--------- To the September 9 workshop for our board meeting, and I call it to order with a roll call. Missus Parasani. Here. Missus Hilton. Here. Missus Davidson. Here. Mister Forhan. Here. Mister Bragman. Here. Thank you. I'd like to move for adoption of the agenda. So moved. Have a second? I'll second. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. Motion carries five zero. And now we move into to our workshop, and we're going to have a presentation by missus Reed on the beginning of the year standardized assessments.
Thank you. Thank you so much, president Davidson. Really, it's my pleasure tonight to present, for the board. And this presentation really is part one of a two part series. So it's really a series on how we use data as an instructional tool. Tonight, I'll be over reviewing our beginning of the year standardized assessments and screeners, and then probably September, October ish, once our collaboration days end, we'll come back and we'll talk about using data to inform instructional practices. So, really, the goal or four objectives over this two part series are to understand
the purpose of our assessments, learn about the key beginning of your assessments because many of these are new to us this year with the mandate of SB one fourteen, See how data informs instruction, and explore how our collaboration days with teachers went and how we're analyzing data to really make sure that we're effectively using, collaborative practices across all of our school sites. And then lastly, connecting, that analysis to student outcomes, which is the ultimate goal for us that we put this hard work in with teachers, and they do a lot of hard work day in and day out in the classrooms that using this data
and spending the time with it will actually impact student outcomes for us. So that will be hopefully over this two part series, the information I'll be able to share, with the board. So tonight really is part one, looking our at our beginning of the year standardized assessments and diagnostic screeners. And so, I do wanna spend a moment just, picking apart the difference between standardized assessments and local assessments because I think sometimes they can get confused. And so, standardized assessments or screeners are ones that we're collecting data on district wide,
and they're the same classroom to classroom, school site to school site. We administer them consistently across schools and grade levels. We provide comparable data to guide, both teacher decisions as well as help inform district decisions. These assessments are widely used beyond our district, so there are standard best practice in many school districts, and they help inform our resource allocation, our program evaluation, and progress monitoring of students. We also have local assessments. Those are, assessments that teachers use in their classroom with their teams, where they are
collecting just classroom data. It could be, for example, like a chapter 10 test in the classroom or a beginning of the year math fluency assessment, that teachers are going to give. It's still helping guide instruction, but they're not inputting it into a central bank of information where we're looking at the same assessment across the district. They're really using that more at the classroom level. And so, other than, tests would also be writing prompts in the beginning of the year. Sometimes you'll see performance tasks that that teachers will give to really get a big
picture of where kids are coming from and where they can go this school year. They provide immediate feedback, for daily instruction and grading, and the data really stays at the classroom level and isn't centralized or aggregated the way we would with the data from our standardized assessments or screeners. And so this process really starts in the first two weeks of school with our kindergarten welcome conferences. For those of you that have had kinders come to the school district, we have this amazing opportunity for our families to sit down with their kindergarten classroom teacher for thirty minutes and really explore where their incoming kinder is both social emotionally as well
as academically also allows the classroom teacher to get to know each of their kinders and the and, their families. And so during that process, we start with our quick phonics survey, one of our standardized assessments to really gain knowledge even at the letter sound level of of where our students are when they're in our kindergarten classrooms. And then that same type of work comes all the way through tenth grade. So tonight, we'll be exploring what that looks like in the beginning of the school year from kindergarten through tenth grade. Can I ask just just Of course? Clarification. Did you say so the kindergarten conference, the half hour, the student is there with
the parents? That's accurate, miss Davidson. I wanna make sure. Mhmm. Thank you. Absolutely. So I'm kinda gonna go chronologically. So starting from kindergarten then making our way up through tenth grade. This year, a new assessment for us is MClass, and it comes from Amplify. It's a diagnostic universal screener, and it's actually the one that we've identified through s b one fourteen that we'll be using as our dyslexia screener in January for our kindergarten students. It's focused really as really is on early literacy skills. It looks at phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary.
And its purpose really is to identify students at risk of reading difficulties, and it monitors progress over time. So we give it three times a school year, The beginning of the year, so we're currently in our m class window now. The middle of the year in January, which is the window that we've identified with the county and the state of California that will be using as ours s b one fourteen dyslexia screener. So when we're using the screener in the beginning of the school year, it's really to inform our practice. We're looking at our reading lab groupings, how teachers can provide that targeted tier support.
But in the middle of the school year, we'll also be informing parents of how their child did on this assessment as well as provide them information as to whether or not this screener is indicating that the child might be at risk of a reading difficulty. And if so, explaining to families how we'll be supporting their student in the classroom and maybe outside the classroom through tier two supports, tier two supports and structured literacy. And so it is administered one on one. The reason why we chose this instead of going with Amira, which I'll talk about next for first and second graders, is it allows a kindergarten teacher to sit with
a student one on one and hear them live, read to them, and build that connection. We didn't really want to rely on AI with a four or five year old. And so this test is more time consuming than the Amira benchmark that we'll talk about next. But teachers do, sit with a student. It takes about ten to fifteen minutes to administer individually, and so we're currently doing that during the early release time for kindergarten teachers. So for the next three weeks, kindergarten teachers traditionally owe us back a certain number of instructional minutes because their day earns ends earlier than our first through fifth grade
teachers, and they provide intervention groups. They won't be doing that over the next three weeks because four to five students will be staying back with them each school day from the kindergarten release time to the regular dismissal time so that they're able to administer the m class in a quiet environment with only four or five students present. And so it'll take us about three weeks to get our beginning of the year data. That data from M class really will guide classroom instruction. It identifies intervention needs. It helps us monitor growth as we repeat that, from kindergarten on.
And it fulfills our state dyslexia mandate when we give it in January. So mClass doesn't just give a single score. It really does provide actionable skill specific data that teachers can immediately use to group students, plan instruction, and track progress. A quick question. In the event that a student is identified as having dyslexia, can you help explain sort of what happens next? Well, we don't actually diagnose nor identify students as having dyslexia. What these screeners do is inform us as to whether or not students are displaying behaviors consistent with someone who struggles to grasp comprehension or early reading standards, and that
could be someone who has dyslexia, but we don't diagnose dyslexia. And so should a student in our January screener show that they're showing signs that they're going to be struggling with reading comprehension, then we would make sure that we're addressing those needs. And they could be anything from, some that could be almost normally developmental where students are struggling with blends, or it could be middle of the year that it's not normally developmental. We have a kindergarten student who's still really struggling to identify the letters in their name or the phonemes that come with each of those sounds.
And so we would look AS a student already been in small group instruction inside the classroom, and then if so, what level? And if that hasn't been successful, then are they in our tier two intervention? So at kindergarten, that could be in the reading lab. And so each of those steps through the MTSS model, students would spend a significant amount of time in before we would determine moving on to the school years with that support that they weren't meeting actionable goals for a student who's showing early signs. Okay. Thanks. And is this communicated to parents along the way?
In January, it's communicated to families as required. So for both Amira and our M class screeners that are meeting that dyslexia mandate, We did share with all families in the first week of school before back to school night what our screener was and when our screening time would be, and also that they have the option as a parent or guardian to opt out of having their child assessed. So that is a a parent's right under s b one fourteen. Because our window is the January window, we will re notify families two weeks before the assessment window of when the assessment will be given.
Parents will also have another opportunity to opt out if they choose. Then the law says we have forty five days to share with families how their child did on that that assessment, and then if they were showing some signs as missus Partizani showed shared, asked, excuse me, then what our plan is. So that parents are really in the loop on that on that process. So much like in kindergarten where we're giving m class, we're using the Amira screener, the benchmark screener in grades one and two to meet the s b one fourteen
dyslexia mandate. It also is a diagnostic measure and a screener. However, it's very different. It's, geared and focused through a modality of artificial intelligence, and it's an adaptive oral fluency screener because it's responding in real time to a student's cadence, to their rhythm, to the errors that they're making in terms of their reading. And so it looks at reading fluency, accuracy, comprehension, as well as miscue analysis. Why is a student missing a particular sound or a word?
It is also given three times a year. And so, sometimes it's confusing when you're in classrooms and you see students on a mirror regularly. That's a mirror of practice where students at their own level are building skills and fluency. And it's pinpointing breakdowns where they specifically are three times a year. It takes about ten or fifteen minutes. They come off of a mirror practice and go into the mirror benchmark. That benchmark is informed by the mirror practice that they're doing. So it gives us a very accurate picture of how a student's reading. Teachers are also able to access all of those reading snippets that are recorded in
a mirror and listen for should a mirror signal to them that a student's showing challenges or that they're off of where a mirror predicted them to be at this time of the year. So that then they're able to pinpoint strategically from the classroom teacher level if changes need to be made in terms of reading instruction or potentially tier two interventions as well. And so, much like the M class, we also notified all first and second grade families that a mirror would be our benchmark for first and second grade, and outlined that outlined that same system and dates for them as well.
And so they also will be receiving a reminder letter in December that in January, our benchmark window for a mirror will open up that will serve as the dyslexia screener for us. You said first and second grade? Mhmm. And then on top here, it says first through fifth. So do upper grades also a mirror? They do use a mirror, but we're not mandated by s b one fourteen to report to those families. And so, s b one fourteen is a k two mandate. And so it won't be that we won't share information. It just won't be in the same fashion that we're mandated to do so through
the protocols that were written into s b one fourteen. So this data really is used for teachers to to look at reports on fluency, accuracy, error patterns, and then Amira also gives suggested instructional next steps as it's connected to our ELA adoption, Hooten Mifflin Harcourt into reading at the elementary level. So it's one of the benefits of using it, inside our first and second grade classroom is that it connects to our, basal readers and our program and gives teachers opportunities and points them in directions of next steps and where to go with kiddos
as well. This lead to conversations between the teacher and the support staff, the intervention teachers that we have at all the elementary schools? How does that all work? Where they might diagnose something on a mirror and then convey it to them that it needs to work on? It's a great question. And on the next one, the quick phonics survey, it's really a triangulation of these multiple measures that we look at when we make recommendations for a student to leave tier one instruction inside the classroom and receive that tier two instruction inside of our
reading lab. And so classroom teachers will be using the data from their two metrics whether it's m class and quick phonics serve survey or the mirror and the quick survey to identify those students through a forced ranking. So my highest performing student to my lowest performing student in which bands and percentiles of students would need to be seen inside the reading lab. Perfect. So, Amira different than MCAS and then it provides an AI powered oral reading screener that not only measures how accurately and fluently students read, but also pinpoints the type
of errors they make. This allows teachers to quickly identify whether a student's struggles are decoding, fluency, or comprehension, and tailor their instruction accordingly. And that breakdown between decoding, fluency, and comprehension is the exact information we need when building our reading lab groups. Because our groups are very specific to the breakdown in where our student, is struggling to make adequate progress as a reader. Is it a coding issue? Is it a fluency issue? Or it is a comprehension issue? And traditionally, our lab groups are really focused on decoding and fluency, and the comprehension
work happens inside with inside the classroom. And so the quick phonics survey is that additional piece of information that we use when breaking down where reading may be falling apart or where reading is accelerating for some students. And so the quick phonics survey is a diagnostic survey. It's delivered one on one, where a teacher really models for a student a series of words, and then students read words aloud from a structured list as students as
teachers then note take miscues or errors that students are making when it comes to decoding, sounding out at the word level and passage level. And so it pinpoints gaps in phonics knowledge and guides explicit, intervention. It's given three times a year. However, students can exit out of the quick phonics survey. So that little asterisk there is that students no longer take it once they've exit out of the assessment and they display mastery because it's really looking at our phonics building at at the lowest, level. And so we will have students that exit out and show mastery and all of
the decoding areas, and so we don't continue to give that assessment once a student has shown proficiency on the quick phonics survey. And so it helps teachers really in the kindergarten and first grade space, and then for some struggling second graders determine what specific phonics skills to target during our intervention as well as small group instruction inside the classroom. So a little bit unrelated but related. So when we get new teachers, what happened I mean, there are gaps in people's learning. I was not taught phonics. Do our teachers go through a special training for phonics?
