May Meeting of the YUSD Board of Trustees May 2025 Meeting of the YUSD Board Show Transcript 629 I'd like to call the order Open Session you all please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance ready begin the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands 1 nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all the 3 seeds approval of agenda agenda second second all in favor would you like to report the closed session sure I will good evening everybody Welcome to our board meeting um so in closed session tonight the board approved the Personnel list it included certificated management 1 new hire and 1 resignation classified management 1 temporary new hire and classified 2 new hires and 2 resignations the report was approved or was motioned by Bernie seconded by Mark and approved on a filo vote for the board from the board 1 thing I want to mention is that part of that higher tonight included the new principal of river gold Elementary School and so uh the board approved Jace molden the new principal and his daughter and I'd like to invite Jada just to say a few words and congratulations J on point first and foremost I extend my heartfelt thanks to the selection committee District leadership and our school board for entrusting me with this important role I recognize the legacy of Excellence River Road Elementary has cultivated and I am committed to upholding and advancing the values traditions and high standards that Define this outstanding School community I'm also very thankful to Mr Allen railay our current river go principal for his outstanding leadership over these past 3 years to dedicate the Educators and staff members to look forward to joining your efforts as both leader and collaborative partner to the parents and Guardians I believe that strong Partnerships between home and school or to our Student Success your involvement support and Trust are vital I am committed to fostering open communication and mutual respect as we work together for the benefit of all our students as we look forward to the future my vision is 1 of unity excellence and equality together we will continue to build upon the strong Foundation that already exists while continuously seeking ways to innovate improve and adapt to the evolving needs of our students and community in closing I'm deeply honored to accept this role and excited to begin this journey with all of you I am committed to serving with Integrity compassion and steadfast focus on what is best for all of our students thank you again to our district leadership school board members and riverville Community for your confidence and your support I look forward to the work ahead and the shared successes we will achieve thank you and go hawk Nation hey Jeff you just made your first mistake as principal make sure you introduce your family sorry does my wife Marta the real brains of the family my wife uh my Jenna uh and is not here so thank you again for your support congratulations guys thanks for being here tonight appreciate it outstanding outstanding I I think our Administration did well choosing somebody to be able to replace Allen such big shoes to fill but looking at the size of your you'll be all right all right this is 1 of my favorite uh Sports is the student presentation I was going to say do you want to preface are they good to go I forgot almost okay so I am going to introduce uh Linton and Ashley and they are from our educational options tools over at Evergreen and they are going to give their presentation for their senior project to get all right are you doing the Solomon you okay I'm great I know I'm like a mom over here it's gonna be bad they've got this they've got it yes they do good evening my name is and I would like to thank the school board superintendent Beck and principal fairings for letting us speak today hi my name is Linton Alaska's Brazil we are seniors at every High School in the educational program uh I started high school at ease I was not doing well falling behind with the wrong crowd I wasn't on track to graduate and was getting serious trouble hanging around around the from people not knowing I was 1 of them my mother wanted me to straighten up to graduate on time and be something she never had the chance to be so then she moved me to Evergreen at Evergreen I was having accountable and I I work hard so I could get back on track every made me focus on myself and school and gave me better opportunities for my learning and my future and actually taught me in a way I was able to learn now would be the first in my family to graduate and have a solid plan for my future that is why we are here speaking with you today for tonight to talk about the opportunities that we have been given at Evergreen High School Lincoln and I heard about heard about the Wildland firefighting class through the education from our teacher at Evergreen we met Mr Meisner who supported us the whole time when we had questions he will show up and talk to us in person we are very thankful that we're allowed to join the firefighting class we're required to complete 3 a certificate and we developed before the class started the fire class filled up and had a waiting list but we signed up early so we got a spot in Nintendo was able to fully enroll because he was 18 years old I am only 17 so I started class to see how I feel about firefighting I was looking for a prospective on the job I loved it to the point that I already signed up to take the class again 2 days after my graduation when I have boyfriend will be 18 years old so I can officially earned my certificates we wanted to explore a real career learn Hands-On skills and build our confidence the fire class was 40 hours during a spring break from 8 in the morning to 5:00 in the afternoon every day we learn from experience that we had to bring our own food and water we were caught all day it was tough but it was worth it we were in the class with the dogs and Trio like the dogs we are responsibility and expectations we train with adults who took the class seriously were there from all over the state I was trying to be the leader in the group which helped me step up and take charge in the way I never had before we were excited to work hard for something that matters I could see who changed myself I never thought that I would have a career that I wanted I have never seen that before any of the thought in my family I moved to Evergreen because I needed to work and help support my family this is also why I have always wanted to become a firefighter in the class we study fire signs and safety and teamwork we learn to use firefighting tools we practice physical training and emergency drills um ask you ask you will see on the photos we took fire lines at uh fatisan station we deploy fire shelters um we measure here and when conditions I'm 18 and uh taking second firefighting classes I took a chance on training this week from 8 to 5:00 p.m. we now have some technical skills on how to respond safely and effectively Wi-Fi is we made personal growth with teamwork leadership and responsibility and confidence it was hard work but it gave us a purpose we will sign up for the 10 week firefighting class in October that this can give us a start from actually career with uh college there not all students do launch traditional classrooms often times we give up reasons definitely Beyond in our control independent studying in Real World Training helps us reconnect with with school and find life goals this class didn't just teach us 548 so I just had to grow lead and believe in ourselves as to this moment into his opinion with this work and I am very close thank you again to the school board and adult ed for giving us this opportunity please continue supporting programs like this and students like us LinkedIn congratulations that's a hard pathway I followed a very similar 1 I had an amazing teacher like Miss Solomon to help me get through I barely snuck through I've had a long career firefighting and tree cutting as well as Automotive you 2 are just beginning your adventure it's amazing how do you like your uh saw training this week it was good I liked it where did you guys go for your saw training um I don't remember the place like the name of it it was like regular by elsit I think it's your property there it is yeah this is the beginning this is the beginning of an amazing adventure it only gets better from here I promise I promise you you 2 are on your way to being Heroes give me all emotional well done well done I appreciate you to continue to go it gets better and better and better look where I ended up I don't know how just want to say on behalf of the district overall Ashley and Linton thank you guys so much takes a lot of courage to get up there and and do that remember I walked by the other day and you were doing a little bit of practicing you were preparing and I would just say for the rest of your life make sure you practice and prepare for whatever the next step is and um I don't want to get lost um in the fact that Miss Solomon you've made a difference in their lives and so continue to that you've always done that continue to do it I thought I saw Miss Greenwood here earlier as as though there in the back those are 2 Evergreen teachers that are amazing doing great work with our kids so um again congratulations on getting very close to this Milestone you have the Future Path set out for for yourself and never forget uh where you came from and we're always here to help you thank yeah I'll get over it okay uh another 1 of my parts of the thing that I that the board meeting that I really enjoy is Addison are you ready yeah uh quick apology I got my wisdom teeth taken out 2 days ago so if down and what's a little rough quick disclaimer for that um so uh let's start with your Seminary High School so the counselors have been busy with IV testing and getting ready for AP testing while also getting is ready for next year Mrs Fairbanks has been working hard on so many things beginning the master schedule going meaning about curriculum and setting up a wellness room among them uh we had a wonderful Community awards ceremony giving students and sponsors and family together is incredibly rewarding over at edops uh they are getting ready for their seniors to graduate and complete at River Gold um here so bear with me um 47 of their junior high students were recently rewarded with a field trip to go see the Fresno Grizzlies game on May 22nd these students all of the students that attended had 90% attendance for the school year November and have not received any Behavior 8 year old referrals this year so congratulations to them uh congratulations to a figure Carter Grace um he won first place at the regional spelling bee at wuma uh their 8 figures recently just traveled to the ready for the annual log day and congratulations to Avala who leave who spent or who earned special recognition for her essay uh they just completed 2 weeks of State Testing with the Chinese in the 95 or 95% tile each week uh their key case washing kindergarteners enjoy your first field trip ever to the prisoner Cathy Zoo their third graders explore the course goal Historical Museum and then their 25 2025 spring performance in the next week uh on the student side you show me high school busy busy with ID and AP testing I start like every class I go to like none of my friends are there because they're not right now um playoffs are starting for some sports also happening um within seniors are just getting everything in order for graduation um and then a side note from me so for me this is my last board meeting um I decided to I'm very tight to be graduating um with graduating from Eastern High School I'm also graduating from a Derek Community College with 2G certificates in 45 years like I mentioned in previous board meetings I'm excited to be attending San Diego State University in the fall while studying the major astronomy so thank you to everyone for all the support and it's all really nice to meet each thank you Addison but stick around we have a little something for you a little bit later and we have now public comment like Sandra Costa hi there struggling to express my deep disappointment with the lack of safety at River Gold Elementary before you label me as 1 of those complaining moms I asked you to listen with the ears of a parent my 6 year old kindergartner has been repeatedly physically assaulted by classmates hunched in the face karate chopped in the throat hit with objects called chubby and slapped the face during carpet time most recently no part of his school day has been safe this year not in the cafeteria not in the pickup line not even in the classroom and this is happening in a room with multiple adults present and he's not the only 1 that has experienced this this year imagine asking your child do you like going to school and hearing I love it my teacher is