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Regular Board Meeting 04-28-26

Added May 04, 2026 •

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morning I now call this Open Session to order all 5 board trustees are present and uh I'd like to invite Kyra from uh Lynn how to join us for the flag to lead the flag salute you can go to the lectern thank you you'll be okay please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and you can say the person let's get ready begin expecting to be your heart place your right hand over your heart ready begin I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands 1 nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you so much Mr King would you please uh lead us with the land acknowledgement we acknowledge our presence on the traditional ancestral and unseated territory of the kich and tongva people who are the original caretakers of this land thank you 3.4 there were no actions taken by the board in closed session adoption of the agenda 5.1 uh Dr Jimenez yes uh good evening board president members of the board uh for this evening we do have uh some corrections to make the first correction we have is for agenda item 6.2 we are adding inclusive language in the second paragraph uh and that inclusive language is NASA spelled m e n a s a the second correction we have is for agenda item 16.2 we are correcting the spelling of the names for the minutes from April 14 2026 and those uh names are Lee Margaret Hansen and Serena fish and indicating that Serena fish is a VP of avpa Art and correcting the minutes to read that Miss Hansen made a quote a suggestion for Furlow day so that teachers can classify staff would not have to be cut all other areas of the minutes are correct thank you 6.0 um can I get a motion to adopt the agenda second all those in favor say I I I thank you approved 6.1 rising star awards if my colleagues could please join join me in the world and as the board is coming down to the front we just a kind reminder that we have our April Rising Star education Awards and the rising star is designed to recognize our students who demonstrate a characteristics and behaviors from their schools PBIS or positive behavior intervention supports each school's PBIS Model reinforces A positive School climate through adherence to safety guidelines positive behavior and social emotional development and this evening we're going to start with our students from law bayona if allesandra Clark could come on up and allesandra is a kind and thoughtful student who helps others feel welcome she sets a strong example through her hard work responsibility and pride in everything that she does congratulations on this well-deserved award aandra our next rising star from labona is Luna Maximo come on up Luna Luna is a positive and responsible student who brings a smile wherever she goes she shows kindness and inclusivity by helping others sharing and making thoughtful respectful choices she consistently follows expectations and sits a great example for her peers congratulations Luna our next rising star from El Marino language school is Elena Wong come on up Elena Elena is a kind responsible and helpful student who consistently demonstrates a positive attitude she contributes to a supportive classroom environment and sets a great example for her peers through her thoughtful actions congratulations Elena our next Rising star is from El Marino JC Cox please come up JC JC is a respectful and positive student who consists recently puts forth her best effort she showed genuine care for others and helps create a supportive welcoming classroom environment congratulations Stacey and from Ellyn Khan we have Mason elberg Mason come on down Mason consistently models expectations with his passion for Learning and curiosity he eagerly seeks new challenges and shows empathy and kindness towards everyone in the classroom his enthusiasm and positive energy make him a joy to have in class congratulations our next rising star from Elden Elementary team school is Willow Santos come on up Willow Willow is a willow is a respectful and determined student who consistently gives her best effort she collaborates thought fully with peers and leads by example through her positive attitude her kindness and empathy maker a valued member of the community and a strong role model for others congratulations below our next rising star from Alvin Kahn Elementary School is kase Samson come on down k is a kind and thoughtful student who consistently shares respect determination and perseverance he works well with peers contributes positively to the classroom and uplifts those around him he is a great example for others to follow congratulations Casey our next rising star is from Farragut Elementary School Oliver Connelly come on up Oliver Oliver is a shining example of a TK student who has shown tremendous growth across all areas this year he consistently demonstrate strong social emotional skills kindness and a willingness to help and support his peers making him a positive role model in the classroom we are so proud of his progress leadership and the joy he brings to his classroom Community congratulations all around and our next rising star is also from Farragut EV Kessler Eevee come on up Eevee is an excellent student who consistently demonstrates self control and a calm respectful presence with her peers she's a quiet leader who enriches the classroom by sharing interesting facts and willingly contributing to her knowledge Eevee is an exemplary student and Farragut is lucky to have her congratulations our next Rising Star um is from Linwood Howe Elementary School William evit come on up William William is an excellent candidate for the Rising Star Award he consistently supports both staff and students going out of his way to help others succeed and feel included he has also inspired his peers through initiatives like starting there is a break dancing club where he teaches routines and encourages participation especially in running in running and dance activities congratulations William and our last writing start from littlewood how is Kyra is aqua come on down Kyra is Zeno I'm going to get your name right Kyra is a true rising star in fifth grade consistently demonstrating kindness respect and resilience she is a dedicated student athlete who shows strong sportsmanship and cooperation both on and off the field while actively engaging in class discussions and thoughtful collaboration Kyra is also a positive role model exemplifying all 5 Pride as a recess red vest leader and we are incredibly proud of all she has accomplished at Lynwood how congratulations at this time we're going to pause just for a brief moment to recognize our Elementary rising stars and get a and have a photo opportunity thank you continuing on with our Rising Stars from cover City Middle School we have Diane Carino Lucille come on up DNA is an exemplary Avid student who demonstrates strong work ethic dedication and a consistent willingness to volunteer and support others she is studious responsible and actively engage in her learning vien is a rising star are both in the AVID program at CCMS and in her community congratulations via cool we have Leilani Arbuckle Lopez Lonnie come on down Leilani is a fantastic young lady who is always willing to support ASB and members of the school Community she brings a positive attitude kindness and a strong sense of responsibility to everything she does she is a rising star with strong leadership potential and the makings of an exceptional leader at CCMS congratulations our next rising star from Cal City High School is Gia Lombardo come on up Gia we face what it means to be a Culver City High School Centaur by stepping in and standing up for Brothers when it matters she responded quickly and addressed the situation firmly helping reinforce that all students deserve to feel safe and respected on campus her actions reflect strong leadership and a commitment to fostering a positive School community and we are proud of the example she sets each day congratulations Tia rising star from Culver City High School is our very own student board member Jordan Kang coming down Jordan Jordan exemplifies what it means to be a Culver City High School Centaur through his confidence in speaking up against injustices within the school Community he consistently uses his voice to advocate for others and Elevate student perspective with purpose and integrity as ASB vice president he has served the student body with dedication and excellence and we are incredibly proud of his leadership as he heads off to UCLA next year congratulations Jordan our next rising star is from cover Park hi Andrew Guzman come on up Andrew consistently demonstrates kindness respect and responds possibility and all that he does he takes initiative and completes tasks in a timely and thorough manner making him a reliable and positive contributor to the cover Park Community congratulations Andrew and next from Culver Park we have Angel Romero Angel come on down joy to have in the Culver Park Community bringing a gentle spirit and positive presence to those around him he is supportive dependable and approaches every task with quiet determination and a willingness to help Angel is a valued member of our community in a true Rising Star congratulations angel our next rising star from a Academy is denim roads come on up denim denim consistently demonstrate strong strong academic performance across all subject areas and Carries himself with professionalism in his interaction with staff he's also a dedicated student athlete who enjoys football unboxing outside of school denim is a proud I Academy rising star congratulations denim our final Rising Star this evening is Harley Moore come on down Harley Harley Moore class of 2026 is a dedicated I Academy student athlete who excels both academically and on the field he consists recently demonstrates a strong work ethic positive mindset discipline and Leadership along with a clear commitment to success in all areas congratulations congratulations to all and at this time we're going to take a photo opportunity with our secondary students me too all right I'm looking for Manda uh moving on to proclamations uh we are there are 4 Nations 1 of them is a little longer than the other so what I'm suggesting to my colleagues is that we uh with the exception of 6.2 uh with can be uh shared uh we each read 1 of them uh if that's okay so uh for 6.2 if uh Mr Isadora can start and read half of 6.2 then uh Mr Guerrero will read the uh second half then I will go on with 6.3 and you will go on and um Mr lachman will be 6.4 and M Carlson will be 6.5 and then we will um ask our guests to uh to receive them afterwards do we have a uh and can you let us know who the guests are if we are presenting them please for when we start each 1 for the first 1 we do not have a guess as uh there was a not a availability upon the guest part and with respect to 6.3 we do have guests here and 6.4 as well and 6.5 again we have Stafford nutrition services thank you okay um I will start with 6.2 Proclamation and recognition of April as National Arab American Heritage Month whereas Arab American heritage month is celebrated in April each year to recognize the contributions and achievements of arab-americans to the United States and whereas the diversity within the arab-american community and enriches our nation and adds to the vibrant tapestry of American life with roots in 23 countries in the Middle East and North Africa and whereas the arab-american Community also reflects um the rich intersectional diversity of our country encompassing Muslim Jersey Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian faith sharing a common language as well as similar historical and cultural roots whereas there are estimated 3.7 million Americans in the United States with California being home to the largest number of Arab Americans of any state with many of them living in Culver City contributing to the diverse fabric of the city whereas Arab Americans have been an integral part of the American fabric for over a century krig bidding significantly to the fields of science medicine business education government and culture and whereas bias and discrimination including anti-arab sentiment and hate negatively impact the well-being and accessible sense of belonging of diverse communities and our society as a whole and whereas it is an important to acknowledge and celebrate the history culture and traditions of our desert diverse communities and to promote understanding and appreciation of all communities contributions to our society and whereas the Culver City Unified School District is deeply committed to fostering an inclusive and respectful environment for all students staff and community members now therefore we the Culver City Unified School District board of education do hereby Proclaim April 2026 as National Arab American heritage month and encourage students staff and community members to recognize and celebrate the contribution of arab-americans to our nation's history and culture with appropriate programs and activities thank you very much 6 Teacher Appreciation Week May 4th through 8 2026 whereas education is a grand and Powerful profession worthy to be honored and respected and whereas excellence in education begins in the classrooms of our nation schools teachers are among the professional Educators who are charged with the responsibility of helping to shape the destiny of our country by training and guiding our children youth and adults and whereas teachers are and will continue to be a dynamic force in the education process they have demonstrated through their sense of purpose and dedication to their profession that they are a major source of inspiration to our students and whereas the teachers in Culver City have consistently documented their professional competence and commitment to students through their willingness to give of their time energy talents and ideas they are to be praised for the progress of our students for the progress our students are making and whereas our teachers should be deeply respected and highly recognized for the contributions they have made to our country our state and our nation and whereas Culver City Unified School District is proud of its teachers and considers them a soul of its educational system and whereas Clover City teachers are Highly Educated professionals who take seriously their role in educating their students through new and innovative and whereas Culver City teachers are 1 of the reasons that Culver City Unified School District enjoys a reputation as 1 of the finest districts in Southern California and whereas Culver City Unified School District encourages everyone in the community including students in parents to recognize its teachers for their dedication and commitment to educating students now therefore we the Board of Education of Culver City Unified School District hereby recognize recognizes and honors the contributions of the certificate employees and proclaims the week of May 4 2026 to be teacher appreciation week this 28th of April 2026 Proclamation and recognition of classified Employee Appreciation weak May 17th to 23rd whereas the Clover Unified School District is proud of its classified employees considers them an integral part of its education system and whereas excuse me the efforts of classified employees in the Culver City Unified School District are essential to the critical and successful functioning of the district and the implementation of its programs whereas classified employees Tribute to The Establishment and promotion of a positive instructional environment and play a vital role in providing for the welfare and safety of Culver City Unified School District students and whereas the school district's classified employees are 1 of the reasons the Culver City Unified School District enjoys a reputation as 1 of the finest districts in Southern California whereas classified employees in the Culver City Unified School District assist in the support of all educational programs and services at sites whereas classified employees in the you know Clover City Unified School District strive for excellence in all areas relative to the educational Community whereas classified employees in the Culver City Unified School District serve as an important role and models to students in the central partners in the school in the district's mission to provide quality education to every student whereas classified employees in the Culver City Unified School District are deserve serving of special recognition for their many contributions in a wide variety of roles to the institution and the public uh the institution of public education in this country State and Nation whereas Clover City Unified School District encourages everyone in the community including students and parents to recognize our classified employees for the fine job they do for students every day of the year now therefore be it resolved that the co that the Board of Education of the Culver City Unified School District hereby recognizes an honors the contributions of the classified employees and proclaims the week of May 17th 7 uh 2026 to be classified Employee Appreciation Week this 12th day of May of 2026 is the proclamation and recognition of school lunch hero day of May 1st 2026 whereas nutrition meals served at school are an essential part of the school day and contribute to the health well-being and Readiness of students to learn and whereas the staff of the Culver City Unified School District Food Service Department are dedicated to providing safe healthful and nutritious meals to the district's children every day and whereas the individuals who prepare and serve School meals play an important role in nurturing students through their daily care service and positive interactions and whereas their work ensures that students are ready to learn and Thrive supporting both academic success and overall student well-being whereas Friday May 1st 2026 is recognized as school lunch hero day now therefore we the Culver City Unified School District Board of Education to hereby Proclaim and express our deep appreciation to these valued employees and commend them for their outstanding service and continue new commitment to the children of the district thank you will you please join me in the will and can we have our teachers that are accepting the uh Proclamation come up here we do have come down with me for class we do a retake yeah in the background or we can do it at the same time so thank you everyone um 7.2 members of the audience items not on the agenda uh do how many cards do we have for this item we have 2 cards on this and then it looks like 2 hands raised so far online okay so if we're 4 then they can have full 3 minutes closing public comment now for items not on the agenda thank you you may start calling okay the 2 in person are Lori horn and Alexis rias um Lori if you want to get up first and then Alexis be ready to speak where here okay let me switch my glasses if you could also just let us know what your topic is your name and your topic sure um my name is Lori horn and my topic has to do with gone into a comment that was made last week regarding permit parking in a Linda Street um last week the speaker brought up that she was baffled and Confused that'll end the street has permit parking and called for board members superintendent Neil leaone to start up a conversation again um she expressed concerns for Access for those