City Council - Regular Meeting

I don't I don't get to use this very often, but since we have such we have a full house, I thought I'd see if it works. All right good evening and welcome to the May 5th, 2026 joint special meeting of the Salina City Council. We are calling the meeting to order and.

I will send and thank you and good evening and welcome to the May 5th, 2026 joint meeting of the Salinas City Elementary School District Board of Trustees. And I am calling this meeting to order. OK.

This meeting is available in Spanish for members of the public in attendance and on Zoom. Translation devices can be obtained in the foyer. OK. And Zoom webinar participation is available for members of the public. The Zoom webinar ID and link are available on the posted agenda on the city website.

And with that, we are gonna have the Pledge of Allegiance, and we are gonna have students from my alma mater, Mission Park Elementary School, lead us in the pledge. And I would like to, let's see, I think Anna, I gather you have some students to introduce.

Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. My name is Anna Padilla, and I'm the incredibly proud principal of Mission Park Elementary School, and I would like to introduce two of our sixth grade students from Mrs. Gaynor's, Mrs. Docpano, and Mrs. Weaver's classes. So please join me in welcoming Violet Del Real, who will be leading us in the English Pledge of Allegiance, and Joshua Arellano Padilla, who will be leading us in Spanish.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Right hand over heart. We may begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please remain standing.

Hello, my name is Joshua and I say it in Spanish. You may be seated.

Thank you.

All right. Patty, would you call the roll for the City Council, please?

Council Member Barrera?

Here.

Councilmember DeRigo. Present. Councilmember De La Rosa. Here. Councilmember Salazar.

Here.

Councilmember Sandoval. Here. Mayor Donahue.

I am here.

Thank you.

All right. And Dr. Andrade, will you please call roll for our district?

Here. Here.

Here. Here.

Here.

Here. Here. Here.

Here.

All right. Thank you. All right. We will take public comment this evening for 15 minutes. Speakers will have one minute. And with that, we are open for public comment for 15 minutes.

HI, GOOD AFTERNOON. THIS IS BEAUTIFUL TO SEE ALL THESE WONDERFUL PEOPLE HERE. I LIKE IT. I INVITE ALL YOU GUYS TO THE CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS. PLEASE COME. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE THIS KIND OF A DIAS THERE, IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE YOUR SUPPORT AND WE NEED IT, LIKE I WILL SUPPORT YOU GUYS AT YOUR MEETINGS. PLEASE INVITE ME. I'LL BE HAPPY TO COME TO ANY OF YOUR MEETINGS THAT YOU HAVE AT ANY SCHOOL DISTRICT. YEAH, I WOULD LOVE TO JUST BE THERE AND BE ABLE TO SHARE AND ENJOY A GREAT COMPANY. I APPRECIATE ALL YOU TEACHERS FOR STEPPING UP AND HELPING OUR STUDENTS. AND NOT JUST THE TEACHERS THAT TEACH IN SCHOOL, I'M TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE, JUST REGULAR PEOPLE THAT DO GIVE THEIR TIME AND VOLUNTEER. PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITY. You know, moms, dads, uncles, cousins, friends, people who care. We need that. Thank you, Selena. This is a beautiful city. I love it here. God bless you guys, and thank you for coming. You're very welcome anytime here. God bless you guys. Have a good night.

My name is Daniel Munoz. Once again, I urge everybody here to get our children pesticide air monitors so we can know what our kids are breathing. That's pretty much all I wanted to ask. I'm pretty sure everybody in this room agrees with me. Our children need pesticide air monitors. We don't have one here. So food for thought, right? Please help us out. Protect our children. Thank you.

Just in the council chambers. It's fun, but not a spectator sport. So I'm gonna ask you to refrain from applause. There will be chance for it when we recognize the awards, but public comment, we just like to receive that. So anyone else from the public? All right, is anyone zooming from the public? They are not zooming, so we will go ahead and proceed to an administrative report. And we are looking for the city manager and the superintendent. So I'll start with.

