[0:02] All right, please come to order. Welcome to the Nevada Joint Union High School

[0:05] District regular board meeting. It is 6:06 PM.

[0:10] Today is September 9th, 2026. We're at the board room at 112 Nevada City Highway,

[0:13] Nevada City. Mr. Pezzella, call the roll, please.

[0:16] Yeah. Trustee Lull?

[0:19] Aye.

[0:20] Trustee Clark?

[0:20] Aye.

[0:21] Trustee Pritchett?

[0:22] Aye.

[0:23] Trustee Willoughby?

[0:23] Here.

[0:24] President Klein?

[0:25] Here.

[0:25] And then it's noted that Trustee Johnson is absent this evening.

[0:32] All right, we have

[0:39] nothing to report out of closed session.

[0:47] And out of closed session, the board will now consider action on the readmission of

[0:52] student 26-7. Do we have a motion?

[0:58] Being none, that motion dies on the table.

[1:05] There.

[1:10] All right, just a reminder, this meeting is for the board of trustees.

[1:12] We were elected to direct the superintendent and guide the district.

[1:15] We're a governing board of the people, by the people.

[1:18] But this meeting is a meeting of the board held in public, not a meeting of the

[1:21] public, so follow the agenda and the time limits.

[1:25] If you'd like to make a public comment, please make sure you fill out a card, give

[1:28] it to Jamie, and we'll do our best to have time for you.

[1:30] If your comment is on an item on the agenda, please mark that on the card so we'll

[1:35] take you up on that item.

[1:40] Tonight, we adopt last year's actual financial results, and we adopt goals for

[1:44] superintendent, and those two items belong together well.

[1:47] So a word before we start. Washington's farewell address in

[1:52] 1796 told the country to cherish the public credit and to use it sparingly,

[1:59] and that is a school board's job description.

[2:02] The money in this district is not ours.

[2:04] It was taken from the people in this county under compulsion of law and handed to

[2:08] five neighbors to spend on their kids.

[2:11] And when we look at the numbers later tonight, I want us to look at them in the

[2:15] same way we look at our own, because someone in Grass Valley is looking at them

[2:20] that way.

[2:22] So with that, I'd like to lead everyone in the pledge of allegiance.

[2:28] Rise, ready, begin.

[2:31] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the

[2:36] republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with

[2:42] liberty and justice for all.

[2:52] On to the approval of the agenda. Do we have any changes or alterations?

[2:56] We do not.

[2:59] Could we get a motion to approve the agenda?

[3:01] So moved.

[3:01] And a second?

[3:02] Second.

[3:04] All in favor?

[3:08] So yeah. All in favor say, "Aye."

[3:11] Aye.

[3:12] Any against? The ayes have it.

[3:17] Moving right along to student showcase.

[3:20] Looks like we have the Nevada Union High School dance program.

[3:23] We do. And if Ms. Wadman and her team could come to the podium.

[3:28] Courtney Wadman and a number of students are here to present on the dance program

[3:32] at Nevada Union High School. Welcome.

[3:39] Good evening, and hello everyone, board members, district leadership, and community

[3:44] members. My name is Amora Lucia, and I am the Nevada Union Dance ASB Club

[3:49] president. I am a senior at Ben Ogie, and I've been dual enrolled for all four

[3:54] years of high school.

[3:55] Hi, my name is Charlotte Detong. I am the vice president of the Union Dance ASB

[3:59] Club. I'm also a senior, this is also my fourth year in advance.

[4:03] This year we started a new program that is Performance Ensemble Honors, which gives

[4:07] us new opportunities with student choreography showcase, teaching assistants, and

[4:12] student management internship.

[4:14] Thank you for giving Charlotte and I the opportunity to share a few updates about

[4:18] the exciting growth of our program.

[4:21] Our vision is to

[4:24] grow exceptional dance education, expand performance opportunities, and

[4:30] make sure there's more leadership development, and involve the community.

[4:37] There are more ASB members up here.

[4:40] And we also have a current booster team this year.

[4:43] They're helping us with fundraising and manage our accounts, which is a lot of

[4:46] help. And as well as Courtney, we have many other teachers that come in and teach

[4:50] our class.

[4:53] This month alone, we've worked and we've had a Ben Ogie Dance master class, a

[4:57] Spiderman-themed rally dance, dance team auditions, Nutcracker auditions, and folk

[5:03] dance auditions. Folk dance rehearsal is starting on the week of November 19th and

[5:08] 21st.

[5:09] This year's fall concert is especially exciting because we're introducing six

[5:13] student choreographers to choreograph in our fall production and our student

[5:17] choreography production. And we're doing this this year so that we have the

[5:21] opportunity to take our original works to the National High School Dance Festival

[5:26] in March and compete them there.

[5:29] We will have the opportunity to take master classes, see performances, and connect

[5:35] with dancers across the country, as well as audition to colleges and professional

[5:40] dance programs.

[5:42] I'm also a captain on the SD dance team, and we are super excited this year to be

[5:46] attending the football games and basketball games.

[5:49] We're also participating in the Kings Dance Workshop.

[5:52] And then for advanced dance, we're going to be going out to middle schools on

[5:55] November 5th with choir, band, and drama to be reaching out to both of my

[5:59] friends.

[6:01] Our biggest community outreach this year has been the development of our sister

[6:07] studio at Grass Valley Museum and Cultural Center and the growth of our enrichment

[6:11] programs. Currently, we have 150 members participating

[6:17] in our enrichment classes. We have classes going on after school at Nevada

[6:23] Union in our dance room and in our new studios.

[6:26] Right here in the black Marley is the garden studio, which has a beautiful view of

[6:30] our garden. And the sky studio, the studio with the gray Marley, has a beautiful

[6:35] view of the sky and the church. And they're beautiful studios with beautiful

[6:40] teachers, and it's been a joy to participate in them.

[6:44] Also this year, our studio intern responsibilities, so we're helping to manage

[6:48] studios a little bit more to get more hands-on experience.

[6:51] So what we do is the OTC class rosters, community participant registrations and

[6:55] payments, teaching and rehearsal schedules, and our program fundraising budget.

[7:01] I'm also an assistant for the youth reaching class, which has been really fun for

[7:05] me. This is my second year doing it.

[7:07] It's really fun to work with kids in dance and encourage them to keep dancing.

[7:12] I forgot to mention, but our debut performance of the Nutcracker will be happening

[7:17] December 11th and 12th at the Dawn Baggett Theater, and we're really excited to

[7:21] share this beautiful production.

[7:23] As you can see, it's a really ambitious year for the dance program, but we're so

[7:27] excited for all the upcoming grand things we are producing, and we hope to see you

[7:33] at our community events.

[7:38] Here we have a video of our most recent rally.

[7:58] Yeah.

[8:03] Anyway.

[8:03] Oh, thank you.

[8:18] One quick question. Did I see that

[8:21] Mrs. Browning knows how to tap dance in there?

[8:24] Oh, yeah.

[8:24] I did not know that, and that's-- really excited about that.

[8:27] She's a theater girl.

[8:28] Yeah, she has done musical theater.

[8:30] There are classes for ages nine and up at all levels.

[8:33] Do I include nine and up?

[8:35] Yes, we have adults.

[8:36] Oh. I'll see you in class

[8:42] In the family, we just saw a video of Luke dancing before the meeting started.

[8:45] Yes.

[8:46] I had a question. You guys are going to the National High School Dance?

[8:49] National High School Dance Festival. It's at Point Park University.

[8:53] So we've been a few times in the past.

[8:56] And each year we always ask the students what they strictly want to do.

[9:00] Last year we went to New York. The National High School Dance Festival is a great

[9:04] field trip opportunity because it's not just the United States.

[9:08] Like Canada, Australia, really from all over the world.

[9:12] And they have a professional company in residence that does a performance for the

[9:17] opening ceremony, and then classes throughout the day with amazing instructors from

[9:21] across the world. So they get to train, and then they have performance

[9:24] opportunities, and they love student choreography.

[9:26] Typically, we don't start student choreography showcase till winter.

[9:30] The fall show is usually faculty, and the student showcase is our middle show in

[9:34] winter, and then our spring dance concert is back to faculty.

[9:37] And so we usually haven't had material ready to take to that festival, but we did

[9:42] pick six veteran choreographers with Charlotte, and Amari as two of those

[9:45] choreographers who are setting work for the fall specifically to be ready for

[9:49] education, so that they can submit work to the festival.

[9:53] And then, yeah, there are also auditions through that program.

[9:58] Like, Olivia's daughter, Ava, came with us to the regional and was recruited by

[10:03] Joffrey, and then ended up getting to go to New York after to those festivals-

[10:07] Awesome. So much exposure

[10:07] ... where they get shown to real companies.

[10:10] Yeah, cool.

[10:10] Which is really special.

[10:11] Okay.

[10:14] Yeah. Any other questions?

[10:16] Yep. I'll just drop there. Thank you.

[10:20] The level of service you provide to students is unreal, Courtney.

[10:23] And on top of the productions that you do, now you've added this whole another

[10:28] layer, and you have students involved in running it and providing lessons.

[10:35] We're beyond grateful because it's a huge service to the kids in our community and

[10:38] our district, and we see it, and you go way above and beyond.

[10:42] So I just appreciate that.

[10:43] Yeah, definitely focusing on work-based learning experiences.

[10:45] Yep.

[10:45] And career basic. I got my CTE credential recently, and so we're ready to create

[10:50] that pathway.

[10:51] Yeah.

[10:52] While still getting visual and performing arts.

[10:54] Like you said, for performing arts credits, but adding that CTE pathway to the

[10:58] program is a big deal.

[11:00] Yeah.

[11:00] So, absolutely.

[11:03] Cool. That's all.

[11:04] I had a question for the girls. So how was "Spider-Man" received at the rally?

[11:09] Everyone was like, "Yeah."

[11:10] Awesome. Good.

[11:11] It was stunning.

[11:14] And he learns that whole thing in just one weekend.

[11:17] So

[11:18] yeah, that's it. Been learning how many dances already. Pretty good stuff.

[11:25] Daily technique classes and then rehearsals after school and weekends.

[11:29] So pretty impressive group.

[11:31] Cool.

[11:32] Okay. Of course, I have two cents, of course.

[11:35] But I don't even know where to start because I just feel like maybe I'm emotional

[11:41] because there is no doubt, like, the blood, sweat and tears and time and energy

[11:46] that Courtney specifically has put into this program to

[11:51] foster, to give it roots, to give it the strong foundation that it has today.

[11:57] And you should be so proud of your work and just seeing it as it continues to come

[12:02] to fruition.

[12:04] Not just with my daughter and not just with

[12:08] the dancers who are here today or tomorrow or yesterday, but it is amazing.

[12:14] It's just the tip of the iceberg of what these ladies just does.

[12:18] We're not even talking about all of the

[12:23] characteristics that gives them the confidence. Like the student choreography.

[12:27] A lot of these ladies and gentlemen.

[12:30] Learning to teach your own peers and learning to

[12:35] foster that relationship. The all-abilities classes.

[12:39] Having that confidence, time management, and balancing all of it and doing the

[12:45] place. And then just all the different types of dances that they're learning and

[12:48] being exposed to. It is incredible. And then expanding it into the community.