who need it and noted that parking there's a parking lot but that is far easier for everyone to walk across the street and she expressed it was unreasonable that just because residents don't want people parked in front of their homes for 2 hours to have permit parking um I appreciate the opportunity to address these comments and hope maybe I can clarify some of the history and facts about this and offer a more more and additional thoughtful perspective um first there's a meaningful history on the lenda street with residents working together with um lots of stakeholders that maybe people don't know about uh 2019 Olinda residents met with the Culver City High School principal the superintendent assistant city manager the city's traffic manager the chief of police and school board members to come up with a plan that felt Equitable for everybody um we had multiple meetings and we came up with a plan and that's the plan you see with a permit parking on a Linda the plan was implemented and then it was again visited when new leadership was involved with new superintendents new um chief of police and new um actually knew everybody's um other than the residents and um and it was um re agreed that it was working and and um and we maintained it in 2021 second I just want to give a couple facts that people might know and I'll run out of time so I'd be happy to talk to more people another time um handicap up placards are always welcome on um permit parking other than street cleaning maybe people don't know we don't have driveways most of us so um it poses a problem for us when we can't park in front of our home um some of us have our own access issues some of us have disabilities we have guests with disabilities we have groceries we're trying to bring into our homes and when there's event parking literally we we can't park in front of our homes um so uh it it's not a it's not a simple thing and we're working to be good neighbors and um that's part of what those meetings were about so it was it was a little disheartening just to here it sort of casually tossed that way when we've been working so hard and we don't see ourselves as particularly kermen or Difficult about it um we're open to dialoguing but we really do have a need um and it's not just that we're trying to be thank you okay thank you um Alexis rise I deeply respect our collaborative work here and I want to speak to my past experience in the frost and then ask a question when I began teaching in 2008 our district Arts consultant was being uh let go due to budget constraints teachers and staff were taking Furlow days to off offset the Great Recession during this time the vision for the Arts the district was unfocused and led by the sheer will of the art teachers industry Partners at Sony and parents at the time the frost Auditorium was in disrepair and desperate separately in need of renovation management of the frost was non-existent and Productions were difficult for individual teachers or student groups to organize and execute my classroom adjoined the frost and weekly a new group would interrupt my teaching desperate to turn on the lights in the frost No 1 was in charge students were disconnected from the ranch shackle Auditorium and frankly it felt dangerous for kids to be wandering around behind curtains in the classroom at the high school art teachers were encouraged to Garner materials fees from Individual students at the beginning of each semester regardless of their ability to pay activities such as this were already frowned upon by California Education Code we were in a bind District admin and teachers were desperately trying to sustain the arts in an asteroid climate without funding and without consistent leadership when CCSD hired a permanent District Arts coordinator and also a permanent technical director of the frost the vision and oversight of K12 Arts Career Technical education and facilities changed for the better the DAC organized and advocated for teachers secured an oversaw much-needed grants and the DAC and the technical director together strengthened Community Partnerships increased use of the frost and created a more Equitable and professional space for students and faculty alike in short we no longer needed to request money from our students and instead we became the recipients of current grants such as cig K12 strong Workforce Perkins California apprenticeship initiative am arts media and entertainment LA County Arts advancement grants prop 28 Monies it should also be acknowledged that our current Arts coordinator is also simultaneously serving to bridge the 2 gaps in leadership created when the CTE coordinator position and also the Roop CT technician position were both left unfilled in 24 and 25 respectively my question is in Fall 26 who will coordinate the 500,000 plus our district receives in Grants money per year it is not wise to assign this oversight to individual teachers nor swamped principles and who will ensure that our world-class theater does not fall into disrepair who will track Grant deadlines and the frost calendar and maintain our momentum as a stellar District where all of our students participate in the Arts thank you okay we have 2 comments online there um Melissa Sanders you are appearing twice so I'm just going to call on you once but um it'll be Melissa first and then Amy Kim so we can go ahead and unmute Melissa do you all want to try to unmute the that's hold on hold on hold on all right I was hopping off another meeting and got on here uh my apologies so couple of things I'm gonna say uh ditto and kudos to the Boardman who just spoke I didn't catch her name unfortunately but that was part of my uh cam comment tonight was going to be the frost we spent 28 million refurbishing that um it's pretty sad that we don't get to use it for graduation and it's not you know big enough for that already but it also doesn't bring in remotely enough money per year so my comment would be to bring someone on who actually can make the frost not only self-sustaining but a revenue generating you know 28 million Auditorium so we should not be making tens of thousands from it we should be making hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars from it so definitely please look at the frost as what you guys really need it to be revenue revenue generating um and then to Lori Horn's point I am still pretty disappointed and flabbergasted that this entire school district has no interest whatsoever in discussing even discussing getting kids to school safely using any part of their property so far you've got a bike lane that will do nothing because the kids still have to get off roll their bikes to school cause more of a problem more of a a hazard to get to some place to lock their bikes that is not helpful it does not create safety it creates the opposite of that actually you all need to actually function as a cohesive body and realize you are part of the problem you have decided that having 30 plus percent kids either on permit or lying about being residents is great that causes traffic that causes problems you all need to deal with that the answer is not take away the ficus trees for bike lanes that nobody is going to use on a lenda except for maybe 10 minutes a day if even that the answer is not make the A lender residents suffer even more or because your choices have created a traffic nightmare that's not acceptable we chose to live here we get that there's a school but this will district has decided that having over 30% of a student body that doesn't live in Culver City is fantastic it's not it's not for many reasons and traffic is your fault and has to be addressed okay thank you I did have Amy Kim on the list of uh commenters oh okay her hands back up again okay if you all want to unmute her thank you hi can you hear me hello yes we can hear you Amy okay hi my name is Amy Kim I'm 1 of the volunteers for excellence for Culver City School who are collecting signatures for the citizens initiative to put the parcel tax on the November ballot I just wanted to let this school leadership and the committee know that we have collected over 2500 signatures so far and we are on track to collect the number of signatures needed to get it placed on the ballot before the deadline we wanted to thank everyone for your support report if you haven't had a chance to sign the petition yet we'll be at the taste of cover city as well as a Culver City Car Show as well as other community events so please come find us if you want to learn more about the initiative and find ways to volunteer and contribute please visit us at efcc.org again efcc.org thank you so much okay thank you I think that concludes the online speaker thank you next is uh 7.3 CC USD employee group so I'd like to invite Lauren jagneaux on behalf of ace to the podium thank you good evening board cabinet excuse me Community um so first of all I just as always want to congratulate our rising stars that was a very um small group this evening I don't know I don't know the math or when they're all going to graduate but I was like oh this is good good for the future so congratulations to all of them um so I also want to refer back to something that was said um at our last board meeting something that I've been thinking about um a comment was made regarding District finances and and how the district should operate and a comparison was made um to running it like a business and how things should be run like a business and I do not call this out to to disparage anybody um I I understand the thought process and I understand that what this person is hoping for is efficiency and fiscal responsibility which we all hope for um but I'm thinking about this particularly in light of the fact that this Friday is going to be May Day which as many of you know is um a worker's day and I was thinking about the history of this and thinking about the fact that this started because of workers trying to get an 8-hour workday um the Hay Market call it what you want Riot Massacre incident uh happened in Chicago because work were trying to get an 8-hour workday and they were not being given 8 hour work days by businesses labor unions such as the 1 that I am proud president above would not exist if they didn't need to because of the choices made by businesses um I am not here to disparage business but I am here to draw a straight line between what businesses do which is make money and make product and what we do as a public institution we are here to educate we are here to serve we are here to be part of a community I think we also obviously have to stay fiscally responsible in order to be able to do that effectively but I do not not want to move to a place where our only priority is running like a business businesses are not a paragon of perfection in terms of serving Community or even their consumers I want us to remember what our mandate is we are here to educate public education in my opinion is the foundation of democracy we are a very very important institution we need to always remember that mandate and it is educate and what we need to do in order to ensure that we can do that effectively is work collaboratively with all our stakeholders we need to advocate for the funding that is owed to us by both the federal state and local governments and we need to Envision how we can use that money and those resources and all the Brilliance we have in this District to better serve the students who are in our care so again I very respectfully but very very firmly pushed back on any calls to run this District like a business thank you thank you Mr long would you like to join us on have a ccft hi good evening everyone okay so I wanted to also um talk a little bit about the citizens partial tax committee and I appreciate Amy um coming on and giving a shout out to that um so many of us have been out um signing getting signatures at local markets at school events and and canvasing which is something I enjoy doing I've always enjoyed canvasing and and um I just wanted to thank a couple people um that have been out there the 2 weeks that we've been canvassing and canvasing with um us um including myself and Lauren jagna from Ace and Kathy Graco also from ccft who have been out canvas but also a thank you to um Daryl meny Paul zagala uh and a Costco uh gang denik and Ross Perot who have also been out canvasing uh these neighborhoods with us so as you heard from the committee they you know they are definitely ahead of where they are um it's interesting out there you know some of the conversations that you have with people somewhere a little too long but I appreciate the feedback um from some folks um especially if they're not a registered voter and you have that long conversation with them uh but it it's it's been good it's been out there to hear you know different opinions on things and uh to get out to the community of Culver City uh we still need help though so that's the thing is we still need people to get out there and canvas so again we're going to encourage people to go to um our website which is Culver citytech I always mix up the letters of the other website so if you go right to our website Culver City teachers.org which is real easy that will link you up to the Excellence um for Culver City schools and give you those opportunities to um canvas and help out this committee uh we need help we look forward to this weekend we're hoping to get some help from aft1521 which is the Community College Guild and from CFT staff to come out this weekend as well too but it is going well it's a great opportunity to get out there and encourage people to visit our website and uh check out what's going on with the partial tax the citizens remember this is a Citizens initiative um secondly on Thursday we're going to have a um General membership meeting for ccft um Association of classified employees are also joining us in this meeting to have a uh forum for candidates that are running for school board so that will be uh this Thursday we really look forward to our members being able to um go out and you know talk to the candidates running uh 1 last shout out there to anyone in the community that is considering running for um School Board this fall uh please once again visit our website Culver City teachers.org uh you can click the about us and then cope link which will give you information about um how to get a hold of us especially if you want to at the last minute join joined this forum on Thursday we'd love anyone that is considering run to help us um you to join us I should say and we really look forward to this event uh that's happening to have our members and just so the community knows as a community service ccft will video the entire forum and we'll put it onto our YouTube channel so the community will also be able to watch us as well it is a event only for members um in person but it will be videoed and will be put on our uh YouTube channel and you can also find that by going to our website and you'll find all our social media links as well and we encourage you to follow us and subscribe to those social media links so that's a great information uh I want to also say that Mayday is coming up on on this week on Friday and that's the International Day of the worker so ccft uh plans to have a visibility event um on our site with our Union shirts getting some pictures um CFT is supposed to send us some swag and signs so we're going to try to get those pictures out and um I also want to give a shout out to the Educators at Little Lake um education Association which I believe still have not settled right okay that's the I just checked earlier um so for those of you that might not know in the community little lake is a very small District um in Norwalk in Santa Fe Springs I think be their Union only has 150 members uh and they've been on strike um for well over a week now about 10 10 9 10 days okay yeah so I I said it's it's going into the second week you know so like you know utla and SEIU which got tons of coverage and settled at 3:00 in the morning um they are struggling in that District so you know any support anyone in the community can just give them just go visit their um Facebook or Instagram page or go to our Facebook and Instagram page and you'll see our shout outs to Little Lake and just words of encouragement I think they really appreciative of anyone you know coming out and uh encouraging them I mean obviously if you can get out there that's great too but um you know just I think words of encouragement for that um the union out there fighting um you know on strike now for 9 days which is really long time for an education strike so it just a shout out to the little Lake Education Association uh finally um teacher appreciation week is coming up next week and you know this again is always the time to talk about making sure that we get our benefits settled as quickly as possible um we're still waiting to finalize that with the district um so those employees you know don't take as big of a hit and keeping Cuts away from the classroom I mean it's always uh the challenge we understand the finance finances of the district and um we you know we understand that we understand right sizing and things like that but trying to keep our cuts which we've done a fairly good job but away from the classroom that's where we need to keep the cuts and um we just or always as a union going to advocate for our members and to keep those cuts um as far away from the classroom um as possible or the you know people that directly work with our students our classified staff um our Mental Health Counselors that all work directly with the students thank you thank you in attendance reports 1.4 yes good evening board president members of the board cabinet staff and our employee uh groups and Community uh this evening for the superintendent's report as soon as we get it loaded up I will provide an update of just some of the uh General things that have been happening since our last board meeting and so if I can get the slide up there there you are so the first uh slide I just want to highlight you know we had a very successful Elena Earth Day where the street was completely closed and our students came as early as 7:00 in the morning and also just want to thank the city for their partnership with this and the rock and rollers and also our Clover City Police Department was out there as well and it was just a really nice Community event uh there was also an obstacle course there that students could complete with their little Scooters or their bicycles so it was a really great event and we also had some media coverage I know CBS was there covering uh the event and it was just an overall great opportunity for students I know there's possibilities for improvements and so I'm looking forward to hearing what that would entail uh for the next year and the next uh picture there you see a lot of parents there and that was a cool City Middle School open house it was great to see everybody uh come out uh for that day I was able to spend time uh with uh Crystal Lane our new principal people there and visited many classrooms as well as great to see some of our board members who were able to make it that day so just want to give a shout out to our staff teachers and our Administration for having the facilities ready to welcome all of our families I also want to congratulate really uh Lynn how they also had a open house but there's they do a little different they do it on Friday morning so we were able some of us from cabinet walk over and also participate in that