And when you have a new teacher come in because there were periods of time where phonics was not what you want to do. And I totally love what I see in the classrooms, but I wouldn't wanna be responsible for it. So I think it's really two tier. Any teacher that we hire, whether they're from student teacher or from another school district who's entered with us, engages in a five year professional development plan where we're very fortunate. Evan Grandin, our literacy Tosa is just a 10. Amazing. Her knowledge base, her willingness to meet our staff where they are at and really problem solve for every child is hands down second to none.
And she provides coaching in the classroom as well as structured full day instruction. And then our veteran teachers who have come I'd say from different swings of the pendulum in education have had to come back and join some of our newer teacher trainings to get a different lens as a veteran on where structured literacy is now. And so, as you can imagine, if you've been teaching twenty five years, you've probably gone from whole language to a reader's workshop model and now back to a phonics based model that was around during the eighties. So we really try to adjust and meet staff where where they are.
Mhmm. I had a quick question. And I don't expect you to know this answer, but I'm just kind of curious When you say that most of our students, once they have mastered this level, can you give me a a general idea of when you think mastery would be typical in our district? I think we hope that all students master that by beginning of the year second grade for the quick phonics survey. Yeah. But obviously, you'll have students on a wide continuum. I'd say it's very rare in the beginning or middle of the year in kindergarten.
But for some of our students who naturally engage as a fluent reader by the end of kindergarten, and then a normal matriculation through first grade as reading really becomes the forefront of instruction. And then really as a developmentally appropriate before we really have concerns would even be beginning of the year second grade. Because you're talking about multisyllabic words at this point. You're talking about some chunking that are not normal and have errors that some students just take longer. It doesn't mean they're not reading at grade level. It just means they're still part of that decoding code that they're breaking.
Great. Thank you so much. So the QPS really pinpoint specific bonnet gaps by checking decoding and word recognition skills and allows teachers to design targeted small group or individual interventions sometimes for where students have just a small gap that still needs to be to be filled. So easy CBM is new to us this school year as well and it comes from the University of Oregon. It's replacing quite a lengthy assessment that we gave for quite some time, referred to as Fountas and Pinnell. And so, there's a lot of excitement about the potential of this assessment because it's
two fold. One, where you individually assess and still hear a student orally read, but then the student goes back to their desk and takes an online comprehension component that merges with the oral reading fluency that the teacher recorded to really give us a complete profile of a proficient reader. And so, it's both a benchmark and a progress monitoring assessment, meaning if I give in the beginning of the year and my student is at benchmark, I'm probably not going to give it again to middle of the year, but if my student is
below the twenty sixth percentile, I can then use the progress monitoring assessments or 16 inside to then check-in with that student more regularly as we approach the middle of the year and end of the year assessment for, easy CBM. So easy CBM really has two focus because now we're in second to fifth grade. So you'll notice second grade is really hit the hardest when it comes to these reading assessments. And so I wanna give a big shout out to all second grade teachers for
really having to dig in deep with both the phonics decoding and fluency and start to touch into this comprehension work. Because once our students leave second grade, we know that it's paramount that as many students as possible are reading that grade level as we start to move from learning to read to write reading to learn in third grade. And so this assessment really looks two fold both at the oral reading fluency, really measuring how quickly and accurately a student can read grade level text aloud. When we think about being a fluent reader and someone sounding like they understand the
road map of punctuation as they're reading, right? That's a fluent reader. And then also the reading comprehension component, measuring understanding of written text through multiple choice questions. And so, the purpose of this is really to determine where students are at now. They're they're in second grade and they're moving forward. Are you at grade level, below grade level, or above grade level when we look at you as a complete reader, both your fluency and your ability to comprehend text. And so that's why there is two parts. The teacher sits down. It's a one minute fluency test where a student begins to read out loud the
grade level passage in front of them, and the teacher has the text on their screen, and they're marking miscues, and a timer is going simultaneously. And so when they're done with that component, the teacher marks where the student ends on the passage, completes the timer, and then the system gives us their fluency or their rate to let us know where they fall in terms of their fluency matched with the miscues that the teacher has, marked through the assessment. The student then goes online and takes a reading passage comprehension assessment anywhere from 10
to 20 questions, and the system that University of Oregon has built then merges that information together to give us a clearer picture of a of a profile of a reader second grade and on. And so this data is really used to identify students. Students that even though they're progressing past second grade and on may still need fluency or comprehension support. Group students for instruction when we see that small group instruction taking place in our classroom, monitor reading growth because even if you're a student who's reading above grade level,
we have a commitment that we wanna see all students grow. Right? A full reading level in the classroom, as well as inform our intervention decisions. Right? Be another way for us to know if what we're doing is working, whether it's a tier tier one inside the classroom or tier two inside of perhaps the reading lab for a second grader or an after school intervention for a third, fourth, or fifth grade student. And so easy CBM much like MCAS and Amira provides the oral reading fluency, but now we're adding in that comprehension data to the big picture.
Really helping teachers determine whether students are at above, below grade level, and track that growth over time. Because as students progress from second grade on, we'll have multiple measures to make sure we're comparing similar metrics to each other for each student. Miss Reed? Yes. Quick question. I'm I'm first of all, I'm sure teachers appreciate Fondis Pinnell takes forever. I'm sure they're relieved. But I do know with Fondis Pinnell, the teacher for getting the Lexile levels and getting the appropriate reading levels right for students. So so are the does the easy CBM still do that?
And then are we communicating to students and parents what books they should be reading independently? What level? So Fountas and Pinault actually didn't give us a Lexile level. What it produced for us was an alphanumeric letter. That's okay. That shows where students are from that preprimer to a all the way to z, which would be about a tenth grade student and beyond. Alexa is a very comparative metric when we talk about reading. And so easy CBM does give us Alexa. However, we're recommending that teachers rely on the map Lexile level given when it comes to second through fifth grade as there's many more measures that are going into and
more questions that take a student all the way up to their breaking point as I'll talk about on the next slide when we look at assessing a student adaptively. Awesome. Thank you. So Sorry, missus Reap. Yes. One more question. I I love the fact that you said the results of the easy CBM gives you information around where the student lies at the three different levels. So either they're at, below, or above. And it's used primarily, it sounds like, for intervention purposes. So you know which students are not performing where they should be and what intervention they need to go to. Could you help explain what happens when students are on the bubble or above?
And what type of support do we give for those students? So EZ CBM actually isn't just for students for intervention. EZ CBM is our first reading metric that gives us information within the grade level and beyond the grade level. And so this is great information for a teacher in terms of a, picking those novel choices for a whole class, as well as picking novel choices or small group reads for the way that they cluster their readers inside of a classroom. So if you think about a typical fifth grade classroom, I probably have 34 students,
and I probably have six reading levels inside a balanced classroom. And so this information allows me to serve like minded peers and strategically support where they are at as a reader versus me doing a whole class lesson where I am targeting my grade level standards Mhmm. And providing scaffolding for those students who can't reach the grade level standards I'm teaching. So easy CBM actually hits on all of all of those metrics inside a classroom. Perfect. Great. So we get a little more robust in terms of data as we cross over
into what would be a more adaptive benchmark assessment. So So we've been we're looking primarily at diagnostic reading assessments, and now we're kind of crossing over second through tenth grade and looking more holistically at what do students know, what are their readiness skills, nationally norm. It's an assessment actually given around the world globally, and it looks at both reading comprehension, vocabulary, language usage, as well as the mathematics domain that lie within each of
the grade levels, second through tenth grade. And so, it's different in what we were looking at in terms of screeners because it actually takes a student to their fall out. So the map growth assessment is designed to take students to a point where they're getting 50% of the questions right and 50% of the questions wrong. So we can actually look at growth and percentile growth over time for each individual student. And so, we do give this test three times a year, beginning of the year, middle of the year, end of the year.
It is computer adaptive, and it it can take anywhere from forty five minutes to two hours because a student's stamina, their test anxiety, the testing environment, their willingness, their engagement, right, are all gonna play a part in their learning profile when you're talking about taking an adaptive test that eventually as you get things right, the questions get harder, and as you get things wrong, the questions get easier. And so, this is our second year administering this assessment second through eighth grade.
So those students have a bigger schema and foundation and understanding about what an adaptive assessment would look like and why we take this test. But I'm really excited because the high school's team has done some great work and we're bringing on ninth and tenth grade teams both in math and ELA, which I'll talk about on the next slide as well. And so, really, when we look at MAP, we get multiple measures that are helpful to us in many ways. The first is it provides a rich score which I'll go into a little more depth on on the next slide. But it's a stable scale score that shows current performance and growth.
The next is we get, growth percentile. And I think that's really I I'll put my parent hat on for me as a parent that's probably the most important part that I would be interested in because it looks at students not only as low achieving and high achieving but as low growth and high growth And we know that the research shows that are high achieving students that have low growth are actually the students who find the most struggle in rigorous courses in high school and beyond in college. And so, that's a lot of our kids that are high achievers but low growth.
And so, we know that low achievers, high growth can over time outperform our high achievers, low growth if we're not cued in to their engagement and providing relevant curriculum to them as well. And so, that growth percentile compares a student's growth to the growth of academically similar peers nationwide, and that information is normed every four years. So we're actually entering into a brand new norming year. And so, in terms of looking at grade level equivalencies, we'll be working on those
tomorrow. Our map, window just shut down on Monday. So today was the day that we pulled all of our raw data, and we'll be resetting with the new norms what grade level equivalencies within our school district as well as national norms are. So it gives you a really great sense as a parent. Here's how my child is performing with the Alzheimer's Unified, but here's also how my child is performing nationally. And so I think it's a really important measure to talk about, which is a little different because you're looking at always measuring a student's own growth potential against themselves as well as what that looks like comparatively to peers.
Yes, Ruth. With with that data, is that gonna be uploaded into areas so parents can see it, or how it will be shared? I'll talk about that in the next slide, but that's a great question. So we purposely didn't share it this last year because honestly, this was like a foreign language for us. Right? We really took a leap of faith and made a a drastic change in our benchmarks last school year. And I'll say this, our teachers took a really big leap of trust with us, so kudos to all of them. And so I would never want a teacher to sit down at a parent conference and talk about a Roush unit that they weren't prepared to speak about or talk
about low achieving, high growth without understanding the four domains. And so we did spend last year with a lot of great days partnering with MAP to give teachers that language, and so we'll talk a little bit about that on the next slide. Missus Hill. I just wanted to step back on something because you said something. It just kinda triggered something in my head, and I just wanna make sure I understood. So how do we how do we manage if, 30 students can take these math I mean, these math, assessments.