great and I love math scared that someone's going to hurt me every day but it's okay is that so alright with you the consequences are minimal and unimaginable to these students we need real procedures and resources to ensure our children's safety that might take creativity and commitment but it's not optional and before you ask if I understand how hard your job is yes I do but these roles are campaigned for you earned our trust to protect our children so somewhere between balancing the budgets and choosing the curriculum please also prioritize my little boy and the numerous students just like him the ones who get good citizenships Awards and don't invoke harm in retaliation please don't say boys will be boys or he needs to toughen up both comments that I've heard from other parents have heard would you let someone hit your kid before you stepped in to be clear this isn't a teacher issue his teacher is amazing she communicates she cares and she's doing everything she can Dr bordi assured me that he said to observe the class before but when I volunteered in his class in Just 2 hours I wouldn't as children punching themselves destroying property throwing things kicking things running away openly defying Authority with 4 adults in the room if we don't act we'll lose teachers like her and the children like mine will pay the price teachers are burnt out and they have exhausted their efforts and still show up every day to try again for our children and my meeting with the district administrator last week I was told to be patient because lack of experience as a teacher can be difficult but if is we're the only issue then why have seasoned wonderful teachers confided that they feel a lack of support they're feeling helpless that they cannot speak up yet their concerns continue to fall on the list of the district's priorities and asking parents to step up and speak out perhaps someone will start listening I'm grateful to Alan riddle for advocating for my child but this is bigger than the scope of his authority it's time for the district to intervene no school will ever be perfect but it must be safe and that's non-negotiable the positivity project is not going to transform behaviors in the capacity that we need a supplementary curriculum at the cost of over dollars is not going to be a reasonable solution to this behavioral quantry and if you're tempted to ask if you hated so much why don't you leave again comments made by parents I don't hate River Gold I've disappointed in the behaviors tolerated and the procedures failing our students and their safety I do want to add that I too got emotional and am super super proud to hear those stories and I just want that excitement for learning for all ages thank you thank you for speaking of Sandra and bringing this to our attention moving on to item 4 A sad to see people go however congratulations for a long time serving retirement recognition is is very important Gathering okay tonight we would like to honor the 25 267 UniFi sorry 2425 I'm already in next year we're hiring for next year retiree class uh each of these employees dedicated countless years of service to YC and we will miss every single 1 of them not all of them will be there tonight we night and we do have a few of them in the room I will say if you were to eat retiree though we'll start with Pat Rudy who is here tonight um after 13 dedicated years with USD we celebrate the retirement of Pat Rooney many will remember Pat from his time driving to school bus and ensuring the safe transport for all of our students it is final role as a lead groundsman Pat's commitment to our district truly blossomed he approached his work with except Professional Care consistently took the initiative to make yhs the best looking place it could be he meticulously painted fields and carefully tended to the landscapes in his efforts have had a lasting and beautiful impression on the entire yhs community so congrats on the some Pat and you are already missed cuz he's been gone since October I was telling me you serve 13 years that why right or or in the district so thank you Pat well-deserved retirement enjoy okay so next we have Jessica Madrono who is not here with us tonight um Jessica has 2 Decades of unwavering commitment to the students of and we honor her today uh her passion for riveroll elementary has been evident through 20 years and you said many unified notably Miss Medrano also served as an intervention specialist at River Gold during the co 19 pandemic a standing strong on face of adversity in support of students staff and parents uh Beyond her instructional role Jessica has been driving driving force in fostering positive supportive culture at River Gold and is always the first 1 to a advocate for River Gold Elementary staff and students it will undoubtedly fill her absence and she has truly been a stable of river gold and congrats to her on her retirement okay next we have career who could also not be with us tonight uh Keith working in yusd for a decade navigating the ever evolving world of technology and we celebrate him today uh during his tenure here as our information systems manager Keith was instrumental in bringing Wireless to the tech future uh his leadership saw the successful implementation of the 1-to-1 Chromebook initiative a move that significantly enhanced opportunities for our students uh Keith dedication to staying informed in a constantly advancing and rapid advancing field uh was commendable his well-deserved retirement marks the end of a tech era for yusd so congrats Keith next we have Anita ER who was also not here tonight uh the retirement of Anita and the current marks the departure of a truly dedicated member of the corps Schools elementary family in her dual role as bus driver and cafeteria assistant I need to play an integral part in the daily lives of our students she ensured that they not only had a safe journey to school but also that they had the correct nutrition to focus while in class Anita consistently went above and beyond for kids demonstrating a level of both care and commitment that we missed deeply so congrats to Anita all right last but not least we have Steve brownie Steve Browning formerly known as the New York is a legend that you somebody in high school and if I start crying during this I apologize he isn't working on a well-deserved retirement after an incredible 35 years at yhs his unmatched passion for Student Success has let the mark on countless lives in his deep care for each student's future created a truly special learning environment I know this firsthand because I was lucky enough to have be a student of senior brownies Apostle is always a highlight of my day so much so that I even volunteered to take a Spanish class in summer school so that I could be in as high as level Spanish class my senior year um his positive influence has and they said it'd be on the classroom playing a significant role in my decision to attend our shared all moderate of UCSB a choice that ultimately set me on my current and successful life trajectory gotcha this is not just my opinion I would challenge you all to ask anyone of his students about the impact that singer brownie has made on their lives my hunch is that they will say that his ability to make school fun memorable and meaningful was profound there isn't a student that he doesn't want to help and equally there isn't a student who doesn't know that he genuinely cares a massive hole his departure will leave at yhs speaks volumes about the extraordinary educator and person that he is right just will miss you deeply senior and congrats thank you sir I just want Pat or Steve if if there's something you'd like to say tonight we want to address the board or address the audience feel feel free you came out feel free to say what you want to say yeah we went on a trip to Mexico she was the star volleyball player we're we're having I'm checking all the kids and we get to the hotel there's probably about 5 of us or so she runs into the beach to play beach volleyball she takes out this dude they'd be tall enough but let's open her up and these ditches and all I can think of is you've never seen her dad especially 30 years ago I was like oh my gosh he's going to beat me he's going to die but that's was just the greatest number 1 of those like I remember so much with leaving the country it's kind of so but thank you all it's been a great 35 years I would do it again say but I I do appreciate the uh effort that everybody put in the team effort in schools uh to uh with the kids and me and to make this better place for everybody I feel very fortunate the the path that I took along the way I was able to uh you know they talk about bus drivers I mean there's zillion stories I could tell you we turn it over to you great we got too deep into it but uh there was 1 little girl 1 time a long time ago and uh she you know I was driving the bus and you know I was just trying to be polite and nice you just give a good good place to go and good place to be and uh you said to me Mr bus driver hi like you I'll tell you what little things like that just touch my heart and just just made my life so much better it's uh it's hard to believe that you know someone like that have such an impact and you know here we we're trying to you know give them a good example and that kind of thing and um yeah the last part of my job was uh you know taking care of the grounds and the different campuses and what have you and that was a lot of challenges involved and um I uh I'm really glad I took that path as well and um thank you for putting on your program and honoring all of us and Senior brokering he's a what a what a king of that teachers so he's been really great at used to some of his kids around for special programs that they would have a different elementary schools in them been very fortunate to people that you do at this school so thanks again for the opportunity it's been great I guess it's no longer going to be a debate about who the last longest standing employee is don't think I'll ever meet Peterson's though all right 4B yusd employees of the Year recognition okay there we go so I would like to honor the 2425 70 unified employees of the year so these employees work incredibly hard each and every day for students and are very deserving of this award we appreciate you appreciate you all more than you no I'm going to talk about each of you then I will probably come up and all right let's start with mind digression why USD is proud to celebrate when digression as our administrator of the year Mindy has dedicated and oppressed with 19 years to our district was 17 of those years being at Corso Elementary she started at Corso as a teacher while she was in her teaching role there she played an integral part in creating opportunities and a positive environment for every single student your loved by staff students and families alike we need to return to the principalship at Corso this year has sparked a remarkable and positive shift in the school's culture her deep care for each and every child shines through and the students undoubtedly feel or wavering support students are excited to go to school in large part things so the culture shift that Mindy has made a priority every single day she has demonstrated her commitment to the cultural Elementary community and they believed in her as their leader cougar Pride evident when you walk on campus and under Mindy's leadership I know that the pride that students and families have in their school will continue to strengthen we are incredibly excited to witness the continued growth and success of course with Elementary under her inspiring leadership for crafting Maybe next we have Kelly Solomon as teacher of the year now this is Off Script but we can all see how amazing thanks to her students testimonies tonight Kelly yocc teacher of the year has dedicated an impressive 29 years to the district she began her impactful career teaching at 700 high school before continuing her exceptional work at Evergreen High School throughout her tenure Kelly has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to students in unique circumstances and through her mentorship and care she demonstrates a profound care for their success she possesses a remarkable ability to forge personal connections with her student ensured that they'll genuinely seen and heard within her classroom nurturing approach Kelly thoughtfully challenges her students reach their full potential in life and stands as a cheerleader for their successes Kelly is a respected leader amongst her peers it has stepped into many critical leadership roles throughout her time here with nearly 3 Decades of experience in the consistent record of positive impact Kelly Solomon has undoubtedly established herself as an expert in her field making her an invaluable contributor to the of countless amounts of students so congrats