and what classrooms talk to parents and also visit the signs they had a really nice display of all the different projects and the science fair and this Student's name is Blake he wanted to make sure I saw his project he was there with his mom and he had developed a roller coaster that has all of these twists and turns and so it was really great to see that our students are engaging with science Concepts at such a a young age and just having that inquiry and discovery that it takes to be a future scientist so great work over there at Lin Hao also want to congratulate I know uh our team had let us know that our district had received the Nami the National Association of Music Merchants 2026 best uh communities for music education so we did highlight that on Friday and cover Pride so just want to thank all of our our team for uh their support in making the Arts uh be very important and critical in our community uh I also would be remiss if I didn't mention labona also had an open house so I'll be able to highlight them the next time and include some of the the pictures from that day I wasn't able to go over there but I know Mr Guerrero was there and also some of our our team Dr good and was able to represent us there and also visit with our classrooms so we will highlight them next time and finally on this page and want to just highlight our student film showcase the abpa and partnership with Sony was a really nice event for our students to be able to Showcase professional films and a professional setting so all of our uh cabinet for the most part was able to be there as well as where president who joined us so just want to give a shout out to Sony for their support of our district and also uh abpa next slide here we want to highlight uh yesterday we had a visit from uh Japanese Council General maroda who uh visited El Marino Language Academy and started the day early at 8:00 with the tea that we hosted there with the staff and the parents from El Marino we're able to visit and meet the consul General and just exchange some some uh just some words of just different things they like to see and and that led to a tour of the campus in classrooms so it was really great because the students were also preparing for some performances so they were able to give the console General a preview of some of the performances that they're working on and 1 thing that I learned that I didn't know that was very interesting is that the majority of the teachers at El Marino and the Japanese program they all play piano so I didn't know that till we were their debriefing with the with the Japanese Council as well as uh our Board of President Laredo Miss Carlson were able to join and at the very end of the day we we debriefed and that was something that 1 of the teachers shared but it was a really great event because this is the first time that Mr maroto has visited El Marino I know there's been visits in the past by other uh Council generals from Japan but he's been here I believe he said 8 9 months so in this community prior to that he was in Washington DC so he really uh was very receptive to partnering with the school and also helping us promote uh our school to others and uh we were looking forward he talked about having some discussions where he can bring some cultural opportunities uh for the school so I thought that was really good to be able to bring that in as well as you know promote the school and I know they they're pretty busy promoting our school on their social media so glad to have Council General Moto visit our school as as we had been planning that for I would say over 2 months and and it was very important for him to come at a time when the uh new principal was appointed and so that was something that we were able to work out and so glad to see that visit come to reality so thank you so much to the Japanese consulate for providing this support next slide please at this time I'm going to ask for our new Marino principal to please come and stand over here by the podium as I read just a little bit about him so yes thank you so it's my honor to formally introduce our Neil Marino principal Dr Miguel Mike Perez Dr Perez brings 5 years of experience as a site-based principal including leadership at a dual language Elementary School he has also served in director roles with a focus on English Learners and promising Learners Mike has proudly bilingual and bicultural bringing a deep personal and professional understanding of the diverse communities we serve and a strong commitment to equity and inclusion known as a Hands-On driven our data-driven servant leader Dr Perez is passionate about educational excellence and building meaningful Partnerships between schools and their communities he has extensive experience in PBIS restorative practice offices and a strong influences on social emotional learning to enhance the overall student experience and support Student Success Dr Perez's reputation as a principal is that he leads with respect and care ensuring that Staff feel supported students Thrive academically and socially and families are informed engaged and deeply connected to the school Community Dr Perez holds a Bachelor of Arts and Theater Arts from the University of California Santa Cruz a master of arts and educational management at supervision from California State University San Jose and a doctorate in educational leadership from California State University Long Beach his research focused on the impact of Arts education and supporting English language learners Mike's official first day will be on Monday May 4th although he has already attended several events on campus and as well on his way to getting to know the El Marino Community please join me in welcoming Dr Perez to our team congratulations thank you and at this time if you could please just share a few words with us at the board yeah of course uh first of all good evening uh president Loretta Loretta and cabinet members um cabinet members board members and and uh superintendent Jimenez and of course the wonderful Community here at clever City uh it's an incredible honor to be selected and interested with to be the next principal El Marino a school that has focused on English uh language development for over 30 years as an English learner myself and a Spanish household I know the incredible uh incredible bilingual brings and we need to continue cultivating it and that's what I I plan on working with the communicate that multilingualism across all areas of the school I also want to share I am also an adoptive father and so I understand the importance of when a family brings their children to school the trust they have on their principal it's the same trust I have with my own son so I want the community to know that I will be there for their every need that can call my doors are always opened I I have been lucky to already immerse myself with the community in a couple of events and I am over the moon excited to start on May 4th and as some of the parents had made the fourth be with me and I'm so looking forward to that um and we do I I do know we're also going to have a major event coming up on May 8th I hope you can come join us for our Arts uh um Extravaganza I've told it's going on so thank you all for having me thank you for the trust um I look forward to many years of continuous success and continued please continue to build the community as El Marino gracias thank you I don't know if the board has any comments welcome they like to provide at this time on behalf of the board we're just thrilled that you're joining us and uh we are here to support you in all of your success at El Marino thank you for um being part part of our district all right thank you for president and at this time I'm going to uh if I can get the next slide please I'm going to have this order to uh Dr Henrik who just provided a brief update with the uh cell phone policy committee thank you Dr a menace so we um were able at our last board meeting to provide a comprehensive overview of our cell phone committee updates and what we've been doing the last 6 months um with the committee and working really hard to be able to bring a comprehensive and clean and clear uh board policy and our and the up and upcoming board meeting so um I encourage our public to take a look back at those slides from the the May 28th I'm sorry the April 28th board meeting and um be able to see that the work that we're doing to provide a quick update um again that we are looking forward to having hopefully our final May 20 uh may may 2026 committee meeting together to finalize foreign policy and the are and we're looking for it to a potluck at that time and then our goal is June 9th to bring the first um reading or second reading sorry to the board for approval and by June 30th to finalize our handbook and um be able to support the implementation of our policy thank you Dr Henrik and this concludes superintendent's report thank you thank you so much uh next is uh board member reports or no sorry public comment on items on the agenda so uh at this time how many do we have in the room and on Zoom okay we have 3 in the room and I see 1 so far on Zoom okay actually student board member or no oh yes I'm sorry okay we're going to go backwards uh can we go back up please uh student 7.5 student representative reports do we have our CCMS uh board member on Zoom uh they told me to do their report for them a heavy lift on you and you're the recognized today as a rising star as well um okay well do you want to in any order that you would like to do um Alexa doesn't have a report so I'll do theirs and then I'll do mine okay from cruise and Lola good evening board members and Superintendent at the middle school ASB will be hosting our annual 8th grade formal on May 16th from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. our theme is Hollywood and the event includes dinner desserts photos dancing in an award ceremony the tickets are $30 and the event will be at the panther Plaza tickets will be sold from April 9th through May 6th in May it's Asian-American native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander month ASP is preparing fun activities for students from fun lunchtime activities to special pause sessions thank you so much for your time and then for me I have mine good evening board members here's my Suitor port for this meeting happening this week is our school's second lift up the lift up is a schoolwide event where club sports and organizations lip-sync to songs as a camera walks down the Halls All In 1 take with our final shoot happening this Wednesday during cplex we hope to end off our school year with a celebration of cover Pride the AC elections have also ended after 3 weeks of tireless campaigning our final winners have been announced and I will list them now our ASB president is Gus alkyre our ASB vice president is Michael Mattel pium our Treasurer is Mila King our secretary is Zoe Smith our Commissioner of activities is Kalin mesen and Kalin Loretto our ambassador of Arts is Ruby via and Sachi rice Commissioner of Athletics is Kyra dose and Nicholas Ramos our Commissioner of publicity are Alexa krupat and tommo Lancaster our senior class president is Sachi rice our senior class vice president is Gianna binder our junior class president is Hannah hutin our junior class vice president is Cassie K Smith our sophomore class president is Kyra dose sophomore class vice president is Dolly Alvarado freshman class president is Crews of Vegas and our Freshman Class vice president is Lola Sanchez um so the next year next is representative for school board will be Michael Mattel Pena and since no student applied for student board member at large we will hold another election at the beginning of next year thank you sir do you have any preferential votes today yeah for 13.1 and 14.2 are a yes appreciate you thank you now members of the audience on items on the agenda okay great um still 3 in the room and 1 online okay that makes 3 minutes each you may begin okay we're closing public comment right now uh okay actually 2 other hands went up just as you were saying closing so I think do you want to go ahead that's okay yeah so now we we're we're really closing public comment so it's a total of 6 uh 3 in the room and 3 online so the 3 in the room and I'll read uh in order so you all can get prepared the first 1 will be Danielle klinka lore uh the second will be Kimberly Gallagher and the third 1 Wendy Hamill so Danielle if you would like to give your comment good evening my name is Danielle Kaplan and this is my 13th year as a music teacher in Culver City Unified I have taught at every Elementary Elementary School the Culver City Middle School and Culver City High School by my side is Miss Kimberly Gerber Gallagher we both currently teach vocal General music each week to every single Culver City Unified student in TK kindergarten first and second grade so we knew each and every Rising Star this evening I'm speaking tonight on the elimination of the position of the district Arts coordinator we are optimistic about the generosity of a ccef and helping to sustain the position of the frost technical director in the coming school year as well as the proposal of APA and ccef to help support a similar role of an Arts coordinator position for next school year thank you all for your work in creating this short-term solution however I come to you tonight to urge Culver City Unified to take on the responsibility of fully funding the positions of both the district Arts coordinator and frost technical director as soon as it is fiscally possible I encourage each of you to take a moment to close your eyes and think of a formative musical moment from your childhood it could be singing playing music performing rehearsing or moving to music these are the moments that I see every day in the classroom as long as Miss Gallagher as well performing rehearsing and having the power and magic of Music helping students and engaging uplifting and connecting with them however this magic that we see in the classroom every day which is the reason why we teach does not happen without the support of a district Arts coordinator when I started teaching here in 2013 there was no General music program in the classroom for TK through fifth grade cusd had a contract with symphonic Jazz Orchestra but it was only for certain grade levels and only for 26 weeks in the school year similarly when I began only 2 elementary schools whose ptas fundraised enough money to pay an art teacher had visual art for elementary students the glaring inequities were obvious since hiring a full-time District regards coordinator who also wrote and implemented a strategic Arts plan CCSD now has 4 full-time Elementary General music faculty providing weekly music lessons to students TK through fifth grade as well as 6 full-time ccal teachers providing weekly instruction to students TK through fifth grade in art and Innovation this robust Elementary arts program is only possible through the vision coordination tenacity and advocacy of a dedicated District Arts coordinator we understand that the board is eliminating the position of the district Arts coordinator and the board also plans to create a new role to continue to support the Arts in Culver City Unified starting in the fall of 2026 as we plan for next school year our music team already has many questions about the future of our programs we respectfully request that the new role of Arts coordinator include the following support for our Music Department advocate for the growth of Music programming for all CCSD students manage prop 28 compliance across every School site including required multi-year expenditure plans okay um sorry I'm doing the timing right now because I think our timer stepped away so uh Miss Gallagher oh sorry sorry about that um that was the timer um okay um Miss Gallagher if you want to go ahead sure I'm I'm gonna received my time to Danielle to come to just finish with we don't have uh President we don't have a policy around that so if you would like to continue for her sure sure um to continue we would ask that there are secure to secure great funding that currently brings over half a million dollars annually into the Arts programs coordinate purchasing curriculum alignment and vendor relationships schedule an oversee the Robert Frost Auditorium coordinate with the city of color City for community events such as the annual tree lighting where hundreds of ccusd students participate and manage large-scale events involving hundreds of students across the district such as annual February District Arts showcase again we thank you for your creativity in pursuing in pursuing ccef and avpa funding as a short-term solution and we look forward to ccusd Prior prioritizing the K through 12 Arts pathway as a district by fully funding both the district Arts coordinator and the frost technical director as soon as possible thank you okay thank you very much um and then our third in-person commenter is Wendy Hamill and then we'll go to online are we missing student cards and we were unaware that it was the car that we thought there was is it possible for us to speak um I will allow but we need to uh um truncate a little bit so if we can just uh do 2 and a half for the remaining speakers that's fine is that okay okay you can do in 2 and a half okay all right go ahead can you all get your cards in there's 4 of you right 3 okay uh hi everyone I'm Wendy Hamill the director of the Culver City Education Foundation uh I'm here tonight night speaking on the Personnel items uh and I just am here really to um during this difficult difficult time I wanted to thank uh superintendent Jimenez Dr Heinrich and the entire CCSD cabinet for for uh collaboratively discussing Creative Solutions um to the Staffing challenges the layoffs uh I want to thank the school board members for uh being open to accepting ccef funding to support these critical staff positions and for taking the time to meet with me uh to discuss about how uh CCF can best partner with the district to support um our shared priority uh I also wanted to thank our CCF donors those who have made a gift this year to our annual campaign uh who understand that private investment is what's going to sustain the things that make our district so special and also those those who have stepped up recently to allow uh CCF to have the resources to meet these increased needs because the Education Foundation can only contribute what we receive in donations so thank you to all of our donors uh we are continuing to actively fundraise to meet these increased costs that we are being asked to um to help uh share and um so I wanted to urge everyone in the community who values the district's uh incredible arts and stem education as well as student wellness uh to please make a donation to ccef and uh any do any amount makes a difference and it really shows your commitment to preserving excellent Culver City Schools so thank you okay thank you um I do not have the student cards uh yet so I guess they're still found them out maybe we can go to can we go to online real quick okay all right we'll we'll go to the online comments and then come back to you all in the room uh so the first 1 I have on the list here is Melissa Sanders hi again um okay to go uh I wanted to talk about mainly measure e um can you hear me yes we can hear you okay because Stephanie is laughing about something and clearly not paying attention uh that I'm concerned that we're still having difficulties with priorities around