Mountain View Whisman School District Board of Education - Regular Meeting

The March 19th, 2026 meeting of the Mountain View Wisman Board of Trustees come to order. It is 6 PM. We're meeting tonight in the boardroom at 1400 Monteceto Avenue, Mountain View, California. This meeting is being recorded, broadcast live on YouTube, Zoom, and on mwsd.org, and is being recorded. I'll now perform the role. Bill Lambert, Evan Connley, Anna Reed, Lisa Henry,

Charles DeFazio. All members are present and a quorum is established. Next item will rise for the pledge of allegiance led tonight by Castro Elementary. Thank you. Now, before we proceed with the agenda, I wish to remind all attendees that the board welcomes and encourages public participation. We ask that all speakers adhere to the decorum and timelines established by our bylaws. I'll all lot time during each item for public comments as we see how many speakers we have. Next item of business is the approval of the meeting agenda. Are there any requests from superintendent or board members to pull, reorder, or move items? Seeing none, now open public comment for item 1 C, approval of the agenda. If any members of the public in person wish to address to the board, please turn your speaker card. And if you're online, please use the raise hand function. I'll wait to see how many speakers we have and allocate time accordingly. See no one in person and no one online. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda?

I move that the board approve the agenda as presented. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passes unanimously. Now move on to item two on our agenda, the school showcase. Tonight we're very pleased to feature Mariana Castro Elementary. I'll call on Superintendent Bear to introduce our principal. Yes. I want to say welcome to the students and parents of Castro Elementary and welcome to Mr. Taylor, the principal. We're happy to have you.

Oh, great. Um, I think Miss Houseman's going to present. All right. So, first up, I just want to start by connecting our plan uh our showcase to the strategic plan 2027. So, I'm going to present about our inclusive and welcome culture. um especially we're integrating uh consistent social emotional learning and then uh part two I want to uh go ahead and do the next slide uh talk about effective and uh consistent instructional practices that meets the needs of all students. So I'll present a little bit about some of the instructional practices that we're doing at Castro um that we think are leading to student success. So all right go ahead. So, first I want to talk about the Castro Wellness Center. Um, and so the Castro Wellness Center is a collaboration with the Santa CL County Office of Education. Um, we have a Skoey liaison um that is working out of the uh wellness center, but we also collaborate with our school counselor. Um, our SCFS and AIS also partner along with it. Um and what it is is throughout the day it's a support system for students and so students who um maybe are disregulated will come to the wellness center during uh unscheduled times but we also it's a place um uh for uh recess and lunchtime activities um that students can come to every day. Um and then it's a hub for our Castro mental health collaboration. And so our school counselors, the wellness center, um Pacific clinics also support students throughout that. Um and then we are very fortunate this year a lot of our parents volunteer during our monthly recess time. Um and they are be able to do some activities during that time. Next slide. So one of the things that the wellness center does is it recruits uh students in third through fifth grade to become wellness warriors. And the wellness

warriors are nominated by their teachers um to support our whole uh community in becoming kind um supporting students who may be lonely at recess. Um they come up with activities for the wellness center, things that would be interesting for the students. Um and then they also assist in making videos uh for our community uh during our Monday messages um and when we do our different uh campaigns. Next slide. Um, and so every month we have a monthly calendar of activities that happen in the wellness center. Um, and so the students, it's published for the classroom so they can know when the activities are happen. And then at the end of each month, we welcome our parents in to volunteer um, uh, during these uh, activities. And so, um, our wellness center also partners with the, uh, kindness or the wellness warriors. Um, and we do things like our kindness hall of fame. Um, we have a perseverance hall of fame. And what it is is, uh, throughout the month, um, that we're celebrating, uh, students are given tickets um or, uh, uh, caught being kind sort of, uh, tickets. Um, and our first campaign was a kindness uh uh campaign and almost every student was able to uh be caught being kind by an adult on campus. Um, and we had a kindness party uh which is really exciting. Um, we also do things like scavenger hunts or extra assignments for different months. And so, uh, we had a Hispanic Hispanic heritage month, uh, uh, scavenger hunt, and then for this month, women's history, students are asked to write an essay or create an art project about a woman that's important in their life. So, we're doing those sort of things, uh, spearheaded through the, uh, wellness center. So, these are just some pictures. So, this is from Hispanic Heritage Month. We've got some students working on the uh scavenger hunt. You go to the next

one. This is a quick video. UM RECENTLY, um we had our kindness month in October. Um but then we noticed that when we looked at our data, uh during that month we had the lowest number of student incidents. And so we brought it back in, uh, February and we had about two or three weeks of caught being kind. Um, and so, uh, all the students got a ticket and then they were able to go into a raffle. Um, and seven students were chosen to pie me in the face and then another 24 students had a pizza party. Uh, and so, uh, yeah, it was fun. I hope so. Uh, this is just some pictures from our kindness hall of fame party. Um, in our perseverance party, um, there was karaoke in the wellness center. Uh, kids had a really great time. You can see our parachute. It's a really great environment for the students. Go to the next one. And then another thing, like I said, our parents come in on uh once a week. Generally, it's the end of the month. Um, and so far we've done some things. So, uh, tied to some of our days like uh we made pepel picado in Flores de pel uh for Hispanic heritage month. And our parents came in and they helped do that. We've done stress balls um and we're bringing back our stress jars uh this month and then when we have testing um we'll be doing some stuff with that too. So go ahead um you can see some of the events. So you got the pumpkin decorating that we did with the parents. Um you can see the volunteers and the students having a blast. I keep you can go more. Um this is from the Pavl Picado um event that we had parents and students were making. So it's a great environment. Love it. Um and then now I want to talk about our second initiative that we've been working on which is our partnership with the AIM Institute. Um um and that's early reading success for schools. So I think there was like seven

or eight schools in the nation that were chosen uh and we were one of the schools that were chosen and it focuses on three things. So uh comprehensive learning for teachers, it focuses on leadership implementation and then the last piece is instructional coaching. Next slide please. And so for the comprehensive learning for teachers, our K through T teachers, all of them received 20 hours of asynchronous learning which was outside of the work day. So they did extra time to do that. And then we also had four hours where we met with the uh folks from AS um and we discussed and made sure that we had a common understanding of what the learning was that we were doing. Um and then we also have three data dive sessions that we do with as we've done two of them. We're going to do the last one in May after our dibbles. And what we're looking at is our dibbles, which is our uh universal screening tool. Next, for me, it's a lot of extra hours. So, I did all the things that the teachers are doing. So, I'm doing those extra hours, but then I also have 25 uh sessions with uh folks from Ames to talk about implementation um and making sure that we're leading uh all of our teachers in the right path. Um and so that's one of the things I'm doing. there's uh different implementation tools that we're using. Next slide. And then the thing that's probably the most impactful is that we also involve our instructional coach um with it. And so they're facilitating teacher growth. So the teachers have learned the material. Our instructional coach is working with the teachers one-on-one and in groups and giving them feedback on the instruction uh practices that they've been working for. Next slide. So in August through December, our main goal was to get everyone on the same page, make sure that we all understood ear early literacy really deeply. That includes me as a principal, making sure I understand what instruction practices look like that are effective and giving feedback to teachers. So I went in and observed and checked are these present, which missing so that we can start to make a plan. um

teachers were examining their own practices and thinking about the things that they're currently doing and then the things that they need to change in that process. Um and then in that time we also did some uh initial analysis of dibbles. Um from January to the end of the year our goal is really to refine the practices that we're doing. And so we analyzed the middle of the year dipples assessments um and from there we were able to identify what the needs of the students um were and then um in that process we're refining some of the practices to make sure that we're making growth with the students. Um what we saw from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year was not a lot of growth in our students on dibbles. We do see growth when we do classroom assessments, but when we're looking at the dibbles specific, we weren't seeing the growth that we thought we were going to see with what students are doing on a day. So, one of the things that we decided to do was make sure that we align our practices. We can go to the next one. And so, I think it's Yeah. So, one of the things that we did was we created uh standards of practice for Castro teachers K12 or K12 K through 2 grade. And so the program really is about K1 students, but we know that our K2 uh uh uh students are the ones who need to uh do the work. And we also integrate uh first and second grade um intervention. And so our intervention teachers, we brought in the intervention teachers from the district. We also brought in our second grade teachers and we created a playbook or we're in the process of creating a playbook for how does literacy work at Castro Elementary School K2 and hopefully eventually K3. So this is just a a snapshot of what it

looks like. And so for each segment of our uh reading uh uh early literacy, so you got segmenting, blending, all of those things, phmic awareness, all of that. We outline what it looks like when you are doing this with students. If I'm doing a blending, it's at cat. I'm using my fingers. I'm touching in a specific way. It's left to right. And the reason we want to do that is that we want to lower the um uh cognitive load for students. And so if in each class they're doing something different in one class they're going at. In another one they're at in this class it's at it doesn't seem like a big deal for us but for our students it is something that can be a a impediment. And so we want to align on what we're doing on a day and you can see there's the number of times we do it a week. The amount of time it's supposed to happen. These are quick drills that we're doing with students every day. Um the routine that we do for teachers when we teach it. And then there's a routine for when we practice it. The vocabulary that we use, are we using beginning, middle, end? Are we using initial, final, intermediate? Like all of those things are important. And so we have had lots of discussions with our K2 and intervention teachers to make sure that we're in alignment about that. Next slide, please. Thank you. So these are the different sections. And then one of the things that's super important for us is that that dibbles connection. So, we do see that our students are reading better, but when we look at the dimples of assessment, there's something that's a disconnect. One of the things that we noticed was when teachers are asking students to read for dibbles, they use nonsense words. And so, a naf the dibbles assessments is assessing can they do letter sound correspondence. Our students are trained to say a that's not a word. Let me see if I can make it a word. And so they're not doing well on the assessment component for this portion because they're trying to make

sense of the word. And so now what we've done is we've introduced a drill where they're just doing nonsense fluency and they're told it's a nonsense word. You're just making the sound make the letter make the sound that it's supposed to make. So that's one of those things that we've refined in our practice and it's a small part of the day um uh that we're we're small part of a lesson uh to do it. So yeah, next slide please. Um the other piece is we really want to do best practices and so all of our um alignment of practices are connected to research. Um the best research that we have at the moment, right? And research is constantly changing but we want to make sure that if we're doing something that it is the best for our students and so um there's a research connection in the playbook as well. All right, next slide. Um this is just more of a what is the research? So I can go to the next one. Um we use the uh universal screen tool doubles like I said um we've analyzed the data. Um and after the middle of the year doubles assessment um what we realized was that we need to do more assessment for the students along the way. And so we've also implemented progress monitoring. So every two weeks students are assessed again which is an added thing that we weren't doing before. um and they're creating plans to go along with it. So if the next slide will show that component. So this is just what we initially saw. We saw that students weren't making the progress that we did. So we got to the next one. Uh next slide please. Uh one more because this is just more of the same. Um each student so the S1 is uh on our plans they have a student name but I'll let not doing that. So, uh, for students S1 and S8, uh, S8, they're going to be working on words and letter sounds. The teachers have identified what those are. Whole group, uh, for the instruction, and then in small group, what they're

going to do as well. Um, and so if you go to the next slide, we've also got reading interventions teachers, and those teachers have their students listed and what they specifically need during a reading intervention. So, it's all connected um what the students are expected to do. It's a lot of work for our teachers, but I think it's going to have some great payoffs um in the end. Uh go to the next one. Um and then we did this is from our progress monitoring. And so, for each progress monitoring, we after three of them, we have another meeting. Um and you can see I think this is March 4th. um we looked at the students and we're checking to see are they making uh consistent or adequate progress towards their goal for the end of the year. And so if you look at student S3 for example, their goal is to go to 70. Their last prog progress monitoring is at 54, but along the way they met one of their aim lines. Yes. And then one they didn't meet. And so we know to intervene a little bit more with that student because they're not yes on both of them. So that's the kind of work that we're doing uh with our students. And I think that is the last slide. Uh correct? Oh, next steps. So our next steps uh for our students um is we're going to continue with the progress and monitoring. Um we're going to finish our practice uh standards of practice for all the domains. We are just in the phmic awareness and phonics right now, but we need to do it for fluency. We had to do it for vocabulary and all of that. Um, we're going to have a visit from Ames Institute in April. They're going to come and see the work that we're doing to uh better align us and make sure that we're in the right path. Um, we're going to analyze the final dipl uh data in May. And then uh we are in talks with as they've applied for a uh grant and they want to extend our work so that

they can do the same thing that we did with K1 to three. And so I think that's going to really improve their strong practice. So that's uh my highlight for Castro. Sorry I went a little longer than expected. Any questions? Yeah. How did the uh um your interaction with the AIM Institute come about? So Cindy Nuing uh applied for a grant last year. She I think she took a class um just to learn about early literacy and she saw that they were a thing and so she applied for Castro um after consulting with me and I was like sure this seems like something that we could benefit from and so she applied for the grant and we were one of the like six or seven schools in the nation that were accepted. So yeah. Great. Thank you so much for your presentation.

Thank you. Thank you all for coming. I'll now call for a brief fivem minute recess to allow for photos and exit before the board moves on to more technical business.

All right, we are back. It's 6:24 p.m. Uh, I will now open public comment for items on the closed session agenda. If any members of the public in person wish to address the board regarding this item, please turn in a speaker card. If you're online, please use the raise hand function. I will wait to see how many speakers we have and allocate time accordingly. See no one in person and no one on the line. So that will close the call for public comment. Uh the board will now recess to close session. Before we move, I wish to announce that I am recusing myself from the deliberation on item 4A due to a remote interest in the matter as defined under government code section 1091. I will not be present during the board's consideration of this item and will not obtain or review any non-public information regarding this decision. We're now in close session at 6:25 p.m.