And some can be in them for, and I'm making up numbers, a half an hour, and some can be in for two and a half hours. It is How is that managed? It's really one of the challenges. And so we know that it takes the longest with a new student because the system is informed on prior information. So if you're a second grader or a student new to our district taking map for the first time, the test takes longer because it has to find your fallout. Versus, I'm a third grader and I've taken map three times. Map understands where I was when I left off and so they're pinpointing the place
that they start and the length of the test takes less time because you're already at a predictable measurable start point. So teachers have to be managed with must do and may do menus knowing that some of their class may be done earlier. Maybe they're partnering with the teacher next door to check-in at a sixty minute mark. And if one teacher can go outside with the kids that are done or the kids who aren't done moves over to one teacher's classroom, and then one teacher can start a lesson. But it is part of, I'd say, the crunch of assessment and really why it's
so important for us to talk about assessment as an instructional tool. Because I do think it's worth the loss of some instructional time for students for us to have accurate diagnostic information on where students are actually at a few times of year. It'll be harder in a secondary classroom which will the high school is going to be harder because they have shorter periods of time to assess. They'll have to do it over multiple days. Something our middle schools implemented last year and they're continuing this year is we developed a benchmark assessment schedule at the middle school where students come for a two hour
and fifteen minute block to their first period class or a designated class that the middle school said is gonna be where you take the test, and they're able to get pretty much ninety five percent of students completed, and then and then do makeups. And so they do that for two days, three times a year, the first day, give ELA test, for example, on the second day, give the math assessment. So we're trying to minimize the impact that you're referring to. Thank you very much. Mhmm. Can I just say and and even on the PTA meeting for McAuliffe today, I know mister Courtemarsh even spoke to, like, how teachers really persevered through that for the
first time? So it is worth shouting out that I know that he addressed it with the parents, just the fact that teachers had to do that and switching the schedule on sixth graders when they just got used to their schedule for a couple days. But he he talked about the fact that sixth graders were really very good about changing the schedule. And, also, I appreciate how deliberate they were. Again, just as a sixth grade picture, but changing the schedule so every student had their fourth period, so they continue to have a lunch schedule where it was at the right time, and sixth graders stayed by themselves still. So there's a lot of thought put into it, and I appreciate that that I know that was supported by the staff here, but also just to hear him say
after week one of doing it the first time around, it went great. And I'd add wholeheartedly to what you just said because Liam, and this is sixth grader, he knew better the schedule he was gonna follow than his brother in eighth grade. Yeah. They took lots of time to figure help these sixth graders. So that all made perfect sense. So a metric that Matt provides us that we haven't previously had is it predicts cast performance as well. And so it can predict whether students will meet or exceed standards or are not
yet on track. And so last year was the first year that we began looking at how to use this information structuring our classrooms, which I'll also talk about in an upcoming slide. Something that we haven't been sharing out, and I'll be honest, I'm not quite sure where the best platform would be or what grade level it is. But beginning in grade five, MAP also predicts college readiness by predicting your SAT or ACT score and, giving early indicators of future preparedness.
And so, we're grappling with that one and I'm sure there's going to be a great space to share that. But I would never want that to be more than an estimate because students in fifth grade have a long way to go and I wouldn't want a lot of credence put in that. I know our community cares deeply about, college and career readiness and so I would wanna make sure that we're sharing that at the right time with the right language. I don't think we're quite there yet. So map really helps inform grouping in the classroom, differentiation, intervention planning, at the class
school and even at the district level because one of the benefits of a centralized data point is that we can look at this holistically as a class of 2031, the class of 2032. And then maybe also when we look at our student outcomes talk about those instructional strategies at different school sites that might be impacting students with a greater effect size. And so map data gives us both absolute scores like a Ritz score as well as relative growth measures like percentiles. Showing not only how much students, grew, but whether that growth is keeping pace with
peers across the nation. And so, I wanna talk a little bit about how the math testing is different across the grade levels when you look at map. Because I know I've shared with the word previously, one of the challenges in preparing high school students for taking a cast assessment is that we have students in 16 different classes of mathematics. And so it's hard to give both a benchmark that gives us information about where students are at in their content. So I'm in algebra two, for example. And then what does that mean when I'm going to take a summative assessment like
cast that's looking at learning from pre algebra through algebra two. And so when we look at map and the two different variances, grades two through eight, it is a broad math test. So it covers multiple domains, operations, algebraic thinking. It provides us a general math rate score. It tracks growth year to year. It predicts cast, and it's really best for overall strengths and needs when looking at grouping and instruction. When we move to the high school in grades nine and ten, students could be enrolled in intro to algebra, algebra, honors geometry, principles of geometry, geometry, intermediate algebra, and
algebra two. All if you're a ninth or a tenth grader. And so students will be taking a math assess assessment that's course aligned. And so we have a math six, which is your pre algebra, algebra one, geometry, and algebra two, map math score attest that students will be taking. It will not be a broad spectrum, math assessment like is given in grades two through eight. And so, it provides subject specific scores tied to high school standards, which is very
different than the broadband mathematical domain standards that we see in grades k through eight. It tracks readiness for advanced coursework like pre calc and AP calc. That's a metro we haven't previously had. So a lot of curiosity around that. And it predicts cast performance still in the high school math area. So they correlate that data and so we'll see this year how accurate that correlation is. And this is really best for deep insight into specific content areas as well as preparedness of students. So the two through eight math gives a broad picture of overall math development while
the nine through 10 subject specific math provides a deeper course aligned view that connects directly to high school coursework and then college readiness. So missus Reed, is this new for us for our district? It absolutely is new in Ninth and tenth grade. Yes. And is this something we did last year also or not just this year? Last year, we did two through eight Uh-huh. And really focused on wanting to make sure we understand how to effectively administer this. Mhmm. How to look at the data, the amount of time it would take before we impacted the schedule at the high school and learned a little bit more about how
this information could be a, still useful for a teacher who's teaching algebra two Yeah. But also has a student taking cast, for example. In ELA, it's the same two to 10. It's a broad picture of those English language art standards that look at comprehension language of vocabulary acquisition. Is this replacing anything or is this just completely new? It's replacing some local benchmarks that teams had developed in their course specific teams. Mhmm. Okay. You got it. K. So we've been talking a lot about this score and I think it is important
to understand what that ROUSH unit is. And so it's a stable score that map growth use it, and I like to think of it like a student's location on a learning ladder. It's kind of like earlier when mister Bragman said, you know, we were looking at Faunus and Pinell. We have this a to z ladder that students traverse. The writ score is similar. Students start at a low score and as they get older, we hopefully see their writ score increasing with their learning. The scale is continuous, so it's not tied to a grade level. And the writ score of two ten means the same thing in third grade as
seventh grade because you're really looking at where student is on their learning journey. So that rate score does not change per grade level. As we share this information with parents, they will have a continuous measure of how their student is growing on that learning chatter a ladder. Sorry. And so it shows a level of skills that a student has mastered. It's something that we can actually track over time because it's a consistent stable measure different than a percentile ranking which I've already shared I love because it's showing you
how your students doing compared to other peers and how they're growing. This is a stable measure. And so, new this year as missus Partesani just mentioned is our assessing in grades nine through 10. And then new this year coming back to mister Bragman's question earlier is we will be providing map testing information to parents at the elementary parent conferences. So there is no way currently to get the data into Aries. But we do have a way to print a great parent report that will come with to our elementary parents with a letter from my office that explains what they're
looking at and what they're seeing. And then we're working right now to determine the best way, and we've contacted a couple other districts who use this, the best way to communicate this information to our families in grades six to 10. And so earlier this year, the board, approved a contract with a company called Panorama, and they are I would say they're like a a dating a data mining resource because they can take in information from all of our different points and synthesize it. So we're exploring through Panorama maybe is the best way.
But we are prepared at the elementary level, and we spent the time, talking about how this will be shared at parent teacher conferences at the elementary level. I wanna make sure I understand what you mean by growth. Mhmm. How would you define growth? So most if you think about a bell curve, right, a 50% percentile means you're making average growth to peers. If you're at the 25 percentile, obviously, 75% of your peers are outperforming you. So you'll get a writ score. I'm gonna make this up. You have a writ score of two twenty, but you have a a percentile growth
of 25%. So you are low performing compared to other peers who are at the two twenty. Got it. If that makes sense. Yes. Perfect. And so although we haven't yet, put our risk scores into grade level equivalency bands because we're in a new norming year, that is the work that we'll be doing between now and Thursday when we have our first date our first date today that we'll talk about because we'll take our bands of writ from students that have taken the assessment and look at what our standardized grade level equivalency.
I'm gonna make this up 200 to two seventeen is second grade. That's where the majority of our students are falling. Two twelve to two twenty five is third grade. So that parents can get a sense within our school district where their rate score falls with a grade level equivalency. That will be the stable score. The one that will change every time the students takes the test is that percentile ranking. So that's what, missus Reed, that's what you mean when you say low achieving, high growth, high achieving, low growth. It can be measured that way. You got it. Because what if you had a third grader who was at the top of our grade level equivalency with their rate score, say, a two twenty, but their percentile ranking
is at is at the twenty fifth percentile. Right? So they are high achieving now, but low growth compared to the you won't get a percentile ranking to a student has taken this test. So last year when we first started in the beginning of the year, we only had red scores. By the middle of the year, we had a percentile ranking because now over time, I'm able to compare a student's growth. So for many of our students, their percentile ranking is becoming more defined because we're getting more data points in the system. For anyone enrolled with us last year in second through eighth grade, they already have three data points in the system. So now as we expand this to tenth grade, think about it.
Second through tenth grade, you have taken this test three times a year. So it's getting a lot of information about the way you learn and about the skills that you have. And and one final question on this. Given that it's new, do we know how long this takes? So because you're conducting it three times a year, how many minutes are we I mean, essentially taking away be forty five minutes and it could be two hours. And at some point, we call it for a student. Mhmm. Right? So that's the site decision. If a student's been in, I'm gonna make this up right now for two and a half hours and we pulled them out.
At some point, we'll just pause their assessment, and it'll indicate that on the assessment as well. Two things. To that question, I'm I'm not sure if we would necessarily say we're taking it away because we had district benchmarks prior, at least grades two through eight or three through, eight. We had two through and then some through tenth. There was an algebra. We had an English one and English two. Which were somewhat similar. They were they were different. We created them. We had other, worked with other consultants, but that would have taken up class time as well.
And they were given two or three times a year, I believe, as well. They were given two or three times two or something. So if this these benchmarks are replacing those, but we think they're, these are much, give us much richer data. Second, can you unpack a little bit more about percentile? Because I think when we were talking, particularly like what does the 50 percentile look like For some families, they might think, oh, that's a a poor score. And can you illuminate a little bit more about that? Yeah. So that was a lot of the deep deep dive what we shared with our teachers is because we're used to thinking about the fiftieth as a fail.
Right? The fiftieth is the mean. Right? It's right in the middle. Your average. You're right where you should be. And so, part of our hesitation and sharing out some of this information with families early on was without the right education information to support it. If a family was to see the fiftieth percentile, they may really come into a panic. When really their student is right in the middle of the bell curve. Right right where they should be. And sometimes I think it's also reaffirming for families who have a student who struggles if they see that although their rate score is lower, but their percentile ranking is
growing every time that their student is in fact now starting to outperform peers at the rate by which they learn even though their rate score may be lower on the band. So I think it gives us a lot more more information about where our students are at and how to help them. And I think coming back to what doctor Pulver said, although it takes up time in the classroom, I could say you're wasting a lot of time as a teacher if you don't know where to target your instruction. And so I think this is a larger safety net to say, I know what
I'm teaching not just because it's a gut feeling, but because I have information on all of my students that supports the instructional decisions I'm making in my classroom, if that makes sense. So And then sorry. Only because we were at LAE today doing a walk through, missus Davidson and I. And at least at our elementary level with our, ELA adoption, this, is integrated in into, MAP. So even we'll give the teacher even more information, directly into our textbook adoption that
we have, approved. And as we saw a little bit later, we saw our students working in WAGO both in the LA and in math, which was very intriguing for us. But that's what's nice about these benchmarks too in terms of the instruction. It will continue to help guide the instruction because that's also feeding directly into, this the actual textbooks that our teachers are using at the elementary level. So HMH owns, NWEA and so their interface is built so that a student's map score informs the learning continuum inside of HMH.
