Pajaro Valley Unified School District 08/26/2026

ring the bell. >> Good evening. I would like to call this meeting of the board of trustees to order. Welcome and thank you for being here tonight. I want to begin by acknowledging that this meeting will be livereamed and recorded. Whether you were here in person or watching online, we're glad that you're here. This is a meeting of the board of trustees convened to conduct official business on behalf of our district and the students we serve. While we deeply value community participation, this is a working session of the board. Our focus tonight is on the items before us and on the outcomes that matter most for our students. One of our core values is ensuring that the voices of our community and of each board member are heard, respected, and given meaningful space in this room. Everything we do tonight is grounded in that commitment. Our protocols are not barriers. They are the structure that ensures every voice has a fair and appropriate opportunity to be heard. We are modifying the protocol for this agenda um for the agenda items a little bit um with a goal of holding an efficient equitable meeting. Here's how the meeting is going to work. Each agenda item will be called. Folks who have turned in speaker cards for public comment before the start of an agenda item will be called. We generally call names in groups of 10. When you hear your name, please make your way to the podium. Time limits will apply based on the number of speakers. I will ask for a motion, a second on the item if it's an action item, agend agenda item. If a motion is not made or seconded, the item dies. Then staff or board member will present the item. Board members then have up to three minutes that will be timed to to um speak or ask questions. Um if there are board members who want to speak longer than that, the board collectively will decide if we're going to do another round or not. After the board comments and questions have been completed, the superintendent may respond to board comments and questions. We will then call for the vote. Spe speaking on an agenda item. Members of the public are welcome to address the board on any items on tonight's agenda. Each speaker will have two minutes unless otherwise announced. To speak on an agenda item, you must submit a speaker card before that item is called. Once discussion on an item has begun, cards will no longer be accepted for that item. The board will limit total public comment on each I each agenda item to 30 minutes. With board consent, we may make modifications to that. I may also ask for a show of hands to gauge how many speakers are for or against a particular issue and may ask that speakers step forward only if they have something new to add to the discussion. If you would like to speak about a district related matter that is not on tonight's agenda, that happens under item 6.1, visitor non-aggenda items. If you want to speak on something that's on the agenda, but you don't want to have to wait until late at night when your item comes up, you can choose to speak under 6.2 on an agenda item. But if you choose to speak at that time, then you're giving up your opportunity to speak when items come up. And this is all done in an effort to make public comment accessible for those who are unable to stay until their desired item comes up. Speaker cards must be submitted in person. Please hand your completed speaker card to Veronica Moran at the end of the table. Um, you are not required to write your name on the card, but if you don't write something so that you know we're calling you, then how will you know that it's your turn to come up? Students are encouraged to complete the peachcoled speakers cards because we do give priority to students who want to speak. Please stay on topic and complete your comments within the time allowed. It is helpful to us if you state your name at the beginning of your statement for the record. In order for the board to conduct its business, we ask that all attendees refrain from shouting, arguing, holding side conversations during the meeting. We genuinely want to hear from you, but we can't hear the speaker if others are carrying on conversations. If there are disruptions, I will issue a warning. If disruptions continue, I will recess the meeting, ask that those causing the disruptions be removed, and if necessary, clear the room. Thank you for listening to all of that, and let's get to work for students. 1.1, we are called to order. Um, we had a closed session. We discussed um labor negotiations. And that brings us to 3.1. Welcome and call to order. Um, Trustee Medina has notified me that he will be unable to attend tonight. I believe it to be an excused absence. And Trusty Flores, would you lead us in the pledge, please? I aliance 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. >> That brings us to 3.3 governing board comments. We'll start at my left, your right. um with Trustee Krasco, do you have any public comments for today? Board comments. >> Thank you. Uh Trustee Navaro. >> Hi, good evening. I just wanted to take a few moments tonight to um express my gratitude towards the athletic director Travis Fox, uh Coach Huitt, and Coach Kandelario at Apttos High. Yesterday, my son uh sustained a pretty bad um leg fracture during football practice. And I wanted to thank the athletic trainer, Hillary, and all the football players who carried him into my car and the coaches for calling him while we were in the hospital. uh he's getting surgery tomorrow and the ATOSS community has been really great. So I just wanted to acknowledge all of them. Um the only other thing that I wanted to update is as most of you know I am running for reelection and my website went live yesterday. MD Navaro number4pbusd.com. So there's some flyers in the back of the room for an event we're doing if you'd like to attend to get to know me better. And other than that, I hope we have a good and quick meeting. Trusty. >> Thank you. Uh, welcome everyone. I hope everybody has um enjoyed getting back to school. Um, I know I have. Um, love being back on campuses. I was able to visit um Watsonville High School and uh Parro Valley High School and got to see some of the um improvements that happened over summer and got to see some of the new um at at Watsmo High School. Got to do a in-depth um got to look into FFA a little more and what's going on there. Got to see some beautiful animals. um got to see the the workshop where students are able to learn how to work on um any machinery that is involved in farming. Um so that was really exciting. Got to visit some classrooms at Pey High School. We got to participate in a um I believe it was chemistry experiment. We got to learn how to help the students um figure out a circuit. That was really exciting to just be there hands-on. um in another class. I was happy to see when the teacher was asking questions, multiple hands going up. I just I loved that. Loved seeing the interaction with the students. Um no standing committee um meetings since our last board meeting. Um but we should be meeting soon um to for the JPA for the Melo Center and I'll keep you guys all updated on that. Um other than that, thank you and welcome back. >> Thank you, Trusty Flynn. >> Hi everybody. Welcome back. It's good to see you as always. Um, welcome back to the students, the teachers, faculty, staff, everybody. Um, and welcoming back those who are still yet to come. We look forward to having you in the classroom. Um we are working with coaches as you know and um I don't have the exact words um set up but wanted to um speak to um behavior of mine that um makes it harder to focus on improving student outcomes. Um and the benefit to me um is being right. And I don't know if I'm doing this the exact way that I should be, but ultimately the cost um is to uh the students and us not being able to and me not allowing time or space to get to um items that are focused solely on student outcomes. Um and I um will work on being more aware of that so that um I can improve that behavior and focus on student outcomes. Um, the other thing that I wanted to say is that um I saw um on one of the in I think it might have been Instagram or something um that there was a a little girl from Watsonville that got to go on stage and sing with Becky G. and um I think she's from Watsonville and I just wanted to say um way to represent your community and your brave bravery and these are the kinds of things we love to see from our young people. So go little mama and I'd love to see you up on stage again. Thank thank you Trusty Flynn. I appreciate you. Um I'm going to pass on comments this time. So that brings us to 3.4 superintendent comments. And thank you Sylvest. I'll direct everyone's attention to the screen. Uh for the data I'd like to share this evening is it's data on our advanced placement results. uh advanced placement are uh courses that our high school students can take in a variety of courses ranging from English language arts to math courses to science courses. Um and they take these courses so that if they take an assessment at the end of the year they can gain college credits and then they wouldn't have to take those courses in college. So, it helps to truncate college um for them and it also gives them a grade bump on um their GPA so students can get beyond a 4.0 um on their report cards and on their transcripts. So, we're going to share some of that data because we have some really promising data in how many students scored really high on their um on their AP test. Uh also just taking an advanced placement course itself whether you pass the test at the end is just a way that students challenge themselves. And when you're applying to college and colleges are evaluating a transcript when they see that students are taking an advanced placement um course it is um enticing to colleges because the students are challenging themselves. So next slide. So this year, this past school year, we had 1,596 total advanced placement exams taken. We had a 60% district pass rate. Students are scored in a one through five rating. You a pass rate is considered a three. So 60.8% of our students pass with a a pass rate of a three. That is actually a great uh pass rate. And this was across our three comprehensive high schools. So in total 871 students were accounted in that 1,596 total AP exams taken. And you can see the exam volume by subject. So we had 163 students take AP exams in math, 153 take AP exams in science, 371 take AP exams in English and look at social studies. That's our most popular advanced placement course with 640 students u taking the the assessment there. We have 14 visual and performing arts uh students who took uh c advanced placement tests there. And then world languages 199 students. At Aptas High School, we had 81% of our students score three or higher. 706 total exams were taken and 322 students were tested. At Paharo Valley High School, we had 59% of our students who scored a three or higher with 316 total exams taken and 196 students tested. And then at Watsonville High School, 37% of our students scored a three or higher. 574 total exams were taken and 353 students were tested. Before we move on for that slide, there's always some questions. Why? 81% at Apas High and 37% at Watsonville High. Another way that we prepare our students for college and that co students can earn collegegoing credits is through dual enrollment courses. And so two things that we've done more of at Paharo Valley and Watsonville High School is to have dual enrollment courses. And that is when students are concurrently enrolled in uh a college course and then they earn credits in in for college in that manner rather than taking an AP class and then passing the test. So we're we're working through different modalities for students to get those college earning credits. So, we also have students who become advanced placement scholars. And what that means is these are students who score a three or higher on three or more advanced placement scores. And you can imagine that this is um really competitive for college. So, in ATPAS High School, we had 52 students who were recognized with that. We had 13 students at Paharo Valley and we had 19 students at Watsonville High School. Uh districtwide 84 students who had uh three or higher and became an advanced placement scholar. Next slide. We also have an AP scholar with honor award that students can earn and that is awarded to students who score on average a 3.25 or higher. um on four or more exams. So these are students who are taking many uh AP classes. So we had 22 students at Aptas High, nine at Paharo and nine at Watsonville. So 40 students districtwide earning this recognition. Next slide. Um, and then we have students who who also have that score being an AP scholar with distinction who had a 3.5 or higher on five or more exams. 68 students earned this distinction at Aptas High, four at Paharo Valley, and 10 at Watsonville. So, in total, 82 students earned this distinction. I'd also like to celebrate our teachers who are doing great things in teaching advanced placement courses. Uh it is um there's a lot of requirements in order to take to teach these classes and this year we offered um advanced placement trainings and our teachers went for one week uh to learn uh skills and strategies to teach our students to be and so that they would be more effective teachers. And so the teachers who participated in the summer institute training are listed here. Aptas High School, we have Melissa Silver, Maline Swift, Jesse Sherwood, Aaron Olsen, and Jonathan Tiffany. Paharro Valley High School, Marcela Portales, Cecilia Navaro, Maria Delsoro Garcia, Juan Rodriguez, and Alan Mar Magum. And at Watsonville High School, Jesse Heaton, Leicia Casares, and Lilia Denovan. um they deserve a lot of credit because they gave up time from their summer to go and get this training so that they could be impactful in the classroom. So yeah, big round of applause applause for them. And that is our data for this board meeting. Thank you. And that brings us to something I've been looking forward to. 3.5 introduction of our 2026 2027 student trustee and administration of symbolic oath. I'd like to read just a little bit about Natalie Allen. Natalie Allen is honored to serve as the student trustee for the Parro Valley Unified School District for the 2627 school year. A lifelong PVUSD student whose journey began in kindergarten at Mar Vista Elementary, Natalie brings a deep commitment to student advoc advocacy, environmental stewardship, and community service to the board of trustees. This past summer, Natalie completed her second season as a California State Park seasonal lifeguard and contributed to local water quality research in partnership with the Coastal Watershed Council and Acristine Sustainability. These hands-on experiences have fueled her passion for environmental science and conser conservation while reinforcing her dedication to serving her local community. Beyond her academic and environmental pursuits, Natalie is an active competitive swimmer, lifeguard, athlete, pianist, and painter. Known by her peers as kind, driven, and supportive, she strives to embody these leadership qualities in every aspect of her role. Guided by the values of transparency, respect, collaboration, and compassion, Natalie is committed to ensuring every PVUSD student feels heard, valued, and represented throughout the school year. She looks forward to bringing bridging the gra bridging the gap between students, staff, families, and district leadership to help build a positive and inclusive future for all. Natalie, where are you? read the whole thing. Okay. Parro Valley Unified School District presents this certificate of oath of office to Natalie Allen of Apas High as student trustee for Parro Valley Unified School District governing board for the 2026 2027 school year. I, Risa Schwarz, teacher, do hereby certify that Miss Natalie Allen was officially appointed as student trustee at the August 26, 2026 meeting of the board. Madame, >> I, Natalie Allen, do solemnly swear or affirm that I will defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California. that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter. And you do get to mo make motions when you feel the desire. Next up, 4.1, approval of the agenda. Is there any public comment on this item? Do we have any speaker cards on 4.1? We see no speaker cards on 4.1. Can I have a motion to approve the agenda? Well, is that 41? >> Okay. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? >> I make a motion to approve the agenda. >> Is there a second? >> I hear a first and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. Opposed. Okay, that looks like 5002. Oh, I didn't see anybody left to abstain, but any abstensions? Okay, just to get Okay, thank you. All right, motion carries. The agenda will proceed as written. 5.1 report action items taken closed session. We did not take any action in close session. 6.1 Public comment on non-aggenda items. This is an opportunity for members of the public to address issues that are not on our agenda for this evening. Please know that though the Brown Act prohibits the board from engaging in discussion for non-aggendaized items, we are listening. Do we have any public cards, comment cards for 6.1? We have 14. What's the board's pleasure? Our normal would be two minutes. That would be a total of about 28 minutes. Yeah, we're good. Okay. Would you like to call the first 10, please? And Trusty Flynn will also be timing the two minutes, so she'll let you know when your time's up. >> Marilyn Garrett, Bobby Malt, um, Graciella Diaz, Chris Webb, uh, is this Krishna Feldman, Sarah Alm, Alyssa Misano, Sarah Seiya, Vasanari, um Carolyn West, and Omar Diez. Now I got to start his timer. >> Check. One, two, two. Hey. Hey. Sorry. >> All right. Okay. Whenever you start talking, I will start the timer. >> Good evening board. Uh, believe it or not, my name is Bobby Marchalt. I mean, believe it or not, I wasn't going to say anything tonight. More believable. Here I am. Um, as you were sharing your update, actually what compelled me to come up. Thanks for sharing about the AP exams. It was really cool to see. I will say both uh both my older kids who've uh gone through or one of them is a senior, the other's graduated, both benefited from that and been in AP programs and love that we do that. What did jump out at me was, as you can imagine, you probably know where I'm going, was the 14 VAPA versus all the others. And we don't have, to my understanding, the AP opportunities in VAPA. And I just wanted to take this opportunity to go that's a great use of Prop 28 funds, right? like that is what that is built for is to create more programs. So, I would love for us to think about how we could build that. I would have loved for my kids to have that opportunity to do some AP Vapa programs. Um, that's something that we could increase. Uh, a good way to start would be by having a VAPA coordinator in our district who could drive that process and who could help us with Prop 28 funding. I am disappointed still. I just have to say I would love to find out why we pink slipped a uh theater teacher who was paid for by Prop 28 funds who is at two sites that site that position has not been filled as a result of it not being filled from my understanding there is a elementary school where half of those kids are now not getting music because of the situation that created with release teachers. So, they are now getting less arts and we got rid of somebody who is amazing, by the way, a great theater teacher. So, I'd love to see us do a lot better with our Prop 28 funds. That'd be one way to do it. Thanks. Have a great night. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Graciella Diaz Loreno and I am going to be speaking regarding the dual language program at my current school, Ha Hyde. Um, between the layoffs and the retirements last year, Hyde no longer has a reading interventionist nor a resource teacher who has the adequate credentials to serve our dual language students. This means that our kindergarten and first grade students will not receive reading intervention services this year because we do not have a bilingual B-clad certificated teacher in that in our reading intervention position. Um because we do not have a resource teacher who has a B-clad, the IEPs for the students in the dual language program, some of those goals are written to be delivered in the language other than English, which is Spanish. That will not be met. Another non-negotiable for dual language programs is that the LO or the language other than English be no less than 50% of the uh instructional minutes with the mandates this year for win with an interventionist who is only speaks English and a separate time for UFly which is over the minutes indicated in our dual language handbook, the upper grade teach grades will not be able to meet that. We are way over our 50% um in English. So, um I'm here to say that if we want to support dual language, we need to staff it. Okay? It's not just the classroom teachers, it's all the support teachers as well. Um, release teachers are also a good way of getting some more Spanish minutes in there. If we had a papa or science release teacher, okay, that'd be great. Thank you. >> Uh, good evening. I want to I want to begin by um noticing that at the this summer the last meeting, right, um, Principal Gregorio didn't necessarily need to be here. He presented a video and um just the contrast was interesting to me that that video was so much more well done than all the ones that do were phoning in over the uh over the summer. So I feel like in the future if we're going to do any more videos, you guys check with Gregorio and see how to do those right because he knows what's up. Also, one more shout out to my uh Watsonville High admin. I was very pleased when recently I I noticed one of them stopped somebody like a like a stranger and was like questioning them like putting them through the process. Go get scanned like things I do when I go to sites that are not my own. I go and do the same thing as a union person and it was good to see but also it exemplified how that it turned out to be the PV PSA person and it it exemplified how that this this move to outsourcing is maybe not well founded and these people are not well integrated into our systems otherwise we would know them right um it was a veteran admin uh I never saw mental health clinicians getting stopped like that but I appreciated it because it made me feel safe also trusty Turley um I thought it was pretty improper for you to uh try and deny clapping like uh I think you're going against your oath. Also, what really bothered me about it was that it was uh it happened to be within a week of elsewhere. I think it was in Oregon, there was a teacher who clapped against for speakers who were speaking against flock cameras and they were they were forcibly removed from a public meeting. So, I feel like sometimes you're maybe following bad examples and I I know you sometimes make anti-magna noises, but your actions are um having me doubt your integrity. Also, I think um as a curriculum council, uh Dr. Coutter, maybe maybe there is like some some items that we can review like I I sent you a list of things. I'm happy to review those. Let's go through them. I am willing to bet that your teachers go through curriculum more frequently than the DO and I'm happy to talk about those anytime. Thank you. >> Hello, my name is Krishna Felman. I'm here for my school, Aloney Elementary School, because we are suffering a bit because of cuts. I would like the district to learn from its mistakes and um and think about things. Things are predictable. Students needs are predictable. Classes are predictable. Schools are predictable. We know students are going to need medication. We know um kindergarten students aren't always going to be all registered at the beginning of the school year. We know that kindergarten is going to need aids. And yet you cut all these positions that we desperately need. Our office staff went from five to to three. And and the slack is now being taken up by our administrative uh assistants who are now being asked to give medications. And they are not trained in this. and they are worried about this because this is something that they need to keep on track and and and on a schedule and they don't they don't know what they're uncomfortable and they're having to do student service jobs. They're being asked to do this and of course we don't have an AC so they're probably going to have to do some of their jobs too and it's it's too much. And then our kindergarten classes, we've been a steady we've had steady numbers for the last 10 years. We've had three kindergarten classes in the last two years. You've downed us to two at the beginning of the year. And look, we're two weeks in and we have more than 30 kids in each class. We've had to turn away kids. Every kid we turn away, that's $15,000 minimum lost for the district. So, I think we're shooting ourselves in the foot. And now we're going to have to bring a teacher from another school to be our third kindergarten class because we know we're going to need this kindergarten class. So, I'm asking the district to think where who's going to take over this position that I'm eliminating. We know we need classroom aids. So now, guess what? We're hiring subs to do those positions. This doesn't make sense. It doesn't make any sense. So, just think ahead. Please stop making the same mistakes over and over again. Thank you. >> Good evening, Superintendent Contas and members of the board. My name is Sarah M and I am a behavior technician. I want this board to understand what your votes to eliminate nurses and healthcare assistants actually look like inside of our schools. Since the start of this school year, I got an email that this was part of my job. Now, I have subbed at several sites already. I was asked on the fly by another classified employee to give a student their daily medication. not emergency medication, but medications students are prescribed and need every day. These cuts may have been numbers on a piece of paper when you voted for them, but this is what they look like in real life. Students medical needs didn't disappear when you eliminated these positions. Those responsibilities are now falling on employees who were never hired to provide medical care. And now I carry that responsibility and liability with nothing in writing saying this district will protect me if something goes wrong. You eliminated the positions. You did not eliminate our students medical needs. Thank you. >> Hi Saresa Basenari. I'm speaking about special education in our district. Members of special education programs across PBSD experienced chaos, confusion, and exhaustion during the first week of school. This was due to the negligent board approved cuts that the district made last year, as well as a delay for hiring for new positions we know needed filling. Classrooms across the district have been understaffed, leading to unsafe learning conditions and a lack of capacity for meaningful instruction. Not only are many IEPs out of compliance, exposing us to legal liabilities, but PBUSD is harming our vulnerable students with complex needs by not providing the resources needed to execute their IEPs and meet their needs. This crisis, which has grown into a full-blown emergency, was completely avoidable. Despite knowing of program needs and services documented in IEPs, HR waited until July to post over 20 special education teacher jobs that were critically needed on the first day of school, August 12th. Most teachers and school-based providers look for new jobs in the spring and are already in contract with school districts by summer. In order to hire the most qualified applicants, the district should have sought to fill the known vacancies back in March and April. Instead, the HR department was promoting layoffs, and the school board was rubber stamping them. Layoffs that the teachers union and the community rejected time and again, knowing how they would negatively impact our students. Regarding layoffs, every eliminated classified position, instructional aid, behavior technician, and healthcare assistant has been felt in our special education programs. Not only has PVSUSD failed to hire enough certificated staff to execute I IEP services, district leadership has also approved the removal of our aid support. This means that even if a classroom has a qualified teacher and team of IEP providers, there are not enough people to implement the programs with consistency and rigor. Understaffing special classes mean we cannot rem cannot run small groups, do individual instruction, or collaborate effectively. We simply cannot provide the attention and care our students with special needs deserve and at times it's creating unsafe learning environments. Continuing on in regards to special education, the cuts made last year have compromised the effectiveness of our special education department. Our new SULPA and student services directors were set up for failure. They were confronted immediately upon their arrival with an untenable number of vacancies. We continue to be left in the dark by leadership about how problems will be addressed, what the timeline is, and what we should tell parents. Unfortunately, the certificated vacancies and classified layoffs are plaguing our new administrators, so they have no capacity to effectively lead the department. We started the school year with teacher vacancies and special education classes from preschool all the way to high school. Every age group is impacted by SPED vacancies. There are multiple sites without a school psychologist or speech pathologist. For many students, speech services and important assessments have not taken place. We also have several sites without assigned OT and others without adapted PE teachers. Those services are out of compliance. We do not have enough behaviorists to support our autism programs. Many of our research teachers have not been assigned instructional assistance. It is impossible to provide specialized academic support without the help that were previously provided by the IAS. Our classified workforce and special education is a critical resource. By laying off dozens of experienced classified staff, the district lost many individuals with expertise to know how to build relationships and rapport with students. Now teachers are training new people every day if they are lucky enough to be assigned the number of staff they even need. HR continues to drag their feet to bring on the required staff despite department leadership demonstrating that the staff are desperately needed. There's a value pro there's a values problem in this district that is years and years in the making. There's not a commitment in district leadership to the education of students with disabilities. PVUSD underresources the special education programs teachers and students. We spread the staff too thin, fill the classes too much, then point at the teachers and providers and say they aren't doing a good job. Our leadership is not doing a good job. The superintendent ignored teachers and community members pushed through her cuts to staff disproportionately special education staff and the school board agreed going along with the DO's plans. It is clear that the plan is flawed. We were set up for failure and the cleanup is going to achieve the opposite of what is intended which was to save money. >> Hello. Hi, Nurse Caroline again. Uh good evening board members, trustees, um