[0:04] Hello, everyone. It is September 9th, and it is 4.37. And we are opening our meeting. It's a special meeting. And we're going to go into a close session. We'll be coming out of a close session around 5.30. And so we'll be back. Thank you.

[1:01] Hello, everyone. It is our September 9th meeting. And before we start the meeting tonight, I do want to take a moment to acknowledge that Friday marks 25 years since September 11th.

[1:14] For many of us, it's hard to believe that 25 years have passed.

[1:19] We remember where we were, how we felt, and the uncertainty of that day.

[1:24] We remember the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives.

[1:27] The first responders who ran toward danger and the families who were forever changed.

[1:32] For many of our students,

[1:34] many of our students were not around.

[1:37] And September 11th, it's just history.

[1:39] but there is something important for them to carry forward and that is the sense of community that people showed one another during an incredibly difficult time.

[1:53] As a school community, I hope we continue to teach our children to care for one another, to serve others and to value the humanity we share.

[2:01] And then I just want to ask everyone to join me in a moment of silence.

[2:05] Thank

[2:19] you. And okay, we're going to start with our open session. It is September 9 and it is 6 o'clock and we are going to start with roll call.

[2:30] We are going to start with Richard.

[2:35] I am here.

[2:36] Jen, here.

[2:38] Laurie, here.

[2:40] And then Stacy's with us. Are you there online?

[2:44] here. Yes, okay. And then we have Stacey with us. Unfortunately, board member John Keane and Maria

[2:53] Lonebaskis are not with us tonight. And so it's just going to be the five of us. Okay. And so

[3:02] moving right along, uh, Pledge of Allegiance.

[3:09] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

[3:12] to the Republic for which stands one nation under God in the visible liberty and justice

[3:19] for all.

[3:24] Okay.

[3:25] And so the next item on our agenda is going to be the approval of agenda.

[3:30] If I...

[3:31] So moved.

[3:32] Okay.

[3:33] So Richard moves.

[3:34] And then Lori seconds.

[3:37] The approval of agenda.

[3:40] Okay.

[3:40] And so we'll take the book, Richard.

[3:42] Yes.

[3:46] Okay,

[3:49] and I am a yes and so the agenda is approved. Okay, so moving along the next item is our superintendents report and that is going to be Dr. Shelton.

[4:05] Very short today. I just wanted to give a couple of quick updates and I will also ask Gerardo to chime in.

[4:12] And the first report, and I have received several emails regarding our HVAC system.

[4:20] We are in an extreme weather situation, and some of our spaces are not functioning the

[4:27] way we would want them to function.

[4:31] As I said, I want to provide an update regarding our HVAC systems across the district.

[4:36] As we continue to experience extreme heat, while many of our schools are operating with

[4:42] functioning HVAC systems.

[5:00] Temperatures and our experiencing issues with their systems. Specifically, we have experienced

[5:05] HVAC concerns at Santa Monica High School, Samo High. We have begun a comprehensive audit

[5:12] of the systems at the school to identify the problems that exist and determine the best

[5:18] solution. In the meantime, we have installed temporary cooling units in affected spaces

[5:24] And are actively problem-solving to address the immediate concerns when a unit is broken at an elementary school or middle school is usually specific to a room

[5:37] and we can get to that and get that done more quicker and easier than entire systems for our larger spaces.

[5:47] As the former principal there, I do understand you never not be a principal and you never

[5:55] not be with your folks because the heat is not an easy thing to endure when you are

[6:01] trying to teach or trying to learn.

[6:04] Our approach includes two immediate steps.

[6:08] We're going to work with our partners, which we've already started to do.

[6:11] We have met with Siemens along with another HVAC vendor to assess the issues and develop

[6:17] solutions.

[6:18] More specifically at SEMO High, I know our principal, Ms. Maree Cruz, has worked with Siemens

[6:25] and they walked each of those classrooms in two of our specific buildings.

[6:31] We also are identifying both immediate and long-term solutions.

[6:35] Our partners will provide us with detailed recommendations to address the current problems

[6:43] while also identifying the necessary corrections to help prevent similar issues with the systems

[6:50] in the future.

[6:51] And I say in the future because this has been said to be an El Nino year and we don't know

[6:58] when weather will change.

[6:59] As you all have experienced, we all are living in the same space.

[7:02] We have drastic temperatures.

[7:05] I said to the other day, it felt like Florida,

[7:08] after it rained, the humidity was out of control.

[7:12] And we understand that and we are experiencing it

[7:14] along with our students and staff.

[7:17] Our students and staff deserve learning

[7:18] and working environments that are safe,

[7:21] comfortable and conducive to learning.

[7:23] We understand the frustration that can come

[7:26] with these challenges, particularly during extreme weather.

[7:30] and we are addressing these concerns as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

[7:36] Thank you for your patience and understanding and partnership as we work through these issues.

[7:42] Last week, a semi-high teachers shared specific information and we are in hopes to be able to share in writing.

[7:51] soon answers to the questions that they posed as they set in this audience because we want

[7:59] to provide you answers and correct the problem at the same time.

[8:04] We will continue to provide updates as we have additional information to share.

[8:09] I also wanted to introduce, and Thomas, if you would come up, I want to also introduce Thomas

[8:18] island. It is great, there's a great pleasure that I introduced Thomas Island as our district's

[8:25] new chief communications officer. Thomas brings more than a decade of experience in strategic

[8:30] communication, community engagement, media relations, crisis response, and public relations

[8:36] across corporate, nonprofit and media sectors. Most recently he served as the US marketing director

[8:43] or a global financial consulting company

[8:46] where he led digital marketing, social media,

[8:49] internal communications, and event initiatives.