So a teacher can actually look at the learning continuum when it becomes specific standards and skills, and students are already grouped instructionally where they're ready for learning. So teachers know exactly how to target different areas. HMH, offers both waggle as well as read one eighty and math one eighty through a program called personalized path. And our map assessment informs both of those both of those platforms on where a student should start. So there's no wasted time and the system having to learn at where the correct
entry point to either enrich and extend if you're in a waggle system or provide remediation if you're in a math one eighty or read one eighty system inside of our classrooms. So it really is, I'd say it's a big full picture profile at our elementary classrooms about how this information is used to make sure students are entering and accessing curriculum at the right level. So to that point, I know that at, middle school and high school, teachers have a conference period. They have a period to be able to take the time to be able to
check this data. And how do we how do we help elementary school teachers be able to have that same ability to do that and then to put to lesson plan to them. Absolutely. So on the next slide, I'm actually gonna talk about how we're facilitating data analysis. So I also wanna remind the board that elementaries have early release every Wednesday. And so there is planning release times two hundred and fifty minutes, that elementary teachers have because they also have release in their schedule for their specials whether that's students
going to music or to their makerspace, to the media center that they have to look at that space as well. So I I'm not gonna say it's equivalent to a conference period, but I'm gonna say the same space exists. So just to kind of wrap up our assessments, purposes at a glance, we really looked at two different types of assessments today. We looked at early literacy screeners which were m class, our M. I. R. A. S, and our easy CBM, and we also looked at a broad growth and a state alignment assessment with MAP. And so our early literacy screeners are really to be more diagnostic and inform where
we're going. They don't predict CAASPP, whereas our broad growth MAP assessments really provide grade level and national comparisons comparisons, sorry, and then also include that cast, prediction. So screeners and diagnostics for immediate instructional planning are the literacy focus currently, and map growth is for monitoring long term progress, focusing instruction on standards and skills students are ready to learn, and then predicting performance on state accountability tests like CASP as well as SAT and ACT.
So what now? I think that's a great question missus Hill had. We have all this information, and we have taken instructional time. So what will we do this information? And so we are investing time and structures that allow teachers to move beyond testing and really take this instructional information to actionable instructional planning that directly benefits students. And so we're hosting district wide grade level collaboration days. This is nothing new to the Los Alway. These days existed for many many years prior to the pandemic. And then as many of you know, schools look different post pandemic, and substitute coverage
looked very different post pandemic. And so we really are excited to bring this back. Our teachers will be coming together by grade level district wide to analyze their map growth data, they'll be identifying class group and individual student needs, developing instructional plans based off of this data, sharing strategies and aligning practices across schools, and then really focusing on using assessment results to inform instruction and improve, outcomes. And so beginning this Thursday, grade five will be joining us, and then we'll see
grade three, grade four, middle school English, middle school math, as well as both math and ELA at the high school joining us between now and September 25. And so we have this same model planned for the middle of the year assessment, so we'll go back into these data and reflection days after we give our middle of the year assessment as well. So I'd love to answer any additional questions. Well, missus Reed, I wanna thank you so much for this information. I think it's fantastic. I love the way you organize it based on broad assessments, as well as the
local assessments. I think it helps clarify for us since we see so many assessments and kind of different terminology come our way. So I really appreciate the time to help explain, and I love this slide. I think this is the slide where, you know, it really comes to fruition for me because it shows that we're using data and we're not just collecting data for the sake of collecting data, but we're using data to inform instruction. So and meet the students where they're at. So I love that. Thank you. Thank you. I think it's brilliant.
Thank you. Thank you. That's never a hard comment to take. Just really quickly, I had a comment I I had a question back, and it it's just a cultural shift that I wonder if we're seeing. So in kindergarten, it says that we have conference periods, and the student and the parent come together, and sit with the teacher. Are we sit what percentage of parents are we seeing take advantage of this?
I would say close to 100%. Really? Yes. Okay. Awesome. Mhmm. I I wanted to thank you because my experience has been is that we usually get our we would get our state testing scores and then we would come together, assess data, and find the holes. But the problem was was you get the test you get that information after the year has ended, so the students who have those holes are gone. And so by doing this periodically through the year in various ways, you're giving the teacher an opportunity to to address needs right where where they're at.
And so that's really important. And it you know, it will save a lot of time and make time more valuable. So thank you very much. Excellent job. One correction. I I misspoke. Elementary teachers have two and a half hours, which is one hundred and fifty minutes, not two hundred and fifty minutes. But then the other thing I just wanted to share is the other really intentionality behind this is where Ed Services has really led. In response to teacher feedback is that as we are, when we took a look at our school calendars for this year, we really thought of it from an instructional
lens and took a look at where is open house, where is back to school night, and trying to make sure that we don't, have these assessment windows right before that. Because sometimes teachers get really, tempted to wanna create these beautiful projects for open house, but it's we lose sight of the meaningful pieces behind the assessment and the feedback that it that it gives us. And then the other thing that we've done is we've really asked all of our sites to make these assessment windows uninterrupted. So we won't be having dress up days. We should be having major flag assemblies and things of that sort.
And so that's all been really intentional by Ed Services to really make sure that these days that that we're gonna get quality information to help guide our instruction for the other hundred and seventy plus days of of of the school year. So kudos to ed services. We're really thinking about all these layers to make that, really possible. Well, I think it's really our teachers. Yeah. So I just wanna put that out there. They work so hard, and we're so lucky in my department that they reach out very vulnerably and authentically and share some of the challenges that they're experiencing and allows
us to be better at providing a structure and support for them to do this work because I think the longer you're away from a school site, and so for me, obviously, that's been quite a bit of time now. Sometimes you can become disconnected to how it feels to apply something because you can become very passionate about the bigger picture of the work. And so I just wanna thank them for always being willing to share how hard it is to be a teacher sometimes because it is we wanna make sure we're providing them with the tools to use this information.
I think too the time allotted, middle school and high school does get that one period a day, but they have over 200 students. So I having taught fifth grade, what I found was that it doesn't take a really long time to start to see who your real super your strong students are and who are the ones that struggle. What I really appreciate is the the online assessments that take the data and really pinpoint information because that's what takes a lot of time. And especially if you have at a secondary level, if you have 200 students, that's
a challenge. Perfect. Thank you. So we have no public speakers, so we are going to close session now, and we will return at 06:00 for the regular board meeting. Thank you. Part: 2
September 9 board meeting. We met in we had our workshop this afternoon. We met in closed session, discussed labor relations and employee relations. Nothing was decided. So now I would like to ask missus Reed if you would tell us about the workshop. Thank you so much, president Davidson. Earlier this evening, I shared with the board, the first part in a two part series on using data as an instructional tool, And I was able to overview for the board beginning of the year, standardized assessments and screeners that we use both to
look at literacy, as well as measure broad band growth in both ELA and mathematics inside our classrooms from kindergarten to tenth grade. Thank you so much. And I skipped a step. Doctor Weese Wright, would you like to lead us in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Good evening, madam president, superintendent Pulver, executive cabinet, members of the Los Alamitos community.
My name is Brynn Schmidt, and I'm honored to serve as your student representative to the Board of Education from Los Alamitos High School. Here is my report. Activities. It is officially senior season. On Friday, August 29, our senior co presidents, Serena Foresight and Sophia Mason, organized senior sunrise at Seal Beach, which began bright and early at 05:45AM. ASB passed out donuts and took photos of students holding senior sunrise signs that we created for the event. Even though it was early in the morning, the energy was high. Everyone enjoyed watching the sunrise together, especially since we were lucky enough to get a
clear morning after several cloudy days leading up to the event. For many of us, this was the first time since our freshman orientation that nearly the entire senior class had been together in one place. It truly felt like the beginning of our senior year and the start of many special events to come. For me personally, it was such a surreal moment. Being a senior always felt so far away, and now it's here. Many of us have watched older friends enjoy these senior traditions, and now it's finally our turn to experience them ourselves. Overall, senior sunrise was a great success and such a fun way to kick off
our final year. We can't wait to see how the rest of senior events unfold and how many memories we'll get to make along the way. Academics. The thought of college can feel overwhelming for many seniors. Becoming an adult, making big life decisions, and navigating the application process is daunting. But at LaSalle High School, our incredible counseling team is here to help ease those worries. This fall, they are hosting multiple info sessions designed to prepare students for life after high school, including a college essay night, a Cal State application night, a UC application
night, and more. These sessions cover everything from using the common app to finding scholarships. In addition, student college, excuse me. In addition, college representatives visit our campus throughout the year to share valuable information with juniors and seniors, and the list of visit visiting schools continues to grow as more universities want to connect with lost house students. Just yesterday, our counselors hosted the senior summit, an informational meeting about life after graduation. They will also be offering one on one appointments to ensure every student has a personalized plan for their next steps.
With so many opportunities for guidance and support, our counseling team is making sure Gryphons feel confident and prepared for what comes after high school. Athletics. On your marks, get set, go. That familiar phrase rang out for our Griffins in cross country as they began their season on August 30 at the Great Cow Race. Our team started strong. The girls' frosh soft team took first place, and the girls' JV team secured third place overall. Even though I'm no longer competing, I'm still amazed at the discipline and determination these athletes demonstrate.
Cross country requires pushing your body to the limit, silencing the voice in your head telling you to stop, and finding the grit to keep going. These victories don't just happen on race day. They are the result of months of preparation and daily practices. The team trains in different conditions and on a variety of courses to ensure they are ready for anything they might face in competition. With this early success, our cross country team is motivated to keep building momentum and set their sights on a sunset league title. We encourage everyone to come out and support them at their next big meet, the
Rose Meet Invitational on September 13. Arts. Have you ever wanted to make your own pottery? A cup, a plant pot, or even a bowl for your pet? In ceramics with miss Farrell, our students get that very opportunity. These talented griffins recently competed completed their first major project, linear coil design bowls, which are now ready to be fired in the kiln and put to use. Students dedicated several weeks of daily work to perfect their pieces, and the results are already looking amazing. When I visited the class last Friday, I got to watch students begin their next
project, Pinch Monsters. And the creativity and excitement in the room was inspiring. Ceramics not only gives students a chance to learn hands on skills, but also encourages them to to express their individuality through art. We cannot wait to see how their projects continue to come to life this year. Community. The time finally came, the grand opening of the new Griffin Center gym at LaSalle High School. After years of construction, the rim and cutting took place on Wednesday, August 27, and it was truly a celebration to remember.
So many of our amazing Gryphons showed up to support the event. Guests enjoyed incredible performances from our national champion show choir, Sound FX. Along with our band and color guard, our varsity song and cheer teams, along with ASB members, greeted community and faculty guests at the entrance, creating an upbeat and welcoming atmosphere. The new gym features a three court gymnasium, expanded seating to accommodate the entire student body, a concession stand, multiple team rooms, and a brand new weight room. For the first time, we will be able to hold one all school assembly instead
of splitting into two. After touring the facility, I can say the upgrades were absolutely worth the wait, and we are so excited to host future events for all LaSalle schools in this incredible new space. Student spotlight. To close out my report, I'd like to highlight an exceptional student at LaSalle, Michael Wu. Michael began his journey in this district as a weaver whale, then became a McAuliffe eagle, and is now a proud Griffin senior at LaSalle High School. An outstanding scholar, Michael has taken an impressive array of AP classes, 11 so far,
earning 10 perfect fives and one four on his exams. This year, he is challenging himself with six more AP courses, and we have no doubt he will excel once again. Beyond academics, Michael is a dedicated leader on campus. He serves as president of debate, emerging leaders, and growing up STEM, is the undersecretary of model United Nations, and the vice president of outreach for California Scholarship Federation. Looking ahead, his goal is to attend Stanford University, and his favorite part about being
a Gryphon is the supportive school environment that helps him turn his visions into reality. Outside of school, Michael is a talented classical pianist who has performed internationally, including in Vienna and New York. He also enjoys spending time with his friends at local cafes. Michael's kindness, leadership, and dedication make him an incredible role model for our Griffin community, and we are proud to feature him in this month's student spotlight. With that, I would like to open the floor to any questions or comments from the board. Thank you all for joining me in today's student board report.
Brynn, that was outstanding. I I love the information that you give along with the excitement of the events, especially about all of that's offered to, prospective college students, to our seniors. But I have a question since you were a cross country runner. How long is a run? Because I see the kids out practicing and they're all the way to Costco. For race days, they are three miles, technically. Sometimes they run 2.98 miles. Sometimes they go 3.01, but it's usually three miles. At a good pace too. Yeah.