[12:57] There are no words to express just how rich and how special this program is.

[13:02] And AI cannot replace the performing arts. So snap to that.

[13:08] But yeah, everybody should go and support them and just see the incredible work

[13:14] that you guys do because it is so many blood, sweat and tears, and then you

[13:20] perform, and then it's like it never happened.

[13:23] But what it can give to young adults will

[13:28] last and permeate throughout what they do.

[13:33] So, personally, I know so many. My daughter's a testament to that.

[13:38] And because of this program and the opportunities that it gave her, not just

[13:44] personally but professionally,

[13:47] everybody needs to know about this. So support your performing arts.

[13:50] Great job, and thank you so much for continuing to do what you do, because the work

[13:55] that you do is so important, and there is an army there behind you that will

[14:01] continue to sing the praises of your program. So bravo.

[14:11] Shanté's class at the new studio.

[14:14] See you later.

[14:15] All right. Thank you guys for coming.

[14:20] All right, we're on to student site reps. Anybody from Silver?

[14:31] Sure. Hi, everybody. I'm Abigail Silver, per usual.

[14:35] I'm here representing Silver Springs today.

[14:37] Some of the things that we have done so far are we just had Ants on a Log day.

[14:42] So we had a bunch of celery and peanut butter and raisins for people to go and pick

[14:48] up little ants on a log because it's National Ants on a Log Day.

[14:51] So everybody was super excited for that, and leadership held that.

[14:55] And then we had our second assembly. Everybody had a lot of fun.

[14:58] We had musical chairs. I got sat on.

[15:02] I did not win. Also, we just had our back-to-school night, which went great.

[15:08] Randy made spaghetti, per usual. Very good.

[15:12] And our culinary class actually ended up making that a seaweed for people.

[15:17] So everybody got to try that and see what culinary is really about now.

[15:22] And, oh, they also made chocolate chip cookies that were

[15:29] ... Our football tournament is coming up September 18th, and I'm really excited

[15:34] about that. And the kids were getting super excited, like antsy.

[15:38] They're like, "When is this coming up?"

[15:40] Our OCI this year, kids not liking it. They'd probably rather stay out of it.

[15:45] I'm one of them. It's fine.

[15:50] We do have something exciting, though.

[15:51] The first-ever Panther Pride pop-up is at Coffee Court on

[15:57] September 18th at 8:00 a.m., and it will be open to the public.

[16:01] So we invite you to come to Silver instead of going to Dutch Bros, and come

[16:07] help us just raise money to have more fun activities.

[16:12] We'll have coffee and pastries, and we're all really excited about that.

[16:16] And that's our culinary teacher for the school. So we're really excited about that.

[16:22] But that's all I have. You guys have any questions?

[16:24] I do. So what is so different about OCI this year that's making it a no-go?

[16:30] Students are not allowed to do their classwork.

[16:34] In order to get out of OCI and not have another day of it, they have to complete a

[16:38] small program.

[16:41] As long as they get it done during the duration of OCI, then they're allowed to

[16:46] leave and not have it the next day. If you do not complete what you're given in

[16:50] OCI, you have to do it again. And kids are like, "Well,

[16:57] there's no point in getting OCI," because a lot of kids skip class, get OCI'd, and

[17:01] then just do their work in OCI. So students now are like, "Oh, maybe I should

[17:07] miss class."

[17:10] But that's what's new about it.

[17:12] Awesome.

[17:12] Yeah. Any other questions?

[17:15] Sounds good.

[17:16] You guys go check out Luke and Tim's TikTok video. It's really great. I promise.

[17:21] Yeah. Good job, Abby.

[17:23] It's on mine.

[17:25] It's on yours now?

[17:27] Yeah. Go watch it.

[17:28] They could use help. They have five likes.

[17:29] Okay, I'm on it. Got it. It's on the list.

[17:33] Thanks, Abigail.

[17:34] They have five, Tim.

[17:37] We checked. Let the record reflect there are five likes.

[17:40] Okay.

[17:41] We'll get that fixed

[17:44] Did you get that, Jamie? There are five likes on that video.

[17:48] I'll go-

[17:52] All right.

[17:53] Going viral. They're like, "Wait!"

[17:56] Retweet 160 times.

[18:01] To be clear.

[18:02] AI likes still count.

[18:06] North Point, Kadoti?

[18:13] Hello, board members. Thank you so much for having me today.

[18:16] Unfortunately, our president, Jacqueline Anderson, could not make it today because

[18:20] of a volleyball commitment. So my name's Brooke Holden, I'm vice president of

[18:24] Kadoti. Lately, all of our students have been getting back into their routine

[18:29] through schedules and of course, college classes.

[18:33] Fall sports are now in full swing. We have girls' volleyball, boys' soccer, and

[18:37] cross country teams all doing pretty well, which is really nice to hear.

[18:42] We don't have too many major fundraising events coming up so far, other than our

[18:47] first dance, which will be around Halloween.

[18:50] It takes the place of a traditional homecoming, since we won't have a football

[18:54] team, but that's about it for us. Any questions?

[18:59] No, thank you so much.

[19:00] Thank you.

[19:02] Bear River?

[19:06] Hello, guys. I don't know if you guys realize you're early this time.

[19:13] What's happening? All right.

[19:15] Bear River is pretty fun right now.

[19:18] Most fall sports are, I think, in league play this week, so that should be fun.

[19:22] I don't know if football is, but we've won the last two games, so hopefully it is.

[19:26] We've got to keep our momentum.

[19:30] And this week, we have our fifth annual Heroes Night game, where we are honoring

[19:35] local law enforcement and first responders and various agencies at the game.

[19:41] The ball comes in on a helicopter, so it's really cool if you guys haven't came to

[19:44] that. It's fun. That's this Friday.

[19:49] Let's see. I scrolled too far on accident. Okay. Homecoming is coming up.

[19:53] It's in like two weeks, I think, is Homecoming week, and our theme is

[19:58] No Place Like Homecoming. And so, it's kind of like very punny.

[20:02] Our spirit days all have Home in the name, such as Home Run Day, which we wear

[20:07] jerseys, and Home of the Brave, where you wear USA stuff, and so on.

[20:11] And our dance theme is super original. It's Spider-Man.

[20:16] And I've never seen anyone do it before.

[20:20] And, so we're also having a movie night that week, and it's going to be Spider-Man

[20:25] Homecoming, which probably explains itself.

[20:29] The 40th anniversary of Bear River is this year.

[20:32] So this homecoming, we're going to do a big golf cart parade. We're hoping to.

[20:36] We're trying to coordinate it all with all the clubs and sports that are going on,

[20:40] and they'll have a golf cart and decorate it, and we'll have some alumni that are

[20:44] significant in their sport or club.

[20:47] And that should be really cool, because 40 years is a lot of years.

[20:51] A lot more than I have.

[20:54] Next week,

[20:55] some leadership kids are going to Rockland with 17 other schools for some

[20:59] leadership conference, and we are hoping that we will network with other leadership

[21:04] programs, share ideas, and come back with some new things to try on our campus.

[21:08] So that should be really cool and hopefully very beneficial. And yeah.

[21:13] So the golf cart, is that Heroes Night or at Homecoming?

[21:16] That's Homecoming.

[21:17] Homecoming. Okay.

[21:17] So that will be September 25th-

[21:20] Got you

[21:20] ... at 6:30, I believe.

[21:22] Okay.

[21:22] So it'll be before the game? Uh- The golf cart parade? Yes. Or maybe halftime.

[21:28] Do you know? It'll be halftime. I think halftime.

[21:30] During the Homecoming event, which is halftime. Okay.

[21:34] And you guys usually announce your court during halftime as well. Yes.

[21:37] And the court, I forgot to mention, along with alumni being transported, it'll also

[21:41] be the courts. Yes.

[21:43] Rather than cars, they'll be in golf carts.

[21:45] Yes.

[21:45] Sweet.

[21:46] It should be really cool. Yes, 25th.

[21:48] Okay. Appreciate you.

[21:49] Yeah, it'll be cool. All right.

[21:52] Thank you so much.

[21:53] Yeah, thank you.

[21:56] All right, and you?

[22:03] Hi, guys. Thanks for having me again.

[22:05] As you saw in the video from dance, Spider-Man Homecoming was a hit.

[22:08] Students really enjoyed all of our activities, and we had a great turnout at our

[22:12] dance. I think it was record-breaking ticket sales wise.

[22:16] And then last week we had Senior Sunrise on Friday, as well as our Neon

[22:20] Construction home football game, which was also a hit.

[22:23] This week we have a girls' flag football game and girls' volleyball game tomorrow

[22:27] night at home. We're also getting ready for Campus Rush, which is this Friday,

[22:32] where we have clubs and sports out by the library at lunch.

[22:35] They can advertise and fundraise for their programs.

[22:38] And then next week, we're excited for our senior trip to start getting a little bit

[22:42] of a rollout. And we also have another football game on that Friday, and it's going

[22:46] to be Heroes Night, so red, white, and blue.

[22:49] And then Saturday the 19th, we have senior parking spot painting, which is also

[22:53] super exciting. And then another thing that's going on is we're getting our student

[22:57] congress up and running again at the end of this month, which is basically where we

[23:01] can get input from the student body and just give a voice to everyone on campus.

[23:06] And that's pretty much it. You guys have any questions?

[23:10] No. Okay. Thanks for having me, guys.

[23:12] Thank you.

[23:23] All right. Next up, we have public comment on non-agendized items.

[23:29] This is the purpose of giving anyone in attendance the opportunity to comment on a

[23:32] non-agenda item. There's a three-minute time limit per person, 20-minute limit for

[23:36] this item.

[23:40] Remember, everyone, this is a recorded public meeting.

[23:42] We expect a level of decorum. We expect the item to be quiet and respectful during

[23:45] this time. Any of the trustees may only ask clarifying questions.

[23:49] And if you hear me say, "Time," please be respectful of everyone's time and finish

[23:54] up your sentence.

[23:56] Okay. First up is Risa.

[23:59] We're on a first-name basis now, right y'all?

[24:02] Risa, probably.

[24:04] All right. Hi. I'm glad to see you all today, and tonight I

[24:10] bring an interesting, simple, respectful, and peaceful

[24:16] social experiment. So if y'all would humor me, this goes for everyone in the

[24:22] room.

[24:24] I ask that every white person in this room who would be happy to

[24:29] receive the same treatment that our Black and trans community members receive

[24:35] to stand up.

[24:40] That's a framed question, so-

[24:42] I'm sorry. In order

[24:45] please, order.

[24:46] I'll repeat it.

[24:49] I don't think that this is any more clear, but I'll try this.

[24:55] If you would be happy to be treated the way Black and trans people are treated,

[25:01] then stand up.

[25:06] All right. Well, my question for you all is that this says very, very

[25:12] plainly that you know what is happening, that you don't want it for yourselves,

[25:18] and I wonder, why are you willing to accept this for others?

[25:23] Racism is a system. What we experience is called unconscious

[25:28] bias. It's not your fault.

