(Education Code 35149, 48918(c), 72122) Administrative Hearing Officer: Carrie Albert, Director of Student Services

(Education Code 54957.6) District Negotiator: Debra M. Hendricks and Diolinda Peterson
Employee Organizations: All Groups

It is recommended the Board of Trustees approve the recommendations of the Administrative Hearing Panel in the matter of Student 2019/2020 - AH# 06.

The board has not received written communication at this time.

Superintendent Hendricks will share information received from the Stanislaus County Office of Education at their Superintendents' meeting regarding the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) and their guidance for schools.

Information will be presented as a follow-up from Board inquiry at the February 25, 2020, board meeting regarding the collection of commercial developer fees in Riverbank.

At the February 25, 2020, Regular Board meeting, the Board of Trustees was given a "preview" and received policy binders for the December 2019 policy updates.  The Board of Trustees and staff will conduct the "first reading" at the March 10, 2020, Regular Board meeting, "second reading" and adoption at the March 31, 2020, Regular Board meeting.

Staff to provide the board with a safety and facilities update as needed.

It is recommended the Board of Trustees adopt Resolution 2019/2020 - #22 recognizing March 2020 as Arts Education Month.

The 2019-20 Second Interim Budget Report provides a financial update of the District’s current General Fund budget and other funds. The General Fund is the District’s central operational budget while other funds are designed for special purposes. The second interim report covers the reporting period from July 1, 2019, through January 31, 2020.

Projected revenue and expenditures are developed in consideration of the Governor’s 2019-20 State Budget Proposal released on January 10, 2020. The Board of Trustees was provided a summary of the state budget proposal at the February 4, 2020, board meeting.  Concluding the preparation of the Second Interim Budget, the District’s Unrestricted General Fund has an unassigned/unappropriated balance of 9.00% which meets the Board of Trustees minimum requirements for reserves (between 9% and 10%).

The Board of Trustees is presented budget revisions by major object codes. The major object codes categorize the different types of revenues or expenditures. Special items within this summary may have previously been authorized by the Board of Trustees. The items may have been presented separately with a request to place them in the budget, or the State budget proposal may have necessitated changes in the budget which were presented to the Board. Personnel changes affect the District’s budget as individuals leave or change positions, and new personnel are hired requiring salary and benefit budget lines to be revised. Funds not expected to be expensed in the current year are set aside in the fund balance and/or brought forward to the 2020-21 fiscal year. Each resource and program, and the associated revenues and expenditures were reviewed, analyzed, and revised based on the most up-to-date information and estimates available.

Please see attached: 2019-20 Second Interim Budget Report-SACS, 2019-20 Second Interim MYP (multi-year projection), and 2019-20 Second Interim Budget Revisions Report.

Attachments:

2019-20 Second Interim Budget Report - SACS, Sylvan Union School District

2019-20 Second Interim MYP, Sylvan Union School District

2019-20 Second Interim Budget Revisions, Sylvan Union School District

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approve the 2019-20 Second Interim Budget Report and Budget Revisions.

Staff presents, for the Board's review and approval, the revised job description for Director of Human Resources.

Staff recommends that the position be changed from a certificated management position to a classified management position to better meet the needs and demands of the Human Resources Department. The required Representative Duties are listed. There is a change in the Minimum Education and Experience, work year days and salary placement as this position would be included on the Classified Salary Schedule.

Staff recommends approval of the revised job description for Director of Human Resources.

There is a decrease salary amount changing this position from the certificated to the classified salary schedule. The average cost difference, across the salary schedule's 7 steps, is approximately $23,662.

Presented for the Board's review and approval is the proposed and updated salary schedule for Classified Management. The only update to this schedule includes the addition of the position title of the Director of Human Resources, as a newly created classified management position, to this salary schedule. 

Staff recommends approval of the updated Classified Management Salary Schedule, as presented.

There are no proposed wage or financial changes to the salary schedule. The only update is the addition of a position title. 

This item was tabled at the February 25, 2020 Regular Board Meeting. 

