School consolidation vote: video, key timestamps, and searchable transcript

Call to order — speaker(s) not assigned

We're going to go ahead and call the Amodore County Unified um school district meeting to order. Um all of our board members are present. Are there any public comments on close session? No.

Call to order — speaker(s) not assigned

Okay, we're going to go ahead and move into close session and we'll be back at 6:30 for open session.

Meeting opening — speaker(s) not assigned

come ahead and suspend our closed session. We may need to move back in after open session.

Meeting opening — speaker(s) not assigned

Um, are there any deletions or corrections to the agenda? There are not.

Meeting opening — speaker(s) not assigned

Okay. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance.

Meeting opening — speaker(s) not assigned

Salute. Pledge Ice to the flag of the United States of America and to the

Meeting opening — speaker(s) not assigned

republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Meeting opening — speaker(s) not assigned

[snorts] Okay, we're going to move on to item nine, employee organizations. Um, is Miss Jensen here or Okay.

Employee organizations — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Jeannie Jensen — teachers association

Good evening, Board of Trustees, Superintendent Critchfield, cabinet members, and Amar community.

Jeannie Jensen — teachers association

I am Jeannie Jensen, president of the Amar County Teachers Association. Thank you for this opportunity to speak about two topics.

Jeannie Jensen — teachers association

First, tomorrow at 6:00 in the Amador High School cafeteria is this ACTAT

Jeannie Jensen — teachers association

schoolboard candidate forum. We are looking forward to hearing from the candidates in districts one and two and

Jeannie Jensen — teachers association

extend an invitation to you and the public to attend.

Jeannie Jensen — teachers association

And second, I've looked into the delegation of authority to superintendent by other boards of education.

Jeannie Jensen — teachers association

I had a lot of questions that night. With that, I understand two things.

Jeannie Jensen — teachers association

Number one, the buck still stops with the school board.

Jeannie Jensen — teachers association

And number two, this just allows the superintendent leeway to perform his duties between meetings.

Jeannie Jensen — teachers association

And with that in mind, we are confident in your leadership.

Jeannie Jensen — teachers association

Thank you.

Employee organizations — speaker(s) not assigned

Thank you. [applause] Next up, we have um CSEA with Mr. Bird.

Employee organizations — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Eric Baird — classified employees association

Good evening, board members, Superintendent Critchfield, and uh public. I'm uh Eric Baird, CSEA president.

Eric Baird — classified employees association

[sighs]

Eric Baird — classified employees association

There are a lot of people who believe we could should consolidate and a lot of people who believe we shouldn't. And as the president of Chapter 239, my

Eric Baird — classified employees association

responsibility is to represent all of our classified employees equally, regardless of where they stand on the issue. Some of our members

Eric Baird — classified employees association

support this because they believe it could create a better future for a district. Others oppose it because they've lost trust in the district leadership and are concerned that the

Eric Baird — classified employees association

promises being made today may not become reality tomorrow.

Eric Baird — classified employees association

They have a very real question. If consolidation saves money, how much of this savings will actually make its way to the classified employees who work

Eric Baird — classified employees association

hard every day to keep the district running? I think it's fair to say that our employees have seen enough leadership changes, enough promises over

Eric Baird — classified employees association

the past few years. We don't want to keep repeating the same cycle with a new superintendent in the seat and the same problems left unsolved. So tonight, we

Eric Baird — classified employees association

ask you the board and you, Superintendent Critchfield, to make a decision and stand behind it. Whether you vote yes and move forward or vote no

Eric Baird — classified employees association

and put this to rest, we ask you do so with a clear commitment to the people who make this district work. Please put

Eric Baird — classified employees association

students and staff at the forefront of every decision you make. And when I say staff, I mean all staff, including classified employees.

Eric Baird — classified employees association

Our classified employees are the custodians who keeps keep our cool schools safe and clean. The maintenance and transportation workers who keep our

Eric Baird — classified employees association

campuses and buses running, the food service workers who feed our students, and the instructional aids who support them in the classroom, and the office

Eric Baird — classified employees association

staff who keeps the schools functioning every day. These employees should not be an afterthought. They are an essential part of our students education and the

Eric Baird — classified employees association

district's success. Whatever happens with consolidation, there must be room in the budget to invest in the people who invest in our students every single

Eric Baird — classified employees association

day. That means fair compensation, adequate staffing, safe work conditions, and the resources our employees need to

Eric Baird — classified employees association

do their jobs well. You can't continually ask people to do more, make sacrifices, and keep this district running without also making a commitment to take care of them.

Eric Baird — classified employees association

I represent employees who may disagree on tonight's decision, but they all deserve the same thing. Honest leadership,

Eric Baird — classified employees association

follow through on the commitments, and a genuine voice in the future of this district.

Eric Baird — classified employees association

So, whatever decision you make tonight, please make sure it's more than a vote.

Eric Baird — classified employees association

Make it a commitment to our students, to our staff, and the classified employees who show up every day to make this district what it is. Thank you.

Employee organizations — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Okay. Thank you.

Public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Um, we're going to go ahead and move on to public comment on non-aggenda items.

Public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Tonight, we'll be hearing all the public comments, but we will be sticking to three minutes for each person. Um, our f our only speaker for non-aggenda item is Diane Bennett.

Public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Diane Bennett — public comment

Good evening board, cabinet, public um commentators and everyone else here.

Diane Bennett — public comment

Diane Bennett, private citizen, speaking on a public matter. Um at last board

Diane Bennett — public comment

meeting, there was some talk about um giving the okay for the superintendent

Diane Bennett — public comment

to be able to spend a large amount of money in between board meetings. um back to my years of loan processing.

Diane Bennett — public comment

If I was to walk into a mortgage office and I brought in

Diane Bennett — public comment

paperwork from years ago that was not relevant to now and showed you bank statements from years ago that wasn't

Diane Bennett — public comment

relevant to now and said that my employee could write checks whenever they needed

Diane Bennett — public comment

to, I would be looking at a bad investment.

Diane Bennett — public comment

And that's not to say that we don't trust our current superintendent, but when we look at the history of superintendent in our district and their

Diane Bennett — public comment

ways of spending money, there was one that, you know, could just buy another computer cuz she didn't like what she had gotten

Diane Bennett — public comment

or went ahead and it was below a certain amount of money and could go ahead and get outside observers or whatnot to

Diane Bennett — public comment

facilitate information.

Diane Bennett — public comment

Those are the sort of things that we don't want to have happen again. One of the biggest reasons why this district cannot get another bond to pass is

Diane Bennett — public comment

because of the lack of faith that the community has that it will be spent the way that it's supposed to be spent. That

Diane Bennett — public comment

it's not going to go to people's friends and family plan to their ideas

Diane Bennett — public comment

and topics. We've had some great things in this county that could have been greater like the Shannondoa Valley Charter School, but when a

Diane Bennett — public comment

superintendent lost the county side, they purposely destroyed it by what they

Diane Bennett — public comment

did with the teacher movement there and other things. A school that had students with a waiting list went to 13 students

Diane Bennett — public comment

by Christmas time and it was because of poor management. So, one of the things that has not been brought up is a bond to save our schools the way they are.

Diane Bennett — public comment

And I've heard that there's been some looking into that and oh, our county can't afford that, but we could afford one for consolidation. Maybe look at

Diane Bennett — public comment

what the community is willing to put their necks out for and their pocketbooks out for and instead of pushing consolidation, push how to fix

Diane Bennett — public comment

stuff. One of our biggest things that we heard at the last meeting is that we're actually putting more money back in the piggy bank. We're getting closer to that

Diane Bennett — public comment

3% reserve. Well, if we're doing that right now, imagine if we hadn't spent that money on consolidation.

Public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Okay. Um, next we're going to go ahead and move into our action items. We do have public comment, so we'll go ahead and start. Our first speaker is Michael Garcia.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Michael Garcia — public comment

So, I'm probably not going to read this whole thing because I feel like there's something else that I want to say that I think it needs to be said before everybody else jumps on this microphone.

Michael Garcia — public comment

Um, so I have a couple things I'll read and then I'm just going to give this to you Critfield and if you want to pass it along to everybody, great. Cool. If not, it is what it is. Uh, so some of the

Michael Garcia — public comment

concerns I had uh are about the expectation that staff and families should rely on public transportation as a part of the solution. Public transit

Michael Garcia — public comment

may be reasonable option for some people, but it isn't realistic. Uh, it isn't a realistic alternative for everyone in a rural county. I want to

Michael Garcia — public comment

know where you're going to get money to pay for my transit pass, but you can't pay me for gas. That's crazy. That's one of my favorite sayings. You know that.

Michael Garcia — public comment

Um, let me see. Uh, I understand that the district faces financial pressures and I

Michael Garcia — public comment

recognize that difficult decisions have to be made, but projected savings should not come at the expense of a well-thoughtout, thorough environmental review, realistic transportation

Michael Garcia — public comment

planning, andor the well-being of our students, families, and employees. Uh, we owe it to our community. Uh, we owe our community more than assurances that

Michael Garcia — public comment

everything will work out. We owe them evidence, accountability, and willingness to address legitimate concerns. I'll give this to you in a second. uh with the last minute or

Michael Garcia — public comment

whatever I have of my time, I would just My name is Michael Garcia. Again, for those of you that didn't hear, I'm the culinary teacher at Argonaut. I don't

Michael Garcia — public comment

care if you know who I am, what I do. Um I think it's important that we all remember that a lot of our kids watch this and I've had my fair share of

Michael Garcia — public comment

crashs at this podium. Uh but I think it's very important that we remember that the five people up here aren't

Michael Garcia — public comment

getting paid really to do this. Uh and they're trying to do the best they can.

Michael Garcia — public comment

And while I may have disagreements with everybody on this side of the aisle, I still respect them enough to try to keep it as professional as possible. Sorry again for laughing at you the other

Michael Garcia — public comment

week. Um, but regardless of that, I think it's important that we remember that and that we aren't threatening people, um, making crazy, you know, just

Michael Garcia — public comment

doing some crazy stuff cuz I've seen some things in the months that I've been coming to these meetings with everything going on. So, I would ask to remind all of you, uh, that we're all adults. Some

Michael Garcia — public comment

of us, like myself, may be a little more immature. But regardless of that, I think it's important that you remember that you're an adult and your kid might watch this one day and you don't want

Michael Garcia — public comment

them laughing at you or really looking looking at you like, "Okay, that's my dad, uh, or that's my mom or whatever."

Michael Garcia — public comment

Um, try to have some dignity and respect, not only for yourselves, but for the people that are actually they're trying to do their best. we probably

Michael Garcia — public comment

don't agree on everything and that's obvious from the amount of people that are actually here tonight compared to all the other board meetings that I attend. Um, so just keep that in mind

Michael Garcia — public comment

and take it with a grain of salt. I don't care. You could talk to me about it later because I'm not afraid to talk to you about whether we agree or not.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Thank you. [applause] Thank you, Mike. [clears throat] Okay. Next, we have Patricia and Gija.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Thank you.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

Uh, good evening. Okay, good evening everyone. Uh, my name is Patricia Gija and I'm a mom of two Ion elementary

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

school students. Uh, board of trustees, I am asking you to please table this vote until all information is provided

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

regarding this consolidation. [gasps] I have emailed my questions and concerns to you all as well as the superintendent. And for these issues in

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

particular, the response I have received from Mr. Critfield is that he wants to give the board enough information to make an informed decision, but not going

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

too far with the plans until we know if we're consolidating or not. I'm not sure about you, but if it were up to me, I would want to have all of the information before I vote on something.

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

So, here is a list of outstanding concerns that I have compiled that still haven't been adequately addressed from my side. I'm sure there are many more.

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

Number one, what will happen with Trullia and our special education program under consolidation?

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

Number two, what will be the cost of the car pooling software and personnel to monitor this program? Number three, will

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

we need to add additional bus or van routes with consolidation? And if so, how many will we need? How many more

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

vehicles or personnel? How much will that cost? and is it even likely that we're going to get additional drivers with our troubled past of doing that?

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

Number four, I know Superintendent Critchfield and I discussed the cost of the Ion Junior High conversion and he stated it would cost 1.2 million, but

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

I'm curious as to why this was never presented publicly. Is this a real number?

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

Number five, will the Ion Junior High site be fully fenced around like the current elementary school site is now?

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

Number six, has the data for the future population of Ion been received yet and considered? Number seven, I know

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

Superintendent Critchfield and I discussed not being able to consolidate Pine Grove and Pioneer Elementary, but based on the capacity found in the

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

FickMat report, Pine Grove has a capacity of 405 students. Per CDE in 202526

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

school year, Pinerove had 275 students enrolled and Pioneer had 184. That's a total of 379 students below the

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

capacity. So, it seems that Pinerove would be able to accommodate all upcountry elementary students. These

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

campuses are only 7 mi apart. So, I'm wondering why this has not been revisited. Number eight, the district office could also be consolidated with

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

another existing facility since the age of that building makes utilities very pricey, such as a $15,000 P Genie bill over the summer. Lastly, number nine.

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

What will happen to the current adult ed facilities since they are moving to the junior high uh Jackson Junior High site?

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

And why isn't the Jackson Junior High site still on the chopping block like I own Elementary is? These concerns should be addressed before you vote, not after.

Patricia Gija — public comment (caption spelling)

I hope you will advocate for having all of this important information before you make your decision. Thank you.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Okay, next we have Frank Vargas.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[clears throat]

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Frank Vargas — public comment

good evening everybody. Uh some of you may know me and for that I apologize. Um I am coming from a perspective that I

Frank Vargas — public comment

haven't heard uh which is the parent who isn't fully involved in all schoolboard meetings and reading all reports and uh

Frank Vargas — public comment

relies on the ledger dispatch and the muck that's on Facebook to try to sort out what's going on with the

Frank Vargas — public comment

consolidation. And my wife and I were talking and I wanted to kind of speak on her behalf. She couldn't be here. She's with the children. Her name is Erica

Frank Vargas — public comment

Vargas. That's with a C, not a K. Don't don't don't confuse it. Um, but it seems like the consolidation

Frank Vargas — public comment

issue has been thrust upon us with a little bit of a emotional manipulation, which is if we don't do this, we are

Frank Vargas — public comment

going to be in financial ruin. Uh, and that's not quite a fair way to give anybody an option to make a decision.

Frank Vargas — public comment

So, I would ask that the board table this vote uh until more information can be given such as what are the

Frank Vargas — public comment

alternatives to the consolidation? We've heard people are either for consolidation or absolutely opposed to it. Nobody has said here's a different

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

way or here's a different solution we can do. Um so that's all I've got. Thank you and have a good night. [applause] Okay, next we have Chad Simmons.

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

Good evening, trustees. Mr. Crushfield, cabinet.

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

My name is Chad Simmons and I am the mayor of Jackson. I am a 1989 graduate of Amiter High School. My wife is a 1992

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

graduate of Argonaut High School as well as our twins in 2022.

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

As you are aware of, on September September 28th, 2026, the city council voted 50 in favor of resolution 2026-41,

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

opposing the planned conversion of Argonaut High School to a junior high and supporting its continued use as a high school.

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

We do not know the financial ramifications.

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

We do not know the financial ramific ramifications that will uh most assurely affect the city of Jackson, but you can

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

be assured that there will be some. I come for before you tonight to urge you to vote no on the current version of

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

consolidation. I feel we need to not keep rushing on to another plan so quickly after each failed version. The

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

current projection as per your own enrollment analysis shows that the 202526 school year for 10 1112 for students

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

attending traditional school is 842. The current capacity at at Amitter High School is 875 and you say you will add

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

two portables to bring it to 925 that is 83 an 83 student buffer. Ion has,00

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

homes in the works. I have a feeling they might have some more students moving in. This will in turn affect the proposed junior high as well.

