1. Carlos Monroy - All right. My name is Carlos Monroy. I am the UTLA Chapter Chair. I've been involved in the Union representation here since 2015. This is my 22nd year teaching. I teach students with special needs, English 11 and 12. I just wanted to express how hopeful and positive I am about collective bargaining. Today, we have sunshine. We intend to collectively bargain with the administration. We have several articles that we want to look at, several articles that we want to examine and find toothcomb. I just wanted to share how positive I think the membership is about going into this bargaining round. I think I can expect good things from the administration and work collaboratively. I just wanted to share that. I do have copies of the Sunshine letter if any of you need it. I don't know if there's enough. But. It is online, I believe. Thank you very much. I look forward to collective bargaining and doing good things for these teachers who give so much to the children of this community. Education is one of those things that we can't look at as a return on investment. The return is an educated community, an educated group of citizens, and making our community stronger, better, and for all of us.

2. Ava Tibor - All right. I listened to the last board meeting, and you guys leased two charter buses for $350,000 a year, and you said that they would make people want to go/send their kids to El Camino after seeing them driving around. I can assure you no. All right. I listened to the last board meeting, and you guys leased two charter buses for $350,000 a year, and you said that they would make people want to go/send their kids to El Camino after seeing them driving around. I can assure you no Kid is going to see that and say, Oh, my goodness, I Want to go to El Camino. If you want to attract student-athletes, it's facilities Video boards. Like in Birmingham, Football stadiums like at Birmingham, do not have wooden bleachers, Grass soccer fields like at Birmingham, Weight rooms, or locker rooms. You said we are the jewel of the Valley, and that's simply just not true. The extra money you spent on the charter bus could have been spent elsewhere. I don't need to tell you where it's obvious. On girls' soccer, we had Multiple incoming freshmen leave to go to Chaminade and Notre Dame. I get that, that's private schools. But the worst is when kids that leave around here go to West Lake, Birmingham, Calabasas, Agoura, and even Tap now. This is just for girls' soccer, and I imagine it's true for all the other sports. This sucks because I know that girls on my club team that go to Ventura County Public Schools have turned down ECR because of the poor facilities. With them, we would not only win the city, but regionals. Mr. Wright, my mom is still waiting on an email from last year regarding what you did to me.

3. Shelley Mark - No problem. Okay, so I am a retired teacher. I taught here for about 17 years, a total of 23 years. Six years over at Novo Middle School. I taught art, and AP art history, did the yearbook for a couple of years, and also contributed to writing the charter for the school. I was one of the many teachers who came that summer to help write it. One of the key parts of our charter, one of the key parts of our charter and of retiring, is the lifetime benefits that we were promised by administrators, by all the administration, by a letter that I received. This is my exit letter when I retired. What you do when you retire, what I did in 2021, was asked. When I Retired in 2021, I was asked to send an email to HR stating my date, my time, and just that fact. Then that was responded to with this email. I have extra copies I can share with you. It starts with, Congratulations, what do I need to turn in my badge, my parking permit, any keys to the classroom, your regular stuff? How I would access payroll and my paycheck information? Then the section under lifetime benefits states you have received a letter confirming your eligibility for lifetime benefits. Per the CBA, there's no charge for you for lifetime benefits. Lifetime benefits include basic medical, low PPO or HMO, Delta Dental 1,000 or HMO, and vision coverage for you and your spouse. The next open enrollment will be late August 2021. It goes on to explain moving forward what you'll do. Nowhere in here does it say that this would ever be otherwise?

4. Jake Shirley - El Camino, Real board. I'm speaking on behalf of a large majority of the student body. There is nothing else to say, but we're just confused. The finger-pointing needs to stop on behalf of the students. We're disturbed by the lack of transparency shown by everyone involved. We don't understand why there just can't simply be more communication. Specifically to Mr. Hussey, and Mr. Wright, where's the proof that you are advocating for us like you say you do? The morale of the school is at an all-time low. It's palpable during school hours. The football team is constantly badgered by questions about where is the football field. What's going on With the football field? As it seems to the students on campus, you guys have as much information as we do, which is hard to believe. Does LUSD say on the phone that there is no timetable? Because frankly, that doesn't sound very professional on their behalf. To conclude, we as a student feel that a new cafeteria pales in comparison to the many fun times had at football games and other events on a new field.

5. Caden Song - I fear that enough has already been said. However, I must express just how aggravated we as a student body are. It is no longer just about the football team. As far as I am concerned, the field will not be finished in Time for the football team. Now it becomes more of us as a larger Student body and just how much the football field affects us in general not just sports, not just soccer, lacrosse, or any team that uses the field it’s About the Student morale, the people that come to the games, the people that want to experience high school. When people look back on their high school days, they think about when they went to football Games, and when they were able to congregate with their friends. We do not have that luxury anymore. Especially us as players We don't have that energy coming behind us when we play these games. And it usually Leads us to lack energy throughout the game. Like I said, I feel enough has been said by my colleagues, and I don't want to. Speak for the general state of the population, but we are very angry. Especially considering that money has been spent. Elsewhere, such as the charter busses and such as the cafeteria. As far as I'm concerned, those purchases are meant to distract from what the true Priorities are, and that is us as students, We feel as though we are not Being represented and that our interests are not being represented.

6. Erin Sanders - On a positive note, I would like to thank Mr. Russell, Mr. Camp, Mr. Hussey, and Mr. Wright for sitting down with the aquatic parents and students starting to create a dialog, and continuing to work with the aquatic students to find some solutions for our pool. Another thing that this high school does not have on campus. The students created a petition to keep the Woodland Hills Rec pool open year-round, and it has gained support from our local community council members, Community members in general, Bob Blue and Philb, and more. We'd like continued support to find more permanent Facilities for the athletes and community programs. So I'd like to, I hope that continues and on the other side of the coin, I feel the same sentiment about the football field.

