] Jose Quintana: So that is the report on our Alameda County Office of Education, positive certification for Newark Unified School District.

[8161] Tracey Vackar: I'd just like to take a moment and point out one thing that was stated on the letter, and that the current projected COLA that was used at the time of the first interim was 2.2%. was 2.93, and the new state code that came out in January when the governor released his proposed budget for the 25-26 fiscal year. was noted at being at 2.43, so that's the difference. So at the time when we were actually doing the report, the information that we had was much higher.

[8198] Tracey Vackar: I think those school districts actually looked at their first interim with a 2.93 and that adjustment for the 2.43 would actually come when we do our second interim.

[8209] Kat Jones: Any questions?

[8210] Kat Jones: Member Hill?

[8212] Aiden Hill: Just one last question about the process when the county issues their letter.

[8219] Aiden Hill: It's my interpretation, correct me if I'm wrong, that when we complete our first interim

[8228] Aiden Hill: numbers together we share with the county and the county looks at it and they might have some questions or have some discussion but they're basically as they're issuing their ladder they are taking the numbers that we provided to them they are conducting an independent audit of our financials correct yes okay thank you

[8251] Tracey Vackar: And to our board members, I mean, I will share with you one of my concerns that I had kind of ongoing out there is looking at the number of letters that the district has received over the years. There seem to be some discrepancies in my opinion. I'm just going to call it out there because I think it also kind of changes the narrative. So anytime that you do any kind of resolution where you're spending money outside your regular budget process, you have to make sure that you are able to be good on all your commitments. So I'll give you an example. If you gave a raise mid-year, and I'll use the example of the 16% raise that was given, I think it was in 2023, the board had to go back and they had to tell the county, and you have to actually provide another MYP that goes along with that basically, right, to show that you can be good on that. The county went off and certified that particular race, which was interesting. They didn't always seem to have a problem with that. But it was interesting because just a month prior, when you did your second interim, they noted that you were not in compliance. And so when I go back and look at the history of that, Your second interim, it talked about concerns that you had with your budget, and yet a 16% planned raise was given, and suddenly the county felt like it was okay to do, and they were able to show that. I think it's something that we need to be very careful with, and we need to make sure that when we do Give me kind of a additional racially mid year that we make sure that our MYP remains positive and current that we're able to make good on whatever it is that we're going to do so just something to kind of keep in your mind that, although you receive letters over the years. Sometimes the order of the letters when they came doesn't seem like they really kind of followed some of the things. And you kind of want to have that check and balance. I want to make sure that's there. I will say we've got a very good relationship right now with the county and having worked with their fiscal team. I shared this concern with them before because it didn't seem like

[8381] Tracey Vackar: It followed the sequence of concerns that came from the county when they made that positive certification.

[8389] Aiden Hill: So related to that, as you say, if we adopt a budget and we have certain assumptions, but then it turns out that something happens and we're going to have to exceed the budget, and we need to make an adjustment. Obviously, we need to go through a process internally to make that adjustment, but also we need to notify the county, and we need to provide them an updated three-year MYP.

[8419] Tracey Vackar: Yes, that would be my recommendation, yes.

[8422] Aiden Hill: And it's my understanding, but I may be incorrect, that kind of the rules of the road around the MYP is that if you are still keeping a 3% reserve, by the end of the third year that you would receive a positive certification.

[8439] Aiden Hill: It's only when you dip below that that the certification may be, you know, there may be issues.

[8453] Nancy Thomas: However, don't we certify every interim? We do. We do certify every interim. So we could have a positive certification from the county following the first interim, and we make adjustments, and then we could be qualified on the second interim.

[8472] Nancy Thomas: Correct. So it's a three times a year process. Does it happen at the budget time? Is that?

[8479] Tracey Vackar: Yeah, we do an MYP at the budget. We do an MYP at first interim because we want to make sure that now that we've done our audit of actuals. And we're also looking at what's happening with the lens of, you know, did we receive all the monies that we anticipated? Are we on track? Were we able to meet our enrollment numbers? Were we able to meet our ADA? Like, we want to be able to look at all those things to make sure that we're staying on track of what we originally projected.

[8506] Nancy Thomas: And I think... Sorry for interrupting. Isn't the process a little different following the budget? Isn't the budget, it's not qualified, but it's rather it's approved. It has to be approved by the, so they can sometimes do a conditional approval. rather than.

[8528] Tracey Vackar: They could they could add additional language. They could ask for some additional oversight. They can come back and they could ask us to even modify something if they thought that it was a real threat to us.

[8539] Nancy Thomas: So the budget is not qualified or not or.

[8542] Tracey Vackar: No, currently we are positive. We had a positive budget that came forward that was certified by the county. We had a positive first interim first interim on that was also certified by it, by the way, it was also looking at projections with us making adjustments and saying that that's something that we were going to do. So if we don't make the adjustments. then we had to go back and we had to modify that in a second interim.

[8565] Tracey Vackar: So it's a great question.

[8569] Aiden Hill: But again, just to confirm, if the MYP shows that you have reserves in excess of 3% at the end of year three, the certification coming from the county should be positive. Correct. Thank you.

[8588] Kat Jones: Any other questions for the board.

[8590] Kat Jones: All right.

10.3 Budget Reduction Plan

[8593] Kat Jones: I believe that concludes 10.2 10.3 the budget reduction plan.

[8601] Tracey Vackar: If I could just start the conversation here a little bit, I also know that we have Interim Assistant Superintendent Chris Williams also on the line, so he might also weigh in during this presentation as we move forward.

[8619] Kat Jones: We have one public comment. Ms.

[8623] Kat Jones: Parks, could you come up for this, please?

[8628] Cindy Parks: Good evening. Over the almost 30 years, I have attended many school board meetings.

[8637] Cindy Parks: sat through numerous budget presentations and seen CBOs come and go.

[8642] Cindy Parks: For me, the easiest and quickest way to grasp the content of a budget report has always been through the slide presentations.

[8650] Cindy Parks: These provided a reader's digest version of the district's financial health. That said.

[8656] Cindy Parks: I don't think I have ever seen such poor presentations and explanations for the district's current financial state. It wasn't even this bad under Kai Nguyen, some of you will remember, was the CBO in 2018-2019. And the district had to bring in Beverly from Ryland,

[8676] Cindy Parks: school business consulting group for assistance. There are still mislabeled slides, such as a multi-year forecast slide being labeled as the unaudited actuals. Unaudited actuals are provided at the end of a fiscal year prior to an audit. Additionally, the various The ongoing lack of clarity in the presented financial information not only undermines transparency, but also erodes trust in the process meant to ensure fiscal accountability. It is imperative that the district prioritize accuracy and clarity in its budget presentations. The community and the staff deserve nothing less.

[8737] Cindy Parks: Thank you. Thank you, Ms.

[8739] Cindy Parks: Clark.

[8741] All right.

[8742] Tracey Vackar: All right. With that, we are going to get started with the presentation. And Assistant Superintendent Katai will lead this. All right.

[8751] Jose Quintana: Well, thank you very much. board and community cabinet members here. I do want to start off with this presentation that's been revised from our January presentation into our newly revised February 4th presentation here.

[8768] Jose Quintana: If we go to the next slide, please. Back in December of 2023, we went through a $14 million structural deficit, and the Board of Education implemented a fiscal plan to reduce this structural deficit. At the first interim, we presented the December 12 structural deficit that was reduced to $3.4 million. This structural deficit has many factors in it, with the declining enrollment, as we read the certification here, that has declined 25% in our ADA. That has a huge significant impact for our district here, as well as the loss of one-time funding. And those one-time funding that are no longer providing services or programs or FTEs for NUSD staff, as well as reduction in revenues that must now come together and implement this fiscally sustainable plan in order for us to reduce or eliminate deficit spending.

[8831] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please. On January 21, once again, we presented the proposed reductions. And today, we are bringing to the board these recommendations for our February 18 meeting moving forward. And on March 4, potentially presenting the second interim, but perhaps we could change that to March 11th or the 12th for that second interim.

[8861] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please.

Pause: 24.9s

[8894] Jose Quintana: So we do, once again, we do want to acknowledge that these are tough times. We would like to acknowledge these are tough times that NUSD family is going through and how we're working collaborative with all of the community as well as you know, maintaining that value for every staff member.

[8916] Jose Quintana: And we're committed to working with them in finding a positive solution here and how we can support them. But in our budget presentation here today, I would lead off with our reserves, our

[8928] Jose Quintana: revenues, our expenditures, our committed funds, and then a breakdown, a snapshot of where we're at.

[8935] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please.

[8940] Kat Jones: We're on slide five.

[8946] Jose Quintana: Right there.

[8947] Jose Quintana: So our reserves here. Paints a picture here of 24, 25 for our reserves for economic uncertainties at $2.4 million. And unassigned ending balance at $2.5 million. And our special reserve fund, fund 17, of $2.4 million. This, if you go into 25-26, has a different picture when it comes to our ending balances of $600,000. If we go into our 26-27, it's only $50,000. It is key that we keep these special reserves that were earmarked, Fund 17, from our committed funds, and keeping these reserves so that we can become fiscally solvent. And these might look like big numbers, but the reality, when we have a payroll in this district of $5 million, That's not much, that's monthly. It only gives us a month and a half of payroll if we were to go into any kind of fiscal detriment that would be a detriment to this district here. If we were to have any lack of state funding, we would need and require this type of reserves. for our district.

[9025] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please. If we could, that'd be great. Yeah, that would help.

[9031] Jose Quintana: So thank you. So on our actuals, these actuals were presented back in September at the very beginning. And just giving us a picture of what we had anticipated here is $61.7 million in revenues and expenditures of 66.5 with an ending balance of 3.2. And we can see that reflect into our multi-year based on services and salaries that we kept at the same path.

[9067] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please. And this shows a different picture here in December 12, which is our halfway point. Our school year here at 61.5, $200,000 less as we drew up with our ADA numbers and our revenues that have come in. Our expenditures are 64.9 million with an ending balance of 2.5. If you look at 25, 26, that goes down to half. right over half a million dollars at $600,000. If you look at 26, 27, that's at $51,000 if we change absolutely nothing in the services, as we know have gone up for operating our district. We're at 3% in power increase, as well as 8% in gas. et cetera. So these numbers would actually be much lower.

[9119] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please. So our revenues. This is where we separate the two categories of unrestricted and restricted. This is very important to take notice. Restricted funds are monies that are earmarked. They are reserved and set aside for specific programs and services and personnel. We can't touch that money. That is dedicated. to those restricted services and programs. That's at $16 million with all the funding. Unrestricted, we get $61.5 million, which gives us a total fund of $77 million. We do see into the 25, 26 where our restricted funds actually start going down. Because of one time findings are no longer available to the district. So if we keep going the same direction we're going, it's just going to increase those expenditures.

[9176] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please. So our expenditures here are certificate salaries, classified salaries, employee benefits. All of this really goes into play when we're looking at our revenues that are coming in. This is a major, major portion of our revenues is salaries and benefits.

[9199] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please.

Pause: 6.9s

[9207] Jose Quintana: We're going to go back.

[9211] Jose Quintana: So here we're going to our continued expenditures, our services and operating expenditures at $20 million from restricted $13 million and unrestricted $7 million. Capital outlay. of $349,000, but then we go into outgoing like ROP program that we're taking unrestricted funds into the restricted category, which gives us a total expenditure of $49 million unrestricted and $33 million in restricted funding here, expenditures rather.

[9243] Jose Quintana: Which gives us an excess revenue, you could say it's $12 billion that we're left with. But we've pretty much deficit spent $17 million in the restricted portion here, which gives us a total fund balance here of $5.1 million to operate with.

[9261] Negative.

[9261] Tracey Vackar: Negative.

[9263] Jose Quintana: Right, this is a deficit of $5.1 million.

[9267] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please.

Pause: 5.1s

[9273] Jose Quintana: Go back. OK, so it's important to pay attention to that $5.1 million deficit. And we're going to continue on to our commitments. Commitments that the board has made resolutions in the past to earmark these dollars.

[9289] Jose Quintana: And next slide, please. These commitments were facility improvements at $1.78 million, deferred maintenance, half a million, Technology refresh and upgrades at 1.1 million. Tech books and consumables, 700,000. Furniture replacement is 50,000. declining enrollment and ADA mitigation, $200,000. And we're hoping to move that along into the multi-years. That's why it's at 25, 26. And we hope to keep those along into 26, 27.

[9322] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please. This is continued other commitments once again. This is for instructional program and improvements of 450,000. Strategies to increase enrollment, 200,000. Strategies of planning and advisory, that's 300,000. And giving us a total here of 13.875. I did want to say that that LCAP carryover should have not been included in there. That is a separate commitment, LCAP carryover. So the commitments are really $13.8 million.

[9357] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please.

[9360] Jose Quintana: So if we took a snapshot here, what does this really mean to us as a district, as a community, as staff, as a board?

[9368] Jose Quintana: If we look at 24, 25 unrestricted funds, our revenues were 61.5 million, our expenditures 48.5 million.

[9377] Jose Quintana: which gives us an imbalance of $12.2 million.

[9381] Jose Quintana: Remember, there was a deficit spending of $17 million on the restricted side, so we contributed $15 million over to the restricted side, which gives us a net shortage of $5.1 million. We look at 25, 26, it just gets larger and larger from there at 7.3.

[9403] Jose Quintana: At 26, 27, we will start with $9 million in deficit spending.

[9411] Jose Quintana: That's if we change nothing.

[9413] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please. Now we're going to go into our general fund reduction recommendations. I don't know if you want Chris to speak on this.

[9428] Jose Quintana: Chris, are you on the line?

Pause: 9.0s

[9438] Jose Quintana: Can Chris hear us, Trudy? OK. I'm going to continue on. Here in our reduction scenario, we're looking at vacant positions. In other words, positions that have not been filled. We've defunded those as of December 31st of 2024. and decreased overall substitute costs, which gives us a total savings of $1,463,000.

[9463] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please.

[9469] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please. So the next is certificated management. One director and so on, as we presented back in January, a savings of $434,000.

[9479] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please. Certificated non-re-elect attrition and retirement, ADEFTE, Certificated

[9491] Jose Quintana: The savings of $1.6 million is a reduction in force.

[9498] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please.

[9501] Jose Quintana: Our classified restructure here, as we presented previously, netting us a savings of $23,000 for this restructure.

[9510] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please. Additional proposed restructured decisions, which BridgePoint has presented previously for half a million.

[9518] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please. Our classified reductions of $475,000 in savings. Next slide, please.

[9531] Jose Quintana: And Angela, will you be speaking on this? Thank you. This is Dr. Angela Walker, who will present the SPED portion.

[9538] SPEAKER_41: Absolutely. So we would be reducing our expenses here for contracted nurse. That's 60,000 SPED, lead teacher stipend for 20,000. Program specialist, half that reduces to $100,000. Contracted assistive technology, reduction of half, 0.5, $96,000. School psychologist, retiree, $114,600 for a total of $390,600.

[9567] SPEAKER_41: Next slide, please. And after general fundings for the department reductions, a half of a FTE for a physical therapist for $94,000. Contracted half for a counselor, 87. Contracted aides, six total, $360,000. Adaptive PE, $144,000. Resource SDC non-reelection $106,200 for a total of $791,200.

[9598] SPEAKER_41: Thank you Dr. Walker.

[9605] Jose Quintana: And our continue reductions in technology where we do not renew our services like zoom and hotspots and cell phones netted us another $130,000 and the the snack savings of having a snack for after school program here saving $150,000. savings of $280,000, which are total savings and restructure reductions of $5,935,087. I just want to clarify that we are still providing snacks to the kids.

[9641] Tracey Vackar: We're just doing it in a different way to make sure that we are able to save. some money and make sure that the kids still receive their healthy snacks.

[9649] Jose Quintana: Thank you.

[9651] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please. You skipped one. There you go. OK. So this is additional reduction or restructure consideration. There's Chris. So we do have the Educator Effective Law Grant that will be sunsetting here in 2026.

[9675] Jose Quintana: This would add to our fund balance of $360,000. This Learning Recovery Education Law Grant That is something that the district was anticipating in another year of funding, which the governor's budget is not including. But once again, this could change in the May revise. It is a deficit right now, $1.6 million in this program. So it's costing the district money, additional money this year. Once again, these are recommendations, like one of the program, MCA, Project Connect, Adult Ed, that we're still looking into. The vendor changed for extended learning program to $2.1 million.

[9718] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please. And. Of course, doing our part as administration, reduction in general operating expenditures is our 10% goal. That's a savings of $833,000. Bay science, science and technology, wellness together, and cost program is still under review.

[9740] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please.

[9744] Jose Quintana: We're also looking into future revenue considerations. We're not in the profit business, but we definitely want to make sure that every student comes to school and has that daily attendance and we can promote that throughout the district. We're also looking at our graphic arts department with our contracts of $50,000. We're well on our way towards that goal. Facilities use contracts, ringing out our facilities. We are looking at $100,000 as a goal. Grant opportunities, still looking into those.

[9777] Jose Quintana: New medical reimbursement program at $200,000. The before and after school child care program. We're still exploring. South Tower was initially at $460,000, finally came out to $504,000. And as of two days ago, $560,000 for that one tower there.

[9798] Jose Quintana: So those are revenue considerations for our future here. So our next steps are February 18th is what we anticipate. That will bring a formal resolution for considerations on layoffs.

[9813] Jose Quintana: And March 4th is to write a formal layoff action to board for approval prior to the March 15th deadline.

[9820] Jose Quintana: With that, any questions?

[9825] Aiden Hill: So I'd like to ask for the board's permission that given that this is such an important topic and we really need to make sure that we understand the numbers, we understand the cuts, that that we kind of go by slide by slide. And then we can each ask questions about that, because I think there's a lot of complexity. And what I'd also like to just kind of comment on, and I want to provide a handout.

[9865] Aiden Hill: and there should be enough copies for everybody. I know that for, I mean, I'll just be frank, ever since I joined the board, the district's financials have been very opaque to me.

[9880] Aiden Hill: And this is going back four years.

[9883] Aiden Hill: And I often haven't understood them.

[9889] Aiden Hill: And from my perspective, that's kind of a problem, because I've worked with numbers for 26 years. And so I finally got frustrated enough But I said, well, I need to put this into a format that I'm used to. And so obviously, the district has a lot of, we track a lot of information.

[9915] Aiden Hill: And you can find it in our most recent first interim. The problem, though, I think, with the information that our districts have provided, and I don't know whether this is true for all districts or whether it's just been our kind of protocol here, is that numbers oftentimes seem to be presented in isolation. And maybe part of it is because There's so much information. But what I tried to do was I tried to do a roll up to say, excuse me, I'm getting over a cold. That at a very high level, it shouldn't be that complicated at a high level.

[9961] Aiden Hill: And we all deal with this in our own personal budgets. So you've got revenue. You've got a certain amount of revenue that comes in. And then you have expense. You have a certain amount that you spent money on. And then at the end, either you have some money left over, And ideally, if you have some money left over, you put it in your savings account. Or if you have a deficit, then you're probably going to have to pull money out of your savings account. And if it keeps going in that direction, you're going to... you're going to go bankrupt, right? You're going to have problems. And I think that it's so easy to get into the weeds that we sort of lose sight of that. And I want to acknowledge that I know that when we brought Superintendent Vackar on board as the CPO, that she inherited a very messy situation. And the numbers were even more confusing at that point than they normally were. And there were a lot of issues going on. And so I know that she and CBO Quintana and others have been working hard to kind of straighten things out. But I think that there's still some issues. And the reason why I think it's so important to talk about this is that we cannot responsibly cut unless we actually know what our baseline is. And so what I tried to do with this handout was I tried to look at a time series which says at a high level, revenue, expense, surplus or a deficit, and then what's the impact on the general fund.

[10071] Aiden Hill: And then I broke it out by year, and I also broke it out by unrestricted, restricted, and then your total when you add up those two funds.

[10080] Aiden Hill: And the thing that I think is important to note, and could we maybe go back to the first slide where we're talking about the $14 million?

[10093] Aiden Hill: Yes, it's right where we started.

[10104] Aiden Hill: Yeah, next one. OK.

[10106] Tracey Vackar: We're having some audio trouble with interns. Assistant Superintendent Williams being able to come on, we're going to actually call them on the phone just so we can participate in case you've got questions on the staffing side.

[10119] Aiden Hill: Okay, perfect. So I know that last year, so when Superintendent Vackar had parachuted in, And we were trying to sort things out, and we had some other consultants. And we had a presentation at the very beginning of last year. And we were trying to make heads or tails of where we were. We had Mr. Berg, who was presenting. We were trying to get at, well, OK, where are we? And at some point,

[10149] Aiden Hill: this number of, you know, that we had a $14 million structural deficit, you know, basically got put out there. And I think that we were operating on that assumption. We've been operating kind of on that assumption. And I know that when we sat down and identified our first cuts in the March timeframe, that, you know, the assumption initially going in was, you know, we need to cut $7 million this year, $7 million the following year.