Yeah, Mayor, council members, board members, board trustees and everybody. So we're gonna just take a few minutes to make a few presentations on what's going on with the city. Some of you have already seen this presentation and I know Dr. Andrade is gonna brief us on the school. So if we can move on to the next slide. So a lot of the stuff that the city's been doing over the last years is, and particularly the last couple years, is really focusing on our future, investing in the future. On this slide, you see a lot of the, then I'll speak to a little bit more, the future growth area, some of the projects that are going on, and our general plan update that is in the process right now. So pretty much everybody in this room, a lot of folks in this room have participated in Envision Salinas 2040, which is the general plans and blueprint for the city over setting or overreaching goals, specific plans, support, implementation of these goals. So over the last several years, we've done a lot of, whether it's the Atlas Self-Advocacy Plan, Marketplace, Uh, the downtown plan, the urban force magic management plan. There's a lot of plans that are going to in the general plan. A lot of documents are going to general plan and spend it. Thousands and thousands of community engagements and a lot of input provided. The thing that, why this is important is it's the first comprehensive general plan update since 2002. Like happens in our school district, I'm pretty sure a lot of the codes and a lot of the requirements change over time, and the city's really focusing on updating our general plan. What you'll have is land use, circulation, housing, conservation, noise, open space, safety, and environmental justice, which is a new element. I think it's important to point out that Our schools, all our school districts have provided input into the general plan, provide their places for schools at all levels. Schools are an integral part of development as they work with developers and so forth as our population goes and our student population shifts. So I think this is an important thing to acknowledge that while the city does focus on the general plan moving forward, it's not done in a vacuum. Schools are an important component of any general plan. One of the big focuses that we've been focusing over the last several years, and you've seen a lot of it, is creating housing opportunities. This is housing opportunities of all types and all incomes, from entry level, affordable, low income, market rate, workforce housing. Something me and Dr. Andrade have talked about over the last couple of years is just the challenge that we have hiring staff. uh, when, you know, we have lack of available housing opportunity or our kids that were graduating, coming back, you know, where do they live? I'm soon to have two kids graduate from high school and you know, they're like daddy. Yeah. There's a room still available. Uh, So those are things that we all struggle with. A couple of the projects that we're working on, there was a Fairview grand opening, which is housing for our unhoused homeless population. We did host the first annual housing summit, which looked at different types of housing opportunities. We're really engaged in Chinatown redevelopment, so the city's buying property, acquiring property, couldn't develop it, and then hopefully our affordable housing providers and our nonprofits can step in and develop the housing. Future growth area, we are looking at three rural specific areas right now, which is the West Area Specific Plan, the Central Area Specific Plan, which is a little bit ahead in some of the projects. We hope that we'll be able to, there'll be some groundbreaking spring, and the East Area Specific Plan. So all in all, these are thousands and thousands of housing opportunities for our community. We're also investing in our. Infrastructure a lot of work goes into that a lot of work continues. We are looking to update infrastructure and maybe be able to. invest more and one of the things that's coming up is we're gonna be looking how we can shift, how we can update our procurement processes and just how we develop these projects moving them forward. Another thing that we're gonna speak to is an infrastructure summit that's coming and that's one of the things that we're gonna look at is bringing experts from throughout the state and helping us explore other financing opportunities, and just how we can really keep up with what's needed with the community. If you move on to the next one. Also, we're looking to streamline development processes that align with community preferences. One of the things that happens when a development project comes into the city, not only is there a city component to it, but there's also a school component to it. Many of the development projects that happen have to go talk to the school about how they're going to impact the school districts. And there is a school impact fee and other things that happen when a development comes forward. It's not just the city that is looking at those development projects. Along with that, we're looking at updating our zoning code. Again, our zoning code has not been updated for decades, and I think it's important to bring it into 2026 and with the communities today and moving forward. Something that some of you that were here were listening to our fire department give their annual report. And we're doing a lot to invest in public safety and quality of life issues. So our police department, our fire department, our code enforcement and other areas have been a real focus of this council and how we can continue to invest in those areas. uh... public spaces uh... similar to uh... i think schools are an incredible meeting space in community space in kind of the heartbeat of communities uh... the city complements that with our own public spaces or parks centers like the Hebron Family Center. An incredible investment in Closter Park is underway. And now we're looking at really supercharging public art. And that, I know that the school's really spent a lot of time on the arts. So it's kind of bringing a lot of that back and providing opportunities. We are slowly but surely trying to improve our facilities. Fire Station One recently oversaw a huge rehab. And we're in the early stages of District 5 Recreation Center going through that process. community engagement, kind of what they want to see, then we'll bring it to the council for approval and move that forward. Expanding economic opportunities across Salinas, whether it's the large building that people are seeing on the southwest side of town, which is the Amazon building, a three million square foot facility. which is gonna bring 1600 jobs to the area and a few, but it's also, there's pros and cons to those types of large businesses that we have to deal with. Community financial empowerment, we're standing up a a service or a community can prepare for the housing that's coming. So you have to prepare, you have to be ready to be able to purchase housing, so that's, we're working with United Way and a few other nonprofit partners on that. Today the council acknowledged Small Business Week, so how do we support our local businesses? And workforce development. which is very, very key. So with that, I'm going to ask Dr. Andrade to finish the presentation. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Thank you to our city leaders