Your report was wonderful, honey. Thank you so much. You know, I'd like to say something. Okay. Thank you, Brynn. That was wonderful. You know, I just wanna make a comment. I like the fact that you take the four a's and you provide some insights into, from a student perspective, what's going on. And I love that you highlight things that maybe we wouldn't hear otherwise because I think that's really helpful, for us to be able to hear the student perspective. You know, some of the big stuff like football games, I feel like we all
kinda hear about. But, you know, the question that you just asked and, you know, cross country or talking about the events that are happening around academics and the support that you're getting, I think that that type of insight is really invaluable. So thank you. Thank you. I think it's great too. The pottery, you know, and missus Farrell taking that on from someone that retired, I believe. Right. After a long time. So bravo, missus Farrell. Yeah. I know. I I think one of the highlights of last year hearing from our student board member was hearing about the clubs, and I know club rush is coming up soon.
So I I'm just excited. Come back and tell us all about that because I know I think clubs are being announced later this week, maybe. Either this week or next week. So I can't wait to hear about that because I think when you talk about the different ways that people are engaged on campus, I just I keep seeing posts about it, and so I'm excited to hear about it. Doctor Pulver, would you like to give your superintendent's report now? We'd love to hear it. I would be very pleased to. Thank you. It's always a a pleasure to follow, Brynn. I also what I also loved is not only did you just highlight, ceramics, what I heard in your report was you actually went and visited the class so you
could speak firsthand. And I think that always gives a a a wider perspective. So, kudos to you for for doing that as well. So tonight, what I'd like to do is just share a little bit about, the proactive safety measures that we take as a school district. I think it's really important for us to share with our families on a couple times a year to remind them about the numerous measures that we we put into place. And I think, we shared an email out with all of our families last week, but in case you missed it, I think it's important to to just, talk about
it, particularly as it relates directly to one of our board goals. Goal two is really about cultivating a thriving and safe school culture that fosters, self efficacy, perseverance, and inclusivity. But it's also really about a sub bullet in there is about providing safe and secure facilities with protocols in place to protect students and staff. And, one of the reasons why we want to continue to message proactively is it's very sad statement in in the state, of our nation that schools somewhere in the
nation have to endure, some type of aggressive threats or violent violent threats. And certainly, that has happened already at the start of the school year. So, one of the things that I'm really proud about is that when we've taken a lot of looking at best practices, from different federal state agencies, Orange County grand jury, etcetera, and they all talk about really having these malt that no one thing is going to prevent and something you can't ever prevent, everything. But it's really the effectiveness of a safety, plan is about having these layers of
safety. And so I'm really proud to say that that we have many layers in place, including, all of our schools maintain a comprehensive safety plan. It's reviewed and practiced, annually. It's also approved by the school site council. We have secure fencing, controlled entry points, and a buzzing camera system to monitor and control campus access. I'm still surprised that I'll still get superintendents, down in South County who reach out to us who don't even have security fencing around their campuses. And we, and that seems so passe to us, so old school to us.
But I can remember when we first talked about it here at the, at the, the board of education, we were concerned how community members and family members would feel if our, if our schools were, fenced in. But I think that we've seen this community really embrace that. Additionally, we continue to have surveillance cameras at all of our sites. And almost each year, we've picked some places that maybe we need to enhance and add, through to our campuses or or in spots that we may need to find additional coverage. We're really thankful to have strong partnerships with our local law enforcement.
Grateful that the city of Los Alamitos generously provides a school resource officer that they pay for for the school resource officer to be held at Los Alamitos High School, but also the officer will support, our other schools, within Los Alamitos as as much as possible. We have an electronic visitor sign in system with badges so that if there's an adult on campus that either they're wearing a staff badge or they're wearing a visitor badge so that we know that somebody has been cleared to be onto our campus, is is is important.
Shatter resistant miler window film to improve security, and that really is if there was an active shooter that they couldn't shoot into the, a window and try to open a door, that it would protect the glass from shattering as well as protecting the glass from shattering into where students are, as well. So it serves multiple purposes there. We have mental health professionals on every campus because I can say that when I've been to different trainings, there are many people who would say, one of the best ways to really keep safe schools is to invest in mental health.
And as a nation, one of the things that we need to do is to, invest more in mental health, as well. And so I really, we sometimes don't always think about how we are investing in mental health, how that creates a safe school campus, but that really is also a key component of one of the key layers to creating, our comprehensive measures. Lock blocks on classroom doors for added added security. And what that allows very quickly is if the classrooms remain locked all the time, but sometimes the normal operation kids need to come in to go to the restroom or or or whatnot.
But if there was an active shooter, if the door's already locked, the students from the inside or the staff member from the inside could just pull the lock block back. And now that door is secured, and you don't have to go outside, to lock that door. It's already pre locked. And so that's really sometimes people, what's the big deal about a lock block? I thought I should unpack that a little bit, is why that that is important so that you don't have to risk going outside if there is a violent threat. We have AEDs, external, defibrillators on every campus. In fact, we were just talking in cabinet on Monday that we are, we've already
ordered one for the new gymnasium as well. That would be really important for a facility that big to have an AD. So thank you to, Mrs. Garcia for ensuring that. Internet online monitoring software to alert administrators of concerning activity, and, throughout because so much of things can happen, in cyberspace as well. And then we really do encourage, we have this anonymous reporting system, it's called Say Something and it's for any student, parent member, community member, staff member that they can anonymously report anything, that is a concern and that will get to an administrator, throughout,
every day of the week. And, you know, when we have fires or other things, people don't think, well, we we monitor air quality. We take a look at inclement weather, when when the heat gets very high. Our student services department sends emails out to our principals. Hey, Here are the here's the heat index. We need to, at this temperature, keep kids indoors, etcetera. Or if there's air quality with a fire, etcetera. So, and then all of our facilities, campuses have emergency food, water, and other supplies at all sites. And that's something we have to monitor on a regular basis because that emergency food
has a shelf life. And so, it is something that we continue to have to invest to take a look at the expiration dates and refresh that as well. And then we will also share we really unpack this a lot last year when we had a bit of a scare at one of our schools within, the Rossmore community. And so we took the opportunity to really practice, communication messages to families. And so in the event, if we were to have a lockdown or other type of emergency, we as the district and our school sites will use ParentSquare, to notify families. And in a true emergency, we'll we'll do it multiple measures by text, by phone,
by email. So we do really encourage parents to make sure they have their contact information updated in areas during an emergency if they have their cell phone, in in there as well so that they can get those messages. But in those emergencies, safety is always our first priority. So our job is to assess and try to keep kids safe. So it may take us a few minutes, to be able to send a message out as we need to assess the situation and make sure that kids are safe first. And then, notifications will be sent through multiple channels and, updates will be shared as
information continues to become available. So, we're just really thankful. And I again, I heard from some parents after we sent out the email to last week and how grateful they were for the numerous layers that we have in place to kind of keep our kids safe and our staff safe as well. The next thing I just want to talk about is really tying back into our first goal. Our first goal, goal one is really wanting to provide exemplary preparation for college, career, and future success. And we did some Nuance words there. But I'm really excited to be able to talk about, you know, some of the
things going on at our high school for helping prepare for, college and career. And, so next week, the we have the Army Career Exploration is gonna have, a medical trailer on campus. And it'll be on campus before school, during nutrition, and after school, right in front of the gym. And it's an incredible trailer. The exhibits go to include, prosthetic displays, traumatic brain injury, different medical equipment, all these types of things that someone, if they were to go into the army or even
just want to have a medical career where they'll be able to get access and opportunities to take a look at what does this look like. And so really, really excited, that we've been able to partner with the US Army and they're gonna provide this for all of our our Gryphons. And if you're available, I know I plan to stop by on, next Wednesday, September 17 to check out this trailer. And if you miss it, not to worry because you know we have an incredible public information officer, Ms. Nicole Pichardo, who's going to get this in the wrap up as well. So, if you aren't able to attend, we will highlight that in the wrap up.
And then part of the way that this sometimes we'll hear from community members like, well, what can we do to help support? And this community is always finding ways to give back and to support the youth, and to really help them prepare for college and career. And we can't do it alone. And so what our college and career center has been really advertising out to, the community, I wanted to spotlight it as well, is if you have a company or a business, that you could provide partnership opportunities for Los Alamitos high school students, we
would welcome that. And so it really can provide work based learning. What is work based learning? It's learning that connects students with real world careers through experience such as job shadows, internships, industry experts, and and engagement. And it can be in a a field of many different fields here. And so if you're a community member who owns a business or your business might be willing to partner with us, we would ask you to to reach out. You can scan via QR code or contact Mary Anne Schaeffer who works at our college and career center at Los Alamitos High School. Her email is there, mschafer@losal.org.
And she would love to connect with you to find ways that we could connect your business to provide some, work based learning opportunities for our students and in in any fashion that we could. So I just wanted to let the community know here's another way you can help support, our our our our youth and really helping prepare them, for college career and future success. And that concludes my, report for this evening. Thank you. So we now will go to board comments. And, missus Partizani, would you like to begin?
Sure. Absolutely. Thank you. So good evening. For tonight, for my board comments, I really wanted to focus on two reflections that I've had in the last two weeks. So, since our last meeting, I've been busy with a flurry of on campus activities including back to school nights for my three kiddos and also attending, as a guest at McGaw. And between my husband and I, we probably visited over 20 different classrooms and we both independently walked away really impressed by the caliber of teachers and, our education system.
How organized they were, how excited they were. And, you know, to hear so many of our teachers really say I love what I do was so inspiring. It really was. And, you know, I believe that enthusiasm spreads. So when teachers love what they do, students will love learning. And to me, that's the biggest win win we can offer as a district. So I just really wanted to take a moment to mention that. The second thing is, Brynn, you and I are very aligned because, I really also
wanted to give a shout out to the college and career center. And, the senior summit did kick off the just yesterday. And, what that really means is that the it's the start of the college application process. And that's really important for families like myself with a senior. And, yes, and it's I see some audience members that are emotional. Me too. I'm right there with you. But I it's, you know, it was ACT and SAT season for us, so I know that's a really hot button. So I wanna wish all the seniors good luck.
And I also wanted to touch on the fact that, you know, the college and career center, provides a slew of workshops that are free. And they do that in partnership with LAFE and with CollegeWise. And LAFE may charge a nominal fee just to reserve your spot. I think it's like around $10 but these are some really fantastic resources that I really want to encourage all junior, but particularly senior families to take advantage of. And I think we have all of that, but there is a link in this
week's LaSalle newsletter on how to connect with the college and career center. So if you don't get that newsletter and you're not connected with, our college and career center, I really wanna encourage you to do it because it's been a fantastic resource, for myself and for all the senior families that I'm in contact with. And the last thing I say is, and I love it because Brynn mentioned, there has been representatives from different universities that have come onto our campus to talk to interested students about their programs, and it really offers a comfortable setting for students to
be able to ask questions. You know and they're really fantastic universities that are taking time to come in. So again, I really want to encourage our families, our students to take advantage of that. And if you missed it, no problem. The College and Career Center has a list of those representatives that they can give to you and you can contact them at your own time. So again, connect with our amazing College and Career Center. And then the last thing I wanted and I think that's it. I really wanted to just, make sure that you knew that those representatives will be
on campus. They were there today, they'll be there tomorrow, and they'll be there on Thursday. And I think they're coming again in the in next week and the next few weeks. So alright. I've done my part here. Thank you. Thank you very much. Missus Hill? Thank you so much. I'm sure as many of us will discuss, the opening of the Griffin Center, but for me, it was I love the word you used, reflection. It really gave me a moment to really reflect. And, the way this began is that I showed my eldest son, some of the
photos and his children were there. And I said, this is where daddy went to school. And he's like, no. It's not. Because, he graduated nineteen years ago. So in the last sixteen years, it is amazing to me how our facilities have really changed and how much this community has really supported that. We see that I remember when we first put in the track and field, and
I was a part of an organization called our LaSalle, which helped, finance that as well. And all the records, we broke every home record, I think, that year because of such a difference between what the facilities allowed, our students to do. And I see I think we're seeing that also with the elevation of CTE and STEM in our new Stem building. And I think, I I remember many, many years ago, in working with Taste for
LaSalle, I remember going and talking to boosters and and to other groups and saying that the work that is done within our schools are amazing, but the outside and the facilities did not represent it. They didn't match that. And I'm so proud that we have this opportunity to really have amazing facilities. You know? It's now goal five, and I believe and, doctor Pulver, maybe you can correct me. I believe for many years, it was goal two because we were working, so new
trying to pass new bonds, getting all of the construction done. So I just also want to say that it it takes the whole community. It takes a village to do that, and and it's on the backs of many people that have come before us, boards that have come before us, staff that's come before us, CBOs, facilities directors. I happen to know one superintendent that that delayed her retirement for nine months to make sure that these things were done.