[10175] Aiden Hill: We actually, the cuts that we put on the table were a little bit less because we were trying to be conservative and hope for the best. I think our cuts were somewhere around 5.5, something like that. But what I noticed as I put these numbers together, and this is something that I think would be really helpful to the board kind of going forward if we can see some type of a time series, because I think it tells you a lot. And so as I look at the time series that goes all the way back from 21, 22, all the way forward, you can see in the earlier years that we have greater revenue. And especially the first couple of years, and that's because we had COVID money coming in. But if you look at the expenses that we have, they haven't fluctuated a lot. So if you look at 21, 22 total expenditures, 73.5 million. And I think that that's because we were we were we were raking in dough at this point. This is the part that I think is it is maybe people are not fully understanding. If we look at 21, 22, we spent what? we spent $7.1 million less than we took in. And so what that did to our general fund is we went from $16.7 million in our initial, I'm sorry, hold on a second. We went from an initial adjusted ending balance in that year, $16.5 million, but we added $7.1 million. So we went up to $23.7 million in our general fund.

[10292] Aiden Hill: So that was 21-22. In 22-23, Our expenses went up by, well, about $7 million, but our revenue went up massively, by like $10 million. And so we actually ended up at this point having a surplus, not a deficit, of $11.2 million. 21.22, we put 7.1 million in our savings account. 2023, we put 11.2 million. So now at the end of 2023, if you look down at the bottom, ending fund balance, we have $34.4 million in the bank. Now, at that point,

[10335] Aiden Hill: And this was when we were under a different administration. We had gotten information from the state, because I think that they had seen that a lot of districts were taking all this COVID money, and they were scrolling away. And they're like, hey, that wasn't the purpose of this, and so you need to spend it. So you can't have, cuz we were shooting for. And I remember the president at that time was trying to shoot for a 20% reserve. And the state at that point came back a year later and said, no, you can't have a 20% reserve. Max you can have is about 10%. And so we had to go and we had to go take that money that we had. that was in excess of that, and we had to reallocate it. So when we talk about commitments, these were the commitments that were where that money went. But the important thing for people to understand is the money did not disappear. Right, so we so at the end of the 2022-23 we had 34.4 million in the bank, but all of a sudden now anything above 10% got put into a line of commitment. But the important thing to understand, and I was mentioning this to Member Lee, is that Those commitments are flexible. And so. the board adopted a resolution that says, okay, these are the committed funds, but we can go back at least on a yearly basis and maybe even at any time and say, we're going to change our mind. And so I gave member Lee the example to say, maybe she has a savings account and she's been putting

[10430] Aiden Hill: Let's say she's allocated 20% of her savings account to go buy the latest iPhone. But if in the next month she gets a flat tire, all of a sudden she may reallocate that, right? And so I think it's the same thing here, and I think it's important for us to understand that even though we've got money that's in this committed category, it doesn't mean that we can't reallocate. Until we've spent it, it's there for us to potentially reallocate, right? So at the end of 22-23, we had 34.4. And by the way, we ran an $11 million surplus, not deficit.

[10467] Aiden Hill: Now last year, and all these numbers are coming from unaudited actuals. Last year, basically, we did have an issue where our revenue drops. So we went from $90 million down to $80 million, and this is because the COVID money was disappearing. Our expenses are still staying roughly the same, about a million dollars more. But because of that drop in revenue, we ended up incurring last year our first deficit, which was about $600,000, so $591,000. So our ending fund balance dropped.

[10502] Aiden Hill: from 34.4 to 33.8. So this is as of basically July of this year.

[10513] Aiden Hill: That's how much money we have in the bank. Now we go into the budget. So if we go into the 24, 25 budget.

[10520] Aiden Hill: We had discussions, we adopted a budget. Now, one thing that I noticed, and this is something that I suspect it was a mistake, but I want to make sure I'm not misspeaking.

[10536] Aiden Hill: And the reason why is because I think that this mistake is now creating an artificial sense of urgency that's not there. What we saw in the adopted budget, when we looked at the adjusted beginning fund balance. Now remember, I said that at the end of July,

[10555] Aiden Hill: fund balance was $33.8. But all of a sudden, when we look at the adjusted ending balance for the budget, which should be the same number, it's now gone to $24.7. So it's like, whoa, what happened there? So I flagged it. I put a little red box next to it. And then what we were projecting is we were saying, we're now projecting that we are going to go into deficit spending. We're going to be spending $5.5 million in excess. Now remember, this is the budget in July.

[10593] Aiden Hill: And so if you then take 5.5 million minus 24, you're left with 19.1. So that's what we were projecting in 24, 25. And by the way. All this stuff is, you know, there's a lot of stuff flowing around. There's a lot of things going on. You know, I didn't notice it at that point, but the first time I noticed it is I started to put all these numbers together. However, when we move on to now our first interim, it looks like that number got corrected. And so, if you look at the first interim and the projection for what are adjusted, the gaining fund balance is no longer 24.7.

[10629] SPEAKER_20: It's gone back up to 33.8.

[10632] Aiden Hill: And this is the thing that I want to emphasize is that that's the money that's in the bank account right now. And we may think, we may have ideas that we want to buy the new iPhone or we wanted to go do whatever.

[10645] Aiden Hill: But at the end of the day, we have $33 million to make decisions around. And even if we incur, and what the projection is, is that it's no longer 5.5. deficit that we projected at the end of the summer, we're now projecting a little bit lower. We're at deficit 5.1. But even if we subtract that deficit out, we've still got $28.7 million in the bank by the end of this school year.

[10673] Aiden Hill: So the reason I say all this is, And I'm sorry for being so long-winded. But I do not believe that we are in a fiscal crisis immediately. Are we potentially now incurring more expense than we are revenue.

[10698] Aiden Hill: And it seems that some of it is because we're having continued declining revenue. But the thing that surprises me a little bit is that the expense is going up a little bit. And I would think that it would be going down because we've been making cuts. But these are projections, right? So we don't know at this point. But the reason why I want to kind of lay this on the table is, in my opinion, as we look at the cuts that are in front of us, the fact that we have $28.7 million in the bank doesn't mean that we don't need to make some of these cuts. And the reason why is, and I think that this is something, again, that we lose sight of, is that our school district And I've said this to other people, we are not in the real estate portfolio business. We are not in the creation of jobs business. We're not in any other business except maximizing educational outcomes. And so that's what we have to keep as our focus. But at the same time, we cannot maximize educational outcomes without money. And so being conservative in our spending, and so I'm not advocating that because we have $28.7 million in the bank that we go out and spend like drunken sailors and imagine that there's no problem. We have to be judicious in this, but I don't want us to be jumping into cuts because we feel like somehow doom and gloom is a year or two years away. Because I'm not seeing it as I look at these numbers. Now, I could be wrong. And so if I'm missing something, it would be great. for us to talk about it. And that's why I wanted to highlight that $14 million.

[10809] Aiden Hill: But I will now, since I've said a whole mouthful, I will leave it to my fellow board members. Or if I'm missing something, from from our superintendent cabinet perspective. And again, I want to emphasize, I'm not saying that we don't need to make cuts. But what I'm saying is that those cuts should be based on whether we need to do some right sizing in certain areas.

[10839] Aiden Hill: so that we can maximize educational outcomes in other areas.

Pause: 5.9s

[10848] Jose Quintana: Thank you, member Hill. And I agree with those numbers at $19 million for our unrestricted Ending fund balance, and thank you for putting this chart together.

[10864] Jose Quintana: Let's tell a story. But we also have a $9.6 million restricted fund balance that's on reserves.

[10873] Jose Quintana: That gives us that $28 million. But as you said, if we take that $19 million, And we did dock, it was 28, but it's $90.6 million that's restricted in the restricted fund balance there.

[10887] Aiden Hill: It's $19 million.

[10888] Aiden Hill: I'm sorry?

[10890] Aiden Hill: Can you show me what part is restricted?

[10898] Jose Quintana: your fund balance reserves.

[10900] Jose Quintana: Just what you have on here, your 9.67005 at the 2425 projected on your chart? Yes, so.

[10913] Jose Quintana: It's restricted.

[10915] Jose Quintana: You have it identified as restricted.

[10918] Jose Quintana: Which is correct.

[10921] Aiden Hill: Right. So so this is this is the question that I have. Yes. Right. Is so that that nine point. So all that's saying right is that there's certain money that needs to go to specific restricted purposes, right? Correct. But that's not necessarily connected to the reserve, right? So we have Fund 17, which is totally separate. And that's the one thing that's not being discussed here, is we actually have an extra bank account. Right?

[10957] Tracey Vackar: And so it's not just.

[10959] Aiden Hill: Right, correct. Right? And so the idea that, you know, because again, when we're spending money, right, we're spending money on unrestricted and restricted. Okay? And so what I'm saying is that, you know, just as we're looking at total revenue, in total expense from a restricted and an unrestricted basis, we're looking at that from a general fund perspective as well. And the fact is, is that where we're actually losing money is not in our unrestricted, it's in our restricted. We are spending more money on the restricted side. and we are the unrestricted so so there's so so again you know I think that and we can always move and we have been moving money from our unrestricted into our restricted to cover those deltas right but I think that the important thing to understand is that we.

[11012] Aiden Hill: From a total budget perspective and a total savings account perspective, we have 20, at the end of this year, we have 28 million in the bank. And an extra 2 point whatever in fund 17. So we're not going to be experiencing doom and gloom.

[11032] Aiden Hill: One year out, two years out, even three years out. So that's where I think that maybe we're getting so deep in the weeds that we're losing it. Unless all of a sudden there's some crazy things happening. But I can't see. If you look at the trend, although I can see revenue going down, but at some point it's going to stabilize. Because where the revenue case really took was when COVID money disappeared. But the expense shouldn't be going up. And that's the thing that I find perplexing. Because we supposedly already cut money. And so how is it that our expenses are going up in the next year? It doesn't make sense to me, right? So these are the things that I think that we need to be looking carefully at.

[11083] Tracey Vackar: Your expenses go up in different years for a variety of reasons, right? increases to utilities, we've had increases to step and column that has happened. So you do have some increases that have continued to happen, right?

[11097] Aiden Hill: So that definitely would happen with your expenditures that you're actually spending money on. I'm surprised about, right, is that if we look at the run rate. So expenditures on in 21-22, total expenditures 73.5. Now they went up drastically in 22-23 to 80.1. But then in 23-24 stated 81, okay? But now as we get into the budget, we're projecting like a $1 million, $1 to $2 million increase in our expenses.

[11139] Jose Quintana: You'll see the reflection here of the expenditures, our salaries, books and supplies that are going up, at least a million dollars in books and supplies there, with our salaries being impacted as well.

[11150] Jose Quintana: Next slide, please, for our expenditures.

[11153] Aiden Hill: But here's what I don't understand. If we said that we cut $5.8 million earlier this year, does that mean that we've had now, because we're showing a $2 million increase, does that mean that our expenses went up by $7 million?

[11171] Jose Quintana: Are you referring to fiscal year 2020? 3.24.

[11176] Aiden Hill: Yes, it was a year ago, right when we made cuts. And so we projected cuts of like 5.5 million. And yet we're still seeing our expense numbers going up. And that just seems counterintuitive to me. Because I would think that they would be coming down. But if they're still going up, That means they didn't go up by 1 to 2 million. That means that they went up by 6 to 7 million.

[11199] Tracey Vackar: No, we took that savings, and we actually put it into the committed funds. So we're actually saving that money to be able to move into 25, 26, and 26, 27.

[11210] Tracey Vackar: So if you go to your committed funds,

[11214] Jose Quintana: Can we work with the funds? Just keep going down.

[11217] Tracey Vackar: I want to make sure we're talking about the savings. We have an MYP savings that we talked about.

[11220] Jose Quintana: One more page.

[11221] Tracey Vackar: I purposely remarked it. It's approximately 7.9 that we have sitting out there. I just want to make sure that we're following that, right? Because we did have the savings that we worked really hard on. Right. And we went ahead we put that money into savings for MYP savings we put into committed funds to make sure that we would be able to cover our revenues moving into the twenty five twenty six and twenty six twenty seven.

[11244] Jose Quintana: And to your point member Hill we've got those twenty eight million dollars in the bank. And we need to deduct the committed fines of $13.2 million. It was a carryover of 658, leaving us a balance here of $2.4 million. So we have, as a board or district, committed right around $26 million.

[11269] Jose Quintana: So the other funds, so the funds are not being touched.

[11273] Aiden Hill: But that's what I'm saying, right? Those committed funds can be changed like that. Absolutely. So that's what I don't want us to lose sight of, right? Because we've, because, and I'm just going to be really frank with you that that under the prior administration, when they saw that we had a whole bunch of extra money, they basically just, I mean, I feel like it was a little bit of a shell game. And they said, OK, we're going to put so much into new furniture. We're going to put so much into IT spend. We're going to put so much into facilities. So it was a holding. you know, bucket. Now, again, maybe there were some specific plans that maybe I don't remember or I wasn't aware of, but the point is that we did not spend that money. And so what I want to emphasize is that when we say committed funds, it just says that we've earmarked these, but we can unearmark them. Right, absolutely, yes.

[11330] Nancy Thomas: Actually, in your multi-year forecast, you are spending that money. So you have to come back to us to free up those funds, because you've already said you're going to spend it over the next three years.

[11344] Nancy Thomas: Is that correct?

[11346] Tracey Vackar: Yeah, you can see the spending down based on our multi year projection. So if you look at the MYP savings for 2526 we are spending it down in 2526 and then if you actually had the third year of the MYP on there, which be 2627 I believe that number comes down to zero. I don't have that MYP in front of me, but we only should just the two years on here is our.

[11367] Nancy Thomas: The thing I don't understand is why are we saving 7.9 million only for the purpose of deficit spending in future years? These committed funds, we don't have to do over 10%. And this $14 million or $13 million is over what we need to commit. So why are we committing more than we need?

[11397] Jose Quintana: So these are committed funds very different from the 10% reserves required by the state.

[11403] Nancy Thomas: Well, then why are you asking us to commit more than we need to?

[11406] Jose Quintana: No, we're not asking for more commitments. That's not what we're asking here.

[11411] Tracey Vackar: The purpose of what the board was at last year when Mr. Berg and I were here and working on trying to come up with ways to make sure that your multiple year projection would be able to result in a positive certification was as we found monies and we had a budget strategies, right, we were looking at ways to be able to save money. We looked at our expenditures. We looked at every single PO that was open out there. We were very conservative. We said no to a lot of purchases, and we just kind of like stopped spending. That was a big piece of it. As a result, when we did the unaudited actuals, we had a much more inflated number than what we had projected even at the budget adoption, right? So we actually had Additional cash because we really worked hard to save. So I think what's important to remember is that the funds that you're looking at here. The funds that you're looking at here are committed funds that yes, you could spend some of this money. I would caution you not to spend the MYP savings at 2526 and 2627 because it kind of carries you over the other committed funds that are there. You could use it as being one time spending money, but then it's gone right it's not ongoing so you want to make sure that if you're going to use it. you're not going to use it for ongoing expenditures when next year, otherwise you'd still have the impact because you won't have those funds anymore there's some of the funds that you may want to still retain, for example. You may very much still want to keep the textbooks in consumables because it's not in your regular general fund budget, right? And so you kind of save for the rainy day, like when you have to go off and go purchase textbooks, because I think you were trying to free up your general fund. I believe that was the purpose behind some of that. And also when we looked at for areas that we were not addressing inside the general fund that we knew that we had to find money for in the future, we come from the committed funds. What we really need to start putting some of these funds back up into the general fund so that you have money to be able to do technology refresh. You have money to be able to do your textbook commitments. You're actually setting aside money in your general fund to be able to do that, and not just in those one-time committed funds. So at some point, you kind of want to make a point where you want to shift some of these committed funds back into your general fund so that you can continue having a strong operational budget to be able to support the student learning that happens in our classrooms?

[11556] Aiden Hill: Yeah, and don't get me wrong, right? I'm not advocating that we go out and spend this money, right? But what I am, you know, because I've heard, you know, various comments, you know, and I know when we were at the liaison meeting just, you know, last week, You know mayor was saying that he was confused he felt that there was you know there were transparency issues and whether whether or not that's true right it's it's perceptions reality right and so.

[11583] Aiden Hill: So I think that we have to be as as transparent as possible, and so I don't think it's I don't think it's an accurate. that our district is going to be bankrupt in one year, two years, even three years. And although we could theoretically spend any of this money on stuff that we have on pre-identified categories, But I'm not advocating that we go out and spend it. But what I am saying is that let's understand that we have money that we can use for strategic purposes to maximize educational outcomes, right? And what I would say is I think that as we look at the potential reductions, that we need to be looking at it in terms of, are these things maybe not maximizing educational outcomes? And if they aren't, then OK, it's superfluous, right? We shouldn't be spending money on things that are not maximizing educational outcomes, no matter how much money we have in the bank. But I think that we should look at it in that vein. And if I look at, like, some of these commitments, like, for example, we've got a commitment of $1.8 million for facilities improvements. Now, when we did that initially, right, we didn't have a bond, right? So now we do. So I think what I just want us to again look at is to maybe lower the temperature a little bit to say, OK, we're not doom and gloom, and we're not about to go off the cliff, but we But we can't just be irresponsible, right? And so therefore, I think that we should now look at these cuts in the spirit of what is really needed in terms of maximizing educational outcomes. or if there's some rightsizing or some inefficiency that we should take advantage of.

[11706] Jose Quintana: And member Hill, I will say that you are right on point when you say there is no doom and gloom. But looking at our reserves here. This is every $2.5 million on there is two weeks worth of salaries. That's it for the district salary and benefits. That is our payroll. If you look at your committed funds of $13.2 million, you only got two and a half months worth of payroll to make. That's it. So these aren't huge numbers, but You have responsibly in the past 2018 moving forward, you have aligned these commitments from I think facilities improvements was like at 4 million, then it went to 3 million, then to 2, and now finally 1.7. So you have, in fact, this board has been responsible enough to say, let's shift that money around, so. And a windfall here, we wish we could use this money for anything, but it's at your purview. This administration can't touch that money, so.

[11763] Tracey Vackar: Staff's responsibility, let me just share something. I think staff's responsible in our budget, and we are tracking our budget for the year. And we're looking at the number of revenues that we have coming in and the number of expenditures. If we're not living within what the state gives us, we really do need to make sure that we continue making some adjustments.

[11778] Nancy Thomas: Absolutely. Right.

[11779] Tracey Vackar: I think we can all agree. I think we can all agree that statement. You still have to live within that. Now, if you're going to borrow from your savings to be able to pay for some things, you have savings money that you can make certain decisions with. You don't have to use these committed funds that we've actually earmarked. You can do another resolution and we can reorganize it. Absolutely can do those things. So I'm not saying that you can't. But then once you've done it, they're gone. Right. Those monies aren't going to continue to exist. They're not going to be revenues that we can anticipate coming into next year. We're going to have we're going to use for our savings. And we've reprioritized where we want to be able to use it, and you can definitely do that. And really a good place to look at is that first facilities improvement piece, the 1.78. We had really been utilizing that money because we've had a bleed for a long time with our facilities, right? And now we're about ready to take the tourniquet off and we're going to be able to actually sell some bonds. and be able to really help our facilities.

[11834] Tracey Vackar: So I want to make sure that we're having that conversation. Even in talking with the experts out there, very few boards even have a reserve of this percentage where they can do that. But for us, it can very quickly go away. By just a couple of things that could have gone really bad here last year right like we know that like we had major plumbing problems over at the high school. And the total that they gave us are exceeded what our commitment is good.

[11862] Aiden Hill: Correct. Correct. But one thing, though, that I would. And again, I didn't pay close enough attention during the budgeting and the first interim to maybe catch this. But the thing that surprised me, right, was that we went from a $600,000 deficit the prior year to now all of a sudden we're going to 5.1. And so I kind of looked at, you know, in a little bit, it seemed like the variables that were really driving that variance, it was in textbooks and it was in services. Now, I may be misunderstanding that, but my question, though, is this is something that we're not going to solve here, but I think that we just want to be cognizant of is, is this an ongoing structural issue, or is this like a one-time issue? Right, so I can see how where textbooks might be a one-time issue. So that might be artificially inflating our deficit. And so maybe, really, it's not a $5 million structural deficit. Maybe it's a $2 million. And like in services, and I know that we've talked before about some various things that are driving it. But one of the things that the public doesn't see is that in that unrestricted category, what is really driving our deficits is the massive amount of money that we're spending. in special ed, which is not being reimbursed, is not being funded by the state. That's correct. It's not funded by the state over the feds. And so to your point, that's the thing that is where I can see that potentially there is continuing increases unless we somehow try to figure out how to address that root cause.

[11964] Tracey Vackar: At a much higher rate than what our revenues are coming in, at a much higher rate, our expenditures continue to go up because of that, that contribution that we're making.