The next few slides is really an opportunity for those of you that do not know who we are to get to know a little bit about the Salinas City Elementary School District. At the center of everything we do is our commitment to helping every child right now and in the future. Can you hear me? Can you hear me now? Okay, it was off. If we can go to the slide of who we are. We serve more than 8,600 students across 15 schools from preschool through sixth grade with over 1,200 dedicated employees. Many of them are here. This is the week that we are celebrating our teachers, Teacher Appreciation Week. For those of you that are listening, you have time to Let them know how much value and what a difference our teachers have made in our lives. Particularly, by the way, we are hiring. We have about 1,200 employees. And sometimes we forget that the school districts are actually one of the largest employees of our cities and our counties. We are currently looking for bus drivers in particular, so I'm making that plug right now. If we go to the next slide, our budget really reflects our values and our priorities. As you can see, the majority of our resources go directly into the people. Our teachers, support staff, and employees who serve our students every day. We do remain committed to fiscal responsibility and responsible stewardship of the funds that our taxpayers have entrusted us. So with that, we want to make sure that we do our budget process and development just like in the city. We are in those final stages where information will be given to the board in May at the end of this month and then for board approval in June. WE GO TO THE NEXT SLIDE. OUR 535 PROMISE IS SOMETHING THAT WE HAVE BEGUN IN COLLABORATION WITH OUR EDUCATIONAL SERVICES AND ALL OF OUR STAFF, REALLY, WHICH IS HELPING GUIDE OUR INSTRUCTIONAL FOCUS AND OUR COMMITMENT TO STUDENT SUCCESS. WE WANT EVERY CHILD READING PROFICIENTLY BY THIRD GRADE, BEING PROFICIENT IN MATH BY FIFTH GRADE, AND OUR ENGLISH LEARNERS, OUR MULTILINGUALS TO BE RECLASSIFIED WITHIN FIVE YEARS OF BEING IN THE U.S. These goals represent high expectations, but it is our belief that every child can meet these when given the opportunity. Moving on to the next slide, this is one of our signature programs that we started, which is the identification for our advanced learners. IT REALLY IS SOMETHING UNIQUE IN OUR COUNTY. I BELIEVE WE'RE THE ONLY SCHOOL DISTRICT THAT IS BEGINNING TO IDENTIFY WHO ARE OUR ADVANCED LEARNERS. WE DO SO WITH THE FULL COMMITMENT THAT IT'S ENGLISH LEARNERS, MULTILINGUAL STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES, ANYONE CAN TRULY BE IDENTIFIED AS AN ADVANCED LEARNER. SO WE ARE LOOKING AT THE ABILITY TO PROBLEM SOLVE AND REASON AND IT'S NOT NECESSARILY DICTATED BY LANGUAGE. So there's no barriers for any one of our students. We are also ensuring that they're challenged and inspired. And this is the first year where we're identifying them. So stay tuned on how we're gonna be able to see that flourish in our classrooms. But we are doing it right now through our film festival. I believe we had over 40 students that submitted their entries. So we have at least future directors and cinematographers in our midst and actors. We do have a STEAM and computer science showcase. And we continue to do participation in the Invention Convention. We're really proud, especially of our students. We had over 22 participate at the state level. I THINK WE HAD ABOUT SIX OF THEM RECEIVE AWARDS AND ONE OF OUR STUDENTS IS ACTUALLY MOVING TO THE NATIONALS. SO THAT IS VERY, VERY EXCITING. IF WE MOVE TO THE NEXT SLIDE, IT IS ANOTHER ONE OF OUR SIGNATURE PROGRAMS WHICH IS OUR DUAL IMMERSION. OUT OF OUR 14 PHYSICAL SCHOOLS, SEVEN OF THEM ACTUALLY HAVE SPANISH AS A DUAL IMMERSION PROGRAM, AND IT REALLY REFLECTS THE STRENGTHS, THE LANGUAGE, AND THE CULTURE OF OUR COMMUNITY. THEY ARE CONTINUING TO GROW. THEY ARE A SOURCE OF GREAT PRIDE FOR OUR DISTRICT AND COMMUNITY. AS YOU CAN SEE, OUR STUDENTS ARE VERY PROUD OF DOING THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE IN BOTH LANGUAGES, AND IT IS SOMETHING THAT OUR BOARD ALWAYS WELCOMES AT EVERY ONE OF THEIR MEETINGS. WE ARE HELPING STUDENTS BECOME NOT ONLY BILINGUAL, BILITERAL, BUT CULTURALLY CONNECTED WHILE PREPARING THEM FOR THEIR FUTURE, WHICH IS A GLOBAL FUTURE. WE ARE ACTUALLY EXCITED TO LET YOU KNOW THAT WE ARE IN THE EXPLORATION STAGES OF CONTINUING BY PARENT DEMAND TO CONTINUE THE DUAL IMMERSION TO THE 7TH GRADE. SO WE WILL BE PROVIDING MORE INFORMATION TO THE BOARD AT THE NEXT MEETING ON THAT. No one in our county offers dual immersion in the secondary. So this is something that we have been telling our parents, please speak with the secondary