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

Parking at Amodore is going to be overwhelming at the school with most kids being of driving age. That being said, the two small roads leading to

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

Argonaut campus will be so congested it might come to a standstill.

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

This will be a drop off school, meaning that parents and buses will not be staying but going in and out. As of right now, when students and parents

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

leave at the end of school, Argonaut Drive is so backed up, it creates a public safety hazard should the fire

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

department receive a call. The city of Jackson has a plan in place for the Sutter Street extension.

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

This is where the tra this way the traffic will be metered. This plan was placed on hold though while the EPA has been conducting a site remediation on

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

the Van Horn property. But we are again working with ACTC and Calrans to get this project back on the books.

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

Hopefully the county will be able to move forward with the long- aaited and anticipated Wicklo extension. These two improvements will provide a much safer

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

and fluid entry into Argonaut High School. Amler has 22 acres and is built all but built out. Argonaut sits on 44

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

acres and still has room to grow. With the future of Ion, with the future growth in the Ion area, I believe we

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

need to slow down and not jump the gun on anything that we might have to change again in 5 to 10 [music and bell] years down the road.

Chad Simmons — mayor of Jackson

Please, let's be patient and thoughtful in our planning. Sir, your time is up. Thank you.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Thank you. Next up, we have John Gdney.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

Thank you, Madam President, trustees, Superintendent Critchfield, John Gedney, Amadore County Transportation Commission.

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

Uh, we understand the board is poised to vote tonight to adopt the initial study, mitigated negative declaration, and approve the school consolidation

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

project. KCTC takes no position on the school consolidation project itself. Our role tonight is strictly focused on our

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

statutory lane. That includes making sure that projects with traffic impacts are both analyzed and mitigated pursuant

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

to SQA. As we explained in our comment letter to you submitted to the district in response to the ISMD, this project is not ripe for approval

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

tonight. The ISD MND is woefully deficient and until it is revised appropriately, it should not come before

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

you. We urge you not to approve this tonight. From a transportation planning perspective, the current strategy for addressing traffic has contorted into an

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

administrative Gordian knot. By placing the traffic study outside of the SQA framework, the district is improperly

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

peacemealing and then deferring a mitigation strategy by pursuing a workaround designed to

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

rely on CALR to unilaterally resolve a noted local intersection that this project will affect.

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

We understand that the district is concerned about funding expensive traffic mitigation measures.

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

Unfortunately, that is not a basis for evading analysis.

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

The good news, however, is that there is a path forward that allows the project to proceed and we make ourselves available to you to help you do that.

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

Otherwise, I must provide advice as the regional transportation planning authority to ensure the public record is accurate before a vote is taken that

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

there are technical and financial realities of state programming. State funding programs have rigid legal boundaries

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

like CALR state highway operation and protection program. The shop restricted by law to basic highway preservation and asset preservation.

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

It cannot legally be utilized as a mitigation fund for local agency projects. Calrans lacks the statutory mechanism to absorb these types of

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

localized project induced liabilities on its own. State infrastructure improvements require standard regional timelines and operate on complex

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

multi-year funding cycles. The attempt to secure a unilateral state fix outside of the standard established programming

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

process means that increased school traffic will flood the state route 49 setter Ion intersection long before

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

physical improvements can realistically be funded or built.

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

I'm also submitting our feedback on the responses to comments which were included in as part of your packet.

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

You'll see that the traffic study is deficient. And one important flaw I'd like to point out and I provided the document to you before the meeting.

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

Master response number four regarding traffic safety. It's a important flaw in the analysis. Our expert engineer

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

comment that the dis is the comment that the district continues to take the position that there are no physical changes to the intersections though so so there is no safety impact

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

Mr. is I apologize to interrupt you, but your time is up. Finish second. Second.

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

Take me 10 seconds. So, the position that Hold on. Hold on. There was a motion on the floor. Madam President, yeah, we need to vote.

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

Peter, no.

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

Ken, yes.

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

Shane, yes.

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

James, I I'm a yes. Go ahead.

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

Thank you very much. 10 seconds. Our the master response number four regarding traffic safety. Our expert engineer comment, "The district continues to take the position that there are no physical

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

changes to the intersections, so so there's no safety impact. The responses completely ignore that operational changes impact traffic in

John Gedney — Amador County Transportation Commission (interrupted)

intersections." Thank you very much for your [applause] Thank you, sir.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Okay, our next speaker is Butch Wagner.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Butch Wagner — district administrator

Moving Amodore County Schools forward.

Butch Wagner — district administrator

Good evening board president, trustees, cabinet, and public.

Butch Wagner — district administrator

My name is Butch Wagner. I've served Amodore County Unified School District for 24 years, including 12 years as principal of educational options, two

Butch Wagner — district administrator

years at Amodore High School, and currently at Ion Junior High School.

Butch Wagner — district administrator

This experience has given me a broad perspective of the needs of students across our district. I am also a product

Butch Wagner — district administrator

of the district's original consolidation in the 1980s. My children attended this district and today I want something greater for my grandchildren.

Butch Wagner — district administrator

Consolidation is not a new conversation.

Butch Wagner — district administrator

We have studied it, formed committees, debated solutions for decades. I've sat on many of those. At some point, we must

Butch Wagner — district administrator

move from studying the problem to solving it. As a small district, we face real limitations. Career and technical

Butch Wagner — district administrator

education programs need sufficient enrollment to remain sustainable.

Butch Wagner — district administrator

Advanced placement courses required qualified teachers and enough students to support a broad selection of classes.

Butch Wagner — district administrator

And our students need timely interventions and targeted support. We cannot expect two small schools to offer

Butch Wagner — district administrator

everything independently. By bringing our resources together, we can expand opportunities, strengthen academic

Butch Wagner — district administrator

support, and provide greater equity for all students.

Butch Wagner — district administrator

Consolidation are consolidating our schools creates a seamless secondary pathway, allowing students to explore

Butch Wagner — district administrator

career options as early as a seventh grade and providing a stronger foundation to build upon. Fewer

Butch Wagner — district administrator

transitions minimize emotional distress, foster lasting friendships, and offer greater stability during these critical

Butch Wagner — district administrator

growth years, giving students the freedom to discover and prepare their futures. I recognize that our schools

Butch Wagner — district administrator

are deeply re rooted in our communities, and those connections deserve respect, but we must also consider what our

Butch Wagner — district administrator

students lose when we preserve a structure that limits their opportunities.

Butch Wagner — district administrator

I believe consolidation is not the an easy choice. It requires deliberate planning, accountable know uh

Butch Wagner — district administrator

accountable leadership and unwavering commitment to student success. We currently have the most knowledgeable board and staff in place to make this a reality.

Butch Wagner — district administrator

But choosing not to change is still a choice. Let us respect our history without nostalgia to determine our

Butch Wagner — district administrator

future. Let us choose opportunity over limitation and the educational well-being of our students over the

Butch Wagner — district administrator

preservation of the status quo. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less. Thank you. [applause] Thank you, Butch.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Hey, next up we have Jack Mitchell.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

Board of Trustees, Superintendent Critchfield. On behalf of the city vion, I'm Jack Mitchell. Council member, I'm reading these comments into the record

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

tonight. The city submitted written comments on September 30th to best to a best of our ability. We now have reviewed the full 1162 pages of it. That

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

review only confirms this project is being approved the wrong way. Ion is not a bystander here, and we are not the only community feeling this. Families

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

across the district are being asked to accept real lasting changes to where their kids go to school. We take that seriously and every community deserves a fair process.

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

Ion is the only one losing a school campus outright. For the first time, our seventh and eighth graders will be bust off out of the city entirely. We're also

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

the late the largest and fastest growing city in the county and our student population is only going to grow. We cannot sit on the sidelines on this one.

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

We have three points tonight. First, this is an EIR disguised as an MND.

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

Under SEQA, an EIR is the default fair argument standard as a low bar on purpose. This project consolidates six

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

campuses into five. Closes schools, closes a school, shifts hundreds of students across the city and county lines. It changes attendance boundaries,

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

makes real changes to enrollment, grade configurations, bus routing, and drop off locations.

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

Doesn't matter what the label on it is.

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

You need you need to follow the process. You need to have an EIR.

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

Second, the transportation record alone requires an EIR. District's position is that 25 comments out of the 111 1162

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

pages of analysis. Nobody has raised a fair argument of significant impact. We disagree. VMT is not the only transportation impact under SQA. There

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

are real unanswered questions about traffic hazards and emergency access.

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

Core of the problem, the traffic study in this document was built for a different project. It comes from October 2024 study from an earlier plan that

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

combined the high schools at Argonaut and the junior highs at Amadore. This is not what is being proposed now and this is no minor change. We're not trying to nitpick, but we know enough to say this.

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

The district recycled a traffic study built for a different project. At Ion's remaining campuses, enrollment rises from 396 to about 658 students. Our

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

residents and every family affected by this deserve a real traffic study for the actual project on the table with real time to review it.

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

Third, even setting all that aside, this document has changed too much to be adopted without recirculation.

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

We've been surprised how much of the analysis and central mitigation measures have changed since the draft went out for public review. Changes like that

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

require recirculation, so the public has a real chance to review what changed.

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

Take a close look at mitigation measure TRA1, the district's main traffic mitigation me measure. This is not a wording clarification. The mitigation

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

measure is substantially rewritten. That is meaningfully different mitigation commitment than what the public actually reviewed.

Jack Mitchell — Ione City Council

It deserves re recirculation and we do we do not support adopting a final MND tonight.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Standard get busy. Thank you for your time. [applause] Okay, next up is Greg Wall.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Greg Wall — teacher

Good evening. Good evening all. Uh my name is Greg Wall and I'm a teacher at Emiter High School. I spoke a few weeks ago about my perspective on the

Greg Wall — teacher

positives that will result from consolidation.

Greg Wall — teacher

One of those key points was the benefit for when all or sorry when amateur students receive instruction from excellent Argonaut teachers and vice

Greg Wall — teacher

versa. I would like to amend my statement in one way. This is due to the closing statements by the board members at the last meeting. The words that

Greg Wall — teacher

stood out the most to me as poignant, insightful, and appropriate were those of Clare K, the Argod student member.

Greg Wall — teacher

She gave us all a reminder that students come first in all of the matters of this district. And I realized that I forgot a very important benefit due to consolidation.

Greg Wall — teacher

An advantage will be gained when Amir students get to be in classes with excellent Argonaut students and vice

Greg Wall — teacher

versa. Ammed County is blessed to have among its student body young women such as Claire and Lauren. They make their

Greg Wall — teacher

schools better, the learning environment more invigorating, and their peers gain from their leadership. I can see this firsthand with the addition of Libby

Greg Wall — teacher

McGee and the AP gov class. Just today, Nolan Davidson and Libby collaborated on the upcoming mock collection and their thoughtful brainstorming was more productive.

Greg Wall — teacher

I support consolidation for fiscal reasons, for administrative efficiency reasons, and many others. But if I pay heed to Clare case council, then the

Greg Wall — teacher

primary benefit I point to is the integration of two student bodies that will make each other better. Thank you.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Thank you. Next, we have Tom Payton.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Tom Payton — public comment

Hello, my name my name is Tom Payton.

Tom Payton — public comment

I'm a local business owner uh graduate of Jackson High School and uh have children and grandchildren that have

Tom Payton — public comment

been in the district and are in the district. Um my comments today are mainly to uh the board as it sits in

Tom Payton — public comment

front of me. Um, I'd like to say if you approve this consolidation with these concerns, while these concerns remain unresolved,

Tom Payton — public comment

think about what you are telling I own [snorts] families across this district, ACTC, the cities of Jackson, I own and

Tom Payton — public comment

Sedar Creek, and Calrans. The message you are sending is, "We heard your concerns. We don't really care. It

Tom Payton — public comment

sounds like that this district wants to operate on an island, but guess what? You need this community. Consolidation.

Tom Payton — public comment

Consolidating the high schools does not fix your facilities. Shuffling students between campuses does not repair leaking roofs or erase years of deferred

Tom Payton — public comment

maintenance. You haven't provided a cost estimate for converting I own junior high into an elementary school. You haven't demonstrated with a workable

Tom Payton — public comment

master schedule that you have enough classrooms for courses you are promising. Two years ago, the proposed junior high would have been over

Tom Payton — public comment

capacity. Three years ago, the high school would have been exactly at capacity. But you didn't learn that from

Tom Payton — public comment

the district, did you? A parent had to compile that information for you.

Tom Payton — public comment

Parents should not have to assemble the basic facts this board needs to make for an informed decision.

Tom Payton — public comment

You haven't presented a transportation plan for additional bus riders and athletes traveling between campuses. You haven't provided a full accounting of

Tom Payton — public comment

ongoing costs, including the mitigation measures in the mitigated negative declaration. You're asking this

Tom Payton — public comment

community to accept we'll figure it out as we go. While our children live with the consequences, you can't dismiss this community today

Tom Payton — public comment

and expect it to open its checkbook tomorrow. When you come back asking for another bond, you'll be asking the same

Tom Payton — public comment

people whose valid concerns you dismiss to trust your judgment. Think beyond whether you have enough votes on this

Tom Payton — public comment

board. Think about whether you will have the community support when you need it.

Tom Payton — public comment

And don't hide behind the phrase, "This is what's best for the kids." Saying it does not make it true. You have to

Tom Payton — public comment

demonstrate it with answers about safety in classrooms, transportation, and all the costs. Until you do, you're asking

Tom Payton — public comment

our children to bear the risks of a plan you have not shown is in their best interest. Thank you for listening.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Okay, next we have Bonnie Gail.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Bonnie Gail.

Bonnie Gail — public comment (caption spelling)

Good evening trustees and cabinet board member and cabinet board members.

Bonnie Gail — public comment (caption spelling)

Um, first of all, I'd like to express my gratitude that I keep having positive things happening in my program such as

Bonnie Gail — public comment (caption spelling)

additional bodies to help educate my students. That's a positive for me.

Bonnie Gail — public comment (caption spelling)

Secondly, on the subject of consolidation, I would request that the board I request two things of the board before

Bonnie Gail — public comment (caption spelling)

you vote. Number one, that the traffic traffic study be completed to ensure that CALR can provide the financial

Bonnie Gail — public comment (caption spelling)

assistance and a stoplight at the setter I own road and highway 49. There will be a loss of life. I've travel that

Bonnie Gail — public comment (caption spelling)

multiple times a day because that's where we live. The second one is that the financial details of retrofitting the classroom areas not just for the

Bonnie Gail — public comment (caption spelling)

high school but for my program the transition program be included in the

Bonnie Gail — public comment (caption spelling)

details of the consolidation reports to manage the full transparency of the projects. Um thank you for your time.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Okay, next is Diane Bennett.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Diane Bennett — public comment

back again. Good evening everyone. Diane Bennett, private citizen speaking on a public matter. Um, where do I start?

Diane Bennett — public comment

Uh, I'm here today because the decisions to consolidate Amiter Countyy's high school is too important to make without clear answers, complete information, and

Diane Bennett — public comment

a full understanding of the consequences. This is about more than buildings or budgets. It's about our students, our families, our teachers, and the future of our entire community.

Diane Bennett — public comment

We must also recognize that the cities of Jackson, Ion, and Sutter Creek along with Calrans have expressed have expressed opposition to the current

Diane Bennett — public comment

proposal. Their concerns deserve to be taken seriously. The current reports are insufficient to fully address the potential impacts of consolidation.