on this achievement Kelly Jessica's face right here at least again we have our classified employee of the year the researcher why is these girls recognized through so there is a classified employee of the year and her 8 years at yhs perusa has consistently gone love and Beyond to support both staff and students her dedication shines through in her organization of the annual community Awards night a testament to her commitment to fostering School Community connections staff members deeply appreciate and I mean deeply appreciate her proactive efforts and ensuring substitute coverage a hugely important detail that often goes unnoticed behind the scenes Beyond her formal responsibilities Lisa is known for readily readily offering a helping hand to anyone in need and her her her extra unwavering support of the yhs principal oh I'm sure uh her significant impact on the day-to-day operations is undeniable in so many ways says the backbone that keeps yhs running smoothly congrats to the Risa and we don't know what we would do without you not just right um this is uh to recognize the amazing job our young lady Addison has done as our student representative come on up here she is absolutely Rising Star going above and beyond you heard her she's going class is already done you know on our way to San Diego State oh my gosh well done congratulations you're going to be absolutely be a superstar all right I buy a is you to president on behalf of certificated staff for Tony Meisner as Tony's walking up I just I know maybe our employees of the year need to delete or whatever but congratulations on behalf of the entire District appreciate you guys very much Lisa and Kelly and Mindy will stay because she's got to be here congratulations to you all you're very very well deserving and Addison just on behalf of our entire District thank you so much for serving on the on the board here and your role as ASP president you've done a fantastic job appreciate you doing that thank you kiddo good luck go Aztec right is that yes is why we're here celebrating our retirees years of service and dedication young people that are taking those next steps these 2 2 uh and that was done for your question Lindon okay but uh so the answer to the question of where was he doing the chainsaw class happens to be on someone's property that is sitting the front of the room and this is an indication of why this is such an amazing community young people doing service projects learning a lot with community supporting them I am so proud of where I live where I work and who I represent so teachers classify I just administrators or the trustees district and site Administration thank you for making ymi Unified School District the destination education for our community we're doing great things and don't let the naysayers uh take that wind out of our sail we are on the right track we're doing amazing things for our community our students and our families so thank you just slow today um good evening everyone first I want to extend our deepest gratitude to our retirees your years of they're all gone now the hard work and Heart have shaped countless lives and made lasting impact on our community whether in the classroom the front office the lunchroom or behind the scenes they're like a scene will be felt for years to come next I'm thrilled to announce that CSEA was able to present 3 scholar questions this year to members who have graduating seniors finally next week's Mark's classified Employee Appreciation Week was to celebrate and thank the amazing individuals who support our schools in countless ways our office staff our custodians um the bus drivers instructional AIDS Food Service workers maintenance Crews um so many more they're truly the backbone to the schools and to the system so if you have a moment next week to take a moment to honor and celebrate the classified employee at a site in New Hampshire I'd like to start off Administration staff with our very special employee of the year Mindy keep it short um so we've got some field trips coming up the next few weeks um really exciting excited to take on our third through eighth graders that tested um on incentive field trips I only had 3 students out of third through 8th opt out of the testing um so I think that incentive of going to the roller rink and the new bounce house place in Fresno um really um energized the kids I even had 1 eighth grader who has opted out for years and came to me and asked well can I opt back in and I said well I don't know like you have to talk to somebody about that whether you can take the test after you said no so that has a really huge thing um we're still trying to fill our Junior High position that we have on the books tomorrow um Diane as X and has brought the farm to school event to our site so if you are available between 8 and 10 10 and 2 um come um they're they're going to be 4 different um food V naught vendors but Food suppliers that Supply like ugly fruit is going to be there and it's going to be amazing all the kids are going to taste test things and Publix invited we have some um our Saturday school we now held I believe 3 of them with a lot of success kids are getting caught up um and attendance and on assignments staff appreciation week was last week we had daily events uh to put on by J and myself or by by PTO and we played the Survivor game and we even have the news come out and do a report on it um because that was 1 of the activities you had to do was contact local local news agencies I haven't seen it posted have you seen it not yet so um we got my club coming out and we got some my club Representatives my club as volunteer to come out on Mondays they were there Tuesday and Fridays during sixth period to do a flag football actually 6 period for our through fifth grade yeah um and that's been a huge a huge hit kids have like structured football at recess which has always been an issue um and then we're just gearing up for graduation and for planning for next year thank you thank you Mindy yes hello um everyone so let's see where do I start oh um 1 of the fun things that happened uh just a few weeks ago was prom um it was a huge success students had a blast I had a blast um it was so much fun watching the kids I they literally stayed until the very end I had to kick them out they got to drive for the first time in many years I had no incident had 3 kids ride the and it was a great time I think enjoyed by all um and I think they're already starting to plan for next year um so that was a great time uh that we had and um was so I've we've gotten the reviews back from mosque uh the adult school has uh gotten a full accreditation for 3 years they come back since this it's an initial uh they come back in 3 years um and they do a review the high school was given probationary status um and they will be back in 2 years um it's still a full accreditation um but because we did not meet um or we were close to meeting a lot of the standards they will be back out just to check on us and uh see how we're doing progressing on the areas that needed Improvement um which we've already made a lot of Headway we already do what they were um and so we've already uh begun work on that with our mission and vision or greeting policy uh curriculum and our handbook so we're already we were already moving forward on that um and so you know full steam ahead um the counseling department and all of the teachers or many of the teachers we have been working on the master schedule for next year but beyond just that we're doing a lot of cleanup that you know about and um we're we're raising the bar from what the standard was instead of being just the bare minimum the standard for the students is going to be a lot higher um should be um we have been able to add 7 new courses into our master schedule for next year some of it is revamping um some of the programs that we already have um we are adding and you do 2 2 new dual enrollment classes um 1 will be for calculus and it'll be a 2 semester program so it'll actually be 2 uh college courses and then also the English 1a course for students and I'm hoping in another year I have another 2 or 3 to add to that list um everything that we are adding we are making sure um it's 8 a g aligned uh for colleges and some of our current courses I have uh at least 5 but some is like Auto all of them we've gotten to be 8 to G approved so we are working towards that and more to come there's probably going to be more um than I have currently um and we are working on revamping the special ed program um and you guys probably hear about that in the next 4 meeting um so it has been a huge undertaking um but it's been really good work in working with the teachers to see what our students can do um we are almost done with State Testing we'll finish by the end of the month but we will hit the 95% mark on students completing tests so it's really good thing um the students showed up um some of you might have seen some of the pictures I sent um some of them bought camping chairs to sit in um blankets to sit on I could care less what they said in as long as they got the test done um they went through snacks more than I prepared for they probably eat a thousand dollars worth of snacks they can eat um and but they were they were good they participated and they really they tried their um best effort at least you know good percent of them um I gave them a special treat by going off campus that last Friday they took the test and you should have seen the happiness in their eyes when I was checking him out on Miga to go out to the you you know it was just like a little kid waiting for a cotton candy at a fair so it was uh great to see um Matt didn't really cost me anything but just sending him off campus for lunch so um they were really happy about that so we just continue to keep going um at the community Awards uh we were able to um give over 144,000 dollars worth of scholarships to students is 1 of our biggest years so um to say can you know thank you to Lisa and everyone that helps put that on uh we had a lot of student participate this this year we had double the amount of students apply um and we had some big um awards that were handed out so it was a really good night we have a lot of good things going on uh for our students right now it's an outstanding thank you okay good lord it's all right uh good evening president Alan members of the board and superintendent back um I'm going to speak off the cuff on a couple things I wanted to say that first of all I'm couldn't be happier with the selection of Jace moulden as our next principle the river gold um I've had the privilege of working him with him for the past 2 years um in the first in the capacity as his supervisor um where he actually sat in my seat at a time when it was uh well when it was on fire so uh so he's had some experience in that Realm and uh couldn't have handled it more uh aptly more soundly and um you know and this year I've been working with him in the capacity of a mentor um while he's working on his uh clearing his credential because we all have to do that at 1 time or another and uh since this was his first uh admin role as pull over a course goal he's working on that right now and uh just doing a great job uh very much intuitive and his leadership role and seeing some things that I'm super proud of him and I I know he's going to continue to do great work in river gold and I'm really excited with that choice so congrats J um I also wanted to address uh Sandra uh Sandra I uh it's it's been a real quandry uh for you know kindergarten this year there's uh you know it's it's something problematic there there are children that have misbehaved and it's been on the tip of my tongue uh every time I've met with our district leadership every time we've we've met as a as a leadership team and our campus we put plans in place uh but it's it's still a challenge and um you know it's I I don't think it's something that's going away I do think that kindergarten issues with you know the proliferation of tablets and um Parenting by tablet I think that we're seeing a lot more behaviors change problems a lot a lot of things that uh didn't always happen you know a long time ago no me know um I know it did in my household it doesn't always mean that now know kind of means maybe and if kids come to us without no meaning know it's it's it's a little hard to have some of those things and so truly sorry for the things that have happened and and we have been working on it we have been addressing it and when I say we I mean all of us I mean District leadership myself my team at school and and we've put plants in place but it's still so thank you for your comment also wanted to talk about some of the Legends in the room I know uh uh senior Browning left uh he's he's had an impact over at River Gold as well and uh we still have Kelly Solomon who uh who is a living