And so, bond chairs, I know that the last bond chairs of Measure G, their children were done. They would never see some of these improvements that have been made. So it's people like you that make these things happen. And that Griffin center is spectacular. And it gives me such pride to, when you drive down that driveway, it is what LaSalle should be. It is amazing. So I just wanted to, give you a little bit of of my reflection on
that and said that it was an extraordinarily well done event. So so amazing, and so many community members came in and saw it. We're so proud because they're spending the dollars. Every year, their taxes have gone up. So thank you again. I wanted to, also say that last week I talked about the rotary, fishing derby, and I forgot something really important. And what I forgot was that our interact. So interact is the club on campus that is a rotary club for students.
And they partner with our local rotary club and they're run by missus Grimshaw. And they actually came and worked as a service, to that fishing derby. And they were out there helping kids, you know, with the fishing poles. I don't know why there weren't child sized fishing poles. Because if you give a four year old a adult fishing pole, something bad's gonna happen. Trust me. But it was wonderful. And I just really appreciate that we have service clubs on our campuses, that, students
can really learn about philanthropy and giving back because it's such a value. It is that whole child idea. Right? And then the last thing I just wanted to mention was, at back to school night, I had the opportunity to go to a couple of them. But when I went to Oak, I was surprised with a little appetizer, and it was, a tasting of our new scratch cooking. And when I look at our core values and we talk about innovation, maybe some
people don't think scratch cooking is innovative, but I think it is. And I think it is for a school district. It takes so much more time and effort, and I am just so proud of our district about once again caring about what goes into our children that that willing to, advance out. And there was, water I mean, watermelon and pineapple and homemade egg rolls, and it was and it's the salsa was to die for. I paid for the salsa. So, I just, really had a a last couple of really great weeks, and thank
you very much, madam president. You're welcome. And your tribute to Griffin Center was fabulous. Thank you. Mister Forhan? Yes. I'm gonna continue the accolades that my colleagues have shared with complete shout out to all the incredible work our schools do communicating with their communities. News school newsletters are meant to give parents current information, highlight all activities, and special events. Our school newsletters do so much more than this.
I wanna send along the appreciation of all of us to the many hours that takes to put these masterpieces together. And then in addition to that form of communication, social media now is posting what's actually happening in the classrooms, and you as a parent or a community member can see all the great activities that are motivating our kids to learn. And some take it a step further with a staff or student designed videos that share much more than just school news.
The sea lion splash highlights not only the raw that is McGaw, but they focus on gratitude these past few episodes where kids share what they're grateful for. Tiger Tales at LAE highlights students who've earned the a for the day, reinforcing with everybody their appreciation for kids doing the going the extra mile. The McAuliffe bird nest is created by leadership kids completely, who share school events as
well as their eagles of the week. Then we have the Griffin Gazette, a newspaper created by the high school that gives articles. And if you're ever wondering what kids think about stuff, just tune in to their articles. There was a great one recently about the deportation of kids that we're all concerned about, but the sweet start in the ninth grade mixer was highlighted, and then they're welcoming all the new staff. But how could you not forget Connor Brown?
His twice monthly Griffin news show. It's completely created by his students. Yes. There is humor, for sure. But last week's edition shared what's important, And this goes school wide in every classroom in the morning when it's out. But it's messages about the importance of looking after the kid who might be lonely. It talks about the need to get enough sleep every night. That's my favorite for my grandsons. And then put down your devices and talk to each other and speak clearly.
Don't mumble. Well, I have a mumbler in my family. And then always make good choices. No. And I guess, really, what's the best not the best, but Nicole's wrap up. Because if you don't tune into that once a week on Fridays, you get just a feeling of the worth of this district, and this district is the best. Thank you. Thank you, mister Gorhan. Mister Bragman? Thank you very much. I I actually wanna just say miss Partizan, I'm so happy you shared that. I actually realized that the college I went to, SMU, is gonna be on campus
next Wednesday. And I called the admissions director who's the reason that I even looked at that school and told him I wanna be on campus if he's there next week. So I I love that that's happening and and to make even those connections, but, it's so special to have those people coming in to visit and that those people are oftentimes the piece that make it accessible. So I love that you shared that. That was that's fun. And, yeah, I left him a long voice mail yesterday saying, I hope he remembers me. I don't I don't think you will, but we'll see. We'll see. So I you know, going last, I know you guys already shared a lot, but I actually I wish that they were here today. They were here last time, but I wanna take a moment to to share my
gratitude for the amazing Los Alamitos High School ASB. And we do have one representative here. But under the leadership of miss LaVoche and miss Shanaker, ASB president Ella Partesani, who we know, and I think our freshman president is also in the family, and all of our student leaders, the bar really has been set for school spirit on and off campus this year. I've seen it as a community member, but I'm seeing it in different ways. They've been so intentional in creating events, traditions, and opportunities for students to come together, and their energy really is contagious. If you don't know our school's traditions, you can go on their Instagram. They're sharing how to do the roller coaster, how to do different chants and cheers,
sharing them with my middle school daughter and making sure that when she comes to the game on Friday, she knows how to cheer, what to do, and how to do all these different things. It's it's really fun. And so it's clear that ASB are really committed to creating that community of pride in being a Los Al Griffin. And and, again, I think it's really cool to see how that's shared with the high school students, but also down. It really is traditions that come down to every campus you go on. Right? It says future Griffin. And you see in the first day of school people taking pictures of their little kindergartners in front of that. And so I love that we are one high school community, and we're building up that culture and tradition to so that every student that whether Oak, McAuliffe, or any
of our middle elementary schools, they're coming together. And so I love that. I also would say if you have been to a football game, the Los El Locos are crazy as ever, representing. I've I've met other community members from other schools that are visiting that we have visited and said, wow. I can't believe that they came with that spirit off campus, other places. And so it's really fun to see how that's been happening, showing up, busing students there. And so I love seeing the Griffin spirit across LA and Orange County. That type of leadership from our ISP really does make a difference on school and off school. In addition to that, I think while just kind of staying with it, that kind
of culture, I it's something that I don't know a whole lot about, but I'm learning to love more and more is to really shout out our incredible cheer and song teams. Miss Ramirez and Michelle are doing an amazing job, and so I wanna make sure to to call out our cheer and song teams, our dance team, our band that'll be at at some of our events. They're out at the games. They're rallying our students. They're working in collaboration with ASB to make sure that, again, the school spirit is high. I also know on October 30, we're gonna have our big fundraiser for St. Jude, and I hope everyone will come out and support them by calendars, do everything
we can to support these teams because they bring the spirit. You see it at football games, but you're gonna see it across the events they were at. The Griffin Center's opening. There are other sporting events. They're just on campus. They're out in the community. I know our, Oak dance team is working with our high school dance team this week to make sure that they do a great performance on Friday at our football game. And so those this the performance and spirit again, it's really just you feel it across all of our schools. So I just really wanna thank ASB, Cheers, Song, Band, everyone that's bringing that that spirit to our community. It it makes it stronger for all of us.
It makes it something we all take pride in. And again, I think you'll see it. I believe there we're gonna be on the news this week. I'm looking at Nicole. Even even on CBS, we're gonna have in our new Griffin Center, we're gonna have a rally, and we're gonna have cheer and song, football teams be featured. So really cool. There's there's kind of a Friday Friday night lights Pep rally. Pep rally. Pep rally type of feel. So check it out. We'll make sure I'm sure it'll be shared all over our social media, but even even the fact that it's gonna be broadcast across the South Southland is really cool. So, yeah, really exciting to be bringing attention to all the great things that are
beyond just the fields, but the people that are supporting us on the fields, on the courts, and elsewhere. So that's all for me. Well, when you come very last, it's usually everything's done. So I thought I would focus on one particular thing that maybe nobody else would talk about, but I'm going to be mimicking doctor Polvor a little bit because it's about CTE, ROP, and STEM. It's been exciting for me to see the expansion of our CTE, ROP, and STEM offerings across the district. As a former teacher in the district, I'm seeing students pursue opportunities on our campuses
that were not even imagined fifteen years ago, and I'd like to honor that work a little bit this evening. Friday night at Angel Stadium was truly special for our Los Alamitos students and over 100 friends and supporters who came to celebrate them. During the game, our focus studio film students and Connor Brown's, kinda Connor Brown night, are their CTE teacher were honored on the on the jumbo jumbotron when the public service announcement they created was played for all to see. The focus studio students had entered a competition sponsored by the angels in which they
presented their public service announcement about mental health. Theirs was selected by the angels and will continue to be part of the team's focus on mental health in sports going forward. It will be one of the ads at at the televised games. Not only were they celebrated that night, but they were also invited to a luncheon at the clubhouse where two angel players spoke about their own struggles with mental health and sports. This event highlighted the student centered mental health PSA public service announcement developed in partnership with Focus Studios and provided a platform for our students to share their voices.
Stan and I enjoyed the nighttime festivities, and I wish I could have bottled up and saved the pride and excitement that came from every student involved. Our wonderful public information officer, Nicole Picciardo, a panelist at the luncheon and a cheering fan for the students at the game, has made that this great work available for us to for us to see tonight. Missus D'Angelo, it's the thirty second commercial. Pressure. Stress. Anxiety. Not all signs are seen. Check on your team both on and off the field. I think that's really remarkable, and that's going to be on television regularly.
So yay to them. Thanks so much, Nicole. To Connor Brown and the fantastic Focus Studio team, you make us so proud. You're using film to be your voice, bringing attention to a critical topic and encouraging all of us to engage in an important conversation. The CTE program and other highly successful CTE classes, this one and other ones, exist because our community and our district understand their value. These students have been exposed to a variety of experiences that could inspire them to pursue future future careers in some area of the film industry, or perhaps they'll go
a different direction. However, the broader picture of possibilities mixed with the soft skills they master in the process will likely mean a brighter future for each one of them. As we continue to push forward with hopes of expanding CTE, ROP, and STEM classes, our aspirations are not limited to the high school. As I tour our campuses, it is absolutely amazing to me to see what is being done at the earliest levels of public education in our district. Students are using math and science skills to build popsicle bridges, test aerodynamics, and create
robot robots. That just scrapes the surface of what they're accomplishing. In partnership with our community, we will do more. We continue to look, and doctor Paul asked for this too. We continue to look for experts in STEM and career fields who want to share their expertise or invite students to shadow them at work. LAFE, our Los Alamitos Education Foundation, continues to partner with us in creating opportunities for all our students in their afternoon and summer school programs. Our children put math and science into practice with cooking made simple or a more
advanced experience at culinary camp, green thumbs, mad scientists, steam architects, introduction to film. We don't need to wait until high school for our students to begin to explore their passions. These programs are being built up across every campus and in every grade. The work of LATE expands opportunities for families beyond our classrooms, giving them a chance to encourage their children to explore beyond the school day. In talking with Carrie Logue, the of the LAFE director, she said, LAFE loves offering
classes in STEM and career technological or or sorry, technical education. These classes are very popular with LaSalle kids. These classes give students hands on opportunities to experience technology and the world around them. It builds critical thinking skills, creativity, and resiliency. Plus it exposes them to exciting content typically not covered in during every school day. School time is limited, but we are committed to expanding these opportunities across our campuses. For many of our students being engaged in STEM, CTE, or ROP is the reason
they want to come to school every day and why they see a reason to pursue higher education. The event highlighted this event highlighted the students created mental health, public service announcement was developed in partnership with Focus Studios and provided that platform for their voices. It's and I really appreciate the fact that not only are we seeing great success off our campuses, but if you could see our drama productions, which go far beyond just acting out a play. They're learning lighting, sound, staging. They're building the most phenomenal sets.