[8:52] Earlier in his career, Thomas worked

[8:54] at the Recording Academy supporting education programs

[8:58] and Grammy Week events.

[9:00] Thomas holds a Master's of Illegate Administration

[9:04] with a focus on leadership from Cal State Northridge,

[9:07] a bachelor of journalism from the University of Texas

[9:10] at Austin, and a digital marketing certificate

[9:13] from UT Austin's McCombs School of Business.

[9:17] He is a physician in English and Spanish,

[9:19] which is great benefit to our school district.

[9:22] We're thrilled to welcome Thomas Pyle,

[9:24] and know he will be a great fit here at SNNUSD.

[9:29] I look forward to his leadership

[9:30] in continuing to keep our staff, families,

[9:32] and community informed and engaged.

[9:35] Thomas, you have a few words for us.

[9:44] Thank you.

[9:45] First of all, good evening.

[9:46] Good evening, Dr. Shelton, board president,

[9:49] and members of the board, as well as our neighbors in Santa Monica, Malibu.

[9:54] So as Dr. Shelton said, my name is Thomas Pylind, and I have the privilege to stand in front of you as your chief communications officer.

[10:00] Just want to clarify, my focus in this role is to strengthen the transparent, reliable bridge

[10:06] that the existing communications team is built between our schools and this community. I'm

[10:11] here to ensure that your voices are heard and that our district sorities are being told

[10:16] accurately and effectively. I look forward to continuing to build this bridge between

[10:20] our community and partnering with you. And lastly, go madadors, thank you.

[10:29] We're going to take a picture now. So, Thomas, come on back up. We're going to take a picture.

[10:34] Okay,

[11:52] so the next item is public comments for items listed on the agenda and that is going

[11:57] to be for any permanent. There are no comments. Okay,

[12:08] and the next item on our agenda is

[12:10] going to be consent items. I have to say that a couple of items have been postponed.

[12:24] That

[12:24] And so those two items have been postponed and then yeah, I was going to make a motion to approve minus those items.

[12:36] Okay, Laurie makes the motion to approve minus those items second and then Jen makes the second motion.

[12:43] Okay, then we're going to take the vote, Richard.

[12:46] Yes.

[12:47] Jen.

[12:48] Yes.

[12:49] Laurie.

[12:50] Yes.

[12:52] Yes.

[12:56] And I am a yes. And so consent items are passed. And so the next item on our agenda

[13:03] is going to be we have some discussion items. The first thing is VAPA. We have board feedback

[13:09] on proposed 2026, 2027 charges for district advisory committees and I do believe Richard is

[13:17] on that committee as a board liaison in Maria Leone-Basquez is there and so holding up on the screen.

[13:29] I don't see them on the screen. Oh, we do have, okay, great. I mean, would you like to introduce

[13:35] our representatives from Bappa? Oh, they can do that. Okay, great. If you want to come up, that would be great.

[13:45] Good evening.

[13:47] I was going to introduce you.

[13:48] Okay, so we have a parent here from our WAPA DAC, Rebecca.

[13:51] She's going to be presenting on behalf of the team.

[13:54] So we want to welcome you and thank you for being here to tell us about the WAPA DAC.

[13:58] Thank you very much.

[14:01] Good evening.

[14:02] My name is Rebecca Turlitsi and I am a member of the visual performing arts district advisory committee

[14:07] along here tonight with Wendy Jaffa, one of our other members in Gina.

[14:12] So we are here to present our 20, 25, 26 annual report, we didn't have a chance to do this over the summer when I believe it normally happens.

[14:21] My family has had the pleasure of being active members in the district's music program since our son's access to music education began way back at Roosevelt.

[14:31] Luke is now graduated and still playing his trombone in college, while Noah is a junior in all of the band-on-sembles,

[14:38] marching band, concert band jazz, and pit work, a strum. And I am a relatively new member to this committee,

[14:45] especially compared to some of our other long-time members who have advocated for strong arts education programs

[15:00] On behalf of the entire VAPIDAC, we thank you for your continued support for our district's visual and performing arts programs. It's because of your commitment and dedication to arts education, our children have thrived and excelled in all avenues of the arts, which we also believe strengthens and enhances the academics, their academics and social well-being. We are deeply grateful for your support. In recent years, the VAPIDAC has worked hard to fortify

[15:29] our committee with parents of current students blended with our more veteran members who

[15:35] hold the institutional knowledge with the ups and downs and just how much our VAPA offerings

[15:40] have grown over the years. As you can see in the report that's been provided to you,

[15:45] the work of the committee and the accomplishments of our VAPA programs are extensive.

[15:51] I'll keep it to a couple of the highlights and starting with the charges that we operated

[15:57] under last year. This will kind of, yeah, I'll read the charges because they are specific.

[16:03] Our first charge is to support a comprehensive 3K through 12 arts education program

[16:09] as an integral part of the core curriculum offered to all SMMUSD students.

[16:15] With dance, media, arts, music, theater, and visual arts,

[16:20] taught as discrete disciplines and integrated into other subject areas.

[16:24] and to align and promote excellence through the excellence through equity plan which includes

[16:31] teaching cross-cultural and socio-emotional skills. Our second charge is to serve as a conduit

[16:37] for parents, teachers, students, and community members to inform and make recommendations to the board

[16:44] on matters related to equitable access and successful participation in comprehensive, sequential,

[16:50] standards-based 3K arts education while comparing the district's curriculum, scheduling, staffing,

[16:57] instructional materials, equipment, and facilities with national and state standards and frameworks.