legend and uh you know it's great to see you uh to get that recognition Kelly and uh Ashley and Linton I I knew both of you when you were freshmen and you've come a long ways and I'm not really proud of both of you and so uh it's really cool to see you here tonight um with that let me get into this I'm supposed to be brief so uh cast testing seems to be going really well kids taking their time they're working hard we only have 1 opt out and and you know I do call every single parent when someone says they're going to opt out talk to find their reasoning and rationale and try to say hey um you know this this can really ding us it'd be much better if your kid took this test um this parent didn't want to hear it uh and so you know we have 1 that opted out uh I think we'll get a true gauge where our students are where we are and where we will need to go and I say we because uh once a hawk always a hawk right Jay um so we we organized the testing this year so that core teachers are given the test to their Middle School uh students to maximize their Buy in and commitment the attendance incentives are going super well uh Addison spoke to that these I think these should happen sooner too and maybe even secretly like I think the second week of school having an attendance incentive that kids don't know about and then you reward those kids that were there every single day or like wait what am I getting an award what why did they get that why did I get that and have those things show up you know hey well we were secretly monitoring you guys for a week um and and our middle schoolers you know uh they they those that did really well all year long without any incident doing their work coming to school or getting rewarded with those Grizzly tickets and I I usually point out some members of my staff when I'm up here and I'm I'm going to do so again tonight I can't say enough great things about Matt Wilkinson um though he's only at RAS part-time he uh he's he's been instrumental in ideas in fact the things I mentioned above are pretty much all due to him stuff that we've had conversations about where Matt's like hey we could do this we could do that we could do this and he's really been instrumental of the great things we've done this year bring me positivity and quite frankly take care of a lot of the details and things which I'm not always that fond of like details aren't always my strength the Big Ideas are are more me so uh you know I'm going to miss my entire staff but I'm definitely going to miss working with you Matt and uh I also wanted to give a shout out to Chris Harris uh again another person who's only at our site part of the time but before I came to River Gold our site the year before I came sent 4 Kids to yhs um with the rest going to the other school uh We've since done in about face uh full stop reverse with what looks like we're going to have a 3 to 1 ratio next year which means 3/4 of our kids are going to be coming to 1 IHS um and a large part of that is due to the music program that Chris has brought to River Gold and he's all over the place he helps out with whatever he can spreads good cheer he's a super funny guy if you've ever talked to him and uh working with all of our kids in the district not just our district but also Bass Lake and even with Meghan at yhs so that's a really cool thing um I wanted to mention our newest employee Lauria Fox who came in as a temporary Kinder Aid and and she's been incredible uh she's expressed an interest in teaching at our site she's a parent she's invested and it's great to see someone from our community come in and take care of business um with that being said I'm actually going to miss all of you um and and these board meetings I I I didn't like having to come to them when uh I was an assistant principal and I was like what am I doing here why is this this Thursday night thanks Brooke for that that was that was great they're they're Monday night was ridiculous um but uh Thursdays are much better I I didn't like having to come but I've I've come to really enjoy being here um most of the time and um I'm glad that it's required because I've I've learned an incredible amount about our district and it's working uh you know when we're in these board meetings I'm checking everything out on board docs some of the stuff I've looked at previously but uh I've learned a lot about a lot of different and so I want to just thank all of you thank you thank you Alan you've been amazing I hope I hope everything goes well for you and your future adventures and I'm I have no doubt that you will impact kids amazing way wherever you're going thanks B thank you very much inside joke this is the first time in 3 months that Brooke hasn't skipped over me for the superintendent report so um I'm feeling valued right now thank you but I also want to start uh where did Allan go he's hiding right there behind Jen I just also want to start by thanking Alan this his last board meeting I think um this year and you've made an amazing impact at River Gold and I mean impact on me personally as well so just thank you Alan for everything you know what all those things are um it's at the same time I want to congratulate Jay did he leave got him just in time with the he almost made his second mistake I'm just kidding I just yeah I just wanted to congratulate you and let you know that we have all the confidence in the world that you're going to do really well at River Gold we're excited to have you there um you and they're they're now part of Hawk Nation too your family so just make sure they know that thank you thank you for the support and the confidence and look forward to making absolutely thank you guys have a good evening appreciate you being here um I also Danielle Sims is in the is in the back there I don't need I just wanted to acknowledge I mean look at that spread back there that that Danielle on our culinary folks put put together we have a really good program here uh that Danielle leads so I just wanted to acknowledge your work Danielle and thank for putting that together tonight um at the same time I'd be remiss if I didn't thank and acknowledge my assistant right here raileen sitting next to me who really makes all this happen every May um and puts us all together and makes it a really nice event for um for our employees of the year our retirees um our student or who everyone that deserves to be recognized this is 1 of the best board meetings of the year because we get to do these uh these recognition so thank you and Jamie always puts it all together makes it come together and you know she deals with a lot of stuff as the HR director and believe me she looks forward to this positivity in May every year she doesn't always get a get a lot of that so thank you all for doing that just also want to say that we're in the stretch run the final weeks um this May and June it's a busy busy time um just everything is going on something happening every single day and it seems like every single night but we're looking forward to our graduations our promotion ceremonies it's a time where really it all comes together we send our kids um either out into the real world as seniors or they're making their way to high school from grade and it's just an enjoyable time so um everyone here if you can be there please do and anyone watching will be recording tonight Nathan if anyone's if anyone's out there watching we invite everybody to come to our promotions and our and our graduation and then lastly uh this front not tomorrow but next Friday we have a flip the switch ceremony that we're doing here um at the high school we're behind the pool where the solar arrays are and it's a celebration of the completion of our Energy Efficiency um program and so will then the folks who helped us do that I'll be here we have some stem activities going on that they're that they're putting together for about a hundred students some students are coming up from our Elementary's we have some high school students that are going to get some stem activities as part of it we have dignitaries um coming we have we invited about 50 people from the community being a leader so we're excited to bring this to fruition and to just celebrate what this means for our district and I want to thank Randy um sharp for just the work he's done and and making that happen and and bringing it to fruition thing I read he's not going to be at the ceremony because he has to be somewhere unfortunately but I just want to take a moment tonight to to thank Randy thank you for that and then that's really all I have so back to you thanks Brent try to make it a habit yep okay I'm Gonna Keep it very brief and I'm just going to mention that the next meeting I'm gonna call out uh Nathan for some comments I had an opportunity to sit down with our it manager and get know him spent a couple of hours learning about what he does and like many others here he is 1 of those unsung heroes he does a lot to keep things running smoothly and I want to talk about that next and some of the things he does that I don't think gets enough credit so I'll reserve my comments for the June meeting for that and thank you Andy Mr mcgolden thank you Mr Allen yeah I was going to try to be the brief guy but Andy lead me to it it was like a All-Star game tonight some of the best parts of our district and Community are here all together um so Yeah Ashley and Linton great job you guys did a nice job thank you did well with your public speaking too so you know firefighting if you change your mind you'd probably be good at other stuff too so well done proud of you guys um Addison's not here but um I hope she enjoys San Diego State because it sounds like she only needs to be there 2 and a half years she's done a year and a half of college already and she graduates and um and Larissa who I called Larissa for about the first 40 Years of Our Lives um she's not here she politely corrected me 1 time about 15 years ago all those years I called her Larissa um she was just a year ahead of me here at took drama with her and other classes and Kelly and we're all reminiscing telling the reasons to remember what their names were in French class I was very impressed by that we share our birthday and they share a birthday and yeah so I've said many times publicly how much Kelly means to me in my life I've known Kelly a long time her husband Eric is here there are 2 of my favorite people in the whole world and so I I was surprised to hear she was being honored for the first time as teacher of the year but I'm glad that it happened because that would have been a big Omission if that hadn't happened uh so you deserve it we all know that you're very much appreciated here and um and Eric if you have any doubts about that I'm reassuring you very much appreciated here um despite how I know teachers my parents are both teachers and not you don't always know if you're appreciated in your teaching because even though you're an employee it's a very uh it's kind of you're on your own you're in that classroom alone most of the time so it's very independent profession and you don't always get a lot of feedback but and then you know I mean she hasn't even been principal for a year she already won administrator of the year can I retire it's too easy you're just making it too easy so and uh great things have happened there are quite a turnaround now to make the Hollywood should get you know they make movies about people who turn around schools you know I mean I think you should be a candidate for that so and Jessica can do this you're Browning managed to have an unbelievable career that began after I graduated here so I feel a little bit old mark working the time knowing that he wasn't even a teacher here and now he's finished an entire legendary career um in that time but uh my son's still here and he's been really great to my son I told him that I just want to say that publicly we all know how many people influenced but uh my son's 1 of them too and I'm very very pleased that he got to at least have a couple of years with senior Browning I see my club here I know why you're here I think I know why you're here because there's some my club stuff on the agenda but there All Stars in our community there are things that are doing or just incredible and they're filling in places that things that just weren't happening they're making it happen summer swim after school programs I mean it's and every time I hear something it's a brand new thing they've on children's hospital it's it's incredible some of the things that you guys have been able to do so since we don't get to talk much after my club stuff comes up I just wanted to say that ahead of time that I think you guys are tremendous and grateful to have you and all the things you do and I know it's not just our district you guys are everywhere but you're really feeling a lot of voids in the community so thanks