September 2025 Meeting of the Board of Trustees

September 2025 Board Meeting Recording

flag Republic for which it stands 1 nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I could ask you guys the color guard to just stay here for a moment 911 this date 24 years ago I remember exactly where I was we were going I have a moment of silence but before that I'm going to ask that you all recognized that every day there are people that wake up and know there is a chance going to work that they may not I'll come home to their family when a pair a person puts on fireproof clothing or a bulletproof vest that is a truth that cannot be ignored so I asked that as we bow our heads in silence out of respect for our true real life Heroes who fearlessly without hesitation ran headlong into certain Doom to save and protect others think about the ultimate sacrifice made for the crater good of protecting our others have our moment of Silent place thank you all for being here tonight proceed face I love the Cadet Corps you're good okay may I'll be speaking now right establishing of the Quorum we have all of our board members here we have our our newest member Lucas McGoldrick we went ahead and rearranged the seating normally Bernie would have been down there at the end but we were worried that with his mini me there we put Security in between them to keep the keys you know I thought it would be kind of fun to wear this shirt and it feels a little bit so now I've developed such an enormous respect for Bernie and I expect some developed the same sentiment for you with this really okay all right thank you thank you for coming I I'm I'm very honored um Lucas McGoldrick has asked me to be his mentor this year and you senior year and uh for me to help him with is senior project I I was kind of flattered by that but I have taken that challenge on and um it's a double-edged sword I've had lots I've had lots of conversations with him about many things so far and I will continue to um your your parents have done a wonderful job um there's high expectations for you so you know we're looking forward to what you do all right uh that the student presentation we are looking for uh approval of agenda move to approve the agenda second all in favor right Brian would you like to report on any closed session items sure thank you Mr President so in closed session the board approved the Personnel list and that included um for certificated 1 resignation for classified 6 new hires and 2 resignations and 2 emotions and on a motion by Bernie and seconded by Jennifer the board approved the Personnel list on a 5o vote and that's all there is to report from closed session thanks Brian we're gonna go move the item 3F which is Lucas mcgolrick first student presentation all right so I'm going to start with the river gold uh school report boys like football and girls volleyball seasons are underway with a total of 78 junior high students participating this year River goal hosted its first home games last week where both teams secured victories over North Fork Battle of the books practices are being held after school on Mondays the program is open to grades 3 through 8 with the countywide competition scheduled for December in Madera Lego Club began today after school for grades 2 through 8 students will Design original projects to be showcased during art appreciation night in January the Soaring Hawk award continues to celebrate students who demonstrate outstanding Behavior consistent attendance and academic effort in line with River Gold's values already more than 10 students have been recognized so far the school year the library is hosting its first Scholastic Book Fair of the Year this month this is the first Scholastic Fair River Gold has held in several years and it's generating significant excitement among students the PTA purchased doubled manners for 8 like posts across campus these manners feature Hawkins the school mascot alongside with models such as hot Pride home of the Hawks and Hawk strong preparations are underway for the annual Hot Wok River Gold most significant tradition and largest fundraiser fundraiser of the year scheduled for November 20th the event aims to surpass last year's success um although you have somebody at Ops and coarse gold were not able to provide a report for this month's meeting we look forward to hearing their updates at next month's meeting and to use so many high schools report homecoming week is underway and going fantastic as usual uh coronation was held last night with winners announced and um on Friday senior royalty will be revealed dress up days have been a success with very strong student participation students are very excited for Friday's home football game against Gustine and the homecoming dance on Saturday we recently just had on Tuesday the Powderpuff game this is girls flag football and boys cheer um feedback was very positive and students are looking forward to continuing this tradition um many students have expressed that their voices are being heard through ASB and overall feedback from students about the new teachers this year has been very very positive um once again Badger broadcast continues to do well consistently releasing weekly videos that are both informative and engaging strong teacher and student attendance at sporting events recently volleyball which is currently playing right now against Mariposa is 12 and 6 and looking forward or looking to continue their winning season ASB has introduced Sandwich Board signs on campus to highlight upcoming events these sandwich boards are very very popular through campus um 1 concerned that I did um find through feedback with my ASB class is that that as we have faced a couple challenges keeping the student store running consistent consistently without a um dedicated staff member we we'd like to show deep appreciation to Sheree for her continued support even though it is no longer her position and we very much look forward to welcoming whoever fills this role in the future thank you well done thanks Lucas I'm kind of disappointed to not see you in the Annie costume here all right very good uh moving on to item the 3G public comment we have Robert Guerrero uh good evening uh um I'm I hate having my back to everybody but um last month I came and I presented an idea to you guys about a little bit of Campus verification and um Brooke came out and met me 1 day after after work and we walked a little area and and I gave him my ideas uh last week I sat down just and Randy and we did some more mauling over it and they are the ones that came up with the campus beautification uh scheme so I did give you guys just a rough draft of my little supplier that I'm going to pass out upon approval of Jessica and Randy um it's it's looks like we're moving forward and I really look forward to it and for those of you guys that don't know that our city behind me what this is is I came up with this little thought that I understand the resources here are really thin and I I I come to the school every day and I see I come to school for my my uh athlete of that swims and I see the campus needs some some beautification a little TLC and so I asked if I could organize some volunteers and come and uh do a little clean up and again I'm getting good support from the board and as soon as I get a date I hope to see you guys there too that day so anyway it's going to be a community effort and uh I thank you guys for letting me do this and we'll see where it goes and how big it can get and I think it'll stay strong so thank you guys thank you thanks Robert proof it people to come up here and speak it's not easy uh they you don't go unheard up here we're all here because we care and uh we believe it's very important for everybody to be heard and for and our job is to ensure we do the very best we can so so thank you Robert I appreciate you stepping up and bringing some things to our attention that that we can improve all right we have 4 a you to president on behalf of certificated staff see Tony here see here back there public comment from would you rather it's not planning on being here at the very beginning so uh couple of things um yeah uh as you know from the the amount of uh teachers here we have some concerns um about the waiver I'm not going to take uh that lender um uh but I've always believed in working collaboratively the district the board uh CTA Yuda as well as our uh sister Union and um as I've mentioned I sit on the state Council for CTA um our next beating will be middle of October uh at that council meeting I am planning on submitting a new business item and that new business item is to ask uh California Futures Association to go to the legislature and change this Antiquated law in regards to the waiver uh in talking with some of the other chapter presidents throughout uh president Dura County uh I know that you say Unified is not the only 1 that uh that is applying for a waiver um it it  I mean it just um we're having to follow the law that's over a hundred years old um I agree we need to uh more money into uh the classrooms the closest to the children uh 1 of the things I see to many people is if you're over 21 you're really not a priority the students or the priority and this is not about my ego this is not about any of the staff ego so um we have a lot of teachers that are really struggling to pay the bills uh we have some of our newer teachers that cannot afford to live up here and we need to work in a collaborative manner to to help figure out how to put more money into the classrooms in both of the bargaining units the students deserve uh the best education and we are we're doing amazing amazing things um Lucas thank you for coming here and talking about being the voice for the students uh I want to thank um they've disappeared but I want to thank the cadet that is what we build uh the food at the back of the room our culinary further we have so so many things that we need to be proud of and uh as you heard time and time again I'm proud to have spent my career here we are the best blanket School in the mountains and it's because of the administration it's because of each and every 1 of the teachers here it's in it's because of our support staff etc etc um we've got a great thing we've got it keep polishing this golden apple and I appreciate each and every 1 of you you being here um a little bit later you're going to hear some of the frustrations that the classroom teachers have and it I I I'm fresh I I frustrated for our our district I'm frustrated for the for the 5 of you The District administration okay I pledge that UDA and CTA they will be working in a collaborative manner to try to find the secret sauce to continue to put more and more money into the classroom thank you thank you Tony okay you could come in following Anthony's presentation surely oh thank you okay um Anthony I just wanted to commend you um I hear the passion meeting after meeting with you I see your sincerity your heart for teaching and for the group that you represent and I see the understanding of reasoning and I commend you for The Bravery it's going to take to stand up and raise that proposal to an audience that will likely be pretty opposed to the idea that I really appreciate that there's a lone voice strong enough brave enough to put that opinion out there for consideration it it is something that needs to be reassured thank you I was just talking to Brooke because it seemed like maybe there was confusion around when public comment would be versus the item so the way the slips were submitted was to actually speak to the item when it comes up but I think maybe you didn't know so if you want to change that to public