schools. But in the last six years, there hasn't been any change and we wanna be responsive to our community. AND TO OUR STUDENTS. IF WE GO TO THE NEXT SLIDE, OUR COMMUNITY SCHOOLS, NINE OF OUR 14 SCHOOLS HAVE BEEN AWARDED, OF OUR PHYSICAL SCHOOLS, THE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS GRANT. AND THIS IS WHERE WE REALLY ARE SEEING THE CONNECTION TO WELLNESS, FAMILY SUPPORTS AND ACCESS TO RESOURCES. And we really are grateful for the partnership, in particular with our city, who is definitely ensuring that there is a city staff member attending the district-wide events. And this year, what we're doing, thank you so much, Mr. Mendez, for that. commitment from the city and in so doing so we're doing structures in the frame this year by developing the bylaws being able to finalize a recommended community schools job description to the board and next year we're really excited to be able to see it at the school site level IF WE GO TO THE NEXT SLIDE, ANOTHER ONE OF OUR IMPORTANT WORK IS REALLY LISTENING TO OUR STUDENTS DIRECTLY AND THROUGH ADVISORY GROUPS, LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES CONFERENCE AND EXPERIENCES SUCH AS THE STUDENT FILM FESTIVAL THAT I JUST MENTIONED, THEY REALLY ARE BEING MORE INVESTED AND INVOLVED AND ENGAGED DIRECTLY IN THEIR COMMUNITY AND IN THEIR OWN LEARNING. THEIR VOICES TRULY DO MATTER. THIS YEAR WE STARTED THE SUPERINTENDENT STUDENT ADVISORY BOARD, SO I AM MEETING WITH TWO STUDENT LEADERS FROM EACH SCHOOL, AND IT'S JUST INCREDIBLE TO BE ABLE TO SEE OUR WORK THAT IS REALLY DEDICATED TO THEM AND IN SERVICE OF OUR STUDENTS, BUT TO SEE THEIR EXPERIENCE, TO HEAR FROM THEM DIRECTLY ABOUT THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE AND SEE THE GOALS AND THE PRIORITIES THAT WE HAVE THROUGH THE STUDENT PERSPECTIVE. I want our students to know that they not only matter, but they belong in each and every one of our schools and each and every one of our spaces. And one day they will be sitting here representing the community that they love. uh... so that is one of the pieces that i wanted to mention in terms of engagement when we look at the next piece uh... just like the city we really want to be able to have as much uh... involvement from our community if you are a community member and you are interested in facilities and uh... bond projects we are always looking for a senior member AND WE WOULD REALLY WELCOME YOU TO JOIN US. AND IT'S A VERY IMPORTANT COMMITTEE, THE CITIZEN'S OVERSIGHT FOR OUR BONDS, BECAUSE WE'RE GETTING STARTED IN OUR MULTI-PURPOSE ROOMS, OUR KITCHEN INFRASTRUCTURE, AND PLAYGROUNDS HAVE ALREADY STARTED THAT PROCESS. BUT WE REALLY, REALLY WANT TO BE ABLE TO LET YOU KNOW ABOUT THOSE PIECES. WE HAVE A FISCAL HEALTH COMMITTEE. WE HAVE A WELLNESS COMMITTEE AND AN ARTS COMMITTEE AS WELL. I already, next slide please, I already mentioned the investment in our future and made a public service announcement or a plug for retiree, but we also have a QR code. You can look at the facility needs and I want to thank our community once again for entrusting us and the support that they have given us with the measures G and H. We really are seeing this as an opportunity to create the spaces that not only our students but our staff deserve. uh... to be working in uh... lastly at the city and district partnership i'm incredibly grateful for your continued partnership city of salinas and uh... i hope that there are people that are interested in in finding ways to be involved in the work that we do that impacts our future that is growing uh... quickly right in front of our eyes our children So please stay involved. I really want to thank our firefighters and our police officers who always show up to our events and also provide workshops and educational components to our parents and to our schools and all of the other resources that have been very, very impactful in ensuring that there are safe spaces in our places and i know that there are some other conversations that we're having uh that we are looking uh in being able to invest so that our children are safe no matter no matter what school in our district so thank you for your continued partnership and commitment. And I just wanted to, you know, when I'm thinking about the work that we do, Nelson Mandela came to mind because he said at one point, there is no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children. And that belief is reflected in the work that we're doing together as a district, as a city, and as a community. So thank you for coming together to not only celebrate the work that we do as a district, but to celebrate the adults that are ensuring that we're shaping and making a difference for our children.

