None.

Mr. Merrick Wadsworth, Senior Counsel at Procopio, reviewed Brown Act Training. The Brown Act is a California transparency "open meetings" law for local public agencies. He defined "meetings" and recommended avoiding one-on-one agenda briefings, conversations about whether to call a meeting and information-only updates received by the entire Board are okay. Board retreats, strategic planning sessions, and board study sessions are meetings.

Under SB 126, Board meetings must be held in the county where the greatest number of DVLA students reside. Also under SB 126, Board meetings must include two-way teleconferences at all sites and resource centers. Board members may use teleconferencing only if the agenda identifies teleconference locations (where Board members are dialing in from), quorum is within the jurisdiction, the agenda is posted at teleconference locations in the same timelines (72 or 24 hours in advance of the meeting, teleconference locations are accessible to the public and roll call votes are required.

Under AB 361, during a proclaimed state of emergency, the Board may use teleconferencing without complying with many of the normal rules if State or local officials have imposed or recommended physical distancing; or the Board determines that due to the emergency, meeting in person would present imminent risks to the health or safety of attendees. There are specifics that the Board must comply with for virtual meetings, including making appropriate findings every 45 days, roll call votes required, agenda must be posted in a publicly accessible location and on the website, agenda must identify how the public can access the meeting (e.g., a Zoom link), and the public must be notified of how they can address the Board. The public must be able to provide comments directly to the Board in real time (the Board cannot require submission of written comments before the meeting. If a disruption occurs (e.g., the Zoom room shuts down), the Board cannot take further action until public access is restored. If there is a timed public comment period, the Board may not close public comment until the time has elapsed.

AB 2249 provides new, limited teleconferencing procedures for individual board members. If a quorum of the Board is in-person at a singular location, a board member may participate remotely without complying with many of the normal if: there is “just cause,” which is defined as a childcare or caregiving need, a contagious illness, a need related to a physical or mental disability, or travel while on agency business; or there are “emergency circumstances,” which is defined as a physical or family medical emergency that prevents a member from attending in person, and Board takes actionto approve the request. Board members must publicly disclose at the meeting who is also in the room before any action is taken, and participate via audio and visual technology. Additionally, the Board may use “just cause” as basis for remote participation for only two meetings per calendar year, and may not use remote participation for more than three consecutive months or 20% of regular meetings in a calendar year. AB 2449 is set to sunset as of January 1, 2026.

Locations must be accessible to the public. Agendas must be posted on the school website and at all the teleconference sites. The agenda packet is a public record that should be available if requested. Agendas cannot be modified once posted. A public comment period is required. Comments should be time-limited. Disrupted conduct is not permitted. Comment is not a conversation. The Board president may ask staff to follow up with the members of the public.

Closed sessions are allowable for limited topics (litigation, personnel evaluation/discipline, real estate negotiations). Only essential persons may be present. Executive compensation (dollar amounts) must be discussed and approved in an open session, at a regular, not special, meeting. The Board must orally report a summary description of executive compensation before final action is taken, and compensation must be reasonable (the Board should conduct compensation analysis). Minutes should be more than an action format. Open session items are usually in narrative format.

None.

Dr. Jonstone expressed that he is pleased to see everyone.

None.

Principal Lara reviewed the 2024-25 RISE priorities: improving cycles of communication for student progress, tiered re-engagement opportunities for parent/family/stakeholder engagement and connection, and increasing participation rates with MAP testing, benchmark testing, and state testing.

Principal Lara noted that there has been progress towards these goals in the first few weeks of school, notably with the improved teacher work tracker that supports tracking ADA and student work completion. The first learning period has closed, and teachers are working on finalizing attendance before report submission to LACOE. 47% of students attend school physically, and though perfect attendance is not the goal, improved attendance is. Principal Lara thanked the outreach staff for their efforts to support attendance with daily phone calls and home visits on Wednesdays.

Students are in the midst of NWEA testing, which started in the second week of school. Currently, 40% of students have completed mathematics, and 47% have completed English Language Arts. This is still far below the goal, but staff have planned to schedule students to come in during their independent days for testing.  APCH is piloting a 2 part orientation onboarding, which includes taking their first NEWA test, onboarding, and orientation. The pilot is going well, and students are very receptive to it. Staff have noted that it’s helpful for students to acclimate to school. The current enrollment is 173. There is really strong enrollment interest, with multiple student enrollments weekly. Many referrals come from different entities, such as social workers and group homes.