comment and speak now we can definitely accommodate that to totally totally your call we just want to make sure you have that option so everybody want to speak now you're good I was trying to read the room to see if you meant to do that or if there was a little confusion so uh and and um what you guys have to say is very important out of we're we're totally we're totally trying to accommodate everybody I would if I could ask if I could have it asked is that after you guys speak Maybe maybe just be patient a little bit longer and don't make a button out of that I'm sorry and just here and hear us please I I I have really you know this is a this is a hard 1 these These Times Are you know I take this very personal and I've I've spent a lot of time to to for on my presentation for you all being here so um I would appreciate if you just hung out just a few minutes longer all right thank you so much um we're going to make Amy go uh Chris Harris please good evening members of the board colleagues families and community members my name is Chris Harris and I have the privilege of serving nearly 180 students across all 3 School sites in our district I'm speaking not just for myself but for my fellow teachers who show up every day to educate support and Inspire the students of ease unified tonight you're being asked to vote on whether to seek another waiver from the requirement that 55% of the district's budget be spent on our salaries this has become routine but the impact is serious in The Last 5 Years our District's investment in teacher salaries dropped from 54.5% to nearly 45 that's almost 6 and a half million dollars not invested in our educator since 2019 it's no surprise that every indicator in our district dashboard is now read The District's own goal 3 says we aim to recruit and retain quality Educators but each weight removes us further and further away from that goal I worked in a 70 unified since 2019 I left a consulting job that paid more but because I wanted to serve this community my wife and I bought a home here we're committed to living where we work the cost living is crushing our fire insurance has risen from 1400 in 2020 to $4,000 this year Through the Fair plan there's nothing fair about that many of my colleagues pay more I heard 5,000 this week up to 10,000 a year maybe this applies to some of you here too health benefits are rising and our salaries don't keep up some teachers like myself are considering a second job While others already are some commute from Fresno or Beyond because they can't afford to live here and when Educators don't live in the community they serve then their income is spent elsewhere supporting other districts and communities today is Patriot Day on September 11th 2001 teachers across this country come ed students during 1 of our nation's Darkest Days that's what Educators do we show up in times of crisis as a US Air Force veteran I know what sacrifice means but I can honestly say I've sacrificed more time and energy for this job than I did in uniform that's the reality of teaching you know so many unified today we don't do this work for recognition we do it because we care deeply for our students and our community but let me be very clear we can teach anywhere else but we choose to be here right now so tonight I'm not just asking you to vote no on a waiver I'm asking you to see the human cost behind the numbers if you vote Yes every time this waiver is approved teachers pour their hearts into children and are told that they are not the priority and it hurts it hurts to give everything and still fall behind it hurts to watch passionate Educators leave and it hurts to look into the eyes of our students knowing we could give them more if only we were given more tonight you have a choice you can continue down a path that undervalues those who show up for our kids every day or you can take a stand and stand with your teachers stand with our students stand for a future where education is not built on sacrifice but on support if students are our why then why don't you invest in US please vote no on this waiver show us that we matter so that we can continue to show our students that they matter thank you thank you sir Deena Combs Flores I'm sorry good evening um and before I start what I wrote down off the cuff here this is hard being on this side of the microphone um I never and first want to thank the district um many of you in the HR department know that I had to take I went to school 1 day and then I had to take the first 3 weeks of school off because my stepmom went to the hospital and passed away recently so I just came back to school last week so number what I want to thank the district you guys were very good to me and I appreciate that um I also want to thank the board president tonight for showing your comments on 911 I too remember where I was the phone call I got that morning from my mom to watch the TV and see what was happening and um I have 3 children who serve active duty in the military and are on the front lines to keep our country safe so I understand what our First Responders are doing and I appreciate and thank everyone who does that even our own Tony has been doing that um but also in that feeling and that Spirit we as the teachers we are on the front line for you for this District we're on the front line with the students I teach at rivergold elementary this is my third year of serving teaching in your District I served I taught 1 year at course gold Elementary and then this is my second year at River Gold I too understand where it's like to be in your position many maybe you have I have met before I am a trustee also for another school district in in Fresno County and while I recognize that this is a lot smaller District um if you as a board do not invest into your teachers it will not only difficult to retain your teachers but it also makes it very difficult to create a positive environment where teachers feel valued we work so hard as teachers and staff to make sure our students have a positive environment where they can go to school and where they can be but how about us we need to have a positive environment where we feel valued also because then it helps us to want to work harder for those kids that we love um I am deeply opposed to the waiver um not only because it's only 55% of your budget that would go towards salaries but it's if you look at this your statistics you've gone further and further and further as Chris mentioned you've gotten further and further away from that 55% and again I know it's not Apples to Apples but there are many districts I can only relate to Fresno County because that's what I relate to right now but many districts and personal County are spending 70 and is upward is 90% of their budget on teacher salaries um and so I think that's something to think about um me as a almost 20 year teacher I'm on I'm on the farthest column I have my masters for this step so I'm here 19 I'm stuck in this for your thing where my salary doesn't change my salary last year is the same as this year so the only thing that I have is that cost of living increase I do understand how scfs Works um so I'm asking if you could accept the puzzle 2% in 1500 Amy good evening okay let me fix this okay so it must be important if I'm here because this is hard for me this is this is me and you okay so I stand before you tonight on behalf of the teachers at why Unified School District we come as a collective unit to speak up for what's right for our students our profession in the future of our this year the cost of living adjustment was set at 2.3% I should probably put my glasses on the district offered only 1% you is asking for 2 the difference between what the district is offering and what the is asking is less than $200,000 with an unrestricted unrestricted budget of nearly 19 million we believe the district can find the money and make classroom teachers more of a priority at the same time our health benefits they're scheduled to rise 6 to 9% that's beginning in October and that means even with the district's proposal teachers will be taking home less and then we have to talk about the waiver um Ed code it requires you UniFi District to spend at least 55% of their budget on a classroom teacher salaries and over the past 5 years we've gotten uh to almost 6.5 million not spent on teacher salaries in 2425 yusd spent only 45.46% shorting classrooms over 2.1 million what does it mean in real terms the 2.1 million can fund more full-time teachers it could provide desperately needed intervention support and make white USD a more attractive District to recruit and retain qualified educators we need to improve our academic outcomes we're being told that constantly and we need to turn our dashboard from red to blue but the only way to do that is by investing in our teachers we need to invest in the classroom a fully credentialed teacher in every classroom providing quality first instruction is what our students need and they deserve it instead the district has chosen year after year to seek waivers and now this year they propose to do it again so we're asking you to make a different Choice say no to waivers say yes to teachers say yes to investing in the Educators who give their all every day and yes to prioritizing the classrooms because that's our students learn and grow our request isn't extravagant it's 2% it's fair it's reasonable and it's necessary but it's also the right thing to do so we urge you to stand with your teachers tonight choose investment over excuses fairness over waivers and action over delay thanks thank you Amy back to uh 4B the CC CA president report not here okay yes I don't all right then we're moving on to administrative staff man's up first good evening to my favorite School Board last time I seen you so today at River Gold um we had what's called red white and blue day so it's in uh remembrance of 911 so our students staff or the colors of the flag to school uh 9:00 exactly 9:00 I read a statement short statement um talking about 911 and commemorating um what happened we also took a a short 202 moment of silence at that time schoolwide so I want to thank my staff participating in that that was important um I remember back at that time he just gotten out of a a military unit myself right before 911 um I would eventually there would eventually be my team members from my army unit that would be sent overseas uh to serve um and someone I'll come back and those were team members of mine that I had in the Army and were friends of mine so um yes it's a decided for everybody involved and so um attendance info for River Gold um from the first day of school of this year this past Friday 95 our daily average attendance was 95.5 and that is a 0.5% from the previous school year discipline info when the first day of school to yesterday we've had zero suspensions on our campus this uh same time last year there was 1 suspension in addition there were 10 disciplinary referrals written um from the first day of school until yesterday uh major we called the major referrals same time period last year there were 20 um major referrals written for incidents in incidents a major offenses are NWA assessments that are teachers are doing should be completed by tomorrow completely finished by tomorrow um and then once completed gives our teachers the data necessary um to write instructions needed for our students so all of our um k25 staff and Middle School Math teachers attended to Swan Math training at courseval last week and I want to thank Dr boarding for setting that up and and leading that um that's a series of chains we'll have during the course of the year and the feedback from my staff