[11974] Aiden Hill: Correct, which we have zero control over.

[11976] Tracey Vackar: Correct.

[11976] Aiden Hill: Well, I mean, I should, we don't have any control over the funding. But we may have some control, not complete, over how we tackle some of the problems.

[11985] Aiden Hill: But it's not super straightforward. I'm sorry.

[11989] Tracey Vackar: That's all right. I think it's straightforward. But I think it's hard to sit there and really capture. The services are definitely needed for the children that need to have them, right?

[11999] Tracey Vackar: And we're committed to making sure that those services are available to kids.

[12003] Aiden Hill: So President Jones, I will self-censor at this point, because I know that you're trying to move the meeting along. But what I'm hoping is that unless Other board members have questions about the budget itself. I think they do. Well, what I'm saying is that if we feel comfortable in going into the cuts, we can. But if we have other questions on the budget, I yield the floor.

[12029] Kat Jones: OK, so member Block.

[12031] Austin Block: I think this has been a very illuminating conversation, so I want to thank everyone for it. I feel a lot clearer on what the fiscal picture is now, so I think this was a valuable use of time, and thank you everyone for that conversation. I do think we should go line by line through the potential cuts and make sure we're doing our due diligence. make sure we think through the implications of these cuts, who it will impact, how it will impact the quality of education in our district, to make sure that we're really thinking through the implications. And I'd like to just make sure that when we ultimately take votes, that we're chunking it up in a lot of different categories so that we have the freedom as board members to vote in favor of some and against others, rather than voting in large blocks where, you know, maybe we agree with some things but not with others. Because I think we're going to have differing opinions on on different items within that, and I think it's important that we're able to kind of vote yes on some and no on others. The last thing I just wanted to say is, like, you know, we're talking about the fund reserve that we have depleting very quickly, and that's based on projections that may be excessively conservative. I know like the ADA expectations are pretty low. So that's one other thing to keep in mind. We don't know. Perhaps the projections are more conservative than the reality will be. And that's just something else to keep in mind. Obviously, we don't know the future. That's one thing I'm thinking about as well, particularly given the fact that in the past there have been projections of large

[12112] Austin Block: amounts of deficit spending that have not fully materialized in the years that follow.

[12117] Kat Jones: Thank you. Member Thomas.

[12120] Nancy Thomas: Yes, I think the kind of picture I'd like to see staff set and show us is what is your recommended total amount of cuts over the next three years and give us several scenarios. So here's your minimum recommended cuts to have the structural deficit gone in three years. And I'd like to see the structural deficit gone in three years because This year, it's going to be over $3 million. Next year, it's going to be over $7 million. And in 26-27, the deficit is going to be over $9 million. That's every year we're starting to spend. If we don't change anything now, we're going to be spending that much money, $9 million more.

[12171] Nancy Thomas: in the third year than we take in. So that number keeps going up. I think one of the things I'm concerned about is the projections. You mentioned that the ADA, we projected that a little low. I think we project our

[12191] Nancy Thomas: revenue is low. For example, there's a $2.7 million difference between our last year's ending fund balance for our ending fund, its revenue. for other local revenue.

[12212] Nancy Thomas: So $2.7 million more than it was actual. And then when you look at what you're projecting over the next few years, you're saying, oh, no, we're not going to add 2.7, even if that continues. that we're projecting two to $3 million less in revenue than we got last year. That money is, in the end, it's going to fall out like it does every year in the actuals. We end up having revenue fall out because we didn't count it.

[12249] Nancy Thomas: And that makes a difference in that $51,000 ending fund balance would be more like for about $6 to $8 million in three years, that we would have more money because we haven't budgeted for it.

[12268] Nancy Thomas: kind of picture that I would like to see the board get.

[12273] Tracey Vackar: So your multiple year projection that you do actually gives you that three year insight, right? And so I think one of the things that we do within the areas that we were able to save money, and I will say this year I think it was larger

[12285] Tracey Vackar: than normal, larger than I would like to see it if we were really able to hone in on what our expenses and what our revenues were. But I also know that we worked really hard to save money last year. And so you did have an extraordinarily high unaudited actual. Now I know it's been kind of a trend here. For CBOs, I think they really try to bring that number as close as possible so that you're not having this large of an audit actual. But for this year, I'm so grateful that we did and that we used all the different budget ideas that came forward from the budget committee and from the board. in from the district to be able to actually save that money, because quite frankly, it did result in I think it's almost $7 million that we were able to sit there now and kind of carry over to be able to help with that, with the budget deficits that we'll see as we continue to do the three year rolling average, right? A three year rolling average is going to be trending down. We actually did use real data tables to be able to sit there and look at that and actually project where we're going to be. In a couple of years, we're going to be closer to 4,000 students, not 4,500, but we continue on the same trajectory.

[12358] Aiden Hill: And so you need to really think about

[12360] Tracey Vackar: Where are your numbers going? And think about what the county office said to you.

[12364] Tracey Vackar: In 10 years, you've lost 25% of your students. Don't think we're not looking at that trend when we're doing our projections. That's what you have to use. You have to use really good trend analysis to be able to do that. And so we went back to take a look at that. If you look at your ADA and how much ADA you're bringing in, there's a couple interesting phenomena that happened in January, right? And we're losing kids right now because people aren't sending their children to school. They are scared. They are concerned. And we are actually losing enrollment. We're losing our ADA time where we're not able to actually attract that right now. So it's likely that even with the great idea of projection and having good data, there's actually something new that's actually happening to us that we need to sit there and be aware of. We need to think about how do we communicate with our families to ensure that children are coming to school and that we're actually capturing that because that ADA number may go lower the second half of this year than what we originally projected because we've had something interesting happen over in Washington. Right. So if you look at that national framework that's coming out And the fact that our families are nervous and scared that something's going to happen to their children when they're in school, it's a real phenomenon that's happening right now. And we've been watching the trends. We watched it yesterday with the number of kids that we actually had significant declines. We had 218 kids absent at the middle school.

[12453] Jose Quintana: Over 60 at BGI.

[12456] Tracey Vackar: So we are really paying attention to that. And I don't think it's because the kids are homesick. I think their parents are keeping them home because they're concerned and they're worried and they're sending a message out there. And so those trends will have an impact on us as we move forward. So again, that's an interesting piece. No matter what kind of data trend we looked at, to be able to come up with a common average over the last couple of years, that might actually throw a little bit of a wrinkle into it as to what that looks like for the future. So I do think you need to, your crystal ball, and you know Cary Knoop said it at our last board meeting, and he's absolutely right, I've said it before too, my crystal ball Jose's crystal ball, any CBO's crystal ball, is only as good as the data that you use to be able to come up with your revenues. And you need to make sure that you use good data, that you're using conservative data, and that you're using trends that you can sit there and really explain to the community and public as to how you came up with those. So it's important to look at what have been the trends for ADA, what have been the trends for enrollment. We already know the three year enrolling average is going to automatically go down because one year is going to fall off and now we're going to have a new year that's going to replace it, right? And that number that we use to gauge our enrollments And to be able to gauge our revenues will continue to have a downward spiral. Just as you know, I think Member Hill and Member Thomas both have alluded to that there are concerns. And how do we go about tracking that?

[12541] Tracey Vackar: That is how we go about tracking that information and that data when we're developing the budgets.

[12548] Austin Block: Yep.

[12549] Tracey Vackar: All right.

[12551] Tracey Vackar: Just a couple things before we go any further. We have some very sensitive timelines that we have to be able to follow. So in order for HR be able to prepare any kind of notices that need to be done. There has to be some timely decisions made, especially on some of these areas that we're looking at. The other thing I want to remind everybody that when we do any kind of layoff notifications, this is the preliminary notification to let staff know that there may be something that impacts them. Staff sure tonight, it may not be them, it may be somebody else. based on bumping rights that might happen. So we have to look at that particular element. We can look at the seniority list that goes along with it. And then depending on how the May revise goes, the board actually can go about rescinding the May notices once we have a better insight as to what the governor's budget looks like it may.

[12605] Tracey Vackar: So I want to just share those couple of things as we go through the budget slides. So I think we're looking at... No, we can go actually the other way around. There we go.

[12620] Tracey Vackar: Keep going. Let's take a look at some of the recommendations that we're making. 16 It would be helpful for us to have the feedback. We're really grateful to our board is that there and spend the time really grateful to our community who has shared their concerns. and how it will impact and affect our students, and how it will affect their classrooms, and how it affects our schools, and the overall operation of our district. So looking at our current savings that we're looking at, the first one here is where we are looking. I'm going to actually ask, Chris, are you able to come online?

[12656] Tracey Vackar: Are we able to call him?

[12660] Austin Block: Is this slide already factored in to the, like, the deficit? Like, it's not factored in. So this would be like 1.4 million already towards the deficit. No, no, no. This would reduce the deficit. This would reduce it. So this is not already being counted. Correct.

[12675] Austin Block: That line.

[12681] Aiden Hill: So can I make a suggestion? And that is that since we have to be done with everything by 1, and it's 1030 right now, what I'm wondering is, is if the board just kind of drives each slide and just says, OK, here's our question. And then we're going to vote on each one.

[12711] Kat Jones: Yeah, I think voting on each slide is the way to go.

[12716] Discussion information only.

[12718] Cindy Parks: No, it will only help us in preparing what needs to be prepared for the 18th.

[12724] Aiden Hill: So all right, so let me rephrase.

[12727] Aiden Hill: We will express our preference. Yeah. Yeah, that's fine.

[12737] Aiden Hill: That's fine.

[12739] Austin Block: We can state, a board member can state their opinion about what we see without taking action.

[12747] Austin Block: We're not allowed to state our opinion whatsoever?

[12751] Aiden Hill: And we're not having a discussion about it. We're not. We can, number one, we're not taking action on it.

[12766] Tracey Vackar: I think it's giving staff direction for us to be able to come back with a final resolution.

[12772] Tracey Vackar: And it's really the final resolution that really impacts what's happening.

Pause: 6.7s

[12785] Kat Jones: So can we ask questions about the slides?

[12788] Aiden Hill: Well, of course we can. Well, I'm beginning to think we can't say anything. OK. So this one right here, these are already the blind one. It's already vacant positions. So that means that these are positions that have existed maybe for some time and that are not being filled. And so the belief is, and I'm throwing this out as a question, the belief is that if we got along without them right now, why do we need them going forward? Is that a fair statement?

[12822] Tracey Vackar: Fair statement.

[12823] Aiden Hill: OK, so Chris, would you like to say something?

[12829] Jose Quintana: No.

[12834] Jose Quintana: We can't hear you.

[12839] SPEAKER_27: I'm pleased to request that one of the 1.3 million honor positions have already closed down.

[12848] SPEAKER_19: They're already eliminated and closed down and no longer needed. So that nobody can get impacted. They were all over the position. Okay, I think we understood that.

[12871] Aiden Hill: And then the second line item, this seemed to be an issue that was expressed during public comment about whether we are paying subs enough money, and then also whether we're turning people away. And I think that we need to have staff come back with more. Clarification around that.

[12891] Tracey Vackar: So I can provide you with some additional clarification. We've actually had a decrease in the overall substitute need here in our district, which is result, which is actually resulted in the 96,965 savings as well as we have made sure that we've realigned our rate pay to go along with that. And so our rate pay, we had noticed that there had been some unusual practices. Chris, can you hear me? And in those practices, we've actually reset to make sure that we are aligned to what the Board of Education had actually, I think at one point, I think it was higher because of COVID. There seemed to be some unusual practices that didn't seem to align with the CBA. I don't know if it was the CBA, but I think with the district and with the board was expecting us to be paying for subs. And we've gone back and we've done that realignment. And I will just share with you that looked like. So currently for short-term rates, we spend $235 a day on subs. So it's just a daily sub rate. If it's in a long-term position, it's $270. And if a person in assignment does 15 days in the same calendar month, they get an additional $300.

[12962] Nancy Thomas: So am I correct? I don't know. Am I to believe then that no one will get paid other than those rates for subs going forward? That's what's in the CBA.

[12984] Tracey Vackar: It's not. Yeah, so it was known as a TPA. It's something that is inside a recommendation, I believe, that was made by staff at some point. here in the district, and we just wanted to make sure that was staying consistent.

[13006] SPEAKER_27: Do we have anybody right now making more than that this coming, this current school year?

[13023] Aiden Hill: So if we put on our maximizing educational outcomes lens or hat, So item one, apparently, we're getting along without those positions. Item two, I'm just concerned. Those rates seem competitive to me. And I know that we, the board, in the past We talked a lot about that and making sure that we had competitive rates in the area. So the subs can go to different areas, but the staff can just double check that. But more concerning is the person, the speaker that came up and said that there are subs that are being turned away and that we're not getting enough subs. at the high school, for example, like for PE, et cetera.

[13073] Aiden Hill: Because my sense is that if there's an issue there, then I'm inclined to not support taking action to further reduce money there. One other data point that I was just doing a quick search myself.

[13085] Austin Block: So if our short-term is $235,000,

[13088] Austin Block: Fremont is offering $244,000.

[13091] Austin Block: And if our long-term is $270,000, Fremont is offering $284,000. I guess it would be an open question. Do we think that slight difference creates an incentive for us to go to Fremont? Is that a sufficiently large difference that we think people are choosing to sub in Fremont over us? So yeah, $9 for short term and $14 for long term.

[13114] Austin Block: Just a data point of comparison.

[13117] Nancy Thomas: Could I ask another question? With the vacant positions?

[13123] Nancy Thomas: Are any of those positions vacant, but the work that they would do is being currently spent on a contract employee?

[13143] Jose Quintana: So these positions are vacant.

[13146] Jose Quintana: These are not positions that are being contracted out. These are not positions that are in any other category.

[13155] Jose Quintana: So these are vacant unfilled positions currently.

[13161] Jose Quintana: Thank you.

[13164] Kat Jones: OK, next slide, please.

Pause: 9.7s

[13177] Kat Jones: So this is the one on certificated management. Riffing a director.

[13184] Kat Jones: having a principal become an AP and one AP eliminated?

[13191] Aiden Hill: What I heard from the speakers coming forward is that they seem to be saying that we have too much management.

Pause: 5.7s

[13208] Kat Jones: I haven't heard the same thing from the speakers.

[13215] Kat Jones: Anyone else.

[13217] Nancy Thomas: And I think as we get to be smaller and smaller as a district we have to right size our executive staff at our school sites and I think this is appropriate.

Pause: 5.6s

[13233] Kat Jones: Yes.

[13234] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Sorry about that. Absolutely.

[13237] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: I think that as well.

[13240] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: It's a big consideration.

[13243] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Both young ladies that came up did express that.

Pause: 7.4s

[13254] Kat Jones: Okay, so on slide, is it 18 is the next one? Is that right? Is it 18?

[13261] Tracey Vackar: If I can just go back and just share a little bit and ask Judy to come up and maybe just talk a little bit about our sub vacancies that have kind of occurred this past week. I think that's a good point.

[13280] SPEAKER_39: I think that's a good point. Yesterday was the very first day of this school year that we've had unfilled teacher subs, according to what her records reflect, what they're calling into the system and doing it the proper way. There were 18 unfilled vacancies, eight of which were certificated teachers yesterday.

[13308] SPEAKER_39: and 10 were classified positions. And then we had five unfilled positions today. Yesterday, however, was the immigrant recognition day.

[13318] SPEAKER_39: So there were not only unfilled subs, but there were many, many students that weren't in classes because it was that national Walkout day without an immigrant. Okay. Yes. So we're not sure if that's why, but she said that that there has not been another day this school year that there have been unfilled teacher positions. She works very hard every morning to get that done. She comes in at seven.

[13347] SPEAKER_39: And that's, that is her work.

[13350] Tracey Vackar: Yeah, thank you.

[13353] Tracey Vackar: I just want to give you an update on that, just so you had a better understanding. Thank you, Triggy.

[13363] Aiden Hill: So this category seems to be potentially student facing. And I think that one of the things that we heard from the members, and again, I think it's important to understand that although we had some speakers share their perspectives, it doesn't mean that everybody shares it. So I think we just need to take it into context. I think that what we, the board, need some guidance on, because obviously we can't really talk about specific positions here, but I think we need some guidance to make sure that we're not having cuts in essential areas that are student facing.

[13405] Aiden Hill: that are going to impact the quality of education?

[13409] Tracey Vackar: Yes, so I think this is something I think our staff has worked very closely with our principals and looking at the attrition alignment. We've been really monitoring what will look like to be able to roll up for next year based on our projected student enrollments using good data. by looking at the numbers of students that we anticipate will be here in our district. We are looking at trying to make sure that we maximize the CBA. We understand that there needs to be a little bit of wiggle room. But we were being trying to make sure that we go up to those maximum numbers and that we also are trying to right size the district as much as possible, which was. I believe a district conversation from a couple years ago, so that we didn't have one school site that was sitting with only 15 kids in the class that they would all be somewhat even out. And I think the district's worked really hard. Is it a perfect science? It's not, but I think we worked really hard to try to get there.

[13462] Tracey Vackar: Chris, can you add anything else to this nuclear assignment?

Pause: 8.3s

[13473] SPEAKER_27: Go ahead. You are going to be able to take the arrow to the top of your left. I'm expecting that to be work. So we'll probably end up having more than 10 additional jobs for a little bit, for a few years. So we get back to the client as part of the three-year plan. And we all know it's not a bad thing when you have an organization called the NBA.

[13509] And we will be with the browners and the under-represented.

[13510] SPEAKER_27: We all fight, we all talk, and we get to serve. And we're open to the future. I am not afraid to leave.

[13522] I mean, how many people are in this? I don't get fired. I don't fall in love. That's not even permissible. I don't have the legal ability.

[13526] SPEAKER_27: I just wouldn't want to be thrown out. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm aware of the law. I'm So if some of this is designed

[13558] Aiden Hill: to improve class size ratios, which is what I heard part of that. I think that that makes sense. But I think that we also need to be careful that there may be some program. So I guess the question is, are there certain programs that are going to be cut because of this, because they can't achieve certain

[13578] Aiden Hill: class size turkeys?

[13584] Nancy Thomas: I agree with that question and I'd also like to ask if there's any, well never mind, Pauline.

[13593] Tracey Vackar: Yeah, potentially I think at a secondary level. As we look at maximizing class sizes especially in trying to ensure that we have the right number of elective offerings at our secondary level, the right number of core subject teachers. Potentially there are some programs that may not be on the master list that we will not be able to sit there and support. That is a possibility. And with that, I think that's something we have to look at, one, with our student interest, when our student interest comes in, to make sure that that's there as well.

[13629] Tracey Vackar: But we are definitely In some cases, there would be a potential change and looking at whether or not the secondary level we continue with programs like project connect right and that might be a couple periods that person might be reabsorbed into doing something else that we need as part of the core subject. to be able to offer our students the core teacher with the mastery that we need in that subject matter. Chris, does that make sense?

[13662] SPEAKER_27: Am I saying that correct? ratios, and how many kids were servicing for all the license. So we have four non-real life kids that are under the age of 11. That would be 1, 2, 3. That would be way off. There's also two in middle school and middle age.

[13692] Austin Block: It's really hard to hear and understand.

[13701] Nancy Thomas: There were two speakers that mentioned class sizes of 34 students. Has there been any talk in the district?

[13712] Tracey Vackar: I'm sorry, could you please repeat the question? We're trying to figure out how to get through this with more clarity.

[13715] Nancy Thomas: There were two speakers that mentioned increasing class sizes at the high school to 34. Is that just a rumor, or is there any thought of that?

[13727] Tracey Vackar: We have a requirement to make sure that we follow the CBA, right? And if we go over the class overage and sometimes it happens and i'll give you a good example at the elementary school, we have a family that moves in and second grade is completely maximized and they have a second grader in a fifth grader. We may want to keep the families together and we may ask the teacher to go off and increase their enrollment size. And then we pay that differential, right? So there could be a differential that we pay versus bringing on a whole new teacher.

[13755] Nancy Thomas: Right. I understand that.

[13757] Nancy Thomas: I'm just saying we're not going to be trying to negotiate a larger class size at the high school.

[13766] Tracey Vackar: I don't know that that's, I think that's negotiation.

[13769] Aiden Hill: Right, so we're living within the CBA.

[13771] SPEAKER_28: Anything within the negotiations would be brought to the board and it would have to say class size consideration when we get to NTA for next year's contract.

[13781] SPEAKER_28: That is not in negotiations for this year from the 2024-25.

[13788] Aiden Hill: And so just by frame of reference, I'm not sure about Member Block, but at my school, obviously different school, different district, different union, et cetera. But I teach five periods, and each period is roughly about 33 kids.