The board has reconvened an open session at 7:19 p.m. Uh, no reportable action was taken. We now move to the consent agenda. These items are considered routine and will be acted upon in one motion. Does any board member wish to remove an item for separate consideration? Trusty Liber. Yes, I would like to move item C. Item C, ratification of contracts. Okay. Any other? We have a motion to approve the balance of the consent agenda before considering item C.

I move to approve the consent agenda um except item C which is we will discuss separately. Uh, do you want to discuss all of the contracts or is it a specific contract? Because it's one specific contract. We could pull the number and approve the rest. Doesn't matter. Right. One way or another, it just doesn't matter. That's right.

Second. The motion to approve the consent agenda. Save item C. All those in favor? I. I. I. All opposed. Motion passes unanimously. I'll move on to consideration of item 6 C. Oh, did I do I need to take public comment on pure consent agenda? Oh, you took C. You took C off there. So, we'll now consider consent agenda C. Uh, we have questions.

I I would like to start off with a question and then I have comments later. So the question is is um could you um I'd like the staff to just explain uh where in the before before we proceed. I did not take public comment on the balance of the consent agenda. I will open it up for in person and online. raise your hand if you'd like to comment on the the consent agenda without item C or I put in the card I didn't raise consent agenda not see yeah you have you have ones for for C which we're about to discuss but I

went past so fast I missed which one are you calling for now we're about to call for for I just did not do the balance of the consent agenda first so I'm taking public comment on the initial initial items ahead of ahead of removing item C and then we'll discuss item C separately and I'll take public comment for that rest of the things in some way or another. Yes. Yes, I will. Thank you very much. All right. So now seeing no one online and no one in person for the non C consent agenda items we will move on to Trusty L's comments. Apologies

question. Yeah. I'd like staff to first uh sort of uh explain um how the Chromebooks are purchased as part of a larger contract. I think it was very well explained in the answers to the questions, but if you could briefly just reiterate that.

Yeah, just so the Chromebook Chromebook purchase request on the agenda tonight is not an expansion of technology. It's a purchase of devices to replace those at the end of their useful lives. Uh this purchase request is for half as many Chromebooks as we typically purchase at this time annually. You recall that we did a reduction back in um January, February um uh for Chromebooks as part of the budget reductions. Uh and as a district, we're intentionally reducing our reliance on Chromebooks and we're finding how devices are used to support student learning. We're in process with that. This year, Chromeback Chromebooks are assigned to students in grades 1 through eight, next year, Chromebooks will be assigned per student in grades four through eight. Um, while technology access augments students ability to learn, is it doesn't replace hands-on learning, social interaction, or traditional teaching. And our district is seeking to balance technology access to add value to instruction without creating that over reliance. Okay.

Thank you. President K. Yes, I know the board has um discussed in the past and something that I supported and I think my colleagues did as well having a study session or town hall on technology use. That's something we've been really interested in and I know it's been a busy year. Um when do we anticipate that coming for board and community discussion? We have to find out the timeline on the study because we're having some research work done on that as well to inform the conversation.

Perfect. So, should I should I be anticipating more like the fall than this spring? We um we didn't we used a much smaller contract with handover this year than we have in the past and so they can't continue any work on that until after the LCAP stuff is finished. Um and so um that's just getting wrapped up now. So hopefully we can pick that back up. Great. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you. I I was that was going to be one of my comments too that several board uh board members have requested that sort of IT issues in general be discussed at some point. You know, I was thinking also that this is would be a great topic uh for Renda to approach and for us also as as the um with the strategic plan to really understand how technology is not only purchased within our uh school district, but how it's used by the teachers, how it's used by the parents, how it's used by the students and really have a full understanding and um you know then take action from that. um as it you know as we know it's a it's one of our major programs in terms of cost in our district and uh it can impact our education of our students quite a bit. So um we want to do this well. So that is coming it's that isn't Arinda's area of expertise. So we're we're um we're engaging to uh um have a study done to really understand what the learnings are over the last x number of years and and where it makes its most the most impact and where we need to perhaps throttle back.

Yeah. You know, and even if it isn't their expertise, I mean it's expertise in terms of how to integrate it a technology. It must be within the system, not overload it, right? and not add initiatives and things that we you know take away from our education of Yes. And in terms of use that I think they would say the same thing that's not their that's not their expertise. Okay. I

um Okay. So, I'd also like to comment on, you know, there's uh some uh input from the public. Uh you know, that this uh contract should be just uh $300,000 uh for fourth grade students. Uh we should not pay for this. Um and um you know personally you know I can't do that without understanding how Chromebooks are used in our fourth grade classes. How the teachers use them, how the students use them, how valuable they are. And it's not only fourth grade. This is part of a sort of a continuum of use in of technology in our school district. um taking this completely out of context and uh without all that assessment like we are talking about doing you know it it just it's irresponsible for at least for me to uh to approve something like that um you know whether it's warranted or not and I think we all have our feelings about technology uh in general and um you know like almost everything um uh things can be used well and they can used uh be used for harm. So, um you know, we have to understand how all this works together and make sure we do it right. And just taking something out of context, saving $300,000 could do a lot more harm than good. Okay. So, um those are my comments on that.

Um I just I said I was getting a question first. I jumped in. Um I think there can you maybe elaborate on the do we do we have some elaboration on the life cycle for the device because I think there's two things at play right there's the software updates that we receive from the vendor plus then the actual like hardware that they go through for day-to-day use and the the decay of that is that kind of how we estimate our life cycle for this anyone sorry I know tech's not Give me just a moment to find the the specific answer because I think it was in the board questions and our director of technology helped put it together. But yes, you're correct. There is a uh at some point they are not supported any longer. So they end up becoming useless to us. Um let me find that number. Uh some other important information to know is for our younger grades we give the option of fam for families to request a Chromebook and this year 20% of families requested the Chromebook. So this purchase is also accounting for that amount that families are requesting that we provide. Five years of useful life for student assigned uh devices is typically what they what they last. Um I want to help give a comment on that too if you don't mind is that you know it's not just the physical um computer that needs to be replaced. Typically

there's a lot of upgrades and operating systems over the years and you know in a certain period of time all the hardware gets old and and the software is not you know working anymore. So that's another reason for the upgrade. It's not just that it doesn't computer doesn't work. It just the operating system gets old.

Here is the other piece from our director of technology. He says, "If the district did not purchase Chromebooks this year, we would not be able to replace the Chromebooks that the current third grades graders were issued as they entered into kindergarten. These Chromebooks are near the end of their estimated lifespan for student assigned devices. Google limits which devices can be updated based on the release date. So these Chromebooks may stop receiving updates before the students finish 8th grade. So if these Chromebooks we were not to replace them, they would follow the students all the way through middle school. So by the time they reached age reached eighth grade, they would not be getting those needed updates.

Would it be possible? I think um so this is a communication that came to all of the trustees and as a public document, but it didn't end up in the board questions online, did it? Is it? Why am I not seeing it? I think that's what I in the trustee questions. Oh, do you know I think I pulled up the wrong one. Okay, we can we can post that though. If we could post it separately. I think it's incredibly helpful. I think another piece that's important to understand is we must we must give the CASP test which is also online. So we need to have functioning technology to be able to uh administer that test.

Any further questions from trustees? Right. I'll now open to public comment on this item. If you're in person wishing to comment on item 6 C, we will turn up speaker card in person. If you're online, use the raise hand function and then I'll see how many speakers we have before allocating time. I see one hand online and three speakers in person. So that will be four. So I'll give three minutes per person. I will start with Mr. Nelson.

This is a contract number two. uh we're taking this the contract C the contract section was taken separately together so commenting on this item C so if you can anyway okay um yeah there's two items having to do with software um well one of them actually is just hardware the other one is software the inflection learning point the interesting thing is the Vargas one seems to be another one of these oh teachers like it let's add it to just this place and nowhere There isn't any clear thing what this uh supplements what this takes uh the replacement for what the training on it is. Uh this is another one of the things that the teachers been complaining about for at least a decade probably since the time Bill and I were on the board together is that too many things get added on and nothing gets subtracted. So what's getting subtracted at Marcus with this enrichment program? How does that fit in? Is it just a little blip off the side of the tree? Um, the business technology department, I put in a public records request to try to figure out what the um breakdown of costs were and the there is no information that is publicly available in the records of breaking down how contract there have been no reports done about how much is being spent on each grade for their Chromebooks in carts. etc. Um there is also no breakdown of how much at the sites or per student it is for the different uh conglomerated things like clearly and the different uh support things that we have. So we have no idea because we haven't been doing continuous reports every year on how much resources in this case just money resources. I'm

not even talking about teacher resources, which may be even more expensive for them to learn new systems. But we don't even keep track of reports that show how much money is being spent on elementary schools on software per student, hardware per student. What's going on? How come our education services department can't work with our computer technology guy and update that report every year? It's just there's a report on inventory, but there's no report on how much we're resources we're actually spending in a way that you can start to make decisions and a way that you can say, "Oh, well, this is a pilot program and the other teachers at the other school have said, "Yeah, this is a great way that money spent because we all want to see if this pilot program is going to make a blip on what math is doing at Vargas." But we don't monitor what we're doing. We are not a continuous improvement district because we don't know how to take metrics to do reports. You don't get those reports. The public doesn't get the reports. The teachers don't get the report or the principles to say, "Whoa, we're spending $5,000 per student on this issue."

Thank you. Next, uh, Miss Bixeda.

Hello. Hi. Um, I hope I'm providing comment on the right item. Um, you may have received a letter from, uh, some parents in the district that have concerns around the amount of screen time that students are getting using Chromebooks and that one-on-one devices should not be issued anymore and the purchase shouldn't go through and all of that. Um I wanted to um provide a slightly different take on the same topic. I actually will wholeheartedly agree with um concerns around the amount of screen time usage of the devices in the class. I volunteer for math center and I've seen some of the screen usage uh in in first person. Um I I do wish there was more transparency around how the devices are used that was accessible in terms of like number of hours per day or per week um on our websites. Uh and I bet it's different per even classroom or or school. So that that information would be very valuable. Um on the other hand I I want to caution against uh making decisions of purchase of technology or not based on the fact that well maybe our processes and information gathering isn't perfect. Um especially since given the rise of AI there may be better educational tools coming down the pipe in a few years and I don't want us to not invest in the devices we would need to take advantage of the new upcoming technology. Um and in general I prefer that we don't ban things um but maybe put a limit on how much it is used and also study and make sure that we are making the best use of it. Um so that was my two cents uh and and I would say that to me personally the district knows best which devices they need and whether or not they should purchase it. As a parent, I do have concern how these

devices are used, but I think that's a separate concern than whether or not we need them right now and how much we need and that kind of thing. Uh, that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Ling.

Okay. All right. So, um I am here to present um the petition that we have to reduce screen time um in our SK school-based setting. Um we have had over 125 signers in less than um 3 days and like the previous commenter the overwhelming consensus is that we have way too much questionable screen time during school hours. Um I I want to acknowledge some of the great work that we have done in this district and the good intent that is around all of this. Um I think um there has been a cultural shift in our understanding of how screen time impacts uh brain development especially in the younger years. Um so this petition um is not about um necessarily removing devices. It is a focus on reducing device use especially in the younger years. Actually it is about screen time and control and access control but also especially in our younger years which is K through TK through two or three wherever that boundary is. Um and there is a culture shift based on studies recently of impact of excessive screen time especially during the early years right before the age of 10 of excessive screen time impact on neurological development as well as mental health. Um Chromebooks are tools um they're not inherently good or bad um but right now the lack of access control and the amount of supervised use is not good. A little bit of comment on that fiveyear refresh cycle. So Google actually supports Chromebooks for 10 years. Um so the five years for their software and updates. So the five years is not it it might have been 5 years in the past but it's 10 years since 2023.

Um so I do think that there is potential to save money here and let's maybe we can explore to see if we can extend these Chromebooks for use for longer. Um also I want to put this into context. $300,000 is roughly about three to five years of intervention support for the whole district. Um, okay. And then I just want to read to you some of the comments that uh some of these um some some people have mentioned. Okay. TV is continually on and is often used as a medium even for basic stuff. My child spends more time using a computer to play non-academic games than actual educational activity. There's been computer usage during non-classroom terms. My kid has been on the screen 80% of the time when he or she is at school learning almost every single subject through the screen. Okay. My kid tells me they watch YouTube on Chromebook every day and no one says anything. One of my kids complain to his teachers not letting them play games in school, but their friends um with another teacher let them play in class. Okay. Next we have our that in person. We have one speaker online which I will call on now. U Miss Lou, you have three minutes.

Um thank you for taking my comment. Um I do agree. I don't know why is there a rush to purchase this extra 550 Chromebook when just April late April of last year you just approve to purchase a thousand Chromebook and if Google is doing this uh extending this for 10 years what is the rush and from what I know is that the gator 2 um had a set of Chromebook in the class and a set Chromebook to take home so if now those take home Chromebook book. Why can't those be used for the one that are you know for the for the kid that you know that need new Chromebook cuz and I was wondering if there is an inventory for all these stuff by grade level because if every Chromebook is assigned to student wouldn't that can you extract the data to find out just grade level wise how many Chromebooks are there and when they were they issue and what's their age and then from that data you can figure it out, you know, what amount of Chromebook you need. Um, I haven't seen an inventory and I will request a CPA for an inventory if if that is not provided. Um, and securely report um securely show date like have data of what the kit used. So that is something that the staff can provide to the board as in what kind of usage is it there because at our school n over 90% of computers usage outside of the classroom time is not for academic it's for games and I have gotten sick of this Chromebook for my kids that I have given them back to the district like last year and it's been so peaceful since and every single parent I've talked do felt the same way. Um, and it's just another

thing to battle the kids on, another thing for for parent to manage. Also, why doesn't the district do an optin option instead of an opt out instead of what what you're doing now is like I'm having parent opting out for Chromebook. Um, because I remember when my kids started it just like, oh, here's a Chromebook for you to take home. Whereas when I talk you know from from from some other school it's just very there is very uh conscious effort of educating the kids whether or not this is a tool and a toy and then um enforcing it and making sure that you know this is not a tool a toy. Chromebook is a is a tool and there's no enforcement of that. So like providing all these kids access to Chromebook is actually making it harder for the teacher to teach the kids as well because now they have to compete for attentions um of like 30 screen versus just them. So please do not approve this. Thank you.