for all your efforts um and then J left but good luck to J and um hoping for great things I think was great I always thought that was great so um like Brooke said big shoes to fill but from everything we hear Jake can do it and he looks like he's up to the challenge so Alan sorry to see you go but you I can tell you're a man who always lives on his feet and keeps ever upward so uh I don't think uh um you know you'll make the most of your new opportunities I'm sure we're grateful for the time that we have you here so I wasn't and he gave me license to talk so I took your time all right thank you thank you everybody so I was afraid that I wasn't going to be brief enough but luckily for me um I'm just so honored and inspired by who we all are and how we all work together in this District I mean from um you know the the of integrity and and dedication is just palpable in this District I don't know if that's common or normal but um I'm truly moved everything from you know the retirees and and how song that they have been here and you know the honores and you know what what Kelly has done created an opening for these 2 students to step into and for the student who were able to step into that you know and and see something possible that you could do that you could accomplish and it's all it's not by accident you know it's the principles and and it's the teacher and the bus drivers it's like the whole package that is having us be successful and just amazing it's my club coming in and providing filling that you know that need and um I had a fireside chat so to speak with um the principals at River Gold and coarse gold because I didn't want to just go and tour around and look real quick I just wanted to sit down and and chat with them and say you know what are you most proud of what if you what has happened in your school this year that has been really really worked and what has happened that isn't working and we heard from a a teacher on something that that wasn't working which you know was already brought brought to my attention that there's you know some Behavior challenges that's coming with kind of what's happening with kids but you know what's so amazing about that is I know that that didn't fall on deaf ears and I know that the level of staff and administration and fellow students that we have in this community and this um District it's like that's that will get that will get handled to the very best that it can people people are committed that the principles that I talked to are completely team students 100% so um I guess I just um wanted to acknowledge all the the great things that it was just so evident tonight and in and in the whole past last year because um we've really got something special and I am so honored to be a part of it and anything I can is a board member or we can do as a board I hope that everybody feels comfortable you know approaching us and and we're all on the same side so thank you thank you Jennifer for clerk Mark Gilchrist um just want to say thank you to everyone um I think you put it right but it was possible and you can just tell the the culture the attitude shift um each year get a little bit better as as have been on the the board here and been able to experience that I didn't know what to experience when I took on this job but um it's been it's been really remarkable to see everyone um come up and grow and see things change and um change happens slowly can also happen in huge steps and I think that's what we're what we're seeing we have many of our schools is just like 1 180 turnaround and um just being able to see all these accomplishments and things happening here and then um to all the retire Diaries is just it's just 1 of those moments where we get to just celebrate everyone who's part of this journey needs to see the individual contributions and how it affects a much larger picture and um I'm showing them all those the first time in that you're getting um honored with this he was my teacher and just 1 of those teachers that he just remembered forever so um congratulations and he said everyone else just the retirees and the honorary um student presentation keep up the good work um your hard work and all that fun just really just honored and blessed to be here to be a part of this and thank you to everyone involved in our home Community for making it super easy very well said it's pretty amazing the things have been said a dozen times but um it is very is very easy I I started this adventure with Mark uh neither 1 of us we were like oh God what's this going to be like and um I don't know we have so many people that care so much and are so skilled in their jobs uh community members stepping up to fill in where we just don't have the ability to wow wow just going to keep it simple and short thank you so much for being amazing all right we're going to move on to approval the consent agenda including have any I'm sorry has moved to approve consent agenda and the second is there any conversation about it can we get a vote all in favor say I I all right moving on to 7 discussion items presentation of the yusd school climate survey results Dr borny check check bring the Border trustee superintendent back so every year around this time we provide an update on school culture and climate survey this is in concert with the healthy kids survey that's administered throughout the state of California 5th 7th ninth grade take a an anonymous kind of pulse of of school climate and I'm here to report out what's different this year is I stand up here or I've stood up here the last couple years and have spoken for all 3 sites unless you're unified the principal's up because they have some initiatives that are going on um that they can speak to more in depth so I thought this this would work better and um I'm going to provide the overview of the data what it's called the synthesized so going to read each slide so I'll provide a synthesized data um presentation but also more importantly the most importantly you know what are we doing with the data and what is it saying so um I hope to um answer those questions at the end and if it's not clear then definitely have some dialogue but I think bringing up um each principle they each have their own voice and they're they're very strong all 3 principles they can definitely speak to specifics in the data so again I'm going to provide an overview of the district data and uh I deserve it it's called desire of data so I pulled that data and made it cite specific and the principles have some data points that they're also going to share specific to their schools so we had 244 respondents and Fifth Fifth 7th and ninth grade and those are anonymous and those are the grades in concert with the healthy kids survey across you're asking why are we doing only fifth seventh and Ninth it is consistent with the healthy kids survey administered in other districts throughout the state uh and it is 27 questions it's consistent with the healthy kids survey as well um and consistent with the last few years so I'm going to give a quick little overview some of the strengths and kind of looking at the data across the district there's strong academic foundation so across all schools student perceived that their teachers believe in their ability to learn the district averages about a 4 and provide intellectually engaging work the average was 3.72 the academic confidence is a significant District's wide strength social connections students across the district report having friends at school district Avatar is a 4 indicating strong social emotional connections among peers positive experiences a majority of students are across the district report witnessing acts of kindness from Wolf Pierce 75% and teachers 71% and experiencing teachers going out of their way to help them 63% some of the challenges dear respect the lowest climate score districtwide was for students and it's in quotes because this was the question students treat me with respect that that score was a 3 indicating challenges with peer relationship Beyond immediate friendship group bullying and harassment significant percentages of students report being made fun of having rumors spread about them and being physically bullied at least once in the past year perceptions of fairness students rate rated students treated fairly by teachers relatively low 3.2 suggesting concerns about Equitable treatment across the district so you've gotten the opportunity to review the the questions I kind of I chunked the data in some buckets uh really defined as um uh School climate perceptions I chunked in a student safety and belonging teacher student relationships and student experiences I'll get into that um just some quick takeaways of the school the principles will come up after I give the overview a quick takeaway from River Gold they had the highest score for teachers believe like to learn 4.36 and clear behavioral expectations course gold had strong academic confidence with high scores for teachers believe I can learn 4.2 in your 70 High School had the strongest indicator of a strong friendship networks I have friends at school despite challenges of peer respect sorry okay so so so this chart is giving um a score on on the school climate so again I chunk these questions um in some buckets is kind of what you would call them so for school climate perceptions and questions are there with and students could answer on a on a microscale for 5 Points so strike students generally feel they have friends at school and believe their teachers think they can learn these are the only 2 areas with the mean score of 4 moderate areas most climate indicators fall in the 3.4 to 3.8 range suggested suggesting moderately positive perceptions students generally understand behavioral expectations find classwork intellectually stimulating and feel the principal treat students fairly areas for improvement the low scores relate to peer relationships and student voice students rated students treat me with respect the lowest at 3.16 followed by students treated fairly by teachers at 3.2 just listen to my ideas at 3.34 these areas represent opportunities for improvement across the district for student safety and belonging some of the takeaways for for student belongings so students report a moderate sense of safety at school students feel a moderate sense of belonging these scores while above the midpoint scale suggests there's room for improvement in creating environments where students feel completely safe and included teacher to student relationships the quality of student teacher relationships and other critical aspect of school climate the district-wide results show students generally believe teachers think they can learn 4 student moderately feel teachers think they will succeed students moderately feel teachers care about them students feel teachers listen to their ideas to a moderate extent these scores suggest while students generally believed their teachers confidence and their academic abilities there there may be opportunities for strength strengthening the personal connection and communication between teachers and students administrative relationships students perceptions of school administration also contribute to school climate stiff moderately feel the principal treat students fairly students moderately field of principal cares about them each site has different different ratings and and the principles can come up but this is a district-wide kind of median student experiences so for student experience we asked this was by Design we asked um we asked questions in a couple different ways in relation to kind of negative experiences so um so the survey asked students about their experience with negative behaviors on school property during the last 12 months this was consistent with the last 2 years they're they're the same question in terms of of how we kind of frame these and the percentage of students reporting um instances of Behavior so these these results were the highest um and for several concerns so verbal bullying and social aggression making fun of students and spreading rumors are the most common negative experiences affecting nearly half of all students physical bullying is also prevalent with 41% of students reporting at least 1 instance while less common is significant minority of students report feeling afraid of being beaten up exposure and drugs and alcohol and involved in a physical fight for Less common but still more than 10% of students so for positive experiences so so these questions were kind of from both of these um both of these framed kind of normed opportunities to answer um so for positive experiences uh the survey also asked students about their experiences with positive behaviors on school property in the past week the percentage of students reporting at 1 instance of Behavior Uh strong majority of students witness acts of kindness in both peers and