[17:02] We also are charged with maintaining the board and district commitment to the adoption of a new

[17:08] six-year SMNUSD arts and education strategic plan. So some of the committee's accomplishments,

[17:16] Again, you know, the report is pretty long, but part of what's great about this report

[17:23] is that we have collected an extensive amount of data and created highlights, a highlights

[17:28] report of VAPA and teacher student accomplishments, some of which, and they begin on page 7 if you

[17:34] wanted to take a look at that full list.

[17:36] But the 75th annual stairway to the stars was reimagined as the SMMUSD Arts and Music Festival.

[17:44] It was the first time that this event featured our visual art students, which was really fantastic.

[17:51] There were gallery type setups outside Barnum featuring the work of our elementary students

[17:57] with their PS Arts projects. We also, it included the Robert's Arts Gallery was open with the Santa

[18:06] Monica student art showcase, which I think was the first time that was part of stairway. We also had

[18:12] a second stage, which gave us a full stage and opportunity for our folklorico and mariachi students,

[18:21] all the jazz ensembles performed including the middle schools. I think there was beauty shop

[18:27] and barbershop ensembles from requires, and then there was even an all alumni rock band on that

[18:36] second stage, as well as community music vendors that were there to offer information about by the

[18:42] lessons and accessories and instrument zoos so children could test out new instruments.

[18:50] It really was a great community event. Another highlight this year was the Flora's Damiro

[18:56] Festival featuring our Mariachi and Foclorico students. They performed in Jams, the Samo high

[19:03] marching band, won the bronze medal at the SCSBOA field show championships and their 5A division

[19:10] and significantly, they won the High Music Award,

[19:13] and that was the first time since 1987.

[19:15] So that was really a nice feather in their cap, literally.

[19:20] Samo High Theater competed against 41 Soquel High School

[19:24] at the DTAS ASC Shakespeare Festival,

[19:28] winning four first place awards and six additional awards

[19:31] with every student making it to the final round

[19:34] and culminating with an invitation

[19:37] to perform at Pasadena's a noise within theater.

[19:41] And then finally, another one last highlight.

[19:43] The Samo High Jazz was invited by Grammy winning Stanley Clark

[19:47] to perform at the first Santa Monica International Jazz Festival.

[19:51] So they performed at the third street promenade,

[19:53] which was part of a wider group of events

[19:55] that went on to take place at Tonga Park.

[19:58] So lots of things to say.

[20:00] We're going to celebrate in our district, our VAPA student. Another accomplishment of the committee was that the VAPA deck provided a venue where the community was able to hear information about the evolving VAPA programs in the district and was able to provide input through public comments. And the VAPA deck served as a liaison to the community during the arts and music festival, the stairway event.

[20:25] We had our own table where our members were able to meet with parents and community members

[20:31] and talk about all the VAPA offerings that we have.

[20:35] So looking forward to this year, our 26-27 school year, we haven't met yet, but our possible

[20:40] charges will be to talk as a committee about whether charges need to be updated and then create

[20:47] the action plan to do so and then ensure any new action plan is also implemented into

[20:53] the LCAP.

[20:53] So that would be our report and I hope you have a time to look through the wider materials that were provided to you.

[21:04] Thank you.

[21:05] Any comments or questions?

[21:07] Great.

[21:07] I just want to say thank you.

[21:09] It was a great bringing together of a lot of the pieces of the great things that go on in this district that I'm thinking of our brand new communications.

[21:19] I hope he's sponging all of this because I think this would make a great, these are things I mean, I'm always harping on this about everything we do.

[21:30] So we need to share this with the wider community because what you just laid out so eloquently is tremendous and not everybody has that in their district.

[21:40] And our community needs to know that this is what we offer.

[21:45] So thank you, thank you, thank you.

[21:49] Tim?

[21:50] Well, and just your presentation was fantastic.

[21:54] And just remind me of a conversation I had with Catherine Baxter

[21:58] a few weeks ago told me she went to New York and saw four

[22:01] of our children on Broadway.

[22:03] So I, you know, people have come up through the ranks.

[22:06] And so just so it's here and beyond and thank you and I appreciate your leadership in this.

[22:13] Thank you.

[22:16] Thank you.

[22:17] Thank you.

[22:18] Thank you so much for that report.

[22:20] Yes.

[22:22] And so next on our agenda, I have Dr. Ashley Benjamin and it's going to be updates to BPs and ARs related to curriculum and instruction.

[22:32] Right.

[22:46] Good evening. So over the last year, I have presented 59 policies and regulations

[22:52] to you. And tonight is my very last batch. And yes, very exciting. And you will see that

[22:59] they're all very happy ones. And so in these slides, there's various clip art for these

[23:03] celebratory, various policies and regulations. First, we have awards and achievements. And

[23:10] this policy and regulation has been updated to reflect the different criteria for various

[23:14] state awards. We have the Golden State seal merit diploma. Last year we had 435 students get that

[23:22] award and that's for students who get certain grades in different content areas and they automatically

[23:26] get it. We have the state seal of biliteracy. We had 203 students last year who are awarded that

[23:32] and our excellent immersion program is a great pathway towards that award. And then a newer one is

[23:38] the state seal of civic engagement and this is something we're going to continue to really advertise

[23:43] and promote in our community and encourage kids to apply for it.

[23:46] We did last year at John Adams Middle School.

[23:48] They did a civic action project and those are the type of things

[23:51] that are really going to encourage kids to go for that in high school.

[23:55] And then next we have graduation ceremonies and activities.

[24:00] This was updated to reflect new state law

[24:03] that our graduates at graduation are able to wear religious

[24:07] or cultural regalia as long as it's not disruption to the ceremony

[24:12] and they inform the Site Administrator 14 days in advance and Sarah ran away before we can click

[24:22] to the next slide. All right, thank you. Then we have Sarah Votes and observances. This one was

[24:30] just updated to reflect the various holidays that we celebrate and to note that we can have flags

[25:00] Trips board policy. This was updated to reflect that now we can use district funds to cover the cost of field trips and last my favorite animals at schools. Now, I really want this to be all animals at all times and all classrooms. Alas, I used the CSBA template for this one. And there were just a few updates about service animals, including a new section about miniature horses. And yes, again, that concludes my presentation this evening.