Right. Back to the board for discussion. I think the information in the trustee questions both on the um the grade level Chromebook amounts and year purchased um there's a lot of detail there that is helpful but there is also um more detail on the inflection point software um so having access to that is um is important and I think that also the idea of um the Chromebooks that are being purchased this time around are going to incoming fourth graders and the lifespan should last them through the end of 8th grade. So, this is the purchase for those students for the rest of their time in the district. Um, as a middle school teacher, I can tell you that these Chromebook lifespans do not last. Uh, they are dropped on a regular basis. They have stuff spilled on them. They are carted around in backpacks that are tossed all over the place. they are accidentally stepped on. Um they do not have the lifespan that they would with adult use. Um and also I I thought it was great that um John included information on there um in the trustee questions about the loaners. So many loaners are necessary because I didn't charge my Chromebook. we're taking a test and I don't have my Chromebook fully charged or my H isn't working or um I lost my control button. It fell off somewhere. So, um the necessity for having these loaners for any of these random things that pop up on the daily and they do pop up daily. I probably send um several students period out to go get um a charger or a loaner Chromebook. So, it is um a need

especially at the older levels, but the the testing is a huge issue. It's mandated for the state testing. They have to have it. They have to know how to use it. Um so, we can't get around that for state testing purposes uh for that. And because we already had the discussion on this 300,000 for these Chromebooks at a meeting a couple months ago, which is why it ended up on the consent um agenda today. Um to me that the extra information is nice, but that's why it was on the consent agenda was because we already discussed it.

I had a point of clarity on uh what Trustee Reid has said. Um, yes, the Google support is 10 years, but because we are dealing with children in Chromebooks, the uh wear and tear lifetime is 5 years on average.

Um, I appreciate uh Trusty Reed's comments, especially because she is in the classroom right now kind of dealing with a lot of these issues uh firsthand in Certino. Um, so I think there are two different things to tease apart here. Um, one is the kind of the nuts and bolts approval of having the equipment for the fourth graders for next year to carry through middle school, which is what the contract is. The other is a sincere community interest and the board has also the same interest in really exploring what are our values around technology? How is it actually benefiting learning? what are we doing in the classroom at different grade levels? What's developmentally appropriate? Um, and I was listing all the thing. I mean, we've got education software. We've got smart screens in classrooms that teachers are playing videos on. Um, we've got concerns around cell phones and devices and watches that kids are wearing. We've got the Chromebooks. There's there's so much that has changed in what school is like with technology. And so I'm looking forward to the technology study session. I' and it's going to be paired with this handover report as well on technology usage. I would also love to add maybe a parent survey going into that. Um because I there is a lot of parent interest in this. This is something that parents think about all the time. One of the challenges is that it swings back and forth. So when we decided not to do I ready s online lesson uh licenses for all of our elementary schools because we found that for example in I think it was like a first grade classroom. It was being used something like four hours a week and it was only supposed to be used 45 minutes a week for I Ready or something. It was supposed to be a much smaller amount. I see um Miss Bower nodding her head. That was that was a decision point for um

district staff and the board to say, "Hey, that's that's not we don't want children to be on I Ready online in the classroom for four hours a week. This isn't what it's meant for. It's not benefiting our kids the way it should." Um so we made that decision and then there was a huge community push back from some parents in the community that we took that away from their students. And so I know there's going to be varied opinions But there's there's always um room for discussion and then trying to come up with a shared consensus about what we want to actually do within our classrooms right now. Um and then for myself as a parent, I've seen this all the way through with my own child. I know there are other parents up here with technology equipped children. Um, but I remember in the early days of COVID, my child started playing Prodigy Math, which was licensed by the school district. It's an online math game. Okay, great. It's kind of like Pokemon. Um but then I discovered through the um securely reports that he was being redirected from that program to YouTube to watch their videos on YouTube and then it was autoplaying other videos and suddenly my child who was accessing a learning program provided by the school district was instead providing um he he was the product for YouTube and that he was providing attention and time to these program to these videos on YouTube that we're making money off of him. And so it's a really complicated um area to kind of dive into and tease part. So I'm looking forward to that. I really appreciate the um the work that was done around this petition because I think uh this was kind of a burbling up of what we we know we need to really dive into.

See, Henry, um I know we've um I just to add to what everybody's said, I am very much looking forward to our study session on the technology. Um I think that's going to be really important. I share, you know, a lot of the concerns that have been raised by the community about how technology is used. Um I just I don't see this refresh purchase as a proxy vote for that. Um I think that um as as Trusty Reed mentioned, we we discussed in January um the reduction in the technology purchases um and um I'm comfortable with with where we landed on that piece of it.

Yeah, just one thought when we get to uh the study session and things like I would also like to really have teachers uh involved. I mean I I really uh I would trust them uh to guide us on best use of technology and even it's appropriate for the district to come up with best practices or something like that um through this process.

Yeah. I'll I'll be very brief in my my comments. Um mostly just echoing what my colleagues are are saying here is that you know I really appreciate staff cutting our technology earlier this year and finding reductions there. Now we are kind of and we still have ongoing support that we need to provide and refreshing these things but I anticipate out of the study session we will probably see further reductions in kind of the technology and how it's used in classrooms and I look forward to that. Um but generally I think we do need the devices that are getting beaten up by kids to be replaced. So, Trusty Reed,

um, as well as a a study session on, um, technology use, I'd also like to see maybe a parent university around um, securely and its features and how to use them and how to block things for their children on their devices, including things like having a shut off time. Um, and also another one PD related for for staff to really there's so many features in securely even on my own site that um as an edtech mentor teachers don't know how to use. they feel like I need to watch this the screen so that I'm watching all of my uh students live in person and then they're not doing the rotations or they're not multitasking as well as they could when let it run in the background and then at the end you can screenshot or go to every link that any child in your room has been to um during this session and then review it with them and discuss it with their parents. So there's lots of opportunities for the adults that are in charge or in taking care of these children to be more involved in the process of digital literacy and digital citizenship so that these students are learning from a younger age what appropriate use is so that as they're growing their reliance on tech or their need to explore or their um curiosity for playing things at inappropriate times is less ed because they have been taught the appropriate things at an earlier age.

Do you have a motion to I move to approve um consent agenda item C? Second. All those in favor? I

I all opposed. The motion passes unanimously. We will now move on to communications if I remember correctly. Yes. Section seven, communications. Uh, I believe we don't have any employee organizations here to speak tonight. District committees. Are there any reports from district committees? All right. Next, I'll go call on Superintendent Bear for the superintendent report. Good evening. Um, sharing some positive updates from across the district. Uh firstly, um proud to announce that Graham Middle School has been recognized as a California distinguished school, the state's highest honor for schools. Graham's just one of 48 middle schools nationwide to to receive this distinction uh based on the 2025 California school dashboard. This recognition is an affirmation of the thoughtful work that continues to build in our classrooms every day. Uh we look forward to continuing this progress and the strong culture of learning at Graham. Um, as we just anformational piece for the board as we prepare to refund our bonds, uh, that you approved last meeting, uh, Mountain View Wisman has been reaffirmed with the AAA rating from Moody's, which is the highest rating possible for our $60.4 million general obligation refunding bonds. Uh, this reflects the strength of our financial management. While we do have uh projected deficits, Moody's also recognized the proactive steps we've taken, including the $7.5 million budget reductions for next year to ensure long-term stability. This top rating ultimately helps us secure the most favorable borrowing terms for our community. And um finally, just a reminder that our middle schools are in the midst of music season and I encourage everyone to come out and support our students. Graham is presenting the Adams family and Kindon will soon take the stage with Aladdin Jr. Uh these produ these productions

showcase the talent, confidence and creativity of our students. So uh look look uh for ticket information in uh our updates that are coming out tomorrow. And that's it.

Thank you. Open public comment on communications. Any member of the public in person turn in a speaker card. Anyone online, please use the raise hand function. I'll wait. See one in person and one online. I will close communications. We'll allocate three minutes. First person in person is no name here.

Um I just want to comment on that the Graham's Distinguished School Award was during the tenure of principal Sebastian Benvitas. since he is no longer working at Graham, I want to make sure that he's uh acknowledged the great work that was done when he was here and turning Graham around, which prior to his tenure was had some things that needed to improve upon. So, thank you.

Thank you. Um now go to online, Miss Lou. Hi, thank you so much. Yes, I'm super excited when I I heard about Graham and I'm just really happy and that's amazing because the last time u Graham won it was with um in 2019 which is thank to principal Kim Thompson and then now with principal Benvita. So just amazing leadership um that's what make the school great and the staff you know the staff the student but amazing leadership that's that's so key and I hope that you know the next grand principal uh I trust that the district will find someone amazing as well um also Stephvenson we have um a program in Stevenson for art focus which is like 16 class all run by parents for actually 12 class um six in the fall and six in the winter and we just finished setting up our art show for today.

Sorry, can you hear me? This is a comment on the superintendent report. So, oh, oh, oh, sorry, I thought you said community stuff. So, I just wanted to tell people that about the art focus show at the city hall this week. That's it for Stevenson. Thank you.

With that, now I'll move on to um non-aggendaized items. Uh this time we have the floor for community comments on items not appearing on tonight's agenda. The Brown Act prohibits the board from discussing or taking action on any item not listed on the posted agenda. Trustees or staff may briefly respond to clarify facts or we may direct the superintendent to agendaize the matter for a future meeting. We have now I have one card in person. Do I see anyone online? See one person online. So I'll give three minutes. So first Mr. Nelson.

Thank you. Um, yeah, I wanted to talk about taking responsibility. One of the things that you need to do as trustees is take responsibility. And sometimes it's taking responsibility for things that don't work well. Um, it's nice when the superintendent comes up and tells us what worked, but it's also be nice when the superintendent comes up and tells us we found we're having trouble with this and we need to think about this and work on it harder. Um when William L when we had the thickman report on whether our finances were being done illegally or not um William Lambert was a standup man and he stood up and take I don't think he literally stood up uh he figured he stood up and take responsibility for the decisions that he had participated in that led to that mess. Uh Deon Connley didn't take responsibility. You go look at that and she has her written response, but none of it is I take responsibility for a couple of these things that happen. She doesn't take responsibility. Um so when we have problems with academics and instruction, I really expect our chief academic officer to take responsibility. If we had finance problems, I would expect our chief business officer to take responsibility, which also means bringing up the problems, reporting on them honestly. Don't leave out things that will make things look a little bit worse or a lot worse, for instance, is saying, "Well, we still have a gap problem." And not giving the whole truth. We have a gap problem that's been

increasing for the last four years. Academic gap and that gap now means our educ our SED students economically disadvantaged are below the state average for economically disadvantaged students. You need to be honest. You need to take responsibility and you need to take personal responsibility. So when the chief academic officer is not willing to take responsibility and perhaps resign and go back to being the great principal that we know she can be for an elementary school, it's on you also. It's on the superintendent who evaluates her, but it's on you who aren't evaluating the educational service department and the problems that have been clearly identified. Um when educational services doesn't do their reports and doesn't report on what's not working and has to be redone, you all lose um some integrity, institutional integrity and individual integrity.

Thank you. We'll now move to the online speaker, Miss Lou.

Hi, sorry about the last comment. I thought that was this is the time to talk about it. So um yes um continuing on. So Stephenson's we have our art focus I we just finished setting it up today. So then the show it's going to start um you know Monday for all of next week. So I hope the community come and see all the amazing work that our student do and with all the parent volunteers supporting this programs and with the teachers and everybody and it's just really cool. There's like um animation material, kinetic art, photography, um ceramic, just to name a few. Just there's so many classes and it's a lot of volunteer making this happen. So I I invite the community to join. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll now move on to discussion and action section of our agenda. The first item is item 9A 2025 2026 second interm budget report and budget reductions discussion. Uh I'll ask chief business officer Dr. Westover to present the report. Good evening. Uh tonight I also have director Nadia Pongo with me who will present alongside me. So, of course, this always connects back to our strategic plan and our board resolution that says that we try to hit between 17 and 20% uh reserve level in the third year out. And a little bit about our second interim, this is our district budget cycle. Uh we borrowed this from the budget advisory committee. We used to have a circle uh to depict where we were, but they did such a good job with showing what our budget cycle looks like that we decided to take this from their presentation. So, where we are right now is we are presenting second interim while at the same time we are starting to develop the budget for next year. Um we'll come back to you again in June to present our where we think we'll end up as well as ask you to adopt the budget for the 2627 year. So, as we talk through second interim tonight, it'll be a little different than how we've presented our past second interims because we're also going to talk a little bit about things that can change between budget adoption, which is coming, and what happens during the summer. So, here we are in second interim. This reflects activities from July 1st through January 31st and needs to be adopted by March 17th. This interim report also takes into account the recent reductions and we also apply those reductions to the years out which

means if we've reduced staffing we reduce it in the next following years as well. It's not just one year that it impacts. Starting off looking at our general fund. So some background on our uh my used to forecast the district's financial health. We're starting to move to a six-year model. So it helps understand our longerterm forecast given the volatility of AV which is especially important for a basic a district because we are completely reliant upon AV value which is very different from a district that where their funding is based on the number of students they have. So no matter how many students we have the funding we get is from our property taxes. It should be used as a guide and not a measuring stick. So it gives us trajectory. It doesn't say we're going to end up right here. Um it's based on budget assumptions and uh that are in constant flux and constantly changing. In addition to the assumptions that are changing, the needs within the district are also changing. What's important about a school district is that we are responding to what students need. So if we need to open up a classroom, we're opening a classroom and we're not saying no because we didn't put it in our budget. If or if we need to hire another teacher for a specific purpose for special ed, we go ahead and do that. some highlights. So, we're actively working to reduce expenditures where possible. You'll see some of that reflected in second interim. I think across the district, school sites and all departments have been very mindful of how they're spending money. So, we're actually seeing a savings that we weren't uh anticipating. Um the position when positions become vacant, the district evaluates whether they need to be filled immediately, which also has le led to additional savings in the current year. Um some examples for this if if people knew that they would not be returning the following year, some people have actually found positions and have already left the district. So that remainder of their budget or their salary that would have been in this