Diane Bennett — public comment

Before moving forward, we need to complete or we need complete, reliable, and updated information, not unanswered

Diane Bennett — public comment

questions and promises that everything will be worked out later. First, there are no guarantees about staffing or class offerings, especially when we

Diane Bennett — public comment

still have the insurance fiasco that we're slowly digging out of. But it doesn't mean that our teachers and our staff are not paying the financial

Diane Bennett — public comment

burdens of that. What assurances do we have that students will still have access to the classes they need, the teachers they depend on, and the

Diane Bennett — public comment

programs that help them succeed. We cannot ask families to accept such a major change without knowing what will actually be available to their children.

Diane Bennett — public comment

Second, we need to consider the students who are bullied, isolated, or struggling socially. For some students, having another high school option can make the

Diane Bennett — public comment

difference between staying in school and giving up. If we consolidate our schools, where will those students go?

Diane Bennett — public comment

What happens when a school environment is no longer safe or healthy for them?

Diane Bennett — public comment

We cannot take away options without having real alternatives in place. We must also consider special education.

Diane Bennett — public comment

What will these changes mean for special education programs, services, staffing, transportation, and student support? I don't think any of you figured out what

Diane Bennett — public comment

the cost was for the portable toilets to be put up at Independence before Bonnie's program was moved from the

Diane Bennett — public comment

Shannondoa site. That was amazing for it. How will we ensure these students do not lose services they depend on? We deserve a detailed plan and accurate

Diane Bennett — public comment

cost estimates before any decision is made. There are consequences beyond the classroom, too. Schools are an important part of a community stability and

Diane Bennett — public comment

appeal. If educational opportunities are reduced, families may cons reconsider where they live, potentially affecting property values and our ability to

Diane Bennett — public comment

attract families. We must carefully examine these risks before making decisions that could have lasting effects on our communities. We cannot

Diane Bennett — public comment

simply say, "We'll figure it out later." Later is too late when students have lost programs, staff members have lost positions, families have fewer choices, and public money has already been spent.

Diane Bennett — public comment

Our students deserve stability. Our families deserve choices. Our communities deserve to be heard. And our taxpayers deserve accountability. Please

Diane Bennett — public comment

ensure that every question is answered, every cost is understood, and every potential impact is thoroughly studied before moving forward. Once we eliminate

Diane Bennett — public comment

the options, rebuilding them may be difficult, expensive, or impossible.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Your time is up. Thank you. [applause] Next, we have Ronnie Gold.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause and cheering]

Ronnie Gold — public comment

Hello. Um, I didn't actually plan on speaking tonight. Um, I didn't feel as if I had anything new to add to the

Ronnie Gold — public comment

consolidation topic after the various years. And that is until I decided to throw my hat into the ring for district

Ronnie Gold — public comment

2 schoolboard seat. And with that, I do have more information to add. tomorrow night. At the top of my Q&A questions

Ronnie Gold — public comment

for tomorrow night, it states that these questions have been developed by stakeholders, staff, community members, and parents. And with that being said,

Ronnie Gold — public comment

reading through these questions, there's a statement within one of these questions that states, "Teachers at every site mention staff shortages,

Ronnie Gold — public comment

large class sizes, and lack of basic support as major issues affecting their students." They did not mention specific

Ronnie Gold — public comment

sites. They mentioned all sites in this quote. I was under the impression that one of the various reasons we are consolidating is because our class sizes

Ronnie Gold — public comment

are not big enough. It has been stated we are not running efficiently and that we in fact need to make our class sizes larger, not that having larger class

Ronnie Gold — public comment

sizes was the problem. It has been cited various times the number of singletons at both high school sites and also as a reason for the need to consolidate. I

Ronnie Gold — public comment

would have loved for the information to be provided to the public so that we can see everything in in black and white. If you're going to use this information as

Ronnie Gold — public comment

a reason for consolidation, I believe we need to see it all laid out on the table with name redactions if necessary.

Ronnie Gold — public comment

Because I live in Ion and have children that attend I own schools, it's hard for me not to mention I own tonight. Ion, as many of you know, has the largest

Ronnie Gold — public comment

student population as well as the largest voter population amongst the cities in Amodore County. If you think taking away a school from Ion and then

Ronnie Gold — public comment

turning around and asking the citizens of Ion to vote in favor of a bond in future years, I think it will be a very hard task. You will have to get the

Ronnie Gold — public comment

people of Ion on board in order to pass a bond, which is not the first time I've said this. I do believe this county could pass a bond, but we have to get

Ronnie Gold — public comment

the community on board. It's been mentioned tonight about passing a bond to keep our current campuses the way they are and improve our current facilities. And I do believe in order to

Ronnie Gold — public comment

build trust with the community, we are going to have to listen to them. This might be the only path forward in getting money for our district. If we can prove that we have taken the

Ronnie Gold — public comment

community input into account and show them improvements at these campuses that they can actually see with their own eyes, maybe, just maybe, we can properly

Ronnie Gold — public comment

consolidate our high schools years down the road with heavy planning and doing this the right way. I believe a lot of the divide currently within the

Ronnie Gold — public comment

community is because there's some type of picture that's being painted that the people and citizens that aren't in favor for the current consolidation plan for

Ronnie Gold — public comment

some reason don't want what's best for students. And I would argue that anyone that approaches this podium about this topic, regardless of their opinion, is

Ronnie Gold — public comment

because they in fact care very deeply about their children. Board, I'm asking you tonight as somebody that's possibly

Ronnie Gold — public comment

going to be taking a seat to please table this vote. There's not enough information on the table for you guys to properly make this vote.

Ronnie Gold — public comment

Thank you.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Okay, next we have Keith Lynch.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Keith Lynch — public comment

Keith Lynch, the arrogance for you guys to move forward when Jackson says no, Sutter

Keith Lynch — public comment

Creek says no, I own says no, District 1 is about to say no, District 2 is going to vote somebody new

Keith Lynch — public comment

in Mr. Geddney. I don't I'm going to put it to you super simple. I don't know that you guys get it or not. What Mr.

Keith Lynch — public comment

Gedney is saying, I'm going to translate for you. This is what I'm coming up with is that when there is an accident on these highways because you guys forced

Keith Lynch — public comment

this program in, consolidation in, and you pack those streets, when the first kid wrecks and dies, who's going to be

Keith Lynch — public comment

liable? Are you getting the Are you getting the lawsuit?

Keith Lynch — public comment

I think that's what he's saying. I think you're liable for forcing it in because it's not ready.

Keith Lynch — public comment

That That's what I'm going to get. I I want to let you guys also know. Peter knows it now. I didn't this like the first no. He got a no in today to Mr.

Keith Lynch — public comment

Gettney. But it is legal for you guys to say no. I just that that is on the table. You don't say it very often to Mr. Critfield, but nos are coming.

Keith Lynch — public comment

And when you force this in, I I I ask you to table the vote. Let District One speak. Let them speak. If they vote me

Keith Lynch — public comment

in, you're going to have to change course. You're going to have to come up with a plan B. I'm I'm going to tell you that right. I'm going to hold you

Keith Lynch — public comment

accountable. If you don't, if you win, if you win, then I'm out of here. You don't have, you got nothing. Move on

Keith Lynch — public comment

with your plan. Vote it in. You voted in next month. But on on the third, you're going to know.

Keith Lynch — public comment

You're actually going to know. And you're going to be liable for the traffic. That is what Mr. Gdney is saying. Our schools, everything that Mr.

Keith Lynch — public comment

Wall says here, how great our schools can be and what we can do for the students and you and everything, we can do that now.

Keith Lynch — public comment

There's nothing holding us back now.

Keith Lynch — public comment

But you you continue to waste money and I don't understand it.

Keith Lynch — public comment

I I don't understand the administrative office. I'm going to go serve an apprenticeship here when I get voted in and I'm going to be super good at this

Keith Lynch — public comment

job at the end of it. I promise you that. [applause and cheering] Thank you.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Okay, next we have Candy Thompson.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

Good evening, board superintendent and cabinet. My name is Candy Thompson. As many of you know, I sat in your seats.

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

Actually, I sat in your seats longer than anyone of you on the board besides James. Of the six years that I was on the board, I was board clerk for four and board president for the last two.

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

That means I met with a superintendent every other week for six years straight.

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

I know what it's like to have a relationship with a superintendent. I love Jared. I think he's a great superintendent. I also know the job as of a superintendent is to connect with, if not all of you, at least three.

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

Because you know that all a superintendent needs to get anything past is three of you. I'm here before you today because I know what it's like to hear what the superintendent has to

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

say, to hear the reasoning, and for them not to present any other side to you other than what they want you to vote on. Do you wonder why you were only given a squa on one high school and not

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

two? Wouldn't the fiscal responsible decision be to give you the situation and condition of both high schools um to know if both could viably hold the

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

consolidation to make the best decision for our students? No, because a traffic study came up and they stopped any research in that area. However, there

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

has been no traffic study at the other option at Amidor. Do you think that was on purpose? As you all know, I am for

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

consolidation. I'm not for this consolidation because there's not enough planning to ensure that we won't waste another $5 million with nothing to show [clears throat] for it. I realize that

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

you as a board trusted the superintendent for the last four years on anything they brought to you to vote on for consolidation. You were coerced by a superintendent when you voted when

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

the board voted no to a salary schedule and do job description for a consolidated principal and athletic director and I pointed it out to you,

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

you did nothing. You then voted down the hiring of the personnel in those positions and they were still hired in those positions and you did nothing.

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

Why? Because the relationship you had with the superintendent, at least three of you. Consolidation can make sense to you. It does to me. But this proposal

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

without a plan where the superintendent has actually said that it's conceptual that you're going to vote yes and then figure it out. But you as a board are

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

held for this responsible for this vote tonight. And here are the facts of the case. You have not been given the full breakdown of all the numbers because you can't be cuz a lot of it's conceptual.

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

You're hoping people are going to retire that have high salaries. That's going to make up some of those numbers, right?

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

Um, you also have an extensive support needs classroom with accessibility restrooms, a teaching kitchen, sensory

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

space of all these things. Where's where's that? How's that getting to the high school? That has to be on the c the high school campus. I've not heard

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

anything about moving that over. What's the cost of that? What's going to be cost to to rebuild it? No. 30 students is not better per classroom than 20 or

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

less. I'm sorry, Peter. And you guys, it just your number one job as a board is fiscal oversight. How could you be asked

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

to vote on a good idea without backup regardless of how much you like or trust the superintendent? You have to see the data. I'm not saying don't consolidate.

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

I'm asking you to table the vote. Now that we have cities saying they're willing to help with road projects, wouldn't it make sense to see what can be done to make the best decision for

Kandi Thompson — former board trustee (name spelling unverified)

our students? Please table the vote for fiscal responsibility.

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Action item public comment — speaker(s) not assigned

Okay, that's it for public comment.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

We're going to go ahead and move into item one.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

Yes, we have our consultants from Place Works here, Malia and Mariana. So, ask them to come to the podium. They do have

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

a presentation um to bring forward regarding the final ISM and D, the mitigated negative declaration. So, I'll

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

turn the time over to them. of course board as they're presenting or after um you'll have plenty of time to ask them questions. We also have legal counsel here as well.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

Good evening board. Oh wait, I forgot the clicker. Okay. Um good evening board. My name is Mariana Zimmerman. I'm

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

an associate principal at Place Works and the project manager on this project. Introduce yourself.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

Good evening. Malia Duran, principal in charge for this project.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

When we were here during the September 16th board meeting, we gave an overview of the initial study mitigated negative declaration, also referred to as an ISM

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

andda process. At the September 16th board meeting, we were about halfway through the public review period. Today, we're

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

providing an overview of the process since then, including summary of the comments received, the response to

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

comments memorandum, and the actions in front of the board tonight.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

During the public review period, 25 comment letters were received, including from ACTC, DTSC, CDFW, Calrans, the

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

cities of Sutter Creek, Jackson, and I own and 10 residents.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

All comments were reviewed and responded to in the response to comments memorandum. The response to comments

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

memo included includes a list of comment letters, copies of the comment letters, master responses to reoccurring

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

comments, individual response individual responses to comments, and minor edits to the ISMD. The response to comments

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

memo along with the ISMD are included in the board packet for the decision makaker's consideration.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

Master responses address comments raised about mitigation measure TRA-1 about transportation demand management,

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

vehicle miles traveled analysis, uh the use of data from the 2024 transportation study, and traffic safety.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

Minor edits and clarifications were made to to the consistency analysis for ACTC regional transportational plan.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

Mitigation measure TRA-1 mitigation measure BIO-1 related to

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

preconstruction aven surveys. Mitigation measure BIO-2 related to bat roosting survey and habitat assessment. These

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

edits are minor and do not constitute a substantial revision under SQA guidelines section 15073.5

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

and that means that recirculation is not required.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

The actions in front of the board tonight include adoption of the ISM andD, adoption of the mitigation

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

monitoring and reporting program, approval of the project, and direct the filing of the notice of determination.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

Thank you.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

[applause]

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

Um, I'm going to open it up to questions. Do either of our student board members have any questions about this? No. Okay, Peter.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

I think I'll save um longer comments for if and when we move toward toward a vote. At this point, I would simply like

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

um the public to know and and also thank you for the exhaustive nature of your comments. Um it was not light reading

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

this weekend to go over 1,163 some odd pages. That was that was what I did this weekend. Um, I found your

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

[sighs and gasps]

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

I agree with you that your your changes are minor in nature and clarifying in nature and I do help think that's helpful with the the mitigation plan.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

So, thank you for that. I also just want to state that I appreciate the the time and the care and the respect you you showed to each and every comment even

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

though um some of the comments really didn't directly relate to the nature of the study. So, I just want to say thank you for your work and um do applaud the efforts that you've achieved.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

Thank you. Okay, Ken.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

So, a question I have for you and if you can just clarify for me, I we might have talked about this last meeting. Uh the vehicle miles traveled and the fact that

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

we relied on a lot of the older data from a couple years ago, why is that relevant and why didn't we have to do more of a study this time around?

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

bring Amy up for she is our transportation consultant to speak on this matter for you.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

Good evening. I'm Amy Lopez with KDson and Associates. Um our team prepared the transportation work for this M andD. Um

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

it sounds like your question it I'm going to ask you if you'd say it to me one more time. I want to make sure I answer what you are asking.

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

Okay. Um why are we reusing some of that data from a couple years ago? Sure. So

Consultant presentation — speaker(s) not assigned

the data used from a couple years ago is unrelated to the VMT. That's why I asked you to clarify your question. So is the

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question just about the reuse of some earlier data or is it about the Let's show the answer and then I'll let you know. Very good.

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So in the 2024 study includes um an extensive body of analysis of

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using simulation software and looking at how long vehicle cues would be at certain intersections.

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This time around, part of the process in doing the analysis the first time or this time

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includes looking at how many people will drive a vehicle from here to there.

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and here to there being from their home to one of the school facilities

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and traffic operations analyses in the traffic engineering industry. Certain methodologies like those that were employed in 2024 and taken into

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consideration again this time around do not take into consideration who the driver is. So whether the driver is a

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parent with a middle schooler or the driver is a parent with a high schooler or the driver is a high schooler all on

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their own is an irrelevant piece of information for the analysis. And I'm pointing that out in answering your

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question because what's relevant is how many vehicles are going places and from where to where.

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So the reason the extensive work done in 2024 is still meaningful and useful with a

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changed project or a different consolidation plan is because KDON

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looked at how many people are going from here to there in the prior consolidation

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effort numbers. looked at the actual numbers expected from here to there and then this time around we looked at okay

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now how many people going from here to a a different there which there were other people going to the the different there the first time

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people were going to go to Argonaut or Amador in either case it's just the numbers are different this time but when

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we look at all the numbers in some they are similar enough when you're looking at how many make a left turn here and

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how many make a right turn there. They are similar enough in nature to determine that the extensive work done

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before is still sufficient to tell the story of what to expect this time. And

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so it is not going to bring substantively different information to bear on the question before you tonight

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to have a whole redo done of all of that extensive work from the last time. The

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numbers are similar enough that the work done before and the traffic engineering story it tells tells the similar story

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this time. It's why it's enough for you to make the decision you need to make tonight. All right. Thank you.