[25:34] any questions?

[25:39] Yeah. In the ceremonies and I was looking through that and while the

[25:46] AR itself is a little confusing to me only because you have sort of adult things mixed

[25:54] with requirements for kids and it's not really spelled out. I'm just wondering if there's

[26:02] any need for that.

[26:04] It's sort of all integrated, so that could include like the adult education ceremonies that occur.

[26:10] There is a little section about elementary, which just talks about how we have our own ceremonies.

[26:15] Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm not about the ceremonies. It's about the holidays and observances and

[26:20] basically things like the week that we get to be perfectly honest. I never knew that we had a

[26:27] American day. I just didn't ever even heard of that. I don't know what that is. Except that,

[26:33] you know, we celebrate Black History Month. We celebrate Black History Month with their King Day.

[26:36] And so that was just something new to me. And so some of those things were definitely related to what

[26:41] happened in the classroom and some of those things were not about the classroom at all, right?

[26:45] Yes, correct. So they're all sort of integrated within that policy and regulation. What we do for some

[26:51] of the things like the career readiness week are different coordinators for the different wolves

[26:56] provide resources to the teachers for instruction that they can do in the classroom.

[27:02] I guess I was just looking through things like classified employee week, obviously not meant for.

[27:11] It's about, that's about adults, not about education in the classroom.

[27:16] Am I wrong about that?

[27:17] Yeah, you are correct.

[27:18] Yeah, they're all mixed together in the regulation.

[27:22] It's in the, if the look in the actual, the AR in the AR, and I, and that workplace readiness

[27:33] week is only for the high school and so I mean I guess I can look up the laws and figure

[27:40] out what exactly we need, but, but it seemed like it should have a little more specific,

[27:45] specificity in the AR if we, anyway that was just my comment.

[27:50] And I don't know, you guys can, if you think this is adequate,

[27:55] I was just, what I read through it,

[27:57] it was not clear to even make some.

[28:03] I think that's a, I'm sorry, you need to go.

[28:06] I just wanted to respond because I think that's a good point

[28:09] and I missed that entirely, so I missed the AR,

[28:13] but I feel like it would be better

[28:15] and it wouldn't be that hard,

[28:20] differentiator.

[28:21] Yeah, I mean.

[28:22] I don't want to say that because it says they should integrate

[28:32] it into the regular educational

[28:33] program as required by law.

[28:35] So I guess I didn't explain like somebody in elementary school is not going to do workplace

[28:41] writing this week, that's for the high school and, yeah, and stuff like classified employee

[28:50] week.

[28:50] And again, I did not know black American day was on March 5th.

[29:09] Are you suggesting that I was suggesting that you take it back and and if there's more

[29:13] interest from other board members to change it towards that or what would I would say

[29:17] definitely interest.

[29:18] It was just a comment and a note if we think it would be more there were more of an explanation

[29:24] is necessary if other board members thought that was well, we're not voting tonight.

[29:28] We're going to bring it back at the next meeting.

[29:30] So let's use the time in between and we can do an update on the Friday memo and get feedback

[29:33] the board and then we can decide by next next meeting. Okay that sounds like a

[29:37] plan to me but everybody I mean I think everyone should agree.

[29:43] Sure we can make it

[29:44] more I think we can we can we can yeah take a look at it. Yeah we could divide up the

[29:54] sections that are more adult focused and then what's more classroom-based focused.

[30:00] I do have another comment or question about this, too, because when we list out all these things, and it says commemorative that exercises will be integrated to the regular educational program is required by law.

[30:16] These are obviously not all required by law to be integrated, because if they are we're not really adhering to that. I mean, so I don't know what that means, I guess. I'm picket that probably came from CSBA.

[30:31] So I just don't know what that means and I think it's a little bit well. I looked up a few of them, like the like the work readiness week is more about is a high school readiness thing the classified employee of the week classified employee week.

[30:45] I don't think has anything to do with an educational piece in in classroom.

[30:53] Yes, but then they go ahead and do things like lunch hero and they do the clap that they get they in elementary schools they like highlight certain classified staff and they celebrate them.

[31:06] So yeah, we and we do the we do the.

[31:10] So the recognition at board meetings and it is classified week and we do celebrate those people, it's just not in the classroom.

[31:20] It's at the school side, I would imagine, but there's no educational scenario that goes with that.

[31:29] Like with Martin Luther King Day, obviously, we know there's an educational piece in the classroom explaining who he is.

[31:37] is it what he did and all that stuff?

[31:41] Yeah, I think it would make sense that we sort of separate them into two paragraphs as

[31:51] to the sort of adult celebratory focused and the more instructional base.

[31:56] And they each have a lot of components to them, like the work-based readiness, which I don't

[32:01] know necessarily needs to be fully spelled out in the policy, but I think that following

[32:05] them out as separate categories, definitely makes sense.

[32:08] And I was just thinking that the wording in this makes it sound as if, and I don't think

[32:14] it means to do this,

[32:17] like all these things are, in fact, required by law to be incorporated,

[32:22] integrated into the program.

[32:25] And honestly, I mean, just to say it by then.

[32:30] So it's gonna be Anthony Day.

[32:32] I'm sure some people in some classrooms talk about it,

[32:35] and I think it's in the curriculum in certain places,

[32:39] but there's nothing.

[32:41] It's not like maybe any of these are literally required

[32:46] by law to be discussed in any.