The Director of Special Education previously shared information with the Board regarding Occupational Therapy Services. It was reported that we would submit for a possible take-back of Occupational Therapy services starting in the 2020-2021 school year.  The District did submit for the take-back and was approved. Following that approval, the SELPA determined to discontinue providing Occupational Therapy Services to Districts. The Stanislaus County Office of Education is now overseeing this service using a fee-for-service model.  With fee-for-service projected to be of a greater expense to the district, it was determined to take back this service.  As SUSD is the third largest district within our SELPA, it continues to be necessary for us to consider executing the take-back of Occupational Therapy services. At this time we would need to hire two (2) occupational therapists to serve the number of our students who require these services. This job description is presented for the Board's approval should the District require the hiring of Occupational Therapists to serve our students.  

Staff recommends approval of the presented Job Description for Occupational Therapist.

The salary schedule for this position would be based on the current salary for Mental Health Clinician and LCSW. The Occupational Therapist would work additional days, with a proposed 190 workdays annually in order to provide support during the Extended School Year.  Funds will be paid through Special Education.

This item was tabled at the February 25, 2020 Regular Board Meeting.

Provided for the Board's review and approval is the proposed/draft for the salary schedule for Occupational Therapist. The salary schedule was based on the current Mental Health Clinician and LCSW salary schedule. The MHC and LCSW salaries are based on one-hundred eighty two (182) workdays currently. The Occupational Therapist salary schedule reflects the one-hundred ninety (190) workdays proposed for this position. It is staff's recommendation that both the MHC/LCSW and OTs be placed on one salary schedule re-named:  Student Support Non-Management, starting in 2020-2021.

The salary cost for an Occupational Therapist, with fifteen (15) years of experience, is $104,690/annually.

Many Occupational Therapists in our area are veterans in the field. It is estimated that the salary cost to the District for 2.0 FTE Occupational Therapists would be approximately $209,380, plus statutory benefits.

Master's and Doctorate stipends would also be available and are listed on the proposed salary schedule.

Funds will be paid out of Special Education.

Currently the Ustach Middle School Speed Line has two (2) serving lines that are used to serve the students breakfast and lunch daily.  The current speed line equipment is over ten years old and are well overdue for replacement.  Ustach Middle School is currently undergoing modernization and part of the modernization is an expansion of the Ustach Speed Line.  The Ustach Speed Line serving area will be expanded and will provide enough space for three (3) serving lines to operate during breakfast and lunch service.  The addition of the third serving line will expedite breakfast and lunch service to students.

Quotes were solicited from three (3) food service equipment suppliers.

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees authorize the approval of East Bay Restaurant Supply for the purchase of the new speed line equipment of Ustach Middle School.

Cafeteria Fund: $92,202.28

None

It is recommended that Board of Trustees approve the minutes of the February 25, 2020 Regular Board Meeting, February 25, 2020 Special Board Meeting Budget Study Session, and the March 3, 2020 Special Board Meeting.

Jeremy Anderson is an educational expert, author and motivational speaker.  He has trained and motivated students and educators around the world.  Jeremy Anderson is available and excited to speak with all of our staff during the 2020-2021 district in-service to kick off the new school year on Wednesday, August 5, 2020. 

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approve the contract for The Jeremy Anderson Group, LLC for the district in-service keynote presentation on August 5, 2020. 

Title IV funds (which are restricted funds): $8,065

The board discussed the possibility of removing the December 8, 2020, Regular Board Meeting during the February 25, 2020, board meeting.  Staff contacted Stanislaus County Office of Education (SCOE) to inquire if the district could submit their First Interim Report after the December 15, 2020, Regular Board Meeting and still meet the annual county deadline.  SCOE confirmed and gave staff approval to submit the First Interim Report on the December 16, 2020 after approval by the Board of Trustees.

Staff is recommending the Board of Trustees remove the December 8, 2020, Regular Board Meeting from the 2020 Board Meeting Schedule.