7. Beth Corbett - I retired in June and I was an English teacher and a chair coach for 20 years. I want to first say thank you for letting us talk last week. I know it wasn't on the agenda and the retiree issue you let us discuss that was great. We appreciate it. I have a letter from... I already said what I want to say last week, but I want to read this from Gary A. S. Arch. I'll just make it short. This is from a math teacher. He's been here for 35 years. He retired with me. Dear school board, I'm a teacher who retired in June 2023 after 39 years and 35 at E. C. R. I showed up and spoke at the last board meeting regarding this matter. When I and my colleagues signed the charter, the deal was that our retiree benefits would be similar or better than L. A. U. S. D. If it had not been guaranteed to us, E. C. R. Is a charter would not exist today. This is the only reason we signed on the charter. We know it's not in the CBA anymore, but this is the point. In terms of benefits, L. A. U. S. D. Has and can, too, have a DHMO and a PPO for dental benefits. We had this also until the pandemic. Once the pandemic happened and nobody was around, it was changed to a DMHO and no PPO. We switched our insurance policy from what the teachers understood, and then the premiums had to be paid for Delta Dental 1,000. This is from what I understand, I might be wrong, but the insurance for all retirees changed. Now retirees that have been retired for years have to pay the premium. We know that it may get solved with our union, but that is the issue at hand. People who retired in 2016, and '17, who have not paid Delta 1,000, now have to pay it and have started to pay it, and that's just not fair. Barry gives a whole mathematical calculation because he's a math teacher

8. Debbie Mongeli - I'm a senior parent here. I'm looking for an explanation. Why is it so hard to get an update on the status of the field? And why is the only update that anybody has seen something that was posted on social media yesterday and not coming from any of you? In the article, Mr. Wright is quoted as saying, I believe I will be ready for a Boys and girls soccer in November. I wouldn't hold my breath for football. Is that what we want to tell our students? We're not going to hold our breath for football? Any thoughts on how you're going to explain that to them? Our senior class was in eighth grade when everything shut down. They didn't get culmination or anything else that went with that year. Our freshman year was online. Nothing. The next year, sophomore year, there are limited activities, limited game attendance spectators, and all that thing. Junior year, nothing because we don't have a field and they're going into that again. On Monday, we received an email from the Dean's office that says the year is off to a great start. Will you would you ask these students if they felt like that? Are athletes, marching band, Color Guard, cheer, ROPC? These are students who used the football games to perform for their school, at their school. Before school started, we received an email from Mr. Hussey telling us how we should take pride in our school, that it's a place where we have the opportunity to develop passions. Well, are the passions taken into consideration by the students I just talked about? Or the entire student body who are missing out on the experience, the memories, the pride of being at a home game or even having homecoming at their school? Now, for the second year in a row, that's not going to happen. How can they take pride in a school that does not have a field, one that has melted for two years? Please consider your role in this and think about what is in the best interest of our students. With the district discussions taking months and your prediction that there is going to be no football season, why has there not been a plan to do something to get these performing students to the games that are not going to be here? It is time that we do what we can benefit our students rather than what we think will look good in the public eye.

9. Jeff Craig - I taught for 35 years at El Camino. English, psychology, student council, leadership, all the Activities, Prom, Picnic, and Pep rallies. I've been so Proud to be a member of El Camino. I've been loyal. I've worked so hard to always live up to the highest standards, even sometimes to the detriment of my health and my family, honestly. Because we are ECR, always cut above. I Bragged About our school to Anyone who would listen. Now I'm not so sure. I'm so disappointed in your current plan to shortchange the seniors. I resent having to come here tonight and beg. It is not honorable of you to pull the dental insurance rug out from under us. Promises were made. We left fully trusting that our Benefits would not be whittled away. Even if it became difficult financially, I had no doubt you would do the right thing. But as I understand it, there is a very healthy fund currently taking care of us. On interest alone, Why are you pushing this? We were so loyal to you. It is your obligation to us because you now are ECR. It's your to uphold the ethics of this place. You need to do the right thing for us today as we have been solidly in ACR's corner for decades. Ps, dentists don't take Delta H. M. or as far as I can tell, at least probably anybody I want to go to. Okay. Do your job, honor your commitment.

10. Amy Sarkisyan - I'm missing a job interview to be here, so I'm hoping that my voice gets across. Dear board members, thank you for allowing us this time to speak. I might get a little emotional, so please bear with me. My daughter is a senior, along with David's daughter. They're both in the Color Guard. Last year, the Color Guard and marching Band, despite not having a field, took second place in Southern California. Their kids worked their butt up. Even though at times they couldn't practice together, they somehow put together to bring this together. We're very proud of them. My daughter also is an ROTC, and 10% of her ROTC grades are volunteer hours. Now, being at football games counts as those volunteer hours, but they're home football games. The last two weeks, she volunteered, but they were reclassified as away games, so she missed out on eight hours of volunteer work. Next, Mr. Wright, I would like to just speak from Parent to Parent in an L. A. Times article in 2012, which mentions that you bought out a circuit in Glendale for 600 children and teens in the L. A. County Foster System. Now, when I read this, I was just trying to learn a little bit about you, and that was like, Oh, my God, that's such a wonderful thing. You said you want to do something for the kids. So instead of buying a car, you bought the circus. You're buying buses instead of buying our football field. I just thought that was a little ironic. You said you've been fortunate to play for 15 years, and right now this is no game. These people are here, they need our help, and I'm going to be right there. But you're not. As Debbie said, you said, don't hold your breath for 2023. Last year we held our breaths. We gave you guys a chance, but it looks like we need to stand up and have our kids at least look at us for leadership because this leadership is lacking. What are we teaching our children? I'm so proud they're all here to fight for themselves. Because this is a life lesson. You should always be here. Be proud of yourself.

11. Steve Burnstein - Hello, I'm Steve Burnstein and I was a teacher librarian here for 11 years. One of the retired teachers is now being asked to pay for my dental insurance which previously was covered in our ECR Healthcare plan. I have an e-mail from Kurt Lowry from December 22nd, 2022. Not that, Long ago, it stated that the Dental PPO 1,000 would Continue through September 30th, 2024. I would hope that you uphold that announcement for those of us who are now on fixed income. I've also heard that the executive director has stated that dental care is not part of healthcare. That is a ridiculous statement, as many studies show that poor dental health can lead to heart attacks. If you want further proof, the Master of Classification, Melville Dewey, the Dewey of the Dewey Decimal System, has definitive evidence 617.5 is where you'll find books on healthcare, And 617.6 are books on dentistry. 6.17 is anything about adult medicine. Now, since we're on the subject of libraries, why has the library been closed Since I retired? Why can't students, teachers, and faculty members not check out books? Ecr is the only high school in Los Angeles Without a functioning library. Students could have books for free reading, which some studies show improves all academic areas. If you read the news, places like Florida and Texas are centering books on subjects like LGBTQ and Black history. What is Happening here Is even worse. All books are censored now because no Student can Check out any book. We do have books in our professional development section about effective leadership. I'm just saying. I will finish with a quote by John Wooden. Be true to yourself. Make each day a masterpiece, help others, and Drink deeply from good books.