[32:49] You're correct.

[32:49] So Ed Code says it's encouraged, it's not required.

[32:52] Yeah.

[32:54] For those listed in the second list,

[32:56] so it's just, it's encouraged.

[32:59] But it says, as required, well,

[33:11] then why don't we say that?

[33:12] Can we wear that?

[33:13] Because normal people don't click on the education.

[33:16] They're looking at these words.

[33:18] That's right.

[33:18] If they ever look at anything at all.

[33:21] I mean, I'm not...

[33:22] Hey, look, CSBA does great templates.

[33:25] It's a great starting place, but sometimes they're not really.

[33:30] They're a lot less than perfect.

[33:32] I still want to communicate the wrong thing or make people go.

[33:36] Well, I said, that thing says that they're required to do.

[33:39] And you don't do any of those things.

[33:42] When, when, I mean, somebody's going to come on and say,

[33:45] conserve conservation bird and arbor days, March 7th.

[33:48] Why didn't my teacher tell us about that?

[33:53] Sound a little more discretion or, you know,

[33:55] that we encourage encouraged.

[33:57] That's the way.

[33:58] So maybe we just take this back and work on that so that we don't have to

[34:01] and from the Dias and you want to

[34:03] do that?

[34:05] Yes.

[34:06] Thank you.

[34:07] Thank you.

[34:15] Okay.

[34:16] The next item in our agenda

[34:18] is going to be major action items

[34:20] and we have our assistant superintendent

[34:22] financial services to Eduardo Cruz

[34:24] to do the 2025-26

[34:27] unadded actual financial report.

[34:58] Evening board and community.

[34:59] I'm going to add a little bit of light on the back side of the head of the head of the head.

[35:07] Good evening, board and community, Gerardo Cruz, assistant suit with business. It's my pleasure

[35:12] to present to you today your unaudited actuals for the 25-26 school year, where we will discuss

[35:20] where we ended this last school year on June 30th and our financial position associated with

[35:27] that. First, I want to give a great rig shout out to these two other people on the screen.

[35:37] That's

[35:37] relaxing, as well as our interim assistant director of fiscal services, Ms. Carol Hall.

[35:43] Carol has been within the district for almost 20 years, I believe, and she's back

[35:47] filling for Andrew in his assistant director role while Andrew assumes the interim position of

[35:55] director of fiscal services while we recruit for these two permanent positions.

[36:00] My sincere hope is that they'll both take them, but they keep turning me down.

[36:04] So we'll see once the recruitment process goes through, if they'll do me the solid.

[36:11] But anyway, my great big thanks goes to them. They're not here tonight because they're enjoying

[36:15] some well-deserved time off after preparing this report for you tonight after weeks and months

[36:20] of preparation. So I'm glad that they get some well-deserved time off. So you've seen this budget

[36:26] presentation format several times. This is just to take a way to show that you see any giving years

[36:32] budget around a 12 times a year. We're at the place at number 10 where you're seeing your

[36:36] un-audited actuals. The last budget report that you saw was actually number four up top.

[36:43] If you recall, you had a 45-day budget revision and that was calling out budget

[36:47] revisions for the new year, the 26-27 Sleer. But today, as mentioned, we'll be focusing on

[36:53] number 10, your un-audited actuals. This slide just shows a bit of what your un-audited actuals are.

[36:59] You're having your board packet, the very large, almost 200 page SACS report,

[37:04] the hand-dirt account code structure report, and you also have several attachments

[37:09] that outline different specifications of how the general fund summary looks,

[37:14] how your other funds throughout the district, your adult school fund, your child development fund,

[37:19] your food services fund, how all of them ended the financial year ending June 30th.

[37:26] So why has changed since June, the books have officially been closed for the district.

[37:31] You have in your attachment three, as outlined in the board packet, you have a document

[37:37] that shows where all the school sites ended up in their spending, whether that's spending

[37:41] their general fund allocation, the spending of their stretch grants from either of our

[37:47] two education foundations, and then the biggest takeaway here is what we'll focus on that

[37:53] very last bullet. What today we're doing is we're comparing our estimated actuals to where we thought

[38:00] we were going to end the year before we officially close the books and we're comparing those

[38:05] financials to today after we officially have closed the books and these are now called your unondited

[38:11] actuals. In years past you've received this report and it is true that in those years past we had big

[38:19] budget swings are actual swings to where there's the $10 million swing, the $20 million swing,

[38:27] and what we're doing better job at in this last fiscal year is really projecting where our

[38:33] expenditures are going to end up and where our revenue sources are going to end up. One of the

[38:39] major things around these estimated actuals is really the use of the districts one-time funds

[38:48] In prior years, we had larger general fund relief because we were finishing using our COVID

[38:55] funds.

[38:56] And so we were using a lot of those restricted general fund monies, which in turn ultimately

[39:02] relieved the general fund.

[39:04] And so now that those funds are finished, actually in the 24, 25 year, you're going to see less

[39:10] of that as we progress in this report today, where you're going to see that our projections

[39:15] were very close percentages to almost being perfect which is a great place to be.

[39:21] So in general terms we tend to have conservative budgeting when it comes to our expenditures

[39:29] as well as our revenue sources and that's mostly because of our status as a basic aid or a

[39:36] community funded district to where we really have to mind our cash flow because we only get those to

[39:44] to apportionments of cash from tax payments

[39:47] in the months of December and June.

[39:50] So that's a little more unique to us.

[39:52] Again, a reminder, only about 10% of schools

[39:55] with the in California are basic aid

[39:57] or community funded districts like us.

[39:59] So we...