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Okay, Shane.

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Um I would also like to thank everyone for submitting their comments, including the agencies and and those from the public. um now is the time to be heard

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and um appreciate everyone willing to take the time to to submit their comments. Um on on the uh when the

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traffic study was done, whether it was 24 or uh more recently, was there any

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time that uh traffic counts were taken on the weekends or any any type of uh

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data where the the data could be considered inadequate because it was not

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during a school day or or not uh during the middle of the day.

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Okay, I have it right here outlined as well.

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The traffic study focuses on well, first of all, it's collected when school's in session to answer that part. And then

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the data is collected on week days when school is in session. So we we wouldn't

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be studying the weekend since we're looking at activity that's about school that particularly around school activity.

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So that is that involved using simulation models as well as actual physical traffic counts.

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It it it's based upon traffic counts of how many vehicles are driving around, you know. Okay.

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Yeah. How many vehicles are really driving through intersections? That's right. Direct counts.

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Um and this might be for everyone that's uh that was up here. Um, is there

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anything that in this study that is new as far as a any kind of environmental

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concern that that hadn't been addressed previously since we were all last here together?

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Well, since since we were here two years ago and you know in the in the past four years, is there anything that is new

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that no one has been aware of or that that surprised you that wasn't considered previously or is not

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adequately addressed in any of these studies that we have before us?

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speaking squarely around transportation matters. What I can say is um

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you're asking me such a broad question it's difficult I apologize.

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Yeah. [laughter] I'm just I'm I'm I I want to be clear that if there's anything that whether it's environmental, whether it's

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traffic, is there anything that any of you three experts might have come across that you weren't weren't expecting?

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So for me and then I'll um you're right there. Wonderful.

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uh nothing was surprising in the work that we look from looking into things

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last time or this time. And um frankly,

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pointing to what I said a few moments ago in response to your question, my team already had a pretty solid

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understanding of what to expect when we looked at the different consolidation plan because again it's ultimately about

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um how many vehicles are going from here to there. We had already looked before at parking circumstances at the different campuses.

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We had already heard some of the concerns from community members before.

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So, we were already looking into things that had been raised previously.

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Um, and we also do work like this for other schools. And so know what to be watching

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for and thinking about when it comes to different aged students or different grade levels, what drop off and pickup

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looks like at different grade levels. So those were things we were already thinking about and advising on the first time around and have been continue to be

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part of the dialogue this time with respect to transportation matters.

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Yeah, and I would just add that SQA has 21 resource categories that we evaluate, whether it be an ISM andD or an EIR. And

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so um no resource topic um had any significant and unavoidable impacts that

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um you know under the current proposed project all impacts were be able to be mitigated to a level less than

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significant. Um, and I'm just thinking specifically with regards to like biological impacts, noise impacts. I'm trying to go through the 21 resource

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categories in my head, but with previous consolidation efforts, there was quite a bit of work done. We, you know, used what we could when it came to like

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campus, uh, biology and and technical analysis when it comes to like what's on a site currently, but the analysis was

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redone for the consolidation project and nothing was um, brought to the foreground that was unexpected.

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Thank you.

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And I agree um, with everything that's been said.

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Okay. Um I guess my last question when the maybe for the traffic expert um the

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when when we were looking at the the traffic history did we was consideration given to the existing um conditions of

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some of these intersections that are pro problematic for for Argonaut as also at Amodore such as the Sutter I think it's

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a Sutter Ion road intersection at uh 49 and Argonaut Lane and 49 as well as uh Sutter Street Extension and 49.

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Yes, the analysis specifically looks at an existing condition and then a with the project condition for to be able to

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make a comparison as to what is the effect. That's how one measures the effect of the project. Thank you.

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Okay, James.

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Um I don't this is regarding

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this one item in this plethora of items in this agenda item. Correct. Okay. Cuz

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I have a problem with this whole agenda item. I just want to make sure that we're referring to the one item and that's what they're presenting.

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The SQA document.

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Um SQA document. Yes. Right. Okay.

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Um, I don't have anything to say at the

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moment. I'm going to Um, I saw there was a figure in the

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document talking about traffic that approximately 11 additional miles with consolidation. Can you just clarify what

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that actually means? Is that like per student on average oneway round trip?

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What does that just what does that mean for my cl for just clar clarification?

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Yeah. So it's it is developed as a per student metric.

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Now that doesn't mean we're saying every single student is going to have to travel 11 more miles.

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It means we through the analysis that I had talked through last time and if I can do that again if helpful tonight but

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through the methodology the way the an analysis was done we computed a total amount of vehicle miles that are expected to be traveled upon the

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consolidation like the increase how many more miles collectively would be traveled can you clarify that this is the VMT analysis that's specific to this

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consolidation that you're discussing I I am talking about the VMT analysis that's specific to the current consolidation effort before you tonight.

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Okay. And so the 11 miles um is referring to

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taking what's the total number of miles that are expected to be traveled above and beyond how far people need to travel

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today and divide that by the total student population. Some people will have shorter trips, some people will have longer trips, some people their

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trip length won't change. And so for SQUA measurement purposes, often times BMT is turned into a rate.

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So it's miles per something. And in this case, the clearest thing to define it by is per student in the body population.

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What it does not mean is that the analysis overlooked staff or faculty members or other people who also drive.

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It's simply put into a per something metric to be able to talk about it in technical ways. And so per student is an

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intuitive way to do it when talking about a school. If this were an office, it would be per employee, right? Something like that.

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Okay. So, you're just saying that through the VMT through your study that about 11 extra miles for some, for others less, for some more.

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Okay.

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Forgive [snorts] me. Can you clarify if that's per day, per month, per year? It doesn't work like that. Daily daily.

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BMT under SQA is a daily. Thank you. metric. Yep.

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Um, any other questions or comments for the SQA team?

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Follow-up question. You triggered something with me. Um, when the transportation study was done, that included bus routes.

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Did that include bus routes? Yes, current busing and then the planned busing was taken.

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And did that include whether you know the buses are 25% full, 100% full, somewhere in between?

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Yes, it was based on current writership that the district has on hand and then um the mitigation measure that talks

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about busing as an opportunity for change in BMT um takes into account the capacity to serve more students. Yes.

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Thank you.

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Okay. Any other further questions or comments for our SQA team?

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No. Okay. Thank you ladies for all your work.

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[clears throat and applause]

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All right. Um, where to start?

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I don't think there's anyone that's spoken into this microphone more about consolidation than me and whether that

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be for good or bad. So, I'm trying to gather together my thoughts, but typically I don't respond directly to

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public comment in a meeting, but I want to clarify something. Um, there was a comment made about

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those against this. Um, hearing that they don't care about kids, they've

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never heard that from me. And if they've heard it from someone in this district,

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then I apologize for that. Um, I think it's the opposite. Whether you're for this or against this, you're involved

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and here tonight because you care about kids. It's simple as that. Um, I appreciate with many of you that we can

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disagree and still be able to have conversations.

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Most of the people that came to the microphone tonight also have and have been willing to have conversations with

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me and even if we don't agree. And I think that's important. Um, I also know

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that as a district when I took on this job, I also took on the responsibility

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of any mistakes perceived or not from the past. And I'll give you an example.

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Uh several years ago at a consolidation meeting since we've been talking about this pretty intently for the last four

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and a half years um I had someone come up to me after a meeting very upset and said you took away our high school

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and I listened and this was a resident of my own and I said I I totally understand that with all due respect I

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was 2 years old but it comes with the territory right I mean this is when People say the district, if you become the superintendent, you are the district.

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I'm fine with that. Um, and I'm fine with whatever heat comes because of this. That's part of this job. And so I

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still welcome anybody who has issues with this. My door is always open. I'm happy to meet with anyone to have those conversations. And like I said, you're

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never going to hear from me that I don't think you care about kids. And couple of other things. Um, when it comes to

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enrollment, I think one of the tricky things about enrollment is when you look at capacities, it ignores physical education. So, when we're talking about

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capacities of 875 or 925, it that's your classroom capacity, but often your

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largest classroom and where most students where more students reside is in a physical education class. So, for

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example, at a 7 through9 high school, if the capacity of that school is 875 or 925,

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they're going to be over a 100 students per period in physical education. So, if the enrollment is 900,

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are we giving Mr. Critfield, you said a 7 to9 high school, sorry, junior high, 7 to nine junior high. Thank you.

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Every seventh through 9th grader has to take PE, right? And so you're going to have over a 100 kids each period in

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physical education. So even if the school is at 900, that's less than 800 students that actually need a seat in a classroom.

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And so that's something these are state formulas that get used. That's how capacity is figured out. It ignores the

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concept of physical education. And so I think that's an important point to make.

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Um, when it comes to enrollment, I I also believe that with the information

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we've received to this point regarding um any growth that I own, we're we're

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many years out because first of all, what we received was not

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1,500 homes. And this is this is coming from our public records request from the city of Ion. I've heard the numbers

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1,500 and 1300 homes said to me multiple times coming to Ion. It's 958.

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There's Ringer Ranch with 585 homes and Waterman Ranch with 373 homes. Both applications are pending.

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And we've had this discussion that looking into potential growth obviously is an obligation when we're looking at consolidating schools. Both of those are

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an application pending stage. Both properties are owned by an investment company, Red Barn Investments, not to be

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confused with the Big Red Barn here in Amador County. Ringer Ranch is still zoned as a land.

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Neither development has the water from the water agency on these. And so when

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I'm told that building is imminent, that does not speak to me that building is imminent.

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Castle Oaks has 54 homes left to go to get them to a total of 725. It's taken them over 30 years to get to 725.

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Wildflower has 257 homes completed. They have 19 remaining and that's taken over a decade to get to that point. And so I

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think it's important when we're talking about enrollment to look at those things. I also think it's important to note that postco we are not the only

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game in town anymore because there are so many more online charter schools and all these other programs that pop up

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that they do take a portion of our student population because people do want options and for decades we were the

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only option here and so if you lived in Amodore County you pretty much went to Amodore County schools.

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I also when I look at grade levels, it was common place for many of the years that I've worked at the district office

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that about half of our grade levels or more would have an enrollment of over 300 students. That's a district-wide enrollment of a grade level.

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Presently, from fifth grade and down, we do not have a single class size over

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300. And some of these are much lower than they have been in the past. We have 257 kindergarteners. We have 262 first

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graders. And we have 244 second graders districtwide.

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Those things matter because traditionally we do not see a lot of growth year-over-year in a particular

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class as they metriculate through if you're just looking at kinder through 12th grade, the 13 grade levels um that

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they would progress through here in our system. And so I just think it's important to note with that with enrollment as well that our s that there

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there are numerous indicators that are not pointing us towards an increase in enrollment in our district. I also want

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to speak a little bit about a bond. It's it's been said many times from the microphone if the district does this or if the district does that that

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individuals would support a bond. I believe those individuals when they say that that if these conditions are met we would support a bond. Here's the problem.

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When you look at the totality of voters in Amodore County, we still live in a retirement community and there are a

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large portion of our voters who are not invested in our schools. They're not sitting in this room tonight, but they

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get to vote on a bond just the same as everybody else. And the data shows that

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a large portion of our county says no to any increase in taxes. no matter

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the reason. Could we change that? And could we eventually pass a bond? Maybe.

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But under two prior superintendents, I was involved with two bonds that both did not pass. And so, it's easy to say, well, they didn't pass for this reason.

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And I think for some voters, that was true. But it can inadvertently ignore the fact that we have a third or more of

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our voters who are going to vote no matter what we do. And when you need 55%

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instead of just a simple majority, when a third or more are an automatic no, your margin for error is razor thin to

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be able to pass a bond. And so I have to be honest with you, I don't know if in anywhere in the near future I'm going to even recommend that we go for a bond

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because I just consolidation or not, I just don't know if it's feasible. And maybe part of that is because I've been

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involved in two that didn't pass that I don't enjoy banging my head against the same wall over and over again. And so I just I think that's important to note

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with a bond because I do believe there's a portion of the community that will be swayed one way or another on a bond, but

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that portion might not be enough to still get a bond to pass is my point.

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And so I think it's important to note all those things because I appreciate people being thoughtful about all those different topics um because they do matter when it comes to consolidation.

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We have to look at all of those things.

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I'm sure I'll have more to say as we progress, but um the idea of the the rest of this portion of this item was to give board members the opportunity to

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ask questions and have discussion. And uh I've invited our classified directors to come tonight. They're sitting right up front here, our four classified

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directors. I appreciate that. We have our secondary principles here in the room. Our uh secondary director of education is here as well. And as

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cabinet and so as questions come up, we may turn to some of them or cabinet to help answer questions.

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Okay. Um, we're just going to go down the line like we usually do, so I'm going to start with Claire.

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I don't have anything yet. Okay. Come back to me.

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Lauren, I don't have anything yet either. Okay, Peter.

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Okay. I have prepared a statement and I'm going to make it when we actually have a motion to vote or not vote. But at this point, I simply want to point

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out and and kind of echo what Superintendent Critchville has said.

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You're here because you care. Your passion is real. It matters.

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I love this community because of the quality of people that we have here. So, thank you for being willing to to express yourselves. That means a great

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deal. I am also grateful to district leadership that the lens that these many

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attachments have is striving to focus on education. Yes, there is the thickmat document that's financial and there's

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some other things that are very much financial. But the main focus of all of this are presentations that you have given us over the past year, year and a

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half. I don't know the precise origin date of some of these documents, but you have shared these with us in the past.

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We've discussed them at length. This has not been a rushed process. I'm grateful that once again we have these documents

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for everyone in one location if they don't want to go find your your wonderful hub on the website. So um

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thank you and I look forward to saying more when we have a motion. Ken.

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All right. So today we did some site visits and one of the site visits was at our transportation department and I don't want to put uh Mrs. is empty on

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the spot. But I did ask her point blank, you know, what what are your concerns with transportation if consolidation

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were to pass? Um, and I know that, you know, they haven't done the complete plan yet, but my takeaway, and correct

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me if I'm wrong, is that, um, our bus ridership right now is not at a maximum,

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and the buses are still going down there and up here. or they'll just be hauling kids one way a different way than they

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were before. But the transportation um you know using some of the programs we have she sees that as a very doable process.

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Would you agree with that? Yes.

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So, I mean, we can't lay out the whole transportation plan right now because one of the things the district has tried to do this time, which is getting a lot

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of public opposition, is not put the cart way in front of the horse. Um, you know, we want to vote on consolidation

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and just because, you know, at the last meeting, you know, you get a soundbite from Jared that says, "Oh, we'll figure it out as we go." Please don't think

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that we have he hasn't been thinking about it. all of our directors haven't been thinking about it and how it would work moving forward if consolidation is

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approved. I mean, we'd be fools to think that, oh, just vote for it and then we'll figure it out. There's been a lot

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of thought behind it and that will be if consolidation does pass, that will be rolled out and questions will be answered. Um, I know we didn't include a

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traffic study in our secret report. Um, and that bothers me, but we are going to

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do one now. And I appreciate the fact that Mr. Gedney has got up and, you know, several times said he will work

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with us. You know, there seems to be a little bit of a disconnect between ACTC and the district on what really needs to be done, but I know that we will work

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together to figure out the right solution. Um, [snorts] so a lot of the things that people are saying, oh, you're moving forward

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without having any idea what you're doing, that is not the case.