teachers nearly 2/3 of students experience the teacher going out of their way to help them in the past week while positive experiences are common there's still significant minority of students who did not report these positive experience in the past week most students Witnesses acts of kindness at school but there are there remains a significant minor who do not report these positive experiences so at the end of the presentation I'll go over some conclusion in District findings in my conversation with principal superintendent Beck like this this um presentation probably about 45 minutes to an hour easily I'm trying to kind of Pare this down and I also want to give the principal's opportunities to give some takeaways and to give some examples of what they're doing with some of the data and I know 1 principal specifically after the data came out they they had specific conversations with uh with staff some data so why don't we start with um Alan real ladies you want to go first um so uh so uh the room really cleared out didn't it um so when you when you think about fifth and seventh graders uh giving an anonymous survey that's uh not a specially classes that you might be super psyched about um the answers that they might give because I know uh when I was seventh grade um I would have given all negative marks just just to do it just that would have been me in seventh grade um and and so you know and some of these kids are kids that I've disciplined um suspended you know things like that so uh so it's good know that uh you know and and and whenever a kid has been suspended at River Gold you know the very next day when they come back not only do we meet with parents and talk about how they're going to be successful coming back when I see them I greet them hey how's it going so you know that that they know that you know hey look what's done is done now we're moving forward like that's what has to happen right so I I feel pretty positive about River Gold's results um you know everything was above the medium and almost all of it was above 3.5 um with the exception of students treatment with respect which was our lowest score at 3.49 which is almost there but it's interesting because Jennifer and I you know I showed Jennifer some of the data and you know like I said I feel I feel pretty good about it and I feel like it makes river gold look like a pretty good school doesn't not necessarily look like a great school because there's you know there's about 10% of the kids that uh that consistently kind of fall over and and and a little pattern and 10% is a 10% 10 to 15% too many in my opinion right we need everybody feeling like they fit in everybody's feeling like they're cared about and we talked about how that's you know the individual kids perception right um I I absolutely love 1 of my takeaways is that in the teachers believe I can learn there was not a single River student in the survey that said they strongly disagree with that statement it was a big zero for strongly disagree so they all agree well I guess there was the disagree that it's weird that there's a 3 in the middle and this was something I spoke to Jennifer about too because like that's you know neither positive nor negative so when I when I look at the data I look at 3 4 and 5 as positive but I also look at 3 2 1 is negative because you know like you just don't know and it would be better if whoever's in charge of healthy kids survey or whether that's CD or whatever if they said make a choice make a decision either you disagree or you agree and you go with it because then I I feel like we kind of know a little bit better um I I think we we really do um you know but I I do love that believe I can learn was was the strongest thing on there because that that really says a lot about what you know our teachers are doing and that uh kids walk into class knowing that people care about them and believe that they can learn um I also really love that very high up there is that uh kids believe their expectations for them at River Gold because uh that's super important like they they got to know there's expectations and accountability um I think we need to grow in the area of kids treating each other respectfully um it's tough these days uh kids are you know influenced by YouTube and social media influencers who you know get likes and laughs and thumbs up from being cool um we see it a lot so uh but I believe the things we're working on with our staff uh with positivity project I really hope that continues um Again Jennifer and I spoke about you know some kind of comprehensive anti- you know anti meanness I think bullying is a word that's tossed around a lot um I don't I don't don't necessarily see a lot of bullying I see kids being mean to 1 another which kids have always been mean to 1 another but I think that it's it's a little more prevalent these days than it used to like it's just more common and people act differently people aren't as respectful in society and so right so it's uh it's kind of open things up um I I shared the results with our staff we haven't had an opportunity to uh to talk about it yet um I think everyone's encouraged by the results and we will be talking about it our next PLC about how we can do more and what steps we might take to improve so thank you start of the year happy birthday thank you 25 um okay so some of the strengths so the way that I looked at it and I appreciate Dr board's report given to us because I Jennifer came visited I had all the results printed and taped together and and highlighted on my on my my head back here like super old school um so I was looking at it from fifth grade compared to seventh grade and um I want to just do a shout out to Mr Jones I had at least 3 students in the comments section say that Mr Jones needs a so this fifth grade students truly felt feel seen by my Mr Jones um my Junior High um while these like you know Dr boring averaged them all out um seventh grade there seems to be a disconnect between um students and staff and we actually are having a shift in Staffing next year so I'm hoping with that that we'll see some of these scores um increase simply because of the relationships that we're going to build with those kids um strengths at my site um strongly believe this teachers think that they can learn was a 4.2 uh 4.24 which I was really happy about that and that students felt they had friends and um they felt they were treated fairly by me you know somebody who's coming in fresh you know I don't you know I know a lot of them but not them I felt that was a really I I I'm doing my job and making sure the students are being seen and being heard respect and being respected um I was impressed with you know and not great right Alan said 3 is not not you know neither pauses can be positive and negative but you know we had a 3.72 of student expectations so obviously that's an area that we're going to need to address and um I know that we're moving in the right direction but with moving School culture those are things I think we'll see some movement next year and um areas Improvement again is peer relationships um Allen's dead on that you know the more likes you get the meaner you are um the media you are a little more likes you get the the the reuter you are the more and and that's a culture change and that's a culture shift that we have to somehow combat that on campus um most of the students felt that they were you know moderate census safety I think that is improved based on uh my esas that we've hired um it it's almost I don't want to say this out loud what I'm going to do that that for the most part are um like there are times in my esas have nothing to do because the kids are doing what they're supposed to be doing so they're just kind of like walking into classrooms and checking stuff out so for me that is again this visible you know results of we are moving in the right direction um with principals treats them fairly was a 4 point 4.1 principal cares is a 3.8 I I can't ask for really more than that on my first year um so moving forward um expectation and plans um teen truth is something that Denise Matthew was looking into and it's a assembly that talks about um anti mean this anti-bullying um we're going to work with Jessica here at the high school to bring it um an assembly to potentially take it to the high school as well um Mrs Shepard has been doing drum circles with a lot of our younger kids and so I like next year to see her kind of expand that out into more groups where kids are able to express their emotions Express their feelings and um when we did our kindness week you know just giving out kindness coins and the kids ate those things up I mean they were giving them out to other people so seeing that kindness is an area that maybe it shouldn't just be a week it needs to be something that we are promoting year round um I like the the student voice is something that is an area of growth so setting up either lunch meetings with you know kids from all over the campus um not just my Junior High kids but my littles as well uh and then I think I want to take this survey in a Jessica said that as well take this survey and create our own and be able to give this to the entire school you know when you're looking just at my seventh graders only have 17 of them so that kind of can skew data when I then have I think Josh has got like 34 fifth graders you know so I'm I I look at this as some of this is great but when I've got a lot more fifth graders that love Mr Jones those scores are going to be a lot higher um and so while this it's all really great information and we will be sharing this out with staff and I think moving forward um um getting green student feedback of you know what do you need what do you need to be safe um and if you walk on campus you'll feel a difference you'll see a difference at that recess um again for you know my clubs out their staffs out there I've got you know teachers playing basketball with kids and all of that so is it you did have 50% of your kids say that the principal cares about you very strongly there you go just before you start Mindy and Alan um if we were to give the survey to the whole school what grade level do you think would be most appropriate to start with in other words you know we're not good at teaching third grade okay I think the like a little littles aren't going to you know my principal cares about me and I think the bullying or the mean thing like that's a daily you know today just with my best friend tomorrow I hate her you know when they're that little that depending upon the day the data could okay so third grade is about the grade level to start okay so I did this a long time ago um wiring all these surveys that you had I literally took it all the other questions and just kind of made it an lcap survey for the students and it was 3 through 12 right we do get a little bit more of a voice um or hear a little bit you get everyone's not just a snapshot yeah um so I can't Echo probably too much more than what Minnie and Ellen have said um there are some various different um little bit different than what you see from the elementary schools um with high school what was really important that they they had friends um and is really important high schoolers um it's probably 1 of the most important things that they have friends and so um that is to me uh great to see I mean 1 of the things that isn't great in here was that the relationships with the administration um wasn't super high um and I can give you a bunch of reasons why but it's just this is the data and so here it is I think that when you look from the beginning of the year to now walking on campus you're going to get a sense of what's really going on um I think students are feeling a lot safer on campus do we still have issues um they talked about still you know prevalence with drugs and alcohol yeah we still are struggling with some of that um but we attack it every day um with any type of um issue that's brought to us and students are seeing us presently on campus especially in areas where that might have been a higher use area um so you see it um so I think um I do a lot of these kind of surveys as well and I've surveyed students to try to get more voice out there so they have input on a lot of things um but I would say the same thing like you would see um you see a big difference from what you saw at the beginning of the year of student behaviors to um what you currently are seeing if you walk on campus right now do we still have a fight here or there possibly student misbehaving yeah you're going to see that still but nowhere near as much we see a lot of students making different choices um I do believe um and 1 thing in here that just says is uh relationships with adults is kind of they kind of graded it moderate um some do feel that their teachers really believe in them but really their relationships um