Thank you, doctor. All right. Well, we're going to see if there will start with seeing if there are any questions or comments from council members, and then we'll have the board do the same. So I'll start to my left with Margaret. Any questions or comments?

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to confirm that we'll be holding these meetings for all the different elementary schools over the course of a year, right? So we're going to have a lot more of these type of gatherings because I think this is Fantastic. And is it possible to hold it at a larger location so everyone can have a seat? Like Sherwood Hall? Those are two of my comments on the city stuff. Let me flip over here real quick. I wanted to ask what percentage are we at for math by grade five and reading by grade three? I know the numbers have gone up because they were probably as low as they've ever been, but I know you guys have been working really hard to bring those up. Do you happen to have that data?

We are currently still showing very limited incremental changes. We're still around the early 20th percentile. Our students are actually testing this week. And we really hope that the engagement and the opportunities that we've given, not only for professional development, but for the student incentives, will show that the results are moving into greater proficiency for our students. And this is why this is so important that our community stay invested and help us because with the urgencies that happen, sometimes we forget that what we're here to do. So please put that gentle pressure on us to continue to do what we need to do.

Thank you. Gloria.

I just want to thank all the parents that are here tonight. uh i'm really amazed at how many attended and i'm so glad but i want to make a comment on the wraparound services that you have i am boy i'm totally grateful because i i am just I am just grateful that all you parents now, when you send your children to school, you have all these services. So again, I really want to commend you, and I want to encourage you to really support your schools where your children attend. Attend their meetings. Support the teachers. Thank you, teachers. Congratulations.

support them and get involved get involved in whatever you can volunteer because they need your help and again thank you again for being here uh yes um no i just want to thank everybody for being here tonight um as elected officials when it comes to like the decision making process a lot of that comes from you and i just wanted to open up um the opportunity and encourage all of you that are here whether you're a parent or a student or you're in the classroom to always feel free to contact us council members. It can be a short communication if there's an issue going on regarding sidewalks, traffic, those are things that we want to hear. When we come into our city council meetings or when we're talking about our larger strategic plan in addressing some of our city issues, sometimes the solutions come from, or our ideas, come from a simple text message, email, or phone call from some of you. And so I really want to encourage those of you, like if you see an issue going on, you know, feel free to contact council members. Myself and Councilmember Dorigo, we were both on the Hartnell College Board, I think maybe about nine years, so we've had that opportunity to be part of the school board. And one thing that did come to mind was the Bright Beginnings Initiative, which I think we all know began with Dr. Ochoa over at California State University, Monterey Bay. And one thing I also wanted to emphasize tonight as a council member, when I think about the wellbeing of the city, and as someone who has a seven year old daughter and a 10 year old child, I know what that struggle is like, picking up and dropping off your