12. Daniel Zatarian - I just wanted to introduce myself to the board because I'm maybe part of the bargaining team and just remind you all that we're going to be sunshine. I've been teaching. This is going to be my eighth year. This is my third year at Elco. I teach science, so honors and regular bio. I love being at this school. I'm looking forward to bargaining this year, and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to come to something that can benefit all teachers and hopefully the retirees as well.

13. Mark Pomerantz - I taught at El Camino from 2001 through 2021, and I attended here from '71 through '74. I retired in June of 2021, and I'm here to voice my concerns about my health care, and that my dental has been downgraded from what we were led to believe, we would have for the remainder of our lives. I wrote the section on our health benefits back in 2011 on the original charter for El Camino Real Charter High School. Neither myself nor Anybody else ever thought that we would have to worry about changing that. The words were that we would have equal to or better than LA Unify to attract better teachers and better staff that doesn't seem to be the matter at this point. I'm urging the Board to reconsider that Dental 1,000, Be reinstated for retirees and all future retirees since we are making the money that we need to support retirees on Just the interest that you have. If we had been funding It from day one of the previous administration that was not, we'd be fully funded by now. I also urge the board to start looking a little bit more seriously at the concerns of these fine young athletes and the students at El Camino. Having played here myself, this Is a disgrace Please look at this in a Very, Very Serious matter because our healthcare is what retirees rely upon and why we stay here for so long and we do the jobs that we do.

14. Sheryl Dourrias - Hello, ECR school board members. My son has attended ECR since 2021. I have listened to parents make assumptions about these board meetings where parents aren't allowed to speak and the board does not answer their questions does not address issues and is condescending to parents who ask questions. I don't agree with those statements. I do not believe that the board meetings here are a nightmare. In all the board meetings that I have attended, I have observed them being very orderly and following the Robert rules of order and the protocol of the Brown Act. In a recent article by ESB Live with regards to the ECR football field, the board chair, Brad Wright, was quoted saying, The people may be upset with me, but the charter school division and L. A. U. S. D. Are not, and they're the ones I work for and answer to. If ECR parents are not happy with this school board and/or the school administrators, reach out by sending a formal written letter via certified mail to the charter school division and LA-USD. As parents, we hold the power and strength in numbers. I implore fellow ECR parents to not be talkers, but be doers and write those letters and send those emails.

I was going to start differently, but I'll start with this letter that's going to go out to families tonight. Dear El Camino Real families, thank you for your patience. This morning, I obtained an update from LASD facilities on the status of the project to replace our football field. According to the district, delays arose from unforeseen contract issues that were resolved yesterday. Am I pleased to report that the contract for the construction of this project was awarded yesterday, August 29? As these delays have had a significant impact on your football and other athletic programs this year, the district has been working with us to ensure El Camino's football team has access to fields for practice and competition during the project construction. Below is the updated project schedule. August 29th, 2023, notice to proceed was issued to the contractor. Over the next 30 to 45 days, the replacement turf will be fabricated and crews will be mobilized so that the construction can begin. These activities could not be completed before the execution of the contract and the notice to proceed. Mid-October 2023, construction will be on site. Mid-December 2023, occupancy of the football field. I will be keeping a close eye on the schedule and will be in frequent communication with the LAUSD team responsible for delivering this project to ensure that any slips will not delay each anticipated milestone. If you have questions regarding the project, you would like to relay to the district, please contact Maria, let me know these in the letter and she'll be happy to respond. Going back to what some people have, I'm not supposed to respond to that. I'll keep it. To the board, I think I have been or the school has been very transparent in the information that we received from the district. There were a lot of students. I will agree. There were a lot of next months. I will agree, but it had nothing to do with El Camino. El Camino has been at the point where anytime they wanted to come on and do the work, the field was available to do the work. But as you heard, there was an unforeseen contract issue that was beyond El Camino's control. We were waiting for L. A. E. S. D. To clarify that or clean that up with the contractor and they did that yesterday. We're moving forward on the construction of the field. Again, to the football players who came today, an apology is not going to do them any justice because they're not going to have any home games here. But I have been working with the district and I've spoken to the coach and we're going to try to get a field locally where they can call their home field for their home games. As I go on, just want to thank teachers, the classified staff, our administration, students, and parents for a successful opening. I want to get a shout-out to the counseling staff. 98% of the students were programmed even before welcome week, so there weren't very many class changes that needed to be made. I want to thank the counselors, Mr. Alba, and the classified clinical staff in those offices for getting this done. Also, I want to thank Ms. Schuster for her SMILE program. She came up with the idea of every staff member getting two emails and reaching out to those people to create a more pleasant atmosphere here at El Camino, and I think it's going to work. Yesterday, we completed our map testing and the data team will begin looking at the data to help teachers and staff address our learning Laws and develop points of emphasis to address those areas and issues. I just want to give an update that we left off last year on our IB program. Last year we sent a survey out to teachers. We didn't get a lot of feedback back, but next week we'll start reaching out to students and parents. We will also reach out to staff again to gauge their interest. We'll be doing that in the month of September.

Again, the summer has been a very Well, it's a downtime for some Parents and students. It's a very active time for the financial world of putting around, We're Putting Together the final pieces to our audit Report With our auditors for The year-end, June 13th, 23. We will be publishing and discussing a lot of the actual report at the next board meeting. Speaker We will have an opening enrollment, this one is the good news. Our audit and actuals. We have some onetime money and new funding that will help our fund balance for 2023. Our enrollment is to start this school year, though, as of this week, our enrollment is down approximately 200 from last year. We only have 683 ninth graders, 818 10th, 820 11th, and 884 12th. A total of only 3,205 students enrolled. We will be probably asking the board to relook it. We will need to relook at our budget forecast. We had expected a couple of hundred more students enrolled, so that'll have an impact on our financial projections. Now, that said, we did budget for a surplus. We'll come up with what the revised financial numbers will be included. We've also consolidated the application. The state is sending this week, our federal funding request to the CDE. It's a request for things like our Title 1 funding that will approximate 385,000. That's for basic aid for students or Title 2 funding that helps our teachers with professional development and conferences. We were reapplying for that for $76,000 and Title IV, which will give basic school support for $30,000. Included in there is an application. We have to give updates on our homeless youth. Last year, our homeless population has probably been talked about across the state and in Los Angeles in particular at El Camino, we had 11 students that were categorized as homeless in our CalPAD's information, the prior year was only two. You can see the impact. The homeless population is everpresent, not only in the Los Angeles area but El Camino. With that, that's my report.