measure e funding and that I'm still hearing ceiling tiles are falling on kids heads and floor tiles are you know being used as Frisbees and that things are not really progressing um you know that you're still Band-Aids and you know duct tape across the entire district and we've got a gym that can't handle any kind of new HVAC or anything on a roof because it's going to fall down so I still did not understand the incredibly short-sighted inefficient irrational behavior of not taking ownership of trying to make this District better long term what would be better long term is to knock down the gym and start a fresh what would be best for this district is to move all the kids to 4 out of the 5 elementary schools knocked it 1 down and start a fresh uh but even these little things that we have been discussing for years and years not being taken care of is just so unacceptable well I do not understand how this can continue how bathrooms can still be so scary and horrible that kids still don't use them I mean what did we agree to this funding for if not to get some of these Basics handled immediately I I just I you know my kids in middle school and she's got 1 more year there and then she's off to high school and I have this horrible foreboding fear that she's going to walk into a high school that is even worse than what we've been fighting to get better for the past 5 years I just I do not understand this so I desperately want you guys to re-prioritize and make better deck visions and I hope whatever is going on at OCD with the architectural plans that's later in the the agenda is not the stupid putting the TK classrooms in the front of the building that was just such a nightmare um so please be more thoughtful please be better decision makers and please realize that this is not a slush fund to be spent not wisely it is to be spent for the betterment of the kids and the district thank you okay um I only see 1 more hand raised now and I think there were 2 in the past but the the 1 I do see raised is uh Diana Newell if you want to go ahead you can comment hi uh my name is Diana Newell I am the President of the abpa foundation um first I want to thank Dr Jimenez and the numerous board members that I've met with and spoken with about um the financial crisis we have going on on um and I'm happy to see that the you know the the Arts coordinator position is being switched around a little bit so those POs so some of those responsibilities are being assigned to a district a new District position however there are many questions that are now being asked by members of our community first and foremost as several people have already asked who's going to be taking over the frost management um in addition to booking all of the events which side note um in response to what Miss Sanders had um had asked earlier the frost was designed and renovated to be used mainly to be used by our our students and by our district um and it is being used mainly by that for teachers for assemblies and of course performances but after the district has been used using the the frost then it's to be allocated for outside events so who is going to be booking those also who will be overseeing the front of the the house at all the events the box office the security the management who I'm just going to take on this role it simply cannot be run without someone overseeing all of this overseeing these items um although it's wonderful the technical director has been removed from the elimination list I really hope that it's not anyone's intention to try and pass these responsibilities along to him because our current TD has his hands full managing the technical side of the frost and managing the safety of all the equipment and the staff who are running the events there he's working over 60 hours a week now and so this additional responds cannot fall to him so who is going to take this over secondly who's going to be overseeing the grant writing for the district this was a large part of the dac's job and she has brought in significant funding for programs in the district um and not even just Arts grants by the way she's she just was currently working on a grant request for robotics so who's going to take this on and then who will oversee the allocation of their funds and then who's going to be overseeing the use of the prop 28 funds that are being provided to our district will this fall to this new District person we need to make sure sure that someone is managing These funds to make sure they're spent appropriately and per the law now that these this position has been cut I have to respond with a statement previously made during a board meeting that we cannot rely upon hope to ensure that these tasks will be done the board in the district I need to have a plan on who will be taking on these responsibilities to make sure that our Arts programs continue to grow and Thrive we cannot simply rely upon hope thank you very much okay I don't see any other hands raised online so I think we're going back to in person now um there's 3 there's Isaac hub tell me if I'm spelling there's pronouncing this wrong where Al Lewis and melania's soul um so Isaac if you want to go ahead first hello um we'd first like to thank you for um letting us speak although on on conventionally um it means a lot to us we did not expect to for this to happen all right hello I'm Isaac cob and I am a sophomore at over City High School and I'm here to again speak on the position of uh Heather Moses as the district Arts coordinator of the CCSD um the along with many people at today's board meeting do um very much uh care for this position if that you I you definitely have already gathered that and um Heather has done so much for our program and she takes on the role of the manager of the frost while ensuring that the frost is kept as a professional learning space I've personally learned so much from just being inside the building and the choices I've watched um the choices I have watched this board make it makes me feel that there's a bit of lack of understanding um we are all in a hard place and I do hope we are able to work together I'm we are you have no idea how much we celebrated 1 we learned that the um technical directors position has been removed from the list however these jobs mean a lot to everyone not just APA students it becomes a concern for every student in the district and uh puts liability into your hands and there's a learning space of everyone who has worked so hard to create that is in Jeopardy of being ruined compatibility that um uh someone new brought in into as a a smaller replacement for these jobs uh and the and the new position that could be if this uh new position proves inadequate which is a serious risk they may not they may not they might may not fully fulfill the role and therefore um that 1 sorry that 1 uh end quite poorly um that's you you've already heard many reasons about the what what the district Arts coordinator is already doing but um as a personal test testimony uh the current Heather uh Heather Moses she has done uh above and beyond for this for this arts program and I'll pass it on to my next person thank you for listening okay thank you and then uh next Miss Lewis hi I would also like to thank you guys so much for your leniency I understand that it was very irresponsible not irresponsible but a bad situation um but I would like to just like like post the question if the like if the possibility that somebody um fulfills the reinstated role for Heather or for the Arts coordinator um what if that person ends up inadequate you know like next year when something goes wrong the frost what what are you going to do if that person ends up being inadequate if a student gets injured in the frost what are you going to do if you decide you want to host an event at the frost what are you going to do because you don't know if that person will be able to fulfill all of the necessary um requirements for that role and when our student enrollment declined since our our our art program slowly but surely plummet without Heather what's going to happen a countless number of students at CCSU Pride themselves in the Arts Culver City itself Pride itself in a citizens in the Arts our city is quite literally called the heart screenland but how can we expect it to keep up that good name when we're in danger of like when the people behind the screen are in danger of like being eliminated after doing a bit of research I learned that the Robert Frost brings in rental income each year for the district if our problem is money why would you eliminate a position that actively brings in revenue for our school district if you lay off Heather you're risking the district falling into even more financial problems there have been a few articles talking about situation the situation our district is in including with the letter on West Side today.com called when Arts infrastructure is on the chopping block at your local school and it posed some great questions as well what is your plan after getting rid of or after reinstating Heather's position as I have accessed at the start if Heather no longer takes on the reinstated rohu is like somebody asked previously as the board would say hope isn't a solution to so tell us what is your solution after the roles and is reinstated is the plan to turn over management to an outside operator and hope to gain more Revenue if so what about us as if you as the board decide to hire someone else hoping they don't abuse the usage of the frost and minimize the per the priority of student usage in the frost or even work charge students and programs to use the frost it would be a huge mistake possibly leading to less Revenue brought in for the district well I get rid of the only person who has proven they're capable of running the frost wall providing Equity to all the students and staff in providing revenue for the district yes the superintendent um has it oversee education fund and avpa have made have successfully made a 1-time emergency donation to save JD's physician but it's unfair that CCF and adpa had to take matters into their own hands considering the fact that the frost serves a lot more than just ADP and TCF including the district themselves alternate over to my next person thank you guys for allowing just to speak we really really appreciate it so continuing so why should our community have to take matters into their own hands at all or even be put in this position in the first place the fact that abpa and ccef are the ones who have to support the safety of the students rather than the board themselves is unbelievable to all of us and shows just how much the board doesn't really understand the importance of management at the frost this speech is not meant to bash your the board make you guys seem irresponsible at all but we really want to know what is the complete future plan because we are concerned and we want to know how we can help how everyone can work together and how we're going to make sure this doesn't all go awfully um we understand the what you guys are trying to do and how difficult this decision is but I really don't think laying off JD or Heather is the solution to our problem I hope this spot on A New Perspective for the for you guys thank you for your time consideration and please remember hope it's not a solution I would also like to say that I really feel like theater means something to the community and I think with the Arts coordinator and the text we really are able to make the community a much better place we I have learned so how much I've learned how to drill I have learned how to take apart sets I've learned how to do lighting tape Spike tape every day in Hades town I would get finished getting my costume ready and I would go on to the stage and I would help crew I would light the spike tape with phone flashlight because we needed that so we could be safe and we could see and you know who taught me how to do that JD Heather also helped so that was really helpful for me I'm an actor I don't do the tech stuff often but I got to learn how to do all that experience I help set up props I helped learn how to do sound in the booth I really learned a lot and I really think that both of these positions are the reason why I've learned so much ever since I was in elementary school the reason I wanted to come to this High School is because I knew that I could trust it so I could have a good education and everything I really feel that taking away these positions will bring a sense of dread to some students and really I'm scared I am nervous that the community won't be the name I'm nervous that we won't have the same opportunities I'm just nervous in general I really would like if we could have some information and just have better communication on what is going to happen and what is the plan because that's all we really want thank okay I think that's it I'm just looking at the the zoom online here to try to see if that hand went back up I did not okay great thank you so much members of the board your board reports uh this week we are back in order right uh with uh Mr Isadora starting first and then board member Carlson followed by board member lachman and then uh board member Guerrero if I remember correctly sure that's fine um thank you everyone for coming out uh I just want to start by graduating the rising star recipients as always it's always great to see our students recognized their hard work 1 of my favorite parts of our board meetings um I also just want to take the time to acknowledge all the proclamations presented this evening uh but particularly want to talk about the school and share day just because yesterday I had the opportunity to visit our our nutrition services team um is I want to thank uh the the the Food Service supervisor Amanda who's here today on her birthday uh for for showing me around I want to thank Ace president Lauren dragging up for helping uh coordinate the visit was really great just to spend time with our lunch Heroes and hear directly from them about what's working well and to better understand some of the challenges that they're facing I think these conversations are really important as we're talking about collaboration and streamlining operations uh that support our staff and students so that's all I have today uh thank you board president okay I think it's my turn uh good evening everyone I'll start my remarks tonight with a few things I've been up to lately uh last Wednesday I dropped by our CCMS open house for a bit and art night at El Marino was so great to see uh the entire School celebrate the kids art pieces and watch performances from Rainbow Tau and the Japanese choir so many great things going on at each of our campuses in the Art Space many thanks to the El Marino PTA family engagement committee and Miss Rosner and Miss Garcia for organizing that 1 on Saturday I attended earthfest along with my son it was a time as usual I love how it keeps getting bigger and better every year is more booths are added and more kids participate and thanks to the elrond Khan PTA for organizing and hosting that event and for all of the community organizations that participated on Sunday I had the pleasure of joining the New Frontier Democratic Club for their 66th annual Awards luncheon right here in Culver City where a couple of my friends were awards from the club another award recipient was a gentleman named Kyle Patterson of the western states Regional Council of Carpenters who I did not know personally uh he gave a really inspiring ing speech in which she allowed himself to be very vulnerable he talked about going to prison for several years as a teenager and upon coming out finding a second chance as a carpenter he shared with us his views on the importance of building Pathways to good union laborer jobs including through CTE programs at our schools it's great that we've made a commitment to use union labor for our Capital Improvement projects here but I'm also committed to helping explore how we can provide more opportunities for all of our kids at ccusd and finally I was honored to join our superintendent and district and site administrators and staff at El Marino to welcome the Japanese console General maroda um and vice Council Makwa as well as the Japan Foundation director eucha and on Monday morning to tour our classrooms and talk about our fantastic Japanese immersion program as well as how we can partner with these entities and provide a rich educational experience for our children there were a lot of really great ideas exchanged and I'm really excited about the future of our language immersion education in this District thanks thank you uh congratulations to all the rising star awards and uh our our teachers and classified employees for their uh respective um weeks of recognition if we can just add 51 more of them for each of you will be just fine um we've also had a busy busy schedule out there in the community uh especially around uh celebrating Earth Day I was honored to uh be able to represent the district at the Greene School Symposium run by the LA County off of Office of Education uh it was over at the Natural History Museum which was um wonderful and somewhat intimidating being surrounded by all the stuffed animals um but uh but it was a reminder of what's important for us to preserve and there were some very interesting programs about planning and resources that the county makes available uh particularly around Energy Efficiency which hopefully we can uh we can share um also got got to take place part with the Earth day which was uh a wonderful event um for those who came and the the the the buses and the transit information that was out there was an important uh for our students to know that uh they have uh that as an option to be able to get the school as well as uh taking their bikes uh and then the uh later in the week I attended the CTE Advisory Board where um they discussed improvements to CTE Pathways for students um and some of the things were brought up or some of the labor programs uh that we can now uh hopefully will be able to have access to uh to offer some of these programs for our students it was a great program uh and uh talking about how we can offer more alternative atives uh for those um who may you who can find good paying jobs and maybe college is not the path that they want to take with their skill set uh and the gifts that they have we went to the uh uh Middle School open house my my daughter is in middle school student so uh we spent a lot of time getting the chat with with the teachers and taking in the Amazing Music as well uh and then it went to Earth Fest um At elrin Con uh uh as I said you know even with the over cast weather had great turnout the 1 thing we missed is they used to have the uh the the bicycle where you could mix your own smoothie um and some people did note that was missing uh hopefully look at the chance to bring that back but the pro programming is always wonderful and get the chance to talk with everyone about their concerns uh especially talking with folks about what we can do in maintaining our commitment to the Arts uh as a former theater Kid myself I can appreciate that uh uh and and our commitment and and ensuring that the district retains its commitment to uh uh strong Arts programming With The Changes coming to the Future thank you that's what's been going on uh there will be more coming up in the upcoming months uh and appreciate everyone's patience uh as my work I've had a couple projects have taken a lot of my time which is not