[25:32] You are not to be blamed. It is inculturated into our society and taught

[25:38] to you quietly under the radar. The Psychology Today

[25:44] definition of unconscious bias reads as this, "Unconscious bias, also known

[25:49] as implicit bias, refers to unconscious forms of discrimination and stereotyping

[25:56] based on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, ability,

[26:02] age, and so on." This applies to our school system here,

[26:09] and the reason that students report not feeling safe at Nevada Union High School.

[26:15] Thank you.

[26:17] Thank you. Risa, next up is Becky Gillespie.

[26:30] Thank you. I actually had something different prepared for tonight, but then

[26:36] when I saw yesterday's newspaper,

[26:40] I changed what I was going to speak about today.

[26:43] So I want to instead tonight talk to you about argumentum ad verecundiam.

[26:49] How many of y'all are up on your Latin? Probably a little rusty.

[26:53] This is a logical fallacy most commonly known as fallacious appeal to authority.

[26:59] In organizational or professional settings, this behavior is seen as credentialism,

[27:04] which is relying too heavily on a formal title or degree to establish validity

[27:09] rather than the strength of the actual argument or evidence.

[27:13] It also is argument from authority, namely presenting an opinion as fact simply

[27:18] because the person stating it holds a specific office or position, and it also can

[27:23] be pulling rank, such as using a higher organizational title to give an

[27:27] opinion, unearned superiority over

[27:33] others. Prior to Trustee Klein's arrival to the board, there was not an issue

[27:38] surrounding board members sharing their opinions with the public.

[27:42] Trustees would share that they are members of the board and share their

[27:46] representative areas. There was an understanding that any specific board role,

[27:51] whether secretary, vice president, or president, was not a title to be used to add

[27:57] authority to personal opinions. The title was used only for the role of leading the

[28:02] board meeting and representing the views of the entire board in a public setting.

[28:08] Under Trustee Klein, the title of president has become a moniker welded to give

[28:13] unwarranted weight to his opinions.

[28:15] It is not enough for him to express his opinions under his own name and trustee

[28:19] area. To quote Trustee Klein, he needs voters to know what office

[28:25] he holds. It is a shame that Trustee Klein has taken a nonpartisan position on the

[28:31] school board and turned it into a platform for elevating his own opinions, and it

[28:36] is a shame that the rest of this board is letting him do it. Thank you.

[28:41] Thank you for your comment.

[28:44] Helen Strange.

[28:50] I apologize for my out of the normal remark.

[28:57] I am in a multiracial family, so you might look at me and

[29:03] call me white. I'm part Black, hence the hair. All right.

[29:09] So it's important to not look at anyone and assume

[29:14] anything, hence your point about anybody insulting anyone

[29:22] for any reason. I've been insulted for being a white person.

[29:26] So this is a multilingual, multiracial

[29:32] family, multicultural, multi-religious, Muslim,

[29:38] Christian,

[29:41] Mormon.

[29:43] Everything is in my family, okay? So the point here is, and I wish I had

[29:49] more than three minutes.

[29:52] And so I'm going to space it out. I'm going to be stopped at three minutes, but the

[29:58] idea of respectful debate, it's really important.

[30:03] Our country is founded on the ability to debate different points of view.

[30:09] Everyone in here, I'd be willing to bet, has a different point of view about

[30:13] everything. So

[30:17] instructing our children and ourselves, I saw how you very gracefully

[30:23] managed the request that the manual be changed.

[30:28] My question is, would you have been so adamant about changing

[30:33] it if whoever the person was that is expressing their opinion

[30:39] was saying something you agreed with? You see?

[30:42] So

[30:45] in the platform of debate, there needs to be ground rules, and that's

[30:51] why I don't know if this school has debating.

[30:56] There used to be, when I was growing up, debate teams, and each side

[31:02] would take a side, and that person would research

[31:08] and read and carefully research their point of view.

[31:12] So, in that context, the children, well, they're not children, they're young

[31:18] adults. They're going to be going out into the world. Insults happen.

[31:22] I still get insulted, and I'm almost 80 years old.

[31:26] I've been insulted by people of darker skin assuming about me.

[31:31] I've been insulted by white people for being with Black people.

[31:36] I've been insulted in every-- but any adult here will tell you that once they're

[31:42] out in the world, insults happen. They happen.

[31:46] So what we're trying to learn how to do here

[31:49] is how do we gracefully handle that on both sides?

[31:54] Time.

[31:55] How do we learn

[31:59] to stand in who we are? If I'm a so-called disabled

[32:05] person or if I'm a person-

[32:06] Time. That's time.

[32:07] Okay.

[32:08] Thank you.

[32:08] Sorry. But to be continued. I'm an observer and a listener.

[32:14] Thank you.

[32:14] So I'll just use my three minutes.

[32:17] Thank you for your comments.

[32:18] Next up is Shirley Fericks.

[32:30] Thank you. Shirley Fericks. I'm a community member. I just live over there.

[32:36] It's so much fun to come and listen to what the young people are doing.

[32:41] I observe and I go by every day, but I don't know what they're doing, and it's

[32:45] exciting. The most exciting for me is the culinary arts and how that's expanded,

[32:50] and the dance. I can't wait till the next performance because I've been to every

[32:54] one since I've lived here. It's so exciting to see.

[32:58] Anyway, so I sent a note to you probably, Ms.

[33:03] Ozella, about High School Voter Education Week, September 14 to 25.

[33:08] Is that something that you participate in? Yes, our teachers do. Okay. They do.

[33:13] Good. Done.

[33:15] That's great.

[33:18] There's another thing I'm just going to mention here, and then I'll give it to you.

[33:22] It looks long, but it's not really.

[33:25] I work in the world with waste,

[33:28] trying to get rid of plastic and trying to get rid of trash.

[33:32] One of the things that I'm leading now is the Repair Cafe.

[33:37] Have you heard about the Repair Cafe?

[33:39] Yay.

[33:40] We're having a blast. Just everybody loves it.

[33:43] And my intention is next year to see if we can connect with young

[33:49] people here and have them come and mentor with our fixers.

[33:53] Then they can just sit there and listen and ask questions and hope it becomes an

[33:58] educational thing as well. So the Repair Cafe is very fun.

[34:02] This is about plastic. Which is my big subject, right?

[34:08] Exposing industry propaganda in US schools.

[34:12] I haven't a clue if this is here, but if somebody could have a peek through this,

[34:17] and see if it rings any bells here, because apparently, these major petroleum

[34:23] companies are infiltrating the schools to try and tell the students how wonderful

[34:29] plastic is. Nothing about the downsides of plastic. We all use it.

[34:35] I can't get away from it, as much as I might try.

[34:38] But,

[34:40] it's how do we minimize it? And I'm really happy I talked to

[34:45] the lady who does the school lunches, and I know she's really aware of minimizing

[34:50] the plastic and doing the salad bar and all that kind of stuff.

[34:54] That's a good thing. So I'm just going to leave this with you guys, and I'm glad

[34:59] we're going to do something about the voting, because we have statistics that show

[35:04] that those who register and start to vote early tend to continue throughout their

[35:10] lives. So I work with an environmental voter project, and that's part of what

[35:15] they-- and with the other civic center. So, that's good.

[35:20] And, I'm going to give you this, too. You can just see. Somebody mentioned AI.

[35:25] I don't know what you're doing with AI and how much you're allowing it in your

[35:30] schools and in your students. It's a big subject, apparently.

[35:33] But anyway, we'll look at that. Okay. Thank you very much.

[35:43] All right, moving on to course presentations. We have a bunch of bargaining units.

[35:49] Nobody's here.

[35:50] We don't, but MSBA did send in a written report It's brief.

[35:56] So this is from Ms. Good, representing NEWSTA.

[35:59] "Sorry for my lack of attendance tonight. I'm not feeling all too well.

[36:02] I'd like to say thank you to all those who were able to attend back-to-school

[36:05] nights at our schools. This year at N.U.

[36:08] we had many parents, and I was super happy to have senior parents show up.

[36:13] Our home games for Bay River and N.U. are off and rolling.

[36:15] We look forward to seeing you support the students at our games.

[36:20] The three-day weekend gave us a chance to relax, and now we are back at it.

[36:24] I look forward to meeting with you all over the next couple of months.

[36:27] NEWSTA is also meeting with the possible candidates to interview them for possible

[36:31] endorsement. We look forward to seeing what each one brings to the table and what

[36:35] goals they have for our district. I will keep it short and sweet, and as always,

[36:39] please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns."

[36:44] All right. Anything from CSEA?

[36:46] Nothing from CSEA.

[36:47] All right.

[36:49] Got to get on Kayla about that.

[36:51] I know. I'm missing our-

[36:51] She was going to write

[36:53] ... meet the-

[36:54] She was sick last week. I'm not sure.

[36:55] Oh, yeah, meet the-

[36:56] Meet the class fives?

[36:58] Mm-hmm.

[36:58] I'd love that.

[37:00] All right, Mr. Fizzella?

[37:02] Yeah, I will. I know I always threaten, but I will be brief today.

[37:06] Sure you will.

[37:07] Short time span between our later August meeting and this month, so I don't have a

[37:12] ton to report. I'll just say we have been busy just school up and running.

[37:17] We're tired for September 9th because we've been in school for a month.

[37:22] Pretty consuming has been our hiring process, so happy that Becky Glass...

[37:27] or Glass is here here also.

[37:31] Becky Brown is in the audience tonight, and that's in our consent agenda to approve

[37:36] the hire of Becky as our new director of CTE and state federal programs.

[37:41] So she went through a pretty robust and long process. So congratulations, Becky.

[37:45] I assume that's going to pass this evening, which is awesome.

[37:49] We have been up and running and getting into classrooms with our instructional

[37:52] rounds, which has been absolutely amazing.

[37:54] Every single time it's enriching to spend time in conversation with fellow

[37:59] colleagues, administrators, and teachers alike, and also seeing amazing things that

[38:03] are happening in our classrooms. We've also, Kelly, Ms.

[38:07] Clark, has been on one of our facility tours at Silver Springs last week, so

[38:11] hopefully that was enjoyable to you. We went into all the nooks and crannies.

[38:15] And at least with the facility walks, I walk away with a list of things that need

[38:19] to be addressed, so that is a positive thing because we're seeing corners of the

[38:23] campus that we wouldn't be seeing otherwise.

[38:25] So those are up and running and going well.

[38:27] I know Trustee Welby was lined up and got sick, so sorry you had to miss.

[38:33] One of the hotter topics amongst staff right now, and I bet if Ms.

[38:37] Good was here, it'd be in her report, but some of our challenges with new

[38:43] educational technology we've been using.

[38:46] Google Classroom, we're supposed to be transitioning from Schoology as the learning

[38:50] management system into Google Classroom.

[38:52] There have been some challenges along the way, most of which are navigable.

[38:57] We have a meeting next week with our leads, our site leads, to put all of the

[39:02] questions or challenges or hurdles on the table and try to mitigate those with all

[39:06] of our experts in the room. And then we're likely going to be providing additional

[39:10] training at our September 30th staff development day.

[39:14] And then the other one is our EDA program, which is our attendance and math

[39:18] tutoring system. Just been some hiccups, but I'll just shout out to our attendance

[39:24] team and math team that's trying to work through those challenges as well as Andrew

[39:28] and our tech team and Mr. Browning, who came to me in his first week of the job,

[39:33] "Who oversees educational technology?" And I was like, "The person who doesn't have

[39:37] their hand up right now." And so it's Luke, but he's been diving in headfirst and

[39:41] taking some of those things on. And that's a transition to Luke.