Every single one of our CTE classes is giving our kids a vision of the future and really thank the community and our district for constantly supporting the building up of those programs. So thank you. Now we are moving on. Alright. Thank you. Now we're going to move on to our consent items. Yes, sir. I apologize for that comment. Oh, sorry. Public comments. Do we have any? We have no public comments, so I'm moving on to information and presentation. Doctor Wieswright, you're going to do an announcement of the governing board's intention. Yes. Thank you, madam president.
Tonight, our school board is announcing the intention to reappoint mister David Boyer to our personnel commission. David Boyer has served on the personnel commission since 2021 as a school governing board appointee. The The three year term of the reappointment will run from noon of 12/01/2025 of this year through noon of 12/01/2028 is a three year term. The Board of Education will conduct a public hearing on the reappointment of David Boyer to the personnel commission at our next board meeting on 10/07/2025. Thank you.
And mister Boyer was on the school board for a number of years and served faithfully there too. Now we're moving on to presentation of our twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five unaudited actuals. Ms. Schneur? Thank you, madam president. Well, it gives me great pleasure to introduce Mr. Timothy Golden, our new director of fiscal services, who did an amazing job closing the books this year for our twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five fiscal year, and he's going to be presenting, the final numbers for you. Thank you. Alright. Well, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity.
So good evening, board president Davidson, board of education, doctor Pulver, executive cabinet staff, and Los Alamitos community. Before we begin, I just want to give a special thanks to the fiscal services team who worked tirelessly to get everything ready and collaborate with all the other departments. So I also want to thank those other departments, the school sites because it truly does take a village to get all these things, you know, in and to close everything out. So, wanna say thank you to them as well. So, the highly anticipated report is upon us.
I know everybody's really excited to talk numbers. But what we wanna highlight here is the unaudited actuals report which is in essence our year end financials report. And so, it's gonna tell us how everything truly ended opposed to what we were estimating throughout the year. What you'll see in the, report will be a comparison between our estimated actuals. So, that's gonna be what we brought in June. We're estimating how we thought we're gonna end the year and now, we actually have those numbers. So, some of the items listed there are some of the things where, we show
as variances. So, we're looking at some of the revenues, some of the expenditures and identifying what those variances may be caused by. Alright. So, let's get into the details. The actuals for our revenues came in about 1,300,000 above what we are anticipating. That's primarily due to impact aid. We received about 500,000 more in impact impact aid dollars than we were anticipating. Oftentimes, we're gonna be focused on the amount that we're entitled. But, with impact aid dollars, sometimes there's extra that comes in depending on how everything is submitted. So, there's also a little bit of extra interest and some of our facility use.
Funds were higher than what we expected. The contributions were a little bit above what we anticipated. Routine restricted maintenance is one of those areas. We've highlighted a little bit about our commitment to the facilities. This is gonna be one of those areas where routine restricted maintenance requires that we contribute 3% of our total general fund expenditures. And so, as you may be aware, as those expenditures move up and down, that's going to impact that contribution amount there. And so, we oftentimes use a set dollar amount throughout the year. And then, we do an update as we get closer to that end of the
year. And so, the way we ended this one was a slight higher contribution to those routine restricted maintenance funds. The total expenditures, were less than what we had projected in in certain areas primarily due to our health and welfare. The numbers that came in were self insured. So, we base everything based on what we actually spend. And so those numbers came in lower than what we were expecting. So, that's savings to the budget, which is always helpful. The other area that we experienced the savings, that was of substance was our workers
comp, our workers compensation. And so, we usually do a slightly higher percentage and then, we true up with what everything turns out to, be reported through our payroll. So, with those, what really most people are gonna be looking at is, okay, Tim, what's the bottom line? We're here focused on the unrestricted general fund which is where we generally operate. So that's gonna be our non restricted programs that's not any of those other ones. It's where we live within. And to the ending fund balance compared to our estimated actuals, we're about $2,000,000 above
what, we were expecting. When you look at the big picture of things, it's about, I think, a 2%. So it's nothing, obscene, but it's just something that we're continuously reviewing our process, seeing how we can refine it to make sure that we're giving the best numbers that we can do. So, that is a positive signal to our budget, obviously, in that regard. And so, with that additional $2,200,000, we're gonna carry that ending balance into our beginning
fund balance for the current year, the 2526. It's always a fun time of year in the fiscal office because you get to operate in two different years, which makes things great. I'm really excited. But we're happy to close this year out. But as we bring those numbers in, you'll notice on this, this is our, assumptions that we had for our adopted budget. And that one of the primary areas we're gonna talk about that difference was in our health and welfare. And so you'll see that highlighted on red here in the 02/2425 UA column for unaudited actuals. And so, that number generated, savings for us.
And so, the true number that we had was $19,685. And so, that's per employee. And that number, we were using, a higher number. I think it was, like, $20,006.83. It's not so approximate, but, but you get the idea there. The other elements that you're gonna see on here is what the enrollment that we were using to project everything. We are using, 95, almost 96% attendance. And so, one of the things that, is not in here is our updated enrollment.
So, there are some things that need to be updated. We were gonna take our current year numbers, take those back, start refining some of our projections. And so, then, we'll have updated figures, updated, projections, based based on the information we know now. Alright. One of the elements that we often talk about is the cost of living adjustment, cola, and that's in our assumptions. And so, what you may have seen on that previous slide was the cost of living adjustment at 2.3% for the current budget year 2526. But, what we like to do is try to showcase and reiterate, that not everybody
gets the 2.3% COLA. Simply because of declining enrollment and attendance, both of those play a key factor or key role in the dollars that you actually see for what you realize and what you get. So, this is just walking us through the, the calculation of how we look at, okay, the 2.3%, how that goes into everything, and then the actual revenue that we realize on the back end. And so, you could see it's not a 2.3% increase, it's actually a 0.27. So, ideally, we'd love to have that 2.3%,
but, we have to try to live within our means and do the best we can to boost our enrollment and attendance to help that. So, just highlighting that. Now, looking at our multi year projection for the unrestricted general fund. So you'll see a breakdown here and we've updated the beginning balances now that we know what our 2425 ending balances are. The supplemental early retirement, plan is included in here as well as, any savings from that. Those are all factored into these numbers.
You may recall that and 2526 we had a deficit, of about 4,000,000. And right now, you'll notice that it's 2,000,000. Those numbers will continuously be updated as we get new information about our enrollment, about any other factors that are, at play with our budget and our assumptions. And so, these are the numbers that are right there that have now just been updated based on our unaudited actuals beginning or ending balance. So, as the weeks come, you'll probably be getting more information about what those numbers
are looking like as we know them now. The last piece I wanted to just highlight on this one, this is our multi year projection. This is not including the impacts of negotiations. So, obviously, anything that comes between our bargaining units and the district that will then, impact these in any way that those agreements come to place. So, we are able to meet 3% reserve which is what we, are searching for usually. Each year, we wanna make sure that we're being fiscally solvent. And so, as you can see, we are solvent in that regard.
Now, the road ahead a little bit of what we're expecting, and what you can expect from us in terms of, reports and financials. December, we're gonna have our 2425 audit presentation. So we've given you the unaudited, financials. Our auditors Look through everything and then they'll go ahead and opine on what they see and how they feel. At that same meeting, we're also gonna have first interim. I know that this might not be exciting for most, but we get like a double header of unaudited actuals and the first interim report.
So, you know, I know the financial YouTubers right now are probably really excited, about that meeting. They bookmarked it, but, we'll have a lot of information for you that night and, we'll also then be updating all of our assumptions as we continue to go on in March. We're gonna have the second interim report in January. We're gonna get some updates from the governor on, where they find the state budget. So, with that said, are there any questions? Any I'm gonna oh, I was just gonna thank you because it's very clear, and
I don't know how many times I get to giggle during a presentation of our of our unedited actuals. Elvia, the whole team, really. Everyone in the office next to us, thank you for so much providing this information in such a clear and concise and easy to digest way because it's not for most of us. So you make it easy for for us to at least halfway get it, and then you make us all the way get it by the end. Thank you. Appreciate it. Good job. So, yes, I'd like to echo that. And, mister Golden, I had a question. Mhmm. So on the cola factor, slide, you talk about the fact that the year to
year, difference results in only point point 27% increase as opposed to the 2.3% due to declining enrollment, and I would add probably attendance. Correct? So can you kinda help expand upon that and and the impact on from enrollment, as well as attendance and how it impacts the funding that we receive? Yeah. So the attendance is pretty critical to school district funding. And the way that school districts that are in declining enrollment are funded is generally
off of the prior three year ADA average. And so, if you have any given year where you have a down year in attendance, that's gonna live with you for three more years. And so, that's why it's extremely critical that we're at school, that we're attendance is a priority simply because it's not only gonna impact the financials side of things, it's also gonna impact the education side of things. You know, as we talk about all the different things, the assessments, and the learning that's happening, it's not just a financial component.
There's the education component. And so, it's definitely critical to the funding side of things, but I would probably even argue more about, you know, the loss of learning that can happen when we're not in class. But definitely, it's gonna our attendance and our enrollment will impact our funding drastically. And so, that's why it's extremely critical any given year that we try to make sure that we're at school, we're learning and, it has a compounding benefit I'd say. Yes. Thank you. And I I guess I'd like to, point our attention to an email that everyone
should have received in their inbox around the impact of attendance and average daily attendance and what that means in terms of the funding that we get and the so what of it. I think the parents and the families need to really understand kind of what you said around not only the impact to learning, but also to the funding which then equates itself to the programs that we're able to offer, to the number of teachers we can have. It's it really to the awards that we can qualify for as a school.
It the impact is so broad, and I'll let doctor Pulver talk to, to that because I I think that, this is such a crucial component. Maybe we don't all understand the intricacies of the numbers that's shared, but this one piece we all should be really clear on. Yes. Thank you, missus Partesani. We did send out an email this late this afternoon to all of our families, really highlighting the value and the importance of attendance for all the academic and sense of belonging that we just heard mister Golden, talk about, but really the financial aspect too. And so California schools are funded based upon attendance, not enrollment.
And so every single day matters, and that's what we really wanted to kind of highlight to our families that with our attendance rates of, if we were funded at 100%, we would see, close to $4,000,000 more in our operating budget on an annual basis. Dollars 4,000,000 more. I believe last year we cut about $2,000,000 when we did the layoffs and the incentives, etcetera. And so imagine if we could have 4,000,000. What we also just tried to articulate is what if we just had a 1% increase? Because before COVID, our attendance rates were close to 97%.
They were 96.6, 96.7. And lately they've been hovering in the 95.5, 95.6, 95.7. And just a 1% increase in our attendance would garner a million dollars more in funding to provide support for students, to provide staffing, increased staffing and programs and services. And so, we think that's really important for families. And in that message too, we said, you know, do you realize our students, they really only attend one hundred and eighty days out of three sixty five? That's not even 50% of a school, of a, of an academic of a year.
And so we've been really thoughtful with our, school calendar to provide breaks at a week long at Thanksgiving, two over the winter holidays, one in February. And then the spring break. So to be able to provide families opportunities to take breaks so that it doesn't impact learning. It doesn't impact funding. It doesn't impact the sense of belonging, for students. And so thank you. We wanted to be able to highlight that as well to our family. So thank you. Thank you. If I if I can share, it's funny that I I appreciate you called that
out as a parent because I sat here and got that email while we're in our first part of the meeting tonight and said it's $65.83 per day for each kid. Right? That's significant. $65, just $66 per day that a kid doesn't show up that we're losing as a district per child per day. So if they miss a day, that's significant. That adds up. If they're missing four or five or more days in the school year, that adds up very quickly. I also just wanna say because and someone actually asked me that number the other day, so it's good. Now I know the number. But, also, I know I appreciate that from a district standpoint, we're also doing outward marketing and trying to make sure that we get students to show up.