child, worrying about things like afterschool curricular activities, making sure that they're living in a safe, healthy environment. Um, I know what that is like, and I know what that's like as teachers. To always be worried about not just only their educational outcomes. But the physical and mental well being of of of children. Um, I know that that right beginning is still going on. It's part of that. You know, 20 year vision right of like, how are our children here in the city of ceiling is going through our educational system. And us being at the community college and now at the city council. really looking at how all of our work is connected. And so at some point, your children, those of you that have children, There's a job, there's a career, there's a home that I know that all of you want your child to have once they reach adulthood. And as council members, we wanna make sure that we're building the best possible city, that we have homes for them to live in, and that they have careers that they can get into. So as council members, when we talk about things like economic development, we wanna make sure that once your child is done, We want them in and out of college and we want them back in our community. We don't wanna lose them to some of our bigger cities. We want them to come back and be with their family and be in their communities. But the way that we can do that together is by hearing from you. So again, wanted to emphasize, always feel free. to reach out to us because it does help us in our decision-making process as it relates to our parks, as it relates to our libraries, as it relates to our recreation centers and the programs and services that we provide there, albeit our after-school sports or arts or extracurricular activities. So I really want to thank all of you for taking the time this evening to be here and being part of the process. We wouldn't be able to do our work Without your insights as a parent, as a teacher, as an administrator. So, thank you very much for being here tonight. Everybody. Thank you.

Okay, thank you really Tony. Yeah, I think you're on mute, Tony.

Well, welcome school board. I want to thank you for being and joining us. You know, as partners of the city of Salinas. Superintendent, how do you see. You say you have 15 schools. The student enrollment, how do you see it in the near future? Maybe in the next 4 or 5 years, because we're moving into the future growth area here pretty soon. Are we supposed to start thinking to build more schools or how do you see that process coming along?

Well, we currently did not see in the plans any growth happening in the next few years in our district boundary areas. We would appreciate maybe some of that happening, but I think we're pretty much at landlocked at this point. So what I would say in terms of our enrollment, what really is helping is when the students continue to stay within our school district, We are really ensuring that we have a little more opportunity to ensure that they know what our schools are rather than deciding to perhaps ask for our inter-district transfer. So we're dealing with some of that. We currently do have about 300 of our students that are attending other school districts, and we want them to just come and visit our schools, see the amazing things that are happening, AND KNOW THAT WE'RE OFFERING THINGS THAT MANY OF OUR OTHERS ARE NOT OFFERING OTHER SCHOOL DISTRICTS SUCH AS YOU KNOW OUR VIRTUAL ACADEMY WHICH IS TEAM BASED AND IT'S BLENDED LEARNING AND OUR DUAL IMMERSION PROGRAMS AND ALL OF THE AFTER SCHOOL ENRICHMENT THAT IS HAPPENING. at no cost. So really the investment is in what we have, what we're offering and providing more quality so that our students that actually are in our district can really see and be the model that brings more of those that are not attending our schools.