[13808] Aiden Hill: And I have some that are even 37. And I have not had an issue with providing a high educational experience for my kids. Now, if it starts to get over 40, I might start complaining. But it seems to me that when we're in that range, It's a reasonable number. That's just my personal opinion. But what I'm more concerned about is if there are potential cuts to programs that we haven't really thought through and discussed, that maybe we hold off on those. So we've heard complaints before, for example, about like band and how You know, the band program has not really been fully supported. And I know that some of this was maybe misunderstanding, etc. But I think that if there's certain if these numbers include certain programs where they're going to completely disappear, that we might want to hold off on that and have a more detailed discussion later. That's just my sense.

[13865] Kat Jones: Those would be certificated positions if you're talking about something like band.

[13877] SPEAKER_28: It's talking about non-re-elect, attrition and retirement.

[13899] SPEAKER_28: middle school and then the high school as well. We've already taken care of the eight through attrition and non-re-elects and retirements. The other eight we'll determine over the next four weeks. Whether we have additional or additional nutrition, we have a couple more non-realex that we're processing. And then you're gonna have the amount of risk, which is the reduction in force, based on four leave of absences that are returning back to work that you have to have a position for. you have a right back to a class as well. So you have to you

[13951] Nancy Thomas: 16 fewer certificated.

[13953] SPEAKER_28: That's correct. At this time. Yes, ma'am. And right now, Nancy, for next year, we're already down to eight, right? Because I've already reduced eight for the next budget year based on attrition, retirement, and non-reliance. So you're talking about eight to 10 maximum, okay, that would be risk depending on what happens with the total budget number of $1.6 million. Yeah, and for the tennis, you talked about our special ed to our middle school to our high school tour. Not sure if they're going to go. It's 8 to 10. I know she said 10. We have eight that we have already canceled in. So if I get their notices or if we get any more early retirements in the next four weeks, that's going to be one less we reduce. or present to the board on the board resolution on February 18th.

[14009] Kat Jones: OK. Are we ready for the next slide?

[14013] Kat Jones: All right, next slide.

Pause: 8.3s

[14023] Aiden Hill: So I have an opinion about the first line item. And I think that some of these people were at the meeting today. So my sense is, when we're talking about the texts that are involved in CALPADS and some of the other data entry, that I just think that that's a very sensitive area and I think that we ought to be very careful there. And my understanding that is in the past that There was only one person doing that job. And then at some point there became two. And so maybe there's some efficiencies at this point where maybe we can consider one position. But I just think that it would be risky to eliminate both of those at this time.

[14075] Aiden Hill: That's my opinion.

[14078] Austin Block: I had more of a question about how it would work going from two IT techs down to one. How would the allocation of responsibility go in that case? And then what would happen if we encounter a situation next year where, let's say, it becomes apparent that having one IT tech for the district is Insufficient to meet the technology demands, like what would we do mid-year in order to be able to adjust if that were to occur?

[14103] Jose Quintana: Absolutely, that's a great question. So we're going from two IT techs to one IT tech and one IT analyst. The analyst would take care of more of our new dashboard software that we're using, cyber security, phising, all that, that phishing rather, that we're dealing with right now as a district. So it'd be more of a skill set analyst, as opposed to just having two IT techs.

[14127] Jose Quintana: So that's why it's a higher rate of pay for this analyst.

[14134] Tracey Vackar: And similar also with the SIS CALPADS, one of the things that we're looking at is making sure that the SIS system that we move forward with in the future works well for us. that is actually collecting the data that we need so that we're not making the errors. We know that we continue to have a number of errors still inside the system. And it's difficult to work with, so we're actually taking a look. Staff has been reviewing various information system programs that we may consider in the future because this one might become more obsolete as it does not work as well as ESCAPE as some of the other platform systems do.

[14186] Kat Jones: Are we ready to move to the next slide? All right.

[14189] Kat Jones: Next slide, please.

Pause: 6.6s

[14196] Austin Block: I have a question about the interaction between this and the certificated management. So from what we heard in public comment today, it sounded like The plan, if Bridgepoint were to move, would be to then have the NMHS principal also oversee Bridgepoint.

[14214] Austin Block: And so if there were a vote to reject the movement of Bridgepoint back to the Memorial High School campus, would that also impact the amount of certificated management layoffs that occur?

[14227] SPEAKER_28: Yes, the only administrator that's impacted by the BridgePoint move would be the principal being moved into an assistant principal role. And that's a slight savings, but with a model of moving to the high school, if approved.

[14244] SPEAKER_28: Then we have a principal that would oversee both sites and that assistant principal would be doing the day-to-day reporting to Mike Murphy. And then there's four assistant principals, if we can just clarify that really quick. We have two APs at the high school and two at the middle school. I've had this discussion in closed session with the board. we would reduce one assistant principal at the middle school, which would be a part of that savings. And then the director that I have on there as well, or that we have on there as a team, is a director that's in a position that works with Karen. And that's about a $214,000 savings. I already spoke with her. She's actually considering providing me a retirement letter by the end of this week, which would then solve that position. And we might need it to go for a board resolution. That person would also have rights back to a teaching position that they chose to. So I offered that to her as well. And she said that's not what she wanted to do. And she felt like at this time, that she's going to move forward with the retirement. But that's at her discretion.

[14306] SPEAKER_28: If that doesn't happen, then she would be reassigned and brought to the board on the resolution as a reassignment to a classroom or an eliminated position.

[14319] Aiden Hill: So if we put on our maximizing educational outcomes hat or lens or what have you, I really don't think that this is the right decision at this point. So my sense in hearing the both the people that came because there were a couple people that came during the liaison meeting to speak on this and then we had a number of people to speak today. It seems that Bridgepoint is offering some unique services and even though I understand that there may be some economies of scale I think it could be very disruptive, and I don't think it's a good idea to combine it with the high school. I think if we were looking to relocate them to a different site, that really needs a more involved discussion, and I don't think it's the high school.

[14371] Aiden Hill: I'm not supportive of taking this action.

[14379] SPEAKER_28: Are you talking just the public's point of this all?

[14382] Aiden Hill: Yes, we'll just decide and whatever is needed to provide the existing services that are being provided.

[14389] Aiden Hill: Understood.

[14391] SPEAKER_28: this is.

[14409] SPEAKER_28: which is an indirect cost in utilities power of about $282,000. And then the rest of that would come out of employee costs of a counselor, a clerical, an additional support staff, and the assistant principal who would be the assistant principal position. The other areas, I want to make sure they're separated. The director has nothing to do with the move to the Bridgepoint.

[14432] SPEAKER_28: And the floor assistant principal's move to the 3 has nothing to do with the Bridgepoint either.

[14437] Kat Jones: So Chris, could you clarify that it's a reduction in operating costs.

[14444] Kat Jones: You said something about, oh, man.

[14449] SPEAKER_28: I think that's what you're saying.

[14465] SPEAKER_28: I'm a little bit more senior. there's also support staff, we have an intervention specialist, we have an additional secretary that would be absolved, but that person would have boundary rights into another position to move into, which would then create another person being reduced, because they would have to have a position to volunteer, if I clarify that for you enough.

[14498] Kat Jones: Yes.

[14499] Kat Jones: My other question was about the counselor so they would not have their own counselor that would be what they then be using memorials counselors.

[14513] SPEAKER_28: That's that's correct and they also have intervention support there and that we would have to ensure that kids are still getting one-on-one counseling because it is a requirement and they would still have enough. Remember we only have 82 students that we're servicing at Bridgepoint as well so we would be able to spread that group of population out to other counselors at the high school.

[14532] SPEAKER_28: as well, or provide additional support through the intervention support.

[14538] Tracey Vackar: Can I just share one more piece of information about this? Thank you. So in looking at how staffing was funded here in the past, it got moved into the Winning Recovery Education Grant. You might remember that's one of the grants that we had a concern with that's actually overspent and that we're not anticipating funding for next year. So the majority of the staff that's over at Bridgepoint, a good chunk of them are coming right out of that grant that no longer exists, which means that this will be a direct impact the general fund for next year. So again, all these salaries that are not in there now for the general fund are being paid by a grant would be shifted. So it's important that we do that, that we think about what else do we need to do to make sure that were able to live within our means. I don't know if it was ever the right thing to do, but that's exactly how the program was set up, the kind of learning recovery education grant came in. The last two years, a good chunk of our staff was actually part of that.

[14600] Nancy Thomas: So were those the staff that

[14605] Nancy Thomas: have been there. So we started paying.

[14609] SPEAKER_28: For example, you have just to throw out, I won't use names, but two of our more senior teachers, one total compensation cost over $150,000 and the other one's $136,800. So some of our higher level teachers at that site, two of them, are actually taking out the LRE monies, which is Tracy just shared that money we've already spent and we're actually going into the negative. And we haven't been assured that that money is going to come through for next year.

[14640] SPEAKER_28: So then all those positions would then encroach on the general fund, and we would have to look at other offsets to make that happen.

[14647] Tracey Vackar: Additionally, there's other staff members as well that are inside that grant, which actually adds to the concern. Not that I don't think the programs are important. As a matter of fact if you all know me I mean this has been I mean I I taught at the continuation school I was a program administrator over over alternative schools. I care very much so about the kinds of programming and options that are there for kids and making sure that we have designed programs that support them. along their educational journey. Some of the speakers that spoke this evening were certainly tugged at my heart because I know this is the importance of having an alternative program. What I'm trying to do is trying to make sure that it's cost effective, is our number of scale continues to change over at the school from what it used to be in the past. And looking at how this was actually budgeted in the past, like when the Learning Recovery Education Grant came in, I would assume at some point, although I have not researched this, I would imagine that the board must have known that when the Learning Recovery Education Grant came in, this is how the funding was going to be spent. I would hope that there would have been a spending plan. that would have come forward with that grant.

[14716] Nancy Thomas: That wasn't for temporary teachers or anything.

[14720] Nancy Thomas: No.

[14722] SPEAKER_28: So five psychologists that are built into that LRE and other support positions.

[14730] Nancy Thomas: So it's not the teachers.

[14732] SPEAKER_28: You know, it's two teachers, five psychologists, a counselor, an in-advance counselor, and a couple other additional clerical that were in support of the LRA funds.

[14742] Aiden Hill: But to the point that we were talking about at the beginning, that although, you know, we may have money in the bank, if there's revenue that then obviously that's going to create a deficit if we continue to spend. And so therefore, and that maybe encourages us to think that maybe there's some other areas where we want to streamline.

[14767] Aiden Hill: And I think we just talked about a couple. We just need to figure out how to pay for it.

[14777] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: I think that just having these type of programs is really the growth you're creating, the lifelong learner you're following, you're supporting the community as well. I live a couple of blocks away and I see the tall program, they're walking every morning. And that, they don't need transportation, they're guided by a couple of counselors. And it's just amazing to see this. They go to Safeway, Roundtable, and these are the things that we have to focus on as well.

[14810] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Now, if the move happens to go to the Norfolk Memorial High School, my question is, where is it going to be stationed, or where are these facilities going to be? Given that we also have the culinary kitchen, that new stove that's coming in, all of these things we have to take into consideration. And it doesn't seem that the $500,000 savings is going to be savings, really.

[14837] Tracey Vackar: We're still going to keep much of the staff that would be over there. So the teaching staff would still remain. We would still put them over at the high school. We have identified a series of rooms. that could be used and could actually then be either fenced off. I do think that when it comes down to the TAL program that we would have to look at how we would maybe make it so that they become acclimated. Like, you know, maybe it's initially four days still over on the Bridgepoint campus and one day over on, you might take time to be able to sit there and make that shift to be able to make that happen for those students. I think it also creates new opportunities with other places where they could actually go to work and do some things as well. So there could be pluses and minuses. a brief communication with the ROP, which would probably hold back. Of course, they just did a renovation to the culinary program that's actually over at Over the high school as well. So that's also had some some changes as well. I think we have to come back and provide you with some additional information. That's something that if you made a decision. that you are least willing to consider it, we would need to come back with a program plan for you as to how that would be implemented. And then if you needed to rescind that decision, you could still do that by May. But I think to come back with a full-fledged plan would be the right thing to do.

[14925] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: just mentioned, just have an offense in between. We're already creating that separation. We don't want to have that if that happens to be, you know, already the comments, the individuals, the alumni that were there, they felt that. And this is something that we want to go ahead and create community. We want to go ahead and open it up and make it seem

[14945] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: and have that sense of urgency of us being together, the students being together, not separate.

[14953] Nancy Thomas: I would like to see a site plan that showed where this school would be compared to the high school, show how it's being separated.

[14965] Nancy Thomas: show how there will be restrooms, show how they will have food service. Something that doesn't have to be a full-blown architectural study, but something that we can look at.

[14983] Nancy Thomas: that makes us feel comfortable that they are self-contained, that they will get more services as a result of going to the high school. And then maybe also talk about the empty space then at McGregor. And it's all part. It's a big jigsaw puzzle, and it has to fit together.

[15007] Nancy Thomas: So they're leaving McGregor.

[15009] Nancy Thomas: What's our thought about McGregor, and how are we going to go plan ahead for that property as well?

Pause: 6.2s

[15023] Tracey Vackar: Again, I understand it's a difficult decision, maybe one that you can't support. But something I think that we need to consider is you watch the numbers change over there.

[15033] Tracey Vackar: It's something that needs to be on your radar screen.

[15036] Kat Jones: That's fair.

[15038] Kat Jones: All right, next slide. Okay, the next slide is the classified, one clerical, four custodians.

[15055] Kat Jones: I believe Chris discussed this last time kind of explaining, outlining this.

[15061] SPEAKER_28: Yeah, we adjusted that from four to two based on feedback with Jose and the team and the new director as well. So we can have a few more support staff to be able to provide assistance for subbing when the subs are out.

[15075] Tracey Vackar: I do want to say that if you made the decision to keep

[15078] Tracey Vackar: Bridgepoint fully operational, you probably need to we probably have to make an adjustment for the custodians on this particular slide.

[15086] Tracey Vackar: Correct, so we would have a nexus on what we're looking at there for that.

[15092] Kat Jones: Okay, thank you. The next one. Or do you have a comment on that?

[15096] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Yes, just a quick comment in regards to the four custodians. Question being the work orders that we have maintaining the schools, high school, elementary, how backed up are we?

[15108] Jose Quintana: Well, we were pretty backed up on that. We were, I believe, at Maybe 600 work orders, and we are now, I believe, hitting, what were they, Maria?

[15121] Jose Quintana: I know they were low 500s or maybe 400s. Below the 500, right. So they've really been addressed, and Maria. does take care of our work order system. So she knows exactly where we're at. But our new director of MLG has vigorously addressed most of these work orders. So I think that that's really been working out with the manpower we do have.

[15150] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: And the manpower you mentioned at the When was that? Since the beginning of the school year?

[15156] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: 600 more quarters or since when?

[15160] Jose Quintana: Maybe.

[15160] Jose Quintana: I would say 600 or right around a couple of years that it stood at that number. Right. So there's quite a bit of work orders that have been addressed the last four or five weeks aggressively.

[15192] Aiden Hill: One thing, though, that I would like for us to consider is, anecdotally, we heard comments this evening from people saying that our facilities are dirty. And I've heard that from

[15212] Aiden Hill: numerous people, and I've observed it sometimes when I've gone into facilities. And I think the million dollar question is, is this an issue where we are understaffed, or is it an issue where it's a personnel issue where we have people that are not doing their jobs, right? And so I don't know the answer to that, but the solution needs to be, whatever it is, is that we need to have clean facilities. Because one of the things that our former superintendent said when she came in here, and I think that Superintendent Ficarra has seen this as well, is that Our facilities, I mean, the state of our facilities communicates the level of self-pride that we have. And right now, it does not look like we have a lot of pride. And that needs to change. And we're not going to get greater enrollment unless we fix that. So I think that we want to be really careful in cutting off our nose to spite our face.

[15274] Aiden Hill: But if this is an issue where, you know, there are certain people that are not performing, then we need to get people that are.

[15279] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: I echo that. It's pretty much if we're trying to attract more people that are moving into Newark, into all these houses, all these new builds that we have, we have to have beautiful facilities, you know, inside and out. And in order for that to happen, We have to be at the helm. We have to make sure that this is happening. And individuals hold people accountable. Let's make sure that they're doing their job and that they're keeping our schools clean.

[15309] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: And just we'll start having people come and start attending our schools.

[15316] Jose Quintana: I agree wholeheartedly on both of these comments from our board members and that's exactly these decisions that we have to make are tough, but we do need to make sure that we put policy and procedure and a roadmap. Where do you start your day as a custodian? Where do you end? What time you take a break? There's just systems that really need to be followed that have not been followed historically.

[15344] Jose Quintana: So I agree with you.

[15347] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Go ahead. That's one of the things. If we don't have enough custodians, to cover or clean the restrooms.

[15355] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: And there's a lot of restrooms at the high school, the middle school. You know, if we can't get to them, they're going to go ahead and close them. If they're flooding, if they're dirty, they're going to close the restrooms. What's happening is that the children are not going to be happy. The children are not going to be safe. in a safe environment. So we have to look into that because it does directly affect our Children.

[15377] Jose Quintana: And this and this is our recommendation as your administration is that we need this reduction in force so that we can actually be more productive.

Pause: 7.6s

[15394] Jose Quintana: Any other thoughts on that, Mr. Williams?

[15396] SPEAKER_28: No, I think a couple of things to keep in mind, you know, we had four openings for almost a month and a half. And we got a few people that have been out on leaves that does have an impact on it. And then what you're talking about structures and systems to align to the expected outcome have to be tighter and more aligned. So we actually put allocations and how many minutes does it take to clean a classroom? How many minutes does it take to do this and that? So we have a better understanding on what the expectation is and providing support. Obviously, clean campuses do create a better atmosphere and it also can reduce illness and sickness for staff and students. A lot of areas that we considered and talked about.

[15437] SPEAKER_28: But remember, we have, I believe, Jose, we have eight custodians at the high school right now, right? That's a large number considering you have 1,350 students on that campus. So that's an area we have to look at.

[15449] Jose Quintana: That's correct. Two day custodians and six at night.

[15453] SPEAKER_28: So when we say we don't have enough people, and you look at the number of classrooms, when you have eight people in a ratio, you're baseline off a hospital clean, which school districts are usually at tier three.

[15464] SPEAKER_28: Number of ratios per classroom is used were very high ratios, so we have to be able to consider that as a growing group.

[15471] SPEAKER_28: Which we've done.

[15475] Kat Jones: OK, thank you. Let's look at the next question of the Fed Department.

[15484] Kat Jones: And I have a couple clarifying questions. Thank you, Ms. Walker. When we're talking about a contracted 0.5 FTE nurse and briefing that, my understanding was that we had one district nurse. And so would we be cutting that one FTE down to a half an FTE? How did when you write when this is written this way explain please.

[15516] SPEAKER_41: Yes.

[15516] Kat Jones: How do you explain.

[15517] SPEAKER_41: So currently we have one point five due to the needs of the students that come in. So sometimes our students come in with specific needs that require a nurse and then Once we're able to train a health assistant to do some of those things like around diabetic training, we're able to reduce. And when students move from Newark elsewhere, then it changes the ratio. The other thing to consider is that these are contractors and what we're looking to do also is to hire our own And we know it's really tough around the United States looking for school nurses. So we're always looking. So that's the goal.

[15558] SPEAKER_20: OK.

[15559] SPEAKER_41: Thank you very much. Appreciate that.

[15562] Aiden Hill: And then Dr. Walker. So a lot of these cuts are that we're talking about tonight, that maybe the responsibility or the impact is diffuse. Absolutely. But in SPED, it seems that it's fairly concentrated under you, right? And so I'm I think that you've been an excellent addition to our district, and I see you doing a lot of work and moving the ball forward. And so just want to make sure that if you say these are the things that need to happen,

[15609] Aiden Hill: I'm inclined to say, well, OK, you know better than I do. But what we want to make sure of, though, is that, as we talked about earlier, the expenses that are growing that we don't have control over is in SPED. And so again, I don't want us to end up cutting into muscle that potentially could be reducing those growing expenses. So can you comment on that?

[15638] SPEAKER_41: Yes, thank you so much. So when we get our students through the door with their IPs, we look at the services and we look at obviously what they need in order to have their their full offer of FAPE. So in reviewing each of the contractors caseloads based off of what we have and what we project for next year, we don't need a 1.0. We can do it at a 0.5. Now understanding in special education, We serve the students with whatever they they have on their IEPs. So it is more fluid than in other places. So if some student comes in with particular service despite what we might bring up here we deliver and we provide the services and supports that the student requires as written in their IEP. And I want to just make sure that we're all understanding that the contractors are the ones that are being released. Our goal in SPED department is like all of Newark unified is to build the capacity of our own classified and certificated staff. So, and you know, it's much more costly for a contractor. So in reducing, we actually get more when we're able to provide our own people.

[15718] Aiden Hill: So given that, if we're going to eliminate a lot of contract positions and then planning on replacing them with a full time with FTEs, Is that the savings after you hire these new people? As needed.

[15732] SPEAKER_41: So once they're eliminated, we do not foresee needing a 1.0, but when we do and when we are in the position to do so, opening it up and flying that and hiring it for a newer versus a contractor is

[15747] Aiden Hill: is a way to do it. So basically, these are temporary savings.