Dr. Contrarus, uh board president Carol Hurley, our administrators. Um the nurse team asked me to share this message with you. They cannot be here tonight as many of them are still working right now. First of all, we want to thank Mark Herps for literally rolling up his sleeves to learn about the immedi immediate needs of the health services team health services team and actually going out to the school sites. Health services is in dire situation due to the layoffs. Health offices across our district are unstaffed for two to three days per week. This should have been addressed prior to the start of the school year. This is posing unnecessary safety risks for students and staff. Despite the the nurse team's multiple formal requests last year and repeated emails again this year, the district has not provided a safe plan for who who administers medications when healthcare assistants are offsite working at their second school. Who will deliver specialized health care procedures like diabetes care, seizure care, gube feedings, caization when there is no s when no support staff is identified? The nurses are mandated by California education code to train staff to safely perform these tasks. We are asking you who can we train. Presently the principal is the only guaranteed person designated to administer medications. Front office staff can provide p basic first aid. Health services cannot provide you with an accurate data on student health office visits, injuries, medications, administration because there is no one available to record five to four 15 to 4 day student um student visits without a healthcare assistant present. We cannot track possible communic communicable disease outbreaks or report to public health because the health office is vacant two to three days per week. Principles cannot be expected to administer medications to students every day. This is not working. Please do not wait for a catastrophic health incident to happen. If this continues much longer, we may be forced to call parents to come to school and administer medications. Oh, please um please consider rescending the pink slip notices to some of our healthcare assistants who would gladly return to PVSD because they love our students and they are the most qualified to attend to the health offices. Please resend the pink slips. uh Omar Diez with Safe Act Safe Schools and California Pesticides Reform. Um and I'm here tonight because our children, our families, our farm workers, and our community serve better. According to the spray digs website, in just the month of August, there have been over 96 pesticides applications near Looney School and Mcquiti School combined. And in it's only the 26th of this month with four days to go. This is pesticide season and these numbers should concern every parent, every educator, and every person sitting on this board. We we cannot continue to accept a system where harmful pesticides are being used so close to schools and sensitive sites in our communities. That's the way that agriculture work. No, we need to change that. We have an opportunity do we have an opportunity to do something different. We heard about the steam project and the possibility of a three-month pilot program. I hope we take the opportunity seriously. Let's see what works. Let's collect the data. Let's support solutions that can protect our schools without relying on harmful pesticides. Uh and we need to take need accountability. Large corporations like Dris schools manage many of these fields surrounding our schools. With that influence comes a big responsibility. We need to educate our youth, our parents about pesticides exposure. We need to protect our water, our mother earth, our indigenous communities, and most importantly, the farm workers who feed us every day. Next month, I will be traveling to New York to speak at a conference about our community and what it's experiencing. I will carry our stories with me because the world needs to know what is happening here. But I don't want to just talk about the problem. I want to talk about the solution. So, I'm asking this school board, what are we going to do to change these problems that are happening in our communities? How are we going to protect our youth? How are we going to protect our farm workers? And I'm sorry I didn't catch your name, the new student trustee. What's your name? Natalie, congratulations. You are the most important person on the school board up there. And and I hope >> Mr. Duch >> I hope that you inspire them to bring positive change. Congratulations. Marilyn Gara, retired teacher. My health provider says my tremors are related to teaching at a nasty school next to fields of pesticide where I would regularly have to bring my classroom children in coughing and their eyes watering. Also, the microwave radiation causes many adverse effects. I picked up this article from a long time ago called High Tech Genocide. And there's a picture of workers here. Uh, rebel armories in the Democratic Republic of Congo are fighting over Colan, a mineral essential to cell phone circuits. And I looked at these workers and I thought this reminds me of farm workers here who are exhausted, exploited, uh suffering ill health because of corporate interests who want to extract resources and profit just like Omar just discussed. And it says cell phones may have revolutionized the way we communicate, but in Central America, their biggest Central Africa, their biggest legacy is war and the extermination of endangered species. And it goes on, more than four million people have died in central Africa in a war over colan, a heatresistant mineral or widely used in cell phones, laptops, and other high techch electronics. Cool talents found in the three billion year old soils like those in the Rift Valley of Africa. I will leave you with a copy of this. And then the other article, >> thank thank you Mrs. Garrett. That's your time. >> Tells components. >> Thank you, Mrs. Garrett. >> Cell phone. >> A list of chemicals. Lengthy. >> Thank you, Mrs. Garrett. We've missed you. Welcome back. >> I'm next. Antonio Vivo, Apttoas High School. Firstly, I want to know, am I on? Am I >> Did you turn in a card? >> I'm pretty sure it's up there. I'm pretty sure it's up there. Antonio V. >> So, she still has five more cards to call. Perhaps you're in there. So, let her let her call. Yeah. >> Well, before I go, is that propaganda from a private citizen? Because if so, I want to put it up, too. >> Is that allowed? >> We decided that people can put things up if they have something to stand it on, but not on the walls. >> You could use a chair after. Oh, there you go. Okay. Okay. Can can you read the next cards, please? >> Mads Ramoto, Bill Beecher, Tekashi Monsuno, uh, Francesca Stro, and Joseline. Um, Aaras. and Antonio. >> Good evening, Bill Beecher. I'm speaking about a loss of students. We've lost 3,271 students since 2014. That's a 17.8% loss. And we lost 36 teachers or 4.2%. And that shows you what happens in the classroom. the ratios. One would expect a similar decrease in teachers of 153 to match how many students we've lost. Consequently, we have over a third of our classrooms have less than 60% fill. Now, we did not happen because uh you did not want to close schools or combine classrooms until recently when the superintendent combined 120 classrooms into 60 and let 60 teachers go. Everybody screamed about that. We have a budget problem. The extra 93 teachers are drawing salaries and benefits because the school board is afraid to put school closure on the agenda. You were cowards refusing to take action for which you were elected. We have a do nothing Congress in Washington. We have a do nothing board at PBUSD. If you don't act quickly, all of you will be replaced by the state. It's that critical. All these people who spoke are talking about being able to cover. Well, if you've got classrooms that don't have many students in it and we're not closing schools or combining classrooms, you get this kind of problem. That's how you solve it. >> Thank you. My name is Jocelyn and I am here today not only as a parent but as an advocate for my children and for the children who may not be able to advocate for themselves. My first grade son is in special my first grade son in special day class classroom 2 at Freedom Elementary. Recently I've noticed a major change in his behavior. He comes home with lunch still packed extremely hungry and irritated. He's verbal, but the commun he communicates differently. He is an echoleia learner and often replies on he relies on rehearsed language. So he may not be able to come home and simply tell me what happened or tell me when he his needs aren't being met. So I volunteered in his class because I need to see for myself. What I saw concerned me. There are nine students with special needs, one teacher, and three students who are not body trained. Yet there are no pair of professionals in the class h helping provide the support that these children need. I want to make something very clear. I am not blaming the teacher. I'm concerned that that we are asking one teacher to do the work that realistically requires a team. And this concern goes beyond one classroom. My fifth grade son at the same school has asthma. There is no full-time nurse on this campus. I also understand that there are other students with medical conditions who require daily medication. Yet staff may not be yet staff has not been trained to administer those medications. As a parent, this is frightening. Our children should not have to struggle to or go hungry, be unable to communicate their needs or have their medical needs become a question of whether someone is available or have to train um those around them. I'm asking the board to please look closely at staffing, medical support, and resources being provided at Freedom Elementary because these are these are our children. They deserve they deserve more than simply getting through the school day. They deserve to be safe. They deserve to be supported and most importantly, they deserve to have their needs taken seriously. >> Hi, good evening Dr. Um, Dr. Conterz, President Curley, and board members. My name is Franchesca Stro and I'm an RSP teacher at Marvest Elementary. PVUSD's mass layoffs of special education instructional assistance are harming students and directly violating IEP requirements. These colleagues are not optional. Instructional assistants provide academic instruction, behavioral support, accommodations, supervision, and other services students are legally entitled to receive. Without enough trained staff, schools cannot consistently meet these obligations. Meanwhile, experienced laid-off employees like my own incredible IIA Susie is sitting at home ready to return, waiting for that phone call from HR, and yet she waits. Sorry, it's upsetting to me. Um, without enough trained staff, as I said, schools can't consistently meet those obligations. The thing with RAAS is that they know our students. They understand their needs and could immediately restore essential support. It makes no sense to leave qualified employees unemployed while students and teachers struggle. These layoffs were pres were presented as cost-saving measures, but there is neither integrity nor fiscal responsibility in saving money by denying students mandated services. I suppose any savings may instead be spent defending due process complaints and other legal actions by families. Declining district enrollment has not reduced demand for special education. case loads remain high and the district was warned repeatedly. On a personal note, I must condemn how a Cedar board member here tonight referred to special education staff as glorified babysitters. I am insulted but refuse to allow such an inept comment to diminish the skilled work my spare colleagues and I implement daily for our students and families. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Mads Romeo, uh, chair of the PBSD Special Education Community Advisory Committee, SULPA, um, and a parent in the district. Throughout the budget process, parents and educators warned about what these staffing reductions would could do or would mean for students when they return to school. We're now seeing exactly what we were concerned about. You've already heard a lot of examples tonight, so I'm not going to repeat them other than to say that I'm I'm very concerned about several stories I've heard of students eloping running off of campus and our our inability to support them um and going into streets. We're already asking our teachers to carry more because the support around them isn't there. I spoke with several teachers today who wanted to be here tonight. They're simply too exhausted and it's only August. Um, I recognize that that recruiting special education teachers is difficult across California, but we make that challenge significantly harder when we understaff classrooms, when we don't provide teachers with adequate support and wait until June or July um to urgently address vacancies for the coming school year. We did not need to start the school year this way. Um, we were forewarned. We did not need to be burning out our teachers before September. And this is exactly why the role role of the board matters. Being a partner to educators and parents means digging into the consequences of decisions before making them. It means asking who is going to do this work? Do we actually have the people to implement it? What happens in a classroom when we eliminate the position and what are educators and families telling us that we may be missing? Being told that there is a plan or a strategy is not the same as seeing one. Those questions have to come before the vote, not after the consequ consequences. At this point, I'm not asking you to simply look at staffing levels. I'm asking the board to acknowledge that we have a serious implementation problem and act with urgency. Our teachers should not have to hold this system together through exhaustion. And our students should not bear the risk when it doesn't hold. Thank you. Do you expect me to continue speaking Spanish? No. As you know, I have advocated for Ame State Elementary School not to be considered for closing this since this spring. The school has served as more than educational and cultural hub in Wenville. For over 100 years, it has been a sanctuary for families working the surrounding agricultural land in Wville, a place where generations have found stability, opportunity, and belonging. Therefore, on behalf of elementary school in April, I together with Miss Mia Gomez contas submitted a nomination to to the endangered latics landmarks program of Latinos in herit heritage conservation. It was officially announced at its national congresso 2026 in Chicago on August 20th that ASD elementary school has been named to the Latinos in heritage conservation list as one of 10 endangered Latinx landmarks out of 45 45 nominations nationwide. We are proud of the designation of the school as an endangered Latinx landmark which honors the many hands hearts that have been built and benefited from a historically and multiculturally rich campus. Amest elementary school will start to receive national attention not only nationally but not only in the United States but also in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Ela and other countries. Thank you. >> All right. Good afternoon. Antonio Vivo, Aptas High School. Firstly, I want to point out that many of these previous speakers have some very legitimate concerns. In fact, they are very legitimate. Secondly, I want to know why our elementary schools have been emptied of their ACs, their nurses, and principals have to administer injections, potentially enemas, whatever else. That's not their job. Secondly, I work at Optas High and I found out that the cutting block was my seventh period day with 1,400 other students. Why? Because it costs 1.4 million. You, Miss Quteras, and your assistant superintendent cost that much a year. You want to put yourself and your assistant superintendent before 1,400 students because it costs too much. This is wrong. We have a problem which is your greed. We have a solution. Fund these programs. We have special ed. We have regular ed. And what you're doing right now is putting yourselves before what is needed for students. 1,400 students, 1.4 4 million to keep a seven period day which is effective and working for everyone. It's not costing anyone any FTEEs and it's not costing any students any lack of opportunity. seven period day. We have more options, electives than a six period day. And you want us to go back to six periods. And Natalie, who's one of our top students, she could tell you she probably had more opportunities than other students in this district, not because she chose them, but because they were offered offered to her 1.4 million. How much do you and all your assistant superintendent cost? And by the way, this propaganda >> Thank you. That's your time. Way more. >> That's your set. >> That's your time. That's your time. >> That leads us to 6.2, public comments on agenda items. This is an opportunity for members of the public to address issues that are on our agenda for this evening. Um, so a reminder, if you're speaking during this time, you're giving up your ability to speak on items as they come up on the agenda in the normal course. Do we have any cards on 6.2? We have eight cards. So, two two minutes up. We're good. Good with that. Okay. Two minutes a piece. Would you call please? >> Christa Manor, Mads Ramolto, Bill Beecher, Tekashi Mitsuno, Carolyn West, Heather Malbury, Chris Webb, and Marilyn Garrett. Thank you. >> Hello everyone. Christ Manny here from Hall District School. I'm here to speak about the district uh the possibility of the district renewing the contract for the consultant Kim Newton. While this is not personal, Kim Newton seems like a very nice person. I strongly believe that the district should not renew the contract for the 2627 school year. Teachers uh were not consulted about the hiring of Miss Newton last year. Teachers did not have any input whatsoever. We were told that we would be co-eing with the consultant whom we had never met. This experience was not co-eing. Co-eing is planning, collaborating, and observing with another trusted colleague. Teachers did not have the opportunity to plan with Miss Newton about what will we what would we what we would be doing with her. We were not even informed of the purpose of her visits. Uh, Miss Newton came in with multiple other people and observes teachers several times throughout the school year during our foundational skills block time and our uh wind time which is a tier 2 leveled reading group. Um, this was it was too much. Um teachers use 95% amplify integrity. These are early literacy programs. And as these are all new programs for teachers, it is quite stressful to be observed as you're learning something from a complete stranger and then to have your lessons interrupted when you're trying to teach something that you just learned was um even more stressful. We have a literacy coach at our school site who has built trust with our staff. And at a time when our district is cutting counselors, intervention teachers, and special ed teachers who work directly with students, this is not justifiable use of our funds um without your teachers buyin. Thank you. >> Matt's real mut. Um just a couple minor things throughout the agenda. Um 11.4 uh the reading coaching. I was looking into the contract and a little bit about the program. I'm really excited that we're investing in reading. Um but the amount we're paying is the same as one of the leading um literacy consulting groups that's been around for like 20 years charges. and and the company you're um going to be contracting with doesn't have any evidence of having had customers before. We're we're seemingly their first or her first customer. So I well that's what was available online. Um just on 11.14 um there's I think a typo there, but you're being the board is being asked to approve an agreement in the amount of 750,000. I think you're actually being asked to approve 150,000. So just when you get to that um and 11.13 um there's a typo there too in that um you state that the um painting recommendation is 2,800 800,000 but then you put 644,000 in parenthesis. I think it's the 644 that's correct. So just making sure that you approve that number. Um and then the CBO contract. Super excited that you found a CBO. Very important. Um, I believe it um it you're misgendering her throughout that contract. Um, so just out of respect for everyone, it'd be nice if you took the time to update that. Um, I might have more if we had more time to review agendas beforehand. Um, so we'll continue to advocate for earlier publishing of agendas. Thank you. Bill Beecher again. Uh I'm speaking on 71. In my previous comment, I pointed out that there had been a disproportionate decrease in teachers relative to students. That's resulted in a classroom size dropping from 21.4 to 18.4 students, which is over here. This was called propaganda. I call it facts. You can download this off-Eed data. It's available. It's not propaganda. I'm tired of Brandon demanding lower classroom sizes. The facts show that he's already gotten it. Most of these losses were in elementary school. So instead of three students per class in the elementary school, it's six per class. So stop your whining or you will be proverbally the wolf at the school room door. Excuse me, please stop. >> We want to make sure we can hear this speaker. >> The clock started. >> Okay. Thank you. Um my name is Heather Moberry. Previously elementary teacher at Radcliffe, now at Landmark Elementary. I'm here to speak to 11.4 also. um the renewal or potential renewal of Kim Newton's leading literacy contract. Um I want to start by addressing superintendent uh Contrarus's comment last board meeting that noted Kim influenced our students reading scores in a positive direction. That is that is so far from the truth and I'm going to tell you why that's the truth. Um we had three trustees voice that we would like uh an evaluation of the services rendered and so we put together an evaluation and the teachers from Hall and Radcliffe took that evaluation. I emailed it to you but maybe not early enough for you to um look over the information. I'm going to summarize it. Um other things that led to the increase in our students reading progress was the letters training that the school district has invested a lot in. No teacher will tell you that was a bad idea. It was great. It's great. Good use of funds. 95% program. Another new program that was introduced to Hall and Radcliffe last year. We got zero training. Flying by the seat of our pants, but it's a good program. Um the literacy coach support included is another person that we use and gives us a lot of help. That's paid for by a grant. We don't need another person. Okay. Um I'm not sure what the vetting process is. Um what the selection is for hiring consultants. I do know that um Kim Newton is a friend of both the Herps family and contrarist. So maybe that's how we hire people. Um consultants provided limited additional value with some reporting that data sessions felt rushed, confusing, repetitive processes teachers already per performed uh daily. We looked over data on a slide deck that we go over all the time without additional help. We don't >> Thank you. That's your time. >> I suggest not your time. >> Um on 114, I think we should vote no. I'm not I'm not clear on the funding source, but I suspect it's the general fund. And um also my biggest grievance with it is that it's no replacement for reading intervention teachers. And ever since we lost them, that has been a uh that that has been a area where we are less equitable than we used to be. We are less targeted than we used to be with um reading intervention teachers. Also on 11 7 um I'm for management coaching CRA first. Last year we had a whole debacle at PV High and I I that that situation screamed an admin that doesn't have their CR training and then we're still the board nearly um codified a bad policy that was basically anti-critical thinking. Everything I hear in the schools, the SSA talks about, you know, like weighing fact versus fiction and comparing sort like a lot of critical thinking skills and that board policy you almost passed would have been against that and if you would have CR training, you would have known better. Um 118, we should not do a DO kitchen. Um there's I didn't see a funding source on that, but the we need to stop putting money in here and start putting more of it to our sites. Also, um I will say that for 116 and 119, I'm for those two. Um 1113, uh I think if we're going to spend facility money on PV High, pool pack. Pool the pack. That's what it should be. The painting, we How many times we got to go through this movie? That's I know people said, "Oh, yeah, they're going to come to school if it's painted." Like, you proved that wrong, right? With Renaissance, you proved that wrong. Also, um for 7.1, I just want to speak briefly to um endorsements for for me um when when uh one of the incumbents for Watsonville High when he was dismissive about the AC issue, that to me was like a a failing generations thing. Also, he said Kit wants to be here. Well, they didn't that summer, did he? And then also, when they crashed the HR meeting, he basically said he wanted a special deal in order to be here. >> Thank you. time. >> If he can't handle the teacher terms, he shouldn't be. >> Thank you. That's your time. >> Hi. >> Um, I'm going to speak on 10.4, which is the board retreat. And the only thing I'd like to say is instead of spending those funds to go on a retreat is please resend the pink slip notices to our health assistants who would gladly return to PVSUSD because they love our students and they are the most qualified to attend to the daily needs of our PVSD students population. There has to be some belt tightening. It feels like we're all doing the belt tightening and no one else is. Please reconsider spending money on things like this. Thank you. Public comment 81 council. I spoke in Japanese. I am Japanese and I have lived in this country for six 36 years. And I spoke in Japanese to pay respect my respect to uh Mr. Michael Jones, the president of the board of saber and his family. And I wrote a letter to both of them early this year to consider to reduce the number of the students of Sabre so that PBS PBUSD could keep certified counseling positions. They didn't do it. And it is my understanding that most of the students saber have come from the elementary schools of PBUSD. All of us know that non-charter schools of PBSD recently have been struggling financially due to the rapid decline of enrollments. Therefore, I'd like to propose that the Saber continue to operate until 2032 on two conditions. One of the condition is that Sabre uses the ethnic studies excellent curriculum of PBUSD to serve the students so that the students could navigate this society with with full of racial issues. You know it. And my second condition is that Sabre decreased the number of the students down to three 300 gradually in five years between 2027 and 2032. As I wrote to Mr. J princ principal of Sabre and Mr. Michael Jones, president of the Sabre, this is not a legal issue, but this is a moral issue. Thank you. Thank you. >> I'd like to speak to 11.5 what like this. Thank you. So 11.5 is about the disposal of obsolete books, whatever that is. And I see that the superintendent gets to be the sole one or her designate to determine that. And it says, "Instructional materials may be considered obsolete or unusable when they contain information rendered inaccurate or incomplete by new discoveries or technologies. Who is to determine what is inaccurate or incomplete?" This sounds like clear censorship to me and we know on the national level the kind of censorship that is going on. I think this is very disturbing and improper. I live in Atas. I also remember when they remodeled the ATOS library and other libraries, they got rid of all the books that were there, treasured books, and they bought new ones. You could ask them. That's what they told me. There's an article here from Fortune magazine titled, this is from February, the US spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks, here we go, right here, for laptops and tablets. The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents. This is a myth of improving education and it's toxic radiation. We need education, not radiation. Thank you, Mrs. Garrett. Thank you. Continuing with our public comment period, we carve out time specifically for our labor partners. First up, PVFT. Oh, I'm sorry. Um, there's one thing we need to do before we do the readout. >> Okay. Trusty Flynn's going to announce um some new hires. Thanks. Okay. Um, is Selene Munoz here? Okay. We are pleased to announce the selection of Dr. Selene Muno Munoz as the new director of school leadership for Paharo Valley Unified School District. Dr. Munoz brings more than 20 years of experience in PVUSD having served as a behavior technician, special education teacher, department chair, assistant principal, and principal. As the current principal of Rolling Hills Middle School, she led improvement efforts focused on instructional quality, equity, student achievement, school climate, and family engagement. Dr. M Munoz earned a bachelor's degree in history from UC Santa Cruz, a teaching credential from UC Monsu Monterey Bay, and both a master's degree and administrative credential from San Jose State University. Ghost Spartans. She also earned her doctor of education degree from San Jose State University. Her education and extensive leadership experience prepared her to support PVSD schools, administrators, staff, students, and families in her new role. Welcome. Is um Heather Bailey here? Okay, I can't see you. Hi. We are pleased to announce the selection of Heather Bailey as the new director of school leadership for Paro Valley Unified School District. Miss Bailey brings extensive elementary education and administrative experience having served as a classroom teacher, summer school principal, assistant principal, afterchool program coordinator, academic coordinator, and principal. As principal of Radcliffe Elementary School, she led work involving MTSS, instruct instructional improvement, student support, staff development, family engagement, and collaborative school leadership. Miss Bailey earned her bachelor's degree from Bloomberg University of Pennsylvania and her master's degree from San Jose State University, my alma mater. That's why I always say Ghost Spartans. Her educational background and extensive leadership experience prepared her to support PVUSD schools administrators, staff, students, and families in her new role as director of school leadership. Congratulations and welcome. I mean, you were already here, but welcome to your new role. This is a very special one to me, and I see you here, Miss Nicole Killian. We are pleased to announce the selection of Nicole Killian as a new assistant director of multilingual programs for Parro Valley Unified School District. Miss Killian brings extensive experience in educational leadership, literacy, English language development, and instruction and instruction across elementary, middle, and high school settings. She previously served as a first grade bilingual teacher, as principal of Parro Middle School and Main Street Elementary School, PVSUSD coordinator of early literacy, an academic coordinator, a reading intervention and EL teacher and a classroom teacher. Miss Killian earned a