enabled me to do as much Outreach as I usually would like to do uh but uh those of us you know we all have to earn a living out there uh out uh in doing what we're doing uh especially uh you know uh in these difficult times but our our service to our district continues and appreciate uh not only my colleagues but all of you out there who uh share your thoughts with us every single day thank you good evening everyone uh I'd also like to uh just second uh uh the appreciation uh that the resolutions for teacher appreciation week coming up um educating here's what you do is is vital it is the heart of what we do um and we couldn't do what we do without you so so thank you um we should be appreciating you all year uh but this week in particular likewise classified staff uh who make all the work that everyone else does uh possible and doesn't always get the recognition that you deserve for that um in a variety of roles thank you very much for that it's also School nurses uh Day May 7th um so that's coming up um it's also kind of Twisted you know we don't control the calendars on these These are National and international days um May 15th which is the deadline to notify folks about layoffs Falls right in the middle of that and that's a an awful way to show appreciation but that's another date that comes down from the state um you know but there's a a weird Confluence of those um lab Iona fantastic open house I was really glad to go I love going to the the lab Iona open houses just the community comes out for that uh and it's so much fun to see everybody and see the kids running the open house and showing their parents everything they do um fantastic and glad I made it to that CCMS also another wonderful open house wasn't able to make Lynn how uh my apologies for that 1 um earthfest at El ring con was fantastic um particularly appreciated the way they kind of stretched out the floor plan the layout of the booths and things like that um so there was opportunities to go and move around and and some really good um some really good booths some led by students some led by community members and Community organizations uh fantastic event uh elcat meeting I want to really thank Dr heinemann and Dr Garner uh for that elcap meeting um there's been a real emphasis on data and data-driven decision-making um this last year and I think that's that's really helped this is the third year of the lcap cycle I guess the second year of the lcap cycle next year will be the third year um and the re right so we're really just looking at existing goals and measuring those and making some small changes next year will be big changes to the lcap potentially um the lcap survey uh families and staff is out there it's open uh we definitely Li need more input on that in past years as we get 5 6 percent uh feedback rate on that um and so the community and staff input on the lcap doesn't necessarily represent a wide swath of the community so really encourage every family and every uh employee to give feedback on that it's something that that I know um Dr Hinrich and and Garner really take seriously and the lcap committee takes very seriously so please respond to that looking forward to a couple of upcoming events the uh CCMS speech and debate team has got a fundraiser uh this Thursday at Village well uh looking forward to that looking forward to taste of Culver City coming up very soon uh that's always a a fantastic day I don't know if there's any tickets left for that but uh nope there are no tickets so if you're not going you can stand on the outside and looks at home and get your tickets for next year it's a it's a great event um also the PTA honorary Service Awards coming up I really want to uh congratulate everybody who's being recognized with that uh Mr long mentioned uh actually no Miss jagneaux mentioned Mayday coming up this Friday I will actually be uh a peacekeeper for the county Federation of Labor at the MacArthur Park uh event uh this is an important year Mayday always recognize an international day of the worker here in Los Angeles it's also got kind of a uh special significance 20 years ago this year there was the police in Mark MacArthur Park where a bunch of peaceful protesters were set upon by uh police and that led to a lot of police reforms and changes about their Rules of Engagement with protesters and things like that so it's the 20th anniversary and I'm happy to participate in that and would encourage anybody who's able to find either the MacArthur Park uh celebration or another celebration of Mayday uh coming up and then finally just to close this is something that that Mr long uh brought up and I want to really appreciate that um I want to join assembly member Blanca uh Pacheco um Senator Bob archuletta LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn US senator Adam Schiff ccft and Ace and really stand in solidarity with a little make teachers and a little like Community um who are on their ninth day of a strike um you know as some of you know when I'm not school boarding I I work for a union and do a lot of Union organizing so it's very interesting to be involved in this and to kind of see both hats um you know to see the the aspects of what the teachers in the community are really fighting for um but to also be able to not necessarily sympathize but empathize with the the school district and and some of the choices that they're having to make um I will say that you know we've got work to do we've always got work to do in Culver City and we certainly had some missteps in the past and things like that but nothing to this degree um and seeing a district that's struggling a lot and a community that's in a lot of pain um really makes me appreciate the successes we have had and the relationships we have between the district the community the labor unions um and and our employees um but it also really reminds me that we've got to continue working on that communication aspect you know what I see in little lake and a lot of places is just an absolute collapse of communication and we've got to keep those lines of communication open here as well as opportunities to collaborate um and share decision-making so it's something that we can all support and own and stand behind so uh yeah just my thoughts with them and appreciation for where we we are at here in Culver City thank you thank you so April 25th earthfest uh was my 5th Year volunteering at this event we had 470 students want to Echo my colleagues and saying thank you to the PTA and the uh earthfest leaders there and putting on an event for all of our students here in um the district and um I think that you'll be hearing more from them so that uh a summary can go into Culver Pride this Friday um also uh I will also be debating uh Bowie on Thursday at the CCMS speech and debate uh fundraiser at the Village well that starts at 6:00 p.m. on April 30th I'm looking forward to it um I am sure that the students will not hold back on us uh on April a 30th uh and May 1st through 2nd CCMS also has their Beauty and the Beast shows so I hope that y'all come out for at least 1 of those shows I am really looking forward to it while Taste of Culver City on May 3rd may be sold out uh and I look forward to seeing everybody there the auction is now open and you can go to ccefs uh site to uh register to bid I am offering a Filipino Miranda if you would like to bid on that uh I look forward to raising more money uh alongside our partners at ccef uh and just uh I wanted to let you all know that we do have quite a few meetings next month um we have our May 12th regular meeting here in city hall with our regular times of 5:00 pm close follow followed by uh open on May 19th we have a special meeting for elcap and uh and budget uh at the district office and that will start at 6 PM with a closed uh on May 6 we do have a regular meeting we do have a different time of start it's 4 pm closed and it will be at the district office because it is the week of a long weekend and unfortunately city council will be using this beautiful space and we therefore have to use our own space and the district office and that is it for now if everybody's okay to uh go without recess we we will go through or does anybody need a little break a short break you need a short break okay so we'll be back here at um 8:20 thank you we could take our seats please thank you that's why I think I know yeah whenever when we're ready we can take up 9.2 measure e update good evening um thank you Miss um Laredo um board members superintendent and cabinet and Community um to continue from the presentation um number um site 2 please to continue from the presentation from the February 4th meeting we are in the design development phase for pedestrian and bike path project um this was actually this this stage was to refine the schematic drawings architect placed more detail on the concepts the program and massive this phase also included some floor plan layouts elevations sections and also integrate code analysis and various engineering system by the end of this phase the project scope quality and the budget will be clearly defined next slide please so the image on the left shows The Pedestrian and bike path in blue and gray color starting from the end of the shared parking lot at the labaya creek entrance and ending at the corner of elinda and faraga drive the path will go along the middle school campus making a safe pathway for students parents and staff the red box at the in the middle indicates the existing bike rack that serves that Services the middle school students next slide please so this image shows a better diagram of what The Pedestrian pathway will be in grey which is actually after the blue to the left it'll begin from libona Creek and will split into 2 Pathways for pedestrians 1 that leads to Culver City High School and Middle School and the other that will run along the cover Park High School and fargate Elementary School behind the um to trailer um building that we have right now next slide please slide 5 please the image on the left shows the South entrance from Lab a quick what you see is the entrance from that's that's exactly where it starts um a vehicle access gate is shown on the right side of the image designated for restricted vehicle access to Culver City Middle School removal ballots are being included to identify the pedestrian and bike pathway not allowing vehicles to enter slide 6 please the path will be separated from the passing vehicles with a 4 ft fence so the 2 Lanes the blue ones are the bike pathways and then you see that separating from the other um your ongoing traffic cars cars that are driving through the parking lot will be separated by the 4 um feed fence the image on the left shows the 2-way bike path in blue and the in path path in grades not looking like grades like kind of yellow light yellow um next slide please slide 7 yeah and access gate will be incorporated this is something new that we added after the feedback from the board last time so the access gate will be incorporated into the fence line to allow for the district to drop off supplies so the Middle School admin office through that entrance and there'll also be an entry point for um the staff to enter in some instances next slide please the Utility Yard is currently located at the front of the parking lot in view from Melinda Street in Farragut Drive the enclosed fence will be upgraded with a graphic when screen minimizing the view of the Utility Yard because right now it doesn't look good so we are to have that and some add some plantations next improvements such as landscape puffers will be created to separate the current utility lines main water line and electrical axis for maintenance next slide please so the north of the parking lot will include vehicle gates for the parking lot entrance so this is the front of the elinda and fargate so the ballads and signage will Mark The End Of The Pedestrian and bike pathway and the entrance of the public sidewalk and Street next slide please so the design team actually met with Culver City Fire Department to prelim for the preliminary review of the plans on the left the red lines indicate the designated fire access Lanes the lanes are required to be marked with red curbs the Culver City Fire Department has access to Middle School fire heightened located within the parking lot and access gate will be incorporated in The Pedestrian and bike pathway 4 foot fence as a new pathway will enclose the fire hydrant I am at the end of the presentation and answer any questions you have but I also want to share 1 more update um last this week they met um The Architects actually presented this um design to the DSA as a preliminary review and they have given some feedback as to you know how we are having our um disabled act access or parking spaces in the front of Olinda but they've suggested that we have to have some of them under the um solar canopy because that because you have to give access to them to that space too so we will be working with them how we do it because when we do that then they're going to be little bit far away so we had to make sure that they can enter through the main entrance South entrance from the middle from the to building then they they can enter through the um The Pedestrian pathway the the um wheelchairs and right now I think we are um planning to submit by August the construction document will be developed in the next few months in August we are planning to submit to DSA and simultaneously we will also be doing a bit process to select a contractor for the work so this is where we are um we don't have the exact timeline yet but we'll come back and update you um when we when we are close to the timeline this is an information item so uh questions uh or discussion is allowed but not Direction uh does anybody have anything besides me um could you just read uh reiterate 1 more time I know you pointed out where the existing bike racks were there's no change is there a change uh with with respect to those bike rack in part of the presentation or you were pointing it out to show how students could access so so come behind um I think they come through the gate after the middle school office there is an entrance there that's that's how they enter the school that's where they will be entering now because we added a new um gate in the middle of that um pedestrian and bike pathway that I showed you so that will allow them to exit from their come out to that um pathway and then they go into the gate and they go to the parking so it'll continue to be the same way that they've done now okay got it thank you uh so uh 1 of the things that I had addressed with you that you were going to follow up on was my concern about the spacing between the ballards because uh adaptive bicycles bucket bicycles uh you know maybe even adaptive scooters if there are certain width they may not be able to go through or you know or even like certain wheelchairs may not be able to go through through um and I don't want it to be a repeat of the type of challenges that we have at the Jackson gate um that's the city's gate uh it it has different circumstances but knowing that they went through that challenge I want to make sure that all of our you know all of our potential wheels will be able to go through this space um and also uh uh thank you for uh mentioning the handicap spaces we do have handicap spaces over towards the uh cover Park uh area right now so were they uh uh in the last iteration you're saying that you could consolidate them all at at the front of the school of the parking lot correct but now you're going to work and see if you can fit some in on the uh um in the rear too but I I'm if you could clarify your comment about making sure that they can get into the uh the bike path area because I would think that the reason why their parking over there is to assess covert Park and um maybe the fargate field and not necessarily the bike path so I'm a little confused about the how that would go thank you I think I forgot to thank you for reminding me um Mr adaptive bikers like you shared with me I'm definitely that has been shared with our um Architects like all the 4 archives so that they understand this is you know whenever we are building this obstacles um the ballads like we we keep in mind is not just the wheelchair and then these adaptive vehicles that we discussed about so they will be this will be something that we they will be remembering to make sure the width is enough to cover all of those um latest equipments too and then on the on the disabled parking spaces for um the ones that we have um around um color Park will continue to be there so they'll be able to access because there's a lane going there the front was supposed to be for all the the ones that we had by the um on the Linda like you know inside the parallel to the middle school office that we had parking spaces we just moved them to the front of in um Farragut but I think what the is saying now is you have to give them access under the solar canopies too so we will be adding few stars in that um shade shade under the below the shade structure the ones sorry the 1 things that are for Clover Park now are under the street instructor know um I don't remember I have to go back and check okay because I think um while I had my placard I I knew that they were there so um I'm pretty sure that that's not the problem then yeah yeah um but you might want to check how many also because like our lines are so faded that you they can be easily be missed right 2 um no other if no other discussion we'll move on to 9.3 9.3 is that information no item on the parcel tax uh initiative that the district is considering and as if you recall um there is uh the possibility of the district putting this on and so if I can get the next slide I just like to discuss the phases that we're in so as you can see from the side uh we do have the 4 phases which include tests that build and when we pretty much have already have covered what's in uh Phase 1 where there is um uh pulling the voter surveys uh considering the election timing as well as what the tax rate is uh and also considering the political landscape So within the second phase that's where we're at right now we had released information back in December with the community with respect to what did we learn from the polling from the voters and if you recall at that time 12 cents a square foot yielded us about 5 million and approval rating was at about 60 uh 3% and at 38 cents a square foot uh that generated million dollars and that was at about 60% uh voter uh approval so you can see the the difference and as you all know board members we need uh 2/3 vote to uh be able to pass an initiative and so we want to be uh mindful of that and so at this time you may think well how we all get here and so I do want to provide us with an opportunity to go over that well as part of a condition of our district receiving the 2.5 million funds from the city 1 of the uh requirements was that we would need to to put a parcel tax on the next election and that is what we are considering from previous presentations we have shared with the community that we are actually following our process and also as you all know there is a community initiative that's out there and they're following their process this particular slide deck today doesn't have that timeline that kind of shows both in tandem but we have a release that information and So within this phase obviously we have an obligation to provide information to the community