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Special Board Meeting 03-04-25

Added Mar 06, 2025 •

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I can buy Mr Guerrero all this in papers say I I I public recognition members of the audience items on the agenda so if you have a public comment on an item on the agenda now would be the time to either submit your speaker card to the superintendent executive assistant or if you're on Zoom to raise your Zoom hand and I also realized that we don't have this portion for our labor Partners so if you want to just speak at the at the end of public comment and we we can recognize you that that's fine we'll just let's just have everyone speak and then since we don't want to time you we'll just have you guys go in the end of course we have yeah I believe comments do we have how many cards do we have we have 1 9 in prison and we have 4 on Zoom so far 4 on Zoom yes okay um 4 on Zoom yes and we have no other comments or nobody cards in the in the audience let's see 2 minutes 2 minutes a piece let's close public comments now um and we will start with calling members who are here in person at 2 minutes a piece pull this up and just run the timer to 2 minutes oops okay first is uh before we start here just so everyone knows in order to make sure everyone gets equal time uh and is treated fairly we have these time cards here and when those tired you'll hear some music uh it's nothing personal to anyone this is just a process to make sure everyone gets uh it gets the chance to be heard in a in an equal and fair fashion so uh with it my that in mind we will now start with Melissa Abramson good evening my name is Melissa Abramson and I'm a ccusd Alum call for City Middle School parent and I'm the College and Career specialist at the Culver City High School I know that most of the people here in this room and on Zoom understand that cuts need to be made however the majority of the positions on these lists are ones that work directly with our student body across all of our sites we have always been told that the cuts need to happen they will happen farthest from the classrooms this is not the case this year working in the College and Career Center I work with all of our grade levels at cchs and all of our populations I have made it a point to make sure that all of our populations are included in the work that I do whether it is seniors applying for Community College getting access to scholarship information attending presentations and field trips or enrolling in dual enrollment classes I am ensuring that they are present and participating without this role all of the work will be spread thin among other staff members who do not have the time or the capacity to give it the attention it deserves the students won't have the support they deserve moving forward they're counting on us and we are failing them by the cuts my position isn't just a job it is an investment in their Futures and it feels as though it is being thrown away for the sake of budgetary Cirque convenience thank you thank you next uh we have just so we know who's next in line we have David Morales followed by Jessica alers and D Montalvo good evening everyone my name is Dr David Morales and I am 1 of the site-based instructional leads at Linwood e Howe dear school board members you chose to run this is your role as a school board member and I respect that but own it please stop reminding us of the sacrifices you make to be here last week myself included were literally begging for our jobs like dogs begging for food and attention ultimately I know that people will most likely lose their positions regardless but here we are again in my 25 years of teaching experiences I have faced these economic downturns before in my career positions eliminated service is gone teachers making do with less and still surviving and sometimes even thriving through these circumstances but this is different What alternative Cuts did you look at did you do you have a plan for alternative Revenue sources what is your plan B your plan C how are you thinking outside the proverb box let me let me remind you and the Culver City Community watching tonight that we are at a financial cliff because of the actions of past and current board members there were warning before but our concerns were ignored so some of you sitting here bear the responsibility of these actions tonight and finally let me remind the community again that it is the students who lose out on their education thank you just a calibers good evening I am personally not here tonight to try to save these unfortunately the time to do that has been years in the making we're in a position where teachers staff students and parents are paying for the negligence of people who for the most part are not in this room today but in the interest of the public understanding how we can out here I'd like to try to highlight some of the decisions that were made that contribute to the loss of these jobs I am not the district accountant do not hold me accountable to these numbers but by all means if I'm wrong I would like to be wrong on this so what I've ract is the spending that has gotten us here is 450,000 for attendance mailers 400,000 fine for exceeding TK enrollment 240,000 in Lost reimbursement for meals that may have been corrected 1.2 million contract with new plus the subsequent legal fees using 1 type Co funds for recurring expenses a million-dollar fine for too many days off during coid then hiring a Lobby lobbyists to get that money back for a conference in Napa hiring an assistant superintendent of Dei in congruous with other districts who have a director coordinators over half a million dollars in payouts for prior administrators who many think could have been fired for claws 300,000 dollars for water pipe malfunction there are more these mistakes were avoidable by and large we could have saved these month save this money save these jobs helped our children but we're not we can't undo the past but all I ask is that we learn from this the board challenge each other challenge each other in public let us know that you're talking to each other you're willing to disagree with each other and no more Code of Silence that has been carried on from the passports listen to see back listen to your oversight committees put your personal agendas aside and for the public pay attention before it gets to this point be engaged vote hold the board accountable our students will be suffering for this there's no question our only choice now is how to avoid it in the future thank you Okay so uh next on our list we're going to have Ashley Hall rayong or are you still you're going okay all right oh D yes you're next where did you end up there in the wrong pile there thank you thank you Stephanie hi I'm Dean montillo I teach at the middle school um I'm also on the Labor Management partnership and um I work with middle schoolers all day so I apologize if my notes are not perfect I was still tutoring after school while I was trying to scribble some things and my eighth grader asked me like oh what are you doing I was like well I want to go and fight for our teachers and another student at 6 years oh it's walking to Fair get this morning I saw a whole bunch of teachers holding signs wearing red what was that about so then just little mini conversations like that and I said um I have to come tonight I was there last Tuesday I didn't speak there were enough speakers but um board member Carlson also inspired me because she said we need to hear some personal um experiences and narratives so here's mine um my eighth grader said that I need to have ethos pathos and logos and I only have pathos those of you who know me I only have pathos tonight um and um Mr Rogers said the value who care about the deepest and the movements within society that support those values command our love when those things that we care about so deeply become in danger we come and enrage and what a healthy thing that is without it we would never stand up and speak out for what we believe these it people these social studies teachers Math teachers counselors nurses it's not 1 day where I haven't called on them or they haven't supported my students so I'm missing out on fifth grade night tonight at the middle school and it's like a really wonderful event you see hundreds of web leaders and red shirts red uh shirts um supporting our school and that's what these cats are these are people who support our schools so please please please consider that things thank you next is Ashley Hall followed by Stephanie Flores Dave milky and Kenneth Kaya good evening board members and District Personnel my name is Ashley Hall and I am an instructional site-based lead at Lin Howe Elementary School I'm here today to highlight a critical impact of our sport staff at Lin Hao and the need of their roles in supporting Student Success over the years these Educators have led intervention programs coach teachers facilitated student supports and ensured Equitable learning across opportunities for all their efforts have directly contributed to the rising student achievement as seen in our Aspen I ready data now we are facing a major challenge the elimination of this support staff means key responsibilities including intervention acceleration teacher coaching and student assessment differentiation uh tracking with with with a little fall on already overwhelmed classroom staff differentiation is not enough who will ensure struggling students get the support that they need this concern is even more urgent with the 2023 budget act which mandate that beginning in school year 2526 all students in kindergarten through second grade must be screened for reading difficulties early identification is essential but without instructional leads who will manage these assessments track interventions and guide families through the process at what point will we meet to come up with Solutions cutting jobs are not a solution if we are committed to equity excellence and opportunity we must find a way to stay in the support structures that help our student Thrive the future of our children's success depends on it thank you Stephanie Flores hi thanks for being here thanks to all of you for being here um this is my seventh year teaching uh I was pink slipped my first 5 years so I've been on the side of the cuts based on enrollment Etc budget cuts all of that but I just want to give you a glimpse into 1 tiny aspect of what our lead positions do over at Lynn how in order for the district to reach their intended goals of supporting all students and meeting needs of all of our Learners Lynn how wants to reiterate the importance and significance of our site lead positions they along with our instructional aides not only provide supports to our students and teachers they help you the district meet our benchmarks and our goals our leads at our school currently have assisted and supported all 93 out of 9 3 fifth graders at our school um along with the other grades but I just wanted to make it clear like a 100% of our students in fifth grade benefit from this our day today without Miss Hall and Dr Morales will negatively impact all of our students at our school these positions specifically at linow allow us as a fifth grade team to create level-based math groups um in order to reach all students at all levels so approaching below eighty and above grade level um they help us create leveled groups that meet our high achieving students as well as the students that need intervention this has been something that the grade level set out to do along with our principal and our admin and our teach teaching leads and their support has allowed us to be successful and we have seen success in our students because of this they have helped us truly meet the needs of all Learners not just those below grade level if this support is taken away parents will be wondering why the supports are no longer present and students are no longer being challenged teachers will try to support them in this but again we need the extra support that they've given us we want to help all students reach their full potential thank you thank you David good evening David mey I live just down the street I rode my bike and went to City Hall so Ray said I told you but I don't listen to Ray all the time but good to be this is like old times for me um I've been in the district since 1979 I've been through a number of these this is not the first time and probably not the last um couple things have changed since then uh there's been management classification inflation for most of my time here the assistant superintendents were directors at some point we decided they need to be assistant superintendent and at that time very few small districts are size had assistant superintendents and you know their salary can top out at about 220,000 probably about 3 times what the average teacher makes I don't know if we want to keep that Gap uh increasing and then another thing that I have the song I've sung for many years and no 1 has ever listened to but Tristan I'm hoping as the president you'll listen to this I think it's important to take thank you how many employees need to work 12 months most of our students are here 10 months I work 10 months most teachers work 10 months we have a few small summer programs but we've got between 30 and 40 administrators who are working 12 months I have never understood what they do on July 17th or on August first um and thank you if and the minimum salary for our administrators is over 000 so even if we had 40 who are working 12 months and you cut it in half to 20 who worked 12 months that's 250,000 you can save and so you can in fact think outside the box and make Cuts away from our thank my agent sorry Kenneth Kaya testing good evening members of the board superintendent Lucas assistant superintendent I'm Kenneth Kaia the English social studies teacher at Culver Park High School I'm here to address the cuts in the informational technology department specifically School site technology staff we have in the audience Amy Jimmy and Alan they provide excellent customer purpose to the cover Park staff to get the job done please look at other areas of the budget to cut not School site text staff support thank you we now move to online uh in this order what I have uh Rachel I do not have a last name Melissa Sanders and then Eric Ruden Rachel go ahead hi um can you hear me um my name is Rachel Snider I'm a teacher at University High School I began uh here in 1994 and I'd like to take a moment to speak in regard to the very last minute addition of uh Dr Kelly tarves position as director of state and federal programs um being cut uh this was a position that neither the union or cbac had recommended being cat and um very uh I'm just curious as to who's going to do these jobs that require you know involving compliance Kelly is a product of Culver City ified School District she grew up in Culver City went to all the Culver City schools and then came to work at Culver City High School she's held uh technology positions she's been assistant principal of discipline assistant principal of uh guidance and curriculum and um she knows our district very well 2 years ago when um we were without a principal uh Kelly kept the high school functioning um and almost all teachers recognize that it would be very nice to see that this position is removed from this list and that you give someone who has the longtime knowledge of this district and can contribute to This n knowledge at the district office keep that position thank you thank you Melissa Sanders and then Eric Ruden and Sarah Goldman good evening um there are 3 of you on that day is that have contributed a lot of legal fees because of what you decided to not do there is also somebody sitting there next to our superintendent dependent who should be removed and who's just over $200,000 salary could be better spent Aloha Baxter should be on this list her title should be demoted but she herself should be removed from the this District she chose very very willfully to be complicit in the new Earth debacle she chose to collude she chose to cover up she did not put this District first so there are at least 4 people sitting there that have probably cost a couple hundred thousand dollars in legal fees and you're sitting there with more to come that's 1 thing you could stop doing also look at things like like the email newsletter which I bet whenever it people would happily take on over your PR people who  let's be honest the fact that there are still so many student facing positions and that the district office is barely noted after even the Auditors have repeatedly said the district office is too heavy is ridiculous I'm very disappointed that we got and Paula out of here finally and here we are you are still making choices that are very disappointing yes you can blame Kelly for her 10 years of Destruction but Tristan Stephanie and Brian you went along with a lot of the stuff the past couple of years and you could have saved this District Millions you are also complicit in this horrible situation thank you uh Eric Ruden can you hear me yes okay sorry about that uh good evening everyone uh first I want to say that I hope that the people who have raised their hands on Zoom whose names were not read will be allowed to speak I find it absolutely ridiculous that if someone doesn't push the zoom hand right away that they're not allowed to speak especially with something that's important uh I also want to note that hundreds of people have shown up to school board meetings because of this school board's decisions you have people who have shown uh begging for their jobs begging for the jobs of the people who they work with and they're played off by like Academy Award music it the Optics of this could not be worse it is way past time for this school board to be working with our unions and working with our parents the decisions made by this school board for far too long are made because of personal agendas and political Ambitions that time has to be over we are sick of it get together with Ray long Debbie hammy get together with a couple of parents from each School site and redo this list this list is unacceptable we were just told that school safety is an issue at our school we need more staff on site not less this is just unacceptable and is continuing year after year after year elections don't happen soon enough please do write by our students that should not be something that's hard to do do right by our students do right by the people who work and help them that's all I'm asking please do this thank you thank you uh Sarah Goldman is next followed by Sarah peruse Katherine Grasso and then row herado I will finish off the list good evening everyone can you hear me okay yes thanks um my name is Sarah Goldman I'm the president of the fairgate PTA um I'm 10 years in the district and I've been a parent all uh well these 3 of the schools on Olinda um and I've been involved all over these schools um so I see the needs firsthand face to face with all of the students um I want to just let everyone know that DEA Dei is all around us we are constantly working on our diversity we're constantly including everything we possibly can so you know I I uh just I just want you to know that we don't need to have an executive of a function that is so deep within the Culver culture that we you know should use that money to you know find the adults the vital adults at these elementary schools um reducing staff removing adults from elementary campuses just is a recipe to increase discipline problems um and some schools are already suffering um I couldn't run an assembly for our almost 600 fargate students without Amy Shimmer There's No 1 else that would really be able to get this going I couldn't get give all of my kindergarten and TK tours to the dozens and dozens of Culver parents 2 times a week for months without Beverly O'Brien there is no 1 else free for like that hour and a half in the morning to really sell our school and get these new parents buying these fancy houses to come to our school and instead of go Charter or private or anything and so these problems just you know we're standing outside with our red shirts on this morning welcoming the kindergarten tours and here you know I we had to start the tour with kind of what's going on today and you know it was like either like get involved or you know pay for something else but it was a really interesting morning um so anyway and then I am a parent of the high school I think reducing the college counselor numbers is uh doing your high schoolers who went through a global pandemic through thank you um you know everything and so anyway we just time is expired I'm sorry thank you we just uh don't want to abandon them now okay thank you very much Sarah peruse hey can you hear me yes um sorry I I apologize for my voice I probably got something fun that my kids brought home with them from school my name is Sarah Perez and I have 2 students of farrait although I appreciate that this vote was delayed until today I am here to express my disappointment to see that from the 2 additional positions added onto the list again only 1 is that the management level the other 1 is a driver I just can't wrap my head around that since we are already short on bus drivers and are always having to book charter buses for field trips which we all know cost a lot we all know Cuts need to be made no 1 is saying otherwise however this list does not in any way portray that you are putting the students first moving forward I plead that you as a group make better financial decisions for such a small District we can do better and just as a side note last night there was a a Workshop where they brought in a speaker at El ring con but it it was a joint event with all the elementary sites they couldn't get the slides to work and show on the projector for the entire hour of the workshop just shows that some of these positions most of these positions that are so close to the classroom are definitely needed thank you thank you and I think that that was Katherine right that was Sarah okay Katherine grao hi good evening everybody I am Kathy Graco I am um a science teacher at the high school and tonight I am a CCF 2 union rep but tonight I'm not speaking for my union members I'm speaking simply for myself um I know it's a really difficult evening which is why I turned my camera on um and I know everyone there is taking