[15753] SPEAKER_41: There you go. Well, no. I don't think so, not unless we double. The goal is we're not going to be increasing to the point where this is just you know, for three or four months, and then I'm going to come to the table and say I need a 1.0. So can I just share something?

[15769] Tracey Vackar: Although this is on for the reduction, this really isn't something that you necessarily have to vote on because it's really part of the contract. And so this is something that we would just reduce down. We wanted you to know where the savings was coming from. And staff has worked really hard to be able to sit there and identify that. It's possible that if we had students that came back and had a need, we may have to go off and make a recommendation to you that we need to do something different. You don't always know who your students are going to be.

[15795] SPEAKER_20: And you may have a student that transfers in from another district.

[15798] Tracey Vackar: And so you might have to go off and go do something.

[15801] Tracey Vackar: So I just have to work really closely with this.

[15804] Kat Jones: All right.

[15807] Kat Jones: So we are now looking at slide 24 under technology and think together. So the next slide please. Yeah.

[15821] Austin Block: So I don't have any particular questions on this slide, but I just wanted to kind of get a sense of like, okay, so when ultimately the voting does occur on this, will it be slide by slide? Is that how it's going to work? It'll be like, okay, let's cast a vote on the proposed cuts on this slider. How exactly will it break down?

[15836] Tracey Vackar: No, actually, I think maybe I can show a little more. Maybe Chris can chime in as well. So for the reductions in staff, it's actually a resolution that you have to actually take as to what you're doing.

[15847] SPEAKER_28: Is there anything specific? That's correct. Yeah. So what will happen in the next nine days, we've already set out the seniority list that we've classified. So they're reviewing to make sure everything's correct on their hire date and their information. Certificating will go out on Thursday or Friday. They'll do the same thing. And then what we'll be doing is we've already had the board resolution prepared. They'll actually list names of the employees that are impacted in their positions. Those will be brought back on Tuesday night on February 18th for information. And you'll have further time to discuss those positions. And then on March 4th, the board resolution will require action item. And then as that is approved, everyone that's on that list will receive a certified letter and U.S. mail between Wednesday and that Friday following. It has to be delivered at hand by March 15th. And between March 15th and May 15th, if there's any recessions, or notices we have a right as a district to notify those employees.

[15910] SPEAKER_28: So for example if I just hypothetically say we laid off five teachers and we have five additional retirements I would then bring it to the board and recognize that those five have been taken off the board resolution because we've had attrition and those people can fall back into those spots. And then on the March 4th, it'll have that same list, but it'll be moved from an information item to an action item that has to take action, because we're required by law to notice every employee by March 15th that are negatively impacted through a RIF process.

[15950] SPEAKER_28: And again, RIF, as I've shared with you guys, is just meeting reduction in force. not based on any performance. It's all workload. Hopefully that helps and clarifies that.

[15963] Aiden Hill: So Mr. Williams, just to maybe add a little bit of additional clarification. So I think what you're saying is that we're talking today at a very high level, a non-specific level, We're not talking about specific employees, even though you've identified specific positions.

[15982] Aiden Hill: However, when we come back in the 18th in closed session, specific positions and the specific employees, and we're going to be making a decision on what we agree with and what we don't agree with.

[15999] Aiden Hill: Is that a correct statement?

[16002] SPEAKER_28: Half of that is correct. All the information other than it will be done in open session. We can discuss it on potential litigation in closed session. but we'll also bring that in forward. You will have to vote on this action item. It's the only personnel matters in general that you have to bring in public, because it's required by law that this action is taken in open session.

[16024] Aiden Hill: Correct. And so maybe to assuage Member Block's fears,

[16029] Aiden Hill: This is not the federal government and you don't have to vote on a bill before you find out what's in it.

[16035] SPEAKER_28: That's a good analogy and it's actually correct.

[16040] Austin Block: We can vote on many small bills rather than an omnibus bill.

[16055] SPEAKER_28: Yeah, and just so you guys know too, and for some of you that have the unfortunate experience to have to go through this, it'll be a one resolution with every name and position attached to it. So you guys have a right to consider the one as a whole to approve the board. resolution as a professional is what I would recommend.

[16072] SPEAKER_28: However, you guys as a board has the wherewithal to pull off individuals on that list or positions off that list at that time and they don't have to be brought back as an action item just like any action item would be done in open session.

Pause: 5.3s

[16091] SPEAKER_28: OK. OK.

[16094] Kat Jones: Thank you. Thank you.

[16095] SPEAKER_28: Yeah.

[16096] SPEAKER_28: Hopefully that helps.

[16098] Kat Jones: I think it provided a lot of clarification between all of you speaking to your parts. So thank you very much. Yeah. Let's see, we are now on reductions or restructuring considerations.

[16118] SPEAKER_28: If I could start off, as we shared with the central enrollment, we are trying to provide additional support in the central enrollment, which would then increase two of the employees to going to eight hours and one employee going from 11 to 12 months.

[16132] Jose Quintana: I also want to highlight- Hold on, Chris. Sorry.

[16135] Jose Quintana: Okay. What slide are we on? What slide did you reference?

[16139] Jose Quintana: 25. Slide 25. So it's right after the red mark. Go back up.

[16147] Tracey Vackar: I think you need to go back one slide. I think we're just not on the right slide.

[16151] Jose Quintana: Yeah, just back up one. Go back one? Yeah.

[16155] No.

[16156] Tracey Vackar: Is there one more?

[16158] Kat Jones: Let me check. We were on the correct one.

[16163] Kat Jones: OK, 25.

[16166] Jose Quintana: So we are speaking on the educator effectiveness block grant, Chris.

[16173] Jose Quintana: and the Learning Recovery Education Block Grant, Puente MCA on that slide.

[16179] SPEAKER_28: Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you guys were still in the positions.

[16180] SPEAKER_28: That's actually Karen would actually express information or provide information on the potential cutbacks on those specialized programs.

[16189] Nancy Thomas: OK.

[16190] Nancy Thomas: Thank you, Chris.

[16191] Yep.

[16192] Nancy Thomas: Going back to the previous slide, if we did all those savings that you're recommending, our total savings would be $5.9 million, right?

[16203] Nancy Thomas: That's correct. Yes. So that would leave us only about a $2 million deficit for the following year.

[16217] Aiden Hill: I want to clarify here because I don't I'm sorry but I don't think that those projections are correct. I do not see

[16225] Aiden Hill: how our expenses are continuing to be forecasted going up when we're making cuts. I really want staff to go back and take a second look at this, because how did we go from half a million in a deficit to now 5.1 projected this year to then 7 or 8 does not make sense to me.

[16249] Aiden Hill: It does not make sense to me.

[16251] Nancy Thomas: I'm just talking about the unrestricted.

[16258] Aiden Hill: But they were saying expense, right? I mean, those numbers don't make sense. And I mean, again, if we're cutting, expense should be going down, right? And so the question is, if your revenue is going down, you just need to make sure that your expense is going down at the same level, right? But again, you guys got to prove to me that those forecasts, especially when you get out to that year or two, I don't believe those numbers.

[16288] Jose Quintana: I'm sorry. These numbers are what's currently encumbered for the fiscal year. 26, 27.

[16298] Aiden Hill: So if you go back up forecast, right? And right now these forecasts have all sorts of assumptions in them. And I think that we really ought to go back and scrub that. But I don't think we should belabor the point. So if we're correct right now, we're projecting a $5.1 million deficit by the end of this year. So that means that that's our number right now that we're going to cover. I still think that that number

[16334] Aiden Hill: is actually partly one time loss. I mean, so it looks like we had a hiccup in our procurement of books and materials. So it looks like we overshot our forecast. That's what it looks like that has influenced this number for this year. But what I cannot understand is, I can understand revenue going down, but I cannot understand costs going up.

[16366] SPEAKER_28: we're going to be able to get And then one last piece, which you guys are all aware of, usually there's a 2.2% increase just on step and column on an annual basis for people to be able to move over on their step.

[16394] SPEAKER_28: So that's a potential increase in cost that you can't eliminate.

[16401] Aiden Hill: So even though I was born in San Francisco and raised in Berkeley, my ancestors must have come from Missouri. Because I'm sorry, you guys got to show me. I have to see concrete numbers. But I don't want to belabor it because I think we're already running late. But all we've got to solve right now is we've just got to solve this coming year, and that's roughly the number that's going to hit it.

[16428] Nancy Thomas: And I would like to take it one step further and say, if we approve $5.9 million in reductions for next year,

[16440] Nancy Thomas: What will be the remaining structural deficit going into year three?

[16448] Jose Quintana: If you look at the breakdown slide, slide number 14 on your computer's errathodiasis, you will see that. There is a $7 million shortage as we start off with. Once again, whether you follow these numbers or not, that gives you just a snapshot of some of these salaries being recovered and some of these services as well, some of the expenditures in slide. 14 you'll see the breakdown that will make a difference member Thomas to answer your question is it going to be exactly two million dollars Is it going to be exactly three million dollars? Right these once again. These are forecasts so it will affect your bottom line there your shortage

[16494] Jose Quintana: that we see on the breakdown on slide 14.

Pause: 5.9s

[16503] Aiden Hill: It's a breakdown slide. Since we've got an hour and 15 minutes left, a lot. So on that last. slide that we were just on and the other slides. I mean, I would like to suggest to the board that we, because you're just saying additional considerations, the next slide.

[16523] Aiden Hill: I would like to suggest to the board that we punt on this for right now. one question. Vendor change for extended learning program.

[16537] Aiden Hill: Is that thing together?

[16539] Tracey Vackar: Yes. So basically what we've been trying to do is the ELOP grant is funded at about I think it's 1.9 million for the ELOP grant. We are spending more money on the ELOP grant and what we would like to do is with make sure that our program is within what the grant dollar amount is. So we would be looking for maybe an RFP to be able to ask for other vendors to come in, give us proposals, and make sure that we're living within the grant proposal piece.

[16567] Aiden Hill: Right. So to clarify for some of the speakers that were coming here earlier, there was a fear that we were taking away Think Together. And what you're saying is that we're not taking away the service. We're just re-evaluating who the vendor should be and try to make sure that it fits within our funding. Correct. Great.

[16592] Austin Block: I think I just have one slight. thing to say on these last couple of slides just maybe for future presentations having some sort of disclaimer at the top of like just because something is on here doesn't mean it's going to be cut because we've just heard a lot of like fearful comments from community members they see a program that's beloved on this list and It creates a lot of panic, and I wonder if just having a clear disclaimer at the top of a presentation next time to be like, just because something's on here does not mean it is imminently going to be cut. This is just a discussion. I just think it could help lower the anxiety. so that community members don't constantly fear that their beloved programs are on the chopping block, unless that is truly something that has been fully fleshed out and is actually fully being considered.

[16639] Austin Block: I think it's something that would help us have these conversations in a way that doesn't cause unnecessary anxiety.

[16648] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Also, just a reference, a couple of members from the community mentioned if we could also have the presentation in Spanish, since we do have a majority of individuals that come from the community, to have that displayed as well. That wouldn't be a problem.

[16665] Jose Quintana: I'm bilingual, so I can translate it.

[16669] Kat Jones: Okay, so as we look at starting with slide 20 say 25 which is the additional reduction and restructure considerations. It sounded to me from what you were suggesting member hill that we. And so my question would then be to staff. Can we do that?

[16695] Kat Jones: Can we wait on kind of going through the potential reduction, restructuring considerations?

[16705] And what would be, you know, Is it possible to push this part of our discussion to the 18th?

[16714] Jose Quintana: So Mr. Williams, we have February 18th for the- Yeah.

[16719] Aiden Hill: Yeah.

[16720] SPEAKER_28: Honestly, with the program. you're not going to be the same evening because you have to make a double decision on it.

[16745] SPEAKER_28: But the program reduction doesn't necessarily mean there's people reduction, and that's what has to be explained.

[16751] Kat Jones: Okay, so I guess what we need to hear then is which of these program reductions would affect staff that we would then have that would then be impacted by these decisions. So that's correct.

[16767] SPEAKER_28: And I'm Jose and Tracy, I sent you a text here. The $5.9 million does not include any of these potential reductions on the last two slides. So I want everybody to know that. So the 5.9 already includes every position that we have. Out of that 5.9, 1.3 has already been reduced on all the positions. So then the remainder of that, anything on the last two slides would be in addition to the $5.9 million.

[16794] Tracey Vackar: So if I could just share with you, in looking at these additional restructuring considerations, we felt it was important to at least call them out because they may not be living within the means of the amount of dollars that we're receiving. It's something that staff has to be fully aware of, right, and that we make sure that if this is the money that we have for this, that we either ship the staff any feedback to the general fund. Here, like in the next, if it's a fund that's going away this coming year, we want to do it obviously immediately. Like, we're really concerned about the LRE.

[16827] Tracey Vackar: We know that that's way over and we're going to have to do something with it. Doing a vendor change, living within the means of the ELP, that's a whole different story, right? Like, we could probably do that and make that actually happen. The Point A program, my understanding, only had about $20,000 that was actually allocated for it originally, and then spending $30,000 more.

[16847] Tracey Vackar: then what the original intention was. And I think we need to make sure that it's something that their SPSA is going to continue to visit there and fund and support, because that's what's actually picking up some of the difference for the additional field trips that's going on. I know it's been a concern with the board. It was put on here just for one that we could walk back and go monitor. Same with MCA. MCA has been under the program improvement. They've been working very closely with the state. You may recall we took them to a White House Academy and they actually have a mentor that's working with them to try to come up with strategies.

[16879] SPEAKER_20: So again, we continue to watch it.

[16881] Tracey Vackar: It was one that we were watching from last year. So I just want to make sure that you know that these are on our radar screen.

[16886] Tracey Vackar: We're aware that these may sunset as far as, you know, the ability to be able to pay for some of the things, and we're just very closely monitoring it.

[16894] Kat Jones: So my question, just because I know we've talked about Fuente multiple times, and we've asked to have a presentation about Who, which students are the students that are a part of the program?

[16908] Kat Jones: Would that 50,000 come down if the, you know, depending on the number of students that are in the program? Or would that not affect that dollar amount that we seem to be going over once the budget.

[16928] Tracey Vackar: I think there's two things I think I've heard the board talk about is one how do we do a recruitment for Puente and make sure that the intent of Puente is to be able to serve the student population that we need to serve. and whether or not that's adequately being done. That's one of the concerns I think I've heard the board talk about in the past, right? Kind of a program piece. I don't know that I can speak to either one of those because I don't actually have the report. But it's something that you've got concerns with. I've also heard concerns about the number of field trips and the cost of field trips, right? That's also been something that the board has talked about here in the past year. This is one of the reasons why it's kind of on the list, at least it's on the radar screen. Like, do we need to be able to sit there and watch that and monitor it? Where are the funds coming from? If the funds are coming from our general fund to be able to help offset or from our LCAP. Even if it's coming from SPSA, I don't think it really matters where it's coming from. But if the intent was to only spend x, y, z amount of money, and we're spending more than what we said we were going to do when we took on the grant, that has been a concern I know that's been brought up by other board members. So again, that's one of the reasons why it's here. The biggest one, though, I think that you really have to pay attention to is the one that's in red, that we are running in the red on. That 1.602 is a real concern because it actually has people in it. And that grant no longer right now has the funding that's coming in for 25, 26 that we're aware of inside the governor's budget. It was promised that we would be seeing the money that's coming this year, but it's currently not in his January proposal that he had.

[17021] Tracey Vackar: I know the website says some other things. There seems to be some contradictory things with it. We continue to monitor, and we know that we're running in the red. already, so we just want to make sure that we're calling that out because we're really concerned.

[17035] Aiden Hill: So do we have to do a March 3rd or whatever it is notice for people that are being funded by that? Repeat. Mr. Williams.

[17050] SPEAKER_28: There's one of the programs that are actually all contracted employees outside that we would not have to notice, which we talked about. And that's where we'd have to determine any in-house employee that we would have to notice before and during that process of the February 18th of March 4th deadline.

[17069] Aiden Hill: I'm talking about the learning recovery education model.

[17073] Tracey Vackar: So obviously, there are positions that we need to continue supporting. It's going to have to come back onto the general fund. So the general fund expenditures are going to go up to that same dollar amount, right?

[17085] Aiden Hill: So that's my question. Do we have to notice anybody in this program?

[17090] Tracey Vackar: I don't think we can. The people that are in there are people that we need to retain.

[17095] Tracey Vackar: No.

[17099] Aiden Hill: OK, so again, we're making the cardinal sin of having Permanent employees funded with one-time money.

[17109] Nancy Thomas: Yes.

[17111] Nancy Thomas: Yes.

[17113] Nancy Thomas: The Project Connect program, for example, costs at least $50,000. Right?

[17120] Tracey Vackar: I don't know how much it costs.

[17121] Nancy Thomas: I know there's a couple sections of a- Yeah, the two sections of you, at least that.

[17128] Tracey Vackar: So I mean, they could be reabsorbed, like I said, back into doing other kinds of things. I think it's a program thing that we have to look at from the school side. I don't know that there's necessarily a cost savings, other than you would be supporting students with whatever class that perhaps is credentialed for. right. We make those kind of decisions all the time within our master schedules.

[17151] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Just a quick clarification on the $50,000 for the Puente. Is this based off of elementary, I apologize, for our middle school and also high school for both? Correct. Most of the funds

[17164] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: are allocated for field trip usage, is that correct?

[17170] Tracey Vackar: No, not completely.

[17172] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Because of the transportation, the buses?

[17174] Tracey Vackar: I think that's a piece of it. What I understand is that there's some match funds that come with it. A bunch of this is for

[17183] Tracey Vackar: for the field trips, but I believe there's also money to actually be able to have a staff member help and support it as well.

[17192] Nancy Thomas: Has there been any analysis of elementary field trips? They've gone up exponentially, I think, in the last several years, and we are using outside charter buses for that. It's very expensive.

[17207] Nancy Thomas: Is there any thought about looking at historically what we've done and if there's been, if we need to have that many?

[17217] Jose Quintana: Yeah, we are looking. We are looking into

[17220] Jose Quintana: some contracts like with the first student and others that are out there and seeing what that reduction might be based on our numbers historically here in the district, how much we're spending on that.

[17233] Aiden Hill: So I'm sorry, we need to come back to this learning recovery initiation block grant. If we have $1.6 million in revenue disappearing, that means we need to get rid of $1.6 million in expense.

[17247] Aiden Hill: And so I would appreciate if staff can look at do we just need that's associated with all expenses associated with that because it's revenue that's going away if not how are we going to pay for it it wouldn't be possible to do that though because some of those people are like certificated staff with seniority like that's not that's not possible so that's that's sort of my point right is is that

[17277] Aiden Hill: If if that then needs to go reallocate right into bump and then you know and I know it's messy but but but like this seems to me to be the the you know the burning platform right now if you're saying that we don't have that for next year's budget.

[17296] Aiden Hill: That needs to get addressed ASAP.

[17299] Tracey Vackar: Agreed. And like I said, we learned about it more. I thought that we were running in a deficit in our first interim and somewhat wondered about it. And then when we sat there and looked at the number of positions that were inside of it, At first, I was wondering, did my team make an error when we were trying to correct the budget last year? And then I discovered, no, it wasn't us. It's always been there. That's exactly how those positions have been funded now for multiple years. And so you need to know it wasn't a mistake that happened this past year. It was how the actual program was designed and you can actually see if you go back further, I mean like it's I guess it's funny a big chunk of Bridgepoint staff that's in there so that's a piece of the staffing that's in there a big piece piece of our.

[17350] Tracey Vackar: Psychologists with special education are in there. There's a number of positions that are in there that support that, that truly, as we started looking at it, are those positions that we need to have? Yeah, I think we need to keep all those things.

[17366] Tracey Vackar: If we don't, then we need to make some adjustments as to how our programs are being run to go along with them, which really was one of the reasons why, really, it was like, okay, where else can we save money at to be able to kind of make this a win-win?

[17379] Aiden Hill: But the thing that I feel uncomfortable about, Superintendent, is It seems like we're making an assumption that all that revenue is going away, but none of the expense is going away. And so I think that we really need to take a fine-tooth comb to say, of all the things that we're spending that $1.6 million on,

[17404] Aiden Hill: Are they all necessary?

[17407] SPEAKER_19: I hear you.

[17411] Nancy Thomas: And if they are, that adds $1.6 million to our deficit.

[17416] Nancy Thomas: That's correct.

[17421] Austin Block: OK.

[17423] Kat Jones: We have been on this particular line item for about two hours. I think we've had a productive discussion, but I do feel like in all fairness, we really probably need to move on. We have a couple speakers that still want to speak to some issues, and one of which has been extremely well.

[17449] Kat Jones: Both have been very patient, but very, very patient, and we really do appreciate that. Can we move on from this at this time? Okay, fantastic.