they scored them moderate area and probably a little less for admin and really it's building those relationships with the students that are most important um because when you have to have those hard discussions like graduation and completion and all all of those hard topics of like why did you make this choice but I still care about you you have to have that relationship or you're not going to get anywhere and I've had to have hard conversations talking about Greg credit completion and which school their kids going graduate from just uh because of the choices that have been made um and so um I have not yet reviewed this with my staff um just due to testing um and not having any meetings on the schedule but it will be something that we will be reviewing doing in the next 2 weeks um and they um they are really starting to embrace looking at data um it was something that I don't believe they really did much of in the past and didn't really understand the value in and actually was asked that question yesterday about what do you expect us to do with this data it's really about Benchmark data if you believe it after by and um they you know I I when I told them like I wanted to drive your instruction I don't want you to take it just to look and throw it out um we really want to look at it and see how we can improve it's not an I gotcha it's not a finger pointer nothing like that and so they're really starting to embrace that we're not using data to catch them in doing something bad and you know that we're really just using it to figure out where we need to go from there um and what improvements can be made and maybe celebrate some of our successes because some areas sometimes we're also the heart of ourselves where we think oh we don't actually do that well and then we find out it's not actually the truth as well so I'm really actually excited to sit down and look at this data um and evaluate it with the staff thank you very much so in conclusion uh 2024 2025 School climate survey provides valuable insights into the strengths and challenges of the school climate across Yemen Unified School District while there are many positive aspects particular teacher student academic relationships and witnessing acts of kindness there are also clear opportunities for improvement in peer relationships student voice and ensuring all students feel safe and included we should use these findings to inform strategic planning and resource allocation for the coming year with a particular focus on the areas identified for improvement by addressing these challenges while building on existing strengths we can work together creating a more positive supportive School climate for all students so specific recommendations and and kind of processing data looking at the different areas Implement targeted anti-bullying programs address the highest or the high rates of verbal social and physical bullying with particular attention to close or skull Elementary's physical safety concerns that's that was identified through through survey uh enhance administrative student Corrections focus on improving student principal relationships at you know some of the high school but potentially adopting practices from the elementary schools promote peer respect development districtwide initiatives to improve peer relationships and respect Beyond immediate friendship groups ensure Equitable treatment address perceptions of unfair treatment by teachers through professional Al development focus on equity and consistent discipline practices strengthen student voice create more opportunities for students to share their ideas and prospectives particularly High School course School facilitate Cross School Learning establishment that gives us for schools to learn from each other's strengths such as River Gold approaches and teachers student relationships and course go strong academic engagement so what you what I did was I want to be transparent with the data and I kind of house the data in this um and those slides but what I did I I I synthesized the data more and gave more of a report um but I also wanted to make sure I was transparent and we were able to at least look at all the numbers um showed numbers of kind of where we got that so um with that is there any questions you're if if it's in here I missed it do you have statewide data that I mean I'm just wondering when you when we say we have an average in some category 3.7 do we have a comparison to the rest of the state or other districts so so we we we offer an alternative to the healthy kids survey so we can take a look at what similar districts the questions that we take a little bit of time to extract and and um disaggregate but um I can take a look to see what the other healthy kids surveys on what data is with the output is because ours is is a modified type version I just I think what I was thinking was you know seventh graders in particular right um I don't know how I don't know that we want to twist ourselves in knots because we got a low score on something if we look and compare and say that's just what seventh graders do that's just I feel that's where they are in life you know it's kind of you're really battling that's that age in particular seems like to me a long long time ago I was substitute teacher for a brief time before law school and it was like oh yeah sure I can work today oh you know the seventh grade oh well no someone else to do sorry about that so I I just that's why I just wouldn't want to get that's why I was curious about that because it seems to be you know the data could be misleading if you just got and and you might see that in comparison person to say well everybody got 3.2 on that you know maybe that's just that's consistent because of the age we're targeting there so anyway just a thought thank you and if you look at the 3-year Trend data I mean there's different areas in different years where where kind of answers are different and I think the purpose also is also inform kind of at that point in time that's what that's what students are answering so it's a good indication to at least provide an immediate type of um feedback mechanism so sites in the district and process kind of what they're saying as well any other questions thank you thank you doctor 7 B is the first reading and consideration of revised board policy yeah so we've been bringing um you know a number of board policies to the board trying to get here every single month we don't always make it but this would be a first reading um this would come these would come back to the board next month for approval but there's 4 board policies bylaws that we'd like the board to consider updating consistent with csba recommendations those are around school facilities is 1 of them another is um social media a third is public statements uh board by law public statements and a fourth is a board biology around order number electronic communication so again you'll have a month to look over those actually more than a month because our board meeting in June is later um ask any questions and then we'll bring them back in June for board approval or board consideration of approval so no action tonight very good thanks Frank moving on to action items a resolution 2024 202511 authorizing A through Z Bus Sales Inc to apply for grant funding on behalf of yuse Unified School district for 1 new electric School Bus and you could uh any questions about here we are you did it for me um yeah we're just bringing the resolution to you tonight for A to Z to apply for the grant um if we get we get the grant then we'll be bringing back some more paperwork to fill out all that um I will state we're looking into possibly to if it's an option so right now we've got the 1 on there we're looking to know what the option of the crane is pretty good very good I hear all of our charging infrastructure and everything is going well yes outstanding very good and buses bus drivers are loving the blue buses infrastructure is going good yeah I like electrics is definitely a different way of driving but once you get accustomed to it yeah and right now there's funding for it so let's take advantage of the funding loans there how many more do we need ready we got the 10 and then how many more until we would have a whole electric Fleet what would that take um I don't have the exact number but I believe we have about another 10 piece of buses out there uh we don't want to get rid of them any sooner than we have to the Diesels but we do have 2 right now that are really on their last leg and we want to get rid of them while they're still compliant because if they come off the CHP compliancy we can't trade them in so we don't want them to get to that point that they're not maintainable and we have we can't keep them compliant any questions motion to approve a 3 bus a second in favor 50 can you say real quick I just want to mention I mean that's pretty good Randy like that's that's 1 Grant but you've seen the board seen several grants coming right we got Community Schools grant for coarse gold last year I I left the board that we received it for Evergreen and aani this year these are millions of dollars um we received 4 million for bus drive for buses previously we had a group here today um for the the nutrition services grants that we received so couldn't be more proud of our staff for really going out there and seeking grants because you know we do have a limited financial situation and we need to take advantage of all these opportunities it's just another 1 sometimes it could feel like you're up here just saying okay yeah we approved to do this but there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes for this staff to go out and find Opportunities to do these things for kids so I just don't want that to go unnoticed I do great work in searching out other funding sources and we've had some some real successes these last couple years and being able to secure millions of dollars for our district action item 8 B approval of Declaration of Need for fully qualified teachers every year the district must the Declaration of Need for fully qualified teachers to the commission on teacher credentialing this is a requirement to potentially hire any teachers who may hold intern credentials or emergency permits um attached is the Declaration of Need for 2526 are there any questions I move to approve all in favor thank you the approval of financial literacy course okay so before you um hopefully be offering um I guess how many high schools starting last year um the first 1 up is the financial literacy course this will be a requirement in the next few years that um students will have to take um within their High School career um we did make this a full year course first and it is 8A G Alliant and it does actually count towards map credit is not considered a math elective so we did get we are getting that approval so um and we will be using Dave Ramsey curriculum for this do you have any questions what is the um are there going to be any current students we have right now that won't do it like what's the what's the know so we already have a class filled up for next year for it so right now it'll be optional but when the students who um enter that will be graduating in um where they start entering I think in like 2020229 they'll have to take it sometime in their High School career so they won't have the option to not take it so it's not mandatory yet not mandatory yet but we just thought why not get it going we had a a course called consumer math that was not a tog aligned um it really wasn't meeting the needs of the students I mean it and it got on credit but it wasn't a to G so um knowing we have this um on the Forefront we just decided to Jump Ahead um and get it going and we were able we were able to do that outstanding thank you I want to say I was completely impressed with this course description I think is gonna just be so valuable and it's just going to make it's just so concrete the kids are going to use this and I I I love it and great job thank you I could have benefited from being able to take smarter smarter financial decisions yeah any other questions can I get a motion and a second second all in favor I 8 D approval of Chuck chy language 1 course okay so this is the we already offered this course um but this was not actually brought before the board to be approved um next month you'll actually see the second course that will be offering um so this is really the course as it stands and it's car approval and it is also a to go aligned um and approved you know I'm standing any more questions on this 1 I have a follow-up I failed to say I the last vote so I just want to make sure you've got a documented as an eye on that sorry like for the financial literacy right thank you can we get a motion to approve so second second all in favor moving forward approval of physics in motion course okay so currently