this here seriously I believe that and I know Cuts will be made because they have to be made but I also know you're going to have time to reevaluate this after these cuts are made and I have some very serious concerns um I was shocked to see the compli the director of federal and state programs cut let me explain why this is a compliance position it's a position someone's always done in our district but it was made into a new position because we were out of compliance frequently and it it wasn't a new position it was a position someone else did it and then it was reinstated as a position and for people who are here when we're out of compliance it costs the district money a lot of money so that's a big concern to me I am part of cbac and the recommendation was to lower the position to a different classification which I support as a member of that committee uh but eliminating an entirely gives me great cause for concern especially because we are in the fiscal crisis we are in um I have some other positions I think are really very serious cuts that I think you should reconsider I think they're all very serious I can't imagine running a school without tech support I have to be honest with you and if there are Tech uh support they need to be at the sites not at the district office I think every cut is important I think every cut needs to be looked at um and I know this is a difficult decision I hope you'll listen to Mr milky who's been here longer than all of us and um I hope you will take into consideration what you hear tonight and then finally Rahul uh good evening everyone um so I'm here to speak about dual language immersion um I'm deeply concerned about the lack of a tosa for dual immersion especially with the high turnover in fifth grade and the elementary sites this position was unofficially cut as it was never really replaced yet the workload remains without a dedicated lead who will handle curriculum alignment teacher support professional development assessments and articulation as well as program continuity I previously warned Dr Baxter as well as other District administrators that eliminating this role without a clear plan would create significant gaps and we're now seeing the consequences of this especially in sixth grade since this decision was made without transparency at the administrative level the bulk of the work should now fall on current administrators not already overburdened teachers and so moving forward my question is who should I contact to send the tasks that need to be completed thank you complete the list uh well now here from Mr long and Miss hammy we can start with Mr long who's hasn't in the room and then we'll call you Mommy um so good evening and thank you um for letting me speak at the end here and I just want to say that I'm glad that the you know the board first of all call the special meeting um for 2 very important reasons um first when making any potential cuts to Personnel it's crucial a crucially important for all the 5 of the board members of Education to be present to hear comments from both the community and staff on how they feel about these cuts and to go on the record for a decision of this magnitude um you know I hope I understand you know we have schedules and I hope that in the future that we can work out schedules um that when we have an important meeting like this that we have full participation um so whatever we can do to work out schedules you know for important meetings that I think that's a must um budget cuts are never easy California schools as well as public schools in general are grossly underfunded and adding new streams of Revenue can be a challenge today the AFT along with the AFL CIO launched to protect our kids day to call attention to funding cuts across the nation we appreciate all those who wore red in support of funding schools at all levels federal state and local tonight you have to make a decision that I know none of you are taking lightly by approving these Cuts you're asking our staff to do more to serve our students many preliminary Cuts have a direct impact on teaching from losing a nurse and health staff site-based interventionists it texts teachers and more many will have an impact on our operations including compliance special education organization and general support to teachers and staff as this is a preliminary list I am hopeful that we can continue to push to restore for as many positions that directly impact students I asked the board to take a good look at our outside expenses including legal costs travel food m management benefits and PSA contracts those are the areas that need to be cut first as you'll be asking our staff to do more next year and I know tonight there's going to be a presentation that's going to allow the board and the public to see some of those additional Cuts as well which I think is very important for the board and the community and the staff to see the full picture that sometimes you just won't see in a board report so I appreciate that we are going to get a look at those other things that we're looking at as well too um as for our assistant superintendent of Dei which I also know is on the agenda as well um I'm going to say that we can still do Dei work in our district it's vital it's important that we do that EI work but we can do this without a title I know there was discussion uh that we don't want that work to have to fall onto parents um or unpaid staff and we need coordination and I hear that we need uh that coordination as 2 but as we're going to be asking many of our teachers interventionists texts and nurses to do more next year with less we need to assign those responsibilities to the ed services department to ensure that our Dei work continues in ccusd I think you know we never want to see anything cut I think that's you know really important that it's this is painful and tough for everyone um we also know the financial situation that the district is in there's there's no nobody that knows that I think better than me or a lot of you that are here right now this situation that we're in and you know you heard from a lot of members of the public different reasons you know why we're in this position um but I think you know as vital as that work is that for the time being you know we just need to assign it to ed services at this time um it's important work it has to be done um but we have a lot of important work that we're going to be asking a lot of our staff to do more but I definitely implore you that when we're looking at you know can we bring positions back to look at those uh that are student facing first and really the ones that are not staff which there's a lot of PSAs there are a lot of PSAs in this District a lot of these additional costs that we look at cutting that first um to keep these staff because we've heard from so many people tonight um how vital those positions are Miss Hammy good evening members of the board I'm happy to be here to speak to you for just a couple of minutes I am hoping that since our last meeting the board had an opportunity to take a close look at the cut list and ask some very probing questions of District administration about how these Cuts will affect our students and staff at the last board meeting I just how Illuminating the it positions at the elementary schools would immediately have a negative effect on our students because sites will have to wait days after a work order is submitted not minutes to receive service from the district technology department the district's rationale for eliminating the College and Career specialist 1 of only 2 guidance Tech positions and the secretary 2 position from the high school guidance office is that all of their work will now be done by the counselors these are the same counselors that have hundreds of students to work with and guide through 4 years of school and transitions to college and it is beyond comprehension that we consider adding more work to their plates as it is students have to sometimes wait for weeks to get an appointment to see their counselors is this the kind of chaos we want to bring about when we complete our bumping rights process tomorrow mark my words it will result in even more chaos throughout the district a staff morale sings to an all-time low all we can do is Stand By and Watch The District implode we're counting on you to do the right thing thank you you so much that now concludes the public recognition section of the meeting we're now moving on to our action items I understand that we have presentations for Action items I don't know if it's item by item um sorry public recognition is after I'm sorry after a comment was closed so obviously yeah I see I'm sorry public recognition time is over 6530 all the right to speak my job's on the line okay okay okay all right my God so good evening Mr President members of the board Dr Lucas I do appreciate the opportunity to speak to you about the proposed cuts that are being discussed here tonight I keep hearing about jobs for the kids well my position is the custodial supervisor and my job is very important for the kids um I'm currently on that list although I understand the need to balance the budget uh I would like you to consider the consequences of releasing a member of Maat whose purposes to support the largest group of workers in that department these people are here to ensure a clean safe secure environment which is productive to learning in the classroom when I started here at this District I realized that there are some challenges that most people wouldn't want to deal with I had custodians leaving hours early before their shift ended some custodians didn't have the proper tools to do their job correctly custodians had been exposed hadn't been exposed to any safety talks or safety trainings on a regular basis uh 1 major thing that I noticed and this is coming right after Co is that we didn't have a standard hospital-grade disinfectant that was used at every single site I needed to put this in place at every school so that they were you so what they were using was capable of controlling the H1N1 virus MRSA HIV 1 and 2 hepatitis and most importantly uh coid 19 I took all these challenges head on and I helped change the culture for the better I've made many positive changes since I've been here and I plan to continue to evaluate our operation as a whole which includes continuing cost control measures that have been successfully implement implemented to date 1 of the first acts of Supervisor was putting a dilution control system and all these classes and all these School sites to save money on the chemicals which basically lets them taste the control of the the chemicals out of their hands thank you um I conduct regular safety trainings for the custodial staff I'm here in the evening when there's an emergency they can reach out to me when equipment breaks I get it fixed when there's an injury I meet with them at night and make sure that they get that taken care of thank you so much for your comment thank you unfortunately we have to comments off but thank you so much if you had more comment please email the board um that now concludes the public comment section of this agenda of this meeting um we'll now move into action items and I understand there's 1 presentation yes thank you uh Mr edoor we have 1 presentation to introduce the uh Personnel action items okay so we'll get just a second while uh Mr Williams gets set up so if we can get through the presentation we can just jot down our questions and we'll open it up for questions after the presentation get this it's connected that's your computer okay all right yeah the screen sharing or whatever okay turn it on thank you and let me do it there you go that's good yeah yeah her computer is not connecting to over here yeah it's the screen sharing setting there you go so yeah hi good evening everybody uh thank you for attending this special meeting and um I appreciate all the public comments and I also appreciate many of our public commenters and also on the room recognizing this is incredibly difficult decision and time that we're going through here in the district we are hoping that this presentation provides a little bit more information um to about the whole picture in regards to our budget and um also making sure they're understanding the situation that we're in and plans for correcting um outside of this Personnel cuts which are clearly on the agenda tonight but also additional cuts that we'll be taking a look at that aren't uh personnel in order for us to make sure that we have a balanced budget for the next this year and future years so with that I'll ask for the next slide and I know I've showed this slide a couple times I'm not going to go over in too much detail again but it just gives you a kind of an overview picture of where we are in regards to our current state in the budget enrollment has dropped over the last 9 years to the tune of about 600 students so of course that means a loss of enrollment and Ada average daily attendance dollars a number of the cellular if you'd like if you'll allow sharing and then I can share the presentation for the zoom okay if you could advance to the next slide thank you uh and so I just wanted to share a little bit about the current state of where we are right now in regards to our fund balance you know there's a 3% minimum Reserve that's required by the state of California for all school districts and the 2 lines on this chart are the blue line which is the current uh first interim report that we had and then this orange line is the uh take a look at second interim which is right around the corner um and that is the fund balance if we are not able to make these reductions and again personnel and also non-personnel item and so you can see there that in this particular case without Personnel reductions as painful as they are uh we would be in a situation that we are in a negative balance a negative budget and to illustrate that a little bit more and different a different manner is to share for you again the first interim versus the second interim which we're taking a look at again kind of getting a preview of the data that Miss Rajiv and her office are are getting uh in the last few uh week or so and the first in room budget is there it's kind of uh I don't want to say guess because it's not a guess but it's an estimate early in the year right this is through November I believe no first first interim okay first interim is the October first uh taking a look at where we are in our budget and second amendments through January and you can see here that the the orange bar is the bar that is indicating looking at second interim the amount of dollars that we need to cut in order to balance our budget so you can see the difference that's happened there and so what we're taking a look at I've talked in several meetings um that we've been talking about this is in regards to the 3 different buckets I think I called them buckets in different meetings and so we're looking at 3 different buckets to take care of that 4.4 million need that we have to reduce our budget by and so the first bucket is what we're talking about tonight which is school-based Personnel reductions the second buzz it bucket is also what we're talking about tonight which the management and district office Personnel reductions and the third bucket is uh contracts overtime extra hours hiring freeze all other expenses that aren't Personnel related and why separated them out for us all over the course of these meetings is uh due to the March 15th deadline which many folks are aware of that we have to we have to indicate and we have to take action on the first 2 buckets in order to um uh be in compliance with the March 15th deadlines the third bucket in regards to contracts over time and all those other places that we can reduce spending um does not have a March 15th deadline so just to kind of re re reiterating again that we're looking at all 3 of these buckets for reductions and we are focusing tonight on the first 2 and then providing some details at the end of the presentation in regards to that third bucket that we will be taking a look at but the overall goal is 4.4 4 million and missed uh Dr Gooden will continue with some of the Personnel reductions thank you so what I'm going to talk about for are this first 2 buckets so what does that look like as far as our school-based certificated classified reductions and and then our non-school based um management and district office reductions um so Within These 2 resolutions that are brought forth this evening um on the school side there are 24 positions that total approximately 1.96 million dollars um which is 57% of the overall reductions that would be um would be taking place for next school year um and then for the non-school site management and district office reductions that was 15 positions that are being brought forth this evening which is a 1.47 million savings and that would equate to 43% of the overall reductions um that would take place for the 2526 school year um and then just as a a note to that that's that school site personnel represent about 81 or 81% of our overall Personnel budget um and 57% of the reduction whereas our non-school site Management District office and then also district office staff um that represents 19% of the overall Personnel budget and then 43% of the reductions that we're bringing forth um this evening per the resolution next slide we know that cuts hard and we are going to do everything in our power to um to support anyone who is impacted by um these resolutions um so 1 of the things that we're looking at as Dr Lucas had shared and we shared last week is that we are up against a March 15th deadline so March 15th notice does not mean your absolutely you know your position is is being cut that means you know this is a position that we're looking at um especially when we're looking at um retirements we you know people have not you know they have until the end of the year to decide if they're retiring they're moving their resigning their taking a different position so typically from March 15th until May there's a period of time where we find out about you know people that are leaving and were able to resend layoffs resolutions um to employees um the other piece that we're starting right now is that we're not hiring any new employees unless it is unless it is a position that there aren't it's so specialized that there aren't any employees potentially that are impacted by these layoffs resolutions that could um that could move over into the the empty positions um and again looking at just priority for re-interviewing so Ensure during that anyone who's qualified to move into a different classification um we're going to set up immediate times where they can um where they can test for positions so as soon as we know a vacancies that we would immediately be able to offer vacancies I'm sorry offer positions to employees impacted and um resend layoff notices as quickly as possible I'm gonna ask next um Dr Baxter and Miss Rajiv to share some of the plans that we call them coverage plans here in the present um but basically you know it is the idea and I know there's a couple public commenters um has and we've commented on it before um yes this is a reduction in in staff and yes it is asking uh folks to take on a little bit extra work um and that is just part of what happens when there's reductions going on um and so to give you an idea of the thought that's gone behind some of this um I've asked Dr Baxter Mr Rajiv to share some details in regards to how plans uh to ensure coverage of the areas and experiencing reductions the first slide that I'm sharing is around coverage P plans in regard to health care services so present Staffing level at elementary is 8 FTE and its secondary we have 5 FTE and in the 2526 school year we're projecting to have 6.5 FTE and 3.5 FTE at secondary this will mean that elementary schools will have 1 full-time LVN and will share 1.5 nurses and have that support and the Sandy seagull secondary health center will have 1.5 nurse support and a full-time LVN and 1 Health Tech 2 and if we go to the next slide to look at coverage in order to redistribute responsibilities instructional leads and some of their work will go to uh be supported by APS and principles to help support the SST process and to focus on key key target areas that are based on School site data which which Drive what we put into place we also are intervention counselor in to cover that the high school will provide intervention support through student to students through the 6 Alpha counselors and the mental health counselors thank you good evening everyone um slide 10 here we are showing um the instructional Technology support staff that we have currently um at the school sites we have um 7 School Technology technicians and then at the central office we have 3 FTE um computer specialist and then computer network technician at the district office so moving forward in the next year with this reduction we will have a we will be using the 3 coming from the school sites and the 3 staff from the district office so we will have a strategic District by support of 6 FTE for next year next slide please so how are we going to continue to support all our um School sites so beginning from next school year school say technology staff will be transitioning to the district office or um consolidating the resources to improve the efficiency of technology to support across all School sites the district office will now have a central technology team including the former site staff who will handle and manage all technology related issues for the entire District we will start first off with the identifying the unique needs of each School sites um assessing the needs because sometimes it is unique to the site and then also tailoring our important Solutions based on the specific requirements of each School site maintaining some flexibility to address the site specific challenges while ensuring overall consistency and then we'll also be issuing you using a centralized work order system for tracking Pro and I think that's efficiently it helps consistent issue tracking and then resolution and also to streamline the process for submitting managing and monitoring uh the tech support requests across all School sites we will also be in consultation with site Administration and staff the centralized approach will Define the expected response times and resolution