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Um, and I do welcome all the the public letters I've received and public comments. And unfortunately, you know, I

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try to give up Facebook and then everybody calls me and says, "Hey, did you see this? Did you see this?" I'm like, "No, I didn't see that." So then I get back in there and I understand that

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there's a very vocal group, especially for my own about the closure of Ion Elementary. I went to Ion Elementary.

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That school means something to me. And this is back in 1980, long time ago. Um, and unfortunately

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that campus really hasn't changed over all the administrations for the last what is that 45 years. You know, we've

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added some portables, but the classrooms that I was in two weeks ago are exactly the same. And what we're trying to do,

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and maybe I'm jumping ahead and should have saved this for when there was a motion, but um the new the school where the kids in Ion are going to go, the

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kindergarteners through the fifth graders is a better campus. And I think in Ion, I think, you know, that it's

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just the idea of losing the Ion Elementary campus is painful and it's and it changes a lot of people's ways of

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life. And I think it's a positive change for our kids in the direction we're moving as a district. Um, so we'll just see have to see how the vote works out.

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But please do not think that there's no thought about how we're going to do this if it does pass.

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Jane, again, thanks thanks to everyone for

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providing their comments and reaching out. Um, I've received uh emails, phone calls, text messages, and uh whether you

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know we agree or or disagree, uh I could say everyone that has been communicating directly with me um has been respectful.

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So, I appreciate that. Um I think one of the one of the um things

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that I feel gets lost is there's so much discussion on

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sites and buildings and names and uh we're forgetting about the primary focus

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that we have our schools. We're trying to provide the best opportunity for our for our students to succeed.

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um you know, the the California dashboard data came out and you know, there's definitely room for improvement

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and um I just I I look at this, this is something that since I've been on the board, it's been a topic of discussion.

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I don't think there's been a week that's gone by that I didn't think about consolidation, didn't look at something at consolidation, didn't speak to

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someone about consolidation. Um the uh the previous board before I joined, what

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was said during that is about providing the best of the best for our students.

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That's that's what triggered me to run was that, you know, I I totally agreed with that and that's that's why I ran

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for the board. Um I I look at all our all our great teachers that we have. Um it's a shame

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that we have some students that are unable like if if there's a teacher at Argonaut, we have students at Amodore

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that could gain something valuable by having that person as a teacher and it'd be you know it would be a disservice if we didn't provide them that opportunity.

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Um, I also I I find it uh it's difficult to understand how um we have students that

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are traveling back and forth between campuses. Um, and not everyone has that ability to even have transportation.

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There's kids that probably can't take a class that they want um because they're unable to to uh find a way to to travel.

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And you know all this all this has been top you know top of my uh I guess

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function the last uh last couple of years and uh you know I I've had many many uh nights of waking up thinking

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about this and uh writing notes and and uh figuring out how to respond to

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someone. And um I just I I I hope that we can focus on how we can maximize the

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educational opportunities for our students because that's really I think what our our priority is. Okay, James.

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Um I agree with some of what everybody has said on the panel this far. um

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especially with the non-stop emails, with the phone calls, text messages, uh Facebook

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posts. Um, of course I have a bunch of papers in front of me from all this research that I've done and

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I I'm really concerned with um the way that

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[clears throat] this agenda item is only because it's too much in one I feel. But, you know, I um I think it can be maybe broken apart.

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Uh I just don't understand why all these items are in there. I mean, the the 14

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or [clears throat] Oops, I just lost it again. Fat fingers. Sorry. Technology.

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Here it is. I mean, like they had said in the presentation, 1100 pages of a a resolution presentation. I mean, that's

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a lot. And regarding the SQA presentation, um, I've been sitting here trying to figure out how to say it. And

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I mean, no disrespect by this, but I feel like you were struggling with it, and that kind of makes me feel some kind

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of way. Um, with that being said, um, I'm a man that trusts his gut. Uh,

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we've done this a few times before. Um, and I asked the question when the second superintendent was hired and I said,

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"Well, how does this work?" Um, is it kind of like a college football coach where they they bring in their own staff and they they start their offense and

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they try to implement all kinds of other stuff and everybody's like, "Nope, we just run what's been running." I was like, "Oh, okay, cool." And as I've watched it go, it's the exact opposite

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of that. a new superintendent comes, they hire their offensive coordinators, their defensive coordinators, their specialty coaches, etc., etc., and they

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run their game. Um, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

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That's not what I'm saying. Um, I I was a part of the merge of the

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Mustangs and the Junior B the Junior Mustangs and the Junior Buffaloos. um to see

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[snorts]

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that lower level of quote consolidation or I learned a new word cuz I've been speaking with the Isuza board members

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who did a reorganization of their schools. They called it something different. Um

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it's um at that lower level of the Junior Mustangs and the Junior Buffaloos. uh to see

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that community rivalry and and I don't want to say craziness but craziness. It was interesting to see

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being fresh here um with no allies um to any program. It was just interesting to see and then you see who

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who certain people are regarding those organizations and then who other people are regarding those organizations and then as years go by you get to see how

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they move in in the community and it's like okay all right and then that failed um for whatever reasons. There's

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numerous speculation as to reasons of why, but um it's [sighs and gasps]

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I'm for consolidation and I said that um many years ago and

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I'm just I'm not for it like this. Um people have said, "Oh, well, he's

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inconsistent. He talks out the side of his neck." Well, there's no mouth over here. Believe that. Um, I'm very

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consistent with my votes, and I actually got AI to help me understand how consistent I was with my votes. Um, I've

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voted yes on many resolutions. Uh, one since the previous superintendent, 1 2 3

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4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 uh 11 yeses and and and a handful of nos. And uh regarding

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consolidation and going back and looking at all the meetings there there was consistency with my votes and it's it's going to stand the same. I think I think

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we do need to consolidate. Just this way of doing it is is not the right way. Of course I can try to do as much research

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as as I want to to aha I got you. But you know, you obviously are a good chess player as well and and you have your

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mission set forth and and I respect you for it, but I personally feel as a board

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member that uh just this way is not the correct way. Um, and I and I think it's

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funny how the emails I get when, bless their heart, people in the community try to gather together to send

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me emails and fake accounts and they're not hyped to technology and they kind of reveal their hand and it's pretty funny.

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It's like, oh my gosh. So, I got to actually like help them understand technology and be like, hey, I caught you guys. But, [clears throat]

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you know, I appreciate you. Um, but yeah, so anyways, enough. Uh, I'm not for it. Um, and I know that's not the voting part, but you at least know.

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So, that's all.

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Um, when we were going to come to this meeting tonight, I think I share the same sentiment as a few people. I think in the last four years, we have almost

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exclusively talked about consolidation, unless you want to talk about insurance, cuz that's another thing. Um

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so coming to this meeting I I too have tried to be away from social media. It's

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an interesting place to be but you can't really get away from it. Um

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and so I have compiled quite a list of questions that I am going to ask tonight

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and so hopefully our directors and others can help out. Um there are a lot of questions so please and I'm going to

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try and some of this may have already been answered so I'm going to try and make them quick. Um I did put them into different categories. So my first and I

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put it first because I think that this is the most important part. We are a school district. That means we are educating children. There's a lot of

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other things that people talk about when it comes to school but we are supposed to educate children. Um, somebody alluded to our recent um, dashboard scores which were terrible.

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Um, and I'm just They were awful and they've been awful probably since I was in school here, which was a long time

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ago. I'm 35 years old. Um, so our first that I'm just going to roll right into

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it. Number one, our most recent test scores are pretty concerning, especially in math and ELA. I know consolidation can give us opportunities to expand

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programs and better use our resources, but that alone does not mean academic performance will improve. What are we planning to do across K through 12 to

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improve student achievement regardless of consolidation?

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Thank you. Can you hear me?

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Yes, okay. Sorry, it's a little tight over here. Um, thanks for the question.

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One of when my um department looked over this and we're considering this, the first thing we want to bring attention

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to is before any of this consolidation conversation happened two years ago when I joined the cabinet, we set out with

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four key initiatives. You guys have heard us talk about them over and over.

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The staff in this district have heard them over and over. are four key initiatives and they continue today to

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be quality first instruction, common assessments, adult professional learning, and targeted student supports.

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Despite whatever this vote is today, those are still the key initiatives for educational services. Taking into

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account the recent dashboard release and all of the different things that have come in, we've been working for the last

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two years to put in place cost teams at all of our schools. We've discussed that cost is one of those acronyms coordination of student right services.

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Um we have early intervention power half hour. These are all initiatives that have started in the last two years. You as a board voted and brought in the

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common assessment platform, Renaissance, where we use STAR reading and Star Math to assess everybody three times a year from kinder to 12th grade so that we're

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talking the same intervention and assessment conversations. All of this to say as we've brought these things into

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play, we're in the process of continuing to evaluate the effectiveness of them.

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We're starting to see obviously the cast scores and we could spend I know we've probably spent my two years here I've

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probably spent about six or seven hours in total going through cast scores with everybody and everybody has an opinion on high stakes standardized testing.

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Despite that, we now have a local indicator and we're actually putting a lot of of our focus on our local indicator and our growth that we're

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seeing from our students because that one metric of CASP, albeit it is the most publicfacing metric,

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isn't always the beall end all and we know that and we've heard lots of arguments for and against it. So, we wanted to find a way to step out of that

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and see what we could do to guarantee viable curriculum for our students. And that despite whatever happens here is

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still the mission of our department and what we strive to work on every day and continue to re-evaluate.

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Okay. Um there was a few questions here that I don't think are I'll save them for later. Um one of the

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potential benefits of consolidation is the ability to offer more classes and programs, but how do we make sure that that actually translates into better

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academic outcomes? I wrote graduation rates here, but I don't want to say that because we are graduating like almost everybody. Um, make sure that the

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graduation rate is these people that we are graduating are wellprepared to graduate and do whatever it is they're going out in the world to do. Um, and

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students be being prepared for what comes next.

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So, as our team looked at that, one of the things we're working on right now, one of our teams that we've currently,

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gosh, we've been working for about a year and a half with a continuous improvement team, a sim team of district leadership. And one of the

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things that we're trying to do is address that directly from and it's a collaboration. I look to Dr. Hedgard because this is completely um special ed

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and ed services being lock step in everything we do when we're evaluating our programs um

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that the potential of consolidation means that we can we

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use terms in education so I'm trying not to speak education but we refer to siloing we refer to departments or

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people being in silos and you have these pockets of greatness in silos. And what this potential vote could allow us to do

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if we were able to remove the silos and bring together departments and put the talent that we have and we have some

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amazing educators in this district together as one team instead of in silos. Um when we talk about our

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singletons and all of the things you've heard when we discuss master schedule the biggest benefit we would have is it

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gives us an opportunity to do um more collaboration build robust departments and then do

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vertical articulation from 7th through 12th grade to be able to say this is our end goal. This is where we want them. We

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want them graduating with these basic this is the non-negotiable. How do we work backwards from that and putting

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everybody in one place to be able to get all the great minds together to d develop that plan?

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Okay. Okay. Um, thank you. Next, my next topic was transportation because you know, transportation.

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Okay. Um, how many more students would need transportation if we consolidate? I know we'd likely see an increase for my

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own, but I am curious whether some of that is offset by shorter trips for students coming down from up country and have we looked at that?

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So, I pull all the numbers and I look at them often to look at our route, see where we have room. We're already

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traveling tiered through there, so the impact wouldn't be as much, but we would see an increase for the students that

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walk to Ion needing more transportation up. And we already have buses coming through there.

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Okay. Um, for the students who would be most affected, especially those who live further out, about how much additional time would they actually spend on the bus each day?

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So, if you're talking our Ridge and Plymouth, they would um be 15 minutes shorter, whereas I own would be 15 minutes longer in the AM and then the PM.

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Okay.

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Um what would the additional transportation costs look like when we factor in drivers, buses, fuel, maintenance, eventually replacing vehicles? Are all of these costs included in our savings projections?

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So [snorts] we wouldn't have any change to we would just move buses to fill those spots. We have a few smaller

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capacity or they have more capacity so the cost would not rise.

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Miss Lima, you had told me too, can you share with the board about how on average about how full each bus is? In other words, what percent of full

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capacity do most of our routes run at each day now?

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So we're running about 80%. Okay. So, about 20% of each bus is empty.

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Okay. Um, how many bus routes have we had to cancel so far this school year? Zero.

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Okay. I asked I I I know that last year that was like Yes, thank you. That is [applause] huge. Last year that was a

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huge huge deal um with the buses and and I totally get that. Um, so that's a huge improvement and I know that there's been

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some, especially in the beginning, the chatter about the bus rides and this and that and the other, but I I will take no canceled routes and all the kids being able to get to school with maybe staying

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on the bus a few minutes longer. I don't I cannot speak to the exact times.

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Please don't come at me. Um, but I I will take that over what we had to begin with. So, thank you. Um, what

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is our plan to address driver shortages and make transportation more reliable regardless of consolidation?

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just continuing our training and our environment, building it up. Okay.

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Sarah is a California school bus driver trainer, so she is authorized by the state to do all the training necessary to get an individual to a position where

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they can test with CHP to be able to become a California school bus driver.

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We also employ a bus driver trainer and so we have Sarah and another employee.

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So, we have two individuals that can do this training and they have they are constantly training new people and doing their best to bring on more drivers.

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Okay, great. Um, I'm curious what consolidation would mean for sports and extracurricular transportation if we're

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combining teams. Would we need fewer trips or could more junior high opportunities end up increasing that demand?

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So, we would need fewer trips for our sports. Instead of two high schools going, we would have one. we would have more buses available to assist on that.

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Okay.

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Okay. And then what are we looking at to reduce our dependence on MGM and other chartered transportation options? Um I'd like to know what we can do about that whether we consolidate or not.

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Right. We've been looking at those a lot. Um in fact, we're looking at the next couple weeks how to keep from using

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MGM and any other charters with our current staffing. Um, we also did, you guys approved for the six mini the minivans.

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Those will arrive in January, okay, is when those are anticipated. Then we have the four um 10 passenger vans that will

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be arriving in December. And um that will also help offset some of the sports.

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Okay. Um Okay. Thank you. That's all I have for you. Um, my next topic was campus safety and security.

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Um, school security is a huge concern right now and for good reason. What are we currently planning to do to make our campuses safer?

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Yeah, there's a lot. I mean, school safety is always such a serious topic and we have um we've

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worked a lot with local law enforcement through the years on assessments and other things. We don't typically forward

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face all of our safety measures because that would be counterintuitive as well.

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Um, and so I don't want to sound avoidant, but I I am going to be on some of these things. Um, we also the board invested several years ago and over a

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million dollars worth of security cameras that have provided us with uh security in that front. We continue to add more fencing and other options to um

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better enclose our campuses. And like I said, we have done um security walks with local law enforcement to find um the highest areas of need and and shore

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those up. And that again is that has nothing to do with consolidation. I mean, that's you know, we always want to look at making our campuses safer.

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Okay. Um if we were to combine campuses, would that give us the ability to provide more security, possibly even school resource officers? Is that something that we have looked into?

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It is. Um, we would be highly interested in working with the cities of Jackson and Sitter Creek to have a school resource officer at each school. Um,

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I've I've spoken in the past to both police chiefs on that. They would be interested in a joint effort um to have a school resource officer at each campus. Um, we also currently employ a

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total of six campus supervisors across um our four secondary campuses. If we were to consolidate, I would not contend

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that we should reduce the number of campus supervisors. we should still employ six campus supervisors and instead of across four campuses that would be across two campuses.

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Okay. Um if we don't consolidate, what can we realistically do to improve safety at all of our existing campuses?

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Could we work more closely with law enforcement or what are some options that we may Yeah, I mean we would continue to work with law enforcement regardless and that would be something we would we would you

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know do those assessments and there are grants available at times to look at school resource officers if um if they are available and things. So we yeah we of course would continue to explore those.