Brad Wright: We're going to move on to the board chair updates. I created that because a lot of times there are a lot of things on the minds of my colleagues that you're not able to respond to parents. But if you do have something, you'd like to relay to the board and maybe send a message. Now I'll be the time. Mr. Kofahl, do you have anything? Kofahl: No. Brad Wright: Just the fact that I resigned in June and I'm back on. I'm looking forward to working with all staff members here and the community as well. Please feel free. I will reconnect my El Camino email address and be able to respond to you all. Thank you. I'm sorry. That's me doing that just to… No worries. No, I'm calling her intentionally so I can make a pause. No, that's me doing that to you. But it's okay. Don't worry about it. Do you have anything to send me? The only thing I want to know going forward is what's been going on with more of the parent group, and what happened with everything a little bit more. Brad Wright: In-depth of that. You'd be more specific Just as For a lot of where the scholarships went that were involved in that group or is it a concern? I want to know a lot about what's going on within the parent group as well. I'm sure you want to know about the old group. And the whole group. Here's the thing. With the new parent group, we have, I believe Mr. Dorries is here, and she can answer your question. Mr. Burnstein, excuse me. Bernstein is here. As far as the past parent group, we can't comment on that as of yet because there's an investigation as well. We make sure that we're being fair and transparent. We want to let the investigation go and we will bring that up. If you like to make a motion, I'll bring that up on the next agenda when we're able to be forthright and let you know exactly what's going on. Thank you very much. Ms. Ramirez. Ms. Ramirez: I just had a question maybe for Mr. Hussey or the board in general. There was a comment regarding how some of the home gains were reclassified as a way. A lot of the students that were volunteering lost their Community Service hours. Can we look into that, please? Wright: Off-the- I know that's what I'm saying, sir, if they were standing by for those hours, can those hours still count because they were standing by? That's something for you to examine, to be equitable there. But if they're standing by and they committed that time there and we committed this time for them to be able to give them those hours, I would hope we could. Ms. Ramirez: Yeah. That's why I'm asking if I would think that we can give them those volunteer hours. It's not their fault that those home gains will be Classified as a waste. Wright: Not only that. If they were standing by, they committed that time, whether they used them or not, they committed that time. Please, I'd like to check and see what we can do with that legally if we can give that to them. It's like us having the contract. We could say, Well, I'm not showing up, but I gave my days for this thing here. I could have been doing something else. We'll work out. We'll see if we can go with that. Ms. Barclays, anything? Ms. Barclays No problem. Wright: Sorry, Mr. Laws. Mr. Laws No, just the library was a concern that I had about the use. Are you not able to Check books out, but are you able to even enter the building and study or do anything there? As part Of the Library's concern? Yeah, Answer: We'll open that backup probably next week. But they are going to do as best as this abatement. We're just waiting for them to get us to go. Wright: Thank you very much. For myself, I'd like to welcome everyone back. I think it's very important we all work together. We have great leadership within our union, our teachers, and our parents. We all have to do our parts. Excuses are not acceptable when we can have not just reasons, but we can have an outcome. Unfortunately, I'm going to say this to the board, I've been working with the people of L. A. U. S. D, They own this property. It's like me owning a house and you're my tenant and you ask me if you can build a swimming pool. I say, Yes, you can do it. You say I'm going to pay, but then we still have to deal with permits. We have the environment, we have the city, and all this. Not to make any excuses, but I would not be the one responsible because you don't own this house. But still, I think that if the parents are saying that we should be more communicative, we have to make sure we do everything we can to make sure they understand what we understand. If they don't get it, we keep going until they do understand it. That's the way I feel. With that being said, I'm going to recuse myself as a board president. As of now, we'll be going into elections, and I'm going to turn this meeting over to Mr. Guinto as we'll be having our elections.

Travel (Ad Hoc)

Kofahl - Chair

Centman 

Wright

Executive Director Evaluation (Standing)

Solkovitz - Chair

Ramirez

Kofahl

Capitalization Projects (Standing)

Wright - Chair

Ramirez

Kofahl

Finance and Investments (Standing)

Vargas - Chair

Ramirez

Solkovitz

Technology (Ad Hoc)

Laws - Chair

Wright

Vargas

Security  (Campus Safety) - (Ad Hoc)

Wright - Chair

Laws

Kofahl

Thank you. Mike Brallier was unable to be here, but as just a quick audience and for new board members, Beacon Point has been associated with our investment advisor. This is now the second year of their doing their duty as advisors. Beacon Point, just a reference point, has 445 professionals. They have under advisement, they have almost $29 billion of assets that they advise on. They represent, besides El Camino, they represent California State University, San Bernardino, L. A. Firemen's Relief Association, L. A. Police Relief Association. They're doing some private school shamannaad, College Prep School, Archdiocese of San Francisco. Needless to say, they have a plethora of experience, and I found them great to work with. That's the backdrop to Beacon Point. I'll go off the screen before I go into the... Sorry, Ryan, could you just do the actual? We'll come back to that last because that's July. The school year ended and they have issues. Typically, we ask them for quarterly reports to the extent that he can. Our advisor comes out and gives this hardcopy report, and answers questions in the interim. I continue to provide monthly updates on both the OPEB account and the general investment account. Several pages go into great depth and detail about the types of investments. I might ask that we go to page five, Ryan, on the handout, and that's the OPEB. Can you enlarge that a little bit? What we are looking at is at the end of June, what this screen shows is we had $25,322,000 in the OPEV account. Different investments are made in terms of equity, domestic equity, international fixed, and alternatives. Those are the different components of the market value down below at the bottom of the screen. If you scroll down to that, we have an investment policy. Wef you give our advisor, we have an existing board-approved investment policy of what areas they're supposed to be investing those types of investment. We don't micromanage on what type of investment we ask them to do, but we give them categories of investments. If you look on the screen out of the five categories that adds up to 100% of the types of investments. The third column shows you what our policy is equaling 100%. Within that policy, we give them a range that their responsibility is if it falls outside of the range, they are supposed to sell off stocks or investments in that category and go into the category that they're outside the range. You can see the policy ranges of 20-50, 10-30, etc, They then show what the difference is between how they've invested and what our policy range is. The final is that which they report back to the organization, is our current portfolio within the range of our investment, board-approved investment policy? In all these cases, yes, this account is balanced as our organization has asked them to balance. it's just showing the difference. Again, the policy says 15% for the alternative. It's just showing that the current allocation is- We have less of an allocation than what the policy. But if again, you go to the right, the policy allows it to be anywhere from 0-25%. It's outside of what the policy says. But again, our investment policy says it can be anywhere from 0-25%. It's within the policy range, but it's below. It's 2.8% below what.