times for each priority level in the work order system and then we'll also be communicating that with the staff so they know what to expect when a submitting a request and then also it provides some transparency on the timeline within the system so Safa and track track the progress of the their request and then we'll also be adding some escalation procedures um so that we know when things are not addressed timely then there is if an urgent task is not resolved as per the set timelines it will be automatically escalation alerts will be sent to the administration so supervisors can immediately address um help improve um the situation and then we'll also be creating some frequently asked questions and some video tutorials for some common issues this will kind of um production of video total is basically demonstrate solution to frequent problems making it easier for staff to self-service is and then regular updates to these frequently asked questions and tutorials we will be as we learn about the new issues we will also be updating that and then training staff to reduce the dependency focus on importing our staff with the skills and knowledge to troubleshoot the common problems independently offering some regular training sessions for teachers and administrative staff to build some technical proficiency and task priorities this is something we will we are now looking at what are what qualifies as urgent immediate high priority non-critical tasks but with time-sensitive some routine requests and then so we will be um identifying those uh priority priorities and then we'll also set the timeline and then we'll share so everyone understands uh where we are and then we will continue to have um we will continue to align ourselves the technology department at the central office we align to the school sites specific timelines in terms of their testing first day of school or their Diagnostics AP exams so we are proactively we are going to be aligning our calendar and also we will be updating our making some improvements to these um model that we have based on the data if if a site needs someone to be assigned few hours every day to the cluster of schools we will be doing that based on the data once we have the system implemented um and then next slide please so this will be to support the coverage I know Dr um Lucas Dr Gordon talked about the personal Cuts so I want to go over the the contracts and other overtime extra hours and hiring freeze so I wanted to look at the contracts I know this is something everyone has been wanting to know know what is in the contract line item so the 900,000 of these um reduction is going to come from that bucket next slide please so out of the 4.4 million dollars that we need um we are projecting that 900,000 dollars of the cuts will come from contractor line items and so some of the ones that we will not be having next year are these attendance program mailers we will be eliminating that and then a PR and communicate public relations Communications will be reduced next year and then we call the current will also will be eliminated next year and we are also continuing to look at this overtime and extra hours closely because that has increased over the years we are looking at that we are also looking at the management benefits for um you know 1 group having um you know different benefits than the other so we are looking at reducing that and then legal fees is something we are constantly monitoring um this will be hoping to have 900,000 of reduction for next year coming out of this bucket next slide please so this chart actually um compares the Professional Service basis and operating expenses for the last 4 years against the current year budget so the last 4 years are actual expenditures and 2425 for current year that's the actual so this is also um only reflects the unrestricted general fund budget write the 4 5.3 million see if you look at these expenditures in 2021 we spent 3.2 million dollars and then in 2122 it became 4.5 million in 2223 we spent 7.5 million and then last year we spent 11 million under this bucket but then 2425 our budget is 5.3 million I wanted to share um so this is just a comparison of where how we spent and what we budgeted for current year next slide please so this slide shows you the break up of that 5.3 million what are we spending within this when we say contractor that also includes um these are all the expenditures and item nature of expenditure that are included under this travel and Conference and dues and memberships and insurance that's a liability insurance for the district to protect us from any damages and the utilities this is water gas electricity that's uh essential and then we have this uh rentals lease and repairs this is for copier printers and all of that we are lazy and then we have the Professional Services which are in the next few minutes I'll share the details of the Professional Services and then communication is here this is the post States cell phone FedEx and all of those expenditures so the total contacted budget is 5.3 million I just wanted to remind I know I wish if we had 11 million maybe all of the cuts that we need the 4.4 million dollars could have come from this but if you look at this part did this budget is already at the the least possible compared to the previous years so we are at 5.3 million there is a typo here so it's actually slight 16 next slide please so if you really look at this I just Steve here almost 80% of those contacted expenditures the Professional Services because the Professional Services is what everybody is talking about has contacted expenditures so if you look at this the top ones that are not highlighted those are something we can treat if you look at it the election cost per board and for um you know any ballot measures that we add so that's something we have to pay and then contacted for vacancies and security we we are trying to fill those positions but those positions have to be we need to have security staffs of your contacting out so all of these the 300,000 is for the contracted um some things that you have spent for vacancy so vacancy savings basically was used for this and then the sports trainer contact that's required and then translation services so your um High School sports referee fees all of these audit fees and fingerprinting fees is something that we cannot which amounts to 40% of the budget and then if you look at the yellow highlighted section that's where we are planning to reduce the 900000 bucket um some of it has to come from here too so Transportation this is for the field trips we are thinking of using our in know staff making sure that we can use our staff to do so that that that field tips can be eliminated and then the legal fees is again um it's at around the budget is 258,000 we are still monitoring that how much can we reduce then supplemental contacts for professional development literacy apps student health services that's 223,000 communication Public Relation this is where we are also planning to reduce as I said in the previous slide so that's coming out of this bucket and then we have the spread transportation again we are planning to eliminate that so we can use our in-house staff to manage that transportation to this is just for few students and then we are also looking at the frost technical support and crew where we have these PSAs we are looking into that and then then people service contact is for nurse vacancy we had to hire someone so this is the um 80% of the profession Services which is 1.7 million and we are looking to reduce from these yellow highlighted areas I'll hand it to Dr Lucas now thank you Mr Chief this is also a repeat slide I just want to reiterate to everyone and I heard it in some of the public comments tonight as well today and I'm sorry I keep talking about March 15th March 15th March 15th but that is legislative deadlines that we are up against for today um and so that's the action today in regards to the those first 2 buckets the the Personnel reduction costs but as I mentioned on Tuesday last Tuesday night lots of things happened between now and the end of the year so we're getting some data from 2425 second interim which I know it presented earlier at the opening of my presentation it's not looking entirely favorable but that is still data that is coming in uh Dr Gooden talked about attrition through resignation and retirements that that could impact who is actually released at the end of the year uh Miss rajee just spent um we can talk about our continued contract analysis and production so while she mentioned particular contracts in her part of the presentation we have a commitment to looking at all of our contracts and seeing what are some that we can outright cancel what are some that we can reduce um and there I mean Again full transparency there's some that we're going to have to keep um but just making sure that we're looking through all of those in uh detail uh that that will help inform the possibilities of bringing some um folks back um they I mentioned the California state budget this is all happening while the California state budget is a little bit in flux we had our January uh release I guess from the governor's office um which was looking that right now that's funding for uh next school year is basically on par with this school year and in fact there's a slight cost of living increase um there is talk in the C in the state legislature but again we don't know what will happen given the fires and other things that happen within our state in regards to uh 1-time block grant fund from the state which would be very helpful for all school districts um so those are the things that are kind of in the works up in Sacramento but the tough part is you know we've got to make the decisions today not knowing the full picture in all honesty about May 15th we get the budget and more of information um but that's just the way that the Cycle Works um and so again you know hiring freeze in regards to that Dr good mentioned uh making sure that we are not feeling spots within our entire organization that could be filled by folks that are potentially um bumped or moved from from particular positions so really trying to do our best to minimize the end impact um um but then all of these other sorts of actions that will be taking place are uh ones that uh could could impact who we ultimately uh release um and then I did mention just last time I know um it's probably not much consolation but that last column over there which says about the next year so just that everyone knows uh even if someone is released ultimately at the end of the year um Ed code requires that there's a those employees are put on a 39 month rehire list it's called the minute that a position um if it does open up again they have first dibs to to return rights basically right away um so that's just the continued process of trying very hard to make sure that um the fewest amount of our employees are affected and um I want to end with I know tonight is an awful lot about cuts and it's devastating it is upset my stomach for weeks and I know the board stomachs and minds and um all of us here I'm not asking for sympathy but I am also wanting us to remember you know there's really a lot of good things that are continuing that we're not cutting with our schools so a reminder we have full-time LVN support at every single school I have not been in the district yet that has that support level it's the right support I'm not saying it's the wrong thing to do but it's the right support I know there's um the concern about the instructional AIDS but we still do have 1 instruction aid site lead I'm sorry not AIDS I want instructional site lead we're full-time counseling support at all of our schools all of our Elementary's uh I'm against something that I haven't seen in a while in schools and and additional mental health support arson Innovation classes the remaining at all schools we have assistant principal support and we have daily he uh for all students in our elementary setting and then just reminding again similarly along a secondary Staffing that is continuing fully staffed Health office with RNs and lvns we are continuing reduced class size and algebra and English 9 and 10 for those um hi hi uh needs courses uh maintained core Alpha counseling and support and College and Career counseling I believe after we uh I know we have 1 reduction of counselor on the um resolution tonight and I believe after that we will have 12 counselors across the high school um doing doing uh tremendous work supporting our students there and of course maintaining our mental health support and 1 of the things I've mentioned again and again I'm going to say 1 more time I'm here is 1 of the things I've really enjoyed about being your superintendent in Culver City is the broad range of cloud class offerings that we have here in the district and those are continuing we are not cutting academic programs or um elective programs so just highlight getting those things I know it's really tough times I know um but also reminding us that we have many good things continuing in the district so with that um board members that does conclude our rather lengthy staff report but I think it's good information for the discussion um that you will have now in regards to the agenda items thank you so much for the presentation I think we're going to wait for the room to get situated and then we will begin with members comments questions oh yeah snacks item 6.1 we'll start with 6.1 can I get a motion um move 6.1 second 1 second motion by Mr gross I can buy member Carlson discussion um I just want to get a point of clarification here because I have some pretty extensive comments to give generally about this I have a very very few questions but it might be a little bit awkward if I ask a couple questions and then go on some like soly so do we want to maybe do like a round of questions first and then you know our comments or how do you want to proceed on that uh well I I feel like you can sit with what we what's it's it's back I feel like it's best to do 1 round each and if there's more questions that occur from hearing responses from other members comments and we'll talk about more second round but if you could try to fit all that you have prepared or have on your mind and your round that would be great yeah I mean I can definitely ask my questions um I'll wait for the sort of second round to provide additional commentaries especially after hearing what the rest of you have to say to you um also just in the interest of efficiency I know a lot of people either were at or watched the from last week which was I think 7 hours long um and I asked a substantial amount of questions then um not you know not knowing whether we were necessarily going to go to a vote so just in the interest of efficiency I won't repeat the questions that I asked last time um but I guess I just have a couple of kind of significant and maybe heavy ones here uh so the first 1 is just you know will you commit to us and to the community and to the teachers and staff that in the intervening 2 months between a potential I vote tonight and generating you know the list that you intend to provide to us is final um without any specific promises made uh we at least look to see whether you'll be able to find additional funds to potentially save some of these positions and whether that's in the reduction of additional management discontinuation of some of our nice to have contractors if we can do that and deliberate speed um that aren't necessarily serving the students um and trimming of other expenses just if you can try to take a look and see what we can do about this yes absolutely so that's kind of that third bucket that I would you know refer to the buckets a lot I think today but that is that third bucket is taking a look at all of our contracts and also what can we do immediately in regards to reductions in school sites necessarily and I don't mean staff sorry that sounded bad thing but but what what are we doing to make sure that we are spending the absolute most frugally and so um in the course when we get through our end of the year um budget data we're able to actually discern that we in a better position than we think we are right now okay thank you um I have a couple of just kind of a little bit in the the weeds questions that have come up as a result of some public comments as well as just a few things that I noticed in the presentation which I saw in final format tonight um so uh could maybe I'm not sure maybe if this is for Dr Baxter potentially or maybe Dr Lucas but um can we explain how the state and federal compliance uh position decision was made and instead of making at a coordinator to eliminate it all together with sort of led to that um given that was some different than what the community suggested I'm sure so you know this was a situation where you know we feel very strongly that um you know schools sites don't bear the brunt of the reductions uh and so I hope that was communicated in 1 of the slides that Dr Gooden shared in regards to you know the School site I'm sorry this district office staff representing um the cuts representing a diss portion amount to the um to the uh uh the actual part of the budget and why I bring that up is because we we asked every single department at the district office to determine um where we could see some possible savings um always always a challenge about how about redistributing that work but also recognizing that this was a role that we could I know it's challenging but redistribute the work um and so you know there are other positions Within Services um and I'm not saying that this director is the position is not important because I hear Miss grasos comment around compliance um but there's other roles within that services that we in my opinion we absolutely could not cut I could not cut director of teacher and learning that's the number 1 thing we're doing in this school district is teaching and learning right um same thing in regards to special education that director that position is incredibly important um and um I'm forgetting 1 the director sorry well thank you school school and Family Support Services right so making sure that our students are cared for and their wellness and their mental health and of course along with other sorts of actions in regard to discipline um and so um again no position is is is entirely like Expendable we're hearing that from the field but also from the district office but it was the consideration that that work could be redistributed amongst existing members of the district office I I just want to add there's been a few questions that have come up of why can't we just take a position and I've heard this reclassification um reclassification is you know it's spelled out on Ed code what reclassification is and that's really typically happens when there is an adjustment in duties and people are given additional duties and looking at okay additional duties typically equate to additional pay so we're not able to just take a position and say we're going to immediately downgrade this from not say a director to coordinator um what we would need to do would be to do a full study of the job and then look at okay if we're going to downgrade a position how do those duties look different that would equate to what the position what the new position would be so we it's not just as simple as just changing the title of positions on job descriptions which I know that's come up in several different places as a potential solution um but that just doesn't work within this situation here to just change the title and downgrade the pay for it okay so you can't basically say you're doing the same job but now you just have lower pay because we decided to reclassify it not just specifically for 1 job yes okay um and then you know we've had a lot of conversation around the issue of Dei in the district um and I know that there's there's sort of a kind of planned second interim budget right now um in that budget there's placeholder is essentially for various jobs that we're planning on continuing through next year and the plans that the jobs that we're planning on and potentially reducing right um and so this budget I think we did bring this up last time but what what does it contemplate as far as the Dei position what what sort of amount are we holding in the budget for that is it at a assistant superintendent level coordinator or director no level at all the budget currently we started the year with the assistant superintendent position salary and then at first centimeters savings because that position was weakened so that the balance amount is still in the budget okay so basically so looking at the second interim budget then as it stands and the proposed Cuts we're there's no room essentially for a Dei position as the budget currently stands um is that right um am I misunderstanding something here for next year the budget includes ta assistant position okay for current year we are just as we revised our budget we just recognize if there is there is no no person there then we recognize the savings for that but ultimately the budget has the full position we started with the full salary of that position okay so the budget the budget then for next year then we actually there is there is essentially a hold for the amount for this and how much is that in total I don't want number that's I think based on the salary range and we always take the mid-range okay can you ballpark it maybe 200 200,000 okay okay um what and then what is the plan for ensuring that the Dei work will continue to be done in District um if we don't have somebody in you know sort of a high level position I guess and assistant superintendent otherwise thank you um that's number 663 so but I'll be glad to comment now okay all right um which is you know similar early that they can spend I mean sorry the position has been vacant for for a year actually a little bit more at this point um and so you know it's been mentioned and I want to thank and congratulate and well I should thank um not only the ed services team but also School site teams that have really um kind of kept kept the uh the work going forward um there's been you know uh different committees that are still maintained and I I really have to throw out again thanks to our school site it's really working hard on that we just had the black um black owned business expo was kind of a perfect