None

A parent has requested an Individual Educational Evaluation (IEE) with Dr. Sara Rice Schiff.  

Staff recommends approval of the contract with Dr. Sara Rice Schiff for an Individual Educational Evaluation.

Cost of the evaluation will Not to Exceed: $7,000.  

A parent has requested that an IEE (Individual Educational Evaluation) for their child to be conducted by Bobino Counseling and Assessments.  

Staff recommends approval of the contract with Bobino Counseling and Assessments for a student's Individual Educational Evaluation including a written report and observations.   

Costs not to Exceed: $6,500.  

Education Code 17546 allows districts to sell or dispose of obsolete property/instructional materials if the value of the item is less than $2,500.00 and the sale/disposal is approved by a unanimous vote of the Board of Trustees.  

As we move forward to ensure that our students are able to access on-line curriculum and resources effectively in January 2020 we replaced the 7th and 8th grade middle school 1:1 devices, iPad Airs, with new Chromebooks.  

At the beginning of this school year we were forced to reconfigure every single middle school iPad Air because we were not able to successfully access the security certificate under the previous district user’s account.  The reconfiguring brought to light some iPad Airs that will no longer function for instructional purposes. The Technology Department exhausted all measures to bring these up to the current operating system with no success.  MacBook Pros that are also no longer functional on our network were also added to this list. All of these devices have been wiped of all content. The collection of these iPads also resulted in the collection of keyboards and power adapters on this quote that were used at the middle schools with these iPads. The connection does not allow them to be used with other devices. There are also two (2) Mac Minis we have had at the District Office that are no longer functional.  These items have been added to the list of devices to sell. After determining that these devices should not be redeployed out for use, I reached out to a company, Device Cycles, that provides an Apple Trade-In Program. 

Device Cycles' vision is to provide an eco-friendly and transparent solution for repurposing technology worldwide. Their mission is to build awareness by helping their customers capture the existing value that exist on technology. They are devoted to supporting both the ecosystem and humankind to make a positive change in the world.  As technology advances, older devices still hold value. Their trade-in programs prolong devices' lifespans by repurposing them to the next generation of owners. Upon receipt of our devices the evaluation process for each device includes a data erasure. Every device will generate the serial number and capacity. Their system then reinstalls the latest version of the iOS depending on the model ensuring all data has been erased.  After the data has been cleared, each device will have a certification of data destruction. Also during the evaluation period, Device Cycles will conduct high-quality images of our devices showing any cosmetic flaw details that provide full transparency and maximize recovered value. Their audit will grade the devices based on wear, tear or any defects the devices may have. Based on the evaluation of cosmetics and functionality of each individual device, they will conduct an audit report that includes the serial number, device type, condition and total value access.

On-Site pickup and custom packaging is included at no cost. Pick up date is within twenty-one (21) business days of approval offer.  Devices are initially quoted Grade A condition. If units do not meet Grade A specifications upon device evaluation, the correct grade and price listed on the quote will apply to the final reconciliation summary. They must receive the devices prior to the quote expiration date, devices received after the expiration date will result in a reduction of value based on current markets.

Staff recommends the Board of Trustees approve the Device Cycles Quote as presented in the amount of $152,880.

It is recommended the Board of Trustees approve the Device Cycles Quote as presented in the amount of $152,880.

Positive Impact

This school year Business and Ed Services Departments have been actively discussing the need to replace Destiny Resource Management (RM) where we currently house our inventory.  The purpose behind these discussions is Destiny RM has very restricted capabilities to use globally across the district by many departments. We would continue to use Destiny Library Management for our library check out system at school sites.  We currently are paying approximately $11,000 a year for Destiny RM.

Lizett Aguilar, Laura Granger, Lindy Santellan (District Librarian), Shell Yee (Technology Secretary), Erin Balaam (Ed Tech Coach) and I met with two (2) different vendors earlier in the school year.  We then scheduled another meeting with Hayes Software for a more hands on demonstration of their TIPWeb-IT Asset Management product. The benefit of Hayes is that they are partners with Aeries, our student information system, so all student data syncs with Hayes.  Hayes is a longstanding company with nearly THIRTY (30) year serving only K-12 districts.