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Okay. And then with more students coming on to certain campuses, what changes would we need to make to keep bus loading, parent drop off, parking, and pedestrian areas safe?

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Yeah, I mean there's a lot and I may have Sarah come back up to help uh with that with bus loading. I mean for example, one of the conversations we had is, you know, you trying to do our best

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to separate where the buses go versus the parents. That's always a major goal of transportation. So, for example, at Argonaut, um if if that were to become

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the junior high, you know, we've explored the option that the buses would go to the uh parking lot above the baseball fields below the tennis courts.

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And so, that drop off and pickup area for buses would be down there. And then the parents would have the run of the entire upper section of campus to separate those two. And I think that

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would provide a lot of um a lot of assistance in that regard.

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Okay. Okay. Um, the next section that I wanted to talk about was facilities, maintenance, and campus capacity.

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We'll have Mr. Cruz come up. Good evening, trustees.

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Hi, thank you for coming. Um, outside of the work we'd have to do for consolidation, what is our plan for the major maintenance and repairs that already need to happen at campuses we're keeping open?

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So, we already have a system in place.

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It's been in place since 2008. That's our school dude uh work order system. So, we'll continue to utilize that.

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We're getting more efficient. Um, I think every time you see a presentation that I give, we're getting more and more efficient. Um, including labor cost and, um, material costs now.

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Okay. Um, the there is a benefit I see with consolidation is having fewer campuses for our maintenance staff to take care of. What would that give them

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more time for landscaping, general upkeep, small repairs, preventative maintenance, and how would we know that whether campus conditions are actually

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improving or we're just slapping lipstick on?

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Yeah. So, I I think it it is definitely going to be an improvement, consolidating as far as maintenance

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staff goes because I've been talking about staffing numbers and how we've been short. Um, obviously having less square footage is going to be more

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efficient for the maintenance team. U, there's been discussion, we've talked about plans, planning for consolidation.

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And, um, if we put a, we're discussing having a permanent maintenance person at the junior high in the high school,

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which I think would be way more efficient than having a maintenance worker travel around the county. So, I think that's going to be very helpful.

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Okay.

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Um, [snorts and clears throat] are we planning to set aside some of our annual savings from consolidation specifically for maintaining and improving the campuses that remain open rather than

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having all of it go back into the general fund?

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Yes. So, as an example, this year with some of the onetime monies that came in from the state budget, the board approved a resolution um to move a large

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portion of those onetime funds and a portion of our LCAP funds to the total of a million dollars toward deferred maintenance. We need to get in a cadence

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where we are doing deferred maintenance resolutions, transferring dollar amounts. I I would hope to be near that

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size almost yearly um to be able to continue with the deferred maintenance needs uh that are throughout our district.

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And are there other ways that we can look into funding facilities maintenance?

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There are, but there's I want to point out too there's a difference between maintenance and then replacement, right?

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And so we we are in situations where some of our facilities we could continue to provide maintenance, but they're

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already well past their lifespan and need to be replaced. And when you talk about cost, the cost of school construction, and I've talked about this

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numerous times in board meetings, the cost of school construction seems criminal, and honestly, it kind of is.

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Um, having to follow the division of state architect standards mixed with all the public codes and everything. What I

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think the average person would think a new classroom should cost typically is nowhere near what it ask actually costs.

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Like a single classroom is typically going to run you half a million to $750,000 for one classroom. And again,

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you can look this up. Any new schools that have been built and things like that, the absurd cost it takes to replace, right? And so I think sometimes

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when we talk about maintenance, it's like, well, we just need to fix up.

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Well, what happens when a portable that was designed to last 15 years is 35 years old? We're going to keep fixing

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it. Fixing what? Right? And so now you go to replace that portable, you're talking, best case scenario, half a

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million dollars for one classroom. And I think that is another one of my major concerns for the long-term fiscal health

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of this district is the fact that we are getting to that breaking point where we have more and more classrooms in the

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district getting close to the need for replacement versus maintenance. Okay.

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Um have we looked closely at whether the receiving campuses can actually accommodate the additional students?

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Yes. classrooms, bathrooms, cafeterias, playgrounds, parking, drop off areas, and what would need to be changed?

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What would need to be changed as far as classrooms go? We've talked about this before. Obviously, the addition of two portables at Amodore High School um that

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are still in good condition from Jackson Junior High, um would be the added classrooms. The other campuses can handle the capacity as is. Um, we have

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those those campuses in the past have have exceeded the number of students that would be descending on them if we were to consolidate. Um, we also have I

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know parking has been brought up and we also have parking and there was a time at Amodore High School where students did park in the stadium parking lot and there is 180 spaces in that stadium

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parking lot um where students can park and so um we do have um the capacity for parking for a number of students in

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classrooms and everything. I mean, the last presentation I gave in September showed that our secondary schools are running at about twothirds capacity right now.

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Okay. Um, what would we do with campuses that are no longer being used?

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Yeah. And this is sensitive, but I mean, I'm going to say it. I own Elementary, we would be surplused.

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I mean, if this were to be approved, we would go through the process, and there's a state process you have to go through that is lengthy. um that would surplus the property which means eventually selling that property.

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Okay. [clears throat] Um I also want to think beyond our current enrollment decline. Um if enrollment

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actually starts growing again, what would our options be? Um I'm especially wondering about Amodore High School and

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whether we'd have room to expand without creating overcrowding or major new expenses.

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Yeah. So again, that's where back to my earlier conversation of the number of fifth graders and below we have um we do not have a history here of all of a

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sudden a big enrollment boom and so we can see that coming down the pipe and we can anticipate that years in advance. I I know acreage has been thrown out a lot. Yes, Amodore Argonaut has 44 acres.

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I don't know where this Amodore has 22 acres came from. Amidor sits on a 39 acre piece of property and six of those

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acres are used by Sutter Creek Elementary. The other 33 are for Amodore High School. So I I want to be clear on

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that with acreage. Um because again, yes, does Argonaut have more space, land space? Yes. But if you're going to build

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new classrooms, we would be looking at those years in advance and those could be added to either one of those campuses for increased capacity.

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Okay. Um, I told myself I was going to

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be very candid tonight, even if that wasn't super, you know, popular with people. Um, I know that special

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education has come up multiple times on on on the socials um and talking about it and I certainly have Oh, thank you, Mr.

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Cruz, for coming up here. I'm sorry. I moved on. Sorry. I moved on. I'm sorry.

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He was he was going to stay. I gave a little signal [laughter] a week ago.

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Thank you, Mr. Cruz. Um I I understand that people are curious

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about what happens with special education, but sometimes I wonder if they actually really care about special education. We have a county board

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meeting every single day. Every single time we have a board meeting, except for tonight, cuz this is this is a regular meeting, but it is not a typical

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meeting. Let me um and there's usually like one person in attendance, other than

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maybe two. Um other than the people that are required to be here. And so seeing

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so many questions, what's going to happen with special ed? We care so much. Um sometimes I'm like, but but do you?

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Um I do. I have a son that's in special education and he's going to be in an extensive program. So, I have a real real stake in what happens with this

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program. Um, so I do have questions. We have Trilia at the Argonaut campus which would serve our junior high students with extensive support needs. And what

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are we but what are we going to plan for our high school students with extensive needs because Amodore doesn't currently have that same facility?

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Yes. Yes. So, our priority is always to keep our students with extensive needs, any of our students with special education with their grade alike peers.

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So um the program that is currently resides within the Trilia building led by Miss Angie Lucas would be

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transitioning to Amidor. Um we kind of going off of earlier not putting the cart before the h horse. We have um been

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able to identify um the options of what will happen at Amadore. Um I have to say I am grateful for the opportunity that

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we renovated Trillia. Like I mean honestly that gave me an opportunity to align what the priorities were of the staff at that time and so it empowered

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me to be able to have those conversations and sites early. Um but we have narrowed it down to two facilities

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prim and we have a a um preferred and a secondary option. Um, should this be approved this evening, the first thing

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we will be doing is being able to invite um, specifically Miss Angie um, over to

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be able to walk those rooms with us and be able to inform what our renovations will be. Um, so I know ear a little bit

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further down it was whether or not um, she was directly consulted. Um, and I can confirm that she was and by me personally.

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Okay, great. Um my next question is do we have an estimate of what it would cost to transition those students in programs? And then the second part was

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was the teacher consulted in this and that was obviously answered. So yeah, we're estimated less than 50,000 because it's a renovation that can be done in house.

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Okay. Okay. Um what benefits do we think our special education students and staff could see from consolidation? And just

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as importantly, what challenges are we anticipating?

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So yeah, I mean that is a huge question and I think so starting first with our our population of students that are

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extensive support needs, they are already being served in regionalized programs across our district. And so what I mean by that is is that we

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already are unable to have a program that meets those individual student needs on each of our campuses. Um, so

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the idea of being able to have our students be transported, we we're already have systems in place for that.

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When our students need to be um transported to a different site in order to participate in our extensive support needs program, um they are automatically

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qualified for special education transportation um because the program is not available on their school of residence. So, so I will just say that I

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mean in general the concept of regionalized programs is not new to us.

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Um I think it's a huge component of and kind of going back to what Miss Horn was highlighting earlier in regards to our

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priorities and our academic focus. Um our strategic plan highlights inclusion as one of our major pillars and what

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we're focusing on. So regardless of the campus looking at then how do we integrate our our student population to

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be a part of the greater student population is our priorities. Um, I will say for our staff, one of the major

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opportunities that consolidation brings is that just the grade level separation presents more opportunities to face the

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challenges that we have in regards to staffing shortages when it comes to our commitments in our collective bargaining agreements around case loads. So, for

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example, having four years of high school creates, and not to to target her, but creates a really high student

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population for Miss Angie Lucas versus our junior high teacher where there are only two grade levels. So, I mean, it

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automatically creates a greater balance in the number of grades that we're we're serving in a special day equivalent type

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of a classroom. Um, so that is a huge opportunity. Um I think

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kind of I think now just transitioning to our mild to moderate population. Um it really for me I I see the opportunity

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our students with an IEP that are in mild to moderate are going to face the same challenges and benefits that we've been discussing at length for our

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general education population as far as access to classes etc. I think in general the opportunity that presented

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there is really looking at our staff um and being able to have more like positions on a campus when we've already

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made the commitment to um having our our collaboration Wednesdays to be able to bring more job alikes together um and

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have especially at the secondary level where we're already separated into having department focus um you know so if the English department is meeting um

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being able to have then our special education department as well and having more representatives to benefit from that collaboration is another

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opportunity. Um I could go on but I I'm and I'm happy to answer any other questions but those are the initial things that come to mind.

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Okay. Um, how do we make sure students receiving special ed services have as much consistency as possible with staff, transportation, classroom environment,

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and their indiv individual supports during this transition time?

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Honestly, it it's it's the things we do day in and day out. It's about keeping our consistent procedures. One of the

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things that I am very proud of since joining the district three years ago is just having consistency in regards to

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how we engage, right? The fact that we have a newsletter that then our teams are able to rely on in regards to

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getting information. the fact that we have a special education chair collaboration group that then provides me and the rest of the special education

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leadership team in regards to direct feedback about what are the challenges that they're facing at the school site as well as the opportunities to be

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realized um and and you know the fact that then we have structures around adult professional learning I mean to be honest going back to those pillars that

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Mrs. Horn was highlighting earlier in our four commitments of quality first instruction, adult professional learning, our targeted student supports,

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etc. I mean, we're modeling the structures of the special education department around those four pillars in order to create consistency because when

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you break down barriers and you move alway then distractions of of inconsistent operations, that's what's

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allows our staff to focus on instruction. That's what allows our staff to be able to focus on student needs and truly in my opinion better serve ultimately serve students.

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Okay, thank you. That was all I had for special ed. Thank you. Thank you.

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Um next for number six, I have staffing and district operations. Um how many administrative positions have we reduced or eliminated over the last two years?

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Uh yes, good evening to President Parker. Over the last two years, we've had 3.5 FTE eliminated on the administrative level at the county side

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and 5.0 FT on the district side over the last two years.

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So, when you're looking at district office specific administration, um I have provided the board with this chart in the past. I'm going to actually

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look at the last four years. Um four years ago in 2324, we had 18 total administrators at the

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district office level. Um I'll go 5 years back. It was

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10. The year before and then it went to 18.

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Then in 24-25 we went from 18 to 16. In 2025 and 26 we went from 16 to 14. And

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then from 202526 to 2026 27. This year we're 14 down to 11. Okay. Three of those 11 positions are paid by grants.

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Okay.

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So, I mean, if we're looking at a four-year model, 18 down to 11.

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Okay. Um, what are some of the challenges our teachers and support staff are dealing with now that consolidation wouldn't necessarily fix,

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and what are we doing to address them either way?

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I think when we're speaking about the challenges before our staff, we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about the just

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the large spectre that health insurance plays within our community and the limited options available. So, that's one that we're continuing to work on

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irrespective of consolidation, the work that we're doing, advocating on behalf of this district and community with with

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um with PERS Calpers um PERS our um our health insurance. On top of that, um we have an ongoing need around recruitment

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and retention. We're having to continually um look and approach from different ways um how we recruit, how we how we try to attract folks to our

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community. Um the other component that we're always going to be up against is growing inflation. Um just just recently speaking with Sarah Limy, our director

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of transportation, and looking at our fleet of diesel buses and right now what the going rate is for diesel. um we're just like any other any other person in

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the community with a diesel vehicle, any of our local farmers or business owners were having to pay those premiums as well. So there's and and with that I

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think the biggest thing for us is um each of these has their own internal challenges. Um it's leading us now to look at what are some different options

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for fuel on that particular respect. But I think um it's there's there's a lot of challenges that we're um we're still going to be faced whether we consolidate

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or not. It's how we approach it and work together with our with our bargaining units and colleagues.

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Okay. Thank you. Next, I have athletics, extracurriculars, and school communities. Um, I put, "How would sports and extracurricular activities

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actually work under the proposed grade configuration, scheduling, facilities, participation, whether it be creating more opportunities for students or

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potentially losing some?" All right, I'll take this one. So, I know athletics are very important here.

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I fully fully comprehend that. Um, first of all, the grade configuration.

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It's worth repeating because I've been asked this many times. What about 9th graders at a junior high? Will they be able to participate in high school

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athletics? The answer is yes. CIF has a process where you claim your 9th graders as part of your high school for

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athletics purposes. So, every freshman, if if we have a 7th through 9th grade school, every freshman is eligible to

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participate in any level of athletics, whether that be a freshman, a JV, or a varsity team. Okay? And I I don't want

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to belabor like what that process is. If anyone wants all the details, I'm happy to give them to them. And there's a form you fill out with CIF and everything else. Um, when it comes to

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participation, I will say it depends on the sport. We will have some sports where there will

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be fewer opportunities for athletes and then we have other sports where there will be more opportunities. I have watched many of our programs struggle to

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have enough athletes to have sustainable programs within their sport. I've seen it over and over again where we don't

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even have a JV team, let alone people keep talking about freshman teams. I'm like, well, why don't we start with having JV teams for every sport because

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we don't even have that. And I've watched it happen right in front of my eyes with my own children participating in high school athletics with being a

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coach of multiple high school teams here in the district myself. This is what happens when you don't have a JV team.

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Freshman, most freshmen [clears throat] are not ready for varsity sports. That is not a

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secret. Okay? So they want to play. So you put them on the varsity team because you don't have a JV team. So they practice.