bachelor's of art in liberal studies with a minor in teaching English as a second language from Bethany College where she also completed her teaching credential and earned a master of arts in education. She earned a tier one administrative credential from California State University East Bay. Miss Kian also held a California clear K through8 credential, a cross-cultural language and academic development certificate, and a supplementary credential in English composition and grammar. Her thesis was written on the research topic of bilingual education. I'm really excited to announce you into this position. You were my AC when I was the president of the home and school club at Bradley and um I always enjoyed working with you. I consider you a dear friend um even though we don't get to talk all the time. Um you are a very special person and PBSD is very lucky to have you. So thank you and welcome to your new position. Okay. Is Vanessa Garcia here? No. But I will still announce anyway and we will welcome her. We are pleased to announce the appointment of Vanessa Garcia as the interim director of early childhood education. Vanessa brings more than 20 years of experience in early childhood education and leadership, including the past 10 years serving PVSUSD in site and program coordinate coordinator roles with the child development department. Throughout her career, Vanessa has demonstrated a strong commitment to supporting young children, families, and educators while supporting dual language and inclusion. She and her family are lifelong members of the Watsonville community. Vanessa received her associates degree in early childhood education from Cababrio and her bachelor's in her bachelor's degree in child development from Mills College. We are excited to welcome Vanessa into this position and look forward to her leadership in early childhood education department. We welcome the four of you to your new positions and um thank you for um your commitment to our students and to PBUSD. Thank you, Trusty Flynn. That moves us on to 7.1 PVFT. Uh, we've been giving our union partners five minutes. Can we set the clock, please? >> Hold on. You guys know I like to use my own timer. This one of my colleagues reported that you only gave them 90 seconds when they spoke instead of two. So, let's clean that up. time. Shout out to the classified staff, principles, and PBFT who've showed up and been giving your all for the students of this district. The stakes are high, and it's incumbent on us to meet every moment with the compassion, integrity, and dignity that our students deserve. Too often, not just as educators, but as humans, we think that the solution is just to hunker down and sacrifice our own wellness and working conditions. But when we go down that path, we only see what's directly in front of us and not the larger ecosystem that we exist in and we burn ourselves out. Our members have chosen another path. We've been organizing to strike if we have to. If we have to. We've been enforcing our contract, rallying, writing the board, and pushing the culture of this union forward for months now. I've been inspired by the solidarity that I've seen during my time as president, but even more so now at the start of this school year. I believe some in this district and on this board thought we would show up deflated, but we were they were wrong. And the pressure that we put on this district brought them back to the bargaining table. And we've been able to meet the moment and negotiate a tentative agreement that I believe represents a fair contract and reflects the desires of our members. The agreement still needs to be approved by our reps and membership. So, we will be holding member meetings throughout the next week and a ratification vote to follow. Our members were clear that they would not accept any form of a benefits cap. Other unions have struck to get 70% of their benefits covered, to get 80% of their benefits covered, to get certain plans covered. What we for what we faced in these negotiations and what the district could have imposed on us would have been a pay cut. Make no mistake about that. We are facing a potential 10% pay cut if the district would impose what was put on the table in April. So now we are faced with a choice. We will put together the facts and figures for our members. Um, but we have to have some difficult conversations or we had to have some difficult conversations with the district during these negotiations. They certainly weren't easy. Um, but ultimately I believe that these agreements put the students of this entire district and the members of this entire district first. The tenative agreements we reached maintain our current benefit structure, add to our salary schedule, provide our kinder teachers with the additional support that they need, give our secondary special ed teachers a case management prep, and maintain our total compensation as the highest in the county. Those were the goals all along. We just had a town hall that was open to our members. Over 250 members logged in. That is the kind of participatory culture that we are building. Not everyone is in agreement and that's what democracy is built on. The PBFT will be out at sites next week holding site visits, holding additional town halls and we'll upload the tenative agreements in their entirety onto our website once we've sent out a joint communication with the district. Our members and students are struggling right now, particularly our kindergarten teachers who Bill's numbers are just so wrong. And I wish we could fact check that guy. Um because at one of our elementary school sites, we have a kindergarten class of 37 and a class of 34 that the district is working to remedy. The job is posted. They're trying to get a long-term sub in there, but that's really difficult to start your school year and so unsustainable. Our sped members are struggling with shortages that are a wound that the district self-inflicted through unnecessary layoffs. Right now, we have to ratify this agreement. We have to secure our benefit structure, put money in our pockets. We got that palace money back, by the way, and get our kindergarten teachers and our special ed teachers the support they need and to put our students first. I ended with a whole minute to go and now I don't know what to do. So, I'm going to use every second, but I I do want to acknowledge that these these negotiations occurred in a sidebar negotiation parallel to factf finding, which is a very common practice that we've seen UTLA, Selenus, Berkeley, San Mateo have all come to an agreement through sidebar negotiations just like we just did. We had five of our seven team members participate and we're going to get all the information to our members. Ultimately, the members are the ones who ratify this agreement, but by doing so, we choose to put students first. So, I'm going to be out campaigning as hard as I can that our members make the right choice and ratify this agreement so we can improve our working conditions and get to work. Next is 7.2 CSA. Is that allowed to be? >> No, because this is public comment. So, it's like you're putting public comment on public comment. >> I still disagree on that. >> Look, I'm gonna try to come up after Good evening, President Turley, Trustees, Superintendent Contras, and community and cabinet. So good to see you here tonight. I'm Ashley Earl Flowers, president of CSEA Chapter 132. And tonight, I stand here with a voice of the classified employees who keep this district running every single day. I received an interesting phone call today from Mark Herbs. Thank you. um he valiantly tried to explain the potential backlash um and even potential lawsuits that the district could face as it navigates these difficult decisions that we face every day. Respectfully, Mark, I see the risk a little differently because I think the greater risk is continuing down a path when our employees, our families, and our community are telling us something isn't working. I've looked around this room tonight and this did not happen because CSEA manufactured outrage or PVFT manufactured outrage. The tsunami you're seeing tonight and since the first day of school, it's coming because people are asking to be heard. They're asking to be seen. People stand in the water and they don't be quieter. They run for safety. So I do have questions. Are we having the difficult are we having difficulty hiring our our para educators back? The answer is probably yes. And if we are, we have to ask ourselves why. Why are we even having to hire back para educators cuz we should have never let them go in this first place. After layoffs, reductions, and uncertainty, what message have we sent to the very workforce who we now try to recruit? They're scared. Could potential employer employees be wondering what could they build, a stable career here? Probably not. They might get laid off or whether they'll be facing another stressful year. That is an uncertainty that's real and I'm voicing that on behalf of my people because if this is happening then we don't simply have a recruitment problem or a retention problem. We have a trust problem and I want to build trust for my people and for our community and for our students. Trust is important. I have the same questions about our health offices. PVSUSD's own merit system structures recognized healthcare assistants and licensed vocational vocational nurses LVNs as separate calcifications. LVNs are paid at a range 35 46 and health assistants are paid at a range 35. Why are LVN's covering the health offices right now? Because we created that vacancy. It's unjust. So why are we using these resources in the not fiscally responsible way? We are paying for a health care assistant that should be in the healthcare office, but we're putting an LV in there because we laid off 10 of our healthcare assistants. It makes absolutely no sense. Should our licensed professionals be able to focus their actual expertise and higher pay range on the day-to-day supports in health offices? I don't think so. They should be in specialized healthc care positions where they're actually G tube feeding, helping children that have mobility issues and carrying out the health care plans and 504 plans and IEPs that we are mandated to uphold. Bring back our healthcare assistance. Not simply because CSEA wants to restore our positions, but because we want our safe children, our schools safe, and our children to be cared for. That is not union versus management or union versus district. That is not that is good governance. And I need you to hear that we are drowning. Our classified staff are burnt out and we are on day 10. Sometimes organizations make mistakes and that is okay. An extraordinary employee effort for evidence and staffing reductions. sometimes work, but in this case, it did not. And that's okay. Let's make it right. I don't think the community is going to look at PVSUSD and think, I don't want to send my kid there. They're going to look at PVSUSD and say, "Wow, look at all these staff members, and wow, look at all these teachers that show up and genuinely care about my child because their children are our children. Their love for their children is the love that we have for their children. And that is why PVSUSD is special. It's not because we are union strong. It is because we live, eat, breathe PVSUSD and the Santa Cruz County Office of Education and the values that we hold. Bring back our people. Thank you. And that brings us to 7.3 CWA communication workers. >> Mr. F. >> Hello again, board of trustees. Dr. Contrarus, Mike Flor representing CWA in which I serve on their executive board for the local in San Jose and I'm also a steward here locally. And a couple months ago, the board ratified some new um agreements to our contract. And these first few couple weeks of school have bubbled up some of those situations related to some of the things that have been stated here tonight. Yes, we have been um recruited to fill in in some special ed classes, some kindergarten classes, but the subs that have done that are all very willing to do it. They have good attitudes and they're going to make more money because of it. So the legalities and the the the issues that might come from this I'm not going to disclose here. It really doesn't matter to us because we're willing to help and fill in. So um I feel confident with HR working with Kit and Brian that these few first things that have come up are being dealt with appropriately. and the subbing coordinator has also been um met with as well. So I feel very encouraged about the beginning. You know, it's never going to be completely perfect. I also want to say that any subs watching this, every school site has a CWA bulletin board. It's little. It's got a QR code that takes you directly to our website. Um, there will be the new tenants to our contract posted on that and whether I can get little small ones to put on all the boards at each site to make it more convenient is being worked out. So, there is CWA communication at each site. And another development that isn't really a development, but I didn't mention it earlier when I was in close session, is for districtwide school business sub jobs. These would be the jobs to um get support during letters training, various curriculum trainings. Um the district, Rich's department, curriculum and instruction and uh HR came up with the idea to offer a stipen to subs that are willing to pre-sign up for I don't know around a 100 sub jobs throughout the school year so they can guarantee that the trainings happen. Um there is a significant stipen for each day. Um, out in the parking lot earlier, I ran into Rich and he gave me permission to announce this to the community. So, this is another avenue for substitutes to bump their pay a little bit by committing to school business, district-wide school business. This is to be distinguished between sitewide school business. Um, you can reach out to me, you can reach out to HR, you can reach out to the subbing coordinator as well to get more specifics, but the job details on the subfinder will identify which of these jobs are um district-wide school business and each day that you work, you will get a significant stipen. So these opportunities for substitutes to make a little bit more money if they want to are evolving which is a direct result of the work that CWA has been doing and I'm quite pleased. So that's pretty much it for my share. If I don't take up my full five minutes, it doesn't bother me at all. But I'm going to close with some words, some lyrics, very short this time. Um, hope is epidemic. optimism spreads. Um, bitterness breeds irritation and ignorance breeds imitation. So, process that the way you will. Thank you so much. Have a good night. >> Thank you, Mr. Floor. That brings us to 8.1 public hearing on the renewal petition for Saba College Preparatory. We will start with public comment. And I believe we have three cards. Can you call them, please? >> Just kidding. >> Sorry, Chrissy. Um, Isabella Mel Goza, uh, Luis Himenez, and Fabian Vicente. Hi everybody, my name is Isabella Mongoza. I would like to thank the board for hearing me today. I am the current ASB president at Saba College Preparatory Academy. Um we are here talking today obviously about you know the charter renewal. I have been attending SA since 2020 and I can say right now that I love this school obviously because I'm the president but also I feel so prepared for college. I want to shout out that my couns my college counselor Mr. He has taught us so much about college this and last year. Even as juniors, I feel more prepared than I ever have. I'm taking multiple APs. All of my classmates and my friends all feel prepared. Sorry, I'm a little nervous. Let me take a breath. And the charter renewal is really important to me because I also participated in the accreditation for the school a few years ago. I think that Saba is a really good opportunity for students in Watsonville who maybe are low income, don't have as much access to schools that are bigger. For me, for example, I live in Aptas, so I don't really have access to other schools in Wville because I can't go there, but I can go to school at Saba with a smaller community, with a smaller teacher to student ratio, and I have better opportunities than other students at other schools. And I would also like to point out Mr. Rip. He has been my number one supporter since I've become ASV president besides Mr. Laura, our ASV coordinator. And he's always made sure to check up on students during the days. Sorry. Um, one student told me, um, her name is Emily, that Mr. Rip just sits in with us and he asks us about our days during lunch. And you don't get that kind of interaction when you're at a bigger school. You don't see your principal as much. You don't see your counselors as much. And even the things we're hearing today, there's a lot of, you know, budget cuts and things like that. And you do not get that at SA. You get top tier quality education and I can say right now a lot of mobility and even clubs like ASV associated student body. So I would really just like to say renewing the charter is an amazing idea for the students and for the community because we will bring back good things. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi. >> Hi. I'm Lucas and I speak for SA and the teachers. So what I like about SA, it's a good school and the resources it offers to to students. So there are clubs in SA. It offers a lot of resources to kids in sixth grade to you know 12th grade. There's a lot of stuff. So what what I'm going to say about SA it's what offer to kids what offer to a lot of students that Yeah. that want to try new stuff. Yeah, there are clubs for leadership and uh yeah, there are a lot of clubs. I'm kind of nervous. But teachers, they're very nice. They they help a lot. They are they influence a lot of students, too. Yeah. In classes, they help. They they make sure we understand really good what we're trying to learn. They make sure we go over it again until we actually understand and yeah save us should get their cont. Thank you. >> Thank you. We had one other speaker who turned in a card for this. It must be something. No. Okay. Going once. Going twice. All right. Now we're ready for the presentation. Thank you. Good evening, President Turley, Superintendent Contras, Board of Trustees and community. My name is Chrissy Mlan. I am the director of alted and charters and the proud principal of Renaissance High School. I am here to introduce Josh Rip, the principal of Saba College Preparatory Academy. Um, as a reminder, the purpose of this hearing is to receive information and some public testimony regarding the the renewal petition. Um Josh is going to present some information and he will have a couple people allowed to speak with him and then the next steps tonight is just informational as a hearing and the next step in the next few days the board will receive our district report on the renewal and the following board me board meeting we will have an action item where the board can act on the recommendation and have their their action at that time. So without any further ado, I would like to introduce Josh Rip, principal of Saba. He brought some friends with him. >> Thank you, M. >> Thank you, Miss McQueen. And uh thank you for hosting SA tonight for this public uh charter renewal hearing. Uh SA, excuse me, uh Po Valley Board of Trustees, Dr. Heather Contrez, and uh S PBSD cabinet. Uh my name again is Josh Rip. My title is head of school at SA and what I'm requesting from the PB USD board of trustees tonight is for a charter renewal from July 1st, 2027 to June 30th, 2032. That's a 5-year term. Next slide. >> Oh, thank you. >> Um, so I just wanted to share a little bit about SA. Our mission is to prepare students in the Watsonville area to graduate from four-year colleges and universities. We serve students in grades 6 through 12. Our enrollment this year is 56, slightly up from last year where our enrollment last year was uh 498. We're requesting a 5-year renewal term uh which would begin July 1st next school year. Uh we're a middle tier performer. The way the state of California rates charter schools is there's a high, middle, and low tier. And uh Saba, according to our school dashboard, fell into the middle tier. A little bit about the students we serve. We are almost 97% Latino students. Uh about 78% of our students are socioeconomically disadvantaged. Uh 32 33% of our students are English learners and about 12% of our students uh have disabilities. Uh the evidence supports a 5-year renewal for three reasons. Uh first, we've made progress on the academic or the California public school dashboard, which I'll share in a moment. Second, we have strong post-secary outcomes. SA's high school graduation rate and our college and career readiness rate are strong. And finally, student service. SA serves a cross-section of the Watsonville community. So, let's dig into these. Um, there's a lot of information up on this screen. Uh, but basically, this is our dashboard performance over the last few years. Uh, just a little bit about the dashboard. It rates all public schools in charter schools in the state of California from red to blue. Red is the lowest and blue is the highest and it's measuring both overall performance and growth from the previous year to the current year. Um I have our most recent year uh performance up there which is 2025. The last year school uh dashboard results will be released in mid-occtober. Um and what I can really proud of is we can see these metrics uh improve almost across the board. We can see chronic absenteeism coming out of COVID. We had 21% chronic absenteeism this year. Uh well two years ago we were down to 11%. This past year we're below 10 which I can share once those dashboard comes out. Um our suspension rate was high at the postcoid 6.6% and now we're down to 1.2%. So we've dropped that substantially and now we're into the blue uh which is the highest rating. Our English learner progress which measures how students perform on the LPAC. Um what percentage of your students are improving on the LPAC and they measure that on a scale score of 1 to four. Uh we've gone up each year from 40 to 45 and in 2025 55%. Uh our graduation rate uh has been at 100%. We had uh year two years ago where we dropped a little bit, but now we're back up 100% two years in a row. College and career readiness. This uh this is a comprehensive statistics that the state of California puts up, but basically it's measuring what percentage of your high school graduates scored a three or a four on the CASP in both English and math, scored at least a three or above on an AP test, or scored a passing grade in a dual enrollment course. And we heard Dr. Contra share about their uh performance uh excellent performance at the PBSD AP scores last uh last year. And this is similarly important for SA as well since we're our mission is prepare all of our students for four-year colleges and universities. So we're really proud of that. And again that's uh getting us into the blue category on the dashboard. English language arts has been uh unchanged in the orange. So you can see these are uh points below standard uh in that year that I'm reporting 30.1 below standard. This is an area for growth for us and I want to call that out. And then finally our mathematics performance. Uh we went moved from orange to yellow. Um, and that was in part because our high school scores finally we got to above 30% proficiency. We had 38% proficiency in 2025. Uh, which I was really proud of. Um, and so that's what brought up our overall dashboard color from orange to yellow. Um, so talking about outcomes for SA students, uh, I shared we had the 2425 data up there and then this past year we also had 100% graduation rate. Uh, I mentioned the college and career readiness. So most of the students, 80% of our students who are graduating annually are passing AP classes. They are passing the state test, the CAST in both English and math or they're taking dual enrollment courses. And in many cases, all of those uh English learner progress is uh continues to grow. Um we have 63% of our students uh scoring uh improved scores on the LPAC, which is all administered test that all students who are English learners have to take annually. And then finally, our suspension rate is uh down to 1%. Is that for me? I know if I was on Okay, I've just got a few more slides. I'll do this quickly. Yeah. Um so, finally, where we're focused, uh middle school, ELA, uh we want to get those scores a little bit higher to match the state average at least. Right now, we're below that. What are we doing about it? We're addressing it through our fast 40 daily intervention. We have a Barton reading intervention that we implement in small groups both over the summer and pull outs during the school year. And then we're implementing AVID schoolwide for high school math. Um our our proficiency dropped to 28% slightly below the state average down eight points from the previous school year. Um so we're implementing a Barton grades 6 through 8 uh math intervention. It's an Ororton Gillingham method. And then finally, we've uh expanded our master schedule. So we have algebra 1 offered to eighth graders, a foundations algebra course in 9th grade. that's uh co-taught a pre pre-AP geometry a pre-AP algebra 2 course in 10th and 11th grade um and then we've also we're also offering AP uh pre-calculus which isn't listed up there finally uh for science uh this is a below the state average uh on the cast uh we're improving but we need to continue to improve there so we're addressing that through AVID focused lessons more hands-on learning opportunities and AVID walkthrough cycles uh so SA's promise to the Watsonville community who we're serving just right alongside PBUSD. College readiness, uh we've had 100% graduation rates, uh 80% college and career readiness. Uh we want to plan to expand our uh opportunities for the students in the subsequent charter term. Uh this year we have eight AP courses. We're very proud of that. Um it's the most we've ever had in our school of history. We want to expand our college exposure trips. We've taken students to the Midwest. Last year I took a group of students to Boston along with a colleague and we explored a number of universities in the Boston area. Holy Cross, uh, Harvard, Boston College. It was beautiful. I just wanted, it was a special experience. Some of the students here tonight were on that trip. Uh, we want to sustain 100% graduation rate. Uh, we want to grow our college and career readiness to above 80%. I think we can do that. Next up, we want to support our English learners. 63% of our students are making progress and we have a 23% reclassification rate. I still think we can improve that to get to 70 or 80%. Um, and I want to see that e ELEL reclassification rate grow as well. Um, and the way students are reclassified is they need to pass the ELPAC with a four. They need to pass their ELA class with a C or better. They need to pass their designated EL class with a C or better. And then they need to have a alternative exam which could be the CASP exam or we use a state a star interim assessment. So all of those metrics have to be made met before the students can reclassify as fluent English proficient. Finally, academic achievement. We've had 70% of our students plus proficient in ELA for the last five years of this charter term. Um so we're really proud of that. We want to raise that middle school ELA proficiency as I mentioned earlier. Um and then the high school math proficiency improved two years ago. We dropped slightly, but I want to maintain or beat the state average on high school math proficiency. Finally, our safe learning environment, our suspension rates down to 1.2%. Uh we want to maintain our sus uh suspension rates below the state average. Um and continue to serve our students uh through reducing chronic absenteeism, which I mentioned earlier. And then finally, uh we want to just continue to serve the cross-section of the Watsonville community um through the demographics that you see up on the screen there. All right. And then finally to wrap up here, uh the evidence supports renewal. Our academic and post-secondary results are based on the California dashboard and we meet this California's middle tier standard. Uh SAVA serves its students well. Students who come to SA are graduating. They're prepared for college, which is our mission. Uh we've demonstrated an improvement over the last the previous charterium where you saw this the dashboard colors go from red and orange and yellow to green and blue for the most part. uh state has demonstrated improvement in our academics, attendance, discipline, and program growth over this chart current charter term that we're in. That will end in June 30th. Uh we're focused on middle school ELA, um as well as middle school science, as I mentioned a moment ago. And then finally, the five-year charter term matches where we're at now. Um so, respectfully, I'm requesting that the PBSD board of trustees approve SA's uh charter petition. Thank you. start. Um, thank you. So, we've already had public comment and our presentation. We'll start with um board comments starting with Trusty Medina. >> Wait, what? Sorry. I just want to um go over how we're going to do this so that everybody is clear. Um >> Okay. Thank you. >> But I have it written down so I need to look at Bear with me one moment. We'll we'll each get three minutes and um we'll go around. If we need more time, then we'll decide as a board if we go around again. So even if you don't use all your three minutes at one time, that's your time. Okay. All right. Thank you. So, we'll start with board comments with Trustee Medina. >> Yeah. Uh, thanks for the presentation. Um, Saba's in my area, so and also I know I have family that have attended Saba. Um, my sister was there when you guys were at like the corner um by the library at the um current art building. So, um I know the advantages of being at a school that's a lot smaller and you have that connection. So, um I think you know the the only one thing and I think you flagged it too is the English language standard and improving that. What are some ways that you're going to implement you know um some ways to intervene and improve those scores that you're already planning if if you have anything on that be really >> we'll go through each of us and then um the presenter will have an opportunity to respond to comments and questions. >> Cool. So I hope you're documenting the questions. >> Okay. >> Yes, I am. >> Yeah, that that's kind of weird. Um, but okay. Uh, so, um, yeah. So, I just want to know how you're going to improve those English skills. And also for the science portion, I'm curious, are you partnering with like, um, some community organizations like Watsonville Wetlands and other community orgs that could come in and really like kind of give that hands-on experience with the sciences. Um, so I'd be curious if you're doing that or if you even need a connection, just let me know. um because it would be really cool to see students um with those programs um just like we're seeing with other um students after school and maybe it could be during school. Who knows? So, I think that would be a really good opportunity there. Um and also um how many uh AP classes were offered in Did I count five? >> Answer. >> Can you? >> Okay. So, I'm going to note the qu just for the procedure. I'm going to note each question and then at the end I'll respond to all of the questions. >> Okay. I I'll be the first to say I don't