Yeah. And Mr. Mendez, as we look at the future growth area, you being the manager of the city, are we having conversations now with the school districts as far as what the need for new schools will be as we move on to the foothills here?

Yeah, the short answer is yes. We will have conversations. I know there's been conversations in the past, and more conversations will continue. We're meeting with the, we started meeting with the other school, different school districts, and me and Dr. Andrade have meet for lunch almost every month to keep ourselves abreast of what's going on. So the short answer is yes, we're gonna have those conversations and they're gonna intensify as more of these plans come forward. They're really, we're gonna make an effort. There should be no surprises moving forward. Everybody should know what's coming and we should be addressing it as soon as possible so everybody's prepared.

And Mr. Mendez, my last question. I know there was talk, I don't know if it was an elementary school or a middle school close by the Everett Alvarez High School. Do you know anything about that, whatever happened with that project?

I don't, but I can follow up.

Okay, thank you.

All right, Andrew.

Well, I'll keep it short because we're really here to celebrate the staff of the Salinas City Elementary School District, but I do want to take this opportunity to say thank you to Dr. Andrade for her continued partnership, specifically to the principals of Veronda, Camden, Laurelwood, and the Virtual STEAM Academy for hosting community meetings, hosting some of our community free movie nights. And I also want to commend the amazing Laurelwood PTO, Cameron PTO, and STEAM Academy PTO for really bringing community together. So I appreciate you always inviting us to your first day of school, and we're here to support you any way we can, so feel free to reach out. Thank you.

Thank you for those comments and yeah, I would I would echo what councilmember Sandoval said and then Just pick up a little bit on councilmember Salazar's, you know by virtue of the fact you're meeting routinely There are issues. I know one of the things we're thinking about quite a bit these days rumor has it that people speed on our streets and it's often near schools and And so we're taking traffic calming very, very seriously, revisiting who gets what and when, given limited resources. And then, obviously, a serious and an in-depth conversation over time. We're all facility constrained. And so the fact we're... building this relationship that I think is important. And then I will just note or echo that today is National Teacher Appreciation Day. Just one more time, a show of hands. Who's the teacher in the room? So let's give a round of applause. And I'll close with this. I think all of us, if we were to think about who are the top four or five people who influenced our lives, I'll bet you there's a teacher in the mix. And actually, there's a grammar school teacher in mind. So I just think that really underscores, you know, I can't top a Nelson Mandela quote, but you can with your work every day. So with that, we will turn it over to your board.

Well, yes. Any questions or comments from our board of trustees? Trustee Powell? Trustee Zanzo?

Sorry, I did have a question about the city plan for sidewalks. Is there somewhere we could see the general list of your priorities and which ones are planned in the future?

That's been asked by the council. We're working on it. So there is a sidewalk plan and then there's a traffic calming. So we'll be bringing that back.

Because I live in the Laurelwood area and I'm pretty sure they would like to say some sidewalks over there could use some work. But other than that, I just want to second everything about the teacher appreciation, just to add on that classified appreciation comes later in the month, but we honor all the staff educators out there. Thank you.

Trustee Ish, I just wanted to thank the City Council for inviting us to be a part of this momentous occasion. It is such an honor to be able to honor those people that we value in the district in such a great place. And I'm so happy to hear that the city is open to partnerships because we are growing future citizens of Salinas. And I think that as community leaders, you would have a vested interest in those who we are growing. And so we really appreciate everything that you've said tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Trustee Galindo.

All I'd like to say is happy Cinco de Mayo.

And I also would like to thank the city for allowing us the opportunity to be here this evening. And let us continue to look for opportunities to work together on future projects and initiatives. And with that said, let's get on with our awards ceremony. And at this time, we would like to take a moment to honor and celebrate our retirees. who have dedicated many years of service and have made a lasting impact on our students, staff, and community. We would also like to recognize the recipients of this year's Staff of the Year Awards. So at this point, I will turn it over to Superintendent Andrade.