[39:44] Do you want to share where you were today?

[39:46] It's not a superintendent report, but I think it's worth celebrating at the board

[39:49] level tonight.

[39:50] Yeah. The district was invited to go to Citrus Heights today, and

[39:56] we presented at a catalyst summit for We Prosper Together, which is part of

[40:01] California's Jobs First initiative.

[40:04] There were eight counties that were represented, and there were about 300 people in

[40:09] attendance, including county representatives, but also major donors,

[40:15] organizations like SMUD.

[40:17] Big organizations that are putting a lot of money into trying to get...

[40:21] Bosch was there. Some other big companies are trying to work on our pipeline to

[40:24] employment. Because of the district's work with the RANCH project, we were actually

[40:30] highlighted as guest speakers. So Ellen was up on stage and presented

[40:36] the project and actually was able to solicit some donations while she was there.

[40:41] She never misses an opportunity, so it was fun to watch her in action.

[40:45] And then it was fun to sit with some of the major corporations that are trying to

[40:49] pump money into the system. And I will tell you, a consistent message from every

[40:54] level was that they have to invest into the youth and not just at the college

[40:59] level, and so that was actually comforting to hear.

[41:02] So we were well-represented, and it was an honor to be there.

[41:05] The headliner donations included? Sorry.

[41:11] A larger sawmill than the one we currently have in operation.

[41:15] And then some kilns, which will allow us to dry and have a finished product.

[41:20] So just, yeah.

[41:21] Kilns for lumber?

[41:22] The lumber, yeah. Because right now we're processing green logs, and so this will

[41:25] allow us to dry and have-

[41:26] Awesome

[41:27] ... a product that we can send this right.

[41:30] Cool. That's it for my update. Tag team update.

[41:34] All right.

[41:36] Mr. Lal?

[41:40] No report.

[41:42] All right.

[41:44] Ms. Clark?

[41:45] Okay. Mine's kind of short, but

[41:48] as Superintendent Fizzella mentioned, the facility walk at

[41:54] Silver Springs was really interesting to me because I got to see all these...

[41:59] Well, one thing is because it's an older school, I got to go in all these little

[42:02] special secret rooms and cubbies, and I really liked it,

[42:08] and learned of some of the history of that school.

[42:10] But what was really exciting was to see the new culinary facility.

[42:15] And Emily was there from Emily's Catering and explained the new

[42:21] instructional room with also a prep room, and then they cook in the kitchen.

[42:26] And just like in N.U. and Bay River, the culinary arts are really

[42:32] popular, and it's an asset to Silver Springs. I can see that.

[42:36] The students are very excited about that.

[42:38] And

[42:40] also just looking at all the athletic facilities.

[42:44] Like on the stage they have their

[42:48] exercise equipment and everything there. It's really nice.

[42:52] And then finally, we got to walk over to the garden and have some.

[42:57] I got some strawberries, just a couple, and a peach. I ate already.

[43:02] Me too. Yeah, it was really good.

[43:03] We were going to save it because it was a little hard, but actually it was really

[43:06] good. And then I learned about figs.

[43:10] I don't know if you're supposed to peel them or not, but that was a debate.

[43:14] You're not.

[43:15] You're not. Okay. But anyway.

[43:16] Unless you're Matt McCullough.

[43:19] It was really good. So I look forward to being able to attend the other

[43:24] facility tours. But I did see that

[43:31] on that tour, that there are a lot of things that they're doing, and Matt's heading

[43:35] that up. There are a lot of projects that need to be done, and it's never-ending.

[43:40] And so

[43:42] I really appreciate seeing them improving the buildings, and that's really

[43:46] important. It was good for me to see that. That's it.

[43:50] About the garden-

[43:51] Mm-hmm

[43:53] ... as far as the students working in the garden, is it a privilege or something

[43:58] that they earn to do? Is it part of a garden club?

[44:03] They have a garden club.

[44:04] Oh, okay.

[44:04] Mm-hmm. They do.

[44:07] It's really nice.

[44:09] They have a

[44:11] peach tree. It's very mature. And the walnut, huge.

[44:16] They have a 40-foot walnut tree.

[44:18] Yeah. It's insane.

[44:19] Just loaded with walnuts. And it is I think there might be a second one.

[44:23] There's one massive one.

[44:25] There might be another one over... That's the big one that overshadows that one.

[44:28] It is part of the club, and then

[44:31] Julie, now she doesn't have a class anymore, but she used to bring her classes over

[44:34] there, too.

[44:34] Okay.

[44:35] And I don't know if you remember, we had a nice image of them making tea bags out

[44:38] of their herbs.

[44:39] I was going to ask if those leaves came from the garden as well.

[44:43] They did. Yeah.

[44:45] It's beautiful.

[44:46] And the strawberries were really good.

[44:49] I didn't want to take too many because obviously they don't belong to me.

[44:52] But I did take three.

[44:55] You did it in the name of-

[44:57] I just picked it.

[44:58] In the name of tea.

[44:58] Yes. It's okay.

[44:59] It's quality.

[45:00] Yes, it was. It was really good. Loved it. Yeah.

[45:04] Silver Springs is an awesome school.

[45:09] All right, Ms. Pritchett.

[45:12] I don't have too much to add either since it has just been a few weeks since we

[45:17] last met. But I did want to acknowledge that over at Nevada Union,

[45:24] the football team did their teacher appreciation

[45:29] last week. And so all of the

[45:33] varsity athletes had an opportunity to nominate a

[45:39] teacher or staff member who makes a minor difference in a major way.

[45:45] And it was really great because they can nominate these teachers or staff members.

[45:52] The staff member or teacher will get a shirt that says, "Making a difference in a

[45:56] minor way," with the athlete's name on the back.

[46:00] And then there's a big reveal the week of the game, so then they find out which

[46:04] athlete nominated them, and then why.

[46:07] And it was really great because a lot of the teachers really were trying to shake

[46:11] me down to figure out

[46:14] who nominated them. But I thought it was really special to kick off the year

[46:20] because you're thinking, "Well, the year just started.

[46:22] How do we know?" You become varsity, you know who's helped you make a difference

[46:26] and get through, as you become a junior, senior. So that was really neat to do.

[46:32] And I think the other thing that I really just wanted to celebrate is

[46:37] girls flag football. So if you have not been to a game yet, they're quite fun,

[46:44] and I

[46:46] think it's a great celebration to have this opportunity.

[46:49] It is our first year having it, and they're figuring it out, and they're doing

[46:54] well. So definitely check out the games on either Tuesdays

[47:00] or Thursdays and sometimes even Friday.

[47:04] But definitely celebrate the ladies.

[47:09] Is there one tomorrow?

[47:09] There is one tomorrow at home.

[47:12] Great.

[47:12] Bring your hot dog.

[47:15] Cheer on the Lady Miners.

[47:19] All right.

[47:20] I think it's the chair. No report.

[47:24] All right. I have none either.

[47:28] All right, I'll move on to the consideration of the consent agenda.

[47:34] Any alterations?

[47:36] There are none.

[47:37] All right. Can I get a motion to approve the consent?

[47:40] So moved.

[47:41] And a second?

[47:43] Second.

[47:45] I just had to note acceptance of donations.

[47:48] Rick Luttrell donated two breeding sows. Is that right?

[47:52] Yeah.

[47:53] Okay. I was wondering if they were $2 each.

[47:56] Nope.

[47:56] Because I saw the dollar sign. I was like, "Wow."

[47:58] I think it's just blank. Yeah, they're more than that.

[48:02] A little bit more than that.

[48:03] Especially breeding sows.

[48:04] What's the tax write-off on that, Mr. Reid?

[48:07] Well, this one here, $0.

[48:10] Okay. We should assign a value and get it-

[48:14] The value of a sow is more than $2.

[48:16] Correct.

[48:17] Mm-hmm.

[48:19] All right. Then we leave it at that.

[48:21] There's a range.

[48:22] I would assume that's it.

[48:23] For the record, what's the range?

[48:25] 600 to 2,500.

[48:26] That's a pretty good range.

[48:27] And how many litters will they have?

[48:31] Depends on how old they are, but they will have two litters a year.

[48:35] So starting soon. They bred them this week,

[48:41] actually. So three months, three weeks, and three days, you'll have some pigs.

[48:45] So tell Ellen-

[48:46] Yep

[48:46] ... we'll be there then.

[48:47] Perfect. Got it.

[48:48] For the base.

[48:48] We'll do bacon.

[48:51] Bacon.

[48:51] All right. We have the Pendale Community Rodeo Association gave $3,000 to the

[48:56] Pendale Community Rodeo Association Scholarship Fund.

[48:59] Nevada Union High School Associated Student Body gave $1,200 to the CSF Scholarship

[49:04] Fund. PVS Distributing gave $500 to the Bear River

[49:10] High School ASB. Hansen Bros. gave $500 to Bear River High School volleyball.

[49:19] Then we have a few different joint ventures,

[49:23] risk cover authorizations, some MOUs, and

[49:28] personnel change. So all in favor of approving the consent agenda as it is, say

[49:33] aye.

[49:34] Uh-

[49:34] Oops, roll call. It's a roll call. It's always a roll call here.

[49:36] Okay.

[49:36] So I don't know why I think it's different tonight.

[49:40] Trustee Lowell?

[49:41] Aye.

[49:41] Trustee Clark?

[49:42] Aye.

[49:42] Trustee Pritchett?

[49:43] Aye.

[49:44] Trustee Willoughby?

[49:44] Aye.

[49:45] President Klein?

[49:46] Aye.

[49:51] All right, moving on to the public hearing.

[49:55] Yeah. So this is an annual requirement to have a public hearing on the sufficiency

[50:00] of instructional materials. The board will vote on a resolution or approve a

[50:05] resolution, hopefully,

[50:07] in our discussion action items, item number two.

[50:10] We properly noticed the public about a hearing, so there's no public comment that's

[50:15] been submitted. And we don't have any red flags with the availability of

[50:19] instructional materials in any of our schools.

[50:22] So this item is to hear from the public, and we don't have any public on the

[50:27] matter, so we can probably move on.

[50:30] Moving on to discussion and action items.

[50:32] Our first one up is the student board handbook. Mr. Lowell?

[50:38] Yeah. Are we going to display it or should I just talk through it?

[50:43] I think you probably need to talk through it unless Miguel wants to scramble and

[50:46] get it displayed.

[50:48] We all pretty much have it. I think you're good.

[50:50] Yeah.

[50:50] Yeah. Okay. Yeah, just to do some updates to the student board handbook, just so

[50:55] it's all

[50:57] updated and

[51:00] just all makes sense. There were no big things. It was really just some links.

[51:06] If you look on page three, there's two links that are updated

[51:11] up top, and then three more down below.

[51:15] Everyone's names are updated. Took out the email and password, just because it

[51:20] isn't really needed information-wise.

[51:24] Updated another link. Updated another link.

[51:28] Replaced Duane with Andrew Klein, just to update things.