year's budget is now um reduced. Um our financial outlook is looking more positive this year due in part to the careful spending decisions that have been taking place. Um I'm sorry I missed my last previous bullet. Um all of this is a proactive approach to financial planning whether than rather than waiting until a budget crisis forces us to make decisions. So we are in a good position now because we are planning for the future as opposed to responding. However, it's important that we continue to plan ahead uh and align ongoing expenses with ongoing revenue. Just like a personal budget, the money that comes in has to equal the money that's going out. If it's off balance, you'll end up in a position that is not favorable. Taking action early helps the district avoid more significant cuts in the future and maintain long-term financial stability. So, how do we how should we really use our reserve funds? Because we are very fortunate that we have a high reserve um which provides financial stability and protects against unexpected economic changes which we are currently experiencing. If we didn't have those reserves, we would be making cuts midyear. And we've talked quite a bit about this, but with those reserve funds, how should we actually be using them now? Uh they're considered one-time funds and not going ongoing revenue. Once they're depleted, they're spent and no longer available. If ongoing annual expenses exceed annual revenue, as they are now, the district will eventually deplete its reserves, just like a personal savings account. For this reason, it's best practice to use the reserves primarily for one-time expenses, things like facility improvements, reducing the impact of declining AV, which is happening now, deferred maintenance, and one-time program investments. Um, with that said, the district also doesn't have a desire to hold money because our purpose is to educate students, not to create a savings

account. But that those reserve funds are highly important because it protects us from that volatility. So, it's a balance of the both. Using reserves for ongoing costs such as salaries or reoccurring programs creates a structural deficit, meaning expenses continue even after the reserve funds are gone. Over time, the structural deficit will require larger budget reductions because the district must eliminate the deficit and rebuild our reserve account. A financial stable district should work towards a balanced budget where ongoing revenue equals annual ongoing expenses. This can also be um because we are a basic aid district. It means we're constantly having to make adjustments because our AV is constantly changing as well as our expenses year-over-year. Expenses don't grow at a steady rate at the same rate that our AV is growing. So, there is some balancing that needs to take place all at all times. Maintaining a balanced budget helps the district protect financial stability, maintain appropriate reserve levels, avoid future program cuts, and respond to economic uncertainty, which of course we're doing currently. So, what would it take to achieve a balanced budget? The board has already done a lot of work in looking at how do we spend our money, where is our where does our money come from? But in order another piece to understand as well is like what do we need to achieve in order to get to that balanced budget. So of course income equals expenses. At our current level of spending the district would need approximately 15.67% assessed value in the 2728 year to reach budget neutrality. Uh in context the district has never received 15.67% AV growth. So why is this number so high? As a district, we've be become very accustomed to having high AV year after

year. In the beginning of the year, we had talked quite a bit about AV growth and how it compounds over time. Well, now it's almost working against us because our AV has been so low. We're not compounding on a higher level. We're compounding on a lower level, an lower amount. So, we need more AV growth in the 2728 year to make up for those. You can get we can think of them almost as lost years because the AV growth has been so slow. Current AV growth doesn't even cover our current increase in of expenses every year. So we're having to pull from our savings account in order to make up for the reduction of AV. So uh this estimate assumes that we're not having additional salary increases. Um that we are not no expansion of programs or services and spending remains at its current level. This is a look at our historical assessed value growth by year. The board has seen this uh prior, but you'll notice that we we have never hit that 15%. This is looking at this looks a little messy when you first look at it, but let me walk you through it. Um it's useful to look at because we're always monitoring our AV growth month by month. So, our assessed value is building each month for the next year. So we can try to see where we're going to land. So right now we are in this navy blue line here in March at 1.72% AV growth. This is the lowest we've been since uh 2021. Now the next question that might come to mind is is there any chance that we're going to have a huge growth of AV? If we look at historically, we had some great years where AV was off the charts. We don't anticipate that's going to happen. But if we look at the other years, yes, it looks like it can it can increase

over the next few months when we see some growth. When we look at our most recent year, 25th, the 25 26 year, that's this green line. We can see that it is increasing slightly, but we're not experiencing exponential growth. the box here on the right. Once we have our final number, our numbers in June, the final number can continue to change based on reassessments. So, when we're looking at our final number, does it go up or does it go down? This is part of that volatility that we talk about that we're managing as a basic aid district. So, we see in some years it goes up, but in other years it goes down. This impacts us because in the following years it's how it changes the amount of money that we're we're receiving. So when we're trying to plan, not only are we looking at AV growth for the next year, we also need to try to account for is it going to change based on uh reassessments

and we typically don't know that number in the box until August. Good evening trustees. I will be going over the multi-year projection for the second interrum bio report. Uh as well as some assumptions we use for this multi-year projection. Um the multi-year projection is a state requirement. It's a form we submit with all along with all of our sax forms. um this the county when they review our books they also make sure we're reporting um reasonable fiscal stability. So they will be reviewing our multi-year projection. So a couple of key items to um keep in mind as we go over the multi-year projection for the next three years. Um so year one we're referring to the 2526 which is the current year and year two is the 2627 for the year two revenue is decreasing um as we are not including the revenue for the Google lease and the expenditure ex um expenditure side in year two to year three expenditure you will see that increase u potential they look potentially higher much higher um this includes lose the um textbook adoption that we are planning around 2.8 million. We are also um including in this projection to make contribution to programs such as um special education, child nutrition, preschool um maintenance maintenance and operations as well as the ELOP program for salary increases. uh we are um including the 4% salary increase as well as the stepping column and in the all the other years out we are including the stepping columns.

So here is um the multi-year projection and um the current year year one we are projecting a net decrease of 1.1 million with a 36.13% reserve level in year two we are projecting a net decrease of 6.6 6 million. In the third year, we are projecting a 12.2 million decrease with a 25.75% reserve level. Next slide. So, we are not required to submit a six-year multi-year projection. for locally um as assessing or um anal or fiscal stability in the future years. Uh we use um in this multi-year projection as well the that board from school services um as well as other local assumptions such as the parcel tax uh which brings in about 5.1 million a year and the years out after negotiations which is after 20 26 27 we are not including any salary increases but we are accounting for a stepping column. Um I have a table included in this presentation in page 32 where I go in a little bit more detail on the um assumptions we use to do this multi-year projection. This multi-year projection will also be updated uh during budget adoption after May revise where we have more information from the um governor's uh budget and um I think we are including some scenarios to reflect that potentially if we get the one-time discretionary block grant or uh more funding for ELO. Um Dr. Westover will go over those scenarios.

So this is uh what uh Miss Pongo just presented but in a graphical format. Uh we do have a structural deficit. So although in year three we still have a reasonable reserve level, we notice that we're going to continue to eat into those reserve levels at an unsustainable pace. So but by year six we're at 3.06% reserve. So again, our goal is not to save money. Our goal is to spend money on our students, but we also have to flatten out the trajectory of that line. Some of the decisions the board has already made has helped with that, which is uh why we're seeing it look a little bit different now at second interim.

I think important to note there as well, I don't think it was mentioned, but um the AV growth assumption in years four, five, and six is 3%.

Yes. So the um current um assess value for the current year is at 2.6 and then 2% for the two years out and then we're as um assuming that assess value eventually will get better. So in the three uh after four, five and six we're using the 3% assess value. Sometimes there's also questions around unknown funding. So, something that we've talked about in the past with the board is an increase uh in ELOP funding. So, if the governor increased the funding to $1,800 per student, um which means our revenue would go up to 2.3 million as opposed to 1.9 million. And I realize I just uh have been speaking at these out of order. Um and also we anticipate potentially getting a discretionary block grant of $3.5 million. If we remember back to kind of the order of how we do things, in June is when we do our official budget adoption. In June, we still don't have a defined this is how much money you're going to get from the state. So, there's some misalignment between school district budget cycles and the state's budget cycle. It's important that we don't count on money until it's act until we can actually count it. So right now the state is having discussions on is this really what's the what the budget will be but we won't know until kind of midsummer. So what some questions are what would that look like if the discretionary block grant came through as well as the governor's proposal uh for the increase to ELO. So this is looking at the six-year mypart because it's easier to understand. What we can see is that we have one-time relief in year two. So our reserve level stays higher but then we continue on the same trajectory. I think a um an important way to look at

this in kind of at the highest level is if we if we think of the orange line the reserves as as one-time money the blue bars are ongoing right so obviously the re the reason why that uh the one-time monies are are uh um going declining is because we continue to uh have a structural imbalance and deficit spend, right? So, we can't do that. We are okay for a while, but if we wait, um, we're we're at greater risk, right?

And then if we try to wait for AV to catch up, we know that we won't hit that 15% AV growth. So, there's still changes that we need to make in order to bring things back into alignment. Uh an example of why our expenses grow uh not equal to what AV is over time is uh one is our utility cost. So we're looking at an increase of 6% 8% and 8% which is not in alignment with AV growth. So sometimes I think there can be a misunderstanding that um all of our expenses grow at the same rate and when our utilities or other areas of uh the district's budget need more funding that means that we don't have as much to provide in other areas. Utilities is one of those. This is for some contextual information. Salaries and statutory benefit increase is about 1%. Um and then we have the the actual dollar value on the right. Cost of stein column from 2627 to 2728 is 2%. AV growth revenue 1% is about 800,000. increase in total budget from year to year with no added services or staff is about 2.5%. And uh the total AV growth revenue needed to cover cost for that growth is about 5%. So right now we have 2% in our budget. We would need an additional 3% to cover that the increase in the budget that we're seeing just what we have currently. Um sometimes this is helpful uh to look at say okay if we want if if we're trying to reduce expenses or um we think about what we might need to have for ongoing salary or if we wanted to provide a pro provide a raise how those numbers line up in terms of AV growth and raises for staff.

You go back.

Sure. So hopefully each of those make sense, right? Stated just a little bit differently, we have a natural 5% cost increase every single year, right? With doing nothing and we need that roughly same we need that 5% AV growth to cover that. So when we fall short, the imbalance continues to become greater. Right? when we have a a salary increase on top of that like we do this coming year, right? That's going to add uh it's a 4% increase, right? So about a $3.5 million uh increase to the budget plus the natural increase is what we are having to account for. All while AV growth is staying around 2%. So this is looking at our other funds. Yes. Uh so during uh interim we'd like to take the opportunity to share with you um the the balance for other funds like uh preschool um food services or oped or post employment u benefits. So we are um sharing with you beginning balance or revenue um expenditures in the projected ending fund balance for this funds as well as including any um applicable contribution that we may have to make from the general fund. So possible adjustments going into unodudited actuals and budget adoption uh unused funds from unfilled positions will continue to be recognized. We'll do AV adjustments, uh hopefully most likely uproarward, reduction in POS or anticipated spending. So, we'll be meeting with all of our departments and school sites um to potentially reduce

those POS and adjustments based on state and federal funding. Our next steps, we recommend approval of the 2526 second interim budget report as presented and then we will come back to you for budget and LCAP development, the hearing and then the adoption. Attached to tonight's presentation, there's also I want to say it's almost 120 pages of our SAX documents plus in front of that there's also a summary. So everything you find in the sax documents putting it into a a summary tables and then attached also to the presentation are is information about changes between first interim and second interim if there's interest any questions

President Henry

thank you thank you for the presentation both of you um two questions one um I you highlighted utilities as one specific area that we see increases in. Um, are there any other what are the other examples of things like that that are kind of subject to to market prices? I seem to remember hearing at the CSBA conference a lot of districts talking about insurance costs going up by a lot. Anything else kind of like that that Yes. in insurance uh specifically property uh liability uh we're seeing increases and we're lucky that we're part of a JPA. So, uh, some of those are better than other what others are experiencing. Uh, special ed, uh, food costs, we're also seeing that in, uh, we think I I think the insurance liability will see a big increase. Um, you know, I think it's across the state, everybody is going to be feeling the pinch for um AB28 and we'll probably be seeing a big increase on insurance more than we'd like to they would like to recognize our project. Do you mind if I do one more? Um on slide 14 where you have the the different lines of the different years kind of month by month EV growth um we are still under two at this point in the year this year. Um can you talk a little bit about what that means and what you're hearing from the assessor about reassessments and how many requests they're getting? So when you meet with the assessor's office it's difficult to say because it's never tied. For example, we get information on how many requests there have been and then the size of the requests. Number of requests does not always equal the amount that we're actually going to end up seeing. So, it can be difficult to predict what is actually going to happen. Um, but in

general across the county there is there are and specifically in Mountain View um there are large requests from uh uh companies uh for reassessment and still outstanding Thank you, Steve Lieber.

I have several questions. Um, some are probably hard, some are very easy. Um, the assessed value growth table, that's really interesting. Do you have any idea why for most of the year it remains relatively flat and only during the there's huge increases toward the end of the year? What why does that happen? I think a lot of the increases come from when people buy and sell property because it gets reassessed. I mean, really, just in those last few months and remember, it's commercial real estate, too.