Thank you. So we will have what we're calling honoring our own, our retirees for their many years of service. And I'm inviting Ms. Susana Mancera, our assistant superintendent of human resources, to be the one to actually call out their names. Our retirees receive a beautiful award from the district. and our staff of the year are also going to be receiving not only flowers as our retirees a certificate and i believe that there might be a certificate from the city as well yes typically our board members like to stand up i know that we're very short in space but if we like shaking hands So I I'm gonna be as miss Mancera calls them we will be inviting them up here to shake hands and Then move forward and then we have a reception You're welcome to Come up to the front if that's what we're expecting

Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening. Good evening, city council board members and Salinas City Elementary School board members and everyone present. I have the pleasure of presenting, starting off with a presentation and celebration of our retirees. And I will start off with Ms. Carrie Dewar. 38 years of service to Salinas City Elementary School District. 38 years of service. Current teacher at Mission Park Elementary School. With 35 years of service in the district, Miss Bassetti, Danelle Bassetti. Current Natividad Elementary teacher with 31 years of service, Christian Caruso. Academic coach for the district with 30 years of service, Miss Alicia Beltran Castaneda. Los Padres Elementary. Teacher with 30 years of service, Miss Elizabeth Ramirez. Sherwood Elementary School. Academic coach, UPK, Maria Airada with 30 years of service. Baronda Meadows teacher with 27 years of service, Armando Quintana. Special education teacher at Baronda Meadows Elementary School with 19 years of service, Miss Azusa Takagami. Kamen, elementary school teacher, 18 years of service, Ms. Louise Ann Faraci. University Park, speech language pathologist with 16 years of service to the district, Andrea Hayes. Natividad, paraeducator with 10 years of service, Marta Marquez. Campus supervisor at Laurelwood with eight years of service, Annette Brownfield. Lead Food Service Associate at Sherwood Elementary. Four years of service in our district, Ms. Gloria Martinez. Monterey Park teacher, with two years of service in the district, Bonnie Perez. preschool academic coach with the preschool department, Ms. Elizabeth Bro.

Is that graduation?

Congratulations to our retirees. Let's hear it for them once again. Next, we have the recognitions for employees of the year for each school site and department, both certificated and classified staff. We start with Ms. Angelica Marquez from Dual Immersion Academy. And Ms. Ana Talavera from Dual Immersion Academy. Baronda Meadows Elementary School. We have Ms. Pamela Connor and Mr. Jose Praga. Elementary. We have Ms. Kim Coke and Mylene Olivas. Ms. Mylene Olivas. From Kamen Elementary School, Ms. Nicole King and Ms. Naomi Trejo. From Lola Wood Elementary School, Ms. Carrie Durer and Crystal Perez.

Ms.

Crystal Perez.

From Lincoln Elementary, we have Miss Yvonne Magana. And Miss Sonia Mejia. From Loma Vista Elementary School, Lorena Nunez. And Josefina Carrillo. From Los Padres Elementary School, Mr. Rigoberto Aguilar. From Mission Park Elementary School.

And Victoria Torres.

From Monterey Park Elementary School, Liliana Juarez.

And Pearl Rivera.

From Natividad Elementary School. Veronica Avalos. And Maribel Armada. From Roosevelt Elementary School, Justin John. And Nancy Savala. From the Salinas City STEAM Academy, Miss Jennifer Bentley. And Angelica Rosales. Sherwood Elementary School. Miss Nicole Williams. and Miss Pamela Aguilar. University Park Elementary School, Mr. Samuel Swanson. From our MOTS department, Maintenance Operations Transportation, we have Diana Morales. From our special services, we have Teresa Rodriguez. And Rosie Aispuro.

Good job, Rosie.

From the district office, certificated, we have Miss Alicia Beltran Castaneda. Miss Adriana Newman. And Miss Jeanette Jimenez. School Administrators of the Year from our district. We have Mary McDermott. And Erin Laird. District Office Management, Marty Northrup. And Adna Javed. This concludes the presentation of our annual employee recognitions. Thank you to all of you.

Let's hear it for them one more time, loud and clear for all of them.