was that that they really thought it was beneficial our PLC guiding Coalition team attended training um Monday Tuesday Wednesday this week and uh we felt it was it was very beneficial and I want to thank um our superintendent Mr Beck for providing the leadership on that and that'll give us a a framework uh this year um to really get our our Central standards of what we expect our students at grade level and get those implemented amongst some other things so um that was important and I I appreciated the training um to date we've had 31 title 6 forms submitted for our Native American students and that um it was being led by Haley um Laguna who's our Native American liaison for the district so thank her for that uh with Randy leadership the facilities items that the that came up in the Williams report are starting to get addressed in our campus so I think Randy for that so we've been addressing those he's been addressing those so I think that's important and and that's a work in progress as far as the facilities area goes and then last but not least um I want to recognize our river gold team member of which is uh reani great house she's our a librarian classified employee she worked extremely hard um to make sure that our classrooms were prepared with the curriculum and needed for our Williams visit at the beginning of school year because we were the first school that they visited in the county at the same time making sure our students had laptops so she did both of those and so yeah she's our our team member in the month so she gets a special certificate I recognized her my sapini took a nice picture of and put it in our staff room and then give me a gift card so that's it thank you thank you mine won't be as long so all right good evening everybody um make sure you email me for our results or our information for next month okay and if you don't you know he's not my number so that way we make sure we get address uh so uh 1 we use in campus updates um attendance right now for both Elementary and Junior High is averaging about 96% which is pretty amazing um we've got Sada our um student Behavior Advocate who's really pushing independent study so kids that are out um she's kind of handing him teachers and students and families to get independent study done so we can bring up those attendance numbers current enrollment as of today is 337 which I believe at this time last year we were like 2 something so we are up quite a few students that's pretty awesome um as of right now we are fully staffed we hired our last um special education parent educator that will hopefully get on boarded next week and then we will sit fully staffed which is amazing I wish we could have done that sooner but we're happy with it now um some academic and student successes electives for junior high are up and running um we've got our culinary class has been making food in our culinary classroom that's not quite ready for unveiling yet once we get carpet we'll invite you guys over for a ribbon cutting um leadership and Cadet core classes will be participating in the yhs parade tomorrow for homecoming um leadership is making a friends um themed float for tomorrow um really excited we were able to re-designate 2 of our ELD students um I had 1 of my eighth graders that knew that he had to do well on the nwea test asked if you could take it in my office so that way he could focus and he was super stoked to be able to pass that so that's pretty amazing um this past week we'll be finishing up our NWA testing and um grade level teams will start uh reviewing all of that data and coming up with some um students that we need to Target for our tier 2 and tier 3 interventions um as of today we have students that have been nominated for cougars On The Rise so those kids are the ones that come in they get a certificate a letter goes home and they get a special treat soon as our Bingo board is filled up then all of those kids get a special another recognition for that a couple of celebrations that are coming up tomorrow is Grandparents Day for our students and our families so we're looking forward to welcoming them um onto campus tomorrow or actually on Monday is going to start our 2 week um attendance challenge so students that have perfect attendance for the next 2 weeks are going to get to celebrate with an ice cream party on the same day that the walkathon is happening um but they will get to have ice cream from our PTO soft serve machine that was broken and that was fixed again so we're really excited for that um community helpers day is going to take place next Thursday uh that's where we're going to have First Responders out there calfire state parks uh fish and game fishing game said yes um Amy's kind of spearheading that and it's a way for um kids to go out uh they get to meet some of our First Responders takes away kind of that scare and that intimidation factor for them and I believe it is tk5 classes that are invited out for that uh next Friday we have our team truth assembly that is going to be held for junior hi students and that's um something being paid for out of Community Schools money uh next Friday is our walkathon I am trying to raise a thousand dollars and then kids can throw pies in my face so if you'd like to donate to the cause please let me know um and then we're really excited you may not find what nobody's here um we're really excited we we kind of just kind of spearheaded um out of a I don't trust any of you over there that's just so you know um kind of spearheaded with some help from PTO we are starting a drop off coffee carts so as parents come through we're going to have classroom teachers can um kind of pick a date and can host a coffee cart at the end of parent drop off so as parents come through they drop off their kids they pick up a cup of coffee that money goes towards that classroom and um we'll see how that goes so something new and to look forward to you but we are really excited um all the trainings that we've been to it's been really hard to be out of class and out of school um it was great to see all the kids again today and I got hugs so I thought okay they don't totally hate me but we've got a lot of we've got a lot of room for improvement but I am super excited that this year we were starting ball rolling um kind of getting everything going so thank you very much enthusiasm hey you 2 get along Mindy would have been a good night to bring a hat because I think you might have got quite a few donations that they knew we could throw pie in your face just kidding just kidding I don't know what's back we already know Brandon's in he was raising his hand hello how are you guys okay so you have somebody and edops has a lot going on okay I'm going to start off with a not so much fun news um we have a situation with needing a math teacher and we are working on that and that is affecting a lot of students that we have here um with not such great instruction so we actually have interviews on the Monday so we have several candidates and I am hoping for the best that I we get someone and we can make an announcement and have you guys approve that higher next in October um our teams all of us you've heard this already been working on plc's um and getting our teams rolling and all all the sites have a coalition teams um I have a very Dynamic team and they are just ready to get to work um they we want to move faster um then we're probably allowed but we are going to we we would want to get the stuff done um that we know we need to do and they have seen the data and they just want to get to work so it's very exciting to have a team with me to actually to do all that work because there's no way I could do this all on my own um we are finishing up nwea testing um this week um and the data is looking promising so much so that some of the kids have already tested and with the testing we were able to reap 3 kids um from this is for the students that the English as their second language and they've been um reclassified uh that their English proficient um so they can get out of the Support classes and get back into regular English classes and so 3 is pretty high number we already did that the last end of the semester last year for 9 students at somebody high school so it's a pretty big deal we've been doing really really well last week uh we had um FFA was at the fair um we had lots of different students um show doing all kinds of different animals and we had 2 Grand Champions um in the area of rabbits and they did a great job um thank you to Casey but also really thank you to miss Wade because she is actually our rabbit expert if you can believe it she's done a great job um also to thank Miss Wade um she has stepped up as a new athletic director this year and she is really killing it um getting everything organized we have all of our um field trips for the for the trips and for the games already put in she's working very closely with all the coaches um and making sure their trainings are done and making sure all the games are ready um and it has been uh really great to see she's supporting other kids and she's getting us where we need to be um and it is it has been really it's been really great to see um we have started uh senior chats last week um we'll talk about what's going on in counseling um we've had still have lots of changes a lot of updates they have a lot more coming at them and we found some more errors this week so they are diligently correcting all those errors uh but 1 of the things they started last week was the senior chats and getting them ready for applying for colleges um and all the different things that they have to do to get ready uh for the end of the year whether they choose college or trade school or just right into the workforce um and the students came out of those um meetings and they said that it worked really well because they were throwing candy at Tim did that work yeah yeah that worked that worked really well yeah see um yeah so did it with my daughter who came at me saying I have to do all these things even though I have told her that for 6 months now um so it really worked um so that has been really good the the the counseling department is moving at a feverish Pace trying to get our data correct and support all the students that they can um so hats off to them um I'm just going to hats off to everyone right now because really that's really what it's all about m o t um we were working we are working with Robert Aguero and teams from the community um but with begging and just wanting our Stadium to look great he was able to get a team on at least our announcers booth and that has been freshly painted and I have new banners that are out there so come tomorrow night you will see that if you were there um so it's looking better and better out there and I do have to thank uh theoat Department as well we threw the Powderpuff game have been last minute and he almost ran out of paint to paint the lines and he was able to paint all the lines for Powderpuff we were only supposed to have certain ones but we had enough paint or he got more in 1 way or another um and so that was able to happen so they've been able to jump through a few Hoops that we've asked them um and that was great and the Powderpuff game if you did not see it was so funny and hilarious and amazing um the male cheerleaders were funniest I think I've ever seen in my life um and they've already asked to have a second game this year I believe Lucas is the coach literally him and cash and I think they were acting but they would fake like if a play went wrong like throw down their clipboard it was really funny it was a great time um so this great things going on um for students