Yes, we're 50% commercial real estate, 50% residential. Right now, our residential is what's kind propping up our AV value. That's that's interesting. I will check that out online. I'm sure I think it's somewhere. Traditionally, as we we I've followed real estate for quite as a basic a district quite some time, the the opening of uh home sales season is really around Super Bowl. Yeah. Right. That's kind of the unofficial time. And so, if you think about homes being on the market,

closing escrow, title changes, that kind of falls right right in line with with that. uh when you we begin to see the uptick in kind of right about now or later. Yeah. Okay. That's uh yeah, research can be done on that which I will do and I'll get back to you. Um so we talk about um uh in your projections about uh um not having the Google lease monies uh going forward. Could you uh explain we're not just standing aside and doing nothing. How are we mitigating that?

Should I should I leave for a moment? I think this is public. It's public, so it's fine. Um, we know that Google has asked to um leave their lease,

right? So, there is um there's going to be uh hand over those properties back to the district um at some point uh in the future. Um we're we're currently working with them to understand what the what the lease revenue is going to be between now and when it's when it's handed over. There is question as to what we're going to do the as a board we're g as a board you're going to have to as a governance team we're going to have to discuss um uh the use of those properties right both Ericoff and Slater as they come back into our possession um in a DSA approved fashion uh whether we're going to turn around and lease them again or we are um we are cramped for space right now so we're going to we have to also consider our needs. Um you had the board had requested in April to have a session with the demographer to have some input. So all of that work between the demographer and the facilities um the facilities uh use consultant we will use uh will we'll get information we expect at the end of the school year in terms of a report and then be able to make some decisions about uh how we're going to utilize those properties once they come back online and will there be least revenue available coming from them? Clearly not if we're using them, right? But how much space, etc. So, right now, it's left out of it. So, if you look at that um either one of the six-year multi-year projection slides, right, any any lease revenue is only upside to those, right? They improve that that uh outlook. Um and uh in in good news, it it affects the ongoing, right? not the uh not the orange line, not the reserves, but it actually impacts the uh uh it lessens

the deficit spend. Yeah. So, that's positive. That's a excellent excellent uh answer, right? Because it sort of sort of gives some scope and and some context to, you know, what the loss of the Google lease means to our district and how we are addressing it. We're not just right saying we won't we're not going to have any money but right and for context and numerically right between the two sites it's about $3 million annually right I have another probably tough question for you right is how realistic is it to just assume that we're not going to give raises to teachers for the next several years that doesn't seem realistic to assume zero

I just again put context to these discussions right right to to the assumptions.

Yeah. And I think as as the board contemplates that, I think we need to remember that it's best if any kind of ongoing salary increase is is is connected to the blue bars and not the orange line. Right? This is ongoing money we're talking about um that's going to uh be spent uh uh well into the future. Um, so that's why it's so important getting that um that deficit spend under control so we do have room to um to consider salary increases. Yeah. Couple of simple questions uh an uh questions too. Uh budget cuts were recent budget cuts taken into account in our

Yes, they were included in the multi-year projection. They were approved reductions. And the last one really is out of curiosity, what are developer fees? Uh what are we able to spend developer fees for? It's about $10 million. And uh you can spend developer fees on anything that um helps accommodate the students that the development is bringing in. So it can be portables, uh extending the life span of a building, um those types of things. We could not use it for uh salaries. Does it need to be do they need to be spent within one of these city planning areas? No. No. Could be anywhere in the district. Anywhere in the district.

Right. And since I'm on a roll pointing this out, those are onetime funds. Thank you. Other questions? All right. I have a couple. Um, so I did I, as you may have noticed, I did go through the SAC stuff a little bit. It was a thrilling read. Um, but so I noticed that there were like two not met criteria and a supplemental flag. Can you kind of walk through what that means in the filing and how that what that what the meaning of those ones are? Do you remember um which criteria?

I'll pull it up in a moment. Um

als um so the in general the sax file analyzes the information that we uh provide and so it's also a tool that you know are you sure we're increasing this expenditures more than 2% it is like abnormal the sax file throughout those criterias we'll have a if anything in excess to 2% or 5% um is kind of is reflecting on that um increase or decreased and it will ask us to explain like okay why why did your expenditures in in decrease or increased this much uh on this year and typically we would say you know expenditures we're expecting to do a math textbook adoption that's why it's um outside of the criteria so it is a good um place for us to check like Oh, did I really um intending to increase my my expenditures by this much or you know I think um at first inter room enrollment is always a little bit you know um uh one of the areas where oh your enrollment decrease compared to what we projected at budget adoption. So those criterias are um important to to look at because it's just a good checking point to confirm that you're truly wanting to you're truly increasing by outside of that rate.

I think it's important when you're looking at the criterion standards if something is marked it's not necessarily hey this is a bad thing. It's a this is outside of the the typical and then you'll see an explanation. What you're looking for is that is that explanation reasonable? doesn't mean that it's wrong because school district budgets are not always even, right? You're going to have things that change. I was thinking to give give you all a chance to elaborate on them, right? Like so I think there was other expenditures and deficit spending which I think we're talking about and then the supplemental one was use of one-time revenue for ongoing expenditures. I think you want to is there anything you want to characterize out of that or do you think we covered it pretty well in the presentation?

Rock paper scissors.

Um yes. Uh so I um I I I think I remember your note. So ideally you don't want to spend one time um revenue on ongoing expenditures, but um we wanted to um be transparent and disclose that we were using um one-time funding to fund multi-year um early literacy program, which is a wonderful program. And for two years we uh for the third year we're cover is that we're a little bit more there. We have to do a contribution. And I think I think something also important to keep in mind when we talk about ongoing expenditures. There was a lot of funding that came into districts during COVID and then shortly thereafter. Something that set our district apart from uh other districts is we did not use that money for ongoing expenses. So, I what we're managing now is very different than what you're seeing across the state. Across the state, you're probably reading in the paper that they're making massive layoffs. We're not in that position because we didn't use that onetime funding for ongoing expenses. Right now, what Nadia was just talking through was because we did add two early literacy uh teachers uh as we were making the the changes to staffing and coaching. So because those liter early literacy teachers initially when the program was implemented was using those one-time funds the number of uh tosses that we hired fit into the various different one-time grants that we had but now that we're adding two more that's why you're seeing that that change.

Thank you. Um yeah I did notice that we also from the first interim went from like five not met criteria to two. I think some of them are ADA and related, but is there anything else that like any specific actions we took that proved those things or anything? I wouldn't use the criterion standards as like a a report card of like criterion standard met or not met is good or bad. I think it's more of a tool to it does as a as a tool to assess, but it's not good or bad. Because if you if our goal was to always meet every single criteria standard, we wouldn't be doing what's best for the district's budget. So it makes more sense as a diagnostic in some sense just to make sure everything's

correct but sometimes yeah you actually want to say because we do a textbook adoption is it a deliberate choice that we're making. Correct.

Well um the other question I'll try to be brief and I'll take this one. Um what levers do we have to kind of slow the growth of the spending on the special ed funding? Right. That is a challenge. I think we've talked I remember I'm trying to remember director Svagio's uh presentations from November. Like where are the costs being driven by? Like it's important. I don't want to I want to make sure we're able to actually like help those students and and do that. And I think with with the growth it's going to become more and more challenging, right, to have our budget structurally balanced. Um but I don't this is maybe a bigger question. And I don't know if we have

Yeah, I I think that's a very big question, but it has a lot to do with the work that the special ed department is doing right now. Um, of how do you meet the students needs? How do you make sure that you're meeting kids needs early? Um, because sometimes when you can help them early, it means that they don't struggle as much later on. So, I think that work is already well underway and I know that they I Frank uh director Solagio, Miss Panco and I, we have constant communications about how things are going and um definitely there's lots of eyes on it.

Thank you. Any further questions? All right, we will now move to public comment on item 9A. Uh want anyone in person wishing to speak on site, please turn in a speaker card. Anyone online, please use the raise hand function. Seeing no one online wishing to speak, I have one card in person. I will give three minutes. First speaker is Mr. Nelson.

Thank you. Don't we love going through the budget? Um, I remember when it used to be printed out paper that thick and it was uh, at least now you can sort through it. Um, yeah, one of the things I want to remind you that the 17 to 20% limit target that we set wasn't a lower limit. The 20% was meant to be a higher limit. And what it was meant to do is prevent excesses from being stored with the county treasurer. Because every million dollars or $10 million or $50 million that we store with the county treasurer, it loses spending power. It loses purchasing power for the next year. And the reason is the amount of money that we get from them is almost always less than the inflation rate. In fact, I think it was two years ago, we got a minus return from the money that we had with the county office, our county treasurer rather, that of was our reserves. So, there is no good reason to keep it above 20%. Um, this is one of the things I have a continuing dialogue with the chief business officer that it isn't good to carry a 40% uh reserve. It means kids aren't getting programs. And I um I didn't get a chance to look over how much the um if we're under spending again for high needs kids because that has to be sequestered because the legislature saw too many districts were doing that and using it for other purposes the next year. So any amount that is being underspent for the high needs kids has to be accounted for in this uh thing that you got. And you should realize that means tutoring. That means extra help for the highest needs kids in this district. And I think it's uh you should be ashamed when you

underspend for the most needy kids. I think Rebecca Westover should be ashamed when that happens. She should be bugging people. Hire this person that is empty. Get this thing done. When she was working with PaloAlto, she didn't have problems with nearly as many high needs kids. When she was the principal of Stephvenson, she didn't have as many high needs kids. So, I don't know, maybe she doesn't recognize that that's a significant issue that she could provide moral leadership on. Um, the other thing is when the superintendent decides that he needs more PR and goes and just hires another district office FTE PR person like he did in his first year. Um, do you get a warning that this is offbudget that we're hiring offbudget person or was that in the budget that he was allowed to have a second PR person? It's opaque as we do our personnel reports. It doesn't tell people off budget.

All right. I'll move back to the board for discussion. Any discussion? Potential action. Trusty Conley.

Well, I wanted to say um President DeFazio that I appreciated your questions about special education. I also appreciated um the trustee questions. Um there were some very detailed budget questions that were sent in and um I appreciate trustees. We don't know who sent in which questions but they were very helpful um for myself as well to read through. Um, I just participated in CSBA's legislative action week this week and we were talking about the budget with state legislators and some of the things that um are being advocated around AB218 came up and the expenditures there. There's advocacy work asking for a cap or some sort of support because it's wiping out some school districts. And it was interesting to hear the point about insurance liability. I had not heard that. Um, so that's something I will bring back to them. And then, um, special education costs are going up statewide and it's it's really really challenging for school districts and it doesn't seem like there is an end in sight because there is increased need. Um, and so figuring out how to manage that long term to make sure that we're meeting all of our students needs is going to be important. later to make a motion that the board approve the um second interim budget report and budget reduction um or the board um for 2025 2026 as presented

any further discussion anyone wants we approve or accept my apologies we approve it staff recommends approval okay thank you I second all those in favor I I

post motion passes unanimously. Um yeah, I think just one comment prior to moving on to the next item. I do think um that uh we do need to keep an eye on making sure that we get back to structural balance of the budget over the coming months. I think that's going to be the big thing. We've staved off major disaster I think so far, but we do I think the trajectories of those lines are still facing us and we're going to have to keep working on this. So, but that's why we're developing a budget in the next couple months. Thank you. All right, that we'll move on to the next item. Item 9B, next steps with a render report. Uh discussion item only and no action will be taken tonight. uh superintendent bear and associate super and associate superintendent Bower presenting.

Thank you. So tonight as I bring this up here to um present uh some of our uh reflection and planning on next steps for Arunda. We just finished a day and a half of um training with them. um very very amazing training and feeling like we're really going in a great direction. Um so just some background for us to remember. We're um as we're facing budget reductions, stagnant state test scores which have um been going on for quite a while and large achievement gaps and we've been working hard and we've been trying a lot of things, putting things in place, but we're not getting the results that we want. And so after that competitive process, we contract with Arenda Education to answer the core questions about um what is our current student success profile? What systems best explain that profile and what changes would most accelerate student learning. Um they conducted the study. They identified four root causes, symbolic data systems, weak program design, Christmas tree effect, and weak system alignment. um they made comprehensive recommendations um and implementing all of these recommendations is necessary for us to improve outcomes for students and start to close these achievement gaps that continue to widen. Um the implementation is going to take a sustained effort and it focused commitment and it's going to take us not just one year or two years, it's going to take several years. Um we've been working since January to reflect on and analyze the results of the study. Um and Arinda um will support us as well with defining our efforts and building out our action plans. Some of which we started talking about in the last day and a half. Some of the efforts are short-term. Some will be begun to be implemented starting now. We're already starting to

plan for next year, thinking about next year, thinking about what we can do this spring. and others are going to be longer term and will be contained within our new strategic plan which will be rooted in Arinda's research. So this is just a potential imple implementation roadmap for to just kind of show that we're going to start planning now but all of our efforts are going to be and need to be implemented and sustained and it's going to take time. Um, and we're looking at a period of multiple years for us to do this and do this very well. Um, this kind of shows how we're looking at this in terms of we have the rest of this year. Then we are going into the third year of a three-year LCAP cycle, which we have talked to the county about um whether there's a possibility of making wholesale changes to our LCAP um which it's really not. So, we can make some changes to our LCAP, but we'll make wholesale changes to our LCAP to reflect our work starting with the new three three-year cycle, which will start in 2728. Um, but I think this is just again showing that this is going to be a sustained and long-term effort. So, some current work and just thinking about this as a roadmap. So, this is our thoughts about just placing Arenda's recommendations on on a timeline. Um, and it's going to take time and commitment. As I'm going to keep I'm going to keep repeating that time and commitment. Um, we're going to continue to support students academic needs. And as we are learning, we're also going to be updating. So, for example, we're going to continue students are going to continue to need intervention and support. But one of the things we're thinking about is looking at our intervention teachers. Right now it's a pullout model. So students are pulled out of core. Everybody's some

kids are getting um RTI, some kids are getting reading intervention. Um but it's a separate time. What we're looking at next year is how do we push the reading intervention teachers into core ELA time so that there's two adults in the classroom for at least part of that time so that we're doing um two groups. teachers can pull small groups of kids during that time to support. So, we're not we're not we're not separating. We're we're pushing into core. That actually will free up some time in our schedule. Right. And key in there in in align with the the recommendations, we're not removing children from core instructional time.