Here are some of the highlights of Hayes TIPWeb-IT:

• Powerful Reporting: With nearly every field in our inventory software being reportable, the most powerful feature of our solution is arguably its reporting capabilities. Whether you’re looking to obtain data on Fixed Assets, Depreciation, Model End of Life, E-Rate Assets, Archived Inventory, or anything else, we’ve got you covered. With so much information so readily available, you can identify trends, gain confidence, and develop insight to make data-driven decisions that will save you time, money, and resources.

• Inventory Management is our Focus: Hayes’ entire business model is built around helping districts manage their inventory. We have an entire team focused on the continued development of TIPWeb-IT to add new and enhanced features and functionality. We understand the nuances within the educational environment such as inventory correlated with specific funding sources, the board’s priority in safeguarding the dollars spent, and the tracking and reporting of your valuable inventory. We continually talk with, and get feedback from, our customers to help us define new features that will contribute to a district’s success. This helps our customers stay current with the latest tools and technology to help them with their goal of tracking and reporting on inventory, and to uphold their fiduciary responsibility to the Community. 

• We Only Work with School Districts: By focusing exclusively on serving the K-12 space, we’ve developed specialized expertise, and can analyze your needs to provide you with the best solution available. Not only was our founder a former educator, many of our current employees came from school systems. We’ve made it our business to understand what goes into doing your job, so we can help solve the issues and challenges you face on a daily basis.

Hayes is a hosted service:

• For the user, it means more efficient and timely help:
  • Hayes Customer Support has immediate access to login and see exactly what a user of the system is seeing.
  • Hayes Technical Support has full capabilities to provide Tier 3 database support to user requests and advanced reporting needs. 

• For the district staff, it means that Hayes is responsible for:
  • Maintaining and updating database and application servers to the current technical specifications of the software - reducing lifetime cost of purchase.  
  • Keeping five (5) days of data backups in case of emergency - reducing loss of data risk
  • Monitoring, increasing, and load balancing server performance during peak access of the application - beginning and end of the school year
  • Immediate access to software updates performed and tested over a weekend - avoiding complex scheduling conflicts.  

Hayes would work with us in transferring our current inventory from Destiny RM to TIPWeb-IT with a careful eye to ensure that we only transfer items that are actually in our possession. This would be part of the implementation services noted under Contract Year One (1).  In addition, Hayes, Aeries and Marti Reed would work on the integration of the two (2) systems. This also is part of the implementation services noted under Contract Year One (1). Because Hayes and Aeries are partners, both companies have experts available to make this process seamless.   

The yearly cost, starting in 2020-2021 is $10,000. That is $1,000 less than what we currently pay for Destiny Resource Management.  We would have an initial cost this year (2019-2020) of $6,275. We would start with the transition of all resources in Destiny and then move forward in adding resources that are currently not in an inventory system.  For example, all school sites have radios that are used by office staff, nurses, and classroom teachers. We currently do not have a good inventory system for these. By adding these to TIPWeb-IT we would be able to assign (check out) these to specific staff members or locations at school sites.  At the end of the school year staff at the school site would print out a report showing all resources checked out to that staff member/location. This will provide a way for schools to easily track their site inventory. As we begin to add items to TIPWeb-IT, it can provide more reports for staff.  

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approve the Hayes Software TIPWeb-IT Asset Management System for Contract Year One (April 1, 2020-June, 30, 2020)  and Year Two (2020-2021).

General Fund 2019-2020:  $6,275.

General Fund 2020-201:    $10,000.