perfect example that was uh all all sight LED at the middle school um so uh you know that same pattern would continue of um kind of spreading the word throughout um with ed services providing um some guidance and and um leadership around some of the councils and the work there okay um when sort of question I guess and this is something that I'm not necessarily expecting you have an answer to but something to consider maybe I was noticing that the utilities are rather high in the district have we evaluated potentially going to Rooftop solar or finding some kind of economical ways of saving some money on on utilities Yes actually we just finished our Energy Efficiency study and we're waiting for the data to come so we can make the adjustments okay fantastic so that could be part of our our measure Eve um upgrades to yes okay fantastic um and then just 1 last question uh would you all commit to us now also to I mean this isn't this process doesn't end tonight it doesn't end on May 15th it doesn't even end over the summer right so um can we commit to looking at both our expenses and our revenues on an ongoing basis and undertaking a real deep dive on where we can become more efficient as a district as well as where we can find some supplemental funding as I think has been the shared desire of the community um you know teachers and staff and see back um there's sort of been this conversation out there about you know potentially finding some Revenue can we really really examine that so we can we can have a little bit of a better budget situation going forward yes I mean the commitment is here as I've mentioned this is very very difficult and the timing is not the best and I'm sorry to just blame the state on all of this but the timing makes it very challenging um and so the answer is yes and I want to also throw out 1 particular um funding change that could come up over the course of the Summers you know we have that Grant which we got for um it's a it's an acronym cbhi chy bi sorry thanks which is the health health services grant that we did receive so next year will be our planning year which could it's to the tune of dollars I is the grand amount um I'm not saying that's going to bring up bring back like positions right but it may open up positions that are focusing on student health and wellness that were able to give folks into and provide some Services there that's just 1 example of really taking a look at what's on on the horizon and any changes we can make okay all right thanks I think that's enough for me for now member lockman so a number of those number of those questions recovered including the reclassification when so thank you for answering that uh obviously we want to find ways of reorienting as much as possible and I would uh first of all ask the commitment as part of that examination is just really looking to the people doing their job and how we can re Orient some of those responsibilities and I know there's a process for when you change job descriptions um but trying to find ways where if people on the ground know how to make their jobs more efficient uh and uh we can support those efforts because it saves us all money and I know that uh you know everyone is trying to find ways stretching a dollar on this and I don't think that's always appreciated from our employees when they do it uh I know when the city level we had actually have a um a we have a a set of awards for just you know basically get a couple gift cards to say thank you for people who helped go out of their way to save the city money um it would be wonderful to see us show that kind of appreciation as well so my other questions here um uh since a number of them were covered so I know in the 2019 um audit there were a couple of suggestions there uh 1 was is that in ed services there were tosas it was your decision then just to address it through the director position as opposed to the the 2 tosa positions which at the time were not filled but I I I don't think we we got follow up on whether those positions were also left vacant or if if they had been filled I mean it's been 5 years I would imagine they have been the 2019 ed services audit report 28.5 FTE overall in the umbrella of ed services which include School Family Support Services and special education we currently have 17 FTE enter the Big Ed Services umbrella and um I wasn't here in 2019 I began um I began later in 2021 so the decision was made uh to bring at services that had always had 2 directors and the decision was to bring back a director that was focused on state federal programs assessment and accountability along with teaching and learning rather than just Elementary versus secondary which had been the model previously I hope that helps I'm not sure which TOs you're referring to okay it was just there were 2 positions that were named they didn't name the specific positions they said there was a tosa and another position that was open at the time but by the sound of it if you're gone from 28 to 17 uh that would indicate that there's probably some contraction in that area right um uh secondly um I know you've mentioned that we've been taking on looking a lot of these agency contracts in order to reduce our our our costs as well um I don't know I know you're committed to continuing doing that we've discussed this quite a bit as well but um do you have any idea is there a ballpark about what our savings to date has been in terms of the those efforts and I'm sorry you're talking this year or over the course of a couple well because we do have a slide that we presented which was um I thought was a very interesting slide and thanks to Mr Raji but let me call it up the uh and I I apologize if there are numbers in there I thought those were forward-looking numbers not today so I can say that was 380,000 worth of um 3 nice identified yes all right thank you and I think that number is at the very least just worth reiterating because it's a lot of good points that were made out here about things that they felt weren't being done and it's important to show that these are part of what we're we're doing generally um my next question uh here um uh it deals with um it deals with just there's some areas which we know we've been we've had some issues and so we appreciate that we need to make some of these contractions because the econ because it is what it is uh in a little way um talked a little bit about how we're going to make sure that it is going to be covered and I I there are some risks in that but I appreciate we have maybe the best of a bunch of bad Solutions of of a difficult situation of where we are um how are we making and you also mentioned a little bit about making sure we have uh uh intervention covered or intervention counselor covered uh our counselor our college counselor covered uh I think you mentioned the our special ed inclusion ones but I don't know if that I don't remember if that was mentioned in the in the in the report as well in there about how we were going to make sure that those concern that that was covered that that would be absorbed upward into the next layer of uh of of not management that the next layer of folks who are covered I don't remember the position name forgive me sorry I'm I'm I apologize I thought we were you were asking about numbers but you're asking me about coverage right can you repeat right so now we're what I've moved on to is now uh moving away from the math portion because I'm always going to fail that portion um and then moving on to the about like making sure that if we're going to collapse these levels that we're not making things that we're not going back to the problems we've had we're not accidentally making things worse and there's risks what we're doing we have to make the best of this so with we've talked about how we're going to cover a number of these sections but I don't remember whether we mentioned because I believe we're still limiting a number of these inclusion uh folks um making sure that those jobs are going to be covered because our neurodivergent students are and are those who have special education needs are are are very important and making sure that number 1 just to clarify none of this is going into the the AIDS in the classroom this is the level of just above that how are we going to handle if we're eliminating that layer where is that going to go so we do need to we're able to cover and support all students because we are committed to inclusion and rightful presence is in the fabric of who we are in Culver City Unified School District so all of these things will work with will work with the people doing the work to realign these positions to make sure our students have what they need okay can I just add to that sorry just so you're aware um there's 1 inclusive facilitator and 1 program specialist listed on the resolution 1 of the program specialist positions is currently vacant um so there's not anyone in that position so for next year it's a net loss of 1 inclusion facilitator to the services that are being provided this year and I think you also mentioned this too but in terms of the I'll get to the positions that are already vacant um just to make that as a point too because we get people asking us the same positions that are vacant and haven't been filled some haven't been filled for some time um so the last 1 I have here on that making sure things are covered level is custodial is custodial Services I did hear in some of my discussions concerns that there hasn't been some follow through and I also remember in some discussions and when I was on on campus that you know people were saying something's just still are not getting covered um in terms of cleaning needs so how who how are we going to make sure and who will make sure that this accountability occurs and the follow through occurs so that this work does get done and that you know and so that you know people are are doing you know these folks and some of them are heroes believe me uh you know I was at my um my daughter's graduation for th grade um and you know 1 of the students unfortunately got very nervous um you know it was the custodial staff that was amazing and came in and found a you know cleaned everything up and made sure everyone felt comfortable so I don't want to make it sound in any way these folks are not doing their jobs but there is a supervisorial part of it so how are we going to make sure that that doesn't slip I'm going to start but I'm going to ask this Reggie to add in there and you know Mr Rajiv is over maintenance operations of transportation and I think board member you know very well um Miss Rajiv so far she is misc accountability and has done exceptional job with our budget has done an exceptional job with other staff and making sure that there's accountability within her Works she has launched uh my measure e work uh very strongly um so I I I I want to highlight miss raji's work but also I know her commitment to making sure that maintenance and operation transportation is at its absolute prime and we also have a new director of Maintenance operations with tons of school district experience um still a little bit new to the district yes um and learn the ways but I have all the faith and confidence in that particular department but then now Mrs if you want to add a little extra thank you Mr lman for the questions so the custodial um I think cleaning and keeping our facilities uh we we could make a lot of improvements for sure and we are looking at how we can maintain to the level that we expect to maintain so we are looking at ways to streamline the process having procedures in place developing um some training and all of that I think we are also being mindful of um this particular role so far um from my experience is C supervisor position was used as another person to take care of the the School site um not as a really as a supervising positions so long so many years like the 2 2 2 and a half years that we've had so we do have a plan of having a lead technician position lead um customer pushing that we have right now which is vacant we are trying to up that to make sure that that position is trained to cover all the school sites and oversight and then we are also making sure director of Maintenance and operations he is also having this oversight and sharing some expectations with our custodians I think we need to have that close connection with orchestrator group to make sure we bring our facilities to the level we expect to okay well thank you can I just also add to that just so um we're aware that um moving forward the the nighttime custodians they will be directly supervised by the administration on the school sites um and that goes into what was saying regarding you know making sure that our site based principles I was 1 of those who I needed somebody to say hey this is what your custodian should be doing so making sure that you know our new director of Maat is supporting our site-based um Administration so they know what to expect um those employees to be doing and to be providing the appropriate support and guidance for them well thank you and I appreciate all the follow through and the Assurance is also from superintendent that um that uh you know that we're going to do our best to try to see if we can save positions and hopefully with a chance to discuss some ideas about prioritizing so that we can provide some guidance in terms of making sure you know the closer the classroom we get the better uh in terms of saving some of these positions and not going back and letting some things get worse the last thing I'm going to ask in all of this and I think you've mentioned a little bit but just the positions that are currently vacant that are not being filled so they will understand that when we see that teachers we're not we're we're not generally eliminating teachers uh and we're doing a better job of this and to think in some districts so um I'm going to just speak to resolution 6.1 because that is the 1 that specific to classified sure um within this classified resolution there are 22 total positions that are on the resolution um of those 22 positions there are 3 that are currently vacant that and those are people that have started this school year so they were budgeted to be um you know to be paid for through the school year they've left throughout the school year and we have not brought them back in anticipation of you know needing to do budget cuts at this time and I'll end up asking the same question for 6.2 so we can just include that in the discussion thank you for all of those I I will just close by saying I think there's a couple of the things that we can look at in terms of uh ways we reduce contracts looking at incentive based contracts for those particularly that can help bring in Revenue as a way of encouraging us to to bring in more money um and then maybe even as a you know as a board looking at and ways we can try to find additional sources of of Revenue whether it be private grants working with the Education Foundation or ways that the school does itself can start re in the longer term generating Revenue thank you thank you so much member girl thank you um I really appreciate the presentation and I really appreciate just starting at the beginning and working through this because I think it gave a lot of context to some of the decisions that are made kind of farther down the line and you know talking about all the buckets even though we're really just dealing with resolutions on on 2 of them tonight um so I just want to start by by appreciating that um just you know and I I had a long list of questions and I'm kind of checking them off as they get answered and things like that so thank you um you know ultimately the budget is made up of of Revenue and expenditures and you want to increase the revenue and you want to be judicious in the expenditures um and and both board member Carlson and lachman talked a little bit about increasing Revenue I know last year we did a lot you know we re negotiated a lease to increase the revenue we dealt with the TK penalty and the j13 calendar penalty you know so those were excused you know we've redone the meals and there was a small finding in the last uh audit about that and I know we were refiling on that do you have any other ideas on Revenue um just thoughts on on areas that where we might be able to find so we are looking into the permit use fees something that we haven't raised the revenue the prices for a long time so once we move into this online platform facilitron where the permit will be moved that online platform and then we are going to address that uh fix the we are assessing right now uh what is the user fees charged with the city and other neighboring school districts and then we will be bringing back to the board uh what would that look like so definitely that's 1 1 area and then with measuring I know Dr Lucas has more ideas but with measuring the the goal is to build our buildings and then making sure we have the facilities that attract all the parents in the community members who who have left the district for the way that we've maintained or we don't have money to maintain so definitely I think this measure you we are going to get back all the families and we will even be getting back all our private school residents here so that's I like that positive thinking uh what about attendance recovery are we doing anything this year um I know just attendance in general is much better this year but there are options for things like Saturday school where students can come in and make up a little bit of loss learning but also recover a little bit of ADA that's a great question the high school has begun um Saturday school with attend attendance recovery they're they are piloting it and kind of working out all of the logistics like to serve a meal that's a part of 1 of the requirements to be able to recapture attendance and then on the March 11th meeting you'll see the the attendance board policy and our that have been updated will be brought back to you all which also expands and allows us to do independent study retroactively so if it if a child leaves on a Wednesday and comes back and reaches out on a month the following Monday they can make up work good so those are ways thank you for that clarification because retroactively by a couple of days totally legit rectal actively you were abs in October and now we're going to do it not okay you know very different types of things but so historically attendance recovery has not been a cover City practice no we did begin the school year discussing it and planning and gearing up because we also need to do a cost analysis which Miss Rajiv will help us with to see if we have how many staff members we can have to make sure that it actually um is more than just meets a need but also brings in Revenue because we don't want to have too many expenditures going out as well so we're being very Mindful and strategic about it and hopefully that's a discussion happening in Partnership because it would also involve the labor partners and probably some negotiations of of rates and things like that so okay thank you um expenditures I know again we did a lot of cuts and if I'm not mistaken I I feel like most of the cuts last year were also fairly management heavy um because we didn't cut I mean is am I remembering that correctly management from last year was system principle of entry level was reduced um and looking a bigger pardon oh okay dual immersion toss those management but then also if you recall um we did have reductions we didn't within the rift because they're really reassignments okay of um some intervention teachers ptosis thank you and then just looking at the budget and I know we're going to get reports in the public will get reports as the second interim kind of firms up and comes out but 1 of the things that you did show is we had an expectation of being here at the first interim based on spending to that point projected forward and now as we start to look at the second interim there is more spending than we expected um Can Do Do you have just kind of a a quick where that spending is and how spending is higher this year which has impacts on this year and next year so we were supposed to end that first Centrum with 4.5 million of reserve the fund balance um but then when we when we look at the expenditures um so far based on the actual expenditures as of January 31st our substitutes cost has increased which so we did not budget enough for substitute costs that that there's an increase there and special education we did a deep dive on trying to find out we did not adjust the special education expenditures last time at first Centrum we didn't have the actual data so now we have the data and when we looked at the you know we have to increase their expenditures by a million dollar and then the overtime and the extra hours right so I think those are the areas where our costs have what we we were very conservative and we budgeted you know we spent 127 Million last year and our budget for this year we started at the at 106 million and we increased it to 110 so we we really reduced it by 17 million so we were really ambitious and trying to keep the budget really where it should be but then as we see the expenditure we adjusting it's mostly on these buckets and um the special education is a contracted line item that we will be increasing a million dollar so so that's why we need we are going to next year with the Lesser fund balance than what we thought and we can make any cards this year that's why the next year's cut has to be increased well but you mentioned stip and and overtime and things like that are we immediately kind of moving to and you know there's things that already planned and there's things that people are already committed to and you don't want to pull that out from under them but are we immediately for this year I don't know take a second look at every expense that goes through ever since I've started over time like my department has to get my approval so we've changed the process we've been looking at why we need and every single expenditure we are looking at very closely if that's neither or if it is needed like what could have we have done better so we don't have to spend on that line so I think if you really look at the expenditures compared to last few years that that definitely we have done a better job but it's not enough to meet the needs and then you also mentioned the sped costs and and I know