uh some safety things coming up we have worked quickly again thank you Randy and your team uh we have active net rolling on on here really quick I should have staff trained before we go on October break they are coming in 2 weekends from now to finish the rest of the pictures that they have to take um here and it'll take a full day for them to do that I should have admin trained in 2 weeks and then staff and another week or so after that hoping to roll that out fairly quickly I have not told my staff that that that's what's happening I just found out today um so that is coming and that'll be a huge um a benefit to the site for safety um what they do just to map out our campus was insane um and progress reports are coming out soon kids have 2 more weeks and progress reports are coming out so this this year is already going really fast and I have to say it's homecoming week it is homecoming week that's all I can say there have been so many events and tomorrow is is the game and here we go and I have to say last Friday when we beat Sierra a little excited it's a little fun um but yeah that was a great time it was a great start for football so hope we keep it going and then we have the homecoming dance on Saturday and then I can crash that is it very good thank you thank you give a hand for all of our sites Brian would you like to sure I also just want to thank Jessica and Jay and Mindy for your leadership you got the school off this we are off uh to a good start appreciate that very much your leadership does not go unnoticed thank you um well good evening all it's good to see you all tonight thank you for coming out um last time we had a board meeting it was on August 7th and school had not yet started so a lot has happened from 1 board meeting um to another but we're off and running and believe it or not tomorrow is the 22nd day of school we've already been in school for 22 days I did the math that's 12% of the school year so we're we're about halfway through a quarter is is where we are it goes really fast um I also want to welcome Lucas Lucas I want you to know that you represent a very important voice and that's the voice of our students no pressure though um I really enjoyed you growing up I remember you entering as a freshman and now you're a senior and I've seen you grow into a campus leader and glad that you're up here representing students I look forward to working with you over these next few months good job tonight in your report by the way um I want to thank the staff who came out thank you guys for being here for for telling your story for making your voice heard um for um always I see you in the classroom and you teach with passion you come out here and you speak with passion and your hard work certainly does not go unnoticed and I feel like our students are very fortunate to have the teaching staff that we have and I want to hopefully you guys know that I want you to hear that directly from me um I know that our bargaining uh team is here I see Brandon and Evan I think Ken's in the back over there I think Kristen's over here in the back and Marie's right there I won't forget you Marie I Can't Forget You Marie um but those 5 they really do dedicate a lot of time you know when when we go into negotiations they're missing their class time they don't want be away from students um but I do appreciate um how seriously you take it how you represent um the cause and you do it you do it above board um you you do it in a good way and I just really appreciate working with you guys and um I am confident that will be able to continue our work in the negotiations process will arrive at a result that's best for students for the staff and and for our community um the last meeting we had was last Tuesday and we're meeting again this next Tuesday so we spend some time together and we really try to work through it we've made some progress and we still have some ways to go but we will get there and we always do and um and we always have also want to thank Tony Tony and I meet every 2 weeks I think it's important that the um District administration and the uh UDA president saying close with each other so we kind of know the concerns that are coming from both sides and we can address those before they spin out of control so just want to thank you guys for continuing to engage in negotiations to engage in collaboration and that is the way that we can make improvements and make a difference in our district so thank you for engaging in that and being such a big part of it um I want to thank our board for engaging in a board study session on August 25th this was regarding facilities bonds um as a community's funding source for improving school facilities we approved a facilities master plan was that last month I think too yeah we approved the facility master plan we had a company come in and just like kind of lay it out here's what you guys need to get things up to par and it they outlined 74 Million worth of needs across the district which I've seen facility Master plans and many other districts and that number doesn't surprise me a lot for some for some other places but that number is a big number and so the board met they engaged in a steady session to really um see how this whole Bond process works if you're going to go to the community and ask them to support um a facility needs and so we learned a lot and we'll continue to explore all funding avenues that just being 1 of them you know we're looking at all kinds of Grants and ways that we can we can do things to improve our facilities as well but just so you know that some of that's happening as well um and you know the board will will consider all of these options and there's a possibility of putting a bond on the November 2026 ballot if that's a decision that will need to be made um in the next few months so it's been mentioned but we spent the last 3 days at the Madera County Superintendent of Schools office down in Madera um we were learning with our principals and our teacher leaders were there they serve on the School site guiding coalitions it was a great 3 days of learning I thought I don't know not every everyone has told me if they thought it was great or not but I thought it was really good in a nutshell we learned about best practices for providing interventions for students to ensure that they're learning at grade level or higher we also learn more about how professional learning communities or plc's work to empower teachers with a focus on student learning through frequent and consistent teacher and staff collaboration you see the theme it's about collaboration it's about teacher empowerment it's about the the people who know the kids the best making decisions about how to best um support their learning but there were there were 26 of us from eusem unified that engage in this learning that's like 15% of our entire staff right that that were there and so I apologize for your principles being gone and so many teachers being gone and and then being gone but this was really powerful learning and I think important for us to be together but we had 16 teachers there Alicia Meyer Jolene Garcia Eric Urban Rebecca Hardison James Murray Debbie Miller Julie gothier Amy Hansen Tracy Duncan Joseph bitten Jennifer jalis Sylvia slows Brandon Matthews Matt Wilkinson Christian kernaghan Lily Maguire those 16 were there and it was really cool to have 16 teacher leaders who um you know really put their their their leadership hat on and really wanted to be a part of looking at how we go about improving um student outcomes so appreciate appreciate you guys very much all 3 principles were in attendance Jessica J Mindy were there um our yhs assistant principal Amber goslee was there as well 2 of our sites were there hernia Shepherd and Ivonne Burgos Gonzalez and then our district office along with myself was Jared then he's not the and Beth Kirkley so again 26 of us like we were representing yuse like we hadn't represented before so it was really really cool um but we're just beginning this is a 3-year partnership with Madera County with the California Department of Education and the California collaborative for educational Excellence but we're going to look deeply at our student outcome results and we're going to address those deficiencies through the power of Staff collaboration and professional learning communities and I really appreciate all those that are digging into this and especially those that um you know missed being in their classroom and took time to be part of that learning you notice there was some food in the back tonight that was provided by our yhs culinary students so uh I want to thank Danielle who had another commitment they do really really good work and I think they might be doing this a future board meetings so if you want to come join us and get a little snack I think they're going to do some treats um for for this year and then lastly um you know our nutrition services team under the direction of Diane um it has just their tremendous they're so good in what they do um for kids is to feed them and they've been on this Venture um for the last however many years to really partner with some local Growers and make sure that we're bringing fresh nutritious food to our kids and we just recently put a there was a they came and did a visit and put together a video and so I just want to show that video um to um to finalize my report here if we can with budget scales we are doing an effort to improve our full meals working with local producers Ventures local Growers a keeper and trying to just force the brush just the ingredients and to make food that kids will enjoy its nutritious are as a farm to create as to locally roads in the mountain communities a lot of food that's grown up here imported from the valley or Square much further away and we get the Mountain community and what we have going on here we provide we don't have to have that tendency on going to get food or looking for a truck to us but what we do has to do with building why and the little communities we will help build resilience to helping ship and it's possible to build vibrant like a vibrant business that can provide for your own family in such a way that also benefits local community if if I think you get the idea right so I apologize for the technical difficulties but there's so many things that happen behind the scenes right people who drive buses um people who clean the schools um the people who greet the public when they come in the office and these folks who every day serve our kids and make sure that they're that they're nourished and they're ready to learn when they come to school and so I just um this was a great video and I wish it would have worked better but um uh we'll probably put it on our website to give you access and I just wanted to to acknowledge um Diane and her staff and the great work that they do to make sure that our kids are are nourished along so with that I'll turn it back over to you bro thank you Brian uh board presentation Mr Andy Prestige thank you Brooke I appreciate that had a few items so I'm going to go fairly quickly first of all welcome again Lucas it's good to have you joining the board and if it's at all possible I see Mrs McGoldrick is in the audience and if if we could take a minute before we lose him to take a quick photograph she's got camera at the ready if we if when you dismiss for his part if that would be cool and that would be very nice um yes the board study session was very informative on the 25th where we discussed the facilities Bond uh option and uh I look forward to learning more about that we did also attend a budget advisory committee study session on the 8th