[40:00] The last point I mentioned already, the one-time block grant, you will, you have heard me say already, which was the purpose of your 45-day revision. Going into this 26-27 school year, the district is receiving more one-time block grants and other categorical funds that we will be spending in order to relieve the general fund. As we look at this 25-26 school year ending, we'll see less of that. But I just wanted to give a preview

[40:30] into what those one-time funds will look like in the future.

[40:35] This says more of the same.

[40:38] So this is the main slide.

[40:40] This slide in the next slide is we're going to focus all of our time and energy.

[40:45] Last year for our revenue section, I believe we had about a $12 million swing

[40:53] if I'm remembering correctly.

[40:55] This year we had about half of that.

[40:57] And we have $6 million more in revenue and you can see that half of that $6 million is attributed to our property tax.

[41:07] And the reason for that is this property tax is essentially backfill.

[41:13] So you all recall the unfortunate wildfires of January 2025, the palisades and Franklin fires.

[41:18] the state made a decision to backfill local agencies that are municipalities, the city governments, the county governments, as well as school districts, and our district benefited from back from the state backfilling specifically property tax, we benefited in the realm of around $3 million

[41:38] dollars just for that backfill of the state property tax. It is one time in nature. It does not

[41:46] go on in perpetuity. We actually received an additional $1.3 million that's not reflected here.

[41:55] I actually brought it up to you a couple of meetings ago. It was from the state education.

[42:01] It was the state senate education committee to where if you recall when we were receiving

[42:08] More students during the wildfires, we had communicated that we would happily receive those students, but in technical terms, financial terms, the districts do not get reimbursed for those students attending our district during the wildfires because we are a basic aid district and we're not funded by average daily attendance or enrollment.

[42:28] So, the State Education Committee ended up assigning us as a basic aid school district

[42:37] an additional $1.3 million, but they deemed it as restricted dollars, and so it's not

[42:44] reflected here, remember your general fund is two portions, right?

[42:47] Your unrestricted general fund operating budget, and your restricted general fund budget.

[42:53] So, altogether, the district benefited from wildfire reimbursements in the realm of

[43:00] $4 million, which three is reflected here in your unrestricted general fund, and then

[43:06] another million was reflected in the restricted general fund.

[43:10] Again, that's one time in nature.

[43:13] It's not reoccurring, so we wouldn't want to tie these one-time revenues to anything, any

[43:18] expenditure that's reoccurring in the future.

[43:20] I'll pause there because the the technical aspects of property tax and and and how we're actually getting this additional property tax can be a little confusing.

[43:30] But does anybody have any question specific to the property tax and the way and read the reason we received it specifically for this year?

[43:41] Yes, I don't have any.

[43:44] I have a proper taxing is not the question I have.

[43:48] It's about the one-time monies that we generally typically get in on a regular basis.

[43:54] I know you say this year is more than most, but every year we seem to have sort of Sacramento

[43:59] decides we're going to throw you a bone this way or that way or, you know,

[44:03] and a couple of times during the year, they have some special initiative or program

[44:06] or something they want us to do and here's money to do it.

[44:09] Correct.

[44:10] And is there any way that we could delineate that in our budget that kind of takes the

[44:22] sting out of it when I mean to really sort of project the reality of life of our budget?

[44:28] What it is that we are we want to be spending every year, what it is that we are spending

[44:33] every year, and what it is that we are the revenue that actually exists not from one time

[44:39] spending, not from one time. And sometimes one time spending is for something specific,

[44:46] or sometimes it's just like, here's a pot of money. And we know that it is irresponsible

[44:52] to create programs around that money that we want to be sustainable. We cannot do that.

[45:00] So the short answer is yes, and we can, and I'll just say that we do. For this 25-26 school year that we just finished, we normally don't have these one-time funds reflected in the general fund. The only reason why we're getting it shown in the general fund this time was because it was tied to our property tax. So that is in an anomaly of itself outside of even the one-time funds. Yeah, and I don't disagree with that.

[45:28] sometimes they're categorical but then it adds to our general fund which again is only one time

[45:35] money because if it's one time money and any other fund it's still one time money in the general

[45:40] fund. You're correct. You said it exactly right. We relieve the general fund of those expenditures

[45:46] on a one time basis. So yes, we can do a better job of outlining what those restricted categorical

[45:52] funds are so that we're making the connection that they're relieving the general fund on a

[45:58] one-time basis and not in perpetuity and that we shouldn't make making financial and programmatic

[46:04] decisions based on those one-time relief of the general fund. That's it's the connection.

[46:10] Correct. We can absolutely do a better job of making that connection. So there's a clear path

[46:15] of showing where the restricted dollars are alleviating the general fund. I think that would be

[46:20] enormously helpful. Got it. Thank you for that. Any other questions specific to property

[46:27] tax or I see board member Rouse? Yeah, so I understand.

[46:34] Sorry, I'm here. So I understand

[46:39] the property tax. I understand the property tax has been one time months back. But we had

[46:44] We had elected to reduce the percentage that we thought it would be, and I know we couldn't have predicted they did that.

[46:57] But when we look at it again this year, are we going to eat that back to the point we had it before, so it's a little more accurate.

[47:04] So I'm glad you brought up that point because there's actually a slide for that, and I'm going to fast forward two slides to help answer that question.

[47:13] So if you're looking at this slide here, you look at the 23, 24 year, and you look at the 24, 25 year, and at the very right column, you see that there is a red number in parenthesis at 2.65 and a 2.44,

[47:29] 4-4, which is really answering the question that you asked, which is, hey, I recall Gerardo

[47:35] told us that we were making our assumption for property tax revenue lower in those prior

[47:43] years, and how did that actually come to fruition?

[47:47] So our property tax projection is normally around 5%, but two board member houses point, we

[47:54] actually ended up projecting it at 3.5%.