you know we've we've seen this fed costs go up considerably in the last couple years and it's frustrating to hear that you know there's a million dollars more than we expected that's a of the positions that were already identifying and that's not even going to you know save a different position or something like that um as we as we look at that and and controlling that I think it's important to remember what we're not talking about is is any plan to reduce services to students it's finding ways to be a more efficient with the money that we spend and get more actually then we'll probably even getting that because some of that spending could potentially be kind of sloppy or or kind of Hazard um and with better coordination of that bringing folks in uh rather than Contracting out we can't just stop Contracting that out because students need the services that they're entitled to but finding more efficient ways to get better services for students um okay um you I really appreciate on the slides kind of the list of what went into that contract section you know you hear contracts you think oh we're Contracting somebody to do something but there's a lot of things that go into that and I appreciate really breaking that down and taking a look at that um I also really appreciate that explanation of why you can't just take a director and make it a coordinator I mean I'm 1 of the people that suggested could we move that down a little bit but it's it's more than just asking somebody to do more for Less you've really got to redesign that position so potentially maybe not next year but at some point in the future we could see some of these positions come back in a different trimmed form um but not as directors but I really appreciate that um and and uh when Miss Graco brought that up that was something that I had thought to particularly about accountability because accountability is important um but maybe not quite to the level we currently have it in our situation as we go talked about management I know there were some management administrative positions added to the list can you talk a little bit about why we made a cut to uh assistant principals last year move those down to half positions at each site uh for the most part can you talk a little bit about why the recommendation is to maintain that half position rather than cutting it more or eliminating it completely sure I can add some thoughts on that um you know uh as we've all experienced uh post postco things changed a little bit for us right um and that's increased Mental Health Counselors that's why have increased uh uh counseling at the school sites um and um and the decision was made the reduction was made last year to get closer to preco levels but in my opinion and the cabinet please feel free to add in um the system principles are able to provide a variety of different Services across the School site that they're able to jump in and and all sorts of ways it's 1 of the more flexible positions at a school site in order to support the support to work and um now you know I this is asking all of us to pick up a little bit more of the burden and that's going to include assistant principals and principals I mean I mentioned in the slide deck around assistant principals being taken on ssts you know that might have been the kind of a function of some of the interventionist potentially so really really trying to really trying to work with that and providing um overall support to the school sites and cabin if you have anything to add please do but is that going to be spelled out somewhere specific specifically that that is now the expectation that assistant principals will handle ssts or whatever the functions are or is that something that's going to be unique to each School site we'll work with each administrator in regards to their particular needs at that particular site to determine how they're going to reshuffle some of the responsibilities as we all have mentioned and I know principals and assistant principals are have this key in mind what are the first things that affecting students first and making sure we're reallocating that work okay thank you um and then just drawing your attention to the actual resolution itself um I'm looking at the list of positions in 61 can you go through and just kind of say and we and I appreciate the emphasis on you know some additional management positions on that there are also some positions that are maybe classified or there's another category that we don't always talk about called confidential in here um that are not represented by the the classified um Association can you just identify which positions are actually at the district office on this list and I'm hoping you have a memorized and if you miss 1 it's okay but just to get a sense of kind of which what what are the types of things that are being eliminated from the district office sure the driver would be connected to the district office that position will be there the duplication and mail clerk is at the district office executive assistant is at the district office um the human resources assistant is at the district office the human resources specialist is at the district office uh the information technology supervisor is a district office position um 1 of the senior office assistants for 12 months is at the district office um the custodial supervisor is considered a district office position the assistant director of fiscal Services is considered a district office position and the um the HVAC is considered a district office position okay so a lot of the these are actually at the district office even if they're not necessarily management positions and then just 1 last 1 on this 1 um and thank you again for for all your your thoughtful answers um I I will admit that I am somewhat skeptical of centralized technology versus site-based technology um can you talk a little bit more Ms Rajiv about how that plan and I I know you went over it kind of quickly with the slides but but but how that's going to work and how flexible that will be if we see that's not meeting needs yes so I think 3 of my 4 districts we've had uh 5 to 6 we have had centralized Technology support so I have the experience of handling that the centralized technology platform so I think going back to how we will tailor our model right now we are starting because we have no data but we do know Consulting with some of the principles they need some some schools it's need more hands support than other school sites so we are looking at the data and then once we know um right now in the rest of the few months once we know how it's going to be then we definitely are thinking of realigning those positions although they're attached right now like because the work order system will be dealt them will be delegated by the director to all the staff so we that that to know how to support the school sites but then if we know we need to have somebody close to high school School in Farragut cluster then we will have them assigned their assigned to that site there but we are just waiting to see the data so that we can we are definitely flexible in making adjustments so we might find that we move to not necessarily sight base but some kind of hybrid where you've got folks out there serving kind of a cluster of schools or a couple of schools okay okay thank you very much um first I'd like to ask because in public comment there's often um statements that may be a result of misinformation um including previous expenditures and so I and we also have gotten emails with from concerned folks um still even after last week's meeting saying uh please don't take our aides away and so I just want to reiterate that we are not having any reduction in AIDS and can you speak a little bit because there was 2 in particular um comments today about um the count and he he said it very quickly about the million dollars um in terms of the the co days that were out that wasn't that was 1 of the things but there was like a few things that we got money like we did not pay penalties with and can you just reiterate that in in your words that we that the penalties that we didn't pay or the revenue that we did get back especially with uh nutrition so the 1038 to I think it was somewhere around 10,000 or 14,000 dollars that was something we are we are under claimed so we actually submitted that application so that that money will come back and then the previous 3 days that we lost instructional days I think we again got that money back and then we also submitted right now j1a for the 2 days that the school was closed so we are pardoned clarify fires the fire the fire situation recently so we have of submitted that data in ya um I think I don't think we have lost um all of those in penalties that you talked about we got all all of those back yes thank you um there there there may have been other that we had to pay um but but for those particular ones uh we we did not have to pay those um and I want to say some or repeat something that has been spoken about by both Dr Gooden and by um member Guerrero and by member uh Carlson is that we talked a little or you all talked about the repositioning or reclassification versus elimination and I want to be very clear that that um uh Dr Gooden has told me that there is Ed code that there's a legal like like it would be illegal for us to demote a person say you could say it in your own words if you would like I'll try to say it clearly um there's Ed code that specifies exactly what a reclassification is um and I actually I wrote it down just so that I would have it here in case this conversation thank you for being prepared um reclass ification means the upgrading of a position to a higher classification as a result of the gradual increase of the duties being performed by the incumbent in such a position and it's Ed code 45101 is where it comes from um and if we if we were to move a a a um a management position um into or supervisory confidential position into a lower classification we would either need to go through a demotion process with the employee which would be considered disciplinary or a process where we're going through looking at the job structure redoing a job classification redoing the job description and then laying an employee off essentially and then saying this is the new position so we couldn't just take somebody and say we're we've we've unilaterally decided that you're being paid too much for this position we want you to do the exact same job and we're going to pay you less now there have been cases where it crossed the board everybody in a district has said oh we're going to all take you know a 2% pay cut or something like that that's much different than just taking a specific position and not going through a process to um to to change it into a different position but I don't want to use the word reclassify because that's not that word has been used a lot but that's not the appropriate word of what people are asking to be done so so this is different from uh from when a teacher teaches 1 less 1 less period and you know you come to the decision that they'll you know go to an 80% or something like that this is very much like we are uh we can't consider this right now because it is like not legal for us to do so because it would be considered discipline right so if there were any of the positions that were Management on here where there was a oh we want to bring it back as something different we would need to go through a process of creating a new job description and um that would have what the changes in the job duties would be then we would have to look at it and align it with other you know do um salary studies to see what's the appropriate amount to pay this person and then you know they would have a right to or they could apply for that position if they wanted to um but we couldn't just force someone to go into a position like that thank you so much for that clarification um I did want to before I go into my other questions I did want to go back since uh member Guerrero did talk about ask about uh uh revenue streams um so 1 big Revenue stream which we've um which we've recovered in a little bit or is our Ada and we are back up now but because 1 of the things that we didn't mention I guess even last Tuesday was that our Ada is based off the past 3 years so like even if we are up now above 90% it takes the average of the past 3 years and then it um calculates our uh revenue for the following year and so um it's not something that we can automatically like uh get that revenue from but uh we'll see that level off a little bit the 1 thing I think that you know we haven't mentioned to you before is that we have spoken before about possibly pursuing or marketing um our facility use agreements differently and um I have been very much uh looking at the model that Elsa gundo has in terms of film shoots and um and re-establishing our websites to be more welcoming to film shoots I mean just for a weekend the film shoot for Candy Cane Lane they got I think 1.5 million or something like that and so while it may inconvenience some in terms of parking I think that if we can work it out to be a good neighbor in the future and uh and look at that kind of Revenue that would be great and I've um this is not the first time that I've I've said this out loud to our our leadership before but I'm I'm gonna but now is the time um I also so um if you could also talk a little bit more about um I understand that the retention of employees are very uh important but I know that we have your you use the words hiring freeze but I'm pretty sure that we are not having a hiring freeze for like immediate position so can you clarify that a little bit more sure so where we're looking at positions um for right now for example there are some you know clerical type positions that are on here so if someone were to resign or get a promotion from a let's say I'm just saying secretary 3 putting that out there we're not going to put that out into the general public to apply for that position we would do internal hiring for that position um to that way you know someone that would be reduced otherwise could go into you know the position that was vacant um but yeah like there's certain positions um that you know Food Service workers we're still looking for food service workers we're still looking for um you know custodians but any like I said any of the positions that we have vacancies for there are people that are on the list that would like to go through the process if they're qualified we will immediately provide them with the testing and if they meet the requirements um we would you know allow them to move over into positions for this so 1 of C backs um number 5 on their mid-year report included 3 positions um and some of this you had already uh addressed with your clarification about the um how we classifications doesn't work for uh because it's basically demotion in this case so um 1 of the positions that we have not mentioned um here tonight is the direct is the security director and that right now we have 3 or 4 open positions that um for security officer right um we have so we've had since I've been here um there have been 4 vacancies for security office officers um and that they've been staffed by agencies so 1 of the the um cuts that have or just internal measures is that you know there's security officers security officer 2 positions and then there's also security officer 1 positions um which have different qualifications and training so um we've T the the security officer twos that we haven't been able to find Personnel for we actually converted those into security officer ones that are you know like I said they don't have the the police um the same police training um that the security officer to are and we actually have just been able to hire 3 people to fill those security officer 1 positions that would take us down to only having 1 position that was staffed by an agency so even before I came on here um I was asking uh if the Staffing was right and I'm not sure what factors that we use to say um because back in I think 20 almost 10 years ago we only had like 8 and then it grew to 12 but they want it but Ted wanted 16 or something like that like so like I I'd like to get some guidance from you all about what that like what metrics you're looking at in terms of how we staff at what level also because you know uh cbac is right not every district has a centralized or you know a director of security because typically what happens is that the security officers are assigned directly to a school site but because of our unique position as having a try School complex actually it's it's a 5 school complex um that or 6 it's a 6 School complex that um because of our unique uh positioning there you know it's been very uh there have been uh good things about having somebody as a centralized supervisor um but I'd like to see some more information about uh how we need to compare ourselves to others there um that's something that we can continue doing into you know towards May um and I'd also on on behalf of the public because I know that uh there have been I'm hearing because I'm not in some of these communication groups that you know uh there are there have been passed org charts and org charts of uh similar school districts being passed around that aren't necessarily complete it would be great if um if moving forward uh with whatever is happening moving forward we could provide especially with district office or charts um so that we can be more transparent about what is happening here I um I I think that everybody would appreciate that um you know the other thing that we haven't used this word and I think that uh member Guerrero spoke to it a little bit but like we really are in some kind of austerity measure mode from what um Miss Rajiv is saying and so um you know if we're if we are being uh more cognizant about how our money is being spent and how our contracts are being spent uh are are are Contracting our contracts are Contracting so um you know it's all it all has to do with how how can we better serve our students it's not just about it's about the value that we're getting and not just about blindly um cutting and I want you all to think about that and think about how simply we can um message to our staff to our families that our Osteria our austerity measures are this like we are are um we definitely are saying we've changed how we are um purchasing food you know in terms of uh just just here at board meetings right like we've CH but they don't know this right like so we like all there's got to be a roadmap for this kind of um uh spending because you know I know the school sites they still have their their budgets for the remainder of the year and they still want they still need to spend for you know the remainder of the year but if there's any uh guidance that you can have give them in terms of these austerity measures that is a very specific um I think that it would be helpful for everyone to know um and it instills confidence for everyone um I I know that my colleagues previously were talking about questions more so but I need to go into this because nobody has talked about this yet um I'm going to reiterate that I regret that we're in this situation and that all of these positions support the achievement of our students all of these positions and the humans that hold these positions are valued um I I want to you can you can nod um if we take no action to reduce today the second interim will have a negative certification is that yes if all wreck I mean this came up in the slideshow but it you you didn't it wasn't said and so I I'm going to repeat that if we take no action to reduce as some of our public commenters and emails have have requested us to do if we take no action to reduce the second interim will have a negative cert certification if all recommended actions to reduce our accepted today as is the second interim will most likely be certified as qualified is this true yes so not positive qualified if any resolution recommendations are amended to remove any position the second interim will most likely have a negative certification this true yes highly likely so in case you don't know both qualified and negative certifications trigger State mandated interventions designed to correct the fiscal trajectory ranging from external reviews like our 2024 fiscal stabilization plan onward to uh more intensive scrutiny um including receivership receivership occurs when the district requires a loan to stay operational during receivership the board and the superintendent lose control of operations and the state administrator is assigned this process removes local input and often results in the closing of schools the final state budget called the May revise will be delivered by May 15th the May revise provides us with guidance regarding final projections of our district state revenue this includes both LC f f and the discretionary block funds and whatever else that they choose to fund if the cost of living adjustment a cola in the May revise does not exceed 2% right now it's like at 2. 