New initiatives launched at APCH are Creative Wisdom and FLOW (Fluent Love of Words). These are partner-led collaborations with our English Teacher focusing on analyzing poetry, hip-hop, and storytelling. Student feedback has been positive. APCH career workforce and mentoring departments have also started, and students will have the opportunity to engage in internships within APCH. Indivisible Arts is back at Richstone this year, and so is Sharefest. New partnerships this year include the Pass It Forward Foundation, providing free physical fitness, wellness, and athletic sports training to students. Upstream Education, a mindfulness, social-emotional-like focused organization, held a virtual PD with staff. Teachers were trained today, and staff are excited to roll the program out with students. 

Mr. Amato presented July Financials, starting with the balance sheet. The cash balance is just under $610,000, which is a little low due to a high accounts receivable balance. Money will be coming in August, September, and October, boosting the cash balance. Everything is normal. In liabilities, some accounts payable accrued, which are bills that have been approved but not yet paid. Due to Da Vinci balance was paid in the subsequent months of August and September. Unrestricted net assets, the reserves, are slightly under $551,000. Results of 2023-24 lowered reserves due to the financial challenges 2023-24 presented. Net assets YTD show negative $68,000, which is typical in that funding lags behind expenses in the first  3 to 6 months of the year, and funding exceeds expenses in the last half of the year.

Mr. Amato then shared the P&L statement. There are two temporary variances on our profit and loss statement. The variances are due to an accounting cleanup that has to be done, where some expenses were posted in July and will be reversed next month. LCFF state funding and other minor sources of other state and local revenue have been collected.

Mr. Amato shared good news regarding the budget. He presented the grants and awards spreadsheet and noted that RISE received notices of new awards. RISE is running over budget regarding our grants and awards categories. Boeing was initially budgeted at $100,000 due to past trends, but this year RISE was awarded $85,000. These funds support the transportation program. The HIP grant, ending in 24-25, carried over $11,000, which was unexpected. Staff planned on spending it all in the 2023-24 SY but did not. The CSI federal grant was budgeted at $163,000, but they awarded $174,000. The Mental Health and Accountability Oversight grant carried over $7,345 into the 2024-25 budget. The Ethnic Students grant was not used last year but will be used this year, adding $5,300. Peer-to-Peer is a new multi-year grant at  $541,000 over 3 years, which is about $180,000 each year. This grant was not planned in the budget, so it is an excess of $180,000 to the budget. Staff are still working out the formula to determine how much can be used to cover current expenses and how much will be used. More information will be provided at the next meeting. Cotton-on awarded RISE an additional $20,000, which was also not planned. The Elevate Youth Grant from Richstone carried over an extra $1,571 from last year into 24-25. Currently, RISE is tracking $221,600 from all these grants on the revenue side. Staff are calculating the expense side to see if RISE will need to spend more new money.

Mr. Amato also noted that the new Golden State Pathway Grants from the State of California will announce the official dollar award on September 20th. The expected amount between the two grants is $600,000-$700,000 to be spent over the course of about four years. More information will be provided at the next meeting. RISE will also be eligible, for the first time, to apply for another CT state grant, called CTeig, which is an incentive grant. RISE has applied for $180,000 for the 24-25 school year, with an extended spending period. These funds will be used to buy students new equipment, more advanced equipment, technology materials, supplies, books, curriculum, consultants, and anything involved with CTE and the pathways. 

Mr. Bravo noted that everything from New Earth was redistributed amongst Richstone and APCH, including all mobile air purifying units. Sites are doing well and are currently working on fire and earthquake drills. Staff is planning to participate in the Great ShakeOut happening in October. Staff are also collaborating with partners Richstone and APCH on critical incident drills and Hawthorne PD and LAPD. There is a potential for bringing a safety officer to APCH. Funding discussions are happening with Matt, Michael, and Veronica.

Mr. Bravo shared that the vans are being used almost daily to support transporting students to different programs, such as athletics and performing arts. Richstone will be getting new lunch benches by the basketball court. Mr. Bravo also shared that the soccer field is now complete. All schools will have access to the field for activities and events as needed.