Again, the board has previously approved the actuary who has prepared this study and has used our financial results. It's taken a census. Part of their report fills in medical trends, and current medical costs and uses future trends on what our costs would be. I think back to those interested in, its uses... It uses the coverage that the school offers for its retirees. If we make any changes in coverage, it would potentially change the actuary report. They've used, again, the current benefits being offered to the current employees is what they've used to prepare this actuary report. If you go to, it's all pretty much summarized the... There you go. If you could go down to the center and load that up. The really good news, this compares how funded the post-employment benefit account in the first column is at the end of '22, how much did we have in the fund at the end of '23? How much did we have in the fund? You will see that a fully funded OPEB account is the ideal goal of any organization it almost becomes self-funding that you can take your investments and they can operate on autopilot. What that chart is showing you at the end of '22, the OPEB account was funded at 78.1%. Through a series of, again, both our investments, things that influence this are the type of medical rates, interest or discount factors, influence our funded amounts outside of any investments we do. But the good news, at the end of '23, we were 93.1%. When I first started here, this number was three years ago, this number was at 50%. Again, we have a combination of our... We have made sound investment decisions. 93%, I can state for a fact, that I challenge at least any charter school that I'm aware of for this site, I'm not aware of any educational institution. Charter. If you were to ask LOSD how fun they are in their account, it's in the single digits, not 93%. Again, as we're looking to go fully funded, there is a separate discussion item. Again, this account is more and more funded because things like the retiree benefits are not being paid by the OPEB account. It's done in the long term. That is the intent. The things that should be coming out of the OPEB account are paying the retirees their benefits. Right now, to accelerate it being fully funded, every year since I've been here, anyway, there's about $300,000 to $400,000. The retiree payments that the school has been making on the employee's behalf, are being absorbed by the general fund. That's not being the OPEB account is not paying for those premiums currently. Danielle Centman: If we get to the point where it's 100% fully funded, would we stop our monthly $200,000 contributions? Greg Wood: And start paying out? Potentially, again, the funding status, we continue to need to do monthly actuary results, again, the things that change outside of the dollar amount, we could have the same dollar amount that says 100% this year. If, for instance, medical costs, they're using estimates that they say you're fully funded based upon having 5% medical. Let's just say something happens and our medical cost, well, 10%, we tell them that. That would change, again, our fully funded status would potentially get impacted by things like that. Or again, they're using a discount rate that says how much is the money. There are things outside of our contribution or lack of contribution that would change. It's assuming everything else is equal, that it could be self-sustaining based on the interest and the investment gains. Again, investment gains too. We have a good year. It could be 110% funded. We have, again, had a big recession, or our investments aren't invested the right way, which could change things too. But the actuary is just using general trends when it says you are here at a point in time. Things can happen both to the economy and that, but they're just making general statements actuary about that. The intent and the hope would be, yeah, we could stop potentially the contribution and just watch. We could continue to watch how our medical costs change? If we do end up changing the coverage, if we up the coverage through negotiations, then that potentially changes it as well. But that's not to say that we can't. We change whatever coverage we're doing or not doing, and we could and should continue. We need to do this report regardless. Even if it's fully funded, that doesn't mean we shouldn't just take our eye off the ball and continue to do this report and make sure we're fully funded.

Brad Wright: Go ahead. Sorry, you have a question. Gregg Solkovitz: Money to pay the premiums is not coming out of this account, but coming out of the general fund. Correct. And was that bargain with the employees or. Greg Wood: Is it just done multilaterally? It's been done multilaterally again. I have a separate discussion item. This agenda is a separate to start the discussion about based upon our results, do we want to continue? Again, I would need the board to look at and again, all stakeholders, I have an agenda item that should be given these results, which would suggest that we would be we could be fully funded at the end of this year. Should we continue to be making the retiree payments come out? It's showing up on our profit Laws. In addition to the contributions we're making, we're adding it's within traditional retirees. We're probably going to be making close to half a million dollars in retiree premium payments for this year. You guys are talking about. It doesn't change the package. The fact that the general fund pays for it. We get a bill from the medical company, and again, if the union wants... A union wants to bargain it coming out of the OPEC historically, I think, again, the organization is chosen to try to accelerate the funding amount. The current collective bargaining agreement should suggest that we only cover the HMO. We did some side... Part of the conflict, we did some side letters with the UTLA to extend those that were caught up in some of this. But the current CBAs, it stands now. Brad Wright: What was promised? Were you here when the promises were made? If they were, we shouldn't have to bargain for something that was already promised. Greg Wood: I'm looking at that. I would need legal advice on that. I'm suggesting the CBA governs what we do. I'm not disagreeing. You and I are the same thing. I'm just saying if we go off, but we've done... We not only had prior CBAs, but we have negotiated side letters to address. But whatever we... I'm sure everybody's interested in going back to the things. That's fine. Brad Wright: Can't talk about today because it wasn't the agenda. But you and I can talk without bringing around what we want to do because I'm very... As a person who's almost 62 years old, I get it. If promises were made to me, I sure as heck, want them kept. That's something that we'll go through and find out what's going on here. Greg Wood: Some steps can be taken. Brad Wright: Great. Greg Wood: I'm sorry, I just want to... If you could just go back, there's one other page on there I just wanted. Again, take a look at the report. Go to scroll. Again, they do the census. That just shows the... I'll keep going. Again, they show year by year. Okay, there you go. Up, right there. Again, we're down slightly. As I just mentioned with the retirees, they're evaluating every year. This gets into our financial statements. In their review, there's $498,000 worth of payments that the actuary, they're suggesting we would have. I think in the future years, it will go to the $500,000 level. Again, our auditors use a significant amount of this report to do our financial statements. Okay, that's my rule. I think we need... Because our auditors will use this report, I would be asking the board to accept the actuary report for purposes of our financial statement preparation,