[17468] Tracey Vackar: All right, so I am going to- Board President, I can share with you that if you needed a table, the OCAP accountability report. We actually have until the 28th of this month to be able to turn that in. So it could be presented on the 18th, although I recognize that the 18th is going to be a very full and very busy month, or a very busy week.

[17491] Tracey Vackar: So I'm just letting you know that it could be tabled. The other items will go relatively fast that we have, I think, for the rest of this.

[17500] Aiden Hill: Yes. And again, just as a set of expectations, we have one hour.

[17504] Aiden Hill: We cannot extend past one hour, and we still need to go recess in a closed session.

[17510] Kat Jones: Right. Go ahead.

[17514] Austin Block: I would make a motion to table 10.4 then, and we can circle back to the next meeting. I second the motion.

[17521] Kat Jones: OK, so we have a motion.

[17526] Karen Allard: I know that all of you will just be in high anticipation for it.

[17534] Kat Jones: So if we're going to do that, we have a motion from member Block, and we have a second. Great, thank you.

[17546] Toya Lemus: I noted that on the actual presentation, since it's under information. Oh, perfect. Okay.

[17562] Kat Jones: Yes, that's wonderful.

[17563] Kat Jones: I think we still need to have a vote to table at this point.

[17571] Tracey Vackar: They already adopted their agenda, so they're modifying their agenda to bring this back.

[17577] Toya Lemus: OK, so just do a manual vote then?

[17580] Toya Lemus: Yes, please. Member Hill. Yes. Member Block. Yes. Vice President Thomas. Yes. President Jones.

[17589] Kat Jones: Yes.

[17589] Toya Lemus: Five ayes.

[17591] Kat Jones: Motion carries. Karen thank you so much for holding off on that. All right. Jacob Goldsmith on 11.1.

11.1 Golden State Pathways Program (GSPP) Grant Award Notification

[17599] Kat Jones: Thank you for your hours and hours of patience.

[17604] SPEAKER_02: This has been a passion project since February 2024 so I'm sitting late to bring it home and thank you for the work you've all done tonight board and staff. I am Jacob Goldsmith. I teach math and AP computer science in Newark Memorial High School. And it's a strange time to be bringing a little good financial news and this does pale in comparison to the budget issues our students, staff and community have been highlighting. But without building a well-funded foundation of teaching and learning None of what we're about to talk about in this item can succeed. I want to give a very very brief history of what led us into the grant approval we'll be talking about in this item. In 2016-17 our school Newark Memorial High School was among the first schools in the nation to teach AP computer science principles. I've been the teacher for the class since then. And in 2020-2021 we made the decision to add an additional course AP Computer Science A, developing it into a pathway and to build our STAR Lab maker and learning space, which did involve significant investment of funding.

[17672] SPEAKER_02: and time and energy from the district. Through from 2021 through 2024 the district continued to provide financial support for this which has now been I believe zeroed out and for which we continue to have immense gratitude. So we currently have a two-course AP Computer Science pathway at Newark Memorial High School. Approximately 25% of all of our graduates take at least one AP programming course. We also have a CS for All initiative. where we reach out to all students, whether they enroll in programming or not, with at least one day of programming lessons in their math classes. So we can honestly, authentically say all mainstream students at Newark Memorial High School are exposed to programming lessons. We are three times the Alameda County average of enrollment for women and students of color in our courses and we have been recognized by being invited to share our story at statewide science and computer science conferences. And we're going to be hearing about a grant that will bring more funding to the district than the total amount that the district has invested into this program. And I'd like the board to consider that as you consider cutting other programs potential to grow and even fund our district. Because of the grant we're going to be hearing about, we have zero future planned budget requests from the district I'm happy to share. And I hope that the district can have the courage to take on the task of building and strengthening academic programs, even while being mindful of budget cuts.

[17778] SPEAKER_02: At the middle school, they mirror what we do at the high school with the elective wheel and well with the computer science course in the wheel and then with an additional elective computer science course. Our elementary schools, however, are lacking a coherent organized plan. to bring age-appropriate programming experiences in an equitable way to all elementary schools. Now, I do want to acknowledge the work that is underway to bring staff into those positions. And it takes work, but it doesn't have to cost money, just the will to hold it as a consistent priority. So my call to action while we celebrate our accomplishments at the high school is that we work to build a program at the elementary schools that will expose all students to programming and give all students who want to dive deeper the opportunity to do so. I also want to thank the rest of the team that's been a part of this, including Heather Decker, who was the coordinator as this began. Scott Jorgens, my colleague in teaching AP Computer Science at the high school, who's been instrumental. Leonor Ribasur, whose leadership was key to bringing this into life. And Tom Henson at MVROP. who I believe got this ball rolling with a 5 a.m.

[17855] SPEAKER_02: phone call in February 2024. So I'm excited to hand this off to the team.

[17862] Tracey Vackar: Thank you. Just a quick note to Jacob and the team. I really want to thank you for your work on this. They originally wrote for a little bit more money than what we received. However, and come back, we're going to do some budget realignment and we'll be making those recommendations to

[17883] Tracey Vackar: to the funder to make sure that we are in line with a new budget based on the award amount that we received.

[17890] Tracey Vackar: This has been sent out to CDE as an informational item.

[17895] Kat Jones: Great, thank you so much. All right, so we are 11.1, as Mr. Goldsmith was saying.

[17904] Kat Jones: So, fire away.

11.2 History of Resolutions for Committed Fund Balance for 2024-2025

[17909] Tracey Vackar: Is this the car?

[17910] Tracey Vackar: Yep, this next item I'm going to turn over to Assistant Superintendent Quintana.

[17916] Jose Quintana: So this line item here, 11.2, a new business, is basically a little history on this resolution. And we want to present this because the timeline here, the template that we do have, is that the resolution 224, 223, point 24.41 that was brought forth in June 25th reflected these numbers of $2.6 million in facilities improvement, which is our focal point here into our new resolution that was presented in July 15th of 224.41.

[17955] Jose Quintana: 0.25.01, a deduction of $900,000. And when we go into the resolution of the next column that was brought before September 3rd, this is reflected the same number of $2,680,000 that should have been corrected at one $1,780,000 with that deduction of $900,000. So this is simply a typo that was brought forward and we're bringing resolution 2024.25.19 so that we can bring consideration for approval.

[17993] Jose Quintana: of the committed fund balance with the corrected dollar value reflected.

[18000] Kat Jones: OK.

11.3 Resolution 2024.25.19 Committed Fund Balance for 2024-2025

[18001] Kat Jones: Thank you. Thank you. As we move on, did you basically go over 11.3 or are we moving on to 11.3?

[18010] Jose Quintana: No, I basically mentioned 11.3 with the correction of facilities improvement at $1.7 million, $1.1 million, $780,000 giving us the committed FUD ballots that reflects the accurate number of $13,217,006, which reflects on our accounting system for the district and the county.

[18033] Kat Jones: Okay, we have a speaker on this, Cindy Parks.

Pause: 5.2s

[18043] Cindy Parks: I think we beat this to a dead horse now, but I do believe there's a typo under furniture replacement that shows the number 12 for furniture replacement.

[18056] Cindy Parks: Is that a typo?

Pause: 5.8s

[18063] Jose Quintana: An item 11.2 or 11.3?

[18067] Kat Jones: Oh, 11.3, fifth line down.

[18071] Jose Quintana: Yes, it is a typo.

[18073] Jose Quintana: Thank you.

[18076] Aiden Hill: All right. Just again to validate, we're talking about taking money in the general fund and we're committing it to specific categories. But what I would like to suggest is that this should all be flexible. At the end of the day, if we need to spend it on other stuff, We spend it on other stuff, especially in the facilities area, since we've just now passed a bond. That money for facilities should really be coming from that.

[18111] Aiden Hill: It should be coming from the general fund. But I'm indifferent to slicing and dicing or general funds, as long as we say,

[18121] Aiden Hill: We're not going to spend any money until we have a discussion about it. I think it's required.

[18127] Nancy Thomas: I think it's required that we approve the adjustment for the corrected, but that they cannot spend any money unless they bring it to us for approval first.

[18140] Nancy Thomas: So with that, I recommend that we vote on the resolution. Approve it.

[18147] Aiden Hill: I second.

[18149] Nancy Thomas: OK.

[18152] Kat Jones: Member Thomas-Smooves, Member Hill. second.

[18156] Austin Block: Should we vote to approve it with the removal of the typo of the 12?

[18163] Nancy Thomas: Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I'll accept that.

[18170] Kat Jones: Sorry, I assumed.

[18172] Kat Jones: But I know we can't assume.

[18175] OK.

[18176] Kat Jones: With the typo in line five with the 12 in front of furniture, member Thomas motioned and member Hill seconded. Correct.

[18188] Kat Jones: And can we have a vote please?

[18192] Toya Lemus: Member Yell?

[18194] Kat Jones: Yes.

[18194] Toya Lemus: Member Anguiano?

[18196] Toya Lemus: Yes. Yes. Vice President Thomas. Yes. President Jones.

[18201] Toya Lemus: Yes.

[18203] Kat Jones: Motion carries.

11.4 Study Session and Regular Board Meeting for February 18, 2025

[18207] Kat Jones: 11.4. Superintendent Vackar.

[18214] Tracey Vackar: 11.4. This is a meeting request to ask you to change your study session to include a study session rate and regular board meeting to be done on February 18 in recognition that We have a number of items to be able to present in addition to the study session because of the layoffs. We're asking that you make this a regular meeting.

[18238] Tracey Vackar: So the study session first, which would start at 5.30 for the study session, and then 6.30 for the type of closed session, and the regular school board meeting starting at 7.30.

[18256] Austin Block: Motion to approve item 11.4.

[18261] Kat Jones: Can I get a second, please? All right. Member Block approves motions. Member Hill seconds.

[18270] Kat Jones: Can we have a roll call, please?

[18273] Toya Lemus: Member Hill? Yes. Member Aguillano? Yes. Member Block?

[18276] Kat Jones: Yes.

[18277] Toya Lemus: Vice President Thomas? Yes. President Jones?

[18280] Kat Jones: Yes.

[18280] Toya Lemus: Five ayes.

[18281] Kat Jones: Motion approved. Or carries, sorry.

12.1 Personnel Report (Approved on Consent)

[18285] Kat Jones: We are now at consent agenda personnel item.

[18289] Kat Jones: Does anyone want to pull this for any reason? OK.

[18294] Kat Jones: Can I get a motion, please?

[18299] Aiden Hill: I move to approve the consent item 12, consent agenda, personnel items, 12.1. I'll second.

[18308] OK.

[18309] Kat Jones: Member Hill, motions.

[18311] Kat Jones: Member Block, seconds.

[18316] Toya Lemus:

[18336] Kat Jones: Any other?

[18337] Aiden Hill: I'd like to make a request. I'm sorry, I'd like to request.

[18340] Kat Jones: Let me ask the question before you just right in there.

[18345] Tracey Vackar: Staff would also like to pull 13.3 for discussion.

[18349] Kat Jones: Okay, so 13.3 And 13.8.

[18354] Kat Jones: And 13.15. As per Ms.

[18365] Kat Jones: Parks. And Ms. Parks would like to speak on 13.15.

[18373] Kat Jones: Do we want to do that, or do we want to take the vote on the rest of these? OK. I'd like to have a motion for 13.2, 13.4 through 13.7, 13.9 through 13.14.

[18393] Kat Jones: Can I get a motion?

[18399] Kat Jones: And a second.

[18406] Aiden Hill: I second.

[18407] Kat Jones: Okay.

13.2 2025-2026 School Calendar (Approved on Consent)

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

13.5 Lease of Teacher Chromebooks Newark Memorial High School (Approved on Consent)

13.6 GoTo Technologies VoIP Phone Service - 3-Year Renewal (Approved on Consent)

13.7 Approval of Newark USD 2024-2025 School Accountability Report Cards (SARCs) (Approved on Consent)

13.9 Resolution 2024.25.18 Notice of Completion for Flooring Project at Kennedy Elementary School (Approved on Consent)

13.10 POLICY UPDATE: Administrative Regulation 1312.4 Williams Uniform Complaint Procedures (Approved on Consent)

13.11 POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 3314 Payment for Goods and Services (Approved on Consent)

13.12 POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy 3314.2 Revolving Funds (Approved on Consent)

13.13 POLICY UPDATE: Administrative Regulation 3516.1 Fire Drills and Fires (Approved on Consent)

[18408] Kat Jones: Member Thomas moves, Member Hill seconds. And we'd like to take a vote on 13-2, 13-4 through 13-7, 13-9 through 13-14. Ms. Lamas, could you please do roll? Yes.

[18427] Toya Lemus: Member Hill. Yes. Member Anguiano. Yes. Member Block. Yes. Vice President Thomas. Yes. President Jones.

[18435] Kat Jones: Yes.

[18436] Toya Lemus: Five ayes.

[18437] Kat Jones: Motion carries.

13.3 Report: Quarterly Report on Contracts - 2nd Quarter 2024-25

[18438] Kat Jones: All right, going back to 13.3 to the quarterly reports. Superintendent Vackar.

[18445] Tracey Vackar: Thank you. The quarterly reports have been very problematic to me since I've arrived here at the district. I want to share with you just a little bit of history.

[18455] Tracey Vackar: The quarterly reports allows for staff to be able to make recommendations on contracts that are under $57,400. With that said, we appreciate the fact that staff allows us to do that. But I feel that we need to bring these back to you in a more timely manner because there are a number of errors that have been noted as these have been signed off. And I want to give you some examples of what you're going to see in this report because, again, I continue to see a number of problems that we have. So if you look at the wellness together at Kennedy, in this particular item, the person who signed off on it doesn't have the authority to sign off on this dollar amount.

[18509] Tracey Vackar: So I'm very concerned.

[18512] Tracey Vackar: It should have come to staff, it should have come to the principal first, and then it should have been brought over to the business services department for the CBO to sign off on. Again, this was something that happened. If you also look at the date, the date actually is retro back to June. Again, another problematic piece that occurred, right, that is really now coming to my attention and creates a problematic concern that I see. Again, this is us right now just being very transparent about these concerns and my recommendations that we stop the quarterly report process. And that we bring these back in a more timely manner.

[18547] Tracey Vackar: So even if we authorize it at our level, we're bringing it back to you in a more timely manner for you to be able to ratify.

[18556] Aiden Hill: So are you suggesting that instead of quarterly, that maybe we see contracts on a monthly basis?

[18565] Tracey Vackar: Yes, I am.

[18566] Aiden Hill: Great.

[18567] Tracey Vackar: Thank you. I'm really concerned about it, and I have not really seen this practice. I'm grateful that you give us the opportunity to be able to sit through and evaluate things that need to be done and for us to be able to move forward. And I would just ask that you would still allow us to continue doing that, but that we bring this back to you more timely. So that we're making sure those checks and balances are happening immediately, and they get all the right eyeballs on it, and they actually get placed on the agenda. It's just a concern that I really have sitting out there. There's a couple other ones on here too.

[18597] Aiden Hill: Let me just see if I can-

[18601] Aiden Hill: I mean, this is a concern that I think we've been raising for the past couple of years, right, that we have serious issues in procurement. And I think that there are people that are not only requisitioning things, but approving them and then selecting the vendor.

[18621] Aiden Hill: And then potentially even authorizing me, but I don't know, which is a complete violation of internal controls. And so we get this fixed.

[18630] Tracey Vackar: We also want to be able to protect staff, right? Let me just share with you. I know there are probably good intentions that were done with this, but I want to make sure that we're protecting staff because they don't have that authority. And this could be problematic for them. And I just don't want that to be something that happens. And so we do need to have better internal controls. We know there's a problem. It's been something that the board has discussed with me over the past year. And the more I looked at this, I was really uncomfortable. There's actually another contract that's actually not on here. But it really concerns me because it's an old evergreen, and I actually sent it back to create more information because I'm not in favor of doing evergreen contracts that were signed back in, I don't know, what was it, 2011? It was way, way long ago. It was way past its extensions and has not been re-evaluated, right? And again, it was being recommended that we go off and sign off on this thing. And I've actually kicked it back. The vendor is now having to come back and come work with us because I've got serious concerns that that should not be happening from a contract standpoint. And so I feel like this is a better way for us to get ourselves online, again, grateful for the opportunity to be able to let you give us. That if we feel that we have a necessary expense and it can't wait, that you give us that ability. But we want to bring it back to you in a more timely fashion, which I realize will be difficult for staff, because they're used to having a different process.

[18713] Tracey Vackar: But it also lets us get our eyeballs on it that much quicker.

[18717] Kat Jones: Any questions?

[18723] Aiden Hill: All right.

[18725] Aiden Hill: I move to approve the supertax recommendation.

[18729] Kat Jones: Do I have a second? I'll second. All right. Hill motions.

[18734] Kat Jones: Thomas seconds.

[18738] Kat Jones: And a roll call when we can, please.

[18741] Toya Lemus: Member Hill?

[18746] Toya Lemus: Yes. Member Anguiano? Yes. Member Block? Yes. Vice President Thomas?

[18753] Kat Jones: Yes.

[18754] Toya Lemus: President Jones?

[18755] Kat Jones: Yes.

[18755] Toya Lemus: Five ayes.

13.8 Comprehensive School Safety Plans (CSSP) 2025-26

[18758] Kat Jones: All right, motion carries down to 13.8, please.

[18764] Aiden Hill: So I'll make it quick. So I know that the superintendent staff have done yeoman's work over the past year. Again, it's really remarkable how much work has been done. And so the fact is that we're all human and we only have so many hours in the day. And so there are still things that are on our plate. And one of the things that was a part of our board goals that we haven't been able to get to yet is we talked about having a dashboard for school safety. And again, I know that that hasn't been the number one priority. And so this is not a criticism. But as I looked at the SARCs, right? Is that what we call them? Or no. No, it's not the SARCs. Yeah. So comprehensive school safety plans. I just, I mean, I read the same kind of just problem that, you know, we've had forever, you know, and I'm sure it's recycled over year after year after year. I mean, I don't know, but it didn't really speak to, you know, the I think what we were hoping for when we put the board goals together. And this is before. Superintendent McCarthy and you join. I mean, this is with Penny. But I would like, I mean, obviously, I believe that we have certain requirements where we need to approve these in a certain time frame. So I'm fine with approving this, but I would just like to get a commitment. that over the summer, that we renew our dedication to taking a look at this. Because my concern is, and although I think that there's been substantial improvement over the past couple of years, but I still don't believe that the board has the visibility that we need into safety issues at the school.

[18872] Aiden Hill: And we'd like to figure out a better reporting mechanism for that.

[18877] Tracey Vackar: Have you, and maybe this is a deeper conversation for another day, is there a particular dashboard or school site that you've seen something at that you like how it's done?

[18885] Tracey Vackar: What is the thing you want me to research and bring back?

[18889] Aiden Hill: How I like how it's done? I didn't go through every single one.

[18892] Tracey Vackar: No, I mean, you're asking for a dashboard, right? Yes. What I'm asking is, have you seen a dashboard at some other district that maybe you might want me to consider being in a piece that we would implement here, or do you want me to go out and go research this and come back with? Would that look like for a?

[18909] Aiden Hill: I don't know whether that exists, but I know that in the goal that we put together, we actually were very specific about the things that we wanted to see. And so if we just go back in the goal, because the issue is that we really don't have reporting around incidents. And I, and although I don't want to be specific here, but I think that the people that are here know what I'm talking about is prior to our current principal at the junior high school, there were some things that were going on some very serious things. that caught everybody by surprise, including the superintendent, including Penny. And so, and I think that what we've learned is, and I'm just, I'm sorry, I may not be using the right terms, but I think that there's been some things that have been going on that the information has been suppressed. And so, and I think that if we mandate

[18971] Aiden Hill: that certain categories of things need to be documented and then somehow summarized so that it comes into the board, that that's going to address that. And I can't obviously go into more detail because they're sensitive matters. But I think that there's been things that are going on that if we had greater, at least transparency at the superintendent, staff, board, or here, cabinet, board level, that it would allow us to take more proactive action on important things that are happening.

[19008] Tracey Vackar: I guess my idea is let me run some thoughts by by you see if we're on the same page or if I'm just like tired. I'm not catching.

[19016] Aiden Hill: No, I understand. And so again, I'm not trying to hold anything up. And again, I'm not trying to to, you know, again, cast dispersions or anything like that. I'm just saying. This is an issue that's been going on for many years, many, many, many years. And it is a goal, but it hasn't been the top priority for us right now. But I'm hoping that we can revisit it when we get back together in the summer.

[19040] Thank you.