Exactly. Um I think uh the other piece to this is when we talk about full imple implementation by 2032 33 doesn't mean that we won't have implemented everything. I think what we're looking for is implementing, revising, implementing, revising, revising, and then getting to a point where this is the core of our work. This is how we function and we maintain as we move forward. So, just looking at some of the datas, this was just the um our kind of estimation about how long it's going to take to get really good at these things. So, for example, with teacher teams creating an assessment matrix, that's going to be work that starts next year with our with our teachers in language arts, but they're going to do it. It's going to take most of the year to to get this done well. And then you're going to then you're going to be really ready to have it go in 27 28 and then you're going to be able to look at your work, refine it, and you're going to look at it again and for 28 29 and so on and so forth. So, it's work that continues, work that moves, it's work that's happening, but it it gets better and better over time.

And because that I think it's important to recognize that that as Kathy was saying that four-year span doesn't mean it's going to take four years to get to,

right? nor the fact that it doesn't appear in 31, 32 or 33 indicate that it's going to be dropped and um and not in existence any longer. Right? This is that idea of um of planning, implementation, and maintenance, right? We haven't gotten that deep into this yet, right? But we anticipate um and you're familiar with strategic plans and you've seen that, right? that there's a that there are those three stages typically that you're working through with the implementation of any initiative and you you're very familiar with the uh the recommendations given. You know, they are robust and that there is um a great deal to them and work that's going to have to be done um concurrently as as we go through this, right? And we're and we're talking about multiple content areas, too, right? Kathy just talked about language arts. We know we have mathematics as well, right?

So this is just looking at a tenative timeline for um program design which is area two. This is really um the heart of a lot of the work that needs to be done is in um program area two and highlighting that that developing that set of grade level essential standards that are going to drive instruction. teachers are going to start working on that next year, but they may they may teach those standards and assess and realize that they may have to tweak those, right? So, that's kind of where you're seeing that moving out over time as we go. The um equity and middle school math placement, that's going to start now. We do not want to see what we saw in the Arenda report with kids on that bubble not getting placed in advanced tracks. So, we have a plan to work with our middle schools and our elementary schools to make sure that doesn't happen starting now. But we also are working with our math committee and we're talking about what does middle school math look like? What does our placement criteria? What does our assessment criteria look like? What programs are we going to add in elementary school to ensure that students who really want to take advanced math have those opportunities? And then you add the Arenda work in math which will start which should all working together is going to ensure that there is more equity in our math placement. Area three is the Christmas tree effect. So really looking at how do we protect core time? How do we make sure that um not everything is interfering that there actually are blocks of time for teachers to teach and be consistent. Um, and you can see here looking at 2627 starting to look at how do we fix that middle school schedule. And then area four is system alignment. Here's where we see the strategic plan. Here's where we're going to begin work. We heard about how there's inefficiencies and overlap of um responsibilities. So reorganizing at the

district level roles and responsibilities, especially in light of positions that have been eliminated. Um, and then the key piece here is really making sure our site administrators have a lot of professional development and ready to move into the new year.

So, just let's look at program two a little bit more in depth. Again, as I mentioned, um, area two is where the meat of the work is and where we have to focus and where we're going to see the most change over time is with our core instruction. Um so we want to make sure that um our teachers have that time and space to um work on these um standards and the assessment matrix um because doing this well will allow us to focus on all the other levels of the pyramid. But that core instruction has to be the first priority. Um, and then we can work on and I think it's the to the other piece. Other things will be happening too, but that's got to be our main focus with our teachers. Um, and I think there was a question about how are we going to support this so it happens. I think thinking about how do we use our professional development days that that's really going to be a focus so that the teachers have the time and space to learn and to plan. Um, so work that's happening now. So, um develop our implementation plan. Who's going to be our team? Developing that team that is going to um develop the implementation. Um work on the beginnings or have a map for our strategic plan. We're looking at revising our site plans. Um we're going to do some revisions to the to the LCAP with full revisions done for 2728. We're continuing our work with math um to identify new materials and look at our assessments, our pathways. Um, and again, as I mentioned, making sure that all eligible students um are considered for accelerated math, whether they got a four on CAST, whether they got um a 527 on I already, whether they got both, or whether they're right on the bubble. And again, we're we'll more things will

happen as we continue to have conversations with the Renda. So then in 2627, these are things we know we're going to do. We're going to convene a committee to recommend a new middle school schedule hopefully for implementation in 2728. Again, that support around MAP um looking at um trying out these different um models for intervention RTI designated ELD. And I say here, this is one thing I can say. We we originally thought, oh, maybe we'll just try this at Castro because that's our highest named school. But as we've been learning and thinking, we can do this at more schools. and that came out of some of our our learnings from today. Um, and then we're going to

just interject there. I I think I think most important there is that is that we have commitment to whatever and our teachers are going to be deeply involved in this work. Whatever we establish as the floor, pick a grade for third graders in this school district, right? Floor is the minimum, right? We need to lift the ceiling as well. But whatever we identify as the floor needs to be the floor for students at their at Cascro, at Landals, at at every school, right? We cannot have varying floors. And once we establish what that floor is, the minimum expectation, we need to provide the resources on to varying degrees for students who need support, additional support in reaching that floor, right? And that's where budget decisions are going to come in as we establish this and where we dedicate resources to make sure we're supporting every student so they can get to that place. And then I think additional work is just looking at schedules and how do we adjust those schedules for those blocks of time. Um so again this is our initial thinking right some of our thinking is already starting to spin after the time that we spent with Arenda today. Um we're going to meet again with them in April and we're bringing in a larger group. Our principles are going to be a part of that training in April. Um but th this is going to really inform and provide the structure for us to improve outcomes for students. And this is all students. We saw some very very impressive um data from um a school that Arinda has been working with who for a long time and a a district that or a school that has really um made the commitment to

implementing their recommendations consistently and over time and their um their uh SED students are outperforming their non-SED students. It was pretty amazing. So, we know that um having them work with us is going to be so important to closing those gaps because we don't want them to continue to to expand. Um so,

I think our just I know I keep putting in this plug, but I'm going to say it again. Our biggest challenge in this work is to over time not become distracted by other initiatives, other interesting things. Once we get this in place, it's going to be it's going to be fantastic for every student in the school district. We're not going to close the gap in in in a year. We're not going to close it in two years, but we're going to have a plan to close it in a certain number of years and make measured progress every single year until it doesn't matter where you are in our district. Um the expectation for achievement and the results in that achievement will be the same.

I think um I think that was a great way to end.

Right. Thank you. Do I have any questions from trustees? Trusty Conley, thank you. Thank you very much for the presentation and I know staff has been doing a lot of work to try and figure out how to leverage um the report. I think um what's so well comments are later. Um one concern I have is that we're looking at a seven-year strategic plan. Um Superintendent Bear, are you committing to stay for seven years? because I'm I'm worried about if there's a change in superintendent, which there might be. How does that work? How is that sustained?

Yeah. So, again, I checked with my wife. I can guarantee there'll be a change in seven years. Um that that's why this is so important that it become part of who this district is, right? It's why we need to have our our principles involved as head teachers, right? As leaders. We need to have every teacher involved in the creation of this so that and as soon as we begin seeing these results, it is going to become uh addictive because we're going to see that we this is how we're going to achieve this. And it it needs to become part of who we are and what we do. It needs to be not a Renda's thing. It needs to be Mountain View Wisman School District's thing and then it's not going to matter who's in this seat or who's in that seat or any of those seats, right? Or these.

This is about who we are and what we do, right? And how we ensure success of kids in the school district, right? It's and that is why with dedicated effort and continuing to come back to it, creating ownership with our with our our staffs and our schools. Um that's how it becomes part of that ownership, right? Because then a new teacher comes in and it's very clear who we are, what we do, how we approach this, right? New curriculum gets adopted. it's not going to matter because we have the backbone of what the standards are and we lay curriculum on top of what the expected outcomes for our kids are and it's not about what curriculum we're teaching right

and so kind of tied to that I mean this to me this really speaks to a strategic planning process this to a certain extent the Arenda work right now is very internal it's very inwardly focused and I think about the years went into that went into the Castro plan the community engagement and then how that community engagement disappeared in and you know we never want to be doing things to students. We want to be doing things with students and families. And so I'm curious if you can speak to what the community engagement, parent involvement, student involvement process will be for the strategic plan itself and how you see weaving these together.

Absolutely. So what what I see is that we have made an investment as a district into getting um an analysis of our program right with with Arenda and they've given us some um very clear direction right and some very clear uh critical feedback um about where our shortcomings are and where we're we're not doing well enough for a certain segment of our population. We have what Kathy just ran through, right? We have the bones of this. I think what's going to be important for and we're going through an RFP process right now, right, for um uh strategic planning partners. But one of our expectations as we have narrowed the field is we need to use what we know already as the backbone, right? as the bones of the strategic plan and build a beginning of it and instead of going out with kind of a blank slate to our community, going out with this idea of here's what we believe our work is. Can we get some more reaction to it? What are we missing? What needs to be added? Where are the gaps? What what do we as a community um believe needs to be included in this or added to this? Right? One of the things that we're very focused on as well is um this isn't just establishing a floor, right? We need to lift the ceiling higher as well for all of our students, right? We uh we need to focus on each of them, right? because it's I you know already saw an email uh from the community member about um you know worrying about uh lowering expectations in order to have our struggling students more easily reach that that mark and that's not what this is about at all. Right? It's about what we have to do to support all students to

to achieve. So it's just the idea about in short in not going out with kind of a blank slate but going out with the bones of a plan and getting reaction to it.

Thank you. That's very I mean that's a very helpful clarification. Um and then the my last question is with the um the math placement and the so students have already listed their um elective preferences for next year. I know middle school scheduling that master planning process is going to start soon I believe. So is it possible that the board could get a report or update this spring on the on the actual numbers and the data and the race and ethnicity and other unduplicated uh categories. Um that would uh let us know what we've changed this year. We can give you some preliminary data, but a lot of that middle school placement and math goes on in the summer because we don't have CASP scores. So, it might be okay. So, maybe we can just get a a preliminary look this spring, even if it's in a written report, but possibly in the fall we get a concrete update on what happened over the summer because I think it was concerning to all of us. It was a red flag and we want to see a change. Um, and I know staff is working on that. So, we would love to to have that.

Trusty member. Yeah. Sort of um along the lines of what Trusty Connley was speaking about, this is a long program and uh trustees will come and go, superintendents, staff, and teachers will come and go. Are you thinking about um retaining Orenda to help advise the school district through these multiple years? You mentioned something about an RFQ going out to so we have an RFP out for RFP RFQ out for the strategic planning work,

right? Um and I want to show you are budget conscious on that as well. Um uh but I mean you ra you rais a good point, right? the the the um um the work around has been doing is in been in place since the late 90s. They have outstanding track record. Um we're we're we're evaluating how we might use them to uh assist us in our implementation, right? because if we are capable of it but um I think in in one of the uh in the piece I had you uh read right the the idea of the one degree right we don't want to be a degree off in the implementation and by the time we get three years out all of a sudden we're too far off course right so using them somehow as a um as a coach consultant uh I'm not sure what level of involve involvement yet, but I think it would be invaluable to be able to continue to use them to to guide our work. So, yes, I'll I'll bring it back. And this is actually an example. Um, I would say that when if we're going to get block grant money, right, that's out there. Who knows if that's going to materialize, but that's one-time money, and we're talking about one-time use here, right? So it might be for a year or two commitment but uh this work is going to be so integral to what we're doing this would be a I would recommend that this would be a logical uh use for that right for one time money

it seems um pretty important to you know at least establish some kind of dimension of continuity throughout this very long program. Um um I have some comments later.

Um I think my colleagues made me worried about a whole bunch of other continuity things for the long term. But um this will be like I think the other angle that I was keying on which is you know coming from the previous item you know you say we need sustained focus dedicated funding our reserves in 2030 2031 are at 3% at that point. Um, are we do we see future budget reductions affecting this? And like have we prioritized like how we focus the things that are like we can't lose these versus we would you know in in hard times we would jettison perhaps.

Yeah. So I would say whatever we work we do is going to be core to our program. the the work we're doing is going to be central to every classroom in the district, right? So that's going to be we're already invested there, right? We are invested in teachers and and site principles. So that's the most important um for this pro for for this effort. Um I think part of what the the systems analysis, the report, the recommendations that we got from Miranda uh also brought forward were misalignment, right? Like what things do we have in place now that we're that we are spending ongoing funds on that are not adding to the the student outcomes, right? And that's going to be all part of what we what we do and what we have to do in the work ahead. So I would anticipate that we're going to bring back uh in the future some recommendations for perhaps other investments that we've had and programs that we have in place that we we no longer want to um put money there, but maybe a portion of that money we want to put in this other place, right? because it's directly aligned to to uh student outcomes. So, um yeah,

thank you, Vice President Henry. Thank you. Um just as we're having the conversation, I'm thinking about what some of this means to me. Um, a question that came to mind is, um, is there a potential opportunity in this process to connect with the high school district? Um, on what when we're thinking about a floor, what what what floor do we get to in eighth grade that makes it so that every single kid in our district has the opportunity to take whatever they want to take in in in our high schools?

Yep. I think I think the floor is that our kids are going to leave here in 8th grade on grade level. They're going to meet or exceed standards, all of our kids. And if they all leave here meeting standards, no matter what, then they're going to be ready for A to G when they get to high school. And I think that's what we want is them going in on grade level in whatever course they take, right? Um, and I think the great the high school will be very happy with that. I think I think that's one of the advantages we have to working with ordinant is that they have they have deep K12 experience right unified experience so they understand that that preparation for a TOG requirements and that will be useful to us as well of course we'll talk to the high school of course we'll know we'll understand what they want in terms of preparation um but establishing that eighth grade floor and and mapping back is is really Right. Seeing no further questions, I'll now open for public comment. Um, anyone in person wishing to speak on this item, please turn in a speaker card. Anyone online, please use the raise hand function. One speaker card in person and one person online. So, each will get three minutes. I'll start with in person, Mr. Nelson.