um I want to say something about that Charlotte very competently uh presented the estimated actuals and the UN audited actuals for 2425 fiscal year and I noted 1 particular number that she came extremely close on uh on the lcff total revenues is something over 18.7 million and I've learned in my fiscal background from school Services of California staff that an error of 1.5% is within the plus or minus margin of you know acceptable margin of error per estimate of revenues compared to the UN audited actuals came up I calculated it calculated in 22 days I'm going to calculate first un audited actuals her error was 0.004 percent very close very skilled so I just wanted to call attention that's something that caught my attention thank you Charlotte um I liked what I read in superintendent Beck's report indicating attendance over 95% and parent connectivity over 95% very good adoption of the parent connectivity tools um I appreciated the comments sincerity and passion of the certificated staff tonight uh and want to thank you for what you bring to this school with your energy and and your drive to make it make our District better I very much appreciate that and then lastly I understand that there was a safety concern at course cold um a week or so ago uh and as a trustee I just want to reaffirm um that our commitment to safety as it as our number 1 highest priority uh is is reaffirmed with all of us here uh I want to commend principal Gresham her team Sheriff's Department superintendent Beck for the clear transparent quick calm professional response handled very well super proud of the way that that played out and um all to ensure the safety of our students so thank you for that thank you very good thank you Andy Mr McGoldrick thanks Brooke um Andy thank you for the words about my son about me and that's much appreciated I can return the compliment I enjoy working with you too learn a lot from you um thank you Robert Guerrero if you yeah you're still here I asked about this years ago doing something like this and it just seemed complicated I end up not obviously doing it and you just in a month seem to be making it happen so I want to say say thank you so much for that made it look a lot easier than I thought it would be to do this so it's not done yet not done yet I know you need volunteers so Lucas said he'd be there um it's really um yeah have my son here just a lot of things had to happen for that to occur it's a great surprise for me I don't tell him a lot but I'm very proud of him I want to say in front of everybody and uh the only thing I'm still a concern about he announced somewhere in the first semester of his junior year that he would be student body president his senior year and I said well you know we're supposed to have a ctions and that's it's not a foregone conclusion and he just said no I will be and he was right and there wasn't even an election a little concern about that we've got some authoritarianism in play here I'm not not sure I want to know how that happened but um but I'm not 1 to talk because nobody opposed me in my last election so I I didn't have to run either so we're both here without being elected just so you know um and I thought that was I got my certificate this is my second term and the the certificate for my second term does not say certificate of election as my first term certificate did it says certificate of appointment so that's when it hit home that really I Not Elected because no 1 opposed me um I I've given a version of this speech before most of you looking out there this looks like the All-Star team of teachers in our district and I know most most of you pretty well um I uh so most of you know that I was a substitute teacher for 1 semester before I went to law school and taught in this district and I was a ease High School teacher for about 7 months 2001202 and the reason I'm telling the story is that it connects to 911 I was moving back here from the Bay Area with my wife who's here tonight and our 2 daughters of whom had just been born and Lucas you were not in the picture at that point Lucas is probably the only person here now that maybe Nathan who doesn't remember 911 I remember you remember okay um and I was in New Hall pulling my old Ford Taurus somewhere between Mercedes and Kathy's Valley and my sister called on my I had my first cell phone that had a and long antennae on it and um bad reception and she said you need to get front of the television and I said well it's going to be a while but I will and she told me the gist of what was happening only the first Tower had been struck at that point uh so we weren't clear on what was going on totally and that fog is it's hard remember now but it lasted weeks and um I had rented an office above the Children's Museum to start my law practice here I'd already been a lawyer for a couple of years up in the Bay Area and um that just looked daunting after 911 the stock market crashed all the flights were grounded everything kind of shut down and I thought wow did typical me I picked a great time to start a business um but I'd already rented that space I had my furniture in their back when we had law books I was that was what was in my Hall was a lot of law books and um then wait sitting around waiting for a week or 2 which is what I think most of us did at that time uh my mom uh called and said Steve Rock just called me and he needs an English teacher right away someone had literally walked out of the classroom no warning just turned in their keys left and um he had a sub in there so within a week I'm talking to Steve and he said I need you to teach English he knew I'd an English major I said you know I don't have a credential you know that all I've done is substitute teach for 1 semester somehow by the end of September I'm in a classroom teaching English at ease High and things calm down I went back to practicing law I don't think I was going to be a great teacher uh like many of you are um so I think I made the right decision but I wanted to tell that story not just because it was 911 and how much impact that had on all of us um I'm very grateful for that opportunity I'm very grateful that I did that um at the time I don't think my wife was real keen on me being a teacher because she thought I was a lawyer that's who she married but uh um I truly enjoyed it even though it's difficult when only years a teacher is your first year you know you only remember the getting up at 3 in the morning to try to figure out what am I going to do today I have no assignments that's gain had 2 file cabinets full of assignments I remember be very jealous and he would just say yeah just take what you want and uh but even that took time so I um I really do appreciate you and I've had some limited experience doing what you guys do and it's hard for us up here to communicate we can't talk details that's what nighat machine teams are for but it is hard for us to let you know and sound sincere and have you believe it we never know if you actually do believe it but I have spent a little bit of time in your shoes and I just want to say how much I appreciate you and I think it's even harder what you're doing now than it was 24 years ago uh for many reasons but um I care about you um I think I speak for everybody on the board when I say that I know I do and um I thank you for everything you do here thank you Bernie Mrs Rogers hi I want to start by um kind of I've been thinking like why am I here as a board member I decided to run it was it was to make a difference for the like organism that we are it was to bring um saying um conversations to listen to be present to hear what's going on and to try to make a difference for the whole because I really want to reiterate that I really believe that we're all on the same team and you who are here as staff and teachers you are not undervalued you are so appreciated what you do is so important and um what you do for our kids in this community is a amazing so I I see you and I appreciate that and I'm learning and I'm understanding how the whole works and we have to remember we're all on the same team and we will you know let's make it work for everybody let's make it work the best for the whole team so um you can count on me to to listen and to to be present to that I um also want to uh acknowledged that they yhs beautifully I have a specific group in mind that I am going to try to Wrangle on that day and hopefully there'll be a lot of people here making a difference on that um on August 11th we had our staff welcome back breakfast and it was such an honor to serve every single person who came through that line I loved making eye contact and and dishing you some potatoes because if you're on the potato team you're definitely on waiting um just sitting in that cafeteria after we got our plates at the beginning and I've got pictures on my phone of it uh looking back at that cafeteria filled with all the staff um you could feel the commitment in that room you could feel the excitement to start a new year and um I was really moved I was moved with the the quality and the the passion other people that were in that room I could I could really feel it and I uh it was just it was a great moment and I appreciated being there it was an honor it was very inspirational to be there so I also went to on August 7th the uh Madera County School Board Association meeting and we had um kind of the theme was um human trafficking in our schools and um it was a really great present presentation we had someone from the DA's office but we also had representatives from Madera County Probation they covered uh really great uh program what is human trafficking who is targeted by traffickers how as human trafficking impact schools identifying factors like who's being targeted um vulnerability and Recruitment and it was really you know it's not just in the big cities it's it's subtle things that happen in all of our communities we also talked about drug trafficking um how we address the issue and who to contact if you suspect or you know of confirmed human trafficking and um and we're victims can get help so I also have um I I've received a human trafficking prevention education program that's adaptable to different grades and I would be um you know I can get that to you there's anybody that's interested and just kind of you know bringing that into your your awareness because there's there's youth who fall into that and and sometimes you don't know it so this helps you learn what to look for also went to the grand opening of the my club team Center which is such an amazing thing for this community um I they have like a music area where kids can get on stage and play music they have full table and um they have computer games they have a little culinary department they also have a room where kids can work on homework or fill out college applications or technical school applications and it is such a great place right across the street from this high school where teens can go and they have a place to be after school they have a place where everybody's included and they can um have do fun things with with other kids and it's a really great place so that was amazing and then last um but not least I just want to address I want to thank Brian for I guess you got me the textbook I was just thinking the other day what are our kids learning in school I would love to see some of the textbooks from the high school so I've got a homework and um I'll be going through that and um just uh love to to also get into the schools you'll be seeing me so please feel free to approach me about anything and um if you want any information and the things I talked about I'd love to talk to you