Oakland Military Institute, College Preparatory Academy
Minutes
Regular Board Meeting
Date and Time
Thursday May 29, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Location
Address: 3877 Lusk St. Oakland, CA 94608
Room: B104, B Side Building
In response to the expiration of Governor Newsom’s Executive Order N-29-20, which temporarily suspended provisions of the Brown Act relating to public meetings, the Board will resume in-person board meetings.
In Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, those requiring special assistance to access the board meeting should contact Carlos Rodriguez at crodriguez@omiacademy.org. Notifications of at least 24 hours prior to the meeting will enable Oakland Military Institute to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility to the board meeting.
Directors Present
B. Cross, D. Clisham, J. Brown, M. Mares
Directors Absent
A. Campbell Washington, J. Wire, S. Bryce
Guests Present
9 other participants, C. James, C. Rodriguez, J. Pike, J. Welcome, K. Wong, M. Streshly, S. Delgadillo, S. Lipsey
I. Opening Items
A.
Roll Call
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
C.
Public Comment
D.
Ordering of the Agenda
Governor Brown and the rest of the Board of Directors made a motion to maintain the agenda as is except to postpone the closed session to the next meeting.
II. Public Hearing
A.
2025-2026 Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP)
Public Hearing of the 2025-2026 Local Control Accountability Plan was opened at 4:10 pm and closed at 4:11 pm due to no public commentary.
B.
2025-2026 Proposed Budget
Public Hearing of the 2025-2026 proposed budget was opened at 4:11 pm and closed at 4:11 pm due to no public commentary.
III. Approval of Consent Items
A.
Minutes of March 27, 2025 Regular Meeting
B.
OMI Bank Account Activity (April 2025)
C.
Personnel Report
D.
2025-2026 Academic Calendar
Marc Mares mentioned that the days of graduation are on the same day next school year and that has not been the case for the past couple of years and wondered if that was intentional. The document that was in the board packet was an older version of the calendar and thus had minor changes.
The motion to accept was made but with the exception of changing the document to reflect that the graduation for middle school would be May 28, 2026 and May 29, 2026 for high school.
E.
New Contracts
Marc Mares asked about the EdTec amended contract. He was confused why this contract was being added to the agenda again but Dr. Streshly explained that the contract was added to the agenda to show that CalPads is no longer in the contract. Diane Au will be taking on the responsibility of working on the CalPads internally.
Also, OMI added charter renewal assistance services in the EdTec contract. EdTec will be helping OMI with the charter renewal and will help formulate a narrative that could boost the chances of OMI renewing the charter. The charter renewal petition will be submitted no later than the summer of 2026.
IV. Superintendent's Update
A.
Superintendent's Update
Dr. Streshly explained that the new candidate update will be moved to the June Board meeting. The community schools grant that OMI submitted for was not received. OMI staff will be looking for new grants to apply for.
OMI has hired a new Director of Information Technology and Grant Development and his name is Rick Alva. Rick will be coming to the June board meeting to introduce himself. Rick has grant writing experience so he will be in charge of finding and applying for grants on behalf of OMI.
V. Information/Discussion Items
A.
CharterSafe/JPA Insurance Overview
Bettina Hooper joined us to explain the CharterSafe/JPA Insurance discussion item.
She explained what CharterSafe is and what a JPA (Joint Powers Authority) does for charter schools. CharterSafe would help insure OMI more than it is currently and provide OMI with higher levels of coverage. This will help consolidate payments to one vendor instead of multiple vendors for different coverages. CharterSafe also has a Board of Directors that is made up of charter leaders that are in the JPA.
CharterSafe offers services for risk management, transportation guidelines, litigation assistance, staff training compliance, vendor procedures, safety inspection, policy and procedure review, sexual abuse prevention, best practices, policy templates, safety consulting, and more.
The CharterSafe core liability program covers $55,000,000 per member aggregate and includes Directors and officers liability, general liability, employee benefits liability, educator's legal liability, automobile among other insurances. Crime, Property, and additional coverages are included as well.