A mobile device management (MDM) is a type of security software used by an IT department to monitor, manage and secure Apple devices that are deployed in an organization. Prior to removing the middle school iPad devices these were managed with JAMF, an MDM software.  MDM software allows the Technology Department to push apps to multiple devices at once, configure profiles so that users are only able to access specific applications within Self Service, manage the devices if they are lost, as well as run a variety of reports. When Apple devices are purchased through our Apple Education account they are automatically enrolled in the district MDM system.  We also purchase applications through Apple Volume Purchase Program (VPP) which allows us to make bulk purchases of apps for distribution to students. 

At present we have less than two hundred (200) Apple devices to manage, which are mostly for our Special Education students. The applications required for these students are Apple only apps so using a different device is not an option. 

Working with the JAMF product this year has been extremely difficult and frustrating. Many hours have been spent on the phone working with their support department, which has not resulted in positive results.  This has prompted us to look at different products that provide an effective and efficient way to manage our Apple devices as our current license with JAMF expires on June 30, 2020.  

After extensive research, we have determined that Securly MDM will provide the best results. We have been able to use the Securly MDM for the last month on a trial basis.  During this trial we have found that it is very efficient and easy to manage our devices through their online site. Their support is very responsive in helping us set up and manage our Apple devices.  Securly MDM is recognized by Apple and listed on their “IT for Education” site. This MDM integrates directly with Apple School Manager (ASM) which is where we purchase our apps.  

Securly ChromeTools, or Classroom, is a cloud-based classroom management tool for Chromebooks, giving teachers freedom to guide, monitor and communicate with students during class. This allows teachers to remove distractions and keep kids focused on learning. This year the Tech Committee determined that a classroom management software such as ChromeTools would allow teachers to provide safer and richer integrated technology instruction. With this program teachers can quickly push lessons through Google Classroom to individual students or the entire class.  Teachers can view all currently open tabs across all classroom Chromebooks, and then close any websites not related to the coursework in a single click. For safety, this program gives teachers easy access to all student browsing histories that occur during class. Teachers can check history for any of their own students at any time, while administrators have access to the history for all students.

We currently have a trial version of ChromeTools.  Seventeen (17) teachers who are either on the Tech Committee or who have asked to use ChromeTools are finding great success with this program.  They have reported that the program is very easy to navigate and has increased learning time for students as they can manage the devices easily.  They feel that their students are now more engaged.  

For both the Securly MDM and ChromeTools the total cost is $21,066.25.  Sylvan District is part of the Google For Education Collaborative, so we receive a discount of $1,108.75.  In addition, we are also receiving Free Premium Onboarding and Support Escalation at no cost, but would normally cost $500.  With this commitment for 2020-2021, Securly will allow us to continue with their Securly MDM and ChromeTools product through June 30, 2020, at no cost.  With this contract, ChromeTools will be pushed out in all 1st through 8th grade classrooms at the beginning of next school year. Our Ed Tech Coach will provide training for teachers.  In addition, the teachers who are currently using ChromeTools will be able to provide support.  

Staff recommends the Board of Trustees approve the Securly Mobile Device Management (MDM) and ChromeTools (Classroom) Agreement for one (1) year of product and services.

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approve the Securly Mobile Device Management (MDM) and ChromeTools (Classroom) Agreement for one (1) year of product and services.

General Fund: $7,700.

Education Code 17546 allows districts to sell or dispose of obsolete property/instructional materials if the value of the item is less than $2,500.00 and the sale/disposal is approved by a unanimous vote of the Board of Trustees.  

Staff recommends the Board of Trustees declare the value of each obsolete item listed is less than $2,500.00; and authorize staff to dispose of the technology and equipment in accordance with Education Code 17546.

N/A

It is recommended the Board of Trustees approve the Portrait agreements for Ustach Middle School and Dan Savage Middle School with Banks & Co. Photography for the 2020-2021 school year.

Staff recommends the Board of Trustees approve the Portrait agreements for Ustach Middle School and Dan Savage Middle School with Banks & Co. Photography for the 2020-2021 school year.

It is recommended the Board of Trustees approve the Portrait agreements for Ustach Middle School and Dan Savage Middle School with Banks & Co. Photography for the 2020-2021 school year

Paid by school site funds.