[51:36] We do have a typo in Klein's spelling.

[51:39] Oh, is it?

[51:39] Yeah.

[51:40] Oh, no.

[51:41] It's all right.

[51:41] One of the ladies-

[51:42] That's right. That's correct. Oh, the other one. I saw, yeah.

[51:46] Where?

[51:46] It happens down below in the other spot.

[51:47] Where you replaced with Duane?

[51:50] Oh, yeah.

[51:51] Yeah, the next page, actually. Oh, sorry.

[51:53] Can we see it again?

[51:55] Yes.

[51:56] Well, we can approve it with the-

[51:57] Yeah, we're not too worried about it.

[52:00] Yeah, and then...

[52:07] I think one more page down.

[52:12] There we go.

[52:14] Keep going. You're almost there. No, down. A little bit more.

[52:18] There we

[52:20] go.

[52:20] Yeah. So Andrew Klein, and then nothing else changed.

[52:25] Yeah, so that's where the misspelling is.

[52:27] Wait, what? Is that how you spell it?

[52:29] Yeah, it's the old German way, K-L-E-I-N. Yeah. That's okay.

[52:35] Yeah, and then there's nothing else.

[52:36] If you keep scrolling up

[52:39] top a little bit, there's the username and password for the

[52:45] SWIS system. I don't believe we need that.

[52:48] I never got that, and it hasn't been an issue.

[52:51] Sent via email.

[52:53] Oh, I didn't get that.

[52:55] Okay, I didn't think it was necessary. We can also put it back on.

[53:01] It's another thing that it isn't necessarily information for the public.

[53:04] It's more of internal things, so a couple of things removed because of that.

[53:09] That makes sense.

[53:10] Yeah, and then if you scroll down a little bit, three more updated links.

[53:15] A little bit more.

[53:19] It's all the same. One more updated link. I believe this was updated.

[53:24] That's what Jamie told me. So it's not five times per year.

[53:29] Instead, I changed it to quarterly,

[53:31] reflecting new laws.

[53:34] And then a little bit more.

[53:39] It's just updated to say 2024 through 2027, so those aren't changing.

[53:45] Updated link.

[54:16] Yeah, Robertson's order, nothing changed.

[54:20] I believe there's a couple more.

[54:23] Then, that bill, just so we don't have to update it every year, just the dates are

[54:29] taken out that had it last a longer amount of time.

[54:34] And then one last page, and that's the same thing as internal documents and wasn't

[54:40] able to for information-wise.

[54:43] Yeah, so not a bunch of substantive changes, just keeping things updated.

[54:49] The only thing that I noticed was in the Brown Act-

[54:52] Yeah

[54:52] ... section, it says here, "The Brown Act prevents board members from discussing

[54:56] policy privately. Having a discussion with a board member over social media, i.e.,

[55:01] Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, or email concerning a policy is prohibited by this

[55:06] law."

[55:08] But actually- Yeah. You know the

[55:15] serial meeting rules portion of that?

[55:17] Yeah, you can meet, just can't do the-

[55:20] Three or more

[55:21] ... yeah. Okay, so yeah, I can do-

[55:23] I would update-

[55:24] Yeah

[55:24] ... we'll get

[55:26] For sure.

[55:29] Yeah, and then no, I got to finish this part. And then RDA.

[55:34] That was in the old one, right?

[55:36] This was new. I didn't change RDA

[55:39] list. No, I didn't write any of the-- Yeah.

[55:42] Got it.

[55:42] Thanks for the change. Is there a way to-

[55:46] Yeah

[55:46] ... Google direct a couple things?

[55:47] No, I think we could actually just simply say we can approve the serial meeting.

[55:53] In fact, I'll make a motion to approve the student handbook status

[55:59] with the suggested amendment of

[56:04] just adding the reference to the serial meeting section of the Brown Act.

[56:07] Okay. Yeah.

[56:07] And then do you want to change the name, too?

[56:09] Yeah. Let's do that.

[56:09] Let's do that as a motion.

[56:10] There we go.

[56:12] Awesome. Cool.

[56:13] Maybe a second.

[56:15] Second.

[56:17] Any other discussion on this?

[56:21] All right. All in favor of approving the student handbook, say aye.

[56:23] Aye.

[56:24] Aye.

[56:24] Any against? The ayes have it.

[56:35] Moving on to resolution number 2 2627, sufficiency of instructional materials.

[56:41] Yeah, as was noted, essentially our process is that we work through our department

[56:46] leads at each school site, just to verify that we have enough copies of materials

[56:53] to meet the needs of the school and the department and for the students.

[56:56] And this is a process required by law that we go through every year to ensure that

[57:02] we do have enough textbooks for students. And there were no issues this year.

[57:07] Every so often year over year, we maybe have someone who says, "No, we really do,

[57:11] we're short on biology texts or whatnot." And so there are no red flags,

[57:17] and everything has been verified, and so we do need the board to take action on a

[57:23] resolution.

[57:25] Do you have the resolution number?

[57:27] Yeah, resolution number 2-2627, and staff recommends approval.

[57:32] Can we get a motion to approve resolution number 2-2627?

[57:35] So moved.

[57:36] And a second?

[57:37] Second.

[57:38] Any discussion on this?

[57:41] Roll call, Trustee Lal.

[57:43] Aye.

[57:44] Trustee Clark.

[57:44] Aye.

[57:45] Trustee Pritchett.

[57:46] Aye.

[57:46] Trustee Hogan.

[57:47] Aye.

[57:47] And President Klein.

[57:48] Aye.

[57:50] Moves us to resolution number 3-2627.

[57:54] Yeah, so we're bringing this resolution forward authorizing the district to retain

[57:59] Block Legal Group, Jeremy Fights, attorney at law, and

[58:04] Law Office of David Bush to potentially represent the district in

[58:10] litigation against some of the major social media companies.

[58:14] There are lawsuits that are being won by various states and school districts across

[58:19] the country.

[58:21] We are working in collaboration with our other county colleagues, other

[58:27] K-8 school districts, on the recommendation of one of our county superintendents

[58:32] who is an attorney. And so we're all moving in a coordinated effort.

[58:40] It's not a class action lawsuit, but it is something that districts are

[58:45] coordinating on. So our first step is to be granted authority to engage with the

[58:51] firm. Our next steps are going to be to collect a list of potential damages, and

[58:57] promptly move forward in litigation and try to win some

[59:02] damages in terms of financial loss to the district that have come as a result of

[59:07] student addiction to social media and such. So we're early in the process.

[59:11] We've had one meeting as county superintendents to get the lay of the land.

[59:15] This would be step one for us, and then I'd be returning to the board back in

[59:19] closed session to take further steps in litigation.

[59:25] Can we get a motion to approve resolution 3-2627?

[59:30] So moved.

[59:30] And a second?

[59:32] Second.

[59:33] I know that

[59:36] in discussion items there was

[59:39] signed here section five approval of contingency fee agreement, but I'm not seeing

[59:43] any

[59:45] contingency percentage and expenses are fair and reasonable under the

[59:48] circumstances, and there's nothing stating anything-

[59:51] Yeah, the resolution just allows us to move forward, and then there would be a

[59:55] contract that we engage with the firm in terms of a percentage of damages that

[1:00:02] are awarded to the firm if there's positive outcome.

[1:00:06] Okay.

[1:00:06] And would that be to follow on your question, would that be then negotiated

[1:00:13] district by district, not as a collective, since it feels like it can move forward

[1:00:18] as a collective, but-

[1:00:19] This gives you the power to negotiate that fee contingency-

[1:00:23] Yes. That's what I was saying.

[1:00:24] Okay.

[1:00:26] Okay. I'm fine with that.

[1:00:31] And so are

[1:00:33] all of the other districts attempting to pass a resolution pretty much in the same

[1:00:38] timeframe?

[1:00:39] So Penn Valley has adopted a resolution. Union Hill has adopted a resolution.

[1:00:44] Nevada City, since Mr. Shirley granted the position, was a little overwhelmed.

[1:00:49] He pumped the brakes. Trustee Villescaz from the school district is having a

[1:00:52] dialogue about it, but I don't think he's bringing the resolution forward for

[1:00:56] adoption yet. So there are three of us.

[1:01:01] Can't speak to Chicago Park. I imagine they're moving forward.

[1:01:05] I think the other two are moving forward, but I haven't had the conversations to

[1:01:08] confirm.

[1:01:09] Okay.

[1:01:10] I'm not the biggest fan of being litigious, but

[1:01:15] also not the biggest fan of a lot of the issues that have popped up because of

[1:01:19] gaming and all that, so

[1:01:22] I'll be voting yes on this one.

[1:01:26] Any other comments? Any other discussion?

[1:01:30] One other question. I'm assuming we're leaving it to you, and there wouldn't need

[1:01:34] to be an approval process around the list of items that would qualify for damages.

[1:01:40] There shouldn't be an approval process for that.

[1:01:42] And we'll be sure to be exhaustive with, we'll be working with our principals and

[1:01:47] district admin team to go through really probably from COVID forward,

[1:01:53] just looking at additional costs such as mental health therapists,

[1:01:59] intervention supports. I'm thinking some of our facility damages that were results

[1:02:05] of TikTok trends coming out of COVID.

[1:02:08] There are attendance efforts, I guess, that can be documented because school

[1:02:12] engagement has been noted as an impact.

[1:02:15] Really most anything that's mental health related can be included.

[1:02:21] So we'll make sure we have some thoughtful folks on the team, and we'll be a very

[1:02:27] competent voice.

[1:02:29] How much discovery time is this going to take?

[1:02:32] I don't know timelines.

[1:02:34] It could be a long time. But will it be brought before the board

[1:02:40] to be in contract with them, right?

[1:02:43] This is-

[1:02:45] This is it, and then the fee will decide?

[1:02:48] There will be no out-of-pocket fees.

[1:02:50] The way this reads, if it's a-

[1:02:53] It is

[1:02:54] ... successful litigation, then the attorney fees are covered in that.

[1:03:00] Before we move forward with something, I believe I'm going to report action, and

[1:03:05] since it's a legal matter, that actually will be taken in closed session.

[1:03:10] So we'll be able to have further discussion before we actually move forward with

[1:03:15] litigation.

[1:03:17] I might suggest that we think about

[1:03:21] As this progresses, that we see through

[1:03:27] with those of us that are going to be public facing around this, if the community

[1:03:33] were to get wind, I just want to make sure that when we are asked, we have all of

[1:03:38] the information to speak about what those things are, why they're on the

[1:03:43] list, how it might work, what it actually means. Are we having to pay anything?

[1:03:49] And I think all of, like a list of talking points, because it could get a little-

[1:03:54] Yeah, I could do that. I actually have a drive folder that's been shared amongst my

[1:03:59] colleagues that I know there's at least one doc. There's an FAQ doc.

[1:04:03] And so I can provide some of the sources so that our talking points are aligned.

[1:04:08] Yeah. So with this resolution, we don't have to wait for the others to put

[1:04:14] forth a resolution. This just gives us the authority-

[1:04:18] Correct

[1:04:18] ... to move forward with it without waiting for everybody else.

[1:04:22] Correct. Each district will be operating independently.

[1:04:25] And it's contingent on more of the class actions.