3 4 schools May adopt a second round of layoffs after the adoption of state budget um so I just want our public to be clear on this even after we do all of these notifications which doesn't mean that we are terminating today even after we do all of these notifications we will still be in qualified sir certification for our second interim report and we will have to do some kind of fsp or whatever else uh fiscal stabilization plan or whatever else the state is Will recommend to intervene for our fiscal um to stabilize our our fiscal um spending um so I I just want our our my colleagues and my and the public to understand how this is a very difficult situation and no 1 think that these positions are not essential or else we wouldn't have created them or you know staff them in the first place um with that I'm I'm going to leave it to you sure okay well thank you so much um colleagues for the discussion and staff for the um it really does mean a lot because I think that this in my opinion is the most in-depth detail Rapport or explanation that we've gotten on this issue um today and so I really really really want to appreciate that I would really want to appreciate the dialogue colleagues really um my question this entire time around budgets and cuts knowing that we were going to be in a really really really tough situation and yet still hoping that we can come to the table with a clear and defined set of metrics for how we're evaluating um positions in the district a clear sort of metrics that talks about um 1 how we can make sure that we are taking cuts that are at the least impact to students every single day how we can also make sure that while we're making Cuts equities used in mine and 3 a clear plan for absorption of the responsibilities for the positions that we're cutting because I don't think any of us are saying that the responsibilities that come with the positions that we're cutting not necessary and so we're asking for a clear plan of who's going to absorb those responsibilities I want to appreciate um the presentation I know it was in there and and I know that it it seemed to have been a whole of a whole of cabinet approach I really want to appreciate that um the presentation we talked a little bit about um duties absorption I know it came up with the counselors um I know it came up with some stuff with the aps um when we talk about metrics and we talk about a clear plan for absorption we from what I've seen in the presentation have put more responsibilities on departments that are already saying that they are over they have they have too much to do they have too much workload I know that this is not new when we talk about counselors and the counselor ratios and what that response time means with the current amount of countries we have right now to students the high school this is not new from when I was a student at the high school I remember having to wait a long time to hear back from my counselor due to the heavy workload that they have and with the plan that was present enter today we are deciding to put more responsibilities into the counselor Department of the counseling department into their workload and the aps as well who have also equally told us that they are already being overworked and so I am having a hard time understanding the metrics as a whole to how we've gotten here but also the metrics of how that work is going to be absorbed I know that we talked about in the presentation too but I think that there's a lot of other responds responsibilities that are expected to be absorbed and I still have no Clarity where that is going to be absorbed um there was a common earlier um about director of teaching and learning and I and I and I actually really like the comment because it was about teaching learning being essential to what we do every single day and I agree and yet we are still cutting teachers and so to me when we talk about metrics I'm not understanding how the argument for 1 but not the other is coming up um I appreciate the general consent is that I've heard from the body around the federal and state compliance position and questions about what re reclassification means and questions about how that workload can absorbed and I agree how can that workload be absorbed but I have the same questions for how Dei can be absorbed I have the same questions for how all these counseling positions and how these counseling responsibilities are going to be absorbed etc etc and not without mentioning that we still don't have an org chart and so when we talk about the district office and we talk about overstaffing it's hard for me and perhaps many of us to understand um what's left and where those responsibilities could possibly go without a clear or a chart or a definition um of what's in the department and lastly there was a comment I think from Dr Gooden about reclassification when we talk about um upgrading positions who have had a set of expectations or a set of responsibilities before and then when we add more we reevaluate it and potentially give more money I'm not under the impression that that's going to happen when we talk about just adding workload from positions that we are expecting to cut tonight and so my question today and my question this entire process has always been about what the metrics are that have led us here how we've come up with this list and what the real plan for how that work is going to still get done it's going to happen and so at this point I don't know if we have response to any of those questions about metrics but I I I'm not sure that I've had or I've received the information that I need to support this when we talk about metrics today and so I I don't know if there's a response to any of that sure I can address some of the items the teacher Productions are specifically in due to our declining enrollment so when you have fewer students enrolled in schools you have the fewer student staff you need to staff this the sections within within the school um that's just a simple numbers game and so um so that's that's to particularly address your your teacher question um you know the metrics for the other or the other cuts are also again I understand the challenges you you're yes the absorption plan is a little bit unclear I'm not going to deny that but we also can't predict exclusively into the future of how we're able to do this perfectly we are working very very hard to make sure that a responsibilities are refocused that we are prioritizing the student work and as I said and we're kind of reassigning um but you know some of this is uh and uh you know we have to make these Cuts so doing our best with the with the change in staff um and then you know as far as to regards to some of the positions it's taking a look at um I don't want to say any position is uh duplicate I'm not saying that at all but saying where this responsibilities could be um redistributed and so really just having an analysis of that and doing the best we can in this very difficult situation to do that um I don't know if any additional thoughts but I mean I can speak for my department I have 6 people within my department I'll be listening to so I'll have 4 left so it will be like Dr Lucas said taking a look at what are people doing what are some things that maybe we've been doing in the past that we're just not going to be able to do to the same the same way that we are doing it um or looking for are there ways that we can do some things efficiently so my department is great they love to meet with every new employee but could we bring 2 employee new employees in at the same time and process them at the same time so really just taking a look at what those efficiency pieces are and you know there may need to be changes to job descriptions and I changed to a job description doesn't always please mean and I don't see it in my department meaning more pay it just means we need to look at how is each person within our department going to get this work done I you know just from looking at some job descriptions I do think that there has been tendency in the past where whenever job descriptions changed um there were raises that went along with these um and that doesn't always have to be the case because you know you may be doing 1 type of clerical work and similar it's just different than what was in your job description before so just speaking as just giving that 1 example of really taking a look and having conversations with the Department of how do how can we all still manage and do the job that we need to get done efficiently for the schools and for the students with 2 less people within our department I mean and that's going to be you know I came from a very small department where I was the 1 in the morning sometimes it was picking up the phone calling for Subs because that's what it takes to get the job done so I you know I think you know we we put a lot on saying management is going to support these things but I you know all of us that have gone into a management role recognize that when these things happen we have to be the people at the top that now kind of start that planning of what does this look like and how do we support our schools and our departments that we oversee so not an exact answer but just a thought process of what that's going to look like I think for my department um I've been looking at every single Department that we have ever since I started to see and trying to understand the history behind all of the positions that we added like how many percent did we add why was it what was the reason so when I you know I don't want to name the position but some of the positions when we started it was only to support um a program that was under restricted program right and then it evolved to become more into the general fund and restricted side and that's in the fiscal Department then drivers so we are transporting 30 students and I have 9 drivers so I'm thinking how can we we are trying to use our drivers efficiently to to eliminate that um the field trips and all of that but that that needs a lot of conversation with our labor Partners to stagger the time so can do the field trips because right now we are limited right we are limited when we end our time at 3:00 the field trips start after 3:00 so looking at the data of what is it that Services we are providing and looking at our staffing so yes I looked at the data Data before we recommended even our our our mail clerk when we look at it um so we have a driver and mail clerk both combined do the same work so we just have to eliminate some of the steps make it efficient so we could use little bit more like I don't I just have to have few backs here for each of the Departments or district office staff has to drop it in there and then the driver can transport it rather than having a clerk to distribute it right so we looked at the data and then closely to make sure I know we will be taking some little bit more work but then I think this is less money more work and but we thoughtfully did that yeah well and I appreciate the explanation for how people's respective departments are going to handle the extra workload I don't know that my confusion was about how the work was going to happen at the district office I I do trust that there are you all were making recommendations for your own departments that could sustain the workload my my concern is about how the work is going to happen on the classroom in the classroom on the sites and so with the level of detail that we just received about the representative departments is what I would have needed to see for how this work is going to be absorbed um on the site to and and I know that we're all in a place of confusion and we don't really know but to me I cannot make a decision like this on a we don't really know because at the end of the day when we don't know kids still continue to not be served and that onus is on us and so colleagues I don't know if we want to go to a second round of questions if we're ready for a vote I don't know if colleagues had comments or no member Crossing you had I don't know if you had said it I I I had some things I wanted to say but you know just through the questions a few kind of popped into my mind additionally and you know Dr good and I totally appreciate what you're saying um with respect to losing some staff and having to cover that I I think those of us who've you know been out in the workforce a while and especially in management positions I mean I've talked about this before I have 6 attorney report to me last year we had some turnover I had for at 1 point in time and I just dove in and did a lot of the work myself frankly and a lot of us were just a little busier and we had to prioritize a little bit more and it's not to say that people weren't sort of fully staffed up before that but you know when you have kind of a budget situation like this you have have to figure out you know what are the nice to have so what are the must dos you know and sometimes the things that are nice to have you know while it is something that we value a great deal it's it's not something that we can necessarily continue if we don't have the funding to do it um I think 1 of the things and if you all can kind of share with us a little bit more because I think there's a bit of an impression um to some extent in the community and maybe even to some extent among maybe some of my colleagues too although I think we all kind of at least know a little bit about the process here and this is my first time going through this with you all but um I know that Dr Lucas approached me in mid January to talk about some of these potential reductions and at that point there were quite a few positions that had already kind of been identified as potentials and you know there was sort of some massaging that occurred throughout the next several weeks I if you if you're able to describe a little bit like generally the process that led us to this point because it it wasn't I just want to make sure the community understands too that it wasn't you know that last Saturday but before that all of a sudden these resolutions popped up and you know that's maybe the first time the public had seen any of this but this is something to my impression at least as has been underway for quite some time if you can maybe talk a little bit about you know processing engage in who you talked to over time you know whether that was site level District level other folks you know just kind of give us a sense of how we came to these conclusions and that they aren't just something that was hastily done sure uh so you know really taking a look at that uh first taking a look at analyzing kind of preco versus postco stopping levels and what particular areas to the district um staff up on that uh were changes um from from those errors so just to kind of give you a highlight with that 1 that's the first data and where there was some indications that Health Healthcare Services was an area you know using that criteria right also working a lot as a team and a knowledge our schools and knowledge of Staffing in um in other districts that we've been experienced with is is 1 way of kind of having that as a metric of kind of analyzing take a look at that working working with our administrators about where there's some possibilities for coverage of positions and so those conversations all took place in regards to uh developing the list and then like I also mentioned simply some of it's a numbers game um and particularly in regards to the secondary teachers that I had mentioned earlier um okay I mean I guess I can just kind of give my general Impressions and comments a little bit awkward process since you know I know we're all kind of asking questions and there may be some things I I will try to commit to not piping in again after this because I've I've thought about this a great deal um so we have difficult decisions tonight I I think it's not any that any 1 of us really wanted to make although we kind of knew for quite some time even from last year that there were going to be budget issues this year I mean it was something that Mr lachman and I discussed you know with constituent uence and others during the campaign as well um as I mentioned at our last meeting it's our job to be here to do the good things and to do these difficult things I'm glad that all 5 of us are here tonight to contribute to the conversation and the decisions that are being made um and there's a reason there's a school board of 5 of us uh you know we all bring our own knowledge and our own experience of the conversation may not agree with each other all the time but I always appreciate my colleagues perspectives and Views so here's mine um we've known for quite some time that this 1 time Co money would not continue forever uh and it does appear that some of our predecessors use that money to establish some new positions that the public and some teachers and staff believe would be permanent the public and employees have become used to these positions as part of the educational services that the district should offer and now any elimination of position justifiably feels like a lost everybody um we've received many many emails uh from teachers staff community members you know everybody over the past 10 days or so passionately arguing for individual positions to be removed from these lists I really appreciate appreciate everybody's passion advocacy and engagement on this process I do also want to express my appreciation for the cabinet site leadership and our certificated and classified union leaders for their extensive engagement over the past couple of months and I really especially want to appreciate Dr Focus who spent a great deal of thought and Care making these difficult lists of positions and I think he's taken a lot of the brunt of the criticism um which is maybe what happens when you're in charge of everything but maybe not the most fair thing hey girls and also just noting that you know of of the cabinet that's sitting up here 3 of them are new last year I mean this this is a really really new body that we're working with and they inherited problems of predecessors and even Dr Baxter's not been around that long um by comparison so I I really just want to encourage the public to give some Grace to those um who are in charge of the district here um you know and I know just basically based on the fact that I had a window into the process which we've discussed in the last question here that I don't didn't have control all over it but a bit of a view into it that the decisions on these lists were not made lightly and they were made with the 10,000 foot view of the entire District that most people and not even me have uh so I just want to be clear also that as a state California shamefully under funds public public education or state has put us in this predicament we should have money for interventionists we should have money to decrease class sizes we should have money to hire more Personnel who would undoubtedly improve the educational experience for all of our children in this district and especially our students of the greatest needs but just does not prioritize education the way that it should and we're left fighting over every dollar and every penny which impacts our students with the highest needs worst of all and the superintendent report and this was a repeat from last week we saw that the revenue from or sorry excuse me the the in the 2023 to 2024 school year expenditures were 17.8 million more than revenue and in 2024 to 2025 the expenditures were 5.3 million more than Revenue which means that in those 2 years alone expenses expenditures were 23.1 million more than our Revenue we've heard about some contributing factors to that overspending some of which are not really under the district's control and some that were actually really good things uh for example increasing teacher compensation consistent with the cost of living increase but we just can't get around the fact that much of that spending was just simply irresponsible and everything's interconnected here prior overspending on agency Source contract employees which we saw in 1 of those charts uh expensive real estate Consultants hired to pursue pet Pro projects expensive service providers who charges 225 an hour for their own low-paid non-union employees to read emails and prep for meetings among other things are in part what landed us here even the Small Things add up dinner and wine at the Culver Hotel before a board meeting a conference that's a to have uh rather than a necessity and just to be clear the new board is not doing that now we're not expending money at the Culver Hotel we're basically getting food services from the district uh before our meetings uh we're still paying a steep price for that Legacy of overspending by our predecessors though it is and it's always been my commitment to trying to keep Cuts away from the classroom to the extent possible and I continue to be committed to that goal I urge our district leadership to engage in a meaningful evaluation of District expenditures and find the money to be able to ensure that we can achieve that goal and finally it's our responsibility as District leadership to make sure that that money is spent responsibly as well that's something I'm committed to doing it's why I ran I would just add also that nothing I'm doing here is in service of any political Ambitions all of this work that I started as an or organizer on the outside when my son started school in this district and now as a board member on the inside has only been out of a desire to serve the community and to fix the problems I saw that led me to run for this position in the first place I'd actually like to also challenged the community to help us on the revenue side of the equation too Culver City's gentrifying that's a fact we all know that home prices have increased substantially and well-resourced corporations have moved in I'd like from the members of the community to view it as all of our responsibility to help fully fund our schools especially in the absence of adequate Public Funding we'll need more money to improve the condition of our schools so please think of how you can help engage with the Education Foundation engage on campus and with us as well when opportunities come up to serve on District committees and you have a skill set that we can benefit from please raise your hand and when in the election cycle girls around if you believe that you have Solutions these problems you can run for office yourself too and help make the good decisions and the difficult ones that I mentioned at the beginning of my remarks so just in conclusion um help us figure out a way forward so that we can fully fund what we value and ensure that the district lines with the expectations of Excellence that we all have thank you there's a lot I agree uh with in there um you know I I I appreciate first of all I want to extend my appreciation to the cabinet for uh going through a lot of our uh fine tooth comb questions but I think we all know and I I appreciate you all know as well this is to address a lot of what the public perceptions are and to show we are doing the work and we are asking the hard questions in a difficult and constantly changing environment we don't know what federal money is going to be there in the future we don't know what the state is going to be doing to us we have a general idea as We Know and as board member Carlson pointed out the state treats prop 98 as a ceiling not a floor and we uh pay a price for that uh I also agree and uh that you know some of the decisions we've made um you know when things were good instead of trying to increase our res reserves and making sure we're we're planning for a rainy day and being more efficient um there are some things that perhaps we could have done better um you know but we are where we