and that's what we're doing we've been meeting with our Consultants having meetings we actually had a meeting today and we actually have Jared available if there are any questions at the board uh would like he is available uh virtually so that is something that is a possibility uh tonight so currently we're testing Readiness we're even having discussions as to well should we look at a different amount given that these were the amounts that we had looked at with respect to the 12 cents and the 308 cents and what those yielded and so we're having those um discussions with the Consultants to be able to plan accordingly and also we are currently testing the viability of the citizens initiative that's out there because as a district we need to know whether it's viable for us to be able to implement so we are working with our Consultants as well as with legal counsel around that to determine what are the ampl implications from the citizens initiative so they're following their process and we're following ours in Phase 3 we obviously would be developing a ballot resolution with the deadline for sub listen to the county on August 7th and with respect to our board uh needing to take action since there's only 1 board meeting in July and that's July 14th uh we would then need to present a resolution no later probably believe in the second meeting in June to be able to plan accordingly and get this in time on the ballot which we have up until the uh August uh 7 deadline unless the board of course would entertain a special meeting over the summer break so that's what that's what the reality is with the with the phases uh with respect to uh this phase as well obviously you can see everything there I'm not going to read those out uh on the slide everything that's in 3 uh but obviously when you go to phase 4 that's obviously uh it needs to be completely volunteers there needs to be fundraising a more uh grassroot effort with Valor science digital ads and we would be getting uh the information out and as indicated there on the side the campaigns must be privately funded so we want to make sure we stick to that now um our task right now is to make sure that we are doing our due diligence by sharing this information uh publicly if I can get the slide these are going to be quick I'm not going to read those out to you but this kind of just presents uh what you already know with respect to having high quality education for our students with respect to uh preparing our students for the future ensuring our grad rate is uh maintained and also that our students are are doing well in the classroom with some of these other areas as well as stand arts and core subjects and writing if I can get the next slide also uh ensuring that you know there is a need for us to be able to sustain what we're doing because the state government and the federal government for that matter does not provide us with the funds that we all need I know I've been talking a lot about the settle lift amount that the governor is holding on to which represents approximately 5.4 billion dollars in the state and for us it's about 5 million so therefore if we are to ensure a quality education for our students this is a a definite uh ballot measure that the Board needs to uh consider uh moving forward on as we monitor uh what's happening uh in the community with other initiatives as well next slide please these are some of the other uh reasons why we would want to make sure we maintain high quality uh schools high quality teachers uh small class sizes and also ensuring that our students are ready for college career and also some of those stem areas as I mentioned earlier but also counseling special education and mental health support as well are all things that we want to make sure we are able to maintain to ensure equality education if I can get the next slide so as I mentioned earlier the funding doesn't come you know from the state the way we would like for it to come so in terms of that we have to do more more in our district and another piece to that is that since we don't have the unduplicated student count about 55% we don't qualify for concentration dollars which many of the districts that have a lot of money you know do get and so that is something that's a drawback uh for us so these are all reasons why we want to make sure that we keep this uh on the uh radar for us moving forward as we monitor the political uh client next slide roll local funding obviously as you all know as to attract retain high-quality teachers and also making sure that we have funding that maintains all of this for our students next slide please with respect to the prior partial tax you know the district here uh was able to get that renewed and part of the reason was that there was no increase you know to the voters so that's something that with these uh ballot measures the community is often uh more likely to support if there's no increase and so with this uh particular parcel tax measure that we would put on obviously would be an increase so that would be handled differently than the way the renewal was handled uh in our district and also currently there is a school bond you know you heard about measure e and the 1 time city funding which is not a long-term solution uh the city is ready to support us with some funding but at this time it's a loan it's so we're not uh able to use loan amounts for maintaining our 3% Reserve so that at this time is not a viable option because it does not provide a long-term solution and I know there's a possibility that we will get 1 time funds from the state but we're looking forward to the governor's May budget revision to see if that comes to fruition so those are some of the other uh funding and some of the limitations to all this so in closing looking ahead obviously we are committed to maintaining a high-quality education and our uh Community we're obviously going to continue meeting with Civic Civic EX behind the scenes to plan uh what we need to do in our next steps with respect to our potential uh partial tax ballot measure and also ensuring that we can get the 2/3 approval and I think that's a big uh if because as you know the the information that we had shared back in uh December as I mentioned earlier 63% approval was for 12 cents a square foot and that was at 5 million dollars and so I think we want to be mindful of that as we uh have further discussions with the board as to what that amount could be for our district and once again I even I got a repeat it again but you see some of the deadline information there and obviously as we are coming upon the month of May and we're monitoring the political uh climate out in the community uh we'll have to submit with the board a more detailed uh timeline that will give us additional uh information but I do want to just stress that as a district we move forward in our planning and the community initiative moves forward and they're planning independent of 1 another but I do want to be transparent that as a district we do have a legal obligation to review the citizens initiative to determine whether we are able to implement so that kind of the uh work that's been going on uh behind closed doors as we uh move forward with the parcel tax initiative so at this time this concludes the presentation I would entertain any questions for myself or also for Jared from CX uh joining us online thank you uh any go ahead oh I didn't I didn't really have any specific comments but thank you for the very thorough presentation I very much appreciate that uh okay so I I I do have comments and uh I also want to you had mentioned the the 1 that was pulling a well I do have some questions 1 of them is more so about uh you talked about having a uh our our date to order the ballot unless we put on a special meeting would be the July meeting so that we would be meeting the um the deadline for for La uh County registar right um and before then we still need to finalize the ballot Language by June the 2nd meeting in June correct so if that's correct then all of the stuff on the list that was in that if we scroll back you know the project list the signers the argument for the track the survey tracking if there's more survey tracking and I guess maybe Jared can help out with these individual um items all of that has to be done between well now and that uh the end of June correct yes that is correct there's a lot of work that needs to happen from now and then so what I'm wondering is what's going to come before the board before that at June uh that second meeting in June like what are the kinds of some of these things can be done behind the scenes and then you all can bring to us the final like language but is there anything that needs to come to us before then or you know um in this setting or will more work be done behind the scenes and then knowing whether or not we have you know uh uh we will be discussing it at the end of June yes thank you for the question the board president I think what really is critical I mean we're actually uh going to be testing you know doing some additional polling that we need to really own in on the amount so I think that's the part word that obviously will uh bring information uh to the board because as we get closer it's going to be very critical for us to determine what that amount would be knowing uh what the prior uh polling survey yielded and so I think that's what the in our discussions with cbx we're actually asking them to go deeper with more certainty around what would be the uh amount we would be you know looking forward to put on the and if there is um data that shows that there is an appetite for an amount further than what we can do at the 66% uh level then we would do that but I think we have to be very check and in that sense but I think that would be the big uh determining point that we would want to hear from the board so going back to uh what you said about the amount during when they came to us uh with the Goodwill Simon uh strategic research results from the poll 1 of the options that this small uh sample size was asked was about a 38 uh Cent square footage um and that was is the 160 it was pulling at about 60% yes um and uh we know from our experience in 20 in um 2024 in passing with in polling and passing both initiatives that the polls were a lot lower but the response at the at the ballot was outperformed by a lot and that this is a community that really supports our youth and our schools and um uh so so I just wanted to point that out because you had mentioned only the lower amount earlier and I don't want that to be the only number that sticks in folks heads um the other uh question so I would like to you know understand the little bit more about like uh uh the information that will be coming to and of course like y'all can uh put it'll they'll be future agenda items I guess when there's if there's more polling if there's more surveys um but there's only a few meetings left between now and then um the other question that I have is more so I've been asked because I've seen it done in other jurisdictions uh but some of these other jurisdictions the municipality is also it's not just a independent district and City it may also be a county that uh the municipality whether it's a county or a city has also uh put the ballot these ballot measures or the partial tax on the ballot instead of the district and I was wondering if there was any pros and cons with that yes uh I've got to defer to Jared on that because I know that is something that we actually had talked about today and our discussion so if we can get Jared on yeah hello can you hear me hi Jared hi thanks for having me nice to see you all um so uh board member Laura the only uh examples of that that I'm aware of are in places like let's say Santa Monica where the city has passed a sales tax and um historically has um given half of that revenue from the sales tax to the school district um and there are some you know cities and Counties have opportunities to access certain Revenue that school districts cannot um sales tax being 1 of those my understanding is that the city of Culver City is already at its cap for sales tax and cannot um seek any more uh from the voters um that's usually the 1 that people talk about because um it can be passed to the simple majority vote so less than 2/3 less than 55% um you know it has some complexity some political and legal complexity to it but um you know that's really the only example I'm aware of um there are other examples where people are doing kind of what your citizens group is trying to do um which is uh you know a a partial tax um you know via signature which you know has to be done through a city or county because as we know school districts do not have the power of initiative um so you know that's the other example but that's something that your community I think is sort of actively experimenting with right now so I'm not sure of any other examples besides those 2 um where there have been so-called sort of joint types of measures the other example is San Francisco Unified uh London uh mayor London breed put on their parcel tax when they had to also when they had to repeal and replace the previous 1 because it was open to litigation um so because they could not collect the previous 1 because it was being held up in the courts even though they did pre Veil um and uh instead uh the mayor put uh ordered a new parcel tax to replace the the old 1 so that the school district could access revenue and that wasn't that was a personal I'm pretty sure that was a partial tax and not like a city tax uh that was split between the schools yeah and I believe that also secured 2/3 that is correct yes any it would any anything that was be put on that's not a Citizens initiative would be still 2/3 well right unless you you know for example the city sales tax model from Santa Monica but that's that's no longer an option I think for Culver City because the sales taxes maxed out but I think that the key advantage to the Joint San Francisco is a very unique situation honestly I think it's very hard to replicate almost anything that happens in San Francisco anywhere else to be honest but I I think um you know the city and the county and the school district are all in the community college are all identical boundaries and so it's really 1 single unitary political culture um even though they all have their own distinct legal UH responsibilities it really functions as 1 political unit with its unique San Francisco flavor so it's it's sort of hard to extrapolate from a San Francisco example I I think I I think that's correct also because you know they are unique in being both in being a County uh and we are we are not 1 um and there's so much larger um so uh thank you for that I I I want to make sure that whenever we're putting out the best information out there for our community to understand especially our folks that are not currently participating in our school Community uh so that they have the best information possible when making decisions but also you know we can't expect all everyone to you know be experts in school Finance uh and it's important that anybody who you know everybody but I'm so grateful to everyone who is partnering with us trying to find solutions to our fiscal uncertainty and it's so very important that every single 1 of us you know we're we're doing the best that we can in order to um add to student achievement here and the affordability of our um of our public education uh and I hope that all of our vole volunteers are putting forth their best foot in creating positive interactions because no matter whether or not it's a citizens initiative or a district initiative it's important that our voters have positive experiences with our volunteers so that we will be able to pass something in November and so I want us to continue thinking about that as we continue to engage our public and um making sure that uh they have uh information about uh what is happening in our schools and uh communicating to the best of our ability around that so um thank you is there any other discussion around this this matter thank you so much um thank you Jared uh moving on to sorry the numbers here are weird uh 11.1 actually I will entertain a motion to move all of these second readings together so moved second that thank you um any uh introduction to any of these no any discussion all those in favor say I I I 12.1 uh resolution number 23 would anyone like to yeah I'll move second yes uh good evening board members again uh this particular item is the uh resolution that we are required to have the board approved in order to have uh an election on November 3rd 2026 any discussion all those in favor say I I I 13 point 1 good evening 13.1 is building College Success um mou ratification for Culver Park High School it establishes a partnership to provide College access and Readiness supports for our Culver Park High School students including career exposure College Planning and individualized um advising and support of a through G requirements and post-secondary Pathways the program is fully grant-funded with no cost to CC USD entertain a motion I believe second any discussion all those in favor say I I I 13.2 thank you so 13.2 is the language study agreement at Al Marino um this agreement with the language study group which is a um an organization supports the Continuum of work underway already underway Al Marino Language School to strengthen the El development through both explicit and integrated instruction within the Dual language program the work aligns to research on Dual language programs with the importance of intentional El to ensure strong outcomes for our second language Learners and multilanguage learners as a language school as a language school this investment supports a continuous success of um our Learners the El Marino team will continue to work in Partnership um additionally with coaten and some grant funding to help cover substitute release time and teacher hour hourly pay and we hope to take um our teachers as teacher trainers of trainers to be able to do walkthroughs with additional grade levels and expand this to um other sites I'll entertain a motion I move to approve second any discussion uh I have a question can you expand a little bit on that last bit about expanding it to other sites um given that this is a a dual language type of training uh particularly laiona Baba would the next site that we want to partner with on this piece and then additionally for any of our ELD students and second language Learners the instructional practices are are solid when it comes to explicit um instruction and to be able to share that with other teachers and have a walk through coaching type of model would be terrific great thank you all those in favor say I I I thank you 13.3 agreement with West LA College yeah so this is for Culver City High School commencement agreement with West Los Angeles College it secures the use of West LA facilities including the football field and parking areas in order for us to have 1 ceremony for the Culver City High School graduation on June 12th um the permit outlines event Logistics including site access security coordination and facility use of require uh requirements to support a safe and successful commencement I will move it second I do have a question um 32,000 how does that price tag compared to the cost of running it at Culver City High School comparable with the um multiple ceremonies bunnies and having to rent the stage and the other um logistics for