[1:04:28] They're going to have to get a lot of people behind them to I'm sure, to go forward

[1:04:32] with this case.

[1:04:34] Oh, they're doing an individual case.

[1:04:36] They're doing an individual. It's not a class action suit.

[1:04:42] But there's been discussion among the districts that are prone to see

[1:04:47] if this interests them personally.

[1:04:50] Correct. The new superintendent of Vallejo, Yuri Calderon,

[1:04:56] is a practicing attorney. And he's done some sleuthing at various

[1:05:01] firms. He has a colleague down in Southern California, and so

[1:05:07] he's been able to provide some recommendations, and he's done some research on

[1:05:13] his own to vet

[1:05:16] this firm. And so we're really acting on his recommendation.

[1:05:20] I've been solicited by three other groups

[1:05:26] that they feel very random, and they feel like I'm on a listserv.

[1:05:31] So a lot of folks, it's like there's blood in the water, and the firms are

[1:05:37] going after what they think is going to be public money going through.

[1:05:40] How widespread is this?

[1:05:42] It's nationwide. Yeah, it's massive.

[1:05:47] As it should be

[1:05:49] in my estimation.

[1:05:50] Yeah.

[1:05:52] It's time.

[1:05:54] All right. Any other discussion?

[1:05:59] All right. Roll call, Mr. Pazell. Trustee Lowell.

[1:06:03] Aye.

[1:06:03] Trustee Clark.

[1:06:04] Aye.

[1:06:04] Trustee Pritchett.

[1:06:05] Aye.

[1:06:05] Trustee Willoughby.

[1:06:06] Aye.

[1:06:06] President Klein. Aye.

[1:06:11] On to resolution number 42627. Yeah, Ms. Hack?

[1:06:15] Yes. So this is an annual calculation completed as part of the unaudited actuals.

[1:06:21] The Gann limit is a state requirement that places a limit on certain appropriations

[1:06:27] from tax proceeds. The calculation is adjusted each year based on inflation and

[1:06:32] ABA and things like that, and this report confirms that the district is in

[1:06:37] compliance with those requirements.

[1:06:42] Can we get a motion to approve resolution 42627?

[1:06:46] So moved.

[1:06:46] Get a second?

[1:06:48] Second.

[1:06:49] Any discussion on this resolution?

[1:06:53] Hearing none. Mr. Pazell, roll call, please. Trustee Lowell.

[1:06:58] Aye.

[1:06:58] Trustee Clark.

[1:06:59] Aye.

[1:07:00] Trustee Pritchett.

[1:07:01] Aye.

[1:07:01] Trustee Willoughby.

[1:07:02] Aye.

[1:07:03] And President Klein. Aye.

[1:07:06] And on to number five, a memorandum of understanding.

[1:07:10] Yeah, this is the MOU between the County of Nevada Public Health, our school

[1:07:15] district, and the other LEAs in the county.

[1:07:18] This is the one that we brought back from last meeting.

[1:07:23] And it should be noted, or I would turn your attention to what was added to

[1:07:29] the bottom of the pages, beginning on page 15,

[1:07:33] is our administrative procedural memo

[1:07:39] for how we would move forward with any provided screenings or

[1:07:46] observation, evaluation, treatments, anything along those lines.

[1:07:49] So our hope is to provide some assurance to the board that we have an

[1:07:54] opt-out process for families under the proper notification.

[1:07:59] We didn't just move forward at the extreme leniency that the MOU would afford us

[1:08:05] as we discussed last month.

[1:08:09] Can we get a motion to approve the MOUs, please?

[1:08:14] Yes, that would be approval. And I'll note also that Dr.

[1:08:17] Reid is in the audience if there are any questions we can bring him to the podium.

[1:08:20] Let's get on the table first. Get a motion to approve the MOU.

[1:08:23] So moved.

[1:08:24] And a second?

[1:08:25] Second.

[1:08:26] Any discussion or questions for Dr. Reid?

[1:08:29] Well, I read through the agenda, and I'm happy with that.

[1:08:33] There's more clarity

[1:08:36] with that vague passive consent language in the emergency

[1:08:42] language that's in there. I

[1:08:48] feel like this is

[1:08:53] great.

[1:08:54] Yeah.

[1:08:55] Thank you, Mr. Reid. Great job.

[1:09:00] It's a voice vote, right? Yeah. Yeah. All right.

[1:09:05] All in favor of approving the MOUs. What's that?

[1:09:12] Thank you, though. And I whispered to Dan first

[1:09:16] Yeah.

[1:09:18] All in favor of approving the memorandum of understanding as it's written today,

[1:09:23] say aye.

[1:09:24] Aye.

[1:09:24] Any against? Ayes have it.

[1:09:28] Moving to number 6, unaudited actual financial statements. Ms. Hack?

[1:09:32] Yes. All right. Here we have it, long awaited

[1:09:38] 2025-26 unaudited actuals. This is the only point in the year that we look at our

[1:09:43] actual revenues and expenditures as opposed to estimates and projections.

[1:09:49] Next slide, please.

[1:09:55] So this is my spoiler alert slide for the evening.

[1:09:59] We're just getting right into it. Can I have a clicker? Thank you.

[1:10:04] We didn't have any big surprises in closing this year, which was nice.

[1:10:08] Our revenues and expenditures-

[1:10:10] You have to change the next a little bit.

[1:10:11] Oh, thank you. Okay. There we go. Perfect. It works.

[1:10:18] Revenues and expenditures came in very close to our projections.

[1:10:23] We were able to close '25-'26 with our board designated 9% reserve, which is very

[1:10:28] exciting. A few highlights to point out.

[1:10:32] Our general fund ended at approximately $7.46 million,

[1:10:37] $4.78 million of that is unrestricted funds.

[1:10:41] However, in order to get to that reserve, we did have to use approximately 550,000

[1:10:46] of last year's one-time funding to support salary costs that are ongoing.

[1:10:52] So that's something we need to be watching, and I will get into that more in a few

[1:10:57] slides.

[1:11:01] Uh-oh. Yeah, it's just delayed.

[1:11:04] So this is our revenue updates.

[1:11:09] Let's see. This is our estimated actuals that we looked at in June versus

[1:11:15] our unaudited actuals, which is final numbers after all of our closing entries.

[1:11:20] So this chart is showing both unrestricted and restricted funds combined.

[1:11:25] We ended up with about $2.36 million higher than projected.

[1:11:31] However, $1.7 million of that is actually an entry that we missed in last year's

[1:11:36] budget. It's our STRS on-behalf payment.

[1:11:40] The state of California contributes a portion of the employer contribution to

[1:11:44] CalSTRS on behalf of the school district, so that $1.7 million is included here,

[1:11:50] and at the same time, there was $1.7 million increase in our STRS

[1:11:56] expenditure. So there's no impact to the fund balance.

[1:12:00] It was just full for revenues and expenditures.

[1:12:03] So aside from the $1.7 million, we ended up about $660,000 higher than we

[1:12:08] projected, which is about 1%.

[1:12:12] Well done.

[1:12:13] Thank you.

[1:12:16] This slide breaks up unrestricted versus restricted revenues.

[1:12:20] So unrestricted revenues came in approximately $220,000 higher than projected.

[1:12:28] This is due to federal timber tax revenue, which is our only federal unrestricted

[1:12:33] revenue

[1:12:35] As well as mandated cost reimbursement that we received at year-end.

[1:12:40] On the restricted side, as I mentioned earlier, the STRS on-behalf

[1:12:46] entry,

[1:12:48] and that also increased our expenditures by the same amount, so there's no effect

[1:12:52] to the general fund there. Other than that, we did receive another allocation for

[1:12:58] our RAISE grant, so that is the primary reason for the increase on the restricted

[1:13:03] revenue side.

[1:13:08] Total expenditures ended about 3% higher than projected.

[1:13:12] When you factor in that $1.7 million for STRS on-behalf, we were really just a

[1:13:18] fraction of a percent off.

[1:13:21] We were essentially right on track with where we thought we would be.

[1:13:24] I do want to mention that this really has been a district-wide team effort to get

[1:13:29] here. My team at the district office has done an incredible job creating systems

[1:13:35] and deadlines. Our sites and staff have really stepped up by being mindful of

[1:13:40] budgets and meeting some difficult timelines we've put in place, and closing out

[1:13:45] POs when they weren't going to be used.

[1:13:50] So from our district office staff to site secretaries, principals, department

[1:13:55] heads, teachers, everyone all came together to help us stay on target, and I really

[1:14:00] appreciate the effort that went into getting us here.

[1:14:04] So I just had to throw that out there.

[1:14:09] This slide is a breakdown of the changes from estimated actuals to

[1:14:15] unaudited

[1:14:17] from the expenditure side. So on the left is unrestricted.

[1:14:21] I mentioned earlier the $550,000 of one-time funds that we used towards salaries

[1:14:27] in order to achieve our board-designated reserve.

[1:14:32] Those discretionary funds are technically classified by the state as a restricted

[1:14:38] resource. So even though we

[1:14:43] had fairly broad discretion over how that could be spent, essentially we used

[1:14:48] $550,000 of those one-time restricted dollars to cover salary costs that otherwise

[1:14:53] would've been paid from unrestricted.

[1:14:56] That accounts for almost all of the $580,000 difference you're seeing in the

[1:15:01] unrestricted column.

[1:15:04] On the other side, restricted expenditures increased for the same reason by

[1:15:08] $550,000, plus the STRS entry. That brings us to our

[1:15:13] $2.15 million increase.

[1:15:19] So what did that do to our fund balance?

[1:15:22] We started the year with $8.3 million, and with all said and done, we ended the

[1:15:27] year with about $840,000 less in our fund balance.

[1:15:33] Our fund balance is $7,460,000. And in case you're wondering how our

[1:15:39] end fund balance decreased while our unrestricted reserve increased, that is

[1:15:43] because we spent down some of our restricted resources during the year.

[1:15:48] So while we improved our unrestricted position, we had fewer restricted dollars

[1:15:53] carrying forward into next year.

[1:15:59] This is our components of end fund balance, so essentially our unrestricted versus

[1:16:04] restricted fund balance, and then, of course, our unrestricted reserve as a

[1:16:09] percentage of total expenditures for '25-'26 is 9%.

[1:16:18] I do want to stress that since we did have to fund salaries out of our one-time

[1:16:23] funds, those salaries are ongoing expenditures, so even though we met our reserve

[1:16:28] requirement for this year, we are still seeing a structural deficit of about

[1:16:33] $550,000. Fortunately, we are receiving additional one-time funding next year,

[1:16:39] but that should not be funding ongoing expenditures.

[1:16:42] So we will need to keep looking at our multi-year projections in order to align

[1:16:47] those ongoing revenues with ongoing expenditures.

[1:16:54] And that's really all I have for you tonight.

[1:16:57] Just to recap, we made our reserve goal, we stayed on track with our planned

[1:17:01] budget, and we need to monitor that multi-year projection and carefully plan moving

[1:17:06] forward. So are there any questions?

[1:17:14] Yeah. I don't have any questions. I just want to say thank you, Sierra.

[1:17:17] It's you jumping in as a new CBO and having to learn

[1:17:23] how to fly the plane while you're flying the plane, while you have people

[1:17:27] screaming, you have to fly the plane differently.