And so I know we we have our, like, our target river campaign, and I appreciate, being shared that we invest in advertising, come to our district, and stay in our district and to see that that pays for itself. You know, you get three, four, or five students, that right away pays for itself. And so I I also appreciate we're being creative. We have a district that people should wanna come to and people should wanna stay in. And so we're making sure people are aware of that and know that this is this is a special place to be. And just to reiterate, I think the fact that what I don't think most families understand is that when we have an attendance rate, it affects our funding for three years. So, in that email and when you heard mister Golden really talk about is, our
communication officer came up with the phrase, attendance sticks. And it's true because it sticks with us for three years. So, really important for families to know that as well. And, doctor Pulver, could you also touch on the independent, study that we do offer in the event, those rare rare events that families must take vacation during, you know, non, I guess, permitted vacation times? What what is that for our district? So, if families are out for an extended period, I think there's a limited number of independent study days that, under the state of California for short term independent study.
And I think it's under 15 for the year. But the families, if they give us prior off notice to give time for the teachers to be able to plan their lessons, we and I think it's a three or five day notice prior. I'll turn it over to doctor Wieschreich. Then we can receive funding as long as they do their work while they're gone. So if they're gone, that work is due the very, day that they return. What gets really frustrating for teachers is they will spend all this time to plan and to organize the work for families if they're on an independent study, and then
the child will come back and the work's not done. And so why did you make this teacher go through all these extra layers and steps to, take time out of their time. So it's really important that they do independent study. A, we receive funding, and, b, they need to get that work done and turned in. Thank you. I I mean, doctor Pulver captured all that. We do ask for a minimum of, three sorry, five day notice, and we only grant independent study if a family is gone for a minimum of three days and a maximum of 15 for one square collectively.
Thank you. Any other questions? Tim, that was fabulous. Thank you. You did a wonderful job. Thank you so much. Thank you. We are moving on to consent items. We have two consent items being pulled, nine f and nine I. Do I have a motion to approve consent items nine a through e and g through h and k through l? So moved. So any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. The motion carries five zero. And now we're looking at, 9 f. I'd like to move approval of 9 f.
Second. Oh, okay. So I'm I pulled that, and it was because it's about a a UCLA math project that we are going to use that involves AI, and it sounds absolutely wonderful. So I would really appreciate it if missus Reed would address tell us a little bit more about it. Thank you so much, president Davidson. As the board knows, we've had a group of teachers and administrators known as the secondary math collaborative who have been engaging in ongoing work looking at math medical practices that impact student outcomes as well as looking at our math pathways, how students are
placed in math classrooms, really with a goal of wanting to increase math achievement as well as engage students into four years of mathematical study once they hit the high school level. And so each year we designate two full PD days for this group and any other math teacher who's interested at the secondary level to join us for a full day of learning. And so we're really excited. This year, the UCLA mathematics project will be spending a day with us in November and really providing professional development focused on the use of AI to personalize learning, enhance
problem solving and foster student engagement. Teachers will through hands on activities and discussions, learn about and learn how to use AI driven platforms, adapt lesson plans, and prepare students for a data driven future. AI, as you know, has been a hot topic, among teachers because there's so many possibilities of the way that it can target and refine learning for students. Modifications and differentiation that used to take teams hours of time to do can be done in such a more simplistic way to make sure that we are really leveraging
this technology to meet student needs. And so we're really excited about spending the day with the educators from UCLA to learn about their research and how they see this driving secondary mathematics. Thank you so much. I'm so I'm striving like everybody else to understand AI in our culture, and and there are so many branches to it. When I saw that, it was it looked like an exciting news. So I look forward to seeing how that works. Any further discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. The motion carries five zero. And now we look at aye and I will so move that we do con
that we approve consent item nine I. Second. Okay. Would you like to share with us why it was pulled? I would. Thank you very much. And it really ties into a lot of what we talked about a little bit earlier, and this is the, the approval of acceptance of a grant. And it's formally it was formally the Parkins, Carl Parkins grant, and it's now the twenty first Century Act. And, missus Reed, can you share a little bit more about it? It's related to strengthening career and technical education.
It is. And thank you, board member Hill. We receive this money annually to strengthen our CTE pathways. This year, we're receiving about $31,000 in additional funding to help, integrate academic and career technical instruction into our schools, serve special relations, special populations of students that are working within our CTE pathways. Some, as you know, trying to go through for through certificate programs, others that are getting experience before they choose a career path. And this really helps the administration support of our programs because as you can imagine,
for a TV and film class, for example, every few years, that equipment becomes a little bit outdated, needs to be replaced so that it really continues to be the equipment software and technology that professionals are using because that's what really makes CTE programs powerful is that kids are able to experience what it is like to work in that field of study and have some valuable hands on lessons to take with them as they enter into the job market or maybe decide to study further one of these pathways at a junior college or four year university.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you, missus Reed. I I I think those grant I'm so grateful to all those of you that are applying for the grants because another big fact with the budget that kind of knocked me over was was the idea that we're funded at a little over $12,000, student and Laguna gets 26,000. So we have to make up for a lot of funding and it's the the wonderful missus Hill talked about how the community built those the buildings through their sacrifices
and taxing themselves with bonds. Grants are another way that's really important. So we really thank you so much for pursuing those. Thank you. Anybody else? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. The motion carries five zero. Moving on to action items. And we have certification. Oh, so, we have to That was correct. Oh, okay. Sorry. I didn't say that. Okay. So we're doing approval of first reading of revised board by law on legal protection. And doctor Pulver, would you like to speak to that? Yes. Thank you, madam president.
So the, anything in the nine thousands typically of board policies are, by laws really pertaining to board members and, how we operate as a governance team. And so this has been one of the policy updates presented by CSBA, really requiring providing liability insurance for board members so that you are covered. The district provides insurance and coverage for, omissions that or actions that you take as long as you're doing them in good faith, actions for you as as a board member. However, one of the highlight changes, and I think it would be kept in obvious,
but I think it's important. One of the changes in the updated policy from CSBA is obviously that nothing in the board bylaw here is intended to protect a board member from criminal or civil liability if injury caused by the board member's own wrongful conduct or certain violations of the law. But just updating some of the language from CSBA and, bringing that forward for your review. And if you want, one of the things we learned at a previous, towards the end of last year, that, board policies that are more routine in nature, you could
choose. Normally, we do two readings. You could choose to approve, a first reading and waive the second reading on any board policy. And I would recommend if you do end up doing that, they would only be on policies that are more routine in nature and you don't anticipate changing. Do I have a motion? So may I move to approve not 10 a and with the waiving of the second reading? I second. Is there any discussion? Might work for me. We had it all stale. We did. We practiced. That's alright. I'm trying to just get second with, waiving the second.
Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. The motion carries five zero. Now moving on to approval of supplemental materials, Mrs. Reed. Thank you, president Davidson. Tonight, we're bringing back forward to the board anatomy and physiology by biozone for Los Amritos high school CTE anatomy and physiology and advanced anatomy and physiology courses. This resource provides additional visuals and practice for understanding physiological functions as well as projects to guide students through the exploration exploration of advanced concepts.
And this has been on public preview with education services since our last board meeting. Thank you. Do I have a motion for approval? Also move. Second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. The motion carries five zero. Moving on to the adoption of resolution twenty twenty five twenty twenty six dash two, appropriations limit. Missus Snir? Thank you, madam president. We bring forward this GAN calculation every year as part of, of our unaudited actuals. And what the purpose of the GAN limit is to place a limit on how
much school district can spend from tax revenues. They collect ensuring that spending grows at a reasonable pace in line with overall economy. So it's just making sure that we meet that calculation every year. Thank you. Do I have a motion for approval? I so move. Is there any discussion? This is a roll call vote. Missus Patasani. Aye. Missus Hill. Aye. Missus Davidson. Aye. Mister Forhan. Aye. Mister Bragman. Aye. Motion carries five zero. And now we are moving on to the adoption of the 2024, 20 '25 unaudited
actuals since mister Golden did such a great job. Mrs. Schneier. Yes. Thank you, madam president. As mister Golden presented, we as a district do meet the 3% requirement that is, required when we submit this unaudited actual. So with approval, we will be submitting this to county office of education and the CDE. Do I have a motion for approval? I'll so move. Second. Any discussion? Thank you. Yeah. Thank you very much. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. The motion carries five zero. Now we're looking at the adoption of resolution twenty twenty five twenty six for specific
credential authorizations for 2526. Doctor Wiestwright? Yes. Thank you, madam president. Tonight, we're bringing forward, an annual authorization that allows for our secondary teachers to be assigned to students outside of their specific credential area. They have been confirmed to meet both state and district guidelines based on our education code and are subject to annual board approval. This board approval has to be obtained prior to our census day, which is coming up in October. Every school year, we approve approximately 23 to 25, secondary teachers under this process. Many of whom are teachers that are get, teaching in an athletic period at the
high school and need to get PE credit for that one period. Thank you. Do I have a motion for approval? So moved. I'll second. Any discussion? This is a roll call vote. Missus Potasani. Aye. Missus Hill. Aye. Missus Davidson. Aye. Mister Forhan. Aye. Mister Bragman. Aye. Motion carries five zero. Approval of certificated personnel to serve as members of the administrative expulsion pay hearing panel and expulsion readmission panel. Doctor Wiesright? Yes. Thank you, madam president. We bring this forward every year as well in alignment with our district board policy. We have to have panel members that can serve as an impartial administrative panel, composed
of certificated personnel, none of whom can be members of our board of education. And we bring this forward each year. Thank you. Do I have a motion for approval? So moved. Second? I'll second. As part of signing. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. The motion carries five zero. Moving on to approval of warrants, and those are our bills. And this week, there were only 20 pages. And I I I I thought something went wrong, but we had two meetings this month. That's why, yes, we didn't have lesser bills. But yeah. So no. Do I hear a motion for approval?
I so move. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries five zero. Now the favorite part, acceptance of donations. So these come from our community, and and it's absolutely astounding how generous everybody is, organizations, individuals, clubs. So our total This is, if I could, I just want to highlight, you know, you see it down there at the bottom, Mary DeWitt from the McAuliffe Middle School who donated $10,000 so that the McAuliffe could still keep their AM and PM homework
club. And so that was made possible by a generous donation from a family member because, as we took a look at some of the interventions, that really wasn't an intervention we can we find out of LCFF anymore. And so, leave it to mister Quartermarch who found a a parent donor. And I just thought it'd be kinda cool to be able to highlight that. That's a pretty significant thing to kinda support, all students, potentially all students that we'll call it. Thank you. And thank you, missus DeWitt. Not to be outdone by the 70,000 that we ever had a donation of, but I just think that was what we haven't seen typically.
So I mean, how do we meet the need? Yeah. Somebody coming to meet the needs. So total monetary, $88,905.60 for a year, total of a $182,760.31. That's not beginning in January. That's beginning with the school year. So thank you. Do I have a motion for approval? Second. Any discussion? Maybe. Thank you. Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. Motion carries five zero. That ends our meeting. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry, Ryan.
Sorry. Okay. I'm not in a hurry. So, we now turn we're gonna look at classified personnel report and cert certificated. Doctor Waiswright? Thank you, madam president. Tonight, our, classified and certificated personnel reports reflect the update since our last meeting, and we recommend approval as submitted. Do I have a motion for approval? I so moved. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. The motion carries five zero. So I apologize for trying to skip things without the meeting. I really am not in a hurry to get home, but, and that's the end
of this meeting. We won't be going into closed session. We thank you all and wish you a great week.