thank you Jennifer mark um I will take long um just wanted to thank everyone that came up and spoke it's not easy to get up on the microphone and um speak how you really feel about a situation and um in a society we're having an open mic platform to speak your opinion is really valued that it's vilified and attacked I just want to say we always appreciate the community coming out the employees coming out and talking and saying how you feel it gives us a an idea of how the district is being perceived how things are going and how things are looking for me opposite end so um just wanted to say that um I I hope you all understand that you're all greatly appreciated for everything that you do and just to reiterate Miss row said here is that it's not an US versus you situation going on here we are all in this together there's nothing on this end of the table that's gaining anything by holding anything back um and I'm confident that the administration and the um the team is going to come to a confusion that's best for everyone together so thank you everyone for coming and come more and if you want to learn more about the financials of it you know you can um get some coffee and some red bulls and stay through the whole thing and get all the more details but um thank you all everyone for being here and um I know we'll have some things you know leave it there thank you thank you Mark I am like Mark and not going to keep it short yes is it more print it's in secret code PC pictures um I spent this morning uh at the auto shop with Kent Lincoln and 2 representatives from the CTE ROP class or a Fresno where we are working on uh renewing a 3-year contract so my shop can be a community classroom where where can students who meet the requirements can spend their class time in a realworld shop setting to see if it's something they might want to do and and during that meeting I was very pleased to hear that Miss uh Danielle Sims is now a full row teacher and uh so we are celebrating uh our students culinary uh skills so by all means don't insult the chefs and uh let's finish all of the food tonight or take it home um and yes we will be having regular treats at the meetings because many of us up here or all of us up here work and are very busy and like I ran literally from the shop still dirty and stinky and definitely needed some stack snacks to keep from being hangry good evening everyone my glasses here even printed big I still have trouble good evening everyone thank you all for showing up tonight I'm going to be honest this meeting every year during negotiations is the most difficult for me personally I was voluntold by my peers of parents and teachers to run for School Board because of my long history of caring and doing for others I take my duties as board president very serious this being a small community and having so many connections it's unavoidable for it to not be personal the beginning of my term on board since the beginning of my term on board I have done my very best to ensure my dear friends and fellow community members that work for our district are taken care of to the very best of our abilities recently I've been asked questions from teachers and staff they are good question questions and I think the answer should be all out first question is is the budget available and by all means it is public knowledge and then they say how do I get it I don't know buried somewhere and then I recommend that they attend some board workshops as a local business owner of 2 companies my wife and I built from scratch I am well-versed in budgets when I was a new board member the budget was the very first document I reviewed as a representative of the people it is my duty to hear the people concerns hear their concerns and investigate them so I dug in deep to the budget and wow that thing is immense Brian and Charlie in a test to the many questions I have I spent many many hours in budget meetings learning the more I learned the more questions I had at this point I can confidently say I am well-versed and did even more investigation into the budget I took my knowledge in questions to mix sauce that's Madera County Superintendent of Schools I have spoken in depth with Marisol she oversees all of Madera County School budgets the overwhelming consensus that makes us is that Charlotte is by far the greatest Chief business officer in all of Dara County I Brooke Allen Board of Trustees president representative of the people for our school district I have no doubt that the a final agreed upon negotiation will be the very best possible it is my responsibility to keep thick mat out of our district I'm sure some of you were here or some of you here remember the cuts made by thick mat before I was on board it Matt's decisions are never fun we have a neighboring District going through it now and I surely don't envy them nor do I want to be responsible for going into fiscal insolvency on my watch my duty is to you all here tonight I keep care deeply for all involved and want only the best that we can provide the financial deaf uh deficiency from the state is far above my elected seat and I implore you all to urge CTA to pressure the state to fund our education systems in a manner consistent with Rising costs just run recent example of this is fb88 which requires that our White Fleet have inspections done at a private shop at additional costs to our district without additional funding has done his due diligence and found the best price in town to perform these inspections but still it is a a un unfunded costs as Tony said this waiver is old and antiquated however I don't disagree with paying our teachers more and more these are my best friends and dear neighbors and community members however the state continues the jam regulations down our throats that we have zero cause to correct that we must pay for CTA is a very very powerful Union and it is all time for that CTA to flex their power and demand with the state fund our schools correctly because we are doing everything we can to stay fiscally solvent I'm truly sorry that we have to have these meetings because I want to give you guys all the money we have I do my very best to support us and I care for you all you guys are amazing the momentum we have is awesome when I visited the schools multiple teachers 20 plus year teachers all said the same thing that's the first day of school yet let's keep this up and let's continue to fight to get you guys the money that you deserve and we know where to do it CTA has the power urge them and push them go get the money where where it's handed out I appreciate you guys very much thank you yeah yeah yeah totally next is the consent agenda which I have to abstain from this vote because uh the best deal on the White Fleet uh inspections in town just happen to be uh our bid at our shop so I cannot vote can I get a motion to approve motion approve and a second second all in favor thank you guys for coming in I really appreciate you all mean you a quick second for my wife to take a photo yes yes absolutely I'm sorry I got carried away just 30 seconds I got carried away Gathering here just make sure security is between last on the agenda yeah so oh really good you sit closer game on game on all right back to we gave them the seats right I just want to point that out they asked us why do you sit back here and we we said we're going to give you front row that's right well played back to a I believe who had the uh motion to approve the consent agenda then we can do we go through it you guys already recorded okay bunch of stuff happened and I got lost good for me moving on to discussion items first reading and consideration of revised board policies we have a we have any uh public comment no all right very good and it's just yeah so this is just as we typically bring to the board we bring a first reading 1 month and if you can view it for a month you have any questions concerns want to make changes let me know um and then we'll bring it back next month for a second reading but we have these these policies on uniform complaint procedures budget non-discrimination and employment employee use of Technology sexual harassment and um a on board training so you take a look at those for a month and they'll be back next month very good back action items a a 7 ah oh there we go put my glasses on I can see better 7 a public hearing sufficiency of instructional materials yeah Dr boury of course doubled out public hearing thank you good evening Board of Trustees superintendent Beck I'm here today as I've done the last 3 years this is my fourth year I'm bringing to the um sufficiency materials and this is for poor education code 601 9 the governing board of a school district shall hold a public hearing to make the determination through a resolution as to whether each pupil and each in each School in the school district has sufficient textbook or instructional materials or both that aligned to the content standards they're consistent with the framework and by um the framework adopted by the state board we're looking at math science Social Science History English language arts and ELD and this meeting shall take place uh within 8 weeks so this is a synopsis of kind of what's you know in the the more packet so this hearing is for any public kind of comment on our instructional materials I don't I don't think there is any public comment but it is it is a requirement that we hold a public hearing and anyone can comment on that and we have our expert uh Jennifer Rogers who will be looking had all the textbooks anyway so all right very good no comment we closed it closed hearing thank you very much Jarred or Dr by uh action items a a approval of resolution of 2526 sufficiency of instructional materials Dr by so again I'm back so we have a yeah so hmh is still our district adopted curriculum which the board adopted years ago that is still our adopted curriculum um and what it's saying in terms of the legalities that saying if no material changes are made based uh on the public hearing which was just held Administration is requiring approval of the attached resolution regarding the sufficiency of instructional materials I'm asking for approval any questions move to approve second second all in favor thank you thank you doctor action item 8B second reading and approval of revised board policies so these policies that are here for approval came to you last month for our first reading and um this will help us stay compliant and all of our policies and regulations be up to date and up to par so we would just ask for the board's approval of these several policies move to approve the revised smart policies second reading second second all in favor moving forward to action items 8C ratification of memorandum of understanding with Dara County Sheriff's Office for school resource Deputy uh program partnership so as the board's aware we entered into an agreement with Madera County Behavioral Health to fund a um school resource Deputy for the next 3 years um this could potentially add up to $900,000 um over the next 3 years and so I've actually already signed this mou I believe Sheriff Pogue has 2 um and it may have gone to the County Board of Supervisors yet but it requires our board to approve and the County Board to approve to make this memorandum of understanding official and by the way our school resource Deputy I believe has has already started so I would hope you would approve this she outstanding anybody anybody have any questions or disagreements with additional safety and right so we get a motion moved and a second second all in favor can I just make a final comment on that like you know this is another example Tony