Thank you, Mr. President. Next steps. Are we going to What I saw, I think the very first thing I sent you guys Saturday is this looks like it's slow stepping. It looks like we have change that's needed for students currently in elementary school. And they're talking about, well, maybe in five or six years we'll have finished going through this process. Um it isn't clear from that thing that there is a dark area right at the very beginning when some things need to be changing right away because otherwise these students will be graduating out of 8th grade. Um kick the can down the road. Yeah, that's what happens if you say this process is going to take five or six years. You need to start the process right now high speed. And the issue about continuous improvement works if you have good management. So students need fixes now particularly the middle school math tracking discrimination. It's not a fiveyear but a five month ready for the next school year process. Eliminate the very bad biased appeals process. Keep the CASP adjust for a fixed test for instead of from I ready. maybe the interim one, but you can certainly have the sixth and seventh grade math teachers who are the specialist in math in sixth and seventh grade decide which blocks of those standard fixed tests are going to be used. Um, replace the subjective appeal with class grades. We're not using class grades as one of the three criterias. Look at what the class grades are. Look at what the GPA are. Don't depend so much on peers coming and appealing because let me show

you. Here's what the pages show. I take this to a jury and I say this district has been causing harm for students. They need to have tutoring to make this up. It has to be paid for the district. You're putting yourself in legal peril by continuing this system that was set up and hasn't been monitored. So you can see this is from the Arinda report. The appeals process is inherently the way it's operated apparently it's not been monitored but it's in apparently discriminatory. That is going to cost you money. I can tell you because I'm going to support the taking this to court and either it'll be a bench trial like the uh LA Unified one was or it'll go through a jury who will look at this kind of data and make a decision of whether you need Thank you.

Our next speaker is Miss Lou. You have three minutes. Um hello, thank you for this report. Um I think um I just wanted to say that I'm excited, you know, with the idea of raising the floor and raising this ceiling, you know, creating high expectation for our kids and getting them there. Um, I'm also hoping that the district um invests more on our teachers and providing them the support they need in terms of like professional development trainings. Um, I know in the past it was really hard especially postcoid because of uh you know subs issues. So we can resolve the sub issues and get that done and that way the teacher can you know take time off and do professional training improve their craft and then help their student. We lost you um but feel please you can send your comments and email and we will assure you we will read them. Thank you. I'll bring it back to the board for discussion. Trusty L trusty library I just wrote down a couple right couple of comments right now. Um so uh I was at a meeting last night and there were um I think people were excited about the plan but were a lot of concerns about implementation and I thought that one of the uh a good solution to the problem was to it was a long-term plan but to make sure that early on there were some wins and very

measurable wins for everyone. Okay. And the idea is that if that was shown, then the whole community could get on board with this, you know, this long-term program. So, I encourage you as you're thinking about developing things to how to how to do that, right? So, everybody shares the excitement you're sharing. I was going to say I feel excited, too, but I'm not quite too sure what, but uh I see you uh smiling over there, and that helps. Um if you want to comment on that go ahead. I have one more comment.

Yeah, I'd be happy to. Um first just to the comment to the the the comment from the audience. I think we said we're looking we are going to address the inequity. So maybe I just need to restate that that that's going to happen this year and into next year for placement. Um with regard to quick wins, um I just Yes. And I want to be cautious that quick fixes are not what is going to turn this school district's performance for every student around. It's going to take long, hard, sustained effort, including our teachers and principles every step of the way so that this becomes what we do as a school district for every student whether they're at Yaloma, Estra, Stevenson, Castro, doesn't matter. We have to put in the long effort for every single student to be successful. So, we will look for quick wins, but uh this has been a this has been a problem for a while. And I know we've tried we I know our district has tried so hard over many years to do that. This is different work, right? It's very different work and it's core to what we do and it's aligning every resource we have to these student outcomes. Right? So I know you know that but I just want

to set the stage. Yes, we'll look for them but we will achieve it. It's just not going to be tomorrow.

Completely understood. You put it you put it well. Um, and maybe wins aren't the way to do it, but but whatever it is has meaningful a and and you know, progress, right? Something and acknowledging that um improving educational outcome for kids is a a lot different than planting another tree somewhere. Um the other thing I have a comment I have is about sort of the long-term aspect of this this uh program and how it's going to be communicated you know uh to the community teachers I think you have that under control but also the com the community including the children as well and to the board. I think it's really important that at the end of the day, right, the board is responsible for what goes on in the district. So we need to be you know not only receive reports on occasionally but which is you know happens in a board meeting not much opportunity for comment or discussion but then have you know have other opportunities where we can sort of critically um assess what has been going on, understand what is going on so we can better able to communicate to the public. A and you know really for our knowledge base and you know how that how you how that plays out and I can see it with the parents at different schools and things like that but that needs to be an important important um aspect. We lost that somewhere in the past several years. Too much was done behind closed doors didn't come forward to the full board maybe some of the board and um yeah that created a lot of issues. agreeing.

Okay. Y Conley.

Yeah. So, I um I agree very much with a lot of the things that Trusty Lambert was talking about. I think um this is long-term sustained change, but it takes community buyin internally and externally. Um and so part of um I absolutely agree part of what we need to do is I I see staff excitement. I it is so refreshing and nice to see staff excited about work in the district, right? because it's been a rough couple of years. And um and so how do we um make sure that not just our our teachers and our staff and our principles and everybody else kind of internally understands and feels that excitement and is invested in the work, but um our community is invested in the work as well. Um, and I think it's it's very challenging because for parents, you know, a lot of a lot of my perspective as a parent is what is going on for my child specifically? What does this mean for my child? Why is this important for my child right now? What if my child isn't part of one of these subgroups that we're closing gaps for? What if they are part of one of these groups that we're trying to close gaps for? What does this mean and how does it work? And so that's where I see the strategic planning process being that key opportunity to engage the community. I've been through a couple of well I've been through one strategic planning process and I've been through a master facilities planning process and at the end of the day um when I saw change in board trustees as well I could sit on the dis and I could say look this isn't my strategic plan. This came from our community. This isn't my master

facilities plan. I didn't sit down and dictate everything that needs to be done at every single school site. This came through a community process. And I'm I'm not going to sit up here and tell the community, I don't care about what you did. I don't care about what's in your master facilities plan. I don't care about what's in your strategic plan. um and disregard it for a pep project or a personal initiative. Um it and so it's so important that this is really becomes a broader community-driven thing because I think that's what builds that stability as trustees change, as superintendent change, as staff changes um is that it it it has that um real community base. And so a suggestion to go along with that um as uh Trusty Lbert was talking I was thinking what if there was a state of the schools address every year that talked about our progress on this work and where we are. So it wasn't a a board meeting piece it was a broader look here's it's like taking the strategic plan update but making it a community engagement event instead of it just being a board report um a state of the schools and here's where we're here's where we're working on closing the gaps. here's how we've been trying. Um, I'll stop there. Thank you.

Say one more thing, too. I really appreciate one of the comments that came across uh email. Okay, it wasn't the most pleasant email to read, but the comment was made that we should maybe we need to be careful with the language you use if in order to get everybody on board. We talk a lot about closing the achievement gap. That's certainly important but it doesn't convey that we need to sort of raise the level of success for everyone. So you know what is that language and starting out with sort of deeply thinking about these things so we all can have have a common communication language that is inspiring

right and I and I think that is why I mean since we began the the um process and since we've been talking about uh strategic planning recognizing full well it needs to be about both the floor and the ceiling right because This has to be meaningful for every family in this school district, right? Yes, we have to close the achievement gap, right? And we have to close the achievement gap by gap by elevating, not diminishing expectations, but we have to this has to be about every child in this school district, right? So, and I agreed I mean yes, I agreed with the premise of the email and I was actually very pleased that we have already been talking about that and considering it um prior to receiving that. Trusty Reed,

very similar um comment going through my head um where my thought was yes, we have a lot of conversation about raising the floor, but it's never been exclusive of higher achieving students. It's raising the floor for everybody, but also meaning um we're raising expectations for all students. Yes, the floor is being raised, but it's really all about we want the highest expectation placed on every student, which would then increase everyone's performance and increase achievement for all. And that's known where the adult expectations around children if they are high will increase achievement for all regardless of where their start point is. And actually as I was writing that down, I noticed some scrolling over here and then I see it on my um fellow trustees u monitor over here where the same um part of the Arena report that showed not all of the adults that we have um have that expectation that high expectation of all of our students. And that goes to the comment made from the superintendent earlier about that backwards mapping. Where do we want them to be at the beginning of nth grade is really where we should start and then go backwards from there all the way to TK to show yes our all of our learners are ready when they hit 9th grade to be at that level to start their A through G. There's a lot that the high schools put in place particularly for students who are um potentially firstgen going into um university and they have programs like AVID that really help

bolster with experience and extra activities. But we should also be looking at what kind of enrichment opportunities are we providing our students. They they spend so so much time with us. We do have all these programs running. We are spending all this money on time with the students. It's just not all aligned. So, I think a lot of the work is budget-wise, not what can we add to this. We've added everything we can add. It's just okay, maybe we need to remove some things and go back to basics and then slowly discover, oh, okay, maybe we do need a little bit more in in this area. um but adding things back versus um continuing the path that we're continuing on because we have implemented every crutch and band-aid there is out there and it's not reaching the levels that we want them to reach. So, we have to try a new approach.

Henry,

thank you. Thank you for all the work that's gone into this so far and that you're continuing to do. Um like one of the things that one of the things that horrified me the most in the Arinda slides was that disconnect between um the uh staff survey on um how many students you believe can successfully graduate UC CSU eligible and how many and and the question of how many parents guardians want their child to attend university upon graduation versus the number of parents who actually want that for their children. Um, and this is our opportunity by setting that floor of being ready for A to G that um, we prove that we as a district believe that too, that all of them can do it. Um, and it's going to be really important to have every adult in this district buy into this in order to make this work. Um, and so people might have to think about that a little bit. um out there. But I think um that is like a a bottom line thing for me um of how that all works together. I also appreciate talking about raising the ceiling um and that um I just want to name that that raised the ceiling applies to every single kid, right? There are kids in every single demographic who are capable of going beyond any expectations we have, you know, um, of taking whatever math class they want to take in high school if they get the right process along the way. Which is why I just wanted to highlight that I appreciate it on uh, slide 12 where you're talking about the the math placement. There's the right now, fix it for next year, but also you talked about, you know, that backcasting element of what does it take to make sure that our elementary school

standards are there so that every kid can, no matter what supports they have at home, no matter what extra things they do that their parents can pay for, that those kids are all ready for it and to be successful in our middle schools. um and that our middle schools are are really teaching that curriculum in the classroom, not assuming that anybody's going to get supplementation to understand it. Um so I appreciated that that was was part of your what you said for slide 12. Um, I also wanted to speak to the the long-term commitment here because part of this is also very intentional with future hiring. Do you have this high expectation of all students and do you have the ability to get students there? There's a a big difference in hiring content experts who are really knowledgeable about their content but may not know how to get students to achieve or to um get and retain that content. Whereas if the hiring is intentional of somebody who could teach any type of subject and get kids to retain that information. Um, and that's a whole different way of thinking about the future going forward. And I think that's part of why this isn't going to be a quick fix of um things are going to improve. We're going to see numbers next year and it's going to be fantastic because we I'm in education. I know there are some teachers out there who are this is the way I've been doing it for 30 years and this is what I'm going to do. and

doesn't matter to me what initiative or what data you present to me. This is this is what I'm going to do. And so it's a matter of figuring out how we're shifting things and how we're hiring for the future and how we have that high level of expectation for every new hire. So that when we even probe ones and probe twos and temps when we're choosing to put people full-time that we're really forward looking to how are they really going to affect the achievement of all students this year and in the however many years they spend with our district.

I'll just make a quick comment on that. At this moment in time, I will say that every single hire going forward in this district is mission critical, right? No matter the role because I have to be in that 63%, right? Because that number needs to grow.

Mr. Do you want to comment? So, okay. Um I um you know I also this all ties back into the budget discussions that we've had. Um anticipate President DeFazio will talk about this as well. Um but you know there's a real tension and friction between being really excited about this planning process and then having to balance the budget and choose and prioritize different programs to continue and staffing, right? And those are not easy decisions. Um, we've been through one round of that this year. We anticipate there may be more rounds in the future. And so, um, I think it's very important as we pursue this work like didn't look at the preschool programs or in our dual immersion program or necessarily, right? Like, so how do we actually evaluate some of these pieces in the the Christmas tree and figure out which pieces of the Christmas tree to keep and make those hard choices in the future? Um, steam, middle school schedules, all of these things, PE, those things that came up, how do we actually make decisions about that? And I would be remiss um it appears that at our last meeting I inadvertently implied that our staff could not do linear statistical regressions um and our linear statistical analysis and um when I think about social science research and education research uh which I got to work in for five years um I think about there is very um limited utility to a linear regression model in those settings. Most of the research that's out there that's being done is multivaried uh regression analysis in some format which is very different from what high school students are learning. And I I did not you know I had not anticipated

that interpretation but it became clear from an email that we received that that was the interpretation. Um I had the privilege of um taking taking statistics in grad school from Sean Rearden who uh a frequent commentator at our board points to his research quite often from Stanford and um I know enough about multivariate analysis to know that I don't know everything and how complex it is but it's why it's so hard to do research on education in general and and social sciences and social policy. Um, so I just wanted to apologize to stuff for that as well.