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They might get in a game or two if it's a blowout in either direction and then more often than not they come back for

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sophomore year and say I quit. And you get in this cycle of we still don't have

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enough for a JV team again. And conversely, another concern of mine is more often than not, we pull freshman

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and sophomores up to varsity who aren't ready for varsity and we throw them in the game and say good luck. Um, and

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depending on the sport, that can be a pretty major safety issue. And I I am

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concerned about that cycle that continues in our athletics. And yes, we do have some sports that are full. Okay,

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I get that. But we have others that are struggling pretty mightily year-over-year or they cycle where we'll get a pocket of kids that all are hyped

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about basketball or whatever. And so the program's full for a couple years and they graduate and there's not a group behind them as interested and then the program goes back down. And we watch

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this up and down cycle um over and over again of athletes. So yeah, I don't want to sugarcoat it. Yes, there will be some

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opportunities lost but also others gained um through the combination of athletics.

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Okay. Um I'm going to move on to financial accountability and long-term planning. Uh when we account for

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everything, transportation, facility changes, staffing, ongoing expenses, what are we actually expecting to save each year?

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[snorts]

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Yeah. So, based on what um we presented in previous uh presentations, we're

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looking at about 2.5 2.6 in total savings with some upfront one-time costs associated of 875,000.

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If you net those out, it comes to about 1.7 million. But again, a lot of those are onetime upfront costs. And so once those kind of go away, um you we would

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expect to be closer to the 2.6. Now, additional costs that may come out of that could be a number of different things, but there's also additional savings that are on top of that, too.

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Those are the main identified ones that we are in more control over that um are basically how we've kind of outlined the savings and costs as we have it today.

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How many about how many years do you think we would start actually seeing savings coming from this?

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Yeah, you see some definitely right away as as there's natural attrition as has been stated before. We are not looking to do any layoffs with this to make sure

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we get to that number tomorrow. Uh but through our normal attrition process, we definitely um see a decent amount of turnover within our district. And so

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with that, we would expect that to continue. There are other things that could be done to help uh you know push that forward a little faster, but at the

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same time, we're looking at around two to three years to fully recognize um based on just normal attrition to get to what we would expect with savings.

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Okay. Um, if the plan does generate the savings that you're projecting, how are we planning to use the money? How do we

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balance like academic programs, student services, staffing, maintenance, building up our reserves, all of that stuff?

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I mean, I think one of the main priorities is bringing those savings to the board and prioritizing how those savings get spent. I mean, I think they need to be spent on all of those things,

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right? And so what portion I I believe we will be making our recommendations but I'll say this a portion definitely has to go to facilities right and

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obviously the academics and every other things all those things matter as well but we definitely have to put some of that money towards facilities.

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Okay. Um could we not could we I I phrase this as

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a question but I think I'm just going to make it more as a statement. I think that we should commit to showing the public each year what we've projected to save compared with what we have actually saved.

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Yes. Okay.

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Um if we achieve the savings we're anticipating, how much time does that realistically buy us financially, especially if we're enrollment continues

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to decline? I know that we have heard numerous times

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we're going to go into receiverhip. I I don't think that I've ever said that.

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Please don't quote me on it. You probably somebody's probably watching every single board meeting I've ever attended to see if I've said that. Um but right now we are moving towards in

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December potentially being able to certify as positive. So I think that the the the impending doom of that is not in

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my opinion is not the catalyst for consolidation at this point. But I enjoy I enjoyed watching the movie

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Chicken Little with my children. I do my best to not imitate Chicken Little in this job. Um,

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I think this provides us with better opportunities and better fiscals, but to run around and say if we don't consolidate, we're going to end up in receiverhip.

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That doesn't make sense to me. I And if anybody thinks, well, you're just using that. I want to say the first thing that happens in receiverhip,

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superintendent and CBO are gone. And Robert and I have a pretty vested interest in that not happening. I mean, I'll say that I have a pretty vested

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interest in that. I'd love to stay. And so that's step one with receiverhip, right? I think it comes down to

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we we will have to prioritize and we won't be able to do some of the things that we want to do in order to be able

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to be financially sound. Um, we've had indicators in the past where we have been far far closer to receiverhip than

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any of the stuff that has happened the last couple of years. And I I don't want to throw out numbers right now, but we

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we can bring those if we need to because we were far far closer when I immediately began at the district office um back then where literally we had

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$144,000 to our name at the end of the year. Um and so yeah, that always is

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taken into consideration and will always be looked at. But I don't want to claim that if we don't consolidate then we

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will go into receiverhip. That is not an accurate statement. Okay.

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Um what happens if the cost of making these changes end up being higher than we expect or if the savings don't materialize? Like what's the backup plan?

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So again, this is where doing all the work that we've done with our staffing formulas is why it matters so much. We

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spend more than 80% of our money on staffing. And we are running consistently with staffing numbers well

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below what could be there with teachers having 128 total student contacts at the secondary level when they can have up to

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180. And so those staffing numbers are real numbers and we see very simply that

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as you consolidate you can reduce the number of staff members you have and which is our largest expense.

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Okay. [snorts] Um next I want to talk about food services. Um we've talked about food a lot.

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Um, thank you. Good evening.

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Um, with consolidation, we're going to see a significant increase in the number of students being served at certain campuses. Have we looked at whether our

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existing kitchens, cafeterias, food service staff can accommodate these students and what changes will we need to make to ensure we're able to serve everyone in a timely manner?

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Yeah. So, we've actually been doing this getting ready for consolidation by the last year and a half. And that comes a lot of the stuff we purchased, new ovens, new warmers, new refrigerators.

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The affected sites, Amodore, Argonaut, uh, Jack or Ion Jr. got new walk-in refrigerators double the size what they used to have. Actually, Ion Jr. never

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even had one. Uh, but they have those now. They have ovens, they have hot plates, they have worktop stations, they have the warmers, the slicers, dicers,

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everything to make that job a little easier for them. Uh we've also increased hours or created four new positions at one at each of the high schools and one

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at each of the junior high schools, 3.75 hours. They've always typically had four people in the in the kitchens. Those high schools now have five. The junior

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highs used to have two, now they have three. So we're set up as far as staff-wise as that goes. If we do consolidate,

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um the staff members we have at Jackson Jr. will then take over a lot of we call it misin plas all the they'll be making fresh salsa and guacamole. Pardon me.

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[clears throat]

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uh they'll be doing all the slicing, dicing. Uh so that'll take a load off some of those sites. And we've also we

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we talked about it last board meeting uh getting a uh basically a catering trailer to act as an allocart station

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somewhere on campus somewhere away from the existing cafeteria to disperse those lines. Um, one thing that will

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right now the biggest thing I own or Yeah, I own elementary how they're serving out. They've got a crazy serve out there. They do about a 2-hour serve

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out because their existing their cafeteria on L has 12 tables there. Their seating

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capacity is so those 12 tables 144 students, but the total students allowed in that cafeteria are 170. I own junior high

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school has 16 tables currently but can hold but can hold up to 20. So they're seating right now 192 students with a

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room capacity of 317 seating. So it's it's almost doubles the seating capacity for that elementary moving over to the junior high school. So that is a huge

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difference for those elementary students. And what we did we implemented this year with elementary uh the students do not have to come through and put their numbers in. So we

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keep we keep tabs of that on a on a tracker which allows the students not to have to remember the number or we look up their number ask them what class

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they're in. So we've seen an increase um our students coming through we're serving an average of 250 students in

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about 16 minutes. So the time's there um the if we add in those extra sites with

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all the cart that's going to open up those windows immensely and allow those kids to come in and have more more food.

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Now, I would like to this kind of leads into um how many students we're going to have

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on each of those campuses, right? So, Argonaut right now, we have a total of 672 students there. We're doing an

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average of 236 breakfast a day out of the 672 and an average of 200 um 315

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lunches. So, half less than half the students are eating breakfast and lunch.

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So, as far as the capacity in those cafeterias, it's not an issue. Um, Amador is the same way. Amidor about 50% and that's including the next door elementary students and the high school.

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Uh, we're serving about 50% of the population of 580. So, 295 lunches a day. Uh, and about 255 breakfast. So,

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we're at about 47 average 47% for breakfast, 50% for lunch. Uh, Jackson Jr., That's that kind of be null and

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void, but we're doing 57% lunches there, 43% breakfast. I own elementary, we're doing 63% lunches, 259 lunches a day

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with a cafeteria that holds 144. So, a lot of those students are going outside and eating. Um, one thing we find too with getting students out quicker and

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having space is junior high and high schools usually don't eat in the cafeteria. They'll come in and they'll go out to one of the outdoor eating areas and they'll disperse that way. So,

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okay. Um how um how do we make sure that they're not spending the majority of their lunchtime waiting in line for food?

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Yeah. And that's adding extra windows. Okay.

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Um [clears throat] Am Amodore Amodore High School they So the hold up right now on Am High School is the floors got to come in first and then we got to put

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new ovens in. So they'll be getting four of double the ovens they have now and then we'll actually put we got hot boxes coming in which will go into the snack bar area which will serve as another

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serve out. So, there's four two windows there, two windows in the cafeteria, and then a separate area for the all the cart and hot food. So, we'll be able to disperse the lines pretty quick.

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Okay. Um, I think that was it. Thank you. Thank you.

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Okay. [applause] I know that was long, but I felt like I needed to ask them. Does anybody else

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have any follow-up questions or comments? Claire, Lauren, anybody? No. Okay.

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I have one question. That was that was great. Um with the $2.5 million

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um Robert was talking about in savings um [clears throat] or in 3 years or so or what did you say?

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In two to three years.

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In two to three years. So let's say three. Okay. Um is that 2.5 million worth that then?

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it would be worth more because as you know year-over-year we typically add more to our cost of salary so it would go up from there but we're using current numbers.

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Okay. All right. Um Okay. Thank you. That was great. Okay. Real good.

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I have a question.

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Yeah. How much do we save right now? Do we know or are we saving anything? Okay.

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Okay. Um any other questions, comments on this co so this action item is a resolution.

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I know it is long and it is multi-art um but that is the way it is set up um to be compliant. So this is a vote on this

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resolution if there's a motion and a second and then it goes to a vote of voting on the squa document itself on

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the initial study and the mitigated negative declaration adopting a mitigation monitoring reporting program approving the project which would the

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project being consolidating our schools in the way that's been described and directing a final notice of determination that is the filing with the state on our environmental document.

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So that that is what is what would be voted on if there's a motion or a second.

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I have a question. You said it is long to be in compliance.

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Yeah, because because this is tied to a a an environmental document. You vote on the environmental document and the

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project together. So all of those parts are tied to the environmental document and consolidating, which is why it's voted on all at once. So it either passes or it doesn't.

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Oh, I have so many other questions because of that. Um, okay. Okay.

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Claire, will will the traffic study still be will it still happen if consolidation isn't voted on? Like So, the traffic safety study was approved separately. Claire.

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Okay. That's separate from like any environment stuff. Okay.

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Okay. Um, any further questions or comments before we would need a motion for this?

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I make a motion that we approve item 11.1 ACUSD resolution 2026 20227-08

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resolution making findings regarding the district-wide consolidation project adopting an initial study and mitigated negative declaration adopting a mi

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mitigation monitoring and reporting program approving the proposed project and directing the filing of a notice of determination.

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Second.

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Okay. Um, our student board members aren't going to vote on this item tonight. Um, we would go for the vote.

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Peter, you have any comments you want to say?

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Okay. I do have some comments and I hope the audience can be patient with me.

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These were written prior to coming here to the meeting tonight, striving to be as thoughtful and as clear as I can.

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Um, obviously as part of the process, if if anyone in the public is unhappy with me when I run for reelection, cuz that

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is my plan. and I wish to serve on the board long term, then you should definitely vote me out. Um, we do not live in a direct democracy.

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Instead, we live in a representative republic where we elect schoolboard members to provide governance to the superintendent and cabinet. Indeed, we are also asked to uphold the

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constitution and to play the important role in our community of provided election oversight and being willing to say no to the district if they're going

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in the wrong direction. I take this role very seriously and I strive to understand all weighty matters that come before the board, especially this vote

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to consolidate our schools. As a candidate two years ago, this was the number one issue discussed at doorsteps

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as I went knocking doors through the communities of Sedter Creek and Pine Grove. Those conversations are the

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closest I have to a true public opinion poll on the subject. But following

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public opinion is not the board member's role. The public trust is. That's why they call us trustees.

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They have entrusted me and our fellow board members to do the reading, to listen carefully, and to use our best judgment to make the right governing decision.

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Indeed, as I have read the 1,162page declaration, the phrase that Place Works, and again, thank you for your

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work, that Place Works has used repeatedly to respond to public comments, rings true to me. Beginning on

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page 453, they patiently responded to all public concerns and often used the phrase, quote, "The district will

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consider all comments and recommendations as part of its decision-making for this project." unquote.

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I have done that for more than a year prior to being elected and two years as a board member. I have considered all comments and recommendations.

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I believe the district leadership truly considers all angles before recommending this resolution. We are not moving into this decision hastily or blindly.

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It is not only for financial reasons that I am voting yes to accept the squa and to resolve to

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consolidate tonight. Yes, I have been transparent both as a candidate for school board and as a trustee that we cannot financially sustain this

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inefficient teacherto student ratio in the district. Our sarkc reports or school accountability report cards have

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repeatedly declared that we operate on an average of 19 students to one teacher in English and math at the secondary level.

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Furthermore, we've been provided as a board information regarding class sizes.

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This district has been clear and transparent with us regarding current class sizes at a granular level, even if that information is not shared publicly.

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As has been again presented tonight in the consolidation analysis, we are operating at less than 69% of our capacity, our junior high and high schools, and the thick map process has

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declared us in financial distress and at high risk of financial failure. All of this is important, but not the best

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reason to consolidate. Tonight, I'm voting yes because it's the right thing to do. I vote yes to improve access for

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students to advance placement, elective CTE, and support offerings. This would apply not only to consolidated high school, but the junior high as well.

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Indeed, as a teacher who wishes to remain anonymous said in a text to me just this week, quote, "Being able to provide services to our most at risk

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students is why I got into this and consolidation is the best plan on the

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table to address that." I'm voting yes because it is the best option we have.

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Athletically, I believe the data presented is accurate. Consolidating will result in more sustainable team rosters and great ability to offer

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multiple levels of play. I'm voting yes to greater student safety for younger students and stronger teams unified as a whole community.

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To quote from another email that all of us board members received this afternoon from someone who is a teacher and a parent, quote, "It's time for the

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littlest students of Ion to have a campus without infestation.

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It's time for the students of Jackson Junior High to attend classes in a portable that doesn't smell like mold.

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It's time for top 10 Amodore County High School students to be able to take both Spanish 4 and AP psychology.

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It's time for coaches to be able to fully field freshman sports. It's time to value our internet teachers instead of burning them out. Close quote.

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I am voting yes to improving educator quality of life. Consolidation means fewer lessons to prepare and better quality from those lessons. As an

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educator of 29 years, I know that teachers need each other to be successful. Maximum educational efficacy

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will come from collaboration at a shared school site rather than operating the way we have always been.

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Teachers are not staying silent because they fear retaliation from administration.

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Indeed, both of these teachers who reached out to me stated that they feared retaliation from the community for stating what they know to be true.

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As a fellow teacher, I know that they're right. Now is the time. We need to move forward with consolidation. District

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leadership has been methodical, clear, and effective. I will not go into all the other attachments that are publicly available. Thank you, Kayla, for your thorough questions.

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We are not rushing this decision.

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Frankly, if I can return back to my little informal door-nocking survey over two years ago that I took by greeting

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people in their homes and having face-to-face conversations asking them to put their trust in me. The community

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of Sutter Creek and Ply Grove are tired of waiting and want to move forward with this plan. But popular opinion is not

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why I'm voting yes. To sum up, I am voting yes to fiscal responsibility, yes to teacher instructional improvement,

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and above all, yes to benefiting our students. I urge my fellow board members to do the right thing and join me in voting yes to approve this resolution.