graduation so it's right in the ballpark of what we were looking at this past year and what was paid okay so it's effectively cost neutral thank you any other discussion all those in favor say I I I uh 13.4 participation agreement with California education Partners okay yes so or otherwise known as P3 CC it's a pre-k through great uh coherence collaboration this formalizes um CC usd's participation with the organization it's a 3-year Improvement initiative focused on strengthening early mathematics instructions and coherence across grades PK through 3 by working with our our strongest sites first to be able to be demonstration sites and Role Models so that works grounded in a continuous Improvement model supporting teams to test refined and scale high impact instructional practices in partnership with experts including the UCLA math project who were partnering with for our secondary math and um participation in the Statewide cohort is By Invitation Only so it's an honor to be asked to participate frigate and then how Elementary have been selected as a 2 participating sites to begin with based on their instructional leadership capacity to be able to support the demonstration sites and then successfully Implement and scale this work to our other Elementary sites I won't move it I'll second any discussion um yeah I just I had a few questions about this just because we oh sorry well yeah I think board member okay all right sorry I wanted to make sure that we're going in her um I just had a few questions about this because we got a few emails on this today um some concerns around equity in particular um schools that may I guess certainly from some people's perspective might have more of a need for something like this uh you know there's there's sort of a perception in the district there's differences among our elementary schools and that you know you did mention during your comments that these are sort of you know strong elementary schools I guess you could say and I think that was from the perspective of teaching not necessarily from you know student body or anything else but um you know when when this program was offered to us did we have the ability to select the schools or was that something that uh was sort of was it you know the offered for these 2 particular schools we had to select the schools and based on parameters of what the need was to be to be able to make this lift um and again these are for starting off as demonstration sites so we want to be able to have a strong foundation so that it is expanding to all the other Elementary so they will have access but to begin the process we need a strong foundation and we also have leaders at both sites that have background in mathematics and professional developed to help with the lift of the program because in addition to the teachers it's also the and that are very involved in this part okay that does cause me a little bit of concern just because it you know if we have certain schools that are perceived certainly from a you know support and administrative perspective as stronger um you know and providing an additional program seems like it could potentially make them even stronger still and lead to some additional inequities among the district um I'm not saying that I'm opposed to this for that reason but uh you know maybe I'd like to hear a little bit more about why we shouldn't be concerned about that um if we were to be voting on that tonight it would be difficult to begin at a site that yes the the that we're building our needs and we're filling in gaps you want to begin this work with bringing in the coaches and being able to have a demonstration site that's already ready to go so that you can bring in the other sites to learn from um without having to start from the ground up so hence that's the the method to the madness so to speak and being able to have a site that's ready to roll for your other sites it doesn't mean the other sites are excluded by any means it's that you're having a place to begin the demonstration and the coaching um that's that's not having to fill in gaps before you get to that process and since it's just a 3-year process we want to be able to take advantage of it fully and not be having to fill in anything we can just get everyone off off and running with coaching and with demonstrations and the labs within the work okay would there be some thought as to providing additional support for other school sites that may not be able to benefit from this program yeah I I I apologize I thought I was clear all elementary sites will have a a part to be able to be a part of this program okay but that would be eventually after you kick it off on the 2 these geometry sites yes to build it okay I I think maybe what I'm asking more for is like in that sort of that I guess like how long do we think it would be until we are able to bring it to the other Elementary sites not I have not experienced this program before um so I'd have to come back to you with that information all right I'll I'll let my colleagues ask questions too thanks office of turning on there you go uh so I my questions were long as similar lines I get you know wanting to have a strong program and a strong basis um as opposed to you know putting something together in an environment where you have other demands that can make it difficult to get off the ground but I would say that having and I know you don't know when but I would say that having this available with an a year to 2 years would be a reasonable goal in order to do that otherwise um I think we really do start to ask the questions about uh you know making sure that we're we're we're we're providing resources into those schools that I think need it that need it have a more urgent need almost certainly um and and that's the goal as well for me to just be able to answer you correctly I would have to that's the that's part of what's going to be happening soon is be able to get more information about the program what it looks like with the timeline looks like but the the thought behind this is that we want our elementary school teachers PK through third that this program covers ready to go when we are adopting our math program and so um we we've had some questions about well shouldn't we have the math curriculum first know you want the instruction first the our teachers are their art of teaching is what really moves students for and their ability to be able to deliver best first instruction and so this is where having this opportunity become so critical before the math adoption so we would want to be able to at least have a foundation in the same timeline that you shared from a year to year and a half so that our teachers are primed for that adoption okay so if it was something that goes where we could be available these other schools within a year year and a half and we're using it to work out the bugs grow it that's understandable but I think everyone without speaking for everyone here I think there's a general concern that there are schools that um have a greater need because of their student profile and making sure that we get that into those uh into those environments the strongest possible and particularly with LA bioenno which which the with the profile of the students many of whom are not proficient in English yet um it will be a little bit different and that neither of these other 2 schools have that same have that same level of profile in terms of serving those kinds of students I think is a a fair concern but I I'm I'm still okay with this I just want to point out that you know if we're not preparing for those environment environments for those most at risk um and who are the most need and we have the most the biggest Gap we've passed resolutions about bridging these gaps that that needs to be in our mind in terms of making sure that what we have resources um that you know making sure that those resources are available to those who need it the most and I think the biggest um piece behind this just to provide some more foundation and what I've learned about about the organization so far is that part of what the give is in this program that we um are gifted so to speak it's a coach and the coaches are highly trained and most of them are coming from UCLA and are assigned um rep for lack of a better word that will be working with our district she has worked um great uh very closely and within Center X at UCLA which is all about equity and providing Equitable math services so our coaches will be coming in with that lens and be able regardless of what school we're at to help us serve a diverse array of diverse population of students and to becoming in with that Equitable lens so that's that's another strength of the program you're welcome I just want to concur actually with the concerns of the the other 2 board members who've spoken I mean taken this 1 and the the item a couple items ago going to El Marino we do have a package of training supports going to the uh at least on paper the the schools that have the highest test scores and and the lowest uh number of English Learners and things like that um and that's somewhat concerning to me um if we have schools that as you said are not quite ready to take this on um I would like to know and I think this is what what board member Carlson was also asking um what are we doing this year and next year to make them ready and to provide the supports so that they will be ready not kind of hypothetically 2 3 years down the road will bring this training to them um so if we have identified within the cabinet some schools that have higher capacity than others I don't think it's enough to just identify the high-capacity ones I think we need to be building that capacity immediately um in both the leadership and if that's the the teachers at the site or the support at the site um so that they could participate in something like this and second um you know the answer to both of these items has been we will eventually spread these strategies to the other schools I would like to see an actual plan of that um something that it's not just well a year or 2 from now we'll do it I I would like to see something that says like year 1 it's at these sites year 2 it is at these you know these additional sites um something that's that's very concrete going into this because I don't want to find the board you know 2 to 3 years down the road uh and and asking oh whatever happened to getting this to lab Iona or whatever happened to to getting this to Encon um so I mean I've definitely got some concern concerns about the way this is rolling out um and and would appreciate like I said some more concrete plans about how these strategies will be shared with other sites um and what we'll be doing with the sites that aren't included in these packages tonight to build their capacity so they can take advantage of things like this as well if I met uh poor president thank you uh this particular project is a small type of scale project it's not our entire plan for math instruction as you are all aware if we do get some um 1-time funds we're going to be able to use those 1-time funds to help support our math implementation which uh is really grounded on our professional development plan for math implementation so the way I see this particular project is 1 component this does not drive our overall uh math Initiative for the district but a small component the aspect around the leadership capacity of the schools obviously we did take that into account that was 1 of the major uh criteria that this organization had that the site selected must have a really strong capacity to be able to implement and I think that was the reason why these 2 particular School schools stood out because there was some strong interest from the site principals with respect to the implementation the whole notion around concerns for our students that are not achieving I mean we all share that here equally that there is a strong need for improving math achievement not only at at at our uh 2 schools have you know High number of students that experience poverty but also in all of our schools I mean our our scores across the district could be higher if we're looking at our math scores there's no reason why there's other school districts that I'm aware of because I compete with some of these other school District in the prior experience and they're just scoring off the charts on on the math assessment so I think we also have to look at what are we doing districtwide with respect to our math plan so we do take that uh seriously and we'll have that in our plan that will be able to share with the board but this particular project it you know it's a cohort there's um a few districts that are part of this for this second time around the first uh District cohorts have already launched so we're being invited for their second group there's other districts that also are being part of it and this time around uh such as uh Westminster uh Sousa unified you know both districts I do have you know High need and so obviously we'll be able to learn uh from those other as well as to how they're implementing to be able to share that out and uh we do hope that this leads to other funding you know there is a a very wealthy person who's funding this initiative with respect to this uh nonprofit and so part of these networks do provide us access and so I think that's the reason why it becomes very um viable for us to consider because we want to be at those seats we want to be at the table uh to be able to have access to other opportunities as well but yes we definitely will uh have a plan that we'll share with the board thank you and uh when I first heard of this uh I 2 was concerned about equity and whether or not we were providing uh the opportunities for our uh student populations within other schools to uh to benefit from this immediately but when it was explained to me that uh administrative capacity in terms of leadership roles was also a big issue um uh it's it's something that we can uh uh we need to also allow for our our principles to be able to address the most priority the the things that they need to do at their sites that takes the most priority and this does add extra energy and um effort on their part to be able to go to convene go to the trainings and convenings and provide feedback to further study from what I understand so um in that case I I still want our our uh District to participate understanding that we do need to provide more supports to those other schools so that in the very near future they will be able to participate in the in a bigger level when these uh at a bigger um in a bigger way when these opportunities do come up for them and that does not mean to say that these strategies will stay at these schools um if there's no further discussion all those in favor say I I I thank you 14.1 increase in mileage reimbursement so this was actually Iris increase the rate effective January 1st 2026 we are bringing out late actually because I had a vacancy in my department so we are just bringing it back we will be send this is this will be a private prospectively effective um January 1st and we will send a communication to all staff about once you approve about the increase straight so we will be um paying out the difference of 2.5 cents for all the travels that has already happened I'll entertain a motion move to approve second any discussion all those in favor say I I 14 point too so this is an approval for um California geological societies review fees for pedestrian Pike Pathway to the extent of 4,800 under measure e second any discussion all those in favor say I I I 14.3 please so this is the division of State architect DSA plan review fees for office of child development project um to the tune of 14 220 and I measure you move second it thank you any discussion all those in favor say I I I 15.1 good evening 15.1 is the final resolution to implement certificated layoffs for the 2627 school year statutory by May 15th the board must take action to approve a final list of employees that will not be re-employed due to the reduction in services that was approved on March 3rd there were 15 positions that the district will be reducing um in our budget for next year and those positions are as followed when school nurse 2 language art teachers 1 secondary art teacher 3 Math teachers 1 PE teacher 1 general science teacher 4 Elementary K5 teachers and 2 School psychologists although we're reducing the number of certificated staff by 15 based on the resolution that was adopted in March um at this time because we had retirements resignation and also were not bringing back employees that were on temporary contracts it's only necessary to issue final final layoff notices to 7 employees those are the 7 employees that are listed on the resolution um that you have before you tonight these 7 employees will be placed on the 39th 3 employment list and would be called back in order of their seniority and to their specific position based on the credentials that they hold um 1 other thing to point out is that while we do have to take this um this action to deliver a final notice by May 15th additional funding and become available or should we get notice of additional retirements or resignations then we would immediately um go to these employees that are sitting on the 39th month list to bring them back for positions as soon as we um knew that the funding was available or the position was open I'll move the resolution I'll second it discussion I'll hold my comments for the I have some general ones but I'll give them on the next resolution okay I just wanted to say I very appreciative of the fact that uh over half of the positions are not actual actually occupied um so the number has been reduced thank you very much for that explanation of the 3099 month rehire um and then just confirming I know we've talked a little bit about you know right sizing and and enrollment and things uh with these Cuts we still they'll meet all contractual obligations um as far as class sizes at elementary and secondary as far as we know yes okay and if we were to experience an influx of students we would bring additional people back or higher for additional as necessary correct okay thank you all those in favor go ahead thank you um just a question with those in terms of how we decide those so it's where there's a class need that we would bring those people back for those things or is it in a particular order so um the needs would be based on Entry it will be based on student so for example if we had enough students to open up another third grade class that we would bring back in elementary teacher um once the schools finish up their Master schedules if there happens to be an influx of students coming in at a certain grade where it's like no we're not able to fit these students into the seats we have available then we would have to look at okay do we need to bring back a um a teacher at a specific content area but it would all be driven by um student enrollment thank you know it's just it at least 1 of those teachers is 1 that uh I know it's like for instance 1 of my daughter's favorite classes and I know the the enrollment isn't there to keep it going uh but it's just you know again another sign of how difficult times are for all of us so sorry I do I do have a question and I know remember and maybe has General comments after but um just around prioritization when you talked about um as issuing them about having to May 15th um to remember lachman question around project ization uh if we do hear