[1:17:31] Kudos to you and for getting us in this space that two years ago, it

[1:17:38] felt really hard, and so you did it. Thank you.

[1:17:43] Thank you. Again, it's not me, it's my whole team for sure.

[1:17:46] I couldn't do it without them. So...

[1:17:48] Can I just ask a quick question?

[1:17:50] Mm-hmm. Yep.

[1:17:51] Like you said that

[1:17:54] based on the data that there still appears to be a

[1:18:00] deficit, right? And so when you're factoring all of the

[1:18:06] numbers, that doesn't add the potentials, right?

[1:18:11] Like the potential

[1:18:14] inflow of money from solar and things like that, right?

[1:18:17] You can only work with true to actual, so we can't do girl math for

[1:18:23] lack of better terms.

[1:18:24] Yeah.

[1:18:25] We know that if solar, these are going to begin, or we know we have this, and so we

[1:18:30] are not banking on any of that, so what we see is what we get

[1:18:36] as of none of those other things basically.

[1:18:38] Right. And that's why I love to see unaudited actuals because it's real

[1:18:44] numbers. I love to not have the guessing game-

[1:18:47] Right

[1:18:47] ... because the rest of the year is just plugging those in nonstop because

[1:18:50] everything's always changing. We joke that it's like, "Okay, right here.

[1:18:54] Here we are."

[1:18:55] It's that time of-

[1:18:56] But there's just a lot of moving parts, so this is a good time to just look at,

[1:19:01] okay, here we are.

[1:19:07] Thank you.

[1:19:07] All right. Any other discussion, comments?

[1:19:14] We need to vote to accept these then.

[1:19:16] We do.

[1:19:16] Can we get a motion to accept the unaudited actual financial statements?

[1:19:20] So moved.

[1:19:21] And a second?

[1:19:22] Second.

[1:19:23] All in favor say aye.

[1:19:25] Aye.

[1:19:26] Any against?

[1:19:30] Unaudited actual financial statements are accepted.

[1:19:33] Next, item number 7, the NGUHSD plan for expelled youth. Mr. Zellet.

[1:19:38] Yeah. So, the board has been up to date on this plan and where we are in this

[1:19:43] process. We haven't had any

[1:19:47] board discussions as a team.

[1:19:50] I want to make sure we kind of stay out of the weeds with a potential school

[1:19:55] opening. But, just in summary,

[1:19:59] it looks like the Earl Jameson

[1:20:02] program that is currently being operated by John Muir Charter School,

[1:20:08] is probably going to come to an end of operation.

[1:20:13] That timeline has been a little bit of a moving target.

[1:20:16] We thought it was going to be closing its doors to expelled youth at the end of

[1:20:22] December. It sounds like it's likely to stay open at least through the rest of this

[1:20:26] school year, although there's a fee structure that's being proposed and kicked

[1:20:31] around, in terms of charging districts who have expelled youth,

[1:20:37] and who are referring to Earl Jameson School.

[1:20:40] So a lot of that is a bit of a moving target for us.

[1:20:43] What we do know is we feel a level of confidence that we can establish and

[1:20:49] operate a school that serves both our expelled youth as well as some of

[1:20:55] Younger classmen, ninth, 10th grade, 11th grade, that are in need of

[1:21:00] supports and are in need of opportunities to reengage with their education.

[1:21:06] And so we are moving very quickly. We're moving very quickly with a target date of

[1:21:12] January because that was our understanding of the timeline.

[1:21:15] We're still moving with that date in mind, but have given ourselves a little bit of

[1:21:20] a backstop to know that, if necessary, we can take some time and target an

[1:21:25] August opening. But with that, we've established a

[1:21:32] checklist of steps that need to be taken, because you can't just start a school

[1:21:36] overnight. So part of the process for us is coming to the board, getting the

[1:21:41] board's approval to move forward with the opening of a district community day

[1:21:46] school, which is what this type of school would qualify as.

[1:21:52] And so this is a procedural step for us to enable us to move forward in the

[1:21:57] process. Our next step would be to engage with the California Department of

[1:22:01] Education to be assigned a school code.

[1:22:05] We're really in the infancy steps with establishing a program, establishing

[1:22:11] a site, getting our hands wrapped around available funding sources, both inside

[1:22:17] the district and with our community partners, either the County Office of

[1:22:22] Education,

[1:22:24] and juvenile justice system in the county.

[1:22:26] And so we're moving forward on a number of different fronts and really tonight,

[1:22:31] without getting into the details about what type of school and where a school is

[1:22:35] located and the type of school day that would be in place, we really just want to

[1:22:39] get approval from the board so that we can continue moving forward.

[1:22:43] This is

[1:22:46] non-committal. It doesn't mean we're opening a school, but it does clear the path

[1:22:50] for us to move forward in the process.

[1:22:54] Can we get a motion to approve the NGUSC plan for expelled youth?

[1:22:59] So moved.

[1:23:00] And a second?

[1:23:01] Second.

[1:23:02] And we have a discussion?

[1:23:04] Yeah. Can I just, just as you know I'm not really as familiar with this

[1:23:09] process,

[1:23:11] I'm just wondering, can you tell me other districts who have expelled youth, their

[1:23:17] schools, do their schools tend to be housed within their district as well?

[1:23:21] Is our situation unique in terms of having had John Muir house that

[1:23:27] expelled youth?

[1:23:27] It's a good question. There's really an array, and at the end of the day,

[1:23:32] ultimately, the LEA, the Local Education Agency, us as a district, are responsible

[1:23:38] for serving our students.

[1:23:39] Okay.

[1:23:39] At the end of the day, yeah, it ultimately falls on us.

[1:23:42] So, in some counties, Placer County, for example, the County Office of Education

[1:23:47] runs a program, I Care, and that is an available service for students

[1:23:53] in Placer County who are expelled from school.

[1:23:57] In other counties,

[1:24:01] some districts have established schools for expelled youth.

[1:24:05] So they expel a student from their school, but the student's actually staying

[1:24:09] within their district and being served at an alternative location, and they just

[1:24:13] decide to provide that service.

[1:24:16] Other counties where, in my understanding of K-8 education in

[1:24:22] Placer County, is there's not a community day school for K-8 students, and so, if a

[1:24:28] student is expelled from school, they have to be served somewhere, and they place

[1:24:32] their students at a non-public school, which we had three contracts on our consent

[1:24:37] agenda for non-public placement-

[1:24:38] That's an option

[1:24:39] ... that could be anywhere from 70 to $120,000 a year in terms of a placement.

[1:24:46] So that always remains an alternative for us if we want to send a student to a

[1:24:50] non-public school. It's obviously not a financially sound one for us.

[1:24:57] We do feel like we have the resources to develop a program that is

[1:25:03] quality and meets the needs of these students.

[1:25:08] Earl Jameson, at one point in time, was operated by our school district.

[1:25:14] It kind of predates me. I think that service ended around 2011, and then the county

[1:25:20] office, NCSOS, took over operation of Earl Jameson from roughly

[1:25:25] 2012 up until 2022. So about a 10-year span.

[1:25:31] And it was a losing endeavor for them in terms of cost,

[1:25:35] and they didn't want to have their hands in it anymore.

[1:25:39] And so John Muir Charter School reopened a school at the McCorney site, McCorney

[1:25:44] Road. And that's when they agreed to take on that as one of their

[1:25:49] programs on that campus. So that arrangement was a three-year unwritten commitment

[1:25:55] on their part, and last year was the third year, and now

[1:26:01] they made a decision that they're going to get out of that business.

[1:26:05] It's just interesting how there are so many things that are standard and expected

[1:26:11] in public education, and for this to be-

[1:26:14] A little bit different

[1:26:16] ... Yeah. It seems like an anomaly to everything else that we do here.

[1:26:20] Yeah. In larger counties, like when I worked in Sacramento County, there were

[1:26:25] multiple schools. So it's a big county, right?

[1:26:28] Yeah.

[1:26:28] And so there were a number of community day schools in various regions.

[1:26:33] I imagine there still are. And so students that were expelled, multiple districts

[1:26:38] could refer, right? But we're just small.

[1:26:41] Right.

[1:26:42] So

[1:26:43] that's just the difference.

[1:26:44] So we'll-

[1:26:44] Financially, how would... I guess you have to work out the numbers of course, but

[1:26:49] how would it compare for us to do it here, have our own, as opposed to

[1:26:56] referring to another district?

[1:26:59] We'd definitely do it less than a non-public school.

[1:27:01] Okay.

[1:27:02] The

[1:27:04] pricing structure for this spring, for John Muir Charter School, they're

[1:27:09] talking about charging districts $20,000 for the spring semester, to send a

[1:27:15] student.

[1:27:16] Alone. Spring alone. To send a student.

[1:27:17] Mm-hmm. But that's not been solidified.

[1:27:21] Left the meeting today, it sounds like-

[1:27:22] And that's their suggestion per student?

[1:27:23] Per student, yeah.

[1:27:25] That'd be for a year. Well, you wouldn't even do that anyway, though.

[1:27:29] Right. If they did, and again, a lot of these are moving parts.

[1:27:33] I have a meeting at the county office today to try to get some more concrete

[1:27:37] answers and to express some of the challenges that we've been experiencing as an

[1:27:41] end user, and as one of the districts in the county.

[1:27:45] And so those numbers felt even a little squishy there, like they're perhaps

[1:27:50] debatable or not in concrete quite yet.

[1:27:54] So,

[1:27:56] that's why we're moving on our front,

[1:27:59] full speed ahead to try to put a program together that's good for kids.

[1:28:03] Try to access some funding that we believe is out there and available that we might

[1:28:06] be able to leverage to provide a good service, and then we're one step at a time.

[1:28:11] So,

[1:28:13] that's the purpose of this resolution, is just to keep us in a place where we can

[1:28:16] keep moving in that direction, and then it's going to be evolving.

[1:28:21] I love the idea of doing it ourselves.

[1:28:23] I think we have robust CTE programs that we partner with.

[1:28:26] We have all the means that we need to do it ourselves and keep it in-house.

[1:28:30] I think it's a great path we're going down.

[1:28:33] Well, I think some of the frustrations that we've had with our students who've been

[1:28:38] there, and they haven't followed up with what we were expecting the school to

[1:28:42] provide for them, to have that in our control would be helpful.

[1:28:47] One more question.

[1:28:48] Mm-hmm.

[1:28:49] Can students who are not part of our district

[1:28:53] attend?

[1:28:55] Would that be a possibility if-

[1:28:58] So it's going to-

[1:28:59] A follow-up to that, I noticed that we have the, it says 9 to 12.

[1:29:04] I think presently Earl Jameson takes 8th, right? Or 7th?

[1:29:08] Correct.

[1:29:09] And so would we consider that?

[1:29:10] So the answer is it depends. And then getting into the weeds a little bit.

[1:29:14] Sorry.

[1:29:14] But no, we'll go down a little bit. We can operate a community day school of our

[1:29:19] own, which would be 9 through 12. There is also an option

[1:29:25] where

[1:29:27] it remains a county community day school, so it still remains a school of the

[1:29:32] County Office of Education, Earl Jameson remains, but we take over operations and

[1:29:37] programming, and there are some benefits to that.