Greg Wood: It covered it in as we were going over the other one. Again, I just wanted to put it out there for the board and the public, given our funding level and being close to fully funded. To me, as the CBO, again, this fund was set up and designed to pay for the retiree benefits. Up until this point, we have not a penny of the retiree benefits have come out of the OPEB account. They've always come out of the general account. So again, subject to any discussion, I would move them to the next board meeting. Subject to any amendments to what I'm bringing up, I would like to see a vote by the board to start having the monthly when they get the monthly medical bill from retirees, that the OPEB account starts paying for that. That's the point I want to make knowing it needed to be a discussion prior. Brad Wright: To it. So noted, sir. Ramirez: So noted. It's your recommendation. Greg Wood: No, again, based on our actuary report, yeah, I would definitely. Again, given that we've been paying for it, and I have been on board with the fact that $300, $500,000 during the time I've been here, the general fund has supported that. But as we're looking to support other things like capital improvements and everything else, I think it's time that the actuary, that the account has been proven that it's coming very close to being self-sustaining. I don't see the need to perpetuate having the general fund pay for the retiree benefits is what my recommendation would be. Okay. I'm subject to a vote. Brad Wright: Does anyone have any comments on this? If not, we'll move on to the next of the finance agenda. The first item is item A, the review and vote on June and July 2023. The check registrants on Mr. Wood present this item and answer any questions that we may have, please. Greg Wood: I'll have Ms. Ilias assist with this as she prepares them. Mr. Guita, do you have that? Brad Wright: Ms. Ilias, oh, there you are. Hi. Would you like a seat, ma'am? This is. Ilias: Our check is registered for the month of July. These are all the expenses that are coming out of our general account. Usually in our general account, we cover our large expenditures, such as contributing to our fund, paying for health benefits, some of our 3D plans, and workers comp. Every month, as you see the transactions in our general account, this is what we're hosting. Does anyone have any questions? Greg Wood: I might just add too, again, since the OPEV, since that... Let's continue the active conversation there. Again, as you see there, we're making an active $220,000 contribution to the OPEV account that goes into the OPEV account and is paid to US National Bank. The other thing, again, just to be transparent and show our health benefits, which you see on the third line of $365,000, that's the entire bill for all active and retirees. Mr. Guinto, can you scroll down slightly? Within the total, we've been reporting down below, you can see that we do detail that in the month of July, approximately $50,000 of the $365,000 were payments made for retirees. If we do consider changing the payments, the amounts on the bottom, the simple math would be that 365 would become 315 because that would be the approximate amount that we would be paying for the active employees. If we vote to have the OPEB account, that. The 41 and the $8500 within the OPEB account would be paid directly. Those would no longer appear on our check registers going forward. I have. A couple of questions. First question. This tiny amount in supplemental light, $716.28, what's that for? Ilias: Employees have the option of purchasing supplemental life insurance. What happens is it goes through a payroll deduction. When the employees get that deduction from their payroll, we put it in a liability account, and then we pay out of that. Greg Wood: Account to the business's life on their behalf. On their behalf. There's no profit. There's no cost to the organization as a pass-through.

Ilias: This is our general register for the month of June. This is similar to what was shown for the month of July. As you can see, just looking at two months, how similar the transactions are, just showing the routine expenses that we pay out of this account. Then you could also see the breakdown of the retirement benefits. Any questions? Okay, so can we go to the next page, sir, Terry? This is our checking register for the month of June. It shows all the bills we paid and then also who we paid, what it was for, the amount, and then the bucket of money it came from. So whether or not it was a general fund expense or an expense covered by one of our grants. If anyone has any questions? Greg Wood: Typically, just for the public, and again, these registers typically get vetted twice. These registers and the credit cards typically will be going to the Finance Committee, which will now be re-engaged. These go through two levels of scrutiny, if you will, on a potentially more detailed level when it comes to the Finance Committee, this is on there. For the benefit of the board, which can still look at them, again, much more time is spent at the Finance Committee level as well. There are two levels of scrutiny done on these transactions. I'm going. Brad Wright: To go back for a second on something. Let me just... Right there, stop. Let me see something. I have a question later, so I'm going to go ahead and take a picture of this. Go ahead and please continue. Please continue. Ilias: Any other questions? Can we open the ASB registers? We also include the trust balances within our ASB account. This shows all the clubs and teams on campus and how much money they have in their accounts. Put it out there for the community to see. If anyone has any questions? Gregg Solkovitz: Yeah. In LUSD, when a club has a fundraiser on campus, half of that money goes to. Ramirez: The student body. Wood: Fund and half goes to the club. Gregg Solkovitz: Is there such an arrangement on this campus? Or does a club get all the money it raises? Ilias: As far as I know, the clubs get all the money they raise. Wood: Okay. Gregg Solkovitz: The next question, some of these balances are pretty healthy. Is there a budget attached to these, or are we just stashing money and people don't realize what they're going to spend? Ilias: Student council would be the… Because that encompasses the leadership class, they're developing a budget on how to spend their student council trust balance. But in terms of the other teams that are carrying five-figure balances, they are made aware of how much money they have in their accounts, but they have to be able to come up with a plan and draw down those balances because we tell them the money you've fundraised this year should apply to the students that are here this year. They're not budgets. The only one that's a budget is the student council because they are the student bond class. Greg Wood: In other words, if I'm the track and field coach and I come to you with a request to spend $2,000. Does somebody ask what's it for and what's the plan? Ilias: They have to go through the process that's outlined in the FPP. They have to fill out a purchase. Greg Wood: Order and. Ilias: Get it approved by their administrator and go through it. Greg Wood: That process. Theoretically, that administrator is providing oversight. Yes. Exactly. Ilias: This is the way it works for the club and activities, students present whatever their need is to their club advisors. Every one of these has an advisor of some sort. We will present it to the advisor, and then from there, the advisor will go either to the administrator or the students will come to the administrator. Greg Wood: There's a very- That's all. Brad Wright: I wanted to make sure. Gregg Solkovitz: That there is some oversight on these accounts. Absolutely. That's our goal. Not that I'm worried about $123 in the bank. Correct. That would. Greg Wood: Well, especially when, again, I think questions, I know the CSD, a spending plan, the student council, which again, ASB, they're working on having a spending plan for that six-figure budget. I know, again, the business office does question when we see some trust accounts, when we see expenses being asked for the school to pay, when some of these trust accounts have some healthy reserves, it's like, why should the school pay? Could you? Gregg Solkovitz: Go back to the graduating class lines for a second. Ilias: We started discussions in class of 2023. Yeah, the student council class is discussing how to. Gregg Solkovitz: Break down that- Sure, I understood. I just wanted, for whatever reason, my mind was ensure that there's a balance in '20, '21, and '22, for the. Brad Wright: Rest of the stuff. In the future, please, if you have somebody to speak to, Mr. Wood, or anybody, be recognized before you speak during this meeting. We have an agenda to follow. If your name is on there, you should not speak unless we recognize or ask you a question. In the future, please don't stand up unless I recognize you're containing police. Ilias: This is the bank account. Speaking about the student body, this is the ASB bank account. These are the expenses that are paid out of the trust accounts. You could see who we made the check out to, what it was for, and the trust account that it came out of. This is the month. Greg Wood: That check written here will affect the balance in the class of 20. The classes, if it says class, a check was written that the class of whatever got charged. We recognize what the check is. Makes sense. Makes sense. Ilias: Then the last one, just one of the vendors. We keep track of every vendor we've paid how much we've paid in a single month and how much we've paid here to date. You can see this is for the month of July, how much we've paid. I'm going to use Amazon as an example. We spent $20,000 with Amazon this month. Then because we are only in June and July, our year-to-date will be $20,000. But we provide this report every month and we can see how much we have paid our lenders. Do you have any questions? Gregg Solkovitz: Okay. Greg Wood: Mr. Wright, we've concluded the check register agenda item. Brad Wright: We would like to make a motion to approve. I'll move. Sir, let me finish. I might approve of having you cook for tomorrow. Let me finish what I have to say for the record. Okay. Anyone would like to make a motion to approve the July check registers? Okay.