are and doesn't make sense to O overly obsess over the past mistakes we just can't do that we have to deal with where we you know with the situation we are are dealing with um uh I think we heard a couple of the suggestions of things of where we can improve better um and I know that this board is dedicated to make sure our kids get a quality education no matter their background no matter um where they come from no matter how they learn and I know the staff here as well and I I do want to add for anyone who wants to say that our decision in order to compensate our staff adequately is a bad decision I'm going to disagree you attract the quality people by keeping them giving them reasons to want to come here so I'm not going to apologize for that uh in in any way um you know I've looked at what's going on around the state and we're not alone um Pasadena has a 37 million hold that they need to dig out of come to nearly 2750 per student they eliminated 151 positions the other day Ventura 80 positions and 8 million hole both of those have approximately double our population in terms of students but there's they're paying out 549 per student we're have a $9 hole we're set about 37 positions about 348 per student but these numbers don't make us feel any better um you know these are people's lives and these are people who we value in community and we don't want to lose them um we trust them to be around our kids we trust them to make our schools better uh and this is a difficult and hard situation that none of us want to be in um whether we're alone or not it doesn't matter we're impacting people's lives and and no 1 is taking this lightly and I'm certain No 1 in this board is doing that either um so you know I will say that you know I do want to appreciate and note some of the things that we have done in terms of dealing with this we're you know we have a hiring freeze we're making sure that the uh you know hopefully that the uh assistance a superintendent for GI Position will be closed which is 300,000 which is almost 3 teachers it should be less but right now it at least is that um you know each each department and from the administration standpoint is losing at least 1 person we're stopping the man and you know and they're they're there's a commitment and they're looking at uh and hopefully they will uh stop the practice of the small number but still a significant number of those in management who pay benefits at no cost we've seen where the savings has been terms of following up from the 2019 audit and that was acted on we are acting to reduce contracts um 300,000 we have a a ways to go I I would like to see us when we get particularly into the teachers position um and also here as well prioritise the positions that we can try to save and so that if we are able to find it if there are retirements that come up you know we can try to save some of those positions I particularly the guidance uh counselor position is 1 because we've had that as a problem we've heard consistently from parents that there isn't enough support for students uh who are doing that uh site-based instruction support inclusion for our um e efforts as well for our our special ed needs those are you know I think those are ones that we if we can try to save it that's my priority order um you know I would like to see us do that and I do recognize the risk in what we're doing here the it uh approach has some risk in it um I'm not sure what our you know we have limited number of options here but we have to you know people are putting their reputations on the line to show this is work and we have to put a a certain amount of trust in our staff that they've looked at this we've asked them the questions and and they've answered them so um there are a couple of things I think we can do better in the future and I would like to see us do continuing to reduce um contracts and we can reduce the number of sellers were sending even under the current contract um uh I've seen the contract uh and there are some challenges with that but there's also some good things in that contract um our other contracts for renewals may need to be addressed and reduced at the very least if not eliminated I think we discussed some of those positions uh as well how we raise uh you know having incentive based compensation for those who helped us can help us raise money grant writers make you know those who manage the fraud if they do well we do well and we can reward them looking at how we can raise revenue and maybe uh look at some of these such as as was raised by a uh by a a board member Laredo firm film permits summer camp permits use permits how we use the frost Auditorium hiring uh grant writers you know in partnering to try and find ways to pull in money that way re-examining our policies with our booster clubs to enable them to help in certain areas and attendance recovery are just a couple of those examples um with that in mind uh I you know as I said we all recognize the difficulty of this decision together uh none of us take this lightly um there are people who I've seen come up here speak who I see on campus every day and the thought that we may not be able to save their jobs is something that weighs very heavily on me personally I've been in the position on the private sector that there as well and this is not an easy time um but uh I I think we're doing we we've asked the hard questions that need to be asked um and we have to move forward in order to make sure that our district can continue to operate and provide quality education for our students and whatever we can do to save those positions um closest to the classroom and come up with some standards to do that I think the better off we will be as well thank you um I also I I thank staff before but again I want to thank everyone for or just the extra light and extra explanation that you put into the the presentation this time um I think it it really made a lot of things much more clear uh for me hopefully for my colleagues hopefully for the public and folks um out there um I also I also want to thank everybody who's been who's been communicating with us everybody who came up and spoke tonight um I've talked to a number of people recently who said oh I never thought I would speak at 1 of these things I was so nervous it's nothing to be nervous about I mean this is this is speaking your truth in your perspective um and again we've set it up here before people may disagree you may prevail you may not Prevail but I mean there there's this is the place that everybody belongs in the the right to have their voices heard on this same thing with everybody who's been emailing in um appreciate all of those emails it is interesting um you know to board member Loretta's point a little while ago we've gotten a lot of emails that say oh you shouldn't cut this position you should cut this other position instead it's kind of an all of the above uh at this point because of the depths of of this and again some of this is things that have uh are are spending that Miss rajiv's office has really been working hard to kind of rein in um some of these aren't necessarily choices we we there was a culture in Culver City of doing open contracts and and open uh POS and things like that for a long time um that is that is ending um and it's been kind of winding down but miss Rajiv is really putting an end to that um you know so we we are not in a situation to as as again miss Loretta uh board member Loretta really spelled out if we don't do pretty much all of these uh we're in a a position where we we and we as a community lose control of this and then somebody comes in and says you know counselors you don't really need those uh 1 interval really need that you know and somebody else is making decisions so it really does fall on staff to make recommendations but ultimately the 5- electeds to make difficult choices um that being said um I do want to also say to everybody who is affected by this directly and obviously thinking about school sites and thinking about students that are affected but speaking to 35 and a half people or 36 and a half people whatever the number is on that um who are affected a few of them are vacancies a of them are folks who we are going to be able to find some way to move a position or something like that um but ultimately there's a group of folks who have dedicated some time to Culver City um you know and our students who who will probably not be with us next year and so I'm sorry we couldn't have done better by this by you um and I I I thank you for everything you've given to our students over the years um 1 other 1 uh board member Esther brought up that idea of Duty absorption I think that's a really good point and something you know we asked a little bit about it but his was really the most um most specific kind of question that line of questions on that folks who are overworked ultimately don't do a good job they're not healthy they don't of the schools and the students and things like that and so so some of that is as Miss Gooden put out uh Dr Gooden put out is is a little bit more efficiency some of it is all we kind of you know tighten the belt and we do a little bit more um but ultimately I do think every office every School site has to have that that conversation about what are we doing that we cannot do and I was a classroom teacher forever and it's 1 of those things a new program a new test comes in and a new directive and a new thing and a new thing and a new thing and that plate gets full and full and full um and some point we do have to have the explicit conversation about what are we not going to do not just kind of let's let some few things slide let's make some affirmative choices of these are things in this office in this program at this School site that we're not going to do anymore we'd like to but we can't and we I'd rather folks make a a conscious choice to let a few things go maybe you put it on a a shelf and as soon you know when things change a little bit you pull it back out again um but make that choice and have that discussion about what are we going to stop doing um and I think ultimately that also needs to be based on data you know not just I hate doing that okay but if that's getting really good results for the students or something of that's really connecting with parents you keep doing that uh you you find out which things do we maybe enjoy doing or we think sound great but they're not producing um and and get much more into that culture of basing decisions on data basing decisions on what we continue doing doing basing decisions on what we don't do I remember again as a teacher there was this Scholastic Magazine that everybody loved and it was this thing in the budget and everybody always wanted to do it but really when you looked at it 3 people were using it and the kids didn't you know it's there there's probably a lot of things that we do because we've always done it you know in every office in every department and every School site um that we really have to have that that look and see what is it adding to our employees what is it adding to our community what is it adding to our students but I I again just the last thing is just having that discussion about what what can we put to rest um and let go so that people are not just doing being asked to do 110% all the time so thank you um before uh first I I'd like to say I I think I'm interpreting where we're all going typically our discourse has to do with hey I'm leaning board this or or that so that we can get an idea of where the votes going to end up um I want to clarify that uh until the weekend before the last meet the the 12 20 uh the 12 the the February 25th meeting I did not know exactly what um I did not know exactly what was going to be on the resolutions so although we spoken about it before like like we we've uh we've discussed like oh I'm thinking about you know these positions or you know it's been mentioned to the you know uh to admin or this and that until that moment I I did not know all of the specific roles um we have been talking about possible reductions not specific to um positions but we have been talking about this for well over a year when we were in fsp last year and so um an end uh it's not until tonight that we are seeing as a group and as um as the public in front of the public the exact numbers of which we needed to cut and that goal that we are working towards and so again I'm going to reiterate my advocacy for create for superintendent to have some kind of subcommittee so that we can facilitate recommendations ongoing recommendations to the board because even if these resolutions are passed tonight what's going to be the difficult part is that you know you're going to continue needing to make decisions about how do you how do you which like how do you retain and then like you know if there's new information that comes up like what's going to be the recommend like what's the yes we know what the staff recommendation is but you know can we work more nimbly to you know together as a as a subcommittee um I also I I also want to reiterate and I think that I'm saying it in a very different way is that we want to continue being a destination District in LA county um and how we do that is by working smarter not harder or longer you know holding our staff you know um each each and every 1 of us not just our staff but each and every 1 of us accountable to the intent of success for all and you know having a coaching model with thought leadership that really encourages everybody to just bring out the the best of themselves and be well supported with what resources that we have um you know taking the opportunity to just take a look at the value out of every single investment and making sure that we are doing the best um with with what we've got um you know I I want to I want to ask colleagues and I know um chair needs to to to still speak on this round or or maybe he maybe he doesn't have anything else to add but you know I really want to make sure that colleagues are asking for any clarification on what else they need to make a decision tonight knowing the stakes are either a a negative or a qualified um uh certification of the uh forthcoming second uh second interim and um you know if you need uh if you need an amendment if you need like what other options that you're you're you're proposing or you know or if their you know this just isn't for you like I I think I'm in as far as you know the interpretation that I'm I'm having right now I think that we've been kind of dancing around it and um you know I I I asked our chair to try to synthesize what we've got here so thank you no add a clarification and that about trying to prioritize positions that we'd like to see saved uh obviously it depends on the numbers we know we can't make that commitment but it can help provide some uh guidance in terms of where we can go in of um of of that but that would be my only other suggestion I'm still intending to support at this point okay so I'm going to clarify that then like so it's to make a decision to not moving forward um so uh when when I'm asking if you could provide that it's specifically for this resolution tonight and knowing that we can iterate moving forward correct yes thank you know 1 want to hold anything up there's not that option I mean I nothing else to add colleagues I think we may be ready for about it's my interpretation that there's at least a majority if I'm having a pulse of the board baby um just wondering about we have a motion already um in a second so all those in favor please say I hi hi all those opposed say nay nay 41 the motion Carries On 61 resolution 62 I assume there's no presentation because we had the there's no presentation on this right no sir 62 colleagues any questions or did we get all your questions out earlier just since we asked about which ones are vacant which ones are vacant for the this as well that's it need to move it we need to move this I think we need to move someone needs to move this first we have a motion I guess I'll move it okay motion by member Crossing second by Mr Guerrero you moved right yeah okay so but I mean are we going in order or yeah well I thought you had no questions I I basically asked my questions in the last meeting and generally oh yeah that's fine didn't mean to jump in front of line okay that that would be my only 1 is just what which which of the teacher positions are already vacant um I can share with you um would you also like to know the ones that are in district office positions okay um so the teacher on special assignment that's a district office position the first um is currently being covered by an agency um the program specialist is currently vacant um the inclusion facilitator is a district office position um and the director of state and federal program assessment accountabilities is a district office position I did also just want to add um while it will be a change to some people's um job descript or what the position is they're holding right now um we anticipate that this is um approved this evening that it would result in 3 employees receiving potential layoff notices and that's through we have positions that are open through attrition and retirement and if there are retirements that can change that exactly okay Mr Grow 3 out of 16 when you say that when you say 3 potential uh layoffs so we would just be based on retirements resignations that sort of thing um like positions that are being eliminated we have places for those people to go back into like a seat classroom teaching position yes okay thanks um do you want to jump back in Mists cross uh no I do not have additional questions okay thanks um for the actual classroom positions because there are a couple of classroom positions listed on here my understanding is that those are as much a product of tightening up the master schedule um declining enrollment um we've been not hemorrhaging students but you know a slow trickle over the years um and that we would probably be looking at those reductions even if our budget were in better shape I would agree with that so let me just give an example um looking at like there's 1 on here that's 08 Algebra 2 geometry so when you're coming up with these taking a best guess at you know anticipated enrollment for next year looking at what the requests were for this year and what the request for next year so for example um this year there's 18 sections of Algebra 1 on the master schedule um if you look at 20 student students in a class so that being a number that the district was committed to um you could fill with the number of requests there were this year you could put 20 kids in a student and have th like 13.1 so you need 14 sections basically to do that um right now there's 18 sections that would be sitting on the master schedule so just tightening things up and you know making sure that um the same thing with geometry you know you can cut a section of geometry from the master schedule your your your numbers because there's so many sections you'd probably be looking at you know 1 or 2 students within each a classroom but those numbers still being you know around 30 or under um so just taking a look at the master schedule and finding places where um overages like that where it can be tightened up at the secondary level okay and you mentioned algebra for example the board last year committed to smaller algebra and geometry classes because that was 1 of the kind of blocks that we noticed with a lot of students moving forward we're still committed to that and we're still staffed at the level to maintain that yeah so in the way that this works is when with these resolutions um it's it's your best guess of what the what the kind of line is if you will right but when you talk about a math position um when you start doing layoffs it's based on credential so a a teacher that has a credentials to teach geometry or Algebra 2 has that same credential to teach Algebra 1 so let's say we get a lot of students and it might need algebra 1 instead of geometry it could be when they make the master schedule you might need 1 extra section of algebra but 1 less section of geometry so that's where building that investor schedule becomes the um um you know kind of a balancing game but when you're looking at the total enrollment and then figuring each student needs you know 1 1 section of math we know that those ninth graders coming in we're looking at smaller numbers um that's where those estimates come from okay and the numbers that we're shooting for as we tighten the master schedule a little bit are still completely within our contractual obligations yeah absolutely okay um and then just can somebody speak a little bit to the report that the high school and and I assume the Middle School uh are getting around Master schedules because again Master schedules are first inherently really hard um but we did have a couple of snafus this year with zero period um and and some of our AP classes that were heavily enrolled um are they getting the kind of support given a little bit tighter Staffing to be able to do a good job with that master schedule so I can't speak to what has happened in the past um um however I do know right now I've had conversations with middle school and high school as far as what their numbers are um I come from a school and I was a high school and middle school principal where I did the master schedule myself so I'm super comfortable with that I know the process is going into it I think where some of the challenges in the past from my understanding of talking to the Administration has been where there have been some last minute changes as far as oh we're going to add something for zero period or oh we're not going to so um I think the key right now is you know the school knowing and we've already had conversations of this is what your this is what your numbers are so now start building this the master schedule so they're both in the process middle school has already started working on theirs um High School I believe they're finishing up course requests right now so that they can start their master schedule but then us being able to have collaborative conversations because there could come an area where it's like wait a minute maybe we do actually need the Spanish teacher that's here and we may not need something else where there's a vacancy so um right now these are just projections of what those numbers are and as soon as the master schedules are