like this format. Okay. Um it's ridiculous, but um yeah, so we'll go ahead and Yeah, those are my questions. Thank you. Yeah, great presentation. >> Yeah. >> Yes. And I'm just going to respectfully remind um folks that you also have the whole um renewal petition that he um finished and is attached to the item that may have a lot of answers to many of your questions along with you are going to be getting um a full report on that petition. Trusty Dodge Jr. >> Thank you. Saber works. Uh my daughter attended Saba many years ago. Now she's a sophomore at Cal Poly Miss Abyispo. Um I know there's been issues where the neighbors in the community were concerned about, you know, students walking um trash in the neighborhoods. But I know you guys have made great improvements. I I I've seen that you guys are working outside the box, which has always been important. Many years ago, safe streets, you guys had uh safe streets um programs held at Saba. And so I know what you guys are doing. uh uh what you're doing works. And so I know it's just an important discussion, but I know you know the the parents here uh you know some sometimes you know parents in Latino communities, you know, me and Trusty Medina, we we share Radcliffe and Linds and sometimes we need something different and you guys do something different and it works. I know firsthand as I mentioned before, you know, my daughter now is a sophomore at Calpali and there's others that she went to school with and went to college and I keep in touch with her parents and yeah, thank you Mr. the parents especially, you know, thank you for coming speaking and thank you very much. Thank you, Trusty Dod. >> Thank you, Trusty Cross. >> And I know you can't answer them right now, but I just had a few questions. Does Saba have um sports, and do they compete against other schools, art programs, theater, um and what type of clubs do they offer? >> Thank you, Trustee Navaro. Thank you for your presentation. Um I'm really impressed with the movement that you've made from 2023 and I would be interested to know what you implemented to make those changes and those growths. Um I also am curious about how you define career and college readiness and what percentage of your students are actually entering a four-year university versus a two-year vers two-year versus going into a CTE pathway. Thank you. Trusty Flores. >> Okay. Thank you again for this presentation and I love to see the support that your community has brought. Love the t-shirts. Um I know I've spoken to several SA parents and they do very much love their school. You guys have a very tight community and so I look forward to getting the report from um our admin and we'll see you again next board meeting. >> Okay. Thank you for trusty forest. >> Trusty Flynn. >> Thank you for your presentation. Oh, let me set my timer. Um, I know it was probably pretty stressful leading up to giving this presentation, especially not having all the marks that you want to have. Um, speaking specifically to the ELA. Um, and I would second that question that trustee Medina has about what plans are in place to improve that. um especially being college prep, that is super foundational and especially as we go into uh a world that is being led by AI. Um critical thinking is massively important and the foundation to that is ELA. Um I've served on a charter board. Um, so there's some experience that I I bring to just this understanding um about how charters work and especially specifically um college prep. So the the 100% graduation rate is great and the 80% college um or career ready. I think um Trusty Navaro kind of asked the same question. It I'd like to know what percentage of that is college ready because what's important to me for PVSUSD and its charter schools is having the choice of one or the other. not just one. So, I'd like to see I I'd like to understand how many of those students are both college um A throughG ready um and career ready at the same time or just college ready. Um I think that was it. Um, I just want to also say, um, yes, thank you for the support of the Sabba, um, community to come out. I just remember so vividly how, um, much support you got last year when so many of your community members came out to support. So, I heard really clearly how special SA is. Um, and one thing that you do have that other college prep charter schools in the community do not have is um they can see themselves, the students see themselves reflected in the faculty and staff that are there and um that sense of belonging is really massively important um as it pertains to getting students ready. I'd also like to see you expand that college visit to um include um H.B.CU and not just PWI PWIS. Thank you. >> Thank you. I'd like to express appreciation for the work that you all do and for coming to this meeting and for your brave students who stood up and spoke to us. Um so if you'd like now to respond to some of those questions. Okay. I'd like to just make a suggestion because I know that when we're asking questions of me and staff, uh there is an opportunity to for staff to have gathered the question or the answers and Mr. Rip hasn't had that opportunity. um and they and he will be coming back because there needs to be action taken and so I'm thinking that if he can take those questions and bring them back to the next meeting um so that he can have time to have the preparation and not that was a lot of questions >> unless there's any he has the answers to right now like the sports that's one that >> he might but I I think it would be nicer if we could just have it all in one and and have it at that action You have a point of order, >> but it just >> I I have known Mr. Riff for many years and I know and expect he will have answers to everybody's questions. How about we leave it up to you? If you want to respond now, if you want to hold the questions until you come back on September 16th, that would be acceptable, too. Up to you. >> Before you answer, Mr. R. Uh, if you would like to take back those questions so you could come back with more data if you need to, that's perfectly fine with with us as well. >> I'm happy to answer the questions tonight. Uh, and I'm happy to. So, I'll be able to sp talk about what we're doing programmatically to all of these questions, specific data points. I'll bring that back at the next meeting. How does that sound? Okay. Um, so the first question from Trusty Medina was uh regarding middle school ELA. Um, and I actually have that in my slide deck what we're doing. Um, so if I go back up here, um, and the area of growth up here on the top left, it says below statewide proficiency. Um so we're doing uh what we're doing for that is uh implementing fast 40 interventions and uh specifically a Barton reading intervention. It's a Gordon Gillingham method um that's often used with dyslexia students but not solely dyslexia students. We had um approximately 45 students in uh SA only middle school students over the summer working on that Barton reading and math intervention and then they're also being pulled from classes periodically for about 20 minutes to three minutes at a time to work with an interventionist. So, we're hoping that that will um improve the proficiency rates in ELA. It's a really t tactile program. They use tiles to tap on the pieces that they have and then they it's a lot of uh repeat and repetition, but it's evidence-based. Also, we're implementing AVID. They have wicker strategies which stands for writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization, and reading through AVID. And the goal there is to get them to read at a deeper level. And the way I like to pitch it is it's bringing the students off the sideline and making them active participants in their education. So we can't just sit on the side and go like, "Okay, this is cool. I want to be in the education and this is my own education." So those are the two main things that Save is doing to address the middle school uh ELA proficiency gap. Uh regarding science, we do not currently have a partnership with the Watsonville Wetlands. I would love to hear more about that and that would be really special for us. Uh we have a really eager science team that is all about hands-on learning. Um and so I think any opportunities to do that would be very welcomed. Uh AP classes we have the third question that you asked Trusty Medina was how many do we have? I think in the stat I shared up there it was a few years ago we had five. This year we have eight AP classes which is the most we've ever had. Um Trustee Dodge you asked about uh oh actually you didn't ask questions just comment about the sidewalks and safe streets. Trustee Carrasco um sports we compete in the Papro Valley Athletic uh middle school athletic league against the local middle schools. Uh we practice on our site. We have a small and large turf along with a kind of pavement where the basketball, volleyball, and flag football teams practice. Um and then they'll go and have their uh games either at other middle schools or we host our home games often at EA Hall. Uh for high school, we participate in uh cross country in the fall and girls volleyball. In the winter, we play uh compete in basketball and soccer for boys and girls. And in the spring, we participate in boys volleyball and track and field. Um and we're in the PPO Valley Athletic League. Um two years ago we actually had a peal uh scholar athlete of the year. Um so we're very proud of that. He went on to um Berkeley. Finally, regarding clubs, uh we have um a number of clubs, middle school ASB, high school ASB, uh guitar and piano club, which is growing quite a bit lately uh recently. And uh we also have a um let's see, I'm trying to think here. I'm going to come back to the clubs. That's when I'll include more for the next meeting. Finally, um, Trusty Navaro, uh, changes from 23 to now. How do we do it? I think just kind of empowering the teachers to have more ownership. And they've always had ownership. And so, and that's one thing I don't feel like I shout out enough here, but really all of this, a lot of this comes down to having the teachers having the um, authority to make the decisions in the classroom to serve students. And I've been really happy with how we've worked together collaboratively. And I think that really is AVID has kind of been the glue that binds us when we meet during PDS on Mondays. Um but I would say that more than anything else has helped us improve in those results. Um regarding the two versus four-year, last year was the outlier. We actually had 70% of our graduates go to a 4-year university. That was in large part because of the honor promise provided by CSUMB where a lot of the students who would have otherwise been enrolled in Cababrio ended up going straight to a four-year university at CSUMB tuition free which is uh is incredible and then they can commute from where they live. Um in previous years though it's it's dipped. We've been as low as 38 to 40 and then we've been as high last year was our record at 70%. And then um regarding let's see I don't think you asked any questions uh trustee Flores and then Trusty Flynn I touched on the middle school ELA statistics um ADG ready oh uh college ready so if we go back up to that um 79.6% 6% college and career ready. All of that is college ready. We don't have a CTE program at SAMA. We're a small site. And so I mentioned that during the presentation, but what that really is measuring is are your students passing the CAS, AP, or dual enrollment courses. And there's a kind of a big metric on how they do that, but they have to show evidence across those three to show evidence. So that is an entirely college and college ready. And that metric is uh defined by the state of California in the dashboard. Just wanted to clarify that's how I came up with that statistic. Um and then um oh yeah and then regarding the question A to G all of our students are expected to graduate with the A to G uh C UCCCSU expectation or requirements to enroll um and they do. We have a couple exceptions periodically and we'll have a meeting to discuss that but generally speaking all students meet those ADG requirements. And then finally uh for expanding uh college visits we actually had a student last year go to Xavier University New Orleans. It's a historically black college university. Um, so we do that and I just mentioned a couple there, but we go to regional universities. We have actually not taken a college visit to an H.B.CU though, so that would be something that we could definitely incorporate. Yeah. Okay. So, thank you. >> All right. Thank you. We'll see you September 16th. >> Okay. Thank you. >> That moves us on to action items. 9.1 approve Watsonville High School Geyser Field facility naming hedgepath board policy 731A. We will start with public comment. I believe we have three cards in two comment cards in >> Is it um Al Vo Cio and Nancy Dosich? Good evening. My name is Al Caro, a long life resident and uh I love soccer. So I'm here to support HB for the naming of the football field for his name. Uh I know Mr. Hbat since uh 1970. I played for him for four years and uh I never met a a better human being. Um he really cared for his uh players and even though when he started it was the second year that the team has started. He was a little rusty on the foot on the soccer, but uh uh he got a a lot of talented students coming from u one of the students that Stoayor had uh prepped out for his team which was very good team in the first division in the peninsula. So uh he started well and uh from that we took off and uh we used to win the league every every four the four years I was there we won the league and then afterwards he we kept on winning uh in those early years we got over the hill and it we we ran into prep schools with a lot of money and recruitment. So a lot of times we hit a wall there. But uh in the later years we set the stage for the next generation of players and uh over the years probably over 50 years that he's been he was coaching he put Watsonville on the map. Uh Watsonville High got ranked in the top 100 in high schools in in the United States. So uh and from that the later programs the students that came out I know one that turned professional uh and uh several that were really good. Thank you. >> Right in front of you. It's okay. That's okay. Well, good evening, uh, President Thurly, trustees and superintendent Contraras. You know, I've, uh, known Roland for many, many years, and I had the opportunity to work with him in several capacities, but one experience that stands out is the time together we had when he was the Watsville High School soccer coach. When I was principal at Watsonville High, I remember attending many games in multiple cities um as a team advanced through the playoffs and I mean we sat in freezing weather, rainy weather, but the team persisted and continued to win. And it was incredibly rewarding to watch their success and celebrate each victory along the way. It was really a wonderful time. Roland was and continues to be a true professional. He not only coached players in the skills and strategies of soccer, but also taught them important lessons about character and sportsmanship. He expected his players to conduct themselves with respect and dignity, whether they won or lost. What impressed me the most was Roland's ability to build a team that competed with determination while maintaining a strong sense of sportsmanship. His influence extended well beyond the soccer field. He modeled professionalism, commitment, perseverance, and respect. Qualities that are valuable to young people and to any organization. I'm grateful for the years I've known Roland and for the opportunity have to have worked alongside him. I have great respect for him as a coach, a colleague, and a person. And I am pleased to offer my support and recommendation for Hedgepath Stadium at Geyser Field. Thank you. As this is an action item, I'm going to ask for a motion in a second and then we'll have the presenters come up. Would anyone like to make a motion to approve? >> I hear a motion. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> I heard a second over here first, I think. Oh, we have many seconds. Um, okay. Uh, Principal Gregorio and Michael Berman. >> Uh, good evening, uh, board president Turley, trustees, and, uh, superintendent Dr. Contrarus. Um, I am asking for the approval of action item 9.1. And I'm also wanted to make some thank yous. Um, I wanted to thank Dr. Contrarus. These are for the people that this would not happen without their help. Dr. Contras, uh, Trusty Dodge, um, Mr. Burman, Dr. Bilisuch, and Elaine Legeretta. Uh, they helped this process and we're truly grateful for, uh, the opportunity. Thank you. >> And with that, we ask for your approval. >> Yes. >> Sorry. Sorry. >> All right. I'll call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> One, two. You can vote, too. Did was that a Okay, that looks unanimous to me. So that would be 8 Z00. >> Motion passes. Thank you. Congratulations. >> And thank you, Coach Hedgeh. >> One of the easiest decisions I think we've had to make >> and unanimous. Oh, yes. >> Uh, Trusty Turley, I would like to move to suspend the rules. >> Yes. >> Okay. Did were we were we going to make comment on that? Did we need to? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Let's hear. >> Absolutely. >> I think >> Oh, no. No. Okay. >> Again, thank you. Thank you for this opportunity and I'm I'm honored but as I said before a lot of things happened you know a lot all my players that have dedicated so much in having a successful program you know at at one time I had like 60 to 70% graduate from college I haven't kept records the last few years but one point I want to make out some of the students I had as freshman didn't know what they you and one of them, if you know Luis Medina, he used to be there. He played and they found out they had to have grades to play and they succeeded. Found out that they could do it. Then they went on to college. Not all of them played in college, but I think it was a a good opportunity for them. And I could I don't want to mention too many names because I would never stop. I was very fortunate that 90% of all my assistant coaches had played for me and I was able to do that. Anyway, I to make it short, I I really appreciate this honor and I and it's an honor for all those players and all my people that help me this business, coaches and everything and thank you board for that. Thank you. Bye. Trusty, point of order. So, Trusty Medina. >> Yeah. >> So, now when we vote, >> do you know where I'm going? >> I know exactly where you're going. I missed the board comment piece before we did the vote. Thank you. Did you have comments? Do you want to back up? Are you okay? >> Oh, no. I just wanted to say the correct way to do that would have been to suspend the rules, right? >> And then Yeah. >> And then go back. >> Okay. Just wanted to clarify that. >> Thank you. Appreciate that. >> Moving on then to 9.2. Approve contract of employment for Victoria Nudson, chief business officer. Are there any public comments to this item? >> Yeah. But >> Chris Webb Yeah, sorry it was game late. Um, I just want to say I have uh great respect for Herado and I um I was glad he was here. I think he was a man of integrity. Um, but a couple like unfinished uh homework assignments, let's say, from the CBO. So like one is like a report on concentration funds which should be for RITs. Like I think that's clear that but if they're not for that then I would I really feel like we need a detailed um report here. This has come up a little bit vaguely in SSA about how that that targeted money is being applied. Well, I'd like to be more clear on the targets. Um, also I think right now we're really due for um a report on how much have we spent on legal for negotiations specifically because I think that we wasted a lot of money just for like basically once the district realized like oh we're not going to rob our teachers or now we're going to be able to get away with that um without a huge calamity then it's like all right finally we'll make a deal. So and in the short and like less than a week like you're able to do it. So m so months were wasted and for a lot of that time you you had a lawyer there. So how much did that cost? Also let's look at um 1819 renaissance and give us a report how much was recouped in 88 in the after school program and then compare that to the best year for the same metric postco. Also, I think we ought to look into um some of these events like where despite what Bill Beecher says, there is overages in classes and some of these are like where basically the district failed to plan. I think in cases like this um because it's going to be something where you're going to end up spending money to compensate teachers. Um let's look into like, hey, maybe we should start like penalizing the district office for these predictable avoidable mistakes. Also like that reminds me of the health and welfare benefits committee. Dr. Navar, you might recall that uh brought up leading up by example. So if we're going to do any kind of cuts, lead from example with the top. Do the cuts pay at the top first. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Can I have a motion on this agenda item and then we will hear a presentation and then we will do board comments. >> Remind me if I please trust you. >> Point of clarification. So, you want us to put up the motion now? >> Okay. Before we hear the presentation, >> right? >> But you're not voting until after you've heard it. >> Okay. >> Because if we can't get a motion or a second, what's the point of spending time on it? Right. Okay. Um, would anyone like to make a motion on this item? >> I'll make a motion. >> I hear a motion. Is there a second? >> I second. >> Okay. Motion made by Trustee Krasco, seconded by Trustee Flores, Mr. Bra. Good evening, Dr. Gondes and members of the board. It's my distinct pleasure to present for your consideration and approval the employment contract for Victoria Nson as our chief business officer. Victoria comes to our district with two decades of hands-on experience in California public education finance. Along with a strong foundation built on seven years in private sector se sector banking throughout her 20 years in TK to adult education. She has proven herself as a highly skilled fiscal leader and an authentic builder of community relationships. Her key qualifications include achievements um as a having served as an assistant superintendent of business services and CBO in New York Unified, excuse me, Newark Unified. She's West Coast and Evergreen School Districts, as well as director of fiscal and Morgan Hill Unified and Hollister School District. She has successfully managed general fund budgets exceeding 150 million, oversaw secondary funds of over 100 million, and led voter approved general obligation bond facilities and modernization projects. Excuse me. She holds a bachelor's in business management and economics from UC Santa Cruz, is a CASPO certified chief business official, and has completed both the Figmat CBO mentor program and the MCEE school business leadership academy. Her expertise spans the full scope of business operations, including labor negotiations, multi-year projections, facilities master planning, IT oversight, child nutrition, and transportation. She's earned the Caspent 7 award for excellence in financial services and a CSBA Golden Bell Award. Under her fiscal oversight, her districts consistently maintain stellar credit ratings. staff is confident that Victoria's depth of experience, collaborative approach, and financial steward stewardship, excuse me, excuse me, will be an incredible asset to our students, staff, and community. The law requires the board provide an oral summary of the financial terms and any executive contract or amendment to an executive contract before the board takes action on such contract or amendment. Compliance with this requirement, I'm happy to announce that the district has reached a proposed agreement with Victoria Nson to serve as the chief business officer of Bahara Valley Unified School District. The written employment agreement is before the board for consideration and approval this evening. The agreement contains, excuse me, the following financial terms. A salary of $248,418. She will receive the same holiday sick leave and medical medical, dental, vision, and basic life insurance benefits as other classified management employees. She'll be reimbursed for necessary business business expenses incurred while working for the district and we will reimburse workrelated mileage to the IRS reimbursement rate and we'll pay and uh we will pay uh Miss Nudson's state association membership fees or AXA as it were. I do want to uh take responsibility and apologize for the errors that were brought up earlier in public comment. Those have actually been fixed and amended. So, pending the board's approval tonight, I have a clean copy uh of those uh clerical errors that were made in the contract, and I have those for your signature when it's time should the board take action. >> All right, time for board comment. We'll start with Trusty Medina. No, we're we're being consistent and going this way. You're up first. Okay, Trusty Dodge. uh you know I I don't know how many time you know congratulations to this you know the CBO u it's a it's a tough job here in Paral Valley Unified School District this board has high expectations and regardless what some of us might hear of not being important and PBSD trustee area 4 it is important. Um I look forward to looking to next CBO if she's hired by the board that please respect ours. They are important to our community my trustee area because our people want respect. Please respect our people um the facilities that they want to use. You know, you will be hearing and reading my emails because I believe inus regardless of you maybe other coaching might say, but please respect our people. Uh the white heart the white hawk dancers Watsonville national little league uh soccer is very important especially at hall and so please respect our mus. Thank you trusty. First of all, I want to thank this applicant for being brave and coming to our district. Um, I hope that we can welcome you and convince you to stay and help so that we can have some stability with our budget going forward. Thank you. Trusty Flores. >> Thank you. We all knew that we had an all-star CBO, someone who chose to work for PBUSD even though he could make significantly more money in other districts. We also knew we were holding on to him by a thread because the compensation for this position was not competitive with what the market is offering. I knew the moment we voted down theou that he had requested that what had been requested by our CBO to help protect this district, we were putting ourselves at serious risk of losing him. Unfortunately, that is exactly what where we find ourselves today. Once again, our superintendent has been asked to pull double duty and fill critical leadership roles. Throughout her time in PBSD, she has repeatedly had to step up and be the acting CBO, assistant superintendent of HR, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. While she has consistently consistently stepped up for our district, this is not a sustainable way to do to operate. I agree that this significant price tag for this position that I I agree that this is a significant price tag for this position. However, we are we have to acknowledge the reality of the market. This is the going rate for a qualified CBO. If we want to attract and retain someone capable of managing the financial operations of our district, we have to be willing to offer competitive compensation. For these reasons, I believe approving this contract is not only justified but necessary for the long-term stability of PBSD. >> Thank you. Um, we'll go to you in just a second, Trusty Medina. So, I think what we'll do just to be more fair, we started the first vote with Trusty Medina, went this way. We started the second one with Dodge Jr. We'll start start the third one down here. Fair. Okay. Uh Trusty Medina, you're up. >> Yeah. Um so, thank you for making those corrections online. Um my worry is that doesn't suffice with the Brown Act. So, I just want to make sure that that's okay because you updated that live while you're having the meeting, correct? or can you just explain that a little bit more? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. There's no Brown Act violation because there are clerical errors. There was an error where a he read as a she or excuse me, a he should have read as a she and there's a date at the bottom prior to uh Dr. Excuse me, prior to not Dr. Conter signing, prior to um President Turley signing and Miss Nson signing that uh suggests the execution date of the contract. That needs to read as tonight's board meeting and it read as a different date. So that's that can be corrected. The cleric error has been fixed. Um I have that copy here for signature ultimately. >> So you are certain that is not a Brownack violation? >> The best of my knowledge. >> To the best of your knowledge. Cool. I just wanted that on record. Thank you. >> All right. Trusty Flynn. >> Sorry. Trust trustee. >> Okay. And and I get a little bit more time if I say mine in English and Spanish. Right. Okay. All right. Um fortolog. CBOT. Ultima instantia. And now I'm going to go ahead and say that in English. It might not transfer um or translate completely, but Um the next step the next critical step toward achieving financial stability is to school is to close the schools we have not yet identified to close. That is when this district can finally breathe a little sigh of relief because many of our financial burdens will be reduced. That stability matters. It means our schools can have more tranquility and our staff and families won't constantly have to worry about possible of massive layoffs. To get there, we need a chief business officer, also known as CBO, who can guide us through this final and very important step. I was sad and and quite honest, a little frustrated when I heard that our CBO was leaving. It felt like our goal was within reach, but suddenly it seemed far farther away. We have all been through a difficult, emotional, and challenging process. It would be incredibly disappointing if we could not finish what we started and reach our ultimate goal and that is to get greater financial stability for our district. We also know that we can be creative when it comes to hiring. The last time we hired a CBO, we negotiated a higher salary in exchange for not providing health benefits and ultimately save the save money for the district. Our goal should not simply be to stretch our resources and continue struggling. It should be to bring our resources together, create stability, and ultimately enrich our students education. Um, we need a CBO who can help us complete this process and move toward a more stable and sustainable future for our district. I hope we can reach that goal with this CBO if this is voted on. Thank you. Thank you, Trustee Flynn. >> Thank you. Um, I just want to say thank you to um our superintendent, Dr. Contras, for um searching and calling in someone. Um I this person I look forward to meeting them. Sounds very capable and has the experience we need as we go into school closures. That was the big question for me is do they have experience with school closures? Um, and I hope that, you know, I won't I won't be here for some of the bigger decisions that are coming up, but that she's received and trusted um so that the hard decisions can be um made um and that she's somebody that um the board can collaborate well with. So, as much as my vote counts right now to bring her in, I wish that I would have the the opportunity to work with her more. Um, but I will enjoy the time that I have. I'm glad that we have somebody. It's second to you running this ship. So, thank you for your hard work in um finding someone. >> Thank you. I ditto remarks from Trustee Flynn. And with that, I'll call for for a vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> Let's see. I think that's one, two, three, four, five, six. All those opposed. >> Oh, you can vote, too. I think Oh, no. Because it's a higher Right. Right. Right. Um, those abstaining, >> I abstain because the Brown Act. >> Thank you. Um, so that's 6 0 1 0. Motion passes. >> Thank you, board. Unfortunately, Miss Nson couldn't be here this evening, but I'll be sending her a text right now. >> Okay. >> Thank you. That moves us to 9.3. Approve revisions to the 2026 How many? 2027 local control and accountability plan known as the LCAP following county county office review. We'll ask first for any public comments. Can How many cards do we have on 93? We have no public comments. Is there a motion to approve? I heard a motion from Trusty Flynn. Is there a second? Second from Trusty Krasco. Um deep uh thank you. >> Good evening board members, Dr. Contra and the members of the community. Uh my name is Deepikashwasa. I'm the director for curriculum instruction and professional development and it is my pleasure to present to the Paharo Valley Unified School District 2026 27 LCAP revised plan that was approved by Santa Cruz County Office of Education for a formal approval. California school districts are required to submit their board adopted local control and accountability plan to the county superintendent of schools for review and approval. Following the board's adoption of the Paharo Valley Unified School District 2627 LCAP plan. The plan was submitted to the Santa Cruz County Office of Education for its required review and approval. The county office subsequently provided recommendations for revisions to the LCAP. District staff reviewed the county office recommendations and incorporated the requested revisions into the LCAP. The document attached in the board document is complete updated 2627 LCAP incorporates the revision requested through the county office of education and has been finally approved by Santa Cruz County Office of Education. The county office recommended to include culturally responsive classrooms and teaching, also music enrichment, steam enrichment, community resources for counseling and family engagement plan as a contributing action to utilizing ALCAP funding. The county office recommended that transportation cannot be included as a contributing action as PBSD offers transportation to all students. Transportation will be covered by base LCFMF. The revised LCAP shifts funding towards program that have a more direct con connection to student achievement, equity, enrichment, student well-being and family engagement, ensuring resources are strategically aligned to identified student needs, specifically foster youth, English language learners, and low-income students. Staff recommends that the board adopts a revised and approved 2627 local control and accountability plan as presented. Thank you. We'll start with board comments with Trusty Krasco. >> I don't have any comments right now. >> Thank you, Trusty Navaro. Trusty Forest, thank you for these revisions and I look forward to approving El Trusty Medina. >> Yes. Um, can you go back to two slides? I think there we go. Um key recommendation the revised ALCAP approved by the county identifies the following actions as contributing action allowable to utilize ALCAP funding. So that's essentially saying that um the county came back to us and said, "Hey, I we want to make sure that you're focusing on these things." Correct. >> Yes. >> Okay. And when they say steam and enrichment, are they actually referring to science, technology, engineering, art, and math enrichment or is do they want it to solely focus on art enrichment? >> Uh no, they don't uh they ask us what we would like to put in LCAP and that is a decision that was made by our community. So these were programs that were not uh when we presented the plan in the June these were not in ALCAP they said these this is the money more bank of money because transportation was pulled out when we presented to county in June transportation was part of LCAP county said you have to pull out transportation and then we had that bucket of money that was left we decided that these uh the district with its recommendations from different community members decided to put these back into the LCAP. >> Okay. And what um survey or verification is there that there was a big wanting of steam? Because I've been hearing at a lot of these meetings more on the art side. So, I'm just curious um what document is stating that we're hearing a lot of responses saying that we want steam and enrichment um since we have that additional pool of funding and you know just hearing tonight um we need a VAPA coordinator. So, I'm curious why some of that money wouldn't be directly allocated to that if we got that addition, not additional, but that money that had to waiver off from transportation. And now that we have that, why can't we put that into our arts programs that a lot of our teachers are asking for? >> So, the arts in this district is already funded through general fund and prop 28. And this does not mean that because this also includes the Elsa music enrichment which is arts. So, this is conflating Prop 28 as well into this. >> No, Prop 28 separately. >> Separately. Yes. >> Okay. And when are we going to get a report presentation on that? >> Uh, next month. I'm coming back. >> Next month you're coming back with that. Okay. Awesome. I've been asking for that for a while. Um, okay. Those are cool. Um, those are the questions that I have. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty Dodge Jr. He has no comments. >> Trustee Krosco, Trusty No, Trustee Flores. Trusty Flynn already did. Sorry. Okay. Trusty Flynn. >> Let me reset my time. >> Oh, one point of clarification. I don't I don't think I got a response on the um the data of where we're saying that this is what we wanted. Do do you have some form of that from? >> Uh so I'm taking over from uh Chrissy McClean. So but I know the process she used. She goes to DACA. She goes to uh different community DAC the district advisory committee. She goes to the student community. She goes to the districts to uh the school site committee. So she plugs in data from all those uh all those uh stu student groups and family groups and uh educator groups and then we analyze the data. >> Can you give us the raw report so we could um view that as well? >> Uh yes I can send that to Dr. Kra. >> Okay. Um yeah, if we could get that like within two weeks that would be great. Thank you. >> Absolutely. Trusty Flynn. >> Hi. Thank you for your presentation. Can you go back to There was a I tried pulling it up but um No, it had the tabs where it said equity. Yes. Okay. So I guess I'm curious how this is implemented in real time. The resi revised LCAP shifts funding towards programs that have a more direct connection to student achievement, equity, enrichment, student well-being, family engagement, ensuring resources are strategically aligned to identified student needs. So, student achievement, equity, enrichment, student well-being, family engagement. So, I'm curious, as I said, how is that happening in real time? Does that um take into account any outside contracts that we're bringing in? >> So, this is for our LCAP for this year 26 27. Just if I go back when I summarize this, this is based on these money pools that we have set aside that we will be spending over this year. >> And when any of these that's a that was the second slide, cultural responsive classroom and teaching. So is this being applied to all of the programs? Are they all so even the steam and enrichment does it have a piece that is cultural responsive, culturally responsive? Does it take into consideration equity and yes uh so the LCAP is for the LCAP money comes for students who are foster youth, English language learners and uh uh students from low socioeconomic. So these programs will be targeted for those students. No, I I understand that they're targeted for those students, but I'm talking about the curriculum. Is it equitable? Is it culturally responsive? And if there are contracts or if there are is framework or curriculum that is being implemented, are those being taken on through the lens of equity and cultural response um cult and being culturally responsive? And then and so my question is how and if we and if you don't have that answer right now that's okay. I don't need you to have the answer right now. I just would like to know um like the how at some point >> absolutely we we do a data report for LCAP midyear. So we will come back with whatever we have spent whatever our strategies are working we will come back to you. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I I don't think she wants like the numerical uh data. She wants the details on how you apply the cultural responsive in classrooms and specifically where have you done that. Only elementary, only middle school, you know, and how those programs play out. Those are the details that she wants. >> Uh I'll bring back the data uh bring back those uh details next time. >> Great. Thank you. >> Trusty Charlie, can we do a second round? Um, would anyone like to make a motion for a second round? >> I'd like to move to make a second round. >> I hear a motion. Is there a second for a second round of three minutes per? >> I see a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. One, two, three. >> I couldn't see the four. >> Oh. >> There are four. >> Oh, okay. So, I only see threes. >> There's four. I didn't where was Okay. I didn't I saw Dodge. I didn't see Trusty Frost. Okay. So, four in favor. We're starting one more round. Um since you made the motion, >> since um Trusty Medina made the motion, let's start with you. >> Yep. Okay. Um you stated that um we're using this money and implementing it now, correct? For this fiscally. >> Yes. Yes. >> Awesome. Community resources for counseling. Um well, one, what does that 2.9 number mean right next to it? And then after that, I'm really curious if we're focusing on student well-being um and we're hearing that nurses um you know are only on campus two times a day, some students aren't getting their medication properly um given to them. I have a report of uh somebody who um was given dairy when they were lactose intolerant. So, when we're thinking about community resources for counseling, how are we engaging with that now in this current year? Um, because if we need to put more money towards that, I would love to know if we're doing that under the community resources for counseling uh line. >> Point of clarification, Trusty Medina, are you expecting that DACA ask answer these questions right now or can because she may not know the answer right off the bat. >> Is this a action item? This is an action item. >> So then we're going to take action on this, which means we need to get hard questions answered before we make an opinion. If I'm going to delay answering these questions and wait for the data, I'd rather get the data first, review it, and have that brought back. >> Okay. >> Okay. You go ahead. >> I paused your time, by the way. >> Okay. Perfect. Thank you. >> So, uh, what I am presenting you is what we are proposing to spend. We have not spent this money. Once we have the approval for you which the county has already, this is a plan for this year. What I'm asking you is that the county has approved. This is just a because this LCAP was already approved. It went for revisions. This is just coming back. It is just a final approval which is required by law that we have it before August 31st. So we need this approval and then we will start spending the money. >> Okay. and I just want to make sure that we're placing the money in places that it's absolutely needed. Um, so I I just want that commitment. But since, you know, we're going to come back with this, do you plan on utilizing some of this funding in order to address these issues that we're hearing across campuses when it comes to student mental health? >> So, I am the one who will be managing the like the budget, but people will be using this money. This is not all under me. it will going be going to separate departments that they will be managing this. I will only be ensuring the compliance piece. >> Can you say that to me like I'm a fifth grader? >> Okay. Yeah. So, uh it's like I am overseeing what each department should be spending and making sure that they spend that money for those students. So I'm just ensuring the compliance piece but this money will be used by uh special services by uh student services by curriculum and instruction by technology all so all departments will be using what I will be doing is overseeing that they are spending this money on these kids >> okay so the sole authority would lie with you then right because you'll be allocating those fundings to the departments >> I would not say authority I would like say >> I'll be the policeman like probably like just making sure >> you're like the guy protecting the vault, right? To make sure that we're getting the right funding going where it needs to. >> You got that right. >> Okay, cool. Um yeah, that's that's um what I want to see on because if transportation was totally neglected and they said get that out, I would not neglect. >> I I mean saying that we can't utilize those funds, right, for transportation. >> No, what what they're saying is transportation PBSD provides transportation for all students. So then it is your base. LCAP is over and extra for those students. So the base cannot be in LCAP. >> Okay. All right. >> Which is why we don't have the transportation. Right. >> So transportation >> in terms of a line item. Uh that's what I mean. >> That's your time. >> That's what I wanted. Uh thank you. >> Uh Trusty Dodge Jr. do you have an additional comment? >> Trustee Carrasco. >> Trusty Navaro. Trustee Flores and Trusty Flynn, >> thank you for that. That was very helpful. Um, I wanted to uh basically what I'm understanding is the questions that I was asking those those answers will come from somewhere else. And so, thank you for clarifying your role and for presenting um and doing it with a smile. That was great. Um, I wanted to give um uh Dr. contras a moment to speak to it if you needed to say anything. Okay. All right. And so I think that's it. And I have no comments other than thank you for coming and meeting with us and sharing. >> Oh, we still have to take the vote. >> Yes. >> We're going to do that. >> I am. I just wanted to point out I know a lot of confusion there. This is the same LCAP minus the transportation that that piece that was already approved by the board previously. So the only substantial revision is the fact of the uh recommendation by Santa Cruz County Office of Ed which we are following which gets to the point of the transportation not being seen as above and beyond. So therefore that will remain the base program. No changes to transportation but that's that's what the substantial revision of this document is. >> Got it. Thank you. We have a motion on the floor from Trustee Flores, a second from Trustee Carrasco. All those in favor signify by saying I. One, two, three, four, five, six. You could vote on this one if you wanted. Seven. Um, all those opposed and those abstaining. Motion carries 701. Thank you. >> Anybody need a break or we ready to push on? >> Two minutes. Thank you. >> Two minutes. Okay. >> Okay. Three. >> We'll compromise with three. We're going to take a three minute human need break. Okay. Okay, we are back in session at 9:08. Um, next next we have 10.1, a report and discussion led by Dr. Heather Heather Conturus. This um relates to alignment of our goals. >> Uh, trustee uh Charlie. >> Yes. >> Um, I would like to make a point of order. >> We got to check public comment, too. Okay. >> Yeah. But um I just wanted to remind this board that under California government code number 8314 prohibits elected officials uh from using public resources for campaign activity or private advantages. And also within our own board policy 1160 repeats the same prohibitation from advocating from the podium of an election campaign. So I just want to make the board aware of that and that we're in v uh violation of government code 8314. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. Um, do we have any public comments on 10.1? >> Yes, Mr. Christopher Webb, I welcome you to the podium. >> Well, thank you kindly. Um, I want to first say that I it seems to me a little weird that we're like deviating from our norm and we're not hearing the presentation first in a way. it feels exclusionary of the public that like we're not being allowed to be uh make our comments with the same information that you're about to get and so I have to like go ahead of time and it's like I have to research in the the same materials as you have access to but it's it's a nor it's a deviation from the standard protocol. Um also I just want to speak to because I know this about student outcomes. Um last year when um one of the district office people went to Renaissance to give them bad news um the the staff there felt a bit disrespected because they students even in the post COVID era. Renaissance still has huge gains for attendance when kids go there and those gains were dismissed and the gains that um Dr. would probably site for like academics and the like we're actually smaller than the kind of gains that historically are delivered from renaissance in terms of attendance and we are funded on ADA. So you know like this is another one of those areas where like when we deviate from best practices um we're we're maybe hurting ourselves financially. Also I just want to point out that um those the the curriculum that I was uh emailing you about Dr. a lot of those actually would be culturally responsive and u it can be difficult to get students to want to read these days. So when I have like materials that are uh culturally responsive I feel like I feel like we ought to embrace those. Um also I'll just just today I did speak to a Renaissance student from the 1819 year and it was he remarked on how good that school was even though it didn't work for him. He eventually went to Sequoa to graduate, but he commented how good it was. And it reminds me of when Ben Slider went there, he spoke of how like a good PBIS system maybe won't take care of 100%. There'll be a small percent that need to go everywhere. But that doesn't mean you throw out like you don't don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. And our PBF members should remember that when it comes time to TA. Thank you. >> Just the one card. >> All right, that moves us on to the presentation. So, ahead of looking at our um goals and guardrails, this ties into presentations that I'm giving in the community and across the district uh to explain where we've been and where we're going and how this relates to the board's goals and guardrails. And Sylvest Oh, there it goes. Okay. Uh and so in 20 May of 2024 when I was hired uh we worked to create the vision and mission of the district um and that Danny and Olivia were part of that um with the previous board. However, this vision and mission was established by going out into the community and meeting with over 50 different meetings and 1,500 different surveys to listen to the community and what the community wanted for their students. Based on all of that survey input, we also developed the three-year set of strategic goals um that would guide the district. And these have been the goals that we've been working off of. They were adopted into board policy uh in October of 2024 and then readdopted at a board workshop by this board in February of 2025. And these were all established by the community, the listening sessions that I did. However, one of the things that we learned in June of 2025 is that there was a problem with these goals and the process that was used. And the problem was that I was the one who had gone out and done all the listening and done the surveying and and gathered all of the input. And what we learned through effective school boards is that all of those listening sessions, all of those inputs in listening to the community is the board's work. And so now as we have started our journey with effective school boards and the board has done all of those listening sessions, now we're shifting into a new set of board goals and guard rails and these goals um start to sunset. But the good news is is that there was really an alignment in from what I heard out in the community to what you heard out in the community. And so, um, that's kind of the the nice thing is is the community really does want the same things. Um, and it kind of reinforces that what was heard in 2024 and that summer and through the fall um is the same as what you heard as working now. >> Okay. Okay. So, um, since I've been here, we have, it's really been this three-year journey where in the first year, year one was building the foundation, looking at how do we have those goals to move forward. Year two was an investment into uh excellence in where we were going to go. And in year three, as we start looking towards closing schools, laying a foundation, uh we're hoping to get into the lasting impact. and and as the board develops its goals, I think there's a sense of excitement um into where those goals are going to take us and how that is going to impact students um in the long term. So in 2024 uh when I came in, I knew one of the things also that we had to have was some focused goals that everyone could unite around uh teachers, schools, transportation, nutrition services. And so we took a close look at our attendance and we took a close look at graduation and we set the goal of 98% attendance rate and 98% graduation rate. At that time in 2425 we had a 93% attendance rate and a 90.6% graduation rate. Um what you do know is that all of that has come up um since since we've been here significantly especially in graduation rate. um our graduation rate. We're looking forward to seeing the final numbers this year, but it's come up 2% 2% 2% in the years since I've been here. Um in that last year, we really took a look at the strategic reading goal. We need to get our students reading. We're in the bottom uh 5% of all districts. And so, we made some um intentional investments to develop our educators and build capacity. One of the biggest investments we've made is the science of reading the letters curriculum for our teachers. Um and and really investing in our teachers and paying our teachers for their time. Uh we started with the Swan curriculum which is now paradigm. We started with two schools on a volunteer basis. It expanded to eight schools because the schools word of mouth um spread that this was a good program. And now we've gone districtwide and um teachers are really enjoying that program and feeling the capacity to teach math. That's what Swan is about. It's now called Paradigm. Um and I had the uh great honor to uh sit with some teachers at Aloney today as they were getting trained in the paradigm training. It was exciting to see. We also invested in AVID. AVID stands for advancement via individual determination. And this is all about collegegoing culture for students primarily for students who um have would be a first generation college student. However, it is also a set of strategies that teachers use that can be used in any classroom that helps students to learn at a high level. We also invested in advanced placement. You saw the slide tonight that I shared about our students taking advanced placement tests and passing those tests. But we have to also develop our educators um in the area of teaching advanced placement so that they feel the capacity to continue in their learning and um always advancing their educational expertise. And so we've been sending teachers um and investing in stipens for them to continue their training and um and and also to keep and continue collaborating with each other. We passed stipens so that we could uh pay for people's computer science authorization and we're paying for those authorizations for them to go to school as well. And we continue looking for opportunities for professional learning not just for our teachers but also for our instructional aids. We continue to look how we support every student through attendance campaigns, through multi-ter systems of support, through our $32 million grant that we received in 2024 for community schools. We continue to have wellness centers. Uh we are hyperfocused on early literacy and brought in a new phonics program districtwide to help support that. Our college and career pathways have expanded. Um early college is one of the hallmarks that we're incredibly proud of having uh the opportunity at uh Paharo Valley High School to earn an AA simultaneously with your high school uh diploma. is the first um the first of its kind in Santa Cruz County um where students are doing that and are working actively with our teachers to do the instruction um in tandem with Cababrio teachers. And then we have our PV Elevate online learning program. And some of these programs were designed to boost our enrollment so that we have program offerings for students um in the district so that they have uh options because I think our families um are looking for different options and we need to meet them uh in those goals. And then we we want to continue to strengthen the organization. We did do a reduction in force but we also looked at ways that we could mitigate that by doing an earlier retirement uh program and implementation. Uh we are looking to have greater school leadership stability by also improving the capacity of our leaders and having cross department collaboration and that's some of the alignment that we're working on in this third year. So we kind of look at this as a watershed moment at this 2627 school year where we're beginning to see the data move. We're seeing it move in some significant ways and we're including uh all of our students in the voice that they have. So our theme this year is one purpose every student. And our student attendance uh slogan this year as you know our students are the ones who design our attendance campaign every year. um the student who submitted that and we'll be bringing the student to a board meeting to celebrate them. The winning slogan was show up, believe it and achieve it. We'll be having t-shirts for that. So, we have some del some data celebrations. Um I shared a little bit at our last board meeting, but this is a little bit more in depth. So, our attendance uh by grade level, you can see what it looks like across the district. We've continued to improve, not by leaps and bounds, but it is improvement. Uh we break it out by elementary, middle, and high school so that we can see, do we have grades spans that are doing better than others or are there areas where we need to pay specific attention so that um it might be an improvement area. As you can see, our high school um area is an area where we need to put some effort in. and maybe Natalie Allen could help us with some ideas on how to get our high schoolers more involved. Um, we also break it out by uh student groups. So there you could see our English learners are a group that we monitor closely and that's something that I know the board has um talked about in our equity um focus and with the guardrails and then we also uh monitor closely our special education students and their attendance. it. If you look across the board, it is our high school students who are the group that we need to to watch and um incentivize maybe uh and dig a little deeper into why that attendance has gone down a little bit. Our suspension rate is a highlight. We have decreased suspension from last year by 1.5%. That's a really great that means we're keeping kids in school more there. And generally if students are getting in trouble less, uh they're probably a little bit happier at school as well. Our graduation rate, we talked about our graduation rate improving. Um n in 2024 it was 92.45% and now we've moved the needle up to 93.83%. I've said many times before to you that in a district our size, moving things 1% is a celebration. and that's hard to do. Uh we did have a little dip in Abas High School and Watsonville High School had a what we would call pretty significant dip. Uh these are not our final numbers. So we do expect that we might see some change there. Uh but we do have a highlight and that's Paharo Valley High School. So they had some great improvement. Um that's a high school that we have invested significantly in. Like I spoke earlier about the middle college and that was intentional because when I came in May of 2024 um one thing I heard at the board meetings over and over again is that this was a high school that had great inequities and so we have done intentional things there um to try to address those inequities and the results that we're seeing um are are very very promising. Uh we also our reclassification rate of our students so becoming English proficient has improved greatly. We had a little bit of a change in elementary that went down that we'll be looking at more closely as to why we had those results. But overall middle school and high school which are typically the areas that are really hard to see reclassification improvements um are a big source of of wins for us. So you saw this at the last board meeting. This is what we're calling our leaderboard. So these are our schools that had significant improvement on our um our California accountability measures. So doubledigit growth is really something to be incredibly proud of. Um Apas High School, Paharro Valley High School both showed doubledigit growth in two areas, ELA and math. Um and you see the same high schools um and the same schools having improvement in two subject areas. And so that is something to note as well. Um because what's happening there is it's not an accident. Instruction is just improving across the board from intentional actions that have happened. And so in each of these schools uh that have improved, we know exactly how those results happened. has been from um actions that we had. So for instance um in math the schools that had improvement in the elementary schools are the schools that um started with the the SWAN math program. Uh in the middle schools those are also SWAN math schools. They were our first they were our schools that that agreed to do um SWAN uh in the middle schools. In our high schools um they've been participating. Pajaro Valley High School's been participating in our California Ed partners and Apas High School uh really uh took on the grit the graduation rate intervention teams and has done a lot of work there. So with the board, as you know, we've begun our district alignment journey with um in June of 2025 beginning the effective school boards. And I know you know this work, but I am also sharing this work across the district and in communities so that when I'm messaging about what we're doing in PBUSD this year, the community knows and understands the work of the board. So we started our uh work with effective school boards and one of the things we really focused on um immediately was the idea that student outcomes will