[19042] Karen Allard: May I make a comment? In preparation to bring these to you tonight, I actually watched what she said last year in regards to the safety plans. We spent an extensive amount of time looking over the safety plans, aligning them across the district, cleaning them up, getting them much more comprehensive than they were in the past. You also mentioned some regards to where are we, what is our impact, and what is our data into the safety that we are doing. So I did just want to share some of the following data with you that in 23-24, our overall suspension rate was 414. We're currently at 120. In fights, we had 179 last year. We're at 54. For cyberbullying, we're at nine. We are at 11. For defiance, we are at 27. We are at zero. Our chronic accentism is lowered than it was before. So I think we're headed in the right direction. Love it. As well as I just want to say I prepared as listening to you and sharing a much more comprehensive approach with alignment across districts or all school sites for safety that wasn't there before.

[19108] Aiden Hill: And let me make an apology in that I didn't go deep. I only really looked at one or two, and I didn't go deep. And so I may have glossed over it. And so I don't want to discredit any work that you've been doing. And it sounds like you are, because the only part that I just didn't see was, okay, so how is this now rolling up into more of a dashboard? But it sounds like you're thinking about that, so maybe we're more on track than we thought.

[19133] Tracey Vackar: I think you are, and I think if you look at your SARP reports, and what your SARP reports are saying, too, that were the item before this. You have a whole new look to your SARC report than what you've ever seen before as well. We're quite proud of the work that's been done. We did bring on an agency partner to help us with that to make sure that we were capturing the right kinds of data and that we were taking that load off of our principles so that we made sure that we had the accuracy. Again, I think it's really great work.

[19161] Tracey Vackar: I think we're moving in the right direction, and I have no problems creating some sort of a report card that shows how we're doing. I don't know what that quite looks like, but it's like something that's in my head, because I do think we have some real data that we were actually tracking and paying attention to.

[19174] Aiden Hill: Sounds like a study session. OK, great.

[19180] Kat Jones: Thank you so much for your time.

[19181] Aiden Hill: We have to approve this, right?

[19183] Please.

[19184] Aiden Hill: Yes.

[19184] Aiden Hill: I make a motion to approve.

[19187] Aiden Hill: I'll second.

[19189] Kat Jones: You want to sit here?

[19190] Aiden Hill: I'm sorry.

[19191] I'm sorry.

[19192] Kat Jones: All night long. I'm sorry. All night long. I'm sorry.

[19198] OK.

[19199] Kat Jones: Could I get a motion to approve 13.8?

[19201] Kat Jones: Please.

[19205] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: I make a motion to approve 13.8.

[19208] Kat Jones: Thanks. All right.

[19210] Kat Jones: May I have a second?

[19213] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: I'll second.

[19214] Kat Jones: Thank you.

[19214] Kat Jones: Member Block. Ms.

[19217] Kat Jones: Lemus, could I have a roll call?

[19220] Toya Lemus: Yes.

[19226] Toya Lemus: Yes. Yes. Yes.

[19232] Kat Jones: Yes.

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

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

[19242] Cindy Parks: Okay, I'm bringing back the minutes again, and I appreciate the fact that they now include who was nominated for the various positions for 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, but 5.6 through 5.12 They were not altered to include in the motion the names of the individuals that were appointed to the committee.

[19269] Cindy Parks: It still stands as they were in the previous minutes.

[19274] Cindy Parks: Up to you, your minutes, but they don't reflect.

[19278] Cindy Parks: a proper nomination with the names attached in the nomination. Which numbers? I'm sorry.

[19284] Kat Jones: 5.6 through 5.12. OK.

[19289] Kat Jones: Thank you. That's on me.

[19293] Kat Jones: That's on me. Okay, thank you. All right. Could I get a motion to approve the minutes with the, oh, I guess we have to pull this and make it. It's already pulled. Okay, it's already pulled. So you need to bring it back. We will bring back the minutes of December 17th on February.

[19319] Kat Jones: 18.

[19321] Kat Jones: Member Block, did you want to say something? What?

[19325] Toya Lemus: It's for reps, the representatives.

[19328] Kat Jones: For the organization, for the, yeah.

[19331] Toya Lemus: Yeah, so appointment of board member representatives.

[19337] Toya Lemus: So does that mean to be at the top?

[19342] Kat Jones: Well, let me just look at it. I have them molded.

[19349] Kat Jones: Yeah, I guess we just have to appointment of. I have them molded. Yep, they're there.

[19357] Kat Jones: They're just apparently.

[19360] Toya Lemus: Because they're not.

[19362] Toya Lemus: Right at the very beginning?

[19364] Kat Jones: Yeah. I'm thinking that's all it is. OK. We'll talk offline. Yeah.

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

[19378] Kat Jones: All right. So we are now at Board of Education Committee Reports, Announcements, Requests, and Debriefs.

[19388] Kat Jones: I'll start really quickly. Member Joy Lee already stated that Member Thomas and I had gone with her to meet with student board members. We had 12, I want the board to know, we had 12 teacher staff nominations and some of those students also filled out an application prior. They applied as well as they were nominated. And we had nine, about nine, eight or nine of them come to the lunch yesterday to get the information. And probably four, maybe five of them said that they would be running. So I thought it was a productive time. They asked good questions.

[19437] Kat Jones: We gave them some information. Member Lee helped out a lot with just kind of talking a little bit more about what she does as the student board member.

[19448] Kat Jones: And that is the only. update that I have.

[19454] Kat Jones: Member Hill, do you have any updates?

[19458] Aiden Hill: I don't have any updates, but I do have a request. And the request is that we've had various discussions about property, et cetera. And there is kind of an ad hoc Facilities committee that both member Thomas and I have been kind of included on, but I think given that we're at the point now where, as I think member Thomas is describing, it's a jigsaw puzzle and I know that in the liaison meeting that we had, Last week, the mayor brought it up and others have brought it up. I think that we want to really organize something more formal and really kind of have a 7-11 Brown Act committee and what I'd like to suggest, which really looks at the entire picture and helps us put together a strategy and then helps us take action. And what I'd like to suggest, I've asked some people that I know that are sort of knowledgeable in this area about, you know, is there somebody that could maybe just come in and describe the process to the board so that we can understand it a little bit better. Some people already know more of the details. Maybe others don't but that this would be a presentation that would orient the board and And I'd like to suggest again just to have sort of a You know somebody that's really kind of you know not really been so much involved in our affairs But the recommendation that came to me was this firm called or back off and Henderson And they have worked with a lot of different school districts, and they do 711 committees. And if the board is willing to authorize us to go coordinate, to have somebody come in and speak with us, that would be great. So that's my only request.

[19566] Tracey Vackar: I cannot believe you're talking about that.

[19568] Tracey Vackar: So we have talked with Lizano and Smith also about this as well. I have also talked with Orbach and Huff, and I've worked with both parties before on similar type things. So actually, I can get proposals and bring those back. or you may ask that they come and do a presentation, or maybe the committee might want to meet both of them before you do that and figure out if there's a recommendation you'd like to be able to make to the board. But I think that would be my recommendation to you, is that you take the time to meet with both. And you learn a little bit about their strategies, and then the services that they would actually offer, and what that process would look like, and timelines, which can be short or long, depending on what the board's desire is for input on the process.

[19615] Aiden Hill: Maybe we could have, if the board agrees, We could ask both representatives from both firms to come forward and give a quick little intro, and then we could make a decision about what seems interesting to us and whether we want to move forward with anything.

[19632] Tracey Vackar: Normally, I think you would do that in a subcommittee. of the board to be able to sit there and make the recommendation back to the board. But if you want to do an open session, I think I'd have to talk with both legal firms to see how they feel about that because they are legal firms.

[19645] Aiden Hill: Oh, correct. They are, yeah.

[19647] OK.

[19647] Aiden Hill: OK, so I mean, so why don't you come back to, you know, I know that we're, that we, that member Tom

[19657] Tracey Vackar: Yeah, I will say they are both very reputable firms, and we do good service by our district.

[19662] Aiden Hill: OK, so that's my only request.

[19667] Kat Jones: OK. Member Anguiano, do you have anything for tonight? We have 23 minutes, not even, to go back into closed session. And we have a long discussion just to warn you.

[19680] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: No, just thank you for the time. Thank you guys for being here and really just listening and giving feedback. It's really positive. We need that. You know, sometimes we do. We're not in the knowing, and that's good that you guys clarify a lot of things that we need, especially for the audience that was here, the public, the comments.

[19702] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Really appreciate their times taken away from their families, for them to be here to advocate for what they believe in. That's our children's future. So we want to go ahead and make sure that we acknowledge the public and individual staff. You guys also being here, really appreciate your expertise in sharing the data, the information needed.

[19727] Gabriel Anguiano Jr: Thank you.

[19731] Austin Block: I know we have a time crunch.

[19737] Nancy Thomas: I would like to echo members comments.

[19750] Nancy Thomas: It looks like the audit will be completed before the extension period.

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

[19772] Kat Jones: OK. Superintendents concluding remarks or do you want to do that.

[19778] Tracey Vackar: I like to do that first. OK. Thank you. So if I could just first of all I want to thank staff for all your work that you've done in preparing for this. This has been very difficult. This is difficult as it was. to hear the public comments, the testimony that was given this evening by so many members of our NUSD family, staff, community. We know that these are very difficult decisions that our board is going to have to embark upon making. It does not come easy. And I know that it's very personal for so very many people that we're sitting on the audience today. It's also personal to our students. And I know it's personal to our board who is committed to the endeavor of making sure that we have the best and most effective and quality education service available here in Newark County. So I just want to thank everybody for your time this evening and just let you know that this is hard. This is hard work. And we know that there are lives that are attached to some of the recommendations that we're making. And what I would ask is that everybody be very respectful of the process and think about who's on the other side when you're talking about comments or asking you know, why not this or why not that, is something that we all take very seriously.

[19850] Tracey Vackar: And it was done with a very heavy heart, as we had to make some of these decisions. That concludes my remarks.

[19857] Kat Jones: OK. Thank you so much.

[19860] Kat Jones: The only thing I'd like to, I would like to just say thank you so much for hanging in there for all your information, the hard work that you have put forth. Ms. Allard, I appreciate you being willing and open to us putting off the LCAP presentation.

[19882] Kat Jones: I know you spent a lot of time working on that. So thank you for being willing to do that. And Mr. Catania, thank you so much for all of the work that you put into yours. It was helpful. did a great job of explaining things to us. So we appreciate that very much. At this point, we will go back into closed session for about 19 minutes in order to hit our one o'clock. And then we'll come back out to

16.2 Adjournment

[19917] Kat Jones: report out anything at that time. We're returning from a second closed session or extended closed session. No decisions were or actions were taken at this time. And I am going to adjourn the meeting at 1 0 6 a.m.. Thank you.

1. CALL TO ORDER (Not Found)

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2. CLOSED SESSION (Not Found)

2.1 CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL - ANTICIPATED LITIGATION: Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Gov. Code §54956.9, subd. (d)(2): two cases (Closed Session)

2.2 Conference with Real Property Negotiators - Snow and Musick Elementary Schools (Closed Session)

2.3 Conference with Real Property Negotiators - Sanctuary Property (Closed Session)

2.4 CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATORS (Gov. Code, § 54957.6, subd. (a): Employee Organizations - CSEA, NTA (Closed Session)

2.5 Conference with Legal Counsel regarding Anticipated Litigation - Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Gov. Code, § 54956.9- Case 1023, 1024, 1025 (3 cases) (Closed Session)

2.6 PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION (Gov. Code, § 54957, subd. (b)(1)) Title: Superintendent (Closed Session)

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9. SUPERINTENDENT REPORT (Not Found)

10. STAFF REPORT (Not Found)

10.4 Annual Update to the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) and the Local Control Funding Formula Budget Overview for Parents (BOP) (Removed by Board)

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[755] 1.1 Roll Call

[788] 4.1 Pledge of Allegiance

[824] 1.2 Meeting Practices and Information

[871] 5.1 Approval of the Agenda

[945] 6.1 Student Report: Student Board Member, Joy Lee

[1113] 7.1 Employee Organizations

[1673] 10.1 Newark Memorial High School Spotlight Presentation

[3350] 8.1 Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items

[4931] 8.2 Public Comment on Agenda Items

[6807] 16.1 PLACEHOLDER - Extend Meeting

[7605] 9.1 Superintendent Report

[8039] 10.2 Letter from the Alameda County Office of Education Regarding the 2024-25 First Interim Budget Report

[8593] 10.3 Budget Reduction Plan

[17599] 11.1 Golden State Pathways Program (GSPP) Grant Award Notification

[17909] 11.2 History of Resolutions for Committed Fund Balance for 2024-2025

[18001] 11.3 Resolution 2024.25.19 Committed Fund Balance for 2024-2025

[18207] 11.4 Study Session and Regular Board Meeting for February 18, 2025

[18285] 12.1 Personnel Report (Approved on Consent)

[18408] 13.2 2025-2026 School Calendar (Approved on Consent)

[18408] 13.4 Report: Monthly Purchase Order Report (Approved on Consent)

[18408] 13.5 Lease of Teacher Chromebooks Newark Memorial High School (Approved on Consent)

[18408] 13.6 GoTo Technologies VoIP Phone Service - 3-Year Renewal (Approved on Consent)

[18408] 13.7 Approval of Newark USD 2024-2025 School Accountability Report Cards (SARCs) (Approved on Consent)

[18408] 13.9 Resolution 2024.25.18 Notice of Completion for Flooring Project at Kennedy Elementary School (Approved on Consent)

[18408] 13.10 POLICY UPDATE: Administrative Regulation 1312.4 Williams Uniform Complaint Procedures (Approved on Consent)

[18408] 13.11 POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 3314 Payment for Goods and Services (Approved on Consent)

[18408] 13.12 POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy 3314.2 Revolving Funds (Approved on Consent)

[18408] 13.13 POLICY UPDATE: Administrative Regulation 3516.1 Fire Drills and Fires (Approved on Consent)

[18438] 13.3 Report: Quarterly Report on Contracts - 2nd Quarter 2024-25

[18758] 13.8 Comprehensive School Safety Plans (CSSP) 2025-26

[19242] 13.14 MINUTES of the December 2, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education

[19242] 13.15 MINUTES of the December 17, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education

[19378] 14.1 Board of Education Committee Reports, Announcements, Requests, Debrief and Discussion

[19772] 15.1 Superintendent's Concluding Comments, Updates, and Future Agenda Items

[19917] 16.2 Adjournment

[99999] 1. CALL TO ORDER (Not Found)

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[99999] 1.4 Recess to Closed Session (Not Found)

[99999] 2. CLOSED SESSION (Not Found)

[99999] 2.1 CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL - ANTICIPATED LITIGATION: Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Gov. Code §54956.9, subd. (d)(2): two cases (Closed Session)

[99999] 2.2 Conference with Real Property Negotiators - Snow and Musick Elementary Schools (Closed Session)

[99999] 2.3 Conference with Real Property Negotiators - Sanctuary Property (Closed Session)

[99999] 2.4 CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATORS (Gov. Code, § 54957.6, subd. (a): Employee Organizations - CSEA, NTA (Closed Session)

[99999] 2.5 Conference with Legal Counsel regarding Anticipated Litigation - Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Gov. Code, § 54956.9- Case 1023, 1024, 1025 (3 cases) (Closed Session)

[99999] 2.6 PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION (Gov. Code, § 54957, subd. (b)(1)) Title: Superintendent (Closed Session)

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[99999] 3.1 Report of Closed Session Actions (Closed Session)

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[99999] 7. EMPLOYEE ORGANIZATIONS (Not Found)

[99999] 8. PUBLIC COMMENT (Not Found)

[99999] 9. SUPERINTENDENT REPORT (Not Found)

[99999] 10. STAFF REPORT (Not Found)

[99999] 10.4 Annual Update to the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) and the Local Control Funding Formula Budget Overview for Parents (BOP) (Removed by Board)

[99999] 11. NEW BUSINESS (Not Found)

[99999] 12. CONSENT AGENDA: PERSONNEL ITEMS (Not Found)

[99999] 13. CONSENT AGENDA: NON-PERSONNEL ITEMS (Not Found)

[99999] 13.1 PLACEHOLDER - One Consented Vote (Not Found)

[99999] 14. BOARD OF EDUCATION: COMMITTEE REPORTS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, REQUESTS, DEBRIEF AND DISCUSSION (Not Found)

[99999] 15. SUPERINTENDENT'S CONCLUDING COMMENTS, UPDATES FOR THE BOARD AND FUTURE AGENDA REQUESTS (Not Found)

[99999] 16. ADJOURNMENT (Not Found)

1. CALL TO ORDER

1.1 Roll Call

Type                        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 via Zoom.

PUBLIC COMMENT:

The public will have the opportunity to address the Board of Education with live in-person comments by submitting a speaker-card with the Executive Assistant prior to the start of the meeting.

File Attachments
Board Meeting Protocols_ENG(1) (1).pdf (69 KB)
Protocolos de la Reunion de la Mesa Directiva_ESP (1) (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, and identify the agenda item number related to your comment.

Please see detailed instructions for public comment on the link: http://go.boarddocs.com/ca/nusd/Board.nsf/goto? open&id=C4Q2D4019F40

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 CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL � ANTICIPATED LITIGATION: Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Gov. Code �54956.9, subd. (d)(2): two cases

Type                       Action, Discussion, Procedural

Preferred Date             Feb 04, 2025

PURPOSE:

To discuss significant exposure to litigation pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (d) of �54956.9 of the California Government Code: Two cases; Student vs. Newark Unified School District Case No. 2024110432, and Case No. 000091302.

2.2 Conference with Real Property Negotiators - Snow and Musick Elementary Schools

Type                       Discussion, Information

PURPOSE:

For the Board to discuss options and next steps for property assessments for Snow Elementary School located at 6580 Mirabeau Drive, Newark, CA 94560. and Musick Elementary School located at 5735 Musick Ave, Newark, CA 94560

Legal Council, Harold M. Freiman

2.3 Conference with Real Property Negotiators - Sanctuary Property

Type                       Discussion, Information

PURPOSE:

For the Board to discuss options and next steps for the Sanctuary Property in Area 3; 6 Acre vacant parcels (APNs 901-200- 2. 901-200-3, 901-200-4, 901-200-16, 901-200-17) at the corner of Sea Turtle Ave. and Cherry Street, Newark, CA. In accordance with tje City of Newark's agreement for the Sanctuary Development (Area 3), which provided for the dedication of the six acres of land to the City for use as a school site with additional three acre park for Joint City/School use.

Agency Negotiators: Harold M. Freiman, Tracey B. Vackar, Jose C. Quintana Negotiating Parties: City of Newark Under Negotiation: Terms

2.4 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.

2.5 Conference with Legal Counsel regarding Anticipated Litigation - Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Gov. Code, � 54956.9- Case 1023, 1024, 1025 (3 cases)

Type                       Action, Discussion

Fiscal Impact              Yes

PURPOSE:

To discuss three potential litigation for HR, 3 cases

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

Type                       Discussion, Information

PURPOSE:

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

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 via Zoom.

PUBLIC COMMENT:

The public will have the opportunity to address the Board of Education regarding non-agendized matters and agendized items by submitting a speaking card including the discussion item, or with live in-person comments by submitting a speaker-card with the Executive Assistant prior to the meeting.

File Attachments Board Meeting Protocols_ENG(1) (1).pdf (69 KB) Protocolos de la Reunion de la Mesa Directiva_ESP (1) (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:

Please see the instructions on the link below for public comment information on non-agenda items and agenda items.

http://go.boarddocs.com/ca/nusd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=C4Q2D4019F40

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:

Please see the instructions on the link below for public comment information on non-agenda items and agenda items.

http://go.boarddocs.com/ca/nusd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=C4Q2D4019F40

9. SUPERINTENDENT REPORT

9.1 Superintendent Report

Type                          Information

PURPOSE:

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

BACKGROUND:

The presentation and information will be provided by the Interim Superintendent

10. STAFF REPORT

10.1 Newark Memorial High 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 Michael Murphy will showcase various innovative programs, projects, and initiatives that are taking place at Newark Memorial High School.

File Attachments NMHS Board Presentation 02_04_2025.pdf (8,407 KB)

10.2 Letter from the Alameda County Office of Education Regarding the 2024-25 First Interim Budget Report

Type                          Information

PURPOSE:

The Assistant Superintendent of Business Services will review the letter from the Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE) regarding the Newark Unified School District (NUSD) 2024-25 First Interim Budget Report.

BACKGROUND:

The Governing Board approved a POSITIVE Certification of NUSD's First Interim Budget Report on December 12, 2024. The district subsequently submitted the report to ACOE, as required, for their review and analysis.

In accordance with Education Code (EC) Section 42131, ACOE reviewed the First Interim Budget Report based on standards and criteria for fiscal stability adopted by the State Board of Education pursuant to EC Section 33127.

Based on ACOE's review, the 2024-25 First Interim Budget Report approved by NUSD's Board of Education on December 12, 2024, accurately reflects the financial status of the District. ACOE, therefore, concurs with NUSD's POSITIVE certification with comments.

File Attachments 2024-25 First Interim Budget Report - Newark Unified School District FINAL.pdf (248 KB)

10.3 Budget Reduction Plan

Type                          Discussion, Information

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this item is to continue the Budget Reduction Plan discussion with the NUSD Board and community. 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:

At the January 21, 2025 Board Meeting, the first Budget Reduction Plan presentation was shared with the Board and community.