Sure. Again, for new board members and the public, again, the school has two credit cards there. The two credit cards are held by Mr. Hussey and Mr. Wood. Every month when the credit card statement comes, we prepare what you'll be seeing on the screen. We do an accounting of each charge on an Excel version, and we also show the statement. Again, all credit card requests, even though Mr. Wood's credit card or Mr. Hussey's, they're supported by a purchase order, a request has to be made. Typically, we try to only use the card. We would prefer to pay with a check. But in the case where some don't take checks, we do try to limit the charge as much as possible on the credit card statement. But that's the backdrop to the use of the credit card statements. Ceeilidh, go ahead. Ilias: If anyone has any Questions? Gregg Solkovitz: If you go back to the credit card statement. I noticed that there's a charge for a teacher for professional development, numerous times. What's the process by which that's… Is this a PD that… Like a conference or something that's- Which one are you… I'm just trying to be put out at random. I've got at least three or four of them. You shrink it down a little bit because I lost it on the side. I've got at least one to at least two professional developments. I'm just asking theoretically, I'm not asking this particular individual. Are these conferences that are going to that you need a credit card for? What are the parameters by which these costs get approved before the cards run? Ilias: It goes through the same process. The requester has to complete a purchase order and provide backup documentation, like a quote or a flyer or something that substantiates what they're doing or where they're going, and then they have to get approval from an administrator. Someone has to say, Yes, this is okay, it applies to what you're doing, and go ahead and go to the business office. Gregg Solkovitz: To get that. Is this something the entire faculty knows exists as a process? Ilias: We have different faculty members come and request PE to be Pretty much paid for and ordered by us. They know how to fill out a purchase order. It's not just... I mean, this is just the month of June, but in other months, if there are conferences like a department goes to, then they have to go through the process. Greg Wood: Then it just comes to, is this going to get paid with the check? Ideally, can we pay with a check, which is what the business office would prefer? But again, there's certain PD and everything that if all I do is accept a card, but it still goes through. Whether we're using a card or whether we're paying by check, it's the same process of acquiring approvals. It just comes to the point that the business office, after we determined that the check can't be or they will only accept a credit card, that's the point at which Mr. Hussey or Mr. Whit's card would be used, but only based upon prior approval by an administrator. Gregg Solkovitz: But all faculty have access to this process, this equity? Greg Wood: Sure. As approved by the administrator? Ilias: Yeah. I mean, some choose to get first, but we ideally would like to be able to pay for the teachers. Any other questions? Just a quick comment. That's more of a reference point for Mr. Solkovits. This type of investigative questions and things is what we'll do at the Finance Committee. Solkovits: That's what I figured. But as a member of the board, I've been at schools where it's the same seven people that are going to PDs over and over and over again and the same seven people that then service the mouthpiece and the PR person for the principal on the campus. It divides the campus when that happens. It's certainly not good practice. I just want to make sure that wasn't happening here. But it sounds to me like you've got an equitable process for it. Since I have the experience and all these different schools I've been in, that's why I was raised, but I would expect that this will come up in the subcommittee and the committee.

Carlos Monroy: I don't have much to say other than all the information to be in front of you and also physical copies of the same letter. Of course, again, I look forward to the bargaining and I look forward to having a very productive collective bargaining session starting in October. I think the best we can do for our staff and our teachers is to make sure that we take care of them take care of their needs and enjoy this collaborative relationship.

David Hussey: This one, please. I wasn't able to give the red-line copy to the two unions. Utla had asked me, so I'm going to ask to put this on the next board agenda, Bullitt, so I can discuss it with those two unions before we bring it to the board. 

David Hussey: For some of our student-athletes to receive PE credit, we need to get board approval. Some of our teachers who coach these teams do not have a PE credential. Up today we have Ms. King who coaches cross country in the fall and tracking field in the spring. Mr. Troy, coaches girls soccer in the fall and boys Dahl in the spring. Alyssa Lee coaches girls' volleyball in the fall, Boys' volleyball in the spring, and Girls' Beach volleyball in the spring. Mrs. Issa, who coaches cheerleading, Mrs. Czisubal, who coaches football, and then Mr. Camp, who oversees Water, Folo, and athletics. We are asking the board to permit these teachers who hold the credential on a subject other than PD to coach a competitive sport to which the students receive the PD credit for one period a day if the teacher has completed a minimum of 20 o'clock hours of first aid instruction appropriate to the specific sport. We all know that these coaches spend more than 20 hours a week. This is not only good for our students, but it also allows us to offer more opportunities for our students.