maybe you can take this back to you know your teachers and that kind of thing but we heard teachers when we lost our school resource deputy and we knew it was a concern and we heard from everybody and we we went to work really really hard to make sure that we were able to get this back in place and this is the end result of many many months of negotiating and calling and asking for help and and trying to make sure that we got this done unfortunately Madera County Behavioral Health was able to step up and provide the funding and the Madera County Sheriff's Office was able to say yes we want to support you so I'm just proud of that um 3-way partnership there to support our kids and I hope that our teachers understand that when they speak we hear them and we do take action the best that we can I'm going to piggy back on that a little bit and say how impressed I am with uh administrations uh creative ability to find all kinds of funds that are making our school better so thank you guys for working so hard I know it's a finding money is difficult and and there's a lot of work that doesn't necessarily get fruits but you guys are clearly being very effective uh action item 8 D approval of the 2024 25 on audited actuals good evening so I'm going to present on audited actuals we went over this at our budget advisory committee meeting last week um or actually earlier this week on Monday seems like it was a week ago and we went a little bit more in depth so I'm going to kind of go through this quick um so un audited actuals this is gonna work it powers on the side oh there it goes okay um so per Ed code the governing board of each School District shall approve an annual statement of all receipts and expenditures for districts so what you're going to see here is the numbers that are shown in the financial reports that were attached I think it's about 160 pages is a snapshot in time as of June 30th 2025 so everything we're talking about is for last year 2425 year it's very jumpy okay um so once unaudited actuals is completed and approved by the school board then what I can do is have our beginning balances rolled over in our financial system and then that kind of starts the new budget year when we bring you an adopted budget what that is is it's on your estimated actuals of what we need probably in like may even up to Mid June as we're getting that budget together now now once we close everything and we see what actually happened and if everything went as planned and we received everything we should now we're closing out that year so the work to update the current 2526 budget is going to be completed addressing both reduced and increased balances realized during closing the books and all of these changes are going to be reflected at our first interim reporting which first interim is going to take our adopted budget and compare it to where we are as of October 31st so the general fund which is our fund 01 this is a snapshot of the unrestricted and restricted Revenue as of that June 30th bringing us in at just shy of 30 10 in Revenue this is a little graph that shows you the unrestricted and restricted dollars all of those in the general fund and you can see there that's um about 62% of the overall funding is that lcff funding we kind of focus on which is that state calculation but when we go and we look at what is just unrestricted and doesn't have as many um strings attached you can see that that's why we focus on that is we're at about 92% of our unrestricted dollars is specifically to that lcfs funding then if we look at our expenditures for last year and looking at unrestricted unrestricted our um spending here you can see is that about 30 34 million and then once we add in the transfer that we put 2 Funds 25 um for our cop payment that brings us in that we're just under 4 million that we had in expenditures so you can see that we are deficit spending now some of that was planned because we had talked about how we didn't get the school buses until after in July so then we had that expense so that's why you'll see some of that fluctuation and sometimes why you see some of that deficit spending so when we're looking at our expenditures this is how it breaks down in our unrestricted and restricted dollars and you can see that employee costs if we're looking at our overall all funds even the restricted dollars that's um over 55 % is all employee costs and then when we go to our unrestricted dollars we are using 75% of those dollars to pay employee costs salaries and benefits leaving about 6 million dollars we're also paying with those restricted dollars so 1 of the things that we always want to see is where do we land so this is just a snapshot and you can see here um what we always want to see I highlighted down there is what is the difference in the ending balance so you'll see where we had our estimated actuals in the First Column and I've separated them by unrestricted and restricted dollars that's what we were using as where we thought we would we would end when we created the adopted budget and then the UN audited actuals is where we've landed prior to our audit so we are going through our audit for 2425 year so as long as we don't have any fiscal findings this is where we would planned and that is you can see there that we're about 1.4 million dollars ahead in the unrestricted and about 556,000 on the restricted but there are reasons for that of course this slide here is showing that so what is that increase um to the ending fund balance there is about 831,000 increase to the unrestricted Revenue 300 there is about dollars in savings from unrestricted expenses that we did not have and about a 277,000 reduction in the contributions that we made where we expected that we may need to to use our general fund money to contribute to like a restricted Source or say to the fund 13 or fund 25 for our cop payment um and so the increase in Revenue there's some material changes that included a true up for e-rate so e-rate is a mechanism where we can get a discount on things that are for technology 1 of those things is our Internet it's an 8020 split so we pay 20% and ate picks up 80% and so we don't really see that and we get that discount we don't get an invoice for that but on the books we have to show that at the end of the year so I have to true that up and I have to show that we actually received Revenue in our books for that so we do an expense and um an increase in your Revenue so that's where you're going to see an increase in when we're looking at the revenue went up um we have some interest that we received from the County Treasury and that is into the tune of over $300,000 this year and 1 of the things that I now I'm going to have to go back and look at is if that came from any federal money that we had and the interest was on that Federal money there is a cap that you can keep the interest and you have to return the rest of the interest so I'll be truing that up and that will be at first interim of if we need to return any of those funds so we can't take that as money that we can just spend right now um we had a lot of federal funding with all of the coid funds and so that also increased um some of probably some of that interest we also um had some facility use money that came in that was not planned for we had the Forest Reserve money we've talked about some of the federal cuts and so we did not think that we were going to get the Forest Reserve funding we also usually don't budget for that because we don't know what it's going to be and we actually did get some money there so so that's great we will take every bit that we can get um I build for our Western Sierra Charter the end of the year we look at what Athletics the students there participated in and what classes they attended and so I did the calculation and I build them for their students time here and we had some um 1-time funds that are reimbursement from mixed sauce and so we fronted that cost and we got that money back so all of those little things that we set up as receivables if it had happened before June 30 are now considered in revenue for last year we also had some Savings in unrestricted expenditures um there's some expenditures that maybe didn't happen they weren't able to do the what they had and for that money by June 30th so that's where you're going to have that in the ending balance but you may have that also that Associated expense needs to be added to the 2526 budget and we're working through those now to be updating that for first and trim the cleanup at endear if there if I am closing out a restricted um funding source and there is something that I can charge to that restricted funding source that we paid for out of unrestricted I'm always trying going to use that first first of all sometimes we will either lose have to return or not get that funding if we don't spend it in certain timelines um also just because we should spend our restricted dollars first because our unrestricted dollars are help because of of that cushion for our um Reserve the reduction and contributions a portion of that is um in sped we had a certain contribution that was budgeted but there is a thing called called excess costs and so sometimes there's things that we do that we can turn into the sofa and we can get a little bit of reimbursement we never know exactly what that percentage is going to be or the amounts so we don't Bank on that and then come up less we wait and once we have that calculation I set up a receivable and so it shows that income and then I don't have to take as much maybe from the general fund to to sped and yeah and clean up just um charging some costs to restricted did when allowable that that's something that definitely helps our ending balance on the unrestricted side so some notes that I had here are again we are still being audited for 24 25 we're working through that mostly offsite I just did schedule our Auditors are going to come up for 1 day on site um and now that when we once I get this approved um then they also will want to see all of this documentation and then we really dig into some of the financials right now we've been working on a lot of attendance um with the auditors the UN audited actuals reflects an increase in the ending fund balance which is always good it would definitely be not great if we saw it go down and and decrease the beginning balances are going to be rolled over after board approves this and then we'll be start working on first interim and updating everything and so again while that is a nice little chunk of money we have to remember anything that is the ending balance and is that is a 1-time thing that's not that oh well we're going to end up with that every year so we have to make sure that we don't don't treat it like ongoing ongoing Revenue so this slide we we always have the documents um in the board packet but these are all of the other funds that we have obviously they are not 30 million dollars and we don't have a ton of money going through these accounts but I wanted to just give you guys a brief overview um that you you can see kind of the beginning balance revenues and transfers in and then those expenses out 1 thing that has really I've seen an increase and this is going to be coming to you um next month is the developer fees go into fund 25 which is that Capital facilities fund and so you can see we started out with 76,000 and we are ending at 207,000 and the reason for that is that we the board approved the developer fee increase and setting that level 2 fees and we also started collecting for some of the um growth in the construction up here in in the Bass Lake area and so with 1 1 item was the second phase of the