[47:58] So, we projected less in those two years, they came to preferition less in those two years.

[48:05] And as you can see in 2526, we're essentially making up for it because of the one-time funds

[48:11] I just explained that the state backfilled.

[48:15] So, it's a yes and to the response of your question, yes, we did project less in those outer

[48:22] years but then we also benefited two years later from that lower property tax revenue projection.

[48:31] Did I answer your question for Vengeance? Okay, I got a thumbs up. Okay. Any other questions

[48:37] specific to any of the revenue pieces? I won't outline any of the others, only to accept for the

[48:45] measure R. So what we're seeing across our district boundaries is that because mostly in the

[48:53] palisades and Malibu area and the fire affected areas properties are changing hands a lot.

[49:00] So people are choosing to let go of their properties, sell their properties, and a lot of the people

[49:05] who previously owned those properties qualified for the senior exemption. So measure R,

[49:11] Measure R has a parcel tax that you don't have to pay that parcel tax if your 65 are older

[49:16] and what we're finding is since properties are turning over, there are less people that

[49:22] are qualifying for the senior exemption because they're not of the 65-year-old age bracket

[49:27] to qualify.

[49:29] So we're generating more measure R revenue because properties are changing hands to folks

[49:35] who no longer qualify for the exemption.

[49:36] Any questions on that particular piece? I know it's a bit more nuanced, but that was the larger piece outline in this revenues.

[49:46] All right. Moving on to expenditures. So this is the takeaway here is that we're getting $3.6 million.

[49:52] We spent $3.6 million less in expenditures.

[49:58] Those pieces are outlined.

[50:00] A dollar number that was less in salaries and benefits to the point earlier raised. Usually that's number is $2 million, $3 million, $5 million, so we're doing better at projecting where we're going to end the year with with salaries and benefits because in prior years that used to be our the last two years, for sure, that used to be a multi-million dollar number, and specific to salaries and benefits.

[50:27] That's Dr. Ford-Membersen.

[50:32] Can I ask if that is because we are filling the positions and therefore?

[50:38] It's yes and again, both it's all of the things.

[50:42] So we're filling the positions.

[50:44] The vacancies are staying vacant for less time as well as we are not having at least for

[50:52] 25-26.

[50:53] We're not having other parts of money like the Restricted General Fund relieve the general fund of those salaries and benefits.

[51:01] We will start to see that relief of the general fund in the 26, 27 year and beyond because of to the point you made earlier,

[51:08] we still have to spend the learning recovery emergency block grant that's around $4 million.

[51:13] We got a new grant that just like you said, the state gave us the governor's office, the student support professional development block grant,

[51:20] which is another $7 million on its own, so those reliefs to salaries and benefits to the general fund

[51:28] are coming in the future. But for the 25-26 year, the salaries and benefit line was not relieved

[51:34] because of other sources of funds being used. But now we're going to make note of that.

[51:42] Correct. We'll draw a more direct linear line to show that in the future.

[51:49] The other one is operational $2.4 million. I listed all of those there. We're being more

[51:54] efficient in several areas of our other operating expenses. Anybody have any questions specific

[52:00] to the $3.6 million less in general fund expenditures? Okay. We already went over this slide.

[52:10] This one here is just doing a comparison of our estimated actual versus unaudited actuals.

[52:17] Like I mentioned, beginning of the meeting, the two prior years, we had large swings of

[52:23] multi-million dollar swings in the two digits, but this year we got a little bit better

[52:28] knowing that of that nine million dollar swing, at least four million of that was due to revenue

[52:35] that we really couldn't anticipate that was going to come from the state to be backfilled by our

[52:40] property tax and then the remainder of that is due to the less expenditures of $3 million less

[52:48] and expenses. So I gave you my commitment that we were trying to get better at that and just when

[52:54] I thought we were going to pinpoint it, the state gives more revenue and property tax to back fill

[52:58] for the January wildfires, which is completely appropriate. It's hard to now marry the projection with

[53:06] the skewed actuals and why that actually occurred. So we're going in the right direction. My hope is

[53:12] that those two numbers in the first and second column get smaller and smaller each year and we'll

[53:18] be definitely work towards having less change between the estimated actuals and the unaudited action.

[53:27] So these are just some observations to keep in mind which we've already been talking through all

[53:31] All of these bullet points as we've been answering and asking questions.

[53:36] This is our multi-year projection.

[53:39] The takeaway here is to really focus on columns H and I.

[53:45] You can see that the $3 million I outlined for property tax in line one.

[53:51] That was a quote-unquote smaller 2.5% change, all to say that the total change of LCFF funding,

[53:58] which is our property tax only changed by 2.7%, so that's 3.7 million on a total of 140 million.

[54:09] So again, we're getting better. The percentage gap is getting closer than we had in prior years,

[54:15] but that's the local control funding formula change, which is our property tax. If we look at our

[54:21] other local revenue, you can see that the biggest change was one that I already mentioned,

[54:26] which was the measure R, parcel tax, right?

[54:28] That's 912.

[54:30] And then the other larger pieces actually are interest earned.

[54:33] This isn't actual interest earned.

[54:35] This is actually our GASB governmental accounting standards

[54:38] for entry that we have to do each year.

[54:42] So this is not interest earned in the bank.

[54:44] It's a governmental journal entry

[54:47] that we have to make here, each year related to us

[54:50] being a landlord and a tenant for several properties

[54:54] within the district.

[54:55] All to say that revenue as a total only changed 3.8%.