what we offer physics and Robotics course that is not needed aligned um and we were offering it more to students that weren't quite ready uh to enter into our biology maybe for math skills reasons and um we found a course that met the needs with the n GSS um the hard um the challenge that our our science teachers have is that the ngss is a mapped out for 3 years and we have a 2 year requirement so we have to piece in the third year which is mainly like the um space science into the other ones um other courses um but we were able to build this course for students that will count towards their physical science credit and it is a tog alight any questions I do have a question can you say a toy aligned can you can find that and give me some context yes I'm sorry here I go speaking my legal without actually explaining it so so um this the college system has a requirement for it's pretty much like college prep so the course of the college prep course um so some courses that you may offer in schools aren't aren't set up for that like if ta it's not College Prep if I have pre-algebra it's not College Prep uh because there's a minimum standard um for schools at which they have to um meet that criteria to be College Prep um and so we actually have to submit this and it's called the UC portal uh for approval to actually meet the standards so this isn't just us saying oh we're you know this is what we're doing they actually have to approve our course to say it needs standards so that when when students go and apply for colleges they look at that our stuff is in the system and they can prove um that that we were providing rigorous curriculum to our students and that they're ready for college thank you that's very helpful this also does help us with our College and Career indicator that is on the dashboard so we had a lot of courses and and to be quite Fair a lot of the courses that we did have would have been a to G just for never really submitted and so when we want to show that our kids are College and Career that is 1 of the best indicators we have um and so that's why we've taken a lot of time and effort you see a few courses in front of you but there's a lot of other changes like I said that are happening on the back end you'll see more in June um so that our students um are taking college courses even like uh peer communication which seems to be a fun course students go out and they um work with other Elementary students and uh it's more like an education class for them and you know you put in you put some rigor to it and it it you can get it approved for the college system so that's what that really means it's important to us 1 last follow up if a to G aligned or the courses we offer that are College Prep uh qualified can you see portal um are the dual enrollment courses as rigorous or are there some that are more and some that aren't well because they are college courses they automatically qualify so if a kid if a student takes our dual enrollment because we're teaching it we're actually teaching it through the college system we use their curriculum and we use their layout for the class so it's already aligned the we don't even have to take if you have a portal because it is considered it is not considered it is a college class it's a I mean it's the same level as saying that but it's it's a college course and so Eddie duel enrollment courses it's going to have a standard level of rigid associated with that entity and students that take um college courses um AP courses IB courses field of our honors classes not all of them they actually get a GPA bump on they are transcript because it's a higher level of course thank you any other questions motion to approve so moved and a second all in favor all right next is ISL program professional development oh did we totally skip that yeah I'm so excited moving fast back to Badger Academy this is a revision of the current course um uh 1 semester it is also energy aligned we are using a curriculum called get Focus safe Focus um hopefully in time I'll actually um be able to work with the colleges the Community College to actually give students college credit for this because it actually is curriculum that is used at the college um and actually starts planting out um part of this curriculum is planning out uh the students Pathway to be on high school so whether the college or career kind of maps out everything that they need to do every year um we will also focus on on what students need here um from just learning how to check their email on a daily basis um giving them some of the basic skills to be successful in school we will also meet the um sexual education requirement um the high schoolers have within this course um so it is kind of a catch up but it'll it'll be paired with the um ethnic studies course which is also only a semester so 1 semester they'll take take ethnic studies and the next semester or it could be flipped they'll take Metro Academy any questions so question um for the The Duel courses that you send students into are they through state center are they through any of the colleges or the outside of the state So currently this would be offered at in our school site so we would partner with them and our teacher is kind of employed they have credentials with the college they have to be vetted with them to teach there are times when we bring in a teacher we don't have 1 that they will send to us but we are trying our best to have our own teachers be teaching these courses right here so which college gets in that right now we work more with Madera but there are times like I we went with um a Mech I'll probably be working connections but we have a really good relationship with Madera Community College with the ochre Center um so we work with them very well thank you so yeah those are part of the Space Center your employees oh yeah sorry yes it is we get a motion to approve so moved second all in favor I all right moving on to approval of nisl program professional development I'm going to speak to that 1 jar and you can take the that'd be great yeah I think you're you got the number non-public school right so the nisl program is a professional development um opportunity for leaders it stands for National Institute for school and system leadership so um this is a nationally recognized leadership development program where you learn about um unique school systems Across the Nation and even across the globe it's meant to inspire creativity to inspire um lasting change at schools that work in the best interests of kids its research based based on what's happening in other um areas of our country and areas of the world so um this is a pretty sought-after professional development opportunity it so happens that Madera Unified was able to make some connections and actually bring program to Madera so you know typically you're traveling wherever and you have all these travel expenses and all this we're actually going to have it in Madera um this coming year and so um talking with the superintendent of Madera Unified Todd Lyle he invited us to participate be part of it so um what we're proposing to the board is that myself and Mindy and Jessica they've already accepted us to be in this program and so we're asking for the board's approval and now that Jay has been approved as the principal for next year we will talk to him about joining um as well but um yeah just like to ask the board for the approval of this um sought after professional development opportunity for some of our leaders including myself standing I like to I like to sound of that any questions I'm just was wondering will you how will you will you be able to report that like after prayer uh report and let us know yeah we have to do that sounds sounds exciting and it sounds like a great opportunity I'd like to hear what comes of it great support shouldn't that be happy to share yes her or will it be so obvious that you've been transformed not obvious already yeah you'll see me glowing you know I should do a proof I'll second all in favor all right uh Jared on public school Master contract this is an approval for a non-public school Master contract this was um through the IEP process um for services uh in a non-public school so I'm asking for the board's approval when you say non-public school is that for home schools or yeah so through the IEP um the service is that required to meet the to the student or um where in other other it was in another area to provide services so so this through the IEP this non-public school could meet the needs of the student so it's not public school it's a non-public school that provides alternative services to meet the needs of the student yeah there are there are student this you get placed here mainly through an IEP process based on students who have such unique needs or um a tiny that public schools are unable to provide those and we actually discussed this in closed session today not this particular contract but some of the things around it so we do have a student who with needs that are beyond what we can provide and even what are beyond what our selpa our special education local plan area through the county office can provide and so um these facilities exist throughout the country for public school districts to contract with them to provide services that we are not able to provide so this agenda item tonight is um really for the board to approve um honestly a contract that we already had to enter into um that we've discussed because we have an obligation to place a student within a certain number of days and waiting for our board meeting would have and beyond that very good any other questions motion to approve is it necessary to officially call it a ratification instead of an or can we can we vote on it and and and with its current yeah it it'll become official yeah it probably it should be a ratified but it'll be official either way even with the order approval thanks for asking that question it's my OCD kicking in I have most of you approved not so moved second all in favor thank you thank you the information items uh District enrollment report right yep just for information as we provide every month for the board um quick update our enrollment is down 30 students from last year um we have been working with our um obviously our own elementary schools but also basketball players like we have a large freshman class for next year so I'm hoping that this turns around a little bit for enrollment and then in terms of discipline uh again this is really an area where we've made tremendous Improvement um this year and that's due to the good work of our school leaders and our teachers and all of our staff um at our schools but we are down at this point of the Year by 53 students or incidents that led to suspension from the same time last and this has resulted in 159 fewer days of school missed um from last year to this year so great work by our staff in finding alternate ways to change behaviors of students outstanding and to hear this we'll see a change and number 10 I think we covered everything in our session so am I right board that we will not be going into a second closed session nobody needs any closed session right we got everything out Jennifer know sure we got snacks I know could be the beginning of my transformation all right very good president Alan do you uh could we entertain a question about the enrollment report or is that as an information item I was just wondering the comment about the um lip of ninth graders coming through where those you said they're from Bass Lake so they're not in our current eighth grade population so yeah so what I was saying is that the the the current ninth graders that are coming in would be our students that are coming from River Gold and horse Gold combined with the eighth graders coming from Bass Lake and it looks like this Freshman Class coming up is quite a bit higher than what we've had the last few years when you put all of that together okay so in terms of a positive bounce for total FTE it would be for enrollment it should be yeah if if the numbers come to fruition and and all the students come it would be a bump in our enrollment okay thank you and plus the big like Allan said we're having what was it 70 from our kids for me it looks it looks like that yeah that's that's what our initial thought is that's outstanding that's a lot better than it has been in the past way to go all right you ready to move on ready all right outstanding uh closing items next Board of Trustees meeting is so we have a bunch of we have a budget workshop on May 29th budget workshop on May 29th and then we have um 2 board meetings in June 1 on June 25th and 1 on June 26th so that'll be our last meeting of the school year outstanding they're going to adjourn this meeting oh and we got a we got to have them take a vote during or not move to a journey second second all in favor all right