[1:29:40] One benefit being we can have a 9 through 12 program, and one of the K8s can have a

[1:29:46] 6 through 8 program.

[1:29:48] Having that county designation

[1:29:52] restricts the number of required instructional minutes during the day.

[1:29:55] It also opens up, it's more lenient toward independent study options for students,

[1:30:02] and it could be more attractive to some other available dollars that we think are

[1:30:06] in the area. Of course, the county office has to be on board with that.

[1:30:09] We have to foster that relationship and make sure it meets their needs.

[1:30:16] It also unlocks some county dollars, we think.

[1:30:20] So we're just in discovery and moving down.

[1:30:23] Our idea is to build the program, and then whether it's a district program, in

[1:30:27] which case we could decide to take a student who was expelled from a charter

[1:30:32] school, let's say, or from out of county.

[1:30:34] We could even have a billing structure of our own.

[1:30:36] Right.

[1:30:36] With, "Hey, Post County wants this kid, cool, it'll cost you whatever."

[1:30:40] Right.

[1:30:41] So there's some benefits to that side.

[1:30:44] And then there's some benefits doing it under a county umbrella.

[1:30:48] We don't have to go to CDE, we don't have to establish another school.

[1:30:52] Right.

[1:30:53] So it's fine. It's one of those-

[1:30:55] It's fine

[1:30:55] ... unexpected

[1:30:58] priorities for the year, right?

[1:31:02] Time is of the essence, too.

[1:31:04] It is.

[1:31:04] Yeah.

[1:31:05] It is. But fortunately, we have some creative thinkers on our team, and so we have

[1:31:11] more ideas than we know what to do with currently.

[1:31:14] That's shocking.

[1:31:15] I know. It's hard to imagine where those

[1:31:18] ideas come from.

[1:31:20] I know.

[1:31:20] All right. Any other discussion on this?

[1:31:23] All right, Mr. Zellet, roll.

[1:31:25] Trustee Williams?

[1:31:27] Aye.

[1:31:27] Trustee Clark.

[1:31:28] Aye.

[1:31:28] Trustee Bridgette.

[1:31:29] Aye.

[1:31:30] Trustee Willoughby.

[1:31:31] Aye.

[1:31:31] President Klein.

[1:31:32] Aye.

[1:31:33] On to number eight, superintendent goals.

[1:31:36] Yeah, we do have a public comment just here.

[1:31:38] Oh, yeah. And public comment, Ms. Lesbe.

[1:31:45] Believe it or not, I actually read just about every single attachment that's in the

[1:31:49] agenda each time.

[1:31:51] Yes.

[1:31:51] And so on this one, in reading through the list of goals for you, Superintendent

[1:31:56] Pezzella, I wanted to address one of the items in goal two, which is improve

[1:32:01] academic achievement through quality teaching and learning and clear measures of

[1:32:05] progress and performance. And within that goal, one of the bullet points stated

[1:32:10] specifically the establishment of AI guardrails via AI task force to include

[1:32:15] reduction of screen time. And in with that piece right there, I would encourage you

[1:32:21] to expand this goal to include reevaluate the use of AI platforms that are already

[1:32:26] in use in our schools. For example, Edia is the AI math program that's used to help

[1:32:32] kids work through math problems and explain the steps.

[1:32:36] And at first glance, this resource sounds really useful, but there are times when

[1:32:41] Edia teaches backwards, working from the answer back up to the step where the

[1:32:46] student got stuck, and then fail. Edia also works through trying to find the

[1:32:51] fastest way to that solution working backwards.

[1:32:55] However, that's not how humans work with working through math problems, for

[1:33:01] example. We think from the start of the problem and work each step going down

[1:33:07] towards the answer, and sometimes we have to backtrack with that step, but then

[1:33:11] that backtracking and reworking is part of the learning process.

[1:33:16] AI like Edia offers easy answers, but it doesn't always provide that learning by

[1:33:22] working backwards. Students are shown how to solve the questions without really

[1:33:26] getting the value out of working those problems, because that value comes from that

[1:33:31] working and reworking in the order from the question, then getting to the solution.

[1:33:37] And so it may be that other tried and true methods of instruction might be a little

[1:33:42] bit more valuable than using AI. And these are comments actually coming from my

[1:33:47] daughter, who has used Edia for a few years now, and she's like, "Hey, this is the

[1:33:51] problem I'm running into in her pre-calc and calculus." And so it may work better

[1:33:56] for some of the lower math classes, but as you get up higher, it struggles.

[1:34:01] So thank you.

[1:34:02] Thank you.

[1:34:08] I could get a motion to approve the superintendent goals.

[1:34:11] So moved.

[1:34:11] And a second? Second. Mr. Pezzella,

[1:34:16] did you want to go over these at all, or do you guys want any other discussion

[1:34:19] about these?

[1:34:21] We went over them in depth last month.

[1:34:23] Yeah.

[1:34:23] But if there are any questions or

[1:34:26] revisions, now would be the time.

[1:34:30] No, I'm good.

[1:34:30] Do we want to consider some broad language that just-

[1:34:36] Yeah, I mean, I could speak to Ms.-

[1:34:36] ... opens us

[1:34:39] to making some changes if we so choose, or giving you the ability to make some

[1:34:43] changes.

[1:34:43] I could speak to Ms. Lesbe's comments. Edia is a new product.

[1:34:46] It's the product I was speaking to-

[1:34:48] Sure

[1:34:48] ... during my comments. So we are evaluating it.

[1:34:52] Actually, we have a follow-up phone call with the company today to express some of

[1:34:57] our concerns with the mechanism. So, this would've been the only year your

[1:35:00] daughter's used it, so maybe it was a different platform in years past.

[1:35:04] It's brand new to us. And so we're doing that. We've already-- So check.

[1:35:14] Luke has some follow-up with the entire math department because we have another

[1:35:17] program that we have used, and then Edia has been adopted and we're going to be

[1:35:22] picking a lane here pretty soon.

[1:35:26] And we have some direct feedback for the company right now, so we're engaging with

[1:35:31] them. We have another meeting on the calendar to follow up with them again, too.

[1:35:35] Keep it looking.

[1:35:36] Welcome.

[1:35:44] All right. With that,

[1:35:46] we have a motion on the table. All in favor of approving the superintendent goals,

[1:35:50] say aye.

[1:35:51] Aye.

[1:35:51] Aye. Aye. Against? The ayes have it.

[1:35:55] We'll move on to policy manual review,

[1:36:00] the May 2026 CSBA district policy updates.

[1:36:05] Yeah. So this is on for a second read.

[1:36:07] As you recall, last month we had discussions specifically pertaining to board

[1:36:13] bylaw 9200.

[1:36:16] I made an effort to revise the portion of that bylaw that

[1:36:23] there was more discussion around the sentence

[1:36:26] that was being discussed and

[1:36:31] considered. And if you're looking for the right document, it's labeled.

[1:36:35] It's top left.

[1:36:36] Mm-hmm.

[1:36:37] Board PB 9200 revision, in all caps.

[1:36:42] So we're discussing the sentence, "The board member

[1:36:46] shall not respond substantively to communication beyond acknowledging receipts and

[1:36:51] explaining the limits of the board member's authority." So,

[1:36:56] there was question about

[1:37:01] how subjective the term substantively was.

[1:37:06] And then there was also, I think what I gathered in watching our discussion over it

[1:37:11] was that there was some emphasis on making sure the individual felt heard.

[1:37:16] So I added that phrasing of ensuring individuals feel heard and just removed the

[1:37:20] word substantively. So it now reads, "The board member shall not respond to the

[1:37:24] communication beyond acknowledging receipt, ensuring individual feels heard, and

[1:37:28] explaining the limits of the board member's authority." Then the rest is presented

[1:37:34] as was originally proposed

[1:37:37] by CSBA.

[1:37:40] Can I get a motion to approve May 2026 CSBA district policy

[1:37:46] updates?

[1:37:47] So moved.

[1:37:48] And a second? Second. Any discussion on that?

[1:37:55] All right. All in favor of approving these as they're written now, say aye.

[1:37:59] Aye.

[1:38:00] Any against? The ayes have it.

[1:38:04] Moving on to board policy 6146.1.

[1:38:07] Yeah. So, our apologies. This board policy

[1:38:12] 6146.1, high school graduation requirements, came before the board

[1:38:18] last spring, and this is one that is more of a custom

[1:38:24] board policy for us that reflects our specific

[1:38:28] graduation requirements, and

[1:38:31] it basically got through our screening process, ended up on the board agenda for a

[1:38:37] first and second read, and was approved and overrode our existing policy.

[1:38:43] And so, Mr. Nelly caught it last month.

[1:38:48] And so what's being presented now for a first read, which we debated asking to

[1:38:54] waive a first read, but there's really not a rush because nobody's going to

[1:38:56] graduate this month.

[1:38:59] So it's on to reflect our existing practice and what has been our

[1:39:04] high school graduation requirements, and it's on for a first read tonight.

[1:39:07] It'll come back next month for approval.

[1:39:12] Perfect. Any discussion on this?

[1:39:14] Yeah, I do have a question.

[1:39:15] Okay.

[1:39:16] So how does this then affect NPA

[1:39:21] if in fact we do have a graduate forthcoming before we...

[1:39:25] It's unlikely before December, but-

[1:39:28] Didn't we graduate everyone this last spring? Did we? We did.

[1:39:31] Yeah.

[1:39:32] We're pulling all the policy back up too.

[1:39:34] Yeah.

[1:39:37] She's graduating?

[1:39:38] No.

[1:39:39] She caught it.

[1:39:40] Oh, she caught it. I apologize. I give credit to Ms.

[1:39:42] Danielli, who never takes credit for anything she does.

[1:39:46] It was Carla Aaron who caught that-

[1:39:48] Oh, okay.

[1:39:48] ... we adopted the policy.

[1:39:51] So we could approve, we could waive a first reading tonight just in case we have

[1:39:54] somebody who graduates.

[1:39:56] I'd like to move that we waive the first reading and approve this tonight in case

[1:39:59] of any graduates forthcoming.

[1:40:01] And I'll second that.

[1:40:05] Any other discussion? Motion on the table? All right.

[1:40:08] All in favor of waiving a second read and approving this right now, say aye.

[1:40:13] Aye.

[1:40:13] Aye. Any against? The ayes have it.

[1:40:19] We'll move on to information correspondence.

[1:40:22] There is none.

[1:40:27] Man,

[1:40:28] I wish I could recess right now.

[1:40:30] Get out of here.

[1:40:33] The next regularly scheduled meeting of the governing board will be October 7th,

[1:40:36] 2026.

[1:40:38] And, with that, can I get a motion to adjourn the meeting?

[1:40:42] So moved. Before 8:00 PM.

[1:40:44] I know. I lost that bet. And to second?

[1:40:50] Oh.

[1:40:51] Hi.

[1:40:53] I second it. I second it. All in favor of adjourning the meeting say aye.

[1:40:58] Aye.

[1:40:58] Aye. Any against? The ayes have it.

[1:41:01] I was about to say, this is the second time that-

NJUHSD Regular Board Meeting - September 9 2026 @ 6pm

Transcript