[55:00] Estimated actual as compared to the 163 million at the end of the year. Any questions to the percentage change or the dollar change specific to our revenue sources? Okay? Moving along to expenditures. I'll just draw our eyes to the bottom line here on line 59. This is saying that our expenditures, just like we outlined, only changed. We did not spend 2.3% of our expenditures, which as we saw in the

[55:29] previous slide, that was a savings of $3.6 million, which you had saw previously, that the majority

[55:36] of that $3.6 million was from our operational savings for legal, for other operating costs,

[55:42] for consultants, for confidence in travel, so that was the majority of that $3.6 million change

[55:49] was a 2.4 and other operating all to say that expenditure change was only 2.3%. Any questions on

[55:58] expenditures. Okay, moving on. This is our ending fund balance. We're focusing on line 60

[56:06] in column F, G, and H. You already saw these three numbers on line 60 in the prior slides

[56:12] to say that we estimated ending the year with a $3.7 million deficit. We actually ended the year

[56:19] with the $6 million surplus, which is a change of nine million dollars. And we outlined what those

[56:25] two components were with showing $3.6 million less in expenses and $6 million more in revenue,

[56:35] which takes our ending fund balance as outlined there on our next slide to say that we continue to

[56:44] be able to reserve for deficit spending. We do have some work to do to address our deficit spending

[56:49] in the next three years for this current year,

[56:52] as well as the 27, 28 and 28, 29 years.

[56:56] We are doing good with our reserve for up to two months

[57:00] of general fund expenditures.

[57:02] We have that around $30 million.

[57:04] That $30 million is equal to about 29% of a reserve

[57:08] for a basic age school district like us.

[57:10] We hope to be in the realm of 33%

[57:13] as recommended by school services of California.

[57:15] So we're slowly creeping our way there.

[57:19] and for us a two-month reserve would be 35.7 million.

[57:23] Any questions, comments or thoughts related

[57:26] to the reserve or the ending fund balance?

[57:30] Okay, this is just a historical reference

[57:33] for our reserve percentage for the last several years.

[57:38] And so as we conclude this presentation,

[57:41] just when you thought we were finished looking

[57:42] at the 25-26 school year,

[57:44] we actually still have work to do with our audit firm.

[57:47] they'll be here next week or in two weeks when Andrew returns from vacation, which is good.

[57:54] And the FOC will get the final or draft audit report and you'll get the final draft report

[58:01] for the 25-26th full year sometime in December or January. Looking ahead to the new year,

[58:09] this is just a reminder of our 26-27 local control funding formula where we still remain

[58:14] basic aid by around $35 million almost and we expect to address several revenue components

[58:22] that are outlined here. A lot of the things we're already talking about now.

[58:28] I did want to bring up one thing because I think this one's important. I forgot to point it out.

[58:32] The charter in lieu tax, and forgive me, I'm going to go back. I'm sorry to go back, but it's important.

[58:38] The charter in lieu tax, if I can draw your attention to line four that's up on the screen.

[58:44] So line four, this is our LCFF in loop operative tax transfer to charter school, you've heard me say before that while the district is not a charter authorizer, we have students within our district boundaries that choose to go the other charter schools outside of the district and when they do that, we have to send even though we're a basic a district and we don't get reimburse by her student, we have to send the revenue associated with those students out to the charter school.

[59:14] charter schools. So this line is normally a negative number, like you've seen in all the other columns, B, C, D, E, you can see it's always a parentheses number, right? It's negative 300,000.

[59:27] What we just found out is that there is one charter school. I believe it's new West charter, who we used to make a very expensive $290,000 payment to.

[59:38] they're now authorized under LAUSD. So they're no longer an independent charter

[59:45] that we have to send revenue to. They have a charter authorizer which is LAUSD.

[59:51] So we're no longer required to send them $290,000 roughly each year. So this

[59:58] for the season of...

[1:00:00] We received back a portion of the payment that we did previously after they were already authorized

[1:00:06] under LAUSD. All that to say that in the future, when I come back to you in your first

[1:00:13] interim for the 26, 27 year, you're not going to see a reduction to revenue of $300,000.

[1:00:20] It's going to be a reduction to revenue for our two remaining charter schools, which is only

[1:00:24] around $10,000. So I forgot to point that out earlier, but it's a big financial gain to the

[1:00:32] district that is not one time that will be forever will only do river oak's charter school

[1:00:37] and we have a new charter, I forgot the name of it, but the biggest takeaway here is we no longer

[1:00:43] have new west charter there now authorized under LEUSD. Any questions on that piece there?

[1:00:51] Okay,

[1:00:56] so it just triggered my memory when we were looking at the charter and

[1:00:59] loot tax and then we'll be looking at these expenditure items as we go into the

[1:01:05] 2627 year and that concludes our report on the unaudited actuals. Again a great

[1:01:10] big thanks to Andrew Laxon and Carol Hall for their hard work on this and I'm

[1:01:15] glad they get to take some well-deserved time off if the board doesn't have any

[1:01:18] other questions. That concludes our presentation and we've been looking for a

[1:01:23] motion to accept the unmodited actions.

[1:01:33] All right. Does anybody at least just up the way from the

[1:01:36] dias for a moment? Anybody have any comments? Richard moves the item.

[1:01:41] It's our second. Jen seconds.

[1:01:45] Let's just do a roll call because there are four of us.

[1:01:48] Richard? Yes. Jen? Yes. Stacey? Yes.

[1:01:55] And I'm a yes so that passes board and nothing.

[1:02:01] And the only other thing on the agenda is our information items, a textbook adoption and approval of supplemental materials and science, simply science.

[1:02:14] So I guess we can have a motion to adjourn.

[1:02:19] I'll make a motion to adjourn.

[1:02:21] And all those in favor.

[1:02:24] We are adjourned.

School Board — GMT20260909-233812_Recording_1920x1080 - Sep 9th, 2026

Agenda

Transcript