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Okay. Thank you, Ken.

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Well, thanks to your questions and what Peter just said, um I don't have a lot more to say, but I will be voting yes.

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Okay, Shane.

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Yeah. Um thank you, Kayla, for those uh in-depth questions. I think those are important and uh appreciate the time you

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put uh in put in them and asking them and also the response. Um, this is a

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decision that, uh, you know, I I don't take it as something easy. Uh, [snorts]

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I I' I've heard from the folks uh in Jackson that are against it. I've also

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heard um probably equally the uh from the folks that are in supportive of it.

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And um, you know, I I don't I don't take a poll. I I'm not counting who's who's

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yes and who's no. Um I've studied the data. I've studied the information. Um it's been the number one topic um of the last four years since I've been here.

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And um I have I have children in this community that they're in in this for the long haul. they're I'm hoping that

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uh they'll graduate from here and gain as much as they can from all the great teachers that we have. And I I really

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think that bringing the schools together is is going to benefit our students. Um

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we will we will uh share resources from for the teachers. We have such great teachers. It's a shame that like I said

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before, it's a shame that a teacher at Argonaut is not able to impact that those students at Amadore and other way

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around. Um it's there shouldn't be this separation.

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I think that's what that's what I really feel that um there's such a me and them

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attitude and we're all in the same community. We all live here. We all want what's best for our kids. And you know,

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um there's been talk about, well, a a bond will never pass if if this is supported. And if if we did have the

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funding for a high school, we would still have to bring everyone together.

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And I I think that that's, you know, we have time to work on it. Um you know,

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it's important. Athletics are important and I I get that. Um, you know, I I coached at Argonaut and uh I'm I'm one

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of the biggest sports guys around following, you know, all the sports and I I definitely get how important sports

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are to the community, but that's not our number one priority uh in providing for our kids.

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We need to prepare them so that when they they go beyond high school, they're ready to start their careers or college

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or military, they're prepared. And I just I think that consolidation

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is the way to go. And I look at at this as a a two-phase approach. I look this

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at if it passes tonight, I look it as uh phase one where we're bringing the community together. I also think that if

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there's any type of new school down the road, I think Argonaut would absolutely be the place that uh it should be a new

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renovated school or a brand new school should be built or if it's a neutral site, but um really there's there's no

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room at Amodore for an expanded campus, but right now there's not a need. We don't have booming numbers uh coming. Um

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I I I get I get the comments. I understand. I I hear you. And I also hear the people that are for this. I also hear the students that are for

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this. I've heard I've heard from uh past uh well-known athletes that we've had

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that they've told me they wish the schools were together because they would have had so much better sports teams.

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They would have been thrown up on varsity when they weren't ready. Um it's

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there there's a a lot to consider and it's been considered for the last four years. I will be voting yes.

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James, I agree with quite a lot of what all of you said. I actually agree with a lot of it, especially with what Shane just

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said. Um, but I just don't like the way it's going on right now. Uh, I feel there is a better way. Um, I guess this

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is just the right now. Uh, until we got to pivot when we got to pivot. How we do it, I guess we'll pay the attorneys and everybody else how we got to do to do

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it. Um, I mean, I don't know. I've never said that I was against consolidation.

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I've always said that, uh, if we're going to do it, we need to do it right.

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You can quote me on that. Um, but I I also have said what's right. Like,

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what's right from I don't know what's right. Um, it needs to make sense for all of our students,

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all of our families, and financially for the district. But I've got a real problem with how this resolution is being presented. All we're looking at

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document that's over 1100 pages and we're being asked to approve a whole lot of things with one vote. Um Mr.

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Crushfield just said that's how we stay in compliance. Um okay.

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Um I would like to see that. I mean I already know how this is going to go. So maybe uh next week or something show me

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how the compliance is. Uh that would be great. Um to improve environmental findings,

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moving students, changing grade levels, closing and repurposing school sites, authorizing staff to move forward with the entire project. Um those are

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separate decisions as far as I'm concerned. Um but who am I? You know what I mean? I don't know what that is.

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Um I might support one part of this plan and not another, but the way the resolution is written, I don't have that option. So, I'm going to vote no.

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[applause]

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Um, [sighs] it's been a long four years on the school board, guys. We've talked about this a lot of times. Um, and I I do want

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to start by saying that I said this earlier, but that I was going to be pretty candid. And so, I did [gasps]

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write out my thoughts, but um, I will I will start off with saying that I do love this community deeply. My family has lived here for generations. Um, I

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was a Pinang Grove bear. I was a Jackson Junior High Jaguar and I was an Amodore High School Buffalo. Um, I've said this before also, but my grandfather, who's

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over 80 years old, is an Amodore High School graduate. My mom had me while she was still a student at Amodore High School. And I spent my entire childhood, literally from birth, at these schools.

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Um, I'm very much aware of people's love for these schools and the community that they create. I love them, too. That's why I'm sitting here. I certainly would

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not be if I if I didn't. Um, but I'm also someone who has to live in reality.

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And right now, the reality is this. Our enrollment is declining. Our facilities are in dire need of critical maintenance

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and upgrades. Our staff will continue coming to the bargaining table advocating for increases in salaries and health and welfare benefits. And we have

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to figure out how to meet those needs with increasingly limited resources.

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But I think most importantly, we are an educational institution and we are continuously graduating students who

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are not meeting basic math and language arts standards. And that's to say nothing of other subjects that are very important as well.

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Um, our county currently, you can look this up, currently ranks 54th out of 58 counties in California in math and language arts performance.

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If I were sending my child to school 180 days a year, year after year, and they graduated without being able to

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demonstrate basic proficiency in math or writing, I would be deeply concerned about the state of our district.

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And yet, nearly every board meeting we have is empty with the exception of a handful of people. Where is the outrage

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over that? where is the community demanding better academic outcomes for our children and said our meetings are largely empty until the time comes to

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make really hard decisions and changes in attempts to improve the outlook for our students that attend school here.

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Frankly, it's mindboggling to me. I understand that student achievement is a nuanced issue. I understand that

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conversations surrounding test scores, student growth, and all of the other factors that contribute to academic performance. I know all of these things,

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but at some point, we have to stop explaining away the numbers and start asking ourselves what we're actually going to do about it.

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We can argue all day about traffic, class sizes, core course offerings, master schedules, lift stations, whatever else we've sat up here and debated over the last four plus years.

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But one thing that I don't think anybody can actually debate me on is the reality of our students educational outcomes and the fact that something has to change.

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We've been operating this way for decades since I was before I was born.

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That's a long time. And we're not improving. Which leads me to believe that if we don't change something and change it drastically, we're only going

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to continue in decline.

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Heard a lot of people talk about things that things have always it's always been this way. I know. I've lived here. If it's not broken, why would don't fix it?

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Well, I would argue that it is broken.

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And I want to be very clear about something. In no way do I believe that consolidation is going to magically fix everything that is wrong with our school district.

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I think there are many things that are systemically broken within our education system as a whole. And I don't think that I am equipped or that the district

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alone is equipped to fix all of these things. There's a whole other rabbit hole we'd have to go down. We could talk about parent and family responsibility,

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the ability of schools to hold students accountable for their behavior, the ability of districts to hold teachers accountable, the shift away from developmentally appropriate

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expectations, especially in our primary grades, the lack of foundational academic skills that are actually being acquired. We could certainly talk about

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the increasing reliance on schools to be the parent, the babysitter, the healthcare provider, the therapist, the provider of every meal, the transportation provider, all while operating with minimal resources.

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I'm well aware that schools are much more than reading, writing, and math to so many children. But I think sometimes we get so lost in everything else that

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we forget what schools are actually here for.

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We are supposed to be educating children. And if we cannot even meet that basic responsibility anymore, it's pretty clear to me that we have to change things.

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I'll be honest. I believe many of our children are learning in spite of what we're doing, not because of us. They're learning because of their own determination, because their families,

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because of individual teachers who go above and beyond, and because of the support systems they find around them.

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They are succeeding despite the obstacles we have created in the ways our system has failed to serve them.

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That should not be something that we accept or celebrate as success. It should be a wake-up call.

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Another reality I think we need to acknowledge is that historically this community has not wanted to pay for the betterment of our schools. And we can argue that all day long, but the votes show it.

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The last time this community approved a school bond was in 2002, 24 years ago.

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We've gone nearly a quarter of a century without voters approving that kind of investment in our school facilities. I don't see that changing anytime soon.

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Whether we consolidate or not, I just don't see it. We cannot continue to demand better facilities, better programs, better opportunities, higher

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salaries, more resources without acknowledging that all of that costs money.

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We cannot continue to operating as though we have unlimited resources when we very clearly don't.

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Being a school board member is a difficult job and I don't believe this is a role where you're supposed to make decisions based on who's the loudest, who's the most upset, or who's going to

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be angry with you afterward. This isn't a position where we're supposed to appease people because they're upset or give in to mob rule. Our responsibility

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as a school board is to set direction for the district that promotes academic success and fiscal responsibility. And sometimes that means making decisions

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that people don't like. If you take all emotion out of the equation, continuing to run two operationally inefficient and

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academically underperforming junior highs and high schools with declining enrollment and limited resources is insane. And to be very transparent, I

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would have preferred the first version of consolidation that was proposed.

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I've heard people say, "We need to put the brakes on. We need to keep talking about this. That we can't keep spending money. that we can't keep moving forward. I've also heard people say they

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would support consolidation if we put the high school at Argonaut instead. But we proposed that two different times and many of the same people who fought against that proposal are the same people fighting against this one today.

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So at what point do we acknowledge that for some people there isn't going to be a version of consolidation they're willing to support. And that's okay.

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But at what point do we stop pretending if we just keep talking about it long enough that everyone's eventually going to agree? I don't think that's going to happen. And I don't believe that our

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responsibility as board members is to wait until everyone agrees before we're willing to make a decision. I understand the emotional attachment to our schools.

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I share it. I understand that change is difficult, especially when we're talking about institutions that have been part of our families and communities for

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generations. But I also believe that our responsibility to the children who are sitting in our classrooms today and the

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children who will be sitting in those classrooms 10 or 20 years from now has to outweigh our attachment to the way that things have always been. We have a

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responsibility to the youth in this community to do hard things, to make hard choices, and to set the bar high.

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We have a responsibility to set an example for them to show them that people can come together. They can work hard. They can put their differences

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aside and make the best of difficult circumstances. And I think we have a responsibility to acknowledge that what we've been doing has not been working.

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The education system has failed these children. Our district has been failing them. And frankly, our community has been failing them, too. And it's time for that to stop. Consolidation is not

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the end- all beall solution to the issues that we're facing. I have never believed that it was, but I absolutely believe it can be the catalyst for real

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positive change for our children if we as the adults allow it to be that. Um, with that, I'm going to vote yes.

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[applause]

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Okay. Um, that was our only action item. Um, I wanted to ask if the student board members wanted to make any comment.

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and a board reports. This is like also my report. That's fine.

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Okay. Um I didn't write anything down, but I I agree with all these board members up here, especially with uh

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James, like we don't know what we don't know, and all you can do is kind of just go through and experience it and put it into action, put it in motion. And I

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think consolidation could be a very good thing, but it could also be a bad thing. And we don't know what we don't know.

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And I think it's just what's working right now is not working or what's happening right now. So I

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believe that consolidating could be very beneficial to students.

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uh contrary to popular opinion, I know that like I won't be here, but I think if I had the opportunity to go into

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these classrooms and be taught by the teachers from Amodore and like be with these students and be all collaborate

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together. I feel like it would have been a very good opportunity for myself to have because having all these minds

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together in one community altogether hopefully making sense. I think it's just better for the students overall.

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Yeah, if I think of anything else, I'll say it, but I just like take it with a growth mindset. It might not be something you want now, but

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it could be something that'll benefit the students. I think just be positive.

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It's not going to make anything better if you're going to be negative and say all these negative things about the people up here when they want the best

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for your students. Um, but anyh who for ASB again, our downtown rally is on

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November 5th, Thursday at 700 p.m. on Main Street, Jackson. I invite all of you to be here. We revamped our theme name. It's retro replay cuz it's like

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video game theme and we have very cool video games that have been chosen by each of our classes. And we are very excited to show off all of our skits and

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our floats to hype up the big game the following day, which will take place at Amidor. And then for FFA, they are currently at the 99th National

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Convention in Indianapolis. And before the convention, they took the students to Washington DC and saw a lot of monuments and presidential memorials. I

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wish I was there to see that. But um and then other FFA things is that there's an FFA chapter meeting at lunch in the gym next Friday, the 30th. And a leadership

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is collaborating with Amidor's A leadership to put on a big FFA big game tailgate at the uh big game. And then

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for sports, football is currently 3-1 in league and they play Rosemont this Friday away. And then last night, volleyball beat Amodore for the second

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time this season. Mhm. Um and they will begin playoffs and they're currently eight and six in league, which I think makes them

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I don't know. Actually, I lied. Um well, not in league. Wait, yeah, they are.

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Okay. Anyhoo, and then flag football is six in the league and they play their next game tomorrow against Leroy Green Academy. This might be their last game,

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I think. And for cross country, just again their motherload monster dash on Halloween. Go run cuz I won't be

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running. I don't like running. Okay, thank you. [laughter] Okay, Lauren. [applause]

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Um, earlier Mr. Critchfield mentioned um charter schools just as an alternative and I just wanted to give my

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perspective. So, I went to Mount Oaks for several years. Um, and while I was there, I saw the development of

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different charter schools like Visions and a lot of students left to go to different charter schools. But even though I won't see the realization of

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this consolidation cuz I'm graduating, um, I'm hopeful and I hope that it can be competitive to what the caliber sort

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of of the classes I experienced at Mount Oaks and being homeschooled. Um, I think when I came to public school into this

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uh school into the school district, I was very disappointed to be honest and I just thought that it was inefficient

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even in fourth grade. But I'm I'm hopeful at this high school level that we can actually work towards better

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efficiency. And I'm excited that Argonaut am Amodore just I know there's great teachers at both campuses and I know I would have loved that as a

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freshman to feel like I was getting the best of both worlds and a better more fully rounded education.

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Um that's just my personal anecdote on that. But for my board report for ASB

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on Friday we have um homecoming. So our theme is Hokcoella which is named after the famous music and arts festival. And

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so each class represents a different genre of music. And so the freshman are rock music, the sophomore or country music, junior is pop music and senior is

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like hip-hop. Um [snorts] and then the dance is the same theme and that's on Saturday. For sports, uh flag

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football, the girls are really proud of their big wins. They've had a really successful season. Um they're second in league and they're headed to playoffs.

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We had the senior night for water polo yesterday so that went well. Um and then of course the homecoming game on Friday

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against G. Um FFA Claire mentioned they're at nationals right now. Uh from what I've heard everyone is very

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excited. They want to learn more about FFA traditions and to go to the convention and learn about agricultural

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practices and such. Um, for school clubs also, uh, Interact Club, we have our annual trick-or- treat for cans next week. So, we're going to be doing that.

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Last year, we got over 300 pounds of food that we donated to the food bank. So, that was successful.

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[applause]

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Um, we also have a really dedicated team this year. We have new adviserss, which it was a bit of a rocky start, but uh we

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also I instated the I'm the president this year, so we instated a monthly food bag program or we help um do food bags

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for the homeless and we pass them out at dinners at St. Patrick's. So that's every month. Um and then for other events, there's the Jug and Rose on Saturday. That's for performing arts.

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And we've begun preparing for our mock elections as Mr. R mentioned. So that's coming up and that's it.

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Okay. [applause] Thank you. Um we are going we suspended close session. We're going to go back into close session and then we will come

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back out and do any final reports and adjourn the meeting. Okay.