apartments up here we received about 96,000 for that into our developer fees I've also seen an increase just because we went from like 2 dollars and something to 5 dollars in core gold so any of that new building we're getting a little bit more in that so we're going to have to watch those Trends and kind of see how Construction goes cuz I've seen it go up and down over the last couple of years but I don't expect it's going to go down with those new those increases we're seeing that there we also will be able to not contribute as much from the general fund towards that if we have more money coming into that fund so that would then be a savings we would see in our general fund so with that um the beginning balances will be rolled and we'll continue to work with the Auditors and then that audit report will be done by December 15th and we expect it to come to the board in January of 26 we're going to prepare the first interim recording um and that will be also presented at the December 25th meeting also will terrible tell you your projections and kind of see where this leaves us and work collaboratively with our labor unions staff and Community to finalize any spending plans for remaining or any new funds and then identify areas to reduce in future when 1 time funds or temporary allocations are exhausted so it's just like that continuous cycle that we're going through but with this um I'm going to ask for your approval for un audited actuals so I can send that to the county any questions or comments yes sir Charlotte on the rolling of the balances in for the um to update your 2526 budget your 2526 budget right now just chose a huge negative balance right because there's like literally no beginning balance in there until you do this next formal so it's got a budgeted starting balance which was our estimated actuals so you've got budget and then you've got your actuals so when we want a budget report you'll see but like what's budgeted and usually that's nice and and balanced and then you have your actuals and so once we do that then we'll we'll be able to look at that and some of them I have tried to update kind of as I went but other it it may be hey we had a $1,000 difference because we didn't you know a purchase order didn't get used and so now I'm going to work with the sights and the departments on those specific resources if they have money that rolled over that's restricted from the prior year then we'll talk about where that's going to be budgeted and that expense will offset that any other comments or questions Mouse and to approve motion to approve second all in favor great work Charlotte that's a ton of work sometimes I didn't see her for 3 or 4 days she was working on this thank you so much for guiding our financials and caring for them very very closely thank you item action item AF approval of resolution number 2025 2020 you did slippy that was the public comment oh yeah skewers wishful thinking yeah action AE approval of application for exemption from the required expenditure for a classroom salaries to Ed code 41 372 okay so in on audited actuals there's a form called cea you'll see that in the table of contents and in that big huge packet it's um it stands for the current expense formula minimum classroom compensations included in this calculation are the salaries and benefits within the general fund of teachers and classroom classified staff measured against the general fund total um total expenditures of the district so this this application for a waiver is to address that yusd did not meet the unified rate of 55% it's different for ele's and for high school districts were right in the middle at 55% this percentage in Ed code was set almost a century ago and we're H and we're here today to request approval to submit a waiver to Madera County Superintendent of Schools um because complying with this outdated law would cause serious financial and operational hardship this is not a problem that is unique to our district many districts across California including neighboring districts in Madera County are all facing the same issue the number of districts applying for the waiver is a increasing year after year and Rural schools like ours are reported to have the most difficulty meeting this outdated metric the law simply stated does not account for the modern needs of our students and the Strategic spending that is now essential for Quality education our district spending decisions were made to Prior prior advertise those direct teacher compensation and the vital support systems such as counselors mental health professionals technology and many other initiatives that occur in the school and the modern day which enable effective teaching and support the whole child ultimately our budgeting decisions were made with staff and students well-being at the Forefront but not to adhere to an Antiquated formula our spending is fiscally sound and serves the best interests of our community and I respectfully request your consideration and approval to submit this application for a waiver that will go to the superintendent of schools for Madera County some questions so just clarifying question this waiver is just we are approving the submittal of the waiver correct and this waiver is going to go through an approval process to prove that to accept the or to not receive the waiver is going to cost the financial hardship District team cannot be financially solvent correct correct I just wanted to clarify and it will go to the county office and the county office also oversees and I submit all of our budgets our interim reporting un audited actuals are audits all of that is overseen at the county level I move to approve the application for exemption second give the second to Jennifer Rogers all in favor I a approval of the resolution 2526 Dash 03 Gan appropriation limit this is also something that comes every year the Gann limit is a constitutional spending cap on State and local governments including school districts that was enacted by California voters in 1979 through top 4 the Gann limit restricts how much government entities can spend from the proceeds of taxes it caps annual spending at the prior Year's level adjusted for a formula that accounts for changes in population and inflation the goal of this limit is to prevent government spending from growing faster than the Public's ability to pay for it the resolution is the official document that memorializes these calculations and ensures the district is operating within legal constraints set by the state constitution so I'm asking for approval adoption of this resolution question to comments motion to approve second second all in favor Danielle thank you again that was so amazing I you're welcome appreciate all the snacks sandwich totally helped totally helped soften hearts and and fill bellies nothing Breeze Community closer together than not with food so that was a good idea on your part the people aren't ready to I know right has my name on it I think I care that has your name on it 5 year olds all day that herd immunity exactly all right where are we at 8 G right am I on we get okay a approval of resolution 252604 regarding the education protection account so 1 more resolution for you guys tonight this 1 is the EPA account which the educational protection account this is um comes from prop 30 that was the schools and local public safety Act of 2012 it was approved by voters on November 6th 2012 and at temporarily increases state taxes um for all taxpayers for the personal income tax for upper income taxpayers the new revenues that were generated ated from prop 30 or deposited into this account and school districts County Office of Ed and Charter Schools received funds from EPA based on their proportionate share which kind of there's a whole formula and it's part of the calculation for local control mean formula so when we talk about lcfs this is 1 of the components that makes up our lcff funding and you're also going to start hearing about this because it's about ready to expire so they're going to be wanting voters to continue um prop 30 provides all k14 local educational agencies the authority to determine how the funds received from EPA are spent with the following provisions um a spending plan must be approved by the governing board at a public meeting EPA funds cannot be used for the salaries or benefits of Administrators or other administrative costs EPA funds must be spent per the specified tax functions which is part of our accounting coding and each year the Lea must publish on its website in accounting of how much money was received and how the funds were expended so with this the funding plan that we have is to spend every dollar of these funds on teacher salaries and that is what we did last year and we also spent every dollar of the 1,567 789 that we received on teacher salaries and these reports are all on our website so I'm asking for adoption of this resolution questions all can I get a motion I move to approve resolution 2025264 regarding the education protection account thank you Andy second from Jennifer Rogers and uh all in favor all right thank you very much appreciate you action item 88 approval of the contract with non-public school creative awl alternatives for individual education plan placement of special education students yeah I remember Beth Kirkley right special ed director oh yeah do you think the best for last doing a phenomenal job thank you good evening members of the board this contract is for a student placed at a non-public school called creative Alternatives it's in Fresno County uh Fresno California and it was a part of an IEP team decision um it also includes transportation and and uh a pair of professional staff by the MPS part of the iup unit and our hope is to bring the student back uh to the school district when the student is able to be in a less restrictive environment any questions questions oh what year's greatest the student are we allowed to ask that or um first grade first grade okay thank you motion to approve I move to approve second second all in favor all right moving on to information items 9A District enrollment report yes just informational but um you have in your board packet it shows that from the same time last year to now which was about 2 3 weeks ago we are down uh 27 students however Mindy reported tonight oh she's confirming because okay because she confirmed there were about 25 more students than was reported about a few weeks ago so if that's the case we would only be down to students instead of 27 so that's a that's a good Trend but sometimes you know the counts at the very beginning of the year aren't very accurate either kids haven't come yet or work or sometimes we're counting students that are never going to show up and we're going to drop them so as we get you know 2 3 months into the school year we'll start to see really what our enrollment is but um again down 27 but if those numbers are accurate that brings us up to almost level that would be great news outstanding how about that uh discipline report so discipline report I believe we have 2 more incidents at this time last this year as we did last year yeah that's the case um but fewer fewer days of suspension but more student so this year we're at 9 incidents and last year at the same time we were at 7 incidents those are still pretty low numbers very good thank you Brian uh 10 a closing items uh the next board meeting is Thursday October October 9th at 6:30 p.m. at the the City Unified School Board I hope to see you all there again and uh can we get a motion to adjourn so move in a all in favor all right hold on I love your voice I'm sorry that's okay and I I wanted