not change until adult behavior changes and that we need to really look at the adults in the system in order to get the results that we need for the students in the system. And then the other uh important tenant of um effective school boards is that the board work is to listen to the community for the vision and the values. And then those vision and values become the goals and the guard rails. And then the goals and the guard rails are the really our north star, the thing that we should be focused on singularly. And so as you have gone out and done the listening sessions, you've listened to hundreds of inputs from the community. You've heard what you believe the vision and the values are, which I believe you heard correctly because it really also still lines up and underscores with the thousands of inputs that I heard. Um, which I think is a is a good alignment. And then that strategic alignment becomes those goals and guard rails which then allows the whole system to align to what we want to accomplish for our students because the community is telling us this is what we need to accomplish for our students. And so here's our draft so far. And later tonight we'll be looking on working on what that looks like and hopefully finalizing it. It's in draft form. So, when I share this with our uh staff and with the community, I'm sharing this as a draft and that we're still working on it. Um, but third grade reading, student math success in 8th grade, college and career readiness, potentially critical thinking and media literacy, and that these are worthy goals of an educational organization. Um, the other thing I always explain is that just because we're focused on third grade math doesn't mean it's just third grade math. you have to be focused on kindergarten and first and second to be able to reach that third grade goal. Same with eighth grade. Um you have to be able to have everything underneath uh to be able to be successful in eighth grade. And then the guardrails um and how I explain the guard rails is that these come from the values of the community. And when the board listened to the values of the community, the things that became heightened were equity, safety, student well-being, and community engagement. And so from there, we looked at what are the things that the community holds most dear that we have to safeguard under all conditions. And that this is so far how those values are turning out. So, equitable outcomes, safe, clean, and healthy learning environments, student support and well-being, and then meaning full community engagement. And that when we have these goals and guard rails, this is how we align time, talent, and treasure. And so, as we work to on the board piece, I talk about how um the board is doing this work over here. And then at the same time that the board was doing that work, at the district level, we were also doing work to help align ourselves to how we were going to accomplish the vision of the of the board. And so we simultaneously went upon a listening session um with district level personnel, with different shareholders including our labor partners, uh classified staff, certificated staff to see how can the district level personnel live in support of the goals and guard rails and live in support of the schools because everything that we need to accomplish happens at the schools and so everyone else who's not at the schools needs to live in service of the schools and so we worked with Naguchi Consulting um to help us to to get that information. Oops too fast. Uh and across those interviews, this is what we heard that the district level um needs to work on clear communication throughout the organization that we need better coordination across departments instead of working in silos. That we need to have greater clarity around the roles and responsibilities and decision making. That our systems need to be more consistent. We need to have better workflow and operating procedures. that we need to be more responsive and better serv service service oriented um and better support to the schools that we need stronger coherence in student services and special education that came up in every single interview that was conducted um and that we need increased leadership development and organ organizational capacity. So these were the key seven things that were heard over and over and over again very consistently. So that's the work that we need to do. And so as we work to align everything from the boardroom to the classroom, we are working to put the goals in the guard rails at the very very top of everything that we do and that everything at the site aligns to that so that our LCAP goals as we are in the last year of our LCAP and moving into the next three-year plan of the LCAP that the LCAP goals become actually the board goals so that all of the pieces of the LCAP line right up to those um board goals and guard rails that the school single plans for student achievement or school plans for student achievement become the board goals that the school plans are do not live separately. Uh community schools have goals as well and we're we have to turn that in for the sake of the grant. they have to have these goals and the goals are kind of dictated by um the grant. However, we're calling them strategies and um those strategies slashgoals are the strategies that we'll be using to meet the goals and guardrails of the board. Um and then all of our evaluation goals. So just like my evaluation will be based on the goals and the guardrails, so will cabinet's evaluation. So will our principal's evaluation um also be based on the goals and the guardrails because the whole system will now move to hit those measures for our students. And so as we work on this realignment, we're going to be looking at how are we meeting those those goals. You'll be seeing and working on the metrics and the KPIs later this evening. Um each of the cabinet have been working on the KPIs that they own and then they're working on those KPIs with the people they supervise so that everyone owns a piece of those goals. Um so that we start hitting those targets for our kids. And so at the end of the presentations that I give, we really ask for that call to action from everyone that we need um feedback from people. We need to um have people tell us how we're doing, but we also need people to um to give back to in the way that we need it. So, we're making a commitment to clear clear communication, clear lines of communication across all channels. We're making a commitment to providing professional learning across the organization, targeting the board goals and guard rails. We are making a commitment to continuous feedback uh within the system and setting those conditions for learning. And we're also making the commitment to directly improve the conditions of support so that the system can improve the student achievement. Um, but we're also asking of all PBUS staff that we increase the focus of instruction in the classroom, that we increase the focus on the student outcomes, that we align to the board goals and guard rails, and that when we're not meeting those um, and there's struggles in the classroom or struggles at the site, uh, that we're making sure that we're communicating with each other so that we can, um, be the system we want to be for our students. And we really we end this presentation and we end it with student outcomes will not change until adult behaviors change. And who are the adult behaviors that need to change? It's just my adult behavior. We're we're looking at at just what can you do in the moment to help the students rather than um pointing fingers at anyone. And that I believe And so, um, as we move forward into the year three, we're looking at one direction, one system, better outcomes that we're aligning to the board goals, that we're looking at district level planning that aligns the LCAP, the single plans, better quality classroom instruction through the investments that we've made and improvement in our student outcomes, and that we're supporting this by a culture of accountability that we continue to use student voice. Thank you to our trustee sitting here who helps me to lead our 4D student um advisory that we're looking at the strategic partnerships that we need um across not just with uh people within the district but people outside of the district that we look at resources and contract alignment that all of the things that we're doing are aligning to those board goals and that we continue to use data um and progress monitoring to ensure that the actions and decisions that we're making align to getting us to where we need to be uh for our students. And we do want to continue to think about student outcomes don't change until adult behaviors change. And it's going to be the people in the PBUSD educational community and across Paharo Valley that are really going to help shape the futures of our students. And it's going to take all of us uh to impact the change. And our students historically for 30 years have not been doing well in this district. Um and it's going to be a very concerted effort that we need to engage in uh to ensure that we continue to move the students forward. >> With that, that is all. >> Thank you. I just realized I have been remiss about not calling Trustee Allen to speak at each item. I apologize to you. Um I know I'm out of practice. I'm so sorry. Um would you like to make comments on this item? I can come back to you. Okay. Trusty Flores, >> thank you for uh providing this presentation to us and for going out and doing it all over our community. I think it's important um that the community hears, you know, what's going on because not everyone watches what's going what goes on in here. Um it's kind of like the road show you we did last year. I thought that was great. I had a lot of good input from parents about that. They liked that we came to their campuses. So, um, anytime you know you're going around my area, I'd love to join you with this. Um, but yeah, thank you, >> Trusty Medina. >> Yeah. Um, so student outcomes don't change until adult behavior changes. I'd like to also think that student outcomes don't change until we get the appropriate results in the right roles. So that way um the students are well informed and impacted. Um so I I think we're heading in a really good direction. Um I know um you know there you were stating that Naguchi Consulting did really good. That was a nice plug for your friend. Um, but I also want us to understand too that the direction of the board is going to change with every election. Um, because new things come up and within that time span they've seen what hasn't worked. So that's why we probably need to go in a new direction. Um, but I appreciate the effort. Um, and um, yeah, I I mean I hope you live up to what we're actually saying because it hasn't been happening. So um, that's all I got to say on this. Thank you. Thank you, >> Trusty Kasco. >> So, from what I have seen as well, um I have seen some of that stuff um being implemented. For example, a lot of the teacher training. Um we had that at the beginning of the summer, we had that toward the end of the summer, and we had that year round with letters and and swan math. So, I'm seeing the little seeds being planted and for those of you on the other side seeing this um you might not see the results of these investments for the that we have for for our students until next year. That's why we continue to bring up a lot of the um the increase in test scores for literacy and math because we are seeing even if it's a tiny percentage um you know and I know that you know what we do with students we don't automatically see it right away and a lot of the times we even think are they listening it's not until later that they'll they'll say something or do something that you're like oh they were listening listening and you're starting to see that. So, with this stuff, it's going to take time. We need to be patient, but I am starting to see all of those little seeds sprout. So, thank you for the work that everybody has done and um I'm excited to continue moving forward. >> Thank you, Trusty Allen. >> I appreciated that presentation. I think that I agree with Dr. Contra's points about having a streamlined vision vision being a a pertinent part of what we're doing at this district. But I also agree with what Trusty Medina was saying is that um we do have to make tangible differences and decisions. Um but kind of combining both of those points, I think that appropriate and respectful adult behavior does lead to those effective decisions. Um that involve kind of a collaboration between um the adults that are involved in those decisions. And I think that not only is that appropriate behavior important for effective decision- making, but also um role modeling for the students just from a student perspective, being able to look up to the people who are making decisions for us is important to see something that we can take and hopefully follow and be successful in following those kind of behaviors. Um, and then ending my comment, I don't have a lot of um, student individual student feedback as of now. Um, just because of communication issues that will be mitigated in the future on my part. Um, but from a student perspective, um, just getting admin and getting adults that make decisions out into schools and listening to students, um, I think that physical presence is super important and it makes people feel heard. Um, and when people feel heard, I think they're encouraged to speak up. Um, I'll go to you, Trusty Lauro. I know that you had to step out because of an emergency. Sorry, I got a bug jumping around over here. Um, I think that this is pretty much the entire reason that I joined this board is to do this work. Um, and to make our schools the best that they could be. And I'm really proud of the people that have participated in the training and that have gone out to the community and who have listened and who have come up with tangible goals for the superintendent. And Dr. Contreres, thank you for your thoughtful approach going forward. Um, I look forward to seeing interim data and making sure that we are on par and hopefully going above and beyond our goals. Um, I know I was pretty impressed with the SA numbers what they've done and I would like to see numbers like that in our in our general district going forward. Um, I agree with uh, Trusty Allen that student voice is the most important and figuring out some way to be able to engage and get feedback other than just from, you know, ASB students would be really great going forward. >> I'll come back to you, Trusty Flynn. Did you have a comment? Um, student outcomes don't change until adult behaviors change. It has been kind of the driving force of my work since we began it about a year or so ago. It really shifted the way that I show up in the boardroom. um and what I focus on. And as a reminder, this isn't my first rodeo on a school board. Um with all due respect, Trusty Medina, >> I know you can. Um, it was actually you who inspired this because you were the one that pointed me and the board to the book by AJ. And it really has um been the framework that we have been not so successfully in moving it forward quickly but we are doing the work that clearly creates a path for community to lead the board and the board to then lead and direct the superintendent, which is how a democracy is supposed to run and work. And I hear what you're saying when you say a new board, new board members come on. My hope is that those new board members will embrace this work and continue it forward. And I've been very clear that I will not endorse any candidate that has not read the book or has not done any of the work. That's just where I stay. That's how much I believe in this work. It is the one thing that is driving me and has kept me here. Um because it's community voice. It's not me. It's not the superintendent. It's the community. Um, and I also want to thank you, Dr. Contras, for taking the time to really also embrace this. You could have resisted and you haven't. Um, this is the place where I've seen you light up and it's the place where I feel like you get to say you you almost get to like put it back on the board where it's like, well, this is what you told me to do. I'm only doing what you told me to do. So that way it it really does put the onus on the board and it it belongs to the board and that's really how it's supposed to be and um and for the work that you've done with the coaches with um Greg in particular um and just again how um you've embraced it. Um, so I really do hope and pray that this work does continue and I you know how much I respect you and um I'm so grateful for you to even have introduced me to it because it again has it's impacted even my personal life and how I operate. So thank you. >> Thank you Trusty Flynn. Um thank you Dr. Contras for implementing some of the things that we've talked about and for sharing with us the data changes. Um would you like to respond to any comments or questions that have come from the board? >> Yeah, actually I'm glad the comment about the board change and then what happens there. One of the things I do iterate when I'm doing these presentations and Olivia I'm glad you u brought up we we are going out to sites. actually have a lot of these scheduled for school site councils and um staff meetings. Uh but one thing we iterate is that be despite board changes uh the the vision the goals and the guard rails come from the community and so it didn't come from the board and so we and we say that I say that a lot so that people understand and hear that that it this this was the community's vision and um the goals and the guard rails that the community um sent to you through the listening session through surveys um that and it was analyzed um through data, not through like I think it was this and eventually like I hope tonight we get pretty far on this so that we can um go back out to the community quickly and and solidify it so that we we really do have that direction that we're going. And so I feel like if despite board changes um or any changes, superintendent changes, staff changes, that this work supersedes any single person because it is representative of what the community is saying they want for their children. >> Thank you. And that moves us on to >> trusty Charlie. I was named so I could respond. It's a point of personal privilege. >> She was very nice to you. Something to respond to. >> Yeah. No, I appreciate that. And >> can you keep it to a minute? Yeah, please. Thank you. >> Yeah. No, I I was really happy to introduce the book and I was ecstatic to share it with y'all until certain people on this board silenced me, made me feel like what I was trying to contribute to the discussion was not important. And it wasn't until somebody else brought it up that you all started acting on it. I only paid $4.99 for that book. You all have cost out $188,000 for this consultant. That's a lot of money. And if I ever recommend a book, please do not spend $188,000. All right? When you have the material in front of you. That's what my point was with that. But I'm really glad you got something out of the book cuz that was how I formed my campaign. That's why I was on the ground. That's why I was having community sessions. That's why I went live on Tik Tok, Instagram, and Facebook because those are the things that matter to the community. And when you only speak to a handful of people and you call that community and you base all these values around that, that's where I have an issue. But thank you. >> That moves us on to 10.2, continued report, discussion, goals, and guard rails. Do we have AJ online? Yes, ma'am. >> It was a grant. public comment. Do we have any public comment cards? >> We're going to start with public comment. Thank you. >> So, we will start with public comb. So in terms of goals and guardrails, I think the board like one thing that we're seeing right is consistency. So that that I I appreciate that you put that as a as a value. I think you you heard right. Um I like one I feel like one example of it is like if we have a dial if I have a dialogue with the district leader and I hear about like a a certain like policy like say with purchases then like that we should be uniform to where I don't have to explain the district policy to my site. I feel like that's not really I mean I can do that but I think it's more the job of your people to do that. So like when it comes to to certain vendors like teachers discovery or something that should be like I want the consistency thing like in all cases in the censure cases like there was an inappropriate censure and then there's one that probably should have happened then didn't there's there's also consistency with like when it seems to be when we hold different people account if it's a teacher uh like in the last couple years it seems like we rush to go past progressive discipline but if it's an administrator um there's like basically no accountability until things get so bad that it's like a major safety issue we can't ignore and then they get promoted. Um so the these are some of the issues I have. Also I think um this this change that we have here like this is how they do it over the hill in the North Korean style where they they don't let the community hear the presentation first. So I I don't I think this is a bad move. This is a this beat right here, Turley. this is a behavior you should change. Also, um you know, I I I follow I would say follow Joyy's lead from when he when she um presided. I felt like she ran a very good meeting and that was the best presided meeting we've had all year. It's a it's a shame she's not going to be here um by her own she I mean I get the stresses of the job, but like you'll be missed. Um and you set a good example. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hey, good evening again. I appreciate the work you've been doing around this been uh fun to watch and glad I was able to participate in some of it recently. Um as the head of cope for PVFT, I did as we look at the guard rail side, I did want to come up earlier, I'll get to that, but uh and I did want to mention a somewhat of a concern. Um we did we've been doing our endorsements, I think all of those who were a part of it. Um, but as we we do, I am a little concerned about the campaign materials at the back of the room and that I did actually have the same uh California code uh that was brought up earlier. And so I just think we need to look at some of that area and what's appropriate and what's not because my question becomes can the rest of our candidates put their events now back with the and it's a genuine question like um because I also go now that we're allowing and it's not true because it shouldn't be allowed like by code like we're not supposed to use this space for that in the same way that we have the tripods that we're now allowing up front can we put up for all of our candidates now can we start putting tripods up front I think that is also dangerous territory to start letting all of that up front so I just think that's something that we need to have some conversation about and just decide what's appropriate and what's not because I think we're in some gray territory that that's a bit concerning. Um I will say um I would have loved to have said that earlier as a member of PVFT and to your point um no that wouldn't be commenting on public comment if you look at the agenda. Section six is public comment 6.1 is public comment on 6.2 2 is public comment on this section 7 employee organization comments 7.1 is PVFT under the same way you look at six it would make sense that PVFT members could speak just like public com can speak to public comment time uh and officers being able to speak so just want to say I I don't think that it's a comment about public comment it's an opportunity for uh our uh and this would be directly related to our union and to our your labor partners so thanks that's just another guardrail to think about what that looks like. But thank you for the work you're doing and uh keep on keep it up. Thank you. >> Um and I believe you have a presentation Dr. Conturus. Do you want to start with that or >> Okay. Okay. Let's bring AJ up then. I see his logo. I think he's there. Here we go. >> We do a a sound check. We want to see if we can hear you. AJ, >> can you hear me? >> Do a sound check. You want to see I don't hear anything from Zoom. Can you hear me? >> Okay, now I can hear you. >> Yeah, I think we hear him fine. If I un I unmute, you can hear me talk. He doesn't hear them on the >> Yes. I don't hear anyone other than you. How about now? Can you hear us? AJ, are you here? No sound. >> Can you hear us? AJ. >> No. >> Still don't hear anything. >> Okay. Whoever came off mute a moment ago, I heard you, but I haven't heard anyone since you've gone back on mute. >> Can you hear me now? Can you hear us now? >> AJ test. >> I don't hear anything coming through Zoom right now. >> Just give us just a second. >> Good. Now I hear somebody. >> Okay. Are we in business? >> Okay. >> All right. Let's see if that works. >> Okay. How about now? >> Now I can hear someone again. Can you guys try to >> I could hear him and I still hear >> you guys need >> Yeah, >> how do we get rid of the >> Okay, we're gonna try again. Can you hear us? Yes, >> that sounded sort of okay. Okay, a little echo echo. >> Okay, we're going to do a little volume adjustment. >> Okay, trying again. How is that? Can you hear us? All right. Yes, ma'am. Okay, that sounds great. All right. Um, so we've had our public comment. We are ready for you. >> I guess my question, I'm sorry, point of clarification is can the people that can they hear him? >> Okay, great question. >> Thank you. >> All right. And so simply to recap the process, uh you all as a board have taken time to go out and engage in listening in your community with the intention of trying to understand what is the vision of your community for what students should know and be able to do. What are the non-negotiable values of your community that must be honored while implementing the vision? Um and as a board having made an effort to harvest the vision and values of the community, now the task is to write those down as policy so that they become a driving force for the superintendent, for your entire organization, community that there there is a clear path that you all are pursuing. Having completed that listening, then you all came together and used what you heard to put together a rough draft set of goals and guardrails. At this time, the next appropriate step is for you all to be in discernment about whether or not these are in fact the appropriate demonstrations of your community's vision and values. this set of priorities is appropriate to proceed on uh to be a guide for your organization for the next few years. Um if so then you would approve moving forward with them probably have a little bit more public opportunity for engagement around the rough drafts that you all develop. Um but then the next step beyond that is simply to adopt them and move forward with holding your superintendent accountable for them. And so I'm happy to be here to provide any technical assistance and answer any technical questions you all might have about the process or about how you use uh these policies uh to help hold your superintendent and organization accountable. Uh but really the conversation is in you all's hands as the public officials, as the community's representatives to really be in discernment right now about are these the priorities that we want to hold our superintendent and organization accountable for for the next few years. Uh but whatever questions you all have about the process or any technical questions I'm happy to be respons um what you have then what everyone should have is a packet that looks like is Jessica Olivia. Um, and if you put that into the first page, we have the third grade. We start with goal one, which is the third grade reading proficiency, the recommended goal, and then the annual targets. Then we have the recommended inner rim holds >> inner rim targets >> and it goes down from there. Um what I want to walk you through is goal one, goal two and on to goal three are our goals that we we were really pretty much in agreement on. And I don't I think that you felt I heard you right uh that we had the targets uh where where me and staff had felt uh good about the targets the interim targets the interim goals where we were um had had paused and were not sure about was goal four. So, I don't know if you want to go back over goal one, goal two, goal three, or maybe just for the sake of like um we can circle back to those because we've already been there maybe go to start at goal four uh critical thinking >> because that was one that we kind of left for what I heard was in that meeting was um I need some more thinking time on that one. Um, and I I had it gotten I had asked the board, you know, send me some um emails, give me some more information. I can work on this pool and then I can bring it back. And I really didn't get any more information. And so, yeah, a little but as a whole like not too much. So, so we have that. Um, I did my best, but you may want to have some have something else. And then on the guard rails, uh there was some debate on well are the guardrails goals? Do we bring that into a goal? Uh >> especially on the equitable outcomes guard rail. Uh there was a lot of discussion. Is that a goal? Is that a guard? Um so we may want to talk about that. I think I feel like guardrail was was I think we felt pretty good about but guard rail three we had some questions and guard rail four >> we really have questions. Um, so I I think for the sake of tonight, there's one a couple things we might want to extend the meeting because it's 10:08. >> Um, that it might be good to focus on. You're still unclear so that we continue to make progress with maybe the hopes of coming out with some firm direction that I can move forward action on. Would the board meeting on this tonight and would anybody like to make a motion to extend the meeting? But I think we should have a conversation about how much time on this tonight before the extension conversation. >> Is it possible to get to a point where we are ready to move on to the next step tonight? cuz if that's a possibility tonight, I'd like to work this out. Um, if we're looking like we're going to have to come back to this again, then I would say suggest putting some sort of a limit. But >> we have us all here. We were all here the last one. So, I say >> do it. >> Do it. >> We do it. >> Okay. Um, >> I would agree because I'd like to go into gathering community input as soon as possible um in the next couple of weeks just to make sure that they feel like this is um affirmation of what it was we collected when they when we got their feedback. Um, so I would agree with um, Trusty Flores, which would then make me move to make the motion to extend the meeting to >> to I'm going to excuse myself from this meeting and go home to myself. Okay, I understand. Yeah, I'm going to need to excuse myself as well. Um, I I wanted to get to more important items, um, like the the contract and the consent item, but it seems like you all want to drag this out with this conversation. So, um, and I don't want to be I I can't be here at 2:00 in the morning. Um, it's the opening week for Cababrio College. Um, and I feel like we could be talking about more student centered things than this when you guys could have a retreat or do whatever you want with it. So, those are my comments. >> Thank you. >> Do