Bettina showed the Board of Directors an example of the type of training that CharterSafe offers. This Human Resources training is comprehensive for human resource needs.
Governor Brown asked for a comparison sheet between the insurance coverage that OMI currently has and the CharterSafe offerings.
B.
Financial Update
Jessika explained the forecast improved by $137k since the previous board meeting. This was as a result of recapturing funds that would likely go unspent in the 2024-2025 FY. Areas in which funds were pulled back were books and supplies, compensation and benefits, special education contractors, and other local revenue. This led to the deficit being half of what was approved in the budget for this fiscal year.
Jessika explained that the cash balance was looking solid through next December. She mentioned that OMI staff can look into moving funds to the investment fund once enrollment is more solidified.
In the May Revise, the cost of living adjustment was lowered from 2.43% to 2.3%. Also, there is a new funding grant (one-time funds) that OMI will have four years to spend. Expanded Learning is not being cut.
Jessika explained that she thinks that the deficit could go down more this year (2024-2025) but that would be when Jessika and EdTec finalize and close the books on the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
C.
2025-2026 Local Control Accountability Plan
Marc Mares mentioned that the charter renewal date had a mistake, as it is slated for 2027, not 2028.
Dr. Streshly mentioned that the collaboration between the business office and the curriculum office has been made stronger because of the work that needs to be done on the LCAP.
The one-year graduation rate is 100%. All of the cadets in the 2025 class graduated. The four-year graduation rate was 95%. The OMI Staff mentioned that the numbers/percentages for the various categories are estimates because the official statistics are not out yet.
The CA CORE growth indicator for OMI outperforms the Oakland schools at a higher percentage in every one of the categories (High School Math and English, Middle School Math and English).
The 2024-2025 year was a start year for the tutoring and academic enrichment program so the 2025-2026 school year will start more smoothly with tutoring at the beginning of the year. The teachers will be teaching to the standardized test (CAASPP) to give the cadets more chance to excel at the end of the year.
Dr. Streshly gave the Board of Directors a quick run down of the LCAP goals.
D.
2025-2026 Proposed Budget
Jessika explained that the projections of the 2025-2026 budget factor in that the cadet count would be an average of 500 with an average attendance goal of 94%. This will be a buffer for the attendance to hopefully reach 95%. At the time of the meeting, the CharterSafe estimate of $187,000 was not factored into the budget for 2025-2026 but can be adjusted when more concrete details are obtained. There would not be much of a change in spending for the insurance, but paying to one vendor instead of multiple would change.
VI. Action Items
A.
Approve 2025-2026 Board Meeting Dates
Governor Brown asked the OMI Staff to lower the number of board meetings for the 2025-2026 school year. The OMI Staff obliged and will be bringing back the revised list to the Board of Directors meeting in June.
B.
Approve Governing Board Member Terms
C.
Approve Appointment of Board Officers
VII. Standing Item: Review Board Meeting Quorum for next meeting
A.
June 12, 2025 Board Meeting Quorum
Governor Brown: Yes
Mr. Clisham: Yes
Mr. Bryce: Yes
Mr. Mares: No
Mr. Wire: Yes
Ms. Washington: ?
BG Cross: Yes
VIII. Board Member Comments
A.
Board Member Comments
Marc Mares gave a shout-out to the security team for the quick action on the car fire that happened outside of the campus fencing. He also praised the OMI staff for the great graduation ceremony. Marc Mares also mentioned that OMI staff should consider putting some cadets (one from each grade) to come up with solutions for how to improve the math scores.
IX. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn to Closed Session
The Board of Directors voted to postpone the closed session until the next meeting.
B.
Reconvene to Open Session
The Board of Directors voted to postpone the closed session until the next meeting.
There was two public comments at this board meeting.
Wing Wah Leung took time to thank the Board of Directors and Governor Brown specifically for the opportunity to be a part of OMI for many years.
Joel Siapno came to thank the OMI staff for helping and going the extra mile for the cadets. Joel is the Co-founder of School Nursing Solutions and helped with the hearing and vision screenings at OMI.