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 2025-2026 budget and to ensure a positive three year Multi-Year-Projection. Presentation Plan will be attached February 1, 2025 by 5:00 pm

10.4 Annual Update to the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) and the Local Control Funding Formula Budget Overview for Parents (BOP)

Type                        Information

PURPOSE:

To provide the Board of Trustees with an update on the use of federal and state funds and engagement, actions, and outcomes related to (Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) funds.

BACKGROUND:

Senate Bill 114 (2023) added EC 52062 (a) (6) requires the district to present a report on the annual update to the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) and the local control funding formula Budget Overview for Parents (BOP) on or before February 28 at a regularly scheduled meeting of the governing board or body of the LEA.

Current Status

The attached Document Tracking Service (DTS) report includes midyear outcome data related to metrics identified in the current LCAP and the available midyear expenditure and implementation data on all actions identified in the current LCAP. The Board Mid Year LCAP presentation will highlight key metrics for each goal from our three year LCAP providing insight into our progress to meet identified goals.

File Attachments 2025 LCAP Mid-Year Monitoring Report for the 2024-25 LCAP Newark Unified School District.pdf (318 KB) 2024 - 2025 Mid Year LCAP Board Presentation .pdf (733 KB)

11. NEW BUSINESS

11.1 Golden State Pathways Program (GSPP) Grant Award Notification

Type                        Information

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.
                               MISSION: The Newark Unified School District will inspire and educate all students to
                               achieve their full potential and be responsible, respectful, and productive citizens.

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 GSPP at the high school noted in the AO-400 in accordance with the provisions of the California Education Code (EC) sections 53020 -53025.

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, including but not limited to the EC. These funds are instructional in nature.

File Attachments Golden State Pathways ( GSPP) Grant Award Notification (1).pdf (134 KB)

11.2 History of Resolutions for Committed Fund Balance for 2024-2025

Type                        Information

PURPOSE:

To review the Resolutions for Committed Fund Balance for 2024-2025 for accuracy.

BACKGROUND:

Business Services would like to present the following resolutions for review, which reflect adjustments and updates made to the original budget since its adoption on June 25, 2024. The table below outlines each Board-approved resolution.

Resolution 2024.25.09 identified $2,680,000 for Facilities Improvements, which did not include the $900,000 deduction in Resolution 2024.25.01. The current fund balance for Facilities Improvements is $1,780,000. Resolution 2024.25.19 is being brought forward in the following agenda line item for Board consideration and approval of the Committed Fund Balance.

                                                                         Resolution        Resolution          Resolution

                                                                         2023.24.41        2024.25.01         2024.25.09

                                                                         6/25/2024         7/15/2024           9/3/2024

Facilities Improvements 2,680,000 (900,000) 2,680,000 Deferred Maintenance 1,000,000 (500,000) 500,000 Technology Refresh and Upgrades 1,200,000 (100,000) 1,100,000 Textbooks and Consumables 700,000 700,000 Furniture Replacement 50,000 50,000 Declining Enrollment & ADA Mitigation 200,000 200,000 Instructional Program Improvements 500,000 (50,000) 450,000 Strategies to Increase Enrollment 200,000 200,000 Reduce Deficit Spending and Improve Fiscal Health 300,000 300,000 MYP Savings (25-26 & 26-27) 7,937,006 Total Committed Fund Balance $6,830,000 ($1,550,000) $14,117,006

File Attachments 2023.24.41 - Resolution - Designating Certain General Funds as Committed Fund Balance for 24-25.pdf (77 KB) 2024.25.01 - Resolution - Designating Certain General Funds as Committed Fund Balance.pdf (100 KB) 2024.25.09 - Resolution Committed Fund Balance for 2024-25.pdf (74 KB)

11.3 Resolution 2024.25.19 Committed Fund Balance for 2024-2025

Type                       Action

Fiscal Impact              Yes

Budgeted                   Yes

Budget Source              Various funds as identified in the Resolution.

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education adopt Resolution 2024.25.19 Committed
Action                     Fund Balance for 2024-2025.

PURPOSE:

To approve the committed fund balances as presented in the resolution.

BACKGROUND:

During the review of the 2024-25 fiscal year resolutions, Business Services identified a data entry discrepancy in Resolution 2024.25.09 Designating Certain General Funds as Committed Fund Balances. Specifically, the reported balance for the Facilities Improvement Fund was incorrect. Resolution 2024.25.19 corrects this error and now accurately reflects the current ending fund balances.

File Attachments Resolution 2024.25.19 Commit to Budget Balance Reserves for 2024-25 Fiscal Year_pending Board approval.pdf (14 KB)

11.4 Study Session and Regular Board Meeting for February 18, 2025

Type                       Action, Discussion, Procedural

Fiscal Impact              No

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education amend their February 18, 2025 school
Action                     board meeting to include a study session (Measure O School Bond Funding plan) at 5:30 pm,
                           closed Session 6:30 pm, and regular school board meeting 7:30 pm.

PURPOSE:

The purpose is to comply with Ed Code 35143 and that the Board of Education amend their February 18, 2025 school board meeting to include, a study session (Measure O School Bond) at 5:30 pm, closed Session 6:30 pm, and regular school board meeting 7:30 pm.

BACKGROUND:

To provide the public with advance meeting notification of their meetings to occur on February 18, 2025.

12. CONSENT AGENDA: PERSONNEL ITEMS

12.1 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 02.04.2025.pdf (135 KB)

13. CONSENT AGENDA: NON-PERSONNEL ITEMS

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 2025-2026 School Calendar

Type                           Action

Absolute Date                  Feb 04, 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:

For clarification September 10th, 2025 and February 4th, 2026 will be designated as Student Minimum Days. In addition, the District will be providing Professional Development Day for our Certificated Staff.

File Attachments 25-26 Modified Calendar.pdf (79 KB)

13.3 Report: Quarterly Report on Contracts - 2nd Quarter 2024-25

Type                        Action

Fiscal Impact               Yes

Dollar Amount               $141,089.08

Budgeted                    Yes

Budget Source               Various Funds Per Contract

Recommended                 The recommendation is that the Board of Education ratify the quarterly contracts as
Action                      presented. Starting immediately the district will bring back any approved contracts under
                            $57,400 for immediate ratification by the board at the following board meeting.

PURPOSE:

For the Board to ratify the contracts presented on the quarterly report.

BACKGROUND:

The Board has requested a report of all contracts for professional services under $57,400 (50% of formal bid limit) be reviewed by the Board on a quarterly basis. This report only includes contracts that have not been previously approved by the Board. (Reference Board Policy 3312)

Contracts are on file in the Business Office. Quarterly reports have been an ongoing concern of the Superintendent, due to past practices including incorrect signatories and dates. All future contracts will only be signed by a management member that aligns with the signature cards approved by the school board and signature on file.

File Attachments Quarterly Report on Contracts Q2 2024-25.pdf (10 KB) Artful OT World Contract (IEE) 24-25 SIGNED.pdf (287 KB) SchoolWorks_DEMOGRAPHICS Agreement_2024-25_fully executed.pdf (2,094 KB) David W. Fink_Interim Director MOT_fully executed_redacted.pdf (208 KB) David_W.Fink_Consultant_MOT_30DEC2024.pdf (265 KB) Wellness Together Kennedy_2024-2025_fully executed.pdf (501 KB) Seneca Family of Agencies_MC 24-25_fully executed.pdf (858 KB) Sped Consulting_24-25_fully executed.pdf (626 KB) Sped Consulting_24-25_Addendum 1_fully executed.pdf (212 KB)

13.4 Report: Monthly Purchase Order Report

Type                       Action

Fiscal Impact              Yes

Dollar Amount              $518,931.80

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 99 PO's dated 12/1/2024 through 12/31/2024 for a total of $518,931.80.

File Attachments Monthly Purchase Order Report 02-04-2025.pdf (80 KB)

13.5 Lease of Teacher Chromebooks Newark Memorial High School

Type                       Action, Procedural

Fiscal Impact              Yes

Dollar Amount              $52,724.70

Budgeted                   Yes

Budget Source              NMHS SPSA ,

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve a four (4) year lease of teacher
Action                     ASUS Chromebooks and white glove services from Trafera for Newark Memorial High School.,

PURPOSE:

The purpose is to have the Board approve the lease of seventy (70) ASUS Chromebooks for teachers at Newark Memorial High School and for white glove services and repairs. The devices will be purchased from Trafera, OMNIA Contract #01-149 RFP No. 45-22: Technology Solutions, Products and Services, through the National IPA Cooperative Purchasing Program, with financing through Insight Financial Services at an annual amount of $13,215.93 for four (4) years. Public Contract Code Section 12100 allows the District to utilize existing contracts without formally bidding. Trafera was awarded the OMNIA Contract #01-149 RFP No. 45-22: Technology Solutions, Products and Services which is part of the National IPA Cooperative Purchasing Program.

BACKGROUND:

The District has identified a refresh plan for teacher devices and this lease program provides teachers with updated Chromebook and repair support necessary for Newark Memorial High School Teachers.

File Attachments Newark Unified School District - 70 x Asus Chromebook Plus CX3402 CB+.pdf (173 KB) Trafera_OMNIA Contract #01-149.pdf (2,838 KB) Trafera Award Letter_OMNIA Contract #01-149.pdf (195 KB)

13.6 GoTo Technologies VoIP Phone Service - 3-Year Renewal

Type                       Action

Fiscal Impact              Yes

Dollar Amount              $86,639.28

Budgeted                   Yes

Budget Source              General Fund

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education ratify the 3-Year Renewal of GoTo
Action                     Technologies VoIP Phone Service.

PURPOSE:

The purpose is for the Board to ratify the 3-year renewal of GoTo Technologies contract for a Voice Over IP (VoIP) system with dedicated backup broadband services in case of an internet service provider (ISP) outage. The annual fee is $86,639.28.

BACKGROUND:

On June 16, 2022 the Board approved the original contract with GoTo Technologies. The district has been happy with the service and wishes to renew.

This 3-year renewal agreement sets the monthly fee at $7,219.94 and the annual fee at $86,639.28. Additionally, the contract includes flexible terms, such as a 30-day cancellation clause and the ability to reduce the number of phone lines by up to 20%, providing a level of adaptability if service needs change over time.

Services consist of

SERVICE DESCRIPTION USERS Year 12024-25Year 2 Year 32025-262026-27 GoTo Connect Standard Unlimited Minutes 296 43,973.76 43,973.76 43,973.76 Conference Device Board Library & Superintendent's Office 2 270.00 270.00 270.00 Interconnected VoIP, Low Usage 50 Minutes per month (pooled) 370 28,860.00 28,860.00 28,860.00 Voice Standard DID Direct Dial 606 2,036.16 2036.16 2036.16 Taxes and Fees 11,499.36 11,499.36 11,499.36 TOTAL COST $86,639.28 $86,639.28 $86,639.28 File Attachments GoTo Technologies_VoIP_signed through 10-31-2027.pdf (398 KB)

13.7 Approval of Newark USD 2024-2025 School Accountability Report Cards (SARCs)

Type                       Action (Consent)

Preferred Date             Feb 04, 2025

Absolute Date              Feb 18, 2025

Fiscal Impact              No

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the 2023 - 2024 School
Action                     Accountability Report Cards.

PURPOSE:

All public schools in California are required to prepare School Accountability Report Cards (SARCs) and disseminate them to the public annually. The SARC contains information about the condition and performance of each California public school. State and federal laws require specific items to be reported in the following categories: demographic information, school safety and climate for learning, academic data, class size, school facility conditions, teacher and staff information, curriculum and instruction, postsecondary preparation, and fiscal and expenditure data, pursuant to California Education Code sections 33126, 33126.1, 35256, and 52052, and Elementary and Secondary Education Act Section 1111(h)(2).

BACKGROUND:

SARCs will be linked on district and school websites upon board approval as well as be accessible on the California Department of Education's Find a SARC website. The Newark USD 2024-25 SARCs have been created in alignment with the required content and sections present in the California State Board of Education's adopted SARC template.

File Attachments 2024 SARC Newark Middle School.pdf (349 KB) 2024 SARC Lincoln Elementary.pdf (320 KB) 2024 SARC John F. Kennedy Elementary.pdf (320 KB) 2024 SARC Coyote Hills Elementary.pdf (314 KB) 2024 SARC Birch Grove Primary.pdf (277 KB) 2024 SARC August Schilling Elementary.pdf (319 KB) 2024 SARC Birch Grove Intermediate.pdf (315 KB) 2024 SARC NMHS.pdf (380 KB) 2024 SARC Bridgepoint.pdf (337 KB) 2024 SARC Crossroads.pdf (350 KB)

13.8 Comprehensive School Safety Plans (CSSP) 2025-26

Type                       Action, Information

Preferred Date             Feb 04, 2025

Absolute Date              Feb 18, 2025

Fiscal Impact              No

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve 2025-2026 Comprehensive
Action                     School Safety Plans (CSSP) as presented.

PURPOSE:

To approve the Comprehensive School Safety Plan (CSSP) for each Newark Unified School District school site

BACKGROUND:

A Comprehensive School Safety Plan (CSSP) is an annually-revised plan to develop strategies aimed at the prevention of, and education about, potential incidents involving crime and violence on the school campus. All California K-12 public schools must develop a CSSP that addresses the safety concerns identified through a systematic planning process in cooperation with local law enforcement agencies, community leaders, parents, pupils, teachers, administrators, and other persons who may be interested in the prevention of campus crime and violence.

Per Education Code Section 32281, the School Site Council (SSC) develops and approves a comprehensive school safety plan relevant to the needs and resources of that particular school, or may delegate this responsibility to a school safety planning committee. Each school must review and update its plan by March 1 every year for submission to the California Department of Education (CDE).

The requirements and mandate for CSSPs are outlined in Education Code Sections 32280 - 32289 School Safety Plans

File Attachments 2025-26_Comprehensive_School_Safety_Plan_August_Schilling_Elementary_School_20250127.pdf (2,628 KB) 2025-26_Comprehensive_School_Safety_Plan_Birch_Grove_Intermediate_School_20250127.pdf (2,975 KB) 2025-26_Comprehensive_School_Safety_Plan_Birch_Grove_Primary_School_20250127.pdf (11,956 KB) 2025-26_Comprehensive_School_Safety_Plan_Coyote_Hills_Elementary_School_20250127.pdf (2,580 KB) 2025-26_Comprehensive_School_Safety_Plan_Lincoln_Elementary_School_20250127.pdf (4,577 KB) 2025-26_Comprehensive_School_Safety_Plan_Newark_Junior_High_School_20250127.pdf (3,830 KB) 2025-26_Comprehensive_School_Safety_Plan_Newark_Memorial_High_School_20250127.pdf (3,045 KB) 2025-26_Comprehensive_School_Safety_Plan_Bridgepoint_20250127.pdf (4,153 KB) 2025-26_Comprehensive_School_Safety_Plan_Crossroads_High_School_20250127.pdf (4,148 KB) 2025-26_Comprehensive_School_Safety_Plan_John_F._Kennedy_Elementary_School_Redacted.pdf (2,452 KB)

13.9 Resolution 2024.25.18 Notice of Completion for Flooring Project at Kennedy Elementary School

Type                       Action

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve Resolution 2024.25.18 and filing
Action                     of Notice of Completion (NOC) with the County Recorder of Alameda County for Flooring
                           Project at Kennedy Elementary School, completed by All County Flooring on January 7, 2025.

PURPOSE:

To authorize the filing of Notice of Completion (NOC) with the County Recorder of Alameda County.

BACKGROUND: On August 6, 2024, the Board of Education awarded a contract to All County Flooring for flooring projects throughout the District (CMAS Contract #4-20-00-0134A).

The flooring project at Kennedy Elementary School is now complete. All contract items, punch list and project closeout items have been satisfied. Accordingly, staff requests acceptance of the project which will allow filing of a Notice of Completion with the Alameda County Recorder and permit the release of retention thirty-five (35) days after approval.

File Attachments Resolution 2024.25.18_NOC Flooring Project Kennedy_All County Flooring.pdf (85 KB) Notice of Completion-KES-All County Flooring.pdf (71 KB)

13.10 POLICY UPDATE: Administrative Regulation 1312.4 Williams Uniform Complaint Procedures

Type                       Action, Procedural

Fiscal Impact              No

Budgeted                   No

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the updated Administrative
Action                     Regulation 1312.4 Williams Uniform Complaint Procedures

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 7214 - General Obligation Bonds Regulation updated to expand and more closely align with code language the information related to ballot materials, including that at least 88 days prior to the election the Superintendent must deliver applicable ballot materials to the officer conducting the election. Additionally, regulation updated to add new section "Ballot Materials" which includes (1) that the ballot question may not exceed 75 words, (2) that the ballot materials include a brief statement of the measure setting forth the amount of the bonds to be voted on, the maximum rate of interest, and the purposes for which the proceeds of the sale of the bonds are to be used, (3) for bond measures that require a 55 percent majority vote, a statement that the Board will appoint a citizens' oversight committee, (4) for projects that require state matching funds, a statement advising voters that the project is subject to the approval of state matching funds, and (4) that arguments in support of or in opposition to a bond measure are submitted in accordance with law, and to reflect NEW LAW (SB 798, 2023) which requires the inclusion of the tax rate per $100,000 of assessed valuation on all property to be taxed to fund a bond measure. In addition, regulation updated to (1) reflect that the district will provide the citizens' oversight committee with responses to any and all findings, recommendations, and concerns addressed in the annual independent financial and performance audits within three months of receiving the audits, and (2) to include post-issuance reporting requirements

File Attachments Regulation 1312.4 - Williams Uniform Complaint Procedures.pdf (304 KB)

13.11 POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 3314 Payment for Goods and Services

Type                       Action, Procedural

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the updated Board Policy and
Action                     Administrative Regulation 3314 Payment for Goods and Services.

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 and Administrative Regulation 3314 Payment for Goods and Services

(AR revised 11/11) Regulation updated to reflect NEW LAW (SB 293) which provides that, for public works contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2012, the proceeds that can be lawfully withheld by districts for completed work cannot exceed five percent of the contract price, except when there has been a finding by the board, at a regularly scheduled public hearing prior to accepting bids on the project, that the project is "substantially complex."

(Revise BP/AR 7/07) Updated policy contains new language requiring the Superintendent to create internal control procedures, such as separating purchasing, receiving, and payment functions, to help the Board fulfill its obligation to monitor the district's resources. Policy also contains new note and text re: electronic and facsimile signatures, formerly in regulation, and language requiring that all warrants have appropriate documentary support. Revised regulation contains new language re: progress payments to contractors.

File Attachments Policy 3314 - Payment For Goods And Services.pdf (98 KB) Regulation 3314 - Payment For Goods And Services.pdf (108 KB)

13.12 POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy 3314.2 Revolving Funds

Type                       Action, Procedural

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the updated Board Policy 3314.2
Action                     Revolving Funds.

PURPOSE:

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

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 3314.2 Revolving Funds (BP revised 7/10) Updated policy reorganized to reflect various types of revolving funds authorized by law, including the purposes and limits of the funds. Policy also contains new language specifying that such funds are subject to the district's internal control procedures established for the purpose of fraud prevention and financial impropriety and must be maintained in accordance with the California School Accounting Manual.

File Attachments Policy 3314.2 - Revolving Funds.pdf (112 KB)

13.13 POLICY UPDATE: Administrative Regulation 3516.1 Fire Drills and Fires

Type                       Action, Procedural

Recommended                The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the updated Administrative
Action                     Regulation 3516.1 Fire Drills and Fires.

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 3516.1 Fire Drills and Fires| CSBA Last Update 2001-11-01 | NUSD Last Udate 1996-08-27

File Attachments Regulation 3516.1 - Fire Drills And Fires.pdf (103 KB)

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

Type                       Action, Minutes

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

PURPOSE:

For the Board to review and approve the revised 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 12.2.24 revised meeting minutes.pdf (268 KB)

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

Type                       Action, Minutes

Recommended                For the Board to review and approve the revised minutes of the December 17, 2024 Regular
Action                     Meeting of the Board of Education.

PURPOSE: For the Board to review and approve the revised 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 revised meeting minutes (2).pdf (174 KB)

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

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

                           AND DISCUSSION

Type                       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. Austin Block2.Gabriel Anguiano Jr.

                                                                     1. Austin Block

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

City of Newark � NUSD Liaison Committee 1. Katherine Jones2. Aiden Hill1. Austin Block

                                                                     1. Katherine Jones

LCAP Advisory Committee 1. Aiden Hill 2.Gabriel Anguiano Jr.

                                                                                                                      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.

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

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

                              AGENDA REQUESTS

Type                          Information

PURPOSE:

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

16. ADJOURNMENT

16.1 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.

16.2 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.

No minutes available.