back from the state which I think we we hope to how then will that money be used to prioritize which positions we would bring back I think when you're talking about a certificated positions part of this process was about right sizing based on enrollment so while we you know we're hopeful that we are going to be getting money from the state that doesn't necessarily trigger and mean that every 1 of these positions we would need to bring back for example example if we have you know an extra Elementary class at a school site and we're still able to hold those elementary schools keeping them under the Norms um it you know that that's just about right sizing and and living within our means yeah definitely and maybe I shouldn't be beating around the bush I think it was no surprise to to anyone here that I was I was super concerned um as were my colleagues around the reduction in mental health um and school psychologists support and so I yeah and I think that like particularly my question was asked with the understanding and so I can have my peace of mind of understanding that it would the hope is that it would be a priority for us if we do hear back by May 15 we would issue uh you know employment back as a priority so the mental health is on the next um is on the next uh resolution at the classified position um as far as the the school psychologist position um right now based on the numbers that we have um and case loads the number that we're looking at is 8 however you know should we have more money then of course that's something that we could look at is do we is that the best use of that money to bring back a school psychologist or is that use best for a different position um right now I know the special education department is looking at okay how do we now with the number that we have based on the money that we have how does that reallocation look within that department thank you uh if there's no further discussion all those in favor say I I I thank you 15.2 15.2 is the final resolution to implement classified layoffs similar to the certificated resolution statutorily by May 15th the board must taste action to approve a final list of employees that will not be re-employed due to the reduction in services that was approved over 2 board meetings which were March 3rd and March 10th the original resolution had a total of 10 positions however as we're aware of funding has been secured to remove the frost technical director from that original list so at this time on the um uh based on the resolutions that we had at the last we are looking at reducing 9 classified positions that would be eliminated in The 2627 school year those positions are as followed to mental health to school-based Mental Health Counselors 1 art coordinator 1 Ossie Ware house driver 1 cook when Food Service assistance that is a 12-month employee 1 director of security 1 secretary 2 and 1 Administrative Assistant for security um again similar to certificated although we're looking to reduce the number of classified positions on our budget by 9 at this time due to retirements reassignments and resignations it's only necessary to issue final layoffs at this time to 5 classified employees I do want to point out similar to certificated those 5 employees will be placed on a 39 month list it would be called back in the order of their seniority if there was an opening in the position that they were currently sitting in or within their job classification um again as as staffing needs change should we find out of additional funding sources um we get new notices of retirement or resignations that could come in between now and June 30th or really any time up for this 39 months we would um be in a position where we would be able to resend this final layoff notices and I did also just want to point out here and I know we've heard some of this this evening that um in addition the Arts coordinator position um in the in the current capacity that it sits in now those duties um would be restructured into a new District Administrative position that would be brought forward to the board at a later time in a job description for your approval uh can I I'll move the resolution is there a second uh yeah I'm happy to second discussion okay yeah so I I had a few comments just on on this resolution but also the process generally um you know just noting that we move forward with that first resolution without taking any additional positions off of it from we when we originally passed the initial resolution in March 3rd and we're moving this resolution without having taken any positions off um since we originally passed it in March 10th except for the frost technical technical director due to a commitment of funding from the community and uh as noted the Arts coordinators on the list with a specific understanding that was worked out in advance with all interested parties that the position in its current form will be discontinued in a new position for a credential administrator is currently being designed to handle Arts coordination as well as clients lcap and other needs in the ad Services Department TBD um I would just note those are the only 2 positions that were reconsidered due to community feedback uh not any of our teachers or other certificated employees nor our Mental Health Counselors or any of our other classified employees um just my own view on this with respect to the new position for the administrator the way I see it that's actually an expansion of our district services including but not limited to the Art Space not a contraction as as some would apparently believe um I appreciate the hard work of our cabinet and spending a great deal of time uh between March 10th and now figuring out how to re-envision this position to better serve the needs of all of our kids and working with our Community Partners to figure out how to fund both this and the frost technical director position um I I have have also indicated at times you know I think we we could be using the frost to better use for the district I understand that it is a district property we are looking at all kinds of ways in which we are going to be renting out and trying to gain revenue in the district that is something we've all been talking about all year talking about renting out our school sites renting out our district parking lot um and you know engaging in a joint use agreement with the city potentially using some of our athletic facilities and providing additional you know financing for that so I think that you know there's no reason and why the frost should be exempt from that and I would really like to see when we do look to next year a plan for how we're going to be you know utilizing that space to its highest and best use um we also know that taking additional positions off the list at this point would result in a budget that would not meet the 3% Reserve requirement and uh begin a process of oversight from the LA county of Office of Education further harm are already shaky credit rating and cause us to have to waste more of your money and by that I mean our constituents our taxpayers to whom are ultimately accountable from measure e on interest rather than improving our infrastructure with those funds and also caused the need for more drastic cuts to operating expenses in the future just to stay solvent so a no vote tonight would just be another of the same kinds of bad decisions that got us to this point more of the fiscal irresponsibility of the community spoke loud and clear in 2024 they wanted to end um just on a personal level though I'm I'm really truly sorry for all of our CCSD employees for a subject to this reduction in force tonight I get no pleasure out of sitting here and having to make these decisions for a second year in a row uh and that's why I've been spending a great deal of time working so hard since I've been part of this body to try to improve our financial management in the district and to get additional Revenue in the door um I won't single out any employee publicly but you know who our our you know who you are our unsung hero who took the time to sit down with me for a couple of hours and share thoughts on how we could better serve the kids in our district and you did so without even advocating for your own position I'm really grateful that we have District employees like this person and that's what it means to be truly student centered I sincerely hope after the May revise budget from the state that we can have better news and can revisit some of the decisions that we're making tonight thanks um so this is these last couple of months have been as we've gone through this process has been 1 of the more Troublesome ones and troubled me a great deal 1 because of having to on 1 hand look at cutting positions like we just did with psychologists like we're doing with the uh counselors um you know yes these are temporary positions and I do think we have to look at our financial responds responsibility and that if you decide to keep temporary positions around you need to offset other things and I don't know 1 of our reasons we're here is we didn't take those offsetting positions earlier to try to handle situation and plan for what we knew was coming that being said also um we've had hits and pretty much every single Department administrative our classrooms our technical support the people who answer the phones everywhere we've had to make these Cuts because of the situation that we are in the uh the psychologists the counselors and even our Arts programs were some of the last bastions that we've tried to protect to the very end uh of this but there is a point where everyone has to put in and do their part and many uh continue to do so I do want to thank uh however ccaf and avpa for their incredible work behind the scenes I know we've had many conversations as well as with staff um about what we knew we needed to do in order to avoid getting our Reserve below that and what everyone can do to put in to prioritize our schools um the out uh the fact that we've been able to come to together uh and and find funding for our the person who is the technical director at the frost uh has been amazing and the efforts as well to try to make sure that we can uh find funding with our counselors and finally with respect to the uh Arts coordinator position itself which we've been clear from the beginning um for uh needed some fixing and some updating notwithstanding and we can't look at who the person is there we're looking at at what the role is and does it fit with the Ed code it does not does the position um how how is it dealing with sort of the change of of of where we are as a district and the fact and that is so appreciated that people have gone beyond their efforts and their job descriptions in order to try to help raise money in this case I think over 2.1 million is something we have to sheet but it also shows that that job and that position needs to change and needs to be updated and appreciate everyone's work together in order to find out how to do that and this is a necessary step in order for us to reconstitute that position so um I understand that it is not uh if there was a way to do it afterwards and not do it uh I certainly would have preferred that but that's not how our fun structures work uh and we're all on the same team and have the same goals uh of trying to make our school system work better making sure that we have a strong CTE program we have a strong arts program and that we're out there are trying to get grants and revenue across the board because we need that money and to find these alternative sources so with that in mind um it's with a heavy heart that we have to take this particular path but we need to do it uh and some of these are necessary changes that we needed to make uh to the program in order to comply with a number of areas to answer some of the points that were brought up a little bit earlier um and I did get talk with the students on that and get their thoughts on it as well no 1 is going to be looking to to my knowledge looking to charge students um we have a space there that we need to make better use of whether it's the frost or some of the rehearsal spaces which we can be more efficient with so that we can maximize our use for those students while at the same time finding ways of making um the the the frost available as a revenue generator without taking away from those students and what they are doing is important so I wanted to get the chance to answer some of those concerns and reiterate our commitment to the Arts because my number 1 priority and 1 which in some of my conversations I have not explained as clearly as I would like is uh that um our counselors and our Arts programs are 2 things that make us special as a district they are unusual from what other districts do and in having to make some of these necessary changes my commitment is not to see us cannibalize or destroy or undermine these programs that make our district special and as we make these Cuts I think I should say these restructurings uh it is important that we keep that in mind um we have to be there for all of our students we want those students to be supported we also need to make sure that um you know the things that make us stand out as a district we preserve um those things those assets uh and those Treasures that make us special and I uh hope we will all do that as we move forward thank you so with regard to the positions listed here again I am very hardened and appreciative of the work staff has done uh for the fact that there are 9 positions here but 5 actual folks uh being directly impacted by that I mean that's still 5 folks um and it's a it's a terrible position to be in um but I'm grateful that it is reduced and I hope that it continues to uh diminish um with regard to the Arts um I spoke at length at the last board meeting about why I thought it was a bad idea and ultimately harmful to our program and our students to cut those positions um the technical director um is is a very unique position um it's not 1 where there were multiple people serving in a role and would have to spread out the responsibility it's it's the unique position who does a number of unique things I'm extremely grateful um for ccef and the avpa foundation and some of our booster clubs um who've worked with the district and some Creative Solutions the district is found to be able to maintain that position uh I feel the same way about the Arts coordinator position I mean we really cannot run I believe a multi-campus multi-grade level articulated mult multifaceted Arts programs without somebody doing the coordination of those efforts um and moving between the schools and moving between the programs and with understanding of the funding sources and grants and all of that um I have talked to a number of of people of the different sites a number of uh interest holders in this uh students and families who are impacted by this including the current uh holder of this position um and I understand that the position needs to evolve um and I'm I'm okay with that um I understand that including that position in this uh layoffs notification is 1 of the steps towards moving towards this but um it is an absolute priority of mind to make sure that we have a some version of this uh position in the future again I don't think our Arts programs will function uh without it um hearing a lot of folks talk whether they were Educators or students impact by this I think as we redesign whatever future position includes these responsibilities we do need to include students and talking about how this position uh the the previous position benefited them um and supported them and make sure that those voices are included in the creation of a of a successor position um same thing with our Educators who have been supported by the Arts coordinator position whatever the successor position is in the future um to include those Educators perspectives to make sure it continues to support them um similarly I spoke last time about the school-based Mental Health Counselors um certain responsibilities can be redistributed um I I would have accepted uh 1 cut position uh we still have 2 on here but I know that there are incredible efforts going on to find other funding sources for that um additional position and that there's a a desire to try to do something better it's not something that's going to happen by May 15th um and there's statutory deadlines that we have to meet on this um but I am committed to continuing to look for ways to reduce the number of cuts to the Mental Health Counselors um so that we can continue to provide that high level of service uh for our students in elementary and middle and high school um you know and again I think our boosters and uh Ed foundation and other other partners in looking for some creative ways to fund this and then longer medium-term I guess is the state budget there's a lot of things that we don't have in our budget yet just because they are unsure at the state level um the timeline for finding out things about the actual state budget what our actual funding levels will be unfortunately don't coincide at all with the schedule that we have to make hiring and layoff decisions on um but I I'm confident that we will be able to do something better in the next couple of months around Mental Health Services thank you this resolution or these 2 resolutions today are being or being put before us because we need to encumber the changes in our uh submission to Leo uh based on our second interim report and therefore um this is why it's coming to us now but that doesn't mean that the looking for Revenue to uh to continue saw any of some or any of these positions will that work that will continue um and I hope to continue working with our partners in order to make that happen there's no more discussion all those in favor say I I I thank you uh 15.3 thank you um 15.3 is a contract for covers City identified School District to have with um the office of for administrative hearings we they typically have 5 year contracts and hours expired last year so this allows us to use oah in the event that we have any type of um layoffs hearings that we need to um um to have proceeded over or any type of disciplinary hearings this is a 5-year contract and um the fiscal impact is not to exceed 48,000 but this is a we use it when we need it so if we don't need to use it then it doesn't cost us anything I'll move the item I'll second it any discussion all those in favor say I I thank you 15.4 I'm not so sure if I'm 15.4 um the district received a claim number 261-4471 um this was uh reviewed by our the district's claim admin examiner administrator for insurance and they recommended that this claim be rejected entertain a motion I'll move to approve second all those in favor say I I I thank you consent agenda would any anyone like to offer a motion yeah I'll move to approve it is great uh all those in favor say I I I wonderful thank you future agenda items nothing in addition to things I brought up in the past which I think you have a list yes I do thank you or superintendent does as we uh continue to wind down what we're doing with the cell phones uh AI is still a concern I wanted to keep that on everyone's radar that is on the list uh okay 18.1 uh someone like to make a motion I'll move to adjourn second all those in favor say I I I thank you that's what I talked like for my blood sugars

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Regular Board Meeting 04-28-26

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