David Hussey: Yes, In late June, we received our annual performance-based oversight visit report from CSE. Just want to go over a couple of key pages. The overall areas that the CSE comes, to when they come and visit, they give us ratings in governance, student achievement and educational performance, organizational management programs and operations, and fiscal operations and governance. We received a four, for accomplished student achievement, a three, for proficient organizational management programs, and operations to developing, and then fiscal operations, four. The highest number that you can receive is a four. It's a scale of 1-4. I don't know how to speak that. In governance, there were areas noted for further growth and improvement. There were none for corrective action required, none noted that required immediate action to remedy concerns indicated in this report. Governance was pretty good there. Next. All right. The next is… I'm just trying to think what that is. Sustainable performance, where we received a three. Some of the areas that we are going to and some of the strengths are listed here. I always look for growth areas or improvements. We need to focus on our math scores, especially for our students with disabilities. Some of our subgroups did not test as well last year. Our Asian, Filipino, Latino, the SED, socially economically disadvantaged, and our students with disabilities a more racist and white. Most of those students dropped in comparison to the state. Corrective action is none, but what we've done to try to mitigate this is we just took our map testing. We're going to be looking at those data scores and having interventions that will help these students improve their math scores. We also continue to have two after-schools and we have in-school studies, those classes for students that need the extra help. The next one is… They're an organizational management where we received a two. Brad Wright: Excuse me, sir. Explain that to our new board members. Let's bring everybody up to speed. David Hussey: As I said, there's a scale of one to four, one being the worst, and 4 being the best. In the organization, the areas noted for further growth and improvement. Not going to read all this, but it's related to what we call the ESSEGrid, where we have to put down all of our teacher's credentials, all of their training, their bloodborne pathogens, their suicide prevention, their sexual harassment. All those needed to be done promptly and in a manner that the CSD could see. Last year, we had issues getting the ESSEG rate to CSD on time, and also some of our dates, some of our staff members completed the assignments after the due date. What we have done to address that this year is we gave everybody four weeks to complete the training. Emails have gone out to all those employees that have not completed training. The due date is this Wednesday. Another email will go out this weekend just a reminder for people to complete those trainings. If they don't complete those trainings, we're going to ask them to go into the HR office to complete those. Also, every week the HR office is updating the ESA grid, so we don't have the issues where we're trying to scramble and put everything together when the charter office comes during their year-to-year visit. Then a charter school cannot receive a rating in this category greater than two for any of the following reasons; failure to conduct child abuse-mandated training or training by education code 44- 691. That's one of the main reasons why we could only receive a two because some of our staff members did not complete the training in the time frame that was required by the district.

David Hussey: Unfortunately, we closed out school on Monday. This is the form J-13A that we have to fill out if we are asking for the state to acknowledge that we closed on it and that we received the ADA for that day. This is page one, page two. It asks what day we closed, August 21st, one day. These are the past four closures that we've had. This one was due to tropical storm, Hillary. The other the past-the-previous three were fires in the area. On the next page, the material decreases, it's not applicable. Sorry about this one that twisted. It's not applicable. Then this is the affidavit that the board will need to sign. Then I will sign as well. Then I will send it to the charter school division so they can approve it and then send it to the state. Here is the backup information. We have the governor declaring a state of emergency. We have a charter school division directing us that all schools will be closed even if we're charters. Another e-mail from CSD. The e-mail that we sent, In our responses to the day on our website at the top, a closure school update and more documentation from L. A. S. D. Then our El Camino, the email that we sent out to parents and another email that we sent out to parents. This is all the background documentation that supports the closure of the school.

Ricardo: Yeah. Here's a Physical copy of a comparative analysis of our current website and communication system versus what will be with our new proposed. Brad Wright: Thank you. Ricardo: Are looking to Approve and we have here a Five-year contract with the final site. For the new board members, we are working on getting a new website that will go live in January. Part of that website is an increased annual fee. Then we recently discovered that on the current website, the Get You Spend side that I just showed you on the paper, we are looking to spend almost $18,000 on SendWordNow, which is our current communication system. In the New contract that they gave us, we are given 300,000 messages per year for the price of $9,900. However, last year we sent about 537,000 messages that included text and voice. So given the price of five cents for the overage of a per voice call and then two cents per text, we are looking at about $8.40 in overages for the upcoming year. In addition to our current hosting fee for our current website, we are looking at about $23,300 and $233.18 for the total of our hosting plus our communication spend. Whereas with FinalTie, with the proposed fiveyear contract, we are looking for an annual hosting fee for the website of $9,000 in addition to their communication system, which offers us over half a million messages, whether that's text or voice calls, every six months for $6,850, bringing that total to $15,850 a year. We're possibly almost saving about one million dollars a year on the final site, a year. Brad Wright: Where will we be on those sites? They won't be pushing us to the bottom, almost like junk mail, will they? No. Do you understand? Ricardo: What I'm saying? Yeah, go. Brad Wright: For it. It's very important that if we're going to pay this, I want to make sure that we're understanding where people are going to see this. After a while, we don't just get the bottom now and then the next thing you know it goes in the junk mail. We guarantee that won't happen. Ricardo: Yeah, 100%. I've been talking to the director of their charter school division, and he's been very responsive and always reassuring me that it will be their top priority. They look forward to our partnership with them if we get approved for five years. If we don't get approved for five years, our hosting fee for the website will go up another $3,000 per year. Over the course of five years, that's an extra $15,000 if we don't. They're already on board. It's up to us to move forward with it or not. Let's say two years from now, we don't like their services or anything like that, we could give them a 90-day notice to terminate the contract. Then we can move forward with another vendor. Or let's say maybe we like the communication system, but we don't like their website, we could terminate the website and look for another contract. Brad Wright: I missed that. What do we owe them if we terminate that early? Ricardo: Nothing. Either party can walk away with the contract. We have a 90-day notice. Yeah, we've got a 90-day renewal notice. That's about March because we would have to renew in July. As long as we give them that 90-day renewal notice, everything is fine. Then if our charter doesn't get renewed or we go out of business or anything like that, as long as we give them a notice that such a situation is happening, we're a bit to leave ourselves from the contract as well. Right. Yeah. So any other questions? Speaker Is this a New vendor? Ricardo: Yeah. We're moving forward with that new website that I discussed earlier in July. This is part of their communication systems as well. It's the same company for the Communication and website. Since we want to move forward with them on the communication side as well, they're giving us a discount. They're giving us an addon pricing. That's why it's only $6,800 per year. Whereas if we didn't have the website initially and we just went to communications, it's about this. Brad Wright: Okay. Anyone else? Ricardo: Is there any? Greg Wood Question of reliability? Making a change from. Ricardo: Something that we know works? Right. Yeah, this is the same company that does Granada's communication and their website as well, and then as well as Birmingham. They've also been in the business for about 25 years. That's what the director told me. They have about 8,000 schools that they manage. In terms of reliability, they're there. Are all those other schools happy? They haven't left a 96% retention rate. Greg Wood: is there another choice, though? Ricardo: There is another choice, but other communication systems are not part of what they offer. Okay, so for the level of service that we want. Yeah. This is the best option we've got from the other companies I've talked to. I've talked to other website hosts and communications. They offer something of a little less quality but for a higher price of about $19,000. Is this a US-based company? Yes, they're based in the East Coast.