Quick comment tying um, Trusty Connley and Trusty Reed a comment together there and how are we going to figure out what um, what to keep and what goes. Right. So this idea that that you had mentioned earlier, Anna, about band-aids and and you know, crutches and and kind of quick fixes, right? Those are all those were all attached to a foundational system that was not optimal, right? That wasn't functioning at its highest level, right? So once we get that a a better semblance of that in place, I think we're going to be in a much better place to make informed decisions about which of those band-aids and crutches we actually need. Right? Because right now we don't we we we want the we we want the absolute best core instructional program, you know, on earth. I can be utopic. Um, and once we have that, then we will know what it is we actually need to support students to achieve the floor. Right? So, it's and it's it's not that it's not it's not clean like that. It's not exact like that, but once we have that in place, we're going to have a much much better idea. And our teachers are going to have a much better idea about what supports they need to uh to assist those students who are who are having that difficulty reaching that floor of whatever grade level it is.

And the benefit of of having gone last, I think everyone said everything I was going to say. So, I I'll I'll primarily just hit the the important things that are still top of mind for me, right? I think we many folks have talked about the outcome milestones. Like, I've gone through, you know, we're starting from the the long-term expectation that every student is going to be at or above grade level after they exit our district, right? Like that is where that's the floor for what we're going to that's the base expectation and how far they can go beyond that. and we will push them to see. Um, and I think going back from that, the initial kind of how do we know this is working along the way, I think, are the milestones and check-ins that we want to have to be able to make sure we're making progress towards that. I think some of that's going to come out of the strategic plan that we're building. Some of it's going to come out of the immediate term things we're doing, right? Like checking in on the math placement, right? That is an easy thing to figure out. Did we fix it and is it working? And we'll be able to see that. Um the other thing as as you noted this is very much tied to our budgeting process as well. So like seeing some way in the future budget discussions as we start developing it how the choices we're making there for where to spend our money are mapping to the changes we want to see. And doing that I think will help us build confidence that this is going in the right direction that we're actually doing the things we want to. Um, I think those are the two major things I think I'm really excited really excited to set the bar high and or set the floor high and see see how high they can jump. All right, close that out. Then if anyone has any further discussion with I'll entertain a motion for extending the meeting. I'll remind trustees that we probably will only get one bite at this apple. So last time you were looking for a an

estimate and I didn't give it to you. This time I will. 15 minutes. I move to extend the meeting till 10:15. Second. All those in favor? I. All opposed.

Motion passes unanimously. Should we move on to item 9 C, resolution in support of recognizing Women's History Month? Uh, Superintendent B. Uh, this was uh tabled to this meeting from last as you recall. Um March is uh women's history month and it's a celebration of uh women's contribution to history, culture, society and I think it's important that we as a district also recognize those contributions of women of every race, class, background that they've made in our community and um that we honor them this month and um far far far into the future. Right. Um, it it it makes me uh it makes me think of the the recent recognition of Rose Filicetti on her passing, right, who's a fantastic example locally of someone who fits this bill. Do we have any questions from trustees? We'll now open the floor for public comment on this item. Any member of the public wishing to speak on it, turn in a speaker card. Anyone online, please use the raise hand function. We'll wait to see how many speakers we have. Seeing none in person and no one online, we'll now move to discussion and possible action. After action, I will suggest we do a coral reading of the resolution. Have a motion.

I had a comment before Oh, go ahead. motion. Um I think um you know for everyone who's been following the news um what we've been reading about Dolores Verta and other women within the Farm Workers USA movement um is very um much tied to what we're talking about tonight. Um, I know it's a heavy time for a lot of people and I want to recognize that. Um, and for survivors especially.

I move that the board um approve resolution number 01030526, a resolution in support of recognizing women's history month. Second. All those in favor? I I I. All opposed? The motion passes unanimously. Um, I think I started with Trusty Lambert last time, so I'll know I'll randomize this in the future, but I'll start with uh Trusty Connley.

Whereas members of the Mountain View Wisman School District Board of Education are honored to join communities across the country and recognize March 1st, 2026 as the start of Women's History Month. And whereas women of every race, class, and ethnic background have made significant and historic contributions to the growth and strength of our society in countless recorded and unrecorded ways. And whereas the full participation of women is a foundational tenant of democracy, women, often women of color, have been on the front lines fighting for and securing equal rights and opportunity throughout our country's history as abolitionists, civil rights leaders, suffragists, and labor activities. And

whereas as community leaders, educators, doctors, scientists, child care providers, and more, women empower our economy and lead our nation. As first responders and service members, they stand watch over our lives and liberties. As innovators, entrepreneurs, and essential workers in every industry, they represent the very best of us. And whereas despite these contributions, the role of women in history has been consistently overlooked and undervalued in the literature, teaching, labor, business, and in study of history. hand.

Whereas despite significant progress, women and girls continue to face systemic barriers to full and equal participation in our economy and society due at least in part to the disparities that persist in economic security, health care, and caregiving responsibilities, especially for women and girls of color. And

whereas additional education is needed to increase the knowledge of all citizens relative to the contributions of women and opportunities for girls and women to develop their leadership skills and to eliminate bias in education and the workforce. And whereas during Women's History Month, we celebrate the countless women who have fought tirelessly and courageously for equality, justice, and opportunity on behalf of all women. We also reaffirm our commitment to advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls in Mountain View and around the world. Therefore, be it further resolved that the Mountain View Wisman School District Board of Trustees adopts resolution number 01-030526 to encourage the celebration of Women's History Month in the schools of the district with relevant activities and to acknowledge the significance of Women's History Month now and always. Now we move on to discussion action item 9D board policies first reading. This is a discussion item only and no action will be taken tonight. Ask new chair of the policy committee trust vice president Henry present.

Thank you. So I guess I could have given that update in the uh committee updates. Um at the board committee meeting um last week um we had decided at the February meeting that we would rotate the chair position. Um so at last week's meeting I was elected as the new committee chair of our twoerson committee. Um so um the most recent Do you have my slides? Okay. Um and I apologize to my fellow board members. all of the actual updates were in the the agenda, but um since we just met last week, I did not have my slides ready. I will be better next time. And we also have a little bit more time in between um the next policy committee meeting. And um but they they were are upload uploaded now, but they were not there um earlier and I apologize for that. Um so the most recent CSBA packet was released in February. Um, we worked through about half of the February updates at the last at last week's meeting. Um, and we'll continue to work through additional updates from that packet. Um, and things that are kind of continuing to to roll forward from previous agendas um, at our April meeting. Um, and then the next set of updates will be released in May. So, we're doing a first reading tonight. Um, you've had the opportunity um, to look at the proposed policies and changes. um and we'll actually they'll um have an opportunity for feedback tonight and then um be able to be um for a second reading on the the next agenda um coming up in April. So um the current batch we have uh just for tonight we just have uh six policies before us, two that are new to this district um and four um in the all in the students area. We have um I think maybe four or five um from the February packet and other things um from the board bylaw section that will be looked at um at the April policy

committee meeting. Um so policy 441, artificial intelligence, this one is new for MBWSD. Um it is an optional CSBA policy um that was originally released as part of the June 2025 policy update packet in connection with uh CSBA's um AI task force. Um we reviewed it in the fall and then um kind of pushed it back to the staff to look at it again and just to come back with um an idea of what kind of next steps would be. Um so the pol this policy is just a foundation to navigate the fast evolving development of AI um with a focus on responsible equitable and transparent use. Um staff should be a separate presentation at some point is um working on additional recommendations related to AI that will come to the board in the future either through the the tech study session or um other opportunities. Um next um policy 450 is comprehensive safety plan. This policy is um new to our district. Um it reflects ed code requirements for required comprehensive school safety plans. The district has been complying with the ed code requirements. Um we just haven't had this written policy. Um but we got to a point where we were seeing cross references and other policies to this policy and suggested it as something um to that we brought to the policy committee and now bring to you um as a recommended policy to adopt. Um, one choice that is made in this um in the CSBA sample um that we recommend is um to include this tactical response plan section um where ED code um 32281 allows the board to elect to have the district rather than the school site council which otherwise develops the comprehensive school safety plans, but to have the district rather than the

school site council develop just those portions of the safety plan that include tactical responses to crim criminal incidents that may result in death or serious bodily injury. Um so rather than having those kind of be public part of the public site plan process, the ED code allows this option um from the board. Um and again, we haven't this district hasn't previously adopted this policy, but has followed the ED code requirements and we recommend adopting it um to document the policy. Um and again, this is a BP that's cross referenced in other policies. So then um a few that are in the student section, the 5000s um policy 5020, parent rights and responsibilities. MVWSD had um last updated this policy in 2007. Um so it was definitely due to be updated. Um it adds a requirement to notify families of the option to opt their children out of certain instruction that relates to ed code and certain recent Supreme Court cases. Um uh and then these updates um that we're recommending tonight reflect CSBA recommendations through November 1st, 2025, their most recent update to this policy. Um policy 5144 discipline. Um this MBWSD had last updated in 2015. Um so these revisions incorporate changes um in the CSBA sample policy that was last revised March 1st, 2024. Um, a couple of highlights. It includes ed code provisions regarding limitations on denying recess and prohibiting the use of seclusion and restraint as discipline. So, some important updates to this policy. Um, policy 5144.1, suspension and expulsion due process, um, is part of this most recent packet. Um, adds that off-campus student behavior may result in discipline when it disrupts um, district policies and

activities. There had been some references to off-campus activity um in one of the other policies, but they were moved into this one to make it um a broader statement. Um it's updated to reflect new law AB 1230 from 2025 that requires um a plan for student rehabilitation in connection with any expulsion order. And then policy 5145.2 freedom of speech expression. Um, again bringing the language up to date, um, with CSBA's recommendations, um, MBWSD's policy was last updated 2008. Um, it adds some language to the philosophical statement related to providing a welcoming, safe, and supportive school environment. Um, there is a related AR that our policy committee doesn't update, but that I wanted to highlight for you. um that the sample um AR has been updated to include a new section um student participation in civil or political events that talks about um medical that middle and high school students can get one excused absence with advanced notice to participate in a civic or political event. Um so then our next policy committee will be on meeting will be on Wednesday, April 15th at 100 p.m. Any questions on these?

Thank you Vice President Henry. Any questions from fellow trustees? All right, I'll open public comment on this item. Any member of the public in person wishing to speak on this, please turn in the speaker card. If you are online, please use the raise hand function. See no one wishing to speak on this item. I return for discussion. Any discussion of the board policies? First reading. I just wanted to thank the policy committee for these um very necessary updates. Um and it's great to have them chunked, but also the explanations um I think make it digestible to any person who isn't um well-versed in ED code or policy.

Thank you. We'll now move on to item 10, board updates. member of the board like to provide updates since our last meeting. Trusty Connley.

Yeah. Um the Santa Clara County School Boards Association held its legislative brunch on Saturday. Um and it was pretty fantastic to hear legislators who represent um Santa Clara County constituencies at multiple levels talking about the things that trustees care about in Santa Clara County. So, um, there were county board supervisors Ellenburgg and Margaret Abby Koga, um, all the way up to congressional representatives Licardo and Kana. Um, and then a whole bunch of assembly members and and senators in between. Um, and so a lot of the things that we are facing in terms of budget, that we're facing in terms of special education costs that we're facing in terms of widening gaps were topics of discussion and things that um, other other uh, districts across our county are really wrestling with as well. Um, and then I also, as I mentioned earlier, have been participating in the CSVA ledge action week. um in between my children having an family struggling with different viruses. This week it's tech week for the play. Apparently that's a dangerous time um for families, but good good to know. Um, but the I encourage you I'll I'll send to all of you the talking points from the ledge action week because I think it's just good to know what CSBA is advocating around. Um, and it does some of it does tie very directly to our district. Some of it is about PROBO 98. Um, which does and doesn't affect our district as much. And then before our next board meeting, not this weekend, but the last weekend of March, I'll be going to the CSBA board of directors meeting. So if there are any questions or issues that you

want me to bring with you, please um you know, feel free to reach out to me and I'm happy to take those with me and try them get try to get them answered there.

Thank you, Trusty Cley. Trusty Henry. Um I'll just share that um I was not at the legislative brunch because I was instead at the course two of masters in governance um trying to catch up with my colleagues. Um but this particular course was timely um being policy and judicial review but then the afternoon session was on student learning and achievement. So um I was lucky to have a very small group of um trustees and um administrators that I was learning with and we were able to trade book recommendations and things like that. So, um, it was well worth the time. I

think one other a handful of us participated in the Vargas Readathon. I think we're guest readers. I think thank thank folks for the invite. I think it was a wonderful experience. Got to read to my kid. So,

I'll just add it was amazing to be on that campus and experience the outdoor learning improvements that have happened because I went on that seems like two years ago, so I forgot to put it in my update. Um, I went on a day that was hot and sunny with this heat wave that we've been having and I was in the middle of what used to be that concrete box in the full sun and it wasn't hot and people were walking around and they were it it wasn't it just the heat effect the heat island effect there used to be so significant and it was incredible to be on campus and and get to experience that firsthand. All right, with no further updates, items for future agendas. Would anyone like to suggest an item for future agenda?

Um, I Well, I think we have members from the YMCA here this evening. And that was a good reminder to me that um, you know, this is our first year with the annual expansion with ELAP and the YMCA being our provider. I think um it's also I I anticipate we'll have an agenda item coming up with um information about how how the program has gone this year, what we're looking for next year, possibly parent uh feedback on their experience in the program. Is is that already planned or a date for it? But yes, it has to come.

Oh, okay. Good. All right. Thank you. All right, seeing no further future agenda items, the next regular board meeting is scheduled for April 16th, 2026, and we have additional meetings at April 30th, 2026, May 14th, May 28th. Any further business? Hearing none, having reached the end of the agenda, the meeting is adjourned at 10:05 p.m. and the next regular meeting is scheduled for April 16th.