you want to tonight? >> Okay. Okay. And of course, just stay if you feel like you need to stress. >> Yeah. All right. >> All right. Well, >> well, I make a Oh, >> go ahead. >> I make a motion to extend the meeting to one in the morning. >> Is there a second to that? Second. We have a first and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. One, two, three, four, five. >> Five in favor. Um, do you want to trust Medina? You want to >> I'm an absolute no. >> Okay. So, Five yeses, >> one no, no abstensions, and two absences. Okay. >> Okay. >> Motion passes. Thank you. >> All right. Um I propose we then start work talking about goal number four because we we weren't really sure where we were going the last time we met. Um I'd also before we really start spending much time working on that, I'd like to ask the superintendent. We have four goals. Three of them you fleshed out really well. Do you feel like we have resources to address all four of these? Um so when I was working with uh cabinet so the process we were using and and Greg and I had talked about this too and he needs to come and do a workshop with cabinet but I am familiar with the process because it's based on um a book that we've both read and I've done this work before in in other districts. Everyone needs, like I said, everyone needs to own a goal and then the goals get broken down into the targets and the targets into the interim targets and um cabinet owns pieces of these and then um people cabinet supervisors owns pieces of these and we want to be really good at the pieces of these. Um I think >> that goal four like I feel really solid about goal one, two, and three. I think goal four might be adding a lot into it. The other thing is that with goal four, the critical thinking piece does get captured by um our California um accountability assessment because our students will never do well on that assessment if we aren't um doing well in teaching critical thinking because that is automatic built into that assessment measure. which is something we talked about. I remember back when we were at EA Hall, we had some discussions about students have to be hitting what we call depth of knowledge levels. There's four levels if they're using and able to apply critical thinking skills. Well, they're going to progress on task, which is what we want them to do. So, I feel like we have that measure and we would be naturally aiming for that. >> Yes. Yeah. >> Are you able to put it on? >> No. >> Can you put it on do not disturb? >> Okay. >> That's what's happening. >> So So that that that's kind of my advice about that one. >> How do we feel about that? >> What forgo trustees? >> Yes. I was kind of more leaning towards that at our last discussion is I feel like the first three are amazing and I feel like that's a hefty goal for us three for us to take on. I'm okay with letting this one go. >> Especially understand >> how you feel about that. I mean, that's definitely something that we can um in our community engagement that we're going to be doing, just make sure that we're getting um I mean, you guys, you did a good job kind of assessing it out, figuring it out. Um >> I I would agree with that, but I would want to get just the feedback. We haven't announced it yet, but when we do kind of our >> meetings, reach out to community um with with their inputs and just see if it's something that >> I mean just give the feedback that you've given just like you said this is baked in this is going to be able to be achieved regardless um and then have a clear definition and vision of how and then make sure that the community feels okay with But I would agree. >> Trusty cross. >> I might I might have missed the part where you all said um could you just um go over a little bit what you mean by it's already embedded in. What do you mean by that? >> Yeah. So, a lot of the testing to be able to be successful um on critical thinking, it's already a part of testing that's happening. And if kids aren't doing well in that, they're not going to do well on tests that would allow them to be APG um um eligible or university eligible. >> Is that about right? >> Yeah. Jessica, you want to move this Yeah. Yeah. Um, so what you're all saying is you want to drop both four because of the testing part of it. >> No, I think what we're saying is what so in the training um and in the work we did with Greg and AJ uh one of the things they did talk about is three to five and >> yeah. >> So one to three no more than >> no more than five. And how many do we have now? >> Four. >> We have four. >> And they're pretty they're pretty big lift. >> Yeah. >> And so as we were looking at them and then as I was working with my team on them um like we want to do things well. We want to hit these targets. >> Um we really want to hit the first three. We want to hit goal four too. Tool four is if we're doing the we're going to get tool because critical thinking is is embedded into California accountability measure task assessment. >> Kids cannot do well on that assessment if they aren't being taught critical thinking skills. >> Okay. >> So what what what is what you want? >> Okay. I'm okay with dropping uh goal four and fully focus on one through three. >> Thank you. Trusty Ellen, do you have any comments? >> I agree. I think that looking over the first three goals, they seem to be of more importance in my >> Please do. >> So that's the critical thinking part. I recognize that that's embedded, but the media literacy and AI readiness, how how do we um integrate that um maybe not as a goal, but as guard rails or I don't I don't know just because I feel like there needs to be there may need to be something. >> Yeah. So, we were trying to figure out how would you measure this one too because it >> it could be Yeah. it wasn't it wasn't necessarily lending itself to good measurement and so and I think in remembering the discussion with the board then the board felt like okay but digital driver's license isn't necessarily hitting the spirit of what the board was wanting so I I think that wasn't necessarily it like we wanted critical thinking we heard from the community critical thinking there really wasn't a discussion from the community about media literacy or AI readiness Although that is definitely something worthy. >> Um, and in the discussions we were having with with my team, we I think we kind of want to still do this anyway. >> Do the media literacy and Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. >> And the digital driver's license piece. >> Yeah. It's it's I I think because >> I think if we went back to community, they'd be like, "Oh, yeah. we need that. Um, and so it'll be interesting to hear what they say when when we do bring this back to them. Um, and it's one of those things where we may not just because of the generation that we are be um, like really forward thinking in that sort of way. So, we kind of have to be forward thinking for our students. Um, I just finished um >> um I just finished a an AI certification through MIT and so it gave me a better understanding of media literacy and AI readiness in a way that I wasn't before. um and also a a possible way of measuring um that I would not have been able to even speak to last meeting because I just finished it on Friday. >> Good for you. >> Yeah, we definitely have ideas around that. And I think just because something doesn't live as the board goals and guard rails doesn't mean it's not happening, >> right? It just means that if it's in the goals and guardrails, we're measuring it, we're talking about it, we're reporting it, we're hyperfocused, that's like our be all and end all, but it doesn't mean that it's not happening. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> True. >> Trusty Flores, I think you had a comment. >> Yeah. I was I think you guys have covered it now though, but I was just going to reiterate that you know in our listening sessions and we received all this community input and there's more than you know three four five goals even but we had to really look at which ones h had more importance and which ones had more um weight under them and I can't I'm drawing a blank on the diagram you know with all the words and um you know you see which words are bigger and and and yes critical thinking media literacy AI readiness was were on there just not as you know big as as some of the other more important goals I think that we should be focused on. But that being said, the superintendent, the district has now seen what our community has said they want to see. And I don't think they're going to just let that go. I think like and you said, you know, you guys still want to do this and I think that's really important, but it doesn't have to be one of our, you know, main goals. Yeah. So, it sounds like we're unanimous in we're okay letting go of four, but we do want to make sure that there's some there's education that's happening that that addresses that. I think we agree with that too. Then the next thing and I think it was um Mads Real Mento who brought up the first guard rail sounds a lot like a goal. Um, >> so I I think what I would propose, Joy, good question, is since we had done some significant work and seemed pretty settled on the three goals, but we still and now we have goal four out of the way because that was one that we were really not sure on. um that now we go to the guard rails that we had questions on and try to get um firm on what where we want to go with that and then we could go back and fine-tune because I think otherwise we might start getting lost in the fine-tuning and not get the big picture piece that we need we need to get done otherwise I can't go forward with my team. I would just say let's just go over the highlights of whatever goal, whatever goal that's attached to the guard rail that we're working on for people who are following along. Is that >> um so I'll just comment quickly to that. So guardrails don't necessarily have to be pinned to a particular >> goal, but with this particular guard rail, I think it relates to goals one, two, and three and could just become an element of that. And I'm sorry, trusty fores, you had your hand up way before I did. >> No, it's fine. I just um I don't know that it's necessarily a problem or a bad thing if our guard rails can also look like goals. And I would love to hear AJ's um point on this as well cuz if he feels like these guard rails that maybe look like goals are okay and sufficient and actually you know give the point that we're trying to give then I'm fine with this if it you know so I just wanted to put that out there. >> AJ are you able to unmute and did you hear Trusty Flores's question? >> Uh yes and so the distinction between your goals and your guard rails is the goals are really about what is it that you want students to know and be able to do. And so anything that you heard from your community about these are the top priority things that we want to make sure that our students absolutely know and be able to do, have those as goals. an I appreciated comment that was made a moment ago that just because something isn't one of your top priorities that's encapsulated in your goals doesn't mean the school system is not going to attend to it. It just means that these are the things that you've heard from the community are the top priority that you went and focus on. And so for example, you don't have a goal about serving school lunch, but you'll still certainly be serving school lunch. Um you don't have to have a goal about anything. The reality is that the board that tries to focus on everything is the board that focuses on nothing. And so what you're really trying to do is say what are the things the most important thing that our students should know and be able to do that we're going to really double down our focus on and those would be your goals. And then for your guardrails, it's you know what are the values? And so I think part of your question is which is an appropriate question is um should our guard rails also be a bunch of things about what we want our students to know and be able to do? And I would say no, they really shouldn't be. Your guardrail should be about what are the things that we are saying are off limits, the things that are out of bounds for the superintendent to do because it'd be a violation of our community's values. So what does make sense as a guardrail is to say um our goal is we want to increase how well students are performing in A through G. um you know but the guard rail is um the superintendent may not pursue A through G at the expense of XYZ. Um that's that's an example of how goal and guard might work together. And so you definitely don't want to try to formulate it as just yet another goal because then you start to dilute your focus on your goals. Um but it can be about any area of your community's values uh that from your listening was expressed as the as one of the highest priorities is just um with your goals. They'll be directive in nature. They'll say here's where we need to get to and we expect to see information every single month about are we making progress in that direction. Whereas with the guardrails, they're more here are the things that are out of bounds and you usually just check in on your guardrails once per year to see um is the superintendent honoring the community's values in this specific area. So that's the biggest difference. And so if you move forward with this particular guard rail, just understand that it won't be treated like a goal. That this will be treated like something that you check in once a year just to make sure that the superintendent is honoring the community's values. The goals, however, um you'll spend time every single month monitoring progress toward the goals because that's where the real priority is. What is it that our children know and are able to do so that they can live a choice fililled life, a life of agency, a life of self-determination and purpose? Um that's what your goals are about. And so those get the focus. Um is that at all helpful um in terms of thinking about how to distinguish between do I want this to be a goal or do I want this to be a guard rail? >> That was extremely helpful. Right. What the >> Yeah. >> Yep. Okay. Yep, that's better. So, if we are um so I I guess let's frame it this way. So if uh equitable student outcomes is a guardrail and we want to protect at all costs our student groups then we would want to set up the guard rail so that in the pursuit of third grade reading and I we're going at third grade reading going at third grade reading we aren't trying to hit that 25% of all students I'm just making up a number um make it and all of our eels fall further behind. Or if it's A through G, well, we improved our A throughG, but our special education students didn't graduate. Yeah. So, I think that's a worthy guard. I think that sounds like the guard. AJ, correct me if I may be wrong about that. >> Are we in agreement? Do we have any other discussion that you good? >> Okay. And it stays. >> Um I think we should just get >> We did. We did. Okay. >> We have two town halls scheduled. So we're I'm sorry. We're gonna >> I know. I know. And I like that it worked well. >> Still working. Okay. >> Okay. So, it sounds like we're keeping this as a guard rail. I think we were okay on guard rails two and three, but we wanted more thought guard. Okay. So, safe, clean. Yeah. I I thought two three student support and well-being and then equitable we needed equitable student outcomes. Were we fine on that one? Guard rail one. >> Okay. So one, two, and three we were good. And then what was the number of guard rails? >> Guard rail four meaningful community engagement. >> Uhhuh. >> Yeah. Well, plus it was at the end. How what was the number of guard rails? Do you remember? >> Yeah. I wonder if that's why we struggled with it so much. I don't know. >> How do you feel about that? >> Thank you. Say that one more time. Well, what I was saying without having to say it all over again, but like my my same arguments for kind of >> is the same thing I would have a guard rail for as I feel like we're trying to do too much and trying to, you know, capture everything that we heard from the community instead of really highlighting, you know, three really important um guard rails that we can then really focus on. But at the same time, our superintendent has heard, you know, from our what our community has said. We as a board will keep reiterating that and keep an eye on the this these and so I feel we are we don't need guardrail for >> well and I'm hearing that we're going to have a town hall right to >> we have two scheduled right now and we'll talk about that in a little bit >> and I feel like I'm looking at guard row one two and three and I feel like in In order to also evaluate and hold ourselves accountable, we already have to be doing goal for >> Yeah. It's almost like the same thing as goal for like you're just almost inadvertently doing it just by the nature of doing it. that that makes sense to me. There was something else I wanted to say. I mean, yeah, that makes sense to me. And there was something else I was going to say and I can't remember it was if I remember that. Yes. Um, I think I heard you say in an earlier presentation that you made today that part of what you and your team are doing is um, kind of making more uniform your communications with public, right? Um, and I feel like that's part of engagement. It seems like that's something that you're doing anyway. And maybe that's something that you would report back to the board periodically. >> Yeah, we can definitely do that. I mean that was something that came across loud and clear in uh feedback we've had is that communication is a a area of weakness. So that's one area we're really working on anyway. So >> okay I think we're in a good >> Yes. Thank you. >> I just had a couple of things to say. Um, I see how like this how this guardrail could um like kind of hinder your ability to like process your recommendations uh quickly. Um, so I see that as a negative for sure. Um, but if you guys um are saying that it would kind of inadvertently be like followed through through the other three guard rails, um I think that like on a positive note that the community would appreciate having this in writing. Um, and even like if it's going to be success like succeeded through the three first guard rails, I don't see a problem with having four the fourth one other than you would have to end up falling following through which would make it slower. Um, and then just one question I had was how like how would this be measured kind of um with like with lack of better wording. How how would you say that recommendations from the community have been successfully gathered? >> I think that's one of the things we were struggling with when we were working on this one which I mean I guess meeting day oh this meeting is where Okay, Trustee Flynn. So, um I appreciate what you've um had to bring to this. It's it's really it's really great. Um especially with fresh eyes um and your perspective. So, thank you. Um, and as as I'm reading it, this would be something in my I don't know if opinion is the right word, but as I'm thinking, this would be then board work to to gather that community input, not yours. Do you know what I mean? >> Although we need some help. So I don't think this the the super right may not bring recommendations to the board on major decisions without first engaging the because you're making recommendations and then it would be for us to engage with the community because that's who we're representing. You know >> there's some of that too. >> Yeah. So you can bring us all the recommendations you want. It's up to us if we're going to take them or not and how we choose to engage the community to get feedback because ultimately we're supposed to be implementing what the community wants and we're held accountable, the board is held accountable by the community. >> So that so it actually doesn't really make sense that that would be put um AJ, could you speak to that, please? Yeah. So, if that is the >> I can't hear you. Hold on one second. >> Hold on. A >> Yes, I hear you now. >> Okay. Um, so that is the you all can certainly craft policies to do so. That's not how I read this particular way that it's written. It sounds like what the board is saying is that the superintendent for major items without having listening to members who are being impacted by the decision. So if you want it to be if you want some type of process where the board is engaged in the items, you can certainly create something like that. But that's not the way that this one seems to read. This one seems to go out and make process engaging parties. So I You just need to have a very different. >> So can I >> give you like an example? Hello. >> Okay. Um, so example, let's say that we are, and this is an example, we're thinking of hiring somebody in special ed. Then you would go out into um the specific school that we would be hiring and get their input. Or example, if we were going to close a school or a classroom, you would go to that school before coming to us. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Like principal hiring, we go out to the school, what are the qualities and traits you're looking for? And a principal Okay. And then they people from the school sit on the hiring committee. And so so some of those things are already um are already done. We include people on hiring committees. We have process for that. Um major decisions like closing schools. I mean, you've seen the big lengths that we go to to ensure that there's um broad community input and transparency by live streaming, recording, posting, everything. Um, we have like all these committees that we were looking at. It was funny because I was talking to Andrea Willie about this poll and the moving I don't know where we got the 50% to 90%. I think it was just Greg and Yeah. Um, but we're already doing a like almost all of this. We do do actually h have a lot of engagement. So, I agree with Trusty Allen. I think it's too much of a roadblock in in your work and if you need to make decisions, you need to make decisions, right, Trusty Forest? >> I was going to say that exact same thing. Trusty Ellen, I think, um, was spot on with what she had said. And I can't help but think, you know, with COVID and with, you know, other situations where we've had to act fast and I wouldn't want something like this to prevent us from being able to act fast. And I feel like we we you do what, you know, a lot of this is asking. Um, so as I'm listening and thinking a little bit more and getting the clarification and moving in between board work and superintendent work. Um, I see I see the point where it could be hinderance hindering and cause you to not be able to make decisions quickly. Um, but as I'm thinking about it more, um, I feel like there's a way to rewrite this to do both. And um because I do feel like when you do present things to the board, when the superintendent presents things to the board, there should be I've had this conversation with this these stakeholder groups and here is the documentation. Um here's how many times I did it. Here is the um you know, just be because I've seen it happen. So, I'm thinking of um maybe SRO's and the safety um survey that has gone out. Um you know, I I think that's a an example. that particular survey isn't meaningful to me per se, but something along those lines that shows that you've gone out, you've engaged. Um, you've worked with our student trustee to get their input and then you bring it back and you say, "And this is why I'm recommending this." So, I I feel like there should be both. And there could be, you know, caveats in here that um speak to emergency situations where you wouldn't you would be able to make a a decision just with the board. Um but for a a bigger decision like with a contract um for example, um I think there should be something that that has both. I think we would need to really define what major decision is because I think there's um yeah and uh like some things are might seem major decision in one realm over here and then over here it's like well that wasn't a major decision because we've been doing this for 20 years you know and then all of a sudden maybe it becomes a hot topic and some >> like in someone's eyes it's like but that wasn't you know what I mean >> that's too subjective Yeah. Yeah. So it would have to be and I think that's the problem we were having in some of this too is we and why how if you look at number one and then it's like all the new rules under it the subsets was like okay and this is a major we were trying to to firm that up. So of what isn't what defines that which is I think how some of this lists like the LCAP um a charter petition significant reductions of force policies that legal you know that those were major decisions. So I don't I think we just have need to get clearer if this uh remains a guardrail, but I think we would want to try to narrow that down um and get clear on that so that we're not hung up on um like we need to make a decision. Oh, AJ has a hand up. Go ahead, AJ. This is a very common issue. >> Hold up. >> Hold on, AJ. Sorry, I can't hear you. >> Give it a try. Give it a try. >> Yes. is a very common exact hearidentify on the low end. 15 circumstances where the board simply not willing to accept a recommendation from the superintendent that didn't first conduct and so the thing you are wrestling with I think is that if this wound up being applied to 100 different operate on a dayto-day basis. But if there was a really finite list again five to seven items on the low end 20 items that wind up what is the exact set of decisions that would considered major that this would apply to that might give you all a little bit more certainty as to whether is this something that you all want to adopt or not but as long as it's kind of a concern about does this accomplish more what is that list of things with the ongoing ide. Um so yeah that would be my recommendation is to ask um Dr. Contras that you come back with five to seven no more than 15 to 20 but some clear ideas of what that would be like so that it's not so ambiguous. I thought we had to really finalize this tonight if we want to move on to the next >> step. So, I'm going to offer a suggestion about that. If she comes up with that, emails it to us, gives us two days to respond, and if we don't respond, we don't have a comment. If we do respond, we had a comment. And then when we do our couple of um listening sessions, they're already scheduled and more if if others want to do more, then that's what we take out. And it's not really final at that point till we come back maybe October 7th to do an approval at that point. Does that sound reasonable? >> Yes. >> Can we talk a little bit about some items now? Because I know I know two very big things that you know brought this up I think and one was you know what um you know giving more work to teachers if we were made if we made a change that then put more because I I remember specifically um Mr. web when we're at EA Hall, you know, talking about that and it's like when we make decisions here, but then it trickles down andffecting more work onto the teachers. So, like that's when they're saying we really need to make sure stakeholders have been um spoken to. And then the other was um you know the Duncan Hbert situation that we had. So again, that's you know closing schools. So that's that should definitely be on the list which I know we already are do. we I mean we're we're doing but but let's like that's a specific one that we need to um put on the list so that you know we don't get ourselves in that mess um again. Um but those are just some of the things that I remember were discussed that brought us to wanting to pan like really bang out this guard rail. Would um new curriculum be one of those things that I think you kind of routinely do that? >> I'm I'm just thinking back Oh, sorry. >> I'm just thinking back of the ones where um there was a lot of community um unrest. and that may have been able to be avoided if there had been discussion ahead of time. Um, so I think the things that you mentioned and then um there's other >> Oh, there's other um or agenda items. I'm not thinking of anything at the moment, but just trying to think back of maybe items that have caused some unrest. >> Yeah. Where maybe community have not felt like they were um engaged with enough. Um seventh period sub schedule is one of them. We did we did some community engagement with that as an example. We did a ton. Yeah. Yeah. So, um I think that's an example of >> So, um I guess an example would be um not curriculum change, but schedule change would be one that would go on there because it affects a lot of people. Um Some of them there's some crossover like some of the things you're saying like curriculum schedule change cross over into also negotiated items and so then you have to be careful because you don't want to be holding meetings like getting input there's like a fine line there on things that are also negotiated. Um yeah, so I'll think through what I think. I mean obviously school closures is big. >> Um budget reductions. We did a whole big lots of community and put around that like a lot. So that would pro that would definitely be one you want to be working with community on. Um, >> yeah. And they're things that could already be happening or have happened kind of regularly, but now we just have them >> solidified. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Um, I mean, and then there's some that are like required like the LCAP. So, I don't know if you want to name ones that are like you already naturally do. That's about budget and budget development. So would you want those already that we do do named >> that's a big >> I I think keep it kind of kind of low. So, I think um Trusty Flynn and I kind of worked out a calendar that we were hoping we would keep to we and that's really the next agenda item, but we've scheduled we've already arranged for interpretation in place. Um a Zoom on I I just wanted to mention that right now so we can back into when do we need to get this input from. So, we had a Zoom scheduled for September 2nd and an in-person here for September 9 and a hope that we would approve these on October 7. So, if we want to do that, I don't feel like we have time for another one of these before that happens. But if if we agree individually to send comment back to the superintendent when she provides that list, then I think we can keep with that schedule, but not having the group conversation, just individually saying, "Oh, I don't know why you don't really need to put that on there." Or something similar to that. um September 2nd and September 9. It could be two or three. So that is the next >> I I feel like when when we're asking her when she needs to get these to us is critical to this piece before we can move on beyond move beyond that. Um so how many days do you think it would take you to put together the 5 to 22 and I hope it's closer to five or seven. um things that Yeah, these are things that that should go out to community. >> I can get that to to you pretty quickly. >> I I get it tomorrow. >> Yeah. >> Friday. You want to say Friday? >> Do you think you can do that? Is that too much of a rush? >> No, I could do it. >> Okay. So, she gets it to us in the Friday communicate. We commit to commenting by Monday noon. And if we don't send a comment, that means we didn't have a comment. >> Yeah. So that gives us from Friday until Monday. >> Okay. >> Maybe you're not always on by. Okay. Okay. So what's your suggestion? >> So end end of business >> like midnight. >> That's that's end of end of business is five. End of day. Midnight. >> End of day. Great. >> Yeah, me too. >> Yeah. So, what what time are you suggesting >> just so we're clear? >> 8 p.m. Okay, that's a good a good balance. So, Monday at 8:00 PM we will have our comments back on the short list of things that she does need to get community input on before she brings it to us. Is that that works for you? >> Yeah. Okay. That's the plan. Does anyone feel like we have any other work that we need to do right now on goals and guardrails or are we satisfied? >> I think I'm satisfied. Um I think there was a motion on the table and I don't think it did we vote on it. >> Oh, the motion about extending the time. >> Did we Did we actually >> Okay. >> All right. >> Yes. Till one in the morning. Till one. >> It passed. Okay. I just I just got a little bit I just had a little heart palpitation right there. >> Okay. >> Oh my gosh. >> Yeah, I doubt it. >> Okay. >> Good. >> Okay. >> AJ. So, I think we need to I'm just wondering if you have any any other words, wisdom to share. I'm just excited that we are nearing the end of this particular part of your journey. Um, individual board members, if you have any questions or you want one- on-one consultation as you all are in discernment, uh, you can reach out to us at any time. Uh, and we're happy to meet with you uh, oneonone to walk through whatever questions you have so that you feel like you are completely ready for the next step of this journey. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. But thank you. >> All right, that concludes 10.2. Now we were on to 10.3. Sustainable schools advisory update. >> I am going to actually do because it was just a quick update. Um, that's that's next. >> Is there public comment? >> Okay. 10.3. We're calling comment cards. >> Chris Webb, welcome to the podium. And Brandon Denise, come on up. Come on down. >> Okay. The the last um SSA number 10, I believe. Um, one of the is Preston who who u from his first time there he I'm I'm a fan but he he kind of he said step one we empathize we understand the people and the context deeply to me he started to lose me on that because I don't feel like we've done that because we still have not surveyed the stakeholders and then when this issue came up he kind of downplayed the the need for it. So I so I feel like the reason I liked him, he started to go away from. Um, so I would I would argue he should need to get back on the on the web protocol and uh do right by the by the community. And this is actually really important. I say this as somebody who has is living the consequences of of when a when a school district does this badly. My my kids got to uh my third grader got to start his third elementary school this year because they decided to close the the majority uh Latino schools in San Jose. Um, and there's a lot of like um negative impacts from this and I it's been rushed. Um, I think you know there's there's there's pressure to to speed this process along. I would caution against that. I think you maybe take a year just to think of what you want to do. take another year to decide how you will do it because right now you're dealing over in that side. uh they didn't think about um elopers or something and kids are like dealing their kids are like in traffic or like the the facilities are not set up for them or like um the schools that my kids are at like the parking is terrible and the neighborhoods are a little uppy and they don't like working-class people coming in and um it's just there's all these different things and but most importantly that survey is so important because you need to know like what are your actual um enrollment pri priorities for the parents. Like if you the the school that they were going to put my kids to, I was like never really going to go there. It was almost going to be like you were going to lose me as a as a public school attendee. I was going to go private maybe. So we need to decide like don't put people in situations that are going to aggravate declining enrollment. >> Thank you. >> Up here to advocate for the web protocol. Um, but I do want to address some comments that Trustee Carrasco made um during the CBO about needing to close schools to save money. Um, and I'd encourage you to look at the studies that have come out of Stanford regarding school closures and the reality that school closures can actually cost districts money if we push more students out of the district. So, it's one reason why districts typically pay special attention to like border schools and not wanting to lose those. Um, and I am having a hard time with the work of this committee because I've been to almost every meeting. I think I missed one or two and then even those ones I zoomed myself in. Um, and I can't tell you what we've really achieved other than spending the majority of the time being talked at. And then each meeting we have a 15 and 20 minute section where we get together and we put things on a poster and it just feels like it's too much information being thrown at us and not enough discussion and trusting like okay well you're the stakeholders well let's hear from you. I think that's one reason why we don't feel the community's been surveyed because it's just been so much talking at us and if we're supposed to represent the community let us express our voices. So, I'd really like to see a surveys go out and us find some way to engage the people who are watching at home and get what their opinion is of an optimal school is instead of us saying, "Well, here's an optimal school. What do you think?" I want to know what they want to see in their optimal schools and then work towards that. And I really want to express that I'm not going to stand behind any decision that that committee makes unless we have plans for some of these school sites. I know we're going to say, well, a 7-Eleven committee will have to happen. I want to be able to give that committee, hey, this is what this committee's mandate is. I want to see one of these schools turned into a stayover shelter where students and families experiencing homelessness can come get resources. I want to see one of these schools turned into like a big community hub and wellness center because those are the things that are going to keep families from fleeing. We have to show them what we're bringing to them at the same time as we're taking from them. Thank you. That brings us to the report. Okay. So, we are in sustainable uh school advisory number 10. And uh the purpose of the advisory is to have the bring the community into the decision making of uh what we will be doing which is needing to close schools. And so um they are all livereamed and recorded and if you haven't been watching them I would really encourage you to tune in and watch them. There is a lot of information that's been provided and um that's been done for a purpose so that the community can come along with us in the journey of these are all this is all of the information that goes into making these decisions. um and and so that we're not the ones holding all of that that data and information. So all the data is also posted for anyone to per use and see there's data folders and like here's what was done in the first um meeting here was done what was done in the second and like that. So we've shared all of that. It is a lot of data but we are now getting into the parts of the meeting where uh they'll be looking at what is called the optimal school models. So there are actual recommendations of the size of schools that um best provide resources for students and I know AJ has talked to all of you about that too that you know you get to so such a small school size you can't provide the resources that students deserve and they actually um don't get the the education we would want to provide for them. And so they're learning, this committee is learning about that. Um, and we'll be looking next um coming up is a company called NGT. Uh, they're high level company that I hired a couple of years ago actually to begin all of this data. And they'll start looking at um boundaries, boundary lines, how many students are within different boundaries and how we create different configurations to have the optimal school models. um which is size of schools to drive best resources for students. So I just encourage you to tune in to those meetings um to be preparing yourself because we do plan to come forward with the recommendations from that committee to you in November. Um we had planned on having the new configurations open in 2728. However, because of the change in CBO, uh we are anticipating that that timeline's going to be set back. Um so it may get pushed out to 2829. Um with maybe a couple of school closures happening for and then reopening in a new configuration for 27 for 27 28. Um so that will kind of be dependent on uh what we feel we're able to to do but um that CBO change is a big one big contributing factor. So that is all. All right. Board comments trustee. This is a very difficult and you know extensive subject to have to talk about and you know nobody wants to have to do this but um I had attended I've said this before a couple of um school closure committees um through CSBA and I did learn you know there's there's not always that like huge cost savings but there is still a huge benefit to our budget by having those optimum optimum schools. And just a few examples we've seen already, if we have, you know, two smaller schools and we have someone having to share the two, leaving one school vulnerable, if we put, you know, the children at one campus, we could have pour more resources into that campus. And so we could have, you know, our AC's back. we could have, you know, probably even bring in counseling, uh, you know, nurses, help, all all those resources that we were spreading so thin across our very, you know, spalled out district with, you know, half empty schools. Um, by then condensing it, we could then have this heightened focus on this one campus, you know, and mimic that across the district. So, um it definitely does affect the budget and um but more importantly it really does give us more opportunities to provide better resources to our students and so um I think that's the part that we need to focus on and it's you know we can focus on on the negative you know like I'm already like oh my gosh the headache of you know getting my kids to and from school that's what parents are going to go to but I feel like that is um something I would deal with knowing that my student is going to have more resources available to them because they're at a larger campus, which is, you know, what we've seen when we look at other school districts and other schools across California, like what is this school doing? Why is this school doing so well? What is going on? They're larger schools that you notice right away. So, Trusty. >> Um, so I've been keeping up with the sustainable school, all of them. I've I've seen them all. I do want to want to make a recommendation. Sometimes when they break off into groups, I can't hear anything. And then I'm just like waiting for the longest time and I'm curious to see what the conversations are like the dialogue. Um, I don't know if there's a way to like Yeah. report back or I even think it'd be interesting to see the going back and forth of like them trying to figure it out within that because sometimes I can kind of hear some of it. Um so that's one thing. Um yeah and there is I mean transportation too, you know, and we are a district that is so like spread out so I mean there is some savings there as well. So there's Yeah. Okay. I don't have much to say. Trusty M. >> I just think that because it is such a a contentious issue, it's really important to provide tangible data to people because that's something you can like hold on to. Like obviously transportation is a really big deal for people. They have work, they have things to do. They can't just drive their kids around um all day and they have connections to the schools that they're at right now. And I think that's a big part of why people are so upset about um a lot of the decisions that are regarding this issue. But I think that um you have uh reason obviously for these decisions that you're making. I just think it needs to be super clear um what they are and exactly what benefits the students are getting from the decisions that you're making just so that it not goes over better but it's just better understood. >> Thank you Trusty Flynn. I defer my comments today. I think everybody said everything that needs it's just hard, you know, but it's an important and a necessary decision. I have to agree with what each of you said. Very painful decisions. People have a lot of emotional attachment to their schools. Um, but if we can keep our our eyes focused on what's best for students and student learning and having schools that are full and resources available is what our students deserve. All right, that concludes 10. Oh, unless you had a comment or on anything that we've said. Okay, that concludes 10.3. On to 10.4, four, which probably won't take all that long. Um, so we'd like to schedule a special meeting for the purpose of continuing this conversation and bringing feedback that we get once we um take the the draft goals out. um training on effective policy work on several policies including these are the ones that I keep hearing board members bring up ethics and conflicts of interest code of conduct addressing conflict within the governance team and agenda setting and um the superintendent has provided five possible dates where we have space and staff available Um, is it I I do want to note because there was a comment earlier about this being like a Yeah. No, we're not going to like a silomar or anything. We might get donuts, >> right? Most likely it'll be in our boardroom. Um, nowhere fancy. It really is just a work day to be able to um engage in some of the high lever things that the board has wanted to engage in. Yes, >> I I hope this is okay. Yeah, I I think that the wording can be changed and I've seen it in other places called board work day rather than board retreat. >> That's >> that's really what it is. It's not us going out and laying on the beach and and kumbayawing and you know building our relationships. It's doing it's doing real work. Yeah, I like that. >> Yeah. Um, so the thing that's missing here are the times. So are those before is that option? I mean, do we have some flexibility there? >> Because there's only a couple of dates that I think I'm available. >> You guys can talk about that for sure, but I think we were hoping for a lengthier time. >> Yeah, >> I don't think eight hours, but Yeah, >> I know. But I mean, it's just like >> we could just, >> right? A lot of stuff we've been talking about we're going to do and then we just don't. So, yeah. success, >> especially because of the the the nature of the discussion that we've been needing to have around policy and agenda setting, you know, just like focused conversation and planning and decisions, >> clarity. I vote Saturday, October 3rd, 9 to 3. That one works for me. >> I would like September 29th, the Tuesday. >> I can't. >> We could do daytime, but I think maybe that's >> tough for those of us who have 9 to5 kinds of jobs. >> Can you do this Saturday, Jessica, or it's just not preferred? I really need you to be there. Need everybody to be there. >> October 3rd. >> Yeah. 9 to 3. >> And then for October 2nd, would it be after work hours? Um, I don't usually give up my Friday nights, but but for you, I'll do it. >> Okay. I rather do the Friday. What time can we start? >> Oh, yeah. We should actually see what football games are at night. I don't know. Let's look. Is there one calendar somewhere that shows all of that or do we have to go to each school? Yeah. >> Were they playing? >> Yeah. >> I have Sorry. >> I'm not available. the other Friday is the 25th. >> And neither will Trusty Dodge. I want to just I mean I don't want to speak for him. I'm assuming I just >> That's a for sure. >> Yeah. >> But if we do it during the day, >> what's going on September 25th? >> Yeah. Home >> or away? Oh yeah, that's important too. Homer >> home awake because >> Friday the 25th. I have something from two until 4. I will be traveling for work that week. So, does that mean that it sounds like Saturday, October 3rd, is what works for everybody? >> Or we give up football games? >> Or we could Yeah. >> Do we have a strong desire to go to the September 25th football game? >> I hate to say it publicly, but no. >> What about you? I'm just limited on time. Are you okay on the 25th? Saturday. >> Okay. >> I can do the 25th. >> Okay. I can do the 25th. Again, I do have something from 2 till 3:30 or 4. But if if um hopefully we have a quorum even if I'm late. Um but you know what? I could take it here because I can do it by Zoom. So, if you could find me space upstairs, then I could probably be here by 3:30. >> And then so we'll give those three dates um to the we'll give those other three dates to the other board members that aren't here. So, >> I think that's what we're saying. >> Okay. Okay. What is the time? >> 3:30. And I think here you these are dates you clear that we could be in this space, right? Okay. No, you can dip. Oh, sorry. >> Congratulations on your first meeting. >> Yeah. Oh, absolutely. If we work through our business, we can >> so you can get going. Okay. Okay. Are we okay with the items that I listed? >> All right. >> Okay. We've made a decision there. We didn't have any public comments. I didn't ask. Okay. Okay. Good. Um, that leaves us consent. Are there any public comments on consent? >> Yes. >> Therefore, we are going to pause for two minutes for for >> three minutes. Unless you don't want me to wash my hands. We want you to wash your hands. >> Okay. >> Three minutes. >> Three minutes. Thank you. We are back and we are calling names for speakers on consent. Maybe we already called them. Okay. >> Yeah. Yep. Anything that's 11 is 11. >> All right. I think this is it's just you >> Brandon Denise. >> All right. Outsted Web today, but he's got to drive to San Jose. So, um I wanted to speak to the Leading Literacy LLC consultant contract. I So, I'm not happy that it's back on without seeing like what are the like the data? What what's the effectiveness? Um have our teachers been surveyed? Our teachers did their own survey. that you heard from Heather Moberry earlier today who spoke about this and um please consider the email that you should have all received from the teams at Hall and Radcliffe um because a clear majority of respondents stated that Kim did not design or provide an implementation plan for early literacy instruction. respondents. Um, interactions with Kim were primarily limited to brief recurring data meetings focused on dibble scores. Many staff reported limited or no contact while others noted occasional observations or spontaneous superficial coaching sessions. Um, there's a strong consensus that the services rendered described by many as having little to no added value were not worth the investment. I'd also like to know if these dollars because the last time I checked the agenda, the source of the funding was not there. Are these general fund dollars restricted, unrestricted, Golden State Literacy Plan dollars? Like what's the source of the money? Um I was actually just talking to Nancy right now. Um she was thinking, is this letters? And I was like, no, letters was a good thing. And it was a way that we were creative in finding opportunities to put put professional development dollars in our members pockets. And so that's what I'd like to see these dollars going to and not to Kim Newton. So what I could I've been on I've been on a roll all day today. I am trying. So and I don't know how because I'm subdued because I'm so tired from all these negotiations. PVFT ratify those agreements. Thank you. Have a good night. Okay. Ah, let's see. Can I have a motion to approve the consent? >> I make a motion, but remind me how to pull something. >> Um, I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with pulling item whatever for deferred. >> Okay. Thank you. I make a motion to approve the consent agenda um with pulling 11.5 to defer um and 11.5 that's the one >> obsolete. >> Oh sorry yes 11.4 for. Thank you. Um, no, there was another. >> Um, yeah, that's it. >> Is there a second to that motion? >> I'll second. >> I heard a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Um none opposed, none um abstaining and three absent. Motion carries. So all of the consent agenda items have been approved except for 11.4. So now under 12 deferred consent, we will hear 11.4. Um, how would you like to start that? By generally, you know, I mean, what we talked about was we would ask for a motion and a second and then have board comments and superintendent response. So, I'd like to continue with that. >> Okay. Yeah. I just wanted to um get some clarification around where the funding is coming from. Would you like to start with a motion and then we'll have a second and then we'll discuss it. >> Oh, and then we can >> I thought we were just discussing I thought we were discussing it first. >> Yeah. What we talked about was the motion, the second, and then the discuss because if you can't get a motion or a second, there's no point discussing. Okay. Would anyone like to make a motion to approve 11.4? >> I'll make a motion. >> And a second. >> Second. >> Okay. Um board comments. We'll start with Trusty Flynn. Thank you. Um, we did hear from public around this. So, I wanted to give the superintendent an opportunity to speak to it and then also um um inform us of where the funding is coming from because it's not on there. Thank you. Trusty Krasco, any comment? I'm wondering if um maybe there could be like a report or in like about three or four months on what they're up to, what who did what and like more of like I guess I want a visual to see how this is playing out. Um if if we can make an amendment to add that to this um then I can feel a little more comfortable seeing what will what the work is being done from here on to three to months because I've heard various things. Um so I just want to see it and I want to hear from the people who are doing it and get their input. So, I think what I heard was you'd like to make a friendly amendment to the motion if that's agreeable with trustee Flynn that we would approve this item, but in about 3 months, we'd like to hear something back about what the progress is with the program and anything we're hearing back. Are are you agreeable to that motion to that amendment to your motion? >> Just a point of clarification. Um, also what I'm hearing to reiterate is um, what are the deliverables? Um, and what's the return on the investment? Um, and if there hasn't been something that we can see that's tangibly delivered. Um, and we've not seen a like an improvement in whatever it the objective is, then in three months we reassess. That's The motion maker and the seconder are in agreement with that modification. Okay. Trustee Flores, do you >> I don't know if we need to actually second that motion though. >> Okay. So, you should actually say I second. >> Well, no, she made the amendment. I second her amendment. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. So, we've made some some questions. I don't have any comments on it. So that goes now to the superintendent to respond to any comments that came up and then we'll vote. Um what was your first question? >> Oh, the funding. Uh so it's coming from restricted funding that's meant for professional development because of our status of being so underperforming. And um I have a question. Did you read your board communication in which I provided all the data and as well as survey data from um there's like 141 I believe participants who uh were benefits from >> um from the leading literacy I don't know if you read that okay so on Friday's board communication I did provide um a lot of data s uh survey result data data, qualitative data. So it was statements that people actually made uh as well as the data from both H hall and Radcliffe and uh their progress on uh multiple monitoring. So what we can do is provide another round of that. So I think if you go to um Friday's board communication, you might feel a little more confident >> in uh what we have achieved uh through this. Would it would it be possible? I mean, I think part of that too is also showing other teachers in the district what the work is doing so they're more inviting because from the conversations I've had, um maybe there needs to be like a better understanding so that they can look forward to it. if I'm making any sense. I think there was like, wait, you're in my classroom, you know, like kind of like a standoff like >> um I don't know. I guess for me, I feel like that would help other teachers to kind of understand the program and be like, "Oh, okay." And then they come in here and and it's not something I should be freaking out about, but this is part of the >> So, the the primary role of uh working with Kim Newton, actually, originally it was two sites that were brought in. We went to the principal and said, "Hey, the principles, would you be interested in doing this work?" It was meant to be like a change project. Um, and the principles had conversations with their staff. Do you want do you want to work with this? But the primary role was to actually build the capacity of the literacy coaches at the site so that they would um work closely with their staff and understand the cycle of coaching, understand um how to look at data, data conferencing and best literacy practices. So the um nature of the work was never for Kim Newton to work with the teachers directly. The nature of the work was really for Kim to be working with the literacy coaches to help build their capacity so that they can do that work directly with the teachers at their site. Um, and then as the work shifted and u the coaches at the site really felt that they were gaining a lot of skill from her, it expanded out so that she started working with our other coaches in the district. And then because of the work with the other coaches in the district, then those coaches were actually the ones who were providing the summer PD that you talked about earlier in your comments. Um, and so then because of that, they had that capacity to be able to be the ones to train our teachers. And that was that's really the model we're looking for is building our own coach capacity. Uh because that's better received like when it's the coaches working with their own um with with their own teachers that they work side by side with and becoming our own resident experts. So that that's what we're trying to accomplish. Um, additionally this summer, Kim worked with our reading intervention teachers to help them understand how to look at our Dibbles data, how to hold data conferences with teachers to help teachers understand the data within their classroom and how to act upon that data both with strategies with students, but how to group students. um how to use we have a tool that when you look at the data it actually can break out like okay these are the strategies you want to use with this group of students here's strategies with this group here and to help um them to utilize that tool because although we've had that tool in our district it hasn't actually been being utilized and so she was working with the reading intervention teachers for two days also so the the work really is meant to be building the capacity of um the people in the system to then work with the teachers at their school site. >> Yeah. >> Right. And to bring the expertise um of of the people that we have who are not in the classroom, you know, within our our district so that they can work with with the teachers in and the idea of any consultant is really what they say the standard is is no consultant should be in your district for more than three years, >> right? um and if you haven't built the capacity of um the people in the system after three years then then it hasn't worked. So it is good to monitor how is that improving and what impact is it having? How do we know if it is working? Um because that's the ultimate goal and and that's really what we want to see. And so we have early data that is demonstrating that the strategies we're using are working um and and that people are becoming those experts that we need them to become and and it is part of the overall strategy of um like what we call what what the Mississippi miracle was. So they brought in this the letters training which is the curriculum for teachers but that alone is not going to help because you can learn the science of reading but it's implementing and applying it back into your classroom and just like with any athlete you have a coach right Tiger Woods the greatest golfer we've ever seen had a coach u we all need coaches to be able to uh implement and so we need to have those next steps too. You need a coach and and we want to grow our own coaches, >> right? And >> so that's what it's for. >> And I think like we kind of know that we are putting in the seeds for these coaches, but I don't think the larger community knows that. So when they see the how much we're, you know, and the other part is they don't also see that the money is is specifically for that because our literacy scores are so low, it can't be used for other things other than that. And that's another part that I'm trying to communicate over and over. But I think bringing in like the coaches and showing what they're doing. Yeah. And bringing in some of the reading intervention teachers so that they could show what they're doing like, okay, this is what I did. >> Showing those pictures of the coaches on on social media was very helpful because people didn't know that was happening. So, I I'm trying to figure out a way to be able to also show the community here's what the money is going toward, you know, and also giving the opportunity to the coaches to kind of show us what, you know, the process. Yeah. A little bit of that for for everybody. Yeah. Yeah. >> Are we ready to vote? What? Um and that money also needs to be spent this year like correct or >> uh some of the funding sources are multi-year so you have it for uh multiple years and I'm not sure on that one that part of it if this was one of the ones that you get over multiple years that if it came in that or not that would be a CBO question. Okay. All those in favor, should we repeat? Um, we're approving 11.4. We'd like to see in three months um uh progress that's been made, some input from those coaches. >> Okay. Go on, Mike. >> Oh, it it may need to be around four months because our next big data point, it'll be at our m middle of the year dibbles data. That's our next big data point. So, yeah, if you could just bear with me for the middle of the year. Okay, that makes good sense. All right. All those in favor signify by saying I. That's four. No one here to vote against and no abstensions and two absent. Four >> Oh, three absence. That's right. Four Z3. Um, and I think that brings us to the end of our agenda except to say our next meeting is on September 16th of 2026 and topics will be eth uh ethics and conflict of interest, board norms, agenda setting, board retreat. It's not a board retreat. We're going to change that to work day. Board policies. Yes. Board work day. All right. And we are adjourned. You want to not hard not Oh, sorry. >> Okay. No one gonna hear it if I do it like that. All right. And the time is 11.