completed then you know if it turns out that there's 1 of the schools needed an extra Spanish teacher then that would need to come off of the list but um these are just the projections based on numbers that we have our you know our best March 15th doesn't isn't a great a great date for when you're you're trying to plan for the following school year for those things so just looking at um projections over time but May and then June gives us a little bit more time but I I appreciate that that it sounds like the the master scheduling is getting started a little bit earlier and and some more eyes I would definitely suggest though that if it's ready um earlier to how can I just share it a little bit more widely because what ends up happening is and I've done this myself I think we've all done it you've got something that you think is perfect and you think you've looked at it 7 ways from Sunday and then as soon as you roll it out somebody finds mistakes you know and so the sooner that we can get out trial bubble or something like that or you know share it with some folks who might be able to identify some of the challenges before we lose some folks who we may decide we we would rather keep yeah I I can that both the high school and middle school were very um you know wanting that data ahead of time and to know what the parameters were for what was going to be offered zero what wasn't going to be offered um what middle school programs were going to be going to the high school that sort of thing so that they could build the master schedule because there's nothing harder than first day or or you know a week before school starts and you're like oh I've got to add in a whole you know a whole math teacher let's just say or oh I've got to take out a whole social studies teacher or whatever it might be so you know starting that process now where they're still in like a build scenario on the back end and looking at how do we sort of put these kids into classes and sort them out as long as they have the information that they need right now I mean I'm confident that that both of the people that are working on it and the administrative team will be able to have um solid Master schedules okay thank you and then just 1 last 1 with the reduction of an inclusion facilitator and the reduction of a special ed program specialist um I know we've had conversations before about there being some over overlap and fuzziness between the job descriptions of those positions um we're still going to have 2 inclusion facilitators and 2 sped program Specialists I believe um has there been any discussion about revising and clarifying those job descriptions or at least the duties of those positions so we can make sure that everybody's getting what they need we've had preliminary conversations with special education but again looking at that like what are the levels of support that um you know 1 person that's here 8 7 hours can't be in 2 places at once so what are the priorities that we're having what are the things that we're saying we want program Specialists to be working on and then what are the you know the top priorities of what the inclusion facil facilitator excuse me would work on um so that you know they recognize like these are what the priorities are and then here were some of those you know maybe nicer to have things that it's just we can't you know we can't break people into 3 so um just trying to re prioritize that work okay within the job descriptions fantastic thank you that ends my questions hi I don't have a whole lot of specific question questions about this I I feel like um my colleagues just covered it but I do want to understand moving forward because you know a couple of this is uh in terms of iterating moving forward and uh employee retention is coming coming up um I mean continuing after this is that um last year we had our budget study session the middle of may like right after the um it happened to coincide with uh you know the May 15th date but I think that like the the May revise came out a little bit before that are we still on like I and I know this year as well um you know you may have a state of the district at some point sometime in May probably going to be during AP testing um so like I I what I want to understand more is like as we iterate um you know I are we just going to be at in this position on May May 15th May 15th or whatever where it's just a matter of like that that's what I I I fear is that it's just a matter of how it laid out like you know oh the the attrition is what it is and you know we're ending up with maybe at most 3 or at best you know in terms of layoffs and we wouldn't know until then unless we're you know yeah go go ahead so I mean you know teachers are sitting at a toaster role or you know the teacher that's an inclusion facilitator that would be going back to the classroom or you know the the site based instructional leads I mean They will receive noticing also that says you know you're going back to you're being reassigned to a different position so that you know that noticing happens as well um and I know you know that's that's that's hard that's people's positions that they're sitting in there so when I say that 3 people are going to be the ones receiving notice those are the 3 people receiving notice of there may not be a position for you next school year um but yeah so there are you know other people that would be receiving a notice it's just a different type of notice okay so um I just want to um I I have the expectation that we'll be communicated to you know every every step of the way especially if you can find more savings is probably not the greatest word um more more places where we can uh reduce that are not these places right and I'm going to ask superintendent if because it's been hard to schedule specialist in the first place and I'm going to I'm going to ask um my colleagues too if we can if we if it's at all possible that we already uh work to slot in some of these study sessions that we know are going to be needed and not wait until April or May to put those down and make sure that our public knows that like you know we are we are really thinking about this stuff and that it's not going to be last minute um you know in previous boards we had the norm of holding um the uh non-regular board meeting Tuesdays for possible specials I don't know if that's possible for us but I want to you know make sure that we are uh letting our community know that that this is the um this is top of mind thank you I have no comments colleagues is that conclude board comments any more comments from colleagues so just 1 last question here with with the positions we're removing with respect to special education or be assigning there's you know 1 of the mantras is just making sure that we're meeting our compliance requirements and that will still enable us to comply and provide you know live up to our obligations to our students who have those needs will still be able to do that yes yes okay thanks all right um oh yeah okay there was a motion to all those in favor say I I I all those opposed say nay nay 41 the motion carries 63 thank you Mr jador this is a vacant position that's been vacant since January uh as I mentioned kind of in presentation during questioning the important work around diversity equity and inclusion has been infused into District departments and schools with extra support from Educational Services Department and School site leads doing the doing the uh the work as well this agenda item is to close was that they can position other Staffing considerations for the Dei work will be forthcoming upon upon further excuse me further review of the budget is there a motion so moved second is there a second second okay discussion colleagues member Carlson sure I just um I may have sort of asked something to this effect uh earlier but I'm I also may not have quite understood the response to it so if we were to vote I to close this position now would this then come out of the budget altogether for next year yes at second interim we will be okay and if it comes out of the budget my understanding was okay so I think this position also comes along with the executive assistant to write and the 2 of them together are approximately what amount of our budget 300,000 300,000 okay so the executive assistant position was is a separate that 1 was listed on the resolution okay on the classified resolution that 1 was on there okay that's listed separately yes for okay so that's already contemplated to come out yes okay um and so 300,000 is just the assistant superintendent position or that's with the executive assistant it's 200,000 it's 200,000 if it's just a superintendent okay the other 1 is 100,000 but there's also like benefits and things that come along with that right so like it's there the all-in cost is is approximately what then 2 240 okay all right 240 or so okay okay um uh you know I just I think we've had a lot of discussion around this like over the last few meetings and certainly a couple of 3 meetings ago 2 meetings ago um on the subject when this came up initially and I just again want the community to understand that we as a board the district and staff and teachers and everybody actually value diversity Equity inclusion in this District um I you know I have not actually received a whole actually any emails at all um asking us to save the assistant superintendent of Dei um I have received a lot of emails probably a couple dozen maybe close to 30 saying you know what this isn't really where our priority should be right now um with respect to an actual position and I think that's very clear because I think a lot of these emails that were coming and were saying I value Dei we do this at the district you know sites um I do this as part of my job or you know all very variations on that right um and I just want to be clear that we were discussing when I was specific position in the district it's an expensive position in the district we've been talking all night about how we're planning on you know sending out notices to over 30 employees of potential reductions and actually reducing our current teaching staff um and and others um certainly our classified staff um and we've also talked about how we're infusing Dei into everything that we do in the district as well so I think I don't know that I have sort of further questions for you all I'm really interested in hearing comments from my colleagues and whatnot but you know I think at this point you know given the gravity of the discussion the fact that this position is currently vacant um I'm pretty comfortable with moving forward um similarly uh comfortable with moving forward is discussed before um we're not getting rid of Dei the way that the superintendent has expressed moving forward of having a distinct budget which you've never had before making sure we have that direct responsibility to the superintendent to make sure it gets done for whatever position and I I do think you need some kind of coordination uh because there are some things that happen in the sights and there are some things that need to be centrally managed because it permeates how we do how we approach uh the culture across the district but I too have heard overwhelmingly feelings that while there's broad support for Dei or the other iterations of what it's being called in the light of the assault that's going on from Washington on this um that uh that are that the priorities we set in terms of making sure that we are um funding our teachers and has said there are 3 that's 2 3 teachers right there um uh you know it has to be reflected in how we put together our our budget and I I maintain my commitment to the principles um behind why we have the programs we do and why we have the direction we do uh but this is a way in which we can respond uh and make sure that our teachers are in the classrooms and they get the support that they need as um and so um you know uh making sure that we can uh still continue to fund through ptas as well as however we can do it within the programs that are we've been doing on a um on a district-wide level is is is is going to be very important and I I definitely want to continue to see us continue to do that and I appreciate everyone moving forward on this uh uh the way we are and that it's it it's not about whether or not the program should exist it's just what is the best way of doing it and looking at how other districts are doing this as it reflection LAUSD is an executive director other districts I know rodando it's done through education Services a senior person over there um but there are ways that we can deliver for our students to make sure their voices are heard that we can lift voices up uh and still respect our budget goals here and I support this going forward for that reason I think when uh a lot of the craziness at the federal level started and Dei became a a bad word I made a commitment to uh you know say it all that that diversity is a good thing and something we should all be advocating for and fighting for that that Equity is important that that inclusion is important um I don't think there's any disagreement about this I also do think there is a benefit to having some centralized coordination to our District's efforts for it um to promote diversity equity and inclusion and as grateful as I am and as amazed as I am with the efforts that have been happening at the school sites and kind of a a localized um matter and and with PTA and and the council PTA around um diversity equity and inclusion what you can't do is hold a volunteer accountable and I think accountability is something else that we've been really trying to restore so long term I absolutely think we do need a position at the district uh you know maybe not an assistant superintendent but but someone who who is charged with kind of coordinating and and moving these efforts I just don't think right now is the time um you know and so we do find ourselves I think leaning probably more heavily than we should in some ways on on volunteers and sites and things like that and I do think it ends up falling to ed services and and the superintendent someone to make sure that those efforts are coordinated um and people are getting what they need and people know who to ask but I think going forward in this goes back to the the question about absorbing job duties um I would like to know very specifically if we're talking about folks observing these Dei uh diversity equity and inclusion responsibilities um specifically what they're doing you know I would like to know what is Ed's Services commitment to move this forward what is the business offices commitment to move this forward what is the HR department's commitment to doing this and the sites what are our principles and our assistant principals and our counselors what is their commitment because it's really easy to say oh everybody's going to do this work but I I think it would help if you know even if it's just a couple of things you know if if we knew what is the business office doing to further diversity Equity inclusion what is the HR department doing to further that um and I think that would help with this kind of temporary period the short-term period where maybe we don't have a centralized uh person being held accountable for this um and I think it would help to further the practices that we've all said we we believe that you know diversity Equity inclusion is everyone's job um you know hey it'd be great if if teachers were doing this and classified folks were doing this but at least starting working with our our administrators and our management folk about what is their commitment to do this in their their job role um but I I am again if it's not clear um okay with with closing this uh position I send this back to you but um I I uh I I want to ask staff superintendent or Dr Gooden um when we closed positions like this and we're asking you know we're asking what is each you know department or each role like commitment to it is it more so you know um because for all we know like you know for right now it's more so even if we do create another position not now I'm not in support of any of that right now um you know how do we re we imagine our job descriptions and hold each 1 of us accountable for making sure that um our efforts for success for all is really happening um you know and is that that we need to go back and relay our uh strategic uh you know our our strategic goals to everyone that includes all of this like how does that happen or does it happen at job description level well I think it's all the above in all honesty right just kind of recomendacoes inclusion efforts um and um you know I have an HR background I'm just I mean to step in for Dr Gooden but there's even things in regards to interviewing you know when we do hire new folks and being particularly have explicit questions and discerning Discerning a new applicant's commitment to the work um is is I know that's new people coming in I think you're asking about existing people too um but that's just kind of 1 example of of doing that but really working with his existing Focus as well and making sure there's clarity around around these issues I mean 1 thing that I know Dr Baxter's office is working hard on we think you know the inclusion part of Dei right is uh in regards to our uh our students with special needs and so really we committing to that inclusion definition um as well will be will be powerful I think for our staff as a whole and a community as a whole ah thank you for leading me to my next uh question statement uh concern is that um all so I am thankful for all of the folks that came out and had the courage to to speak today and to send us their um concerns or their recommendations demands um through email um I I do want to make a statement that um at some point some people say we we do Dei and we we we do not do it well enough I I mean the statement we do not what do it well enough if we did it really well if we did inclusion to the best like like if we were a inclusion Achievers then we wouldn't have all of these issues with our special education um you know Department being having you know more legal fees right like we we wouldn't have this problem we wouldn't have folks feel like they're being left behind um if we were more responsive to our students with disabilities to our student students um who need to be reclassified more quickly then you know they would be meeting their potential and we're not doing that right now and so this is why previous boards said like we're not being able to get any change in you know the the the structure the root causes of um why we aren't closing gaps and we haven't been able to hold folks accountable in their leadership to uh provide these places of pure opportunity of our students thriving of our students being served in a supportive and welcoming environment because if we were able to do that then we would have folks we would be able to retain more students we would have less litigation we're not doing our best there and so I I want to say to all we're not doing well in Dei and at this point in time like it would it would be a very bad business decision to not close this this uh uh position and uh and I at this time too I'm not even in support of creating a new position because we are not in the position of being able to do that when we don't know how what y'all are calling coverage for these supports is going to be I am very worried you know um like I said before I think all of y'all are essential and I don't know how this is going to look but um we're in a row we're between a rock and a hard place right now where our um our business has to continue and we are we are going to iterate and find a way and um make sure that we are doing our the best that we can with what we've got because we are underfunded thank you um all right um I'm gonna on this for the same reasons I was in no 1 all the other resolutions um the metrics to me for all of these Cuts have been unclear and so to me getting rid of anything without a clear plan of how that work is being absorbed is irresponsible and it's irresponsible in my opinion and I cannot personally support that but it seems like there is a majority in support and so calling oh did you I just yeah I mean I I just wanted to build up if you're not yeah sorry I'm going first is sometimes a problem because people say things and then I kind of want to build on it you know yeah um so yes and thank you VP Loretto for letting me go not first in the last meeting um anyway so I think you know I I was sort of hearing some of the comments about like building it into everything that we do and you know certainly it resonates with respect to interviewing um you know and asking questions and I think you know also I think we should think about building this into performance reviews and um self-evaluations and things like that as well um and I I I would also just sort of say we weren't doing the I very well even when we had an assistant superintendent of Dei in this District so I think that the problem goes deeper than just having somebody in some position that we can then say we're the first in California to have this person um you know we need to really be committed to this an individual level on a slight level at a district level and be really smart about the ways in which we go about doing things and I think that does include like holding people accountable too because I think you know other other things for another day is talking about where where some of our particular services and particular aspects of how we deliver education to students can be improved upon I just don't see that necessarily as related to a very specific position and again an expensive position in the district as well I do think that I like the idea of there being some sort of coordination though aspect of this and that it might maybe sit within as services or under the superintendent or wherever that person may be um so I'm looking forward to continuing that conversation I don't think this is the end of it I think it's just the beginning um but I appreciate everybody's comments okay colleagues um I think we already had a motion a second all those in favor say I I post say nay nay the motion carries I want to join me can I get a motion to adjourn second Guerrero office in favor say I I I think I need a signs again I get to be black I'm the clerk blue or black I got a

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